Primrose Madison Petals

I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!  After a short stamping break, I'm back with another Sale-a-Bration idea.  In less than a month Sale-a-Bration will start!  This card features the Madison Avenue set along with two of the 2012-2014 In Colors--Primrose Petals and Gumball Green.  I also added some Daffodil Delight to my color palette.  I stamped the flowers and then layered them on some Daffodil Delight and added a white scalloped border that I made with the scallop edge punch.  I then tied some Primrose Petals stitched satin ribbon around that before layering it on some Patterns Designer Series Paper.  I wanted my patterns to stand out from the Primrose Petals card base, so I layered them on a bit of white before mounting them to the card base.  I hope you enjoy this card!  It's just what I needed on this snowy day (we've already had more snow this year than all of last year, which is more than enough for me)!  Bring on the sunshine!

Whale Thanks

Here's another card with the upcoming Oh, Whale! set set.  I used the sketch over at Pals Paper Arts for my layout inspiration.  I'm sure having fun with the new Sunshine and Sprinkles DSP pack, so I decided to use one of the patterns from it for my tri-panel background.  I pulled some colors from that paper for my color palette: Regal Rose, Daffodil Delight, and Pacific Point.  I stamped the whale and then punched it with the 2-1/2" circle punch and then layered it on a scallop circle that I cut from the Perfect Pennants Big Shot die.  I added a little straight scallop edge along the bottom of my panels with the scallop edge punch to coordinate with my scallop circle.  Hope you have a fun day with Christmas festivities and getting those last minute preparations done.  Merry Christmas!

Petite Birthday

It's time for a sneak peek with another upcoming Sale-a-Bration set.  This card actually features two Sale-a-Bration 2013 items: the Pretty Petites set and the coordinating Petite Curly Label Punch.  I decided to stamp a birthday card with this set, and I also tried to make it more masculine (or gender neutral) so I chose the colors Real Red, Tangerine Tango, and Daffodil Delight.  I stamped the birthday image in each of these colors and then punched them and then mounted them onto (my favorite) Patterns Designer Series Paper.  I mounted my layers on white to help them stand out a little before mounting them on another color.  I chose some Real Red stitched grosgrain to tie around my main layer and then stamped the "make a wish" stamp from the Sweet Essentials stamp set in Basic Black.  I used the sketch at Mojo Monday to come up with the layout for this card.  Are you getting excited for Sale-a-Bration?  I can't decide what my favorite set is yet, I love all of them that I've used so far!

Sunshine and Sprinkles Whale

Time to participate in another sketch challenge.  I've been having a lot of fun with the new sets coming in the Stampin' Up! Spring 2013 Catalog, so I decided to pair some new product with the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I thought the cute little whale from the new Oh, Whale! set would work great for my main image, so I stamped him in Marina Mist and then cut him out with the matching Clearlits die.  I layered him on a few pieces of patterned paper from the new Sunshine and Sprinkles DSP pack (those waves were perfect and I love the colored polka-dots).  It's a little hard to see in my photo, but the Bashful Blue card stock on the top section of the card has clouds textured in it with the Cloudy embossing folder (hate it when the camera doesn't catch some of the details).  The bottom of the card is Certainly Celery card stock and has the greeting punched with the Bitty Banners Framelits die.  I tied everything together with some new Melon Mambo striped organdy ribbon.

Rich Garden Blooms

I love the rich colors from this Stampin' Royalty color challenge: Riding Hood Red, Summer Starfruit, Lucky Limeade, and Island Indigo.  I used some Patterns Designer Series Paper for my striped and polka dot paper--I just love how those subtle patterns add so much to the card!  My stamped panel was made with the new Secret Garden stamp set that will be available next month in the Spring 2013 Catalog.  I layered that on some Riding Hood Red card stock and then tied it with some Island Indigo ribbon that came from the Sale-a-Bration Sycamore Street ribbon and button pack.  The "so kind of you" stamp is from the Sweet Essentials stamp set and is stamped in Island Indigo as well.

Raining Thoughts

I was about to start my blog post by telling you that here was another card and isn't it great that I've posted a card each day this week.  And then I realized that it isn't Friday.  It still isn't Friday.  All day yesterday I kept thinking it was Friday and now it is happening again.  I'm fine with the fact that it is Wedneday and I don't know why my mind keeps jumping ahead--maybe subconsciously I'm just like a little kid and just can't wait until Christmas, although I still have a lot that needs to be done before then.  Namely, clean up my stamping stuff (aka big mess).  Hmmmmm.  Enough about that.   I did manage to use some Christmas stamps today as I made tags for a few little neighbor gifts.  I think that is just about it for the Christmas stamping.  Back to the Spring Catalog and Sale-a-Bration.....

As promised here is another sneak peak from the upcoming Stampin' Up! Spring 2013 Catalog.  I used the Rain or Shine set again for my stamped image and greeting, and added some Sunshine and Sprinkles Designer Series Paper (since they coordinate so well)!  I love how easy it is to come up with colors thanks to all of the fun colors in this paper.  I used Regal Rose, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, and Marina Mist on my card.  The Marina Mist card stock in the background is textured with the new cloud embossing folder.  When I mounted the strip of DSP, I punched a scallop edge along the side of the Regal Rose card stock to add some flair.


I love how there are so many fun new products in the upcoming catalog and how that time overlaps with Sale-a-Bration.  That way everyone can purchase fun new things and also score some FREE Sale-a-Bration items.  Don't worry, it won't be long now. 




Do you want to see more Spring 2013 Sneak Peeks?  Click  here, here, here, here, here, and here

Did you see the Sale-a-Bration 2013 Sneak Peeks? Click here, here, here, and here

Raining Congrats

Here's a sneak peek of another new set--this time from the upcoming Spring 2013 catalog.  I love the umbrellas in the Rain or Shine stamp set.  I think they would not only be perfect for a Spring card, but also an "under the weather" or a wedding/baby shower type card.  I decided to use the Sweet Essentials set for my greeting here so that I could use this card for a bridal shower.  I used the colored polka dot paper from the Sunshine and Sprinkles DSP for my color inspiration and added stamped images in Regal Rose, Old Olive, Marina Mist, and Basic Gray.  My card base is Regal Rose card stock and I added some of my favorite Patterns DSP in Regal Rose so that there was a little pattern for my background.  Don't you just love the new striped organdy ribbon?  I do, so I used some of it in Old Olive to tie around my DSP panel.  I hope you are enjoying the sneek peeks--stay tuned for more!

Madison and Vine

Would you like another sneak peek at a Sale-a-Bration set?  I used the Madison Avenue set along with the new Vine Street textured impressions embossing folder.  Melon Mambo, Old Olive, and Pacific Point make up my color palette.  The "thank you" comes from the Made for You set and is punched with the oval punch, layered on the scallop oval punch, and finally layered on the decorative label punch.  I added some Old Olive striped organdy ribbon from the upcoming Spring Catalog to finish off the card.  Stay tuned for more sneak peeks.

Triple Bloomin' Marvelous

I decided that it was time to have another go at the triple time technique (see other cards I've done with this technique here, here and here).  I used the new SAB set called Bloomin' Marvelous and stamped the stamps in Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, and Pacific Point.  I know that Christmas is just around the corner, but I'm kind of finished with Christmas cards and feel like it is time to move onto something bright and cheery (it helps me feel better about the snow that was dumped here yesterday).  I stamped my layers and then mounted them on Melon Mambo.  I added some of the new Melon Mambo striped organdy ribbon around the first layer and then mounted everything together. 

Chevron Heart Trio

I can't believe that it's already Friday (and that I haven't posted a card since Monday)!  Sorry about that.  Here is another card that uses the Hearts a Flutter stamp set.  I used the chevron heart from that stamp so that I could coordinate it with the chevron embossing folder (used on the crumb cake card stock).  I stamped my hearts on Vanilla card stock in Riding Hood Red and then punched them with the 1-1/4" square punch and layered that on the 1-3/8" square punch.  I tied some Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon around the panel before adding it to the striped paper from the patterns dsp and finally my Riding Hood Red card base.  Hope you enjoy!  I'll try to get with it and keep the posts coming daily again.  Have a good weekend!

Butterflies and Stripes

Hooray!  More new products!  I decided to play along with this sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and knew I had to get some more use out of my new stamps!  I used the upcoming Sale-a-Bration set called Bloomin' Marvelous for my butterflies and my greeting and then added new accessories as well!  I picked colors from the striped paper from Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP for this card, so I ended up with Regal Rose, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, and Marina Mist.  I stamped my butterflies and then punched them with the 2-1/2" circle punch and layered it onto a scalloped circle that I cut with the perfect pennants die.  My background has textured clouds on it thanks to the newest embossing folder in the Spring Catalog and I finished things off with some new Old Olive striped organdy ribbon. 

Pop Out Pinwheels

Are you ready to see more new products?  This card doesn't show new stamps (it just shows the Sassy Salutations set), but it does show a new die for the Big Shot.  It's a little pinwheel sizzlit die.  The die cuts a pinwheel with pre-cut holes to put the brad through, and the pinwheel measures about 1-3/4" square.  I cut my pinwheels from some Patterns DSP (isn't it fun that the paper is double sided)!  I chose Cherry Cobbler and Marina Mist for my main colors and then some Early Espresso as an accent.  These colors were the color challenge this week over at Splitcoast.  I decided that the white background needed some texture, so I used the Chevron embossing folder to add some "movement" to the card.  To get the chevrons to fill the whole background in the horizontal direction, the die isn't big enough.  I didn't find that a problem though because I wanted to leave the top of the background untextured so that I could stamp the greeting on it.  Are you excited for the upcoming Spring catalog so you can add some of the fun new products to your collection?

Big Bright Flowers

Are you ready to see more new stamps?  This card was made with flowers from the new Secret Garden set (available January 2013).  I stamped them in Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, and Gumball Green.  I used some daffodil patterns dsp along the bottom and stamped my greeting form Sweet Essentials in black.  I then layered it onto some Tangerine Tango card stock and tied some Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon around it before layering it on some white and finally Melon Mambo.  Easy, fun, and bright!  I'm ready for Spring now :)

Monochromatic Sweethearts

Here's another card with NEW STAMPS!  I love this Hearts a Flutter stamp set that will be available in January (in the 2013 Spring Catalog).  I couldn't wait to make a pink card with the hearts, so I decided to use pink for my my Monochromatic colors for the Hand Stamped Sentiments color challenge this week.  I chose Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, and white for my color palette.  I was excited to also use the new Melon Mambo striped organdy ribbon on this card as well.  I stamped my hearts and then mounted some patterns dsp below them to stamp my greeting on (from Sassy Salutations).  I mounted all of that on Melon Mambo card stock and then tied my ribbon around it.  I textured the white card base with the Chevron embossing folder to mimic the chevron hearts and then mounted my layers on that.  I love the crispness of this card with the monochromatic colors and the clean white background.  I can't wait to go stamp some more so I can use this set again!

Blue Banners

I saw this card over at Rita's Creations this week and fell in love with the layout.  I decided to give a similar card a try and this is what I came up with.  I also decided to make this card for the color challenge over at colourQ so I've used Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Midnight Muse, and white for my color palette.  Since my order of new stamps came, I had to use one from the upcoming Spring catalog, so I used the diagonal striped banner from the new Hearts a Flutter stamp set.  I cut that out with the coordinating framelit die.  I also used that die for the turquoise polka dot banner, but that one is narrower so I just used the die for the bottom of it.  I think I'll get a lot of use out of this fun banner, and I love that it can be used for more masuline cards as well!  The smaller banners are all done with dies in the bitty banners framelits collection.  I added some textured stripes (with the stripes textured impressions folder) to the Pacific Point card stock, but unfortunately didn't show up in the photograph very well.  I stamped the greeting from Sassy Salutations and mounted everything on Midnight Muse card stock and tied some stitched Midnight Muse satin ribbon around it all. 

Happy Blooms

New stamps make me happy!  I've been stamping so many Christmas cards lately that it was fun to use something more Spring-y today.  I was able to pre-order items from the Spring Catalog and Sale-a-Bration on Saturday and today Mr. Brown made my day with a big brown box.  This is the first card I stamped with my new goodies and I know I'll be making a whole bunch more with this Sale-a-Bration set called Bloomin' Marvelous.

It was nice to have a little direction when creating today, so thank you Dynamic Duos for the color inspiration--Certainly Celery and Real Red.  These colors are so fun together, they'd be a great combo for Christmas but they also work well for Spring!  I layered the greeting with the oval punch, scalloped oval punch, and designer label punch and mounted that on top of my Real Red stitched grosgrain.  I love the soft look of the stamps in this set and can't wait to try out more cards with it!

Patterned Packages Tied Up With Strings

Coming up with names for my posts proves to be rather interesting at times.  I try to come up with a name that relates to the card I'm showing, and I also try to make it not sound too stupid :)  I'm sitting here singing "My Favorite Things" in my head because of my title.  I started with Patterned Packages since the present stamp is from the Patterned Party set, then I thought about "tied" since I have the ribbon around it, then one thing leads to another and I'm singing The Sound of Music to myself.

I made this card for the sketch challenge at Fab Friday.  I have a bunch of pre-cut paper leftover from last week's Christmas Card Buffet, so I decided to put some of it to use.  I used the paper that I had cut for this card as my starting point and then combined it with the sketch.  I had to incorporate my favorite Patterns DSP, so I used some of the Pool Party striped paper from the In Color stack.  I stamped the "happy birthday" from Sassy Salutations and then decided that the card needed a couple little presents off to the side.  I realized that the presents in the Patterned Party set would work great, so I inked just one of the three presents with my Island Indigo and Wisteria Wonder markers.  I separated the stamped image and the dsp with some Wisteria Wonder ruffled ribbon and then layered that panel onto Island Indigo and Pool Party card stock.  I textured my Wisteria Wonder card base with the Lacy Brocade embossing folder and then added the layered panels to finish the card.

Cheery Snowflakes and Polka Dots

I'm in love with the fun color combo used in the current colourQ challenge.  I used to lean more to the traditional side when it came to colors for snowflakes and Christmas cards, but I've learned that it is way more fun (and often more visually appealing) to mix things up a bit.  I really like the pink and blue mixed with the traditional red and green.  I tried to stay pretty true to the suggested colors, but I did swap Wild Wasabi for Glorious Green and Tempting Turquoise for Cool Caribbean so that I was using current Stampin' Up! colors.  I sure miss having Cool Caribbean around, but I guess we can't have them all, can we.  I think the combo still works well and is pretty close! 

I stamped the snowflakes from the Snowflake Soiree set in Real Red, Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi, and Tempting Turquoise and then cut the panel into three pieces before mounting it onto my Regal Rose card stock.  I then mounted that onto some Tempting Turquoise Patterns DSP (love those polka dots with the snowflakes) and then onto white and finally onto the Wild Wasabi card base.  Originally I was planning to just use a turquoise card base, but after trying it both ways the wasabi won--it just looked better and cheered up the card with extra color!  I added some stitched grosgrain in Real Red around most of the layers and then tucked my greeting under the stamped panel.  I used the Sweet Essentials set (specifically the "make a wish" stamp) and just inked up the "wish" part of it.  Then I punched it the tall way with the Decorative Label Punch to give it some shape.

I have to say that I think Snowflake Soiree is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, of all my snowflake sets.  I didn't think I'd say that when I first got it, but the shapes and patterns are just too much fun!  That is saying a lot as I've been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator for over 14 years now, and that means I have a LOT of snowflake sets--come on, you know that we always "need" the latest and greatest snowflake set :)  I'm typing up this blog post as I look out my window and see the sunny blue skies and not a bit of snow on the ground, which is just fine with me!  We got a little snow in the mountains last night, but just a bunch of rain here in the valley.  Now this is my kind of winter!  I'd prefer to have my snowflakes be the stamped kind and my snowmen to be the sidewalk chalk variety.

Soft Heart Trio

Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Pool Party, and Chocolate Chip----love it!  This is the color combo over at Just Add Ink right now.  Initially I was thinking that this would make a perfect combo for a baby card, but then I noticed some of my new rubber sitting on my table and decided to give it a try with my new set called You are Loved.  I've seen this set in the catalog and kept thinking about getting it, and I took the plunge when it was part of the Online Spectacular sale a couple weeks ago.  The part that I fell in love with was the tag.  The designer label punch has been one of my favorites for some time, so naturally I "needed" that tag stamp.  I like how the oval in the center of the tag fits perfectly with the oval punch.  When trying to formulate this card, I looked at the large heart stamp and decided that I liked the pattern in it, but that the large heart wasn't going to work with what I was going for.  I stamped the large heart in Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, and Pool Party, and then used my full heart punch to punch out just a portion of it so that I could get a patterned heart more appropriately sized for this card.  I layered those hearts with Stampin' Dimensionals onto 1-3/4" squares that I cut from the Patterns DSP (I wish there was a square punch that size, but the paper cutter worked just fine).  I mounted those on some white, then Chocolate Chip, then Pretty in Pink card stock.  I textured my Pool Party card base with the Elegant Lines embossing folder to try and mimic the fun pattern in the hearts.  I tied some Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon around the bottom of the card and then mounted my tag on it with more Stampin' Dimensionals.  I think I'll have to remember this color palette and try it out with some baby stamps next time.

Candy Cane Stripes

I feel like it has been forever since I participated in a blog challenge!  It's probably only been a couple of weeks, but I've missed them--and my creating time.  Thanksgiving and my Christmas Card Buffet took my time away, so I haven't had much time to sit down and just create, but I managed to get a little time in today.  I decided to start by participating in the current sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  I wanted to keep my card clean, and bold, so I limited the amount of color on it.  I chose Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla for my colors and then started to create.  I knew I wanted to mimic the stripes on the candy canes, so I turned to my trusty Patterns Designer Series Paper and used some of the Cherry Cobbler stripes for my background.  I've definitely decided that the Scentsational Seasons set is my favorite Christmas set this year (as you can probably tell by the number of times I've used it thus far), so I used the candy canes from that set for my main image.  I cut those out with the coordinating framelits and then layered them on a Cherry Cobbler circle that textured with the chevron embossing folder and then punched with the 2-1/2" circle punch.  That is layered on a scalloped circle that was cut from the Perfect Pennants big shot die and is then mounted with some Stampin' Dimensionals so that it stands out from the card a little.  The banners are all cut with the Bitty Banners framelits--funny thing is I didn't think I'd use those framelits a lot when I first got them, boy was I wrong!  I stamped the greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes and then finished of my card with a Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon bow around the candy canes.