Awesome Green

Happy St. Paddy's Day! What is your favorite Stampin' Up! green? For me it's hard to pick, but my daffodils are blooming, so I was inspired to use Garden Green.

• Garden Green card base - 5-1/2" x 8-1/2"
• Pink Pirouette - 2-1/2" x 4-1/4"
• Naturals White - 2-1/4" x 4"
• Project Life by Stampin' Up! corner rounder
• Big News stamp set
• Garden Green ink
• Flower Shop stamp set
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Pansy punch
• Regals Candy Dots - Garden Green

Here's my first bloom of the spring:

Swap Cards Blog Hop

Last month our group decided to make cards for each other that would be swapped at Convention. A HUGE thank you to Kim who was nice enough to take my swaps with her and mail them back to me after convention! Of course, we can't keep all of the card love to ourselves; so we're sharing our cards with you today on our monthly blog hop! 

This was actually the card that inspired my Blendabilities post, as I was amazed at how different the colors looked on the watercolor paper. This was also my first time using our watercolor paper (I know, I know; I can't believe it either.). 

I love the Watercolor Thank You single stamp. It's a perfect size to use with the Deco Label Framelits. The framelits are great because you can create a perfect mat to layer under your greeting. Maybe it's the flowers, but every time I look at this card, the Baked Brown Sugar Thick Baker's Twine reminds me of ropes on a swing. 

Are you curious what 42 Blendabilities colored flowers look like? (Well you get the idea.)

Thank you for stopping by today. Head over to see Donna's fabulous card by clicking the next button below. 

1. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
2. Donna S. of Organized Chaos
3. Cynthia R. of Ink-A-Doodle Creations
4. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
5. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
6. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
7. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
8. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup
9. Kathy P. of Katrina P's Creative Corner
10. Bree R. of Craft-Somnia
11. Heidi B. of Stuck on Stampin'
12. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun
13. Darla R. of Stampin' with Darla
14. Erica B. of Stamping Starlette

Ice Cream Inspiration

What do hot summer months make you think of? Cooling off. What better way to cool off than with ice cream!?

Today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration, the design team members have made cards to share that were inspired by their favorite ice cream. While, Cookies 'n Creme is my all time favorite ice cream, I though Mint Chocolate Chip would make a more interesting card. I do love mint chocolate too! I got going so crazy, that I made two projects to share with you today.

I actually started on the fry box first. I cut it out and assembled it, super quick and easy; especially with the Fast Fuse. When I realized that my Early Espresso ink refill had disappeared, I grabbed the Mocha Blendabilities out of the skin tone set and went to town coloring my Whisper White 1/4" Cotton Ribbon. Perfect! I wrapped the ribbon around the box with Sticky Strip and set it aside to work on my card. When I finally finished my box, I decided to use a flower from Petite Petals with the coordinating punch. I stamped off once before stamping on the card stock for a softer image. The flowers needed a little something extra, so I added a Pistachio Pudding sequin from the 2013-2015 In Color Sequins.

I started to put the Andes mints in a cello bag to put in the box. Then I thought, "Come on, this is a fry box! My fries aren't all nice and neat in there!" So I just started dumping them in! *Side note: my husband is a manager at McDonald's but, for some reason, I couldn't get him to assemble the fry box for me.

I had cut and colored quite a bit of the ribbon, so I knew I wanted to incorporate it on my card as well to tie the two projects together. I also stamped off the flower image from Flower Shop on the card to make it softer as well. I used the Project Life Corner Rounder Punch on the layered pieces.

Finally, my greeting is from Label Love and punched out using the coordinating Artisan Label punch.

Spring Flowers

I recently participated in a Secret Bunny Swap with some of the other demonstrators that are part of the Stylin' Stampin' Blog Hop. My recipient said her favorite colors are blues, purples, and peaches, so I used that as a challenge to make this card for her.

I know the Calypso Coral isn't really a peach, but I was out of Crisp Cantaloupe at the time! I used the Burlap Ribbon (another favorite of hers) to simulate dirt under my grass. I love our new Fringe Scissors and really hope they carry over in to the new catalog in June! Stay tuned for a tips and tricks post regarding the fringe scissors.

The thing I love most about this card is the greeting. I don't know why I don't stamp on the DSP more often, as it gives a nice dimension to the card. Do you remember one of my goals for 2014? It was to use my neglected stamps more often. Mission accomplished on this one, as I rarely use Four Frames.

The "friend" stamp comes from Fabulous Phrases which is on the Stampin' Up! Retirement List chopping block.

Four Frames - Clear-Mount Stamp

$15.95

Fabulous Phrases

$37.95

Flower Shop Clear Bundle

$28.75

1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon

$7.95

Fringe Scissors

$9.95

Pool Party 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock

$6.95

Calypso Coral 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock

$6.95

Wild Wasabi 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

$6.95

Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents

$4.95

I Am Me Designer Series Paper

$10.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Hopping For Spring!

Thank you so much for joining us for our March Stylin' Stampin' Squad Blog Hop! Temperatures are on the rise and there is just one short week until the official first day of Spring!  We are all so ready to put away our snowflakes and break out the flowers in our craft rooms!  Stampin' Up! has so many options for Spring-time flowers and we are showing you just a few of those today!

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 number (insert number here) on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – (insert name of hopper and blog name here). 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.
I knew that I wanted to use the Flower Shop Bundle and Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper for my card today. My color inspiration came from the Gingham Garden DSP. 

Growing up I was drawn to gingham fabrics, so when this DSP was released last spring, I fell in love. Since there were so many elements on my card, I wanted to stay within a 3-color scheme; but felt it need a pop of color. Melon Mambo gingham to the rescue! 

My favorite elements on this card are the Decorative Dots embossing, and the Daffodil Delight frame. While the Decorative Dots aren't incredibly obvious on the Night of Navy, it gave just the right amount of added dimension. For the frame, I cut the Pear Pizzazz with the #6 Square Framelit (if you count up, starting with #1 as the smallest). Then I cut the Daffodil Delight with # 3 and #6 at the same time. They are attached with Stampin' Dimensionals to really give the frame illusion. 

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope spring is in the air where you are (and without allergies) and you start seeing some spring flowers popping up around you! Let's click the Next button and head on over to see Bree's fabulous spring creation. 

Blog Hop Participants

1. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
2. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun
3. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
4. Cynthia R. of Ink-A-Doodle Creations
5. Erica B. of Stamping Starlette
6. Anastasia R. of Stampin' Blondie
7. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
8. Bree R. of Craft-Somnia
9. Heidi B. of Stuck on Stampin'
10. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup
11. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
12. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
13. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
14. Donna S. of Organized Chaos
15. Jamie H. of Unique Ink
16. Darla R. & Nancy K. of Stampin with Darla and Sisters
17. Kathy P. of Katrina P's Creative Corner

Pear Pizzazz 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$6.95

Night Of Navy 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

$6.95

Daffodil Delight 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

$6.95

Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

$8.50

Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper

$10.95

Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad

$5.95

Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad

$5.95

Flower Shop Clear Bundle

$28.75

Express Yourself

$11.00

Gold Sequin Trim

$4.95

Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$0.00

Stampin' Trimmer

$29.95

Simply Scored

$29.95

Snail Adhesive

$6.95

Mini Glue Dots

$4.95

Stampin' Dimensionals

$3.95

Sticky Strip

$6.95

Clear Block C

$6.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Thinking Sketch Color October

After stamping for 10 years, I have just started participating in Color Challenges and Sketch Challenges. Guess what? I really enjoy doing them! There are some days that they make creating really easy because you know "what" you're doing when you sit down. Other days they can be really challenging, because you have to make sure it fits within the challenge instructions. It is on these days that I'm usually inspired to make two or three other projects as well, as the ideas start spinning off about other things that I could do.

Today's card fits in with two challenges. Color challenge #47 at CAS Colours and Sketches, and DS123 at deconstructing jen.

Here is my creation:

 

I will be doing a "Make A Difference" series here in the near future, so I've really been focusing on "Thinking of You" type cards. Since the creators of the color combo had Breast Cancer Awareness Month in mind when they created the challenge; I thought this was an appropriate sentiment. 

In addition to the colors listed above, I also used Very Vanilla cardstock. The flowers are from Flower Shop, and punched out using the coordinating Pansy punch. The sentiments is from Sweet Essentials. I ran the Rose Red cardstock through the Big Shot with the Framed Tulips embossing folder. A few strategically placed Basic Pearls, and the card was complete.