It's Framelits Friday!

I'm excited for many reasons today. It's my last day of work before vacation! Normally I'm not a big "take a week of vacation" sort of girl, but I'm looking forward to hanging with the hubby for a week with no plans. If we want to stay home, great; if we decide to drive somewhere, great! The other reason I'm excited is that it's Framelits Friday over at SSInkspiration!

I got the inspiration for this card from a recent copy of Stampin' Success, a publication that Stampin' Up! mails to demonstrators every other month, with business tips, ideas, and more! I loved how the artist had used the framelits to "frame" her focal point.

 

In the catalog, the Tape It set didn't catch my eye. However, I kept seeing cute projects with it, and knew I had to have it. Instead of using DSP for my pattern, I knew the Tape It set would make a great focal point. I used the Stamp-a-majig to line up the images so they didn't overlap or have a big gap between them. I used the Labels Collection framelits to make my frame. 

I used the thank you from A Round Array stamp set. Of course, I had to use the butterfly from Papillon Potpourri. (Remember, you can get Papillon Potpourri and the Bitty Butterfly punch for 15% off this month only!) As I don't have the Elegant Butterfly punch that coordinates with the larger butterfly, I "fussy" cut it with my Paper Snips. The snips made it really easy and quick to cut out. 

I felt the card needed a little something else, so I wanted to add some baker's twine. Listen to the voice of experience, reinkers in the spritzers without rubbing alcohol mixed in is a bad idea. Even just mixing with water doesn't work the best. I will say that I love the outcome, but I made a mess of myself that day at the scrapbooking crop! (My knees looked like they had chicken pox). 

Colors used: Cajun Craze, Wild Wasabi, and Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede.

Here's your last bit of Friday humor. My adorable {read: pure evil} cat Abby decided that she wanted to try to eat the butterfly before I took the picture. Thankfully I caught her before she left teeth marks. 

It's a good thing she's cute!

Be sure to check out the fabulous framelit inspiration the other ladies have provided us with today as well over at SSInkspiration! There are some over the top cute ones today!

Anniversary Patterns

Thank you so much for joining us for the September Stylin’ Stampin' Squad Blog Hop! This month we are focusing on the tools of the stampin’ trade. Specifically, each of our favorite stamping tools. It’s amazing the kinds of tools that have been created to help us along in our paper-crafting addictions.  This month’s blog hop will showcase many of the Stampin’ Up! tools that are now available to us in the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Holiday Catalog and even a couple of products that are so new they aren’t in either catalog. We hope you enjoy seeing how we use the old and new tools and are inspired to come up with some great projects of your own.

You should have just left stop number 4 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – Dawn B. of Dawn's Creative Chalet. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

My card uses three of my favorite, and most used, tools: Big Shot, Heat Tool, and Simply Scored.

The Modern Medley Designer Series Paper that I used in the center works well for anniversary and wedding cards because the whole pack of DSP is all Basic Black and Very Vanilla patterns. As 99% of Stampin' Up!'s DSP is double-sided, I love using the Simply Scored Tool with the Diagonal Plate to score even fold lines to showcase both sides of the DSP on my cards.

I was going to use the polka dot pattern, but when I laid it out, the card screamed "PROM," which was not the them I was obviously going for. This pattern felt more appropriate, and coordinates well with the Modern Mosaic embossing folder which I used with the Big Shot.

The "happy anniversary," embossed in black, is from my most used greeting set: Express Yourself. This is a set that can be purchased with hostess dollars only. In my opinion is was definitely worth the "investment" of my free dollars, and definitely a reason for you to host a party with your demonstrator, so you can get one for yourself!

The colors on this card are Basic Black and Elegant Eggplant. I bet you're not surprised to see candy dots on a card I made, are you?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll continue hopping and head over to Pamela's blog next.
Make sure to stop by tomorrow when I'll be featuring a Framelits Friday card featured over at SSInkspiration, inkspiring you 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year!




Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup
2. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
3. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
4. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
5. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
6. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
7. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
8. Justin K. of JK Cards
9. Heidi B of Stuck on Stampin'
10. Jennifer B. of NW Stamper
11. Bree R. of Craft-somnia
12. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
13. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
14. Jamie H. of Unique Ink
15. Kristina M. of Mama's Sanity

Hexagons!

Today's theme over at Stylin' Stampin' Inkspiration is hexagons. I think just about everyone I know is in love with the new hexagon punch and coordinating stamp set, Six-sided Sampler.

I had many ideas floating around for using the hexagons today. This is the end result of one of those ideas and the other you'll see very soon when we feature the September card sketch.

I grabbed the Season of Style Designer Series Paper stack to punch out my hexagons. I glued them onto a sheet of Whisper White cardstock to create a flower of sorts. I knew I wanted to use the Floral Frames Collection of framelits to create the card base, and had decided at this point I didn't want a Christmas-y feel to my card. So I turned to my Color Coach for inspiration for the card base. Calypso Coral is one of the color recommendations for Cherry Cobbler.

While I've been very drawn to making simple cards lately, I felt it needed a little something extra, so I inked the edges with Cherry Cobbler. I added a Cherry Cobbler Designer Button to the middle to add to the flower theme of my card. It was important to me that the greeting not overpower the "flower" since I was featuring the hexagons. Pairing Fabulous Phrases with the Word Window punch allowed my hexagons to still be predominant.

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear what you think of today's card. Please visit the other SSInkspiration Design Team ladies' blogs to see their creative hexagon uses as well!

Swap Breakdown Day 10- All Occasion Tag

It's here! The last day of our Swap Breakdown! Never fear, I'll be back tomorrow with a feature of how I used the swaps I received back as new inspiration.

I knew I had to do a birthday tag when I was designing the tags for the swap. There are always birthday gifts to be given, right?

Supply list can be found here

This tag is pretty straightforward. I wanted to feature some of the new Stampin' Up! colors and was successful using Smoky Slate, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, and Crisp Cantaloupe. My favorite detail was using the Dazzling Details on the cupcake "liner." It was a quick and simple addition.

I hope you enjoyed all of my swap creations and I look forward to continuing to share my daily inspiration with you!

I'd love to hear which was your favorite project that I made for the swap. Please let me know in the comments below!

Swap Breakdown Day 9- All Occasion Tag

When I started thinking about designing tags, I challenged myself to use my framelits. One of the challenges of this swap was that they had to contain at least 3 layers. What better (easier) way to create layers, than with the framelits?

I had purchased the Daydream Medallions set when it first came out, along with the coordinating framelits, and then I had only used them once! After using them on this tag, I'm sold and this set is ranking up there as one of my top layer and background sets.

Supply list can be found here

Sadly the picture doesn't show my favorite details of this card. The biggest layer is embossing with Pool Party (looks great with Midnight Muse). The ribbon was actually also dyed with Pool Party using the reinker, rubbing alcohol, and our Stampin' Spritzer. I wish it showed in this picture because it was really pretty!

This project could easily be used on the front of a card, or even as a card with a little Big Shot trickery!

Stylin' Stampin' August Edition

Welcome to the August edition of the Stylin' Stampin' blog hop! This month we are featuring our favorite products from the Holiday Catalog, which you can order from NOW! In addition to the amazing talent you've been visiting the past six months; we've added some new talent so make sure you hop to everyone's blog.

My card was CASE'd from page 28 of the Holiday Catalog. That's what happens when your husband tells you the night before that you need to make a card for his retiring co-worker who's last day happens to be the following day! My first FAVORITE thing is that there are so many stamp set and framelit bundles in the new catalog! SO much easier than cutting with scissors.

Supplies used:
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved; Itty Bitty Banners
Cardstock: Sahara Sand
DSP: International Bazaar
Ink: Lucky Limeade; Rich Razzleberry
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip scallop dots; Daffodil Delight Taffeta; Midnight Muse stitched satin
Punch: 3/16" Corner
Big Shot
Bitty Banners Framelits
Snail adhesive; Glue Dots; Dimensionals

My 3-D project was so fun to make! Do you see the jar on the jar? My second FAVORITE holiday item is our new core'dinations cardstock. It works so well with the Woodgrain embossing folder!

Supplies used:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners
Paper: Early Espresso Core'dinations; Very Vanilla; Cajun Craze; More Mustard; Gumball Green
DSP: Orchard Harvest
Ink: Early Espresso; Gumball Green
Big Shot
Woodgrain embossing folder
Framelits: Cannery; Bitty Banners
Paper Snips
Stampin' Sanding System
Sticky Strip; Glue Dots

I hope you enjoyed my projects today. I would love to hear what your FAVORITE project or part of a project was!
Answer to last month's challenge question: I used the star from Jolly Bingo Bits to stamp on the back of the red glimmer paper; then used my paper snips to cut them out.

This nifty button will take you right over to fellow night owl stamper, Kim. Happy hopping! 


Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Creative Electica
2. Annie L. of Love Me Cards
3. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
4. Nancy B. of Lady Stamps a Lot
5. Rose C. of Stamp with Rose
6. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
7. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
8. Patricia T. of Sunnyone Stampin'
9. Heather W. of Heather's Stampin' Blog
10. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
11. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
12. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
13. Debra of Mommy Scraps