Black Doily

I'm going to be so sad when Pool Party retires as a color next summer;  it looks smashing with so many other colors.  This is such a simple card, all the "Oooooh!" is in the pairing of the pale aqua with black.  

Stamps: Moving Forward 

Ink: Basic Black 

Cardstock: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Basic Black, Whisper White 

Tools: Modern Label, Word Window & Boho Blossoms punches, Paper Doily Die

Accessories: Basic Jewels Rhinestones, 2-way Glue Pen, Stampin' Dimensionals

My Blogiversary is coming up!

I have some fun ideas brewing for my first blogiversary next month!   Here's a little teaser; an anniversary gift idea I created using My Digital Studio  (inspired by this idea on Pinterest).

I saved the 12"x12" scrapbook page as a jpg file at its highest resolution and had it printed out at Wally-mart as a faux canvas w/a mirrored edge, meaning the outside edge of the canvas had a mirror image of the outer 1.5" of the project. (I made sure to keep my important elements at least 1.5" away from the edge of the page, otherwise they would be repeated on the side.)  No need for a frame and they had it done in under 2 hours!   Talk about instant gratification!

PS - I did alter this a bit for internet consumption.  The version I actually had made had different maps and more specific text.   I just thought the idea was too neat to keep to myself!

All the colors of the bird-bow

Bird rainbow, birdbow?

My inspiration for today's bird card came from Lin at Sending Hugs.  I often see things on Pinterest that I love and think "I can so CASE that with all Stampin' Up! stuff!"   I used the bird stamp from Everything Eleanor and cut them out.   I wasn't loving them with any of my embossing folders, so I used the Lattice Die and cut a couple pieces of thick chipboard (cut through it like butter!) and then used them to dry-emboss the CS in the Big Shot with the Silicone Embossing Mat.  Because I had used such thick chipboard, this technique made holes in white CS, so I switched to Sahara Sand.  The sentiment is from Friendship Preserves and is die cut with the Window Frames Framelits, both from the 2012 Holiday catalog.   I used lots of In Color inks:  Rich Razzleberry, Marina Mist, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, Calypso Coral and Primrose Petals.

Thanks for stopping by!    More birds  Here!

Lovely Bella personalized note cards

A set of simple monogram cards makes a great gift for anyone, including teachers!   This first one is a perfect example of why SU! color coordination makes creating easy; without cardstock and ink in the same shade of blue, I wouldn't have been able to make this.  
  

Stamps:  Lovely Letters, Bella Boutique (wheel).   

Ink:  Midnight Muse 

Cardstock:  Whisper White, Midnight Muse 

Tools: scalloped square punch, 1" square punch, distressing tool

Here is a more distressed variation using fall colors:

Ink:  Cajun Craze 

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Old Olive, More Mustard

Tools:  Curly Label punch, 1 1/4" square punch

If you've ever tried to cut a smaller square with your trimmer, you know it can be challenging.  Combine that with my inability to stamp straight and this card would have looked a crooked mess, but the square punch came to my rescue!   I punched the square so that the W was evenly spaced from 3 sides, then trimmed off the final side to get a perfect rectangle - phew!

Fall-i-days Llama Blog Hop

The Stamping Llamas are planning a blog hop every month starting now through the holidays.   You will be treated to gorgeous projects using products from the Stampin' Up! Annual and Holiday catalogs!  I'm going to try and do one Christmas project for each hop as well as things for each of the Fall-i-days.

Back to School

My two favorite fallbacks for handmade teacher gifts are packaged cards and decorated hand sanitizer.   Pretty + Practical = Perfect!   I posted some monogrammed notecards here, but here is this year's version of something every elementary school teacher needs:

Stamps:  Four Seasons (Hostess Exclusive),  acorn from Day of Gratitude   

Ink/Markers:  Pool Party, More Mustard, Soft Suede, Early Expresso, Riding Hood Red 

Cardstock:  Pool Party, More Mustard, Early Expresso, Very Vanilla   

Tools: 3/4" and 1" circle punches, 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, Perfect Pennants Bigz Die

Accessories:  Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon

Christmas

When designing Christmas cards, it's good to think about how easy and cost-effective  it will be to mass-produce the card.  I like the challenge of making something that is simple, yet still gets an "oooooh" from the recipient!   I made a few different versions of this card; do you have a favorite?   

Here, the first and most CAS version:  single layer, just stamping and punching:

The second version has the snowflake image stamped in Versamark all over the background and embossed with Iridescent Ice powder for a little extra shimmer:

On this one, I created the look of a banner using the Simply Scored tool.

On this last version I used the Simply Scored to create a simple frame around the image:

Stamps:  Four Seasons (Hostess Exclusive),  snowflake from Every Little Bit,  greeting from Curly Cute.   
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder 
Cardstock:  Whisper White 
Tools: 3/4" and 1" circle punches, Simply Scored or heat gun (depending on which version)
Accessories:  Silver Glimmer paper



P.S.  The other day I promised cards with birds, and here I've used the Four Seasons set twice and both times I covered up the adorable bird!   Don't worry, I've been busy and more birds are in this next post!

You can use these gorgeous buttons (that Stephanie designed in MDS2) to navigate the hop.

For the Birds

Thanks to a dear friend who loves cards and birds, I'm hopping back into blogging with a series of posts with projects featuring birds  (see here).   OK, I love birds, too, which is why I just had to get the new stamp set, For the Birds, as one of my first purchases from the new 2012-2013 Annual Catalog.  A great all-purpose set with sweet bird images and coordinating sentiments for a variety of occasions.

RANDOM HEALTH TIP:  Coloring with markers may reduce blood pressure!  I brought some Stampin' Write Markers and stamped images to my last Dr. appointment and colored while I was waiting, and both my blood pressure numbers were about 10 points lower than usual.

I made a dozen of these for a swap, so I experimented with different ways of coloring the flowers, and with different combinations of embellishments and piercing.  I forgot to take a picture of one without any self-adhesive rhinestones, but I'm not sure which I liked best.  How about you?

Stamp set:  For the Birds   
Ink:  Basic Gray 
Cardstock:  Whisper White, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
Tools: Festival Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Tool and Mat,  2 1/2" circle punch,  Delicate Designs embossing folder, Window Frames Framelit
Accessories:  Basic Jewels Rhinestones, Stampin' Dimensionals
Stampin Write Markers:  Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Pink Pirouette, More Mustard, Perfect Plum, Regal Rose