GO Divas!!

Good morning Divas near and far! Are you ready for another colour challenge? The colours threw me a bit this week because of their different colour values, but I persevered and got it done - WOOT!

This week our colours are:

• Night of Navy
• Bashful Blue
• Cherry Cobbler
• Certainly Celery
• Soft Suede

I added in:

• Whisper White
• Pumpkin Pie (just a teeny bit for the beak)

Here's my card:

I started off with the Night of Navy base and added a layer of Bashful Blue to that. Onto the layer of Whisper White, I stamped the branch image after using the direct to rubber technique. After the branch was stamped, I added the little bird - isn't it CUTE?

Once the bird was in place, I had to choose a sentiment and went with one from the Word Play set.

I stamped the sentiment in Certainly Celery and then stamped the "direction" arrow in Soft Suede on a scrap piece of paper and cut it out. It was added to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

There seemed to be something missing, so I added a few Bitty Buttons. I like it!

I added the strawberry image to the inside:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Best of Everything, Word Play

INK: Soft Suede, Certainly Celery

PAPERS: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy

ACCESSORIES: Markers, Bitty Buttons, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

A little Word Play for the Creative Crew!

You may remember some of my posts from July where I let you know that I was asked to be part of the Creative Crew. That whole thing still seems a little surreal, but here it is September 2nd and it's my first "official" FULL day on the Creative Crew! I could have posted this yesterday but I would have to wait until noon MT and since I'm more than a little OCD, I couldn't bring myself to schedule it that late. Yeah, I know. I'm a freak. *sigh*

Today's card features one of *my* least favourite colours from the 2012-2014 In Colours. You know what that means? It'll finally start to grow on me a few months before it retires and then I'll fall in love with it. The same thing happened with Concord Crush *sigh* There are some of my friends and demonstrators that just LOVE it! Maybe you'll like it too?

In attempt to TRY and like it, I decided to make my first card of this month using Summer Starfruit. Please let me know what you think:

I started off with a Summer Starfruit base and then added a pierced layer of Designer Series Paper from the Comfort Cafe line. The piercing mimics "stitching" which is our general "theme" for the month.

Have you tried out the new Paper Piercing Pack yet? You're going to LOVE it! There's a basic one in the 2012-2013 Catalogue and a festive one in the Holiday Catalogue. I just KNOW you'll want both!

The next layer is a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock that I sponged using more Summer Starfruit and then stamped with the sentiment from Word Play using Soft Suede.

For the leaves, I stamped using both my Summer Starfruit and Soft Suede Inks. On the smaller leaves, I used the "rock 'n' roll" technique.

You can see the "rock 'n' roll" effect on the small leaf in the far right of the above picture. This look is achieved by stamping in the lightest colour and then "rocking and rolling" your stamp in the darker colour. The idea is to get darker ink around the outside edge.

I added pearls to the bottom right of the card because I thought they were just the right finishing touch.

And of course, I finished the inside of the card:

What do you think?

STAMPS: French Foliage, Word Play
INK: Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede
PAPERS: Very Vanilla and Summer Starfruit Cardstock; Comfort Cafe DSP
ACCESSORIES: Paper Piercer and Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Basic Pearls, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Dogs...and FLOWERS?

Yeah...not sure where I was going with this one either.

I wanted to use the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper because it's only available for a short time...and then I wanted to use a stamp set that hadn't seen a lot of ink (OK, NO ink!) and ended up pulling out "Not So Seriously".

I originally started thinking that I'd use the gift bag, but then realized that the dogs would fit in the panel I had - WOOT! But then, I ended up with dogs and flowers. Oh well!!

Here's the card:

I found a new sketch site, that just made my day...mostly because of the way the sketches are presented (not even kidding), and this was their first sketch.

I stamped the dogs using Basic Grey and then coloured them in using my Many Marvelous Markers. Did you know that More Mustard makes an EXCELLENT chihuahua colour?

I asked my daughter if she thought it was a totally weird card (what with the dogs and flowers) and she replied that she hadn't even noticed the flowers and thought it was a cute "guy card". So, I'm going to rework it and change up the papers, making it one of the cards we'll be creating during my, "Let's hear it for the Boys" class. What do you think?

They're on to week two now, so I did that card too:

I did flip the sketch 90 degrees, but I like the way it turned out. I took out Word Play and stamped the "Happy I do day" in Pear Pizzazz on Whisper White. While I was at Keely's workshop on the weekend she asked about the paper piercer and the mat pack, which made me realize that I hadn't used it in a while, so I added some piercing to the corners. A few pearls and the colour spritzer were the finishing touches.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Not So Seriously, Word Play
INK: Basic Grey, Pear Pizzazz
PAPERS: Whisper White and Pear Pizzazz Cardstock; Twitterpated DSP
ACCESSORIES: Many Marvelous Markers, Basic Pearls, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

From this...to that...

Now my this to that feature is usually where I take an ATC (Artist Trading Card) and use it as the focal point on a card. Today? Not so much...

I was pulling papers, etc yesterday with the intention of creating my Stampin' Queens card for tomorrow, but I ended up with a card for the MOJO Monday sketch. Yeah...I know. Weird!

Anyway...I was still being inspired by the teeny tiny twitterpated lolly, so I reached for my Twitterpated Designer Series Paper again. This time I went with Blushing Bride (I'm going to miss that when it retires at the end of May!), Basic Grey and Island Indigo:

I stamped the sentiment from Word Play on Whisper White and punched it out with the Extra-Large Oval Punch before adhering it to the Island Indigo Oval which was embossed and then hand cut.

The Basic Grey DSP was looking a little boring, so I added some faux stitching with my white gel pen.

To finish the inside, I started with another piece of the Basic Grey DSP and added a piece of Whisper White on which I doodled and added the small flower from Bordering on Romance.

Congratulations to Lindsay who won the most adorable little box from yesterday! It'll ship flat, so if you can email me your addy (yes, again! LOL!), I'll send it off!

Would YOU like to receive today's card? Just leave me a comment today, February 7th, 2012 before midnight EST and I'll choose a winner tomorrow!

What do you think?

STAMPS: Word Play, Bordering on Romance
INK: Island Indigo, Basic Grey
PAPERS: Whisper White, Blushing Bride and Island Indigo Cardstock; Twitterpated DSP
ACCESSORIES: Big Shot Baby!, Ribbon, Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Markers, White Gel Pen

Happy Stampin'!

SUDSOL BLOG TOUR - November Edition!

Welcome to another SUDSOL blog tour! If you're just arriving from Teresa's blog, you're in the right spot! And if not, don't worry! You'll be able to go all the way around!

I've been a member of SUDSOL since I became a demonstrator a year and a half ago and I find it an invaluable resource! There are SO many ideas to share and everyone is SO helpful! As a Demonstrator, you can join SUDSOL for a FREE two-week trial period to see if it's something you might find useful in your business

My first card is a Christmas one and features the stamp set: Word Play (Item # 120308 - Wood; # 120651 - Clear)

I stamped the image on a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock and trimmed it to 1 3/4" X 2 1/2". It's adhered using Stampin' Dimensionals over all the other layers on the card.

My card base is a piece of 8 1/2 X 5 1/2" Crumb Cake Cardstock (formerly Kraft) and my Cherry Cobbler Layer was run through the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Folder using the Big Shot before adhering it to the front of the card.

Do you have trouble coming up with ideas for boys' cards? Yeah...me too! That was one of the reasons that I had to have the "Word Play" set! That "wish BIG" sentiment is a PERFECT birthday sentiment...and if you colour it in blue and read (using the direct to rubber technique) it's PERFECT for a boy! Especially if you pair it with the new CELEBRATIONS Designer Series Paper! When you're ready to host the party, all you need to do is get your hands on the Celebrations Party Banner Party Kit and you're good to go! When the kids arrive, set them up with the hats from the Celebration Party Hats Party Kit and there you have it! A party ready to go with almost no effort. Who doesn't like that?

My base is a piece of 8 1/2 X 5 1/2" Pacific Point, which I am SO happy returned to the 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog since it's so fun and bright! My next layer is a 4 X 5 1/4" piece of Bashful Blue Cardstock. My DSP layer is a piece of 3 3/4" X 5 1/2" DSP from the Celebrations pack that I cut and flipped (the smaller piece) before adding to the front of the card.

I used the direct to rubber technique (as mentioned) to colour the stamped sentiment in Real Red and Pacific Point Markers. I added stars and a little bling for the finishing touch.

My third card uses the same colour scheme as the birthday card, but a different sentiment. I love that our DSP is SO versatile! You can see that same versatility in this post and this post, where I used our Deck the Halls DSP both on a Christmas Card and a Thank You Card.

My base is a piece of 4 1/4 X 11" Bashful Blue. The Pacific Point layer is 4 X 5 1/4 and the DSP layer is just 1/8" smaller. I stamped the main sentiment in Pacific Point on Bashful Blue and punched it out using the Decorative Label punch which is available in the Holiday Mini. To make the mat for the sentiment, I punched two Decorative Labels from Pacific Point and then cut and adhered them to the back.

The secondary sentiment is from an adorable little set called "You're a Gem" which will be available in the Occasions Mini beginning January 4th, 2011. You're going to LOVE it! SO many adorable little sentiments! It's stamped in Pacific Point on Whisper White Cardstock, then punched out using the 1 1/4" circle punch. It's matted on a 1 3/8" circle and again on the 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch. I adhered it to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals. The whole front panel (as well as the main sentiment) is also adhered to the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals - can you tell I love them?

If you like what you've seen here today, there's even MORE in my SUDSOL gallery. Won't you come by for a visit? Many of the samples you'll see are EXCLUSIVE to SUDSOL which is another great benefit to the site. You'll see things there that AREN'T all over the internet. If you're a demonstrator, your customers have less of a chance of seeing something online before you show it to them.

STAMPS: Word Play, You're a Gem

INK: Pacific Point, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler

PAPERS: Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue, Pacific Point and Real Red Cardstock; Deck the Halls and Celebrations DSP.

ACCESSORIES: Stampin' Dimensionals, Markers, Clear Acrylic Blocks