A 'challenging' day

Yes, it was a challenging day, but in a good way. Today I worked on cards for a few of the August Stampin' Up! Creative Crew challenges from SplitCoastStampers (SCS). I had a lot of fun and designed three cards that probably would have looked very different if I hadn't started with the challenges.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: For the Birds
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Basic Gray, Soft Suede, Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry
Accessories: Ovals Collection Framelits dies, Woodgrain embossing folder, Chevron embossing folder, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Honeycomb embossing folder, Argyle embossing folder, Basic Gray stitched grosgrain ribbon, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Candy Dots - Subtles, Occasions Paper-Piercing pack, paper-piercing mat and tool, Blender Pen, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

The challenge for this card was to use the Afternoon Picnic Designer Series Paper (DSP) or the colors that are featured in the paper: Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry. I love that DSP, but unfortunately I don't have it yet. (I placed an order on Thursday and almost added it, but I kept changing my mind. Bummer. Maybe next time.) I wasn't quite sure how to combine all those colors, so I started with a line image that I could color. I used my markers for most of the coloring, but for the lighter parts on the bird and in two of the flowers, I used a Blender Pen with just a little ink. I die cut the focal image into an oval and then, of course, paper pierced around the edge. (I can't seem to use the Ovals Collection Framelits dies without adding paper piercing.) For the background I embossed pieces of cardstock with different textures. (Tip: Cut the pieces a little bit larger than needed, emboss them, and then trim them to the right size.) The finishing details were some ribbon and a few mini flowers.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Vintage Verses, It's Your Birthday (inside card)
Cardstock: Vellum, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray
Accessories: Top Note die, Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, Boho Blossoms punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, paper-piercing tool and mat, mini silver brads, rhinestones, paper snips, Mono Multi liquid glue

For this card, the challenge was to think outside your comfort zone and make something featuring Canvas Creations, vellum cardstock, window sheets or coaster board. Now, a card is most definitely inside my comfort zone, but I don't think I've ever made a card with a vellum base. And it actually worked really well.

I cut three Top Note die shapes out of Soft Sky cardstock: one for the card front, one for the inside and

one for the back. The trick with vellum, though, is finding a way to adhere cardstock without seeing the adhesive through the vellum. So to assemble the card, I first stamped and adhered the die-cut inside the card. (Any kind of adhesive is fine here as it will be covered up later.) Then I closed the card and aligned -- but didn't adhere -- the stamped die-cut on the card front over the one inside. I held the die-cut in place, carefully opened the card and laid the card front on a paper-piercing mat. I pierced three holes through the die-cut and vellum and added punched flowers by placing mini silver brads through the holes. This attached the die-cut to the card base. You can see the brad prongs when you open the card, but that doesn't bother me. If you'd rather not see the brads, you could use adhesive to attach the die-cut instead and then add another die-cut inside the card to cover the adhesive.

To finish the front of the card I added a few more flowers, this time using Mono Multi liquid glue. For the centers of those flowers I used rhinestones instead of brads. I also included a vellum butterfly with a rhinestone body.

For the back of my card, I stamped a copyright stamp on the last Top Note die-cut and adhered it directly over the die-cut inside the card.

This was a fun card to make, and I think it has a very elegant look to it. And it stands up on it's own, so it certainly seems sturdy enough. It might be a good candidate for hand-delivery, though, since I would worry about the vellum getting creased in the mail.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms, Gorgeous Grunge, Yippee-Skippee!
Paper: Whisper White, Always  Artichoke, Strawberry Slush cardstock; Season of Style DSP
Ink: VersaMark, Crumb Cake, Strawberry Slush
Accessories: Winter White embossing powder, Modern Label punch, pearls, linen thread, Dimensionals

The challenge here was to choose a project from pages 80 to 95 of the 2013 - 14 annual catalog and recreate it, making two or three changes so it's more your own. I selected the "hello, you" card from page 90, but I ended up making a few more than three changes. Oh, well. To make the flower, I stamped the image three times; for the first one I cut out a small section of petals in the middle,  for the second I cut out around the middle of the flower, and for the third I cut out the whole flower. I layered the pieces together with Dimensionals to create some depth. I changed the orientation of the greeting flag so it looks a bit like a leaf on the flower. The background is stamped with images from Gorgeous Grunge in Crumb Cake ink, and I added a strip of polka dot paper from the Season of Style DSP across the card front. For a little embellishment I added a folded Modern Label punch with a linen thread bow and a pearl in the upper right corner.

If you're ever in need of some papercrafting inspiration, creative challenges are a great way to start. There are challenges on numerous blogs and Web sites, including the Challenges section of SCS. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 2nd birthday!

To my blog, that is. Two years already. To celebrate the day, I have three fun birthday cards to share with you.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge
Cardstock: Whisper White
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango marker, Basic Gray marker
Accessories: Rhinestones, Dimensionals

I love this clean and simple layout -- it could easily be a one-layer card, but I liked the look of the raised inner panel -- and it was a very quick card to make. I stamped the diagonally striped image from Gorgeous Grunge four times on Whisper White cardstock with different colors of ink and at different heights. For the flames I used one of the splatter images from the same set (I colored just part of the image with a marker) and then drew the wicks with a marker. I added a rhinestone to each flame for a little sparkle. And here's a little more sparkle:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Yippee-Skippee!
Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Baked Brown Sugar cardstock; Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper (DSP); silver glimmer paper
Ink: Old Olive, Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Cupcake Builder punch, rhinestones, Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

For this card I used the Cupcake Builder punch to create seven cupcakes with DSP bases, different kids of frosting and fun silver sprinkles. I inked the greeting with markers to get the different colors and trimmed the right edge of the cardstock into a V to create a flag. I added a row of rhinestones under the greeting and a narrower flag of silver glimmer paper behind the flag.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Tag It
Cardstock: Gumball Green, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, vellum
Ink: Gumball Green, Basic Black, Strawberry Slush, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay markers
Accessories: Ovals Collection Framelits dies, Occasions Paper-Piercing pack, paper-piercing tool and mat, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon, Dimensionals, Sticky Strip

I love the bright colors and movement of this shaker card. I don't have a full tutorial for making the shaker, but here are the basic steps. (Note: The measurements are for this specific layout; adjust as needed for your own creation.)

1. Cut a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" piece of vellum cardstock.
2. Score each side of the vellum 1/2" from the edge. At each corner there is a square created by the intersection of the score lines. Cut out these squares.
3. If desired, add piercing to the vellum. I pierced through the back of the vellum so the resulting bumps didn't interfere with the movement of the confetti.
4. Place your confetti on the piece of vellum. I used the circle punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack to create the confetti for this card.
5. Cut a 3-1/8" x 4-3/8" piece of Very Vanilla card stock. Set it in the middle of the piece of vellum on top of the confetti.
6. Place strong adhesive around the edges of the Very Vanilla card stock (I used Sticky Strip) and fold down the edges of the vellum over the adhesive.
7. Adhere the focal image to the front of the shaker and attach the shaker to the card front. Embellish as desired.

If you have any questions or need more details, post a comment below and I will respond as soon as I can.

I hope you've enjoyed the projects I've created during the past two years. Thank you for sharing this journey with me!

Empty nests

A few weeks ago I mentioned in one of my posts about the bird nests being constructed on either side of our house. Well, it appears that all the baby birds have spread their wings and flown off as both nests have been empty since earlier this week. I didn't get pictures of the house finches -- their nest was squished between the air conditioner and the window frame in my sister's bedroom, so you could only really see them by standing on a stool next to the window and looking straight down; not the best photo set-up. I was, though, able to take several photos of the robin nest outside our dining room window, from the early stages of nest building to the almost-ready-to-fly babies. (I wish the lighting had been better, but the nest was shaded under the eaves, and I didn't want to use my flash and have it reflect off the window and/or scare the robins.)

June 23, 2013: Day one of nest building. Doesn't look like much, does it?

June 24, 2013: Day two. The nest is taking shape.

June 25, 2013: Day three, and the nest is complete. Wish you could build a house in three days?

July 5, 2013: We couldn't see into the nest, but we assume by this point that there were eggs in there. One day while the female robin (I think it was the female, anyway) was sitting on the nest, the male flew up and brought her some food. So maybe those cravings aren't unique to humans ...

July 22, 2013: New babies! They hatched sometime while I was at the Stampin' Up! convention -- my sister thought it might have been on July 17, the day I left -- and this was the first chance I had to get pictures. In the left picture you can see a little bald bird head, and in the right picture there is a little beak poking out. There were two babies in the nest.

July 28, 2013: Just a week later, and it's hard to believe how much the babies changed. When they stood up, like in these pictures, they looked huge. But they could still hunker down so far in the nest that we couldn't even see them. And it was funny to watch their "sibling rivalry" as they pushed and shoved each other in the nest. This was actually the last day we saw the robins. Sometime that night or early the next day, they were off on their own adventures. What an amazing nature lesson!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello, Lovely

One of the stamp sets Convention attendees received as part of their registration was Hello, Lovely. I really liked this set when I first saw it in the catalog, so I was excited to get it. But when I sat down to actually use it, I was a little stumped. So to get the creativity ball rolling, I decided to start with my old reliable layout.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Hello, Lovely; Sweet Essentials
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Wild Wasabi, Pistachio Pudding
Accessories: 1" square punch, rhinestones

I think this card is pretty self-explanatory, but I will mention that I cut out the stamped squares by hand and then layered them on the 1" punched black squares. Although it's a simple design, I think a group of these cards in different colors with different sentiments would make a great card set.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Hello, Lovely; Gorgeous Grunge; Sweet Essentials
Cardstock: Whisper White
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding
Accessories: Decorative Label punch, Textured Impressions embossing folder, Candy Dots - Subtles, Soft Suede taffeta ribbon, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals

I kept the background simple for this card with just a few stamped splatters and an embossed border. To make the focal point, I applied ink to only the frame portion of the image, stamped it, added the greeting inside the frame and then punched it out. I added ribbon tabs and Candy Dots and used Dimensionals to adhere it over the splatters.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Hello, Lovely; Gorgeous Grunge
Cardstock: Whisper White, Summer Starfruit, Coastal Cabana
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Coastal Cabana, Gumball Green, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate
Accessories: 1-1/4" scallop circle punch, Petite Curly Label punch, rhinestones, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals

This card was fun but definitely outside of my comfort zone. I started by stamping the row of arrows along the left side of the card (with the help of my Stamp-a-ma-jig). I used the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to add a few colorful background elements. For the focal point, I stamped the sentiment in Basic Gray and cut it out. I punched a scallop circle out of Summer Starfruit cardstock, cut it in half and adhered the halves to the top and bottom of the sentiment. I used Dimensionals to adhere the focal piece to the card, and for an extra accent I added an arrow pointing to the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yippee skippee!

At the end of the closing general session of the Stampin' Up! Convention, all attendees received the stamp set Yippee-Skippee! I was excited to get that set because although I really liked a few of the greetings in the set, I wasn't sure about the others, so it was a stamp set I might not have bought myself. And after playing with it this weekend, I was really glad we received it. So, yippee skippee!

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Yippee-Skippee!; Gorgeous Grunge; Hello, Lovely
Cardstock: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Real Red
Ink: Soft Suede, Real Red, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay
Accessories: Sweet Buttons Embosslits die, Candy Dots - Subtles, paper-piercing tool, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals

I have to say that I am really proud of this card, and I love how it turned out. Using my markers and Stamp-a-ma-jig, I combined two of the greetings I wasn't sure I would use -- "Never underestimate the power of two" and "I freakin' love you!" -- into one greeting I love -- "Never underestimate the power of you!" Seriously, I smile to myself when I look at this card. I left the inside blank because I thought this could be a great card either to encourage someone who is going through a rough time or to congratulate someone on a graduation, new job or other accomplishment. A few other details: I used a faux button to fill the extra space in the greeting (the holes in the button were made with a paper-piercing tool), and I love that the yellow Candy Dots, which are actually So Saffron, coordinate with the Crushed Curry ink. (One last grin. Okay, moving on ...)

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Yippee-Skippee!, Flower Shop
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Crushed Curry, Gumball Green
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Crushed Curry, white gel pen
Accessories: Pansy Punch, Bird Builder punch, Brights Designer Buttons (retired), white baker's twine

I used a card on Page 37 of the 2013 - 14 Annual Catalog as inspiration for this layout. (Go on, go ahead and look for yourself.) If you're ever stumped for a card layout or color combo, that's a great place to start. For my card I used a Soft Sky card base to look like, well, the sky and added faux stitching around the edges of the card with a white gel pen (sorry it's nigh on impossible to see in this photo). I used a Tempting Turquoise button for the center of the flower and also stamped the greeting in that color. I rarely use Tempting Turquoise, but I like how it pairs with Soft Sky. The wing on the Bird Builder punch worked beautifully to create the leaf for my flower stem. I had the perfect birthday greeting to coordinate with the sentiment on the outside of this card, so inside the card reads, "Wishing you the happiest birthday yet!"

Stamps (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Yippee-Skippee!
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Gray cardstock; This and That Epic Day Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Ink: Basic Gray
Accessories: Petite Pennants Builder punch, mini silver brads, linen thread, paper-piercing tool and mat, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Glue Dots, Mono Multi liquid glue

I have a tendency to make most of my thank-you cards very floral and girly, so I wanted to make something a little more gender-neutral with this card. I punched five triangles out of the Epic Day DSP, decided how I wanted to arrange them for the banner and then used my paper-piercing tool to make holes for the brads. For the three triangles in the middle, I pierced a hole in both of the top corners; for the two end triangles, I pierced a hole only in the inner corner. I connected the triangles with mini silver brads and attached the two outer triangles to the card with Glue Dots. I also added a Glue Dot behind the middle triangle to keep the banner from shifting. I tied two bows with linen thread and used Mono Multi liquid glue to glue them to the ends of the banner. If you are feeling ambitious, you could pierce holes in the card front and actually tie the banner to the card; I went with the faster and easier method.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Yippee-Skippee!, Storybook Friends, Gorgeous Grunge
Cardstock: Pacific Point, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Pacific Point, Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride
Accessories: Pacific Point stitched grosgrain ribbon, linen thread, Argyle embossing folder, 1" circle punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Crop-A-Dile (We R Memory Keepers), Dimensionals

Last, but certainly not least, is a card featuring the eponymous stamp from the Yippee-Skippee! stamp set. I thought this excited little puppy would be perfect for the sentiment; in fact, the puppy image actually includes the word "yippee!" but I just omitted that when I stamped it. To accent the focal layer, I punched two 1" circles from Pacific Point card stock, scored them and folded them in half. I adhered the folded circles on either side of the focal image and then punched a hole in each one with a Crop-A-Dile. I threaded the ribbon through one hole, wrapped it around the card front, threaded it through the other hole and then attached the layer to the card with Dimensionals. (You can attach the layer first, but it's a little easier to work with the ribbon this way.) I tightened the ribbon, used pieces of linen thread to secure it on either side and then trimmed the ends. I stamped a birthday greeting ("Birthdays are the best") inside this card, but it could also be a fun, whimsical congratulations or baby card.

I had such a fun weekend making cards with my new stamp sets from Convention. I have more to post tomorrow and then on Thursday -- to celebrate my blog's third birthday. Thanks for stopping by!