Colour Challenge for Sunday Stamps!

Welcome to another week at Sunday Stamps! This week we've got a colour challenge - Cherry Cobbler (red), Daffodil Delight (yellow), Pumpkin Pie (orange) & Tempting Turquoise (blue)... neutrals are also always welcome, should you choose.

This one was tough for me! Not just the colour combo, but also because I was challenging myself not to make a Fall or Thanksgiving card (these colours were screaming me to do so!).

A while back I did many posts around buttons, and today I went back to them again. I knew I still had some of these colours in there. I added some jewels to them (because who doesn't love bling?!) and placed them on top of some punched butterflies.

After stamping the butterflies on the base layer, I embossed it with the Honeycomb TIEF for some added interest. After all was glued, I felt like it needed something else. I remembered seeing a project with baker's twine and I thought that would be a nice touch. Turns out I was right!

Hope you'll be able to play along with us. I know you the colour scheme may be tough, but I hope you'll challenge yourself. That's what this is all about anyway, right?! Don't forget to check out the other DT Member Blogs and link up before October 31st!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph


RECIPE:
Paper: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight & Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Kinda Eclectic
Tools: Big Shot, Honeycomb TIEF, Bitty Butterfly & Butterfly Punches
Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Buttons, Jewels
Challenge: Sunday Stamps

Paper Pumpkin - August 2014 Kit

Are you a Paper Pumpkin subscriber? If not, it's so much fun and I encourage you to join! I love the kits, but always challenge myself to design more with it. I'm a bit behind, but today I wanted to share with you the August 2014 kit. Here's a video of what you got and what you were suppose to make. :)

These are the only cards I made that were similar to the featured projects:

The trick for creating many more projects with a kit is to be willing to cut up any pieces you get - I cut up card bases and envelopes to be able to accomplish what you'll see below. In this particular kit, you received four striped card bases... just cutting those in half and mounting on plain card stock would give you eight cards.

These cards use other stamp sets and punches, but I used the "garbage" pieces from the circle punch outs that people would normally throw away. I utilized them as part of my design!

I used two card bases from the kit, cut them in half and strategically used some Framelits to cut pieces for three different card designs, making four of each of these cards:

This one also uses a "garbage" piece - the piece that was left behind from the banners included in the kit. I cut it into quarters, covered the first three banner punch-outs and used the fourth as part of my design. :)

The majority of the circles (that were meant for all the envelope closures), I used to make flowers.

I cut this laser-cut "congrats" down a bit, backed it with part of a pink envelope, added a small scallop border to the bottom and then fussy cut a heart that was meant to be a small note card (you can see that heart in the card following this one).

The kit included eight shaped mini cut out pieces (i.e. the heart below) and four mini card bases. Like the larger card bases, I cut them in half and used them in various ways.

When my husband saw this card, he said "why would you make a card that says "hell". But you can see that the flower is an 'o', right?! I brayered the white piece with the laser-cut "hello" in it and then die-cut it with my Ovals Framelits (the negative was used on the inside).

All in all, I've made 36 full cards (so far)! 

Yes I know, I used other tools, stamps & card stock, but I really made these pieces from the kit go far! Plus, look at all the pieces I still have to work with. I'm thinking I can get another eight cards made with these leftovers. :)

Hope you've enjoyed the inspiration! I always love reading the comments.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Create a Gift Bag from a Magazine!

I've been toying with many ideas for bags I can use to package my products in after a sale. I've always used paper bags, both for the environment and to promote/coincide with my paper goods. When I could avoid to do so, I reused bags instead of purchasing them and have used everything from spiced-up brown lunch bags to kraft bags to my DSP bags found here. This is a new venture for me - bags created from old magazines… and what better magazine than the oh-so-inspirational catalogues from Stampin' Up! ?! :)

This is certainly not a new idea, but this bag design is all me. It uses two catalogue pages and I don't even want to admit how many pages I went through before I finally designed something that worked and that I liked!

Three important factors I needed in my design - that it folded flat (for transporting & storage), it was sturdy enough to hold a good amount of product & that it was still 100% recyclable if the recipient didn't want to hang on to it (no staples!).

I'm just so thrilled with my what I came up with. I'm excited that I don't have to just throw all my old magazines into the recycling bin and that I can both advertise my Stampin' Up! business and my love for paper good products with this packaging.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Blendabilities for Sunday Stamps

Welcome to another challenge at Sunday Stamps! This time around we've got a great sketch for you and I think you'll agree it'll be one you'll use again and again!

A long time ago, I did a series on using up scraps and had made up a bunch of card fronts using strips of DSP to create a herringbone design. There were a few where I only used half a card front and did this sketch scream for me to use those pieces or what?!

For the other half, I embossed a piece of Naturals Ivory CS with the Honeycomb TIEF. Once those pieces were glued to the front, I popped up my flower that I colored using some of the skin tone assortment of Blendabilities.

I actually stamped the middle part of the flower separately and popped that up as well. Behind the flower I added a few leaves from a retired Sizzlet and then finished things off with a bitty butterfly and some jewels coloured with the same blendas. :)

Hope I've inspired you to play along with us this week! Check out what the other DT members have done and then link up your design by October 17th.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph


RECIPE:
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Various DSP
Ink: Memento Black Ink
Stamps: Blended Bloom
Tools: Bitty Butterfly Punch, Skin Tone Blendabilities, Little Leaves Sizzlet, Big Shot
Accessories: Jewels
Challenge: Sunday Stamps

DSP Butterflies

Today is a very simple card and a quick post - one that has been sitting in my "drafts" for months now. :)

Using scraps of DSP (Designer Series Paper), I punched using the two butterfly punches from Stampin' Up!. I wasn't concerned about which patterns to use, I just punched and glued two different patterns together. There really wasn't a match that didn't work.

After embossing my card layer with the Honeycomb TIEF, I adhered my butterflies and added some pearls for extra texture and interest.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph


RECIPE:
Paper: Naturals, Very Vanilla, Various DSP Scraps
Tools: Big Shot, Honeycomb TIEF, Butterfly Punches
Accessories: Pearls