Retro Anniversary

Today's card is based on the Retro Sketch for this week:

I started off with a Sahara Sand base and added a piece of Pool Party. To that, I added a layer of Whisper White on which I stamped the snowflakes from Snowflake Soiree (see? It's a versatile set!) using Pool Party Ink (stamped and stamped off). To the right, I added a 1/2 layer of Island Indigo which was punched using the Scallop Trim Border punch.

The sentiment stamped in Island Indigo and added to a flag is from the set A Word for You.

I think this would be PERFECT for someone celebrating a winter anniversary!

What do you think?

STAMPS: Snowflake Soiree
INK: Pool Party, Island Indigo
PAPERS: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party and Sahara Sand Cardstock
ACCESSORIES: Punch, Basic Rhinestone, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Inspiration from the Divas!

What have I gotten myself into? Design team junkie doesn't even BEGIN to describe the insanity! LOL! I am LOVING it though and am ALMOST at a perfect rhythm where I'm ahead of the game and creating at least one, and sometimes TWO, weeks in advance!

So, in this post, I talked about about joining the design team for the colour challenge over at Utah Divas International. Not long after I joined that team, Jill posted on the UDI Facebook page that she was starting up the Inspiration challenge team again. Now, inspiration challenges are truly NOT my forte, but I've been trying to S-T-R-E-T-C-H myself (and my stamping, too!), so I decided to give it a shot!

I was too late to play with the first one and completely forgot about the second one, but now, I'm ready to go!

My card for this week was based on this picture chosen by Jill:

When I first saw it, I knew JUST what I wanted to do! And here's what I came up with:

I used the leaf from French Foliage and inked it up with Regal Rose. Then, I rocked and rolled VERY gently in Always Artichoke.

A word of advice:

• The rock and roll technique using the new firm foam pads is VERY tricky! With the older linen pads, you got the benefit of the texture in the pad. With the firm foam pads, because they are so uniform, you MUST be VERY gentle. When I first did it, I ended up with a strip of pink down the middle with two strips of green on the sides and it looked RIDICULOUS!
• Practice first! If I hadn't stamped onto grid paper first, I'd have wasted a piece of cardstock. Grid paper on my workspace is an invaluable tool!

After stamping the leaf image four times unto the cardstock (which is Naturals Ivory), I stamped the sentiment from A Word for You in Always Artichoke in the bottom right hand corner. I'm loving the simplicity of this card!

What do you think?

STAMPS: French Foliage, A Word for You

INK: Regal Rose, Always Artichoke

PAPERS: Naturals Ivory

ACCESSORIES: Ummm...none! Unless you count grid paper! :)

Happy Stampin'!

Taking a page from the book of Becky

If you know Becky Roberts, you know she makes the most AMAZING note cards! Such attention to detail! I have loved every single one I've seen on her blog.

As you may have heard *giggle* I hosted my first EVER Stampin' Extravaganza on June 23rd. By all accounts, it was a SMASHING success and I can't wait to do it all again on October 21st! It'll be Stampin' Extravaganza - Christmas Edition!

Anyway, I wanted to send off little notes of thanks to all those who attended and helped me make it such a success! So, I designed these:

Yes, they're all blank. Why are they blank? No mass produced notes here! Everyone got a PERSONALIZED hand written message!

I started off with a piece of Whisper White Cardstock, on which I stamped the small flower trio from Betsy's Blossoms in Raspberry Ripple. Then I tied a length of Gumball Green 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon around the Whisper White layer and adhered it to the Raspberry Ripple layer. I then stamped the sentiment from "A Word for You" in Gumball Green at the bottom of the card.

Before sending them off, I wrote a note on each one!

And did you see THIS? I got me a shout out at Dynamic Duos for this card! WOOT!

What do you think?

STAMPS: Betsy's Blossom, A Word for You
INK: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green
PAPERS: Whisper White and Raspberry Ripple Cardstock
ACCESSORIES: Ribbon

Happy Stampin'!

A little MOJO brings out the Best of Everything

I don't want to say it, because I don't want to jinx it, but shhh...I think I got my MOJO back.

For the past little while, I've been in a bit of a funk (this seems to be going around - what's UP with THAT?), not really creating, not really wanting to, but kind of really wanting to, if you get what I mean. I'm always happier when I'm creating, but sometimes just can't put it all together. *sigh*

This week, there's been a series of SUPER awesome sketches and inspiration around the web and it seems to have been JUST what I needed!

Today's card is brought to you by the MOJO Monday sketch! I STILL have my class papers out on my creating space, so they got used again! :) I'm sure my ladies will LOVE seeing all these samples at class tomorrow.

Check this out:

I started off with an Island Indigo base and while I wouldn't NORMALLY pair Island Indigo with Tempting Turquoise (the colour values seem a little off to me), I figured since they were together on the SAME piece of paper, it might be worth a shot. I'm not 100% sure that I like it, but with such a small border, I think it might work! :)

Then, I had an extra piece of Lucky Limeade sitting around (from the card you'll see tomorrow - LOL!) and added that...another layer of Tempting Turquoise and THEN I decided on the stamp set...yeah, a little backwards!

Anyway...I used my markers to ink up the little branch (though youngest DS asked why the tree was sideways) with Early Espresso and Lucky Limeade. Then, I used markers again to ink up the bird (Early Espresso, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango) and since I had the markers out, I just used the Tempting Turquoise marker for my sentiment.

The MOJO sketch had a little embellishment off to the left of the image panel, but since I stamped my image on the left, I decided to add my embellishment on the right. Besides, there was a bit too much white space there for me.

To create the little rosette, I "rooshed" up some Daffodil Delight Seam Binding and then adhered it to a punched circle (1" in this case, though you could make it bigger if you wanted a bigger rosette) covered in Sticky Strip. I added the large pearl in the centre and a small piece of 3/8" Whisper White Taffeta under the circle before adhering it to the image panel.

And then of course, there's the inside:

I added another piece of Summer Smooches DSP and a smaller piece of Tempting Turquoise. I then use the markers again to stamp another image of the branch. Then I added the same doodling as I did on the front image panel.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Best of Everything, A Word for You
INK: Do Markers count? LOL!
PAPERS: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo Cardstock; Summer Smooches DSP
ACCESSORIES: Markers, Punches, Seam Binding, Taffeta, Large Pearl, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Caged Birds for the Stampin' Queens!

A little humour for you today...

Or...at least *I* thought it was funny. Get it? The birds found each other? But they're both caged? No? Oh well...I'll just keep chuckling to myself. It might just be the insanity of the season that's affecting me. Who knows?

And, my apologies for the blurriness...I'm pleading high on sugar from baking the lemon shortbread that I stamped with my Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. They're lemon, so they're not my cup of tea but I had to taste them to make sure they were good. My hubby, however, loves them. Better on his hips than mine!

Anyway...I used this:

to stamp the cages! In the 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalogue, Stampin' UP! introduced Clear-Mount Perfectly Placed Guides. These cling to the Clear Mount blocks to allow for PERFECT placement of stamps. You can line them up right on the block before you even start stamping. BRILLIANT! There are some in the package that fit right on the blocks and others that you can cut to size. There's even one with circles on it for circular text and one with wavy lines for wavy text - LOVE!

After I stamped the cages, I added the birds in Marina Mist. I probably should have used my Stamp-a-majig because the birds look like they're floating. We'll just say they're excited to see each other, OK?

The sentiment, from A Word for You, was stamped in Marina Mist and hand cut. It was added to a piece of Blushing Bride before being adhered to the front of the card.

Last but not least, here's the sketch on which the card was based:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Aviary, A Word for You
PAPERS: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz Cardstock; Nursery Nest DSP
INKS: Pear Pizzazz and Marina Mist
ACCESSORIES: Clear-Mount Perfectly Placed Guides, Stampin' Dimensionals, Embossing Folder. Big Shot

Happy Stampin'!

A different kind of watercolour using Gently Falling

So, I FINALLY got to play with my pre-order last week after the kids went back to school. How has it been for you? I tell you...I am LOVING my quiet days!!

So, it's Stampin' Queens Sketch Day again and I used the sketch to create this:

To start off, I was inspired by one of the other Stampin' Queens cards as well as the sketch. I liked the centre panel and I wanted to do something similar, but I wanted to use Gently Falling. I took out my watercolour paper and spritzed it with water BEFORE stamping - you can see that I spritzed in some spots more than others - LOL! I think it's kind of a neat effect, don't you?

I used Soft Suede, River Rock, Pear Pizzazz and Pool Party which are the colours that are Spice Cake DSP.

As you can see, I went just little nuts with the paper piercer. Heehee!!

OK, for the measurements:

• Card Base - 8 1/2 x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"
• Next layer up - Pool Party Cardstock, cut to 4 1/8 x 5 3/8"
• Next layer up - Spice Cake DSP, cut to 4 x 5 1/4"
• Soft Suede Panels - 2 x 3" (they meet in the middle, but you can't tell)
• Main Image Panel - 2 3/4 x 4", matted with a piece of 2 7/8" x 4 1/8" Pool Party
• Pear Pizzazz Piece - 1 1/2 x 3" with rounded corners

THAT BUTTON!!!! Ok, I don't know if you've seen the Spice Cake Buttons in the Holiday Mini Catalog, but OH. MY. GOODNESS. They are big enough to mat a sentiment - REALLY!! The piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock was stamped using a sentiment from "A Word for You", then punched using the 1 1/4" circle punch.  It fits just nicely in the middle of the button!

I used a length of Pool Party ruffled ribbon to add extra interest, but I could have also used a length of Spice Cake fabric.

Here's the sketch for this week, if you'd like to give it a try:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Gently Falling, A Word for You

INK: Soft Suede, River Rock, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Pear Pizzazz and Pool Party Cardstock; Spice Cake DSP; Watercolour Paper

ACCESSORIES: Water Spritz Bottle, Spice Cake Designer Series Buttons, Punches, Ribbon, Mat Pack and Paper Piercer, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

A little MOJO from long ago

So...I get a lot of email...I mean, I get a LOT of email. And a big portion of that is stamping related - you're surprised, I can tell - LOL!

Whenever I get something REALLY awesome, I always file it under "Stamping Goodness". I have a LOT of "Stamping Goodness"...over 3,000 "Stamping Goodness" to be precise.

Today, I was perusing some of the older goodness and came across a blog post from Dannie who used an older Mojo Monday Sketch to create her card. Well, I was struck by her card and decided to try my hand at the sketch. I made a few changes (there was a ribbon on the sketch and I didn't use any) and came up with this:

I can't tell you how absolutely TICKLED I am with this card! I started off with the idea that I wanted to use black and just went from there. I used the Love Letter DSP (Item # 117162) which also contains the colours Riding Hood Red and Very Vanilla.

I stamped some buttons from the set Button, Button (Item # 122040 in Clear or # 122026 in Wood) which I earned during a book-a-thon held by Stampin' UP! last year. I love that Stampin' UP! has special promotions not only for their customers, but for their demonstrators too! This is a GREAT time to join my team since it's SALE-A-BRATION and not only will you get 15% off the starter kit, you'll also get a bonus bundle worth $60 which includes the Colour Coach, a Simply Sent Kit, a Simply Sent Stamp set valued at $14.95 and a punch valued at $23.95! What a great deal!

Thanks to Gretchen Barron and her AWESOME tutorial, I was able to cut my Basic Black Cardstock square to just right size in order to punch it using my Scalloped Trim Border and Scalloped Trim Corner Punches. I added a layer of Love Letter DSP on top of that before adhering my stamped piece.

My card base is Riding Hood Red and the next layer up (cut to 4" x 5 1/4") is Basic Black. I added a piece of Love Letter DSP to it and affixed two antique brads (LOVE!) before adhering the whole thing to the front of the card using a LOT of Stampin' Dimensionals.

I stamped the sentiment from A Word for You (Item # 120528 in Clear or # 117032 in Wood) on Very Vanilla Cardstock using Basic Black Ink and punched it out using my large oval punch (Item # 119855). It was matted on a piece of Basic Black Cardstock, punched using my scalloped oval punch (Item # 119856) and adhered to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

I also finished the inside of the card, using the same papers:

And here's a close up of the sentiment detail:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Button, Button and A Word for You

INK: Basic Black, Riding Hood Red

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Riding Hood Red Cardstock, Love Letter DSP

ACCESSORIES: Punches, Antique Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals