Category Archives: cards

FYI – Metro Doilies

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It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI35.

What a beautiful night scene! The first thing that caught my eye was the curves of the bridge. If I had a roller coaster image, I would definitely have been using it. Alas, I do not. So next, I decided to use Kristina Werner’s awesome tutorial for creating a sketch from a photo.

I took another look at the photo and in addition to the “circles” of the bridge, I saw a pennant in the points on the cathedral. And so my sketch was born.

I had a sketch, now I needed colors. I went back to the photo and found my new favorite – Summer Starfruit. But then there was this bright teal and a totally different blue in the sky – eek. But, Starfruit and Pool look awesome together, so I just stuck with Gray to balance it all out. The final color palette felt very “metropolitan” to me, hence the post title.

Now I had a sketch and colors. Up next – stamp images. Since I was using StampinUp colors, I decided to check my SU stamps first and when I came to the doily set, I felt they were perfect!

Normally I make birthday cards, but these colors weren’t what I think of as birthday colors (though now that I see the final card, I don’t see why it couldn’t be a birthday card…go figure); instead I went with a get well sentiment instead.

I used pattern paper for added texture for the Pool pennant layer.

A final touch of a few pearls.

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Debby
Michelle
Rochelle
Rudlis
Sara
Steph
Sylvia
Vicki

I hope you join us at For Your Inspiration!

A Little About the Challenge: The For Your Inspiration challenge is posted the first and third Thursday of every month; each challenge is open for two weeks. To play, use the photo to inspire you and create a card – very simple! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

get well soon
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Delightful Dozen;
Colors: Basic Grey, Summer Starfruit, Pool Party, Vanilla;
Other: Pearls, Dimensionals;

Summer Vine

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The Paper Smooches Sparks challenge blog has a great inspiration photo for the latest challenge.

I started with a kraft card base and then sponged some blue craft ink onto the base (mimicking the inspiration piece). After that, I just used the colors from the piece.

happy birthday
Stamps: Reflections, Party Posse (Paper Smooches);
Colors: White, Kraft (PTI); Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Bashful Blue (SU);
Other: tag punch (Marvy); twine (Paper Smooches);

Blue Rose

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As usual, I’m trying to catch up on more challenges (and I’ll be gone this weekend too, so more non-stamping time, boo). So this card is for the CAS-ual Friday color challenge (cfc63).

I love these colors! When I stamped the rose, I only used the top 2 layers of the stamp so that there would be plenty of white showing through – I think it makes it look more graphic/modern.

As for the layout – I started by trimming the card base down to just 4″ wide (a trick I learned from Maile Belles). Then I embossed the scallop square – it is harder to get that straight than I thought it would be, gah! Finally the rose is mounted with dimensionals.

Thanks for taking a peek!

happy birthday
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: The Sweet Life, Inside-Out: Birthday;
Colors: Fine Linen, White, Aqua Mist, Enchanted Evening, Simply Chartreuse, Dark Chocolate;
Other: Limitless Layers: Square;

Wet Leaves

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This is another card I created for mom’s August camp. This time my assignment was a masculine card using Gently Falling.

This time I started with a technique – wet paper watercoloring. I love this technique and use it a lot.

I also recently discovered a great color combo that uses the new StampinUp color – Summer Starfruit. When I first saw this color I was very intimidated, but now I am loving it!

I kept the sentiment/embellishments very simple because I wanted the focus on the technique background.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Gently Falling, Teeny Tiny Wishes;
Colors: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Summer Starfruit, Crumb Cake;
Other: Watercolor paper, Modern Label punch, Word Window punch, Linen Thread;

Rose & Lace Wedding

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I created this card for mom’s August stamp camp. She asked me to create a wedding card. Since I recently got Stippled Blossom and love it, I just had to use it.

To get started, I stamped my rose, leaves, and sentiment. To do the rose, I used an off-stamped inking of Primrose for the first rose layer and then full-strength Raspberry for the shading layer.

When I laid the image/sentiment die cut onto the card base, I knew I wanted something down the center. After looking through my supplies, I decided to use the large lace embossing folder.

I really love the embossing detail. The way I did it was new for me. First I made a tick mark at the center on the top and bottom on the backside of the pink panel. Then I lined up the straight edge of the lace to the tick marks and embossed. Then I turned the panel around and embossed again. It didn’t really leave a line on the other embossing, but it did flatten it just a bit – so I put the panel back through the Big Shot with all tabs and it flattened it out just a bit, but evenly. Hope that all makes sense – really the texture is still very nice.

As a final touch, I then wrapped the crochet trim around the center too.

Thanks for taking a peek!

bride & groom
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Sweet Essentials;
Colors: Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple (ink only), Pink Pirouette (cs only), Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Basic Grey, Vanilla;
Other: Delicate Designs embossing, Labels Collection Framelit die, Crochet trim;

Boldly Back 2 School

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I was away from my stamps for two weeks (eek!). Now that I’m back, I’m trying to get back into the groove of playing the challenges – and also trying to catch up with some that I missed.

This card is for this week’s Retro Sketch (rs21).

While I was searching through my index to pick a stamp set to use, I came up with the idea to do a back to school card using Smarty Pants (by Paper Smooches). I love this set – this little dude is so fun!

Since I was using some PS stamps – I checked on the challenges I missed while I was gone and found a Cool Shades color challenge which fit perfectly!

In the color challenge graphic – I wasn’t too sure if that was a yellow or a yellow/green swatch – so I picked Stampin’Up’s new Starfruit color because I have the same problem with that!

I was looking for some “school” pattern paper when I remembered I could use Papertrey’s Guidelines paper for my card base – love the subtle grid as a background for this card!

The sentiment is a combination of sentiment and alphabet sets.

The final touch was to add the string to the tag. I had nothing that was that yellow/green color. So I took white baker’s twine and colored it with the marker – very easy!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Go Boldly
Stamps: Smarty Pants, Space Cadet, He Said She Said, Alphadot (Paper Smooches);
Colors: White, Spring Rain (PTI); Starfruit (SU);
Other: Prestwick DSP for shirt paper piecing (retired SU); markers (Copic & SU); Tag die, Guidelines paper (PTI);

Summer at Night

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CAS-ual Friday’s latest challenge is: Back in Black.

I admit I was a little intimidated at first. Even a traipse through my digital index didn’t come up with anything immediately.

Then I found a cool fabric on Pinterest (first photo at this source).

I loved the bold waves of color and used that inspiration to create my card. I love how the black makes those bright colors pop even more!

The sentiment is stamped with white craft ink and embossed with glitter/clear embossing powder.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments;
Colors: Black, Rapsberry Fizz, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise;
Other: Ric-Rac die; Hologram Highlights glitter/clear embossing powder (SU);

Life is Sweet – PTI Blog Hop

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Today is PTI’s blog hop! Check it out.

I love these colors and of course – flowers! Since I just received my new rose set, I had to ink it up!

I stamped my rose first. I used Lemon Tart, then Melon Berry, and finished with Berry Sorbet. Well when I was done, it was very yellow/orange. I put together my card but kept to the yellow/orange scheme (figuring I would just save this card for a future post and create a new one for the hop). I originally used Summer Sunrise as the color that peeked out from under the white edger panel (because it matched what the lemon/melon combo turned into). I was happy with it – and set it aside.

After an hour or so I came back to the card and the ink had changed colors! Now the top Berry Sorbet inking looked more Melon and the middle Melon inking looked a lot LESS like Summer Sunrise. Instead of ripping the card up, I cut a small piece of Melon cardstock and tucked it under the white edger panel and voila – it worked! I was so happy. And to me, since I’m using more of the colors from the challenge, I felt I could use the card for the hop.

I did try a Berry Sorbet strip instead and I think it worked, but it turned the card much brighter, which was not what I was going for – so I stayed with Melon.

I love happy accidents!

Thanks for stopping by!

Life is Sweet
All supplies Paper Trey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Life is Sweet;
Colors: Lemon Tart, Melon Berry, Berry Sorbet, Simply Chartreuse, Dark Chocolate, White; Landscape ink (Palette);
Other: Cane Impression Plate, Edgers 2 die, Life is Sweet dies, Lemon Tart ribbon;

FYI – Pumpkin Patch

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It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI34.

This photo is so cool! It makes me think I found where the faeries live! I love how the back is lit up as well as the front (well enough in the front so there aren’t silhouettes).

The large orange bush/tree from the inspiration photo is where my card started. Large orange “circle” made me think pumpkin. The rest of the card just worked with additional colors from the inspiration photo.

I kept the card base light in color because the inspiration photo is full of light in the background.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Debby
Michelle
Rochelle
Rudlis
Sara
Steph
Sylvia
Vicki

I hope you join us at For Your Inspiration!

A Little About the Challenge: The For Your Inspiration challenge is posted the first and third Thursday of every month; each challenge is open for two weeks. To play, use the photo to inspire you and create a card – very simple! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

Happy Halloween
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Jack of All Trades, Delightful Dozen;
Colors: So Saffron, Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Soft Suede;
Other: Garden button, Expresso Baker’s Twine, Woodgrain embossing folder;

Kindness Matters

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I needed a “thank you” card to insert in a little package for a friend. She likes pink and butterflies, so that is what I used 🙂

I used a sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping blog (ftl197).

I, um, mis-read my ruler and cut my pattern paper panel a bit too short, so I improvised and added a bit of ribbon to help take up space.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Kindness Matters
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Kindness Matters;
Colors: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, So Saffron;
Other: Elegant Butterfly punch, Black polka dot ribbon, pattern paper (old SU);