Special Blessings, chipboard and something yummi!

I got this stamp set mainly for the cross. I'm a Lutheran and these cards are for confirmation. But of course they can be used for something else too. That's why I don't use a sentiment (and the fact that those cards were sent to Iceland).

I don't think you can see it on the images but the crosses are covered with iridescent ice (heat embossed glitter). I used the Baroque Motifs stamp set to make the swirls and the flowers.

Here's a card I made this weekend. I was browsing through Flickr, looking for inspiration. I love looking throught all the beautiful cupcake and wedding cake images. I found an image that I wanted to use for my inspiration, I'm going to post it in another post because it'll be a part of a challenge I'll host for my icelandic craft friends.

The bird is from On Board So Tweet (#113893, pg. 183 SS IBC). It's chipboard. I drew the branch on chocolate chip card stock and cut it out. The branch is covered with Crystal Effects and I covered the bird with Whisper White Craft ink, then used my chalks to apply color to the beak and legs. I then covered the whole bird with Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds.
Here's a close-up of the bird:

The background is from Urban Garden designer series paper. I might add a sentiment later, when I figure out what I want to do with this card ;)

I had one day off this weekend and we went to see friends. I started telling them about something delicious we make one day a year in Iceland:

And we decided to go ahead and bake some of these. I couldn't find measurements American's use but we were still able to make it. You can find the recipe here. It's whipped cream you see in the middle of the buns.

TFL!

A couple of Christmas cards

I've got a couple of Christmas cards to show you. I made them before I went to Iceland and I think I might just do more.

I don't know if you see it, but I was trying to make an ornament and make it look like it was hanging on a Christmas tree. I used Coluzzle to cut the red circle, a scallop circle punch to punch the mellow moss circle and a designer label punch for the little brown piece. The colors in this card are Mellow Moss, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White. The stampset is Baroque Motifs.

Here we've got the snowmen from Holiday Lineup and snowflakes from The Snowflake Spot. The colores I used are Pink Pirouette, Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant. Not the traditional Christmas colors but I think they look good together. I used my blenderpens and inkpads to color in the image.

I just sent off a whole bunch of Christmas cards to my mom yesterday, 30 cards I think. So I've been busy since I got back from Iceland. My DS was sick on the way home but fortunately he slept on the flight from Iceland to Boston. I am so glad I didn't miss the fall colors here in the mountains. We drove around yesterday and looked for good places to take fall pictures. We ended up in Chimney Rock.

Hope you're having a good day!

TFL

It's a Stretch

I am so sorry it took my so long to post. We had AT&T guys working in our street on Friday and they left us with a dead phone line. Apparently they forgot to switch our phone back on. And I've only got dial-up :0 You can imagine what I was thinking all weekend about those poor guys. DH called the customer service and was told (by an answering machine) that we'd get someone over next Thursday!!! But fortunately someone came over yesterday and turned our phone back on...and my DH glued himself to the computer the rest of the day.

Back to my post. I'm not too crazy about the cards I'm showing you now. I've been trying to work on the cards and get ready for workshops and my 3 year old wont leave me alone for one second. He needs to stamp too, you know! Which means I get to clean the 100+ stamps he wants to use (or 10+).

This one I think is my favorite. The base is Baja Breeze, then Pacific Point, Apricot appeal, Always Artichoke and watercolor paper. The image was stamped with Stazon and colored in using blender pens and ink.

Cameo Coral, Chocolate chip and Whisper White. I used Baroque Motifs too. I used markers on this image.

I really like the stocking but I should have picked different colors. Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Elegant Eggplant. I used Crystal Effects on the stockings and Scallop border punch on the red layer. Colored in using blender pens and ink.

I have come to realize I don't like Tangerine Tango at all, but I still want to use it *lol*. I think this stamp is cute but I don't have a sentiment to go with it so I found one in the Nursery Necessities stamp set. I colored the image with blender pens and ink. And added a little bit of faux stitching ;) This card fits in SU's medium square envelope.

Next weekend I'll be using Pocket Silhouettes!

TFL

Soft Sky, Blue Bayou and Certainly Celery

I like looking at the Color Combo challenges over on Splitcoaststampers and earlier this week I was checking out some of the color combos and decided to give this one a try. My cards are pretty simple this week but I used all of my favorite stamp sets :)

Lets start with this Lovely as a tree card. I stamped the image on Whisper White with Blue Bayou and then used sponge daubers to "color in" the image. The image is on dimensionals. The background is the retiring Soft Sky designer paper.

This one is almost too simple. The stamps are from the Nursery Necessities stamp set. I used a scrap piece from the Soft Sky DP. Doesn't need much explaining. I think adding a ribbon or brads would make this card cuter. I just didn't have the right colors to do it.

Another simple one. I stamped the gator from Wild about you on Whisper White and cut it out. Adhered it to Soft Sky and added Crystal Effects. I got the designer paper from my upline. She got it before I became a demo. I used a white signo pen for the centers of the flowers. Used the word punch to punch out the sentiment.

I really like making the dress cards and I wanted to see how this color combo would work on a dress card. I think it turned out OK. I didn't use iridescent ice or dazzling diamonds but I'm satisfied. It's not too complicated. The stamp set is Baroque Motifs.

This one here is my absolute favorite. I bought a Take Ten magazine a couple of weeks ago and I saw the sketch there. I wanted to give it a try and I've made 4 different cards so far, using this sketch. I'm thinking of sending one of the cards in to see if it'll get published.
The stamp set is Embrace Life. I used Crystal Effects on the big soft sky flower and the smaller flowers too. I brayered soft sky ink onto soft sky card stock to get a different background. I think that worked out good.

I am hoping that I'll get my preview order from the new catty before my next post so I can try out some new stamps and new colors.

For those of you not familiar with my blog and reading it for the first time, I only blog once a week, usually on a Saturday or a Sunday. That gives me the whole week to come up with projects and make a few samples.
If you'd like me to add you blog to my list post a link to it in the comments. And tell me if it's SU only or not. By SU only I mean no Cuttlebug or DP/stamps from other companies than Stampin'Up. It's ok if it's not SU only, I'll just list it separately ;)

TFL

Wedding cards

I thought my idea would be a piece of cake! But even after I narrowed it down to 5 colors and just a handful of stamps it was a little bit overwhelming (did I spell that right?). Sometimes my head overflows with ideas and I don't know where to start. But I survived and this is the first card I made:

My card base is Soft Sky but I covered the whole front with Whisper White. I used my Forever Flowers wheel to make the strip and colored the image in using my blender pen and Soft Sky ink, I then covered it with Versamark and Irridescent Ice and heat embossed it. The main image I drew on a piece of Soft Sky paper and cut out. I then used one of the stamps from Baroque Motifs to stamp on it. I then covered the pieces with Versamark ink and Irridescent Ice and heat embossed them. The flower and the pearls are from the Pretties Kit. My final touch was using the Print Pattern background stamp to stamp the diamonds in the corner. I had the card ready but felt something was missing so I covered up the card with scrap paper except for that corner and stamped the diamonds in Soft Sky.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Forever Flowers, Print Pattern
Paper: Soft Sky CS, Whisper White CS, Basic Black CS
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Irridescent Ice
Techniques: heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2



I've got this stampset in my starter kit when I signed up as a demo. I've hardly ever used it but I think I did ok here. I stamped the image with Versamark and covered it with black embossing powder, I ten heat embossed it. I used my blender pens and ink pads to color in the image. The strip of pattern paper I made using the flowers from Fabulous Flowers.

Stamps: Fun and Fast Notes, Fabulous Flowers
Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Black, Perfect Plum
Ink: Versamark, Soft Sky, Perfect Plum, River Rock
Accessories: Black EP
Techniques: watercoloring with ink, heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2


This is actually the last card I made, but not the last one I showcase here. I stamped the image with Versamark ink on Whisper White and used clear embossing powder to heat emboss it. I then sponged over the image with my Perfect Plum ink. The image is glued to the left half circle. I used my Coluzzle circle template to make the half circles and the matting under the image.

Stamps: Fun and Fast notes, Print Pattern
Paper: Whisper White, River Rock, Perfect Plum
Ink: Versamark, River Rock
Accessories: Clear EP, Black Ribbon, Signo Pen
Techniques: Gate fold
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2


This one is pretty simple. I used River Rock Designer Paper for the dotted background. The strip is done the same way as on the first card, heat embossed with Irridescent Ice for a little sparkle. The River Rock circle is also heat embossed with Irridescent Ice. I used Crystal Effects to stik the glitter to the flower. I used a sponge and Basic Black inkpad to dye the flower black. The flowers and the pearl are from the Pretties Kit.

Stamps: Forever Flowers
Paper: River Rock cardstock, River Rock DP, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Pretties Kit flowers, Black ribbon, pearl, Irridescent Ice EP, Coluzzle Circle
Techniques: Heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2


This one is my favorite. It's simple. The only difficult thing about it (for beginners) is the heat embossing I did on the dress. Again I used Versamark and Irridescent Ice. The flower and pearls are from the Pretties Kit. Here's a close up of the dress:


Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Print Pattern
Paper: River Rock CS, Basick Black CS, Whisper White CS, River Rock DP
Ink: River Rock
Accessories: pearls, ribbon, irridescent ice EP
Techniques: heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2

I think it's challenging and fun to make my own images by making shapes in paper if I don't have a stamp that fits with my idea. I don't have the stampset "To have and to hold" but it's on my list of sets I want to get from the catalog. It's new and should be available through out the year.

I do not have a special this week. Next week I'll be making something with Carousel Notes from the Occasions Mini Catalog.
Check out the challenge on my other blog!

TFL

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.