Embossed Love

Just felt like stamping for fun yesterday, found a few challenges and combined them for a shabby chic card:

This card began when I took a few embossed pieces of our new Core-dinations paper, cut them into squares and mounted them on a scallop which was diecut from a page from an old house plant book.  I added some hearts, a piece of lace, a text pennant, and a sweet little sentiment from Pennant Parade:

The image behind the “Love” is from Collage Curios, which I just need to play with some more!!!  So many cute little images in that set!  The background was stamped with Distressed Dots, and the vertical panel is a piece of vellum embossed with the Vine Street EF from the SAB catalog. 

Here are the challenges:

Stampin’ Royalty #160, polka dots; Little Red Wagon, text; and Freshly Made Sketches #70:

Thanks for visiting…if you have any questions, shoot me an email….my address is on the top right!

Thanks for visiting!

NAC30 and RS47

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Yesterday was the start of SU’s Sale-a-bration promotion…always a fun time in the stamping world! I used one of the free sets, Bloomin’ Marvelous, to make a quick card!  I used the Nacho Average Challenge colors for this week:

as well as the RetroSketches sketch:

to make this:

The card base is Very Vanilla; paper is from the mini….Print Poetry; all the images and sentiments are from Bloomin’ Marvelous; and the button is also part of the SAB freebie promotion!  Easy peasy!

Cassidy is nearing the age of potty training.  She knows when she is about to “go” because she usually heads for a corner somewhere.  When I found her in the stairway and I confronted her about going on the potty (and getting a special little treat), this is the look I got:

Obviously, she wasn’t having any parts of it!  Well, we’ll keep working on it!!!

CQC173

Howdy, stampers!  It’s Tuesday---that means ColourQ day!  Feast your eyes on this lovely photo inspiration from Arielle:

I only WISH I could have done this beautiful skirt justice with my card….instead, it is just a farce….not my best work:

I made this card Sunday after having "one of those days".  I am ripping apart my craft room for a much-needed makeover, so my retired cardstock is somewhere in my basement family room and I was just too lazy to go get it.  SO….enough whining, I still think the colors are beautiful even if I did not use them to their best advantage!  I used the Clean and Simple sketch for this week:

and some retired items…..the hearts are from the Valentine’s set from last year’s mini, P.S. I Love You (which is the best Valentine’s set ever and I am still upset they didn’t put it in the big catalog!), and I cut them with the smallest Heart framelit after stamping them in Apricot Appeal and Blush Blossom.  The circular base is Blushing Bride Patterns, and I added a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes, along with some Burlap ribbon and Crochet trim.  The finishing touch was a rhinestone colored with a Copic:

I think this will make a nice sympathy card because the colors are soft & calming, or maybe just a little note card to tell someone I am thinking of them!    I know that all you stampers out there can come up with something a bit more creative than I have here…..I can’t wait to see what it is!  Share it with us at the ColourQ blog and check out the other’s samples as well!

After a hard morning at play and a lunch of tomato soup and pickles, the poor girl couldn’t even make it to her crib:

Merry Monday 46

Happy Monday!  We made it through the weekend….brrrr, it’s sure cold here in PA!  Let’s warm up by thinking Christmas!!!  It’s time for another Merry Monday challenge, and this week’s is a theme!

Oooh, I LOVE birds, and this challenge fit perfectly with the Jingle Belles challenge this week, too, which is Scandinavian Christmas:

Squeal!!!  Love it!  So here we go:

Looks a bit like a Valentine’s card, doesn’t it?  But the image is from a retired winter mini hostess set called Northern Hearts; I added a little “joy” at the bottom and “noel” just to make sure everyone knows it’s NOT a Valentine’s, LOL!  The gingham is computer-generated; the embossed panel is SU’s Delicate Designs; the felt hearts are cut from a die, and the stitched ribbon is from SU as well.  Such a clean, crisp feel, I love it!  Of course, I added some pearls for fun:

And since I love birds so much, I made another card using the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

This one uses a beautiful embossing folder (thanks, Carol!) and a bird sticker:

I even used some of the packaging to make the little background piece!! 

I hope you’ll play along with us this week at Lesley’s blog, Always Playing with Paper, where you’ll find the other beautiful bird-themed Christmas cards from our designers!  We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Paper Players 129

Happy Sunday, everyone! Jaydee is our hostess this week at the Paper Players and she has a clean and simple sketch for us this week:

This time, I took Jaydee’s “CAS” challenge to heart, and made an absolutely simple card with her fabulous sketch:

This pretty paisley pattern from the Print Poetry pad in the mini was calling to me!  It wasn’t until after I made my card that I realized the color in the paper was NOT Summer Starfruit, but more like Crumb Cake!  (It’s been so dreary here, I’ll blame it on the lack of sunlight!)  Well, I’m sticking to it, because this card is already in the mail to a friend who had a slight bicycle mishap when a truck collided with him!  Yikes!  He’s okay….a couple of broken ribs and some cuts and bruises….but I thought the collage image from Postage Due was perfect.  I added a few more collage-y elements from the French Foliage set, a little sentiment and it was done!

Now, of course, my stamping instinct wanted to add more, so I did another card, stepping it up a bit:

I sponged the edges, added some postage stamps, and since everyone is posting videos of how to dye the pretty little flowers from the Artisan Embellishments Kit, I thought I would throw in my two cents---yes, you can dye the burlap ribbon TOO!!!  I just daubered some Summer Starfruit ink right on the ribbon and voila!  Colored burlap!  I just love this effect…and now I have another get-well card in my stash!  And THEN, I used the scraps from the projects and made a third little card:

I hope that you will find inspiration in this uber-easy sketch from the Paper Players this week!  Pedal on over to the blog to see what the other designers created this week and share your creation with us too!

 

I’m telling you….this child does not need toys….she finds everyday objects fun to play with:

Don’t we all line up our batteries before eating our apple snack?  LOL!!!  Enjoy your day and thanks for visiting!

My Calypso Friend

Happy Saturday, peeps!  Do you have some stamping/fun time scheduled today?  I have a little free time, I hope I can get some in!  Meanwhile, I wanted to share a card with you that highlights some of the new mini catalog products:  Tea for Two Designer Fabric, Itty Bitties and the Borders Scoring Plate.  I love orange hues almost as much as I love blues, so when I saw the Tea for Two fabric, I knew it would be on my wish list!

But before I worked on the fabric, I cut my cardstock and embossed a little line of dots & scallops at the bottom border.  Can you see it there?  A big thing to remember when using the Borders plate is that you must work on the BACK of your project!!!!  I’ll give you a couple other hints at the end of the post, too!  Then I cut a strip of fabric about 10” long for my card with my pinking shears and gathered it on my machine with a basting stitch.  That step was rather moot, as my thread ended up breaking just before I adhered it to the card, so I didn’t bother to re-sew, just sort of hand-gathered it on top of a line of sticky strip.

I added another line of sticky strip on top of the gather and adhered my ribbon.  The final touch was the image from Perfect Punches and the little bird from Itty Bitties:

There are so many fun little images in that set, I find myself looking for ways to use it!
So here are some tips I have found helpful for using the Borders plate:

• Remember to have your project face down before you emboss!!!
• Use blue painter’s tape (my hubby wanted to know when I was going to return his and I told him NEVER—go buy some new) to anchor your project in place.  I used little bits, but do be careful, as it is not foolproof and it will tear the cardstock or paper if you don’t use a gentle hand when removing it!  I speak from experience!  This tape is also good for anchoring your dies in the Big Shot!
• A piece of waxed paper rubbed on your cardstock along the embossing area beforehand helps the stylus emboss smoothly.
• Hold your stylus upright, perpendicular to your project, not at an angle, to get the best embossing.
• If you butt your cardstock all the way to the top of the scoring plate and don’t get that last little area embossed because of the way the overlay is created (if you own one of these, you’ll know what I mean), do your embossing, remove the overlay and finish that last little bit without it.

Hope those tips help a little.  The Borders plate looks intimidating, but it is definitely a cool tool that helps to add interest to your cards!  If you have any questions, please shoot me an email!!!  Again, I cannot always answer your questions from the comment screen, so email is best!  And be sure to come back tomorrow for the Paper Players challenge!

Cassidy managed to get my church bulletin from my Bible and found fun ways to play with it:

Reading:

Arranging (she seems to like doing this to a lot of things):

and making it fly in the air!

Enjoy your day!

Party Projects

Today I am sharing the projects we made at my Hostess Appreciation party!  Some had a Valentine theme, and I also highlighted some of the SU specials and SAB sets that will be coming out next week!

A Valentine card:

Two mini notecards using SAB goodies and the Borders scoring plate….we actually switched the embossing around to fit the images better!  These are just the samples!

And finally, using up some old magnet calendars my DH was going to throw away, we made a fridge magnet:

The photo can be slipped behind the diecut and changed for different events!  It used a new SAB embossing folder and the My Little Valentine set:

Thanks for visiting today!!!

Cassidy tackles her favorite, a bowl of spaghetti:

“Want some, Grammy?”