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 Best Bots Forever

I have to admit that this is one of the sets I've purchased that I had the best of intentions of using but never got around to even using it until now that it is retiring! Grant and I had picked it out to use for Valentine's for his class, but for several reasons I never got around to making them so I bought the similar boxes (seen in this post) for him to use instead. This is what I would have liked the cards to have looked like if I had made them!

The images were stamped using my stamp-a-ma-jig and Jet Black StazOn ink on watercolour paper. They were all then coloured using my stampin' write markers and an aquapainter. I created a little shadow underneath the robots using crumb cake ink to match the main cardstock. The designer paper is from the Nursery Suite set that is also retiring and, as seen above, is not limited to baby crafts!

Stamps: SU Best Bots Forever
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, SU regal rose, baja breeze, basic gray, crumb cake, real red, early espresso, pear pizzazz
Paper: SU crumb cake, baja breeze, regal rose, early espresso, nursery suite dsp, watercolour
Misc: SU aquapainter, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

Sorrowful CASE

I haven't had much creativity again - seems to be happening a lot lately! So as usual, I decided to CASE another card. I've had this beautiful card by Wendy in my favourites folder for some time and finally decided to do my own take on it.

I swapped the colours from elegant eggplant to concord crush and old olive to pear pizzazz. My sponging on the sentiment panel is not nearly as nice as Wendy's but I guess I'll just have to keep practicing because I love the way it looks with the white border. This colour combo is definitely one of my new favourites!

Stamps: SU Fast & Fabulous (hostess), Thoughts & Prayers
Ink: StazOn jet black, SU concord crush, pear pizzazz
Paper: SU ww, concord crush, marina mist, pear pizzazz, watercolour, concord crush dp (hostess)
Ribbon: SU 3/8" white taffeta
Brads: SU 3/16" brads
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

Soft Sympathy

Unfortunately Grant was in need of another sympathy card, this one for his former boss when we lived in Calgary.

I had recently purchased the "Thanks for Caring" stamp set and thought it would be perfect for this card. I mostly bought this stamp set because I loved the flower image (which I coloured with my SU markers) but now the sentiments are coming in handy too! I didn't include the bottom portion of this sentiment however because it just didn't seem that appropriate for someone who we didn't keep in regular contact with.

Stamp: SU Thanks for Caring

Ink: SU soft suede, baja breeze

Paper: SU soft suede, baja breeze, crumb cake, very vanilla, elegant soiree dp

Ribbon: SU baja breeze 1/2" seam binding

Misc: Swiss Dots embossing folder

SFYTT Thinking of You

Grant got some unfortunate news over the weekend that the mother of one of the little boys from the school he was at last year passed away. He asked me to make a "thinking of you" card using some leafy images so it wasn't too girly. I used Jen's January SFYTT as a starting point.

The leafy image was stamped in StazOn ink on watercolour paper and coloured using my garden green marker and aqua painter. I love the dimension that it gives to the image.

Stamps: SU Teeny Tiny Wishes, Growing Green

Ink: Jet Black StazOn, SU garden geen

Paper: SU watercolour paper, very vanilla, garden green, woodland walk dp

Punch: SU 1" circle

Ribbon: SU linen thread
Button: SU Very Vanilla designer button

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! I was checking out the SCS gallery recently and came across this card and decided to CASE it for the perfect Father's Day card. It's masculine but still really nice at the same time - and totally my style of cardmaking! I'm not used to using this few layers but I loved the original card so I didn't want to add more!

Stamps: SU pocket silhouettes, teeny tiny wishes
Ink: SU chocolate chip
Paper: SU ww, chocolate chip, kraft
Ribbon: SU 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain, SU linen thread
Button: SU kraft corduroy button
Misc: ruler, SU white signo gel pen

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

Congratulations On Your Success

This has been a great year for Grant! Last year, right out of university, he got offered a maternity leave contact teaching grade 1. As a result of his work with his students he was nominated for the Edwin Parr outstanding first year teaching award. He won the award for his district and this picture is us on our way to the banquet. He was one of only 10 nominees for the overall province award but unfortunately didn't take that one home, but it's still very impressive and I could not be more proud!To top it off, with tons of cutbacks in teaching, Grant was hired on a permanent basis to teach grade 3 starting September! This is the card I made for him when he got the news! Stamps: SU Full of Life
Ink: SU basic black
Paper: SU basic black, ww, sweet pea dp (unavailable)
Punches: SU word window punch, corner rounder

Viva La Verve Challenge: Week 1

In searching for my sketch challenges to inspire me, I re-discovered the Viva La Verve monthly challenges. This is for the Week 1 challenge for the month of March. In addition to the sketch challenge, there are three pictures to choose from to inspire your sketch (either colours, textures, etc). The above picture shows the picture that I chose to inspire my card (below). As you can tell, I worked mainly off the colours in the pictures. I love the way this card turned out. These aren't my typical colours but they work well together. The flower was coloured using SU markers and my aquapainter on watercolour paper. It was then cut out and mounted on dimensionals with the leaves adhered behind.

Stamps: SU organic outlines, fifth avenue floral
Ink: SU dusty durango, crushed curry, kiwi kiss (retired), black StazOn
Paper: SU ww, dusty durango, crushed curry, kiwi kiss (retired), watercolour paper
Die-Cut: SU little leaves
Misc: SU aquapainter, dimensionals

Sage and Pink Floral

Just got a new batch of goodies from Stampin' Up! and I couldn't wait to try out the little leave sizzlit die! I love the way it looks when combined with the flowers from the fifth avenue floral set. I did a lot of heat embossing on this card. I created the polka dot paper by stamping the dot dot dot stamp set on pretty in pink and embossing it in white. I also heat embossed the flower in white before cutting it out.

PS. The sizzlit dies work in a cuttlebug. If you don't want to invest in the big shot you can still use some of the dies if you own a cuttlebug!

Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Floral, Dot Dot Dot
Ink: SU Versamark, sage shadow
Paper: SU ww, pretty in pink, sage shadow
Ribbon: SU 5/8" pretty in pink satin
Dies: SU little leaves sizzlit
Misc: SU white ep, paper snips, 1 1/4" square punch

FINALLY, a new post!

It's been a long time coming, and I'm not even showing any new catty supplies with this card! It uses some of my favourites though.To create the shading on the flower I stamped the flower image in Versamark and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Once dry, I wet the paper with water and used my blender pen to add in some pink pirouette colour. Then when the paper dries it adds such a beautiful colour effect and the flower almost looks 3D! I can not take credit for this effect as I read it in a blog but since then so many have done it I'm not even sure where to give credit!

Supplies:

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: VersaMark, Pink Pirouette reinker
Paper: SU ww, basic gray, walk in the park dsp (retired), pink pirouette dp (retired)
Ribbon: SU Pink Pirouette (retired)
Misc: SU blender pen

You're on my Mind

Here's the last of the cards from the Upsy Daisy class planner. I'm not too sure how I feel about this one but oh well, it looks great with the set.

Upsy Daisy On my Mind

When I had out my supplies to be making the cards from Andrea's class planner, I thought of this very simple card and love the way that it turned out. I love the look of this paper because it's got such a great design I didn't need to add an image stamp. I had a hard time just leaving this card alone because I wanted so much to add ribbon and brads but I thought it would take away from the classic look of it.

I love the "You're on my mind" sentiment because it can be used for so many different occassions.

Supplies

Stamp: SU Upsy Daisy
Ink: SU baja breeze
Paper: SU baja breeze, ww, Urban Garden dp

Garden Friendship Set

These are 4 cards I made today to fulfill a few things I've been wanting to do while I was away.

1) I wanted to use the SU Garden Silhouettes set that I won from Robin over at About a Girl. I love this set but it arrived the day I was leaving to go to Mexico. You should go wish her congrats as she just had a baby girl!
2) I wanted to do the Colour Challenge 168 (CC168) over at SCS because I loved what everyone was creating with this combo. It's not one I would have thought on my own but again I was leaving right after its posting.
3) I wanted to use my SU Circle of Friendship stamp set since it will be retiring, which makes me very sad because I love this set!


These four cards are all made using SU chocolate chip, very vanilla and sage shadow cardstock and inks. They are quite simple just layered a fair amount and punched with 1/2", 1 1/4", and 1 1/2" circle punches.

Here are closer versions of each of the cards. Not too different between them just used two of the Circle of Friendship stamps with each of the two different stamps I chose from Garden Silhouettes.

Card 1:

Card 2:

Card 3:

Card 4:

Thanks for stopping by! Hope my readers stuck around during my weeks away!

CASEing Jen 70

I saw this card that Jen70 posted on SCS and her blog Stamping Therapy and new right away that I had to CASE it. I made a few very minor alterations to make it in a way that was a little bit of my own.


The card is now 5" square as I buy 6" square envelopes from my LSS. The colour is SU cameo coral cardstock and ink (the picture doesn't really show the ink matching the cardstock for some reason but it matches perfect) along with the SU whisper white. The stamps (Friendship blooms) and rubons (Love and Happiness) I used were both from the SU SAB catalogue. The ribbon at the top is SU white organdy. I'm not sure about the ribbon but it looked so plain without it. For extra dimesion the cameo coral square with the rub on is attached with a pop dot.

This card is for LSC162 to use only one colour along with white as well as WT160 to use rubons over at SCS.