Boho Double Pocket Card

On my last post I shared a gift set I was giving to my Aunt for her birthday. Today I'm sharing the card I made to go with it. I knew I wanted to make her a cute Boho Bookmark, so I thought it was the perfect time to try one of those cute double pocket cards to put the bookmark in. There is a great tutorial on SCS for the double pocket card, and those were the instructions that I followed...it was way easier than I thought! One tip I learned is to really make sure of your final layout & complete all embellishments on your card front before adhering the pockets with the sticky strip! Don't ask how I found that out! lol

These are the what the inserts look like outside of the pockets:

Stamps: Boho Backgrounds, So Many Scallops & It's Your Birthday

Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou & Purely Pomegranate

Card stock: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate & Soft Sky DSP

Accessories: Seeing Spots Classy Brass Template (for piercing around circle), Pomegranate ribbon, Jumbo Pewter eyelets, Pewter Hodgepodge, Scallop, 1- 1/4" circle & Boho Blossoms punches, sticky rhinestone embellishments

I hope you all had a nice 4th of July yesterday! Ours was really nice. We enjoyed a beautiful day at the lake with family. My Aunt had a lovely birthday celebration and she loved this card and of course the stamps and scallop punch we gave her. Looks like another gorgeous day today...ENJOY!

All Through the Year Trio

This is a set of cards that were made at my eScape All Occasion card class on Wednesday. Everyone who attended made 3 each of 4 different designs. I changed up the colors and embellishments a bit for each design and gave everyone lots of options for sentiments so they would have lots of variety with their finished 12 cards. It was a lot to do in a few hours...especially for a few newbie stampers, but everyone had fun!

For this set we used a Lovely Lavender base with the Garden Annuals wheel for the background. The images from All through the Year were punched out using the 1- 3/8" square punch. I think these are some fun, happy cards. This has been a really versatile set for me and I used the Garden Annuals wheel quite a bit. I'm assuming this wheel will also be retiring, since the matching set is. But you never know! Guess we'll find out in a few weeks when the retiring accessory list is announced.

Stamps: All through the Year, It's All Good, Lots of Thoughts (SAB set) & Garden Annuals wheel
Card stock: Lovely Lavender, Only Orange, Certainly Celery, Pixie Pink & Whisper White
Ink: Lovely Lavender, Only Orange, Certainly Celery & Pixie Pink
Accessories: Bold Brights eyelets, Certainly Celery & Orchid grosgrain, sticky rhinestones

Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!

Pink Bundle of Joy

I made this card for a stampin' friend who recently had an adorable baby girl. I just love the Bundle of Joy set so it was fun to get that out to play. With two sons and a whole lot of nephews, I never get much of a chance to make totally girly things. So of course I had to go with all pink for this one.

The Houndstooth background inked in pink on the white card stock reminds me of a soft baby blanket, so I used that for my background along with the polka dot print from the Hostess Prints Pack.


To go along with the card I made some Scrap Candy using the Baby's First set. I figured these super cute images would be perfect to embellish a few pages in her baby's scrapbook.

Thanks for stopping by today...have a GREAT weekend!

On Board Bucket of Blossoms

I've been thinking that I needed something cute and springy to decorate the window sill in my rubber room ever since I put up a new window treatment my Mom sewed for me. I still had the Flowers For You papers sitting out that we used at stamp club the other night and I noticed how well they matched the cute little tin buckets that I have hanging from my peg board for miscellaneous tools. Two of those colors - celery and rose, also matched the fabric used for the valance. (I also used a bit of So Saffron Designer prints since that color was also in the fabric.) I had quite a few pieces left from a set of On Board Blossoms & Basics chipboard, so I decided it was time to use some of them up. This is what I came up with.


I just love the way it turned out! The hardest part was trying to decide which sheets of patterned paper & which shapes to use. When I made my decisions I traced around the shapes and cut them out. The easiest way to do this is to trace the shape on the wrong side of the paper so you don't have to erase any pencil marks. I found it helpful to also make a mark on the top of the flower shape and on the same spot on the chipboard so it was easy to then line them back up. I adhered the paper to the chipboard using decoupage medium and a foam brush, but you could also use a glue stick or Tombow multi purpose adhesive. After I allow the shapes to dry a bit, I sanded off the excess paper around the edges.
The stems are made from lolly-pop sticks (found in the baking section at the craft store) brushed with Certainly Celery re-inker. I used my hot glue gun to attach the flowers and leaves to the stem. The metal bucket was purchased at Target in their Dollar Spot area a while back. (I noticed recently they have them again...just different colors) The bucket had 2 holes in the front where ribbon was threaded though and tied into a bow. I changed out the ribbon to better match my project and also added some rub-ons I had left from the Love & Happiness collection (SAB).

I filled the bucket with Styrofoam and then inserted the flowers. I covered the foam with some Spanish moss, but felt it needed some more color, so I crimped some Certainly Celery cardstock and cut it into thin strips to put on top of the moss...and I was done! It looks so cute on my window sill!

Pretty soon I'll have flowers popping up outside my window as well. Especially if the weather reports I've heard are correct. Today is going to be a beautiful day...possibly hitting 70 degrees! We are going out to dinner later to celebrate my oldest sons birthday. He turns 20 today! I can hardly believe it! I don't feel old until I see how grown up my boys are...then it hits me! Oh well, I guess you're only as old as you act...and most of the time I don't act my age. (guess that can be good and bad...but at least I have fun!;^) Have a wonderful day!

Pretty O'Plum

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Since I don't have any stamps for this occasion, hopefully the Wild Wasabi on this card will lend enough of a festive feel to today's post! I know I'm feeling a bit festive...the snow here has almost melted and I even spotted a robin outside my window, so I'm definitely ready for spring! This Spring Song stamp set is just perfect for my mood.

I water colored the image using ink from my classic ink pads and my aqua painter. The Floral background was stamped using Elegant Eggplant on it's coordinating card stock and Perfect Plum. (my photo doesn't show the Eggplant layer as well...but it's there)

I dyed the silk flowers from the Pretties kit using the Eggplant & Plum ink pads...just kind of smoosh it on the pad and then blend the ink with the aqua painter.

The sentiments are from the SAB set Lots of Thoughts.

Enjoy your day...but don't drink too much green beer!

Easter Whimsy

I've been so busy with other things this past week I haven't had much time to stamp, post here or even browse other blogs. On my last post here I mentioned my Mother-in-law was in the hospital. Thank you to everyone who had well wishes for her. She is now out of the hospital and doing much better!

Last night my Hostess Club got together, so I'll share the projects I prepared for the group. Hope you don't mind another Garden Whimsy card! This set is just so perfect for Spring, and since I don't have any current Easter sets I thought these tulips would work great for our Easter themed projects. The Flowers For You designer papers just screams spring to me also, so I used the lavender sheet on this card. My favorite part of this card is the 3-D butterfly. It was stamped twice - one image was punched out using the 1-3/8" circle punch being careful to include the antenna, the second image was cut out - except for the antenna and then just the body was adhered in place using the 2-way glue pen so that the wings are free.

The other project we did was this cute little basket with Dove chocolates. I figured I couldn't go wrong if chocolate was involved! The basket was created using an 8-1/2 square of Mellow Moss card stock:

• score at 5-1/2 on each side
• cut each corner off - and you'll have a cross shape remaining
• score each side again at 1" to create the fold down flap
• use corner rounder punch to create scallop edge on flap
• wheel with the Whimsy jumbo wheel
• Stamp the flap section with Canvas background
• handle = 7" x 3/4" strip stamped with Trimtastic
• scalloped embellishment on front= So Many Scallops stamped on Lavender Lace + Seeing Spots stamped on Mellow Moss punched with 1 1/4" circle + Pretty In Pink DP punched with 3/4" circle with So Saffron brad in center.
  

My first attempt at a basket was this one shown at right using the cute little box shown on page 11 in the SAB catalog. I got the pattern from the SU! website which was basically a template for the tiny take out box with the top trimmed off. However, scoring and folding this was kind of tedious and in the end I had to really fool with it to get it assembled properly. The shape is really cute, but you do need a little patience for this one, that's why I opted for the easier version above for our March stamp club project. If you're up for the challenge, email me for the template. (I couldn't figure out how to post it here)

Just a reminder...only a few more days left for the Sale-A-Bration promo...last day for orders is March 17th.

Enjoy your weekend!

How do ya like them apples?

I told you I've been having fun coloring the images from the new For Father set! I spent all my stamping time the other day just coloring a bunch of different images. Now I have a bunch of things I need to put together. For me that is the hardest part. Sometimes it seems to take me forever...moving around the different elements and deciding which embellishments to use. Luckily this one came together easily.

Like yesterdays card, this one also uses the Weathered background. The greeting is from the Love & Happiness SAB rub-on pack. It was so easy to add it to the twill tape and I think it's a great look.

Stamps: For Father, Weathered
Card stock: Runby Red, Blue Bayou, Kraft & Very Vanilla
Ink: Black Stazon, Close to Cocoa, various others to water color
Accessories: Antique Brass HPH, Twill Tape, Photo Corner punch, Aqua painter, Rub-ons

Thanks for stopping by...have a good one!

Friendship Whimsy

Last night my Hostess Club got together for a fun night of stamping. It was Rachel's turn as hostess and she brought such yummy snacks and Cheri brought a nice bottle of wine...thanks you two!Unfortunately, two members of the group were sick and had to miss out...hope you are feeling better today Michelle & Kim! I have your projects stamped and ready for you to assemble.

We made this cute stand up pop up card. It folds flat to fit in an evelope for mailing. We used the Friendship Blooms SAB set and the Spunky Spots jumbo wheel. The big flower was embossed in white EP and then watercolored.

I found the instructions for this pop up card here. I did alter the measurements a bit so that it fit in a standard envelope. The original project called for the base to be 11"x 4-1/2" and I changed it to 11" x 4-1/4. This also allows you to get two cards from one peice of card stock.

Our next project uses the SAB sets Birthday Whimsy and So Many Scallops along with the Whimsy jumbo wheel. To create the scalloped edge on the Real Red textured cardstock we used the 3/16" corner rounder. the red zig-zag ribbon can be found in the Jersey Ribbon Originals pack. The Soft Sky patterned paper is from the designer prints pack.

Enjoy your weekend!

Big & Little Flowers

My Mother-in-law recently got the Big Flowers and Little Flowers sets, so last time we got together for a fun stamping afternoon we tried them out. I thought these sets would be perfect for creating a one sheet wonder. So that's what I did. I used two different color schemes and went to town stamping my own patterned paper.


The first card uses Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa and Soft Sky. I really like these colors together! At the top of the card I used the Spot On jumbo wheel. The flowers work well with the circle and scallop punches. For a little different look to the scallop circle I just punched a hole in the middle of each scallop.


The other color scheme I used was Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate & Soft Sky. For this card I used a sheet of Guava that I had embossed with my upline's Cuttlebug when we were together a while back. I had it in my stash and thought it would work perfect with this set. I also used the So Many Scallops - "so sweet of you" stamp which I inked in Guava and then r'nr in Pomegranate.


These are such cute sets! I had fun using them.

Birthday Whimsy Scrapbook Pages

I had fun creating these pages of my youngest son on his 10th birthday. I think I'm a bit behind...as he is now 17! Oh well...at least they are done now. I liked the way they turned out so thought I'd share them here today. Just click on photo to see detail.

I used the Whimsy jumbo wheel down the side of each page then added cut out balloons to the lines for a festive border for my pages. By using the new textured card stock and lots of double stitched ribbon, these pages have some nice texture going on which I like. To add even more texture I dry embossed some dots on one of the thin strips of cardstock and I also used the kissing technique when I stamped the numbers.

If you've never tried the kissing technique with your stamps, (then you must not really love them! ;-) this is how to do it: First ink your bold image with a light color of ink - in this case I inked my number stamps in Soft Sky. Then you are ready to "kiss" your stamp onto another textured stamp inked in a darker color. Here I used the Canvas background which was inked in Blue Bayou. This acts as sort of an "ink pad" when pressing my numbers onto it before stamping them. This technique is a great way to add texture to any bold image.

Stamps: Birthday Whimsy, Canvas, Celebrate Everything, It's Your Birthday, Headline Numbers
Card stock: Mellow Moss, Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky
Ink: Mellow Moss, Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky, VersaMark
Accessories: Photo Corner punch, Word Window punch, White EP, Crop-A-Dile, Mellow Moss eyelets, Soft Sky & Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon

Have a whimsical day!

Friendship Blooms

I really like the stamps included in this SAB set...especially the swirl and the sentiment. The images along with these spring-like colors makes a happy card. I had fun making this one because I was trying out some new toys...the Spunky Spots jumbo wheel, the corner rounder punch - which I used to make the scallop border and of course the stamp set Friendship Blooms...I used every single stamp in the set to make this card! hehehe Hey, I had to try them all out and make sure they worked OK, right?

Another card I made using all the same items - just different colors. On this one I also used the Love & Happiness rub-ons. See the center of the flower? It's hard to tell from the photo, but that is a button with a rub-on flower in the center. I again used the Corner Rounder punch to create the scallop border, but added a bit more detail by punching holes in the center of each scallop with the Crop-A-Dile.

If you like polka-dots like I do, then I highly recommend the Spunky Spots wheel. The spots are random enough that it is very easy to create a whole page background without worrying about lining the pattern up. I think I'll be using this one a lot!

I really need to get down to my stamp room and make a birthday card for a 50th birthday party we are going to later. I know we will have a great time at the party...the guest of honor is a really fun guy. Hope you have a fun Saturday as well!

Finally Tried the Rub-Ons

I've had the new Love & Happiness rub-on's sitting in my craft room for a while, not really sure what to do with them. I had never used any rub-ons before. Then I spotted these jar candles sitting on the shelf in my closet ~ I had bought them around the holidays, but never got around to using them. Perfect for my first rub on project! It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

The lid, which is a flatter surface, was a lot easier to transfer the image than it was on the jar~ due to the curve of it. I just made sure to cut real close to the design before I started, and then smoothed it into place with my fingertips before I started in with the wooden stick.

I added some Artichoke grosgrain ribbon around the top of the jar and then on the lid, I tied on some pretty ribbon I had in my stash and used one of the ribbon slides from the new Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware in the center. (the new HPH kit will be available in the Occasions Mini collection beginning March 1st)

I must say, when I opened the package of rub-ons ~ which is one of the FREE selections this year during SAB, I was impressed with the size of the pack. There are 4 sheets ~ Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Black & White. Each sheet measures 12x6, so that means there are LOTS of images! (no...I'm NOT going to count them, so you'll just have to take my word!) Here's a photo to get a better idea.

Now I'll be looking all around the house for more things to add these cute designs to! Have a great day!

So Many Scallop Flowers

I made this happy card using the So Many Scallops set and the Print Pack of Designer Papers offered as a Level 1 hostess gift. The 6x6 pad includes the colors shown here: Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi & Apricot Appeal along with Real Red - which obviously I couldn't work into this card. There are 60 sheets total, so it's a really nice pad of papers to add to your stash!

I used my 1" circle punch to punch out centers of my flowers from the designer print pack and then embossed the small flower from the Always set in white for the very center. (click on photo for better detail)

Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon was used for the stems and leaves. I finished this off by doing some faux stitching around the edges.

Enjoy your day!

Time for a Sale-A-Bration!

It's that time again...Sale-A-Bration! It is undoubtedly the best time of the year if you love Stampin' Up! products. This year not only are there 5 great stamp sets to choose from for free, but also a set of rub-ons.

Have you ever considered becoming a demonstrator? There's even a super deal for those who sign up during SAB. Contact me today if you would like to become part of my team.

The card I'm sharing with you here today uses the Birthday Whimsey set. Check out all the great sets you can get for free here.

Stamps: Birthday Whimsey & Whimsey Jumbo Wheel
Card stock: Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, Old Olive & Whisper White
Ink: Purely Pomegrante, Blue Bayou & Old Olive
Accessories: Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou & Soft Sky double stitched grosgrain ribbon, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Ticket Corner & Oval punches

I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to create the Happy Birthday background on the right side of the card. Doing so made me wish I had the Happy Birthday jumbo wheel! I think that is going on my next order!

Happy Heart Day Hugs

The images in the Happy Heart Day set are just so cute...I've been having a lot of fun with this set! Here I combined it with the new Berry Bliss paper, Boho Backgrounds and So Many Scallops sets.

Just a reminder...this week is the last chance you will have to purchase the Valentine's Day Bundle which includes the Happy Heart Day stamp set. Contact me today if you would like to take advantage of this special.

As long as we're talking about Valentines Day...I wanted to let you know that I still have some kits available for my Valentine Stamp Camp. You can either attend my February 10th class here at my home or take it by mail and I'll send you pre-cut supplies and instructions to complete the projects at home in time for Valentine's Day. If you are thinking of doing this...don't hesitate as I only have a few of the mailboxes left at this point.

Have a creative day!

Pick A Petal Meets So Many Scallops

If you are thinking this card looks familiar...you are right. It is almost an exact copy of the SU! personalized postcards. I've always loved that card and wanted to make one, so when I was sitting at my desk wondering if So Many Scallops would work out as the center of a Pick A Petal flower, I figured it was time to try it.

I made a few changes due to the colors of embellishments I had on hand. I used Ruby Red & Mellow Moss where they had used Pomegranate and River Rock. Since I still had my Canvas background sitting out, I also added that to the large Soft Sky circle I had cut with my coluzzle. The crowning touch was the cute scallop flower I punched out and added to the center. (I just love this set!)

So now I know that So Many Scallops works out perfect for the center of a Pick A Petal flower! I just wish I could take credit for such an adorable layout using this set.

Guess who is going to be stopping by later on this afternoon? My UPS guy...with my first new catalog order! Woo hoo! Can't wait!!! It seems like it took forever to ship after I ordered, due to SU! having to process so many orders with the retiring list ending, SAB pre-orders, the new catalog, not to mention the NEW year. Luckily they are all caught up, and shipping is back to normal at this point, and I'll have new stampin' goodies later! Hopefully I'll have something new to share with you tomorrow. Have a good day!

Bold Bright Whimsical Balloons

I can't believe that I forgot to tell you some very exciting news regarding the new SAB sets when I made my post on Saturday! The SAB stamp sets are all die cut!!! It was a nice surprise to me when I opened my package. I had recently read an announcement that all future mini catalog sets will continue to be die cut like they were in the Holiday Mini, but it didn't occur to me that the SAB sets were included in that. I just loved how bright and cheery the first two cards I made with this set turned out so I decided to make a few more using the same color scheme. I also added a punched design from the new So Many Scallops set. I know I'll be using that set a lot! I cut out each balloon, but before I adhered them into place I lightly penciled in the curved lines of the string. Then I paper pierced along the lines, erased my pencil lines and connected the dots with my white gel pen. This mimicked the swirled motif of the stamp and turned out pretty darn cute...if I do say so myself!

Since it's always so much easier for me to make girly cards than manly cards, I challenged myself to also make a more masculine version of each of the birthday cards I make using this set.

For this one I used the It's Your Birthday set for the main image and framed it with the balloons. Since guys like hardware I added the brads in each corner for a manly touch. The orange balloon it mounted with pop dots. I also tied a bit of thread onto the balloons to finish it off. Both cards use card stock and inks from the Bold Brights color family, plus the Canvas background stamp inked with White Craft ink.

Bold Bright Birthday Whimsy

I pre-ordered two of the new Sale-A-Bration sets so I could make some samples. They showed up here yesterday! I must say I totally love both sets! I whipped up four really cute cards in no time at all...and only stopped stamping because we had a movie to watch last night, which turned out to be disappointing and my hubby just ended up snoring next to me while I watched. I should have stayed downstairs and stamped my night away because it was a good session. You know the kind...where things are flowing and the ideas in your head actually turn out as planned when inked.These are the first two cards I made with this set. I wanted to keep them simple and show the same design in two different color schemes...one for girls and one for guys. I couldn't help but sneak in a bit of ribbon on the girly card. I used the paper piercing template on both cards, but connected the dots with my white gel pen on the girly card to create some faux stitching.

I stamped each color gift twice. Then I cut them out and mounted them with pop dots for some extra dimension. These cards show my favorite thing about using SU! products...color coordination! It's so nice to have the ink, paper and embellishments all match without having to think about it.

Hopefully I'll have some more time to play with my new stamps today! I have even been cleaning up after myself when I'm done to keep my space organized. ;-) Have a great weekend!