Enjoy Today

I love the Bike Ride set in the catalog.  I love the fun images and I love that you can build a scene, and with the coordinating framelits it's so easy and fun to create! Today's card I only used the framelits for the flowers in the basket and the basket on the bike.  Everything else is stamped. 

I added a quick border on one side with my favorite the Diagonal Stripe Background stamp. I love the tone on tone colors.  This card was so quick I made 4 of them!  I love it!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Christmas Card Stamp a Stack

Over the weekend I had my annual Christmas Card Stamp a Stack.  I was blown away at how quickly spots went for this class!  Within a week my class had sold out!  I'm so glad that my guests love coming to it as much as I love to prep it.  At the class everyone made 20 cards.  4 each of these 5 designs.  The cards are kept pretty simple because again, 20 cards! This first card uses the Painted Harvest set in the Holiday Catalog.  I love stamps that can be used for multiple seasons! 

This card is probably my favorite.  I love the Powder Pink and the big bold snowflake!  But mostly I love the glimmer paper leaves!  So pretty!

This card is another favorite. It's so simple and quick and spot lights some of our amazing DSP.  I love all the patterns in the Be Merry DSP pack.  This holiday DSP is in the Annual Catalog and should not be overlooked.

This elegant Carols of Christmas Bundle is so pretty!  I love all the metallic shine it has! 

Finally this card.  I really love.  They're not your traditional holiday colors and I love the simplicity of it.  

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Color Theory Thanks

I love our Color Theory DSP!  I love the colors, I love the simplicity of the patterns I love how easy they are to use!  I decided to make a stack of notecards using the Color Theory DSP and just a couple of stamp sets.  I used All Things Thanks for the greeting and the rest of the stamps come from the Jar Of Love set. 

I kept the cards simple and kept them monochromatic.  I love this ombre pattern DSP.  For the flowers on all of them I stamped the bottom layer off on scratch paper first for a lighter shade then the top layer without stamping off for the bolder shade.  

 I love the leaves and branches stamped on the DSP behind the greeting.  I think it really works to tie the images all together. I'm not a huge Crushed Curry fan, but I LOVE this card! 

I'm not sure which color I love the most!  The greeting was stamped in Memento Black ink (it's my go to for black) and then I used the Stitched Shapes framelits to cut it out.  

These cards came together really quick thanks to the DSP!  Because the pattern is so simple and pretty you really don't need to do anything else to the cards!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Christmas Cards and My Friend

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending my BFF Kim's stamp club.  It was so much fun to visit with her awesome club members plus I got to make some fun cards.  After Kim and I went to lunch and did some shopping so really it was a pretty awesome day.  This month her club focused on Christmas and I love the cards they made.  

I love that she incorporated vellum into this card.  I love the look of vellum and the softness it can bring to any card!  Thanks so much Kim for letting me crash your club I had a great time! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

October Paper Pumpkin

I'm back!  Thanks for indulging me to take a little break.  Sometimes life catches up with you and you just have to stop and take a deep breath, gather up your ducks and get them back in a row....or at least in the same pond.  Onto business!  If you're a Paper Pumpkin subscriber you know that this months kit was completely awesome!  What's even more awesome...next months kit will coordinate with this months!  EEEKKK!  I can't wait to see next months.  This months kit was pretty awesome! 

This months kit included 10, T-E-N, Christmas shaker cards. Now if you're doing the math on Paper Pumpkin it's a pretty rockin' deal.  Paper Pumpkin is $19.95/month +tax (shipping is already included!). Where I live with tax it end up being just over $20.  In the kit you get a stamp set, an ink spot and all the supplies to make 10 cards with envelopes.  So that comes down to just about $2 a card-less if you include the stamp set and ink.  You can't buy cards in the store for less than that, much less this cute!  

So now that we've broken down the math of Paper Pumpkin, let's talk about how you subscribe.  Head here to subscribe.  It's super easy and you'll be all set up to get next month amazing kit!  I can't wait to see what it's going to be!!!  Want even more Paper Pumpkin, check out this video on this months kit to see how quick, easy and fun it is to assemble! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!   

Quick Blogging Break

Just a quick note that I'm just taking a quick blogging break.  I often try not to let life get in the way of my blog but sometimes you can't help it.  Between birthdays, classes and other big projects I just need a few days to catch up.  I'll be back sometime next week with lots of fun and amazing ideas to share! In the meantime I'll be enjoying some R&R and trying to catch up on life! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Be Merry Kit

 I love our kits!!  They're so much fun to make and they're so cute!!!  The Be Merry Kit in the Holiday Catalog makes 12 rosette ornaments. They're a great gift for anyone!  You could attach them to a gift package too!  I love the pops of gold on them too! 

Grab some friends and get a couple of these kits and have an ornament making party!

To see how easy these are to put together check out this video from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for looking see you soon!!!

Make Your Own Colored Glitter

Surly you didn't think I'd do a whole demonstration without an ounce of glitter in it did you?  Well I didn't! I had this random idea a few months ago and thought, what if I could change the color of our Dazzling Details Glitter?  Well after a little trial and error I did it!  Since then I've been making glitter in all kinds of colors!  Bermuda Bay on this card!  All of my cards are identical aside from the strip of glitter on the bottom.

Lemon Lime Twist!  The glitter colors end up a more pastel looking color of the original. They're a little difficult to photograph but in real life, these glitters are sparkly and stunning!

Crumb Cake!  I wasn't sure I'd love Crumb Cake Glitter, brown glitter???? But WOW!  It just might be my favorite!!!

Island Indigo! Another stunner!  The glitter was adhered to all of these cards using strips of the multipurpose adhesive sheets. I put a strip down on the card base, pulled the backing off, added my glitter and assembled the card as normal.  So pretty! 

Finally Melon Mambo!  I saved the backing of the adhesive sheet and placed it over the glitter and rubbed it firmly with my bone folder to make sure the glitter was stuck down good! If you happen to get some loose glitter on your work surface, Swiffer Dusting cloths are amazing for cleaning it up. I always have one in my desk! 

So how do you dye the glitter.  It's super easy!  I put a little (probably 1-2 tablespoons) in a sandwich size ziplock bag. Then I added 1-3 drops of reinker.  You don't want to add a lot of reinker or you'll just have a bag of ink.  I found no more than 3 was ideal.  Close your bag and massage the glitter and ink together with your fingers until all the ink has been absorbed by the glitter.  I keep them in the bags and just use a small spoon to add them to my projects when needed.  Super fun and EASY!  Who would have thought?!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Stamping With Sponge Daubers

Stamping with sponge daubers is an easy and fun way to add multiple colors and blending to your stamped images. Just as I did with these mittens, the smaller mittens were inked up in Perfect Plum and I added some Elegant Eggplant onto the tips of them with a sponge dauber, then stamp onto your card stock.  It gives a beautiful two toned look to the mittens. You could get a similar technique with the old rock and roll, but I think the sponge daubers allow you to blend those colors together more making it look more seamless.      

You can see it more on this tulip card.  The base was stamped in Powder Pink with a little Berry Burst sponged on the sides.  Then the front of the tulip was stamped with Berry Burst and Fresh Fig sponged onto to it.  The transition of colors is seamless and gives lots of depth and dimension.  Finally the leaves and steams were also stamped the same way in Lemon Lime Twist and Garden Green.  So pretty!  I'll share my last technique on Monday! See you then!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

More Stamping With Baby Wipes

Yesterday I shared some samples of stamping with baby wipes.  Today I have more.  I love these samples so much!  The color pallet is so pretty!  For all of these I used Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo reinkers.  I love how they blended and stamped!  I prefer to do my baby wipe stamping on our glossy paper.  I think the colors end up more vibrant and I love that glossy look to them too.  

You can see the difference in the two Happy Birthday cards.  The top one is on glossy paper, this one is on shimmer white card stock.  I love bright vibrant colors of the glossy one, but this shimmery white one is pretty amazing too! 

With this color pallet and the feathers from the Feather Together set I stamped 8 cards, and added different greetings to them, showing just how versatile it can be.  But when you're done what do you do with your baby wipe, it's all inky??? 

Well I carefully picked up my baby wipe pallet and pressed it onto some more pieces of glossy card stock.  I made 4 different background this way.  The texture and pattern in the baby wipes also 'stamps' onto your card stock creating an effortless look!  Let it dry and again stamp over it. This Christmas card is so fun!

For some of the other backgrounds I stamped and made some cute tags.  I love the bold black on these bright colors!

This is my favorite tag.  It was effortless on my my part but it looks like I could have spent hours making that beautiful northern lights scene!  I have only 2 more techniques to share from my summit demo!

Thanks for looking see you soon!!! 

Baby Wipe Stamping and Colorful Seasons

I'm still sharing lots of the samples that I demoed at my summit!  The next technique that I shared was stamping with baby wipes.  This technique has been around for a long time but I think sometimes it's easy to forget the easy techniques.  I love creating custom ink pads with baby wipes and reinkers.  It's so easy!

Stack a few baby wipes and then drop a few drops of reinker onto the baby wipes.  Then just use your inked up wipes like you would an ink pad.  I used lots of fall colors for the two leaves cards. 

For the snowflakes I went with shades of blues.  So pretty!  I love the Colorful Season set and Framelits.  They're so pretty and like the name suggests it's an awesome year round stamp set that you could use for any season!

I have more baby wipe stamping cards to share tomorrow, and I'll also share what to do with those inked up baby wipes when you're done stamping.  Check back tomorrow!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Wiggle and Move Cards

Yesterday I shared some ink blended samples, today I'm going along with the ink blended samples to share a couple cards that wiggle and move. I shared these cards in my demonstration too.  On this first card the balloon rocks and moves gently back and forth.   

The mechanism that makes it do that is sooo simple.  You only need two circle punches, one larger than the other and 1 dimensional.  Your first circle punch should not be larger than the image you want to wiggle.  The other circle punch can be larger, it won't be seen.  For both of my examples I used a 3/4" and 1 1/4" circle punches. 

You'll use your smaller circle punch and punch a hole in your background piece.  Add the dimensional to your image that you want to wiggle and place it inside the punched circle, add your larger circle behind it and your image will wiggle around in your circle! I LOVE IT!!!  It's so quick and simple to make!  

The background on this mermaid card was done using the baby wipe swipe technique that I shared last week.  You can check it out here.  I still have LOTS more from my demonstration to share!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Ink Blended Backgrounds

If you follow my blog you know I love ink blending!  I do it pretty frequently.  It's probably my go to technique when I want a fun background so I wanted to make sure I include it in my demonstration.  I use our sponge daubers and I have a specific dauber for each color.  They're labeled and I store them in one of our wood mount cases.  I like to refer to my daubers as being "seasoned", once they're seasoned they'll blend so much better.  A couple of tips I'll give when ink blending, use circular motions instead of back and forth or up and down.  You'll get a much better blend.  I always start light and go dark.  For this first example, after I had my greens all blended together (I used Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy and Tranquil Tide), I used my white craft ink and a sponge dauber to add some circles creating a bokah look.  

For this example I created an under the sea scene with some shades of blues.  I used Soft Sky, Marina Mist and Pacific Point.  I made sure to mask off all the mermaids with post it notes before ink blending so that they wouldn't pick up the color.  After I applied my background color I watercolored the mermaids with our watercolor pencils. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Baby Wipe Swipe

Another technique I shared I've called baby wipe swipe.  I love this technique, it's sooooo easy and the results are so fantastic!  Fold up a few babywipes and drop a few drops of reinker on the fold of the babywipe, then you just 'swipe' it across your cardstock.  I prefer to use our glossy cardstock for this because you can go over it a couple of time making the colors more intense and blend together better.  I love this rainbow one!  You just can't get this look with any other technique. 

You're not just limited to striped patterns you could make an entire background like I did for this beach scene.  Thinking about your card and the colors you want to use will help plan your card.  I love the soft, subtle look of this background.   

And of course use your punches and framelits to cut it all out!  This was another rainbow piece that was run through the big shot with the Happy Birthday Thinlit.  The best thing about this technique is that with one baby wipe you can make a ton of cards.  There's really no way to save the inked up baby wipe for later use so use it and mass produce a bunch of cards all at once. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Saran Wrap Watercoloring

My second technique that I shared was the Saran Wrap Watercolor.  This one uses a block (or any non-porous surface) some reinkers, a spritzer, watercolor paper and saran wrap.  On your block drop a few drops of whatever color reinker you're using.  Spritz your paper with water and get a nice handful of saran wrap.  Dip your saran wrap into your reinker then onto your wet cardstock.  The colors will begin to run and blend together instantly all you have to do is watch and let it dry.  So easy and fun!  

The saran wrap is really just being used a tool to pick up the ink and move it.  A lot like a stamp or sponge dauber. Once your card stock has dried you can use it as a full background like I did on my first sample.  Or you can cut it apart like I did on my second sample.  I used the leaf punch to punch out a bunch and then I arranged them in a cute leaf pattern.  I love the look it gives.  Because the colors are blending on their own and naturally the finished look is so phenomenal. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Block Watercoloring

At the Summit, my demonstration was 'Inky Techniques'.  I wanted to share lots of ways to create amazing inked backgrounds and elements for cards.  The first technique is Block Watercoloring.  All you need is an acrylic block, ink, watercolor paper and a water spritzer.  Smoosh your ink all over your block in the desired colors.  Spritz your paper lightly and your block generously, then quickly flip your block onto your watercolor paper and put something heavy one it.  I use a punch.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then carefully pull the block off.  Make sure you pull the block off while the ink is still a little wet.  Then let your paper dry.  It gives amazing results and really very little effort on your part. 

In my first card I created my background then I stamped the ornaments on them and cut them out.  These are not just backgrounds that have to be used as backgrounds, use them as the main element on your card.  The second sample I did use for my background but the colors were so bright and intense and I loved the look and I didn't want to cut it apart.  This creates fun backgrounds.  Experiment with colors and have fun with this one!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!