Well-rounded card?

I had a lot of fun with this card.  I took 3 challenges and mashed them together to create this colourful birthday card.  I LOVED the colours presented by colourQ and the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and I couldn't resist the theme of the week over at CASology: CIRCLE!

Freshly Made Sketch

 

Aren't those colours just fabulous?!!  It puts in me in mind of warmth and beaches.....ahh....March Break is coming!  But I digress.  I've been having fun with my "Circle Circus" stamp set recently so I couldn't resist stamping circles in these colours.  Stampin' Up doesn't have Brilliant Blue or Cool Caribbean anymore so I used Pacific Point and Pool Party instead. 

 

Freshly Made ColourQ Circle card

I'm really pleased with the result.  I'm a big fan of CAS (Clean and Simple) cards so this makes me happy : )  It's a little hard to see the sentiment so here is more of a close-up shot:

 

 

I wonder what it would look like with a different background colour?  Stay tuned to find out : )

 

Details:

 

Ink and Paper:  Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit, Pacific Point, Pool Party, and Whisper White

 

Stamp Sets:  Circle Circus, Pretty Petites

 

Other:  Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Scallop Border Punch

 

Happy Stamping!





Dynamic Duos for the Paper Players

Ugh!  Has anyone else had this ridiculous cold that just WON'T go away?  I don't get sick very often but this year I just can't shake whatever it is that I've got!  So frustrating!!!

Anyhoo, I forced myself to sit down and create a card tonight.  I used the Dynamic Duos and Paper Players challenges for inspiration.  Here's what I had to work from:

I love how simple the sketch is and I'm a sucker for Island Indigo and Pool Party.  I'm going to be really sad to see them go at the end of May! 

I chose to stay VERY simple for the card.  I thought about adding embellishments and paper piercing but just wasn't feeling it tonight.  Here's what I came up with:

Rockin' and Rollin' with Papillion Potpourri

Pretty, eh?  I've been really trying to get back to "basics" with my stamping.  I tend to get bogged down with all of the possibilities and then basically give up and don't do anything at all : )   

I went back to a really cool, easy technique for the butterfly on this card - "rock and roll".  Super simple....just ink up your stamp in the lighter colours (Pool Party here) and then roll the edges of the stamp in the darker ink (Island Indigo).  Then stamp your image.   Simple!

Thanks for stopping by.  Here are the details for my card:

Ink and Paper:  Island Indigo, Pool Party and Whisper White, Sycamore Street DSP

Stamp sets: Papillion Potpourri, Made for You

Other:  Corner Rounder Punch, Scallop Punch, Bigz Circles Die #2

Happy Stamping!

March Madness Sneak Peak

Happy Family Day to all my fellow Ontarians (and to all of you from Alberta too!).  We spent a lovely weekend at our family cottage enjoying the cold by snowshoeing and tobogganing down the hill to the beach!  It was great!!!  When we weren't outside we were warm and cozy in beside the wood stove playing games, working on a great puzzle and eating yummy food!  So nice!!!!  I LOVE this mid-February holiday.  It's still pretty new but it's not hard to take : )

So, I didn't do any stamping this weekend but I do have a card that I made a couple of weeks ago for my March Madness Make and Take on March 5th.  I had a lot of fun with my Big Shot on this one!

Spring colours for March Madness

See what I mean?!  I just couldn't stop on this one.  One of my favourite things on this card is the little crepe paper flower.

Crepe paper flowers

I ran the crepe paper (see it in Stampin' Up's Spring Catalogue) through the Big Shot on the Floral Fusion Sizzlits die.  I then, very gently, sponged the individual flowers with Raspberry Ripple ink....the more you sponge on the colour the darker the flower.  Finally I pinned them all together with a little brad.

Come out and make this card with me on Tuesday, March 5th.  Contact me to RSVP and to get directions.

Happy Stamping!

Happy Valentine's Day

I have a quick little post for you today to show you what my son and I made as little Valentine's for his preschool class.  I had totally intended on making some lovely cards and 3D projects to give my family members today but I've been out with a nasty bug all week and this is all I've got.....sigh....maybe next year!

When I asked my son what colour he wanted to use for his Valentine's he said, with no hesitation, "Blue!".  Fine, the base of the card can be blue.  What colour would you like the hearts; pink or red?  "Blue".....hmmm, maybe not.  So we made a compromise and made the elephant blue and the hearts red! 

He helped put most of the parts through the Big Shot and punched all of the little sparkly hearts out himself. 

Patterned Occasions Elephant Valentine's



I absolutely LOVE the little elephant from the Sale-a-bration set "Patterned Occasions".  It is so versatile and I've now used it for "Thank you" cards, a baby card and these Valentine's.   I chose to little 3 1/2" x 2 3/4" one-sided cards.  With the heart (from the Hearts Framelits collection) and the elephant on the front and this on the back:



V is for Valentine

His preschool class is beginning "Jolly Phonics" so I thought that this "V is for Valentine" stamp would be really appropriate!

My son had a lot of fun punching out the little hearts....they are now all over the basement : )

Happy Stamping!

Chalkboard Variation

Here is a variation on yesterday's card (click here to see the previous card).  I actually made this card first just to try out the technique.  I was really pleased with the result and will likely be using this combination a lot in the future!

After reading a little bit about how to create a chalkboard look I decided that the Circle Circus stamp set would work....the advice was to use a stamp or stamps that have a lot of different fonts or interest points.

I really like the look that the "bubbles" give to the chalkboard.  I don't care for the base card stock (in Whisper White) but I have to admit that I was waiting for my order to come in and couldn't wait : )  I think a Pink Pirouette or Basic Black base would look better.

All the details:

Stamp Sets:  Circle Circus, Made for You

Ink: White Craft Ink

Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Pink Pirouette and Twitterpated DSP

Other:  Two-tone ribbon (pink pirouette/rose red...found on p. 13 of Stampin' Up's Spring Catalogue).

Happy Stamping!

Woohoo Birthday

This is the final card that we did at my Sale-a-bration Soiree a few nights ago.  The chalkboard look seems to be all the rage right now, so I jumped onto the bandwagon for this card.  When Stampin' Up released it's new "Single Stamps" lists a couple of weeks ago the "Woohoo" stamp caught my eye.  It seemed perfect for creating a chalkboard look and I was right.

It's a super-simple card but it looks so pretty!  To create this look simply stamp your image, preferably one with a lot of varied fonts, in White Craft Ink onto Basic Black card stock.  I also use the White ink to sponge the edges of the card stock to give that "used" chalkboard effect.  Be careful, however, the Craft ink is very inky and dries much more slowly than regular Classic Ink.  To speed up the drying process I use the low setting on my Stampin' Up heat tool.....it's great!

I used the new two-tone ribbon (Pink Pirouette and Rose Red) found at the top of p. 13 of Stampin' Up's Spring Catalogue.  It has a lovely weight to it and is really nice to work with.

Here are all of the details:

Stamp Sets:  Woohoo (Single Stamp....head to http://lauragardiner.stampinup.net to see them all and order yours)

Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Basic Black,  Twitterpated DSP

Ink:  White Craft Ink

Other:  Two-Tone Ribbon

Happy Stamping!

Butterfly in the sky

Here is the second of four cards that we did the other night at my "Sale-a-bration Soiree".  I CASE'd this card from one I saw on Pinterest.  You can follow me on Pinterest to see this card....click on the icon on the sidebar to link to my Pinterest page.

I was SO excited when I saw the new "Bitty Butterfly" punch in Stampin' Up's Spring Catalogue.   I already loved the Butterfly punch and Papillion Potpourri stamp set and this, of course, goes perfectly with both. 

The other stamp set I used on this card is another one of my favourites, "Itty Bitty Phrases".  Right now you can get this stamp set FREE through Sale-a-bration.  Contact me for more details or to place an order.

Here are the card details:

Stamp Set:  Papillion Potpourri, Itty Bitty Phrases

Ink:  Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, 

Paper: Midnight Muse, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Patio Party DSP

Tools:  Butterfly Punch,  Bitty Butterfly Punch, Dotted Scallop Edge Punch, Simply Scored, Fancy Fan TIEF and Bitty Banners Framelits

Other:  Glue Dots, Basic Pearls

Sweet Threads Cross-stitch cards

When I saw the "Sweet Threads Simply Sent" kit in the Spring catalogue I knew that I HAD to have it!  I really like to cross-stitch but don't do it very often because, honestly, I wouldn't hang one in my house.  So I was very excited to be able to create a simple cross-stitched image and then put it ON A CARD!!!!!  Sweet!!!

Okay....so here's the confession part of this post....I get really lazy in the evenings. There, I said it! I'm much more likely to sit on the couch then sit at my messy desk after the kids are in bed. So this is a great way to sit on the couch AND craft....AT THE SAME TIME!!! SO, I was able to watch football AND craft. Sweet!!!  Check it out:

Aren't they cute?!  And so simple!  The cross-stitch cards come already punched and with instructions (just in case you need them).  The suggestion from Stampin' Up is that one use the entire thread to create the image but I found that that was too bulky.  When I was learning to cross-stitch my mom always told me to separate our a few strands of the thread first and then stitch the image.  So that's what I did here.  I took 3 threads (of 6) of each colour and was very pleased with the look of the image.   

I got the Simply Sent kit as part of a bundle (so I could save 15%!!!) and got the "Essentials" stamp set with it.  Then all I needed was some ink...Primrose Petals and/or Lucky Limeade will do the trick.

Check out this kit on page 22 of the Spring Catalogue....click on the icon at the side to download the Spring Catalogue.

Happy Stamping....or Cross-stitching!