Raspberry Textured Butterflies

After making yesterday's neutral butterfly card, I left out the Papillon Potpourri set.  So, today when I wanted to make a card for the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge, I decided to use Papillon Potpourri again.  After all, you can't go wrong with butterflies!  I picked a simple color palette--Raspberry Ripple, Basic Black and White and then I started creating.

I textured some Raspberry Ripple card stock with the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder and used that for half of my background and for my circles that the butterflies sit on.  I also used some striped Patterns DSP for the other half of my background.  I stamped the floral butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and punched them out and layered them on Raspberry textured circles and on black scalloped circles.  I don't have the smaller butterfly punch yet, so I cut that by hand--that punch will be on my next order!  I stamped the "friends" stamp from the Sweet Essentials stamp set and then cut it with the larger banner from the Bitty Banners framelits.  I then layered everything on some white, black, and finally the Raspberry Ripple card base.

Nature's Butterfly Duo

Wow, I actually made a card that doesn't use Sale-a-Bration or Spring Catalog items.  When I saw the Dynamic Duo combo, I knew I wanted to try it out with something from nature.  I've been stamping with flowers a lot lately, so I decided it was time to pull out my trusty Papillon Potpourri set and make a butterfly card again.  I have been neglecting my stamp sets from the "regular" catalog the past couple of months but I do love a lot of the sets in there.  This week's Dynamic Duo colors are Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.  I have to admit, I didn't always like Soft Suede, but this past year I have fallen in love with it.  It works so well with a lot of great colors.  I especially like the soft natural look it gives when paired with Crumb Cake like in this card.

I started this card by stamping a panel full of butterflies in both Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.  I glued that along with some Crumb Cake Striped Patterns DSP onto a layer of Soft Suede and White.  I mounted those layers on my Crumb Cake card base that is textured with the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder.  I have found that I love combining Patterns DSP along with embossing folders--there's just something about the combination of patterns and texture that I love.  I stamped an extra butterfly and punched it with the coordinating Elegant Butterfly punch and layered it onto a 1-3/8" circle (also textured like the card base) and then onto a Soft Suede scalloped circle.  I made my word banner with the Sweet Essentials stamp set and hand-cut the pennant shape in both white and Soft Suede.  I think I have found yet another favorite color combo!

Midnight Daffodil Garden Sketch

I love the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches right now, it lends itself so well to my favorite designer series paper--the Patterns Stacks!  I wanted to keep up with my "brighter" cards to offset the cold and snow, so I chose a palette with Daffodil Delight.  That color can add some brightness and sunshine to anything!  I shouldn't complain too much about the weather though.  We had 3 weeks of cold, smog, and inversion and today I can actually see the sun!  As far as snowstorms go, I can tolerate them (a little) when the next day it is clean, white, and bright outside.  Here's hoping a lot of it will melt :)

I combined Daffodil Delight with Midnight Muse and Gumball Green (both 2012 In Colors) for this card.  I stamped a couple of the bolder flowers from the new Secret Garden stamp set and raised them to different heights with Stampin' Dimensionals.  I wanted some bold leaves so I used the leaf sizzlit die to cut some from the Gumball Green card stock.  Sweet Essentials is the set where I got the "thinking of you" stamp and I hand-cut the banner for it.  My background is made up of Midnight Muse Patterns DSP and Daffodil Delight card stock that I textured with the Chevron Textured Impressions Embossing Folder as well as a bit of white card stock for layering.  I haven't used this color combo before, I generally use Summer Starfruit with this blue and green, but I think I'll be coming back to this again and again--I really like the brightness that the Daffodil adds.  Here's to warm and sunny thoughts everywhere!

Marvelous Stripes

Oh Sale-a-Bration, how I love you!  There are so many great Sale-a-Bration items to choose from, it would be hard to pick just one which is why I have most of them :)  It sure is nice that there are so many fun Spring Catalog items so that I had something to buy in order to choose free items.  I do love the cute little images in the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set, especially the flower.

On this card, I stamped the Flower in Melon Mambo and added some Lucky Limeade leaves and a Pacific Point "thank you" (from the Sassy Salutations stamp set).  I used this layout from Just Add Ink to inspire the rest of my card.  I layered my stamped panel onto Melon Mambo and then onto some chevron dsp from the new Sunshine & Sprinkles Designer Series Paper pack.  Below that I used some fun rainbow striped paper from the same dsp pack and layered both onto more Melon Mambo card stock.  I created a division between the two papers with some Pacific Point stitched grosgrain ribbon and then layered everything onto my Pacific Point card base.  I sure love these bright colors for blah January days!

A Ton of Thanks

This weekend I had a chance to finally try out the new Patterned Occasions stamp set.  What fun images!  I decided to cut the words apart from the pictures so that the stamps would be more versatile, and so I could use multiple colors without having to use markers to ink up the stamps.

The first stamp I tried out was the cute elephant stamp and decided that he would make a cute clean and simple card.  I started out by stamping him in Pacific Point and then stamped his "thanks a ton" greeting in Melon Mambo.  I punched my stamped images out with the 1-3/4" circle punch and layered them on a Melon Mambo 2-3/8" scalloped circle punch and finally on a 2-1/2" circle punch.  I cut a strip of Pacific Point striped Patterns DSP and mounted that on white and then Pacific Point card stock (and scalloped the bottom edge of that with the scalloped edge punch).  I textured the white card base with the Petals-a-Plenty Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and then mounted everything onto that.  To finish off the card, I tied some Melon Mambo striped grosgrain ribbon around it. 

Bold Whirly Twirly Pinwheels

The skies are gray and hazy, the snow is deep and dirty, but it is warmer than it has been in 3 weeks!  We might get above freezing today--cross your fingers.  I needed to get away from the drab outside colors, so I brought bold and bright colors into my day through stamping.  Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, and Pacific Point did the trick, I already feel warmer.

I made this card to go along with the sketch challenge at The Paper Players as well as the polka dot theme challenge at Stampin' Royalty.  I've made cards with this layout before (even before my challenge days) and it is still one of my favorite go-to layouts.  I wanted to use some new product, so I used the new Wishes Your Way stamp set for all of the words on the card, the new Pinwheel sizzlits die, and the new Melon Mambo striped organdy ribbon (all from the Stampin' Up! Spring 2013 Catalog).  I integrated the polka dot theme into the card by choosing a polka dot pinwheel from the Sweets for the Sweet set and by choosing some yellow Polka Dot Parade DSP for the die cut pinwheel.  I wanted to create a feeling of pinwheel motion on the card, so I used the Chevron textured impressions folder for my background.  As I'm typing this, I see that the date is January 25--Happy Birthday Dad--I miss you!  How fitting that I made a birthday card, even though it isn't manly, it still works, right?

Sassy Flower Bunch

Have you checked out the Sale-a-Bration sets yet?  I love them!  Here is another card that uses the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set (which you can get for FREE right now with a $50 order).  I stamped the flower in Melon Mambo and the leaves in Lucky Limeade.  I wanted to tie in some Daffodil Delight to match my card base, so I grabbed my Daffodil Delight marker and colored in the center of the flowers.  The "thank you" comes from Sassy Salutations--my favorite word set--and is stamped in Pacific Point.  I textured my background with the petals-a-plenty embossing folder and then added strips of Lucky Limeade and Pacific Point Patterns Designer Series Paper (both layered on their matching card stock) before adhering my stamped panel.  I used the sketch challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments to come up with the layout for this card.  Gotta love those challenges--they give great inspiration!

Textured Heart Duo

Time for another Dynamic Duos challenge card.  The current duo is Real Red and Basic Black--perfect for Valentine's!  I built this card from the background up, it wasn't until I was nearly finished that I realized how little stamping I did on the card.  I did, however, use a bunch of other Stampin' Up! products.

I started out by cutting a bunch of hearts from the Hearts a Flutter framelits collection (found in the Stampin' Up! 2013 Spring Catalog) to make my background.  Once I had those glued onto the white card stock, I ran it through my Big Shot with the Square Lattice textured impressions embossing folder.  I used some red designer series paper from the Polka Dot Parade pack and layered it on some Basic Black card stock and punched a scallop edge along the bottom.  I tied both layers together with some black 1/8" taffeta ribbon and then glued everything to my Basic Black card base.  For my final layer, I stamped the "Love You" stamp from the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set and cut it out with the Bitty Banners Framelits.  I glued that onto a red heart (punched with the full heart punch and textured with the polka dot embossing folder) and then onto a black scallop heart (cut with the Hearts a Flutter framelits).  I added a few Stampin' Dimensionals to the back of that heart and stuck it to my card.  Hope you enjoy!

Sale-a-Bration is Here!!!

It's time for Stampin' Up!'s annual Sale-a-Bration!  Click here to view the FREE products you can earn (or click on the link in the right column).

For every $50 order, you get to select one FREE Sale-a-Bration item.

If you host a workshop, you earn FREE Silver Glimmer Paper with a $150 workshop and a FREE product bundle with a $400 workshop---ON TOP OF the regular hostess benefits.

If you sign up to be a demonstrator, you get 25% more product in your starter kit for FREE!  That means you get to choose $156.50 of ANY current Stampin' Up! products for only $99!

You can SHOP HERE at my online store or contact me via phone or email with your order.  Let's Sale-a-Brate!!!

Simple Sublte Garden

I'm finding a lot of uses for the new Secret Garden stamp set (found in the new 2013 Stampin' Up! Spring Catalog.  I like how the set offers both bold and outline images, so that you can really set the tone for your card.  Sometimes I combine the two types of images, but sometimes I want one or the other.  I wanted this card to be clean and simple, so I chose to use a couple of the outline images from the set. 

I stamped a smaller outline flower in Pool Party ink all over about half of my white panel.  I then stamped the largest outline flower in Soft Suede on top of those smaller flowers.  I used the Sassy Salutations stamp set for my greeting and stamped that in Soft Suede and then stamped one more small Pool Party flower on top of that.  I layered the panel onto Soft Suede card stock and then tied some Pool Party seam binding ribbon around that to create a division between the part that has flowers all over it and the blank part.  Finally I layered everything onto some Pool Party card stock.  The subtle colors along with the layout makes this a quick and easy card to make. 

Bright Heart Congrats

I'm finally back with another card.  Life just gets in the way of stamping and blogging sometimes.  Here's another card using the Hearts a Flutter set from the new Stampin' Up! 2013 Spring Catalog.  Can you tell that this is one of my favorite new stamp sets?  Sometimes I don't realize that I have a favorite until I've been stamping with new sets and then I realize I have way more samples with one set than I do with the others--like with this set!

I didn't make this card for a particular purpose, I just decided to sit down and create--no color suggestions, no layout, just create on my own.  I love these three colors together: Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, and Pacific Point.  They are so bright and fun, and they add some boldness to help make this a more all-occasion card instead of just a Valentine's Day card.  In fact, I decided to use the "congratulations" stamp from the Sweet Essentials set so that I can use this for a wedding card sometime.  I stamped hearts all over my main panel and then layered it on Pacific Point card stock.  I then tied some of the new Melon Mambo striped organdy ribbon around it (I wish this ribbon came in more than 3 colors--I love it that much).  I put a pinking edge along the bottom of the Daffodil Delight layer (with the Finishing Touches Edgelits die) to play on the chevron pattern of the yellow hearts.  I stamped Melon Mambo hearts all over the Melon Mambo card base to give it a subtle pattern before adding my stamped panel and my word banner.  I hand-cut the banner and then added a heart that I cut out with the Hearts a Flutter Framelits die and popped it up with a Stampin' Dimensional. 

Sweethearts for You

This week's Freshly Made Sketches layout was the perfect layout for a Valentine's (or at least a heart) card.  It did help that the actual sketch showed hearts for the images :)

I combined this fun sketch with the color challenge over at Pals Paper Arts (Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, and Basic Black) and I think the two challenges make for a winning combination!  I immediately knew that I wanted to use the new Hearts a Flutter stamp set along with the coordinating framelits--isn't it great to not have to cut everything out by hand!  I wanted to add a sentiment that was a little more generic than Valentine's, so I chose the "for you from me" stamp from the set A Word for You.  I used some striped Basic Gray Patterns DSP for my background and layered that on Melon Mambo, White, and Basic Black card stock.  I made my scalloped border by combining a couple edgelits dies along with some white, Melon Mambo, and Black card stock as well as some Melon Mambo Patterns DSP.  I tied some of the new Melon Mambo striped organdy ribbon around everything to finish it off.  I used two of the small hearts and one of the small banners in the Hearts a Flutter stamp set to get the patterns on my small hearts.  Then I cut them with the small heart framelit so that they all looked like they were supposed to be hearts and then layered them on black hearts that I also cut with the framelit.  I used the scalloped heart to stamp my greeting on and layered it on another scalloped heart to help it stand out.  Hope you enjoy!

Melon Indigo Sweethearts

Here's a fun Dynamic Duos Challenge for you:  Melon Mambo and Island Indigo.  When I saw the challenge this week, I knew I had to play along.  I even decided to be on top of things and make my card today so that I knew I'd have time to participate.  These colors just pop and are so vibrant together!  I think that it is time to stamp for the next big card holiday--Valentine's Day, so I pulled out my Hearts a Flutter stamp set (now available in the Stampin' Up! Spring 2013 Catalog).

I love the fun patterns on the hearts and thought they'd be perfect for this challenge.  I stamped two hearts and cut them out with the coordinating Hearts a Flutter framelits for the Big Shot and adhered them with some Stampin' Dimensionals.  The "happy valentine's day" stamp is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  I layered that on some Island Indigo card stock and punched the edge with the scallop edge punch before layering it on Melon Mambo and white card stock.  I tied some Island Indigo ribbon around those layers (the ribbon is from the upcoming Sale-a-Bration Sycamore Street ribbon and button pack).  I added a panel of polka dot Island Indigo Patterns DSP and layered it on some white card stock before adding it to my card base.  I wanted some texture on the base, so I mimicked the chevron heart design with the Chevron embossing folder on my Melon Mambo card base.  I'm pretty sure I'll be using this fun color combo again!

Spring Garden

The holidays are officially over, so now I don't feel too bad moving forward to Spring.  Christmas was wonderful, the New Year wasn't, so I'm ready get a fresh start and forge ahead to Spring.  I long for the crisp days with new life and growth.  I can't wait to hear the birds chirping and the flowers sprouting.  Since we're stuck in a nasty inversion and frigid temperatures, I'll give myself a little of the Spring feeling through my stamping.  What better way to do this than to combine the fun Springy colors from Hand Stamped Sentiments this week!  The challenge was to use Primrose Petals, Pool Party, and Basic Black.  I love challenges that combine new and old In Colors, it helps get me out of the thought that they belong with their own group and proves to be a winning combo.

I selected the Secret Garden set from the new Stampin' Up! 2013 Spring Catalog as  my focus for this card.  I stamped the panel with two of the bold flower stamps and then started layering with Primrose Petals and Basic Black.  That panel needed some ribbon, so I tied on some Primrose Petals stitched satin ribbon.  I had to use some of my favorite Patterns Designer Series Paper (cards almost don't seem complete to me without some DSP), so I used some striped Primrose Petals and some polka dot Pool Party paper.  I stamped the "thinking of you" from the Sweet Essentials set on the polka dot paper and then layered those onto some more Basic Black and finally onto my Pool Party card base. 

Subtle Blooms

Have you checked out the new Stampin' Up! 2013 Spring Catalog?  I've been posting some sneak peeks over the last month, and now the catalog is live!  No more "sneak peeks" just some fun samples of products that everyone can get their hands on now.  This card uses the new Stampin' Up! Secret Garden stamp set along with the Secret Garden framelits (I used them to cut out the flower at the bottom--sure beats having to tediously cut with scissors).  I wanted some color inspiration for this set, so I turned to my talented friends at Stampin' Royalty and joined in on the latest color challenge.  This week's challenge was to use Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla.  I think the colors are very striking together and I loved having the inspiration as I don't think I'd come up with this palette on my own.  It gives a calm and subtle feel to the card.  It was a little out of my comfort zone to not use green on a floral card, but I love the results!

I stamped my flowers and leaves on some Very Vanilla card stock and then layered that panel on Soft Sued and Not Quite Navy.  I then added some Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon (love that stuff--just wish it came in more colors)!  I layered that onto some striped Crumb Cake Patterns Designer Series Paper and then onto my Crumb Cake card base.  I wanted this card to "pop" a little, so I stamped a flower and cut it with the coordinating framelit and then adhered it to the card with a Stampin' Dimenional.  Finally, I stamped the "thank you" from Sassy Salutations with Soft Suede ink onto the striped paper.  I hope you enjoy this idea using the Secret Garden stamp set.  Watch for more ideas soon!