A Photo Challenge

The photo for the inspiration challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments is so adorable. It made me think of elementary school and one of my favorite teachers. I thought I had the best third grade teacher ever. Her name was Ms. Murray and she included some fun stuff in her class like plays and cool games with parachutes.

For my card I used Sahara Sand for the card base and then layered on a piece of Modern Medley paper. I ran it through my Big Shot and the Wildflower Meadow TIEF. I gave the embossed flowers a quick sand to show them off and then added my funky tag. The greeting comes from Yippee Skippee and the butterfly is punched from Birthday Basics DSP. I included a bit of Basic Black Chevron ribbon, Summer Starfruit Sticked ribbon, and Cherry Cobbler bakers twine. And then could not resist a few bits of bling!

Be sure to check out all the fun things the design team has created over at Hand Stamped Sentiments using the inspiration photo.

Look What's Coming Soon...

These Thinlits Card Dies are SUPER cool and coming soon--August 1st!

They've been called flip cards, flip flop cards, swing cards, and more-but they have always been a bit tricky to create. Not anymore! Our amazing new Thinlits Card Dies cut and score to create a card that flips in just one step.

These new card dies come with extra die pieces that have versatile designs, so you can use them on other projects, not just flip cards. The Circle Card Thinlits Die comes with 10 total pieces; the Label Card Thinlits Die comes with nine total pieces.

I AM BACK!

I have been in the beautiful Sierra mountains serving as a young women leader at Camp Ritchie. The camp is set just above the Bear River Reservoir and is truly one of the most gorgeous places to be. The view by day is stunning and the show of stars by night is stellar.

I drove home yesterday and walked in the door, changed my clothes, and dashed off to work--no time for rest!  But today I have a few minutes to catch up on a bit of bloggin'. I have to say STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS! I will be showcasing some amazing swaps and I'll be part of the Artisan Finalists Blog Hop. 

For today I want to share my swap that I made for my upline's dinner party. She hosted a fabulous dinner at the Roof in the Joseph Smith Building. The food was yummy, but the conversation with sideline friends was priceless. At the end we all swap and I have to say "there were some gorgeous ridiculously perfect cards. I big thank you to Tami Waddell for being the BEST upline there is!

My swap card started with 4 1/4" x 11" Very Vanilla card base. I stamped the splatter with one of the images from Gorgeous Grunge and Daffodil Delight ink. Then I embossed the bottom 2/3 with the Chevron TIEF. I layered bits of Gingham Garden DSP over a Tea Lace Doily. The greeting on the mini flag is from Six Sided Sampler and Basic Rhinestones add splashes of glitz. I used the Hexagon punch, both sizes of Butterfly punches, and the Itty Bitty punch pack for all my shapes.

Light Layers

With the warm, sometimes HOT, summer weather it seems fitting to stamp cards with light layers.  Do you like the returning trend to stampin' on white card stock and the use of no layers?  For this card I used two of my favorite stamp sets, Gorgeous Grunge and Really Good Greetings.  My colors are Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Summer Starfruit, and Jet Black Staz On.  Enjoy and stay cool!

Summer Colors Havin' a Blast

Do these three colors just scream summer? I sure think they do. They make me think of beach towels, swim suits, picnic tables, and birthday parties. Speaking of birthdays, July is my son Nick's month to celebrate and this year he turned 23. Where have the years gone--holy cow I am getting old.

The Summer Collection designers at Connie and Mary have put together cards featuring Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, and Bermuda Bay (one of my new color crushes). Go ahead to hop over to Create with Connie and Mary to be inspired and then break out the stamps and ink and make a masterpiece.

SU!pplies:

Stamps - Sketched Birthday

Inks - Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, and Bermuda Bay markers

Paper - Whisper White and Bermuda Bay card stock with Quatrafancy DSP

Accessories - Itty Bitty Banner Framelits, Perfect Pennants Bigz L Die, Daffodil Delight Stitched Ribbon, Bermuda Bay 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Stampin' Dimensionals

Easy and Effective

l am sharing a SUPER easy and effective card today featuring the Wildflower Meadow stamp and coordinating embossing folder.

Hello, Lovely Sketch

Hand Stamped Sentiments has the COOLEST sketch challenge up for this week and next.  That's right you have two weeks to design a card featuring this AWESOMELY fun sketch.  The best thing about sketches, and especially this one, is I never EVER would have come up with this look without the sketch as a MOTIVATOR.

I started by grabbing my Apothecary Accents Framelits and Epic Day This and That DSP.  From there I decided to lay the cut pieces of DSP on Pool Party card stock which I embossed with a Honeycomb TEIF.  In keeping with the sketch I stamped a two layer tag with the "thank you" greeting from Hello, Lovely on Soft Sky card stock.  I just love that new set and all the possibilities.  To finish it all up I tied a shoestring bow with Basic Grey Stitched ribbon and flicked splatters and specs with an Aqua Painter.

If you have a minute or two pop on over to Hand Stamped Sentiments and check out what the Design Team has created all being inspired by this sketch.

Another Saturday Summer Sketch

We have gathered the Summer Collection design team for another sketch at Create with Connie and Mary. Look how fabulous this sketch is.  It's super versatile and fun. I have featured the Really Good Greetings stamp set, inked with markers, for the focal point. For a summery and crisp feel I started with a Whisper White card base. The layered panel is a Daffodil Delight panel of Quatrefancy DSP. A few punched pieces of Soft Sky and Strawberry Slush add to the color palette to finish off the summer feel. Two last tidbits of information about the card. That's Daffodil Delight Stitched Ribbon wrapped around the width of the card. And, to follow the sketch I embossed both the top and bottom with the Needlepoint Textured Embossing Folders.

Thank You So{ho} Much

One of my favorite new suites from Stampin' Up! is Soho Subway. The DSP is fabulous and the Alphabet Press TEIF is SO cool. For this card I started with a Baked Brown Sugar base, a color quickly becoming a "go to" hue for me, and then layered a Very Vanilla embossed piece with a GORGEOUS swatch of DSP. The colors are delcious' and the subtle accent of Crisp Cantaloupe in the flower centers is hmm yum! I am also loving the new ribbons in the catalog so I added a bit of Baked Brown Sugar Ruffle Trim ribbon to the card using Sticky Strip. For the greeting I used the Hello, Lovely stamp set, Baked Brown Sugar ink, and Ivory Naturals card stock. To accentuate the greeting I grabbed the Artisan Label to punch a complementing piece of DSP and then tucked in a Crisp Cantaloupe Bitty Banner folded in half.

Summer Collection Color Challenge

Hello and happy Saturday.  It's time for another Summer Collection Challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary.  This is is so warm and relaxing for me.  I just think the addition of the Soft Suede to Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding is so luscious.  A perfect pack of DSP for this color palette is Etcetera DSP, and so that is exactly where I started.  Then I grabbed my new Notable Notations stamp and sat down to create a masterpiece ;0)

If you are not a subscriber to Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection...it's not too late to join!  You know the cool thing about the Summer Collection is that it features items out of the NEW CATALOG so the ideas are good ALL YEAR LONG!

• NEW this session - MORE projects that can be completed in about 2 hours...perfect for classes and camps!

• Summer Collection runs June 23 through July 20
• Features 2013-14 Catalog Products - good ALL YEAR LONG!
• 24 EXCLUSIVE samples
• Step-by-step downloadable PHOTO tutorials
• Only available to subscribers!
• Demonstrators & Customers welcome!

Only $24.95 US

Tasty Summer Colors

It's another hot summer day and these tasty colors are totally conjuring up thoughts of a b-b-q complete with all the fixins'.  I grabbed a new stamp set and embossing folder to whip up a card featuring the colors for Hand Stamped Sentiments newest color challenge: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, and Daffodil Delight.

First I embossed a Strawberry Slush panel with the Alphabet Press TIEF and then grunged it up with layers of ink.  Then I put my Six Sided Sampler stamp set to ink and paper, punched a cool butterfly detail, and tied a yellow ribbon round the card.