Moon Lake Chickadee

Hello again!  I've made a card for Pals Paper Arts, where the challenge this week is a wonderful sketch by Nicole Watt.

http://www.palspaperarts.com/

I've been wanting to use what looked to me to be a chickadee from the Moon Lake stamp set, so when I saw this sketch I knew the circle would be perfect for a watercolor piece.

In order to color the bird, I used my National Geographic Birds of North America.  In our yard we have a ton of chickadees that eat at our bird feeder, one of which is the Chestnut-backed variety.  They are found only on the West Coast, from Alaska to mid-California, and only in the Western parts of the states.  I love the color and thought it would make a good masculine birthday card.

It was fun to make a distressed card, after being on a more CAS bent for a while.  After distressing the edges of the designer paper, the Cajun Craze circle and the main image, everything was sponged with Crumb Cake ink.  Early Espresso Core'dinations card stock was embossed with the Woodgrain TIEF and sanded to bring out the grain.  The final touches were the Vintage Trinket brads and Hemp twine.

A sentiment and some other stamped accents were added to the interior of the card.

Thanks so much the visiting today!  I'd love to hear from you if you have a moment to leave a comment.  I hope you have a great week ahead!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Moon Lake, Crazy About You, Butterfly Basics
Paper:  Confetti Cream, Early Espresso card stock and Core'dination card stock, watercolor, Botanical Gazette designer series paper
Ink:  Jet Black Stazon, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Pale Plum, Blackberry Bliss, So Saffron, Pear Pizazz, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Baked Brown Sugar
Other:  2" Circle punch, Circles Collection framelit, Woodgrain TIEF, Hemp Twine, Vintage Trinkets, Aquapainter, Blender Pen

Blooming Birthday

Hello again!!  Yup, a second post tonight.  I made this card a couple weeks ago but chose to post other cards ahead of it.  I used the sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers from a couple weeks ago.  That's the nice thing, there is no deadline, you can upload any time.  The curved piece at the lower part really intrigued me as there are so many possibilities with the sketch.  I ended up with a very CAS version so I could showcase the Something Lacy stamp once again.

I started out by stamping the floral background stamp in Bermuda Bay on Whisper White. I then hand drew the curve based on the sketch and cut it with my Paper Snips.  Once attached to a piece of Whisper White, the ribbon was wrapped around it and it was popped up with Dimensionals on a Bermuda Bay base.

Here's the sketch that I used:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!  I hope the rest of your week is wonderful!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Something Lacy, Flower Patch
Paper:  Whisper White, Bermuda Bay
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry
Other:  Flower Fair framelit, Basic Rhinestone, Bermuda Bay 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Daffodil Delight Blendability marker (to color the rhinestone).

Butterfly Basics for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

Hi there!  The card I am sharing today is made for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  It also uses the colors from Color Throwdown's latest challenge.  

http://www.sweetsundaysketch.blogspot.com/

http://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/

Just before Sale-A-Bration ended I wound up with the Irresistibly Yours as my free SAB product but just haven't had a chance to use it until now.  I decided the blue and green would look lovely sponged on the leaf vine design.

I chose one of my favorite blue-green combos - Bermuda Bay and Old Olive, sponging with various intensity and in a somewhat random fashion.  Once the sponging was complete, the panel was layered on a piece of textured Old Olive card stock, with both layers then adhered to the Kraft card base.

I love this sentiment, it just speaks to me about the untapped potential in all of us.  It and the butterfly are from the Butterfly Basics stamp set.  A bit of Gold Baker's Twine and Basic Rhinestones add the finishing touches.

As always, your visit and comments are so appreciated!  Please be sure to use the links above to check out all the great inspiration.

Hugs,

Stef

Blooming Birthday

Hi there!  My card today is for this week's Featured Stamper at SCS (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/), where we CASE a card in the stampers gallery and post it in her honor.  This week it is Sue aka gregzgurl.  Congratulations Sue!!  I am also joining in the color challenge over at Paper Players, where we're using some of the retiring 2013-2015 In Colors from Stampin' Up!

http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com/

I kept the same layout as Sue's card but changed the colors and substituted a tag for a tilted rectangle.  I decorated the tag with flowers and leaves from Flower Patch along with Coastal Cabana Ruffle Trim and Strawberry Slush twine.

Three Coastal Cabana sequins with small pearls inside were used to decorate the lower right corner.  The sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped directly onto the designer paper in Memento Tuxedo Black (the luxury of photopolymer stamps to see where you're stamping!).

As always, your visit and comments are so appreciate!  Take care and have a great week!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Flower Patch
Paper:  Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, 2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, Memento Tuxedo Black
Other:  In Color Sequins, Basic Pearls, Coastal Cabana Ruffle Trim, Flower Fair framelits, Scallop Tag Topper punch, Strawberry Slush twine, Whisper White Baker's Twine.

Rich Thanks

Hello again!  My second post of the day is for this week's color challenge at Splitcoaststampers, and using the current Deconstructed Sketch.  The color challenge is so fun, we had a "bingo" layout from which to choose our colors.  It was a bit mind boggling to decide but I finally settled on the left to right downward angle including So Saffron, Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry and Old Olive.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/

I decided to use the medium sized flower from I Like You in the circle.  At first I thought I would watercolor it using an Aquapainter, but I just couldn't get the shading I wanted.  So I started over and colored the larger flowers and leaves with Blendability Markers, and then used a Blender pen and reinkers to color the small flowers, as Blendabilities were not available in Crushed Curry or So Saffron.

I am always amazed at myself, when I think I really don't like a color and then I start using it with other colors I love and all of a sudden, it's one of my new favorites.  That's the case with Crushed Curry.  It looks fabulous with Rich Razzleberry (and also Bermuda Bay!) and while I am still not a huge fan of yellow, this color is a wonderful secondary color against other brights.

I took a bit of liberty with the sketch by replacing horizontal piece with the ribbon but I think it works well with all the elements in this card.

The word "thank" was cut twice from Rich Razzleberry card stock, then glued together.  I stamped "you" below, but it appears a bit faint in the photo.  I think in part it's due to how I positioned the lighting when I took the picture because the embossing on the panel underneath seems to fade away at the bottom of the photo as well.

As always, your visit and comments are so welcome and appreciated!!  Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  I Like You, Crazy About You
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Eastern Elegance designer series paper
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, So Saffron
Other:  Large Polka Dot TIEF, 2" Circle and 2 3/8" Scallop Circle punches, Rich Razzleberry Cotton Ribbon, Hello You Thinlit, Frosted Sequins.

Lost in Thought

Hi there and welcome back!  I've seen lots of cute cards made with flowers or hearts hanging on the tree from the Sheltering Tree stamp set and yesterday I decided to give it a go as well.

I started with a Crumb Cake card base, then added an embossed layer of Soft Sky.  Instead of just centering the main focal point framed with Lost Lagoon, I offset those layers to make it more visually interesting.

After stamping the tree, the leaves, grass and "swoosh" of ground were all stamped in Pear Pizzazz.  Then nine little flowers were punched out and a center developed with my scoring stylus with a paper piercing mat underneath.  After gluing the flowers to the tree, Basic Pearls were added to the center as a bit of a finishing touch.

Thanks so much for coming by today and I'd love to hear from you if you have time to leave a comment!

Hugs,

Stef



Product details:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree
Paper:  Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon, Pink Pirouette
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake
Other:  Itty Bitty Punch Pack flower punch, Corner Rounder punch, Spring Flowers TIEF, Basic Pearls

Fore Your Birthday

Welcome back!  One of my co-workers has a birthday coming up soon.  I know he likes to play golf, so I made a card with the On the Green stamp.

I grabbed this great piece of Epic Day This and That designer paper because of the Gumball Green and Pool Party combination - the green was perfect for inking up the golf stamp.  A couple of embossed cross pieces underneath add some texture.

 
Some hemp twine and white golf balls candy dots finished off this super easy card.  I used this week's sketch from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge as inspiration for my card (yeah, my placement of the focal point is lower on the card), plus I am entering this in the weekly CAS challenge at Splitcoaststampers (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/) , which is to make it masculine.

http://www.sweetsundaysketch.blogspot.com/

As always your visit and comments are so appreciated!  Do check back in this weekend, I'll be back with a couple more cards to share.

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  On the Green
Paper;  Whisper White, Pool Party, Gumball Green, Kraft, Epic Day This and That dsp
Ink:  Gumball Green
Other:  Houndstooth and Woodgrain TIEFs, Squares Collection framelit, Hemp Twine, Candy Dots

I {Heart} Splitcoaststampers!

I had the most amazing day on Sunday (aside from it being Easter).  I opened my email about 10:00 am to see a private message from Splitcoaststampers.  What I found was absolutely flabbergasting!  I had been chosen as the Featured Stamper of the Week! To me this is one of the biggest honors I could ever imagine. SCS is jam-packed with some of the most talented paper crafters around and the fact that I was picked to be featured simply amazed and humbled me.

I joined SCS nearly 7 years ago so I could have a gallery to which I could post my cards, plus there were and continue to be a tremendous amount of resources including weekly tutorials for all types of techniques, daily challenges including color and sketches, techniques and inspiration, and chat rooms for every type of paper crafter.  Most Stampin' Up demonstrators are familiar with SCS as there is a large amount of resources for demos too.

When the Featured Stamper is chosen, those that chose to participate visit the gallery of the FS, pick a card from the gallery to CASE, then post it to a general FS gallery.  The comments I received from those that participated this week have truly filled my heart at how kind and supportive this community is.


I wanted to show my gratitude to the SCS community for this honor, so I decided to CASE a couple of my own cards and join in.

Partly because tulips mean Spring and Easter to me, and since it was Easter Sunday, I chose the lovely tulip image from Love is Kindness stamp.  It was colored with Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive Blendability markers.  The sentiment from So Very Grateful was stamped in Memento Black, trimmed down and popped up on Dimensionals.

After I completed the first card I remembered the wonderful sentiment from World of Dreams and decided to make a second card and dedicate it to the supportive SCS community.

Thanks for taking time to visit today, I so appreciate it!  If you are not familiar with Splitcoaststampers, be sure to use this link (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/) to see what a great place it is!

Hugs,

Stef


Card #1:
Stamps:  Love is Kindness, So Very Grateful
Paper:  Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum, Cottage Wall designer series paper
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Other:  Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive Blendability markers, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Fancy Fan TIEF, Basic Rhinestones.

Card #2
Stamps:  World of Dreams, Distress Dots
Paper:  Whisper White, Soft Sky, Blackberry Bliss
Ink:  Soft Sky, Blackberry Bliss
Other:  Sahara Sand Lace Trim, Antique Brad

Giggle Birthday

Welcome back!  Yup, two posts today.  I wanted to share this card I whipped together Thursday night to send to my dear sister-in-law who lives out of state after realizing that if I waited until the weekend to make it, it would be late for her birthday.  It's a "momentous" birthday for her and my husband wanted to send her something funny.  I didn't have the Giggle Greetings stamp set but my friend and Upline came to my rescue and let me borrow hers.

After stamping watercolor paper with Stazon, the cat was colored with a blender pen using So Saffron and Crushed Curry. Smoky Slate was used to ground the image and Soft Sky was applied with an Aquapainter for the background.  I used a heat tool to dry it to avoid warping from air drying.

The banner was cut from Irresistibly Yours dsp and brayered with Bermuda Bay ink, then the entire panel was wrapped in Crushed Curry Baker's Twine before mounting on the card base.

As always, your visit and comments are so appreciated!  Take care!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Giggle Greetings
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Basic Gray, watercolor, Irresistibly Yours designer series paper
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Crushed Curry, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Jet Black Stazon
Other:  Decorative Dots TIEF, Crushed Curry Baker's Twine, brayer, Aquapainter, Blender Pen, 

Sending Prayers

Hello once more!  Today I'm sharing a sympathy card I've made for a friend whose mom just passed away after a long struggle with cancer.

I knew I wanted to use the tree from Thoughts & Prayers but hadn't settle on colors.  Then I came across a small piece of non-Stampin' Up! card stock I've held onto for a few years and was surprised about how well it went with Lost Lagoon.

Initially I was going for a more monochromatic look, but after inking up the tree in Early Espresso and Pear Pizzazz, I realized how beautiful the dark brown looked with the blue, so I used Seam Binding ribbon in Early Espresso to wrap around the middle.  The banner and Bitty Button were added to balance everything out, plus I love that sweet little heart. So bummed I have only one left!

I used this week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches for my card layout.  Be sure to use the link below to check out all the wonderful inspiration.

http://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for the visit!  I love hearing from you as well if you have a moment to leave a comment!  Take care and enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

Hugs,

Stef



Product details:
Stamps:  Thoughts & Prayers, Petite Pairs
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Graphic 45 designer series paper
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Lost Lagoon
Other:  Paper Doily, Early Espresso Seam Binding ribbon, Linen Thread, Bitty Button, Banners Framelit, Large Oval, Scallop Oval and Corner Rounder punches

Hello!

Welcome back!  I have a fun card to share with you made for the sketch challenge at Fab Friday.  It's a bright and cheerful hello using some retired designer paper.

The flower and leaves are from Crazy About You, the sentiment from Endless Birthday Wishes.  The flower was stamped twice then punched out with the Scallop Circle punch.  The petals on the top flower each cut down the side a ways to get a bit more dimension.

The green in the paper is Lucky Limeade, and while I was able to use some ruffled ribbed in that color, I no longer have any of the ink, so the leaves were stamped with Old Olive, then cut out with my Paper Snips.  The ribbon looked sweet but a bit plain so I added some Linen Thread and a Pacific Point button.

Here's the wonderful sketch and a link so you can go check out all the great inspiration!

http://fabfridaystampinchallenge.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for the visit!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Crazy About You, Endless Birthday Wishes
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pacific Point, International Bazaar designer series paper
Ink:  Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point
Other:  Scallop Circle and Scallop Border punches, Lucky Limeade Ruffle Ribbon, Linen Thread, Brights Button and Candy Dot, Paper Snips