BS&J Take it or Leave it Stamp Off Challenge

Today we're playing along with my talented friends: Buffy, Susan & Jackie (hence BS&J).  Be sure to click the links and check out their creations!  My daughter and I both managed to incorporate ribbon and doilies, but I stopped her before she added cupcake images to the gorgeous card she had made!!  I reminded her that it's Take it or Leave it, so if there was no food, she was okay!!

I used a Stampin' Up! doily Thinlet on So Saffron CS, and glued a couple dozen scraps of Certainly Celery, Midnight Muse and Real Red behind it.  The center is embellished with a retired In-Color Adornment that I have always thought looked like candies, so that is my "food" element!!  The Chocolate Chip card base is embossed with a contraband folder by Tim Holtz and the little sentiment is from Lovely Little Labels (retired).  Most of my colors have food names, though celery with chocolate and saffron probably looks better than it tastes!

DD's card uses Papillion Potpourri and coordinating punch, doily stamp from Petal Potpourri, and sentiment from Chalk Talk (retired).  We both used the same Certainly Celery twill ribbon (retired).  Sorry for the shadows on her card... I'm going to say it's the screen, not that my windows need cleaning!

 Buffy

 Susan 

 Jackie 

CAS(e) 217 & LIM 324

This was a fun one!   I colored the flowers from Beautiful Bunch (retired) with SU!'s chalk pastels (also retired); why did they discontinue those?  I love the soft look, even if they are a little messy.  I used the coordinating Fun Flower punch (retiring soon!) to make a mask so the chalk didn't end up all over the front of the card.   Finally, MISTI to the rescue for that nice, straight sentiment! I never could get the Stamp-a-ma-jig to work for me.  Yes, it took a little patience, but without the MISTI it wouldn't have mattered HOW long or how careful I was, that sentiment would have been crooked and my card would have looked yuck.  Now, it's YILM!!

Created for the CAS(e) this Sketch and Less is More Challenges!

CAS Throwdown

Made this card for CAS Colours and Sketches #218 and this week's Color Throwdown...  All Stampin' Up! papers and embellishments, but no stamps!  gasp!  Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral and Green Galore.

My daughter wanted to try the Color Throwdown as well, so here is her card...

March Madness Blog Hop

Cool new ideas from some of my favorite Stampin' Up! demonstrators is my idea of some March Madness to get truly excited about!!  If you got here from Heidi's blog, I'm sure you agree.

My first contribution is inspired by the soon-to-be unavailable Sheer Perfection printed vellum.  I accidentally used retired Midnight Muse instead of current color Night of Navy, but I think you'll get the idea!!  I like the toile effect I got from stamping the Everything Eleanor flowers all over a sheet of vellum cardstock.  Since I adhered the vellum to the back of the card, there's no worries about it showing through - nice!  The sentiment from Lacy & Lovely is heat-embossed in white and one side of the punched oval is adhered to the card base with dimensionals.  The other side of the oval has no adhesive, it just overlaps the vellum flap to keep it closed.

Next, I tried rotating the card, and adding a little color to the back of the vellum with Stampin' Write markers.  I think I like this one a little better, how about you?

Finally, a thank you card for my son's Den to give to the Pack Committee Chair and Pack Master at their Blue and Gold Crossover banquet, created with the soon-to-be unavailable My Digital Studio software.  Farewell Cub Scouts, and farewell MDS!!

Click here to travel backwards to Heidi's blog.

Click here to travel forwards to Kath's blog.

Click here for the Hop Home Page.

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

Llama swaps, part 2

More of the long-ago promised swap cards.   Most of them feature products from the Occasions Mini - these products many not be around after April 30th, so now is the time to order if you like them!   Please leave a comment if you have any questions about the products used.

From Patti

From Kath

From Margaret 

From Chris (not a llama, but very sweet all the same!)

From Stephanie

From Stephanie

From Stephanie

Colors of Spring Llama Blog Hop

Working on projects using our soon-to-retire set of In Colors has made me realize how much I love all of them.  Pear Pizzazz is by far and away my favorite green, and I've liked Concord, Blushing and Poppy from the very start.  Up until this week, I thought I didn't care for Peach Parfait, because it's orange, but now that we're about to lose it, I realize that it is my favorite Stampin' Up! orange; not as bright as Tangerine Tango or as deep as Pumpkin Pie, it works for spring, summer and fall.   What's your favorite In Color?

My first project is an all-occasion card that I created in My Digital Studio.   I used stamps and embellishments from the Spring Fever ensemble; the colors are So Saffron, Melon Mambo and Pear Pizzazz.   While this versatile green will no longer be available as traditional ink, ribbon and cardstock after June 1st, it will always be available digitally.  Similarly, the Spring Fever Simply Scrappin' Kit that has these images is only available until the end of this month, but the digital version should be around for awhile.   I'm making sure I have both!

Next, I made a poppy using, what else, Poppy Parade.   The Fancy Flower punch would have worked here too, I think, but I'm more infatuated with the newer Blossom Punch!   The black center uses the Boho Blossoms Punch and an Antique Brad.   The Designer Series Paper on this card was a Hostess item last year, but as of April 9th, it was available on the Clearance Rack; I don't think it will last long - gorgeous patterns really useful for many cards.  (I used some last Christmas.)  The sentiment on this card is from the Just Believe stamp set.

Finally, I wanted to make a card with Concord Crush, because it's my favorite purple, deep and bluish.   I usually use it as an accent color because it's so dark, but this time I wanted to make it the primary color of the card:

Funny thing is, I struggled for the longest time and then this card almost made itself.    I used the Paper Doily die on Brushed Silver cardstock and sponged it with Frost White Shimmer Paint.  The image from Mixed Bunch was stamped twice in Concord Crush on Whisper White and punched with the coordinating Blossom Punch. An Antique Brad and Dimensionals were used to mount the pieces onto a 4 1/2" square Concord Crush card base.    I cut 4 petals off the second stamped and punched image.   I placed each petal under the doily die cut and traced the doily outline onto each petal with a sharp pencil and trimmed with paper snips before gluing the pieces to the corners.

Be sure to check out all the contributions from my sister llamas.   Next up is the talented Debbie Martin at CleverandCute.

                    

Berry Good Friend

Around Valentine's day, when I decorated a couple of mailboxes, one piece of the Berry Blossoms Designer Series Paper (DSP) had to be ripped off and replaced.   I couldn't bear to throw away something so pretty, even though the edges were torn to bits, so I saved it.  When I saw the sketch at Stamping 411, I realized I'd found a perfect use for it and trimmed out a couple of rectangles.  The patterns on this paper are so sweet, I thought they'd be a good match with the images in the Lean On Me stamp set and a perfect fit to the Spring Has Sprung theme on the Paper Players Challenge.

The 2 different patterns are opposite sides of the same sheet of DSP.   I stamped the image in Basic Gray, and colored the girl using the Subtles Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a Blender Pen.  I stamped just the the butterfly portion of the image onto a strawberry in a tiny scrap of the DSP and cut it out with Paper Snips.   I credit the sharpness and fineness of the scissors with my being able to do that at all!   I dotted the butterfly image on the white cardstock with the Glue Pen and then positioned the tiny cut-out butterfly on top.  Textured card stock in Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral to mat the pieces, then added some texture with a white card front embossed with the Elegant Lines Folder.   Finally, some of the Lucky Limeade ribbon from the Sale-a-bration brochure (wrapped the ends around a paintbrush and hit them with the heat gun to get the curl), popped up the focal image with Dimensionals and glued everything to a Calypso Coral card base.

A Berry Happy Valentine's Day!

Decorating these little mailboxes is hardly a new idea, but these are the first ones I've made!  I think the hearts make them appropriate gifts for Valentines Day, but at the same time, the Berry Blossom pattern isn't so "Valentiney" that the recipients will feel they can't display them for a while if they want to.   Read on for full details of products used and some helpful hints I learned the hard way!

Apply the Sticky Strip to the PAPER first, not the mailbox.   That way you can reposition if you need to!    Use the 1/2" circle punch to make an opening for the flag, then cut a slit from the little hole you made to the edge of the paper.   Remove the backing from the sticky strip AFTER you successfully get the paper around the base of the flag so you don't tear the paper by pulling on it... sigh. 

If you add a sentiment to the end of the box, by all means pop it up with Dimensionals... flat is BORING...see...

 Tombo Multipurpose Liquid Adhesive is the way to go when gluing cardstock to the plastic mailbox flag.   Sticky Sheet or Strip would also work; I used the Strip to adhere the ribbon.   Isn't it great how the Certainly Celery ribbon coordinates with the Lucky Limeade cardstock and DSP!   I used a glue dot underneath the 1/2" brad.

Once you finish adhering the leaves to the back of the flag, cover the mess with a scrap of matching cardstock... what the hey, put a little something pretty back there, as well!

Materials:
Berry Blossom DSP, CS in Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder & Calypso Coral
Basic Jewels Rhinestones, Build-a-Brad (WHY were these retired?   I love being able to make coordinating brads!)
Certainly Celery Twill Ribbon (this style of ribbon is retired)
Sticky Strip, Liquid Tombo, Dimensionals, Glue dot


Tools:
Little Leaves Sizzlet die, Boho Blossoms punch, Circle Punches (1/2", 1", 1 1/4"), Scalloped Circle Punch, Heart to Heart Punch


Stamps & Ink:
Petite Pairs in Wisteria Wonder