Cards

Basket Bunch: Easter’s On It’s Way

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Basket Bunch.3.0317Yikes!  Easter is one month from today!  I guess it really is time to start sharing my Easter cards!

Have you played with Stampin’ Up!’s Basket Bunch stamp set and the COORDINATING Basket Builder Framelits?  You should!  There are SO many things you can do with these two COORDINATING items!  I really love this bundle of products and will definitely be keeping it in my stash.

Today’s card is a fun and simple one that I came up with while playing around with these products.  These eggs are all on the same stamp but cut out separately with the die.  I stamped them, colored them with various colors of markers, and then die cut them before adhering them to my card.

The fun saying is from the Greatest Greetings stamp set.  I’ve been waiting for a chance to use this fun sentiment and finally came up with the perfect card for it.  There’s a similar sentiment in the Basket Bunch stamp set which says “you’re egg-stra special”.  Too fun!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Think Spring! Basket Bunch Daffodil

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Basket Bunch.1.0317Spring is fast approaching (although it feels like it’s already here!) and so is Easter.  It’s time to make Easter cards and that’s what we’re doing in classes this week.

This bright and cheerful card is one of my favorites from the class.  How can you not love a yellow daffodil?!

There’s nothing tricky about making this card.  I stamped the flower, stem and leaves on Shimmery White card stock and colored them with ink pads and an Aqua Painter.

Doesn’t the Stitched Shape Oval add to the card.  It would have been nice with a plain die cut oval but the “stitching” around the edge just takes things to the next level.

I’m starting to use the Petal Burst Embossing Folder more and more lately.  It fills in the blank space on the background yet is still a little subtle.  Cucumber Crush was the perfect shade of green for this card.  It’s a shame it will be going away with this current Annual Catalog.  Be sure to get all of your supplies in this color while you can!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!  Think Spring!

Make it Mine Monday: Dragonfly Dreams Bee

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Dragonfly Dreams.0217Welcome to Make It Mine Monday!  What do you think of my bee?  I actually got the idea for this card way back in November at an On Stage event.  Stampin’ Up! Cofounder Shelli Gardner showed simple card made using the Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and the bee from the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set.

IMG_8959 (2)I decided to step my card up a little bit.  The second card shown here is the one I copied.  The picture isn’t very good because I took a picture of the big screen we were watching.  Shellie simply embossed the front of her card and added the label with the stamped bee.

Naturally I had to add a few more layers to my card.  My motto is: you can never have too many layers.  OK…that’s not quite true.  I do have a hard time though when there aren’t enough layers.  🙂

Check out my bee.  Did you notice that I colored the stripes?  Nope….I didn’t use ink.  I used my Gold Wink of Stella Glimmer Pen!  Pretty clever of me isn’t it?!  I also used the Clear Wink of Stella Glimmer Pen on the wings.  You can never have too much sparkle!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Simple Saturday: Love & Affection

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Love & Affection.0217Welcome to Simple Saturday!  It doesn’t get a whole lot simpler than this card.  All you need to do for this easy layout is start with your favorite piece of designer series paper.

I chose this pretty piece of paper from the Affectionately Yours package of designer paper.  The Night of Navy and Crumb Cake is such a striking color combination.

Once I chose my designer paper I simply layered it on a piece of Night of Navy card stock and put it on the front of the card.  Then I stamped my sentiment on a piece of Crumb Cake card stock, layered that on Night of Navy, put it on the front of my card and my card was done!  Easy Peasy!

You could even skip the sentiment and just make your designer paper a bit larger on the card front and you’d still have a great card.

Here are the dimensions that I used:

Crumb Cake:  5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, 3 3/8″ x 1 1/8″

Night of Navy:  3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″, 3 1/2″ x 1 1/4″

Designer Paper:  3 3/8″ x 3 3/8″

Have fun making this SIMPLE card!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Balloon Adventures Shaker Card

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Balloon Adventures.0317Check out this FUN birthday card that I made for my niece Abbey’s 16th birthday!  Didn’t it turn out cute?  🙂

This was one of those cards that makes you smile when you are finished with it.  I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It really wasn’t difficult to make either.  The first step I had to figure out was my color palette.  If you’ve read my blog much or been around me you know that many times I determine my color palette by what ribbon I want to use on the card.  In this case I don’t even have ribbon on the card (What?!) so I started with stuff I wanted to put in my shaker card!  How crazy is that?  I knew I wanted fun shakery (?) stuff in my card so I went with the Sprinkles Embellishments from the Cool Treats Suite in the Occasions Catalog.  All sorts of pretty colors:  Peekaboo Peach, Pool Party and Watermelon Wonder….and that’s where my color palette for the card came from!

Seeing as I had used the embellishments from the Cool Treats Suite I knew I had to the COORDINATING designer series paper!  Now all of the hard work was done!

I used just a portion of the balloon pop-up die to make the focal point of my card.  I cut my card stock the exact size of the die.  I did have to trim the top and the bottom a bit to fit on my card front.

I punched out my balloons from the Tasty Treats Specialty Designer Series Paper, added my sentiment from the  Balloon Adventures stamp set and the front of my card was done!  I just needed to make the shaker portion.

Making a shaker card is pretty easy.  I cut a piece of Window Sheet the same size as I used for my balloon focal point and adhered it to the back of the focal point with Tear & Tape Adhesive.   On the back of the focal point I then added my foam adhesive strips around the edges.  When you do this step you want to make sure you have no gaps at all between the strips because you don’t want your “shakery stuff” to be able to escape!  Now you want to add all of your “shakery stuff” to the area enclosed by the foam strips.  Once you have added as much “shakery stuff” as you want to your card you will then remove the backing of your foam strips and adhere a piece of card stock which is the same size as your balloon focal point.  Now you have the shaker portion of the card done!  Add it to the front of the card and ta-da….you have a beautiful shaker card.

I did add a couple of extra items to the Sprinkles Embellishments to make my “shakery stuff”.  I added a few silver sequins from my roll of Silver Sequin Trim and I also picked out a few white stars from my container of Metallics Sequin Assortments.  All in all a VERY fun card.  Let me know if you have any questions on how I made it.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

3 x 3 Thursday: Avant Garden

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AvantGarden.0317I think I’ve mentioned at least once or twice that I really, really like this flower and stamp set.  🙂

The Avant Garden stamp set is gorgeous and you can get it for FREE during Sale-a-bration!  It doesn’t get much better than that!

It’s 3 x 3 Thursday.  I haven’t had one of these for awhile.  I like to put little 3 x 3 thank you notes in with the orders for my customers.

Yes, this is basically the same layout that I used on the Avant Garden card that I showed you last week but it’s such a great and versatile layout that I had to use it on these little notes!

I think I’ve found a new favorite color combination:  Rich Razzleberry and Sweet Sugarplum.  Yum!  They work so well together!  Do you have a favorite Stampin’ Up! color combination?  Leave me a comment and let me know what it is!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Make it Mine Monday: Cool Treats

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Cool Treats.0217How about a birthday card for Make It Mine Monday?  My March is filled with birthdays.  Today is my favorite pastor’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Pastor DJ!  As you can tell from the picture below, DJ is young….he’s not even 40!  He’s a great and inspirational speaker and a lot of fun to be around.  The big joke between us is hugs.  DJ is not a hugger yet every time I see him I 20170305_074926 (2)give him a hug….he tries to run away.  I secretly think he really loves hugs!  Ha!

I’m kind of sad though because Pastor DJ is leaving our church.  He and his family (his wife Jen is a hoot and I love her as much as I love DJ) are heading to a church in Houston, TX.  It’s definitely a big loss for us and a big gain for the congregation in Houston.

But back to the card!  This fun card that I made for the Card Buffet class last week was copied from the talented Dawn 16828e267156bc02b79d25857c185d87Olchefske.  As you can see, I kept the same basic design and colors but I changed the card orientation and added a couple of layers.  I just love getting inspiration from others.  Thanks Dawn!

Later this week I’ll share the actual card that I made for Pastor DJ as well as the card I made for my niece for her Sweet 16th!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Simple Saturday: Beautiful You

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Beautiful You.0217Last week I held a Card Buffet Class where my customers can make as many cards as they’d like.  I designed 8 fairly simple cards so that they would have time to make a bunch if they liked.

Today’s card is one of the one’s I designed for the Card Buffet.  I couldn’t go wrong with the Beautiful You stamp set and the Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper!  🙂

It’s hard to tell but on the right edge of the designer paper I added a piece of Night of Navy Solid Baker’s Twine.  It just seemed to finish the card off.  Simple, yet elegant.

This design will definitely work with any of the images in the Beautiful You stamp set since the area you are stamping on is so large.  The blue and white color scheme is simple enough too for any of the images.  Give it a try!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Lift Me Up Treat Bag

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CampTreatBag.0217My friend Jan loves to make 3D projects.  For our Stamp Camps she always volunteers to make the bags that we give to customers as they come in.  The bags have a few pieces of candy in them and the customers can place their finished projects in the bag.

This is the bag that she made for our recent Stamp Camp.  All I can say is WOW!  That was a lot of work.  She made 40 of them!  Thanks Jan!

Jan used the Lift Me Up stamp set and the Up & Away Thinlits Dies as well as the Carried Away Designer Series Paper.  The designer paper is a Sale-a-bration item that you’re close to earning for FREE if you purchase the Lift Me Up Bundle.  How great is that?  The designer paper is fun because it coordinates perfectly with the bundle.  Some of the designs have hot air balloons on them and some have clouds.  COORDINATION!  Woo Hoo!  🙂

The decorated focal point is a little too large for a regular card front but with a little trimming I think it would work.  I’m definitely going to give it a try!

You can check out the Lift Me Up Bundle on page 10 of the Occasion Catalog and the Carried Away Designer Series Paper can be found on page 7 of the Sale-a-bration Brochure.

Have a great day!  I hope it’s uplifting!  🙂

That’s the Tag

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StampCampJan.0217Absolutely Gorgeous!  That’s all I have to say about this card.  OK…not really….you know I always have more to say!  Ha!

This was one of the projects from our Sassy Stampers & Friends Stamp Camp this past Saturday.  Isn’t it beautiful?  Thanks Jan for sharing this project with us!

You just can’t seem to go wrong with the Copper Foil Sheets!  They are definitely one of my favorite specialty papers.

Now, you know me….I have my own way of doing things.  If I was going to recreate this card I would have another layer of the Copper Foil behind the Whisper White layer.  With me it’s all about the layers….I can’t seem to get enough of them!

What about you?  Would you have changed anything on this card?

In case you’re wondering, the designer paper is from the Affectionately Yours Designer Series Paper pack.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!  Happy March!

Make it Mine Monday: Avant Garden

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Avant Garden.0217Have you played with the Avant Garden Sale-a-bration stamp set yet?  I love these flowers!

I designed this card for my Card Buffet Class that I’m holding this week.  I had plenty of inspiration.  I found quite a few cards on Pinterest that inspired me.  They were gorgeous but a little more involved than I wanted.  For the class I was looking for a simple design that people could make multiples of if they wanted.  I simplified my e78096e7b1d9e52eae829c52ea23a43edesign by only stamping the flowers along with the sentiment and leaving off the leaves and such.

You can see how I kept the basic layout but also simplified it by keeping my flowers one color.

This past weekend my group, Sassy Stampers & Friends held our Sale-a-bration Stamp Camp for our customers.  One of our IMG_9539designers came up with a card using this same basic design.

All three of these are basically the same card but they all look different.  From these you can see how easy it is to make a card your own.  Give it a try!

Avant Garden is a GORGEOUS stamp set and you can get it for FREE during Sale-a-bration with a qualified order.  There’s only a little over a month left of Sale-a-bration!  Don’t miss out!  Get those orders in today!  You can check out all the Sale-a-bration items available here.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Inside the Lines Specialty Designer Series Paper

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sab17_10aDo you like to color?  If you do, you definitely need to check out the Inside the Lines Specialty Designer Series Paper.  It’s a 2017 Sale-a-bration item that you can choose for FREE with a $50 dollar order.

This fun package of paper contains 12 sheets of coloring paper….3 sheets of 4 different designs.  In the picture at the left you can see some of the many different ways that you can color this fun paper.   The video below shows these techniques in more detail.  Check it out!

If you love to color and want to try out this fun paper remember that it is only available through March 31st with a qualifying order!

 

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

 

Lift Me Up Tri-Fold (Gate Fold) Card

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Lift Me Up.1.0217Thank you to the talented Dawn Olchefske for this card idea.  Actually, I pretty much CASEd (copied) Dawn’s idea step by step.  I did change the measurements a little and only added one balloon.

Why change a good thing?  I loved Dawn’s card from the start but as I was making it I had to change a few things.

I had to change the measurements and a little Lift Me Up.2.0217bit of the layout only because I used a different sentiment.  I wanted to use the birthday sentiment since I didn’t need a card about “love”.  That meant that I had to shorten my front “flaps” a little bit to make sure the sentiment would fit in the white area.

Here are the measurements I used:

Card Base: 5 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ score at 1 5/8″ & 5 7/8″

Whisper White:  5 1/4″ x 4″, 1 3/8″ x 5 1/4″ (2x)

Designer Paper:  1 1/4″ x 5 1/8″ (2x)

Night of Navy:  3″ x 3 3/4″

4748457f02b195cfab94f45b4061800bTo stamp the sentiment perfectly I adhered the large piece of Whisper White card stock to the inside of my card and then used removable adhesive to hold the two front flaps down so that my card was “closed”.  Then I got out my Stamp-a-ma-jig to perfectly align the sentiment.  When I was done stamping I just had to rub off the removable adhesive with my finger and I was good to go.

To finish off the card, I die cut my balloon and adhered just the top of it to the top flap.  Don’t put adhesive on the whole balloon or you won’t be able to open your card!  🙂

This designer paper (Carried Away) is one of the Sale-a-bration items that you can choose for FREE.  Don’t forget that for every $50 you spend during Sale-a-bration you can choose a FREE Sale-a-bration item!  Woo Hoo!

As you can see from the last picture, I couldn’t add the small balloon to my card because there wasn’t room when I used the longer sentiment.  Thanks again Dawn for your inspiration!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Candle Border Punch Birthday Card

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Candle Border Punch.0217Well, vacation is over and it’s time to get back to work!  I had a great time up in the mountains doing pretty much nothing.  My cousin got me hooked on HGTV again and that’s probably not a good thing.  I usually don’t watch much TV and now I seem to have it on constantly.  The one good thing about that is that I haven’t bee reading too much.  Hmm…it’s sounding like I have trouble staying on task…..

This is one of the 8 cards that I’ve designed for my All-Occasion Card Buffet Class next week.  I think it’s pretty fun.  A person can never have too many birthday cards on hand, right?

Don’t you love the row of candles punch on the bottom of the card?  They’re made with the new Candle Border Punch found at the bottom of page 7 in the Occasions Catalog.  It’s easy to miss because it’s so small.

I punched my row of candles first before running the Daffodil Delight card stock  through the Big Shot with the Softly Falling Embossing Folder.  That way I could figure out how to place the card stock on the embossing folder.

I used the Stylized Birthday stamp for my sentiment.  This is one of those stamps that was collecting dust on my shelf.  So glad I found a use for it finally!  It’s a great size to be the focal point on a card.  I’m not sure why I haven’t used it before now!  Sheesh!

If you’re in the Denver area and would like to attend my Card Buffet next Tuesday (morning or evening session) just let me know!  There’s plenty of room!  🙂

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Breckenridge Colorado!

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Breck.0217Hubby and I are up in the mountains of Colorado at our time share for the week.  That’s why you haven’t heard much from me.  My cousin, her husband, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend were up for the weekend and we had a really great time.  We ate, drank and just enjoyed each other’s company.  Some of us went skiing and other’s of us didn’t.  Now we’re recuperating before the next batch of company shows up.  🙂

Hubby and I had an early Valentine’s dinner last night at our favorite seafood restaurant here in Breckenridge and will probably just lay low today.  Do you have any exciting plans to celebrate with your valentine?