You're How Old CASE

I've been slowly working on CASEing some cards I've pinned on pinterest. If you've seen my papercrafting inspiration board, you know I have a lot to work with!

I wasn't initially very fond of this stamp set, but it very quickly grew on me as I saw others using it. This card is a CASE of Mary's card here.

Stamps: Just Sayin'
Ink: Crushed Curry
Paper: Whisper white, pistachio pudding,  crushed curry, confetti celebration
Accessories: Word Bubbles Framelits, Pistachio Pudding thick baker's twine, candy dots

Benjamin's Home Depot Construction 3rd Birthday

We take Ben to the monthly kids' workshops at Home Depot and he always really enjoys them and he loves construction vehicles so we thought we would combine them for his 3rd birthday party.

The invitations and decor were made using the Stampin Up MDS set Bday Under Construction and I used a ton of ideas from pinterest (check out my birthday party board here).

I updated my usual birthday balloon wreath with a party zone sign.

 Pilon birthday banner beside the table.

 What's a birthday party without balloons?! Of course in construction colours!

 Banner over the fireplace where gifts were placed.

Set up just like at the Home Depot Kids' Workshops. Our location doesn't host parties but were generous enough to set us up with aprons and bug house and bookend kits for all of the kids as well as lending us hammers for the kids to use free of charge! There are tons of more pictures of the kids working on their projects, but I didn't want to post pictures of other people but had to show just one to give you the idea!

This cake is what was the basis for the whole theme. Benjamin saw this cake over a month before his birthday when we went to Dairy Queen and asked for it repeatedly for his birthday! It was the only thing that he asked for so of course he got it!

Benjamin's Very Hungry Caterpillar 2nd Birthday

Benjamin turned 2 last year and we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday party. I was inspired by lots on pinterest (check out my birthday party board here) and ended up with this!

I used a Very Hungry Caterpillar download and the Stampin Up MDS program to create the invitations as well as a birthday banner (that didn't photograph well at all)!

I was also planning a caterpillar outside in helium balloons leading towards the door but considering it snowed, that idea got eliminated and settled for this instead in the entranceway!

 Little chinese lanterns set up as a caterpillar in a window by the table.

The food display. I made little food tags using the downloads as well and bought the majority of the food that the Very Hungry Caterpillar eats throughout the story for the guests to eat before cake.

 I made the "caterpillars" out of cake pops and put them into foam flower displays covered in fake leaves.

The goodie bag for the party was a bug house as well as home made play dough in green and red so each guest could make their own Very Hungry Caterpillar!

SFYTT Button Buddies

Once again, I'm a terrible blogger. Even if I make projects, I don't seem to be very good at getting pictures and posting them any time soon! Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect that to change any time soon - I've been quite busy between work, getting stuff done around the house and now to top it off, my Grandma just passed away, so I'll be going away for her funeral in the near future. I'm having a hard time managing and processing this as my Grandma and I were quite close and she is the only grandparent I had.

Anyways, here's the card I made for this months SFYTT.

Since buttons don't come in the "in colours", I simply used the stamp and covered it in Crystal effects for some added dimension. I love the way this card turned out. I like the sentiment for this card to because it really could be used for just about anything.

Stamps: SU Button Buddies, Bring on the Cake
Paper: SU lucky limeade, ww, Berry Blossoms dsp
Ink: SU lucky limeade, calypso coral
Punch: SU corner rounder
Misc: SU crystal effects, circle cutter

New Simply Soft CASE

I never even got around to finishing up making cards with all of my retiring stamp sets last month - I still had three more. Oh well, on to newer things!

As a demonstrator, we get a sneak peek of the new hostess sets in the new catalogue and are able to purchase a couple if we choose. I know it's another flower set, but I knew I wanted the simply soft set and I've had it in my possession for quite a while now but only just got around to stamping with it.

This is a CASE of this beautiful card by Karen. She always creates the most beautiful scenes like this using various techniques. This one involved what she calls "marker layering." It takes several shades of the same colour and layering them over one another leaving a little of each colour showing at the top. For this card I used pink pirouette, pretty in pink, regal rose and melon mambo. Karen also added a dot of white at the top of her flowers but it didn't look quite as nice without the dark contrast of her flowers so I opted to just leave it out.

Stamps: SU Simply Soft (hostess)
Ink: StazOn jet black, SU pink pirouette, pretty in pink, regal rose, melon mambo, certainly celery, lucky limeade
Paper: SU ww, pretty in pink, melon mambo
Ribbon: SU 5/8" pretty in pink satin
Misc: embossing folder

Goodbye Lots of Bots

Here's a card to send of the retiring set Lots of Bots. The ribbon and celebrations dsp are also retiring.

The robots were first stamped in black ink on whisper white paper and coloured using the various ink colours and blender pens. The middle part of the robot was then stamped again but this time in StazOn ink on watercolour paper, then wartercoloured with my stampin' write markers and aquapainter. Once coloured, they were cut out with my paper snips and glued on to the original stamped images.

The sentiment on the stamp was initially not coloured when I stamped the robots. Instead, I inked it up alone afterwards and used my stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up at the top where I wanted it!

Check out the little rhinestones on the bags too!

Stamps: SU Lots of Bots
Ink: SU basic black, pear pizzazz, bashful blue, real red, basic gray, StazOn jet black
Paper: SU ww, real red, watercolour, celebrations dsp
Ribbon: SU 5/8" real red grosgrain
Misc: SU aquapainter, blender pens, paper snips, rhinestones

Goodbye Earthling

Time to say goodbye to the super cute set Greetings, Earthling before it retires.

This card is made using this months SFYTT. I stamped the aliens/monsters in Jet Black StazOn ink on watercolour paper, then used my aquapainter to paint them using the main colours in the also retiring celebrations dsp. I really enjoy watercolouring and have just started trying it out on stamped images that are not just flowers. I think it turned out quite well! The grass line was just made freehand using my basic black Stampin' write marker.

For my sentiment, I used a retired set from Sale-A-Bration several years ago, called Birthday Whimsy. For all the birthday stamp sets I have, none of the fonts seemed to suit this image, they were all too "pretty" looking! Guess I know what I'll have to buy from the upcoming catalogue!

Stamps: SU Greetings Earthling, Birthday Whimsy (retired)
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, SU real red, pear pizzazz, pacific point, bashful blue, basic black
Paper: SU watercolour, real red, ww, pacific point, celebrations dsp, in colour patterns pack (hostess)
Misc: SU circle cutter, dimensionals, aquapainter

MOJO193 Wishes

It's been a while since I participated in any of the Mojo Monday sketch challenges but I really liked the Mojo193 sketch so I gave it a try.

I love the way this card turned out. The colours are so bright but also make a perfect masculine card. I only used a little strip of ribbon and decided to use a corduroy button instead of making a bow to keep it a bit more masculine. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks bows make it more girly!

I really hope that SU brings back this cupcake stamp set in the new catalogue available July 1! SU did carry over the build a cupcake punch so it is still currently available but unfortunately this stamp set isn't. Check out this flyer to see other items from the Occasions Mini Catalogue that are carried over and still available for purchase.

Don't forget to check out the last chance lists in the post here.

And be sure to stop by this post to see the first card I posted since my month long hiatus!

Stamps: SU Create a Cupcake, Short & Sweet

Paper: SU ww, bashful blue, pacific point, celebrations dsp

Ink: SU real red, wild wasabi, pacific point, bashful blue

Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta

Punch: SU Build a Cupcake
Button: SU real red corduroy button (retired)
Misc: SU dimensionals

Birthday Wishes CASE

I loved Wendy's card so much that I not only CASEd it once, but twice! I took inspiration from the colour wheel in her post and decided to go with the analogous three colours green, yellow and orange.

The card in these colours isn't quite as beautiful as the purple, blue and green, but I still like it. It's much more bright and happy feeling and I love this shade of orange. I used to not really like orange but now it's becoming one of my favourites!

Stamps: SU Fast & Fabulous (hostess), Bring on the Cake
Ink: StazOn jet black, SU peach parfait, pear pizzazz
Paper: SU ww, peach parfait, pear pizzazz, daffodil delight, watercolour, peach parfait dp (hostess)
Ribbon: SU 3/8" white taffeta
Brad: SU 3/16" whisper white brad
Misc: SU pearls, dimensionals
Tools: SU aquapainter, sponge daubers, circle cutter

Fabulous Florets - Summer Mini Preview

I know I have a million floral stamp sets but it seems I always find more that I need to have. The "fabulous forets" stamp set that will be in the upcoming Summer Mini Catalogue is one of those sets. As demonstrators, we get the opportunity to preorder some of the upcoming merchandise - I had to buy the digital copy of this stamp set and a fabulous matching designer series paper called "Beyond the Garden."

I took inspiration from this months SFYTT and came up with the following hybrid card (I printed the floral images and designer paper on whisper white cardstock on my home computer).

After making the hybrid version, I thought I would go ahead and make the same card in digital format too.

I can't wait until I get the clear mount set of this stamp set! I think it will definitely be one of my new favourites!

Supplies

Stamps: Fabulous Florets (digital)

Ink: SU pacific point, wild wasabi

Paper: SU pacific point, wild wasabi, ww, beyond the garden dp (digital)

Punches: SU 1/2" circle

Brads: SU whisper white 5/16"

Misc: SU dimensionals, paper snips, computer

SFYTT Birthday Cupcake

I finally got a chance to play along with this months SFYTT. I even actually kept the main image panel on the diagonal, unlike usual, where I always end up straightening it out.

I love the new cupcake stamp set and coordinating punch in the Occasions mini catalogue and I hope it gets carried over to next years Idea Book & Catalogue because it's so cute! I stamped the images, then punched them out and popped them up on dimensionals on the card. I also added Crystal Effects to the cupcake topping but it's a bit hard to tell in this photo. I love this set of designer paper too - it's so bright and pretty!

Stamps: SU Create a Cupcake, Bring on the Cake

Ink: SU tempting turquoise, regal rose, melon mambo, daffodil delight

Paper: SU ww, tempting turquoise, sweet stitches dp
Punch: SU Build a Cupcake punch
Misc: SU dimensionals, crystal effects

Bliss Step-it-Up Cards

I saw this card a while back on Mary's blog and wanted to re-make it. I thought I would start really basic and then show you how changing one or two things can really make it pop!

This is the most basic version. The bliss stamp is stamped in crumb cake on crumb cake dp using my stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up.

This version adds the extra detail of an extra layer of early espresso dp and the button/threadcombo tied around the ribbon rather than just applied on top.

Stepped up again, this version adds a vanilla layer and swaps the button and thread for a brad and bow.

This final version, swaps the espresso satin ribbon for vanilla and adds an extra layer of espresso taffeta ribbon.

I think the third version is actually my favourite, but it just shows how much you can change a card by changing very few details.

Also note that for my bows, I again used Mary's tutorial here.

Stamps: SU Bliss (SAB), Bring on the Cake

Ink: SU crumb back, early espresso

Paper: SU crumb cake, early espresso, very vanilla

Ribbon: SU 5/8" early espresso satin, 5/8" very vanilla satin, 1/8" early espresso tafetta, linen thread

Brad: SU very vanilla 5/16" jumbo brad

Punch Bunch Birthday in MDS

I posted the above card yesterday and thought that I would try re-creating it using MDS to show you how great it looks.

I love using MDS. I like to play on my computer and now this gives me something more productive to do rather than just playing on facebook or games. The only thing that took a while on this card, was using punches to fill all the scallops on the scallop square punch in with melon mambo colour as there isn't yet a feature to colour parts of stamp sets in different colours (fingers crossed that there will be soon)! The shadow feature is an element that I use on everything I create so that it looks like it has more dimension - just like a real card!

Did you notice the new watermark I made on the digital card too? I made it using the butterfly from the Stampin' Up! Bliss set. Which do you think looks better: my original watermark or the butterfly one?

Please note that all of these digital products are available as a disk of digital downloads for Sale-A-Bration.

SAB Punch Bunch Birthday

I finally pulled out my SAB materials and made this fun card with them. I love the bright colours this year.

The designer paper, stamp set and circle die cuts are all from exclusive products that you earn through Sale-A-Bration. Click the link on my sidebar to view the SAB catalogue and learn how you can earn these supplies.

Stamp: SU Punch Bunch (SAB)

Ink: SU peach partfait, melon mambo
Paper: SU ww, peach parfait, melon mambo, ice cream parlor dp (SAB)
Die Cuts: SU ice cream parlor quick accents pack (SAB)
Punch: SU scallop square
Ribbon: SU peach parfait 1/2" stitched poly ribbon
Misc: SU dimensionals

Dad's 50th Birthday

Yesterday was my Dad's 50th birthday! Unfortunately, I couldn't be there to share the day with him but I hope he had a wonderful day. Here's the card I made to go along with the gift we got for him.

It's a pretty simple card but I find that is the only way I can make masculine looking cards! Although, I can't take credit for the inspiration for this card - it's a CASE of the card here. For the center of the build-a-brad I printed out the "50" from the printer and made it chocolate chip colour to match using Marni's RGB values. For the leaf, I used the rock and roll technique to get the different colour along the edges.

Stamps: SU Paradise, Occasional Quotes (hostess)

Ink: SU garden green, wild wasabi, chocolate chip

Paper: SU crumb cake, chocolate chip, very vanilla, whisper white, woodland walk dp

Brad: SU pewter build-a-brad

Punch: SU 1/2" circle punch

Growing Green Birthday

The new "growing green" stamp sets is one of my new favourite. The rose image is perfect for watercolouring. For this card, I stamped the rose image in StazOn ink on watercolour paper and used my aquapainter to colourit with crumb cake ink. Check out the ribbon detail in the photo - I wanted to have the rose look like it was centered in a bow.

ETA: I totally forgot to mention that I had CASEd this card by Andrea Walford for this design! So sorry!

Stamps: SU Growing Green, Fabulous Phrases
Ink: StazOn jet black, SU early espresso, crumb cake
Paper: SU very vanilla, watercolour, early espresso, woodland walk dp
Ribbon: SU 5/8" satin early espresso
Misc: SU dimensionals, aquapainter

Birthday Girl

I took some time out to finally make a new card! Our friends' daughter is turning 3 this week so we wanted to send her a bright fun card and this is what I came up with! The solid icecream image was stamped, the stamped again with the wavy image, covered in Crystal effects and then dazzling diamonds were dropped in before it dried for a neat effect. For some reason, rose red ink turned neon pink with the crystal effects on it so I ended up using cherry cobbler and it turned out to look like an exact match to the island oasis dp. Again, I used leftover embroidery thread to attach the tag (which is from Making Memories a long time ago but it looked so cute and matched perfectly with the icecream cone).

Stamps: SU sweet scoops
Ink: SU tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie, cherry cobbler, old olive, so saffron
Paper: SU ww, tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie, island oasis dp
Ribbon: SU 1/4" tempting turquoise grosgrain
Misc: SU crystal effects, SU dazzling diamonds, embroidery thread, Making Memories tag

Not to be Left Out...

I posted this card a while back for a boy at Grant's school that is away sick. Grant asked if I could make a card for his little sister (who is actually in Grant's grade 1 class) so that she doesn't feel left out. I used SC283 as a starting point and asked Grant if he knew her favourite colours and animals of which he said pink and elephants so I came up with this card. I stamped the elephant then cut out around it and raised it up on dimensionals! Hope she likes it!

Stamps: SU animal stories
Ink: SU melon mambo, rich razzleberry, bermuda bay
Paper: SU ww, melon mambo, razzleberry lemonade
Ribbon: SU melon mambo polka-dot grosgrain
Misc: SU dimensionals

Black Magic Birthday Card

This card is a dual challenge card - for technique challenge TLC274 (the black magic technique) and SCS sketch challenge SC282. The black magic technique has been everywhere lately on stamping blogs. Typically, you'll see it done on black cardstock but personally it's too harsh a look for my taste so I gave it a try on basic gray cardstock. I think it turned out quite nicely.

For this technique you stamp your image on dark cardstock with white craft ink and then colour it in with watercolor pencils or prismacolor pencils. I don't own the SU watercolor pencils so I used prismacolor pencil crayons that I have from junior high! I used two shades of pinks and three shades of green to get the added dimension.

Stamps: SU watercolor trio, sweet little sentiments (retired)
Ink: SU ww, versamark
Paper: SU ww, cameo coral, basic gray, walk in the park dp (retired)
Ribbon: SU basic gray taffeta ribbon
Brad: SU basic gray corduroy brad
Misc: SU white embossing powder, prismacolor pencil crayons, white signo gel pen

Sage Watercolor Wishes

For the last while I've been lacking any creativity (which led to a lot of caseing of cards) but I think I'm finally starting to get it back. This is the first card I have made in a long time that I have really liked. There are a total of 12 layers of paper plus ribbon and brad embellishments on this card - no hoarding of supplies on this one! I wanted to add a bit more interest to the brown panel behind the main image without additional stamping so I decided to go for a faux stitch around it and I love the way it turned out. This was my first attempt at faux stitching and I think it looks great - Grant had the card in his hands and thought I had pulled out my sewing machine for it!

The stamp set used for this card is called "watercolor trio" and is available in the summer mini catalogue until August 31, 2010.

Stamps: SU watercolor trio
Ink: SU sage shadow, chocolate chip
Paper: SU ww, sage shadow, chocolate chip, to the nines dp
Ribbon: SU 1/4" sage shadow grosgrain
Brads: SU ww jumbo brad
Misc: SU piercer, white signo gel pen, dimensionals