First Sneak Peek Card

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I was so tired last night that I fell asleep on the couch before I mounted a single stamp! But I got my new stuff mounted this morning, and I did make my In Color spots last night.
I played around with the scallop border punch this afternoon. I was trying to make scallop edged squares like Mary Jo Albright did, but I had a lot of trouble getting it to work and finally gave up. I do plan on making the ric rac though. That looks really cool!
I started with a 6" square piece of Baja Breeze scored at 3" to make a 3" X 6" card. I used the scallop border punch on the bottom. There is a grid on the punch, so it is really easy to center your scallops on the card!
I love the butterfly in the new set Dreams Du Jour! I punched out 3 1 1/4" squares and stamped the butterfly in Basic Brown. I colored it in using Riding Hood Red and Baja Breeze and a blender pen. I roughed up the edges with my cutter kit and adhered them to 1 1/2" squares that also have roughed up edges.
For a finishing touch, I added a piece of Chocolate Chip polytwill ribbon. I wrapped it all the way around the card and cut the end into a V. (I saw this on Nichole Heady's blog and loved the look!) I added a Riding Hood Red button from the new Button Bouquet set in the new catalog. Stampin' Up let us order 2 of the buttons and showed us a picture from the rest. They are very cool! I will say, though, that the Baja Breeze buttons we got don't go with the Baja Breeze cardstock IMHO. I'm a little bummed about that, but I will make it work!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Dreams Du Jour; Paper: Confetti White, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red; Ink: Basic Brown, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red; Accessories: blender pen, 1 1/4" square punch, cutter kit, scallop border punch, Chocolate Chip polytwill ribbon, Button Bouquet
I plan to break out the Sock Monkey tomorrow, so look for more posts coming up this week!
Happy stamping!

Masculine birthday card

I made this birthday card for a co-worker. He has a yellow Lab named Emma. He told me today that he has a photo of Emma as a puppy that looks almost exactly like this! I should have made 2 because my BIL has a birthday next week. D'oh!
Supplies: Stamps: For Father, It's Your Birthday, Flannel Plaid; Paper: Confetti White, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard; Ink: Chocolate Chip, StazOn Black; Accessories: watercolor wonder crayons, ticket corner punch, aquapainter, Making Memories brads (GASP!)

Love these Fresh Cut notes!

Here are the cards I made for this week's Workshop Wow challenge. The challenge is to use the retiring In Colors. I got the color combo from Emily who has been making some gorgeous cards using Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip together!
I got the idea for these cards from the card I made a while back where I masked off the card and just stamped on the petals. I loved that look but wanted something on the card itself. So I decided to take 2 note cards and stamp one in Chocolate Chip (yes, I need to reink my pad, LOL) and one in Soft Sky. Then I punched out the petals and used the 2 way glue pen to attach the Soft Sky petals to the Chocolate Chip card and vice versa. I did the petals one at a time so I could keep the pattern sort of lined up. Before I adhered the petals, I edged them in the same color they were stamped with.

This is how it looked after I glued on the petals. I just put a little dab of glue in the 3 spots where the petal pulled off near the middle. This left a little gap; you can see the light shining through in the top photo.

For the Soft Sky card, I used Mono Multi to adhere a felt flower and half pearl to the center, and I tore the edge of the card then added Old Olive around all the card edges. For the Chocolate Chip card, I tied Chocolate Chip ribbon through a ribbon slide and adhered it with Mono Multi. Then I sponged Soft Sky around all 4 edges of the card and stamped "For You" in Chocolate Chip.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Floral, Fresh Cuts; Paper: Fresh Cut Notes; Ink: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive; Accessories: 2 way glue, Mono Multi, Flower Fusion, Pretties kit, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Chocolate Chip polytwill ribbon

I am excited to report that my preorder from the new catalog will be here on Friday, so look for some new colors, stamps and accessories (Can you say "scallop border punch"???) in the next week! Whoohoo!!

Happy stamping!

Stationery Portfolio

This adorable stationery portfolio was this week's 3D challenge. It is made from an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of cardstock and has 2 pockets inside to hold stationery. I used the 3/4" circle punch to make a string closure like you see on envelopes. I think we will be doing this in a future workshop as this would be a great gift filled with handmade cards!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Enjoy Every Moment; Paper: Naturals White, Groovy Guava; Ink: Groovy Guava, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi; Accessories: ticket corner punch, 3/4" circle punch, silver brads, linen thread
Happy stamping!

My latest swap card

I signed up for a swap on SCS for those not attending convention. Here's what I came up with. It's a CASE of a card I made at my upline, Sandi's. Of course, I changed the colors, and I changed the layout a little. Sandi's card was mounted onto a piece of white CS. I left that layer off. I really love this card, mostly because of the dry embossing. It was really easy to do even without a light box. You just need the Empressor stylus. I just kept lifting up the edge of the cardstock to peek and make sure I was getting all of the design. You can see Sandi's original below.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Priceless; Paper: Whisper White, Pale Plum, Mellow Moss; Ink: Perfect Plum; Accessories: Priceless classy brass template, Empressor stylus, five petal flower punch, Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon, Pretties kit

Check out the new In Colors

Dawn Olchefske must have expedited her preorder because she has already posted swatches of the new In Colors along with comparisons to current SU colors. I can already tell I'm going to LOVE them! Check out her blog here.

Christmas in July

This is the card I made for this week's Workshop Wow challenge, which is to use a retiring stamp set. I decided to use So Much, which I just got at Regional in April and have barely inked. WAAAHH! First of all, let me say that this did NOT start out as a Christmas card. I chose the colors (Real Red and Wild Wasabi) from my striped grosgrain ribbon that I am trying to use while it is still current. I wanted to use the two circle stamps to make a background, and I decided to do the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique. I stamped the dotted circle in Real Red over and over in sort of a pattern and then did the same with the drawn circle with Wild Wasabi. By the time I was done it reminded me of pine needles and holly berries. So I started looking through my stuff for a Christmas-y focal image. After much trial and error, I decided on these red flowers from the just-retired Die-Cut Blooms from the Occasions Mini. (Maybe they'll make it to the new catty though!) By overlapping them and adding So Saffron buttons, I think it looks like a poinsettia.
For the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique, you start with glossy white cardstock. Stamp with classic ink and let dry. Coat the entire piece of cardstock with VersaMark (that's why you have to let it dry first!) and cover with Irridescent Ice EP. Heat set the EP; don't overheat or the glitter will disappear! (Ask me how I know... LOL)
I tied on some striped grosgrain ribbon; I don't know how I tied such a nice knot. It'll probably never happen again! Then I added some photo corners and mounted it to the card base. The flower was attached with Stampin' Dimensionals.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: So Much; Paper: Glossy white, Real Red, Wild Wasabi; Ink: Real Red, Wild Wasabi, VersaMark; Accessories: Irridescent Ice EP, heat tool, photo corner punch, Wild Wasabi striped grosgrain ribbon, Die-cut Blooms, Fresh Favorites II buttons
If you're an SU demonstrator, be sure to check out the awesome new Demonstrator Only gallery at SCS. The fabulous folks there have worked very hard to make it all we've wanted and more!