Retirement Party No. 4: I Dig You

I was really surprised to see that a lot of the kids/babies sets in the 2012 Stampin' Up! Catalog are retiring. I'll admit, I haven't really "internalized" (ok, ok, memorized!) that part of the new catalog, but I'm sure there will be plenty of great new ones. But the I Dig You set is certainly super cute and super fun! This is actually a card I made a while ago that I never got around to sharing. Very simple. I just stamped the truck with markers, and cut it out by hand. The "sky" part of the background is embossed with the Chevrons folder, and I distressed/tore Basic Gray and Basic Black cardstocks for the "ground" part of the background. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but I actually crumpled the black cardstock up and then smoothed it out to give it some great texture.

Don't forget, the retiring stamp sets are only available through Monday, June 3, 2013. That's a week from today! Visit my website or email me to order!

I Dig You
Clear mount #122722
Wood mount #122720 

Retirement Party No. 3: Flock Together

This is another card I made quite some time ago that I never got around to sharing! :) Birds have been very trendy in papercrafting, home decor, and fashion lately, so if you're a bird fan, you'll want to grab this set before it's gone! This card was a cinch to put together too. I love using repeated elements and just changing up the colors. I also really love the horizontal stripes - pretty much a no-brainer! (The sentiment is from Field Flowers.)

Don't forget: This set will only be available through Monday, June 3, 2013! Visit my website or email me to place your order!

Flock Together
Clear mount #126732
Wood mount #126730

Retirement Party No. 2: Tea Shoppe

This card is another reject from my Artisan Design Team submissions. I've been really into negative die cuts lately for some reason. :) These tea cups are actually one stamp, so you could certainly use markers to color just one at a time, but I actually chose to cut my stamp apart. More versatile that way for me. I also - fittingly - chose to use the Tea for Two DSP from the Spring Catalog on this card. Don't forget that a lot of those items - except the stamp sets that will be carrying over - are only available until May 31st! That's this Friday! And all retiring stamp sets will only be available through June 3rd! So get your orders in now - visit my website, or email me.

Tea Shoppe
Clear mount #125547
Wood moung #125545

Think Outside the Box - Little Additions Birthday Card

I love stamp sets that have lots of little elements that you can use in a bunch of different ways. I had the Little Additions set on my desk after making all the baby projects I've been sharing with you, and I really wanted to use the cute little flag stamp. So I thought, why not use it to make something different? As in not a baby card :)

I had this Petite Pocket in my scrap basket left over from my Valentine mini album. Great start right there! I decorated it with a quick little embellishment - a DSP banner, and a button layered with a tag I made with Tiny Tags and the Jewelry Tag punch (both also retiring - *sniff*). Pool Party baker's twine tied through both, then an In Color Dahlia layered on top.

  

The card itself was really easy to make. I just cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock to fit the Petite Pocket, and sketched in a curved like with a pencil. I stamped the banners along the curve with Pool Party, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit, and Certainly Celery. Then I used a Basic Black marker to draw a clean line over my pencil line. The Happy Birthday greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes (thankfully not retiring!), and I stamped two extra banners which I cut out and adhered as tabs to the end of the card.

Easy, quick, and super cute! Just how I like it! :)

Retiring items used in this project:

InLinkz.com

More Little Additions

How cute are these little 3x3 cards? While I had the Little Additions set and all these pastel inks and cardstocks on my desk, I thought I'd get as much out of them as I could! :) These little cuties came together so quickly and easily. The most time-consuming part was cutting out the little onesies, but I think the final product was worth it!

These little cards would be so cute on a present for a baby shower. I also love the idea of giving a handmade 3x3 card with a gift of flowers, instead of the generic cards they have at the florist. Or tied to a big bunch of balloons when visiting a new baby for the first time - that would be so fun! :)

Retirement Party No. 1: Little Additions and Tiny Tags

Welcome to the first post of my Retirement Party! Stampin' Up!'s new catalog will be available as of May 30, but before that, we have to say good bye to some favorites. But it doesn't have to be goodbye! The retiring stamps will be available through June 3rd! (Retiring accessories - ribbon, cardstock, DSP, dies, punches, etc. - are only available while supplies last, though, so check those out ASAP!) So to celebrate the retiring stamps, I'll be featuring some of them on my blog through the month of May. Today's celebrated retiree: Little Additions.

I really love this set, and I'm quite sad to see it go. I don't normally like sets designed to make "scenes" like this, but these images are just too cute! And actually this is the first card I've made with this set where I did create a scene. But I love how it turned out!

I paired this set with another retiring set: Tiny Tags. Also retiring is the coordinating Jewelry Tag Punch. I adore this pair, and I'm really not sure what I'm going to do without them! Whenever I'm not sure where to put a sentiment, or I just need a simple little embellishment, this duo never fails!

Oh! And those fun dots in the background on this card? That's the Distressed Dots stamp - one of my favorite background stamps. It's so great for a little tone-on-tone texture!


Retiring items used in this project:

InLinkz.com

Start-to-Finish Sunday #17 - Watercolor Butterfly Sympathy Card

Another Sunday is coming to a close. My goodness, the weekends go by fast! Far too fast, if you ask me! This week I wanted to share the Watercolor Background technique - one of my faves and so much fun to do! It makes a mess though, so if you're squeemish about inky hands, you may want to get yourself a pair of gloves. Anyway, I decided to use this technique to make a sympathy card. I was thinking the watercolor look, plus a few simple butterflies, was well suited for this type of card.

The video shows how to make the watercolored panel, plus a little bit of my thought process that went into putting the card together. You can watch it below, or over on my YouTube channel.

Have a great week! Happy Stampin'! :)




Watercolor Butterfly Card Supplies
 

InLinkz.com

Start-to-Finish Sunday #15 - Gender Neutral Baby Card with Window

This card came about in a rather interesting way. I was on Pinterest and I saw that somebody had pinned a pair of adorable handmade loafers from etsy. They were super cute, so naturally I repinned them. :) But then I kept thinking about that picture, not for the shoes, but for the color combination. I really liked it a lot and tried to figure out how to interpret it in Stampin' Up! colors. Here's that inspiration photo...

(+)

Totally cute, right? :) So for my project I chose Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, Pool Party, Cajun Craze, and Very Vanilla. Then I had to mull over it for a few days to decide what kind of card to make. Well, friends of ours are expecting their second baby this spring, and they're not finding out the gender. I think that's totally awesome, but would never do it myself because then everything people give you for the baby is yellow and green! (Seriously people, baby girls can wear blue and baby boys can wear purple. It's ok.) So I decided on a gender-neutral baby card.

For a little added interest, I decided to cut a window out of the front of the card and do my stamping on the inside so that it shows through. Love this technique!

The video came out a little long because I goofed up and had to fix it. But I decided to keep that part in because I always appreciate when other cardmakers show how they fix their mistakes. I hope you do to! Anyway, you can watch the video below, or over on my YouTube channel.

Happy Stampin'! :)



Gender Neutral Baby Card Supplies

InLinkz.com