Cheerful Snowflakes

The days are getting shorter and I'm realizing the my beloved summer is coming to an end.  I'm okay saying goodbye to the super hot days, but I'll miss the outdoor fun, the long days, the evening walks, the warm nights, and the more carefree feeling that goes hand in hand with summer.  Fall and I have a love-hate relationship.  I love the colors and the cooler (80s, 70s and even some 60s--but not cold) weather but I hate that it gets dark earlier and that Winter is just around the corner.

I actually sat down and stamped for a few minutes today.  It's the first time I've had a chance to in almost three weeks--that is way too long!  I was hoping to get more than one card done, but the end of nap time brought and end to my stamping.  Oh well, at least I finished one card.  I needed some inspiration to get me back in the stamping groove, so I turned to the color challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I love combining yellow, green, and blue on cards, and I thought this combo was especially striking (and one that I may not have come up with on my own).  I decided to think a little outside the box with this combo and I used it with snowflakes!  Normally I would have chosen something floral or more playful, but I wanted to use my new Snowflake Soiree stamp set.  I think my biggest problem with Winter is the darkness, so I decided to help ward off the Winter Depression by using a bright and cheerful color palette with the snowflakes.  I often use a variety of blues with snowflake stamps, and maybe I've occasionally used green (with red), but I think this is the first time that I've stamped a yellow snowflake--oops, hope that's not bad--I didn't even think about it until now :)

My supplies are: ink and card stock in Daffodil Delight, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, and Not Quite Navy, stitched grosgrain ribbon in Daffodil Delight, Stampin' Up!'s Snowflake Soiree stamp set, Stampin' Dimensionals (to pop up my greeting a little) and the designer label punch.  I actually cut a 1-1/4" strip of white card stock to stamp my greeting on and then I decided that it needed a little pizazz, so I fed it through the back of the designer label punch and punched just the one edge with it.  I did the same with the celery card stock, although it is cut at 1-3/8" (a tight fit for the punch, but it worked).

Lime & Gray Butterfly Birthday

I'm back!  Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks.  I was on a little vacation and have also had a lot going on so I haven't had time to stamp or blog. 

I had some ink pads sitting out from a different project and just happened to have the Lucky Limeade and Basic Gray sitting side by side when I realized that they'd make a great color combo--so of course I had to give it a try.  I love the duo together!  I used the Papillon Potpourri set and just randomly stamped butterflies in different sizes and designs to fill in my white card stock.  I stamped my birthday greeting (from Sassy Salutations) with Basic Gray ink on the patterns designer series paper.  My card base is Lucky Limeade card stock that I ran through my Big Shot with the Petals-a-Plenty textured impressions folder.  I tied it all together with some Basic Gray stitched grosgrain and a butterfly stamped and punched out with the Elegant Butterfly punch.

Lacy, Lovely, and Bright

I love the color combo that I used a few weeks ago for a color challenge--Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, and Lucky Limeade--so I decided to use it again on a card with the Lacy & Lovely stamp set.  I picked three images from that set and stamped them randomly on my white card stock, layered that on some Daffodil Delight card stock, tied some ruffled ribbon (way fun stuff) in Calypso Coral around those layers, and mounted them on my Calypso Coral card base.  I stamped the greeting (that is also in the Lacy & Lovely set) on a white rectangle and then layered it onto a piece of Lucky Limeade that I punched with the Decorative Label punch.  Pretty quick and simple, but I like the results!  You can't go wrong with great stamps and bright colors!

 

Butterfly in Razzleberry

It's fun to see how cards evolve when I don't have a finished idea in mind.  For this card, I started with the Rich Razzleberry dsp from the Summer Smooches dsp pack.  I noticed that the pattern in the paper would go well with the Fancy Fan Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, so I used that with the Rich Razzleberry card stock.  At that point I looked through my stamps to see what I wanted to use and chose Sassy Salutations and Papillon Potpourri.  I picked the floral butterfly from Papillon Potpourri set and punched it out with the Elegant Butterfly Punch.  I like the simple, clean, and quick to put together card that this turned into. 

Coral Blossoms For You

I love this little blossom from the Lacy & Lovely set.  I like all of the images in that set, but especially this fun flower.  So, I decided to give it all of the attention on my card!  I stamped it all over white card stock with Calypso Coral ink, layered it on Calypso Coral and white card stock, and then tied some ruffled Calypso Coral ribbon around it all.  My card base is white card stock with Calypso Coral patterns DSP layered on it.  The "for you" banner is from the Itty Bitty Banners set and it cut with the Bitty Banners Framelits die on my big shot.  Sometimes I get so caught up in what colors to put together on a card, that it is nice to just concentrate on one color for a change.

Formal Fall Season

I just got a new die for my Big Shot--Perfect Pennants--so I used it on this card.  The die has some pennants and some decorative circles, I'm so glad that the scalloped circle is just larger than my 2-1/2" circle punch so that I can layer them together!  I stamped my image from the Four Seasons stamp set in both Basic Black and River Rock (this week's Dynamic Duos), and used my 1" circle punch on the center of black one to help highlight it.  My black striped paper is from the Neutrals Patterns dsp stack and is layered on a strip of black card stock.  I stamped my leaf image in River Rock all over my River Rock card base for a subtle effect.  I like how formal the two colors look together, so I decided to stamp the "congratulations" from Stampin' Up!'s Sweet Essentials set to make this a card I can use for a wedding.

Primary Topsy-Turvy Cake

When I started making this card, I decided that I wanted to use the Polka-Dot Parade Designer Series Paper--I just love that pack of paper!  I picked the Real Red and Daffodil Delight pieces and layered them on their matching card stocks and added a scallop edge (done with my punch) along the bottom of the red.  I knew I needed a third color and wanted this to be a bright and fun card, so I went for a primary colors color scheme and chose Tempting Turquoise.  I wasn't trying to make a gender neutral or more "boyish" card, but that is how it turned out (I'm glad, most of my birthday cards are more feminine and I need some good boy cards!  I was going for kind of a circle theme, but the stripes on the turquoise patterns stack seemed to work well.  I used the labels framelits to punch out my stamped panel, but then cut of the top and bottom so that it was straight instead of pointy.  I stamped the cake from Topsy-Turvy Celebrations along with the "celebrate" from the same set.  Thanks for the fun sketch Stampin' Royalty!

Patterned and Striped Papillon Potpourri

Here's another card with Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, and Gumball Green.  I figured I'd might as well make a few cards with this combo while I had my ink and paper already out.  This time I stamped various butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri set for my stamped panel.  I tied some gumball green stitched satin ribbon around it to bring out the green.  My raspberry strip was textured with the Elegant Lines embossing folder and then layered on some white that I used the scallop edge punch on.  My greeting is from the Lacy & Lovely set and is punched with the oval and scalloped oval punch.  My card base is Gumball Green patterns DSP layered on Gumball Green card stock. 

Silhouette Flowers and Patterned Paper

When I think about some of my must-have products that Stampin' Up! sells right now, right towards the top of my list are the Patterns Designer Series Paper Stacks.  If you look back at the cards that I've been posting over the last few months, you'll notice that I use the patterns dsp on most of my cards.  I love how they seem to give the cards a more-finished look and they add some easy design to the cards.

I used my In Color combo again on this card--Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, and Garden Green.  The "miss you" stamp comes from the Lacy & Lovely set and my flowers are from Summer Silhouettes.  I tied a bit of Raspberry Ripple stitched satin ribbon around my main layer to really help the Raspberry pop on the card.  My base was made by piecing the four different patterns from the In Color Patterns DSP stack together and then layering them on white and on the raspberry base.  I really like how the four patterns blend together and have a good balance of light and dark.  I was inspired by the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge when I put together my card layout.  Hope you enjoy!

Earth Toned Butterflies

I've been having a lot of fun participating in color challenges lately--they really help me try out different combinations than I usually would.  This week's challenge over at Just Add Ink was to use Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Garden Green, and Very Vanilla.  I decided to use the colors with my Papillon Potpourri set to give them kind of an "earthy" look.  I love the Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon that I just ordered and knew before I started the card that I wanted to use it on this card.  I made the scalloped circle butterfly by stamping directly onto green card stock and then punching it with the elegant butterfly punch, then layered it onto a 1-3/4" circle punch and finally onto the 2-3/8" scalloped circle punch.  My stamped panel is layered onto chocolate chip and then some garden green patterns dsp, garden green card stock, and finally on my Very Vanilla card base.  I think the earth toned butterflies are a fun change from my typical color combinations!

Bold and Fresh Silhouettes

I played along with the sketch challenge again this week over at Freshly Made Sketches.  I like how this sketch incorporated the three strips behind the stamped image.  What a great way to use scrap strips of card stock--although I admit that I cut up a piece of card stock because I didn't have any scraps of this color.  I picked three of this year's In Colors--Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, and Gumball Green.  I love how bold and rich these colors are together.  My flowers come from Summer Silhouettes and the greeting is from Sassy Salutations.  I used the Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Embossing Folder on the side piece of Gumball Green card stock to accent the green leaves in my stamped image.  My card base is Raspberry Ripple with some of the patterns designer series paper (from the In Color stack) mounted on top of it.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Summer Silhouettes

10 years!  It's hard to believe that 10 years ago I married my sweetheart.  In some ways it seems like it wasn't that long ago, but in other ways it is so natural that it seems like forever.  I thought a floral card using the Summer Silhouettes set would be appropriate for today, so that is what I made to go along with the Dynamic Duos challenge.  This week's Duo colors are Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink--a pretty and sweet combination!  I used Basic Gray for my neutral (including the Basic Gray stitched grosgrain ribbon).  I stamped my little garden and layered it on pink and gray, and then again on a pink strip of the patterns dsp (from the subtles stack).  I mounted that strip on some white card stock and I punched the edge with the scallop edge punch.  My card base is Certainly Celery card stock and it is textured with the Elegant Lines embossing folder.  Can you tell that I'm really liking that folder?  I just got it last week and it works so well with so many cards!  I stamped the sentiment from the set called A Word for You and punched it with the oval punch layered on pink card stock punched with the scalloped oval punch. 

I Dig You

Since my baby boy is turning into a little boy, I decided that it was time to start getting more "boy" stamps.  The Stampin' Up! I Dig You set looked like one I could get some use out of.  Maybe for his next birthday, I'll have to pick up some diggers or other construction type trucks.  I paired this stamp set with this week's color challenge at The Paper Players and came up with the card you see here.  I love this color combo--the colors are so rich and fun and they have a lot of potential!  I think I'll have to try it on more cards with other stamps--like floral and such.  When I saw Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, and Not Quite Navy, I immediately thought of some of the floral or butterfly sets that I've been using a lot lately, but I knew I needed to branch out and try something new.  I stamped the digger in Cherry Cobbler and then again in Not Quite Navy,  I cut the main part out of the Not Quite Navy one and glued it onto the other so that my digger had a two-toned look.  I mounted that on some Not Quite Navy card stock and then on some Cherry Cobbler Patterns DSP.  I cut the small banner from the Bitty Banners framelits and stuck those out the side of my stamped image before layering it all on the Cherry Cobbler card stock.  My card base is Not Quite Navy with Crumb Cake card stock that I textured with the Chevron embossing folder (to give it a more "rugged" look.  I like how it turned out and I think I successfully created a card without frills or ribbons for a change :)

Papillon Blues

Last week I made this card and had some scraps of my stamped butterfly collage layer.  When I was cleaning off my stamp table (I had to, there was hardly any space to stamp), I found the scraps and instead of throwing them away, I figured I could use them on another card.  I wanted to join in on the fun with Freshly Made Sketches and realized that one of my scraps would be perfect.  I love it when one card can inspire another.

I chose to use Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, and Midnight Muse again for my color palette.  I stamped one of the butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri set onto Tempting Turquoise card stock with Midnight Muse ink.  I then punched it with the Elegant Butterfly stamp and layered it with the 1-3/4" circle punch, where I stamped the antennae.  That is layered on the 2-3/8" scalloped circle and the 2-1/2" circle.  I used a couple of scraps from the patterns dsp (brights and in colors) for my strips above my butterfly collage strip.  My Pacific Point layer is textured with the Elegant Lines embossing folder and is layered on white to help it stand out.  My base layer is Tempting Turquoise patterns dsp from the Brights stack mounted on Tempting Turquoise card stock.  There are a lot of layers on this card, but they are all pretty straight and simple--and a great way to use up little scraps of designer series paper (or stamped images)!

Daffodil Layered Butterfly

Daffodil Delight is such a great color.  I love how bright and cheery it is along with how many colors it seems to coordinate with.  I paired it with Basic Gray to make this card based on the Mojo Monday sketch.  I stamped my buttefly (from Stampin' Up!'s Papillon Potpourri set) directly onto daffodil cardstock.  I then used my Elegant Butterfly punch to punch it out and layer it on a 1-3/4" circle and a 2-3/8" scallop circle and finally a 2-1/2" gray circle.  My yellow polka dot square is from the Polka Dot Parade designer series paper pack and the gray polka dots come from the Neutrals patterns dsp stack.  My greeting comes from Stampin' Up!'s Embellished Events set and is stamped on a banner made from the Bitty Banners Framelits (for the Big Shot).  I'm a huge fan of the stitched grosgrain, so I had to add some of that in Basic Gray to my card.  I actually cut a little slit in the fold of the card and laced my ribbon through that--partly because I wanted the ribbon going in that direction and I didn't cut my card stock length-wise and partly because I like how it keeps it in place.  My card base is textured with the Elegant Lines embossing folder in my Big Shot.  I like how the textured backgrounds really seem to give cards a more finished look.

Shades of Blue Butterflies

Tomorrow we're having our family pictures taken.  I think the hardest part about doing portraits is figuring out what everyone should wear.  After a lot of shopping, I finally decided that we'd all wear shades of blue.  When I saw this week's Stampin' Royalty challenge, I knew it was right up my alley with all of the shopping and looking at blues that I have done lately.  I was pretty excited to take the color palette that I've been working with from fabric to paper :)

I chose the Papillon Potpourri set and grabbed a few different blues to put together.  After a little trial and error, I came up with this palatte (Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, and Midnight Muse).  After stamping various butterflies in various colors, I used my Color Spritzer and my Pacific Point marker to speckle the background--I think it helps fill in any gaps nicely.  I layered it onto Pacific Point card stock and tied some Pacific Point stitched grosgrain around it, then layered it onto some Tempting Turquoise Patterns DSP and finally onto my Pacific Point card base.  I added the "friends" sentiment from the Sweet Essentials set and punched it with the oval punch and layered it onto Pacific Point punched with the designer label punch.

Color Blocked Papillon Potpourri

Have you seen the new Papillon Potpourri stamp set by Stampin' Up!?  It's full of gorgeous butterflies and coordinates with the new Elegant Butterfly punch (LOVE it when those punches work with sets)!  I played along with the color challenge at colourQ and used Summer Starfruit, Certainly Celery, Gumball Green, Midnight Muse for my color palette.  I've used most of the colors together in the past, but haven't thought to add celery to the mix--and I love it!  I stamped the butterfly in each of the colors and punched it out before layering it on color blocks (each 1-3/4"x1-1/4")  I mounted those on white and then on Midnight Muse card stock and tied some Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon around it.  The greeting comes from Embellished Events (the greetings in that set are the perfect size to use with the Bitty Banners Framelits).  I used my scallop edge punch on some white card stock before mounting everything to my card base.  Since I had some empty space on the Certainly Celery card base, I decided to texture it with the Fancy Fan embossing folder to give it a more finished look.  Enjoy!

Summer Patterned Flowers

Patterned paper (or Designer Series Paper) is a great addition to cards.  I love how it is an easy element to add but it seems to really help the card go together.  I decided to play along with this week's SUO challenge and do something different with my dsp on this card, so I mixed up my background.  I took strips from the Brights Patterns stack, the Floral District pack, and the Summer Smooches pack.  Each of these strips matched my colors--Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, and Tangerine Tango.  My stamped layer uses the Summer Silhouettes set and it then layered on all three layers of card stock and tied some Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain around it.  I stamped the "thank you" from Sassy Salutations and punched it with the Designer Label punch and raised it up a bit with a few Stampin' Dimensionals.

Fall Flower Silhouettes

It seems like Fall is ages away.  Don't get me wrong, I love Summer, but I've had enough of the days of 90+ degree temperatures lately.  I'd love a few days of 70s and 80s, but I'm not quite ready for Fall and the associated constantly cooling temperatures.

The color combination I used on this card screams Fall to me.  At first I thought of making a Halloween card, but I decided to stretch myself a little and use it in a non-Fall way.  I chose the Summer Silhouettes set, seeing as I just started using it this past week and I'm having fun making card samples with it.  These two colors--Pumpkin Pie and Wild Wasabi are this week's Dynamic Duos.  I stamped my garden and then added the greeting from the Sweet Essentials set.  My white layer is punched on the right side with the scallop edge punch and is mounted on a piece of Pumpkin Pie Patterns Designer Series Paper (from the Brights stack).  I tied some stitched Wild Wasabi grosgrain ribbon around that layer and then mounted everything on my Pumpkin Pie card base.

Triplet Trio Sailboats

A friend of mine just had triplets!  She has three girls and now has evened out her family with three new baby boys.  I decided that I need add some triplet cards to my idea gallery so this is my first.Have you ever needed a triplet baby card?  I haven't until now.  I'm hoping to make more so that I can give her a stack of cards that she can use as well, so when I get those done I'll be posting more of them.  

I used the sailboat from the Moving Forward set and the "hello, baby" from the Baby Bundle set.  The greeting is stamped on white card stock and then punched out with the smallest banner from the bitty banners framelits.  I layered each of those banners on the coordinating color of card stock cut with the bigger banner framelits on my big shot.  I chose my colors of Real Red, Summer Starfruit, and Marina Mist since they are this week's color challenge over at Pals Paper Arts.  My three background papers are from the Patterns Designer Series Paper Stacks (Brights, 2012 In Colors, and Subtles stacks) and are layered on a white card base.

Pink and Simple

I'm finding that a lot of my cards lately need a lot of layers, so it was refreshing to find this sketch from Retro Sketches.  I wanted to keep my card clean and simple, so I picked a pink and white color scheme.  It's a little hard to see in the photo, but between the ribbons I have a row of stamped flowers (that match the centers of the punched flowers).  The flower comes from the Summer Silhouettes stamp set and the greeting is from Sweet Essentials.  I used pretty in pink stitched grosgrain ribbon and layered flowers from my new sizzlits die in my Big Shot.

Friends and Flowers

Banners, pennants, and labels seem to be all the rage lately in card making.  I love all of the fun new products that have been released lately to keep up with this fun trend.  I combined a couple of those trends on this card with my banner and the label.  I'm enjoying not always using a rectangle for my stamped layer on cards (the labels framelits are a great change).  I made this card using the sketch from the newest sketch challenge over at Stamping 411.  My focal image is stamped with the Summer Silhouettes stamp set and the greeting is from Sweet Essentials, both of which are new Stampin' Up! sets.  The flowers, greenery, and stems are each individual stamps, which make it fun to "grow" the garden.  I cut the layer out with one of my framelits dies on the Big shot.  I used a colorful piece of Designer Series Paper from the Summer Smooches pack for my banner and layered it on Rich Razzleberry.  My base layer is Tempting Turquoise patterns dsp mounted on the same color card stock. 

Raspberry Bloom and Butterfly

Are you hooked on the new In Colors yet?  I love them all!  This card features Raspberry Ripple.  It's so rich and vibrant and works well for so many occasions and types of cards.  Lots of layers and a monochromatic color scheme make up this card.  I stamped the flower from the Summer Silhouettes set, layered it on Raspberry card stock and tied some of the new stitched satin ribbon around it, and layered that on white so that it would stand out.  I mounted this with Stampin' Dimensionals over the layer of Raspberry card stock textured with the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder mounted on white.  My card base uses the patterns designer series paper on top of Raspberry card stock.  To finish it off, I stamped the Thank You from Stampin' Up!'s Sassy Salutations set in Basic Black and added a small butterfly from the new Papillon Potpourri set.  Thanks Just Add Ink for the sketch challenge for this fun card!

In Color Summer Silhouettes

I'm a bit behind on stamping and blogging, but I'm trying to catch up.  Last week my Stampin' Up! order came and I'm excited to start using the new stamps and ribbons that I ordered.  Two of the new sets are Sweet Essentials and Summer Silhouettes, which I used in this card.  Sweet Essentials is a great word set that has a variety of greetings in a simple, and not too bold, font.  I chose the "friends" stamp for this card.  I love how you can build a garden with the Summer Silhouettes set, so that's what I did with Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, and Raspberry Ripple.  These colors are the color challenge at Stampin' Royalty right now.  I used my petals-a-plenty embossing folder on the gumball green card stock and then mounted it on white before mounting it on my favorite patterns dsp (the In Color stack) and finally onto a raspberry card base.  I also wanted to use my new ribbon, so I tied a bit of the raspberry ripple stitched satin ribbon around my main layer.  I really like these colors together, they are so rich and so pretty!