Birthday Blessings - Stampin' Up! Blessings of Home

    The Concept Art team at Stampin' Up! has been issuing a set of colors each week to inspire us in our own stamping.  I've not had a chance before now to play with the fun color combos they've given out but I had a bit of time to stamp yesterday so I set to 'work'.  

  The colors this time are Pumpkin Pie, Pale Papaya, Old Olive, Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight.  I decided these colors would work well for a floral card so I pulled out the Blessings of Home set and did some coloring with my Blends for this birthday card.  Not terribly innovative but a good floral card is always welcome in my card stash!

  I enjoyed taking some time to slow down and color after getting things organized for my classes today.  It's always nice to top off a busy work day with some stamping.  

  This card starts with a Misty Moonlight base and then a layer of Basic White embossed with the Bark embossing folder.  A piece of Frayed Grosgrain ribbon is adhered across the front of the card for even more texture.

I stamped the image in Basic Gray for a softer look to the flowers than black would have given me and the using blends I just colored in with basic shading.  The flower is cut out with the Stitched So Sweetly dies for a soft scalloped edge.  I added some greenery and flower die cuts to the edges and then attached it to the card front with dimensionals. 

  Finally, I added an embossed sentiment strip popped with dimensionals.

  To see the colors each week that the Concept Art team puts out you can follow Stampin' Up! on Instagram and/or follow the hashtag #conceptartcreativechallenge  You can also find me on Instagram @didyoustamptoday

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Blessings of Home

Ink: Basic Gray, Versamark

Blends: Pumpkin Pie light & dark, Pale Papaya light & dark, Old Olive light & dark, Balmy Blue light & dark

Paper: Misty Moonlight, Basic White, Old Olive, Pale Papaya, Balmy Blue

Accessories: Bark embossing folder, Stitched So Sweetly dies, white embossing powder, Flowers of Home dies, Frayed Grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals

Happy Birthday Daisies - Stampin' Up! Flowering Rain Boots

   My card today is one that I first made when I was guest designing over at CAS Colours & Sketches.  At the time I couldn't decide if I liked it or not so I kept some of the elements and ended up with this card instead.

  After having some time not staring at it I decided I do like it and thought I would share today on this supposedly spring day!  Another sunny day that is colder than it looks!

  The DSP between the Basic Borders cloud dies is the Sale-a-Bration Simply Marbleous DSP.  I stamped the watering can in Pool Party and the daisies in Fresh Freesia.  The daisies are then filled in with Blends markers.

  The sentiment is from the retired And Many More set.  The only embellishment is a bakers twine bow.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Flowering Rain Boots, And Many more (retired)

Ink: Pool Party, Fresh Freesia

Blends: Fresh Freesia light, Daffodil Delight light

Paper: Basic White, Simply Marbleous DSP (SAB)

Accessories: Rain Boots dies, Basic Borders dies, dimensionals, baker's twine (retired)

Birthday Tulips - Stampin' Up! Tulips Dies

   Even though our weather looks nice today with sun shining down and pretty blue skies it's actually windy and kind of chilly but a few brave tulips have decided to start to bloom in my yard and they are even a similar color to the tulips on my card! After a lot of yellow from my daffodils we are getting into the pink and red of tulip season!

  This card just has stamping for the sentiment and gives the focus to the beautiful flowers you can make with the Tulip dies.  I used Calypso Coral for the blooms and Pear Pizzazz for the stems and leaves.  I love how each one is slightly different.

  I used 2 different patterns from the Flowering Fields DSP to create the background and base for the birthday sentiment.

  A few Brushed Brass Butterflies and a Frayed Ribbon knot are the embellishments for this card.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Flowering Tulips

Ink: Calypso Coral

Paper: Pool Party, Flowering Fields DSP, Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Basic White

Accessories: Tulips dies, Layering Circle dies, Tasteful Label dies, dimensionals, Brushed Brass Butterflies, Frayed Ribbon

Forever Fern Hello - Stampin' Up! Forever Fern

  My card today is one we made at my last Quick & Easy Cards class.  The point of this class is to stamp cards that don't use a ton of supplies and still make some cute projects.  New stampers can be overwhelmed with tons of tools and dies and having a more basic card is a great way to teach them without it becoming overwhelming.  My veteran stampers love this class as well because they 1) get more stamping and social time with friends and 2) end up with 3 fun cards without a huge time investment!  Win win for stampers at every level!

   I've made a quick video showing how I put this one together.  

 

  Also, 2 of the 3 colors used on this card are getting ready to retire; Just Jade and Magenta Madness are in the retiring set of In Colors so if you like this combo don't wait to order the inks and papers.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Forever Fern, Biggest Wish

Ink: Just Jade, Night of Navy, Magenta Madness

Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic White, Just Jade

Accessories: dimensionals, Magenta Madness twill ribbon

Sunflowers for Ukraine - Stampin' Up! Jar of Flowers

    Many card challenge sites have lately been doing blue and yellow or sunflower themed challenges to show support for the people of Ukraine.  I made this one more than a week or so ago for one such challenge but didn't get it photographed or edited in time to share in real time but of course I wanted to show my support for these brave people however small.  A card isn't very much in the grand scheme of things but I hope my card added to the thousands of others that are being made can at least continue to keep the people of Ukraine in the forefront of our minds and do what we can to help them.  I urge everyone to seek out a trusted charity or aid foundation that is helping in Ukraine and donate if you are able.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Flowers, Through It Together

Ink: Versamark, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Soft Suede, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Balmy Blue

Paper: Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Watercolor paper, Basic White, In Good Taste DSP

Accessories: Clear embossing powder, Early Espresso embossing powder (retired), dimensionals, twine

Hand-Penned Lace - Stampin' Up! Penned Flowers Dies

   I have to get a move on making some Easter cards before it's too late. The soft colors at Just Us Girls Challenge were perfect for a soft floral Easter card.

  

Please forgive the poor photo; the weather here has been gray for a few days and the natural light just hasn't been great for photos!

  This is very easy card design though a bit fussy for the background.  I just cut out a bunch of the floral outlines in Very Vanilla and glued them to a piece of Very Vanilla.  I think the look has a wonderful lace feel to it.

  I cut a Soft Succulent scallop edge and then adhered a bit of Blushing Bride Frayed Grosgrain ribbon to it and layered across the card front.

  The sentiment from an old retired set called Well Scripted is stamped in Soft Succulent and cut out with a Tasteful Label die.  I cut a few flowers and leaves and adhered them to the side. The the whole label is then popped on dimensionals.

  I added a few Polished Dots to finish off the details.  

  I love the end result but this is definitely not a design to make multiples of!  

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Well Scripted (retired)

Ink: Soft Succulent

Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Succulent, Blushing Bride

Accessories: Penned Flowers dies, Tasteful Label dies, dimensionals, Blushing Bride Frayed Grosgrain ribbon, Polished Dots

Paper Hug Birds - Stampin' Up! Catch You Later

   Aren't these little birds just so sweet?  I love that they are snuggled into one another giving and receiving a hug.  We all need that now and again don't we?  

  I paired the sweet birds with an itty bitty sentiment that is just perfect for so many occasions!  The colors are inspired by The Color Hues challenge which is to use a pale teal and yellow for a card. Such great colors for this time of year.

  Looking now at everything I used to make this card the only current products are the stamp sets and Blends markers!  It feels good to use some retired products doesn't it? And isn't it great that something that retired a few years ago still matches a newer product!  Just one of the many things I love about Stampin' Up!; color coordination and matching!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Catch You Later, Through It Together

Ink: Basic Gray

Blends: Pool Party light & dark, Daffodil Delight light & dark

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Peaceful Poppies DSP (retired)

Accessories: dimensionals, Stitched Shapes dies (retired), Basic Gray baker's twine (retired), sequins (retired)

Sweet Hello - Stampin' Up! Sweet Strawberry

   The team at CAS Colours & Sketches is back today with a brand new challenge.  I'm guest designing with them this month and it has been such a blast stretching my clean and simple stamping skills.  I've enjoyed playing along with them and today's challenge is no exception!  Today is a slimline sketch challenge.  I don't do slimline cards very often and once I started on this one there seemed to be so much space to fill!  I got to a place where I think it came out ok though in the end.  I will definitely be practicing this one more often!

  I pulled out a set that I feel I only use when the weather is warm.  Strawberries just make me think of early summer and bright sunny days and it was in the 70s over the weekend!

  I started with a Basic Black card base, then cut a smaller Basic White top panel.   I stamped the flower and leaf stamp from Sweet Strawberry in the corner twice, stamping off Granny Apple Green two times to get a very light and delicate background. Next I did some paper piercing all around the border using a very old template we had back in the day.  It definitely helped me stay straight!

  With Real Red and Granny Apple Green I stamped and punch 3 strawberries and stems and layered them in the corner with the top one being popped on dimensionals.

  The final bit of stamping is the larger sentiment from the Sale-a-Bration set Friendly Hello inked in Versamark and embossed in black.

  I really like clean look of the open space with the bold pops of black and red.

  Thanks to CAS Colours & Sketches team for having me join them!  I hope you'll play along with them in this cool challenge!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Sweet Strawberry, Friendly Hello (SAB)

Ink: Versamark, Granny Apple Green, Real Red

Paper: Basic Black, Basic White

Accessories: paper piercer, black embossing powder, Strawberry builder punch