Get Well Wishes for Sumana

A brave little girl is having surgery today.  I made this card for Sumana Holman, daughter of a friend and team member Cheryl Holman, to let her know I'm thinking of her. 

This card is the first I've made that is a larger greeting card size.  I folded a piece of 8-1/2"x11" Pink Passion card stock in half to create a card that measures 5-1/2"x8-1/2".  I wanted my color scheme to be bright, fun and little girl-friendly, so my palette also included Green Galore, Lovely Lilac, Pumpkin Pie and a piece of designer paper (Chocolate Chip and white polka dot) from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack.  I used the embosslits called Cherry Blossom to die cut the flowers using my Big Shot, and the centers of the flowers contain Green Bead Duo beads held in place with Crystal Effects.  The sentiment is from Wellness Wishes stamp set, which you can earn for free during Sale-A-Bration with a $50 purchase.  Click HERE for more details on that promotion.  I used the Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch from the new Occasions Mini Catalog to make the leaves.  What, you say?  There are no leaves that look like that on the punch?  I just used the bird's wing to make my leaves! 

Here's a close-up:  

THINGS YOU'LL NEED:
Item No. 114516 Cherry Blossom Embosslits Die  $11.95
Item No. 117191 Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch   $15.95
Item No. 117161 Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack   $24.95
Item No. 115356 Wellness Wishes stamp set   $14.95
Item No. 101055 Crystal Effects   $6.25
Item No. 110754 Green Bead Duo   $9.95

Splitcoast Challenge and Dooney & Bourke

Normally, I'm with my grandson on Mondays, but since I have a wicked cold, I'm home today.  There's just so much laying around on the couch one can do!  So I checked out Splitcoast Stampers for a bit of inspiration and found out that today's challenge is "Clean and Simple Cards".  There was a layout challenge to make a simple card with 3 repeated objects across the front.  I needed a bit more inspiration (maybe it's the headcold!) so I decided to check out Nordstrom's website and look for cool purses.  Here's a Dooney & Bourke purse I found that I thought was fun:

Now here's my card combining these two ideas:

I decided to turn the ducks on the Dooney bag into hearts for a Valentine's Day card.  I looked around for an outline heart stamp and didn't have one — but I did have the Full Heart Punch!  I punched out a template and used Stampin' Write Markers in the colors they showed in the bag to trace around the heart, creating the background.  Then a quick punch of three of the colors for the solid images.  The clear mount Well Scripted stamp set came in very handy again, since there wasn't any room to spare as I stamped on the Yoyo Yellow heart with Brilliant Blue.  I was able to get it lined up perfectly!  I popped that heart up on Dimensionals, added a piece of Tempting Turquoise 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, and layered it on a background of Sahara Sand to replicate the handles and trim of the bag.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED:
Item No. 118601 Well Scripted stamp set   $14.95
Item No. 113693 Full Heart punch   $15.95
Item No. 105541 Many Marvelous Markers   $125.95, or individual markers at $3.25 each
Item No. 109038 Tempting Turquoise 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon

Don't Forget!

• To contact me about registering for the Syracuse, NY Regional Seminar – details are HERE!
  
• To Sign Up for our Spring Stamping Retreat Weekend! Click HERE for more details!

Bearing Gifts Christmas Card

I'm just tickled with the way this card turned out!  I played a color challenge where the colors to use were Barely Banana, Rich Razzleberry and Always Artichoke.  Well, I "choked" on the "Artichoke" and had to use Old Olive instead!  Here's my card:

Don't you just LOVE these colors together for Christmas!  I started out using a base card stock of Rich Razzleberry and stamped it with the same color ink with the Sanded background stamp.  Next came my Circle Scissors Plus, and I cut one circle from Barely Banana card stock and the other a bit smaller from the pretty pine print from Merry Moments Designer Series Paper.  The Circle Scissors Plus makes layering circles as easy as can be!  I mounted that on Dimensionals and added a Jumbo Paper Clip from the Assorted Clips packet tied with Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon and Rich Razzleberry 1/2" Polka Dot Ribbon.  Next came my main image, stamped from Bearing Gifts.  This is a single stamp in the Holiday Mini Catalog and sells for just $8.95.  I stamped the image in VersaMark, then sprinkled on Black Embossing Powder and used my Heat Tool to set it.  I colored the images in with a Blender Pen and my stamp pads in Rich Razzleberry, Barely Banana, Old Oive and Close to Cocoa.  The image has a "To" and "From" where I stamped "Merry Christmas", so I just covered those words with a Post-It Note before inking my stamp.  Just remember to remove the mask before stamping on the paper!  Then the "Merry Christmas" is stamped in Close to Cocoa Classic ink to match the bear.  It comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  That's mounted on Old Olive card stock and then adhered with Dimensionals.

Here's a close-up of the embossing and coloring.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED:

Item No. 116531 Bearing Gifts   $8.95
Item No. 109294 Sanded background stamp   $17.95
Item No. 115370 Teeny Tiny Wishes   $36.95
Item No. 112530 Circle Scissors Plus   $29.95
Item No. 102283 VersaMark Pad   $7.50
Item No. 100005 Heat Tool   $29.95
Item No. 109133 Black Stampin' Emboss Powder   $4.75
Item No. 115612 Rich Razzleberry 1/2" Polka Dot Ribbon   $9.95
Item No. 109054 Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon   $7.95
Item No. 112580 Clips Assortment   $6.95
Item No. 102845 Blender Pens   $9.95

Bella Toile meets Vera Bradley

I decided to try a new design challenge this morning.  The challenge is to design a clean and simple card using this Vera Bradley purse as inspiration.  At first, I thought I'd like to use the Medallion background stamp, but I quickly saw that it wasn't the right feel.  So I pulled out another background stamp, Bella Toile, which I haven't ever used!

So here's my card:

Now, remember, the challenge was to make a SIMPLE card!  My card base is Confetti White card stock and meaasures 5" x 5".  Next is a layer of Ruby Red card stock  The Chocolate Chip card stock has been heat embossed using Bella Toile background stamp stamped in Craft Whisper White ink then sprinkled with White Embossing Powder.  The Stampin' Up! Heat Tool is just the thing to get a beautifully embossed image.  I layered that onto an additional piece of Confetti White card stock, then used some of my rubber scraps to pop that image up.  The sentiment comes from Sincere Salutations and the small flower is from One of a Kind.  I used the Wide Scallop Punch to punch out the image after doing the stamping.  But I didn't have an additional larger punch to border that with.  So I adhered the white oval to a piece of Ruby Red card stock and carefully cut around it freehand.  My Paper Snips really did their job!  I think it turned out pretty straight–maybe not perfect, but certainly good enough!  That image is adhered to the card with Dimensionals.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED:

Item No. 111598 Bella Toile background stamp   $17.95
Item No,. 111101 One of a Kind stamp set   $19.95
Item No. 115068 Sincere Salutations stamp set   $23.95
Item No. 101731 Craft Whisper White Stampin' Pad   $7.50
Item No. 109132 White Embossing Powder   $4.75
Item No. 100005 Heat Tool   $29.95
Item No. 112082 Wide Oval Punch   $15.95
Item No. 103579 Paper Snips   $9.95
Item No. 104430 Stampin' Dimensionals   $3.95
 

Nouveau Chic Birthday

I spent some time yesterday making a special birthday card for a very special son-in-law.  I discovered I didn't have many masculine stamp sets to choose from, but Brad's the "outdoors-y" kinda guy, and I thought this beautiful tree image from Branch Out stamp set might make him smile.

I absolutely love the new designer series paper called Nouveau Chic.  It's a very unusual paper with an interesting color scheme — Basic Black, Basic Gray, Sage Shadow and Apricot Appeal.  For some added interest, I paper pierced the edges of the Apricot Appeal card stock and added a couple of black brads to the corners of the triangles that overlap the main image.

Here's a close-up.  After stamping the tree in Basic Gray, I discovered it needed a little "grounding".  I used my Aqua Painter and some Sage Shadow Classic Ink to paint in a little "grass".  The final touch was to stamp "happy birthday" from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set in basic black ink, then punch it out with the Curly Label Punch and tuck about 2/3 of the tag up under the main image.

Hope he likes his birthday card this year!

THINGS YOU'LL NEED:
Item No. 113200 Branch Out stamp set (on dormant list; not in catalog)   $22.95
Item No. 115370 Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set   $36.95
Item No. 115670 Nouveau Chic Designer Series Paper   $9.95
Item No. 112208 Curly Label Punch   $15.95
Item No. 103954 Aqua Painter   2/$16.95