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Monochrome for a Sketch Challenge

Aloha, all!

     Today I did some work with a sketch challenge from the online group, Stampin' Up! Late Night Stampers.  Lots of history with that group's name, but suffice it to say that the group is made up of stampers who love Stampin' Up! products.  It's not just for demonstrators, either.  So, if you'd love to get some ideas – and share your own! – about using Stampin' Up! products, it's a pretty fun group to which to belong!

     I should show you the sketch first, so you'll know from where I started.  And this is where I stopped, too!  I am so not into blue and orange these days, so I had to get out some color quickly to erase this from my mind!

     The color I chose was Melon Mambo.  And the reason was that I had my Melon Mambo ribbon out because I had considered using it with my last project (cute dragon!).  So I grabbed my Melon Mambo ink and started stamping teacups.

     And boy did I get carried away with the Melon Mambo!  As you can see, it's everywhere in this card.  It started with the teacups from the stamp set, Tea Shoppe (in the current mini catalog, Occasions Mini), proceeded into the rectangular background and just kept going!  And, yes, I finally did get to that ribbon – the Melon Mambo 1/2 Inch Scallop Dots Ribbon.  In between I punched some vertical scallops with the Scallop Edge Border Punch and also used that punch to form the ends of the little strip on which I stamped today's sentiment (also from the Tea Shoppe stamp set).  The Designer Series Paper that I used for this project came from the Hostess Designer Series Paper Set, Cheerful Treat.  And I think that this card is, indeed, cheerful!

     For the most part, I really like to use more than one color in a project.  But I think that I might like doing some more projects with just one color.  Hmmm.

     But definitely NOT blue or orange!

     As always, I had fun with this project, and I hope you're having fun with whatever you're doing today!  And check out the Stampin' Up! Late Night Stampers Yahoo Group!  It's free – and fun!

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The Eighth Stamp!

Aloha, all!

     Over the weekend, I mentioned that there was one of the eight stamps in the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Everybunny, that wasn't necessarily related to Easter.  And here it is!

     Are those little mushrooms cute or what?  While I'm hoping that the Everybunny set will stick around in the new Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog (so I can use it NEXT Easter, too!), I'm going to try to make the most of it while I can – just in case….

     For this card, I used the same set of Designer Series Papers – Just Add Cake – that I used for my personal Easter 2012 Stamp-a-Stack.  I really like the colors in that set, and it's one of the zillion products that will likely be retiring with the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  The colors in this set include one of the 2010-2012 In Colors that will definitely be retiring, and I have absolutely no reason to believe that this set of papers won't retire, either.  In fact, most of the Designer Series Paper sets do retire each year.  There's one or two that have carried over from one year to the next, but that's all I can recall.

     Oh, and the colors – I used Wild Wasabi (the card base and some ink), So Saffron, Peach Parfait (retiring this year), and Baja Breeze.  And the stamp set – one of my all-time favorite stamp sets is Sincere Salutations, and most people are guessing that this is its last year on the Stampin' Up! stock shelves.  It may also be one of the (very few) stamp sets that I keep around after they retire.

     Of course now that I'm more at leisure to get things done, I've gone back to tying my card up with a ribbon!  I love Stampin' Up!'s coordinating embellishments, and this So Saffron Taffeta Ribbon is just perfect for this card. 

     AND I have a sketch!  Lots of 1-3/4" measurements in this one!  I hope you enjoy it and have fun doing some paper crafting this week.  I'm going to be relaxing for the week because Stampin' Up! will be shaking things up come April 15th.  It may not be tax day this year, but it's the day that Stampin' Up! announces the stamp sets that are going to be retiring.  Your last chance for some of those stamp sets you've been thinking about buying but haven't!

     Have a great week!

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Happy Easter, Everybunny!

Aloha, all!

     Once I started to work play with the Stampin' Up! stamp set, Everybunny, I just could not put it down – especially since it is nearly 90% an Easter stamp set!  That is, 7 of the 8 stamps in the set are bunnies and chicks with an Easter theme.  The 8th stamp – not entirely.  Now that I think about it, I may have to go make a card with the not-necessarily-Easter stamp for AFTER Easter!

     So on the day before Easter, I decided that some of my friends in the neighborhood "needed" some Easter cards, so off I went to find something fresh to do with the stamp set!

     The first card I made for a friend who has a favorite color.  Would you guess it was Purple!  As I went through my stash of Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers, I decided I had to use a set that had some kind of purple in it.  Well, it just so happens that her mother, also a friend in the neighborhood, is very partial to Lime Green and Coral.  It did not take long for the Designer Series Paper set, Berry Blossoms, to jump up and say, "Me!!  I'm the right paper set!!"

     For this card, I used the Wisteria Wonder-colored paper in the set, along with a print that I used in the other two cards.  The nice thing about papers with a moderate sized set of images with different colors throughout is that I can find a piece with lots of the color that I want and cut the paper to get that color.  That's exactly what I did with all three of these cards!  So you see lots of the Wisteria Wonder color in the floral print showing on this card.  And I had to have a purple baloon, so I stamped the balloon image on a piece of the Wisteria Wonder print and cut out the sections that I wanted to be purple.  To finish it off, I added some Basic Rhinestones to be the dots on the balloon.

     The second card in this series of projects also has a lot of the Wisteria Wonder, with Wisteria Wonder Card Stock making up the mats behind all three rectangles, and forming the image of the egg in which the little bunny is sitting.  I added another of the prints from the Designer Series Paper set, making sure that I had some Wisteria Wonder from the print showing top and bottom.  To embellish this card a bit, I added a trio of Basic Pearls in the upper left corner.  Cute bunny!

     You'll recognize the little girl bunny in the last of the cards as one that I used for a card I sent out earlier in the week.  For this card, I focused on the Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral colors.  There's still a bit of the Wisteria Wonder showing, and I even colored one of the eggs in the little girl bunny's basket with my Wisteria Wonder Stampin' Write Marker.  I cut her dress out of the floral pattern, and it looks just like something my friend might wear!

     If you're celebrating Easter this weekend, I wish you the happiest of holidays!  I hope that these Easter Bunnies bring a smile to your face, and that you wear that smile all week!

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This Really was a Stamp-a-Stack!

Aloha, all!

     As I shared with you yesterday, I held a Stamp-a-Stack just for myself earlier this week in an effort to make AND send out a nice number of Easter Cards.  In a Stamp-a-Stack, at least the way I do them, I have two or three basic layouts and papers and card stock cut to the size of a sketch that I've made for myself.  Then I stamp and mix and match the colors of the papers and card stock with Stampin' Up! inks.

     Here are three of the ten cards that I made with today's layout.  All of them use stamps from the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Everybunny.  I just love this little bunny up in his Hot Egg Balloon throwing Easter flowers down to us all.  Fun image!  The basic idea for this layout came from a much more detailed and carefully constructed card by fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Mary Jo Price-Williams.  I would love to have CASEd her card completely, but I just didn't have the time – or the energy! – to get that detailed!

     As you can see, each card, though it has the same layout, has different colors highlighted.  The only thing that's the same throughout is the Poppy Parade that I used for the mats for all three of the layered sections.  The other colors are the same colors as I showed off in yesterday's card – Peach Parfait, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi.  And all of the Designer Series Papers are from the same paper set that I used yesterday, Just Add Cake.  The result of using different colors and papers for the same basic layout keeps the whole project from being too boring (and I get bored easily!).

     The only "embellishment" that I used for these cards is the texturizing with the Perfect Polka Dots Sizzix Embossing Folder.  These slip right into Stampin' Up!'s Medium Envelopes, and definitely require NO extra postage, as might a card with too many brads and ribbons.

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Cute Bunny for a Little Girl!

Aloha, all!

     I was bound and determined that Easter was not going to get by without my having made – AND SENT OUT! – Easter cards!  Yes, I made lots of Valentine and St. Patty's Day cards.  But most of them are still sitting in my stash of unsent greeting cards.  I am very pleased to say that every Easter card I made this year has been put into the mail!  Yay!!!!

     And, of course, most of my cards this Easter were made with the Stamp Set, Everybunny, and/or its companion Stampin' Around Wheel, Every Egg.  This little Girl Bunny is just one of the cards that I made this week, and it's on its way to one of my granddaughters in North Carolina.  I made another card with the same layout, and both of them used the Designer Series Paper set, Just Add Cake.  I love the colors in that set, and it's got some designs that are so flexible that you can use them for any brightly-colored card you might want to make.

     I colored in the little Girl Bunny with her Easter Basket using Poppy Parade, Wild Wasabi, Peach Parfait, and So Saffron Stampin' Write Markers.  For her dress, I stamped the image on some of the Just Add Cake paper and then cut out the dress – hey, paper dolls!!  Ooooh, I loved those when I was a little girl.  I guess I still do!

     Since I was on a mission to make a lot of cards AND get them mailed in a fairly short period of time, I basically set myself up for what we demonstrators call a "Stamp a Stack."  Lots of cards with the same materials and basic design.  Tomorrow I'll show off some of the others that I made. 

     And because this was such an easy card to make and since there are tons of Stampin' Up! rubber stamps that would fit in that little square, I've drawn the sketch out for you to use, too!  Have some fun with it!!

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Think Spring!

Aloha, all!

     I spent most of the early part of this week making cards that highlight Spring or Easter!  For these few days of blog posts, I'm going to focus on the cards that I made from the Easter Stamp Set, Everybunny.  It is SUCH a cute set, and I especially like it because it's one of those sets that I can play like I'm a child again and really try to color inside the lines!

     As soon as I saw that cute little egg popping up from the flower pot and pretending to be a spring flower, I just knew that I wanted a row of them across a landscape oriented card.  My intention was to color each of the eggs differently.  But in testing the colors out on scratch paper, I decided that I really like this version of the colors.  So they're all alike, little eggs in a row!

     The colors come from the Designer Series Paper set, Cheerful Treat, which is a hostess set of papers (only $8 for Stampin' Up! orders of $150 or more!).  I featured another card made with floral papers from this set yesterday.  But there's a delightful striped design in this set, too, and this seemed like a perfect card with which to use it!  There's a small sheet of one of the Melon Mambo single-color designs that forms the bottom mat for the front of this card.  I try whenever possible to use a couple of layers of Designer Series Papers – which is much lighter in weight than card stock -  when I'm making a multi-layered card to keep the card's weight down, especially when the card base is Whisper White (as is this one) or Very Vanilla.  That card stock is lighter in weight than the rest of Stampin' Up!s Card Stock, and I just don't like to weigh it down too much.

     Oh, and the colors in the eggs and their little flower pots are:  Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue, and Lucky Limeade.  And, of course, I had to add in some ribbon to tie the card all together!  For this card, I used the Melon Mambo 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon and I think it's just the perfect accent for the cute little eggs, which have some Melon Mambo dots of their own!

     I smile every time I see cards that I'm making with this stamp set – Everybunny – and all the papers that I've pulled out to use with it.  I hope you're having the kind of week that makes you smile at all the projects on which you're working!

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Congratulations, Michelle Laycock!

Aloha, all!

     Here it is another Tuesday and time for the biweekly Stampin' Up! Only Challenge on SUOChallenges.com.  But this just isn't any old challenge week.  Nope, it's a week when we on the SUO Challenge Design Team are congratulating one of our own – Michelle Laycock – on reaching her 10th Anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.

     Congratulations, Michelle!

     And, of course, we were to make a Card of Congratulations for the occasion!  There are going to be lots of opportunities for needing Congratulations cards as the Spring progresses, so we challenge those who like to participate in challenges to make such a card and enter it in the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge this week.  What fun for all of us!

     For my card today, I wanted to use bright and cheery colors.  And I also wanted to try to use up some of the Designer Series Papers I have hoarded since the beginning of the current Stampin' Up! year because I'm going to have one less month to use them this year.  Stampin' Up!s new annual Idea Book and Catalog is going to be starting on June 1st this year instead of July 1st!  So the rush is on!!  The paper that I ended up choosing for this was the Hostess set of Designer Series Papers, Cheerful Treats.  The colors that I used to highlight the Designer Series Papers are Melon Mambo (the bright pink), Concord Crush (the gorgeous grape color – which will retire as an "In Color" with this catalog), and Lucky Limeade (the fab green, which will be staying with us for another year).

     I used two stamp sets for this card.  The strip on the top is from the set that coordinates with the Designer Series Paper and it's called Borderlines.  There are three stamps in this set and each of them is replicated in one color or another on the Designer Series Paper.  The Congratulations greeting is from the set called Curly Cute.  Love all the curls in the five greetings in this set! 

     As is so often the case, I tied this card together with some ribbon, in this case some Concord Crush Stitched Poly Ribbon.  I'm almost out of the ribbon, but was really glad to have enough for Michelle's card!  Oh, and there are some of those twinkly little Basic Rhinestones  top and bottom, too.  Gotta have some glitz for a Congratulations card!

     I also (at long last) have a sketch for this card!  I had to measure the heck out of those strips to make the design work as I had envisioned it when I first started.  But I had a blast making this card for Michelle, and I hope you'll have fun with the sketch making a fun card for a friend or family member of yours!  One thing you might note is that the ribbon covers the bottom of the square on the left and the top of the square on the right.  You could certainly make those squares shorter if you wanted to use a different size ribbon.

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Some Fun New Stampin’ Up! Products!

Aloha, all!

     Here we are at the beginning of April, and what a month it will be in Stampin' Up! land!!  To begin, we are now able to order some products that will be in the 2012-2013 Idea Book & Catalog.  The line of products is called "Summer Smooches."  But I'm not having any problem in using it right now and right here, in the middle of Spring and with Easter and Spring Birthdays coming up!

     Doesn't this look as bright and cheerful as those daffodils and crocuses popping their heads up this time of the year?  I do miss having that experience living out here in the tropics (but I don't miss the snow that precedes them!). 

     I just love all the colors that make up the set of Designer Series Papers called (as you might imagine) Summer Smooches.  There is a stamp set that goes with this product line called Bright Blossoms, and the little leaves that are stamped beneath the brad is one of the stamps.  The Summer Smooches Button Brads, however, while they're available now – and during the entire month of April – will ONLY be offered during April.  Yes, it goes wonderfully with the new papers and stamps and so forth.  But it's a special JUST for this promotion during April.  You can see a list and pictures of all the items in this month-long promotion by clicking the link at the top of the right column on this page.

     And, yes, there is ribbon and I'm sure you'll be seeing it here at some point during the month.  I have used it in a project that I'm going to highlight in my next newsletter as part of my upcoming classes (and yes, finally, I have figured out how I'm going to be doing my Newsletters going forward – so you won't have to wait another 3 months for one!).

     Now off to make a few Easter cards!  I'm definitely NOT missing Easter cards this year because I just love Stampin' Up!'s Easter Sets!  I hope to be able to post quite a few during the week!

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My First Easter Card of the Year!

Aloha, all!

     Would you believe that my first Easter card of 2012 would be to enter a color challenge?  Moi, who is deathly afraid of color challenges?  Well, believe it.  The fact of the matter is that I've been having a week where I've just been piddling around trying to figure out what I'm going to do next.  Well, it's not been quite THAT bad.  This blog will be in a blog hop this weekend, and I've been getting ready for that.  But I really wanted just to make a card that was a design I created myself.  So, when I saw some e-mails about the Create with Connie and Mary color challenge this week, I popped on over there to see what was up.

     Aha!  Colors to which I could relate!  I quickly gathered together some papers and ink and just a bit more slowly decided on an Easter theme.

     Perhaps you can guess that the colors are Peach Parfait, Lucky Limeade and Pool Party.  These are some of the colors in the Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration brochure this year, and do I have a stash of that paper!  For my stamped images, I started out thinking about the stamp set, Everybunny.  But then I remembered that I also purchased the Stampin' Around Wheel, Every Egg, that complements the stamp set.  I ended up making the wheel image the focus of the card, and relied on the stamp set just for the greeting.

     I didn't start out to make this a card that folds on the 4-1/4" side.  But, when I went looking for my Pool Party Card Stock, there was this piece lying on the top of the stack – left over from a cut I made for my Z-Fold card last week.  So the card's orientation just happened.  I like the way it turned out, though!

     All the printed paper is from the Sale-a-bration Designer Series Paper Set, Everyday Enchantment.  This is yours FREE for making a $50 purchase of Stampin' Up! products – but only until the end of this month – and the month's half over!  Perhaps you'd like a recommendation about the quality of this paper from someone other than myself?

     Cholla the Cat thought that she would help me today, so she kept the Designer Series Paper safe for me while my back was turned!  I've had other DSP out on my table the last few weeks, and this is the first time that she's decided she liked a set.  So there's your recommendation!

     I hope you have as much fun with your projects this week as Cholla and I have been having!
 

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Twisted is a Good Thing!

Aloha, all!

     "Twisted" is, indeed, a good thing when it's paired with "Easel Card"!  And that's my project for today!

     I have a couple of challenges that I was working on today.  One was to use a tutorial from the library of my Stampin' Up! Demo group, SUDSOL.  The other was to show off my favorite color combo of the week!  So what I have to show off for you today is a Twisted Easel Card using the colors Pool Party and Lucky Limeade.  These just happen to be two of the colors in the Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration Everyday Enchantment suite of products, and that's pretty much what you see in this card!

     The paper here is from the Designer Series Paper set, Everyday Enchantment, and the brads and ribbon are from the Everyday Enchantment Ribbon & Brad Pack.  Both the paper and the ribbon/brad pack cannot be bought!  Nope; you get each of them for FREE when you buy any Stampin' Up! products and your purchase totals $50 or more.  You can get either of these products for spending $50 and you can get BOTH of the products FREE for spending $100!  And these are not insignificant sets of products.  For the paper, you get 12 sheets of double-sided printed paper, and for the ribbon/brad pack you get two 10-yard spools of ribbon AND a pack of 30 designer brads.  Such a deal!!

     The Twisted Easel Card is one that's featured in lots of tutorials around the Internet, so I won't bore you with the details of the fold (really simple, though!).  What I will give you, though, is the set of measurements for the front piece of my card in case you want to copy that for yourself.  No sketch – it's a square!  So: 

• First layer is 4" square Lucky Limeade Card Stock
• Second layer is 3-3/4" square Pool Party and Lucky Limeade Print
• Third layer is 3" square Pool Party Card Stock
• Top layer is 2-3/4" Very Vanilla Card Stock.

     I first stamped the image from the Sale-A-Bration Stamp Set, Elementary Elegance in the center of the Very Vanilla Card Stock layer, then I adhered all the layers together.  I stamped the greeting in Soft Suede on a scrap of Pool Party Card Stock and punched it out with the Curly Label Punch.  This fits perfectly into the center of the stamped image.

     To make the "bow," I cut a 22" piece of the Lucky Limeade Ribbon and folded it in half, then in half again, and so on until it was 2-3/4" long.  Then I opened the brad and set it over the middle of the "bow" and then closed the brad points over the ribbon before inserting it into a hole I made in the corner of the layered card stock.

     Using instructions you'll find online for the Twisted Easel Card, adhere this to the front (diagonally folded) side of the card and decorate the rest of the card as you wish.

     If there are enough of you who read my blog who don't know where (or wish) to find the instructions for the Twisted Easel Card, let me know in a comment on this blog post and I'll videotape a quick tutorial next week!

     This is actually going to be one of the projects in my class this weekend, so I'd better get going and make sure I have all my supplies ready!  I know I'm going to have a blast with the class, and I hope you have something fun in the way of paper crafting planned this weekend, too!

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