A birthday 'Woo hoo!'

No matter the time of year, I don't think I'm ever more than a week or two away from needing a birthday card for someone. (If it's October, I need two or three every time I turn around!) So I always love to find a new, fun stamp I can use for birthday cards. When Stampin' Up!^® introduced their latest collection of single stamps, I knew I had to get the stamp called Woo Hoo!

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Woo Hoo!
Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, silver glimmer paper
Ink: Jet Black StazOn pad; markers: Blush Blossom, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso Accessories: Chevron embossing folder, rhinestones, Dimensionals

The most time-consuming part of this card was probably the coloring; otherwise it was a quick card to make. Because the focal image is pretty busy, I wanted to keep the rest of the layout clean and simple. I embossed the Basic Black card base with the Chevron embossing folder to add a little texture and then added a strip of silver glimmer paper near the bottom of the card. I adhered the finished image (I hand-cut around the frilly border) over the glimmer paper with Dimensionals, and for a final sparkly detail, I added one rhinestone on the bottom right corner of the focal image and three along the top left edge of the card base. And that's it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Raining flowers

When I saw the hostess stamp set Million-Dollar Moments in the Stampin' Up!^® spring catalog, I was immediately drawn to it. It's not my usual style, but I really like the silhouette image of the woman holding an umbrella and the different things you can stamp as the "rain" (I think my favorite is the flowers). And the little duck image just quacks me up! (Sorry, that was really bad, but I had to do it.) Here are the first couple of cards I've made with this fun set:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Million-Dollar Moments
Paper: Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit, Very Vanilla card stock; Print Poetry Designer Series Paper (DSP) stack
Ink: Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit
Accessories: Summer Starfruit striped ribbon, Petite Curly Label punch, Dimensionals

I started with a piece of paper from the Print Poetry DSP stack and pulled my colors from there. I stamped the silhouette image twice on Very Vanilla card stock: once in Crumb Cake ink and once in Midnight Muse ink. I cut out just the umbrella from the Midnight Muse image and adhered it over the Crumb Cake image with Dimensionals. For the sentiment, I punched a Petite Curly Label from Summer Starfruit and adhered that near the corner of the stamped panel. Then I stamped the greeting, punched it out with the Petite Curly Label punch and used a Dimensional to attach it to the Summer Starfruit label, just slightly offset.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Million-Dollar Moments
Card stock: Midnight Muse, Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Midnight Muse, Baja Breeze, So Saffron
Accessories: Cloudy Day embossing folder, corner rounder, Jewelry Tag punch, mini silver brad, white baker's twine, Dimensionals

I adore the new Cloudy Day embossing folder; it adds such a great subtle texture, and it's perfect with this image. I struggled a little bit with the color balance on the stamped panel for this card because both So Saffron images are on the left side. (I really wished the duck was facing the other way so I could have stamped him on the right side.) I tried to balance that out a little by adding a So Saffron tag behind the sentiment on the right side of the panel, and I think that works pretty well. The extra tag also gives the small greeting a little more "oomph."

I'll try to keep the new cards coming. I have one more to share tomorrow or Wednesday, and then I need to get back to the drawing board. Or, more accurately, the crafting table. Thanks for stopping by!

Secret Garden cards

I'm a sucker for just about anything floral, so when I first saw the Stampin' Up!^® spring catalog, I knew right away that I would be getting the Secret Garden stamp set and the coordinating Framelits dies. This weekend I made two cards with these items and a few other new goodies.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Secret Garden
Paper: River Rock, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green card stock; Print Poetry Designer Series Paper (DSP) stack
Ink: Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green
Accessories: Secret Garden Framelits dies, rhinestones, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Two-Way Glue Pen, Dimensionals

I love how quick and easy it is to make a paper bouquet with this coordinating stamp set and dies. I've made cards similar to this many times in the past, but I've always cut out the flowers by hand. I don't mind doing that -- in some ways "fussy cutting" is sort of calming for me -- but it definitely takes a lot more time. And here's a little trick: The two light pink flowers on this card are actually one flower that I cut in half. Since I was tucking it under the larger flower, I decided not to "waste" it by leaving half of it hidden.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Secret Garden
Paper: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Very Vanilla card stock; Print Poetry DSP stack
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green
Accessories: Secret Garden Framelits dies, Honeycomb embossing folder, Gumball Green stitched ribbon, pearls, Essentials paper-piercing pack, paper-piercing tool and mat, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

I did do some fussy cutting for the flower on this card. Using Raspberry Ripple ink, I stamped the largest flower image three times: twice on Primrose Petals card stock and once on Raspberry Ripple card stock. I used the Framelits dies to cut out one of the Primrose Petals flowers. Then I hand-cut the center out of the other Primrose Petals flower and the middle group of petals out of the Raspberry Ripple flower. I used Glue Dots to layer the center pieces on the large flower so it has a little bit of dimension.

The piece of Print Poetry DSP on this card was one of the scraps leftover from the card above. I also had a long, skinny strip, which I adhered along the bottom of the inside of this card.

Come back tomorrow for more cards featuring new products from the Stampin' Up! spring catalog. Thanks for stopping by!

Fifteen-minute card ... more or less

This month I haven't been posting on my blog nearly as much as I expected to or should have been. It seems that getting back into the swing of things after the holidays has been tricky. And then last week I started getting sick with whatever crud is going around. I had to work Friday (and yesterday) because we already had other staff out sick, but by Friday night I was down for the count with a nasty cough and crazy sore throat. I spent all Saturday and Sunday in bed. On Monday I migrated to the couch in the living room for a change of scenery and some different TV viewing options. (Side note: I am a tad bitter that I had to spend my glorious three-day weekend sick. Boo!)

All in all I know I was pretty lucky to "bounce back" so quickly, although I'm still not 100%; the runny/stuffy nose and cough are lingering. I didn't feel the greatest coming home from work today, and I really wanted to curl up with my book and a blanket. But I had this nagging feeling that I should make something. It seemed too overwhelming, though, to decide what kind of card to make and then what stamps to use and what colors ... well, you see where it was going. To take some of the pressure off, I decided I would make a fifteen-minute card. With that idea in my head, it didn't seem like such a daunting task, and I gave myself "permission" to just make something without worrying about whether it was "good enough."

In the end, the card I made probably took twenty to twenty-five minutes. But even though my timing was a bit off, I accomplished what I wanted to: I made a card without fretting about decisions. I just picked out one of the first stamps I saw, thought of an embellishment that would work with it and kept going from there. As a bonus, I used some supplies that I haven't touched in a long time. Here is the finished product:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: [name unknown; retired incentive stamp]
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Whisper White
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride
Accessories: Square doily, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, 1-3/4" circle punch, 1-1/4" and 2-3/8" scallop circle punches, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/16" hole punch, Blender Pen, pearls, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

The Crumb Cake base is just a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" piece of card stock (embossed with the Framed Tulips embossing folder), not a traditional folded card base. Instead, the card is inside the doily "envelope" (although you could write on the back of the Crumb Cake base if you needed more space). To make the envelope, fold the doily in half horizontally and vertically to find the center of the square. Open it back up and fold three of the corners into the center point. I placed a Glue Dot on the bottom corner and then adhered the right and left corners to the Glue Dot. I added the Blushing Bride scalloped circle to cover the "seam" and to help the corners stay together.

The card inside the envelope is 3-1/4" square and embossed with the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder. I stamped the image with Jet Black StazOn ink on Whisper White card stock and used a Blender Pen to color it. I punched out the finished image and adhered it to a scallop circle, and then I used a 1/16" hole punch to make a hole in each of the scallops. I used Dimensionals to attach the focal point to the card, and -- ta da! -- a more-or-less fifteen-minute card.

Tomorrow I'll be receiving a bunch of new goodies from the Stampin' Up! spring catalog and Sale-A-Bration promotion (yippee!), so I hope to have several fun creations to share with you soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Same layout, different holiday

Do you ever look back at cards you've made and recreate them with a different color scheme, different images or a different "theme"? That's what I did for today's cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake card stock; Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper (DSP) stack
Accessories: Window Frames Collection Framelits dies, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Full Heart punch, Beachfront ribbon originals, Victoria crochet trim, Festive paper-piercing pack, Stampin' Pierce mat, paper piercer, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

I started with the layout I used for the cards in my Christmas color flip post (July 22, 2012). But instead of using one piece of DSP and flipping over a strip to show the print on the reverse side, I used two pieces of DSP (I wanted just Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla in the prints), cut each one in half (to 4-1/2" x 3-1/4") and then cut a 1-1/2" x 3-1/4" strip off each of the four pieces. Mixing the patterns, I adhered the pieces to a 4-3/4" x 3-1/2" piece of Crumb Cake card stock. I placed a piece of crochet trim over the "seam" and then adhered the panel to a Cherry Cobbler card base. (I ended up with four cards, two of each style shown in the photo.)

To make the focal point, I used the second-smallest die in the Window Frames Collection Framelits dies to cut a piece of Crumb Cake card stock. I pierced a border around the die-cut and then adhered a piece of Very Vanilla ruffled ribbon (from the retired Beachfront Ribbon Originals pack) across the middle of the shape. I punched a heart from Cherry Cobbler card stock, embossed it with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, and adhered it over the ribbon with Dimensionals. Then I adhered the finished piece to the card with Dimensionals. I also used Glue Dots to adhere the ends of the ruffled ribbon to the card.

Thanks for stopping by!