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

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

Ribbon Stem Flower

Today's card was inspired by some ribbon weaving I saw online. Thought it would be nice to create a flower stem with it. Have a look:

Paper: So Saffron, Whisper White, Island Indigo, Calypso Coral
Ink: Calypso Coral, More Mustard, So Saffron
Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Petite Pairs
Tools: Big Shot, Apothecary Accents, Paper Piercing Pack, Modern Label, Blossom Punch
Accessories: Ribbon (retired), Brights Button

The base and layer with the Apothecary Accents Framelit is pretty self explanatory. For the flowers, I stamped the flowers from Fabulous Florets in Calypso Coral ink on Whisper White. I then used my Blender Pen with Calypso Coral, More Mustard and So Saffron ink to get the desired look I wanted. To make my flowers larger so that the proportions would look right with the stem and the card, I punched two flowers in Calypso Coral using my Blossom Punch. Placing the punch behind my stamped flower, I started to bend and fold the petals to align better with the image. For the smaller flower, I cut each of the five petals and glued them behind. I think I achieved the look I was going for.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Patio Butterflies

I was honoured to be asked to be a Guest Designer for Sunday Stamps this week! I've enjoyed playing along for the last several challenges and look forward to many more. Here is this week's sketch and my design:

Paper: Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, Patio Party DSP
Stamps: Fabulous Florets
Ink: Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit
Accessories: Jewels, Midnight Muse Satin Stitched Ribbon
Tools: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit

When I saw the butterflies in the sketch, I immediately thought of all those tiny butterflies in the Patio Party DSP. To add a little interest (and it's hard to tell in the photos), I stamped the large leaf image from the Fabulous Florets set in VersaMark, covered it in clear embossing powder and heated it. After all was dry, I got out my Brayer and brayered Midnight Muse ink all over the DSP. This allowed my leaf image to pop because the butterflies that were captured behind the clear embossing powder stayed lighter and you can still see the rest of the DSP, although darker, under the brayered ink. Cool, eh?!

I mounted the DSP on some Summer Starfruit card stock and punched a border in the same colour with my Scallop Trim border punch. I also added some Midnight Muse Stitched Satin Ribbon for more texture. I used my Beautiful Wings embosslit to get all the butterflies and scattered them across the front - I saved the largest one for inside the card. For the sentiment, I stamped one of the floral images in Summer Starfruit on Summer Starfruit card stock, added some Dazzling Diamonds to the center and stamped the sentiment from Petite Pairs in the center in Midnight Muse ink. Then I fussy-cut the flower out and popped it up with Dimensionals.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Never Done This Before...

I created a card that works for THREE challenges this week! Now that's a challenge! :) The card I designed works for the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, the colour combo at The Paper Players and the picture inspiration over at Stampin' Royalty. Here are the details:

For my card, I switched the sketch layout from Freshly Made to portrait instead of landscape and shifted the focal box slightly to one side. I kept within the colour scheme from The Paper Players and from the picture inspiration at Stampin' Royalty, I went with the floral and vintage/cottage feel. Here is my card:

Paper: Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Everyday Enchantment DSP
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight
Stamps: Fabulous Florets
Accessories: Vintage Brad
Tools: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

I started by embossing the Whisper White card base with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. I choose two patterns from the SAB Everyday Enchantment DSP pack and mounted them on Calypso Coral card stock. Next, I stamped the large leafy image from Fabulous Florets in Lucky Limeade, once, on Whisper White card stock. The rest of the images are also from the same stamp set. I stamped each on Whisper White as well and fussy-cut them all out. I layered them using Tombow and Dimensionals so that certain parts would pop-up to give added texture and dimension. To add even more depth to the flower I stamped in Calypso Coral, I cut it out three times in different sections of the image. I popped up each layer with Dimensionals again to give it a 3D look. I added a Vintage Brad to finish things up - perfect fit, I think!

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Lovely Flowers, Meet Fabulous Florets

I just love flowers, and the Fabulous Florets stamp set is one of my all time favs! I paired the stamp set with some of the Lovely Flowers DSP from the (retired) Hostess pack. That DSP just has such a beautiful and colourful array of floral images. I decided to fuse the two together and this is what I came up with:

I decided to keep this card blank both inside and out. Perhaps I'll add a sentiment later on if I need it, but for now, I didn't want to detract from the focal flowers on the front. I think this card could work for just about any occasion anyway...

I stamped the leaf image from Fabulous Florets in Old Olive on top of the two Old Olive DSP strips. The back of that DSP paper had Melon Mambo with tiny polka dots. How fabulous are Old Olive and Melon Mambo together, eh?! Next, I stamped a floral image from the same stamp set on to Melon Mambo card stock and cut them out. I flicked up the sides of the flowers to give them a 3D look and finished them off by adding a jewel to the centers.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Battle of the Demos

Ok, not really. But our Demo group, lead by our fabulous leader, Leena Girsa of A La Cards had a "back to basics" challenge that I just loved! Here's what we were given:

• Two pieces of DSP:  4x6 and 2x6
• Whisper White CS 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"
• Rich Razzleberry 4 1/4 x 5 1/2
• Tempting Turquoise 4 1/4 x 5 1/2
• Daffodil Delight 4 x 5 1/4 and 2 x 5 1/4
• Island Indigo 4 x 51/4
• Real Red 2 1/2 x 5 1/2
• Tangerine Tango 2 1/2 x 5 1/2
• Card Bases in Real Red, Lucky Limeade and Whisper White
• 12" of Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon
• 16" of Daffodil Delight seam binding ribbon
• 18" of Lucky Limeade baker's twine
• 5 brights buttons
• 2 glimmer brads

The goal was to create as many projects from the supplies - no BIG SHOT, but we could use any stamps and punches we had in our possession. I admit, I was stuck for a long while because I absolutely love using the Big Shot and just felt lost without it. I just didn't think I could create a "wow" factor without it. Finally, I told myself just to start cutting and it wasn't long before I got down to business.

Here's what I came up with:

What do you think? I'm sure you've noticed that humming bird again! :)

We had to make at least 2 full cards, and in addition to that, I made 2 bottle tags, 1 bookmark, 5 teeny tiny gift tags, 1 mini card, 2 mini tags and 1 "scrapling". That's 14 projects!

I urge you to give this a try. It's lots of fun and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish when you go "back to the basics".

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph