Stampin' Up! Love and Hugs from Ribbon of Courage

I just read that one of my Facebook friends is dealing with some big health issues.  While I could have easily given her some words of support and encouragement on her Facebook post, I decided to be more personal and send her a card.  It was a good excuse to use some of my new Stampin' Up! goodies as well!  I make cards all the time, but often those cards just get used to display at my events, but I'm trying to get better about actually SENDING cards.  That is my new goal.  This week I have sent 5 cards so far, and hopefully I can continue to make and send cards.  I think I'd better get some more postage stamps :)

This card uses the new Ribbon of Courage stamp set.  A couple of the main images in the set are some ribbons that could be used for all sorts of awareness.  While I think those images are nice, I fell in love with the additional stamps in the set like the hearts and flowers.  Another thing that I fell in love with were the coordinating framelits.  Have you seen the fun flower in the Support Ribbon Framelits Dies?  It's gorgeous.  I'll be using it soon and will post whatever I create.  I created my stamped panel with one of my new favorite color combinations: Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist, and Bermuda Bay.  Aren't these colors so fun together?  The first two colors are new 2017-2019 In Colors.  They are great colors to add to your collection.  You can order them by going to my Website and clicking SHOP NOW.

I stamped the greeting (also from the Ribbon of Courage set) on an oval that I die cut from the Stitched Shapes Framelits.  I just love the font used and especially love the greeting itself.  It can work for so many uses: sympathy, support, love, friendship, wedding, thinking of you, etc.  The hearts were both die cut from the Support Ribbon Framelits.  I added a bit of the new Bermuda Bay Mini Chevron ribbon to tie it all together.  Hope you enjoy!

Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird In Color Note Cards

 School is out...which means Summer is here.  My kids are very literal and remind me that it is still officially Spring, but I explain that "Summer Vacation" begins as soon as school is out and that's what I call Summer.  I wanted to share this fun box of note cards that I made for a classroom aide.  She happens to love birds and a lot of the students draw pictures of birds for her all the time, so I figured I ought to make her some cards with birds on them.  She loved them!  I used the 2016-2018 In Colors along with the Swirly Bird stamp set to create this set.

I love giving hand stamped gifts for the end of the school year.  I make them for teachers, aides, and secretaries at the school.  I figure that teachers get a lot of treats, flowers, and other gifts, so I enjoy giving them something that they can use and not have to store from year to year.  So far they've been a hit.  This second photo shows the card that I wrote in to go along with the gift set.

Stampin' Up! Patterned Party Birthday

I made this card for the Splitcoast Stampers Creative Crew December Inspiration Challenge.  This month we're doing birthday cards and the inspiration challenge it to use punches with the birthday theme. I decided to make a bright and fun monochromatic card with punches and a lot of patterns.

I used the Better Together stamp set and Real Red ink, DSP, washi tape, and bakers twine.  I used the balloon punch and the scalloped tag topper punch.  The background is textured with the confetti embossing folder.  I love how the monochromatic look turned out and even though it's just red and white, the color really pops!

Stampin' Up! Sugarplum Snowflakes Stepped Up

Here's a stepped up version of the card I posted yesterday.  Sometimes I like the clean and simple version, and sometimes cards do well being "stepped up" a bit.  In this case, I like both of the results.  I used the same colors: Sweet Sugarplum, Dapper Denim, and Pool Party.  I love the sugarplum glimmer ribbon in the Holiday Catalog, so I added a bit of that around the card.  This is another pretty quick card to make.

Stampin' Up! CAS Sugarplum Snowflakes

Luckily it's not time to see real snowflakes falling yet, but 'tis the season to start playing with some winter stamps.  Here's a clean and simple card that I made with the Flurry of Wishes stamp set.  My colors are Sweet Sugarplum, Dapper Denim, and Pool Party.

Stampin' Up! Peach Blossom Thanks

I'm so behind in my blogging!  I keep thinking that I'll get to it once I've taken better photos, finished a few more cards, after the kids are in bed, etc.  Excuses, excuses.  Well, it's Summer now and that means lazy days, right?  Seems more like CRAZY days (even though our mornings are occasionally a bit lazy as well).  I love the warm Summer evenings and spend them playing with the kids instead of worrying about when bedtime is.  Hope you are all having a wonderful Summer as well!

I have a whole box of new Stampin' Up! products to use and I'm just beginning to create with them so stay tuned.  Hopefully I can find the time to stamp AND post some of my creations.  I did photograph a few of my new cards so perhaps I'll get some posted more regularly.  

This card features one of my favorite new stamp sets that I purchased last month...FRESH FRUIT.  I've always been a fan of the 2-step stamping and I'm happy to see more of it in the new Stampin' Up! Catalog.  I feel like it takes me back to some of my Stampin' Up! roots.  I realized the other day that I've been a demonstrator for nearly 18 years!!!  Wow, time flies when you're having fun!  The FRESH FRUIT stamp set has a few basic sentiments in it along with some great flowers and fun fruit stamps.  I stamped the flowers in Daffodil Delight, Peekaboo Peach (a new In Color), and Watermelon Wonder.  I then mounted that on some Peekaboo Peach card stock and added a strip of striped designer series paper and mounted it all on my Watermelon Wonder card base.  Finally I added a little sentiment from Suite Sayings, punched it out with the Decorative Label Punch and attached it to the card with some Stampin' Dimensionals.  These colors just seem fun and summery to me.  What colors say Summer to you?

Spring Flowers For You

I just love Spring, and I think the older I get, the more I love it.  It's mostly because it means Winter is over, but I love seeing the flowers pop up, feeling the warmer air, not having to wear coats, and especially enjoying the longer daylight hours.  We've been so spoiled in our neck of the woods with Spring-like weather and above normal temperatures for several weeks already.  This week we've found ourselves at the park and outside a lot more than usual, and it's been fantastic.

What could be more fitting with this Spring weather (and it isn't even technically Spring yet) than a Spring card?  I used the new Mother's Love stamp set from the Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog.  I have the set in photopolymer and decided to cut the coloring part of the image (as opposed to the outline stamp).  I cut the stamp so that the flowers and leaves are separate, that way I can ink up each in different colors.  Sometimes I hesitate cutting my stamps (something just feels wrong about it) but on something like this I am SO glad that I did.  Where the set is photopolymer, I can easily just stick the parts back together on the block if I wanted to, but I can't think of when I'd want all of the parts stamped in the same color.  I stamped my outline in Basic Gray and then used Strawberry Slush and Wild Wasabi for the 2nd step.  I love how quick and easy 2-step stamps are.  I added some polka dot paper from the Backgrounds DSP stack in Strawberry Slush and then mounted it all on some Strawberry Slush card stock and tied some Smoky Slate 1/8" ribbon around it before adhering it to the Wild Wasabi card base (textured with the new Spring Flowers embossing folder).  I stamped the greeting and then cut it with my circles framelits and added a flower punched from the Itty Bitty Accents punch pack.  To finish things off I added a little rhinestone jewel to the center of the flower.  Happy Spring!