Birthday Puffin - Stampin' Up! Party Puffins

   I'm playing along with the Tic Tac Toe challenge today.  I always love using their diverse choice boards to create a card.  I chose to use the left to right downward diagonal which is "wings, circle and masculine".  Wings was a no brainer since I'm in love with the new Party Puffins set, circles are always a good element and I used them in my die cuts and the patterned paper and I think my colors and feel of the card are masculine.

  This one starts with a Smoky Slate card base, then a layer of Well Suited DSP in the gray dot/circle pattern.

  I used a piece of Coastal Cabana and stamped the candles all over in Coastal Cabana ink.

  The puffin, cake, fish and sentiment are all stamped in Versamark and then embossed with black embossing powder.  It's a great shiny look for this set!  I colored them and then fussy cut them all out and popped them up with dimensionals on stitched circle die cuts.  The sentiment is just cut apart and added to the top.

  The bit of Bubmblebee twill ribbon and knot are added across the Coastal Cabana layer for balance.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Party Puffins

Ink: Versamark, Coastal Cabana

Stampin' Write Markers: Bumblebee, Coastal Cabana, Mango Melody

Paper: Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana, Well Suited DSP, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Shapes dies (retired), dimensionals, twill ribbon

Let's Party - Stampin' Up! Party Puffins

   Sometimes you just need to see a set used a few times to get that 'ah-ha' moment.  I totally skipped over the Party Puffins set in our demonstrator pre-order but then I saw this card from my fellow Paper Players teammate Joanne James and I had to go back and take a second look.  And of course then I started seeing it used for cute cards all over the place and began to think how did I not get this during pre-order!!?? So needless to say The Party Puffins made it onto my first full catalog order.  They also fill a hole in my cutesy animal stamp sets after I had a bunch retire with this last catalog.

  I inked this set up for the first time to play along with the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge.  We're to use Soft Sea Foam, Blushing Bride and Highland Heather.

  I had a heck of a time trying to get this one photographed.  The green kept turning out more yellow and the rest of the colors were washed out.  I hope you get the idea because this was the best I could come up with.

  I started with a Soft Sea Foam base then another layer of the same embossed with the Brick & Mortar embossing folder.

  The puffin is stamped in Memento onto an extra Stitched So Sweetly rectangle that I had laying on my desk.  I colored in the hat, beak and legs with Stampin' Blends and then popped it up with dimensionals.

 The sentiment strips were taken from scraps and hand trimmed after stamping with Memento.

  To bring a bit more purple to the card I glued a few Ice Cream Corner Sprinkles to the side.  I know these aren't technically Highland Heather but the retired Purple Posy is a close match in small amounts.  And since it was a CAS challenge I didn't want to do any ribbon. I also added a bit of Shimmery Crystal Effects to the pompom on the hat and colored the white parts of the body with Wink of Stella. Both are hard to see in the photo but are there.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Party Puffins

Ink: Memento black

Blends: Daffodil Delight light, Pumpkin Pie light, Highland Heather light, Soft Sea Foam dark

Paper: Soft Sea Foam, Whisper White, Blushing Bride

Accessories: Stitched So Sweetly dies, Brick & Mortar embossing folder, Ice Cream Corner Sprinkles, dimensionals, Shimmery Crystal Effects, Wink of Stella

 

Special Day Tree - Stampin' Up! Beautiful Trees Dies

   I made my card today for a 2 challenges on of which is a new to me challenge.  I've often remarked that sometimes guy cards can be hard to make and someone pointed out the Cardz 4 Guyz challenge and I'm just now finding the time to join in.  I was also inspired by the Festive Friday challenge for Gardening Week.  I used Green, Die Cuts, and twine and I don't know if trees are technically plants or not so that one is iffy.

  The challenge this time at Cardz 4 Guyz is to make your own background for your guy card.  At first I thought I would get super inky and do some sort of background using reinkers or try a new technique or something like that.  Then I remembered that I just got the new set of decorative masks from Stampin' Up!; Plenty of Patterns.  And new stuff is always the winner in this situation! In this pack there is a cool stencil that is tree trunks so I thought that might be a good start for a card especially paired up with the Beauty of Friendship bundle.

  It's definitely not a labor intensive background but I think it adds a nice detail regardless.  Adding texture and depth is always nice on a guy card since you probably won't be adding a lot of bling or ribbon for embellishments.  For this one I used Cinnamon Cider ink on a Cinnamon Cider card base.  I applied the ink with a blending brush. 

  Next I used the new Inspired Thoughts stamp set for the sentiment in Bumblebee ink and cut it with the Stitched Rectangle dies.

  I didn't end up using any of the Beauty of Friendship stamps but the dies worked really well on their own.  The trunk is Early Espresso and after cutting it I embossed it with the new Bark embossing folder. The larger top of the tree is Old Oliver and the top 'leafy' piece is cut from a piece of Beauty of the Earth DSP and adhered with dimensionals.

  The final details are the 2 Cajun Craze birds and a bit of twine to accent the tree trunk.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Inspired Thoughts

Ink: Bumble Bee, Cinnamon Cider

Paper: Cinnamon Cider, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Beauty of the Earth DSP, Cajun Craze

Accessories: Plenty of Patterns Decorative Masks, Beautiful Trees dies, Bark embossing folder, Stitched Rectangle dies, dimensionals, twine

Hand-Penned In Colors - Stampin' Up! Hand-Penned Petals

  My card today is one I made a few weeks back and tucked in with all my new catalogs so that my customers could see the new In Colors in action as well as see the new Hand-Penned Petals stamp set.

  I really liked how the large flower stamp accommodated all of the colors and they played nicely together too!  I was re-thinking my decision to include 2 of the intricate die cuts on the back ground though after making 25 cards!  That's a lot of cranking!

  I started with a Soft Succulent base, then added the 2 Whisper White floral die cuts.  Next, I stamped the large flower cluster in Evening Evergreen and then filled in the flowers with Polished Pink, Fresh Freesia and Pale Papaya.  Soft Succulent was used for the leaves.  Once it was cut out I popped it with dimensionals.

  The sentiment from Inspired Thoughts is stamped in Fresh Freesia and die cut it with the Tasteful Labels dies.  That only lasted about 3 cards then for time's sake I used a circle punch.  I added a length of Evening Evergreen Open Weave ribbon and an In Color jewel before popping it with dimensionals. 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hand-Penned Petals, Inspired Thoughts

Ink: Evening Evergreen, Polished Pink, Fresh Freesia, Pale Papaya, Soft Succulent

Paper: Soft Succulent, Whisper White

Accessories: Penned Flowers dies, dimensionals, Tasteful Labels dies, In Color jewels, Open Weave ribbon

Polka Dots & Squares - Stampin' Up! All Squared Away - The Paper Players 541

  My first order out of the new Stampin' Up! catalog arrived early last week and was just calling out for me to use ALL of the stuff!  Of course when I have all this new stuff to use it's hard to decide where to even start! Luckily for me it's a new challenge at The Paper Players today so at least I was able to focus!  Anne Marie's challenge for us this week is to use Polka Dots and keep it clean and simple (CAS).  Well that made me have to focus even more!

  After looking through my new stamps I decided to use the All Squared Away bundle.  The cute background patterns and the fun floral frames are a great match and I thought they would compliment the polka dots.

  I pulled in the polka dot theme using a decorative mask from the Basic Patterns and a blending brush with Soft Sea Foam ink.  I made the ink darker on the lower left corner and lightened it as I went up and out.  I also round 2 of the card front corners for some more interest.

  The sentiment from the new Biggest Wish stamp set is stamped in Versamark and embossed in black onto Soft Sea Foam cardstock. I love these bigger sentiments that can be mixed and matched and the block letters paired with the script font makes for great combos.

  I tried using some of the All Squared Away backgrounds but they just ended up being too busy for this CAS design so I just left the back panel plain white and mounted the diecut on dimensionals.  I colored the leaves with Soft Sea Foam Blends dark at first but it did not end up looking even close to the inked background so I went over it again with Granny Apple Green light and that was a better match.  The flowers are cut from Flirty Flamingo cardstock and glued onto the frame.  I popped one on a mini dimensional and then added a From My Heart faceted gem.

  The little flower die cuts out 3 flowers at a time so I had one flower left and I added that to the side of the sentiment with a dimensional and another gem.

  Check out The Paper Players team designs and then join the fun!

   Jaydee
 LeAnne
Claire
Joanne
Laurie
Anne Marie
Ann
Nancy
Debbie 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Biggest Wish

Ink: Soft Sea Foam, Versamark

Blends: Soft Sea Foam dark, Granny Apple Green light

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Soft Sea Foam, Flirty Flamingo

Accessories: Floral Squares dies, Decorative Masks Basic Patterns, dimensionals, faceted gems, black embossing powder

Well Suited Birthday - Stampin' Up! Perennial Petals - Paper Players 540

   Happy Sunday Stampers!  And Happy Mother's Day to you all out there whether or not you have children of your own or not.  I hope the day is whatever you need or want it to be!

  Hopefully you want it to have some stamping in it!  The Paper Players are back with a new challenge!  Laurie has given us a great color challenge to try out.  Red, Black and Gray.  

  This combo just called out for me to do a masculine card.  I've been trying to up my game with having some more masculine cards on hand and not just stamp them when I need to have the card in the mail yesterday.  I looked through my stamps and papers and this is what I came up with.

  Some of the only DSP that I had that was in either red or gray was the gray pinstripe pattern from the Well Suited DSP so I decided to use it in the background and jazzed up the edges a bit with the new Basic Borders dies.  

  Since I'm still woefully lacking in masculine stamps and had convinced myself that I couldn't do anything but masculine, I used the large sentiment from Perennial Petals embossed in black, the little stack of gifts from Kangaroo and Company (also embossed), and the mini envelope die from the Snails dies to make the little birthday grouping.

  I finished off some details with a black bakers twine bow on the envelope and some retired candy dots to bring a bit more red to the design.

  For more inspiration check out what The Paper Players design team did with these colors: 

 Jaydee
 LeAnne
Claire
Joanne
Laurie
Anne Marie
Ann
Nancy
Debbie 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Kangaroo and Company, Perennial Petals

Ink: Versamark

Blends: Real Red dark, Smoky Slate dark

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Real Red, Well Suited DSP

Accessories: Basic Borders dies, Snail Dies, dimensionals, black bakers twine, candy dots (retired)

Hand-Penned in Purple - Stampin' Up! Han-Penned Petals - Fab Friday 213

 Fab Friday is back with another challenge today.  It's a sketch this time with a nice big center panel to work with.  Have at it and share in the gallery!

  I'm using my Hand-Penned Petals stamp set along with the coordinating Hand-Penned DSP.  I thought these colors and flowers are perfect for spring.  I used the scallop die for the skinny cross piece but added the sentiment square because I wanted to use this sentiment from another new set; Inspired Thoughts.

 Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hand-Penned Petals, Inspired Thoughts

Ink: Memento Black, Highland Heather, Pale Papaya, Mint Macaron, Versamark

Paper: Hand-Penned DSP, Whisper White, Basic Black

Accessories: Layering Squares dies, Penned Flowers dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, white embossing powder, dimensionals, Mint Macron Sheer Linen ribbon (retired), purple sequin (retired), adhesive pearl

Etched for Spring - Stampin' Up! Etched in Nature

   The dogs wore themselves out early this morning so I've got a few minutes to blog!  Now if only I could find a few more minutes to actually stamp!

  I made this card a few weeks back to share as part of a virtual swap during a Stampin' Up! online demonstrator event.  As part of the registration fee we received the Etched in Nature stamp set (coming tomorrow in the new Annual Catalog!!) and everyone was to make a card with it and share it during the event.

  I wanted to use some of the new In Colors to go along with the set so I got to work with 3 of the 5 of the colors; Fresh Freesia, Pale Papaya, and Soft Succulent.

  I started with a Soft Succulent base and stamped the branch/sprig in the same color ink.  I stamped it once more onto Whisper White and then cut it out with the Stitched So Sweetly dies.  I colored it in with my Pale Papaya and Soft Succulent Blends markers.  I backed it with a piece of Pale Papaya and added some new Open Weave ribbon in the same color.  Before adhering it to the card front I cut a vellum doily in half and added it to the back of the rectangle.

  The butterfly was stamped in Fresh Freesia and blends were used to add a bit more color to the details and then I fussy cut it and popped with dimensionals.  I colored a few adhesive pearls with the Soft Succulent Blends and added them to the butterfly body.  I wanted to use the new In Color faceted gems but I could not for the life of me find them on my desk!  I uncovered them a few days later in a bin next to my desk where they had fallen.  Clearly its time to tidy up!

  Finally, the sentiment is stamped in Fresh Freesia and die cut with the Tasteful Labels dies and popped to the side of the bow with dimensionals.

 Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Etched in Nature

Ink: Soft Succulent, Fresh Freesia

Blends: Soft Succulent,  Fresh Freesia, Pale Papaya

Paper: Soft Succulent, Pale Papaya, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched So Sweetly dies, Tasteful Label dies, vellum doily, pearls, dimensionals, Open Weave ribbon