Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Brown & Blue and slightly the same??

I made a couple of cards and when I had finished the second I sat back, looked at it, and thought, WOW I am kind of in a rut. :) Same colors, same basic layout... HELP! Well, I'd say HELP but I like the colors and they have appeared more than once already in the short life of this blog so Oh Well. It's all good.

Anyway I picked up the combination from the Elegant Soiree designer paper from last year. I don't care if it isn't "current", I like it and it's going to take me forever to use it up. Which is OK by me. Anyway this is the second card I made, another one for a new baby. Lots of babies lately after a dry spell in my circle.

Cute as a bug! Isn't that the name of the set? Retired but I can't get rid of it. I used some markers to just barely color in the little guy and make him stand out. Another Curly Cute congratulations... I used Crumb Cake as the base and banner, and punched my circles from Crumb Cake and Soft Suede. The banner tails are curled and shredded a little with my fingernail. I used the Early Espresso striped grosgrain ribbon (retired, of course, I just can't catch a break) to add texture and interest. There's a lot of print going on with all the DSP but it's fun to add a little something more. I used halfback pearls from my stashed Pretties kit to bling it up.

Here is the first card I had made. The picture stinks but the card has been mailed, so there's no re-taking it. I can re-MAKE the card but what fun is that.

I used Soft Suede textured card stock for the base, with Creative Elements stamps for the flourish in the corners and the fussy-cut flowers. Another Curly Cute sentiment! Lots of mileage, well worth the $$ spent on that set! I used the Eyelet Border Punch to add a strip of Early Espresso under the Crumb Cake "Thinking of You" tag, which I notched with my paper snips. Simple but pretty. I think my grandmother will like it.

Here is a close-up of the elements on the card. At least this is in focus!

Stuck in a happy rut! Off to make ANOTHER baby card, and a birthday card!
Becca

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bright Scallop Birthday

I sent this one to my grandmother in Maine. She's dealing with Alzheimer's and it is just so important to keep in touch. I loved the colors in the Sweet & Sour DSP, but I hadn't bought it yet when I made this card. I was clearly loving the layered scallop look! I still do... Anyway this was fairly quick and I consider it CAS.

I used markers to ink up the center of the So Many Scallops birthday stamp, then punched it out with a circle punch. This was layered onto a Pumpkin Pie circle, which was layered onto a scalloped white circle that had been stamped with the same stamp in Rose Red. I had tried to color the whole stamp but the outer design looked like... well, not good. I popped this up on dimensionals. The scallops and straight pieces are cut from Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, and white. I offset the scallops and then trimmed the sides so they were even. The white part opens upward, placed on the layered, color base. The bottom of the front is the bottom white scallop. The lower stripes are glued onto the white base. It was fun to make and I sure hope Baba enjoyed receiving it.

Becca

Supplies Used - all Stampin' Up:
Stamp: So Many Scallops (retired)
Ink and Card Stock: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, White
Tools: Scallop Edge Punch, Circle Punches, 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, Dimensionals

Friday, August 12, 2011

A Very Merry Un-Birthday!

My stepson's girls came to visit, and since they were here right between their birthdays and I am HORRIBLE at mailing things, we had an Un-Birthday party! Think Alice In Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. Hats for everyone, and little food. :) A blast for little girly-girls! I made them mostly-matching cards, with enough differences to each be special.

I was cleaning up, and of course got sidetracked and pulled out some discontinued SU colors, some bright baker's twine, and a strip of 3-D stickers from a dollar bin. Plus a carnation I had made and set aside. The green was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder I had bought ages ago and never used. They're cute, right? And talk about BRIGHT.....

 Supplies used:
Retired SU card stock: Orchid Opulence, Green Galore, Pink something...
Dollar bin stickers; twine; Cuttlebug folder; Tempting Turquoise carnation.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

My girl's birthday THIS year!

I showed you last year's card, here is this year's for my now 13-year-old. (Wow does time fly... I cried a little...) She is SO INTO peace signs. She has zillions, I think. I bought her some peace signs stamps out of a dollar bin so she can decorate her school binders. I had some holographic stickers sitting around that she hadn't used yet, so I took inspiration from them to make her birthday card!

Do you know how hard it is to photograph holographic items, not to mention holographic embossing powder?? As you can probably imagine, I stamped "Peace" "Love" and "Cake" inside. :) Taking the lead from the stickers, I punched Melon Mambo and Concord Crush with the Small Heart punch and the Build a Cupcake Punch top. I stamped Crumb Cake card stock with cupcake wrappers from the Create a Cupcake set, using Melon Mambo and Concord Crush ink, then punched them out with the cupcake bottom portion of the punch. The tops were stamped with Versamark and the Cupcake stamp set, and heat embossed using some retired SU hologram embossing powder. She loved it.

I showed my other daughter's 17th birthday card here while we were on the road. I'll show her card from last year another day - I'm pretty proud of that one, too.

Happy Birthday!
Becca

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Hello, Doily!

My mother made a doily for my grandmother many years ago. Baba gave it to me on one of my last visits as she felt I should have it. It's a pineapple pattern in variegated cream and blues. Gorgeous. I'm sure it will make its way onto the blog someday. Love it. I was SO EXCITED when I saw the Hello Doily background stamp! It is the same pattern as the one Mom made! Someday I will attempt to make a color variation using the stamp to duplicate the real one in my room... someday. :)

In the meantime, what's wrong with purple? I think I have had purple on the brain whenever I looked at this image. Had to get it out. I hope it worked... there are so many other colors! :) I used Concord Crush ink on Wisteria Wonder card stock to stamp the doily. I was having ISSUES again so I took the creative opportunity to do a little tearing and curling. I used Concord Crush on the base, and stamped my Smarty Pants sentiment in Versamark, then clear embossed it. The upper corner was torn and curled, and a slip of Flirtatious DSP was adhered behind. I could not cut the corner right to save my life - I tried several times and finally got it. (I blame Drew Carey and the guys from Whose Line. It's all their fault.) I mounted the purples on Sahara Sand, wrapped with white grosgrain ribbon, and then adhered the bow with glue dots.

I guess I can't be too hard on the Whose Line gang, I finally got it right.

Here's to cable TV reruns disrupting a nice evening of stamping...
Becca

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

My girl's birthday

I have 2 girls. Both had birthdays in July. This card was made for my then-12-year-old last summer. She keeps it on her window ledge in her "initial display" - other T items she's collected.

I used the Baroque Motifs set, my 1-3/4" scalloped circle punch, Tempting Turquoise craft ink and card stock, black card stock, some rhinestones, and a ribbon I am still hoarding, along with a chipboard letter I picked up somewhere and butterfly punches. I inked the T with craft ink, cured it with my heat tool, and sprayed it with some glitter spray I had in my cabinet.

I love that something little I made for my sweet girl was worthy of immortalization in her room! :)

Becca

Monday, August 8, 2011

Daring Adventure

I looked at this set sideways for a few weeks. It was a little grungy for my taste. Then my grandfather died and something that was said at his memorial service got me thinking. Yes, life IS nothing if not a daring adventure. I am working on it. So, I bought the set and started planning some projects around the Helen Keller quote.


I used Crumb Cake ink to create the damask background on Crumb Cake card stock. Look Ma, no Stamp-a-ma-jig! That's stamping by the seat of your pants... The footprints are Concord Crush. I inked the sentiment stamp with Peach Parfait, Melon Mambo, Concord Crush, Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso markers. I fussy cut the sentiment and double mounted on Pear Pizzazz and Concord Crush card stock. My fussy cutting leaves something to be desired, especially when done in front of the Big Bang Theory at night, by lamp light. Sigh.


Still, it was the effect I wanted! Simple but colorful. I kept seeing the set used with "dirty" colors and it wasn't really doing much for me. I got some inspiration from the catalog where a sample showed bright colors instead. I am now sold. Look for more using this set!! I plan to use it to make some memorial projects for my mom featuring my grandfather as well.

Life - it's an adventure!
Becca

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Rainbows & Butterflies

I am loving all the rainbow cards I have seen in my blog surfing of late. I had to make one of my own! I had messed around with another monotone variation which I will show another day, but here I had the punches and I had the time and I wanted to make a rainbow!


This looks MEGA BRIGHT - I am not that great at using Photoshop to manipulate photos so I just used a brightness booster in my regular photo editor. Anyway. The rainbow is built as follows:
Rose Red - Double Scallop Ribbon Punch
Pumpkin Pie - Eyelet Border Punch
So Saffron - Scallop Edge Border Punch
Old Olive - Scallop Trim Border Punch
Tempting Turquoise - another scallop punch I have - I tried the double ribbon punch but too much of the opposite side showed.
Rich Razzleberry - Doily Triple Layer Punch

I also used the Beautiful Wings Embosslit to cut colorful butterflies - Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, and Rose Red.

This soothed my color fix on a dreary, rainy day!! Simple!


Wishing you rainbows & butterflies today!



Becca

Saturday, August 6, 2011

One of those FOREVER projects

Have you ever had one of those projects that you visualized in your head, it was AMAZING, and then when you went to put it together, something went wrong and it all just stalled out? Well, this is my most recent one. I had the gorgeous background done, the top border, and a selection of cute rosettes. Some were assembled, some weren't quite done, some were glittered and beaded and... and... and... well, it wasn't finished. None of them really worked, and something was just... missing every time I went to try and finish it. That was a couple of months ago. Turns out, it was just waiting for the right stamps to come along. Here is my finally finished wall hanging.

It's going in my craft room. I love it! I got the unfinished frame for a dollar. It was one of those things that I found for cheap in the kids' craft section, all one piece so a masterpiece could just be pasted into it. Does that make sense? So, I just put my stuff ON it, I didn't have to create the piece and stuff it into the back. This did present a small challenge as I didn't measure the opening quite right and ended up having to glue in an extra strip at the top. It doesn't bother me any more, but it really bugged me when it happened. I painted the whole frame with ivory acrylic paint and mod-podged the designer paper to it. Did you know they make SPARKLE mod podge??? It's awesome. I painted over the whole Elegant Soiree DSP panel with it. Then I used my color spritzer tool to sprinkle everything with Early Espresso and Basic Gray markers, followed by a shot of Vanilla Smooch Spritz. It was sprinkly and sparkly and beautiful. I punched out the top border using the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch, and Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze (if you can't see it, I used the full shape, filling in the backs of the flowers), and I can't really tell what that light brown is... it's been a while and it doesn't look like the current neutrals. Sigh. Once the flowers were punched, I laid them out on scrap paper and spritzed them with Early Espresso as well.

I cut the blossoms in half and adhered them across the top. Then, I was stuck. I tried placing all the different rosettes I had made, but none of them looked quite right. Just... blah. I did assemble the center blossom with the cute Antique Brad at the same time as the border flowers. And it all sat. UNTIL TODAY. I was inspired. One of the first new sets I had marked in the new catalog was Creative Elements. Which cracked me up because I am usually grabbed first by the Elements section of the catalog, and I could instantly see a zillion projects and cards that I knew I would make once I had it in my hot little hands! So, how does that rosette look as the flower on the printed "stem"? I used the Elegant Soiree DSP, edged with the Scallop Trim Border Punch, scored between each scallop.


I borrowed the Eyelet Border Punch from a friend and punched a border from textured Soft Suede card stock. I laid it on the frame and got goosebumps - PERFECT! So I cut another border from Crumb Cake textured card stock (I love this stuff), offset and glued them together, and spritzed them with Early Espresso. A note here. I did this twice. The first time, I also sprayed the assembled border with Log Cabin Smooch Spritz. I did use scrap paper behind it, but did you know: 1. that stuff sprays a LOT, and 2. it's not exciting to clean it out of the carpet when you don't think to put the to-be-sprayed item in a box first? Such is my life. Anyway! It was perfect for the space without the Log Cabin... all for the better, I guess - for me, if not for the carpet. Don't tell my husband.

I had already adhered the eyelet border in place when I decided butterflies were in order. And the Create corner. There's a little overlap but who's looking? Seriously, quit looking. I am so glad I thought to use the new stamp set. It works so well with this!! I had some Baja Breeze textured card stock that I just knew would be AMAZING, layered behind (of course, behind) the border with the Create legend fussy cut from Very Vanilla card stock on top. I used Soft Suede ink for all the stamping.

I also took the finial border from the set and stamped it in Soft Suede - stamped off once before I added it to the frame, since the butterflies were full strength and it would have been too much if I hadn't. Like that run-on sentence? As you can see, I had a little ink get on the frame but that doesn't really bother me at all. I was kind of squeezing it in as this was the last element added to the piece, and I had to work around the rosette on the other side as well. It was a tight fit, but it worked. Thank goodness for acrylic blocks, since I would never have been able to make this work with a wood block stamp.

I love it. It makes me smile. I am SO GLAD I decided to finish it. Really, I was cleaning up the mess in my living room when I came across it, and I couldn't just move it as it was. ADD, anyone? Hmmm.... So, here is the finished project once again. What do you think??

All stamping supplies Stampin' Up:
Stamp Set: Creative Elements
Ink: Soft Suede
Markers: Early Espresso, Basic Gray, Baja Breeze
Card Stock: Baja Breeze (smooth and textured), Soft Suede textured, Crumb Cake textured, Very Vanilla, old mystery brown...
Designer Series Paper: Elegant Soiree
Punches, Tools, Etc: Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer, Eyelet Border, Scallop Trim Border, Color Spritzer, Antique Brads, cheap-o frame, acrylic paint, matte & sparkle Mod Podge

So happy to complete another UFO!! (UnFinished Object!)
Becca

One of the Good Ones

I loved the Smarty Pants sentiment set from the moment I saw it. Of course I had to buy it. I have used it a few times and this is one of my favorites.

I made this mini card for a swap. I used Basic Black, Very Vanilla, and Early Edition DSP cut into scallop strips and the DSP cut in 3 sizes of circles. The circles were lightly sponged on the edges, crumpled, and fastened together using an Antique Brad. I will say that this is my least favorite brad of the bunch but it works here. While I was sponging the circles, I also sponged the scalloped DSP for a little different effect. The scallop strips were offset and trimmed on both ends, then attached to the card. The base was punched so the inside has a scallop border as well. I used a narrow ribbon from my stash and stamped the greeting in Very Vanilla Craft Ink. Not a lot of supplies used but it's a cute, effective card for a friend.




All supplies Stampin' Up:
Stamp: Smarty Pants
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Very Vanilla Craft
Card Stock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Designer Series Paper: Early Edition
Punches: Scallop Edge Border Punch, various circles
Other: Sponges, Antique Brads, ribbon