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

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

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.

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

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

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

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