Brayered Thank You Set

Many Thanks to Michelle Zindorf for her beautiful layout for the cattail card that is part of this set.  Kudos to jadoherty on Splitcoast too!  I made this set for my friend, Annie.  I love brayering because the results are so pretty and it really doesn't take all that long!

This last one was run through the lattice embossing folder after it was brayered and stamped.  I saw this same card on SC and SCS and had to try it!  Lots of different stamp sets used for these three cards:  Just Believe, Inspired By Nature and Watercolor Trio.  Several punches were used too:  Photo Corner, oval, scallop, and the slot punch (cattails).  The cattail card was brayered on to Daffodil Delight, and the photo corners were run through an embossing folder.  Next I'm going to make a brayered gift box to put them in!  If you want to learn more about brayering, I highly recommend Michelle Zindorf's website, tutorials and classes.  Google her and find over 300 tutorials for her beautiful work!  Thanks for looking and I wish you a fun and stampy weekend!

Happiness is... Paisley Prints

The holiday mini has lots of fun surprises, and this set is great because it covers several holidays.  I hadn't played with the hearts in the set, but as soon as I saw it I thought of the Raspberry Tart dp with it's paisley background. 

I used the 'rock and roll' technique by first loading the heart stamps with Cameo Coral, then lightly tapping and rocking the edges of the stamp in Rose Red.  It creates a pretty variegated fad and I like the result!  I don't have the large heart punch so I cut those by hand, and I used the bitty punch set for the small hearts and inked the edges with Rose Red  The extra large punch (pg. 25 of the holiday mini) is my new favorite tag punch!  To make the mat behind it, simply punch your tag, then cut an X corner to corned and adhere them to your solid tag.  Cool, eh?  Two fun tips today - matting a punch and rock and roll!

The small corner detail stamp is from Style Beautiful and the sentiment is from Whimsical Words.  This is a quick card that looks great with some dimensionals to make the cut outs pop, and some doodling with a white gel pen for a bit more framing and focus.  There's more to come - I've been busy!  :)  Thanks so much for looking and feel free to add a comment, suggestion or follow me and let me know your blog address so I can follow YOUR creations.

Nouveau Curly Cute!

I love this dsp, although I didn't at first. Now, I'm sad it's no longer available.

Anywho, I'm loving this Curly Cute with the larger, playful sentiment. It's very cheery and I'm looking forward to using all the sentiments in the set! 

These cards came together very quickly and are very simple.  It's the dsp that dresses them up!

For Thinking of You, I mixed two printed dp's and accented the edges with the ribbon border punch in Apricot Appeal.  The sentiment was stamped in Basic Grey, and I used a corner rounder for the long, oval shape.  I used a small scallop punch to add some color to the center of the flower along with a brad.  Had I wanted to take more time, I would have used some Apricot Appeal reinker on the Pretties Flower.  I hope someone will case this and do that - I'd love to see it!

The Thank You card uses four punches and a quick ribbon treatment.  I used the large flower, and large, medium and small scallop punches.  The medium scallop punch was then cut at each scallop towards the center to create petals.  Easy!  Thanks for checking out these quick cards.

I've been working on a set of brayered cards for a friend.  Can't wait to finish them and show them to you!

Make it a great week, and thanks for stopping by and following me.  I love your comments and visiting your blogs, too!

Hugs,

Linda

Simple Vintage Christmas

Here's a simple card that's very fun to color!  The dp is from Deck the Halls and the layers are Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake (Scallop Trim Border Punch) and Always Artichoke.  I prefer blender pens to the aqua painter.  The image is also from the Holiday Mini and it's called Bells and Boughs.  I stamped the image with Black Stazon first, then used my classic ink pads and blender pen to color the images.  Cherry Cobbler was used for the flowers, Always Artichoke for the boughs, and Daffodil Delight for the flower centers.  Black Stazon was used for the sentiment image.  To brighten up the flowers I used some white glitter chalk which also softens the edges.  I sponged some Creamy Caramel around the image mat to give it an aged vintage look.  Coloring can sometimes be time consuming so this quick layout is a great way to balance out your time and still have a pretty card that looks like it took hours.  Enjoy!

Penguin Birthday, compliments of Merry Socha

My card for today is a direct case from Merry Socha on stampinconnection.com. I thought the owl punch would work for a cute little penguin, and Merry had the same 'vision.'  :)  She made it easy for me! 

I think they are so darn cute!  lol  I used all Stampin' Up! products except for the scrap of blue background, the rubon sentiment, and the party hat which was made with my cricut.  The ribbon has been available on the clearance rack at Stampin' Up - just click the Shop 24/7 button to the right to check out the sales!  Tomorrow I'll post a card made from products in the new Holiday Mini catalog that was mailed to many of you!  Make it a great day!

Owl-y Flowers - love it!

Well, I'm excited to say that I have a card to post every day this week!  I was busy this weekend, as card making never feels like 'laboring' for me.  It was a perfect time to enjoy myself by making cards for my sweet daughter and to get started on Christmas Cards.  I know... Christmas, in September?  I make ALOT of Christmas cards, as you will see in the coming months!

First, I had so much fun making these large flowers out of the owl punch a few weeks ago.  The flowers have been sitting on my desk, just waiting to be glued to a card:

Each 'petal' is created by cutting a 'v' between the owl ears.  Then cut off the feet (sorry, that sounds so cruel - lol).  Fold the owl lengthwise and pinch the bottom.  This gives you a point from which to fold, and also brings the petals tips up a bit.  From your bottom crease, fold each edge in until they touch.  I then glued these to the large scallop punch of pear pizzaz cardstock.  The center is a 1/2" punch of Garden Gala dp adhered to a build-a-brad.  I had fun mixing the Garden Gala and Razzleberry Lemonade (retired) design papers, too!  My daughter described this card as "cheerful."  I'd have to agree!

I have another example of owl flowers tomorrow using the Noveau Chic paper and one of the new stamp sets.  Hope you'll stop by!  Until then, make it a Stampin' Day!

I have a confession....

It's been over 3 weeks since my last post - yikes!  Forgive me, friends.  Life has been super busy, as I'm sure it has been for you, too.  I left for vacation 2 days after my last post, came home, and have been busy getting my youngest child off to college.  It's official, I'm an empty nester!  Well, at least until she comes home for summer.  Here's a cute photo of my girls from our vacation.  We stayed on my Aunt's farm in Oregon.  The girls got a kick out of my 81 year old Aunt's 'gater.'  My Auntie drives it all over her farm - too cute!

Ok, so they had just a little fun on the farm!  lol

My daughter asked if I would make her some cards for her to take with her to college, so I'm beginning to make her a stash.  I started by casing this one from Elaine Schader's post on Stampin' Connection:

This uses the Friends Never Fade and Perfect Punches stamp sets.  Colors are Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist and Concord Crush.  So pretty together, don't you think?  A little organza ribbon, the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Large oval and large oval scallop punches, and a Martha Stewart border punch (any of the SU border punches would work, too) makes the recipe for this card.  Again, this is pretty much a direct case.  Search Friends Never Fade at SC, and you'll find others that are similar to this one.

Katie also asked for some 'guy' cards.  All products are stampin' up accept for the Verve stamp set:

The Elegant Soiree DP and Crumb Cake paper were distressed, pierced and punched for this card.  I really like the Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Soft Suede and Not Quite Navy color combo!  The little ribbon loop is the reverse side of the Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.  If you don't have a distressing tool, you can simply use your fingernail on the paper's edge for a similar effect.

I'm on a card makin' mission during the month of September, and I'll be using lots of new goodies from the new Holiday Mini.  Your copy, if you are on my mailing list, is being sent to you this week so keep a look out in your mail.  It's one of the best occasion mini's I've seen with lots of new products!

I'll post the online link to the new Holiday Mini Catalog on September 1st.  Until then, make it a great day, making great cards and pages and projects and frames...and..... :)

Oh, I LOVE new paper!

Paper is my inspiration.  How 'bout you?  When I saw the new designer paper in the new Stampin' Up! catalog Iabout fell over - I wanted it ALL! lol   I did purchase Woodland Walk and Blueberry Crisp (and a few others, I have to admit).  And, as is true for many of you... I have boxes of pictures that are waiting for me to find the perfect time to put them into a scrapbook.  Alas, I am not a very dedicated scrapbooker!  However, I really love my youngest daughter's graduation pictures, so I committed to making two pages last night, and thought it a perfect opportunity to play with my new paper!

Katie loves green, so I have to make a page with green paper and Woodland Walk was perfect.  Now, in hindsight, I would use one or two solid colors as matting, but that's how we learn, right?  :)  Here's the first page I did.  It's an 8 1/2 x 11 for a green album that I picked out over a year ago just for her:

I used the Just Believe stamp set from the new catalog for the stamped images and the Whimsical Word set for the sentiment.  The lace ribbon is also from the new catalog.  It's hard to tell, but the flowers in the lower left corner are actually cut out from the paper and popped up on dimensionals.  I didn't have any Garden Green ribbon, so I substituted some Handsome Hunter instead.  I added some paper piercing and a few buttons for a little extra detail.  Here's the next one using Blueberry Crisp:

So I had alot of fun with this one!  Plus, I just love this picture of my daughter.  I cut the main piece of dsp to 81/2 x 11, and then added the 3 inch strip onto the left side of the page.  I covered the seam of those two pieces with some Pacific Point ribbon.  I then cut two pieces of dsp to 6x6 and set them diagonally as matting for the picture.  I cut a small strip of dsp and used a tape runner and adhered it to the crocheted ribbon, then adhered that to the page.  I covered the ends by punching two medium scalloped ovals, folding them over the sides of the page and securing them with Very Vanilla brads.  The sentiment in the bottom corner was stamped from the Style Beautiful set (again, a new stamp from the new catalog) on to Very Vanilla CS and punched with the large oval punch.  I punched a medium scallop oval from the dsp, cut it in half the long way, and adhered it to the top and bottom of the punch.  It's popped up on dimensionals.  Last, I had so much fun making the flower in the top corner.  Here's a close up:

First, I punched a scallop circle out of a different print of dsp than the one I chose to use for the rest of the flower.  Then I punched 4 'owl bodies' from the new Owl Punch - yeah, really!  I cut off the owl feet.  I then folded each owl in half lengthwise.  That crease is your guide to cut to the center from each of the owl's ears.  It should look like a tulip when you are done with this step.  Then from the bottom, fold each of the two edges from the center crease point.  Punch a 1" to 1-1/2" circle to adhere to the back of your 'owl tulips'.  Arrange them first so you know where to adhere them to the circle.  Then adhere the circle to the scallop punch that you set aside.  Use a paper piercer in the center of the flower to insert the brad.  The brad was made with Stampin' Ups Brad Builder.  Punch a 1/2" circle from the dsp you want to use.  The clear plastic cover already has adhesive on it so stick your circle to the back of it.  Then get a 1/2" glue dot, and put it on the brad base.  Then adhere the paper/disc to the brad base, paper side down.  Insert the brad and then use your fingernail or small scissors to lightly curl the flower tips upward.  You're done!  The flower was popped up on dimensionals, of course!  You can make these with 4 to 6 owl/tulips, depending on how deeply you fold up the outside edges of the owl/tulips.  The more narrow they are after folding, the more will fit in the circle.  These flowers are VERY fun to make and look awesome.  Add more dimension to them by inking the edges before the flower is assembled.  Well, I'm off to run my weekend errands.  Feel free to email me or comment, especially if you have questions about these pages, Stampin' Up products, or anything in general!

I'm holding an open house!

I've been invited to present Stampin' Up! Products at the Trendy Tulip Boutique this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  I'm very excited to share many of Stampin' Up!s new products and to demonstrate our My Digital Studio software.  I can hardly wait!  Hope you can join me!  More information is available here:

Trendy Tulip Boutique!

Below is just one example of the Notecard Sets I will have on display:

Each set has 3 Birthday Cards and 3 Thank You cards contained in this cute little box!  I have several of these made using all different design paper.  This one uses the new Garden Gala DSP, Pumpkin Pie cardstock and ink, daffodil delight cardstock and the new pear pizzaz poly ribbon.  I heat embossed the sentiment with versamark and clear embossing powder, punched it with our large oval punch and popped it upon dimensionals.  Super easy, demonstrable and very cheery, don't you think?   I will also be displaying the wonderful card swaps I received at Convention.  It's wonderful to receive card swaps that use stamps that I don't have so I can display a wider variety of products.  I love that!  I'm off to prepare for this event.  Hope to see you there, and let me know if you saw this post and I will give away a free card!

Do you know how much I love the Heat Embossing Technique?

It's probably my FAVORITE stamping technique!  I also love the effects of brayering.  I wanted to combine these two techniques in a set of card fronts for swapping at the Stampin' Up! convention.  I went back to some cards I've made in the past, and updated them with new stamps and new colors from the very exciting 2010 - 2011 Stampin' Up Catalog.  Here's what I came up with:

As soon as I saw the Silhouette Sentiments hostess set, I knew I wanted it!  You can get this set FREE when you host a Stampin' Up stamp camp or party.  Leave me a comment if you would like to host a card making class.  I would LOVE to teach you and your friends how to make cards just like this - it's easier than it looks!  The flowers were first stamped with black ink and versamark and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I then punched a 1 1/4" circle out of a post it note to mask the paper so a sun is created.  I first used daffodil delight and peach parfait with a brayer for the sky.  I sponged cajun craze across the top and down the sides.  The hills were created by tearing the sticky edge of a long post it note in the shape of the hills.  I covered the sky with it, then brayered cajun craze across the bottom.  I finished the bottom by sponging early espresso at the bottom edge.  A white gel pen was used to bright up the centers of some of the flowers.  Yes, white gel pen drys on the top of embossing - go figure.  Markers do not do this, only gel pens.  Cool!  I used my stampamajig (love that thing) to align my sentiment into the sun after removing the post it note mask.  Brads were added and then it was mounted on to Cajun Craze cardstock.  I made six of these in about an hour and a half.  I know, right?  It really goes pretty quick!  Hope you'll try that brayer and heat gun you have stashed in a back drawer and share what you create!  Have a beautiful day!

Always Elegant - Multi-Stamp!

Sometimes I forget how versatile stamps can be and just stamp the image as it is.  So, I really enjoyed using this main image stamp from Always Elegant and stamping it three times to give it a whole new look.  This was also my first shot at paper flowers and using the new cotton lace from Stampin' Up.  This a card front that will traded at Convention:

I had lots of fun making this!  Colors used are Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla, all from the Elegant Soiree DP.  Soft Suede is the only ink used here, on the main image, flower and edges.  The pearls and ribbon are also new fom Stampin' Up!  There is no sentiment, as I don't usually put sentiments on card exchanges so that people can use them for what fits their needs.  I'm off to ride my bike - have a creative day!

Card Fronts for Convention

I've been busy getting ready for card swaps at the Stampin' Up Convention.  This is my first year to attend and I'm excited to be able to go this year!  My upline, Chelsea, has advised me to make card fronts just to exchange casually.  So here's what I've come up with so far:

Elegant Soiree DP was used here, with Crumb Cake, Marina Mist and Soft Suede.  Curly Label Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch Corner Rounder and Small Oval Punch were also used.  I love the new Elegant Lines Embossing Folder too!  It was used on the main image mats.  Awash with Flowers Stamp set was used for the main image, and Elements of Style was used for the sentiment.

I really like this card!  Pear Pizzaz "paired" with Cherry Cobbler is a yummy treat!  I love love love the tree image from the Snow Swirls set!  It is embossed, with little touches of dazzling diamonds and a dash of bling to top the tree and the sentiment from Delightful Decoration.  Early Espresso and Very Vanilla cardstock were also used, along with the scallop border punch, 1" punch, 3/4" punch and Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.This one uses 3 stamp sets:  Elements of Style, Vintage Vogue and Greenhouse Garden.  Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi and Soft Suede were all used as Ink for this project.  The Very Vanilla is craft ink, which I used around the edge of project to soften the edges.  I really like the little pearl flower center alot!

I think this one might be my favorite!  I used Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist (crazy about this color) and Very Vanilla as cardstock and Inc.  I again, like to use the Craft Very Vanilla to sort of 'antique' the edges of these vintage style images.  The flourish and flowers are both from Elements of Style.  The flower image was stamped in black stazon, and then colored with blender pens.  I finished off the panel edges with a light coating of blank ink and the ticket punch!  I thought this could be used for almost any occasion!

I have more cards and projects to post later this week, so post your thoughts here, share your casings and come back later in the week for more convention projects, cards for fundraisers and more new items from the Stampin' Up catalog!  Make it a creative day!

Sweet Pea Baby!

Marie Shaughnessy originally posted this card on stampinconnection.com.  I loved it just the way she made it, so it really is a direct Case!  There's ALOT of detail here, but oh so much fun and such a cute result:

and the inside:

I embossed, punched, sponged and stamped to my heart's content!  I put in to play the Orchid Opulence and Lovely Lilac with Old Olive and Always Artichoke for anything green.  Blush Blossom was used for the baby face.  Stamps used are the flourish from Baroque Motifs, outside sentiments are from Tiny Tags and the flowers were stamped with Itty Bitty Bits.  The punch is from the Itty Bitty Bits punch set, along with the word window and medium oval punches.  3/4" and 1/2" punches were used for the peas and face, and the leaves were trimmed down from the two-step bird punch.  The flourish was clear embossed and the butterflies are all from the butterfly embosslit.  A white gel pen (Stampin' Up! really does sell the best one I've ever found) was used for all the highlights.  So cute!  Thanks for looking!

Brayered Father's Day

Oops!  I forgot to post this one before Father's Day!  Ah well, thought you might like to check it out, and then case this card to a masculine birthday, get well or sympathy card:

I know, forgive me - it's not 100% Stampin' Up products... however there are many sentiments that fit the curly label punch perfectly!  So here's he details:  I used an Early Espresso base card, with a Marina Mist mat.  I used very vanilla, and brayered Crumb Cake and then a little Early Espresso, being careful to not cover all of the Crumb Cake.  I turned the card around, and brayered Bashful Blue with Marina Mist on top.  I used my grass stamp from Inspired By Nature and used Old Olive to stamp it at a slight angle.  I used my ever handy slot punch (love that thing) to make the cattails.  The little birds are optional and could be substituted with the solid small butterfly in the Charming set (which I currently do not have.)  Here's the inside of the card:

The left side is stamped directly on to Marina Mist, using the same techniques as the front of the card, except for brayering the blue inks.  I used Crumb Cake for a computer generated sentiment, compliments of a quote from Bill Cosby.  Hope you can take this Father's Day card and turn it into something you can use for Birthdays, Sympathy, Get Well, or well, anything!

From the new catalog.... so fun!

Aren't new toys FUN!?  New colors, stamps, punches and always lots of fresh ideas await you in the new Stampin' Up! catalog!  Remember that many of the new stamps and colors are available for My Digital Studio as well!  Want more information on digital crafts?  Email me!

Below is a rather quick card I made for one of my clients.  Hydrangeas grew in my backyard when I was a child and they bring back many fond memories of good times in that backyard!  My mother showed me how to add colored water to the base of the bush to change the color of the hydrangea, so in her honor, I went with a red hydrangea, just like we used to 'make at home!'  Details are below.  Enjoy, create, and have a fabulous 4th of July weekend!

and for the inside:

Almost all NEW products were used for this card:  My base card is Early Espresso cardstock, layered with Pear Pizzaz that has been dry embossed with the new Vintage Wallpaper folder.  The Cherry Cobbler strip was border punched with the scallop punch.  Early Espresso was used for the main image mat.  Watercolor paper makes the main image mat because it works so well with the blender pens.  I used Cherry Cobbler to stamp the flower and was careful to load ink on only the flower portion of the stamp.  The stem was colored with my Pear Pizzaz marker.  I used a blender pen and just a little extra ink to color the image for more depth.  Cajun Craze marker was used to color the centers of the flowers.  I used my Cherry Cobbler marker to color only two images of the line design and stamp them in opposite corners.  The sentiment and hydrangea are from the new "Because I Care" set.  The sentiment was heat embossed with versamark and clear powder.  The inside used Very Vanilla mats, and the same components as the outside of the card.  I just might make a few more of these!