Stamp Camp Projects

No stamping for me today, as I am leaving for a Women’s Retreat at Harvey Cedars in New Jersey.  I thought I would quickly share the projects we made at my Stamp Camp on Wednesday.  The girls seemed to have a lovely time, and I met a new friend, Jennifer, who really made the evening fun!  We did two simple cards and two “stepped-up” cards:

This card was inspired by this card by Crystal; I just changed it a tiny bit:

A card using retiring colors and a set from the retiring mini:

A card using the Jumbo Bird Punch and Sweet Pea DP:

And another using I {Heart} Hearts and Sweet Pea DP:

At the time I designed these, the Sweet Pea paper was still available! Now it’s gone!!  I hope these inspire you to go make some cards!  Enjoy your day!

Mother’s Day Challenges

How do you like my snazzy new blog header?  Thanks, Arielle!  What a creative wonder she is!  Anyhoo, the challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs is to make a Mother’s Day card; the challenge at City Crafter Challenge Blog (a new one to me….again, thanks Arielle!) is to make an easel card.  I started this card way too late in the evening and it sort of morphed into something a little more than I had originally envisioned:

I did a computer-generated sentiment for the inside as well:

Since my mother passed away a long time ago, and I lost my MIL in February, this will go to my step-MIL!  She loves the cards I make, and I think she’ll love this one too!  The card base is Dusty Durango with some DP from K&Co; I embossed it and distressed it and sponged it and really made it look vintage. 

SU’s Filigree and Jumbo brads form the “stop” for the front of the card, and I just couldn’t help adding some swirly things, edged in glitter, some Nestie scallops, and  with some pleated ribbon.  Now I just need to give her directions, so she knows how to showcase her card!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Watercolor Trio Trio

Stampin’ Up!’s new mini is due to come out on Saturday and it features a new floral set called Watercolor Trio.  I usually don’t get these florals; I just can’t seem to make them work, but after seeing so many pretty samples, and since I really DO like the sentiments that come with it, I broke down and got it.   Already I’ve made three cards with it!  I needed a real fast thank-you card, so I used some colors I already had on my desk to make my first one:

This uses Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum and Old Olive….I decided I really like this combo—of course, now that the plum is retiring! 

The next one I did, I THOUGHT I used the Fall to Layout #87:

but I can see that I “adjusted” it a little in my head….I did it from memory; obviously my memory is a little off!

This one used Mellow Moss, Rose Red, Always Artichoke and Cameo Coral inks on a Very Vanilla card.  I also ordered some of the gold Smooch Spritz, so I “enhanced” it with that.  Let’s just say there is a learning curve on using this stuff!!!  Here’s  a closeup:

It seems to spray sideways, and sometimes comes out in a fine mist and other times, big blobs……if anyone knows any tricks or secrets for this, let me know!  This is also a Mother’s Day card for my sale basket; here is the inside:

Are you tired of these yet?  One more, using sketch #148 from Stamping 411:

I love this layout…very versatile  And when was the last time you used Brilliant Blue?!  I thought I would try a different approach to these flowers and stamp this image in a single color.  I overstamped it with Sanded for a little more of a vintage look.  It reminds me of a Delft tile.

Hope you enjoyed these---any questions, just email!  Blessings on your day!

Color Throwdown 90

Happy Wednesday!  The sun is finally shining here in Pennsylvania, and sunshiny Tammy is our hostess this week with some pretty colors to play with!  Be sure to go over to the CTD blog and check out the rules so that you can play with us too!  While you’re there, check out the design team’s samples!!!  You are sure to be inspired by them!

I was a bit stumped by these colors at first…my instinct was to go floral, but I wanted to be different, so I pulled out my little Pure Innocence “Apple for You” (thanks, Barbara!), colored her with some Copics and did some paper piecing using SU’s Rich Razzleberry DP:

I also found some BG Lemonade paper that had some appropriate colors for my background.  I really wanted to add a ribbon, but had nothing in the plum family, so I took some white SU taffeta ribbon, ran it over my Pale Plum stamp pad, holding it down with a sponge, until it was the right hue.  A swish from my heat tool set the ink and I had a custom-dyed ribbon!  A few little pearls and floral embellishments placed here and there completed my card.

Here are direct links to our CTD designers for your viewing pleasure:

• Broni - Splashes of Watercolor
• Tammy - Stamp Happy
• Barbara - Paper Pursuits
• Danielle – Wild Dragonfly Designs
• Kristin - Mindless Creativity
• and our Guest Designer of the month of April, Teresa Kline from Enjoy the Va Sunshine!

Have a blessed day and thanks for visiting!

The Sunshine Award

Wow!  I have been given these sweet Sunshine Awards three times in the last week!!  I think I’d better pass them along!  How nice it is to know that our comments make stampers happy!  These three lovely bloggers bestowed these awards to me for “spreading sunshine”—so be sure and go spread some sunshine on them, too:

• Lee at Stampingleeyours
• Christine at Love to Ink and
• Juliana at A Stamp A Day

So now here are my 10 (supposed to be 12, but I think 10 is enough!) bloggers on whom I am bestowing these awards:

• Arielle at Snappy Stampin’
• Lesley at Always Playing with Paper
• Corie at Creations by Corie
• Linda at Scrapcat Cards by Linda
• Donna at Butternut Sage 
• Kim at It’s So Pretty!  It’s So Cute
• Shawn at Shayna Bay
• Caryl at Stamps and Stitches
• Kathy at Card Blanc and
• Harriet at Alleycat Cards

Now, here are the rules:

1. Put the Sunshine Award on your blog and/or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 10-12 other bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

Thanks again, ladies!

ColourQ Challenge 30

Another Tuesday, another ColourQ Challenge! Check out this cool inspiration from Arielle:

Mmm, this is so yummy….looks like candy! I thought I would make a little box of cards using this as my inspiration, since the JUGS challenge this week is to use a template! So what do you think:

Here’s a closeup of the front of my little box:

and the back:

and the little cards and envelopes:

The flower is the SU Daisies 2 diecut; the centers on the flowers on the cards are from a new set called Itty Bitty Bits, and they coordinate with a set of three new little punches….SO cute! I decorated the box with assorted circle punch-outs, and added a satin ribbon handle.

This Cutesy Cover box is a free download available on Lauren Meader’s My Time blog (sorry, but I cannot link it due to restrictions), but the size of it is too small for these cards. So I altered it a bit to make it a better fit. Here’s a quick tutorial on how I did that:

Here I have printed out my pattern. Sorry, I printed it on the back of a finished NY Times crossword puzzle (I’m so green!):

I measured and found the center of the front of the box and the center of the back of the box and folded my pattern lengthwise on the centers. I then cut each section on the fold. I took a piece of scrap paper and taped it to each cut, widening the box by 1/2” on each section. You can see where I taped below; I connected the cutting lines with pencil marks.

Here’s a closer look. My scrap piece has the printing on it; you can see how the pattern was separated at the top of the photo:

And here’s a look at the front decorative piece, which I also had to enlarge. I hadn’t drawn the lines on this piece yet:

If you have ever made a dress pattern longer or wider, it’s the same principle. So then I paper-clipped my pattern to my cardstock and cut and scored it:

Once it’s all cut and scored, it’s ready to be decorated and assembled:

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! Be sure to come back tomorrow for the Color Throwdown challenge! If you have any questions about products used here, just shoot me an email!

CAS64

Today’s CAS challenge at SCS today was a breeze for me—to make Miss Boo, aka Jen, a birthday card in her favorite color of orange!  Since orange is one of my favorites too, I went to work, using some Marrakesh DP and Karen’s sketch for this week:

Since the papers had a more sketchy, vintage theme, I chose a vintage stamp from SU, Friends 24-7, and a birthday sentiment from PTI, which I cut apart and stamped separately, so that I could get the overlapping effect.   I did add a little twill at the top, I hope that still qualifies it for CAS!!!  A quick card that made ME happy on this cold, damp, dreary spring day here in SE PA!  Happy Birthday, Jen!

• Stamps:  Friends 24-7, PTI Vintage Picnic
• Paper:  Very Vanilla, BG Marrekesh
• Ink:  Apricot Appeal, Dusty Durango
• Acc:  Nesties, Twill

Christmas Twin Spin

I have a beautiful K&Co Christmas paper mat pack; the designs are so pretty, I never know which side to use!  So today, I decided to use both sides of one piece to make two cards!  My CTD buddy Barbara  had a Crazy 4 Challenges post on her blog yesterday to CASE any one of the C4C design team----so I chose her!  You can see her CAS card here, and these are the cards I made copying her CAS style:

This first one I am not so crazy about….I don’t like my ribbon treatment, but you know how you’ve spent SO much time on it, you don’t want to give up on it?  Anyway, I received this wonderful ribbon from Kelley and was determined to make it work!  Sentiment is from Flourishes.

The next one is more pleasing to me; it uses a wide ribbon too, but I glued on the bow!!!  The colors are nice & country, too:

I added a quick little piece of lace (I hope that doesn’t disqualify it as being CAS!) and a retired sentiment from SU.

Thanks for visiting today---now I am off to rest, relax and put up my feet – it was a busy Sunday at church!

Ten-Minute Card----NOT!

My sweet bloggin’ friends Lesley and Carole’Anne have started a new 10-Minute Card Challenge, so I thought I would try to make a card in 10 minutes.  Well, that didn’t happen.  It was more like 20 minutes….although if I had not tried to ink my sentiment with a marker instead of just going the easy route with an ink pad, it would have been less.  So here’s the sketch to use for the challenge:

and I decided to use the Inkspirations Color Challenge here:

and made a Mother’s Day card:

I know, my panels do not match the sketch, but I REALLY wanted to use this image and it was just too tall!  I hope they don’t mind!  I love how it came out, great colors, fun sketch!  Thanks for visiting again today!

• Stamps:  Friends 24-7, Itty Bitty Background, Teeny Tiny Wishes
• Paper:  Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Old Olive
• Ink:  Stazon, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Real Red
• Acc:  Blender Pens, Oval Punches, Embossing Folders, Wide Grosgrain Ribbon

Vacation Memories

I am posting this card this morning because I want everyone to know that not every card I make is stellar (not that I would think that anyway); not every card is even good; in fact, some cards are pretty mediocre.  I don’t usually post the mediocre ones, but this one was pretty funny, so I thought I would post it anyway.  I am going to blame it on the fact that I started this card at 1 am, after having taking half an Ambien because I couldn’t sleep, and then went to my stamp room to wait for the Ambien to take effect.  I saw the SCS challenge, which was Vacation Memories, pulled out some Crafty Secrets vacation Cotton Scraps (that I’ve had forever) and laid them out in a pleasing manner.  Our family spent all our summers at the Delaware shore, so I thought these were perfect images!  This morning I got up and proceeded to sew them together….a disaster.  They were too big to fit on a standard card, too awkward for the next big-sized envelope I had, so I just stuck it on a card the same size and added some twill & a button.  I thought it would be cute for my SIL’s new card, but then I remembered her anti-button fetish!!  Drat!  So this will go to my sister who lives at the beach and loves vintage…..she’ll love it anyway, despite its mediocrity…..

Thankfully from this view you can’t see the really bad sewing job! :D  I did find a cute little dragonfly charm (that would have looked good on THIS card) that added a tiny little bit of redemption to this disaster!  So there, I have bared my soul and shared one of my worst cards ever!!!  There isn’t even any stamping on it!   And I am going to post it on SCS as well as Just Add Ink, whose challenge today is VINTAGE!!!  Thanks for the long post; if you’ve stuck with me this long, you’re a faithful friend!!!

 

 

Have a wonderful day!