One more pirate

This card was inspired by a VSN challenge although I didn't get it made in time to submit it.  The challenge was to make a tough but girly card.  I embossed the pirate image in black and sprinkled on Dazzling Diamonds while it was still warm.  The card base is shimmery white with a back layer of Concord Crush.  The front of the card has a layer of Basic Black topped with Bride DSP sponged with Concord Crush.  I added Basic Black satin ribbon and the decorative label punch as well.

Happy stamping!

Embossed pirate

The theme of VSN was pirates.  I didn't make this card for VSN, but VSN did get me thinking about my much-loved, seldom-used Beware Pirates stamp set.

Sorry for the bad photo; I couldn't get the lighting right for you to see the embossing.  The image is embossed with a mixture of silver and gold embossing powder!  (I tried black and Irridescent Ice EP together too.  Yuck!)

The image is stamped on black, matted on gold.  The card base is Whisper White with a back mat of black.  The DSP is long-retired and sprayed with gold Smooch Spritz.

Happy stamping!

New home thank-you cards

Here are the thank-you notes I made last Friday night.  All of them feature the Welcome Neighbors DSP pack (from last year's SAB), Crumb Cake cardstock, Pretty Postage stamp set, postage stamp punch and retired In Color polka dot grosgrain ribbon.

Happy stamping!

Baby thank-you cards

 My pastor's wife is having a baby soon, so I made her some thank you notes.  We had craft night on Friday night, and I made 18 cards!  Whoohoo!  Ten were thank you cards for them moving into their new home (I'll show those on Wednesday).  I made 6 of the card above and 2 of the card below.
Both cards feature Springtime Vintage DSP from the Occasions Mini, Hodgepodge Happiness stamp set, seam binding ribbon, and 2 punches: ticket corner and designer label.

Happy stamping!

Confirmation card

Our youngest was confirmed a few weeks ago.  We're finally celebrating, and here's the card I made for her.  I used the color combo from Beate's VSN Pirate Party challenge: aqua, light green and kraft.  My card is Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz and Crumb Cake.

I thought the compass and globe stamps from the Open Sea stamp set would work well with the sentiment I chose from Word Play.  The card base is Crumb Cake topped with Presto Patterns DSP sponged with Baja Breeze.  The sentiment is stamped in Baja Breeze and Pear Pizzazz on a 2 X 3 piece of Whisper White.  The globe is stamped multiple times in Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz and Crumb Cake on a 2 1/2 X 3 3/4 piece of Whisper White, and I ran it through the Big Shot in the Square Lattice embossing folder.  I used the ticket corner punch on all of the layers.  The compass is stamped in Soft Suede on Crumb Cake and punched with the 1 1/4" circle.  I added spinner hands after clipping off the round end.

Happy stamping!

Vintage distressed baby card

My pastor's wife is having a baby soon, and her baby shower is Wednesday.  This is the card I made.  It's not babyish, but the card's really for the mom, right?  She's having a girl, so I chose Blushing Bride as the main color.  I kept the rest of the card neutral so I could use it for this month's Creative Crew color challenge: neutral with a splash of color.
I also wanted the card to be distressed and vintage-y.  (Distressing is one of the other challenges this month, plus I just got the distressing kit and haven't used it yet.)  A month or so ago, I used Diana Gibbs' tutorial to create the piece on the bottom half of the card.  I think she called it Bisque Pottery.  You ink the emobssing folder with Crumb Cake and then run it through the Big Shot with vanilla cardstock in it.  Cool look isn't it?  The top piece is a retired DSP.  Sorry I don't remember the name.  It was just black and white, so I sponged it with Blushing Bride and then Crumb Cake.  Adding the Crumb Cake made all the difference!  Each of those 2 pieces is 1 7/8 X 5.  The black layer is 4 X 5 1/4, and the card base is Blushing Bride.
The black scalloped piece started out 1 1/2 X 5 1/2 before punching with the scallop border punch.  Then I used one of the files in the distressing kit to distress all of the scalloped edges.
For the flower, I ran First Edition DSP and Blushing Bride cardstock through the Big Shot.  Next, I sprayed each flower with water and crumpled them all up.  I let them sit about 5 minutes, and then I opened them up and dried them with the heat gun.  (Be careful!  They can burn; one of my DSP flowers is scorched, which you can see if you look closely.)  After they were dry, I used the solid stamp from the distressing kit to apply Blushing Bride ink to all of the flowers.  By rubbing it straight across each flower, it only hit the high spots, highlighting the wrinkles.  I layered them all together, adhering as I went so the flower would stay straight.  I used the paper piercer to punch a hole through the whole flower for the antique brad.  I used 2 pop up glue dots to adhere the flower to the card.
Below is a close-up of the flower that also has a good view of the bisque pottery technique.

Happy stamping!

Here's my masculine card using the sketch from Monday.  I just love it!  I don't use Beware Pirates nearly as often as I should.  I also used another piece of Jolly Holiday DSP, which is one of my goals for the SU catalog year.  Whoohoo!

I used a Basic Black marker to color the pearls before I added them to the card, and I heat set the color.

Supplies: Stamps: Beware Pirates; Paper: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Jolly Holiday DSP; Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black marker, black StazOn; Accessories: pearls

Happy stamping!

Feminine/masculine challenge part 1

One of this month's Creative Crew challenges is to create both a feminine and a masculine card using the same sketch.  I decided that I wanted my two cards to look completely different from each other (besides the sketch of course).  For the sketch, I decided to CASE my feminine card from Julie Davison.  I changed up the colors a little and used a punched border instead of a ripped border.  The stamp set is Strength and Hope from the Summer Mini.  For each stamp set sold, Stampin' Up! is donating $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!

Come back Wednesday to see my masculine card.

Supplies: Stamps: Strength and Hope; Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush, Lap of Luxury DSP; Accessories: eyelet border punch, pearls

Happy stamping!

Fun stamping day!

On Saturday, I got up at 5AM to drive down to the Cities and hang out with my stamping friends Laurie Zoellmer and Dawn Olchefske. Dawn was kind enough to let me attend her downline event, and it was amazing! We made 16 cards using Summer Mini stamp sets. (OK, I didn't finish 4 of them, but I will, I promise!)

Here is the card Laurie made for swaps. She gave me one even though I didn't swap! I'm sure you already visit their blogs, but here's where to find them in case you missed them somehow: Laurie's Stampin' Spot and DOstamping with Dawn.

Happy stamping!