Wedding card - Freshly Made Sketches #66

I made this card (belatedly, I admit) for my big brother's wedding. Their colors were purple and silver, and I thought this simple and elegant card was a lovely nod to their big day (which was now 3 weeks ago... but it's the thought that counts, right? ...Right?)

I love the elegant look to this card, and the Affection Collection stamp set (with the "Love" and "Always" stamps) was a huge part of that look. It's available in Stampin' Up!'s holiday catalog -- which ends on December 31! So if you like this set, hurry up and get it before it's no longer available! You can shop online anytime HERE. (How cool is that?)

After I made the card, I realized it matched this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge - FMS66. I've always loved participating in the FMS challenges, so here's to hoping they like my card!

Here's their sketch:

Card details:
Stamps: Affection Collection (no longer available, as of Jan. 2013), Memorable Moments, Petite Pairs (inside)
Big Shot: Labels collection Framelits dies, Lacy Brocade Textured Embossing Folder
Cardstock: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Versamark
Other: Whisper White ribbon, silver Embossing powder, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Retro Sketch #43

This week, my friend & fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Julie Wadlinger and I decided to participate in the Retro Sketch Challenge #43. Here's what I came up with:

This great vintage birthday card for my cousin Amy, whose birthday is today (Happy birthday, Amy!) was easy to get started, but finishing touches just killed me! Luckily, we had another SU! Demonstrator joining us for our monthly crafting night, and she (Jill) gave me the idea to put the ribbon behind. I think it just totally makes the card, don't you?

Card Details
Stamps: Postage Due, Memorable Moments
Colors: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Cajun Craze, Baja Breeze (ribbon)
Tools & Accessories: Fancy Fan Textured Embossing Folder, Top Note die, Postage Stamp punch, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals.

Gone Vintage

Lately I've noticed that my style of cards has been drifting. Instead of bold, more modern designs, I've been doing more of a style I thought I could never pull off -- vintage! Gasp! For so long, I'd look at cards that other people have made, and I'd "ooh" and "aah" over their gorgeous, vintage designs, then sign and resign myself to the "fact" that I simply couldn't make those cards work.

Well, was I ever proven wrong!

I LOVE doing these vintage style cards (especially the Christmas ones I posted a while ago -- gorgeous!, if I do say so myself). I love the texture and the colors. And the stamp designs that Stampin' Up! has are just fantastic! Can ya tell I'm kinda loving this whole vintage kick? Yeah? Ok, good; I was worried I was being too subtle about it all.  ;)

Anyway... moving on to the card! Inspired by a similar project I saw by Jeannine Tarrio, I made this card for my mother-in-law's birthday, using the Everything Eleanor set. (Which I got for free, btw -- gotta love Stampin' Up!'s reward system, eh?) So check it out: what do you think?

Some of the lovely details - roughed-up edges,
delicate pearls, faded ink. Love it!

 I also stamped some "wrapping paper" to match the card. (Yes, this is the back side of a brown grocery bag. And yes, it is WAY cheaper than wrapping paper.)

Card Supplies:
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Birthday Wishes
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede
Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, brown paper sack
Tools & Accessories: Apothecary Accents Framelits Die (Big Shot), Finishing Touches Edgelit (Big Shot), Paper Snips (cutting out flowers, placing pearls), Basic Pearls, sponge


So what do you think? What are some of your favorite design styles?

Holiday Shimmer Hop! (Plus FM87)

To kick off the holiday season (welcome to December, everyone!), some fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators and I decided to get together and do a holiday blog hop. We've all created fantastic projects to show off some of our favorite products and techniques, so be sure to check out everyone's blogs. Our theme? Shimmer! Totally perfect for the holiday season, huh?

I couldn't pick just ONE sparkly project (how could I, with so many fun options?). So today I have TWO cheerful, festive, and sparkly projects to show you: a card and a gift.

The sparkle on my "Merry" card is just in small bursts, but I really love the touch of "something extra" it gives the image.

Here's a close-up so you can see the sparkle a little better.
Don't you just love it??

Card Supplies:

Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, and Very Vanilla CS; Be of Good Cheer DSP

Stamps: Greetings of the Season, Beautiful Season

Ink: black StazOn (base image), Soft Suede (greeting); water colored with Gumball Green, Basic Grey, Soft Suede; Cherry Cobbler Stamp 'n' Write© Marker

Tools & Embellishments: Scallop Square die (on the Big Shot) and Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, SNAIL adhesive (as always)

This next project is one I made for the Friday Mash Up challenge (FM87), which is to make a gift project and/or to use their inspiration photo. My project is a gift, and I used the silver glimmer paper like they did in their photo, so I kinda got both elements in there! I got the idea for the adorable candy tray from Stuck On Stampin's "12 Days of Christmas" projects from last year. So cute! The tag has a LOT of sparkle, thanks to the Glimmer Paper from Stampin' Up!, the tray is scored & folded cardstock, and the candy is simply wrapped with some of our Be of Good Cheer DSP. Perfect little stocking stuffer or neighbor gift, if I do say so myself!

Project Supplies:
Paper: Cherry Cobbler CS (tray base), Very Vanilla CS (tag), Be of Good Cheer DSP (wrappers), Silver Glimmer Paper (tag backing)
Ink & tools: Cherry Cobbler, Scoring board (tray), Large scallop circle punch, handheld (1/16") punch
Stamp: Tags 'Til Christmas
Other: Hershey's minis & "pretzel" cellophane bags (from the party store), Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, SNAIL adhesive (as always)

Hop Back: Julie Davidse

Hop Forward: Kris Kilkenny

Happy Thanksgiving! (And welcome to Christmas)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful, safe, and delicious holiday with your loved ones.

I am a firm believer that the Christmas season doesn't start until the day after Thanksgiving. No Christmas music, no Santa, no trees or lights go up until after Thanksgiving is over -- it's all I can do to handle one holiday at a time! But I have one exception (other than the occasional Christmas-in-July music indulgence) -- Cards. I LOVE making Christmas cards, and it just makes sense to start them early on to minimize the last-minute hectic rushing to make that one last card before you hurry out the door to a Christmas party. So here's what I've been working on - enjoy!

Card Details
The top two Vintage-inspired card were made with:
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season
Paper: Very Vanilla, Be of Good Cheer DSP and Festival of Prints DSP
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Baker's Twine (cherry cobbler)
Tools: Vintage Lace embossing folder, Ornament Keepsakes framelits dies

The bottom card was made with:

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season

Paper: Crumb Cake, Festival of Prints DSP, Very Vanilla

Ink: Soft Suede, VersaMark (ornament)

Accessories: Silver & Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powders (heat embossing)

Thanks to Julie Wadlinger for the fabulous photos!

More Card Challenges

This week, I decided to participate in the Friday Mash Up card challenge, which has a really fun Christmas-themed project. To make it more interesting, I also decided to do the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. So I took the layout from FMS and combined it with the theme of the Friday Mash Up, and here's what I came up with! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I LOVE the thin Old Olive ribbon (1/8" taffeta ribbon from Stampin' Up!).

Card Details

Stamp Sets: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season

Cardstock: Crumb Cake (base), Old Olive (ornament), "Be of Good Cheer" Designer Series Paper (DSP)

Ink: Versamark (with silver embossing powder), Soft Suede

Ribbon: 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon (Old Olive)

Again, this was for Freshly Made Sketches FMS #57 and the "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" challenge from Friday Mash up. What do you guys think?

FMS 55 - My entry for this week's challenge!

Ta-da! My entry for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge is done!

I had a really hard time coming up with a card for this challenge, but I think it's because I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. See, it was my best friend's birthday this weekend, too, so I was trying to force this card to be a birthday card -- and it just wasn't having it! So I ended up with this cute "Hello" card instead. I'll make Kelsey her card tomorrow. For now, I'm going to bed!

I had a lot of fun adding all the little pearl accents, and I got to use some of the ribbon I got for FREE during last month's "Back to Spool" promotion.

Materials used for this card:
Paper: Whisper white (for punched images); crumb cake
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight
Tools: Scallop punches, circle punches, dimensionals
Accents: Basic pearls, Raspberry Ripple 3/8" stitched satin ribbon

A Challenge!

Every week, the lovely folks over at Freshly Made Sketches post a sketch challenge. What that means is they give a basic layout for a card, and anyone who wants to participate simply makes a card based on their sketch, posts it on their own blog, and links it to the week's challenge. Then the FMS ladies pick their favorites and award the winners! How fun is that! They've got some GREAT ideas over there; you can scroll through past challenges and see how different people interpret the sketches. If you're ever looking for some inspiration, check them out!

The reason I bring this all up is -- This week, I'll be participating! Whatever challenge they pose, I'll make a card and post it here. It's a great way to get your creative juices flowing, and it helps to push me out of my little tiny comfort zone and into trying something new. Having a layout provided makes it a lot easier to jump in and get started. Why don't you try out this week's challenge, too? Anyone is welcome to join!

Birthday Month!

In my family, there are two HUGE birthday months - May and September. It seems like there are a ton of birthdays in those months, so I'm always scrambling to make cards for everyone. I decided to keep them super simple this year, and found an awesome layout while browsing Pinterest, SU forums, and other Demonstrator blogs. There are SO many great ideas floating around out there, and Stampin' Up fully encourages the CASE mentality - Create And Share EVERYTHING! So thank you to whoever I actually got this idea from, because I don't remember who it was (sorry!). You an check out some of my inspiration on Pinterest. Just click the "Follow me on Pinterest" button in the sidebar and look for my "Stampin Up and Cards/Papercrafting" board.

Below are two of the cards I made (my dad never reads this blog as far as I know, so posting his card should be safe, right? ... Right? Well, it's here anyway.)

sorry, the color's washed out on this one.
Simple layout, rounded corners.
Labels Collection framelits, linen twine, basic pearls.
Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Tempting Turquoise.
Make a Cake, Tiny Tags

Closer shot of the interesting part of the card. My favorite part
is the touch of pearls on the cake stand.

My Dad's birthday card.
Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise.
Chevron texture folder, linen twine, Labels Collection Framelits.

SU's completely customizable Starter Kit -- A Steal of a Deal!

Just to give you an idea of how much stuff you can get in your $99, completely customizable starter kit, here's what I saw when I opened up my starter kit package:

There's 4 ink pads (Pumpkin Pie, Pretty in Pink, Cherry Cobbler, & Perfect Plum), 2 clear stamp sets (Kindness Matters & Make a Cake, 1 individual wood stamp (Quint-essential Flower), the Labels Collection Framelits die set, 2 sets of buttons, Designer Series Paper (Patio Party), a My Digital Studio digital content disc (part of the Make a Cake promo bundle for when I signed up), and training & business materials. Whew, that's a long list!! I'm pretty sure there was also a Snail adhesive in there, too, somewhere, and maybe some regular Whisper White cardstock. What I DO know is that all of this came to a total value of $124 (plus all the promotional free stuff, which was worth at least $50, for a total of $174), but I only paid $99 for my Starter Kit. Talk about a great deal!

Kindness Matters - and so do good friends

A few weeks ago, my old roommate came over and we spent a couple hours stamping together. This was probably my favorite card that came out of that stamp session, made with what is quickly becoming my current favorite stamp set. It  came together pretty quickly -- so quickly, in fact, that I'm using this as my swap card for a demonstrator meeting this week & making about 20 of them!

Stamps: Kindness Matters
Paper; Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Real Red
Embellishments & tools: Pearl Basic Jewels, Square Lattice BigShot texture folder, Labels Collection Framelits die

Welcome!

Welcome! I'm so excited to get (back) into the world of stamping, and I hope that this blog will be a great place for me to share my projects with you and for you to (hopefully) find some inspiration and ideas for your own card-making.

But first, a bit about me:
I started stamping with Stampin' Up! when I was about 13 years old. My mom took me to a workshop hosted by a lady from church, and I LOVED it! I'd been doing some scrapbooking for a few years before that, but these handmade cards were the perfect size for my attention span -- and you get to give them to people and watch their reactions! I was hooked. My parents lovingly supported my habit, and I'd often spend my babysitting pay on stamps, paper, ink, and other fun products.

When I moved away for college, I took a small box of stamps and ink with me to my little dorm, but mostly I left the stamping behind me. I moved out of the dorms and into an apartment; now that I had more space and more time, I wanted my stamps back! I found the Stampin' Up! website and decided right then that I wanted to sign up as a demonstrator -- mostly for the discount.  ;)

So here I am, a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, completely addicted to the products and techniques I've encountered along my journey. This blog will serve as a place for me to share the projects I'm working on and all the great deals SU! has to offer.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you around often!

Made with the (retired) Send Me Soaring set
for my mom.