Ode to a Friend

I made this card a LONG time ago for a sketch challenge. The pieces I cut did not work for the sketch so it morphed into something different. When I picked the die cut piece for the front, I knew immediately whose card this would be, and when. My good friend Lisa and I met at a women's Bible study 11 years ago. She introduced me to stamping shortly after we met, and is my Stampin' Up upline. My daughter is between her girls in age and when they were younger we spent a LOT of time together. Life is busy and things change but we have always been friends. Now she is moving with her family for her husband's job and I am so very, very sad. We will really miss them. When your own family lives hours (at least) away, it is so good to have a support network and she have been that for me. I could share so very much more about what makes her a great friend and what makes our relationship special but instead I will show you this card that I made for her.

Funnily enough, there is very little stamping involved with this card! I did stamp the Soft Suede background with the floral spray from Elements of Style and sponged the edges in Soft Suede ink. The patterned paper is from the Beau Chateau DSP, matted on Marina Mist and Pink Pirouette. The Friend die cut is from the Beau Chateau Side Notes kit, which I spot colored with Marina Mist and Pink Pirouette markers and accented with punched shapes using the Itty Bitty Punch Pack and 2 sizes of Basic Pearls.

I decorated the inside of the card as well - by now I have written my message and she has read it, but I didn't want it to have too much room to write because there is just too much to say. Better to keep it short and sweet and wish her well - it's a good move for them. 

This was a first for me - I decorated the envelope, too! I used Broadsheet Alphabet and Four Frames sets to make the monogram. Punches are the Decorative Label Punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack and the now retired Lace Ribbon Punch, decorated with more Basic Pearls. Colors are Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Pink Pirouette, and Soft Suede. The lace ribbon is more Beau Chateau paper. I sponged a little Soft Suede onto the pink flowers to dirty them up a little.

I'll miss you, Lisa! Best of luck to you and your family in your new community. Enjoy the closer proximity to your parents and in-laws, and we'll get together soon!

Becca

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets: Elements of Style, Four Frames
Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Pink Pirouette
DSP: Beau Chateau
Ink: Soft Suede, Marina Mist & Pink Pirouette markers
Accents: Beau Chateau Side Notes, Basic Pearls
Punches: Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Decorative Label, Lace Ribbon

Another boat card???

At last year's summer Stamp-A-Stack, I made this sailboat card, which was beautiful but caused a lot of headache for the large group we had in attendance. Lots of fussy cutting and the Color Spritzer gave some people fits. :) Since it was a topic of much conversation and made one friend particularly surly (HI JANELLE!!), I HAD TO offer another "boat card"! When I saw that The Open Sea was in the main catalog, I immediately thought up this card and sketched it out. It is not as involved as the sailboat, but it is classy and looks more difficult than it actually is. The goal in all of the cards we featured this summer was to make them involved enough for seasoned stampers but simple and minimal-supply enough for newbies, not to mention the time factor - getting guests out the door and back to their families before midnight. Part of the invitation specified that no experience would be necessary! I hope we succeeded.

I like the collage look and have trouble making it work with lots of pieces of paper, but this set makes it easy to feature great stamps on a single neutral panel. I used a slightly different color selection than the sailboat card. Blue and red just seem so very nautical to me and I haven't gotten away from them just yet. This card is 4.5" square. The back panel is Island Indigo stamped with the compass and wrapped with Linen Twine in a criss-cross pattern. I collage stamped on the front Sahara Sand panel - the ship log in Sahara Sand, anchors in Riding Hood Red stamped off once, Island Indigo ship, and Early Espresso globe also stamped off once. This was mounted on a Riding Hood Red square, and the corners were pierced and Silver Mini Brads were attached. The panel was then popped up on dimensionals. On the inside, I stamped the compass in Indigo. The original card didn't have a sentiment on it, but at our Stamp A Stack, people were adding the Life is a Daring Adventure quote and I loved it, so had to update my sample! Here is the original. I think you'll agree the updated version is better! The linen thread was often used in different ways as well. I love it when I have an idea and someone else improves on it and makes it their own.

 Another great set for sentiments that fit a card like this is Word Play. There are several greetings and wishes that work well with the design and theme. It's simple, it's fun, and I made a bunch. And yes, we made another D*** BOAT CARD!!! :)

All's fair in love and stamping!
Becca

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set: The Open Sea, Daring Adventure
Card Stock: White, Island Indigo, Riding Hood Red, Sahara Sand
Ink: Island Indigo, Riding Hood Red, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso
Other: Stampin' Dimensionals, Silver Mini Brads, Linen Thread

Flower-shaped card

Summer new catalog stamp-a-stack time! I designed this fun, light, shaped card, which isn't actually too difficult to put together and works well for assembly-line card making. I usually stick to the boring square and rectangular cards but I just fell in love with the Floral Frames Framelits dies and after seeing a few strange-looking shaped cards, decided to do something using the whole beautiful shape of the largest flower. I love how they match the Daydream Medallions. Just beautiful. My first new toys from the new catalog. I see them getting used a LOT - which is certainly already true based on recent activity here at the Create Escape blog. At any rate, the Stamp A Stack was held twice this week and this was one of the fun cards we featured.

As you can see, the entire flower is used to create this card. My sentiment seems to be twisted a bit but OH WELL. I used my Color Coach to tell me that Primrose Petals matches Pink Pirouette - but that light pink was TOO light, so I subbed Pretty In Pink. The base was cut using the largest flower die, cutting white twice. I scored the back piece at 1/2" and applied SNAIL adhesive to the small flap and attached the pieces together. The top white piece was sponged with Pretty In Pink.

A shot of the back, showing the score line.

The open card.

I stamped the largest Daydream Medallion in Primrose Petals on matching card stock, and PIP for the next size. The sentiment is from Blessings From Heaven, which will see a lot of ink!! I cut the medallions using the framelit dies, holding them in place with small Post-It notes once I had them centered over the stamped images. I used the Boho Blossoms punch with the waste from the die cut negatives to create the small layered flower, gluing the pieces together, applying the large Basic Pearl, and attaching the flower with a glue dot. LOVE this card. It ended up being about 5" square, so I put it in an A-7 envelope.

The trick to making an assembly line with this design - stamp, cut, score, sponge, punch, assemble! I love it and I hope you do, too.

Becca

Supplies used:
Stamp Sets: Daydream Medallions, Blessings from Heaven
Card Stock: White, Primrose Petals, Pretty in Pink
Ink: Primrose Petals, Pretty in Pink
Cutting: Big Shot, Floral Frames Framelits, Boho Blossoms Punch
Other: Stampin' Dimensionals, Basic Pearls, Post-It notes (small)

A Record Birthday!

My daughter's birthday was yesterday. She had told me she was digging orange and blue, and she recently picked up a record player at a local thrift store and has been having fun with it. She is a big fan of music in general so I was excited to try using this cute gloss-accented paper from the Mod Retro DCWV 12x12 pad. The card is 5x7 to accommodate the whole "title" of the record.

I used a long retired set, Life Is Beautiful, for the pretty flowers behind the Curly Cute Happy Birthday greeting. Colors are Tangerine Tango and Midnight Muse, same as the one I posted yesterday.

Here you can see just how glossy the record portion of the paper is. What a fun stack. I need to use it up on lots of cute cards and pages!

Happy 14th birthday to my girlie girl!

Love, Mom

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets: Curly Cute, Life is Beautiful
Card Stock & Ink Colors: Tangerine Tango, Midnight Muse, White, Mod Retro stack (DCWV)
Other: square brad from stash

Orange and blue all over!

Today is my baby's 14th birthday. She requested an orange and blue card as orange is her favorite color and we had been talking about color pairings. Yes, we are nerds like that. Anyway this is NOT her birthday card, it is the card I made first. I had intended for it to be her card when I started out, but then I gave it some thought and decided the butterflies were great but I had an idea that fit her personality better. Stay tuned.

I feel like a broken record but forgive my color tweaking and variances that may occur!! I tried taking photos in different spots today of 3 cards and there may be some bright ones and some not so bright. I don't claim to be a photo editing expert. Anyway, this card measures 5" x 5". Midnight Muse and Tangerine Tango are the colors used, along with a large Mod Retro pad from DCWV that I picked up too long ago to just be cutting into it now! I used a ledger paper, orange graphics, and houndstooth from the pad to cut the butterflies. My daughter also digs houndstooth in a big way, which led me to this pattern choice. She actually came into the living room while I was working on this card and watching Downton Abbey (Season 2 now available on Hulu!), and asked if it was hers. By then I knew it wasn't and told her so. She said that was too bad, she liked it. :) I'm glad she did but I think she will really like her actual card! 

The back piece is Midnight Muse card stock stamped with the retired-too-quickly Wonderfully Worn background stamp in Midnight Muse ink.Since it is narrower than the card stock piece, I had to stamp it twice. With the spotty pattern, it doesn't show too much but the more noticeable part is covered by the punched borders. I used the Elegant Butterfly punch to make Jenni Bowlin-style butterflies. I punched each of the patterned papers twice. I attached with glue down the center of the body and popped the wings on Stampin' Dimensionals, and added 4 of the Basic Rhinestones from the attached rows for the bodies. The border is punched with the retired Eyelet Border punch from Midnight Muse and Tangerine Tango, and wrapped with a black ribbon from my stash.

I decorated the inside! I so rarely do this but it was just such neat paper I needed to keep going. Matted the Mod Retro ledger paper on Tangerine Tango and accented with a punched Midnight Muse butterfly. There is a punched houndstooth butterfly glued to the back of the card just for fun, also.

I hope you enjoyed this card, it was a lot of fun to make and I hope to find a recipient soon! I've hinted a couple of times at the "theme" of the birthday card, see if you get it right! Next post!

Becca

Supplies Used - All Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted:
Stamps: Wonderfully Worn
Card Stock: White, Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango, Mod Retro stack (DCWV)
Ink: Midnight Muse
Other: Elegant Butterfly Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Basic Rhinestones, ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals