Christmas Skate, #fms451

The skate if from a set called Free Skate, and was in last years Holiday catalog. It was my favorite set in that catalog but for whatever reason was not carried over. But I still love it.
My inspiration this week is from the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

A simple sketch and so easy to use, I really enjoyed playing with it. Find the challenge and all the other projects here.

I combined SU Seaside Spray incolor with our new Misty Moonlight incolor, they are fabulous together.  I added in some Silver foil and some Soft Seafoam for my holly.

I stamped the snow on White, and layered that over a piece of Seaside Spray. Then layered silver pieces die cut with the Rectangular Stitched dies, over Misty Moonlight, cut just a bit larger. 
I stamped and die cut my skate, then added the silver die cut for the skate runner and the holly attached to ribbon.  The rhinestones are from the new Mini (holiday) catalog, Blue Adhesive backed Gems. 
I hope you enjoy.

Poinsettia Petal, Paper Players #506, Think Christmas

I know it's a little early, but I'm going to be a bit slower at getting my Christmas cards done this year, so hope you'll put up with me. 

Inspiration for this was provided by the Paper Players challenge. This week it is a Tic Tac Toe challenge, I did the top row across and tossed in some embossing, ribbon and gems to boot.  Stop on by and take a look.

So, I used the Stampin Up Poinsettia Petal bundle along with Tis the Season DSP. The amount of choices for using DSP is huge for this bundle.  It has it's own 2 sets, one of which is a flocked vellum! And the other has lots of Poinsettias. Plus 2 more sets in Christmas colors that work beautifully at the very least.

Although the DSP is real red, I used Poppy Parade for the berries as I thought they just worked better. But you can decide for yours.
Thanks so much for stopping by.

My favorite Stampin Up Christmas set for this season 2020, Freshly Made Sketches #448

My inspiration for this is from Freshly Made Sketches for this week.    Click on the link and check all the fabulous projects out.

The bundle is the Poinsettia Petals bundle, there is a suite as well with lots of goodies to go with. My favorite of those is the 2 12x12 packs of DSP. On is a standard pack with lots of poinsettias, and one is vellum with flocked images. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm itching to.  For this card, I used a paper from another set, 'tis the season.  Lots of general fun Christmas designs.

I used silver glimmer paper on the  center cut edges just for some extra bling.  I lightly colored the white die cut pieces with my real red watercolor pencil and smoothed it out using a water brush.

The sentiment was cut out using the new Lovely Labels Pick a Punch.
I hope you'll take a look at FMS, and thanks for stopping by.

#fms446, A Doxie Birthday

I keep meaning to make some cards this size, so thank you Linda at Freshly Made Sketches for using this size for her sketch challenge this week.

So, come see all the fun cards done in this size, it takes a #10 envelop by the way. 


So, this is my youngest daughter's birthday card.  She is a doxie mom and as most who are doxie moms, they love anything doxie.   I fell in love with these pups! Look at that one running to get a piece of the cake.  
I used Soft Suede, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Misty Moonlight, Just Jade. And some watercolor paper.

I hope you enjoy, have a great weekend.

Is it Christmas already?

So, as SU demos, we are a month early this year with our pre orders, and ordering for everyone starts Aug 1st. When my first order from the Holiday catalog comes in, I just have to make at least one card.   Now I shall work on going back to the annual catalog for my cards for a bit longer.

The bell set is from last year, but it suited what I wanted to do. The DSP is a new set called 'Tis the season. Lots of fun designs.   I used the new Poinsettia Petals set for the leaves and plants behind the bell.  And reached back a couple years for the Galvanized paper for the bell. The NOEL is from Wrapped in Christmas, that one is in the current new mini (holiday) catalog.

For this I used Real Red and Garden Green.  Merry Christmas, (ducking).

Flowering Blooms Thinking of you, #TGIFC271 color challenge

I combined the Jar from Jar of Flowers and Flowering Blooms stamp and dies to create this card.
My inspiration is a color challenge from TGIFC. 

I hope you will check out the challenge and see all the wonderful projects.

So using this challenge I used a white base card, then a Espresso layer then used my brayer to color inside the new Seabed embossing folder and layered that on top. 

I punched my jar out of Flirty Flamingo, and vellum so mute the color some and give it a glass jar look.   I then cut several of the rose flowers out in all 3 colors, plus some of the leaves and the vine flowers. Layered them all on  a pieced of white die cut from the Rectangle Stitched dies.  Added a bow after using glue and demintionals.

I had trouble finding a place I liked for the sentiment, but found laying it on one side worked for me and left the jar and flowers open. 
Thanks for stopping by.

Rescuing kitties, #fms442

First things first, this card is going out to my daughter who rescued to little kittens that were only a few days old, so this card is going out to her.
My inspiration is from Freshly Made Sketches,  I hope they think it meets the criteria of their sketch, had quite a time figuring out how to do that with the Pampered Pet bundle.
Here is the sketch, check it all out.

About this card, My first new bundle from the SU new annual catalog, Pampered Pets. They have had several sets out for pets, but this one has some really neat dogs and cats, and usually there is one or the other.  It also has dies to cut everything out with and a DSP set, some for backgrounds and some can be cut out and used, it's a heavy paper so geared to using it as you would a stamped image. 
I used Gray granite, Lovely Lipstick and whisper white.  Cut my lipstick a bit smaller top to bottom and embossed that piece with the new Tasteful Textile embossing folder. 


Then cut out 2 pieces using the Stitched Nested Label dies, one from a piece of the Playful pet DSP and the top piece one size smaller from vellum.  stamped, colored just a bit and die cut my kitty. She looks like such a happy kitty.  popped her up with dimentials, stamped the double hearts and used a bit of ribbon wrapped around and knotted.  Stamped the sentiment and cut out using the Lovely Labels Pick a Punch. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Flowering Blooms, Just because, Fab Friday #192

A fairly easy card today.  Simple but effective and I'm in Love with this Flowering Blooms bundle.  All I have done is stamp and die cut, it's already colored in. First, my inspiration for this was from a new Incolor Challenge. 

I'm having such a good time with these new incolors. I'm not normally so quick to love them all, but these go together so well.  
Remember, you can get all 5 pads together for a discounted price in the annual catalog.

I used Bumblebee as my base color, then a layer of Whisper white.  Then I cut out this Ornate Style die from white.  Make it easy on yourself, use a piece of double sided liner paper, it really helps with the difficult cuts like this one.And it's all ready to glue down afterward.
I simply sponged on some bumblebee color off my ink pad after cutting a mask piece and laying that down.
I cut one flower out of the Misty Moonlight, and one from the Just Jade, cut the heads of the flowers off the blue and glued them down on top of the green.  I also stamped and cut a couple of the leaf vines to add to it.
I glued the whole piece down to my white layer then continued by using a sponge to color a piece of white seam binding and wrapped that making a knot. 
I used an older, retired sentiment set for the sentiment. I tend to love Just because and Thinking of you sentiments as I can put them in my stash and go back later and make them up for anything I want. 
I used Rhinestones in the centers of my flowers and the little gel dots are from the new incolor gel dot set.
That's about it.  Except the piece the sentiment is stamped on, I used our new Lovely Label Pick a punch, punch.  2 different types of cuts for ends, each one with 3 sizes, this punch will get a lot of use.

I hope you got some inspiration from me today, thanks for stopping.

Birthday card, #FF0061, New incolors for 2020/2021

The whole of this floral set, Flowering Blooms, is so pretty, but this flower just spoke to me and I had to have it. The flower is stamped in Magenta Madness, one of the brand new incolors, and the card base and scalloped oval are Cinnamon Cider.

The challenge at Festive Friday was perfect inspiration for just what I wanted to do. 

I choose the yellow, green, pink, flowers and sweet sentiment. So more then the 3 asked for, it just fell together. Check it out here.

The DSP is from the new set Flowers for every Season, I embossed it with Tasteful Textures embossing folder.  It's another one of those that can be used to give a card a bit of a texture boost without overwhelming the design like the Subtle folder. 
So I also used Itty Bitty Greetings in combo with the new punch Lovely Labels Pick a Punch.
Hard to see, but I decided I wanted to use the new Vellum Doily anyway, I still think it adds a bit.   And the Layering Ovals finished off the card with the flower added to the top layer along with rhinestones and a bit of splatter.

I hope I have inspired you a bit today, and thanks for stopping by.

I thought of you card, Just add ink #508

Inspiration for todays card is from Just add ink, stop over to see the challenge here.

Just make up a project using something that starts with an F.  My card has Flowers.   I love Gorgeous Grape, I pined for Blackberry bliss when it went out of the line, but now that it's back I don't use it as much as Grape, partly because Grape has the Highland Heather matching shade as well as for now Purple Posy and even lighter shade.  But side note, my front door is Blackberry bliss.

I love have sentiments that I can make up that go with a lot of different reasons, and I can finish off my inside of the card with something more specific. 
The hardest part of this card was die cutting the lace trim, but well worth the effort. I ended up having to shim the center of the card to get it cut all the way through.  My poor Big Shot is 8 yrs old tho, and that might be the problem. It's still going strong tho.  But I'm tapping my foot waiting on the new machine from SU. 

So, colors today are Whisper white, Purple Posy, Gorgeous Grape and Granny Apple Green.  I used purple posy for my card base, it's a standard A2 base, then I embossed the Gorgeous Grape with the Parisian Flourish embossing folder. I cute the whole piece of lace out, then used the small end die to cut down to just the smaller piece and layered that over the top.  Stamped and punched out my flowers, and added the rhinestones from Noble Peacock rhinestone pack of jewels. And stamped and cut my leaves out using the leaf punch.
After stamping my sentiment I die cut that out with the Stitched Shapes dies.

I'm more then happy to answer questions, but you'll have to get your answer here in my comment section, it's the only way Blogger will work.  Thanks for stopping.

Painted Poppies note card, #jai507

My inspiration for this card is from the Just add Ink challenge, wow what a fun sketch to play with.  The team cards are fabulous, see them HERE.

My colors are, Lovely Lipstick (retiring in a few days), Mossy meadow and Whisper white.   The DSP is from the Peaceful Poppies DSP.  I have so much left, and I love it so much!  I have a problem.  When I love a paper set, it's hard for me to use it, especially my favorite pieces.   It's quite a problem, every year lately I'm ending up with so much left over.
I used a white card base and covered the whole front of that with my patterned paper, then managed to somehow do a decent cut of the design side.  I took the white part and ran it through the new  Ornate floral embossing folder, stamped the green over that a bit, then stamped, colored and cut out my Poppies and leaves. 
I used my watercolor brush and my ink pad mixing the color in my lid.  I then stamped the sentiment, from the Butterfly Gala stamp set, on a piece of leftover white and cut that out using one of the Rectangle Stitched dies. 

That's about it, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I never know when I start.

Thanks for stopping by.

Butterfly Hello, #gdp242

For this card I'm using the inspiration from Global Design Project #242.   I love black and white with just a pop of color.  Ok, I might have gotten a little carried about with the pop of color, but I like it.  
Here is the challenge page and the challenge.

I started with the Botanical Butterfly DSP and decided on Lovely Lipstick, a retiring color, for my red.  The stripy paper is from Best Dressed DSP.
After putting down the ribbon I cut one butterfly from the paper and colored it, then cut a black scalloped circle for behind.   Next came the Hello,  which I layered onto vellum to help it show up better, then gel glitter drops for some bling and there you go.
The circles came from the Layering circles die set.

I hope you enjoy.

Stampin Up, #fms435, Hugs greeting card

Inspiration for this card is from the current Freshly Made Sketches sketch challenge. It was such a cute sketch that I just had to play. 

Isn't it cute and so adaptable.   I used a newly acquired stamp and die set, Positive Thoughts, and Natures Thoughts dies, lots of really neat texture type items and a lot of fun to play with.  Since I wanted to emboss the Very Vanilla layer, I die cut the pieces instead of just stamping some of them. 

My colors are Pretty Peacock, Rococo Rose, Crumb cake and Very vanilla. Perfect use for my Pretty Peacock ribbon and rhinestones.

The embossing is done with the Mosaic folder, and the sentiment cut out with a small die from the Rectangle Stitched Dies, the ribbon is the Scalloped Linen Ribbon in the incolors.

Thanks for stopping.

Just wanted to say, #jai504 color challenge, Ornate Thanks

I am so in love with all the pieces of this Ornate set, including both bundles. This is my first attempt at the Ornate Thanks stamps and dies.

My inspiration this week is from the Just Add Ink color challenge.  I'm not sure why I haven't used these colors together before, they are classic and gorgeous.  See the challenge here.

I just knew I had to start with the rose border die in the set.  So, I die cut my piece of Smoky Slate, then took a piece of watercolor paper and watercolored my Rococo Rose on it, then placed it under my die cut piece.  
Next I cut a small piece of Basic Gray, and used the little tiny border die on the left side, gluing it onto my smoky slate.

I then cut a piece of the Basic gray and embossed with the Ornate Floral 3D folder. After cutting my 4 1/4"x 5 1/2 " piece for my card base, I attached the embossed piece leaving just a tiny bit of the Rococo Rose showing on one edge.
After adding the Glitter Enamel dots (retired) and the sentiment I was done. 

I used a small piece of the Ornate DSP, gluing it to the envelop flap and then trimming around the flap. 

Be sure to holler if you have questions, you'll have to come back to my comments to get your answer, but I'll try to be quick.
Thanks for coming.

All days are beautiful

I was inspired to try this background effect by a member of my group.  Peggy made hers straight across with big wide stripes that are beautiful.  I decided to try doing smaller ones and I love the cross ways look. And yes, it looks handmade, it should. You don't have to be too careful.
I just used a ruler, put a drop or two of refill ink in the lid of my ink pad, spritzed some water in there too. And, using my Aqua painter swirled it around and dipped into that carefully spreading the watered down ink onto my watercolor paper. Keep an eye on the bottom of the ruler, and wipe it off after each stripe.   I stated in the middle, went down from there, turned it and did the other end. Very simple and fun and you have pretty striped paper in any color you want.  This one is Grapefruit Grove, one of the incolors that is retiring next month.

Besides the Grapefruit, I used Very Vanilla, Basic black and Pool Party.
Also used are Floral Essence stamps, Stitched Label dies and the Perennial Flower punch.

I hope you enjoy. Thanks for stopping.

A Little Note, #PP488, Ornate Floral

This is the most amazing suite! It's made up of 2 bundles, both fabulous, both have dies that are fabulous!  The dies are unlike any we have previously seen from SU.   But I didn't use the dies here, just the wonderful floral.  

I'm playing with Paper Players this week for their sketch challenge.
Come on over and see the teams cards, lots of inspiration over there.

 
It can be easily and fairly quickly colored in or just stamped. Even better stamped and embossed.  Here I've stamped using my white craft ink pad with allows me to see what I've stamped, and embossed in white powder.    Then I used the white ink and my Aqua brush to fill the leaves in with white ink.  As you see, the dark color and probably the pink cast, left it with a pretty lighter cast of the Blackberry Bliss paper.

To get the effect on my embossing folder, the new one that is part of the suite, I used my brayer to roll on color to the folder and put my paper inside.  You get different effects depending on the folder.
I love playing with my tools and different effects, give it a try.

Stampin Up, Positive Thoughts and feel good wishes

One of the stamp sets that may not have popped out at you in the annual catalog, is Positive thoughts.   There is just so much you can do with it.  If you like something that can be a little vintage or artsy, yet not too much, this is it. 
I choose to use Merry Merlot along with Gray Granit and Mossy Meadow.   A die set came out during SAB for it which I grabbed up, I already had the stamp set.  While it's not available right now, who knows about the new annual catalog that we are just now starting to see as demos. 

The gray background is the embossing folder Mosaic, just use a bit different. Otherwise all the pieces you see on here are in the stamp set and/or the die set called Natures Thoughts. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Friend is a blessing card, Easter card

I don't do many square cards, but made an exception and of course I made an envelop but not till much later and it didn't make it in the photo.   The paper gold and white foil.  I colored it in using my roller, but you can sponge or use your Blends carefully around the flowers. I found that I do not have the patience for that one.
Just in case you don't know the little trick to saving on the Gold/Silver/copper foil papers, I cut my square out, then cut the piece on the front from that. The hole is covered so no one knows. LOL. 
The inside has an easter sentiment, but I wanted my friend to know what she meant to me, so used this one on the front.
Thanks for stopping by.

Black and White Hello card, gold embossing

My upline has issued us a challenge in group with a list of card types to choose from. I think she is trying to keep us busy during all this shutdown. 
One type was black and white and it can contain a pop of color.  Normally I'll do red, love black, white and red!   However, decided to maybe do something different, and we have so many papers with metallics it was made easy.

I LOVE embossing! It can turn simple into gorgeous.  So, did a white cardbase, then a black layer 1/4" smaller, then a layer of DSP from the Golden Honey set. And finally a piece of black I had gold embossed using the A Little Lace stamp set.   I loved this set the min I put eyes on it last year, but I haven't used it nearly enough, think I'll play with it some more.  

I used the Rectangle stitched dies to cut out both panels, and I wanted the white and gold piece to show nicely so I tilted the black embossed piece a bit.  The sentiment was embossed on white. 

It normally takes me quite a while to make a card, the time in not in the making, but in the decision process, sometimes it works out great, but sometimes it doesn't. But just in the doing you learn and grow, it's always worth while to try to do your own thing.   Not that there is anything wrong in CASeing.  It's the Stampin Up way.  I hope I've been able to inspire you a bit today.  
Thanks for stopping.

Fun with flowers, Friendship blessings Card

I have been so busy trying to get Easter and my grandson's Birthday stuff out in the mail in time for Easter that I haven't made time to play with new goodies.   I think just about everyone else has played with and colored in the  Flowering Foils that were free SAB items, but I had not, so this is my first one.  So quick and easy, and I just used my ink pads and Aqua pen, they colored in so easy.
I used Pretty Peacock, Soft Seafoam and Poppy parade.   The foiling is done in both rose gold and silver, but as we don't have any Rose gold ink or embossing powder ect, I just added some reg gold to the mix.
So the 2 matching dies are from  So Sentimental as is the sentiment.  The die piece below that is from the new Ornate Layer dies.  And the Rhinestones are in the Nobile Peacock pack.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great Easter.