Start-to-Finish Sunday #42 - Watercolor Wings

Wait a minute. I know what you're thinking. Start-to-Finish Sunday?? Doesn't that mean a video??? Yes! My first STFS video since September! Baby Lyla actually let me get a ton of crafting the other day - including THREE videos! So stay tuned. :)

Today's card features one of the new sets from the 2015 Stampin' Up! catalog. It's called Watercolor Wings. Now, I'm not a big butterfly person, even though they're always really popular. But you guys know how much I like watercoloring, and anything that creates a watercolor look. This set fits that bill. It's made up of multiple images that you layer together to create really stunning butterflies. I love it for a tone-on-tone look with layered shades of the same color, but I'm also really excited to play with this set and try all sorts of color combinations. Which is where this card comes in!

This card was inspired by one that Alison Barclay shared on her blog. I immediately fell in love with this very unique color combination. I never would have thought to put Blushing Bride and Watermelon Wonder with Night of Navy - let alone combining them in one image. But I love it! (I also added a little bit of Smoky Slate.) The sentiment is from a stamp set called Hello Life.

In the video, I show you how to assemble the different stamps in this set to create these beautiful layered watercolor-look butterflies. You can check it out below, or over on my YouTube channel. Enjoy!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Social Media Challenge Reject

Yesterday I shared my social media inspired card for the Catherine & Cathy Create August challenge. What I didn't tell you was that it was actually the second card I'd made for the challenge. :) Wanna see my first attempt? I guess I shouldn't really call it a "reject" because I still think it came out great, but I ended up deciding that I didn't quite use enough social media influence. Check it out...

The original idea behind this card was the juxtaposition between the old-fashioned typewriter and the modern hashtag sentiment. I still think it looks cool on the card, but I chose to make the other card to play up the social media aspect of the challenge. 

The color combination of Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey was taken from the Moonlight DSP Stack (which also includes Basic Gray, Lost Lagoon, and Sahara Sand), which I also used on the little flags at the bottom of the card. The sentiment is from #hello and the adorable little paperclip is from the Basics Hodgepodge Clips assortment (love it!)

I colored this super cute typewriter (it's from a set called Tap Tap Tap, by the way) with Blackberry Bliss ink and an aqua painter. So cute! I popped it up on a slightly crooked piece of my new favorite thing in the entire world: Typeset DSP. I punched the edge with the Spiral Border Punch (my other new fave!) and tied on some black bakers' twine. Oh, and those awesome polka dots on the Hello Honey panel? That's the Large Polka Dot embossing folder. Love that texture!

Happy Stampin'! :)

CCC#037: July 2014 Challenge - National Pride

CCC#037: July 2014 Monthly Challenge

National Pride

This month's challenge from Catherine and Cathy Create is to make any project inspired by your country's national colors. A lot of us are celebrating Canada Day and the 4th of July, so this is perfect timing! Though, I have to say this one wasn't much of a challenge for me since 95% of my recent projects have been red, white, and blue! :-D

So as I told you before, I've been completely addicted to the Sea Street stamp set and matching Maritime DSP collection... which just happens to be red, white, and blue! What I love about the Sea Street set is that it's so much more versatile than it may appear at first glance. Sure, there are cutesy smiling sea creatures that are probably most appropriate for projects for kids. But the other images in the set are perfect for creating a totally on-trend and very sophisticated preppy nautical look. That was what inspired my project for this challenge.

I decided to put together a complete stationery set with everything you need to send adorable notes right in one box. Since I used the preppy nautical theme, this set is very grown-up, but would also be completely appropriate for a child off to sleep-away camp. :)

I used Stampin' Up!'s white notecards and envelopes to quickly and easily create a set of 6 clean and simple notecards. I stamped the anchor and rope images from Sea Street and the hello sentiment from A Dozen Thoughts in Real Red, Coastal Cabana, and Night of Navy inks.

The notecards come come with envelopes, but I wanted to dress up the cards a little so I made my own envelopes out of the Maritime DSP and the envelope punch board. Quick, easy, and cute!

Since the DSP envelopes don't have any sealer on them, I thought it would be nice to stick some coordinating stickers into the kit. These are just some white yardsale price stickers I had hanging around, but the anchor stamp fits perfectly on them! I also found some large mailing label stickers, white I decide to cut in half and stamp to coordinate too. (The "to" stamp is from an old Christmas set, by the way.)

Here's what it looks like when the whole set is put together. So cute and so sophisticated! I stamped on the label (with a retired alpha set - sorry!) but you could just as easily hand write your recipient's name. Or you could write a whole address on the label - it's big enough - and you could actually put this through the mail! (I'd seal the envelope up with more than just the little sticker if I was going to mail it.)

I did include a coordinating pen, because I wanted the kit to have everything you'd need to write and send a note. I wanted to put a piece of DSP inside the clear barrel of the pen, but this particular pen is just too skinny, and I couldn't find the mini version of the Pentel R.S.V.P. pens that work so well for this. Oh well, the pen still matches all by itself!

So that's it for me! Hope you enjoyed this project and you've been inspired to play along with this challenge and make a project with your country's national colors? Are they the same as mine? :) If you do make a project, make sure you link it up on Catherine and Cathy Create - and while you're there, check out the other DT members' projects.

Happy Stampin'! :)

One Stamp, Four Ways: Sweet and Simple Sympathy Card

I have a terrible habit of making tons of cards at random and never actually doing anything with them. When I found myself needing 4 cards to be in the mail and delivered by Thursday, ironically I didn't have any on hand that worked! So I decided to challenge myself. The Flower Patch stamp set had just arrived in my mailbox, and I was dying to bust into it. It's one of the photopolymer sets in the new catalog - and it is huge! The combinations of flowers you can stamp are endless! I thought it would be fun to see if I could make 4 different cards - for completely different occasions - using that one stamp set. Fun!

So here's the first card I have to share with you. There's a really sweet woman who is a patient at the medical office where I work, and she always asks for me when she calls. Her husband had been very sick, and passed away a few days ago. We live in an area with a lot of older people, and sadly, we have patients passing almost every day. I certainly don't often send cards, but with this kind woman, I just felt called to reach out and let her know I was thinking of her.

Sympathy cards can be very difficult to make, so I decided to keep this one very simple. The pastel color palette is bright, but appropriate. I kept my stamping simple too - I didn't do much of the two-step stamp layering that this set is designed for. And you can see that I still achieved beautiful flowers just by stamping one layer!

The colors I chose for this card are Crisp Cantaloupe (which is way more of a peach color than shows in this photo), Pool Party, So Saffron, and Pistachio Pudding. I used a layer of Sahara Sand to create a small border accent, but this could very easily be a stunning one layer card. The sentiment I chose is from A Dozen Thoughts, stamped in black ink.

So that's it for today. Stay tuned for my second card, coming soon!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Occasions Catalog Favorites: Peachy Keen

Here's a cute and simple card I made with the Peachy Keen stamp set from the Occasions Catalog, and the coordinating On Film Framelits. I also used the super fun Retro Fresh DSP collection both on my card and as an inspiration for the colors I chose.

This card is really very simple and doesn't take much in the way of explanation. The card base is Coastal Cabana, and then I layered Sahara Sand and Very Vanilla. I cut the filmstrip die with Baked Brown Sugar, and stamped on a layer of Sahara Sand which I adhered behind it. I stamped the greeting with Baked Brown Sugar, Tangerine Tango, and Coastal Cabana markers. The heart is clear embossed on Tangerine Tango cardstock, giving it a great shiny, tone on tone look. 

A little bow of gold baker's twine finishes off this cute and very mailable card!

If you like this card, you'll want to know that the Peachy Keen stamp set and Retro Fresh DSP will only be available until May 31st! That's less than two weeks! Visit my website if you'd like to place an order.

Happy Stampin'! :)

Occasions Catalog Favorite: Hello, Sailor

The Occasions Catalog run is winding down: Many products from this catalog will only be available until June 1, 2014! Yes, some of them will be carried over into the new 2014-2015 Annual Catalog, debuting on June 2nd, but that is not the case with everything. So if there's something you think you can't live without, make sure you get your order in by June 1st!

I've got some cards on deck to share with you guys, so my plan is to post them over the next few days, showcasing some of my faves from the Occasions Catalog, whether they will be carried over or not. Sound good? Let's get started! :)

One of my most favorite stamp sets in the Occasions Catalog is called Hello, Sailor. It's so cute! It has awesome nautical images and sentiments. This little whale is so cute!

I also used the High Tide DSP, which coordinates perfectly with the stamp set. It has some really unique and beachy colors and motifs, but I chose to go with a more traditional palette of red, white, and blue, with some weathered gray. Specifically, I used Pacific Point, Real Red, and Smoky Slate. On the card base I used a Stampin' Sponge to ink around the edges to echo the distressed feel of the DSP.

To create the two-tone look on the adorable whale, I inked him up with Smoky Slate ink, then took a sponge dauber and sponged around his edges with Pacific Point ink. You may be familiar with this look from a technique called "rock and roll" where you roll the edges of the stamp in the second ink color. I tried that technique, but found that the blue was going further into the middle of the image than I wanted to. Using a sponge dauber solved that problem easily! (P.S. The sponge daubers are currently sold out, because they were on the Retiring List. But head's up - They're not actually retiring! They're just being reconfigured and will be back in the Annual Catalog in June.)

Oh, and the sentiment is from A Dozen Thoughts - it's definitely my favorite sentiment set right now.

So... I guess that's it for now. See you again soon - have a great week!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Retirement Party: Lacy and Lovely

Let's take a minute to celebrate Lacy and Lovely! 

This set is so pretty! I love it for super quick CAS cards, or for beginning stampers. Or step it up and try it out with a cool technique like emboss resist! :) I went the quick-and-easy route on the card I'm sharing with you today. The images in this set make awesome stamped backgrounds! I used Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, and Summer Starfruit on this card. (NOTE: Summer Starfruit is a retiring color, but as of the writing of this post, Summer Starfruit ink, as well as the Modern Medley DSP I used on this card, which is also retiring, are still available! Sadly, the Old Olive ribbon is sold out.)

Want to know my favorite thing about this set, though? The greetings! :) You know how i love mixed fonts! LOL. But seriously. These sentiments really have the perfect balance of every element... Not too feminine or masculine... They're not really large or long so they fit almost everywhere, whether you need a horizontal or a vertical sentiment... I definitely have reached for these greetings a lot! (In case you're wondering about the sentiment I used on this card, though, it's from A Dozen Thoughts, which is not retiring. I love it because it's got great general sentiments that are just a little bit more unique than the standards without being so quirky you never know when to use them!)

Remember: TODAY (Friday, April 25th) is the LAST DAY to get FREE (standard) SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS! Go to my website or email me ASAP to place your order!

Happy Stampin'! :)

CCC#025: March Challenge - Luck o' the Irish

CCC#025: March Monthly Challenge

Luck o' the Irish

Hey there, and Happy March! Spring is on the way, I promise! :) We've had a very cold and much snowier than usual winter here on the East Coast and we could not be more ready for it!

This month's challenge is to make a project inspired by St. Patrick's Day. It's a fun challenge, but I decided not to take it too literally, since St. Patrick's Day isn't really a big deal for me. (Hey, I'm not Irish, and I don't like beer, what can I say?) My card actually came about sort of accidentally. I was going to use a different color combination, but they I decided to do rainbow colors and gold instead - inspired by the leprachaun's pot of gold at the end of the rainbow :)

I used one stamp set for this card - Perfect Pennants. I used the strip of dots, stamped multiple times on the diagonal in rainbow colors on a scrap of Whisper White cardstock. I then adhered that behind the white panel with the heart cut out, using Stampin' Dimensionals. The adorable little hello banner was stamped in Versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder. To make the whole thing pop, I backed it with a Basic Black card base, with a few doodle lines in white gel pen.

This CAS card came together super easily and quickly and would be really easy to mass-produce - even quicker if you used a larger background stamp that could cover the entire cut-out heart in one stamp! You could also make it in any color combination, or swap out what shape Framelit you use to cut the window. Super simple and totally cute!

Make sure you check out Catherine and Cathy Create to see all the other DT projects. And if you play along, be certain to link your project so you can be entered to win some Stampin' Up! goodies! :-D

Happy Stampin'! :)




Rainbow Heart Card Supplies

InLinkz.com

CCC#019: January 2014 Challenge - Doodle-ista

Happy New Year! Can you believe it's 2014?!?? I don't know about how you feel, but 2013 was definitely the quickest year of my life so far! As always, it wasn't the year I was hoping for, but I'm putting on my best forward-thinking attitude, and I know that 2014 is going to be awesome! :)

Anyway… It's a new year, but it's also a new month, so we're here with another Monthly Challenge from Catherine and Cathy Create! This month's challenge: "Doodle-ista." What's that, you ask? (Yeah, me too. LOL!) Well, here's the challenge description - "You can journal on a scrapbook page, doodle on a card, or actually write a message and send a card." So here's what I came up with…

My original idea for this challenge was just to create a card and actually send it. (I haven't written my message on the inside yet - but I will, I promise!) As it turns out, I actually need a card to send to a friend who moved to Washington, D.C. just before Christmas, because I didn't get her present together in time. But once I got going, I kind of got into the "doodle" theme. I also wanted to use a bunch of new product from the Occasions Catalog that just debuted yesterday :) Check it out...

The fonts are sort of sketch-y, plus the speech bubble image is very doodle-like. I chose the triangle pattern DSP because it reminds me of the patterns we used to color on graph paper in elementary school. :) Plus, I did technically doodle on my card too - I pulled out my best Kristina Werner faux-stitching!

Here's a close-up of the speech bubble sentiment… I think this is one of my favorite stamp sets in the new catalog, and I love that it has the matching Framelits set! There are a whole bunch of really versatile sentiments, plus the speech bubbles are cute enough to use as a focal image on all your CAS cards.

I'm so glad you stopped by today, and I hope you found some inspiration from this project. Make sure you check out Catherine and Cathy Create for inspiration from the other DT members too! And if you want to play along with our challenge, make sure you link up your project for a chance to win something from Stampin' Up!

Happy Stampin! :)



Miss You Card Supplies

InLinkz.com