Tidal Birthday

Hi there!  I've made a card for the terrific sketch challenge at The Paper Players.  Last week was the Players 300th challenge and  I was bummed that I didn't have time to join in the celebration, but this week (finally) I was able to catch my breath at work and at least put together a card for the current challenge.

PP 301

I used the sketch to make one more of the many masculine birthday cards I need in the next 6 weeks for family and friends. The stamp set By the Tide was perfect for the recipient of this card because he is a diver and fisherman.

The coral and fish were both heat embossed and then colored with inks and watercolor paint brushes.  For the coral, after embossing on watercolor paper with SU White embossing powder, Island Indigo and Pool Party inks were used to create the "water".  I asked my husband what color the fish should be and he said a greenish brown, so I mixed some Crumb Cake and Pear Pizzaz to apply after the fish was heat embossed with the new SU Copper embossing powder.

I searched Pinterest for an example of a nautical knot - lots of good tutorials out there!  I made it with two strands of hemp twine that were then wrapped around the back of the Pair Pizzazz panel.  The dsp is long retired from Stampin' Up!.

Well, thanks so much for looking - as always your visit and comments are so appreciated!  Please be sure to use the link above to visit The Paper Players and enjoy all the wonderful inspiration!

Until next time...

Stef


Product details
Stamps:  By the Tide, Four You
Paper:  Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo, Watercolor, Soho Subway dsp
Ink:  Versamark, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake
Other:  Hemp Twine, White and Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder, Paper Snips, Watercolor paint brushes

Flower Frenzy

Hi there!  It's Monday night and time for my Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge sample.  This week Barbara has chosen a lovely, deep palate of  Rose Red, Island Indigo and Elegant Eggplant, with ribbon as "dessert".  This will be my last week as part of the Color Challenge team.  It has been an honor to participate with this fine group of ladies and I thank Mary Marsh for asking me back for this last 6-month stint.  I hope to continue to join in as time allows in the future.

SCS CC589

In putting this card together, I realized I used a preponderance of retired products, so much so I almost labeled it the "Mostly Retired SU Products" card - you'll see why.  I first decided to use a long neglected (and retired) Bigz die to create a nice big flower in some (retired) Textured Rose Red card stock.  After putting the layers together, it was topped with a Elegant Eggplant button (also retired).

The base is Elegant Eggplant card stock and was layered with a panel of Whisper White card stock embossed with the new (!) Petal Burst Textured Impression Embossing Folder.  Retired Elegant Eggplant ribbon was wrapped around it and the tags were attached with Baker's Twine.  This really is a simple card and the sentiment is general enough to be used for a variety of occasions.

Thanks for taking a look and as always your visit and comments are so appreciated.  I've included a link above to the challenge so please be sure to visit and enjoy all the fabulous inspiration and hopefully join the challenge this week!

Until next time...

Stef


Product details
Stamps:  Petite Pairs
Paper:  Whisper White, Textured Rose Red, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant
Ink:  Island Indigo
Other:  Flower Frenzy BigZ die, Tags & Labels Framelit, Elegant Eggplant Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Regals Button, Whisper White and Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Petal Burst TIEF

CC588 Stylized Birthday

Hello again!  It's Monday night and time to share my sample for this week's Color Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  Peggy has chosen a lovely combination of Pink Pirouette, Perfect Plum and Smoky Slate.  I passed on "dessert" of using or making ones own designer series paper.  Intuitively, these colors seemed perfect together.  But I worked through a couple of different rejects.  In frustration, I finally turned to the current SCS sketch challenge and came up with my card.

Starting with a panel of Textured Perfect Plum card stock, after wrapping a piece of ribbon diagonally across the center, it was adhered to a Smoky Slate card base.  The sentiment is a solo stamp that just became available in the new Stampin' Up! catalogue.  It was cut with a Layered Circle Framelit and layered over a Paper Doily cut with a retired Sizzlet in Pink Pirouette.

The layered flower was created by stamping twice a large flower from the Flower Patch stamp set in Pink Pirouette on Whisper White card stock, then fussy cutting the smaller layers.  The leaves were cut with the coordinating Flower Fair framelits.  Rhinestones were the final touch.

Here are the respective challenges and links:

CC 588

SC 597

Thanks for looking.  As always yours visit and comments are so appreciated!  I hope you'll find time to join us in the Color Challenge.

Until next time...

Stef


Product details
Stamps:  Stylized Birthday, Flower Patch
Paper:  Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Pink Pirouette, Perfect Plum (textured)
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Perfect Plum, Smoky Slate
Other:  Paper Doily Sizzlet, White Organza Ribbon, Flower Fair and Layering Circles Framelits, Rhinestones

Foxy Fun

Hi there and welcome back!  Just before we took off for a long weekend last week to celebrate my husband's birthday I received my order of new Stampin' Up products from the new catalogue.  So I had to wait to dig into all the new stuff (that's okay, he's worth it!).  Finally, earlier this week and today I was able to play with one of the stamp sets I was looking forward to the most - Fox & Friends.  This is a little untypical of me, as I usually lean towards the floral stamp sets, but this one is so cute I could not resist.

The first card was made using the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  I'm also joining in the current challenge at Stamp Ink Paper where they are celebrating their 1 year anniversary with the Card Makers Choice to use your favorite stamp set, paper and ink.  Well, Fox & Friends certainly is my current favorite, so I decided to play along.

FMS 241

SIP 52

I ordered the whole Fox & Friends suite, which included the stamp set and Fox Builder punch bundle, plus the uber cute A Little Foxy designer series paper stack.  I had to play around with the punched items to figure out how they all fit together, but the cool think is that you can make the fox with just one stamp or you can put one together with punched then stamped components.  Plus you can make more critters than just a fox.  Too much fun!

I put the fox together first after an hour or so of playing around with the punch and stamps, so when I decided to play along with the FMS challenge, I cut the card base down to 4" so the fox tail could hang over the edge but still fit into an A2 envelope.  For this fox, the body, tail and head were all stamped on Whisper White after being punched out -  the luxury of photopolymer stamps.  Layered on the stamped head was the white area of the face, the ears and the nose that was inked with a Basic Black marker.  The eyes and nose are a stamp but the nose didn't fully show up, so using the punched piece worked great.

I started with a 4 x 5.5 inch panel of Whisper White, which was covered with a couple of different patterns from the A Little Foxy dsp, plus an embossed panel of Calypso Coral.  Once the panel was wrapped with some Pool Party twine, it was mounted on a base of Thick Whisper White card stock.  The fox and underlying framelit cut layers were then popped up on Dimensionals and the sentiment added.

My next card is a birthday card that I will use for a birthday of one of our wee relatives that will be coming up in the second half of the year.  I created a little scene using some of the accompanying stamps in the same set.

This time the fox was stamped on the white panel - you can see the body is different than the fox in the first card.  The head is yet another separate stamp that was punched then mounted with a Dimensional over the stamped image.  The tree trunk was stamped on the panel, then fussy cut mushrooms were added.  I used a Wild Wasabi marker to create the grass and the clouds, inked in Pool Party, were borrowed from Sky is the Limit stamp set.  The sentiment, from Tin of Cards stamp set, fit perfectly on a label cut with one of the Lots of Labels Framelits.

A long post I know, so thanks if you stuck with me through the whole thing.  I appreciate your visit and would love to hear from you if you have a moment to leave a comments.  I've included links above to the respective challenges, so please be sure to use them and enjoy all the beautiful inspiration!

Until next time...

Stef


Product details

Foxy Fun card
Stamps:  Fox & Friends, Helping Me Grow
Paper:  Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Pool party, A Little Foxy dsp
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Archival Basic Black, Pool Party
Other:  Fox Builder punch, Greetings Thinlit, Tags & Labels and Lots of Labels Framelits, Pool Party twine, Brick Wall TIEF

Foxy Birthday
Stamps:  Fox & Friends, Tin of Cards, Sky is the Limit
Paper:  Whisper White, Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Smoky Slate, A Little Foxy dsp
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Wild Wasabi (marker), Chocolate Chip
Other:  Fox Builder punch, Tags & Labels and Lots of Labels Framelits, Whisper White Baker's Twine, Subtles Candy Dots, Paper Snips

Helping Me Grow

Hi there!  I recently received my order from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue but then went away for a long weekend for my husband's birthday, and was not able to break out anything new until today, when I created a card using the Helping Me Grow stamp set.  I resisting buying it when it came out earlier this year in the Occasions Catalogue but once it made it to the annual catalogue I decided to take the plunge.

Starting with a panel of watercolor paper, the flower image were stamped with Archival Basic Gray ink.  I just love the delightful flowers in this stamp set!  I decided to use Flirty Flamingo and Sweet Surgarplum, a couple of the new 2016-2018 In Colors, for the flower and a third, Emerald Envy, for the stems.  Usually my watercoloring is very controlled but with this image I decided to let the water move the ink around to a degree, so it spread a bit outside the stamped image.  After coloring the flowers, I used my heat tool to dry them before coloring the centers and the stems.  The last step was to color the background with Tempting Turquoise.

When totally dry, the water colored panel was popped up on Dimensionals on a 4 x 5.5 inch base of Tempting Turquoise card stock.  I chose the skinnier base so that when the sentiment hung off the edge, the card would still fit in a standard A2 envelope.  The only embellishment is the white twine, keeping the focus on the water colored flowers.

Thanks for dropping by today!  As always your visit and comments are so appreciated.  I'll be back later this week to share some more cards made with some of the new products from the recently released catalogue.

Until next time...

Stef


Product details
Stamps:  Helping Me Grow, Balloon Celebration (sentiment)
Paper:  Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Watercolor
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Sweet Sugarplum, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Tempting Turquoise, Archival Basic Gray
Other:  Circle Card Thinlit (sentiment banner), Aqua Painter, Thick Whisper White Baker's Twine

Father's Day

Hello!  I hope you're having a great weekend.  I've been so busy at work this week that I had no time to spend in my craft room, but I remedied that this afternoon by putting together a Father's Day card using the sketch from the current challenge at Sunday Stamps.

The card is for my Father-in-Law, who was a pilot in WWII.  While the plane from Sky is the Limit is not from that period, my husband is sure he will still like this.

I chose the color combination of Pacific Point and Basic Black, mainly because I rescued the fussy cut plane colored in Pacific Point from another project that ended up in the reject pile.  The clouds were created by punching a Scallop circle and sponging Pacific Point ink on a Whisper White panel.  After the ink dried some designer Washi tape was used to edge the bottom of the panel.

The sentiment was made with the new Labeler Alphabet stamp set.  I love the look, and the nice thing is that the set is photopolymer, so you can see where you're stamping.  I still need a bit of practice but I wasn't looking to achieve perfection - I like the funky result.  The finishing touches included the Black Baker's Twine and two of the new Metallic Enamel embellishments.

Thanks for looking and, as always, your visit and comments are so appreciated!  I've added a link above to the Sunday Stamps challenge, so be sure to use it and check out all the wonderful inspiration.

Until next time...


Stef


Product details
Stamps:  Sky Is the Limit, Labeler Alphabet
Paper:  Whisper White, Textured Pacific Point, Basic Black, Vellum
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pacific Point, Encore Silver
Other:  Pop of Pink Designer Washi Tape, Basic Black Baker's Twine, Mini Silver Brad, 3/4" Circle and Scallop Circle punches, Metallic Enamel embellishment

Good Day

Hi there!  It's Monday and time to post my sample for this week's Color Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  This week Vicki has chosen the color combination of Pool Party, Marina Mist and Garden Green.  "Dessert" is to make your card a Father's Day card.  I decided to pass on "dessert" and instead make a masculine style card that could be used for multiple occasions.

SCS CC586

I started with a panel of Garden Green that was stamped with the Woodgrain background stamp and after adding the Marina Mist horizontal strip and twine, was popped up on Dimensionals and added to a base of the same card stock.

I used a scene from Happy Home stamp set for this card.  I think the sentiment is perfect - I mean, what could be better than a beautiful afternoon hanging out with your doggy and flying a kite?  (I do think my sentiment is a bit crooked LOL!  I will have to straighten it out before giving it away.)  The scene was stamped on a piece of watercolor paper then colored with an Aqua Painter and the challenge colors, with the sky a mix of both blues.  Once that dried it was trimmed down and adhered to the back of the window frame die cut.  The rest is pretty self explanatory - product details are below.

Thanks so much for your visit, as always I'd love to hear from you if you have a moment to leave a comment.  Please be sure to use the link above and join us in the Color Challenge plus appreciate all the gorgeous inspiration.

Until next time...

Stef

Product details

Stamps:  Happy Home, Hardwood

Paper:  Whisper White, Garden Green, Marina Mist, Watercolor

Ink:  Archival Basic Gray, Pool Party, Marina Mist, Garden Green

Other:  1" Square and Postage Stamp punches, Hearth & Home Thinlit, Thick Whisper White Baker's Twine

Gee, Thanks!

Hello!  I have a quick post with a card made for Freshly Made Sketches.  A friend at work built a wood bird feeder and gave it to my husband and me as a gift, so I wanted to give him a thank you card.  Looking through my stash, they are definitely more on the feminine side, so I used this sketch to make a more masculine and CAS card.

I had to laugh that I used four different stamp sets for this very simple card.  I started with a thick Whisper White card base, then stamped ink spots/splotches in Dapper Denim, Pool Party and Soft Suede across the card face at an angle.  Next, the Hardwood Background stamp was inked up in Soft Suede and stamped on a piece of Kraft card stock.  I layered it on a slightly larger piece of Dapper Denim, deciding to make it a bit wonky for a bit more interest.

The sentiment from the retired Just Sayin', stamped in Dapper Denim, was cut with a Word Bubble framelit, then a brad from Antique Trinkets was added to the corner.  The last item was to wrap Hemp Twine around the top.

Thanks for looking.  As always your visit and comments mean so much!  I've included a link to FMS above, so do be sure to use it and enjoy all the amazing inspiration.

Until next time...

Stef


Product details
Stamps:  Hardwood, Just Sayin', Timeless Textures, Gorgeous Grunge
Paper:  Whisper White, Kraft, Dapper Denim
Ink:  Pool Party, Dapper Denim, Soft Suede
Other:  Word Bubble Framelit, Hemp Twine, Antique Linen

Butterfly Thanks

Hi there!  My card today was made for the current challenge at Stamp Ink Paper.  This is the first time I've entered this challenge - the great sketch really drew me in, but after perusing the blog, I discovered they have a lot of great ideas for weekly fun!

SIP #50

I had pulled out a couple scraps of retired Venetian Romance designer series paper that I really love, and decided to work with that for my card.  Starting with a 4.5" x 5.5" panel of Island Indigo, a piece of the dsp was layered on top, along with a scallop border in Very Vanilla.  Some Island Indigo Baker's Twine was wrapped around the panel then a double bow was added.

The butterfly was created by cutting layers of card stock with framelits from both Butterfly and Bold Butterfly collections. The base butterfly is solid Island Indigo card stock, topped with a layer of dsp under the vellum card stock butterfly.  The vellum was covered with a bit of Clear Wink of Stella for some nice sparkle.  A Calypso Coral button was tied with a bit more of the baker's twine and added to the top of the layered butterfly.

The butterfly and sentiment, cut with a Greetings Thinlit were attached to a Very Vanilla circle layered on top of a Pistachio Pudding scallop circle.  The final touches were the sequins and rhinestone, then the completed panel was added to base of Island Indigo card stock with Dimensionals.

Thanks for looking!  Your visit is so appreciated and I'd love to hear from you if you have a moment to leave a comment.
Be sure to use the link above to visit Stamp Ink Paper and enjoy all the wonderful inspiration!

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!

Until next time...

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  None
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Pistachio Pudding, Island Indigo, Venetian Romance dsp
Ink:  None
Other:  Butterfly and Bold Butterfly Framelits, Greetings Thinlit, 2" Circle, 2 3/8" Scallop Circle punches, and Scallop Border punches, Subtles button, Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Metallic Sequins, Rhinestone Basic Jewel

Blossom Birthday

Hi there!  Yeah, it's Friday!  I'm so ready for the weekend even though it was a short week at work with the holiday on Monday.  Tonight I have a card to share that I made earlier this week for the sketch challenge at Mojo Monday and the color challenge at Fab Friday.

MOJO 450

FabFri88

Love these colors together!  I decided to go pretty CAS with this card.  I started with a piece of Moonlight designer series paper in Blackberry Bliss and edged it with a border of Bermuda Bay punched with the Eyelet Border punch.  Stampin' Up! retired that punch a few years ago but it still remains one of my favorites, so it will never be retired from my punch collection!

The big blossom and leaves were stamped in their respective colors, then a bit of ink was lightly applied with an Aqua Painter.  I had to be careful - using too much water could blur the stamped image too much.  After they dried, I fussy cut them with my paper snips and attached them to the tag.  The Hello Honey twine, sequins and pearls finished things off.

As part of the Mojo challenge this week, my card is Tall & Skinny, measuring 3.5" x 5.5", which allowed the leaf to hang over the edge of the card but still fit into a standard envelope.

That's it!  Like I said, it's pretty simple, but I like how it turned out.  Thanks so much for looking and as always, your visit and comments are so appreciated!  I've included links to the respective challenges above, so do be sure to use them and check out all the wonderful inspiration!


Until next time...

Stef



Product details:
Stamps:  Birthday Blossom
Paper:  Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Hello Honey (inside edge), Moonlight dsp
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey
Other:  Banners framelit, Hello Honey twine, Eyelet Border punch, Metallic Sequins, Pearl Basic Jewels, Paper Snips