Birthday Bling

I came home from work and jumped right into today's "Ways to Use It" challenge #309 over on SplitCoastStampers - it is all about birthdays! We go through birthday cards rather quickly here in my household... in fact, when my oldest son saw that I was making a birthday card this morning, he chirped up and said a good friend's birthday is today and needed one... see what I mean!?! :)

As you can see, the layout is pretty straightforward. The designer papers come from the SAB offering called "Icecream Parlor" - YUM is all I can say! The stamped image comes from the Level 1 Hostess Set, Birthday Bakery, and is simply colored in with SU markers. My final touches are the lots and lots of Rhinestone Jewel goodness scattered around - it's so hard to capture the sparkle in the picture, but I'm sure you can imagine how the bling catches the light.

If you're interested in finding out more about Stampin' Ups Sale-A-Bration promotion where you can receive Free Products, please check this link for more information. You can contact me by email at june@mycreativecorner.com. Have a super day, thank you for visiting, and see you later!

Stamps: Birthday Bakery
Paper: Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Vanilla, Icecream Parlor DSP
Ink: Basic Black, various SU markers for coloring
Accessories: Dimensional Popdots, SU rhinestone jewels

MISC cards and Fall Break

Hi folks! These two cards have been sitting in my "To Post" blog folder forever, so I thought I'd just get them onto the site today. They were projects that used up leftover pieces of cardstock and patterned paper. I hope they help to inspire you to use up your scraps.




This week was Fall Break for my kids. I took my 3 youngest kids on a trip up to Northern Arizona. We visited Meteor Crater, Lowell Observatory and the Grand Canyon. This little vacation was very refreshing for all of us, and we enjoyed it tremendously. I look forward to scrapbooking about this trip soon. Take care and see you soon!

Bright and Cheerful

Hello there! Today's card was inspired by the little scallops of owl feathers - can you see them on his tummy? I think this new stamp set called Aviary in the IB&C is too adorable and couldn't resist getting it right away. I made strips of multicolored scallops using the scallop edge punch, layered them on top of each other and cut this to a rectangle. The flowers are from the Pretties Kit (retired) that are stacked and attached with a glue dot, and the main panel is raised with dimensional popdots. The ribbon is from my stash of leftovers. I love the Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder - it has just enough texture that isn't too overpowering. So what do you think of my bright and cheerful card?

Stamps - Aviary

Paper - Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Ink - Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories - Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder/Bigshot, ribbon, Scallop Edge punch, silk flowers from Pretties Kit, dimensional popdots, glue dots

Sweet Birthday Cupcakes

Hello and happy day to you! Today's card was created to celebrate another birthday in our family. It seems like I never have enough birthday and thank you cards, so that is what I focused on making these last few days.

This card uses images from the stamp set "Crazy for Cupcakes", and the sentiment comes from Well Scripted (retired). The balloon image is "open", and I used a few of the miniature background stamps (page 140 of the IB&C), A to Z, Solid Stripes and Dot, Dot, Dot to add a little bit of character to each balloon. Several of the balloons are popped up with dimensional popdots. The base colors of this card are using two In-Colors - Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzazz... these colors remind me of slightly muted shades of orange and lime sherbert. They really look very nice together - don't you think? I colored in the cupcake platter with markers. I sponged the edges of the panels and balloons, and dotted the three white panels with the Pear Pizzazz marker for interest. The background was dry embossed with the BigShot and dotted embossing folder. I also die cut the small scalloped rectangle to back the sentiment.

I hope that you are having a nice week, and I look forward to your next visit... :)

Vintage Swaps

Here's a couple more swap samples that I received this week from my demo sisters. This is another beautiful card using the Elements of Style stamp set, and a new embossing folder called Vintage Wallpaper. This wonderful creation was made Julee H, and I love how she brought out the details of embossing by swiping ink across the raised areas of the purple embossed strip... gorgeous!



Here's a stunning card created by Jimi F utilizing different stamp sets. The main panel features a floral sneak peek of one of the stamps in the Friends Never Fade stamp set, plus a view of one of patterns from the coordinating Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper line..... Love it and can't wait till I get my hands on this stuff! The "Birthday Wishes" sentiment is from Watercolor Trio, and the "For You" button is in Elements of Style. I've always enjoyed Stampin Up's desire to coordinate different elements (stamps, paper, ink & accessories) to make it EASY for us to create masterpieces! The new 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog is truly fantastic, as SU really showcases this feature with the samples used in the new catalog for all levels of papercrafters. I can't wait to try out the new product lines!

Thank you for visiting with me today... see you tomorrow!

Sunglasses Required !!!

Hello again, and how is your Sunday going for you? I've been trying to organize my craft room over the last several weekends - it's going rather slowly but looking alot better. I really do need to purge some stuff! Today's card was made in between my cleaning "sessions". It is a brightly colored card IRL, but you can't help but be cheered up when you see it.

he three largest flowers are popped up on dimensionals, and they were lightly sprayed with the Champagne Mist Shimmer paint spray to sparkle and catch the light. The sentiment window was created by punching the Word Window punch through the white and olive cardstocks. The happy birthday sentiment was stamped in craft ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. The "eyelet" scallop was created by using the 1/8 inch hole punch after punching out my scalloped edge with the border punch.

Here are the supplies used for this card:
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Tropical Party
Paper: Melon Mambo, white, Old Olive
Inks: Melon Mambo, old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, White Craft
Accessories: Champagne Mist shimmer paint spray, heatgun, white embossing powder, halfback pearls, compass, bigshot/scallop circle #2 die, Melon Mambo ribbon, dimensional popdots, punches: scallop edge border, 1/8 inch hold punch, word window


Have a really nice Sunday - See you again soon...

Teen Birthday card

We celebrated another birthday in my family this week, and I made this card for my oldest son. After stamping the tree and wolf in Chocolate Chip ink, I punched a 1/2" circle post-it for the moon shape and sponged all around it in River Rock and Crumb Cake inks. This was trimmed down and matted with C.Chip cardstock. The background River Rock panel was scored vertically several times to create a slight texture on the left side, then matted as well with C.Chip cardstock. I stamped the birthday sentiment and added a small piece of ribbon with a large decorative brad inserted to hold it down. The pieces were assembled on a Vanilla cardbase. The cardbase has some random stampings using the speckle stamp from Itty Bitty backgrounds in C.Chip ink (by the way, this little stamp set will be officially retired on June 30th - I love my 15+ year old speckle stamp, and it will still be lovingly used in my home for many more years to come!!). This masculine card could be used for a variety of occasions by changing the sentiment, and I hope it's given you some ideas. Have a nice weekend, and I appreciate your visit...

Stamps: Nature Silhouettes, Sincere Salutations, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Cardstock: Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, River Rock
Ink: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Crumb Cake
Accessories: 1/2 inch circle punch, sponge dauber, scoring tool, chocolate chip ribbon, brad

Whoo's Birthday?

Owls are so cute - don't you think? With four kids ranging in age from 9 to 17, it seems like I never have enough birthday cards made up for all the different age groups between my kids and their friends. This card above uses the owl stamp from the Fox & Friends, and the flower twig comes from the Eastern Blooms stamp set. I like how this card turned out and think it'll be perfect for the younger crowd. Don't forget that you can click on the photo and a larger version should appear for you...

The flower twig was colored using Chocolate Chip and Poppy Parade markers, then stamped on the main Whisper White panel. The owl was positioned onto the twig with the help of a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, and stamped using the new In-Color ink called Cajun Craze - it's going to be the perfect color for the autumn cards that I have spinning around in my head. It's similar to the retiring Really Rust color, but has more richness, and (IMHO) it's a prettier color shade all around. I used a scoring tool to add a border around the stamped images. This was matted and glued to a patterned paper selection from the Hostess Patterns Pack III which has a white mat with edges done with the Scallop Edge border punch. Lastly, I glued tiny half-back pearls to the centers of the flowers to add alittle oomph.

I'd love to hear what you think! With all the birthday's around here, this card will be on it's way to a new home soon. My next project to post is another birthday card, but for a male teen... I hope you can come back and check it out! It got the thumbs up from DS #1, so I'm a happy stamper {grin!}. Have a super Friday, and be sure to get a little stamping time in this weekend... till next time...

Birthday Cake and Card

It's hard to believe it's June already - this year has really flown by... My customers on my distribution list should have received my newsletter at the beginning of June that basically highlighted Stampin' Up's retirement product listings. The retiring stamp sets will be available throughout June, however the other items like accessories, decor elements, etc are first-come, first-serve.... grab them while you can! You can order through my business website 24-7.

OK, today's project shown above is one of the items we made during our last hostess club. I used a battery operated tealight candle and decorated it with Tea Party DSP. Instructions can be found on SplitCoast under the resources section. I added some non-SU string of pearls and pink silk roses that are glued down to embellish this very cute cake. The little 3x3 notecard and envelope were stamped using a flower selection from Priceless stamp set in So Saffron, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. The sentiment comes from Sincere Salutations that is stamped in black ink. Of course, Whisper White Organza ribbon finish off this notecard.

Have a great day and thank you for visiting!

Black & White - Ollie...

Happy Saturday to you! I thought I'd share a birthday card made for my younger son today. The background in Whisper White uses the new embossing folder available in the Summer Mini catalog called Square Lattice - one of the really neat things about this particular folder is how you can have two subtle, but different, designs with items that are embossed with it. If you click on the picture above, a slightly larger picture should appear and you can more easily see the little crosses in the pattern are debossed (going inward). A few posts down titled Sponged Backgrounds shows you a card with the little crosses facing outward. Anyhow, since this card was made for a male teenager, I had to be careful not to go overboard with the "girly" embellishments. I think the cardstock texture adds just enough to keep the card interesting, don't you think?

The neat background stamps on the main panel are from Extreme Elements. The black ink was stamped off on scratch paper two or three times before the final stamping on my main panel. Promotion plug here - you can order this stamp set, or a number of other selections, in Stampin'Up!'s Scrapbooking Promotion this month and receive Free designer brads through May 31st.... read all about it HERE. The Extreme Skateboard stamp is awesome and was stamped in Versamark/black ink, then heat embossed in black embossing powder. The black frame was made using a ruler and craft knife, then glued to the main panel before final assembly.

I really love the Extreme Skateboard stamp because it fits my son to a "T". Although he's more into the Ripstik now than the skateboard (which is quite amazing because it only has 2 wheels, not 4!), this image is good for both. I love watching him do tricks (and yes, my heart does skip a beat now and then!), and one trick he's good at is called the "Ollie". It's where you make the entire skateboard (or Ripstik) "jump" or "pop" off the ground with you still on it, land and keep on going without your feet (... or other body parts... yikes!) touching the ground.

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you soon. :)

Black & White Daisies part 2

Here's the last grouping of cards using Upsy Daisy and Well Scripted. Again, trying to keep within the the Black and White theme (ok, and gray too!). They are a bit simpler in design than yesterday's post, but the benefit is that they assemble much faster!

Tomorrow's card is for a male teen - I hope you can stop by if you need an idea or two! Take care.... see you again soon.

Black & White Daisies part 1

The next few posts are cards that I made using just black, gray and white cardstocks, embellishments and inks. The grey tones that you'll see on the stamped portions of these cards is a simple technique of just using the same stamp repeatedly without reinking in between impressions. Today and tomorrows cards are using basically the same main image of Upsy Daisy with different sentiments from Well Scripted - I just changed up the layout a bit on each one. The card above also uses Versamark ink and white embossing powder/heatgun along the bottom, as well as the Eyelet Border edge punch. I added a flower and ribbon layer for the card below.... a quick and simple touch if you're pressed for time.



I hope you like them and can stop in tomorrow for slightly different layout variations using Upsy Daisy. Saturday's post is a birthday card in black and white created for one of my sons.... kids grow so darn fast! Have a great day!

Bright is Right!

I thought I'd share a couple cards that I made for the CC264 Color Challenge that was posted on Splitcoast the beginning of April. This challenge was to use Bermuda Bay, So Saffron and Basic Gray colors.

The cake is from this year's SAB set Happy Moments, and was colored direct-to-paper with the In-Color markers. The glow of candles and cake plate was watercolored with the aquapainter and So Saffron & Going Grey inks. The dry embossed Bermuda Bay background is the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder that was ran through the BigShot. The sentiment is the Modern Label and Word Window punch. Some brads and organdy ribbon from my stash finish up this card.

I wasn't sure how I'd like these colors when I first read the challenge, but I found that I enjoyed using them together after all - so I made another card!




A closeup of the flowers below -


After punching the flower shapes from the Boho Blossoms flower punch and assembling them together with a brad to hold them in place, I scrunched up the Bermuda Bay flower tips with my fingers. This loosened the paper fibers so that I could use the tip of my paper piercer to tease the paper layers apart to give the flower petals a ruffled look. A different, but fun technique!

Stamps: Made 2 Last stamp set
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Bigshot, Boho Blossoms punch, dimensional popdots, paper piercer, brads

I encourage you to do a challenge today - they are a great way to push yourself to try something new. Look, I was "ho-hum" about the colors picked for this challenge, and then pleasantly surprised at how bright and cheerful they were together! Give it a go!!!!

Lots of Bots to the Rescue!

Here's an example of a quick (for me!), last-minute birthday card for one of my kids' friends. I had to make it for a "tween" boy, so I stuck with browns and added no frills like ribbon to it. I really love the little robots in the "Lots of Bots" stamp set... and this one is my favorite of the group. This card took about 20 minutes to complete - faster than finding my shoes, keys, wallet, driving to the store, staring at cards, checking out, and driving home! Tee hee! Honestly, a big tip on saving time with any card is to find 3-5 "go-to" layouts (sketches) that you can fall back on whenever the need arises... these 3 panel layout cards are quick to put together and always look appealing!

I stamped the birthday robot on watercolor paper in black ink (omitting the "happy birthday human" sentiment), and colored him with various shades of brown SU markers. TIP - only color around the stamped lines, and use a slightly wet aquapainter to "move" the color around to create your lighter colored areas in each section. If you've found that you used too much marker color, use this method to remove the color by "cleaning off" your aquapainter by swiping the bristles on a paper towel. Repeat until you've removed your excess color. This does take a small amount of practice, but I'm sure you'd get the technique down quickly. Just remember to use really good quality watercolor paper like SU offers. It resists the water, moves the color more easily, and prevents pilling of your paper (little balls of paper as it breaks down from the water - very frustrating, so don't go there!). :)

The Really Rust patterned paper comes from the Hostess Level 1 Pattern Pack, and a sheet was cut down into 3 rectangular panels and glued to a Whisper White block. The edges of the white block were distressed using the Cutter Kit and then matted with Really Rust cardstock. This was glued to the Creamy Caramel cardbase. After matting the robot panel a couple times, I popped this up with dimensional popdots.

Stamps: Lots of Bots (pg 82 of the Idea Book & Catalog)
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Really Rust, & Whisper White cardstocks, Pattern Pack DSP III (pg 13), watercolor paper (pg 158)
Ink: black, various SU markers for coloring
Accessories: aquapainter (pg192), cutter kit (pg 191), dimensional popdots

I hope that you enjoy today's post - see you again soon!

Celebrate

Hello again.... I was up at 4:15 this morning in order to get one of my daughters to school by 5:30 - she's enjoying Science Camp for a few days, and I miss her already! :) My boys have already done this outing and other extended trips, and I realize these little getaways help prepare us for when they're finally out on their own. However, I already know that I am going to have such a hard time dealing with the "empty nest" syndrome, so to preoccupy myself after my other kids went off to school, I thought I would spend some time on my blog. I changed it to a 3 column format a couple days ago, so I played with that alittle more. There's tons of info about how to do this on the internet, and I used a tutorial from "The Cutest Blog on the Block" - it's a pretty nice site for general blog help. And, I've got some projects lined up for sharing over the next several days, so I hope you are able to check in from time to time.

Here's a rather quick card created with the "Made 2 Last" stamp set. I stamped the pocket first on Whisper White cardstock using Ballet Blue ink. I did use the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to place the stitching outline stamp over the blue jean pocket, then placed a post-it note along the top of the pocket. I stamped the flowers randomly in Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry and Melon Mambo inks. I stamped 6 more flowers on some scrap white cardstock in Melon Mambo ink and cut them out. These were popped up with dimensional popdots after I used a Green Galore marker to color in the leaves on all the flowers. The Celebrate stamp was done in Rich Razzleberry, then the edges of the cardfront was sponged in Crushed Curry to define the edges a bit. This was mounted on a white cardstock mat, then glued to a Melon Mambo cardbase.

Have a great day!

Stamps - Made 2 Last

Paper - Whisper White, Melon Mambo
Inks - Ballet Blue, Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Green Galore marker
Accessories - dimensional popdots, sponge, StampAMaJig, post-it note

Primary Colored Birthday

Greetings! My youngest daughter just celebrated a birthday... Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I made this card with bright and happy primary colors for this fun occasion. These stamps come from the Party Hearty stamp set.... see below for an image. Each stamp was selectively colored in with Stampin' Up markers before stamping direct-to-paper onto the white cardstock. This is a great technique that I use often, and the trick to stamping a multi-colored image in one step is to simply remember to breathe on ("huff" on) the stamp after coloring ~ the moisture from your breath will reactivate the water-based ink to prepare it for stamping.

If you've got some birthday's coming up, and you need a versatile stamp set - this would be a great set to consider! Here's an image with all the stamps that come with Party Hearty:

Party Hearty ($26.95) item # 111532

Also, I used my Big Shot and a "new-to-this-catalog" Sizzlet called Curves Ahead for the arrow. I used the large arrow on that die with the card above. The scallop circle and cut-out candles were popped up with Dimensionals. If you're interested in the Curves Ahead Sizzlet, here's a picture for you:

Curves Ahead Sizzlet ($5.50) item # 115974

Remember, you can shop anytime on my Stampin'Up website. Thank you for visiting today, and I'll see you again soon.

Stamps - Party Hearty

Paper - Green Galore, Real Red, White

Inks - (all SU markers) Lovely Lilac, YoYo Yellow, Only Orange, Green Galore, Real Red

Accessories - Big Shot, Curves Ahead Sizzlet, dimensional popdots, SU punches: scallop circle, word window, 1 1/2 inch circle

Happy B-Day, Human!

It's Friday once again... I tell ya, it seems like the older I get, the faster time flies! Is it that way with you, too? Speaking of getting older, this birthday card was made for one of my daughter's best friends and she just turned 11..... many Happy Birthday celebrations to her!!!

This cute, girly robot comes from Lots of Bots, one of the new stamp sets available with the new catalog. My daughter flipped for this set when she saw it. She read the sentiment that comes with this image out loud in the most perfect robotic voice "Happy Birthday Human!" - gosh, we laughed so hard because I think she startled herself. Kids are great, aren't they?

I stamped the sentiment only on Whisper White, punched it out with the large star punch, sponged the edges of the star's points, and put it on the inside of the card. The card's colors and watercolored robot are Melon Mambo and Crushed Curry (perfect for a little girl), and the patterned paper is another selection from the Razzleberry Lemonade collection. The scallop circle is a die cut from the Scallop Circle #2 die. I added pen dots around a couple of the panels from the new Melon Mambo marker - I love that Stampin' Up made the In-Color markers.... YAY SU!!

I hope that you have a wonderful start to your weekend. I have my monthly scrapbook club meeting tomorrow, so I better go dig around in my stash and figure out what I'll be working on... take care and come back soon!

Stamps: Lots of Bots
Paper: Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP
Ink: Black, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Melon Mambo marker
Accessories: aquapainter, sponge dauber, circle cutter, brads, small & large star punch, BigShot, Scallop Circle #2 die

Upsy Daisy Wishes

Happy Saturday! This card was one of the different techniques we covered during my last Technique Tuesday class in May where we got to try out the Baby Wipe Technique. There are several different versions, and we used the version where we swiped the ink across the Whisper White panel. We finished off by heat embossing black powder using Versamark and the flower silhouette from Upsy Daisy. Everyone did a super job with this technique! I'll be posting one sample for the next Technique Tuesday class that meets on June 30th in a couple of days - check back soon!

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Oval All

Paper: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Black, Whisper White

Inks: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Black, Versamark

Accessories: key tag punch, baby wipes, sponge, black embossing powder, heatgun

In Place of a Bow

Hello everyone... just a quick post for today. This wrapped package contains a gift for my SIL, and I wanted the bow to be alittle different, so I stamped it! I used Playful Petals and stamped the large flower image 3 times on white cardstock. It is colored with a few new In-Color markers - yep, you saw that right! Stampin' Up has heard our wishes and is providing markers for all of the new In-Colors with the release of the new catalog on July 1st. I used Rich Razzleberry (a pretty purple), Melon Mambo (pinkish red), Crushed Curry (golden yellow), and Mellow Moss for the green (not sure that I like this color choice, but what's done is done...). The flowers were cut out and mounted in layers with dimensional popdots. The colored leaves were added last under the flower bow. The "happy birthday" greeting comes from the set "Teeny Tiny Wishes" and was hand cut and molded to look like a banner. The ribbon is Old Olive.

Here's a close up of my "bow". Sorry about my post being so short today - I have a "to-do" list a mile long and am feeling motivated to get some things accomplished - so I better hop to it! Have a great day and come back soon!

Flowerpot Card Full of Pizzazz

These little flowerpot pocket cards are so much fun (and easy!) to make. Here's some instructions by Stephanie that'll inspire you to create a "dare to be different - WOW" kind of card! I love lifting the little flower cluster out of their flowerpot to see the special message inside. This was made for one of my daughter's best friends (who is celebrating a birthday this weekend), and I adapted my flowerpot dimensions so that it would fit horizontally in the envelope. The flowers were stamped on white & cut out, then adhered to the upper portion of a rectangular white piece of cardstock that simply slides into the flowerpot pocket. The blue flowers are popped up with dimensionals. I was trying a variation of the Faux Shaving Cream technique on the red flower - the picture doesn't do this flower enough justice! The swirl on it was created using the paisley stamp from the Wanted stamp set. The leaves were made by using the 5 petal flower punch with Old Olive cardstock, then cut apart to make the individual leaves. I hope you enjoy this little creation today and be sure to have a great weekend!

Stamps -Petal Pizzazz, Wanted stamp sets
Paper - More Mustard pattern paper and cardstock, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, white
Inks - More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, Pacific Point

Accessories - 5 petal flower and scallop edge punch, dimensional popdots