from my ink pad to yours

Vellum Butterflies on Navy

When a few members of my downline joined me to stamp a few weeks ago, one of them left a Night of Navy piece stamped with white flowers and leaves from the Sale-a-bration set Bloomin' Marvelous. It must not have been what she had been expecting but it was a new way of thinking about the set and I was lucky enough to get the piece after she moved on to another idea. Here is what I created with it:

And here is a close-up of the vellum butterflies and Apothecary Label, both embellished with Dazzling Details.

Sadly, the card is no longer in my collection as we said goodbye to my dear aunt, Karen, this past weekend.

...that makes you one in a million!

How do you like my Iridescent Butterfly? It took me a few tries to get the photo to really pick up the glitter look on this card but this is very close to how it looks in real life.

• It's not too different from my earlier Swallowtail card - I just switched black cardstock for the Crumb Cake and used Iridecent Ice instead of white powder.  Like the earlier card, I stamped with Whisper White Craft ink before embossing.
• To my eye, the Bashful Blue card stock was the best match for the embossing so that is what I used for the card base.
• The greeting is from the set, One in a Million.
• Add a rhinestone for just a bit of bling.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

 

 

 

Butterfly thank you

I tried to squeeze in a quick sketch challenge today before heading in to work - and between pie baking steps. Did you know that it is National Pie Day. Since it is also Dessert day at work Chocolate Lined Banana Cream Pie it will be. I digress. Back to today's card:

I forgot to charge my camera battery last night so this was taken with my ipad. I'm afraid it might have a large file.  Sorry about that. I stamped and punched these butterflies with my downline, Annette's stamp and punches last week during our little stamping retreat. Now that we are looking forward to spring these are definitely on my wish list.

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Blooming with Kindness

Ink: Black Stazon, Sahara Sand (for sponging)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, First Edition Specialty

Accessories: Butterfly punches, Circle Punches, Dimensionals (of course)

Have a good day and go have some pie!

 

Take it to Heart

When I looked at my email this morning I noticed I had attracted a boatload of followers to my Take it to Heart/Heart Framelits Pinterest board even though I haven't posted anything there for quite awhile. I got to thinking that it really was too bad that the Take it to Heart set that I used so much last year didn't make it into this years catalog. I'm sure others who fell in love with it last year would like to see a few more ideas for this lovely though retired set. So today I did two cards: one featuring Take it to Heart and another featuring the framelits with current Stampin' Up! materials.

First up: The Shabby Chic bird and other Memories of 2012

There is a color challenge over on SCS today involving Soft Suede, Calypso Coral and Pool Party.  Since I was already planning to to use a retired set, why not add some retired patterned paper. One of my all time favorites, Everyday Enchantment,  features all of the challenge colors.

• I recently replaced my neutral ink pads with the new style foam pads which enabled me to clear emboss the images that I had stamped in Soft Suede. This made it easier to watercolor. I used the ink pads and my Aquapainter.
• I cut the heart out with the Heart framelits. Even though the Take it to Heart stamp set is retired, the heart framelits are still available.
• Since there was no green in the challenge I probably could have snuck in some Lucky Limeade which was also in the papers but I chose instead to mix Soft Suede and Pool Party for a color that was awfully close to Always Artichoke. In actuality, the green leaves and the brown wood do kind of blend together so it is kind of hard to see.
• I embossed the Ivory Naturals background with the Fancy Fan Folder.
• The Everyday Enchantment papers already have a Soft Suede sponged look to the edges but I added a little more the those that didn't already have it. I also added sponging to the Fancy Fan texture. 
• The scalloped layer of patterned paper is done with Tasteful Trim.
• The heart is popped up with dimensionals.
• The pretty lace and filigree button are from the Artisan Embellishment Kit in the spring catalog. I topped off the button with one of the Pearl Basic Jewels since I didn't want to use thread in the button and decided to cover the holes. Check out the Artisan Embellishment Kit photo Album in my right sidebar to see more ways to use this awesome kit.
• Aside from the stamps and patterned paper in this card all other supplies are currently available from Stampin' Up.

This view gives a peek at the border I placed inside.

Once this card one done I decided to use the lightly embossed negative left from cutting out the heart to make my next card:

• I had stamped the image from the first card on a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of card stock.
• Since I wasn't thinking I would be using the leftover piece I hadn't bothered to stamp the image straight so the piece needed some trimming to straighten out my heart "window". 
• Doing this gave me the idea to cover the whole front of my card with patterned paper from the Print Poetry stack so that I would have a border around my slightly smaller heart frame layer.
• Before attaching the frame layer to the patterned front, I stamped a message from Blooming with Kindness and added a Rose Red Seam binding bow.
• After adhering the frame to the card I added a heart cut with the smallest heart framelit adorned with a pearl.

There you go! Two more cards to add to my Take it to Heart board. Plus it was a great way to spend a frigid day off in Minnesota. My stamp studio is in the warmest part of the house!

Yesterday marks the beginning of Stampin' Up!'s biggest special of the year, Sale-A-Bration. Let me know if I can help you put together the perfect order for your stamping needs so that you can earn one or more of the great free products available with  a $50 order. Click on Promotions at the top of my blog to learn more.

Confetti Henry

I found a little time to play along with the Featured Stamper challenge at Splitcoaststampers today. Today's featured stamper is Monkeymama, aka Angela,  and I found this cute paper pieced card for my inspiration.

• While Angela managed to use 7 different patterns in her card I "only" used 5, all of which are from the Spring Catalog collection, Sunshine and Sprinkles. Imagine the uses for that sunny looking sky.
• The elephant is Henry from the set Henry Says, also in the Spring catalog. Since I wanted to bump him up with dimensionals I stamped and cut out an extra Henry of Whisper White card stock to layer behind the confetti Henry.
• I had an another layer of my favorite Delicate Designs trim ready to go across the bottom, which would have been in keeping with Angela's design but it just didn't seem to fit.  You could say that the textured Lucky Limeade grass is my extra bit of trim.
• Just to make the card a little more fun I added a scrap if trim on the inside. Can you see it?

Sale-a-bration is just around the corner. Let me know if you need a copy of the Sale-a-bration brochure.

Primrose Honeycomb card is as simple as 1, 2, 3

I love the look the Two-Tone Ribbon gives an other-wise simple card:

• The Just Thinking stamp is embossed with black powder on Pink Pirouette card stock and embellished with a single rhinstone.
• Pop it up with dimensionals on Primrose Petals Core'dinations card stock which has been embossed with the Honeycomb embossing folder and lightly sanded.
• Add some luscious Basic Gray/Basic Black two-tone ribbon before attaching the Primrose Petal layer to a Pink Pirouette card.

Folk Art Valentine a la Secret Garden

A little bit of clear embossing, a few passes through the Big Shot, a Crumb Cake card base and voila, a folk artsy valentine. The flower (from Secret Garden) embossing on the heart mimics the look of a wrapped up heart. I thought of adding in some white gel pen but decided to leave that experiment for another card. You might not see it in the photo but the leaves are embossed on Wild Wasabi. That is why one turns up and the other down. I could have made them more symmetrical if I had not embossed them. But, I like the curve that having them turned that way provides.

Feeling a little guilty about how simple this was, I added a strip of white die cut "eyelet" from the Finishing Touches set.

Do you like this color combination? For me it is a classic. It was about the only combination that I liked with my first ever Stampin' Up! inkpad, Glorious Green. Wild Wasabi does fill in nicely with more uses! One of the other cards with a similar combination is this card. Others are here and here.

 

Another Artisan Embellishment card

Here is another one of the cards I made with the Artisan Embellishment Kit prior to my downline retreat.

The seam binding and smaller heart are from the kit. The lacy heart and paper come from the More Amore Specialty Designer Paper collection. The Pool Party scalloped border is embossed with one of the Delicate Designs folders. The folder is clearly one of my favorites. You may have seen it before and I actually have more Delicate Design embossing on cards that haven't been posted yet.

 

Sneak Peek for Sale-a-bration 2013: Vintage Artisan Lace Poetry

I'm not sure which of 6 stamp sets exclusive to Sale-a-bration 2013 is my favorite yet but Vintage Verses is certainly in the running. It's words work for a lot of everyday occasions and the images themselves play nicely with oh, so many shapes and diecuts.

I'm also proud of myself for actually using the one-of-a-kind elements from Artisan Embellishments. So often I have a tendency to hoard them. Here's how my creative process worked on this card, with a little help from SCS's Inspiration Challenge:

• This time I started with a small portion of the Artisan Embellishment Kit's scalloped lace on top of Very Vanilla card stock.
• I tied it with a scrap of  Very Vanilla seam binding to make it a little more 3-D...
• and then the small vanilla rose, also from the kit,  just kind of drew itself to the card like a magnet.
• Though this was very pretty all by itself, it still needed a message. The windows framelit worked best and Vintage Verse's Just Because fit that piece perfectly.
• In order to make the message pop, I added a layer of a Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla pattern from the Print Poetry DSP Stack.
• Use Stampin' Dimensionals to mount the whole piece and a Very Vanilla card.

Just in case you are starting your Sale-a-bration wish list:

Very vanilla Card stock 101650

Print Poetry Stack 129312

Artisan Embellishment kit 129328

Crumb Cake ink pad 126975

Very Vanilla Seam Binding 6.95

Very Vanilla Envelopes 107300

Glue Dots 103683

Windows Frame Collection 129021

Vintage Verses 129633/w 129636/c  Sale-a-bration item

That's all for now. Stampin' at the Pad with my downline starts tomorrow. Yes!

Introducing Henry Says

Henry Says was the first set I decided to order from Stampin' Up!'s new Spring Catalog (page 15).  It's a stamp style that isn't well represented in my collection and it works for a variety of occasions.

This card mixes holidays a bit.  Henry (perhaps Henriette, see painted nails) is stamped on one of my favorite DSP collections from the last catalog, Howlstooth and Scaringbone. Despite the Halloween paper I used hearts and message included in the set for a Valentine card.

• You could get a very similar look by using the Beyond Plaid stamps on page 14 of the spring catalog.  That's what Stampin' Up! used on their Henry sample in the Spring Catalog.
• I used the heart folder from the adorning Accents folder collection with Real Red Core'dinations card stock for the red border. The little hearts are lightly sanded.
• Henry isn't really that hard to cut out. The tail looks harder than it is. Just cut it a little larger than the actual lines. To get to the mouth I cut all the way around the foot and just made sure I tacked it back down with the 2-way glue when I attached it to the card.
• It might be hard to tell on the photo but I sponged the edges and under the ear. In order to sponge around the ear I made a mask of just the ear and saved it with the stamp set.
•  One of the things I like about this stamp is that it is fun to use with designer series paper, yet it is also easy to watercolor. I have several more Henrys. Stay tunes for more of his adventures.

What do you think that Henry or Henriette should do next?