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March 31, 2019

Adios, Sale-A-Bration 2019

Today is the finale of Sale-A-Bration 2019. So let's have one last hello form this rooster:

The partial background was made by mixing Stampin' Up! classic ink refills with Whisper White craft refill and blending them on cardstock with a sponge dauber. This card uses Granny Apple Green and Bermuda Bay (with a little Night of Navy that was left over from a previous session.) mixed with the white. I masked off all but the left 1 1/4" before blending the border on this card. You want to do this after scoring but before folding the card. I also mask off all but a skinny part of the right side of the back. I wanted to make sure that all of the left front gets inked and it's OK if there is a little bit of neatly masked/edged ink on the back. A while back I did a Facebook Live showing the blending technique.
After the border ink had dried a few minutes I stamped the grasses in Tuxedo Memento ink on the lower part of the border. After re-inking the image I stamped again just a little bit lower and to the right, going onto the white part of the card.
I added the rooster, again in Tuxedo Black, and colored him the the dark Granny Apple Green and light Bermuda Bay Blends.
Sponge a little more Granny Apple Whisper White at the bottom of the card to give the bird something to stand on.
Add a greeting - or leave blank until you are ready to send it - and you are done.

I stamped a variety of these cards, varying the location of my blended strip so that I will have a variety of cards that just need one or two stamped images before they are ready to pop in the mail. Here is one more that I used with the Part of My Story and Painted Seasons Sale-A-Bration stamps:

This card used the same refills as the first card with the addition of Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo. I used Rich Razzleberry for the stamped images. You can see that when you are mixing your classic refills with the Whisper White you will get lighter colors and you can vary this with the amount of colored refill you use. Even when your blended colors are lighter they pair beautifully with the full strength stamped images.

I usually have mixed emotions as Sale-A-Bration ends. As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'm a little sad that some products I've loved using will no longer be available for purchase but happy to have a little more energy to devote to some lovely stamps and bundles from the annual catalog. And, of course, just because something is retired doesn't mean demonstrators absolutely can't still use things. I'm sure there are people who already have retired items that would love to see more ideas, right? What were your favorite Sale-A-Bration products this year?

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon!

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 [email protected]

***If you don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator 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 minimum $50 (US) order using the April host code, TSED6YGC, I will send you the free gift of product that will be featured in my May projects. Orders placed prior to 11pm MT are also eligible for a free Sale-A-Bration item . US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

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Posted at 03:49 PM in Blends, Home to Roost, Painted Seasons, Part of My Story | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 30, 2019

Easter Card Duo

There is enough going on on the fronts of both of today's card so the greeting would go in the inside, which could have either Easter or Sympathy messages.

This first card features an eclipse technique done with Hold on to Hope and the Cross of Hope framelit dies.
I've done this before keeping it fairly simple but I couldn't resist trying the oval with the scallops on top of the Country Floral embossing.
I mixed framelit ses using both the Stitched Shapes framelits and the Layering Ovals framelits. You could easily substitute a layering oval for the stitched one - as you can see in my next card:

This is the same card but with Highland Heather instead of gold embossing and foil and, as I said, I used a regular oval instead of a stitched one.
The embossing for this card was done with the Layering Leaves embossing folder.
I stacked 5 layers of crosses for the raised eclipse look.
The embossed layers for both cards were trimmed to 4" x 5 1/4" and layered onto 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card bases.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon!

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the March host code, YDZJFZWA, I will send you the free gift of product that will be featured in my April projects. March orders are also eligible for a free Sale-A-Bration item . US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my March thank you card.

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Posted at 05:57 PM in Country Floral Embossing Folder, Hold on to Hope | Permalink | Comments (8)

March 27, 2019

An Oh, So Eclectic Duo

Today's cards are made with one of my favorite color combinations and Oh, So Eclectic.

This color combination has made it through several changes in Stampin' Up!'s color palette: a red, a bright green, black and white, with a healthy dose of Crumb Cake. One of the cards includes a little Rich Razzleberry too, just for fun. I don't often use a lot purple in cards but a little is sometimes just the right amount of spice.

When I signed up up to be a demonstrator, a few decades ago, the artist who's team I joined taught me that purple colors work wonders in shadows. Here I used Rich Razzleberry ink to deepen the Rich Razzeberry detailed die cut from Eclectic layers for the flower.
Black dots over Lemon Lime Twist give nice contrast to the center of the flower.
The leaflet was cut from Granny Apple Green cardstock and lightly pressed into a Garden Green ink pad.
The Poppy Parade polka dot pattern from the Brights Designer Series Paper collection give the perfect accent.
Other key features for this card are the Basket Weave texture and a few wraps of Linen Thread.

A little simpler card, but with many of the same supplies:

I used Lemon Lime Twist for the background leaves. The die cut leaflet is the same as in the previous card.
This flower has a Flirty Flamingo base with a Poppy Parade detail die cut over it.
I used dimensionals to attach the flower to the Whisper White layer and again to attach that layer to the Crumb Cake card base.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon!

Chris

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Posted at 05:18 PM in Oh, So Eclectic | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 25, 2019

Vibrant Vases but Subtle Colors

Here we are in the last week in March. And, it's my last week as a guest designer for the Color Challenge at Splitcoaststampers. The colors this week are Powder Pink, Soft Sea Foam and Early Espresso. Dessert, which is always optional, is designer series paper.

I have collected all of Stampin' Up!'s designer series papers in the color groups. The dots and stripes in these papers work for color challenges and can also be combined with papers in other designer series paper collections. For this card I chose Soft Sea Foam Stripes with Early Espresso dots and wrapped them up with a Shimmery ribbon in Powder Pink.
My focal point is a vase of flowers from Vibrant Vases.
The vase and flowers are both stamped in Early Espresso. I used the Dark Soft Sea Foam Blends to color the vase and flower outline.
The flowers have a 2 step type set up. I stamped the solid flowers in Powder Pink, then darkened the centers a little more with the Powder Pink marker.
The Vase Builder punch is great for punching out the vases in this set. I trimmed out the flowers.
I used a Whisper White stitched shape cut with a Stitched Labels Framelits die, as the base for my vase.
A few Artisan pearls finish off the card.

I had kind of a tricky time photographing the soft colors in this card, since didn't have daylight available. To try something different without my usual pale wood background, I put a few sheets of vellum over a sheet of pink rose paper. I'm not sure which picture I prefer but I think I have one more idea in my card photo bag of tricks.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

Product List

Dark Soft Sea Foam Stampin' Blends Marker

[148058]

Posted at 11:29 PM in Vibrant Vases | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fresh Fig's Days are Numbered...

Quick post with a little reminder. We are in our last week of Sale-A-Bration... and that means that if you were thinking of adding any of the 2017-2019 In-colors to your collection now is the time to do so. You get Sale-A-Bration items for your orders of $50 or more (US). Furthermore, almost every year we seem to see at least some of the colors run out in April. If you need a ink refill or extra pad of paper, now is the time.

Speaking of 2017-19 In-colors, I have go confess I've been a little late to the party with Fresh Fig. I've seen a few color combinations lately that combine shades of pink with Fresh Fig and it they play together amazingly well!

Words are from Friendly Conversations which is in Stampin' Up!'s Annual catalog.
The flower images are from the Bloom by Bloom stamp set.
The vellum leaves were punched out with the Leaf Punch.
Rectangle Stitched Framelit Dies take the guess work out of measuring!
Colors: Fresh Fig and Petal Pink!
This is a sneak peek of an April Palette you will be seeing next month and I'm going to be showing Fresh Fig whether it is still available or not. Just saying.
PS. If you place an order in March think about choosing Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper as your free Sale-A-Bration Item. This paper is working it's way into my "April Palette".

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

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Posted at 12:19 AM in Bloom by Bloom, Friendly Conversations | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 21, 2019

Well Said Sympathy Butterflies

Here is another variation of the Butterfly and Blended Backgrounds card I shared last week:

This uses a background I made a few weeks ago when I was playing around with some challenge colors. Both were made by blending dye ink refills with white craft refill. This combination makes it very easy to blend the colors on cardstock with the Sponge Daubers.

The background colors are Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry. Whisper White craft ink lightens them a little as they are blended with Sponge daubers on the Whisper White cardstock.
I used a Layering Circles framelit die to cut the circle out of the 4" x 5 1/4" white cardstock.
I sponged Daffodil Delight o my gold embossed Butterfly Gala butterflies.
The greeting is from the Well Words Bundle with the "Sympathy" cut from Coastal Cabana and the "all my" stamped in Coastal Cabana ink. I used a light touch with Dark Pool Party and Light Night of Navy Blends to darken the bottom of the sympathy die cut to look like the background blending.
Metallic Pearls bring the tiniest bit of bling to this expression of sympathy.

The Butterfly Gala Bundle is still not available as I write this but I'm hopeful it will be available soon!

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

Product List

Butterfly Gala Photopolymer Bundle

[150599]

Well Said Cling Bundle

[150609]

Uninked Stampin’ Craft Pad & Whisper White Refill

[147277]

Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[131158]

Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[131156]

Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[103033]

Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad

[147097]

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

[147094]

Pool Party Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

[144594]

Night Of Navy Light Stampin' Blends Marker

[144036]

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[100730]

Pearl Basic Jewels

[144219]

Daffodil Delight Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

[144585]

White Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109132]

Sponge Daubers

[133773]

Heat Tool

[129053]

Layering Circle Framelits Dies

[141705]

Big Shot

[143263]

Posted at 11:31 PM in Butterfly Gala, Well Said | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 20, 2019

Fable Friends Baby Girl Card

I have a cute little baby girl card for you today.

This card got its start when another stamper contacted me to find out what would be a few good colors of Blends to start with. She mentioned that one of the sets she would like to use the Blends with was Fable Friends. I had just received my own set so I set out to get her some examples.

Blends are Stampin' Up!'s alcohol markers. These markers are awesome for blending in shadows and highlights and enable you to avoid the streaky look you sometimes get when you use water based markers. There are various techniques to use in blending these colors but you can just use them as markers too - as long as you use a water based dye ink to stamp your image. You need to do this because the alcohol doesn't mix with the water based ink and blur the outline image. Anyway I did some quick sketchy coloring so I could send her some ideas. Here are the colors I used on each image left to right:

The first bunny is colored with Light Crumb Cake, Dark Flirty Flamingo and Light Mango Melody. I have to tell you that I used these colors because I had seen another version of this bunny by Nicole at wertschatz-papeterie. While I think hers is actually watercolored with slightly different colors, I got the idea to mix Flirty Flamingo with Mango Melody just from looking at her pretty bunny. You really need to check out the adorable flower crown she added too!
The second bunny is even simpler, using just two colors: Light Crumb Cake and Light Flirty Flamingo.
The duck is colored with Light Crumb Cake, Light Flirty Flamingo and Light Mango Melody. The cape is a blend of the last two colors.

Back to the baby card:

I created a base for the bunny by starting with a 3" x 4 1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock, adding a piece of 3" x 1 1/4" piece of dotted Powder Pink Designer series paper from the 2017-2019 In Colors package. You wouldn't need to cut your bunny out if you just stamped him solo on this piece with the message, though I obviously needed to cut this one out if I wanted to get any use from my examples.
I added the greeting just to the left of the bunny, stamping once again in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.
Wrap the Powder Pink Ruffled Ribbon around where the dotted paper ends and secure it by tying a piece of Petal Pink and Silver Twine.
I layered this piece onto a 3 1/4" x 4 1/2" piece of Whisper White Thick cardstock and attached it to an A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") card.
Pop a few Artisan Pearls on for the sweater buttons and you are good to go.

You might notice that I used several different Stampin' Up! pinks on this card and they all blend together very well!

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

Posted at 10:39 PM in Blends, Fable Friends | Permalink | Comments (1)

All Adorned Meets Let It Ride

Do you check out Pinterest for your next card making adventure? I do. Have you ever noticed that when you click first click on a pin, Pinterest tries to show you all sorts of other things that "it thinks" would be similar. That's how I found Sandee Shanabrough's lace on wood horse card. Hers is quite elaborate and detail but I was anxious to try a simplified version that still featured that lovely lace on wood look. Here is what I came up with using the beautiful brushstroke horse "cameo" from the Let it Ride stamp set and the lace-like All Adorned stamp set, a recent addition to the Sale-A-Bration line up. You can get it free with a $50 purchase.

Both cards feature the same stamp sets mentioned above, Wood Textures Designer Series Paper, and an oval die from Stitched Shapes Framelit Dies.

This first card with the darker wood tones features a variation in the direction of the wood grain of the paper. I had accidentally trimmed my paper too short so I decided to use a trick I'd one purposely before and add that horizontal strip at the top. the pieces are simply butted together and taped from the back.
The horse is stamped with Early Espresso and trimmed with the oval die.
The Wood Textures paper is stamped with All Adorned images and a greeting from Let It Ride in Whisper White Craft ink and embossed with Whisper White Stampin' Emboss Powder.
A bit of Linen Thread is wound like rope as the lone embellishment on my simplified card.
Here is my slightly fussier version:

This version uses Very Vanilla instead of Whisper White. Instead of Whisper White embossing powder I used an 8 year old bottle labeled June '11. It had yellowed and gives more of a Very Vanilla appearance.
I stepped up the layers, trimming the Wood Textures piece to 3 3/4" x 5" and layered it on 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" piece of Early Espresso cardstock.
A simple tied bow of Linen Thread embellishes the oval.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

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Posted at 01:01 AM in All Adorned, Let It Ride | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 18, 2019

Birthday Statements and My Roundabout Route Through a Color Challenge

I struggled a little with this week's color challenge at Splitcoaststampers, though I guess that is what makes it a challenge. The colors are Pacific Point + Lemon Lime Twist + Flirty Flamingo. Dessert is ... wings. The dragonfly idea is in my "later" pile. The idea that worked the best is when I gave up on wings and stamped the Hooray image from Birthday Statements in Pacific Point. I grabbed a few Blends to color while we watched a movie.

side note -You can't really color much when you are watching Roma. It has subtitles. Then again you do want to really watch this movie. Even though there is less dialogue than most, the black and white film is really beautifully done. You don't want to miss a single frame.

Back to the card:

Hints Roundabout Route for this card:

If you are thinking "Stampin' Up! doesn't have Lemon Lime Twist and Pacific Point Blends, you would be right. I substituted Light Granny Apple for Lemon Lime Twist and I think it does OK. On the other image from this set I did mix a little Pineapple Punch in to bring out the lemon in Lemon Lime Twist. This image has nice little shading marks to make it easy to know where to add the shading. Hint: let the Pacific Point dry a few minutes before adding the Blends.
I got plenty of Pacific Point by stamping the image in that color and using it for my border with a skinny strip of cardstock between the image and the white lace cut with the Delicate Lace Edgelit. Then there's the classic Pacific Point Stripe from the Brights Designer Series Paper 6" x 6" stack.
"It's Your Day" is also from Birthday Statements, intended to go with this image.
The little pearls are from Share What You Love Artisan Pearls though you could easily colro some basic Pearls with the Flirty Flamingo blends, or another color.
Pretty much done. Except for the dessert. Wings? I thought maybe I would try to mask out the rhino and add the little bird from the stamp set, Animal Outing. A little tricky, but there are lots of things you would do for dessert right? Then I opened the stamp case and out falls... the stamps from January's Paper Pumpkin! With 2 birds! No masking required. I approximated Pacific Point with a layer of Dark Pool Party Blends followed by a little Light Night of Navy and Dark Balmy Blue. I think the Light Night of Navy could be optional.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

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Posted at 10:55 PM in Birthday Statements | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 17, 2019

You Make Me Proud...with Boldy Colored Blooms

I think we should come off of St. Patrick's Day slowly...so let's see something else with a little Call Me Clover:

Whisper White card base with a top fold.
The Happiness Blooms Designer Series Paper was left from the die cut DSP projects I showed in February. I needed to cover up a die cut I'd made that didn't quite work out...
So, I chose one of the large greetings from Friendly Expressions. This is a great set of greetings, all of which can really handle being the focal point of a card.
I echoed the Call Me Clover and Night of Navy flowers from the Designer Series Paper with the Bitty Blooms punches. While these are currently on backorder they are anticipated to be back in stock sometime.
Add a few Pineapple Punch enamel dots from the Happiness Blooms dots and I'd say we're good to go!

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon.

Chris

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