from my ink pad to yours

August 12, 2020

Boho Indigo Vases

I'm back for a second post today to share a card for the Paper Craft Crew's Inspiration Challenge:

I used the idea of tropical colors and a table near"water" and came up with this:

I've just started playing around with the vases and greens from the Boho Indigo Product Medley.
DSP scraps from Artistry Blooms and In Good Taste form my stitched circle background.
I think my fussy cutting of greetings needs a little practice but it's getting better.
In color 2020-22 Enamel Dots add just a little more interest. That and a little Wink of Stella!

A close up of the Wink of Stella:

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link at the top of my blog. If you don't have regular Stampin' Up Demonstrator and would like hard copies of any of our current catalogs please feel free to email me at cbondersonsmith@gmail.com

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the August host code, 4EZ74K99 , I will send you a kit to make 3 Love of Leaves cards (You provide the stamps, ink/embossing powder and adhesives. These are designed so that you can easily substitute other stamps and inks) plus a free gift. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Posted at 05:29 AM in Boho Indigo | Permalink | Comments (1)

Around the World On Wednesdays: Let's Shake Things Up!

Today I am blog hopping with the Around the World on Wednesdays crew and you are in for a treat as you visit these talented papercrafters around the world.

Our theme is "Let's Shake Things Up! The focus is to try something new. Well, have you seen any of those slimline cards around? I have but had yet to try one. Of course there are a few other things I've seen but not yet tried but when I saw a sketch challenge for a slim card calling for triangles I knew that is just what I needed to try. The sketch is SC814 at Splitcoaststampers.

This really came together quickly once I decided which papers from the Artistry Blooms DSP to use. I cut a 3 1/4" x 8 3/4" piece of the muted pink - mango stripe and then overlayed a 1" coordinating strip over the left side. These abstract graphics are really a lot of fun to use and I especially like mixing up the graphic look of the triangles with them.
This led to a Melon Mambo Card base 3.5" x 9 and Mango Melody to cut out three of the largest equilateral triangle from the set of Stitched Triangle Dies.
I used my grid paper to make sure I attached the middle triangle in the middle of the card and then added the other two so that they the outside edges were 1/2" away from the DSP edge.
I embossed the bold greeting from Ridiculously Awesome using Versamark ink and Gold embossing powder.
Simple embellishments include Gilded Gems and the gold cording from the Forever Greenery Trim.

Here is a close-up view:

Easy Peasy! Have you tried one of these yet?

Now it's time to check out the talented Anne Marie Hile.

Tatiana Tobin - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Elaine de Montmorency - CA

Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - US

Teri West - US

Cheryl Hamilton - US

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 05:00 AM in Ridiculously Awesome | Permalink | Comments (6)

August 11, 2020

Daisies for a Friend

I just jumping in with a quick post today since I also need to work on a couple of posts for tomorrow... This is a bit of a revision of an earlier card but with current products. I did it for a color challenge I'm hosting today over at Splitcoaststampers and to be honest I was quite tickled with the way it turned out.

Dessert for this challenge is to use white craft ink, which I used on the Dainty Diamonds 3D embossing folder before running a piece of Night of Navy cardstock through my NEW Cut and Emboss Machine. These will be available in early September! I was so happy with the way it turned out. I just gently tapped the pad onto the inside of the folder - on the side with the Stampin' Up! logo. The Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge allows you to add any colors in the Stampin' Up! Neutrals so Night of Navy gets to be part of the challenge if you wish.
I added cut off about 5/8" off one side and flipped this strip over and attached it underneath to provide extra contrast on the white card base.
I used a white scrap for my Misty Moonlight greeting and added a few skinny strips for upper and lower borders. I didn't worry about the strips being even but did pay attention to using the thicker one on the bottom. I tend to like putting more weight on the bottom of an element than on the top.
My daisies from Daisy Lane were stamped with Misty Moonlight after stamping on scratch paper twice before stamping each one on my Whisper White cardstock. You will sometimes see this referred to as 2nd, actually 3rd, generation stamping. Then they were punched with the coordinating punches and layered 2 deep. The centers are colored with the Mango Melody Blends.
I used some Granny Apple Green leaves cut with the Boho Indigo dies. They aren't what I would say are botanically correct but I felt they looked at home with these daisies.
I tried to add some embellishment dots but in the end it seemed that the "flatness" of the white craft on the background looked better without any added shimmer and shine.

Here is a look at pile of color combination pieces I had assembled before diverging on this card. It looks like I have a little more assembling to do...

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 10:55 AM in Daisy Lane | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 10, 2020

Love of Leaves Meets a Little Plaid Tidings

I'm joining in on Kylie's Demonstrator Training Program Monthly Blog Hop today. Follow along to see a variety of projects!

A while back I shared a Love of Leaves project which featured inset leaves in Cinnamon Cider card stock. I created another version of this card to include in a little new package that I've just sent off to my downline and thought I might share it with you today.

I've truly fallen for Cinnamon Cider with these lovely Stitched Leaves Dies. (I've also decided that our maple flooring is called Cinnamon Cider. I can never find the pieces I drop on the floor!) This time I tried to emphasize the leather look using a light sponging, not only on the Cinnamon Cider but the other colors too.
The card sized "negative" layer is mounted onto a So Saffron card base with Multi-purpose Adhesive. I like to use Multi-Purpose Adhesive glue so that I can get into the tiny spots. If any areas don't seem to adhere well I go back with skinny scrap of paper with a very small amount of glue. Gently and briefly slide this under any areas that seem to pop up and you will get just enough adhesive on them to get them to adhere back down to your base.
Add your leaves back into the Cinnamon Cider layer using that same adhesive tip as needed.
I pulled the color combination from a beautiful fall colored plaid from Plaid Tidings in the August - December Mini Catalog. These include Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, Cinnamon Cider and Bumble Bee.
All of the stitched dies blend together beautifully. This time I chose this longer shape with the graceful curves from Tasteful Labels. It would accommodate any of the greetings and allows to add a healthy dose of the warmly colored Bumble Bee.
The little flags in the lower right are also cut from one little Tasteful Labels die which was trimmed in half after die-cutting. I often say that DSP still makes a significant contribution to a card even if it used as more of an seasoning than a major ingredient.
The Cinnamon Cider enamel dots emphasize the greeting.

Here is a close up of some of the details:

One more view:

Now it's time to check out the other lovelies...

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 04:59 PM in Love of Leaves | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 05, 2020

Harvest Hello Get Well Card

It's time for another challenge with the Paper Craft Crew. It's kind of like a twist on last week - but this time I didn't interpret the sketch quite so literally.

Much as I love my Stitched Triangle dies I thought I should change it up a bit this time...and get out Harvest Hellos.

Maybe you recall that I have a soft spot for diagonal borders so as I leafed through my Plaid Tidings DSP (new in the August - December 2020 Mini Catalog!) I knew I would do a Cherry Cobbler colored apple because this crisp Cobbler and white plaid would make such a great edge. I cut out a Stitched Rectangle piece from the 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" A2 sized piece so that I wouldn't waste the piece that would be hiding behind the other layers.
I played a bit with white and Crumb Cake backgrounds for the apple itself and then ended up using them both by applying Whisper White craft ink to my Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder before embossing the Crumb Cake cardstock.
The big apple was colored first with Blends: Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce, Crumb Cake and So Saffron. Striations - or the sublte striping on the apple peel were done with a Dark Mango Melody Blends.
Though these words are stacked on the stamp that is part of the Harvest Hellos set, I cut them apart so that I could use them on the skinny strip part of the sketch challenge. I think that works pretty well with the typeset style font.
The smaller apple piece is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 06:29 AM in Harvest Hellos | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 03, 2020

How to Make a Quick Snowflake Wishes Christmas Card

We're almost there! The August - December 2020 Mini Catalog will go live tomorrow, August 4! How about welcoming it with a very simple, quick card with the Snowflake Wishes Bundle?

My colors for this card were chosen by Barbara, who is this week's color challenge hostess over at Splitcoaststampers:

Crumb Cake

Real Red

Whisper White

My first inclination was to go for a red poinsettia, but I've been using that quite a bit lately. Then I thought about the snowflakes and I couldn't believe how fast this came together.

This card is made pretty much the way it looks. You could just cut a 2" or so Real Red square but I really like the homespun stitched effect from Stitched Shapes. I think it looks great with these colors.
You could layer snowflakes - about 3 - but if you want to mass produce this for lots of cards I recommend just using 1 layer of Whisper White Thick cardstock. The only real trick I have to share here is to set your snowflake back into the negative you cut it from, turn it upside down, and lightly sponge Multipurpose Adhesive onto it. Carefully place this on your square. The Multipurpose Adhesive will give you a few seconds to adjust your snowflake to make sure it is straight.
Ink your greeting with Versamark, add White Emboss Powder to the stamped image and heat until shiny. Easy Peasy!

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

$55.75

$9.50

$6.00

$30.00

$8.75

$8.25

$8.75

$30.00

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$94.75

Posted at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 01, 2020

A Few More Leaves From Love of Leaves

We are only a few more days away from the August - December 2020 Mini Catalog going live! Those beautiful die cut leaves a showed a few days ago will be featured in there and I thought I would hop on today since I have another Love of Leaves card that I think you will like.

This card features a number of accessories from this new mini catalog:

I pulled my color scheme from the foil embellished Specialty Designer Series Paper, Gilded Autumn. This piece has diagonal gold foil markings with Mint Macaron - not your typical fall color but oh, so elegant!
One of the patterns from the Wrapped in Texture Embossing folders lends interest to the Very Vanilla Layer
I used the gold (lightest) color from the Brushed Metallic Cardstock for a skinny layer between the Vanilla and DSP and also for the little leaf die cut with the stitched piece is place. I use a post it to keep these outline and stitch dies together. You can use the inner die to just cut the stitches in the leaf shape or combine them. If you haven't seen my earlier card which shows this done as a background please check that out here.
The larger (gingko?) shaped leaf is die cut from Mint Macaron cardstock, again with the stitched die held in place with the post it. I sponged this shape lightly with Versamark ink before dusting it with gold embossing powder and heating it, giving kind of a verdi gris look.
I wanted to keep the ribbon light looking so I cut the finished edge from a 6" section of Mint Macaron Basketweave ribbonand pulled off some individual threads. I added the skinny edge I'd just cut off to these and used them to tie a knot and attached them ot the stems of my leaves.
A gold embossed greeting with Gilded Gems from the Ornate Garden Suite add a few more touches of gold.

Here is a close-up of some of the details:

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

$47.50

$9.75

$9.50

$30.00

$6.00

$15.00

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$8.00

Posted at 09:25 PM in Love of Leaves | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 29, 2020

Love of Leaves ... with Triangles

I have a new found favorite combination and I discovered it while playing with today's sketch over at Paper Craft Crew.

Can you maybe guess what it is? Look at all of this Cinnamon Cider. From me, practically the queen of white space. Well, it's because I can't get enough of the look of stitched dies on this lovely new In-Color, Cinnamon Cider.

While you don't have to take the sketch "literally" like I did with the triangles, I thought it would be fun to start my design attempting to use them. The biggest challenge is that there didn't seem to be an easy place to add a greeting unless it was in one of the those two layers. so I started browsing the catalogs and decided I liked the little "hello" from Love of Leaves.
Cinnamon Cider was the piece I grabbed to start playing with the triangle dies and once I saw what this new color looks like with stitched dies I was hooked . It makes me think of leather.
The bottom layer shows off the stitched leaves dies. Each leaf has two parts inner and outer. The inner just gives you stitches. The outer cuts and adds stitches outside of the cut. You could just use the inner stitching and not actually cut them out but I wanted to get the outside stitching to show. This layer was added to a white card base - I like white insides to my cards.
The stamped triangle - with the leaves took color inspiration from some sunflower paper in the Flowers for Every Season pack.
The small triangle is stacked with three layers, making it look kind of like a sewn leather tag.
A few little enamel dots finish off the card.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the July host code, EMRNESH9 , I will send you a sampler of products from the new Annual Catalog. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 06:30 AM in Love of Leaves, Stitched Triangle Dies | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 16, 2020

Celebration Tidings Thanksgiving Card

I'm just popping in with another card that I did to celebrate the 800th Color Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. Well, that and to play with some new "toys" from the upcoming Stampin' Up! mini catalog:

This is for Barbara's choice of Terracotta Tile + Coastal Cabana + Granny Apple Green with an embossing folder for dessert.
I started by stamping my images from Celebration Tidings (#153456 stamps only, #155201 for stamps bundled with coordinating dies) in Soft Suede and them outlined all but the words with a Light Crumb Cake Blends sort of for a faux watercolor look.
While there aren't specific Blends for all of the challenge colors I found that the Dark Calypso Coral does nicely for Terracotta Tile and I use dark Pool Party with a touch of Light Bermuda Bay to stand in for Coastal Cabana.
The 5 coordinating Celebration Labels Dies (#153570 for the dies alone) are just plain lovely so I used two of them. I cut out the inside of the larger label die cut and then sponged it lightly with Crumb Cake before doing the inset with the smaller label.
Did I go a little overboard on dessert? I used BOTH Dainty Diamonds 3D(#152702)and Tasteful Textile 3D (#152718) embossing folders. The two different embossing folders give very subtle contrast.
Why not finish off this card which mimics a dining table decked out in Thanksgiving Dinner finery with some Very Vanilla Scalloped Lace Trim and a few Pearl Basic Jewels (#144219)?

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Posted at 10:40 AM in Celebration Tidings | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 15, 2020

Love of Leaves Notecard

There is another great clean and simple vertical sketch over on the Paper Craft Crew challenge today.

Since I've been getting to know some new stamps that will be in the next mini catalog, I thought I would grab Love of Leaves to try this challenge:

So many possibilities with these watercolor look stamps. I stamped a larger leaf in the corner of a Petal Pink card using the same color of ink.
I used a little piece of copper foiled paper from the Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP (1/2" x 3 1/2").
After stamping the message in Cajun Craze, I cut it out using one of the smaller dies from Stitched Nested Labels dies.
The Stitched Leaves Dies which are bundled with the Love of Leaves stamp set cut out beautiful leaves both large and small. For this card I used the beautiful brushed Copper foil paper. These are adhered to the label die cut before putting it on the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog. Clicking on any of the items in the product list below will also bring you to my shop.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

The product store will be changing in coming weeks and these links may not still bring you to the exact product. For that reason I am adding a list at the bottom which may be easier to copy so that you can use the item codes.

Posted at 06:30 AM in Love of Leaves | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2020

Poinsettia Petals Takes a Spin

We are celebrating the 800th Color Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers today! While I've been on the design team for the challenge for a little over a year, I first started playing along back in 2005. I haven't always participated over the many years of this challenge but I suspect I've done this more than any other challenge just cuz, well, I love to play with colors!

Here is my first color challenge card from November 2005:

The colors were Basic Black, Pretty In Pink and Certainly Celery. I think that was back in the days that I scanned the cards instead of taking photos. It is kind of fun to look back at how you develop as a stamper. And just think, I pulled out my torn paper trick with a group of beginning stampers just last week!

Even if you don't have a blog, using something like Splitcoaststampers or Instagram lets you look back at art that you have likely long since given away. If you haven't played recently - or EVER - I encourage you to get started. This week each of the members of the design team chose their favorite color combination from the past 100 and are giving away prizes in celebration of our 800th Challenge. There is even a grand prize for some lucky person who does all 6 challenges. The colors listed in the challenges as Stampin' Up! colors but you are always welcome to use whatever colors you have that are close. Stampin Up Neutrals are also allowed.

So let's get back to today's card!

I chose a color combination that I hosted back on October of last year: Seaside Spray + Night of Navy + Rich Razzleberry with heat embossing for dessert.
I stamped the Swirly Frame Circle and greeting first, in Versamark on watercolor paper, and then embossed with Gold Emboss Powder. Then I masked this and started stamping poinsettias two at a time, embossing them before stamping more poinsettias. Some of the poinsettias were masked so that I could add leaves.
I have REALLY been enjoying my new Waterpainters. Last week I used the largest brush to quickly watercolor a background adding a brushstroke look. This time I used the smallest brush to easily handle the pointy parts of the petals, starting with Seaside Spray, then adding Night of Navy closer to the centers and finally Rich Razzleberry at the very center. I was having fun with the watercolor so it was really tempting to add more Rich Razzleberry to the background, but I held off.
Initially I finished off the card with some gold Brushed Metallic paper and Night of Navy DSP (hint - the 2020-22 In Color DSP is part of the In-Color prize I'll be giving away) plus a few Gold Glitter Enamel Dots. I posted this card in the challenge. Then I could hold off no longer...
...and I added some Razzleberry to the background:

If I had planned on watercoloring the background I probably would have created more closed off spaces with my poinsettias since it may have been easier to paint the background in sections. You really want to get the paper wet before you add color and this is a little easier with sections.
I think this one showcases all the colors in the challenge a little better. What do you think?

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Heat Tool (Us And Canada) [129053] $30.00

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Posted at 10:42 AM in Poinsettia Petals, Swirly Frames | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 08, 2020

Casing Our Way Around the World on Wednesday

Hey there stampers! I have a treat for you today. I'm blog hopping Around the World with our regular crew of talented stampers and today we are CASEing each other.

In addition to our regular slate of stamp artists, we have the amazing Kylie & Bruno Bertucci from Australia joining us. Make sure you check out their work too!

Angie, the fearless leader of our group, drew names for us and I considered myself to be so lucky to get to CAS(e) Mikaela Titheridge. Well, lucky until I started to try to decide which of her MANY lovely and creative cards I should focus on. In the end I decided take my inspiration from this peony bouquet since I'm in love with that adorable scallop border and I have a little stack of the peony flower parts already cut and ready to see some ink.

Isn't this gorgeous. Mikaela does a fantastic job of sponging on extra color to create such realistic dimension. And, isn't the idea to adapt the stem from the Jar of Flowers set so creative?

My plan wasn't to duplicate Mikaela's vibrant beauty but to explore my own way of coloring the peony pieces and, of course, to work those darling scallops into the card. This is my first go round with the layering dies for this peony. I had previously cut out several of the shapes from watercolor paper so I had figured out how to put them together - just line up the waves of the petals at the bottom of each piece. Now to color them...

When you are working with watercolor I always think you shouldn't try too hard. I just tried to add the most color to the bottom part of the pieces in an effort to have the color deeper in the inside of the flower and lighter at the outside. Each piece was colored separately before assembling them. Do play around with how they fit before adding water or adhesive!
I used the medium sized water brush with Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz and a little Daffodil Delight to color my peony, sometimes added a little refill ink to the inside of the ink pad cover.
I stamped the greeting in Pear Pizzazz after trimming off the edge with the scallop die and before adding the delicate embossed design with the Dainty Diamonds embossing folder.

As you can see I added a little sparkle with some Clear Wink of Stella on the flower plus a trio of Elegant Faceted Gems.
After attaching the peony to the embossed layer, I attached it all to a card base which I had previously watercolored with an edge of Pear Pizzazz.

I am also very fortunate to have Rochelle Laird-Smith from Australia CAS(e)ing me. She too has a lovely collection of cards on her blog. I'm hoping to be CAS(e)ing her in a future post... Until then please continue on the blog hop to see who Anne Marie Hile is CAS(e)ing.

Angela Meiritz-Reid - NZ

Tatiana Tobin - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cazz Boylan - AU

Bruno Bertucci, Special Guest - AU

Kylie Bertucci, Special Guest - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Satomi Wellard - JA

Melissa Gifford - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Manuela Geiswinkler - AT

Ximena Morales - DE

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Chris Smith - US You are here!

Anne Marie Hile - US

Brenda Nelson - CA

Tricia Butts - US

Elaine de Montmorency - CA

Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - US

Teri West - US

Cheryl Hamilton - US

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 06:00 AM in Prized Peony | Permalink | Comments (13)

July 01, 2020

How to Make a BIrthday Card with Beautiful Friendship Stamps

Where has the week gone? I confess I've been having fun much of the past week with my daughter who had been visiting from Missouri. Now I should be back to a routine.

It's already time for another Paper Craft Crew Challenge. This sketch challenge will run for 2 weeks since we have the 4th of July holiday weekend coming up here in the US. Here is our sketch:

Do you see that pale green wash of color in the background. My first thought was that the shape sort of reminded me of the large rose shape in Beautiful Friendship.

A few hints:

I chose the soft colors of Petal Pink and Soft Sea Foam and stamped them off once before stamping my background.
I embossed this layer with the Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder, trimming it down to 3 7/8" x 5 1/8". I later backed this up with an extra layer of Whisper White Thick to make it stand our just a bit more without using dimensionals.
The greeting is also from the Beautiful Friendship stamp set and is embossed in white on vellum cardstock before trimmed with a Stitched So Sweetly rectangle die. I glued this doen by applying Multipurpose Adhesive behind the embossed letters and where the ribbon and fussy cut flower would hide the glue. Don't you just love vellum?
My ribbon/horizontal element was altered just a bit to avoid covering up the greeting. It's there. Really, it is!
The fussy cut little bloom was first inked using markers on the image.
I just couldn't resist adding some Elegant Faceted Gems. Though I checked to see if the Petal Pink gems would work but the pale colors of this card called for the clear ones.

Here is a square view.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 06:30 AM in Beautiful Friendship | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 24, 2020

Flowers for Every Season Meet the Stitched Triangle Dies

I haven't made a triangle card for a while though I've been itching to try out several of the Flowers for Every Season papers with one of my favorite card sketches. This week's challenge over at The Paper Craft Crew seemed tailor-made for these papers:

Note that the challenge is to choose 3 of the 4 colors - so there are many possibilities with Flowers for Every Season papers:

(there's also a link at the bottom of my post). Here's the first pattern I chose to work with:

Ideas to note:

Though I've used this sketch in the past, this time I was able to try it out with my new Stitched Triangle Dies! It's possible to do this without the dies though the dies make it easier.
I cut the triangle first (I used the largest isosceles triangle for this card) and then used it to cut the white layer at the same angle. Stamp your greeting at the lower end of the angled white layer. I used this Thank you greeting from the stamp set, Best Year.
When assembling the card I start by adding a 2" wide strip of DSP to a white card base. Then add your stamped angled white layer matching it up to the right edge of the card base. Lastly, add your die cut triangle.
Finish your card off with a a die cut or, in this case, a fussy cut flower from the same piece of DSP I used for the first layer. I also added some Gold Glitter Enamel Dots, though the 2020-21 in Color Dots work well too. We're just up at the lake and my supplies are a little limited.

Here is another version with the same DSP and the Celebrate Sunflowers Bundle:

Same basic hints as for the first card except I used the 2nd largest (isosceles) triangle.
I thought I had grabbed the So Saffron/Mango Melody Blends but actually grabbed the Daffodil Delight so the match is OK but could be better.
I used my Stamparatus to add the greetings for these two cards.

I hope you give the challenge a try! There are so many directions you could take this-

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the June host code, F22AGK7A , I will send you a sampler of products from the new Annual Catalog. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Posted at 05:30 AM in Best Year, Celebrate Sunflowers | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 22, 2020

Glimmering Sunflowers

Have you seen Stampin' Up!'s new Rainbow Glimmer Paper? It's part of the beautiful Artistry Blooms Suite. And, I think, part of the fun with Stampin' Up! is mixing up the suites, using accessories from one with images from another.

A few hints for this card:

The vellum front card - this semi-translucent paper gives such a special look. The vellum appears delicate but makes a sturdy card front. Construct the card base by cutting a piece of vellum cardstock about 3/8" wider than your card front: 4 5/8" wide by 5 1/2" tall. Lightly score the left side at 3/8" and fold over, securing to the back of a white 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of white cardstock.
I use 2 different Stitched rectangle dies, taped together, to cut the frame out of the Rainbow Glimmer paper. Save the remaining die cut rectangle cut from the middle for another project.
I recommend using Mini Glue Dots to adhere the frame to the vellum card front. You will need to roll the edges a bit so that they don't stick out from behind the frame.
Die cut a smaller So Saffron Rectangle and stamp your greeting. I used this one from A Grand Kid. It's companion sentiment is: "You must be related to me". That is the great things about this set. A couple of the sentiments are specific to grandchildren but the others have a much wider use.
Add a few Old Olive sprigs, using some of the smaller dies from the Sunflower dies (part of the Celebrate Sunflowers Bundle).
Stamp, color and die cut a couple of small sunflowers from Celebrate Sunflowers. I used the Blends combos for Cinnamon Cider, Magenta Madness, Mango Melody and Old Olive.
It never hurts to add a little more sparkle from Wink of Stella.
Pop up the top sunflower with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Here is a close-up of those shimmering sunflowers. Do you see how I mixed the Mango Melody and Magenta Madness on the top sunflower? I love the playful look!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today!

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Posted at 09:15 PM in A Grand Kid, Celebrate Sunflowers | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 17, 2020

Prized Peony Thoughts are With You Card

I'm back today with a card for lovely Paper Craft Crew Sketch PCC381.

I liked the way that this Prized Peony greeting worked in the oval so I used quite a few other items from the Peony Garden Suite. And since I wanted to use the Gray Granite Shimmer Ribbon with the Very vanilla Scalloped Lace Trim I came up with this color combination:

Here is my card:

A few ideas with this card:

The Dainty Diamonds 3D folder adds such delicate texture. I did a little soft stamping with the diamond pattern image to add just a whisp of dots for the sketch.
I've been on a bit of a Wink of Stella trip lately, Just a bit is used on the flower and die cut leaves.
It's nice to have these smaller flowers in so many of the sets. They are quick to color and add just the right floral note. I layered this on 2 more unstamped die cuts for just a bit more dimension.
The adhesive backed Elegant Faceted Gems are so quick and easy to use. It's kind of nice to have the sketch tell me where to put them!

Here are a few more views:

...and a close-up of the shimmer from the Wink of Stella:

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Posted at 06:30 AM in Prized Peony | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 16, 2020

Celebrate Sunflower as a Thank You Card

Happy Tuesday, stampers!

Do you like to color? Or even want a little practice or time to experiment? This is a great card for any of those things. I did it for today's color challenge at Splitcoaststampers: Pool Party + Real Red + Garden Green with your favorite yellow for dessert. Mango Melody is easily my favorite. I love a bright, warm yellow!

So here is what I came up with:

Things to note:

I knew the best way to add the Pool Party was going to be to have a layer behind my sunflowers. I cut mine with one of the rectangle dies from the Stitched So Sweetly dies and then embossed it with the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder. You could easily substitute another die and folder or just cut a 3 1/4" x 4 1/2" piece of Pool Party for a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (A2) card. The actual size doesn't have to be fussy - I just like a good amount of white space on my cards.
The greeting was stamped in Basic Gray and cut out with the long stitched rectangle die from Ornate Layers. This too could simply be done with a trimmer or fussy cut if you are ambitious. I've seen some fussy cut greetings on cards that I really like but haven't gotten brave enough to try it yet.
I die cut a bunch of the Celebrate Sunflowers with the dies - without stamping first. Then I positioned grid paper in my Stamparatus and stamped a sunflower in the middle of the paper. After this I position one of the negative sunflowers over the stamped grid paper so the white space around the image looks even to my eye. Finally, I put one of the die cut flower shapes into that space and stamp my image. If you are doing lots of images this saves so much time and each one is perfectly cut!
I added the light Mango Melody first and then added dark Real Red around the middle and on the detail lines of the petals. Add a little Light Real red over this and then blended as needed with more light and dark Mango Melody. Soft Suede for the centers. Darkened Mint Macaron does pretty nicely for the Garden Green since there is no combo for that color.
Having the flowers go off the edge wasn't part of my original plan but since I thought there should be at least three to make "a bunch" I decided that's what I needed to do to keep them from totally overwhelming the card. In some of my photos it looks a little unbalanced but in real life it just feels like a really fun twist!
I love how the clear gems from the Flowers for Every Season Gems look like water droplets. I end up wanting to add them to everything!
This is such a fun set to work with and I have several more completed cards that I'm holding back to possible do a class or PDF...

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Posted at 12:48 PM in Celebrate Sunflowers | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 10, 2020

Introducing the Goats!

Yes, it's a 2 post day! The sketch for this week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge is just to fun to pass up.

I started off thinking I would make a flower frame for this goat character but changed gears entirely with some simple embossing on the In Good Taste DSP - mostly because the little dies in the Tasteful Labels dies were totally perfect for the two greetings I wanted to use.

A few notes:

All paper layers are from the In Good Taste designer series paper, except for the Smoky Slate layer which is embossed with the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder. The stamped images were all cut with the Tasteful Labels dies.
The goat and second greeting are embossed with white. The circle greeting is stamped with Early Espresso ink.
I made a slip knot (?) with the Linen Thread and then separated the fibers.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Posted at 09:22 AM in Way to Goat | Permalink | Comments (0)

Around the World on Wednesdays Takes Inspiration from the NEW Catalog!

It's already the second Wednesday in June so it's time for another blog hop with all of the artists with Around the World on Wednesdays. This month are continuing the "All Things Crafty theme by taking inspiration from the new Stampin' Up! catalog. To make it even more special we have Cindy Shuster as a special guest.

One of the new features of Stampin' Up!'s new catalog that really impresses me is Die Bundle feature that is found on pages 173-9 in my US catalog. Aside from all the samples in the stamp section, each bundle has the dies highlighted with another gorgeous sample. Sooo... I'm sharing a couple of cards that were inspired by the Prized Peony bundle featured on page 178.

Things to note:

This is a monochromatic Gray Granite and Whisper White card and is just about fool proof. While you can use whatever artistic abilities that you have developed with the Blends Markers, the detailed in the peony image can hold its own with very basic coloring skills too. I colored the flower with Gray Granite Light and the leaves with Gray Granite Dark. No extra shading skills necessary. This photographs just a bit darker than real life.
Shimmery Gray Granite Ribbon - oh, so luscious!
Elegant Faceted Gems - they go on so easily since they are adhesive backed.
That scalloped edge die impresses a delightful scallop design just inside the cutting edge.
The Designer Series Paper will allow so much versatility.

Here's a little different view:

On to a more colorful version:

A few more notes:

This card is stepped up with more detailed coloring with Flirty Flamingo, Melon Mambo, Just Jade and Old Olive Blends. This peony is die cut also. Some of the leaves are curled slightly to give a shabby chic look.
The white scalloped layer is embossed with the Dainty Diamonds 3D embossing folder which has been lightly sponged with Gray Granite ink. (Due to a couple of smudges I also added a little bit of accent stamping, still keeping with the shabby chic idea.)
A little Wink of Stella adds just a bit of sparkle to the peony.
The sympathy message from fit perfectly in the little flag die from Tasteful Labels.

One more close-up view:

Now it's time to move on to the talented Anne Marie Hile's blog:

Angela Meiritz-Reid - NZ

Tatiana Tobin - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Manuela Geiswinkler - AT

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Chris Smith - US you are here!

Anne Marie Hile - US

Brenda Nelson - CA

Cindy Schuster, Special Guest - US

Tricia Butts - US

Elaine de Montmorency - CA

Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - US

Teri West - US

Cheryl Hamilton - US

Today is going to be a two post day - so check the next post if you are looking for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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Posted at 06:15 AM in Prized Peony | Permalink | Comments (13)

June 09, 2020

Now for a Peek at Nothing's Better Than ...

We have a new color challenge today at Splitcoaststampers. A fellow demonstrator, Karen Barber, chose Old Olive + Poppy Parade + Mango Melody for our color challenge this week. As an added option she suggested having the sentiment as the focal point of the card. Right away I thought of trying something a little retro looking with another new bundle, Nothing's Better Than.

It's important to note:

Three layers of the die cut "coffee" are just slightly offset as they are layered so that Old Olive and Mango Melody peek out behind the Poppy main layer.
I love the way the Dainty Diamonds 3D embossing folder lends a subtle retro flair to my white scalloped layer.
I stamped coffee over and over on Old Olive. You KNOW I'm a white space lover and this was a bit dark for me so I added a 3 3/4" x 5" layer of vellum. A hint here is to look carefully at your vellum to see if it curves a little. Apply your adhesive to the concave side of the vellum so that the part of the vellum that isn't covered will lay against your card a little better.
It's the hottest day of the year today, here in St. Paul so my version of coffee was iced. In a stemless wine glass. Just because I like it best that way! Those retro looking cups are cute though.
Take a look at the thumbnail in the product list. This bundle has has you covered if you like not only coffee, but chocolate, cookies or cocktails. What fun!

Here's another version after I added a few pearls. Can pearls be retro? Anyway, I colored them with a dark Poppy Parade Blends before popping them onto the card.

You can play along with this challenge here. It's easy to have a gallery at Splitcoaststampers and it's free! It's also a great way to get started sharing your papercrafting online if you've never done that before.

I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

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