Gently Falling Duo Challenge

I had a wonderful day crafting with my two best friends today!   I got up early this morning and made us some soup and banana nut bread to snack on during our girls' day.  They were both yummy and helped fire up our mojo for some card making!    This was the card I worked on today; it uses the fun sketch from Pals Paper Arts.   I love this sketch and will definitely be filing it away for future reference!    I also wanted to play along with The Friday Mashup and use twine on my card.   I adore baker's twine and seem to be using it way more than ribbon lately.

I am really enjoying Gently Falling, so I'm pretty sure I'll be putting an order in for it tomorrow.  :)    To start my card, I played around with my Color Coach and decided I liked the look of Calypso Coral, So Saffron, and Early Espresso together.  Once I figured out how much of each I wanted to feature on my card, everything went together pretty easily.  

Stamps:  Gently Falling, Falling Leaves
Ink:  Early Espresso (ink and marker), So Saffron (ink and marker), Calypso Coral
Paper:  Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, So Saffron
Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, Modern Label punch, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Antique Brads, sponges, Color Spritzer (just for you, Ann!)

JAI 90: Sketch Challenge

First, I apologize for the lack of posts this week.  It's been one of those weeks mentally and my heart just wasn't in trying to create anything.   I decided to try making something today and here's my second card of the day.   The first one you'll have to wait on.  :)   My upline, Denise, was kind enough to lend me her Gently Falling stamp set so I've been putting it to work.   I'll definitely be sad to give this one back next week!  How gorgeous is that leaf?   I normally hate 2-step stamps as they don't fit completely in the lines, but I think I could manage to get over that with this one.  :)   Anyway, I thought it would be great for the sketch over at Just Add Ink.  I don't own an oval die, so I hope it was okay that I used a square!

Stamps:  Gently Falling, en Francais, Tiny Tags, Woodgrain
Ink:  Soft Suede, Pool Party, More Mustard
Paper:  More Mustard, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede
Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Scallop Squares duo die, Jewelry Tag punch, Pool Party ruffled ribbon, sponges

FMS7: Glitter Stocking

It's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!   We have another wonderful featured designer, Sandra Azzopardi, joining us this week, so be sure to stop by her blog and say hello!   It actually took me a bit to find my card for this post!   I knew I'd be in Florida and tired from the trip, so I made my card quite a while ago.  I didn't want to have to stress about it when I got home and drive my poor husband crazy.   I would probably make something totally different now; I must have been in a traditional Christmas mood when I put this together.  :) 

Red and green galore!  I love the glitter paper; isn't it gorgeous?   I wish I could wrap myself in it!   I used a lot of the different patterns from the Brights designer series paper stack for this one.  I love that stuff!    I feel like I have used it so much and still have so much more left to work with!   I used some of my favorite embellishments, buttons, baker's twine, and mini jingle bells to add a fun, festive feel.   Hopefully I can stand to get it away with all those on there.  :)

Stamps:  none

Ink:  none

Paper:  Brights DSP stack, Red glitter paper, Old Olive, Real Red

Tools/Accessories:  Stocking builder punch, circle punches, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Brights buttons, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, mini jingle bells

Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team made to inspire you this week!

Tui Nathan

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Jen Mitchell

Cindy Hall

Jen Timko

Try Stampin' On Tuesday #37

I hope you enjoyed the posts from the weekend.  We took a trip to Florida so I was away and didn't stamp for a whole 4 days!   I was ready to get back in my room and create today, especially since I got some new goodies yesterday!   I decided to try a new challenge today, the Try Stampin' On Tuesday challenge!   It was a very fun sketch to work with and I loved how my card turned out.    Bright Hopes is such an awesome set!  Do you have it yet?  :o)

The beaches of Florida were amazing, so I thought I should share a picture.  :)   Our friends got married on the beach at Navarre and it was just gorgeous there.    This picture was taken in Pensacola; we decided to stay there at a neat little bed-and-breakfast.   It was a nice trip and we stayed busy for the few days we were there.   I would love to go back someday and do a bit more exploring of the area.

Stamps:  Bright Hopes, Woodgrain background
Ink:  Garden Green, Real Red, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Garden Green, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Neutrals DSP stack
Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper and Stripes embossing folders, basic pearls, white baker's twine, Brights buttons, sponges, paper snips, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch

MDS Monday

If you visited yesterday, this card probably looks pretty familiar to you.  I wanted to recreate one of my cards in My Digital Studio to show you how nice it would look.    Pretty close, huh?   Stampin' Up! has done a wonderful job adding some of our favorite supplies to the digital side of things.  Even better, the printing is guaranteed to match the SU colors we know and love.

The advantage to making this card in MDS?   I can print as many of this card as I need without doing any further work.  It's a great way to design your invitations or Christmas cards because you can do it once and have as many printed as you need.   If you wanted to add some ribbon or brads, you can always go the hybrid route and do a lot of the work on MDS and then add a few embellishments once you get the cards from the printer.  

If you like to purchase MDS, you can get it here on my online store.   I'd love to answer and questions you have about it or give you a demonstration of how it works.  

Upsy Daisy Birthday

I have been getting a lot of customers who are new to stamping so to be able to help them, I've been looking through the catalog and getting some ideas of what products I think would work best for them.   Upsy Daisy was one of the stamp sets I picked for my Starter Kit last year when I signed up.   I think it's a great set for starting out because it has a nice image to work with as well as three different sentiments.   You can make a birthday, thinking of you, or thank you card with just this one set!

This card would be fairly inexpensive to recreate if you leave off the embossing on the strip of Bashful Blue.   You'd need 2 packs of card stock, 1 pack of designer paper, a stamp pad, baker's twine, and the stamp set. Not too bad, huh?   You could get this stamp set for free in your Starter Kit if you decide to sign up to be a demonstrator.   If you join this month, you'd also get a free Big Shot that would allow you to do that cool embossing too!    It's a great deal for those of you starting out or who want to get a discount on the products you already love.   :)   Contact me for more information or visit my website to sign up today!

Be sure to come back tomorrow so you can see the digital version of this card!

Stamps:  Upsy Daisy
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  First Edition Designer Series paper, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue
Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, Early Espresso Baker's Twine

Inspired by Maureen's card that can be found here.

Catalog Inspiration: Bright Hopes

Yesterday I posted a card that I copied from the Holiday Mini Catalog.   For today, I wanted to share another card inspired by the catalog, but this one is a bit different.   I loved the card on page 23 of the catalog, but I didn't have the stamp set that I'd need to recreate it.   Instead, I looked at it and decided what parts I could do exactly and what I'd need to find in my supplies to do the rest.   Looking at the image panel, I knew I'd need something to stamp in the background and a large sentiment of some sort.  I looked over my stamps and decided to go with my new favorite, Bright Hopes, for the background image.  My largest Christmas sentiment was from the hostess set in the Holiday Mini, Warmest of Wishes, so I decided to use that as well.

Here's the original card:

It's not quite the original card, but it is still gorgeous!  Well, I think so anyway.  :)   I am enjoying the inspiration I'm getting from the catalog, so stay tuned for more cards.  I'd love for you to try one too!  If you do, be sure to come back and post a link to your blog or online gallery so we can all go check out your beautiful work!

Stamps:  Warmest of Wishes, Bright Hopes
Ink:  River Rock, Cherry Cobbler, Versamark
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, River Rock, Very Vanilla
Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Fancy Fan Letterpress plate, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Itty Bitty punch pack, heat tool, clear embossing powder, basic pearls, Cherry Cobbler seam binding

Catalog Inspiration: Stitched Stocking

One of the questions I get a lot as a demonstrator is where I come up with my ideas.   For those of you who visit frequently, you know I love participating in various challenge blogs.   I really enjoy starting out with a sketch and have quite a few of them printed out to use as a reference.   If that sounds like too much work, you have inspiration right at your fingertips!  If you look at the front of your Stampin' Up! catalog, you should notice that it doesn't just say catalog; it is also an idea book!  There are so many gorgeous samples that you can copy or use as inspiration.   You might like the design of one, the colors of another, and an embellishment you find on yet another one!   I kept it simple with this one and copied a card from the Holiday Mini catalog.  You can find it on page 34 of your catalog and here's what it looks like:

I did change mine to a normal A2 card and, but other than that, it is pretty much the same!   Cool, huh?

Stamps:  Stitched Stockings, Bright Hopes
Ink:  Real Red, Old Olive
Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, Brights DSP stack, Flirtatious DSP
Tools/Accessories:  Stocking Builder Punch, paper snips, White baker's twine