PaperFections

Anniversary Roses

Aren't they beautiful? Yes, I know yellow roses mean "friendship" but hubby let youngest daughter (4-1/2) pick them out and well, since her favorite color is yellow . . . :D So while arranging the flowers and airy baby's breath, I thought this was all the bouquet needed although included with it were some hard, stumpy pods that looked like the blooms had fallen off -- they looked too heavy for this this delicate bouquet. So I decided to make a separate bouquet for hubby using them, since they looked very masculine to me. Here they are: Since all my vases are still packed and I can't find them, I used a Mason jar for these and then decided it looked way to bare and not very pretty! Then I remembered seeing an awesome idea by Michelle Howell over at Fresh Floral Art and decided to try my hand at something that looked like her beautiful bloom boxes. All I had on hand that roughly resembled them was a Chinese take-out box that I had picked up long ago at Target and it was hot pink! So I stamped up the front panel (Penny Black rose) using Stampin' Write markers... Read more →

Faux Stitching Card #3

Well, this card comes on an appropriate day -- my 13th wedding anniversary . . . so happy anniversary, honey! This card was my inspiration on creating the other 3 in this group's color scheme, as I had made it previously. (All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted) This card started off with a black base, which I punched in the lower right corner with SU's Word Window punch and tied light pink grosgrain ribbon thru the window. Then with Karen Foster's Snap Stamps, I made the sentiment "truely i do" and stamped it on whisper white cardstock with classic basic black ink. Then I positioned the sentiment behind the window, on the inside of the card and adhered it. Did you know Karen Foster decided to quit making these fabulous stamps? Many of you have them and if you don't know about them, you can form your own sentiments, sayings, etc. by snapping together each letter to form a word or even a longer sentence than this sentiment I created. Then you just simply stamp your newly created sentiment all at once, just like a custom pre-made stamp! AND they are reasonably priced, considering you get multiple letters... Read more →

Faux Stitching Card #2

Ranking right up there with tulips as my one of my favorite flowers is roses. I'm so sad this Stampin' Up! set is retiring this year -- Roses in Winter. This card started with a real red base, then a layer of pretty in pink which the Sincere Salutation sentiment is stamped on in classic basic black ink. The Floral background was stamped with regal rose on pretty in pink and the lower right corner torn and inked with red. These two layers were faux stitched using a real red Stampin' Write Marker. That's the nice thing about faux stitching -- you always have just the right color of "thread"! For the focal image, I inked the largest rose piece in this 3-step stamp (bottom layer) with pretty in pink that was lightly rock & rolled in regal rose ink. The middle layer/stamp of the rose was inked with regal rose then rock & rolled with red ink and stamped. The last/top layer of the rose was stamped with red ink. The small flowers were stamped in red, the leaves in stamped off mellow moss and Itty Bitty Background dots stamped in black, all on shimmer white cardstock to give... Read more →

Exciting News!

Before I share that news with you, I thought I'd share a photo of my Mother's Day roses that I forgot to post . . . until I had to throw out those poor drooping blooms today! I always love keeping fresh flowers in the house and sweet hubby & girls brought these to me last Saturday. Then on Sunday, he came home with my cool new Canon Digital Rebel XT that I took the photo with -- yay! So most of the photos you've seen here on the blog this week were taken with the new digi . . . lovin' it! Thanks again, honey. Do you think that gets him out of having to get me a 13th wedding anniversary gift on Monday? :D So here's the exciting news I mentioned yesterday . . . Evidently the June/July issue of Stamper's Sampler Take Ten magazine hit subscribers' mailboxes on Thursday because yesterday a friend congratulated me on a 3-page spread feature article on Faux Stitching that I provided 8 stamped cards for! (Thanks, Maggie!) So while I'm waiting for my comp copy to arrive, I thought I'd share those cards with you over the next few days and... Read more →

Turtle Thanks

Wow, THREE posts from me in one day . . . what will you do -- faint? LOL! Obviously, I got in a little stamping time and this is the other end-of-the year teacher thank-you card we needed today. It's the same sketch as below except I turned it vertical. Adorable little turtle is from Inky Antics and was perfect since my Pre-K daughter's class name was the Turtles! He is watercolored with an Aqua Painter and classic dye reinkers (olive, celery, caramel) on shimmer white cardstock. Flowers are yellow (summer sun), for DD's favorite color. Turtle was cut out using Coluzzle circle template and is matted with Marvy mega scalloped punch. He is popped up on dimensionals. Matching brads are by Making Memories. Background paper is Stampin' Up's Palette of Prints. Sentiment is from PAPERTREYink's Faux Ribbon set. I hope these cards today give you a little inspiration to change up your favorite (or new) sketch a little, to discover the many different looks you can achieve. Note: If you've been looking for these hard-to-find Marvy scalloped punches like the circle one I used here, you can preorder them from PAPERTREYink beginning June 1. They will have 20 different... Read more →

Bee Challenge!

Okay, so here's my little bee challenge card, finally! My sweet friend, Beate, sent Lori (<=== click on their names to see their challenge cards) and me packages with printed paper, ribbon, Primas, and stamped Stampendous bee images and challenged us to create a card with these supplies. What fun to have almost all of the details of your card already worked out for you! Since I tried that great sketch challenge yesterday (posted this morning in the article below) and loved it, I thought I would use it again and have ALL the decisions made for me! Since we needed teacher appreciation cards for my youngest's last day of pre-k today , this was a perfect, quick solution! This gorgeous gold paper is Daisy D's Gypsy and the dotted is Scenic Route's Harvest Call -- perfect colors for bees. I believe Beate purchased them from Eclectic Paperie. That Bee-ate (pronounced and sounds like the car, Miata) sure knows how to pick colors (sorry, I couldn't resist!). I faux stitched the gold paper, using my paper piercing template, pad & tool from Stampin' Up! (these things are attached to my body, I adore them!) and then connected the dots with... Read more →

Berry Much Fun!

For this card, I combined two different challenges from SplitcoastStampers daily challenges. The Sketch Challenge this week really intrigued me and still not having had too much time to play with my new Green Thumb acrylic stamp set from PAPERTREYink, I decided to use it for the Ways To Use It Challenge -- small image stamps (less than 1-1/2"). I decided to save a little time and assemble the bottom of the strawberry and the sentiment together on one acrylic block so I would know they were aligned perfectly before stamping. After aligning, I inked the images with Stampin' Up's dye-based markers (rose red & garden green), doing a little shading on the strawberry along the way. Then I colored the stem and leaves with celery and garden green markers before stamping onto SU's shimmer white cardstock. The great thing about acrylics is that you can see thru them to be able to perfectly position the top of the strawberry! The background paper is Stampin' Up's Palette of Prints in rose red. I chose them because the white flowers reminded me of strawberry vine blooms and the dotted paper reminded me of strawberry seeds! I matted the V-shape with white... Read more →

Mom

Mother's Day card for my Mom. Card base is 5" square and a Lipstick color by Bazzill (I believe -- it is textured). I trimmed an additional 1/4" off the front bottom and then used a small corner rounder punch (minus the corner guard) to create the scalloped edge. Then I punched holes with a 1/16" handheld hole punch. The strip underneath the scalloped edge is a cardstock sticker by Karen Neuburger for Paper Salon and it has all kinds of "mother" words on it: inspiration, kind, mom, unique, celebrate, mother. The floral paper layer is also from Karen Neuburger for Paper Salon, serenity: mosaic pattern. I accented it with clear Stardust Gelly Roll pen (which doesn't show too well in the photo). The rose dotted strip is also from the sticker sheet. The word "mother" is stamped above that in Versamagic Cloud White chalk ink by Tsukineko. I stamped the focal image's vase on the multi-stripe printed paper in Karen Neuburger's serenity line for Paper Salon with Stampin' Up's rose red dye ink. I cut out the middle part of the vase and then adhered it to another vase image I had stamped in rose red on shimmer white... Read more →

Honorable Mention

I was thrilled once again to have Nichole Heady mention my PaperTrey Ink monthly contest entry on her blog. Nichole does such a wonderful job designing her stamps that they are pure pleasure to work with! I hadn't used acrylic stamps much until hers came out and they've been a wonderful experience. Head on over to PaperTrey Ink to see their latest release Little Lady. It's the best ladybug set I've seen on the market and to be able to stamp all the lady bug parts separately will be a breeze to work with. Check out the gallery there, too, to see what the awesome designers came up with for this set . . . their creations will literally blow your skirt up! ;) PaperTrey will also start pre-ordering scalloped punches on June 1. So if you've been looking for them, be there on June 1 to get them reserved! Read more →

Chipboard Birthday

I love working with chipboard and figuring out new ways to use it. With this card, I backed the chipboard cut-out with strips of ribbon! My favorite Stampin' Up! blue is ballet, which is this card base layer. I wheeled it with SU's jumbo wheel, Petals, in classic ballet ink. Sentiment was stamped with white pigment/craft ink. Chipboard flower piece was inked directly with celery craft ink and edged with white craft ink, then left to dry. Then I pierced holes all around the flower and connected the holes with white gel pen, to resemble machine stitching. The "HB" is also stamped in white craft ink and embossed with Iridescent Ice. The easiest way I found to do the ribbon was to cut another piece of cardstock the same size as my chipboard and put a few pieces of Sticky Strip (red liner tape) on it to hold the ribbon. Then I just started laying ribbon on the cardstock/tape in a pleasing pattern of colors. Attach the ribbon & cardstock to the back of the chipboard and mount with dimensionals to card base. All supplies by Stampin' Up! Read more →

Toothless!

So here was our excitement yesterday . . . my oldest daughter lost her first tooth on Mother's Day and guess who got to pull it? Yes, me! It had been wiggly for a few weeks and finally looked like it was ready to come out yesterday. So after brunch and while her Daddy was running an errand, she wanted me to pull it before he got back. So while it's a bit sad to not ever be able to see that sweet all baby-tooth grin again, this one is growing on me, too! So last night she was finally able to use this Tooth Fairy box that I made her about 1-1/2 years ago, in anticipation of this event (so forgive me if a few of these details are a little fuzzy!): This was a brown paper mache' hinged box from Michael's that I painted with white acrylic paint, then covered the sides with rose & celery cardstock strips and ribbon. The top piece was stamped on shimmer white cardstock -- rose & celery ink for the alphabet letters and StazOn black for the fairy. She was watercolored with dye reinkers and glitter added to her wings and wand.... Read more →

Inky Q&A

Please bear with me, I'm trying out a new, simpler blog banner! It seems I get bored easily, LOL! My all time favorite color is soothing blue so I thought I'd try it out for a bit. How about some more Q&A from those questions you all asked me. Today's subject is Ink: What kind of ink do you use most often? I almost always use SU classic pads but am debating about trying some others out. Dawn I’m the same way, Dawn! Since they are what I started with, I automatically know exactly which color I want to use – especially since I mainly use SU’s cardstock. Then I know exactly which color(s) will coordinate. I do have and have been trying out more often, the Brilliance Pearlescent and VersaMagic Dew Drop chalk ink pads by Tsukineko. Of course, StazOn is a must for my watercoloring. The success of your blog is directly related to your creativity - congratulations! I am hanging on to my old style SU classic pads and reinking them --- would it be a benefit to me to purchase the new style pads? Congrats again - Sharron (with 2 R's!) Sharron, I sure wouldn’t worry... Read more →

Happy Mother's Day!

One of my Mother's Day requests/gifts was to be able to quietly sit for a few hours and stamp yesterday and this is what I created! I've had these photos of my girls sitting on my crafting table since Easter, knowing I wanted to do something special with them. This is a little photo frame/mini album to sit on my desk. It is made from 4" chipboard coasters and the front is covered with celery cardstock. The cover has a chipboard heart that I covered directly with white craft ink and allowed to dry. Then stamped the names and heat embossed the ink around the edges with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. The strip of paper on the left was created with PaperTrey Ink's Faux Ribbon set -- I created patterned paper with 5 of the different ribbon stamps by alternately stamping the different "ribbons" with different colors of ink. The easiest way I found to do this was to put four different stamps (one on each side) on a long narrow 4-sided acrylic block and two on another block, then start stamping rows of "ribbons". Having all six ink colors in two spectrum pads helped make the process go faster:... Read more →

Friendly Sketch Challenge

Last week, my friends Beate and Lori and I decided to have a little fun and all of us use the same stamped images, paper & embellishments and see how different our cards turned out. So sweet Beate stamped us some cute Stampendous bees and mailed them out. Long story short -- I'm still waiting on those little bees to make it the semi-short distance between Florida and Texas! So plan B was to use the cool sketch Beate just posted today and the only other stipulation was to use Stampin' Up's new Palette of Prints (POP) designer paper. Here's my 5.25" square card: I decided to stay within a monochromatic saffron/mustard range of the POP (my favorite color in the group!) and pair it with my new PaperTrey Ink acrylic stamps I hadn't had a chance to use yet. I know most people wouldn't stamp brown & mustard flowers but that's the way I tend to go about stamping . . . looking for a use and/or color scheme that most people wouldn't normally use! The focal image is PT's Green Thumb set and the acrylic stamps make it so easy to perfectly place your flowers in a grouping... Read more →

Retirement Q&A

Since it's hot and heavy on everyone's minds at the moment, I thought I would answer these questions that you all asked in my last giveaway regarding Stampin' Up's Retirement List: So, do you have a favorite set that has been retired? My question is what SU set are you sorry to see go? Ruth What retiring SU set will you miss the most? Sheryl Definitely Roses in Winter. I could/can always pick up this set and love anything I do with it. Petal Prints and Mixed Bouquet will also be missed but won’t be far, as I’ll not part with them. Thank goodness I wasn't very hard hit on my background stamps or alphabets! What do you do with your retired sets? Ellen S Until this year, I’ve managed to hang on to most of them. Sometimes I trade them away if they aren’t getting the use I thought I would out of them. I honestly haven’t taken a good look yet at what all I’m losing, but I’m certain I’ll be selling off quite a lot this year. So check back after July 1 for my sell list! How do you feel about SU! "In Colors" being discontinued... Read more →