Stamp Club Cards

Hi everyone! Boy, have I been busy this week! I see I haven't posted since Wednesday! I missed my beloved Inspiration Challenge yesterday! I did do a card quickly, but it was unpostable (is that a word?)! I did not like the way it looked and it photographed even more miserably, so I let it go! I met with Tracy Harp and two other girls, Lynn and Beth, yesterday morning to discuss the second annual WNY Stamping Event Tracy is hosting in April. Last year she co-hosted it with Holly McMillen (Toy), but Holly has since moved to Colorado, so Tracy is hosting solo this year. Lynn, Beth, and I offered our help, and we met to discuss various things about the event. Cheryl Rowley and I are doing a copic marker tutorial since by then she and I will be certified copic marker instructors! Our class is tomorrow...it should be fun!

Anyway, I also had my card club meet Thursday night and I wanted to share three of the four cards we did. (I already posted the fourth one here.) This card uses the Sale-a-bration set Polka Dot Punches as well as the Delicate Dots dp from that catalog. I used a Lauren Meader sketch for it and was sort of going for a monochromatic look.














The next next one uses Branch Out, one of my favorites in the current SU catalog. I love all the extra stamps that come with it like a bird house to hang from the tree, a pair of gardening boots, a bird, butterflies, and the tire swing. I chose to hang the tire swing from the tree and have the butterflies fluttering about. I stamped them in saffron but had my girls stamp them in blue...they just showed up better. We used a post-it note to mask the top of the card and sponged celery ink on the bottom for the grass. We then used a scallop oval piece and sponged in the clouds and sky. The dp is Sweet Always and Tea party. The new scallop border punch was used on the vertical Tea Party piece. We used the key tag punch for the sentiment and the corner rounder for the corners. We finished it off with diamond stickles on the tree for SPARKLE (which is difficult to see here)!

For our final card, we used Friends 24/7. I love the damask stamp in this set and had them make their own dp with Baja Breeze ink. They were just thrilled to learn this technique. The stamp-a-ma-jig was an integral part of this technique, as everything had to be aligned just so. I did this technique on this card with an Inkadinkadoo damask stamp before I had this SU set. Love the look! The bird was also stamped in Baja Breeze, then a baby wipe was used to remove the ink from the branch and leaves. Close to cocoa and celery markers were then used to color in those parts. Easy peasy! I also showed them how to make this formal bow. Again, they thought it was some difficult process, but sooo easy! I love this card! There is a big ol' shadow under the bow...I have to get one of those light tents to take better pictures because this really bugs me! Hmmmm...my birthday is in a few weeks! Nice present, hubby!Well, that's all for today. I have to get my Copic Colour Challenge DT card done for Wednesday and get things ready for tomorrow's copic class! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Bird on a Branch

I'm just lovin' this set! This card took me about 30 minutes to make, photograph, and load onto my blog! Unusual for me because the images I've been using lately have all had to be colored in detail! I chose the Mojo Monday #78 sketch for this one today and flipped it on its side. Such an interesting sketch. I've never done an edge like this before, although I've seen them and wanted to try. No excuses once it's posted on a sketch! I just used my Marvy scalloped circle punch (the purple one) and threaded the paper through so that just the end would be punched. See this post here by my friend LeAnne. She did a fantastic tutorial on how to do this and made a fabulous card with this sketch.

I started with the dp called Flock Together that matches this set. The colors that coordinate are So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise and Garden Green. I stamped the branch in green, the flowers in turquoise, and the specks around the flowers in saffron. The bird was stamped in turquoise, but I off-loaded some color before I stamped it on the branch (it's called second generation stamping). I used my good ol' stamp-a-ma-jig to line everything up just right. The sentiment was stamped in green. I added diamond stickles to the flowers and the plume of feathers on the bird. The saffron piece was run through the Birds and Swirls cuttlebug folder. I moved the ribbon over a bit to cover the seam where the saffron and dp meet. It just looked better to me. That ribbon is still available until the end of the month for the Sale-a-bration promotion! I just love it and have about four rolls of it! That's it! Wasn't that easy? And I really like these colors together!

Remember tomorrow is Copic Colour Challenge time! Make sure you stop by there to see what the challenge for the week is and the DT inspiration cards! Thanks for stopping by!
Recipe
Stamps: Bird on a Branch (SU)
Paper: Very vanilla, so saffron, tempting turquoise, Flock Together dp
Ink: Garden green, tempting turquoise, so saffron
Accessories: So saffron grosgrain ribbon, birds and swirls cuttlebug folder, diamond stickles, Marvy scallop circle punch, dimensionals

Train For You

This doesn't look nearly as nice as it does in real life! There is something missing on this one...maybe some dew drops or brads on the left. Well, I was trying for a "manly" card, so I went with brown and red. I love brown with any color! The image was stamped in Chocolate Chip on Whisper White. The other layers are Ruby Red and Chocolate Chip. The dp is Close to Cocoa. I wanted to case my other card using this stamp (you can see that one here), but I thought the scallops were too "girly", so I left them off, placed the main image over to the right, and stamped the sentiment from Happy Everything on a circle. I placed one of the mini library clips on the circle. The image and sentiment are on dimensionals. Let me know what you think, because the jury is still out on this one! (This is another stamp club card for this Friday!) Thanks for stopping by!
Recipe
Stamps: Happiness is a Journey, Happy Everything
Paper: Chocolate chip, ruby red, whisper white, close to cocoa dp
Ink: Chocolate chip
Accessories: Mini library clip, circle punches, dimensionals

One of a Kind Medallion

I've seen the tutorial for this scallop edge medallion on SCS here and thought I'd give it a try. This is for my stamp club on Friday (I hope I'm not spoiling it for them!), and I thought they'd enjoy making this. The main image is the flower from One of a Kind. It was stamped in Tangerine Tango right on the medallion and then again in Bashful Blue on a piece of scrap. I cut out the middle flower and layered it on the medallion. The top flower was stamped in orange and punched out with the Bojo Blossoms punch and layered on top. I used Washington Apple dp, which is where I got my color scheme. The So Saffron piece was run through the cuttlebug (I can't remember the name of the folder). The ribbon is Tangerine Tango and the base is Bashful Blue. I actually went to one of my own cards as the inspiration for this card. This is the one I sort of cased. The layout is similar...it was fun to case myself! Well, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by and I'll have another tomorrow, so stop by again!

Recipe

Stamps: One of a Kind

Paper: Bashful blue, tangerine tango, so saffron, whisper white, Washington Apple dp

Ink: Tangerine tango, bashful blue

Accessories: Scallop border punch, cuttlebug folder, striped tangerine tango ribbon,

Just Buzzin' By...

...to say hi! Isn't this set just the cutest? I am in love with this card! I have to say that I cased the image from this card by Qbee on SCS. I just changed my layout. It's a smaller size, 4.25" square, but still fits in a regular envelope. The images were stamped in Stazon black on watercolor paper. Then I used the ink from the lid and a blender pen to color them in. I tried this on Whisper White, and the outcome was ok, but using the watercolor paper made all the difference! I used So Saffron on the bee hive and the petals of the flowers. Then I used More Mustard to shade the hive, for the flower centers, and the bee. I also used Creamy Caramel for more shading on the hive and the opening. The bee's face was colored with Blush Blossom and I used Soft Sky on its wings. I also used yellow and diamond stickles for the flowers and the wings. I LOVE sparkle on a card! The dp is So Saffron layered on white, then that is layered on the More Mustard base. The ribbon is More Mustard grosgrain. I was sad to see the SU retired this color ribbon. I should have bought more! I stamped the sentiment on So Saffron (the entire sentiment says "just buzzin' by to say...", but I abbreviated it and cut it apart. I also saw this done on SCS and thought it was an interesting look. Each piece was dragged through the More Mustard pad to dirty up the edges a bit. They are on dimensionals, as is the entire center panel. I just got SU's corner rounder recently. I already had one from Creative Memories, but that one was very difficult to use on thicker paper. This SU one is fantastic! So I used it on the top corners of the card and main panel. I'll have to play with the rest of the images in this set. There is a honey pot, two more bees, and another sentiment that says "have a honey of a day!" Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your day! (P.S. I'm using this for my stamp club this Friday. I hope I'm not spoiling it for them, but I just couldn't wait to post it! LOL!)
Recipe
Stamps: Just Buzzin' By
Paper: More mustard, whisper white, So Saffron dp, watercolor paper
Ink: More mustard, so saffron, creamy caramel, blush blossom, soft sky, Stazon black
Accessories: Blender pen, reinkers, yellow and diamond stickles, more mustard grosgrain ribbon,dimensionals, corner rounder

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hi all! Thanks to those of you who have been sticking around while I've not been posting! So sorry, but sometimes stamping has to take a back seat to the real world...work, work, work (and some fun in between!). Well, I had my stamp class last night, so I have several cards to share with you. It was a hectic rush to get them done, and I had to case two of them because I was running out of time trying to design my own. In fact, when I was finished designing card #3 for my class, I realized that I wasn't going to have enough dp paper for all ten of my girls that were coming. So, I went to my favorite blogs and cased! Well on with the show!

I wanted to do at least one Halloween card, and came up with this one. It uses last year's retired SU Halloween dp because I have three packs of it and wasn't going to invest in the current dp. One of my girls, Judith, had purchased it and graciously brought it with her for "show and tell". It uses Batty for You stamp set and All Holidays for the sentiment which was embossed with white ep. I used black and pumpkin pie inks and paper. The layout is from a Buried Treasure Challenge #BTC02. I don't know where I got this from. When I surf the blogs, I always print out sketches cause I LOVE them...they are so helpful! I always write down the name of the sketch to give credit to the rightful designer of it. The images were punched with a 1 1/4" punch and backed with a 1 3/8" punch and were placed on dimensionals. I used the spider web cuttlebug folder for the background. The spider was strategically placed in the middle of the web! Three black brads finished it off.

This next one uses one of my favorite dp papers that SU has put out. It's called Autumn Vine and is in the Holiday Mini Catalog. I think I have three packs of it because it's so pretty! I used Pocket Silhouettes for the image and PTI's Simple Little Things for the sentiment. (I did not have this sentiment stamped on the card for my class, as I had to use SU stamps. I put it on after because I am sending this to a colleague who has been out on leave for a surgery. She had a set-back and will be out for a longer period of time than anticipated.) I used Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip markers to color the main image, then over-stamped it with Sanded in Creamy Caramel. There was too much white on the oval and after several other attempts to compensate for that, I came up with this idea. I used Marvy oval punches and used a white gel pen on the scallops of the brown oval. The photo corner punch filled in the right corner. The sketch came from Holly's (Toy) Dare to Get Dirty challenge DTGDHolly08.

OK, so this is the one that almost gave me an ulcer when I finished it. I wanted to use this gorgeous Urban Garden paper, the Vanilla HPH, the Kiwi Kiss textured cardstock, and the matching lucious satin ribbon. Oh, and also the "thumping" technique. After much consternation, I made it all work and got all of the above into one card! The only problem was that the dp I used is the same double-sided dp! Therefore, with only two pieces in the pack, I was not going to have enough for all ten I had to prepare! UGGHHHH! This all came to light at about 12:30 in the morning...on a work night! I left my craft table all frustrated knowing that the next night (the night before the class), I had to come up with two more cards and cut and prepare the paper for all four cards! I didn't sleep well that night! Anyway, I do love this card. I stamped both images (from Fresh Cuts) in Kiwi Kiss, then "thumped" my Not Quite Navy marker on them to get this cool watercolor look. I'll have to find someone to send it to!

I really wanted to use this new set, Humor in Heels, for my class and cased this card by Dawn Easton. I loved it when I first saw it a while ago, and figured I'd use it. I thought I should change it a bit, so after I stamped the main image and sentiment, I scalloped the bottom edge. In hindsight, I should have scalloped it first, then stamped (which is what I told my stamp club to do last night). The shoes were colored with a bliss blue and so saffron marker, then a glue pen was used to adhere the glitter. This really made it sparkle in the light! The dp is Washington Apple and the ribbon is bliss blue grosgrain. I backed the saffron brads with pumpin pie circles. It's really a cute card.

And last, but not least, is this card. I cased this card from SCS. I went through the SU Take Three gallery on SCS and found this. I just loved it because it used my favorite dp right now, Autumn Vine, and these fall colors. The card below is an exact case, and on this one I changed the stamp. I used more mustard and chocolate chip markers and added the brown brads for the center. On the card below, I used more mustard, really rust, and chocolate chip markers. Both are lovely cards! Thanks, Angie for posting such a lovely and easy card to do...it really helped my mojo at the last minute. Well, I hope you enjoyed my post. Sorry for the rambling! On to more cards later! Have a great fall weekend! Oh, one more thing...my friend, Cheryl Rowley, just started blogging (yeah Cheryl)! She is uber-talented and you must stop by, say hello and drool at her creations! Her blog is called Cottage Creations. You won't be disappointed!

It's Been Too Long.....

....since I last posted! It's a pity when work gets in the way! Well, I can't really blame it all on work. I spent last weekend at a hotel/spa near Rochester with three of my best friends. We had a really great time. We hung out at the spa on Saturday, went on a wine-tasting tour, had a great lobster dinner, watched "Sex and the City" in our room (the perfect movie to watch on a girls' weekend), and ended with a shopping spree at the local outlet mall. We had a great time and are already looking forward to the next one. We used to do this frequently in Toronto with a limousine as our transportation (we are in Buffalo, only an hour and a half from Toronto). Now with our dollar not as strong, we have to do stay in the states. Today we went to the Buffalo Bills game (Go Bills! We beat the Raiders with 3 seconds to go!) so the whole day was unavailable for stamping again!

Anyway, "stuff" has gotten in the way of my stamping! But I do have a few cards to share with you. The first two I prepared for my stamp class two weeks ago. This first one features the new Upsy Daisy stamp from SU and their new Parisian Summer dp. The base of the card is baroque burgundy and the scalloped piece is sahara sand. I originally stamped the image in baroque burgundy, but it didn't look right. So I used cranberry crisp (retired In Color) and it looked much better. I sponged sahara sand around the main very vanilla panel. I punched a piece of the burgundy cardstock with the large oval punch and then folded it over the main panel. It filled in the space nicely. I added a piece of pink taffeta ribbon on top. The scallop piece was run through the swiss dots cuttlebug folder.

This is the other they made in my class. I just love this stamp and the way this card came together. I sponged more mustard on the petals, then chocolate chip on the middle part. I inked the leaves with an old olive marker and stamped the image. The grass stamp was inked with an old olive ink pad and stamped over the top of the flowers (it was stamped twice to fill in the space). When this was done, it needed "something else", so I sponged in the clouds. I was going to do a tutorial for this, but the pictures came out blurry and I didn't want to post them. I will do this tutorial soon. It's very easy with a scalloped circle or oval. It's mounted on baja breeze, chocolate chip, and more mustard, and I used the ticket corner punch and placed brads in the corners.

This last card is one I made for one of the ladies in my stamp class. She gave me a jar of "freezer jelly". I guess you can freeze it for a few months or it keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It was strawberry and was very delicious! So I pulled out my Tart and Tangy SU set and PTI's Green Thumb set for the sentiment. The sentiment is stamped on a Spellbinder tag. I also used my rectangle scallop nestability and cuttlebug folder for the embossed package. I just trimmed it down to fit. The dp is SU's Summer Picnic. I just love the certainly celery and red with this paper! I also added stickles to the strawberry, but it doesn't show up much in the picture. The ribbon is something I picked up at one of the craft stores.

Well, that's it! I'm not leaving a recipe for these cards. If you need more info, just let me know! Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Club Cards

I haven't had a stamp club class in a while. June was extremely busy for me with closing out the school year and all. The girls were disappointed that we weren't meeting, so I made sure to accommodate them with a July class. For this class, I'm using some sneak peek, current, and retiring (and some retired) stamps. A little bit of everything. I'm starting out with the sneak peek, Fresh Cuts. I've had this set for a while, but never got around to using it. I had to go to the SCS gallery to see what everyone was doing with it, and of course Mary Fish's (Stampin' Pretty) card caught my eye and I cased it but changed it a bit. Here's my version.

The colors come from Color Challenge 172, Taken with Teal, Wild Wasabi, and White, except I swapped out the Wasabi for celery. The base of the card is teal, and I used the stylized flower CB folder for the white background. The dp is Certainly Celery prints (which is why I swapped the Wasabi for the Celery). I did, however, stamp the image in Wasabi because it is a darker color. I used the blender pen and ink from the lid to color in the flowers, the flourish, and the moon/sun. I did quite a few layers to bring out the colors of the main image, and white grosgrain ribbon finished it off.

Recipe

Stamps: Fresh Cuts

Paper: White, certainly celery, taken with teal, certainly celery dp

Ink: Wild wasabi, certainly celery, taken with teal

Accessories: ribbon, cuttlebug & stylized flower folder, dimensionals, blender pen, ticket corner punch

Monograms

Monograms seem to be all the rage in stamping now with JustRite Stampers jumping into the stamping pool recently. They are really cool, and it seems they are coming out with more and more versions of the original. I've been debating whether or not to order it and all the accessories. I know I eventually will, but I just recently got this Lovely Letters Alphabet set with my earnings from Sale-a-Bration and they really are lovely! I decided to see what type of monogram I could come up with using my SU stuff (cause I can't use other stamps in my classes). Low and behold, I found that these letters fit into two of the frames from Frames with a Flourish (another set I got with my Sale-a-Brations earnings). I chose to use these two sets together to create this monogram set. The letters fit into the circle and the square from

set. The square was a little too large, but will work beautifully on another project, I'm sure! I used the Ginger Blossoms dp and Cameo Coral, River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Ruby red cardstock and ink. Each one was done a little differently, but they all coordinate. I did two landscape and two portrait just to mix it up a bit. I also placed the monogram in different places on the strip. I used decorative scissors to do the scallops on the cardstock (my SU scallop punch is in transit...I should have it next week), and used SU's scallop circle punch as well. The base is of the notecard is vanilla. The three little flowers is the stamp from Live Your Dreams and it finished off and balanced out the card nicely. Now, I couldn't just let these beautiful notecards just float around without a home! They needed a folder in which to reside! So this is what I made.




I took a whole sheet of Groovy Guava cardstock, scored it at 5 1/2", then at 2 1/4" to create the pocket inside. I used the sticky strip red-line tape to close up the pockets. The ribbon is run through a hole punched with the slot punch. The sentiment is from SU's retired Vintage Postcard (my first SU set, and I still love it!). You can add some envelopes in the other pocket and maybe some stamps to have handy. This is a nice gift to give (to someone else or to yourself!)

Recipe

Stamps: Frames with a Flourish, Lovely Letters, Live Your Dreams, Vintage Postcard

Paper: Groovy Guava, Cameo Coral, River Rock, Ruby Red, Vanilla, Ginger Blossoms dp

Ink: Groovy guava, Cameo coral, River rock, Ruby red

Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, dimensionals, decorative scissors, groovy guava ribbon, lot punch, round and scallop punches

Color Throwdown
There's a new blog in cyber-town called Color Throwdown, and they are going to be issuing weekly color combinations. LeAnne Pugliese (Wee Inklings) is this week's host and I just had to play. I also have to give her this shout-out because she is always leaving nice comments on this blog...thanks LeAnne, and great color challenge this week! The colors she chose were Sage Shadow, Regal Rose, and Pretty in Pink. What great colors to work with! My next card is a sort of a case of one of my own I did recently (seen here) using PTI paper and sentiment stamp. Since I had to use SU for my class again, I used this color challenge and came up with this card.

This card also showcases some retiring stamps. The Sage Shadow base was stamped in Versamark with retiring Print Patterns bg stamp. The main image is from retiring Blossoms Abound. It's a two-step stamp and requires using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. I stamped Pretty in Pink with the first stamp, then Regal Rose with the second layered over the first image. For the stem and leaves I needed two colors as well to get the dimension, however I didn't want to introduce another color. So, I stamped the stem and leaves (which is one stamp) in the Sage Shadow. The ligher color is also Sage Shadow...just stamped off once before I stamped it on the main image. Perfect for what I needed and no new color! The dp is from the Hostess Prints Pack (which is also retiring). I chose this dp because it also has a diamond pattern like the bg. The sentiment is from retired Happy Harmony stamped in Regal Rose. The four white brads and pretty in pink satin ribbon finish it off. I did use my new Spica clear glitter pen I just received from MFT in the mail today. There are 13 colors in the set and the colors are really sparkily! The clear one is very subtle. I just colored over the flower and the leaves. You really can't see it unless it picks up some light, then it shimmers! Well that's it for this long post! I have to finish preparing for my class tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by!
Recipe
Stamps: Blossoms Abound, Happy Harmony, Print Pattern bg
Paper: Sage shadow, regal rose, pretty in pink, pretty in pink dp, white
Ink: Sage shadow, regal rose, pretty in pink, Versamark
Accessories: Pretty in pink satin ribbon, stamp-a-ma-jig, circle and scallop punches, ticket corner punch, brads, dimensionals, Spica glitter pen

Stamp Club Cards

This card was done for an SCS Try a New Technique challenge and I used it for my stamp club class. It is a Two Way Open Card and the easy directions can be found here. I used brillant blue and only orange cardstock along with whisper white and SU's Jersey Shore dp. I decided to do a kid's card, because I rarely do them. This set is called Zoofari, and I just got it. I love the images in it! I colored the zebra with blender pens, and used the same colors as the cardstock. I then used Soft Sky and the blender pen to outline him and give him a shadow to stand on. I really makes it pop! I put a belly band around the card to make it stay closed. The ribbon is something I picked up at one of the craft stores. The Marvy punches were used on the main image and I used the white gel pen on the scallops. Here is a picture of the card opened:

You can see why it's called a two way open, because it does!
This one is a Flap Card, and the directions can be found here. This card is very "petite" looking, much smaller than I anticipated, but a great one nonetheless. I totally CASED this card for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I just love this Afternoon Tea dp that SU has out in the Mini Catalog. I also love the colors together (groovy guava and sky blue). I colored the flower with the ink on the lid and a blender pen. Then I used Garden green to draw in the stems. Those sparkily things in the middle of the flowers are bling. They really are shining in this picture! I then punched it out with SU's scallop punch and mounted it on groovy guava punched with a Marvy punch. I also paper pierced the scallops and sponged some soft sky ink around the edges. The flap looked a little "blah" to me, so I cuttlebugged it! It added some much needed texture to the card. I used the small and large oval punches from SU for the sentiment and put that on dimensionals. To hold the flap shut, I used some magnets that I purchased at AC Moore for $.99 for 12 magnets. They aren't as strong as the Basic Grey ones everyone is using, but they worked fine. (You can also use Velcro dots.) Lastly, I tied a groovy guava ribbon around the flap. Here is a picture of the card open:
I stamped the flower in Soft Sky on the whisper white cardstock to repeat the design. You can see the big black dot on the flap that is the magnet. The Basic Grey ones are much nicer looking in silver and are smaller! Oh well!
The other cards we are making are this one and a variation of this one.
Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Club Cards

This is one of the cards we'll be doing tomorrow at my stamp club. I cased this card from Mary Fish's blog. I wanted a softer look, so I changed the colors. The *egg* is actually the balloon from Birthday Whimsy, one of the free sets from SU's sale-a-bration catalog. It's cut in half with the zig-zag scissors. Isn't that a great idea? I thought so! I colored the stamps with markers. Mary did that and also used the Versamarker to emboss the image. I didn't do that because I thought it would be too much for 10 girls to do...too involved! But check out her blog to see how to emboss with SU markers. The colors in real life don't look as bright as they do in the picture. They really do look nice together!
Thanks for stopping by!


Recipe
Stamps: Merci, Birthday Whimsy, All Holidays
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Gable Green, Lavendar Lace, Whisper White
Ink: Same as the paper
Accessories: Scallop punch, photo corner punch, cuttlebug and folders, zig-zag scissors, dimensionals

Bloomin' Beautiful!

I have a group of teachers and friends coming for a class on Thursday, and I needed to make one more card. One of the girls asked if we were doing Easter cards. I have two SU Easter sets. One is retired and the other we've already used. So I thought I'd use this new set, since it's going to be available March 1, and turn it into an Easter card (or whatever other type of card they want). I tried several techniques on this image: coloring on whisper white with markers, using watercolor paper, markers, and the blender pen. They just weren't giving me the look I wanted. So I went to the SCS gallery and saw one that used watercolor crayons. I have two sets and only used them once! So I decided to try them. I got the look I was going for and it was very easy (something else I was looking for). The image was stamped in Stazon and the flowers were colored with two shades of pink and the leaves in two shades of green, then they were blended with the blender pen. If I needed more color, I just colored over it and hit it with the blender pen again. I also used the white signo gel pen for the centers of the flowers. The vase was colored with a yellow crayon, then the shading was done with a darker gray crayon and blended. I took a light gray crayon and created a shadow beneath the vase. I also took a light blue crayon and shaded around the image. I knew I wanted to use some pattern paper and the new Cuttlebug folders I just got, but it was late and I was stuck on a layout. Again, I went to SCS gallery (thank goodness for SCS!), and came across this card. I hate to case lately, but I really liked this layout and it had everything I wanted in it. I used a small piece of pink ribbon to tie the bow with the yellow ribbon. It's 11:00 p.m. right now, and I have to say I'm tired but happy with the outcome of this card. Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, sentiment unknown
Paper: So saffron, certainly celery, regal rose, watercolor, so saffron dp
Ink: Black Stazon
Accessories: Watercolor crayons, blender pen, ribbon, paper piercer, mat pack, cuttlebug and folder, dimensionals, word window punch, white signo gel pen

Stamp Club Cards

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I have been mia since I just started this blog! I had a busy weekend and was preparing for my stamp club tomorrow! I have created some cards I really enjoy and hope they will, too!

This first card was done to showcase the So Many Scallops Sale-a-bration set and the new Ginger Blossom dp. I combined two previous layouts I'd done before and came up with this one. I really like the way the ribbon is tied. It gives it a much more interesting look. This layout also allowed me to use three different patterns from the dp. This is actually the second card I made. I didn't use the ticket corner punch on the first one, and it just looked like something was missing (to me, at least)! I love the ticket corner punch! It is probably one of my favorites and I couldn't live without it! Many of my stamp club girls have ordered it, as well, and bring it with them all the time because they know how much I use it!

Recipe
Stamps: So Many Scallops
Paper: groovy guava, vvanilla, ruby red, Ginger Blossom dp
Ink: ruby red
Accessories: SU ticket corner, slit, scallop, and boho blossom punches, Marvy punches, ice circle brads, offray ribbon, paper piercing tool, dimensionals


This next card is a blatant case of Petal Pusher's card found here. I was searching the gallery for inspiration on the branch from Embrace Life and came across this card. I had seen Nichole Heady do this on her blog, Capture the Moment. She is the creator of Paper Trey Ink, in case you have been living under a rock! She is an awesome artist and you should check out her blog and purchase some of her acrylic stamp sets! I never thought I would buy acrylic stamps, but they are wonderful! I've been enjoying them a lot!

Anyway, back to this card! I was leary about doing this with my club, because I thought it may be too time-consuming, but it came together very easily. I think they'll be happy with it (I hope!). Basically what I did to cut the pieces was cut a regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/5" piece of card stock. I then cut a 1 1/2" strip from the bottom, and cut that in half at 2 3/4". The remaining piece was cut into thirds, then two of the thirds where cut in random pieces. Each piece was sponged for definition. Once done, it was put back together on the river rock base, and then the images were stamped in old olive and colored with groovy guava using the blender pen. The flowers were simply stamped on the dp in chocolate chip and cut out. Brads were placed in middle and they were placed on the card with dimensionals. The sentiment, from Never Ending Joy, was stamped in chocolate chip and punched out with the key tag punch.

I usually can't let a card go without putting some sort of glitter or other accents on it, but this card does not need it! I think the Asian feel to the design lends itself to be a simplistic design. It was not easy for me to leave it alone!

Recipe
Stamps: Embrace Life, Never Ending Joy
Paper: river rock, very vanilla, groovy guava, Ginger Blossom dp
Ink: sahara sand, old olive, groovy guava, chocolate chip
Accessories: HPH brads, key tag punch, dimensionals, blender pen



This next card I did a while ago using Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday sketch challenge from a few weeks ago. You should check out her blog as well. Those sketch challenges, I find, are really helpful. For this sketch, I again used Embrace Life. I got the color combo from SCS color challenge 148 found here. We were to use barely banana, wasabi green, and blue bayou. Side note here: If I have a "card maker's block" (similar to a "writer's block"?) I usually go to the sketch challenges to get my layout, then head over to the color challenges to get my colors. I find this really helps break through the block!

Back to the card again! I stamped the barely banana base and smaller piece with the flower in blue bayou. I highlighted the flowers with my white signo gel pen. It gave it a nice soft feel and didn't look so bare. I also added some glitter to the smaller yellow piece. The head of the flower was stamped again on yellow and place on dimensionals also (after it was glittered up too!). Lots of layers make this card stand out. The leaves are from Paper Trey Ink (don't remember which set; for my class, I found some leaves from In Full Bloom to use).

Recipe
Stamps: Embrace Life
Paper: barely banana, wild wasabi, blue bayou, very vanilla
Ink: blue bayou, wild wasabi
Accessories: ticket corner punch, white signo gel peb, word window punch, dauber for sponging, dimensionals, glitter

This last card was another I did a while ago using A little Birdie Told Me set. The bird and umbrella on this card were paper pieced. For my class, I change it to using ink and a blender pen (we just did paper piecing last class). I did add the white dots with my signo white gel pen. I also grounded the bird by doing some shading. I punched a small oval from a scrap and used it as a template to sponge a "shadow" under the bird. This way, he doesn't look like he's floating in air (although birds do "float in air" don't they?). Hmmm.... The other interesting thing about this card are the raindrops. I laid some crystal effects dots and covered them with glitter. Now that I think of it, I also cased this card here. I did change it up a bit for the color challenge that week.


Recipe
Stamps: A Little Birdie Told Me
Paper: soft sky, blue bayou, real red, wwhite, blue bayou dp
Ink: blue bayou, black
Accessories: SU punches: large and small ovals and photo corner, crystal effects, glitter, stamp-a-ma-jig (for umbrella placement), brads, ribbon, dimensionals

Well, thanks for reading all this and stop by again! Feel free to leave a comment! It's always fun to read them!

"Til the next time that we say goodbye, I'll be thinking of you!"