Morning Meadow, CTD288 & TC4

Hiya, Stampers! I am super excited to be a featured stamper this week at the Color Throwdown challenge! They have some amazing artists on their team and I'm honored to be in their midst! 

This week the colors are Gumball Green, Melon Mambo and Basic Gray. What a gorgeous outdoor living space in the inspiration photo, too! 

The colors inspired me to do a floral image and I reached for my much loved Morning Meadow stamp set once again. I must admit it was a little challenging to work the gray into my project, but I think it works well for the sentiment and banners. 

For my layout, I chose the sketch at The Challenge and rotated it 90 degrees. 

Nothing complicated here. I used the Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder to emboss the background, and markers to color the floral stamp. The little Banner Punch was from the now over Sale-A-Bration promotion, but I do hope it makes it's way into the new catalog!

Stampin' Up Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Morning Meadow

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Basic Gray, Gumball Green, Melon Mambo

Ink Pads: Basic Gray

Markers: Gumball Green, Melon Mambo

Tools: Banner and Pansy Punches, Big Shot, Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder

Accessories: Pearls

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Hello Lovely, CTS72

Good Monday morning, my fellow stampers! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I got some chores done around the house, including some much needed gardening. I'm so happy that Spring has finally arrived! 

Today's card was the inspiration of the challenge by CAS(E) this sketch. I looked around at my stamp sets to see what would fit into all those squares and decided on the Hello Lovely Stamp Set. 

The images were stamped and cut out with a 1" square punch, which fits so perfectly inside the Postage Stamp punch. Easy peasy! 

Stampin' Up Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Hello Lovely

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Basic Gray

Ink Pads: Basic Gray, Melon Mambo

Tools: 1" Square and Postage Stamp Punches

Accessories: Brights Candy Dots

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hugs :)

Watercolor Fun for The Paper Players

Woo, hoo! Yay for Sunday! The sun is supposed to be shining today and I hope to go out and play in the garden a bit. Was this the longest winter ever, or what?!!! Almost every one of my clay pots froze and broke this winter and that has not happened in the almost 20 years I've been in this house. Even my Chimenia cracked. DH has been to the county dump more than once already. What a good honey :) 

Sunday is also time for a new Paper Players challenge! I adore each one of my buddies on this team and am so happy to be in their midst! This week, the always amazing Ann Schach has a cool color challenge for us: Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral and Always Artichoke. Love it! 

After examining these colors, I had a picture in my head of something shabby and vintagey, and this card kind of evolved. I worked in reverse of my usual procedure, and did the background first and proceeded from there. 

I used lots of Watercolor Paper for this card. For the largest background, I took a piece of Watercolor Paper and spritzed it with water. Then I inked up the En Francais background stamp with Calypso Coral ink, stamped it off once and stamped onto the moist Watercolor Paper. Because it wasn't quite drippy enough for my liking, I gave it another spritz of water. I must say that I love the end result! I repeated the same process with the Coastal Cabana layer.

My good buddy LeAnne told me about the challenge they are haveing at Just Us Girls, so I'm playing along with them, too! They want you to create a water colored background. I'm in! 

I was also inspired to use the Two Step Bird Punch for this card, and realized that I don't have any current SU sets to coordinate. The Polka Dot Pieces stamp set has been on my wish list for a while, and you could easily use that stamp set to re-create this card, if you were so inclined. I used the retired Language of Friendship Stamp Set.

Stampin' Up Products Used:

Stamp Sets: En Francais, Petite Pairs, Language of Friendship

Card Stock: Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Watercolor Paper

Ink Pads: Black Stazon, Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Always Artichoke

Tools: Stampin' Spritzer, Big Shot, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Labels Collection Framelits, Two Step Bird and Boho Blossom Punches, Festive Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Tool & Mat, Aquapainter

Accessories: Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Pearls

I'm so happy you stopped by today, and I would be thrilled if you visited my team members at The Paper Players! Please play along with us this week if you can, too! 

Inky hugs!

Telescoping Mother's Day Card, FM155

Hi, Stampers! The other day my stamping class met, and this month the theme was Fancy Folds. This is one of the cards we made, a telescoping Mother's Day card. This is so easy to make with the Circle Framelits and a few brads. The colors coordinate with the pretty Watercolor Wonder DSP. 

I'm also playing along with The Friday Mashup today, where their challenge is to make a shaped card. I love the cute inspiration photo! 

This is what the card looks like closed. It fits nicely inside a 5 1/2" square envelope. I sponged the edges of the flowers, white paper and DSP with a little Calypso Coral ink. This card will be going to my wonderful Mother-in-law! 

If you have the Stampin' Up Circle Framelits, this card should be pretty easy to figure out. But if you have any questions, you can contact me here! 

Stampin' Up Products Used:
Stamp Sets: Delightful Dozen, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Card Stock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Calyspo Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe
Designer Series Paper: Watercolor Wonder
Ink Pads: Calypso Coral
Tools: Big Shot, Circles Framelits, Little Leaves Sizzlit
Punches: Boho Blossom, Word Window, Modern Label, Pansy, Bitty Butterfly
Accessories: Silver Brads, Pearls, Daffodil Delight Taffeta Ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Life Doesn't Have to be Perfect, DD97 & SSSC214

Greetings, my Stampy Friends! Today's card is a far stretch from the last card I made, with it's subdued colors. This one is all bright and bold! When using two bright colors together, I like to let one color take center stage and have the second be an accent color. I also like to keep plenty of white space. That's just my thing. I hope you like it! 

My inspiration came from the color challenge at Dynamic Duos and the sketch at Sweet Sunday. I was totally enamored with Karen's beautiful blossom and decided to make one of my own. 

I had fun experimenting with the Blossom Party Die, which I have been neglecting. My flower has six layers. The bottom four were made with the Blossom Party Die, and the smaller two with the Boho Blossom Punch. The leaves were made with the Secret Garden Sizzlits. 

Stampin' Up Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Perfect Pennants

Card Stock: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise

Designer Series Paper: Gingham Garden

Ink Pads: Melon Mambo

Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Secret Garden Framelits, Blossom Party Die, Boho Blossom and 3/16" Corner Punch

Accessories: Rhinestones

Please leave a comment! Thank you! 

Big Inky hugs!

Trefoil Cross, FF38 & STS17

A single stamp that has been on my wish list for a while finally made it's way to my collection, Trefoil Cross. I'm so happy to have this new (to me) stamp. This simple expression of faith can be used for so many occasions including religious holidays and celebrations, or a simple sympathy card. I love it and know I'll use it for many years to come.

You know how much I like to play along with challenges! Today I am playing along with the subtle and elegant colors at Fab Friday and the layout at Seize the Sketch. I thought the two challenges combined made for a simple and sophisticated Easter card.

I cut the cross out by hand and popped it up with Dimensionals. The leaves were cut with the Bird Builder Punch, and the flower with the Boho Blossom Punch. 

Stampin' Up Products Used:
Stamp Sets: Trefoil Cross, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Card Stock: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Pear Pizzazz, Baked Brown Sugar

Designer Series Paper: Venetian Romance

Ink Pads: Baked Brown Sugar

Tools: Big Shot, Ovals Framelits, Boho Blossom and Owl Builder Punches

Accessories: Linen Thread, Neutrals Candy Dots, Natural Trim

Thank you so much for visiting me today! Inky hugs!

Three Spree Times Two!

This week at The Paper Players, it's Three Spree! Wee! The amazing LeAnne has challenged us to use three of anything on our projects. What a fun challenge! 

I really lucked out for this challenge as I already had two cards made that worked perfectly. Not only do they each have three circles, but three candy dots, too! I made them using this sketch (by me) from a couple weeks ago. They both feature the Epic Day This and That DSP and Washi Tape. I added a little grunge, some piercing and a button the first one.

The second one is a little more clean and simple and I think it has more of a masculine feel. For both cards I did a little sponging on the edges of the circles to give them some added defintion.

Stampin' Up Products Used:

Card One:

Stamp Sets: Perfect Pennants, Gorgeous Grunge

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake

Desiger Series Paper: Epic Day This and That

Ink Pads: Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral

Tools: 2 1/2" Circle, 1 3/4" Circle and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Paper Piercing Tools, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack and Piercing Mat

Accessories: Epic Day Washi Tape, Subtles Candy Dots, Linen Thread, Very Vintage Buttons

Card Two:

Stamp Sets: Perfect Pennants

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Basic Gray

Desiger Series Paper: Epic Day This and That

Ink Pads: Basic Gray

Tools: 2 1/2" Circle, 1 3/4" Circle and 1 3/8" Circle Punches

Accessories: Epic Day Washi Tape, Neutrals Candy Dots

We hope you'll play along with our Three Spree challenge at The Paper Players this week! Please visit the rest of the design team, too, and check out their beautiful creations!