Occasions Catalog Idea Trio

Nothing gets my creative juices flowing like a blog challenge.  I love how I can look at a sketch, grab a few specified colors, or look at an inspiration photo and then get stamping.  Our friends over at Stampin' Royalty are having a Guest Designer Open Call.  I love how so many blog challenge designers share their talent to help inspire others.  Today I'm sharing three cards that are my try-out to be a guest designer.

When creating this first card, I gave myself a color challenge.  I wanted a bright and fresh card that didn't use corals or pinks (which I tend to gravitate towards), so I chose Tempting Turquoise, Wild Wasabi, and Daffodil Delight.  I made a couple of cards with these colors and am sharing my favorite.  The combination of these colors seems very Springy or Summery, which is perfect to offset the weather for today (we're currently in the middle of a Winter-like snowstorm.....welcome to Spring in Utah)!  I'm trying to make a bunch of samples using sets from the Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog for an upcoming class, so I used the Painted Petals stamp set.  I added a bit of the polka dot paper from the Backgrounds DSP stack (Brights) and layered that with my stamped panel onto some Daffodil Delight and then tied it up with some Daffodil Delight cotton ribbon.  I textured my card base with the Spring Flowers embossing folder and glued everything together.

This second card would work well for a color challenge (Strawberry Slush, Wild Wasabi, and Basic Gray).  It would also work well as a sketch challenge.  I like using Basic Gray in place of Basic Black when I want to keep the lines softer and not so bold.  I used another set from the Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog called Mother's Love.  It's a two step stamp set which makes adding color the images a breeze.  I again added a bit of polka dot paper from the Brights Patterns DSP stack and used the Spring Flowers embossing folder for the background.  Two of my top go-to products are embossing folders and DSP stacks.  I added a bit of Smoky Slate 1/8" taffeta ribbon to tie in the gray.  I stamped the "for you" and layered it on some circles thanks to the circle framelits.  Finally, I added a little flower punched from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack (complete with rhinestone jewel in the center).

For my third and final card, I went with a card that is easy to duplicate.  I love having so many fun stamping supplies and I like to be able to use them.  I make a lot of cards for samples, and then find that I don't send enough.  This year I'm trying to send out more thank you notes, so I needed to create something that I can mass-produce to use for that purpose.  I also like to make a bunch of cards to give packs of 6 to teachers and school staff at the end of the year, so they can't be too time-consuming.

I used the Painted Petals stamp set again for this card.  I stamped the stems in Mossy Meadow and then used the Petite Petals punch for the flowers so that they'd extend past the 2-1/2" circle.  I added some rhinestone jewels to the flowers for their centers and adhered the flowers with Stampin' Dimensionals.  I stamped some flowers on the Soft Sky card stock in Soft Sky ink so that they would be subtle, but add a little something to the background.  I tied that layer up with some Blackberry Bliss ribbon and mounted it onto my white card base.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing 3 cards today instead of just 1.  Since I've been stamping so much lately, this is a good way to keep up on posting my ideas.  Enjoy!