'Inspired' flowers

Do you ever find yourself saying something like, "The color of that shirt would be great in my kitchen,"  or "The pattern on that beach towel would make a cute card"? I do that fairly often, especially with the clothes of the toddlers in my class. They always seem to have great color combos and images. Occasionally during nap time when I've (finally!) managed to get everyone to sleep, I'll sit down with a notepad and try to sketch out a cute pattern from a sweater or jot down the colors of a skirt. You get the idea -- you can find inspiration and creative ideas pretty much anywhere.

Yesterday I made a card for Inspiration Challenge 296 on SplitCoastStampers (SCS). (I know, look at me! Two challenges in a row!) The place to look for inspiration this week was the online store Modern Lola. It's a fun site with lots of bright colors, funky patterns and beautiful items. The specific piece I picked for my inspiration was a floral plate. I was drawn to the combination of black and white with the bright colors and the bold flowers. So here's my take on my inspiration item:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!®):
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Ginormous Flowers, Circle Circus
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait, Jet Black StazOn®, Basic Black marker
Card stock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Daisy punch, Dimensionals

I have to say that I really love the way this card turned out, and it might be one of my most favorite cards ever! It was a little bit of a stretch for me because it's very different from any flower card I've made before (and I've made a lot!). I think I usually focus more on having symmetry or balance (that's the left side of my brain trying to worm it's way into all the creativity), and this feels more free and "flowy."

It's a relatively simple card in terms of construction: a lot of the stamping is right on the card base, and there aren't many layers or embellishments. The yellow flower and dark pink circle inside the black flower, as well as the three layers of the pink flower, are stamped on separate card stock and cut out. Some of the flowers are attached to the card with Dimensionals so they stand out a little more. I used a black marker to doodle a frame around the outside edges. A couple of punches and a few pearls are really the only embellishments, but I didn't want to detract from the graphic, bold images with a lot of frilly stuff. There you go: simple, bright and fun.

So that's my inspiration for the week. What's inspiring you?

Sketch challenge

I decided today that I'm going to make a concerted effort to enter more stamping contests and do more challenges. (This is not the first time I've made this decision; we'll see how long this latest effort lasts.) So this morning I created a farm-themed card for Sketch Challenge #9 on the DeNami Design blog:

Supplies (stamps are DeNami Design, all other are Stampin' Up!):

Stamps: Farm Animals petit four set, Barnyard Chick, barn, fence

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Soft Sky, Ruby Red, Garden Green

Ink/markers: StazOn Jet Black, Blushing Bride, Going Gray, Basic Gray, Blush Blossom, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait

Accessories: Hemp twine

 

The barn window and X on the door are paper pieced. I stamped the fence on white card stock and then cut around all the posts (including all the tiny bits between the posts!). I drew the clouds freehand and cut them out. The barn, pig, horse and a couple of the clouds are on Dimensionals, as is the whole piece with the barn scene. The twine and piercing add a little embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday bonanza

September and October are busy birthday months for my family and friends; it seems like there's at least one birthday every week. That means I need plenty of birthday cards. So last night and this afternoon I started replenishing my stock. Here is the first birthday card:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Perfect Party
Card stock: Whisper White, Creamy Caramel, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, River Rock, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Distress Stickles - Hard Rock Candy (Ranger), plaid embossing folder (Sizzix), Dimensionals

I love the summery look of this card! For the gloss and texture on the ice cream "scoops," I applied Stickles so it looked as if it were dripping down the scoop. I made the vanilla scoop by inking the stamp with River Rock, stamping off on scratch paper and then stamping on Very Vanilla card stock. It's hard to tell in the photo, but there is a tiny scalloped border on the bottom edge of the card made with Chocolate Chip card stock and the Dotted Ribbon Scallop Border punch. The embossed background adds some texture and interest without distracting from the ice cream.

Typically when I stamp, I'm not very talented at finding ways to use stamps in "out of the box" ways. I don't pick up a flower stamp set and imagine how I could use the stamps to create a bunny. (OK, that's a made-up example, but you get what I mean.) So when I had the idea to use the pennant stamps in the Pennant Parade set to make party hats, I was pretty pleased. Here is the result:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Pennant Parade, Bring on the Cake
Card Stock: Whisper White, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Poppy Parade
Ink: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Poppy Parade
Accessories: Petite Pennants Builder punch, Cupcake Builder punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Stickles - Crystal (Ranger), Dimensionals

I used the small circles in the Cupcake Builder punch to make the "trim" on the bottom of the hats. For each of the pom-poms, I punched two of the scallop circle shape from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, crumpled them a bit and then glued them together. Stickles on the trim and pom-poms adds a bit of sparkle. I made two score lines on the bottom of the card front and placed the "Happy Birthday" banner over the score lines. I'm not sure I'm happy with the hat placement; I think I should have left them all in a straight line.

For the third birthday card, I went with a more masculine feel:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Bring on the Cake
Ink: StazOn Jet Black
Card stock/paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Island Indigo, Newsprint DSP
Accessories: Vintage Brads, 3/4" circle punch, Word Window punch

I like the crisp color combination of this card, and I think the two brads add a bit of embellishment without looking too "girly." The Island Indigo strip at the top of the card was made with the Word Window punch. To make the strip on the right, I cut a piece of card stock that was slightly less than 3/4" wide. Then I put the end of the strip through the bottom of the 3/4" circle punch and punched off just the end to create the rounded edge.

I hope you liked my cards and that they spark some ideas for your own birthday cards!

For the birds

Happy Friday! It's a little sad for me as it's the last day of my vacation, but that's the way it goes. I was back to stamping this morning and decided to make a set of note cards. I like to keep a few sets of stamped cards on hand to give as gifts to friends and family members. Since I gave away several sets this spring and summer, it's time to make some more!

Today, I made a clean and simple set of bird-themed cards:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Cheep Talk, Picture Perfect (Unity Stamp Company)
Cardstock: Whisper White notecards and envelopes
Ink/markers: Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait
Accessories: Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

I made a set of eight of these cards (with coordinating envelopes), and I think that they're much cuter in real life! Here are a few details that are hard to get from the picture:

• The owl on the left and the yellow bird on the top are cut out and adhered to the card with Dimensionals.
• The little ribbon bow is adhered to the tree trunk with a Mini Glue Dot.
• The "scratchy" lines on the side of the tree trunk are part of the stamp. (It looks kind of like the stamp moved while I was stamping, but it didn't. Really.)

Have a great weekend!

Fun with fabric

I bought some of Stampin' Up!'s designer fabric earlier this year when it was on sale, but I really haven't used it much. So today I thought I'd play around with it. My convention roommate, Jackie Beers, gave me a cute pin that used self-stick foam covered with designer series paper and then die cut to make flowers. Jackie said you could also use the same technique with fabric, so that's what I did to create this cute gift box:

Supplies (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon, Baja Breeze corduroy buttons, Candy Cane Christmas designer fabric, Fun Flowers Bigz L die, Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets, gift box (Ikea), self-stick foam (Darice)

The box itself is from Ikea and was already a pretty red with a subtle pinstripe look to it. I added the ribbon by cutting four pieces of ribbon and placing them on a Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive sheet so they were completely sticky. Then I pulled them off one at a time and placed them on the box. Two pieces of ribbon go down one side, across the bottom and up the opposite side. Two shorter pieces are placed the same way on the cover. The great thing about the Big Shot Adhesive Sheets is that if I set the ribbon on the box carefully, the adhesive was slightly repositionable. So if the ribbon was crooked, I could peel it up and adjust it before rubbing it on to make sure it really stuck. 

For the flowers, I peeled off the backing from a piece of light blue foam and placed a piece of the Candy Cane Christmas fabric on the exposed adhesive. Then I placed the other side of the foam on a Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet and cut around the foam (leave the backing on the adhesive). I used the Fun Flowers die to cut out two flowers, peeled the backing off the small flower, adhered it on the large flower and added a Baja Breeze corduroy button. Then I peeled the backing off the large flower and adhered it to the box cover. Super quick and easy! 

For the matching gift card, I made a 3" x 3" Cherry Cobbler card. (Technically, the red in the fabric is Real Red, but the box color was closer to Cherry Cobbler. It's great that the fabric coordinates with multiple colors!) It's hard to see in the picture, but I made score lines every 1/8" on the front of the card to coordinate with the pinstripe look on the box. I made the flowers the same way as I did the ones for the box, but for these I used Baja Breeze card stock instead of foam so the card wasn't so bulky.

Even though the fabric is called Candy Cane Christmas, this gift card and box would be great for many different occasions. Now the next time I have a little gift to give, I'm all set! I hope you liked it!