Groovy Blooms

This will be the last post for another while as I am going to be going back to Calgary for my bridal shower then coming home to work a lot! So hopefully you'll stay with me!

This card is going to a special cause to help raise money for the Alzheimer's Association. Jen Tapler is helping to raise money for this cause, a cause close to her heart, by auctioning off boxes/tins of cards and donating the money to help Alzheimer research. You can read more about her cause here. You can win some great prizes for helping Jen with this cause by making cards but most importantly you can help make a difference!This is a simple, but elegant, looking card that I created with the colour combo of groovy guava and chocolate chip - which I love together. To get this look, I stamped the whole image in groovy guava then used my SU chocolate chip marker to colour the stem. Then I "huffed" on the stamp and set it.

Supplies

Stamps: SU Eastern Blooms, Short & Sweet
Ink: SU groovy guava, chocolate chip
Paper: SU groovy guava, ww, chocolate chip
Ribbon: SU 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain, groovy guava
Misc: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

Egg-stra Special Box

I decided that I've hoarded on to this PTI just hatched egg box long enough and it's about time I decorated it. The Verve Project Parade gave me the inspiration I needed to actually get around to it. I love the way this project came out. The colours are so fun and perfect for Spring and Easter. I used Mod Podge to adhere all of the papers to the box. I don't know how people seem to do it without any bubbles but I can't seem to do it! There must be a trick or something I don't know about or I'm just not patient enough when trying to get them all out! The flowers are held in place using glue dots.

I lined the edge of the lid with 5/8" certainly celery grosgrain and then added an extra layer of 1/4" pretty in pink grosgrain on top of that. They are all held in place with Scor Tape. The rough edges of the ribbon line up at one of the corners of the lid so they aren't very noticeable. Here is a quick view of the inside of the box as well as the underside of the lid. They too are all lined with paper using Mod Podge.

Finally, here is a good overhead view of the eggs inside the egg tray in the box. I wasn't able to get my circle punch to fit over the cardboard tray once it was lined with paper so I used my hobby blade to cut the circles out where the eggs sit.

I finished it off with some plastic eggs that I found at the $1 store in packs of 12. There were tons of different colours now too, so this could be altered to work with any colour scheme. Now I just have to fill the eggs with some candy!

Supplies

Box: PTI Just Hatched Box
Paper: SU Spring Fling dp (retired)
Ribbon: SU 5/8" certainly celery grosgrain, 1/4" pretty in pink grosgrain
Flowers: Heidi Swapp (large) and Prima (small)
Brad: Making Memories
Misc: Scor-tape, hobby blade, Mod Podge, foam brush, plastic eggs

Oasis Dream

I don't know what the rest of you are like when you craft, but I never clean as I go. I wish that I did, but I never do. So, as I was finally cleaning up the other day, I saw my Dream A Little stamp set and thought I would pull it out and use a stamp I have not yet inked up. These colours are just fabulous together. I stamped the main image in Basic Black ink on Kraft paper and then again on Baja Breeze paper. Then I cut the Baja Breeze flower buds and glued them on the Kraft paper.

Supplies

Stamp: SU Dream A Little (hostess), Circle of Friendship (retired)
Ink: SU basic black, Baja breeze
Paper: SU Kraft, ww, Baja Breeze, Basic Black, urban oasis dp
Ribbon: SU baja breeze
Punches: SU 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

Colour Challenge Indeed

Well, I had intended to make this card for colour challenge CC210 on SCS, however it challenged me so much I entirely forgot about one of the colours (Kraft) so now it doesn't qualify! But I still consider it a part of the challenge because I was inspired by the other colours. Oh well, I took inspiration from my card yesterday and wanted to give it another look using different colours. So I swapped yesterdays colours for riding hood red, summer sun and basic black. It turned out ok, but not great. I definitely like yesterdays card MUCH better.

I also don't own brads in any of those colours (well I do black but they are not SU and I wanted to create and SU only card) so I subsituted the brads for 1/2" circles instead.

Supplies

Stamps: SU fifth avenue floral, pocket silhouettes
Ink: StazOn jet black, riding hood red, summer sun
Paper: SU ww, basic black, summer sun, riding hood red
Punches: SU 1/2" circle punch

Multi-Inspired Card

This card is definitely not a combination of colours that I would typically use but I absolutely love the way it turned out. I was looking around the SCS colour challenges for inspiration and ways to actually use purple (since I never do) and came across colour challengeCC207, and thought it was stunning (I realize there is no purple but it also uses colours I never use).

When I was looking in the gallery for this particular colour challenge I saw this card that Jodi created (whose blog you HAVE to check out - it is AMAZING). If I could make myself stamp like anyone it would be her! SO I took this card and ran with it as inspiration changing a few of the details to make it my own, but maintaining the general sketch therefore qualifying for Mojo75.I just love the way the flower turned out on this card. It's even better than I had planned. I stamped the image in StazOn jet black so that when I coloured it with my markers the colours wouldn't run. Then, I coloured the flower petals with my SU Summer sun marker and then added some shading with my pumpking pie marker. Finally, the center of the flower was coloured using my blender pens and kiwi kiss ink.

Supplies

Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Floral, Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: StazOn jet black, SU summer sun, pumpkin pie, kiwi kiss
Paper: SU basic black, ww, summer sun, pumpkin pie, hawaii papaya dp
Brads: SU pumpkin pie brads
Punches: SU scallop edge punch

SC220 Basic Baja Thanks

I spent a few hours today making cards as I feel like I've been going through withdrawl since I've not had the chance to make any cards for the last few weeks!

I created this card for todays sketch challenge over on SCS, SC220. I absolutely love the way this card turned out.This is one of my new favourite colour combos - baja breeze and basic gray. Makes me wish baja breeze would be sticking around longer but come the new catalogue it will be gone (guess I'll have to stock up in advance)!

I tried something new on this card as well. I'd seen this kind of colouring done on flowers before but had not actually tried it myself until now. I love how it makes the center of the flower darker and the petals get lighter towards the outside. To create this effect, I used my sponge dauber in my baja breeze ink then started in the center of the flower and pulled my dauber out to the edges. Then I used my blender pens in the Baja Breeze ink to colour in the edges of the petals darker. I can't wait to try this effect with other colours where the shading will be more noticable.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are going to try this technique you should use StazOn ink for the outline so it doesn't smudge.

Also, I've been asked a few times about what the inside of my cards look like. So here is the inside of this card. I have to admit, I don't often do something on the inside, but I had an extra flower so I thought I may as well!Supplies

Stamps: SU Embrace Life, Full of Life (dormant list)
Ink: SU basic gray, baja breeze, StazOn Jet Black
Paper: SU ww, basic gray, baja breeze, urban garden dp
Misc: SU white Signo gel pen, Heidi Swapp bling, sponge daubers, blender pens

Sweet Valentine Wedding Invitations

Sorry I have been MIA, I've been working just about every day for the last two weeks to get some extra $ before the wedding. When I've not been working, I've been working on these wedding invitations for my Mom's boss (just a little pressure)!

She had liked the look of my wedding invitations and asked if I could come up with a design for hers using navy and silver. After a few ideas, these are the final invitations - all 80 of them! Sorry the picture isn't great! I must admit, if you want to do invitations, embossing is not the best idea unless you have a ton of time! I was not expecting it to take so long. The silver embossed hearts took me over 2 hours to just stamp and emboss (to be fair, I did have a few extra that I didn't use because I didn't like how close the image ended up to the edge of square)! I'm really happy with the way that they turned out (I hope Sharon and Ed are as well)! As usual, I also used Marni's colour values to ensure the navy ink printed the same colour as the cardstock.

Supplies:

Stamp: Verve Visual Sweet Valentine
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: SU ww, night of navy, brushed silver
Embossing Powder: SU silver

Easter Matchbook Treat Holder

Here's another candy holder I created for Easter, this time using the matchbook style. It's so quick and easy, anyone can do it. I can't take credit for coming up with this, I got the idea here on Andrea's blog and modified it to suit my needs. Again, this could be used any time of year, I just find these colours Easter-y. Once the flap is opened it shows the candy (PS. Since when did they start making dark chocolate Mini Eggs?). I didn't want the staple at the bottom showing as in the tutorial so I staped the candy in and then covered the 1" flap with the bashful blue paper to hide it!

This project features 3 products from the SAB catalogue (the Yummy stamp set, Delicate dots dp, and 5/8" so saffron grosgrain ribbon). Order before March 31 to get yours!

Supplies:

Stamps: SU Yummy
Ink: SU so saffron, bashful blue, certainly celery markers
Paper: SU so saffron, bashful blue, ww, delicate dots dp
Ribbon: SU 5/8" so saffron grosgrain ribbon

Blog Candy Winner

The winner for my blog candy is...

Mitzi who said:
"My nephew & his wife playing "Goin to the Chapel". It was a fun wedding. Congrats!"

Email me with your mailing address and I'll get those out to you!

Thank you to everyone who entered!

Everything Old is New Again

Here's a great project I created by recycling my old build-a-brad containers and turning them into a great Easter treat (well they could be for anything depending on how you decorate them)! This is the top view of the tin and you can see how I used my SU markers to ink the stamp to match the colours of the papers. You can see in this view how I affixed the striped paper around the tin using SU sticky strip - super easy! This shows how you slide of the center panel to open the tin. Inside I have just cut thin strips of the same designer paper and crinkled it up to lay the candies on top of. You can't see it here, but the bottom of the tin is also covered in the blue paper. This whole project took no time at all and shows how everything old is new again! In other words, SAVE everything to alter!

Supplies:

Stamps: SU Yummy (SAB)
Ink: SU bashful blue, certainly celery markers
Paper: SU bashful blue, certainly celery, ww, delicate dots dp (SAB)
Ribbon: SU 5/8" certainly celery grosgrain
Misc: SU Build-a-brad tin, SU Sticky strip

Be sure to check back later tonight to see if you are the winner of my blog candy (you can still enter here until 7:00 PM MST)!

Fifth Avenue Flower...Finally

I wanted to try creating a card comprised of mostly neutral colours with just a pop of another colour and this is what I ended up with! It's not fabulous but it's not too bad either. I just feel like it needs more but I'm not sure what! I contemplated colouring the center circles in the flower brown but didn't end up because then I think that might overpower the flower itself.
I'm also considering stamping a sentiment in chocolate chip over the flower but I'm not sure which one to choose. Oh well, at least I finally played with this stamp set which I HAD to have when I saw it in the new catalogue.

Don't forget there is only one day left to enter for my blog candy here.

Supplies

Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Flower
Ink: SU baja breeze
Paper: SU baja breeze, ww, kraft, chocolate chip, kraft dp
Ribbon: SU baja breeze
Misc: SU pewter build-a-brads, 1/2" circle punch

Mojo76 SAB Congratulations

It's Monday, which means it is time for another Mojo Monday sketch challenge (this week Mojo76). I finally took time to play with my urban garden designer paper that I have had but yet to use. It is by far my favourite paper right now! The colours and designs are gorgeous and so versatile! I LOVE the way this card turned out (although it seems like I say that about every card I make with the Botanical Blooms set)! This card also features another Sale-A-Bration stamp set called Congrats, which has the best sentiments in it for any occassion! Although, I have to admit, I did eliminate the ribbon from the original sketch as when I went to put it on I thought it ruined the look of the card!

If you haven't ordered to qualify for SAB merchandise, order now or ENTER TO WIN the Botanical Blooms set along with designer paper on my blog candy post HERE!

The stamp-a-ma-jig was extremely important in this card. I used it in three different places:

• to line up the black outline of the branch with the flower
• to line up the kiwi kiss and baja breeze sections of the flower within the black outline
• to line up the congratulations stamp so it sat straight at the bottom

I can not emphasize enough how awesome the stamp-a-ma-jig is. For more information on the stamp-a-ma-jig click here.

Supplies

Stamps: SU Botanical Blooms, SU Congrats (Both part of SAB)
Ink: SU Basic black, baja breeze, kiwi kiss, Versamark
Paper: SU basic black, baja breeze, kiwi kiss, ww, urban oasis dp
EP: SU white embossing powder

Occasions Mini Pre-Order and Blog Candy Reminder

Stampin' Up! is offering customers the opportunity to pre-order select stamp sets from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalogue (the full catalogue will be released April 1-June 30, 2009).

Click here to view the pre-order items in the catalogue.

Here's a quick view of the pre-order stamps:

Item 113822: Eight Great Greetings ($37.95) This is also available in Spanish and French. Item 113196: An Egg-cellent Easter ($27.95) Item 113833: Egg Hunt Wheel ($7.75) Item 113262: Wagon Full of Fun ($46.95) Email me if you are interested in placing an order!

Also, don't forget to to enter here for your chance at Blog Candy!