from my ink pad to yours

Belle Rooster

This one of my favorite quick and easy cards AND it is a great way to use the larger patterned papers that I sometimes have trouble incorporating into my work. In fact I had cut up a whole sheet of Belle Chateau to make some last minute convention swaps but forgot to add the lovely Soft Suede taffeta ribbon to my bag.

Card Base: Pink Pirouette (111351)

DSP: Belle Chateau (122357)

Stamps: Perfectly Penned (122890 w, 122892 c)

Ink: Soft Suede (115657)

Accessories: Square Lattice (119967), Big Shot (113439), Soft Suede taffeta ribbon (122967)

 Perfectly Penned was one of the two sets I brought with for a little stamping night with my downline. It proved to be quite popular! Luckily one of them won the set during a prize giveaway during one of the general sessions.

Here is another version: (Sorry about the shadows.)

I used the Berry Blossoms DSP (122350) and Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon (122977) on a Whisper White card base (100730).

Ask your demonstrator about these products or shop for them right now on my Stampin' Up! website.

Try to stay cool!

 

A Turtle

Convention is finished and I'll be heading back home tomorrow.  I so enjoyed the time spent with old and new friends and a few members of my downline. I have lots of new ideas and am anxious to share them.

In the meantime here is another card I held off posting because I was thinking about using it for a convention swap. I've had the turtle watercolored for months. Though I really liked how the watercolor turned out I never could find quite the right layout and papers for it. Since I'm always on the lookout for good masculine cards and like to get cards that feature sets I don't see many samples of, I thought a card with the turtle would be fun to swap and set about coming up with the right card to feature. In the end I decided a relatively simple layout with lots of "white space" would work best. Though I really like the card, alas there just wasn't time to make it as a swap.

• The turtle is stamped with Black sazon ink on watercolor paper.
• The turtle is watercolored with an aquapainter and ink from inkpad lids. I used thinned out Garden Green and Always Artichoke along iwth Sahara Sand and Soft Suede.
• "happy birthday" is from Teeny Tiny Wishes
• Both the watercolored piece and the Vanilla, piece embossed with the Lattice embossing folder are layered on Always Artichoke.
• The card base is Ivory Naturals.
• The stitches at the side are done with linen thread.

I brought some stamping supplied with me and challenged some of my downline to come up with some cards using some of our free stamp sets along with some of my favorite new designer series paper.  The new set Easy Events is a great quick watercolor set so check back soon for some of our ideas.

 

 

Doily...err...I mean spirograph

Here is one of the designs that I was holding back just in case I had time to make a few dozen more to swap at convention. I only ended up with a few that I gave to my downline the first night. I also swapped this card in June with my WOWswappers group, as it featured one of our preorder sets, Delicate Doilies which as a whole suite of products available that complement it. 

I let go of the dainty, feminine colors that one normally thinks about with doilies and instead thought of the images as those I got with my spirograph as a kid.

• Though I embossed the doily for that swap on Calypso Coral so that I could feature the new color, this is the original that I stamped on Pumpkin Pie with Tangerine Tango sponged on the edges.
• Noteworthy,  a Sell-a-bration stamp from a few years ago also came to mind. This, too, had fine lines that I knew I could highlight with the white gel pen.
• The middle circle is the same doily stamped on Pool Party (I've typed "Poop" instead of "Pool" about 5 times in the last few days!) punched with the 1" (?) circle punch and sponged with Island Indigo.
• The greeting is from the set Curly Cute. I love how this font adds punch to a card without detracting from the main image.
• Probably a minor detail but I added a skinny white mat beneath the Crumb Cake layer. This repeats the white from the gel pen accents. I often look for a way to repeat a color I've used so that it creates a bit of rhythm. 
• The little bit of white gets repeated again in the edges of the 1/8" Basic Black taffeta ribbon.

• Here is a previous shot - not great but it gives a peek at the inside - a white layer with Pool Party and Pumpkin Pie (stamped off) doilie in hte lower right corner.

• One last detail that may be hard to pick up from the photo. I used dimensionals on the Pool Party piece and the doily piece so the card has a decent amount of dimension to it while also being very POF... post office friendly. I don't think I could stamp without dimensionals!

You've probably seen the new catalog by now, right?  What is your favorite new set or accessory?

Well I'm off to get ready fo the last day of convention. I hope your day is a good one!

 

 

Convention Swaps

I am in Salt Lake City attending the Stampin' Up! convention. It's been a great first few days. I've even met a few blog followers. Here are a few of my other swaps besides the vellum wedding card I shared in another recent post:

This card uses the set Flower Fest which is featured in the Summer Mini Catalog AND the new 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog. This is yet another variation of a favorite color combination I started using several years ago based on the colors in an Art Deco room we stayed in at a bed and breakfast. I originally used Blush Blossom and Mint Melody with Black embossing. Later I switched it up to Blush Blossom and Sage Shadow while the latest combination is Blushing Bride and Pool Party. Since both of these are In-Colors, no doubt I'll be revamping the combo again in the future!

• I colored the petals with a Blushing Bride marker and then accented them with my aquapainter and Calypso Coral ink. 
• The leaves and bottom panel are a new in-color, Pool Party.
• The texture on the panel is made with the Fancy Fan letterpress plate, another new item. 
• I used black 1/8" grosgrain between the Blushing Bride and Pool Party panels.
• All stamping is done with versamark ink and Black embossing powder.
• The card base is White Naturals. I've had a few conversations with other demos who didn't recognize this. I don't think I've seen it used much lately but we do carry it. While it is not as polished looking as the Whisper White it makes for a sturdier card. Another aspect of this cardstock that I liked for this card is that it has teeny, tiny black flecks which help to mask any stray bits of embossing powder. I did this in Minnesota humidy so that was particularly helpful. 
• The greeting on this card is from the set Upsy Daisy.  I did another variation of this card with "Thanks for being a friend" from the Summer mini set, Happy Greetings.

This is a card I did for my July WOWswappers group. We met to exchange in person during our lunch break today. 

• This card features a new set, Snow Much Fun.  Isn't this guy cute. A couple of preschool boys were checking him out while I waited at the MSP airport and insisted his name must be Frosty.
• My accent layer beneath the snowman echoes the strips in the snowman's scarf. The stripes were cut from polka-dat DSP (More Mustard, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade) which had been run through the lattice embossing folder.  
• I stamped the snowman on watercolor paper with Black Stazon ink.
• I colored with markers, uisng the aquapainter when necessary to blend.
• The colors I used to color the snowman include: ( in the order applied - it's a good idea to work from light to dark/bright when coloring!)
• Sahara Sand - for shadows, boots
• Pool Party - snowman shadows, scarf
• So Saffron - scarf
• More Mustard - scarf
• Lucky Limeade - scarf
• Soft Suede - buttons and boots
• Pumpkin Pie - carrot

The theme for convention this year is GROW, which lends itself to some striking convention graphic design. It also means Shelli opened convention yesterday morning by talking about gardening experiences in her family. I though it was appropriate that my husband had just emailed me some photos from our own garden to let me know what I was missing. He had the first berries for supper last night so I'll be able to look forward to raspberries when I leave the excitement of convention behind later this weekend.

Well, it's light enough for to go for a quick walk before breakfast. I'll post more pictures of other cards that I was considering for my swap a little later.