7.31.2014

Short On Time?

How about a quick and easy card? Remember the Love Story Project Life pack I featured last week for my Friday Favorite? Well I used it again today to make a super quick and very easy card. I'm not kidding, this card took me less than 5 minutes to make and most of that was cutting the cardstock and deciding which heart to use. In fact, it took me longer to write this post than it did to make the card!


Real Red card base, Smoky Slate layer. One of my favorite cards from the Love Story pack. Glued those layers all together. Stamped the heart from Peace, Love, & Cupcakes in Real Red on the card. Slapped on some washi tape from the Beach House set. Done. How easy was that? Plus, how cute is this card?

As always, you can find more Quick & Easy inspiration today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration!

7.30.2014

Wednesday Write-up

I had the pleasure of meeting a very talented woman earlier this month at a crop. I've known her mom and her sister for a few years, and they always make the crops more entertaining!

I asked Suzie if it would be ok if I feature her in a blog post. She doesn't have her own blog (yet), but I told her to let me know when she does so I can link it back to her. I'd love to see more of her amazing work and I'm sure you would too!

Suzie is getting married next spring. This girl is on top of things too, let me tell you! She is giving each guest a handmade favor at her wedding. Would you like to see what it is?



Suzie, her mom and her sister spent the first half of the weekend painting canvas squares with acrylic paint. We all kind of wondered what they were doing. Next, a bunch of the blue pieces had two big, brown dots on them. A little while later, I looked over and saw one of the finished ones, complete with two sunflowers. That's when I went over to watch her work more closely. She was freehanding every single flower! Isn't this a spectacular favor to receive at a wedding?

As I sat in awe of her work, I thought about the canvas banner pieces I have at home and wondered if I could do something similar for wall art. Then I remembered that everything I've ever attempted to paint or draw has looked like a 3 year old did it. (Actually some 3 year olds can probably draw better than me.) Therefore, I'm now signed up for two beginner painting classes at our local arts council.

Thank you Suzie for inspiring me to expand my creativity. Thank you for allowing me to share your amazing work with my readers. You are a special person and your friends and family are lucky to have someone who cares about them so much to give them such a great gift!

7.29.2014

Happy Birthday Order

My husband's grandma needed some more birthday cards last week. She loves all the comments she gets about the handmade cards she sends, especially when they look at the back and see that my last name is the same as hers.

This is what I made for her for this order.


The card base is Whisper White. I created a background using tone-on-tone stamping with the flower from Peace, Love, & Cupcakes and So Saffron ink and cardstock.

I colored the 1/4" Whisper White Cotton Ribbon with the Old Olive Blendabilities. (See last Tuesday's post for more things you can color with Blendabilities.)

The flowers from Petite Petals are stamped in Rich Razzleberry on Whisper White cardstock. I then punched them out with the coordinating Petite Petals Punch.

I added the Happy Birthday from Bloom with Hope, which is a hostess exclusive stamp set. The inside is stamped with "Every year knowing you is a very good year," which also comes from the same stamp set.

This card is very easy to mass produce. I suggest going and making a few now; or maybe "pin" it for later!

7.28.2014

Masculine Monday


The more I make masculine cards, the easier I find it is to create them. Now I wonder why I ever struggled with it.

This card features Garden Green, Tangelo Twist and Night of Navy. The stars were cut with the Stars Framelits out of Gold Foil Sheets. The "Celebration" is from the Project Life Remember This stamp set.

My favorite part of this card is the Designer Series Paper. Who would have thought that I would find paper for a masculine card in a pack of paper called Flowerpot? This card reminds me of my dad, as he had a shirt almost this exact color green. The only difference is that the white stripes were set farther apart.

Need more masculine inspiration? Head over to SSINK!

7.25.2014

Love For Love Story

It has been YEARS since I have printed pictures; until last weekend. I printed 330 pictures! I still love My Digital Studio, but Project Life has gotten me really excited about Memory Keeping. My newest Project Life by Stampin' Up! Card Collection Kit is Love Story.

A small selection of the cards you get

One of my favorite thing about these Project Life cards is that I can also use them to make cards, which is what my true passion is.


For this card, I took of the the 4" x 6" cards from Love Story and trimmed it down to 4" x 5-1/4". I stamped the Happy Birthday and one of the flower images from Bloom With Hope hostess exclusive stamp set. I colored the flowers with Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive Blendabilities. I also lined the banner at the top with the Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities. Then I mounted it on a Wisteria Wonder base and I was done! So easy.

Be inspired with more Friday Favorites at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.

7.24.2014

Christmas In July

We are featuring Christmas in July today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration. Since it's still a few weeks too early to get my hands on the Holiday Catalog preorder items, I decided to do some Christmas punch art.


Introducing my Joyful Chevron Trees. The card base is Cherry Cobbler with an Early Espresso layer. I punched the chevrons out of Always Artichoke card stock. The tree truck is the smaller of the two tickets from the Ticket Duo Builder Punch.

The Joy is stamped in Cherry Cobbler on Very Vanilla cardstock using the Metro Type Alphabet. My final addition to the card was to color the Vintage Faceted Buttons with the Medium Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities.

It's only 154 days until Christmas. Are you ready?

7.23.2014

Girly Birthday

My friend's daughter's birthday was last weekend. She had a Peppa Pig party this year. Here is the cake my friend made for her.


To go along with the purple and pink theme, this is the card I made for her:


Since Michayla is very much a girly girl, I went for as much sparkles as I could! I made her a shaker frame card with glitter and sequins in it. Next to the Happy Birthday, I used the Dazzling Details to add little dots. I also used the Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities to color the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper. The stars were made with the Decorative Masks by sponging Rich Razzleberry Ink onto Melon Mambo card stock.

I called Michayla on her birthday. When I told her Happy Birthday, she said, "Thank You!" I asked how old she was and she very proudly announced, "THREE!"

7.22.2014

What Can I Do With Blendabilities?

Have you tried out the new Blendabilities Markers from Stampin' Up! yet? If not, you need to; I'm addicted!

How many times have you been working on a project and thought, "oh man, I wish I had this ribbon in ______ (insert color here)?" Well with Blendabilities, now you can! (At least in the 6 colors plus skin tones that are currently available.)

Today I wanted to showcase just a few items that you can enhance/change with these fabulous markers. In case you're not aware, the Blendabilites come in a pack of 3 gradient colors for $11.95. Hence the ability to blend them. I used the Darker Coastal Cabana on all of my test samples today so you can see how different mediums present a slightly different result.


I didn't label the Basic Pearl and Basic Rhinestone in the middle because I ran out of room. Remember, you can click on the picture for a larger view.


What do you think? I can't tell you how gorgeous it all is in person, especially the Satin Ribbon and Basic Pearl. I once tried the technique of coloring our pearls with a Sharpie and then heat embossing to set it. Let me tell you that was a mess and I never tried it again. The blendabilities was not messy and dried quickly!!!

Now for some paper samples.


And colored:


Doesn't that make a huge difference on the Back to Black DSP? I moved the Watercolor Paper in the second picture because I wanted to show the butterflies side by side. The same color marker looks slightly darker on the Watercolor Paper than on the Whisper White cardstock.

Ok, so there's one last thing I used my Blendabilities on today. I didn't use the Coastal Cabana though, and you'll see why.


The very first day I wore these shoes, I scuffed them on the sidewalk leaving for lunch. I was highly upset. But I figured out a way to make my little scuff less noticeable.


You got it! I grabbed the Blush Blendabilities Marker from the Skin Tone collection and colored my shoe! Oh, and if you look at my scrap paper under my shoe...make sure that you use scrap paper under your ribbons when you are coloring them!

If you would like to see some of my colored embellishments in action, you can check out yesterday's post where I used Coastal Cabana ribbon; and tomorrow's post which shows colored Glimmer Paper. Also, over the next two weeks, I will share a few other cards that feature the Blendabilites in one fashion or another. See ya tomorrow!

7.21.2014

July Layout Sketch

Where has the summer gone? It seems like last week I was posting the June Layout Sketch! This is our layout challenge for July at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration:


Are you sitting down? You might still fall out of your chair. I didn't use My Digital Studio for this layout!


I recently took advantage of the July Stampin' Up! special, which is Buy 3 Designer Series Paper packs, Get 1 FREE! This paper is from the Lullaby pack. Isn't it great that it can be used for things not related to babies as well?

My favorite part of this page? The ribbon. This ribbon is the 5/8" Vanilla Satin Ribbon. It's not Vanilla anymore because I colored it with the Darker Coastal Cabana Blendabilities. It is so pretty in person! In fact, stop back in tomorrow, when my featured Design Team post at SSINK will detail all of the different embellishments that you can color with these markers!

As with all of our challenges, we would love to have to play along. Link up at SSINK.

7.18.2014

Convention Display Board Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of my featured cards that I made for the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration Design Team display board at Stampin' Up!'s annual convention. You can see my first two cards on yesterday's post. As I mentioned there, Groovy Love was my featured stamp set.



This was the third card I made, and I think it was my favorite. (Cards are like kids, it's hard to pick a favorite!) The heart image on this card is my other favorite from the Groovy Love set. I stamped the hearts and the "You & Me" from Perfect Pennants in Blushing Bride ink on Pink Pirouette cardstock and used the Large Scallop Edgelits die on the bottom edge. This was layered on a piece of the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper, this time without dyeing it.

#secretsout and #truelove are from the @SoSocial stamp set. Perhaps my favorite element of this card is the background. I created it by sponging Blushing Bride ink on Blushing Bride cardstock using the Hearts & Stars Decorative Masks. Such a quick, easy, and adorable background!


The last card I made features some of the new 2014-2016 In Colors, as well as a Project Life card. The card base is Mossy Meadow, the Blackberry Bliss DSP is from the Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack and the banners are punched from Tangelo Twist cardsock.

The "you" image is from Work of Art. "ME" was created using the Metro Type Alphabet. The "& Heart" was the last of the four heart images in Groovy Love.

I hope you have enjoyed what I created to share with fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators at Create.Inspire.Share 2014. Please stop by SSINK today to check out the other designer's creations as well.