Simple and subdued

Although I seem to be drawn to bold, bright colors in my card-making lately (trying to shake off winter!), I am equally fond of more relaxing, subdued color palettes. I found the combination of Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip and Pool Party in my Color Coach from Stampin' Up!^®. I hadn't tried it before, but I think it works very well with this simple any-occasion card layout.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Quint-Essential Flower
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Pool Party
Accessories: 2-3/8" and 1-1/4" scallop circle punches, 1" circle punch, corner rounder, In Color Designer Printed brads, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, paper piercer and mat, Dimensionals

I stamped the Quint-Essential Flower three times on Whisper White card stock -- once in each color -- punched out the images with different punches, added a brad to the smallest piece and layered them together with Dimensionals. I adhered a strip of Chocolate Chip card stock behind the layered flower and then adhered the whole piece to the Crumb Cake card base, which I had already pierced using the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack. I rounded the two bottom corners of the card for an extra little detail.

Thanks for stopping by!

A crafty St. Kate's shout out

I graduated from the College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) in 1998 with a B.A. degree in English and Philosophy. And yes, for those of you doing the math, that means this year is my fifteen-year college reunion. (Excuse me, but how did that happen?) Today is Shout Out St. Kate's Day, and in honor of the celebration, I put my crafty skills to use and made two cards that display my Katie pride.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Everyday Flexible Phrases, Polka-Dot Posies, Kind and Caring Thoughts
Card stock: Shimmery White, Elegant Eggplant, Yoyo Yellow
Ink: Jet Black StazOn
Accessories: 1" and 1-3/4" circle punches, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Bitty Buttons, Chevron embossing folder, Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon, white baker's twine, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

The starting point for both of my purple and yellow cards was a set of shout-out stickers included in the alumnae magazine. (Today I'm wearing the "Proud to be a Katie!" sticker. The toddlers in my class will be terribly impressed that I have a giant purple sticker on my shirt.) For this card I aimed to answer the question "What's a Katie?" It's a little hard to read the words on the purple card stock circles, so here are all of them (left to right, top to bottom): caring, genuine, mother, sister, friend, just, wise, daughter, kind. I know every Katie out there can lay claim to at least one of these words.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: DefineYour Life, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Expressive Flexible Phrases, Think Big, Strokes of Wisdom (Raisin Boat)
Card stock: Elegant Eggplant, Yoyo Yellow, Silver Glimmer paper
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: 2-1/2" circle punch, silver cord, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Making the background for this card was a fun but challenging experience (ooh - just like my four years at St. Kate's!). I searched through many, many stamp sets trying to find the best words and phrases to capture the Katie spirit and the myriad ways, both big and small, that we make a difference in our lives and in the world. I hope I succeeded! And since Shout Out day is something of a celebration, I thought a little sparkle was only appropriate.

So, want to know a little more about St. Catherine University? Here are just a few fun facts:

• The University offers degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctorate levels, making it the most comprehensive private college or university in Minnesota.
• St. Kate’s was the first Catholic college or university in the country to receive a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1937.
• We rank in the top 10 percent of all U.S. News and World Report colleges and universities in our category.
• The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded the College of St. Catherine in 1905 and remain active in campus life today.
• Our College for Women, which grants four-year degrees in both traditional and hybrid formats, is the largest women’s college in the country.
• Men can be Katies, too. Our graduate, associate and certificate programs are open to women and men.
• St. Catherine’s main campus in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul is often touted as the prettiest urban campus in Minnesota.
• Both ethnically and economically, our student body is the most diverse of all Minnesota private colleges or universities.

If you are heading to college for the first time or are thinking about returning to school, consider St. Catherine University. I'm definitely proud to be a Katie!

Buttons, buttons

I've always liked the look of buttons on cards. With so many different shapes, styles and colors, they're an easy, relatively inexpensive and fun embellishment. But I've often shied away from using them because the bulkiness can make it difficult to mail a card. Well, apparently I decided to throw caution to the wind because lately I've found myself adding buttons to cards more and more often. So, with buttons on the brain, what set would be more appropriate for card making than Button Buddies?

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Button Buddies
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Soft Suede card stock; Natural Composition Specialty, Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Ink: Old Olive, Soft Suede markers
Accessories: 2-3/8" scallop circle punch, 2-1/2" circle punch, Brights buttons, white baker's twine, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals

First of all, I love that this stamp set is designed so you can use it with or without buttons; the images are complete in and of themselves. And this cherry image is definitely one of my favorites in the set.

On this card I used four 1-5/8" x 2-1/4" pieces of patterned paper for the background: two from the Natural Composition Speciatly DSP (natural kraft color with raised glossy designs) and two from the Polka Dot Parade DSP (Real Red and Old Olive). I centered the pieces on the card front and then adhered the focal image over the middle. I also used my Soft Suede marker to doodle a border around the edge of the card.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Button Buddies, Sweet Essentials Card stock: Whisper White, Old Olive Ink: Real Red, Old Olive markers Accessories: Bitty Butterfly punch, Scallop Edge Border punch, 2-1/2" circle punch, Brights buttons, white baker's twine, rhinestones, 1/8" Old Olive taffeta ribbon, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

On this card I love the different layers of Old Olive -- the base, the scalloped strip, the ribbon, the butterflies and even the stamped sentiment -- with just touches of Real Red and Pumpkin Pie in the vase and the flower buttons. And I added a little extra bling with three rhinestones on each butterfly and one in the upper left corner.

I've accumulated (read: hoarded) a lot of buttons over the years, so maybe now I'll start putting more of them to good use! I'll just need to invest in a few padded envelopes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flower power

With every fiber in my being I am ready for winter to be done. I am tired of shoveling snow, trudging through slush, slipping on ice and climbing over snowbank after snowbank. But alas, it's only March -- often one of the snowiest months for us -- and, you guessed it, it's snowing. So, since I have no influence over Mother Nature, I decided to inject a little spring into my crafting by focusing on the power of flowers.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^® unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Central Park (Raisin Boat), Petite Pairs
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Melon Mambo
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Basic Black marker
Accessories: Brights Buttons, Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon, white crochet thread (DMC), Sticky Strip, Dimensionals

I don't know what could cure the winter doldrums better than a giant bright pink daisy, do you? The oval image I used to make the daisy petals is actually a treetop, but I think it works great here; I love how the scalloped lines within the ovals align to create circles radiating from the center of the flower.

I didn't use many embellishments on this card because I really wanted the flower to have the spotlight. A Daffodil Delight button adds some dimension to the center of the daisy, and a piece of Daffodil Delight ribbon helps break up the Melon Mambo card base. I also hand-drew a border around the focal panel for a little visual interest.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Central Park (Raisin Boat)
Card stock: Whisper White, Going Gray
Ink: Going Gray, Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Summer Starfruit, Pool Party
Accessories: Lucky Limeade 1/8" taffeta ribbon, corner rounder

I chose a softer color palette for this garden-inspired card. The layout is almost as simple as it can get: a stamped piece of white card stock layered on a card base. Easy peasy. I added just a bit of ribbon and a simple bow along the bottom of the stamped panel for a subtle embellishment.

I'm always happy that no matter what the weather outside, I can always have flowers in my craft room. Thanks for stopping by!

Giant jigsaw puzzle

Goodness, it's been more than a week since I posted on my blog. I had every intention of making cards to share last week, but I had to do some tasks for work, and the days just got away from me. I created a few cards yesterday, though, so I will have things to share this week. In the meantime, I've been intending to post this picture for awhile:

Several weeks ago my sister and I put together this massive jigsaw puzzle. She had given it to me for Christmas 2011, but we hadn't assembled it yet because we didn't have a surface that was large enough and free from clutter. It's hard to appreciate the size of the puzzle in a picture, but it was roughly five feet long and three feet high; as you can see, it took up the entire dining room table.

According to the box it was a 3,000-piece puzzle, but when we were finished I multiplied the number of rows by the number of columns and came up with something closer to 3,200 pieces. Egads. I was sure by the time we were done there were going to be pieces missing -- lost in the vacuum, fallen into the Christmas decorations we were packing, stuck to something we set down on the table, or confiscated by one of the cats -- so I was relieved to find that all the pieces were present and accounted for.

We left the completed puzzle on the table for a week or two to admire it and then packed it up and started another one. This one is "normal" size -- 1,000 pieces and about 19" by 27" -- but we became so used to the giant puzzle that the new puzzle looks ridiculously tiny! I guess it's all relative.

Thanks for stopping by!