Friday Favorites

Can you believe that we've already reached the end of July? That means we're getting closer to my favorite season, Fall! Speaking of favorites, the designers at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration are sharing their current favorite products today.

My favorite is the Watercolor Wash stamp. It is one of Stampin' Up!'s background stamps, which are meant to cover a good portion of a quarter sheet of card stock. I love that it provides a bold, solid canvas to work with that only requires a few finishing touches be added!

What is currently your favorite Stampin' Up! product? Leave a comment below and receive something special from me!

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Garden Birthday

Ok, not to toot my own horn; but I think this might be my favorite card that I've made in quite some time. I don't know if it's the embellishments or the color combination, but it all makes me really happy!

I was kind of struggling with what I was going to do to make a birthday card; and then this one suddenly came together. I knew I wanted to use the Tin of Cards stamp set, because the fonts are so elegant. As I mentioned Monday, I am absolutely in love with the patterns of the Designer Series Paper color family stacks this year! I folded the Tip Top Taupe trim up on top of itself and it added a soft new texture to the card.

Have a lot of birthdays coming up that you need to make cards for? There's more inspiration today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration!

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Product Focus: Sequins

Have you played with any of the Stampin' Up! sequins? They add just the right amount of sparkle to any project. I don't remember why now, but I was flipping through the Annual Catalog before I made this card, and was inspired by the card on page 113. In fact I was so inspired I decided to CASE it.

I changed a few of the colors and embellishments around. Then I decided to "Step Up" the card by adding the sequins. In this case, I used some of the sequins from the Gold Sequin Trim. Sequins are one of those embellishments that you can always easily use to give your project that extra pizzaz.

Thanks for stopping by today. If your name is secretly Lorelai Gilmore, then I know you won't be able to resist checking out more sequined goodness at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.

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Quick & Easy Cards

My followers probably know me well enough by now to know that Project Life by Stampin' Up! card kits are my go to source for a quick and easy card. Today was no exception!

The heart patterned card from Moments Like These made the perfect background. Add some of that yummy Cucumber Crush Lace Trim and you're over half done! Quick, quick; head over to Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration for some more easy cards to CASE!

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Masculine Monday

A year ago, the Masculine Monday posts scared me and I avoided them like the plague. Now I rather enjoy them. Even though I'm more comfortable with them, it still poses a challenge to me.

I didn't mean for this one to come across so Army, but I think it does and I really like it. Do you think it does too? 

I just love the patterns in the Designer Series Paper Stacks this year and how versatile they are. I like the Chevron Border Punch, but I think my favorite element on this card is the stars that I stamped from Perfect Pennants and then cut out. 

Check out the other designers' masculine cards today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration. 

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Perpetual Calendar Kit

Today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration we are featuring our favorite Stampin' Up! kits and various ways to use them.

I am using the Perpetual Birthday Calendar Kit. Maybe this way I'll finally get birthday cards out to people on time!

It comes in it's own nifty box which makes it great for gift giving!

All together on the board.

How I decorated it.

I even decorated the bottom corners of most of them. The stars in a J pattern on this one were unintentional! 

#SSINKLS23: Layout Sketch

This is such a fun sketch, I just had to play along for the SSINK design team this week. You can play along with us too! Look for details below.

Last week, I used Project Life for some of my fish pictures from last summer. The circles on this layout told me that I needed to do the same. Originally, I was going to make my circles air bubbles for one of the fish in the pictures. Then as I started going through pictures, another thought came to mind!

The jellyfish were just begging to be punched out with my circle punches! I also found a bit in the SeaLife book that we had purchased that fit along with this page because the DH kept saying, "your upper left corner needs something."

The layering pieces came from two Project Life card collections. The top one was This Is The Life, and the bottom one was Let's Get Away. (I think. I could have those backwards.) The washi tape is definitely from the Let's Get Away card collection!

The gals at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration LOVE when our readers play along with our sketch challenges! We would love for you to join us! It is even allowed for you to make a card inspired by this layout sketch if scrapbooking isn't your thing. If you don't have a blog, you can link to whatever gallery you've posted your project to! Show us what you've got!

Project Life & Fishies

Sadly I'm way behind on my scrapbooking. Like a year behind. :(
*cue Stage Left* Enter Project Life by Stampin' Up! I was able to create this page in nothing flat thanks to the ease of use and great card collections that we offer! The two cards and all of the embellishments on this page came from the Let's Get Away collection.

In the past I have struggled with this particular layout because of the smaller pockets, and not having many pictures I could cut down that small. I saw a great idea on Pinterest that I can't believe I didn't think of. Simply cut one of your 4" x 6" pictures in half and insert them side by side in those smaller pockets! Super easy and brought some more life to my page. I will admit I spent the most time looking for the perfect picture to cut down the middle. Most of them would have meant chopping a shark or other fish in half!

We've got plenty more Project Life inspiration for you today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration. Check it out!

#SSINKCS23: Card Sketch

The day has finally arrived! It's the second Monday of July, so that means it is time for the July Card Sketch Challenge at SSINK! Bree sure did give me a run for my money with this one. I grabbed this challenge by the horns and am pretty happy with the outcome!

Seriously, when I first looked at this sketch I thought, "what on earth am I going to do with this?" Then I thought that I just needed to create a shape in the center of my card. Framelits were my first thought, but I wanted to challenge myself a bit more. I had just finished up my blog hop card for last week, and had thought that I should use the "left over" pieces from the Banner Triple Punch. While I didn't use those actual left over pieces, I created some new ones for this card with Pacific Point and Real Red. Then I used the punch for the banner in the center as well.

Play along with our Design Team at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.

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Product Focus: Designer Series Paper

The Bohemian Designer Series Paper was the very first item that went on my Stampin' Up! preorder. It is very eye-catching. Apparently my husband thinks so too. I showed him the five cards that I made for this week, and this one was his favorite. When asked why, he replied, "I just like the colors."

What do you think? I love that it is so bold it can serve as the focal point of the card. I finally used the White Jute Ribbon that I've had for a while, and I have a tip. If you use the new Tear & Tape Adhesive with the Jute, it will stay put and you can't see it through the ribbon. At least I can't on this card.

The Design Team is featuring a variety of Designer Series Paper Packs, as well as a variety of ways to use the paper over at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.

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SSINK Hop: Up For Anything

I spent much of my three day weekend last weekend being crafty and creating projects for this month's posts. I haven't had much time to create lately, so I enjoyed it a lot, plus I got to play with my new goodies that I received last week. I spent so much time working on specific themed projects, that I had a hard time creating this card! You would think that with a blog hop theme of "anything goes," it would not have been so difficult.

As you hop along, please be sure to comment and show some love on every blog. We are always excited to hear from our followers! You should have just left stop #4 on the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration Blog Hop ~ Stampin' with Kim. As you hop along, if a link doesn't work, or you get off track the participant list is at the bottom of this post.

I really wanted to play the new Banner Punch, so I used it to create part of my background with the Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe, and Tangerine Tango Designer Series Papers. I embossed the flower in gold before coloring it and cutting it out.

Thanks for stopping by! Head on over to Tobe's blog next, and make sure to stop by tomorrow when I am featuring more Designer Series Paper!

Blog Hop Participant List:

1. Jenny at Jenny G Paper Crafts 
2. Diana at Stampin Fun with Diana
3. Leanne at Literally My Joy
4. Kim at Stamping with Kim
5. Darcy at Dj's Stampin Place
6. Tobe at The Craft Sea
7. Melissa at Stamp Doc
8. Donna at Organized Chaos
9. Bree at Craft-Somnia Momma
10. Jennifer at Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life

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Single Layer Dahlia

Today we are featuring single layer cards at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration. While I'm a fairly simplistic stamper, single layer cards have always been something I have struggled with. One of our new background stamps to the rescue!

I see lots of potential and ink on the new Definitely Dahlia stamp. Here I stamped it on Very Vanilla with Blushing Bride. The "Friends" stamp is from the new Garden In Bloom set. Want to know a little crafter's secret? One line of the rhinestones is covering up an oops where I got ink where it didn't belong. My motto: "Every mistake can be fixed." Well, at least in the paper crafting world!

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Technique Tuesday: Bargello

When Donna suggested that we do the Bargello technique for our Technique Tuesday at SSINK this month, I had no idea what she was talking about! Thanks to Google and a tutorial I was able to play along with this fun challenge!

I used my new favorite stamp, Watercolor Wash, and stamped it in four different colors on 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" pieces of Whisper White Cardstock. Then I cut those in to one inch strips and glued them down on another piece of white cardstock. I cut those in to smaller strips and glued them in my bargello pattern on yet another piece of white. At this point I had to bust my table top paper cutter out of storage, as it was getting a little thick to cut with the Stampin' Trimmer. This definitely made a fun background that pops.

You can find a more in depth tutorial, as well as other samples from the Design Team today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.

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#SSINKCC23: Color Challenge

This month's color challenge features another one of the 2015-2017 In Colors, Watermelon Wonder. Straight out of the pack, this is probably my least favorite color. However, when used with the right color combination, it actually becomes pretty fabulous! 

I was so excited to use some new products on this card. The Lots of Labels framelits and the Happy Patterns Decorative Masks. This is the first time I've had a positive experience with the Sequin Trim, and I think it might be my favorite part of this card! 

Make sure to check out more great creations inspired by my latest color challenge at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration. You can also play along with us on this week's challenge! 

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