Double dutch card

This card is a double dutch card.  The tutorial was posted on Splitcoaststampers by my good friend Patty Bombyk.  The top of the card opens up, and the bottom opens like doors.  Patty's card has a 3 1/2" top and 2" doors.  I modified the measurements a bit for my card.  Mine has a 2 1/2" top and 3" doors.  The sentiment inside says "You mean the world to me."

I used the colors from this week's color combo challenge (CC355): Night of Navy, Bashful Blue and Whisper White.  The stamp set is The Open Sea.  I've hardly used this set at all, so I'm glad Stampin' Up is carrying it over!

Happy stamping!

Starburst ornament

Here's a quick little ornament I made tonight.  I haven't made one of these in a long time, so I was surprised at how fast it went!  This is the tag punch starburst that I made way back in 2007.

Happy stamping!

Occasions/SAB sneak peek

I finally finished my Christmas cards this weekend and got them in the mail!  Whoohoo!  I don't know about you, but I'm tired of Christmas stuff.

I got my new Occasions and SAB preorder about a week and a half ago, but I wasn't able to play until last night.  Here's the quick card I came up with.  The flower stamp and punch are in the Occasions Mini; there are 3 completely different flowers that go with the punch!  The fancy cut edge and matching embossed edge are also made with new products in the Occasions Mini.  I can't wait to use them some more and get the coordinating stamp set!  There are also Framelits that cut out heart and label shapes, and they have coordinating stamp sets too!

The paper, brad and ribbon are from the Sale-A-Bration catalog.  The DSP is one free item, and the ribbon and brads come together as one free item.  The other ribbon that comes with it is Calypso Coral.  The ribbon and brads coordinate with the DSP.

Look for your Occasions Mini and SAB catalogs to arrive in the mail soon!  Happy stamping! 

Creative Crew sketch #2

Here's my "everyday" card using the same sketch and the Holly Berry Bouquet DSP.  You'd never know it was meant to be Christmas paper!  That's a big help to me in my annual quest to use up all of my holiday DSP throughout the year.

I got my Occasions Mini and Sale-a-Bration preorder box this week, so I'm hoping to play this weekend and post some sneak peeks next week!

Happy stamping!

Creative Crew sketch card #1

For this month's Creative Crew challenges, we had sort of a bonus challenge:  all of our projects for the month have to use the same color combo.  Each of us picked a color combo.  Mine is the colors of Holly Berry Bouquet DSP.  Patty also gave us a sketch.  I decided to do 2 versions of the sketch, both using the DSP.  Today I'm posting my Christmas card, and my next post will be a birthday card.  I love that this DSP is so versatile!

Happy stamping!

Scrapbook page for Steph

My stepdaughter is a college sophomore.  This fall, she volunteered at their Weekend of Welcome for incoming freshmen.  As part of that, she was in a cardboard boat race.  The whole boat was made of cardboard and duct tape!  To remember that fun day, I made her a scrapbook page that I framed for her.  To make the letters, I borrowed my friend Rhonda's Cricut.

Here's a close-up of the "filmstrip".  I took a series of pictures of their journey in the water, and I thought this was the perfect way to show them!  I used the retired spiral punch to create the filmstrip effect.

Happy stamping!

Another Christmas card

Here's a Christmas card I made using leftovers.  When I made my previous batch of cards, I cut one layer the wrong size, and I cut 5 of them before I realized it!  I challenged myself to create a card using the piece of DSP without trimming it.  My solution was to cut it into 4 equal parts.  I flipped 2 of them to show the other side of the paper.  I adhered those to a layer of Early Espresso and wrapped vanilla velvet ribbon around the middle.  This is attached to a Wild Wasabi cardbase.  The medallion is silver glimmer paper with a sentiment from Perfect Punches.

Happy stamping!

Non-traditional baby card

I made this card for a co-worker who's having a baby boy.  A girl card would have been easy, but I rarely if ever use Bashful Blue.  I saw this sketch online and thought it would be fun.  It's from Create with Connie and Mary (CCMC176).  It was really hard for me to find DSP that would work.  I think this is stretching it a bit for a baby card, but I like how it turned out.  The DSP is Greenhouse Gala (retired), and the stamp set is called So Many Scallops.  It's a long-retired SAB set.  I used markers to color it.

Happy stamping!

Mama's birthday card

One of the Creative Crew challenges this month is to make an easel card.  I've never made one before, so I was surprised at how easy it was!  SCS has a great tutorial.   I used Baja Breeze on this card because it's Mama's birthday card, and that's her favorite color.  The base is Blushing Bride.  I stamped the Medallion in Baja Breeze and added Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon.  I put silver glimmer paper on the bottom of the inside of the card and punched the eyelet border punch on the card front so you can see the glimmer paper when the card is closed.  The sentiment from Perfect Punches is popped up, and it holds the card open for display.

Here's a close-up of the star of the card!  It's a rosette; pretty fancy, right?  This was featured in the December Stampin' Success magazine, and I had to try it right away!  You won't believe how easy it is.  I started with a 2 X 8 1/2 piece of Shimmery White cardstock.  I scored it every 1/4" (super easy with Simply Scored).  Next, I punched it with the lace ribbon punch.  After punching, I folded it, alternating the folds (mountain, valley, mountain, valley).  I adhered the 2 ends together then opened it to lay "flat".  I scrunched it into position and adhered it to a small circle of cardstock then added an antique brad.

P.S.  It took 3 stamps to mail this to Mama, and I also added a piece of cardboard to the envelope to protect it.  I hope it worked!

Happy stamping!

Workshop projects

Here are the 2 projects we made at Rhonda's workshop Monday night.  They are so fun!

On the left is a punch art Santa that I saw on Dawn Olchefske's blog.  She even posted a picture of all of the pieces!  I love that it uses 6 different punches so I get lots of use out of those things I already have.  We put M&Ms or Smarties into the cello bags.  I folded a punched circle over the top of the bag and stapled it to make sure my candy didn't come out and also to have something to adhere Santa to.

On the right is a nugget purse.  This is from Angie Juda's blog.  Inside is a Hershey's nugget.  We used It's a Wrap Holidays to stamp and wrap an address label around the nugget to dress it up.  The nugget purse measures 5 X 1 1/2, and is scored at 1 1/2, 2 1/2 and 4.  It's a great way to use up scraps, and the Simply Scored board makes it a snap to whip out a bunch of these!

Happy stamping!

One of my Christmas cards this year

Here's one of the Christmas cards I'll be sending this year.  It's mostly based on a card I made previously for a Creative Crew sketch challenge.  I just changed the tag to a layered image.  The stamps used are Contempo Christmas and Perfect Punches.

The card base is Very Vanilla with a Real Red base behind it.  The Holly Berry Bouquet DSP is layered onto Wild Wasabi.  I love the pop of silver glimmer paper behind the sentiment!  The star on the tree is colored with So Saffron and has Dazzling Details on it.

Happy stamping!

Non-traditional Christmas card

Here's my non-traditional Christmas card.  Can you guess why I love it?  First of all I love the colors; no surprise there!  Second, I LOVE the silver glimmer paper.  Can I use it on every card?  I hope so!  Third, I love that it's a simple card but has a few details that add a lot: ticket corner punch, scallop border, embossing on the card front, and Frost White shimmer paint.

The color combo is a dynamic duo: Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant.  The card base is 4 1/4 X 11, scored at 5 1/2.  I ran the card front through the Snowburst embossing folder.  It shortened the front of the card, so I used the scallop border punch on that as well as the Elegant Eggplant layer behind the silver shimmer paper.

I stamped the pine tree in Elegant Eggplant ink onto Wisteria Wonder, then I stamped again with Frost White shimmer paint.

Happy stamping!

CAS sketch card

This week's CAS (clean and simple) challenge was a sketch.  I like sketches because they get me to try new things!

The original card had stripes, so I used Spice Cake DSP for those.  Along with the sentiment, I added 3 little flower.  The tag is covered with images from Printed Petals.  I added some Pool Party ribbon with a chocolate brad.

Happy stamping!

CAS color combo card

Wow, I can't believe how fast fall is flying by!  Life has been so busy that I haven't even stamped for a while.  I'm going to try to schedule weekly stamping time now, so hopefully that will work.  I feel much better when I stamp on a regular basis!

I decided to make a quick card to try to get my stamping mojo back.  I'd written down a color combo: Calypso Coral, Riding Hood Red and Basic Gray.  I used Inspired by Nature much like I have in the past to create a sunset-type card.  I wanted to add a little something to it though.  I had a paper butterfly lying on my desk and decided that would look great with the flowers.  I used vellum so I wouldn't have to figure out what color the butterfly should be, LOL.  I also added a vellum tag for the sentiment with a Basic Gray ribbon bow.

Happy stamping!

Quick and easy stocking stuffer

One of this month's Creative Crew challenges is to create a holiday decoration or gift.  Mine is so quick and easy!  It's a little tin that holds 2 chocolate nuggets. 

The tin is an Altoids Smalls tin.  The tin is already red, so that saves a lot of work!  I traced the tin lid onto Holly Berry Bouquet DSP.  I chose the glittery red striped sheet, and I put the pattern on an angle because it reminded me of a candy cane that way.

The nuggets are wrapped with adhesive address labels (Avery 8160).  I sponged 2 of them with red ink.  I stamped them with the verry merry image from It's a Wrap Holidays in VersaMark.  I embossed them with Pewter EP.  I stamped the same image onto red cardstock and embossed it to create the sentiment on the tin.

Happy stamping!

Faux Mother of Pearl Creative Crew card

Mama was kind enough to share some of her mica flakes with me.  (It's a HUGE container, and I did give her some ribbon in return.)  I wasn't sure how to use them, and then I found this faux mother of pearl technique by Sharon Fields.  I used gold cardstock as I didn't have silver.  I tried shimmery white, and it just doesn't look as good.  I don't think mine looks as nice as hers, but I like how it came out!

One of this month's Creative Crew challenges is to use glitter or something glittery.  I think mica flakes fit the bill!  As usual, I kept the rest of the card pretty simple.  The base is Soft Suede, and I used the houndstooth embossing folder on it.  Always Artichoke seam binding ribbon covers the area where the 2 textures meet.  Lovely as a Tree is stamped in Always Artichoke.  I added some Dazzling Details in the trees and on the grass.  (TIP: Dazzling Details is liquid glitter glue, so it can make regular ink smear.  Dot lightly or work it into your design like I did with the grass.)  I roughed up the edges with the cutter kit and added Always Artichoke and Soft Suede ink.

Happy stamping!

Fall leaves

This week's CAS challenge on SCS was to use leaves.  I just got French Foliage, so that was perfect timing!  At first I was thinking about doing a collage type card or doing clear block stamping, but neither of those ideas came together for me.  (I'm a make-the-card-in-my-head-first stamper.  I'd love to be able to fly by the seat of my pants, but that just never works out for me!)

Finally, I thought of stamping the leaves across the bottom of the card in a border.  Then I decided to emboss them in gold and cut around them on the bottom.  I'm so pleased with how it came out!  (I was going to bleach inside them and color with markers but decided to leave well enough alone.)

I added some water drops in Versamark, Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon and a sentiment from Happy Greetings.  I punched it out with the decorative label punch then pushed the edges into the Versamark pad and embossed with gold EP.

Happy stamping!

Birthday card for Shelli

This birthday card is for my friend Shelli.  I used the color combo challenge from last week on SCS: Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade and Pool Party.  I used the Fine Flourish stamp in black on each color, punched it out with the scallop circle punch, then cut petals.  The card base is 3 1/4 X 6 1/2 Peach Parfait.  The Pool Party DSP is from Spice Cake.  I added brads in each of the colors and a sentiment punched out with the modern label punch.

Happy stamping!

September Creative Crew sketch

Today's card is for the September Creative Crew sketch.  I really like this sketch and card!  I used Contempo Christmas and Perfect Punches here.  The Christmas tree is embossed with the new Pewter EP from the Holiday Mini.  I used a jingle bell for the star.  The card base is Real Red with the DSP layered onto Early Espresso and popped up with dimensionals.  The tag and sentiment are also on dimensionals.  I used both the vanilla velvet ribbon and Early Espresso quilted satin ribbon from the Holiday Mini as accents.

Happy stamping!

CAS color challenge card

I decided to try a challenge last week.  The color challenge was Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Cajun Craze.  Perfect for fall!

The card base is So Saffron.  First, I created the sun.  I punched a 1 1/4" circle out of a Post-It note.  I put the Post-It on the card base and sponged So Saffron.  Then I covered that circle with the punched-out piece and sponged Cajun Craze around the edge of it.  I inked up the trees stamp with Always Artichoke.  It was hard to tell what the color was, so I used an aquapainter and some extra ink to add color and dimension to the hills.  I added the sentiment, a base layer of Cajun Craze and Always Artichoke seam binding ribbon to complete the card.

Happy stamping!

Fun Stampin' Mist technique

This is the other project from my last workshop.  I learned this technique when I was at Dawn Olchefske's demonstrator meeting a few months ago.

First, sponge ink all over your cardstock.  Here I sponged Early Espresso onto Very Vanilla.  Second, spray your stamp generously with Stampin' Mist.  I used Medallion.  Third, press your stamp firmly onto your inked cardstock.  I pressed for a few seconds to really make an impression on the paper.  Fourth, heat the paper until it's dry.  I found that heating both sides of the paper helped cut down on the paper warping.  (My mom didn't heat set hers, and she said it didn't work too well.)

There's something in the Stampin' Mist that seems to bleach the ink, and pressing the stamp gives the image a dry embossed effect.  It's very cool!

I kept the card really simple to focus on the technique plus I wanted it to be masculine.When I initially added the twill tape, there was too much contrast with the rest of the card.  Ray asked if I had any twill tape the color of the cardbase, so that gave me the idea to sponge Crumb Cake ink onto it.  He was really happy to have helped me, but now he's afraid I'm going to try to make him start stamping, LOL!

Happy stamping!

Sour cream container

If you're of  a "certain age," you may recall a time when you ordered a baked potato and sour cream came in these little rectangular containers.  These were all the rage a few years ago, and I decided to demonstrate them again this month.  The container shown above started life as a 4 X 6 piece of Paisley Petals DSP, but it would be easy to change the size of the container by changing the size of the DSP.  I chose 4 X 6 because you can get SIX from one sheet of DSP!  If you'd like to know how to make the sour cream container, keep reading!

First, choose which side of the DSP you want to show on the outside.  Put a piece of sticky strip along the short edge of the side you want to show.  Pull off the red liner and adhere the other short edge, forming a tube.  Second, flatten one end of the tube.  Seal it with sticky strip.  Third, flatten the other end of the tube at a 90-degree angle to the first end.  **Don't seal it until after you fill it with goodies!  (Carol Duvall would say to use $50 gold pieces, LOL!)  Believe it or not, this container holds 8 Starburst.  Fourth, seal the second end after filling the container.  Fifth, crimp both ends.  Two clicks of the crimper handle does the trick.  Optional:  Add an adorable tag using Pretty Postage and the postage and extra-large tag punches.

Happy stamping!

Daniel's birthday card

One of this month's Creative Crew challenges is to use Timeless Portrait DSP or its colors: Very Vanilla, River Rock, Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black.  I don't have the DSP, but I thought the colors would be perfect for a birthday card for Daniel.  He will be 22 tomorrow.  Wow, that's hard to believe!  Obviously, my card doesn't look anything like the DSP, but I really like it!

I used Extreme Elements and all of the colors to create my own background.  I used the new pewter embossing powder from the Holiday Mini for the pirate.  I thought about adding some ribbon but decided that I liked it just the way it is!

Happy stamping!

Pauline's card

Pauline made this gorgeous card on Saturday.  Actually, she made 4 of this card!  She almost always does that.  What a great idea!

This card uses the Artistic Etchings stamp set and retired DSP.  The colors are Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red and Basic Black.  Another great tip from Pauline: She writes the colors in the DSP on the back of the package!

The finishing touches to this card are Basic Black satin ribbon and the new Pewter embossing powder.  So elegant!

Happy stamping!