IB174 Oran-Generous Friend

Hey peeps! Hope your week is going well so far!  It's time for a new Inspired By challenge, what a cutie this one is:

And here's our optional sketch, which I did use!

Once again, I find myself lacking ANY citrusy fruit stamps, so I went searching through my retired stash and found a shape that could sort of fit the bill; it was a solid image from Swirly Bird:

As a rule I don't go for these sort of abstract designs but I admit that I really had fun creating this!!!  I stamped the three "fruits" in Pale Papaya and Daffodil Delight and added a sweet little leaf from a Stamp Market set:

I added some speckles with a white gel pen and a few little sequins, then stamped a sentiment in Memento Black.  For fun, I embossed the edge with a Stitched With Whimsy outline die.  Love the extra little design element it gives!

Our design team created some amazing things with this inspiration photo....be sure to go check them out at the Inspired By blog, and while you're there, add yours to the mix!  Can't wait to see what you create!

I had a few visitors to my back yard a day or so ago:

They were taken through the screen, but they're still beautiful!  Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Whirly Bird (ret), Lots of Leaves (The Stamp Market) Unknown Sentiment
Card stock & Papers	Pale Papaya, Basic White
Ink	Pale Papaya, Daffodil Delight, Memento Black
Accessories	Sequins from my stash
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched With Whimsy Dies, White Gel Pen

RRCB135 Tic Tac Toe

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  It's time for a new Retro Rubber challenge, where we challenge you to use your older stamps (at least one year old)! This week we have a fun tic-tac-toe grid:

I chose the bottom row across: flowers, patterned paper and bright colors, and instead of making a card, I chose to make a little gift bag using a retired Mini Treat Bag die and some polka-dotted Brights DSP:

I cut my bag from some Coastal Cabana retired papers, and selected three more colors, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive, and diecut them using a Stitched Rectangle die, layering them to make a panel for my Swirly Bird flower. It was stamped in Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo as well (2016):

I used some Ornate Garden ribbon for the stem, and stamped some Old Olive leaves, as well as some random flowers.  The "for you" is in the same die set, and I added some enamel embellishments for the centers of the flowers. 

I filled it with some shreddie and it's ready to go for a little gift for a special someone!

Please play along with our Tic-Tac-Toe challenge and share your creations with us at the Retro Rubber Challenge!  Can't wait to see them!  Just make sure you tell us the approximate age of the stamps that you're using!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Swirly Bird Thank You

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  This will be short and sweet; the sun is actually shining and I might go to Longwood Gardens to take a walk...we'll see!  The Global Design Project this week is a color challenge:

And the Less Is More challenge is Take 3!!  I LOVE things in threes!!

I needed some simple thank you cards for my customers, and I thought using Swirly Bird, which hasn't seen ink for a while, would be a good start!  So here we go:

I stamped each flower in Daffodil Delight, then added the swirls and smaller flowers in Grapefruit Grove.  The images were then masked and I added leaves in Lemon Lime Twist and some speckles in more Grapefruit Grove.  I decided to try the mirror stamping technique again (you can see details on this post HERE), this time with the solid-image bird stamp.  You can see that the image is not quite as crisp and clear as a regular stamped image, but I smoothed out the color with a blender pen, and he really doesn't look too bad!!!

Stamping his feet was another matter!  I simply stamped it on my silicone mat, then flipped it over and pressed it onto the card...amazingly, it worked fine!  I am just thrilled with this technique!  

A little intense video play:

The look on her face cracks me up!

Thanks for popping by today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Swirly Bird, A Big Thank You
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White
Ink	Grapefruit Grove, Lemon Lime Twist, Daffodil Delight
Accessories
Tools

RR103

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Hope you're staying warm wherever you are today!  It's supposed to be a cold, cold week here in PA!!!  But the Retro Rubber Challenge will warm you up with its sweet theme:

I used one of my favorite Valentine stamps, Sealed With Love (2017), along with Swirly Bird (2016), to make my fun little ribbon-embellished love note card:

Crumb Cake, Real Red, Lovely Lipstick and Whisper White were my color choices; I used the Rectangle Stitched framelits to create my layers, adding a wreath from Crumb Cake and a little love note and envelope using the Love Note framelits:

 

I added a few speckles from Gorgeous Grunge (2013), and Real Red ribbons adorn the Crumb Cake wreath as well as the little envelope; the note pops up out of the envelope to show a wee little sentiment, and then I stamped a Valentine sentiment on the inside:

Gee, I wonder to whom this card will go?!! 💕 I hope you'll play along with our Retro Rubber challenge..just be sure your stamps are at least a year old!  Can't wait to see what you share with us at the Retro Rubber Challenge blog!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Swirly Bird (2016), Sealed With Love (ret 2017), Gorgeous Grunge (2013)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Real Red, In Color DSP, Fresh Prints DSP (ret)
Ink	Crumb Cake, Lovely Lipstick
Accessories	Real Red Cotton Ribbon, Real Red Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon (ret), Linen Thread
Tools	Big Shot, Rectangle Stitched Framelits, Swirly Scribbles Thinlets, Be Mine Framelits, Love Notes Framelits (ret)

The Masked Stamper

Hi peeps!  Our stamp clubs yesterday learned about masking!  It's an easy process, a few steps involved, but it really creates a cool look with just some stamps and a few post-it notes!  This is one of  the projects we made using Swirly Bird and the retiring colors of Dapper Denim, Marina Mist, Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi:

The club didn't make the following cards, they were samples that I made ahead of time, showing them other ways that masking can be used.  This is a note card made with Berry Burst cardstock and Color Theory DSP and another set of images from Swirly Bird...the little bird and nest!  I think this is my favorite one:

And using the big floral image from Flourishing Phrases, I stamped it in Crushed Curry, masked it and stamped the leaves in Lemon Lime Twist, then mounted it on a panel of Color Theory DSP.  Since it was pretty large, I created a custom envelope with DSP and the Envelope Punch Board!

And finally, I received this card from my sweet friend Debbie.  We made a card similar to this in our last stamp class by using Blooms and Wishes to create a one-sheet wonder.  She was inspired by a the colors on a tissue box!  I love this color combo:  Soft Sky, Pool Party, Calypso Coral and Basic Gray!

I love it when my customers go home and put to use what they learned in club!  Thanks for popping in today!

I chauffeured Cassidy to karate last week....this was taken BEFORE she went to class, when we pulled into the parking lot!  It was a long week, I guess!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

MTS226 and CAS131 Artistic Black and Pink

Hi everyone!  Monday, Monday...it's Monday again!  The weekend zipped by but I did get a little stamping time in after my company left; I used the Match the Sketch sketch and the CAS on Sunday color challenge of pink, black and white!

I was sad to see Awesomely Artistic on the retired list...it had such nice elements with an eclectic, vintage feel to them.  I thought it would be fun to make a CAS card with Melon Mambo and Basic Black...they are strong colors, but the floral is open and delicate, so the color isn't too overpowering:

I stamped the frame and dragonfly in Basic Black ink and fussy-cut them out, even cutting out the inner portion of the frame.  I used a sentiment from Wood Words inside the frame, as this is a customer's thank you card, and originally I had stamped it directly on to the floral image, but I didn't like how it got a wee bit lost, so I stamped it again on some vellum, layered it on the back of the frame and then re-lined it up with the original stamped sentiment.  Much better:

A black scalloped mat and some speckles from Swirly Bird gave it a little "movement", and I found some retired enamel dots in Strawberry Slush that matched enough!!  

A couple more pictures from Curriculum Night; this is the pot Cassidy made:

and the teepee:

and at one table, we could write a message with Indian symbols; this is what I wrote:

and here's John's:  a man goes fishing in the rain!  LOL!!!!

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Awesomely Artistic, Wood Words, Swirly Bird
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, Basic Black
Ink	Basic Black, Melon Mambo
Accessories	Enamel Dots (ret), Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits

TGIFC155 and CCS268 Cue the Confetti

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I've got a bright springy card for you today, using my much-neglected Swirly Bird set, a sketch from TGIF Challenges, and the colors from CAS Colours and Sketches!  

Aren't these colors pretty?  They were fun to use...the sketch was a bit more of a challenge!  Here we go:

I stamped the circles, swirls and flowers in each of the challenge colors, stamping off first so I got a lighter image, then punching them with the 1 1/4" circle punch.  I stamped the speckles on the background in Flirty Flamingo and added a sentiment from Picture Perfect Birthday, matted with a piece of Flirty Flamingo as well:

On the inside, I stamped a sentiment from the Picture Perfect set as well as a few more speckles!

I added some retired Pool Party DSP and thick baker's twine to finish it off!  Thanks for popping in today!

Goofy girl, eating dinner in her pjs:

Her pajamas have a hood with a Santa hat...it's still cold so she's still wearing them!!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Swirly Bird, Picture Perfect Birthday
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, White, Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party Patterns DSP (ret)
Ink	Summer Sun, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo
Accessories	Pool Party Thick Baker's Twine (ret)
Tools	1 1/4" Circle Punch, Dimensionals

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  I hope you can spend some time today with the favorite people in your life!  I have a couple of simple projects to share today; I needed a little gift bag for a little candy treat for Cassidy and found these 6 1/2" bags in my stash that I picked up at a yard sale a couple of years ago!  And then I found some ancient red and pink DSP in the back of my scrap tub that were perfect Valentine colors!  A couple of hearts, a sentiment from Paper Pumpkin and a big fat ribbon, and it was all set to go:

And since Cassidy is really into "to/from" - she puts it on all her crafting - I added this to the back!

For my stamp clubs on Monday, I made these little candy treats using an awesome video tutorial by my equally awesome friend Dawn Tidd.  You can see it here, she gives great directions and has such a lovely voice too!

I created mine with Berry Burst cardstock and Bundle of Love Specialty paper, along with a foil arrow diecut from last year's Love Note's Framelits, and finished it with a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes!  The stamping on it is from Apron of Love...what a fun set!

And finally, this sweet little square card was made by one of my stamp club hostesses, Robyn!  Look how precious this is, especially in pretty red, gray and white!

We even used the same sentiment and punch...great minds think alike!  I love the little love bird and the embossed hearts...I sorta forgot I had that embossing folder!  Thanks, Robyn!

And here's a vintage Valentine for all of you, my friends!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!