Hello Again Textures & Flowers

I have been wanting to try out this color combo for a while now & decided today was the day. It's all because of my winter coat. The coat is a puffy dark green number from some other decade I'm sure. However, the area around the zipper has this great line of orange, yellow (2 shades), white, & turquoise. Lately, every fun bit of clothing I see makes me think of card ideas. It can't be helped! I also wanted to celebrate the fact that the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder has made the cut. It's still available & will appear in the new Idea Book & Catalog. Whew!

Faux Suede Thank You

My next theme class is "masculine cards" & this is one of my first attempts. It's kind of an odd one. There is no stamping, but lots of texture (most of which doesn't come through quite as well in photos). It makes me think of a well worn in arm chair. First I textured the More Mustard paper with the Petals A Plenty folder before die cutting the letters. Then I added an embossed layer to the Big Shot buttons. Finally, the strips in the back are all faux suede. Lots going on, but not a single stamp! My Big Shot & I were busy this morning.

Microbead Pen

I decided to go a little out of the box this morning. Yesterday I saw a tutorial on making a microbead pen on Splitcoast & I really wanted to give it a shot. It was a quick & easy project that would make a fun little gift & may even keep folks from easily stealing your pen. I do need to pick a larger, more shallow, container for my microbeads to get them to stick more evenly next time. This project also gave me a chance to use a set I got from Sale-a-Bration that I hadn't found the right project for until now. Little Flowers has six super cute & tiny flowers to choose from & they fit nicely on my pen. This way they can't get lost in a crowd.

Whimsical Words Sweet Pea

I played around with so many ideas this morning that it sort of surprises me to see such a simple end result. I knew I wanted to play with the Sweet Pea felt again, but didn't have a real focus beyond that. Sometimes the simple solution is the right one though. Of course, I took the opportunity to use my favorite set from the Sale-A-Bration catalog, Whimsical Words. I just can't get enough of it & will so miss it when it is gone. Which reminds me! It's almost March & this set (and all the others from the SAB catalog) will only be available until the end of March. We will miss them when they're gone, so make sure to take advantage of these free products while they're here!

Ornament Fish

I created today's card to celebrate a couple pieces of good news I received over the weekend. The first is from Stampin' Up. There are several items from the Holiday Mini catalog that are still available & will appear in the new catalog this summer. They include one of my favorites, the ornament punch, as well as the Petals a Plenty embossing folder & all of our shimmer paints. I saw a card using the punch to make fish in one of my Stampin' Success magazines & was disappointed that I couldn't make them since it was discontinued. But now that I know the punch is still available, I can show you my version.
I also found out over the weekend that I'm headed off to Curacao in May. We're way overdue for an ocean adventure. So, my fishy friends are a fun way to celebrate that too!

C is for Cat Sympathy

Okay, so it's not a Mojo Monday card and I've been MIA the last few days. However, I'm back & ready to post this week. Work has certainly been getting in the way of my stamping, but I have my priorities back in line now. No worries. Of course, the C is for Cat set is one of the many I've acquired free thanks to Sale-A-Bration (and you could too!). I like the way my new 1 3/4 circle punch coordinates with the wide oval punch. It almost looks like a snow globe/crystal ball. I'm going to have to come up with a design (or two) that takes advantage of that!

For Owl You Do

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday & the lateness of this one. Yesterday started with a morning migraine & continued then included an 11 hour work day. No time in there for a new post! This project reminds me of Woodsy Owl & makes me smile. I find the owl from Animal Stories much more endearing with google eyes. Then again, I am the google eye queen. I am kind of shocked that more haven't appeared on my blog before now.

Out of the Box Sweet Pea

Here is another little taste of the super cute stitched felt from the Sweet Pea collection. The flower matches nicely with the one from Out of the Box & it makes a quick & easy yet dramatic addition to any card. This project also gave me an opportunity to practice with my new paper piercer & mat set. It takes off the pressure when trying to line up holes & properly space brads. I think you'll be seeing a lot more paper piercing in my future.

Out of the Box Baby

I must admit that the Out of the Box set is the last of the level one hostess sets I earned. However, the little elephant is too cute & I was excited to see that the flowers from his ear are the same as those from Simply Said (one of my all time favorites). Therefore, I just couldn't resist pairing the two. The flowers are embossed on Whisper White cardstock & then brayered over with Ballet Blue ink to make them pop. The rest of this gatefold card is pretty simple, but I do like how the extra large circles (1 3/4) turned out. I'm glad that the examples from Regionals convinced me to add that punch to my ever growing collection.

Mojo Monday 126/ Starring You Birthday

Sorry for such a late post! I almost finished before I needed to fight traffic on the way to work, but not quite. Last night I decided that I would use my new (thanks to Sale-a-Bration) Starring You set for Mojo Monday this week. Then, when I saw today's sketch, I was so glad I made this choice. Embossing the clear lines of these stars really makes them pop & I am having fun experimenting with the Bold Brights color family. I hope you enjoy my version of the sketch too!

Shannon's Birthday Polka Dots

While I know today is Valentines Day, it is also the birthday of my friend, Shannon. In fact, it's a milestone birthday (no revealing of numbers from me) & therefore trumps the hearts that would typically be required of a Valentines Day post. Happy birthday Shannon!!

Her card is an example of changing clothing into cards. Its something I love to do with my Big Shot! The Top Note background was actually part of a shirt I bought to wear to her party but then realized it would make a far better card. Believe it or not, the colors of paper & cloth actually match much better in person. Something seems to be lost in the photo taking process. Oh well.

Both of the stamped images come from Sale-A-Bration sets... Happy Moments & Whimsical Words. If you would like to earn these sets, contact me to place an order or hold a Clothing to Cards event of your own!

Vintage Vogue Regional Fold

This fun little fold was one of the things demonstrated for us at Regionals last week. It is designed to use a 11 x 4 1/4 piece scored at 3 & again at 5 1/4. I'm always looking for new formats that will still fit inside my standard Stampin' Up envelopes. Today I went for a monochrome Elegant Eggplant with just a touch of Old Olive. Having stamps in the same set makes for a quick match of styles. All three images in this card come from Vintage Vouge & I love the effect they create together.

Flower Blossom Leftovers

I think leftovers have a hard time of it. That stew/soup/casserole which was great the night before takes on a certain stigma when termed "leftovers" the next day. There's no need for that! Last night at class, we made the Be Happy Sweet Pea card. Everyone cut out a flower using the Flower Blossom die on the Big Shot & so there were a bunch of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 squares with perfect little flowers cut out as leftovers. Not being one to let things go to waste, I decided to make it a focus of today's project. Once combined with a little designer paper from Sale-a-Bration & flowers from Simply Said (one of my favorite sets) I don't think the card looks warmed over at all!

Animal Stories Reinker

I told you it was going to be hard for me to move on from this new technique. I put my reinkers to good use again this morning with my safari friends from Animal Stories. My favorite bit about the reinker/baby wipe technique is that I get a different result each time I stamp an image. I could have made a dozen giraffes & they all would have turned out slightly different. That way it's much more like real life. My elephant wasn't quite as much of a stand out. Perhaps I will try for a pink one next time?

Vintage Vogue Reinker Flowers

Wow, I must admit that I had way too much fun making this one! I think I'm kind of giddy about this technique. Today I used reinkers & a baby wipe to create a custom multicolored ink pad. I'm very excited about the results. It's just going to be hard not to do this kind of stamping all of the time! Solid stamps used to not be my friends, but now that I can do this to them... I also tried another new (to me) technique that I saw at my regional conference. The little paper strips at the bottom are examples of faux suede. The extra bit of texture they give the card is great. Of course, I couldn't resist using the Color Spritzer tool on the background too. I had such fun making this one that it is going to be hard to settle down & get some work done. I just want to make more!

Get Whale Soon

This little gem was inspired by my constant desire to use up leftovers & my need for a get well card. I happened to have a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Tall Tales paper left over from a past class kit. I saw it yesterday when considering what designer paper to use for Mojo Monday. Then, this morning, inspiration struck. I recently saw on Split Coast Stampers a technique for creating water using clear hair gel. So, I was off to the grocery store & back in time to put this little guy under the water where he belongs. The sentiment is part of the Pun Fun set, but I like the matching whale from Animal Stories better than Pun Fun's version for this card.

Mojo Monday 125

Whew! Not much time this morning. I need to head out to teach sixth graders all about inertia & fight the snow on my way to get there. Today's sketch was courtesy of the ladies at Mojo Monday. I, of course, took a bit of liberty with it. I was pleased to discover just how nicely the Build-A-Brad fits in the center of our Big Shot Daisies. I get a kick out of being able to create my own custom brads using designer paper, stamped images, or whatever floats my boat. Okay, must run. Happy stamping!

Cheers to You Beer Mugs

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Although I don't really have any football themed stamps, I thought I would at least give a more masculine card a try in honor of the big game. Then I can go and eat wings & seven layer dip in good conscience. Today I applied the faux frosting technique to make great beer foam. It's kind of hard to capture for cyber space, but the bubbles formed by using glue as a base for my embossing powder/glitter mix made excellent foam. Also, I really wanted two mugs in the process of clanging. That required my very first attempt at the reflection technique. Great fun! Now I've basically doubled my stamps because I can make each of them in reverse. I would love to demo this technique for you at a workshop. Contact me today to set up one of your own.

Vintage Vogue Regionals

I just wanted to share a little bit of the fun I had yesterday at the Fort Collins Regional Seminar. Our featured stamp set was Vintage Vogue & this little card was one of our make and takes. It's definitely a departure from all the layers I typically have in a card, but I enjoy its simplicity. The combination of Bashful Blue & Crushed Curry is a fun one which I will have to try again. The seminar was great fun! I met some lovely ladies & learned TONS. I can't wait to put some of the new techniques I learned to good use. You will be seeing the results of that soon!

Be Happy Sweet Pea

Confession time...in the past when Stampin' Up released felt add ons (flowers etc) they were not my favorite. However, the Sweet Pea set breaks this trend for me. I love the color choices as well as the designs. You'll definitely be seeing more of them here in the future. They are a great new choice from the Occasions Mini Catalog. Today, the flower's leaf & its center are these fun felt creations while the flower itself is courtesy of my Big Shot. The super cute sentiment is from the level one Hostess set out of the Occasions Mini, Picture This. Today I'm off to my first ever official Stampin' Up training event/conference. Hopefully I'll be all sorts of inspired for tomorrow's post. Perhaps I'll even post a project we make today.

Happy Moments Bird Dreams

From first sight, I've wanted to let the little bird from the Happy Moments Sale-A-Bration set out of its cage. Today I got that chance. Using markers to ink the portion of the stamp you want to use gives you all sorts of power. You can set the little bird free, or keep him safe inside his lovely cage. It's all up to you.

Happy Moments Flower Birthday

Sale-A-Bration strikes again! The bouquet of flowers from Happy Moments just begged to be water colored. I was happy to oblige. I'm really enjoying using the new clear mount stamps. My Happy Moments set is one of several I have now. It would have taken much more work to produce a line of flowers that actually looked like a line with my wood mounted stamps. Being able to see to position is a huge help. I might actually be a convert! Combining the Stampin' Up rubber quality with the ability to see provides excellent results.

Happy Moments Faux Frosting

I wish you could see this project in person. The faux frosting technique I used makes for super puffy & glittery cake toppings. Perhaps it would be good for fanciful clouds as well? The mix is simple, just combine equal parts of Dazzling Diamonds glitter & white embossing powder. Then, apply glue as your base & heat with an embossing tool. Viola! Thick sparkling “frosting”. Both stamp sets I used (Happy Moments & Birthday Bliss) are available as free products thanks to Sale-A-Bration. Can you tell that SAB is my favorite time of the Stampin’ year? If not, don’t worry, you’ll keep hearing about it until the end of March. By then you’ll know for sure. :)

Mojo Monday 124

Ideas for this month's birthday theme class keep popping up. Thanks to the Mojo Monday ladies for today's sketch. I've been looking for an excuse to use my new Cupcakes wheel. Of course the wheel is designed to coordinate with the Crazy for Cupcakes set & I added in a bit of Birthday Bliss just for fun. I still have one stamp left unused as of yet in the Birthday Bliss set, but I guarantee it won't be for long. It's one of my new sets from Sale-A-Bration & now I'm wondering how I got by without it.