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Posts Tagged ‘Handmade Cards’
Thank You With a Smooch
Aloha, all!
I hope you enjoyed this past weekend's blog hop! It was just the right size for me – I got through it and made comments in under half an hour. And I'm so inspired to get out my scrapbooking materials and get started on some long overdue projects!
But today I'd like to share one of the greeting cards that were made to go into yesterday's box, this one made with the Island Indigo color scheme which Lucy particularly liked for her box – and, of course, with the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper.
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This is such a simple design to make as all but one of the layers is cut from Designer Series Paper or card stock! The flower on the stamped layer is from the Stamp Set, Bright Blossoms, which is also a part of the Summer Smooches suite of products – available for purchase this month, then not again until June 1st with the 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. The "vase" for these flowers is a piece of the Island Indigo Card Stock, punched with the 3/4" Circle Punch, with a bit of the end cut off to make the flat side. Or you could also (as I did for this card) slip your punch over the edge of the paper you're punching, but not all the way so the edge of the paper doesn't get punched.
And the circular layers are all punched, too! We used the 1-1/4 Circle Punch for the Designer Series Paper circles and the 1-3/8" Circle Punch for the Island Indigo Card Stock mats. So simple – and a fun project to make! I've even done up a sketch for you to use if you'd like to duplicate this card. And there are so many Designer Series Paper sets and coordinating stamps throughout Stampin' Up!'s catalog that I'm sure you'll find something in your stash to make a gorgeous card! Or, even better, order some of the Summer Smooches products from me – just click here, and then on the Summer Smooches display under the word, "Promotions."
I've had several people ask me about a pattern for the box in yesterday's post. This is a pattern that I found in a library of the online group, SUDSOL. SUDSOL is a website for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators only, and we are all able to use patterns we demonstrators have posted to the site. That's what I did with yesterday's project and for the ladies in my class on Friday – I used a pattern posted by Sandi McIver. If you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, it's easy to gain access to all the patterns – just join SUDSOL! There is a subscription fee, but there is also a 2-week FREE TRIAL available to all demonstrators. If you'd like to try it out, just click on the SUDSOL Link Here! And, once you get into your free trial, let me know if you have any questions about the group. If I don't have the answers, I can get them pretty quickly from Coleen or Patti, the SUDSOL "moms."
Subscribe to the comments for this postSpring Colors!
Aloha, all!
As many of you know, last Sunday Stampin' Up announced over 200 stamp sets that will retire when the current Idea Book and Catalog expires at the end of next month! The good news is that the stamp set that I'm using on today's card will NOT retire! Hooray for that, as this is one of my favorite sets to color with markers and blender pens! But the paper that I'm using today WILL retire, so I enjoyed using it and its colors to make a card with a Spring feeling to it!
Oh, and there's the little issue of a challenge! Yes, this card is one I made for a Late Night Stampers Yahoo Group's color challenge. For this one, we were to use Pink, Green, and Yellow. Now, no one defined what "Pink" meant, so I took some liberties with the use of a pale version of Tangerine Tango, which is not actually a pink – more of a coral. But if I showed this to any of the men in my life and asked them what color it was, I can guarantee that a majority would say, "Pink"! My "out" for this is that the Melon Mambo in the center of the flowers really is a "pink."
The yellow – Daffodil Delight – and the green – Wild Wasabi – are definitely what the colors are supposed to be!
The stamp set for today is called Fabulous Florets, and it really is a fabulous stamp set to use! For this card, I stamped the flower on the left, and then "masked" it before stamping the second flower. To make the mask, I stamped the flower image on the top of a Post-It note and then very carefully cut it out before attaching it to the top of the first flower. Then I stamped the second flower. Then I said to myself, "Self, you'll certainly be masking this flower again, so why not put the mask away in the stamp set's box." I did that – and laid it right on top of another such mask that I'd made who knows how long ago! I have got to use my stamp sets more often!
The paper that I used for the yellow layer as well as the floral layer is Beyond the Garden. Yes, it has the same images as the stamp set, and you might wonder why Stampin' Up! would retire it and not the stamp set. One thing that's happened in the past is that we get the same design in a new set of papers but with different colors. Wouldn't that be great. Oh, I can hardly wait to see that new catalog!!!
Oh, and the ribbon – I'm always tying cards up with a bow! It's Daffodil Delight 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, and I've had it since last summer's Stampin' Up! Convention. You'd think after I spent two years bemoaning the fact that Stampin' Up! didn't have enough yellow ribbon that I'd be on my third or fourth spool of this ribbon. But no; it's still spool number 1.
This uses a simple sketch, but I think it's really effective with the multiple mats of the Wild Wasabi! So I thought I'd share it with you and hope you can use it for something that YOU make!
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Just Two More Weeks for the Occasions Mini!
Aloha, all!
It seems like just last week that we greeted the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog! But that was back in January, and here we are nearing the end of April and also the end of the Occasions Mini. Sniff! And many of us are hoping that some of the stamp sets and embellishments in this mini catalog are carried over into the new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. It's hard to predict, though, as Stampin' Up! introduces its new type of Annual Catalog as well as a new type of Mini Catalog later this summer.
So the Design Team at the Stampin' Up! Only Challenges blog decided to give one last shout of Hurrah! for this Mini Catalog by sharing some of their favorites products that may only be available for two more weeks! In my case, while I've considered the stamp set, Apothecary Art, a "favorite," I'm almost ashamed to say that I've been admiring it from afar. Until yesterday morning, I'd not even broken the rubber out of its pack!
But now it's all mounted and ready to use! Oh, I hope it stays in the new catalog (wish, wish, wish!) But even if it doesn't, it will remain a favorite. And I used another favorite Occasions Mini Stamp Set – Loving Thoughts – for a greeting to set off the Apothecary Art stamp.
Along with these Occasions Mini Stamp sets, I broke out my last few sheets of the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper (the Baja Breeze and Blushing Bride sheets are truly a favorite), some of the Large Basic Pearl Jewels, and a strip of the Riding Hood Red 3/8" Pleated Satin Ribbon. Oh, and I can't forget the Labels Collection Framelits!!! Surely they will stay in the catalog (wish, wish, wish!)
There are a couple of techniques that I used in my design of today's card. After I'd stamped and colored in the flowers on the Apothecary Art stamp, and then cut it out with the 3rd smallest size of the Labels Collection Framelits, I colored in the white space between the stamp and the cut edge with a Baja Breeze Stampin' Write Marker. I thought that this helped coordinate the stamped layer with the Baja Breeze Designer Series Paper Sheet. While I stamped the flower image using Basic Gray Classic Ink, I wanted the edge of the stamp to be a bit darker than the rest. So I used the small end of my Basic Gray Stampin' Write Marker to trace the edge – but after I colored with the Baja Breeze marker. I had no idea if there would be any bleeding. There wasn't, but I didn't want to chance it.
The green color used in the stamped image is Pear Pizzazz. Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz are colors that will retire this year from the Idea Book and Catalog, leaving space for more colors to be added as 2012-2014 "In Colors." Can hardly wait to see what they are!
I hope that you'll find something that you really love from the Occasions Mini to use on a project this week! If you're anything like me, look around to see if there's something you bought "way back when" and haven't yet used! And if there's something you still need from the Occasions Mini, well you have another two weeks to buy it!
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!
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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!
A Fun CASE for a Baby Card!
Aloha, all!
I had a blast yesterday with the project I'm showing off today. I'm a member of a Toastmasters club where one of our members is expecting a baby soon, and she made the point that this baby is going to be born in the Year of the Dragon, "the mightiest of the signs in the Chinese Zodiac!"
Well, a baby is hardly a "mighty" being, babies being more on the "cute" side. Nonetheless, the members of the club asked that I make a card for a party that they had today that somehow featured a dragon to go with the club's gift. Not being the punch-art creative type, I went off looking for a dragon to CASE. It didn't take long to find a video by Tami White and the cutest dragon you EVER saw! I knew immediately that this would be my inspiration, and all I had to do was figure out my colors and how to deal with a few punches that had retired since the video was made over a year ago.
When I was making the card, I had no idea (still don't have) whether the baby is a girl or a boy. I thought a combination of Pink and Blue would work just fine and started punching. You'll find the complete instructions on Tami's video, but I'll include some supplemental information about changes that I made.
The first change that I had to make was to use the Sizzix Stars #2 die (sold by Stampin' Up!) instead of the Star Punch (now retired) for the "horns" and back scales. Tami had used the smallest oval die (retired) for the teeth or fangs, and I substituted the smallest image from the Boho Blossoms Punch. Otherwise, I used her instructions. OK, so mine's not put together quite as perfectly as hers; but he's still "stinkin' cute."
The colors for this cute guy are Marina Mist and Regal Rose, along with some Basic Black accents. My card is also an unusual size – we needed plenty of room for lots of people to sign their best wishes, so I made a card that's 5-1/2" wide by 8-1/2" high. For the sentiment, I used a stamp from the stamp set, Curly Cute. Aha, there's that word – "cute"! I knew I'd find that in the Stampin' Up! product line somewhere!! I also used the last of my stash of Marina Mist Brads from the Subtles collection of brads.
And as I love to do, I tied everything together with some fab Stampin' Up! ribbon, this time the Marina Mist 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon.
I can't imagine that you could have as much fun with what you're doing as I did making this little guy. But be sure to try to have lots of fun anyway with whatever you're doing!
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!
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.
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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.
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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