A bit of blocking for the Divas

It's inspiration challenge day to day on the Divas blog. You should check it out.

When I saw the blocks, I new I wanted to share the card I had made for one of my classes:

I started off with a Gumball Green base (I made variations in More Mustard and Raspberry Ripple too) and added a layer of Whisper White, onto which I stamped the sentiment.

The images from Merry Minis were stamped and punched. They were added to 1" squares which were then added to the Postage Stamp punched squares. I attached the squares to the card front using Dimensionals (of course!)

What do you think?

STAMPS: Merry Minis, Petite Pairs
INK: Gumball Green, More Mustard, Raspberry Ripple
PAPERS: Whisper White and Gumball Green Cardstock
ACCESSORIES: Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Inspiration Challenge for the Divas

Good morning Divas! It's time for an inspiration challenge!

Since it's Thanksgiving in the US, our inspiration piece is appropriately a cornucopia:

I knew JUST what I wanted to do when I saw it, so I took out my Cherish Friendship set and stamped this:

I stamped the image in Basic Grey and then coloured the images using my blender pen. I had fun designing what I *thought* was a farm style table, but my hubby says it looks like a floor. Oh well! LOL!

Busy day today, so this is a short post, but please let me know what you think!

STAMPS: Cherish Friendship, Confetti (background)
INK: Crumb Cake, Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke
PAPERS: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Crumbcake
ACCESSORIES: Blender Pens

Happy Stampin'!

Inspired to read

Today's inspiration piece had me a bit perplexed because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it.

I started off with the Bordering on Romance stamped in Staz-ON on Watercolour Paper. Then I coloured it in trying to get that deep blue/purple thing going on...I think it ended up more purple than blue.

When I had it all coloured, I had absolutely no idea (nor inspiration!) as to how to incorporate it into a card!

Then I remembered I had some books on hold to pick up at the library and had a lightbulb moment: BOOKMARK! So I grabbed my corner punch, punched a hole, added the ribbon and VOILA!! Bookmark!

Here's the inspiration piece:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Bordering on Romance
INK: Black Staz-ON
PAPERS: Watercolour Paper
ACCESSORIES: Watercolour Crayons, Aqua Painter, Punches, Ribbon

Happy Stampin'!

A Rainbow Hello for the Divas

So...I've had the idea for this card in my head since the inspiration piece was posted about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The problem was, I had SO much other stuff on the go that I didn't have to time to turn the idea into a card until YESTERDAY.

If you know me, you know that last minute DRIVES. ME. CRAZY. And so it was - ARGH!!!

Anyway...here's my card for this weeks Utah Divas International Inspiration Challenge:

You can see what the other ladies have created here.

As soon as I saw the inspiration piece, I knew I wanted to do a striped pattern on the card. It didn't take me long to decide that I would use the Tasteful Trim die and my Big Shot. I just love how easy it was to create the strips in a matter of minutes!

I had the idea of a rainbow in my head, so that's what I went with. ROYGBIV and all that. *grin*

For my stamped image, I wanted something fun and happy, so I chose the hostess set "Happy You" and stamped the kite image. I stamped the image in Black Staz-ON and coloured it in using my Stampin' Write markers. I kept the same colours as in the strips on the card.

The image was then punched out using the 1 3/4" circle punch and matted onto a scalloped circle of 2 3/8". I attached it to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals. *of course*

What do you think?

STAMPS: Happy You (available only to hostesses with qualifying orders)
INK: Black Staz-ON
PAPERS: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Read Red
ACCESSORIES: Punches, Markers, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Steppin' it UP! for the Creative Crew! And the Divas Too!

This month's theme for the Creative Crew is "step it up!" Start with a simple card and show ways in which it can be "stepped up". This is a great technique for demonstrators as it allows us to show a simple card at our workshops and then show how to "step it up" for a little bit of WOW!

New stampers will love the simple version because it means they can get stamping right away and not be overwhelmed and experienced stampers will be able to add the extra details of the stepped up version making it their own.

Here's the simple version and stepped up version side by side:

I used my Lovely as a Tree set (after all, it is a classic!) and used the direct to rubber technique. I used my More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso markers to colour the tree and stamped it directly on my Crumb Cake base. Since I don't send many "Happy Thanksgiving" cards, I opted for the "thank you" from Teeny Tiny Wishes. It was stamped in Early Espresso.

The detail on the stepped up version:

I started off by colouring my tree using the same technique as above and stamping it onto a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock. I then matted it on Early Espresso.

I cut a piece of Orchard Harvest Designer Series Paper and used my piercing template to poke little holes in the corners. If you DON'T have this yet, it's a must have in my opinion. You can a lot of detail with very little effort! There are TWO paper piercing packs currently available: The Essentials Pack and The Festive Pack. The Festive pack is a great addition to your holiday stamps and is available only until January 3rd, 2013. The Essentials pack is a great addition to your everyday stamping.

In order to dress up the background, I used the leaves from my Confetti set and my Versamark ink. I stamped the image in a random pattern over the whole base.

My sentiment was stamped in Early Espresso on a piece of Very Vanilla and punched out using the Decorative Label punch.

My stepping it up continues on the inside of my card too!

I stamped the base using my versarmark ink again, added a layer of Orchard Harvest DSP and a layer of Very Vanilla stamped with Early Espresso.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Confetti
INK: Early Espresso
PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso Cardstock; Orchard Harvest DSP
ACCESSORIES: Markers, Paper Piercing Mat/Pack/Tool, Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Stippled Blossoms and Just Believe for the Divas!

Do you ever envision a card or an idea in your head and then when you get it on paper, it's NOTHING like what you thought it would be?

Yeah...me too! And that's what happened as I was working on today's card for the Inspiration challenge.

I had an idea in my head and I knew I wanted to use Stippled Blossoms. Well...first off I had to stamp it THREE times (and yes! I was using my stamp-a-majig), so maybe that should have been the first clue!

Once I had the card all together, it just looked BLAH. So, I added a whole BUNCH of Dazzling Details. That didn't do much for it either...

So I just decided to quit while I was ahead and make a whole OTHER card. *sigh*

This one turned out MUCH better:

For this one, I opted for the Just Believe stamp set. I stamped the round images in Daffodil Delight on Whisper White. They were then punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and then matted on a piece of Whisper White punched with the 1 3/8" circle punch before being adhered to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

The sentiment (also from Just Believe) was stamped in Staz-ON. And THEN, I was happy because this card much more closely matched the idea that was in my head - YAY!

Here's the inspiration piece we were given:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Stippled Blossoms, Just Believe
INK: So Saffron, Summer Starfruit, Daffodil Delight, Staz-ON
PAPERS: Always Artichoke, Summer Starfruit, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
ACCESSORIES: Stampin' Dimensionals, Dazzling Details, Punches

Happy Stampin'!

A little Pink Pirouette Inspiration for the Divas

When I first saw the inspiration piece for this week:

the first thing that popped into my head was cotton candy, because that's exactly what this is. Yeah...and just HOW am I supposed to get "cotton candy" onto a card? That clearly wasn't going to work.

Then, earlier this week, I was chatting with a dear friend and she was commenting on her son's AMAZING talent for digital design (he's only 14!). He had designed some My Little Pony type characters for his little sister and one pony had been given gossamer wings. A HA! Lightbulb! And so...

this is my version of gossamer wings. I cut out the butterflies from vellum cardstock using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit and sponged around the edges using Regal Rose. I added the pearls to cover up the adhesive (Mono Multi) as you have to be clever when adhering vellum. :)

I may just have to send my favourite princess TWO birthday cards, because I'd already chosen this one for its bright and cheery colours. However, my princess REALLY likes butterflies and since she's so special, I think TWO birthday cards are TOTALLY appropriate. Wouldn't you agree?

What do you think?

STAMPS: Teeny Tiny Wishes
INK: Regal Rose
PAPERS: Whisper White and Pink Pirouette Cardstock; Vellum Cardstock
ACCESSORIES: Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Punch (to flag the sentiment), Basic Pearls

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'!