Getting Back on the Wagon

These last few months have been crazy for me, hence the virtual "radio silence" on the blog lately. It mostly started in September, when I went to Salt Lake City's first-ever Comic Con and put together a costume within 5 days. After that huge burst of creativity and resourcefulness, my brain had just had enough!

So now I've taken a bit of a hiatus and I'm back! Unfortunately, during my "break" I completely missed sending my own Dad a birthday card! (Yeah, I'm such a great daughter... But I did call him on his birthday!) When Julie invited me over to stamp the other day, I thought "Here's my chance to jump back into stamping again." Looking through some stamp sets, this one jumped out at me as the perfect choice for a belated birthday card for my Dad. And hey, it happens to fit with a challenge! I'm on a roll!

I love the way the Smoky Slate looks with Pacific Point. My default was to just go with Whisper White, but on a whim I tried out the (relatively) new color of gray. I think it turned out great! The fun stripe details come from the "Gorgeous Grunge" stamp set, and the phrases are from (ironically) the "Remembering Your Birthday" stamp set. By the way, this Gorgeous Grunge set is ON SALE for 25% off! But hurry - sale ends October 28! Use hostess code ABJABXYN at checkout.

I'm linking this card up at The Paper Players weekly challenge. This week it's to make a masculine birthday card. Perfect! The colors, layout, and details of this card are definitely great for a guy's birthday.

Birthdays, Butterflies, and Bows - And a Custom Touch

I had so much fun making this card! The inspiration for it came from 3 different card challenge blogs (one of which was closed even when I started the project!), and I'm super pleased with the result:

I just LOVE the quick-and-easy customization "trick" I learned at the SU Regional I went to last month: insert a piece of DSP into the envelop for an instant "luxury" look! So simple, but the effect is fantastic.

As I said, this card was inspired by several fun sources. The layout for this card came from Freshly Made Sketches (FMS86). 

The touch of butterflies came from SUO Challenges #70. When I saw that SUO was all about butterflies, you know I was so totally all over that! Haha. I love me some butterflies.  :)

And the birthday theme came from a fun tic-tac-toe challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays in celebration of their 100th challenge! Hooray! These challenges are always a lot of fun.

Sketch & Colors: Masculine Birthday Card

Please forgive the complete lack of posts lately. It's been, shall we say, a stressful month here in the Stoll household. With any luck, things will be somewhat back to normal soon and I won't randomly disappear for weeks at a time.

Anyway, on to the point: I stamped! It was my father-in-law's birthday, and I needed a masculine birthday card -- which, as you may know, is NOT my strong suit! But with a little (okay, a LOT of) help from some of my favorite stamp challenges, I was able to get the ball rolling and came up with a great card.

Please forgive the (possibly) poor-quality photos. I forgot to take a picture before I actually gave it to my father-in-law, so these were snapped with my phone's camera.

I love how clean and simple this card is. That seems to be the key to masculine cards -- clean and simple, no frills needed. The little touch of embellishment at the bottom was partially inspired by the challenges, and partially inspired by Julie, who I was stamping with that night (she suggested the button, which I LOVE!).

And here's the info for the challenges I pulled from:

Create With Connie and Mary (CCMC244) gave us a color challenge this week, which is really when this whole card came together for me.

And Sketch Frenzy Friday (SFF032213) gave us the layout, which I will most likely be using again -- it's just fantastic!

Seize the Birthday #6 + FabFri12 (Masculine Birthday Card)

I've mentioned before that I am terrible at making masculine cards. Part of the problem is that most of my stamps have butterflies, swirly patterns, flowers, or something adorable on them; not very masculine, huh? I've been trying to remedy that, though, mostly through buying neutral colored paper & non-frilly sayings stamps. So when I was actually able to accomplish this week's Seize the Birthday Masculine Card challenge -- and I liked my end result! -- I was pretty proud of myself. Granted, what I came up with might be more suited for a little boy than a grown man, I'm fairly certain my dad would be happy to get a card like this.

I promise that I didn't pick out my curtains to match Stampin' Up! colors.
. . . It just kinda happens that way sometimes. 

The layout came from the sketch challenge over at STB, as I mentioned above. The fantastic color combo, though? Yeah, totally wish I could claim that as my own fantastic creation. But I can't. It came from the lovely folks over at Fab Friday, who gave us a phenomenal color challenge this week. (I actually made TWO cards in that color challenge, and I'll be posting the other one tomorrow.) So here are the challenges I undertook for this card. First, the sketch:

Isn't it lovely? Now on to the color challenge! (Note: I left out the Perfect Plum in an attempt to make this as masculine as possible with the cutesy background.) This is the FabFri12 color palette:

In an amazing feat of coincidence, this card ALSO qualifies for this week's Friday Mashup! Since I used our Stampin' Write© Markers to color in the word stamp elements, it qualifies for the "Markers" section, and the Textured Impressions Embossing Folder© on the bottom qualifies it for the mash-up with "texture" -- so there ya go! Here's their info, too, so go check them out! 

Here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project "using your Markers (thumping,Color Spritzing,Coloring etc.)."
2. Or Make a project with "Texture."
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project with "Texture using your Markers."

Card Details

Paper: Soft Suede CS, Baja Breeze CS, Whisper White CS, Storytime DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi

Tools: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Embossing Folder©, Ovals Collection Framelits©, Paper Piercing Pack & Paper Piercing Tool, Stamp-a-Ma-Jig© (to align text), Dimensionals

FMS72—For My Co-Worker's Birthday

Last week at work, we celebrated 3 birthdays! One of them was my friend Emily, who sits right next to me, so of course I had to make her a card! I made this last week (after my filler "Pinspiration" post) and then spent the entire weekend being lazy! So I'm just now getting around to posting it—just in time for the Freshly Made Sketches deadline!

This week's FMS challenge (FMS72) was a fun sketch with lots of potential. Here's what I came up with based on their sketch:

I love the elements of sparkle on the card—the rhinestone on the heart and the Dazzling Details on the candle flame—they give it that "something extra" it needs to make this a really special card!

Also, the colors on this picture didn't come through quite right. The banner and the background are actually Crumb Cake, not this kind-of-icky gray-brown it's showing up as (at least on my computer)!

"Birthday Bash" Blog Hop! (And 2 challenges)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Does anyone else think of that old Frosty the Snowman cartoon every time you hear someone shout "Happy Birthday"? No? Just me, then.

Anyway, Welcome to our third monthly Blog Hop! Our theme this month is "Birthday Bash," and we're showing you some fun projects relating to everything birthday. I was stoked for this theme, because it gave me a chance to prep for all the upcoming birthday celebrations.

Be sure to check out all the fantastic blogs in our hop!

Hop Forward: Kris Kilkenny

Hop Back: Julie Davidse

Inspired by this week's Clean and Simple sketch challenge (FTL225), this is what I came up with:

The sketch had banners where I have the circles, but I've been doing so many banners lately that I wanted to change things up. Some great DSP and a fun Edgelits for the zigzag border, and I ended up with a pretty cute and simple birthday card (if I do say so myself).

I also stamped a quick, decorative circle behind the greeting. I stamped it in clear VersaMark ink and used clear embossing powder (heat embossing). So I linked up to this week's Late Night Stamping challenge to "Heat Things Up," too.

But a card wasn't enough! So I made a coordinating little gift bag to go with it.

Using the same colors and DSP, I made this cute bag topper in under 10 minutes (and that was while watching TV, so it was probably only 5 minutes of work). Quick, cute, and filled with candy -- the best kind of gift to make!

So there you go! A quick, easy card and gift. Go check out the rest of our hop, then get stamping to create your own fabulous birthday creations!

Hop Forward: Kris Kilkenny

Hop Back: Julie Davidse

Patterns & Textures: Layered Birthday Card

In preparation for our "Birthday Bash Blog Hop" coming this Friday, I've had birthday cards on the brain. I found a cute sketch over on Seize the Birthday, but I totally missed the deadline for linking up! Oh, well. I still ended up with a cute, colorful birthday card.

I love the patterns in this Summer Smooches DSP - and the colors!! The colors are just fantastic: Rich Razzleberry and Lucky Limeade. Add a quick cutout from the Labels Collection Framelits stamped with a "Bring on the Cake" phrase, and I was almost done. It just needed .... something. So I grabbed a clear Bitty Button and some Linen Thread, and voila! The card was complete.

Don't forget to come back for more Birthday inspiration during our Birthday Bash Blog Hop on Friday!

Card Details

Paper: Chocolate Chip Textured CS, Whisper White CS, Summer Smooches DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Rich Razzleberry

Tools & Accessories: Labels Collection Framelits dies (Big Shot), Bitty Buttons, Linen Thread

Feeling Sentimental - Showing off Fun New Products

January is coming to a close, and that means it's time for Sale-a-Bration! Stampin' Up! is offering some pretty stinkin' awesome products for FREE during this promotion, so be sure you don't miss out! (See here for more info on how you can earn these awesomely free products.) So, to whet your appetite just a bit, I've created a few fun sample cards with some of the new stamp sets & tools, and I'll be posting about them over the next few days.

My favorite set from the SAB pickings is this one: Feeling Sentimental. It's such a great, general-use set with a gorgeous "vintage sketch" art style. I love how it looks stamped in black or brown, or colored in. It's a little hard to see here (enlarge the picture to see better), but I've added  a little tiny rhinestone in the center of the Ferris wheel. A tiny silver brad would also look great. I love that it adds just a little touch of "something special" without drawing attention away from the art itself.  And the "Celebrate" sentiment stamp? Love it! It's perfect for so many occasions!

The background texture is from the Honeycomb Textured Embossing Folder (from the Spring Catalog) and it's such a great compliment to the image and banner on this card. Definitely one I'm adding to my next order! (I borrowed it from my good friend Julie to make this card. She's so nice about letting me mooch off her! haha).

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to use this card for, but it might end up being one of the birthday cards (or even a general "hello" card) I send out during the Month of Letters challenge, which starts this week! Yay! I'm definitely looking forward to (I hope) getting some fun mail to look forward to, rather than just bills and ads.

There was another card I made with this set, but it's kind of supposed to be a surprise for one of my best friends. See, she's a huge Doctor Who fan, and this Feeling Sentimental stamp set happens to have an image that looks like a call box -- or a police box, if you're a Whovian. So I made this Doctor Who card with her & her husband specifically in mind and I don't want to ruin the surprise! I'll post pictures soon, though, don't worry!

What stamp sets or other products are you most wanting from the Sale-a-Bration list? So many good options! You can't go wrong no matter what you pick.

Card Details
Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla CS
Ink: Black StazOn 
Stamps & Tools: Feeling Sentimental stamp set (from SAB), Honeycomb Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (for the Big Shot), Basic Jewels Rhinestones; dimensionals & Snail adhesive, as usual

FMS70 - Happy Birthday!

This last week, I had planned a Valentine-themed card class. It turned out to be a total FLOP! Only one person came (my neighbor), so it really just turned into us watching Castle and making whatever sounded good -- so I guess it wasn't a total flop; I still got cards made. Anyway, during this impromptu Castle & Cards night, I decided to take a stab at this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

So, knowing that I have a lot of birthdays coming up, I decided to make a birthday card. It started out as a more masculine card, but once I found that gorgeous Daffodil Delight DSP and punched it with the large scallop circle, I knew my delusions of masculine card crafting were out the window. In the end, though, it didn't turn out too girly, I think. (Right? Tell me if I'm crazy.)

It's a little hard to tell from the angle in this photo, but I (once again) decided to make the banner "wave" by curling it a bit. The ends stick up off the card, and the center of the banner is raised as well.I love the dimension and movement such a simple little trick can give a card!

The layout, like I mentioned earlier, came from FMS70. Here's their sketch:

I love the butterfly! And I was pretty tempted to use it, except that I was going for a more masculine look, and evidently butterflies aren't masculine. (I guess that's something they can't fix!)


Card Details
Paper: Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White CS; International Bazaar DSP
Ink: Soft Suede; Daffodil Delight & Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Write© Markers 
Stamp Sets: Bring on the Cake
Tools & Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Embossing Folder, Large Scallop Circle punch, Paper Snips (scissors), 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.

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.