Bloomin' Beautiful

I fell for this stampset the minute I laid my eyes on it and was looking forward to trying it out.

Bloomin' Beautiful (#111490) is on page 2 & 3 in the Occasions Mini Catalog '08. It is die cut, which means you don't have to cut it out before mounting it on the wood.

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The first card I'm showing you has a lot of layers but it can be made with fewer layers. I used my inkpads as watercolors and colored the image in using my blender pens. I then used my Coluzzle cutting system (#102264 spring/summer '08) to cut out the circles. I sponged the edges of my image (#101610 s/s) using my Chocolate Chip inkpad (#100908 s/s). I used my slit punch (#104388 s/s) to punch the slits on the mat under the image. I used a background stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds and one of the stamps from Bloomin' Beautiful for the backgrounds on this card.

This card fits in a Medium Square Envelope (#107289)

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal
Ink: Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal, Garden Green
Accessories: Chocolate Chip ribbon, Slit Punch, brads, Coluzzle
Techniques: Watercoloring, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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Here we're using the same image but this card is a top fold and I made a pocket to go inside it.

I used the same technique to color in the image here, my inkpads and blenderpens. But you can see how much difference it makes to chance the color combo.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Watercolor paper
Ink: Stazon, Garden green, Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Cameo Coral
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Coluzzle
Techniques: watercoloring, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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I've been wanting to make 3x3 in. cards for a while now and I had already got the envelopes waiting (#107309s/s). They are pretty simple to make. I think they would look great if I'd put Iridescent Ice on them (#101930), I'll have to try that next time.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful
Paper: Kraft, Taken with Teal, Watercolor paper
Ink: Taken with Teal, Night of Navy, Garden Green, Old Olive, River Rock, Stazon
Accessories: Night of Navy ribbon
Techniques: watercoloring, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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I made this card for a SWAP I'm in. I had to mask the middle flower before stamping the other two. that means I stamped the image on a post-it note (stamp as much of the image as you can on the part with the glue underneath), cut the image out and placed over the main flower before stamping the extra flowers. I used the same watercoloring technique as before. I used my double circle punch (#104389 s/s) to punch holes for the ribbon. You can also use gluedots to stick the ribbon on the card.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Watercoloring paper
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Stazon
Accessories: Purely Pomegranate Ribbon
Techniques: Masking
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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This last one is pretty simple, again I used my ink as watercolors, I then added Crystal Effects (#101055 s/s) to the flower. I use Crystal Effects a lot, I love it! Who ever came up with the Spiral punch (#108341 s/s) is a genious too!

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, watercoloring paper
Ink: Pale plum, Perfect plum, Mellow Moss, Stazon
Accessories: Mellow Moss ribbon, Spiral punch, Crystal Effects
Techniques: watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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Now, even if I used my inkpadds to color in the images you can also try the watercoloring pencils (#101879), the Watercolor Wonder Crayons (#106695, #106696, #106697, $106698, #106746), the Stampin' Pastels (#105542), the markers (#105541) or the Pure Color Pencils (#100271).

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Here's a link to more inspiration: Bloomin' Beautiful

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My deal of the week is

Bloomin' Beautiful ($25.95) + Blenderpens ($9.95) = $30 before shipping and tax.

Send me an email if you'd like to do business with me (US residents only)

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Make sure you check out SU's deals, I've got the links here to the right.

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Next weekend I'll show you Bronc Buster, I've already got everything ready and am excited to show you what I created!!!

Heartfelt Thanks

I got this weeks stampset in my SU starter kit when I became a demo. It's a Two Step Stampin set. Meaning you create your images using 2 stamps. It is not necessary when using this stamp set though.

Lets start with this card. I used Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss and Whisper White cardstock. I decided not to use a full front on it. The pink part only covers half of the card. It's a regular card size though, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. I used my Soft Subtles stampin' spots to ink up the stamp. I started out stampin three flowers and on the other flowers I had stamped first on a pice of scrap paper before stampin on the image so they would be softer than the first three. I used a background stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the pink part, using Pretty in Pink ink. The sentiment is from Short & Sweet.

On this card I used Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Barely Banana and Whisper White cardstock. I used a Mellow Moss stampin'spot to stamp a background (Itty Bitty Backgrounds) on the Mellow Moss layer. I used three different stamps to make the Pale Plum layer. The colors of the small flowers are Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Barely Banana. the ribbon is Mellow Moss and the main image is stamped in Pale Plum, Mellow Mossand Barely Banana. The center of the flower is a different stamp from the flower so that makes it easy to use a different color for it.

This card is made with Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red, Regal Rose cardstock and Always Artichoke designer series paper. I actually colored the stamp with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, using the same colors as the card itself has. Remember to keep the stamp wet when you use the crayons for stamping. I stamped "Heartfelt" in Always Artichoke on the front and "Thanks" inside the card in Rose Red.

Lets try the In-Colors next:

I used Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate for this project. I wanted to try out my 5-in-1 template and do something I haven't seen anyone else do yet. I made this box using the template. I wanted to make a box for notecards that I could use as a gift. So I mafe the cards to match the box. I decided not to put a bow on the card images so the cards wouldn't have to be hand cancelled at the postoffice. I think the bow looks nicer though. The cards fit in envelopes that you can send checks in (don't know what they are called), 6 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.

I recommend using Sticky Strip tape to glue the box if you want to make sure it won't fall apart ;)

And here I wanted to show you that you can make different cards using the same material. The only stampæ that is not the same in both cards is the background stamp. I used En Francais on the first card and Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the second one. I used Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana and Whisper White. I used a paper crimper on the Barely Banana pieces.

The sentiment is not a SU stamp, it's from a dollar set that I have, I don't have an Easter stampset from SU yet, it's my first Easter as a demo.

I prefer using markers, stampin'spots or the crayons when I use this set. I did use the big inkpads on the box and notecards because the in-colors are only available in pads, and it wasn't easy, it's fine when you only use one color though.

If you order this set from me this week you get two Stampin'markers for free (you choose the colors).

Next weekend I'll be using Bloomin' Beautiful from the Occasions Mini Catalog (2008)

Happy Easter!

Nursery Necessities

This stampset is one of my favorites, I have to say. The images are so cute and can be used in so many different ways.

Lets start with this Baby Girl card. I cut out a piece of Purely Pomegranate in the size 4 1/14 x 11 and scored it at 5 1/2 so the card size is regular 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. The main image is stamper in Purely Pomegranate (elephant) and Close to Cocoa (birdie) on Whisper White paper. I then used my Close to Cocoa marker to draw the dots along the egde. The next layer is designer paper from the Berry Bliss collection and then we have a Chocolate Chip layer. We've got the same papers on the strip at the bottom. I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip and then punched it out with my word punch.

For this Baby Boy gift bag I used a white lunch bag. It came in the size 4 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. but I cut a little bit off of it so my bag is 4 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 6 in. The bag's front and back look the same. The base is Night of Navy (4 7/8 x 7 in.), then we have Bashful Blue (4 5/8 x 6 in.). I stamped the sentiment on the lower half of that layer. The strip in the middle is Night of Navy and a piece of designer paper in Bashful Blue (from the Level 1 Hostess set Prints Pack). I also have a layer of it under the main image. I inked the stamp with Bashful blue and then used a marker (Brilliant Blue, I don't have a Night of Navy marker yet) on the edges of the images before I stamped it. The ribbon is Night of Navy 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.

This card is to show you that you can use this set for more than just baby stuff. The colors are Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Apricot Appeal and Brilliant Blue. It's a pretty simple card. The card base 5 1/8 x 5 1/8 in. The red square is 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. The white squares are 2 x 2 in. and the yellow and blue corners are 1 x 1 in. squares. I would use this card as a kid's birthday card.

My thought behind this color combo was that not everyone likes baby colors. I've had an adult get offended because we brought her ink flowers on her birthday (and that was the first time I met her and didn't know she doesn't like pink at all). This is a regular sized card and the colors are Sahara Sand, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip. The elephants are supposed to be holding each others tails. Of course you can swap the colors out and use baby colors, any colors from the Soft Subtles would be perfect for this card. I don't think I need to write too much about this one. I used the little star from the stamp set on the card base using Close to Cocoa and Sahara Sand. The card base is Sahara Sand cardstock.

Here's another version of the elephant card. I punched with my word punch where I wanted the sentiment to show through, then I used a pencil to mark where the sentiment should be, stamped the sentiment and erased my pencil lines.

Here's a link to more inspiration for Nursery Necessities <--- Click

This week you can get

Nursery Necessities stamp set

2 colored cardstock (from the 4 color families, neutrals excluded)

1 classic inkpad (neutrals excluded)

for $50 if you buy it from me (tax and shipping included).

US residents only!

My email for more info.

Starting the 18. th of March Stampin'Up has a promotion going on where you get Stampin' Around wheels for free when you purchase certain stamp sets (Free Wheelin Flyer <---Click).

Next weekend I'll be using the Heartfelt Thanks stamp set.

Welcome

I decided to start a blog for my Stampin'Up creations. In the future I'll have some great deals on SU stuff, but right now SU has some awesome promotions and specials going on so I don't need to add mine too. I will try to post once a week. If you subscribe you get an email on Sundays with my posts. My plan is to promote one stamp set each week.

I've been working on Confirmation Cards for my family in Iceland. We are Lutheran. I chose a set called Baroque Motifs for my cards. I don't have a sentiment so they could be used for anything related to the Christian religion.

I only used two stamps from the set. I made stencils for the crosses using just paper and a craft knife. Then I used my sponges to "color" the crosses.

The card is 5 1/2 in. x 4 1/4, that's the size of the blue piece (Not Quite Navy). The white cardstock is 4 x 10 1/2, I scored it at 5 1/4 in. I used Not Quite Navy and Soft Sky ink.

Once you've done the cross stencil this card only takes a few minutes to make. If you don't want to use a cross you can replace it with a sentiment or use the other stamps from this stamp set. Or even add an image from another stamp set.

Feel free to try other color combinations too. I've done a few different ones. This one here is one of my favorites:

I used Basic Black, River Rock and Whisper White on this one. And I added pearls from the Pretties Kit.

Here you can find inspiration for using Baroque Motifs <------Click

This card has a little bit more bling on it. I used my Versamark pad, heat&stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds to get that look. I put Versamark on the cross, poured heat&stick over it, heat set it for a few seconds with my heating tool (after I had got the extra powder off the cross of course), poured Dazzling Diamonds over it and used the heating tool again for a few seconds.

(colors: Night of Navy, Soft Sky and Whisper White)

And here is a card where I used all the stamps in the set except one.

(colors: River Rock, Basic Black and Whisper White)

What do you think????

Want to show me a card you've done using this stamp set??? Feel free to post a link in the comments.