September Swap

 Good morning everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. Today's project is my card for my September swap group (http://openswappers.blogspot.com/). Great group of ladies and projects. This month I used the Hello, Doily background stamp. I have seen so many great samples with this stamp and it was my first time working with it. Love how lacy it is don't you? I stamped the image with versamark and then clear embossed it. I then masked it and stamped En Francais with Crumb Cake. The sponging was then done with Marina Mist and Crumb Cake. If you have never tried this technique, it is so much fun and gives you a great effect. You can clear emboss any image, sponge any color over it, then wipe off with a paper towel and your clear embossed image just pops. I also sponged all vanilla pieces with Crumb Cake, they were just too bright otherwise. I added some texture with the Fancy Fan emboss folder and some bling with a pearl, button, and ribbon (I know I can't believe this ribbon is retired either :(  The tag was made with the Modern Label punch, but I shortened it and added the button to the end.

Don't forget to joosh (is that a word? I sure use it alot) up your inside of your card too. I used the same emboss folder and ribbon as I did on the front of the card. Hope you enjoyed the project today. Have a great week all!

Pointsettia

Hello all! Over a week since my last post? What? Where does the time go?? Crazy, how did I ever have time to work??? Hope your week went well. Today's post is another Christmas card for next weeks workshop. I used the new Watercolor Winter and Greetings of the Season sets in the Holiday catalog. I did mention that this Holiday catalog is unbelievable right?? The DSP comes from three different packs - Letters to Santa (retired), Snow Festival (Holiday catalog), and Festival of Prints (Holiday catalog). The card base is Crumb Cake as well as the ink on the "Noel" piece that comes from the Everything Eleanor stamp set. The "Noel" was stamped in Old Olive. Don't you just love how the Cherry Cobbler and Primrose Petals colors compliment each other on the flowers? Love that combo! Just a hint on these two step stamps, even though they are clear stamps I find it so much easier if I use my stamp a ma jig and make a template. Otherwise it just never looks right. So drag out that dusty old tool! It still comes in handy.

Don't forget to dress up the inside too! Just a piece of DSP with an edgelit and a couple pieces of cardstock and vuala! Hope you enjoyed the project today. Have a great weekend!

Christmas Ornaments

 Good morning everyone! Today's project is Christmas card for my next workshop. Love the way this one turned out. It has that shabby chic thing going on. I used the Ornament Keepsakes set and dies with Island Indigo ink. The background piece uses the direct brayer to emboss folder technique with Crumb Cake ink. Great technique for that vintage look. All you do is ink up your brayer well and cover the debossed side of the emboss folder with ink, then insert your cardstock and run thru your Big Shot. Vuala! Easy technique for very dramatic effect. The two emboss folders I used were the stripes for the ornament background piece and the lacy brocade on the larger background piece. The sentiment comes from the must have More Merry Messages set. All vanilla pieces were mucked up with a sponge and Crumb Cake. Just love the ruffled ribbon and the pearls, very elegant.

Don't forget to decorate the inside of your card! I used Crumb Cake on the sentiment (also from More Merry Messages) and Island Indigo for the ornament. The border was made with the scallop trim border punch and the string was from an old ornament set I had in my stash, but could easily be made by hand with a Crumb Cake marker. Hope you enjoyed the project today. It's almost the weekend!!! Have a great day.

Blooming with Kindness

Good Hump day morning everyone! Up early with my son to get him off to school after being sick yesterday. The air is cool and the geese are quite active, can't wait until fall has arrived for good (not just in the am!). I thought I would take a step away from posting Christmas cards today. This is a case from ????, sorry I searched and searched and can't remember what blog I found this inspiration on. I search so many blogs that sometimes the exact blog that gave me my inspiration escapes me. Thanks to whoever you are! Anyhoo, I used the Blooming with Kindness set (Item #126422) for this card. Isn't this set just fabulous??? Love the flower and all the words. A little hint on the flower stamp, I removed the stem to make it easier to use. I still have the stem with the set but when just using the flower image (which will be most of the time), I don't have to fight with trying to either mask or use markers to color it separately.

The colors I used were Baja Breeze, Marina Mist (the new reformulated pad/ink - what a difference the new ink formula makes!), Midnight Muse, and Wild Wasabi. I first stamped the flowers and sponged a little into the centers to mute some of the "white" that was glaring at me. Then masked the flowers and used large post it notes to cover around the edges to make a "frame" of white around the edges. Then I sponged with the Wild Wasabi. After removing the masking, I used my Color Spritzer tool (Item #107066) with the Midnight Muse marker to get the speckled look (was a little heavy handed on the spritz, would have a liked it to be a little less). I did try the new spritzers that Stampin Up has now but because you have to mix the ink with a liquid, it wasn't the dark spritz that I was looking for. The sentiment is stamped in Midnight Muse as well.

In the center of the flowers I put a pretty heavy blob of dazzling details and then put the pearl on top. Love the little extra it added to the card. Gotta have a little bling right?

For the inside of the card I just stamped the flowers and then a bit more spritz. Hope you enjoyed the project today. Have a great day!

Ice Skates

 Hello friends! Hope today finds you well. Today's project is another Christmas card. I just love the way this card turned out so elegant. It just looked like my hostess to me. I was right she loved it! I used the set Winter Memories (Item #127937) from the Holiday catalog. Can you believe the Holiday catalog this year???? Something on EVERY page you just have to have right? Yeah I know me too! The image was stamped in Versa Mark and embossed with gold emboss powder. Then I watercolored the leaves with Old Olive and the skates with River Rock. The berries and "ribbon" (actually the shoelaces but who's counting?) with Cherry Cobbler marker. Tip for the marker part, make sure to blot it dry or you will transfer ink all over the place because it doesn't dry when it is on the embossed section. Not that it happened to me or anything???? (see cherry smudge on image wink, wink).

For the background pieces I used the Petals a Plenty emboss folder, Versamark and clear emboss with snowflakes on smaller vanilla piece (hard to tell in a pic), and the new Champagne Glimmer paper (Item #127885). The Merry Christmas sentiment is from the Open Sleigh set (Item #126462) and stamped with Cherry Cobbler. Just like how it's font seemed old fashioned.

Don't forget to dress up the inside of your card! The sentiment is from set More Merry Messages (Item #126402) and stamped in Cherry Cobbler. Then I added more texture and a strip of the Champagne Glimmer paper.

Hope you enjoyed the project today. Have a great day!

Snowmen on Canvas

 Happy Labor Day to all! Hope you all got to have the day off. Today's project is the first of many Christmas cards to be posted. In the mood for Christmas yet???? Hopefully these cute snowmen get you there. I used a piece of canvas that I bought a the fabric store. I bought a yard for around $10 and I think I will have enough canvas for the rest of my days!! Even after prepping about 70 kits. Good bang for your buck! The Frosty Friends (Item #128117) were stamped in Staz On brown ink (make sure to ink the pad well and press fairly hard on stamp to get a good impression) and colored in with markers. Not sure if you can tell but the heart on the one snowmans chest was filled in with the Cherry Cobbler dazzling details (Item #125585). Aren't they stinkin cute!! After stamping and coloring them I frayed the edges and "mucked" it up with some crumb cake ink and sponges/blender pen.

For the rest of the card I used the new Core'dinations card stock in Gumball Green (Item #127847) and the new sanding system (Item #129367). What fun that was. You first run the piece of cardstock thru the Big Shot using a emboss folder and then sand away. Messy but worth the end results. I also used Naturals Ivory (Item #101849), Gumball Green, and a couple of different patterns of Be of Good Cheer DSP (Item #126896). Add some Cherry Cobbler Tulle (Item #127841), ribbons, button, tag and your all dressed up!

Make sure you don't forget to dress up the inside of your card too! I used More Merry Messages (Item #126402) for the sentiment (a must for your collection!) and the tree from the set Stylin' Snowfolk (Item #126287).

Hope you enjoyed the project today and hope it got you in the mood for some Good Cheer! If you have any questions about today's project or about Stampin' Up products please leave a comment or shoot me an email. Would love to hear from you! Have a great day!

It's Back to Spool Time!

Hello everyone! Sorry for my absence, summer time is just crazy yes? With football season and school starting, things have just been super busy around my house. It has been so nice and cool in the mornings and I hear those geese flying in everyday, this means fall is almost upon us and things will finally start to slow down! Whew, hoping to get back into the blogging groove again soon! For now I wanted to share the latest Stampin Up promotion, with every $40 purchase in September, you will receive a free spool of the 3/8" stitched satin ribbon (that's an $8.95 value not including s/h or tax!). Love, love, love this ribbon! Very soft and elegant and makes great bows. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend! Check back soon!