from my ink pad to yours

Christmas in July: Filled with Cheer Card & Tag

Hi there, Crafters! I'm popping in with a couple of Christmas projects that I've done with the Filled with Cheer set, which is new this month on Stampin' Up!'s Online Exclusives.

I always like to try non-traditional colors for holidays, especially when working on Christmas in July. When I sat down to do some coloring with this new set, I chose Flirty Flamingo, Lost Lagoon and Crumb Cake with a little Pool Party thrown in for extra measure:

 

Flirty Flamingo

 

Lost Lagoon

 

Pool Party

 

Crumb Cake

The card:

• You can probably tell what colors were used and where. I cut out a mask and placed it over the colored image so that I could add just a touch of Pool Party with my blending brush. This helps make the white of the snow pop. 
• My greeting is on a banner layer because I messed up on the original. I used Stylish Shapes but whatever you have will work and you could even hand trim it. I DO suggest you practice a bit with this font as if you don't ink it too heavily you will realize that the letters in HELLO do have a fun little texture.

This photo shows the blends that were used.

I didn't have much cardstock around the poinsettia and gifts image so I fussy cut it and finished it quickly with a Crumb Cake tag I die cut with Greetings of the Seasons Dies. Way to make my relaxing coloring time useful! The ribbon uses a bunch of small pieces. I sometimes trim them lengthwise as I did here with the Black and Vanilla Gingham.

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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.

If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. 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]

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.

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the July host code, KUCZDWEF, I will send you a gift with a make and take project.  You will also get to choose at least one Sale-a-bration item. 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.        

Shop with Me:

Product List

Filled With Cheer Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [164362]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [147107]
Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [159229]	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121045]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [120953]
Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154884]	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882]	Lost Lagoon Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161680]
Basic Black Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154843]	Pool Party Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154894]	Stampin' Up! Masking Paper [155480]
Subtles 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [163776]	Linen Thread [104199]	Black & Very Vanilla 3/8" (1 Cm) Large Check Ribbon [161982]
Pretty In Pink 3/8" (1 Cm) Bordered Ribbon [163784]	Deckled Rectangles Dies [159173]	Stylish Shapes Dies [159183]
Paper Snips [103579]	Greetings Of The Season Dies [164112]	Blending Brushes [153611]

Around the World on Wednesday: Case a Team Member

Hey there, stampers! It's time for another Around the World on Wednesday blog hop.

Our dear leader, Angie has organized this years Case A Team Member month with a Bananagram or letter tile theme. Here are the tiles for those of us on the hop:

If you are following the blog hop you have likely come from Angie's blog and have read that we are casing/working with each other. We chatted a bit a few weeks ago and decided to use flowers (especially the Country Flowers Bundle) and the brights. I think we both might have been looking at the Full of Life 6x6 DSP.

While I fully thought I would totally stay on that path, there were a couple of Angie's cards that really seemed to call to me to mix our styles together. First is a Blackberry Bliss Monochromatic card she did for an Instahop:

I love anything with these masks but I was especially impressed with the monochromatic approach and the tile technique.(Hint: she has a lot of amazing monochromatic cards on her blog and Instagram!) Then as I was browsing further into her body of work I came upon this beautiful Delft look:

I just loved the blue flowers with the eyelet like embossing. While I did think of trying to get all of these concepts together I did have to narrow it down. I kept the monochromatic Layers of Beauty and mixed it up with the Delft/eyelet look. For now my tiles only come into play with the Bananagram letters but I'll be trying that technique soon!

Here's a closer look:

• As you can see I did use the teapot dies from Country Flowers, though I depended on Layers of Beauty to actually bring in the flowers. Those masks are amazing. Using the blending brushes I was able to get all of those shades just using the Blueberry Bushel ink pad. What? You say Blueberry Bushel isn't in the Brights. You would be correct. But I think the color IS bright. It's one of my all time favorites and is kind of a fun twist on the Delft look.
• I stamped a 1/2 sheet of cardstock with the Layers of Beauty bouquet turned several ways to mostly fill the sheet. Then I blended the colors using the masks. I was able to die cut several pots cups etc in addition to getting my border.
• After trying the greeting with white embossing on Blueberry Bushel cardstock, I decided I wanted a softer look and embossing the greeting on white and used a blending brush to apply the color. (hint: I use a sharpie to put color or abbreviations for them on the back of my blending brushes. I use a fine point because some of my brushes are used for more than one color.)
• The embossing is done with the Eyelet 3D folder, part of the Country Woods/Country Flower suite. A hint with this folder is to add up to a half inch to the dimensions you will need as the design does "shrink" the paper a bit.

I had originally wanted to show this teapot from Country Flowers with the little cups from the Latte Love dies. The scale of the cups works really well with the teapot. Unfortunately, the card just seemed too busy with them but I did put together a little tag:

This tag was made with the new Online Exclusive Greetings of the Season dies

Finally, just to add at least a few of the brights colors, I tried another version using the teapot as a plant pot.

• 
  
• The leaves were die cut from white and both Lemon Lime Twist and Granny Apple Green were applied with a blending brush.

Now it's time to continue on the blog hop: Next up is the talented Bree Renwick.

Jan Clothier - NZ

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Kelly Taranto - US

Angie McKenzie - US

Chris Smith - US

Bree Renwick - US

Teri West - US

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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.

If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. 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]

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.

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the July host code,    , I will send you a gift with a make and take project.  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.        

Shop with Me:

Product List

Layers Of Beauty Bundle (English) [163519]	Eyelet 3 D Embossing Folder [163414]	Stylish Shapes Dies [159183]
Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad [147138]	Blueberry Bushel 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146968]	Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [159229]
Blending Brushes [153611]	Heat Tool (Us And Canada) [129053]	Versamark Pad [102283]
Basics Embossing Powders [155554]	Greetings Of The Season Dies [164112]	Petal Pink & White 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Diagonal Trim Combo Pack [163417]
Tinsel Gems Four Pack [161623]

More Musical Jamboree Cards

This past weekend I participated in my friend Kevin Theesen's Summer Online Retreat. I showed how to make simplified version of this tunnel, or some may say theater, card with the Musical Jamboree stamp set. It's really fairly simple and I just love the whimsical look that these animals get when they get to use papers from Thoughtful Journey as a background. One of the retreat participants mentioned that the characters reminded her of the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland.

• For this card I colored and fussy cut all of the animals plus the campfire from the set. For each of the animals I put down a base of Stampin' Blends in either Smoky Slate of Crumb Cake and then added more dimension and "fur" using Watercolor Pencils - without water.
• The background is Thoughtful Journey Designer Series paper.
• I used the woods die from the Grassy Grove dies. It's really important to do the scoring before doing the die cutting because it will be harder to score on the skinny trees. For this particular greeting, it is easier to get it centered by putting the space between "we belong" and "together".
• Construction details are given below for the simplified card:

 

• Measurements: Gray Granite Card Stock: (2)8 1/2” x 5 1/2” (half sheets), 2 scraps for animals
  Petunia Pop: scrap (for bandana), Thoughtful Journey DSP: 1 - 6” x 6” piece

• Score one of the half sheets of Gray Granite at 4 1/4” for A2 card base. Wait to fold this until embossing is finished.

• Emboss the coyote image in white in the lower right front of the card - in portrait orientation. Emboss another coyote and the badger on the Gray Granite scraps. Emboss the coyote’s head with bandana twice on the Petunia Pop scrap.

• Trim the 2 animals and bandanas that were embossed on the scraps. Attach the bandanas to each of the coyotes. Set aside.

• Emboss “You’re a great friend” in the upper middle of the DSP as shown. Trim 5/8” from each side. Score the DSP with the greeting vertically through the greeting. Reserve the trimmed strips.

• Fold the DSP as scored and attach to the inside of the Gray Granite card base. I apply adhesive to the back of the right edge, align the folds of the DSP and the card base interior and then fold the card to attach. Repeat this with the left side.

• Score the second Gray Granite half sheet at 2 1/8”, 4 1/4”, and 6 3/8”.

• Using the 7th largest deckled circle die cut a circle out of the upper center of sheet in step 4 - landscape orientation. This should be 1/2” - 1” from the top and equidistant between the 2 1/8” and 6 3/8” score lines.

• Fold the piece from the previous step so that the middle line is a mountain fold and the side score lines become valley folds. Apply adhesive to the back of the right side (landscape orientation) and line this up to the right edge of the open card base. With this inner section folded, apply adhesive to the left edge and fold the card aver this to finish adhering the two layers of the card.

• Attach the badger and the coyote to the lower part of the inside circle as shown. Take care to place the coyote so that it is entirely in the 3rd quadrant of the inner card so that it won’t bend when the card is folded. Attach the reserved DSP strips about 1/8” in from the edge of each side of the open card.

Here is one more version with the Country Woods DSP:

• The card and coyote are done with Gray Granite Cardstock
• This time I did my embossing in Black. I think just stampin in black might work too.
• The greeting is from the Simply Said stamp set.
• I colored the banjo and did just a bit of shading with the watercolor pencils - again with no water. You do need to use a rather gentle touch with the pencils or you risk pushing off the embossing.

Since I've already done another Musical Jamboree post I'll add a few more cards that I've done here. This set is so much fun but I really need to get to work with some other new sets!

• 
  These two cards use the set, Under the Moon along with blending brushes. I like to use Lemon Lolly for the moon, mask it, and go around it with Pool Party, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel and a bit of Night of Navy. By starting with light colors it looks like the moon is lighting the sky.

 

Don't you think this is a fun set? As I was coming up with ideas for card sketches and colors I worked to develop two different Pinterest Boards. The first is called Character Card Sketches and will give you ideas for cards that feature characters of many types with they are humans, animals or even made of snow. The second board is Musical Jamboree Inspiration. This board has 1) cards made with this set and 2)non-card animal art that give ideas for settings and colors that might work with this set. As you can see there are more ideas than I will ever have time to use so I hope you might find them useful too!

The two other blog posts of mine that feature this set:

Benji Meets Kubel - the card with stripes

Musical Jamboree and Thoughtful Journey Designer Series Paper

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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.

If you would like to receive my newsletter please click on the Stay in Touch link at the top of my blog. You can also check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link in the same location. 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]

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.

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the July host code, BPGXPC77, I will send you a gift with a make and take project.   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.        

Shop with Me:

Product List

Musical Jamboree Cling Stamp Set (English) [163616]	Gray Granite 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146983]	Petunia Pop 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [163801]
Thoughtful Journey 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [163303]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Deckled Circles Dies [162286]
Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653]	Paper Snips [103579]	Bone Folder [102300]
Simply Scored [122334]	Stampin' Seal [152813]	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882]
Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154904]	Gray Granite Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154886]	Basics Embossing Powders [155554]
Watercolor Pencils Assortment 1 [161700]