Whimsical Motifs

I just love this new set! You can make some lovely formal looking designs as well as cute, whimsical designs. This card is one of the later style. I used one of my favorite color combos: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose & "Cool Caribbean". Or should I say Faux Caribbean?...it is actually Tempting Turquoise stamped off once.

I created a background that I really liked...but not much is actually showing by the time I was done! I used the Canvas background and went over the top of it with the cute flower from this set. I'll have to use this idea again when you can actually see more of the background!

I used my slit punch to create the scalloped border and popped the large flower image up on a dimensional. I tied on some Celery grosgrain...I'm so glad they didn't retire this color!...and I was done.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Canvas background
Ink: Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise & White Craft
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose & Whisper White
Accessories: Slit punch & Celery Grosgrain

Enjoy your day!

School Days

I mentioned working on this layout a while back and finally got a chance to scan and stitch these 12x12 pages. I lost a little bit of the border in this process, but you get the idea. It was a challenge for me to come up with a nice way to use all of my sons school photos, in the sizes that I already had on hand. Of course it also had to be a masculine layout...another challenge since I like to use flowers and cutesy stuff.

When organizing the photos I noticed that he seemed to be wearing either red or blue in most of the photos so that is how I came up with the color scheme. I used Bazzill textured card stock for the background. (I'm excited to see the new SU! textured card stock they are offering in the new catalog!) I matted all the photos in black since a lot of the blues in the photos were of different shades.

After I got done matting the photos and cutting out the title I arranged the photos, but it looked so plain and boring. That's when I thought of adding the circles. I'm so glad I did! It turned into a more fun and whimsical page than I originally envisioned, but I really was happy with the way it turned out. After cutting out the circle shapes with my Coluzzel, I was thinking that I wish I had some textured card stock in the red. That's when I pulled out my poor retired Houndstooth background that has been sitting so lonely on my shelf lately. That was just the touch I was looking for.

Adding the grades to each photo was a breeze using the Round Tab punch...plus it was perfect for a school themed layout. I just printed each grade using my black journaler pen. I wish I could have thought of a better title than "School Days" but other than that I was happy with it...and most importantly so was my son! Well, except for his 10th grade photo...but there's no changing that now! (he admits he should have listened to mom and gotten a hair cut! hehehe)

Stamps: Big Deal Alphabet, Typeset Alphabet, Tassel Time & Houndstooth background

Card stock: Bazzill textured 12x12, Real Red, Basic Black & Brocade Blue

Ink: Night of Navy, Real Red, White Craft (on the diploma)

Accessories: Coluzzel, Round Tab Punch & Basic Black Journaler

Baroque Motifs

I just love this new set! Especially the beautiful large swirly stamp. It can be both elegant and playful. This first card uses 2 of the new In Colors: River Rock & Groovy Guava along with one of my old favorites: Mellow Moss. I didn't order the new ink pads in these colors yet, so I had to make due with what I have. I used Cameo Coral with the Guava, but it's a little too bright I think. The Guava is a more toned down shade. Actually I didn't think I would like the Groovy Guava, but after seeing it in person I really do like it! I used Mellow Moss ink on the River Rock for the swirl design. I like the look of those two colors together.

The second card I did was a more fun and whimsical design. This time I used 3 of the new In Colors card stock: Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky & Groovy Guava. Since the only ink pad I had to match was the Soft Sky, I used white embossing powder and embossed the flower designs. This set embosses beautifully! For the tiny flowers stamped in Sky I added a white center using my white Signo gel pen. Same goes for the white dots on the corners of framed "kind" sentiment. The brads in the center of the large flower are something I had in my stash. They match the Sky card stock pretty good. I'm hoping to see lots more colors of brads in the new catalog!

Notice the white dot border around the edge of the card? That is one of the stamps from the In the Spotlight hostess set. I have a feeling that's going to be a well used stamp.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs & In the Spotlight

Ink: Soft Sky, VersaMark & White Craft

Card stock: Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky & Groovy Guava

Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, White EP, Ticket Corner punch, white Signo get pen, brads & Stampin' Dimentionals

New Stuff In the Spotlight!

I got my pre-order from the Fall ~ Winter preveiw almost 2 weeks ago, but I hardly had any free time to play with my new goodies because of getting things ready for my sons graduation party. I did get a chance to make a birthday card for a friend using some new stuff, and since I know she must have received it by now, I think it is safe to post here.

This is a new Level 2 Hostess set called In the Spotlight. Isn't it cute?! I also used one of the new In Colors called Sky Blue. Notice the "paper piercing" around the edges of this card? That is actually not pierced, but it it one of the stamps from this set. It can also be used as a stem for the flowers.

Stamps: In the Spotlight, Sincere Salutations
Card stock: Soft Sky, Basic Black & Whisper White
Ink: Soft Sky, Regal Rose, & Certainly Celery



Now that things have settled down a bit here, I plan to get downstairs and have some fun using some of my new stuff! I'll be posting some new creations soon...

In Honor of Dads & Grads

Yesterday was Father's Day and the day before that was my son's graduation open house. We were so lucky to have such gorgeous weather and a day surrounded by family and friends. It was worth all the work we put into it! Yesterday we were totally exhausted! I haven't had much time to stamp lately, so I thought I would share a few of the cards that we made at my last class for Dads & Grads.

Masculine cards are always more of a challenge for me. I figure I can't go wrong if I pull out one of my nature themed sets and use lots of hardware and embossing to create a metal look. So, a few of the cards here have embossed images and use brushed copper card stock.

This coming week I hope to share some new creations using some new stamp sets from the upcoming catalog. I received my pre-order last week and have hardly touched my stuff due to lack of time. :-(

It's Tassel Time!

It's official...my first born has graduated High School! Does that mean I'm officially old? I remember back when I graduated high school, I thought my parents were old, and the kicker is, back then they were younger than I am right now! Oh well...you're only as old as you feel (and act!), right? I thought I would share a photo I took of my handsome (if I do say so myself!) son on graduation day. We are lucky - he is such a good kid! He graduated with honors too.

Now that I'm done bragging about my son, I thought I'd share a few of the graduation cards I've made lately using the Tassel Time set of stamps. I've been busy working on some graduation scrapbook pages also - so I'll be sharing those here at some point - but most likely not until after his open house. That is less than 2 weeks away now...yikes!

Summer Sun & Handsome Hunter card stock are a good match for his school colors so that part was easy! Actually, the hardest part about these cards were cutting out the little cap so they were pretty darn easy, but I think they turned out cute. Putting a brad on the cap and popping it up with a stampin' dimensional is what makes these cards.

Here's one I made for my neice who is also graduating high school this year. Her school colors are Navy Blue and Gold.

Have a great day!