Fall Thoughtful Branches

Thoughtful Branches.pumpkin.0816I can’t get enough of this bundle!  OMG!  I LOVE it!

OK..enough is enough.  You’re probably getting tired of seeing fabulous cards made with this absolutely fabulous bundle but I did have to share this one card.  (I can’t promise that it will be the last but hey…there’s only one week left to purchase it!)

Anyway…..I had seen someone made a pumpkin out o the leaves/flowers die and I had to give it a try!  I was pretty tickled with the results.  Yes, I completely CASEd (copy and share everything) the card and background but I did add the linen thread and bow.  Thank you Kim Jolley….your card was beautiful and definitely inspired me.  I couldn’t quite hit the artistic not on Kim’s card but I’m please with my results.

On my card I used the tree top leaves from the Sheltering Tree stamp set to stamp all the leaves at the top and the bottom of my card.  Of course, as I was putting things away after I finished my card I started wondering why I didn’t just use the leafy/flowery stamp from the Beautiful Branches stamp set.  Hmmm….it makes me wonder where I leave my brain sometimes.  Oh, well….all is good!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

One Week Left: Thoughtful Branches

Thoughtful Branches.2.0816Have you fallen in love with the Thoughtful Branches stamp set and the coordinating Beautiful Branches Thinlits yet?  I know I mentioned this during my Thoughtful Branches Week of posts but I LOVE these products!  They are SO gorgeous and versatile.

There’s only ONE week left to purchase these fabulous products!  Don’t miss out!!!!!!  Purchase yours TODAY!

I think these three trees are my favorite image.  Do you remember the first card I showed you made with this bundle?  Well, I tried to recreate it and just couldn’t do it justice so I took the basic idea and ran with it.  This is what I came up with.  I know…it’s not even close to the original….what can I say…

I do love how the sky turned out.  I first stamped the trees on watercolor paper with Basic Black Archival Ink.  Then I took my Aqua Painter and “washed” water over the whole piece of paper.  After I did that I added Dapper Denim ink to the paper with my Aqua Painter.  The “wash” of water helps your inks spread and that’s how I got the fun look of the sky.  Isn’t that a neat technique?  And to make it even more lovely I added a layer of glimmer with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush!

Don’t forget….only ONE Week left to order this fabulous bundle!  Shop now so you don’t miss out!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Mixed Drinks Z-Fold Card

Mixed Drinks.0816It’s Happy Hour! OK…maybe it’s a little early as I’m writing this but as the saying goes “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere”!  I’ve had the fun Mixed Drinks stamp set for a while and decided it was finally time to open it up.  Of course once I did I needed to figure out what to make with it.  There are a lot of cute ideas out there on the internet but I decided to go with a fun fold…a Z card!

Once again I got the basic idea for the card from someone else out there and changed up just a little thing or two.  Really, why reinvent the wheel?  Thank you Claudia from Germany!Mixed Drinks.0816.1

A Z-fold card is pretty simple.  Start with a piece of card stock 4 1/4″ x 11.  Score at 5 1/2″ and then at 2 3/4″.  You’ll fold the card in half at the 5 1/2″ mark and then you flip back the top of the front piece at the 2 3/4″ mark.  When you add the focal point to the front of the card just be sure to only adhere it the 2 3/4″ section or you won’t be able to open your card.  Ha!  You also want to be sure to stamp your sentiment in the area that will be hidden by your front focal point when the card is closed.  Those are the only little tricks that you need to know to make a Z-fold card.

I’d love to see examples of Z-fold cards that you create.  Send me a photo!  I’d love to see what you come up with!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Weather Together

Weather Together.0716Here’s the perfect card for someone going through a rough time.  It has some nice sayings about being there to help someone through a tough time.  That’s not all though.  There’s a “thanks” stamp, a “celebrate” stamp and a “love” stamp.  It’s quite versatile.  Along with a couple of umbrellas you also get some little hearts, little flowers and some presents.

The Weather Together stamp set was another one of the ones I “didn’t need”.  Sheesh!  Why do I even say that?!  I need to remember that just because it doesn’t jump out and grab me the first time I take a peek through a catalog doesn’t mean I won’t end up owning it sometime.  I just have to wait and see what everyone else is making with it before I decide I absolutely “have to have” it.  🙂

Weather Together.a.0716I was so excited to actually use one of the fun, new, little enamel dots on the umbrella.  Have you checked these little things out yet?  They’re so cute!  You purchase them by color family and you get 20 shapes in each color:  5 hearts, 5 stars, 5 circles and 5 mini circles.  They really add a “little something” to your project.  You can find them on page 177 of your catalog or right in my store.

Have a wonderful day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Foxy!

Foxy Friends.0716Here’s another one.  Yep….another stamp set/bundle that I didn’t need.  Too cutesy I said.  Ha!  You have proof right here in this blog post that I broke down and purchased it.  Yikes!  Never say never.

I pretend I have self-control but I don’t.  Not at all.  I need EVERYTHING!  That’s one of the basic reasons that I’m a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator!  Now I can “justify” all my extravagant purchases.  Sheesh!

Misery loves company so if you’re like me and want EVERYTHING you might want to consider the 25% discount Stampin’ Up! gives me on all of my purchases.  Sure, when you first sign up you will only get a 20% discount but I’m sure it won’t take you long to work up to that 25%!  🙂  Seriously, the Holiday Catalog is coming out soon and I know that you will want all those fabulous new goodies too.  Contact me and we’ll talk.

Anyway, isn’t this card cute?  That darn fox was just sitting in the catalog with a sly look on it’s adorable face and I couldn’t resist.  Did you know that there’s a coordinating punch for this stamp set?  Yep, you can punch out all those critters too!  You know me and coordination!  Ha!

I didn’t use the punch on this card because I designed it for a class.  There’s already so much stamping that I didn’t want the card to take too long to make.  I think it turned out pretty cute without the punching.  What you can’t see is that on the front of the card base I embossed the trees with the Woodlands Embossing Folder.  Very woodsy, don’t you think?  🙂

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!  Don’t forget about that 205 discount! 🙂

Fresh Fruit! Palaside Peaches!

FreshFruit.0716.2It peach time here in Colorado.  It’s the time of the year when peaches from the Western Slope (west side of the Rockies) are juicy and ripe.  In fact, this coming weekend there is a whole festival in Palaside, CO celebrating the peach!

People around here go crazy for these peaches.  Apparently they’re delicious.  (Personally I don’t care for them).  My friend and her daughter spent Sunday cutting up 75 peaches.  They made 4 batches of jam and 7 peach pies for the freezer.

OK.  If you’re like me and don’t really care for peaches you can still appreciate a cute card with peaches on it, right?!  You can’t go wrong with the Fresh Fruit stamp set and the Fruit Stand Designer Series Paper.  I thought this card turned out pretty nice, how about you?

I didn’t want to use the designer paper on the whole card.  In this type of situation I usually put the designer paper on the bottom of the card and leave a little white space at the top.  This time I wanted to try something different so I put the designer paper on the side.  However, this left a little bit too much empty white space for me so I ran the white through Big Shot.  Actually….and here’s your trick for a Tuesday…..I first put my designer paper on the piece of Whisper White card stock and then I ran ONLY HALF of it through the Big Shot with the Seaside Embossing Folder!  Woo Hoo!  I LOVE that look!  Sometimes I can amaze myself.  Ha!

The last thing I did to the card to make it a little special was to color the peach with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush!  I love that little gem!  It always adds a little something to any card!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Here’s to You! Mixed Drinks

Mixed Drinks.1.0816Here’s to you!  You’re amazing!  Thank you for checking out my blog!  I appreciate it.

I’ve had the Mixed Drinks stamp set for a bit and have finally had a chance to play with it.  The stamp set has all sorts of glassware for different types of drinks.  Not only can you stamp the glass, you can stamp the beverage inside it!  No coloring necessary!

Hmm….as I’m looking at this card, watching the Olympics and writing this I’ve decided that it would be perfect to send to any of the many athletes participating in the games….those who’ve won medals and those who didn’t but still gave it their all.  They’re all amazing!  What’s your favorite sport to watch in these Summer Olympics?

Delightful Dijon turned out to be the perfect color for champagne.  It’s not my go-to color for cards but it was perfect for this one.  It might be hard to tell but I used the Softly Falling Embossing Folder on the background.  It reminds me of champagne bubbles.  🙂

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Thoughtful Branches Gift Bag

Thoughtful Branches.JanIt’s the last day of Thoughtful Branches week.  Have I convinced you yet that you absolutely need this bundle?  🙂

Today’s project is actually from my team’s Stamp Camp that was held a few weeks ago.  My friend Jan made these gift bags for all of the camp participants as well as all of us demonstrators who put on the event.  Isn’t it gorgeous?!!  She made over 40 of these!  Whew!

Jan die cut the flower twice.  Once was out of a solid piece of Dapper Denim card stock and the top layer is watercolor paper which she colored with her Aqua Painter.  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  Jan is the friend who always makes us amazing 3D projects at convention.  I love traveling with her.  Ha!  🙂

I still have a ton of gorgeous projects made with this bundle saved to my computer.   I’m not sure I’ll ever get all of them made.  A girl can only try, right?  I guess if I stopped babbling on about how wonderful this bundle is I’d have more time to play so I better get going.  Have a great day.  Take care and Happy Stamping!

P.S.  Don’t forget that August 31st is the last day to order this fantastic bundle!

Wintery Thoughtful Branches

Thoughtful Branches.3.0816Yes.  Winter is coming.  OK….let’s have fall first since it is my favorite season.  🙂

This Thoughtful Branches stamp set is SO versatile.  You can make winter cards, spring cards, summer cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards, get well cards…you name it….you can probably make it with this stamp set and thinlit bundle!

I am so glad that I have it.  This is one that will stay in my craft room for a VERY long time.  How about you?  Have you purchased it yet?  You really should.  🙂

I CASEd (copy and share everything) this card directly from Stampin’ Up!  Their card didn’t have the red layer and they added a sentiment banner where my watermark is.  See, I can’t just leave well enough alone.  I always manage to change something on a card I copy.

What do you like to do?  If you see a card/project that you really like do you copy it piece by piece or add your own little changes to it?  Let me know.  I’d love to know.  Just leave a comment below.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Thoughtful Branches Pines

Thoughtful Branches.5.0816It’s another Thoughtful Branches card from my Thoughtful Branches class.  I’m pretty sure that this was the very first time I’ve done a class centered around a single stamp set.  #6monthstampingoals

It’s a bit difficult to plan a class like this, especially when you do a class the way I do.  I usually design 5 cards for a class and put everything needed for each card in it’s own container.  Then people just grab a container, work on that card and then grab a new one.  It works pretty well for my customers.  So, when you’re working with only one stamp set and multiple containers that means you can’t use the same stamp on two different cards!

I was able to make it all work for this class but we only made four cards instead of five.  Those people that attended enjoyed the class but I had a very small turnout.  Oh, well.  It happens.  I’ll just have to show these fabulous cards at next week’s class.

This card is actually my own creation although I probably borrowed bits and pieces of it from other sources.  I know I had seen the background somewhere else.  I really like this background.  First you stamp the Crumb Cake card stock with the Hardwood stamp and then you run it through the Big Shot with the Woodgrain embossing folder!  Double woodgrain!  It really looks nice.

The trees are stamped on watercolor paper to add a little more texture to the card because the double woodgrain background just wasn’t quite enough.  Ha!

This card reminds me of the north woods of MN where I’ll be headed in a few weeks.  I love it up there.  So serene and peaceful.  I hope you have a serene and peaceful day.  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Stunning Thoughtful Branches

hydrangea 5 Simply stunning!  That’s all I have to say about these two projects.  Aren’t they gorgeous.  My fingers are just itching to start playing with my Thoughtful Branches stamp set again and make this layered hydrangea.

I was going to share another one of the cards we made in my Thoughtful Branches class last night but I couldn’t resist sharing this amazing project which I just saw this morning.  The best part is that it doesn’t sound terribly difficult to make.  Lou, the creator, simply die cut 4 flower/leafy pieces with the Beautiful Branches thinlit and then watercolored them Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry and Perfect Plum inks.  I am definitely going to have to give this a try later today.   Thank you Lou for hydrangea 6sharing these wonderful creationions!

I really love the shadow box that Lou created.  Hmmm….I may have to stop at the craft store today…..

Have you purchased the Thoughtful Branches Bundle yet?  Have you checked it out yet?  You definitely should.  And don’t forget….it’s only available during the month of August!!!!  Don’t miss out on it!  There are so many amazing ideas floating around using this bundle.  Check out Pinterest.  You won’t be disappointed!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Thoughtful Branches Springtime

13962579_1080858692002699_3857787647401697332_nThis lovely card says “Spring” to me.  It must be the softer colors.  Isn’t it beautiful?  Thank you Sue Vine from Australia for sharing this project.

I may definitely have to recreate this project.  When I first saw the card I thought Sue had used the Baby Wipe Technique for the multiple colors.  In this technique you simply squirt ink refills onto a baby wipe to make your own inkpad.  However when I looked at Sue’s blog she said she just used sponge daubers to sponge the different colors directly onto the stamps.    Once again I say “gorgeous”!

I can’t help but smile when I look at this card.  Do you ever see a card like that?  Yesterday I finally started playing with some of my new “toys” that I ordered from the upcoming Holiday catalog.  I started with one stamp set and made two different cards.  I can’t wait to share them with you….one of them, if I do say so myself, is absolutely gorgeous (in my humble opinion).  I guess you’ll have to check back on my blog to see it.  It won’t be this week because it’s still “Thoughtful Branches Week”.

I have a busy day ahead of me and I’m not sure I’ll have time to play with any of my new toys.  Bummer!  Oh, well….there’s always tomorrow!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Thoughtful Branches Emboss Resist Background

Thoughtful Branches.4.0816It’s Thoughtful Branches week!  I meant to have my first post yesterday but apparently I posted it on Saturday instead.  Oh, well.  It’s kind of the way I’ve been rolling lately.

Today’s card is one we’ll be making in class this week.  It’s my take on a card that Stampin’ Up! posted.  It’s fun because you use some techniques that I don’t use a lot in my classes.

The background is where all of the fun stuff is happening on this card.  To start with, you emboss the petals/leaves stamp multiple times on watercolor paper with white embossing powder.  I found it easiest to stamp, emboss, stamp, emboss etc. so that I could see where I had stamped image.  Be sure to use your embossing buddy!

Once you’ve got the whole piece of watercolor paper embossed you will take your Aqua Painter and inks (Peekaboo Peach and Daffodil Delight) and create a wash over the whole card stock.  Just grab some ink with your wet Aqua Painter and spread the color.  It’s kind of fun to do because you really can’t screw it up.  I usually get a bit nervous when water coloring but this is fun.  To make the splatters I inked up my Aqua Painter and just tapped it against my finger.  I did do this in a splatter box (just what it says…a box set up to catch excess splatters!) so I didn’t make a big mess everywhere.  Once the watercolor paper is dry wipe the color off the embossed areas.  You’ve now got a beautiful and unique background!

This emboss-resist background was a lot of fun.  I may have to try it again soon!  Have you purchased your Thoughtful Branches bundle yet?  Be sure to check it out here.  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Thoughtful Branches Week

2016-07-07(1)Since I’m holding my Thoughtful Branches class this week I decided to share Thoughtful Branches cards with you all week.  These seven days aren’t even going to put a dent in all of the cards I’ve made and all of the examples that I’ve saved.  There’s SO much you can do with this stamp set!

Have you checked out the images yet in both the stamp set and the coordinating Thinlits?  You should!  This bundle is gorgeous!!!!!  It’s only available during the month of August so don’t miss out!  You can purchase it here!

This is definitely one of those stamp sets that I will hold on to for a long time.  It’s gorgeous and versatile.  You’ll be able to use it on all different types of cards.

I fell in love with this sample that I saw online.  Isn’t it beautiful?  I tried to recreate it but I couldn’t do it justice so I thought I’d just share the original with you.  Thank you Shannon Lane!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Beautiful Blooms & Wishes

Blooms & Wishes.0716The Blooms & Wishes stamp set and the coordinating Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper are absolutely GORGEOUS!  Both of them!

I am in love with the colors and designs of the designer paper and I love the font on the sentiments in the stamp sets as well as the other images.  I don’t think you can go wrong ordering these two items.  Of course there’s also the fact that you can a few different ribbons that coordinate with the paper…..have I ever mentioned that I LOVE coordination?  Ha!

In this pack of designer papers half of them are in this blue/green color combo and the other half is pink/purple.  Wow!  Too fun!  Of course my favorites are the pink/purples but these blue/greens are very lovely also.  🙂

Did you know I have an appreciation program for my customers?  For every $50 you spend on an order you get a point and when you accumulate 10 points you get to choose a stamp set from a current catalog valued at $30 or less for FREE!

Anyway….I send out cards every quarter with a sheet in them that lets you know how many FREE stamp sets you’ve earned.  This is the card that I sent out in July.  Pretty easy although I did have to cute out the narrow blue label by hand.  I used the Tags & Labels Framelits for the other two but they didn’t have one quite the size I wanted for the blue.  It was pretty easy though.

I made about 10-12 of these cards to mail out and the funny thing is that I made a few of them upside down.  Sheesh!  I thought I caught them all but apparently I didn’t.  About a week or so later I received a birthday card from one of these customers.  She sent me back the card I had made which was UPSIDE DOWN!  Yikes!  Luckily I know she has a good sense of humor.  🙂

I hope you find something in this day that makes you laugh and smile.  Have a great one!  Take care and Happy Stamping!