Botanical Leaves - Fab Friday 86 - Stampin' Up! Botanical Blooms

  It's that time again!  Fab Friday!  Woo Hoo!  This is the perfect way to start off the weekend isn't it?  I know I've been quiet this week but there seems to be a lot happening around my house lately.  I had stamp club on Tuesday so I spent a bit of last week designing the projects and then Monday getting prepared for my 20 stampers to join me for some fun.  Then there was a field trip and field day is today and of course I am involved in it all!

  But I know I'm going to get in the stamp room this weekend because I need to figure out if I'll have any supplies left after the Stampin' Up! retiring list came out!  If you haven't gotten it yet just give me a shout and I will send it to you.  You definitely don't want to miss out on something that you've had your eye on!

  On to the real fun!  Check out our fun colors for this week's challenge:

  This is a great combination to say good bye to 2 of our retiring In Colors; Lost Lagoon and Hello Honey.  I used Lost Lagoon a lot and will be sorry to see it go.  But the new In Colors look fun too so never fear...we always have awesome colors to use at Stampin' Up!

  

  I thought our challenge colors would be good for a guy birthday card.  Nothing fancy just some texture and a sentiment.

  The base is Crumb Cake and then there is a smaller layer of Crumb Cake embossed with the Softly Falling embossing folder.  I added a strip of Whisper White to help define the smooth and textured sides.

  The leaves from Botanical Blooms (see you don't always have to use the flowers in a set, the leaves are great on their own!) are stamped in Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey and Soft Sky.  I inked up the coordinating detail stamps with Versamark and then embossed with white embossing powder.  The embossing adds a bit more texture and some shine. Then I cut them out with the coordinating framelits.

  I clustered the leaves and added a linen thread bow.  The frame from Rose Wonder is stamped in Lost Lagoon and the sentiment is from Endless Birthday Wishes and is stamped in Crumb Cake.

  I hope you'll make time to join our Fab Friday challenge.  You have almost 2 weeks so no excuses!  Head over to the challenge site to get more inspiration from our Fab Friday Design Team!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Rose Wonder, Endless Birthday Wishes

Ink: Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey, Crumb Cake, Versamark

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Accessories: Softly Falling e.f., Rose Garden thinlets, Botanical Builder framelits, linen thread, white embossing powder, dimensionals

Sweet Dog Sympathy

It's always hard to see someone loose their sweet pup.  As I don't have any dog stamps I used some punches to make this pet sympathy to extend my condolences.

  I am sad to see the Typeset Specialty DSP being retired but I do have quite a stash of it so I should be good for a while!  It is a nice, subtle pattern to back the brighter Calypso Coral panel.

  I used one of the Sale-a-Bration rewards the Memories in the Making Project Life card pack. The sweet embossed hearts on the card were a good match to the heart in the paw print.

  I added some gold thread behind the punched circle sentiment and a strip of Very Vanilla seam binding balances the bottom of the panel.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Petite Pairs

Ink: Basic Black

Paper: Basic Black, Typeset Specialty DSP, Very Vanilla, Memories in the Making Project Life card

Accessories: circle punches, gold thread, seam binding ribbon, heart punch, dimensionals

  

Lost Lagoon & Gold Birthday - Stampin' Up! Endless Birthday Wishes

I will be really sad to see Lost Lagoon retire as I think it worked really well as an in the middle blue that I used all the time for guy cards.  I still have a lot of paper left so I should be able to ease into the idea of not being about to buy more!

  I made this card a while back for some challenge or other; can't even remember which one now as it's long since closed.

 The base is Lost Lagoon with a smaller layer of the same color embossed with the Tiny Triangles embossing folder.  A narrow scrap of Basic Black goes across the middle.

  I used one of the Going Places DSP patterns and stamped some gold dots.  The other gold elements are the stars.  The little one is just punched out but the larger one I used the negative part of a star that had been previously cut with the Stars framelits and I just hand trimmed around it to get a thin star outline.

  The cake is stamped in Basic Black and colored with a Pool Party marker and gold Dazzling Details and punched out with an oval punch.  The banner is Pool Party and is tucked under the small star.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Endless Birthday Wishes

Ink: Black, Gold, Pool Party (marker)

Paper: Lost Lagoon, Basic Black, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Going Places DSP

Accessories: oval punch, Tiny Triangles e.f., Gold Dazzling Details, dimensionals

Neutral Leaf Sympathy - Stampin' Up! Vintage Leaves

I never want to have to make or send a sympathy card but unfortunately I've needed several lately.  I should have learned by now to make a few at a time to keep on hand but I haven't gotten that organized yet.

  I used one of my clear blocks inked up with Sahara Sand and stamped it right onto Whisper White paper.  I stamped the leaf in Basic Gray right on top of the Sahara Sand.  The sentiment is stamped in Basic Gray but first I inked up one of the small leaves and stamped it off so there is just a hint of the image beneath the sentiment.

  The sentiment is Petite Pairs and if you don't have this one in your collection yet you only have a little bit of time left to buy it.  Petite Pairs is on the retirement list this year.  I am sad to see it go since this has been a solid staple in my collection of sentiment stamps.  They fit wonderfully in the smaller circle punches.

  The DSP is the retired Adventure Bound DSP.  After adding a few layers and a dimensional to pop the sentiment this simple sympathy card is complete.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Vintage Leaves, Petite Pairs

Ink: Sahara Sand, Basic Gray

Paper: Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Adventure Bound DSP (retired)

Accessories: circle punches, dimensionals

Blue Ribbon Birthday - Stampin' Up! Barnyard Babies

  We had a beautiful weekend here in Central Virginia so I spent no time in the stamp room.  Friday I had grand plans to power wash the driveway and then get some stamping in but you know what they say about the best laid plans and all....  Well the power washer was not cooperating and I spent most of the day trying to get it working and replacing broken pull cords.  I finally got to clean the driveway on Saturday after Matt and our super awesome neighbor got the power washer running but then it was soccer time and dinner time.  Sunday was more of the same but it was beautiful outside so we enjoyed our yard and all the beautiful green things that are growing!

  I've got this card to share today that I made for an old friend a few weeks back.  I try to personalize cards when I can for birthdays and this one was right up her alley.

 

    The sweet horse is colored with alcohol markers and fussy cut and the background grass part is a quick color wash with an Aquapainter and Old Olive ink.

  I used the Hardwood background stamp on Crumb Cake with Early Espresso ink.

   The fun DSP in the background is from Sale-a-Bration pack Wildflowers Fields and I hope you snatched one of these up before the end of SAB!

  The Stampin' Up! retirement list will be out today so keep an eye out and make sure to order the things you can't live without before they are gone forever!  You can order through my store by clicking on the link in my sidebar!  I'd love to be your demonstrator!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Barnyard Babies

Ink: Memento black, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Early Espresso

Paper: Whisper White, Wildflower Fields (SAB- retired), Crumb Cake

Accessories: corner rounder, alcohol markers, circle punch, dimensionals

 

Celebrate with Cake - Fab Friday 85

  How can it be Friday already?  And how can it be another Fab Friday challenge already??  The days are just flying by lately!  I'm continuing to add to my birthday card stash and I used our sketch challenge this week to help me along.

  I have to admit I did struggle with this one for some reason.  I think mainly it was my focus or lack of focus that was the problem.  I really needed to just pick a stamp set and some colors and get to work.  I kept grabbing too many supplies and then it just looked like a hot mess!

  When I decided to flip the sketch that's when things started to come together...even some supplies that I had out that weren't making the cut the first time around!  It's all about perspective I guess!

  I mixed and matched some DSP patterns and colors for this bright birthday card.  I pulled my colors from an inspiration picture I saw on Pinterest.  I try to save fun color combos to a Pinterest board when I seem them so I can go back when I'm stuck for an idea.

  The stamping is basic with the large birthday greeting from Party with Cake stamped in black on the main panel.  I colored in the letters with Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay markers and over stamped with the sprinkles stamp in gold.

  The side of the main panel has a small strip of scalloped gold Glimmer paper.  Thanks to a tip I learned from someone who played in the last Fab Friday challenge I used the largest square framelit which is scalloped to make this fun little element!  

  The DSP is added behind the panel.  The Melon Mambo pattern and the Mint Macaron stripes are from the It's My Party DSP stack and the Bermuda Bay piece is from Cherry on Top DSP.

  To add in just a bit more gold I glued a few gold sequins to the front.

  I hope you'll join us at Fab Friday and make something awesome with our sketch!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Party with Cake

Ink: Basic Black  Markers: Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, gold

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, It's My Party DSP, Cherry on Top DSP, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: gold sequins, dimensionals

 

It's a Guy Balloon Celebration - Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration

  If you ever need a color combination for a guy card I don't think you can go wrong with this one!

  Lost Lagoon, Basic Gray and Lucky Limeaid.  Of course Lost Lagoon will soon be retired (BooHoo!) and Lucky Limeaid has been retired for a while but you can just substitute colors you have that are close.  Old Olive is a great one instead of the Lucky Limeaid and you can use Marina Mist instead of Lost Lagoon....unless you have quite a stash of these colors hidden away in your stamping supplies....we don't call it hoarding we call it 'being prepared'!

  The Arrows embossing folder is a great one for bold texture in the background.  The DSP is from the retired Moonlight DSP stack (shhhh....I am 'well prepared' with paper from this stack!).

  The balloons are stamped and punched out with the fabulous Balloon Celebrations stamp set and matching punch.  This is my most used Occasions catalog stamp set and I'm really hoping that it sticks around in the new catalog in June!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Balloon Celebrations, Party with Cake

Ink: Basic Gray, Lost Lagoon, Lucky Limeaid (retired)

Paper: Lost Lagoon, Luck Limeaid (retired), Whisper White, Moonlight DSP (retired)

Accessories: baker's twine, paper piercer, dimensionals, Arrows embossing folder

Botanical Fun Fold - Botanical Blooms

   We used the Botanical Builder framelits, Botanical Blooms stamp set, and Botanical Gardens DSP to create this card at my last class.

Sometimes it's fun to do a fun fold card to mix things up.  The top flap opens to the right and the inside flap opens to the left.  This is a photo heavy post to show the different layers but it's not a hard card to make.

  The only thing to remember is to situate the long leaf framelit the right way so you get the cool leaf detail along your card base edge.  If you do it wrong you just get little leaf pieces all over the place!  You want to make sure the stem part of the die is at the bottom of your card base.

Top flap open:

This is a great card design to show off the fun Botanical Gardens DSP!

The second flap open:

This is a great design if you want to write a lot inside of your card or have a lot of space to decorate with the stamp set.

 A thank you card sometimes just needs to be extra special!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Botanical Blooms, One Big Meaning

Ink: Hello Honey, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow

Paper: Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Whisper White, Botanical Gardens DSP

Accessories: Botanical Builder framelits, baker's twine, dimensionals