I love Stampin' Up!

I've been buying from them for quite some time, but I'm only now really beginning to appreciate their product. I love that everything matches so perfectly. I never have to hunt forever for a shade of paper that is "close enough".

I've been busy trying to come up with different Christmas cards for our local craft sale. I want the cards to be simple but still have the wow factor. I think these next few are okay, but we'll find out in November...

Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White
Other:Old Olive ribbon, dazzling diamonds


Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holidays & Wishes
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White
Paper: Bravo Burgundy
Other: Bravo Burgundy ribbon, dazzling diamonds

This next card is not a Christmas card but I kind of like how it turned out. I wasn't sure about the color combo but now I like it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Hoidays & Wishes, Embrace Life
Ink: Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Always Artichoke, Baja Breeze, Whisper white, Green Tea DSP
Other: Ribbon from Michaels, MM rhinestone brads

Silence is bliss

My mother took the kids for the afternoon which gives me some much needed silence at least for a few hours. I love my kids but they can try your patience, especially if it's on a day where all you want is some peace and quiet.

So I tried my hand at making these adorable boxes. I got the template from Split coast stampers. Although I did change the measurements so that they would hold your typical card measurement of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. I'm thinking about making some of these for the local craft show that I'll be at this year. I was thinking I would make maybe 5 simple cards to go in the box with envies. They're so easy to make.
I won't post the recipe for these since they were made using paper that I've had laying around for ages so I don't remember where they're from.

Stampin Up!

I'm having a workshop at my house towards the end of September so these are the cards I made to hand out to everyone that I know. I'm really excited about what Stampin Up! has to offer and I love sharing with other stampers.

Recipe:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive
Paper: Baja Breeze, whisper white, Green Tea DSP
Other: Scallop Punch, versamark, clear EP, ribbon from Michaels

Possible Make & Take

I've been trying to find card ideas that will interest the ladies but be simple enough for my first cardmaking party. I think this card fits the bill. I forget what the technique is called but you basically tap your stamp in your versamark pad and then straight onto your colored ink pad of choice. This allows you to add clear EP to the image. I love this technique because it eliminates the need for so many colors of embossing powder. I'm hoping that by using SU's latest in colors and DSP that it'll spark some interest.

Recipe:
Stamp: SU Upsy Daisy
Ink: Old Olive, chocolate chip
Paper: Chocolate chip, baja breeze, very vanilla, DSP - Green Tea
Other: SU ribbon in old olive, versamkark, clear embossing powder

Water Coloring

I love the look of water coloring on a card, the shading is so beautiful. So that's what I tried to do in this next card. I guess practice will make it perfect.
I first stamped the flower in stazOn black and then created a mask for the flower before I stamped the leaves. I think it makes it look prettier. Then I used my aqua painters and SU ink pads to water color the flower and leaves.

Recipe:

Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: SU Pale Plum & Perfectly Plum, black stazOn
Paper: SU Pale Plum, Perfectly Plum, Very Vanilla, water color paper, DP is unknown
Other: Nestabilities, purple rhinestone brads (I think Making Memories) and SU Eggplant ribbon

Good Morning!

It's a rainy day over here and it's a holiday so it makes for a perfect lazy day. Which translates into lots of cardmaking...

My Christmas card today is something I've seen done by quite a few artists and have been wanting to try. I think I might have missed the boat on this one though, I don't think the colors look quite right, but you never learn if you don't try, right?
For the circles I punched out the baja breeze with my 1 1/4 punch from SU, then I stamped with versmark and the heat & stick powder, next I used my heat gun to melt the powder, while it was still warm I added the dazzling diamonds and used the heat gun once more to set the glitter.

Here's the Recipe:

Stamps: Sincere Salutations, Priceless
Inks : StazOn black
Paper: The two browns I believe are bazzil but I don't remember the names, the blue is the new In Color from Stampin Up! Baja Breeze.
Other: Hemp Twine, SU! Heat & Stick pwd, SU dazzling diamonds

What a beautiful morning!

I love waking up to a steady down pour of rain and that's what I woke up to this morning. I think I'll have to bake a fresh batch of whole wheat buns, I always feel like baking when it's raining or snowing.

Well I guess I must be back in my groove again since I made two cards this morning. The first one is another Christmas card. I made this card using the faux tearing technique, it was my first time using this technique and it was very easy to do. I brayered the sky with my SU spectrum pad (retired), then stamped the trees in Staz On black. I also added some dazzling diamonds to the evergreen tree, which I think gives it just the perfect holiday sparkle.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holidays & Wishes
Inks: Black StazOn, Blue Frost Spectrum
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Other: Dazzling diamonds

The second card I had to make using my new swiss dots embossing folder. I love the look it gives on a card. This was a very simple card to make and I like how the colors turned out.

Recipe:
Stamps: Priceless
Inks: Pale Plum, Perfect plum
Paper: Perfect plum, ivory, bazzil brown?
Other: Eggplant ribbon, rhinestone brads, round nestabilities, slit punch to make the scallop, and the swiss dots embossing folder.

Busy summer days

Wow, it's been a while since I sat down and made a card. Our summer has been really busy. We just got back from a week of holidays and then we had our local town festival which is always a lot of fun. I can hardly believe that the kids are going to be in school in just over a week. (doing the happy dance) My baby will be starting pre-K this year and she is so excited. Last year she struggled each time I dropped her brothers off at Pre-k and she couldn't stay. I'm very excited to see her enjoy school this year too.

Well I have managed to make two cards, the first one is a Christmas card that I cased from a talented scrapper at SCS (sorry I don't remember who). First I used my colluzle to cut out an oval on cardstock and used it as a mask before I stamped the line of trees. I then used a sponge to dab light blue ink for the sky. I also paper pierced around the oval. The evergreen tree has dazzling diamonds on it which makes it look sooooooo much better IRL.

Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree from Stampin Up! and the Merry Christmas was purchased at Michaels years ago.
Paper: Always Artichoke, whisper white
Ink: Always artichoke, bashful blue & Bravo burgundy
Ribbon: Bravo burgundy

The next card is just a simple card made with my new "Bird Call" embossing folder. This folder really makes for a fast and simple card but yet they're so pretty.

Recipe:
Stamp: SU! Sincere Salutations
Paper: Black cardstock (source unknown), SU whisper white
Ink: Black Staz On
Ribbon: Dollar bin from Michaels

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas...

Sorry if I'm scaring you. I love Christmas, it's my favorite holiday but this is early even for me. I told myself last year that I was going to start my Christmas cards very early this year, so that's what I'm attempting to do. Plus the craft sale that I want to get ready for is in November which means I have a lot of cards to make. TFL.

This first card was made using cs from our LSS (sorry, that's all I remember). I used silver embossing powder on vellum and then attached the vellum to the light blue pp. The ribbon is old olive from Stampin Up.


Another simple card made with whisper white CS from SU and the rest of the pp is again from our local store. I used SU white craft ink to do all the snowflakes and also used the scallop circle punch, also from SU. Ribbon is from a $1 bin from Michaels! They had a bunch of wider grosgrain on clearance, I really wish I had bought more, not that I really need it.


This card is made with designer pp that I've had in my collection for years already, it actually has a shimmer to it, very cute. Ribbon is SU's old olive.

Catching up

Summer is such a busy time for us, I have a love/hate relationship with summer. I love doing all the fun summer activities but I hate feeling like you have no time for a normal, slooooooooooooooow lifestyle.

So having said that, prepare for photo over load. I have been making cards, just not putting them up. A lot of these cards have the same layout, just different colors. I'm trying to get used to the idea of duplicating a design instead of always having each card have completely it's own look. I think it'll save me a lot of time that way.

All of these cards are made using stampin up cardstock but patterned pp is from various designers. TFL.




This next one is a project that I've been wanting to try. I bought a cheap tin dora money bank at Dollar Ramma and used modge podge to adhere the paper. I still want to add some more embellishments to the top of the can but I think it turned out pretty cute. I'm thinking about making these for a craft sale that I'll be joining. I could do baby's first piggy bank, older kids banks or even a "mom's savings account". The best part, they're cheap to make and take so little time.

Christmas in July

My husband would cringe if he knew I made a Christmas card today. He's the kind of guy that doesn't want to think about Christmas until December 1st. This card is a complete CASE from this blog. I've saved this card for almost a year already with the intentions of making it for Christmas but I never had any glossy cardstock, well I finally got some. TFL.

Learning...

I'm trying to get my own creative thoughts flowing, I CASE a lot of cards so I just finished card that I cased from myself (the irony) but I tried to change it up a little. As you can see, not much changed but maybe with practice, it'll help me to be able to come up with most of my own layouts.
For this card I used Stampin Up cs in very vanilla, choc chip, and so saffron. The stamps used are from the Embrace Life set, I used some Crystal effects on the "flower" parts which you can't really see in the picture. I also used chocolate chip ink and my nestabilities, which I am still totally in love with! TFL.

Hello Friday!

I love Fridays, even though I'm a SAHM but I think I love it still from when I was in the work force. I quickly made two simple cards today, nothing special but I like them. I used some stampin up stamps and rubons, the rest is from different companies which I can't remember. TFL

Fun, Fun, Fun!

These quick cards were so much fun to make. I used my nestabilities to cut the cute circle scallop card along with the "Embrace Life" set. After I colored in the petals I went over them with some crystal effects. Then while I was waiting for the CE to dry I decided to try a quick and simple card which I actually really like. TFL

Wedding bells

So I'm going to a bridal shower this week and I needed a card. Lately we only have baby showers, no bridal showers so it's a nice change to be able to make a bridal shower card. This card looks sooooooooo much better in real life. First I stamped the flower from the "Embrace Life" set from Stampin up in craft white onto vellum, and then embossed with clear EP. Next I flipped the vellum over and painted them using Stampin Up's ink pads, certainly celery, so saffron, and bashful blue.It made for a really pretty effect. I can't seem to take pictures of my cards without losing a lot of detail like the embossing from the nestabilities. I guess I'll have to practice a little more. TFL