Sunday Stamps SSC73

We've got a sweet colour combo over at Sunday Stamps for the next two weeks - Tempting Turquoise, Pink Pirouette & Smokey Slate.

I typically would never combine pink and blue on a baby card, but I just love the way this turned out! I've been in a "use what I have" kick lately. I cut the sentiment on my e-cutter YEARS AGO (now you know I save everything!) and when I came across these cutouts, I knew I had to use them. Next, I chose a stamp set I never used a lot when it was current, but there must be a reason I keep it around, right? So I used it! I didn't want to use a lot of other products, so I accented with punches and scattered some jewels.

Hope you'll get a chance to play along with us. We always love seeing what people create. Don't forget to check out the other Design Team members for inspiration... and leave them some love too!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Smokey Slate
Stamps: Baby Boutique (retired), Cuddles & Kisses
Tools: Postage Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Scallop Circle Punch
Accessories: Jewel Rhinestones
Challenge: Sunday Stamps

Falling Leaves

It's the countdown to Thanksgiving here in Canada, so as you may have noticed already, I've been showcasing fall and Thanksgiving cards this week. :) It's my favourite time of year!

I used the masking tape technique for this card. I think it's a perfect fit! It created a rustic-looking base layer to my card. I used my oh-so-favourite, but sadly retired, French Foliage stamp set and then added some burlap for added texture. Truth be told, it was added to cover up a sentiment I didn't like. :) I'm glad to have made that mistake because the burlap really works for me. It give the card a lot of texture and dimension, plus, the smaller sentiment works better than what I previously used.

If you're interested in purchasing this card (and seeing more pictures of it), you can do so here.

Until next time, stay crafty!

Steph

RECIPE
Paper: Naturals White, Chocolate Chip
Stamps: French Foliage (retired), Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Decorative Label Punch, Distressing Tool
Accessories: Brads, 1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon
Techniques: Masking Tape, Distressing

Fancy Wedding

Sometimes I create cards that are truly unique and "one of a kind" because for one reason or another, I wouldn't be able to create an exact replica. Today's card is an example of that (and you'll see why below)... Check it out:

Paper: Very Vanilla
Ink: Soft Suede, Baja Breeze
Stamps: Sweet Essentials, One in a Million
Tools: Big Shot, Fancy Fan TIEF, Decorative Label Punch
Accessories: Pleated Ribbon (retired), Antique Brad

The beauty of this card is that the flower is created from some tulle I saved from another wedding (that had mints in it). I reused the piece of tulle by punching out some scallops and folding them in fourths to create my flower. I then simply added some pleated ribbon and the sentiment and the card was complete.

This card will never be created again because I do not have the tulle anymore and although I managed to punch some scallops from the tulle, it was a real pain & wasted a lot of it trying to get good punches. I love how this card turned out, but it's not worth it to try and recreate it. :)

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Best Wishes for Sunday Stamps

Well, better late than never... right?! This post is way late for Sunday Stamps this week, but if you saw my post the other day, you'll know why. :)

Holly had a great colour combo challenge for us this week and here is my design:

Paper: Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Black
Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Sincere Salutations (retired)
Tools: Big Shot, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Lacy Brocade TIEF,
Decorative Label Punch

I used one of my all-time favourite sets - Fabulous Florets, along with another favourite, but retired set, Sincere Salutations. I just can't get rid of that one because I love the font and the greetings.

I don't know why, but the colour combo spoke "wedding" to me, so I created a card that could be used for a wedding or a shower. Heck, it could even be used for an anniversary. I didn't add much "bling" to the card, but instead, fussy-cut and popped up many of the flowers for dimension and embossed for some texture.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

It's a Colour Challenge Over at Sunday Stamps!

I'm the host this week and I've got a great colour challenge waiting for you over at Sunday Stamps! There's also some fantastic inspiration, as always, from the lovely Design Team. We'd love for you to check us out and play along! Here's my creation this week...

Paper: Perfect Plum, Crumb Cake, Print Poetry DSP Stack
Ink: Raspberry Ripple
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Big Shot, TIEF's: Perfect Polka Dots & Vintage Wallpaper,
Fun Flowers Bigz Die,
Punches: Heart to Heart, Word Window & Decorative Label
Accessories: Neutrals Brad, Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I had "love" on my mind when I chose this colour combo... and it just so happened that I needed an anniversary card, so that's what I created. I kept my card base a solid colour because I went bold with the DSP choices. LOVE the new Print Poetry DSP Stack in the Spring Catalogue!

For a little more texture, I added some Seam Binding Ribbon to the sides of my DSP panel and embossing to the card base, label & hearts.

Hope you like it and get inspired by the Design Team to play along this week! We can't wait to see what you design!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

A Two Fer

I had a small moment to craft last night... (I've got a sickie toddler at home) and decided to make a card for two challenges that caught my eye. The Friday Mashup and Retro Sketches, which is a new one to me. Here's my card:

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Black
Stamps: Hello Doily, Fabulous Florets, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Decorative Label Punch
Accessories: Masking Tape, Vintage Brads, Mini Stars (from stash)

So, over the weekend I was perusing the web and came across a Blogger who said she used the "masking tape technique". I had no idea what that was, so I did a little Google search. There were many great ideas, but I decided to ink up a stamp and then use masking tape to transfer the image to the sticky side and tape it down to a sheet of whisper white.

Before gluing it down to my card base, I sponged it with Raspberry Ripple and stamped some of the floral images from Fabulous Florets in the same colour. I added a fussy-cut flower with a Vintage Brad a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Hope you like my card... why don't you play along with the challenges too?! They're tons of fun and get your creative juices flowing!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

No Peeking!

I just love the little characters from the No Peeking stamp set! Today I created a card with the cute penguin...

Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Gumball Green, Black, Peach Parfait
Stamps: No Peeking
Tools: Punches - Scallop Circle, Decorative Label, Scallop Oval
Accessories: Early Espresso Baker's Twine

To go with the "no peeking" sentiment, I made my card look like a brown package tied up with string. I punched a peek through window for my penguin, which I coloured using Stampin' Write Markers so that I could get multiple colours on one stamp. I used the same technique for the sentiment.

Pretty simple, but so darn cute...

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Double Whammy

I'm back with another Friday Mashup card and a custom card I did for a customer recently. First, I'll briefly chat about The Friday Mashup!

This week's challenge is entitled "Boys Will Be Boys". The "Mashup" Challenge is to either:
1. Make a project for "that special man in your life",
2. Make a project with the "sketch":

3. Or, "Mash it Up" and create a "masculine card using the above sketch".

I decided to "Mash it Up".

I chose to do a simpler card using the Tool Shed stamp from Stampin' Up! It's hard to tell in the picture (sorry about that!), but the first layer is embossed foil - cool, eh?! Then I've popped up each layer after that with dimensionals. Each layer is layered perfectly so that you get the entire image of the stamp, even though the image was stamped 3 separate times. The final layer is also layered on foil. I added a simple sentiment and some wire accented with a "screw" brad.

What do you think?

I recommend checking out The Friday Mashup to see all the other creations from the same sketch and maybe try doing a challenge yourself. They're tons of fun!

Next...

A couple of weeks ago I was commissioned to do a custom card for a barber's 60th birthday. The client wanted something "barber themed" and this is what I came up with:

Again, the background is embossed and I created a barber poll as the focal point. Again, hard to tell from the picture (sorry!), but I popped up a sheet of acetate to give the whole thing a 3D look. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and so is the client... which is what counts!


What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

The Bashful Blues

A while back I designed a few wedding invitations for some clients. They really liked Bashful Blue with white. They fell in love with one design in particular and before I knew it, I was making 170 of them! Here is what the final result looked like:

 

There was lots of embossing and cutting to be done! This invite was very time consuming... I don't know what I was thinking when I designed them, but I'm sure you can agree that they came out beautifully with lots of WOW factor. :) Unfortunately, aside from the Bashful Blue & Whisper White, not much else is SU! The client fell in love with the embossing folder used on the front of the invite (also used behind the invitation itself) and SU! doesn't have any fancy decorative embossing borders that would work with this invitation.


Now that you have a little background information on the wedding invitations, you'll understand my theme for the 100 thank you cards I just completed for the couple. I really couldn't commit to doing the same card 100 times, so I made several different designs. I also added in some neutral colour tones to the colour scheme and here are the finished cards:

 Stamps: Baroque Motifs (retiring May 31st), Sincere Salutations (retiring May 31st)

Stamps: Baroque Motifs (retiring May 31st), Perfect Punches

Stamps: Sincere Salutations (retiring May 31st)

Stamps: Papaya Collage (NEW for 12/13!), Tiny Tags

Stamps: Sincere Salutations (retiring May 31st), One of a Kind (RETIRED)

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Stamps: Baroque Motifs (retiring May 31st), Elizabeth (retiring May 31st), Perfect Punches

 

 Stamps: Sincere Salutations (retiring May 31st), Faith in Nature, Hostess Set (retiring May 31st)

The majority of materials used for these cards was SU! However, I did manage to get rid of some non SU! ribbon I had kicking around (slowly I'm switching over to all SU! product because it's far superior to other brands!) and also some retired SU! product I had too.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph