Sneak Peek!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the possible choices for my Friday 3-4-5 class this week.  You may choose any 3 cards for $5.00 or 6 cards for $10.  Because this is the first session for this new class, I will have more choices available for you, so your only difficult task for the evening will be choosing which cards you'd like to make.  The cards are easy and so much fun.  You'll be finished in plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the evening with your family and you'll be going home with some super cute cards!

The cards have plenty of detail and embellishments on them and yet there is no intricate cutting or coloring.  All our work will be done with punches, Big Shot dies and framelits.  They are so much fun.  I know you'll have a great time.  If you want to see the entire cards AND enjoy making them, come join us for an evening of fun!  Envelopes are included!!!  All your pieces will be cut for you; all the tools and embellishments will be out and ready to use on your projects.  You just bring your adhesive and be ready to have some creative stamping fun!

Stampin' Royalty Goddess!!!
And, before I close, I just want to share that I won another challenge.  It isn't every day that you get to be called a Stampin' Royalty Goddess:)  This is the card that won a Go Green challenge.

The Fun of Three!

Today, I had sooooo much fun --- playing with mustaches!  I also came up with a new color combo that I really, really like:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, and Basic Gray ---
     --- perfect for this card.

The mustaches are from the cute little a la carte stamp:  Many Mustaches.  The text is from Creative Elements.  I stamped everything with VersaMark ink and embossed with black EP.  A little twist of dotted Cherry Cobbler ribbon adds a cute touch to the corner of the card.

I used a lot of punches:  Modern Label, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, and the Lace Ribbon Border Punch.

I popped up the mustaches and the punched pieces under the text with dimensionals, to create a lot of texture and interest.  My most favorite part of all (besides the adorable mustaches, of course) was adding some random diagonal lines across the black base of the card and across the white layer.  It gives a lot of sophistication to the card and was so much fun to do.  These were created with the new diagonal scoring plate that fits into our Simply Scored Scoring Tool.

These are the two sketches that inspired my work today:

VERTICAL SKETCH CHALLENGE:

HORIZONTAL SKETCH INSPIRATION:

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.  I'd love to hear from you!
Now, go stamp something ... and do it THREE times:)

Green, Green and Neil Diamond

I wanted to show you a card today that will get some music flowing through your mind.  My card design is inspired by a sketch challenge and I chose to do it in a monochromatic color story -- thus, the Green, Green song in my head.
I used the stamp set My Friend and, because it contains text stamps for 'hello' and 'my friend,' my daughter calls this stamp set our Neil Diamond stamp set -- thus putting yet another tune in my head.  I do love this stamp set.  It's surprisingly versatile and a lot of fun to use.

I used 2 of our In Color brads and made a double layer of my text strip, to create added interest.  I sponged the edges of both of the strips, to give extra texture.  The little knotted bit of ribbon is created by tying a knot around a tiny sprig of our crochet lace trim.

I used the Big Shot to cut a circle for stamping and then cut a larger scalloped circle to layer behind it.  My colors are Lucky Limeade, Always Artichoke and a bit of Pear Pizzazz.  The vertical strip is created using a technique called Mother of Pearl.

Here's how you do the Mother of Pearl technique:

• Place a bit of Frost White Shimmer Paint in a small container.
• Wad up a small piece of plastic wrap.
• Dip the plastic wrap into the paint and dab randomly over a piece of glossy white CS.
• Set aside to dry.
• Once the paint is dry, lightly sponge over the piece with Lucky Limeade ink, using a circular motion.
• Tissue off excess ink, as desired.

So today, I challenge you to go try this fun technique on a creation of your own.  Enjoy!

Gnome Fun

I didn't need to do an extra post today, but was inspired by a color challenge I saw while blogging.  I had to rise to the challenge because I love Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight together and the challenge included these 2 yummy colors AND Lucky Limeade working together in vivid, perfect harmony.  I earned the Gnome Sweet Gnome stamp set with some free Hostess Dollars and wanted to play around with it.   My design was inspired by a quirky little sketch challenge that I thought lends itself to some whimsical fun.  Here's my little yard ornament:

I used some Lucky Limeade DSP scraps for the 2 strips in the background.  The diagonal strip is textured Lucky Limeade CS.  I wanted to add the flowers to the strip for some extra fun and texture.  The Daffodil Delight flowers are from the Fruit and Flowers stamp set.

I stamped an extra hat for my little fellow and attached it with glue dots, for added dimension.  I did the same for the 2 mushrooms.  My little guy is holding a punched glimmer paper flower ('painted' with Lucky Limeade reinker).  I added a clear button over the sparkling flower and then added touches of clear Dazzling Details sparkle to the flowers, my gnome's belt buckle, the frog's eyes, and the polka dots on the mushrooms.  The card front is framed with the Framed Tulips embossing folder.  I finished off the project with a little knotted bow of Daffodil Delight taffeta ribbon.

So, once again...

A Hybrid Card

After my husband's car disaster this morning, I wanted to chase away the gloomy feeling by creating a very vibrant and cheery card.  I chose Poppy Parade, Concord Crush and Daffodil Delight.  I decided to use the Mojo Monday card sketch challenge to plan my layout.
Here's what I came up with, including some work with MDS:

The flowers are from the Fabulous Florets stamp set.  The flowers stamped on the Whisper White background are actual stamps.  The larger (daffodil delight) flowers were created using MDS.  The beauty of a hybrid card is that you can still coordinate all your images, but you can also create the size that you need to work with your design.  I printed mine on Whisper White CS and then cut them all out and attached them with dimensionals.

The center flower has extra layers of just parts of the image, to give even more dimension.  I used Poppy Parade ribbon and the text is from the Fabulous Florets stamp set.  I sponged the edges of the piece with the text.  You can also see that I added a layer of Everyday Enchantment DSP behind my little strips of CS.  Once again, I have a card with lots of layers, texture and dimension.  I added a bit of Frost White Shimmer Paint/alcohol mixture spritzed over the top of the completed card.

I hope you'll try creating a vibrant project.  It really perks you up as the colors just sing together.

Just for You!

Today, I wanted to make a card for a dear friend of mine.
I decided to use the colors for this color challenge.  I also wanted to use a stamp set that I haven't played with for far too long.  I chose one of our Hostess Sets --- Precious Butterflies.
The color challenge was to use these colors together:

• Chocolate Chip
• Lucky Limeade
• Melon Mambo 

This is a great combo and lends itself well to a card for a friend.

I used the #2 Scallop Circles Die for the Big Shot, another circle die, a 1 1/4" circle punch, the wide oval punch and the Decorative Label punch.

In the close-up, you can see that I've spritzed it with my Frost White Shimmer Paint/alcohol mixture -- to give it a nice shimmer.

I hope this card will brighten my friend's day when she receives it and inspire you to create a card for a friend, too.

Celebrate Today...and Make it Sweet!

Today, I designed a card using the Sweet Shop DSP.  This is one of our specialty papers, so 2 of the designs are embossed.

This card is for another sketch challenge --- I told you I was addicted to trying them.  I chose my color palette from the DSP --- Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Island Indigo, and some Whisper White.  The ribbon is also Calypso Coral.  I added a fun embellishment to the Curly Label punched piece --- one of our Jelly Bean Brads.

There are a lot of layers on this card.  (They don't call me the Queen of Layers without a reason;)  After I completed the card, I added a spritz of my Frost White Shimmer Paint/alcohol mixture.  The sentiment is from the Perfectly Penned stamp set.

In case you're wondering, this is a 5 1/4" square card.  By making it larger, I could use 4 strips of the DSP and have plenty of room.  (The DSP strips are 1" wide and cut into a flag shape at the bottom using a square punch.)

I hope this card inspires you to make something sweet (No calories in this project!) and to celebrate today by stamping up something really fun.

3 Little Flowers

I am loving this Pool Party and Concord Crush combo together.
This was for another sketch challenge.

To create this card, I used one of our framelits, the Floral Fusion sizzlit, and the Boho Blossoms punch.  The squares are punched with a 1 3/8" square punch and the postage punch.
The Pool Party brad is actually going through the flowers from the Boho Blossoms punch.  The Wisteria Wonder brads are glued onto the Floral Fusion flowers, after cutting off the 'legs' using my Craft and Rubber scissors.  I did this because there is a dimensional between each layer of the Floral Fusion flower.
The 'hello' text is from a SAB stamp set called Elementary Elegance.  In spite of all the layers, this was a fairly quick and easy card to make ... and a lot of fun!

Here's a close-up, so you can see how 3-D it really is...

A Fun Sketch

I really enjoyed creating this project.  This was for a sketch challenge.  I chose a fun color combo -- Sahara Sand, Pool Party and Concord Crush.  I used our new doily sizzlit to create the main piece.  The ink and ribbon are both Concord Crush.