Eastern Blooms

I had been debating whether or not to get this stamp set but gave in and bought it. And I don't regret it. My favorite is the big flower, now I just need more markers so I can try more color combos with it.

I think Old Olive and Not Quite Navy turned out good. I used a little bit of Crystal Effects in the middle of the flowers. The card base is Bashful Blue.

The colors in this card are Sage Shadow, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. I used markers to color the stamp before I stamped it. I used my Designer Label punch to make the vase, stamped the piece with one of the flower stamps and used a white Signo pen to add details. I thought the background needed a little something so I stamped the branch a few times in Sage Shadow and Cameo Coral. Added faux stitching and voilá!

I stamped this flower stamp in Always Artichoke on Pink Pirouette and cut them out. I stamped the small flower on the background in Always Artichoke on Pink Pirouette cardstock, added white dots to the flower centers with my Signo pen. The "ribbon" is Always Artichoke card stock, I just added faux stitching to it. I used Crystal Effects on the three bigger flowers.

Next weekend I'll be traveling to Iceland. My DS and I will fly from Charlotte to Boston and from Boston to Iceland. It'll be early Sunday morning when we get to Iceland. So we'll be travelling for quite a few hours. It's going to be very stressful for me since my DS is only 3 years old and I've never been to the airport in Boston, heard it's pretty big.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a blog before we leave.

TFL

Embrace Life 2

I know the weekend has come and gone and no post from me. I haven't been home. Our friends were house-sitting and invited us over so we stayed with them Saturday and Sunday. And I was working today. Now, if we had 2 computers I'd have been able to post last night (Sunday night) but DH got to the computer first :(
Anyway, enough of that, I've seen so many pretty cards with the Embrace Life stamp set that I wanted to use it again. I thought I'd be able to make a few pretty cards to show you....but my mojo took a few days off and I can't find it.

I do like this card though. I used Ruby Red, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock. The images are stamped with Stazon Jet Black ink. I stamped the flowers on WW card stock and used my sponge daubers to add pink pirouette ink and ruby red. I then cut out the flowers and glued them to a piece of ww card stock. Layered it with Basic Black and added a scallop border which I made with my Slit punch. I used my white signo pen to do the dots and used it on the leaves and flowers too. I wrote "congratulations" with the Signo pen on Basic Black and punched it with my word punch.

This card is pretty simple. The flowers are stamped on Whisper white and I used my blender pen to color them in. I used Pacific Point ink for the flowers. I then covered them with Crystal Effects. The scallop border is done with my Slit punch again, layered on Baja Breeze card stock. I used my brayer on the bottom of the card base and a little bit of white Signo for faux stitching. The card base is Naturals White card stock.

Here's Naturals White again as a card base. I masked off areas of the card and used my sponge daubers to fill in the So Saffron and Pacific Point. this card looks kind of Swedish to me, the Swedish flag colors (blue and yellow). If you don't have the card stock that matches your ink pads you can use your ink and sponges/sponge daubers/brayer to make your own colored card stock. I used my scallop circle punch and my coluzzle tool for the image and covered the image with Crystal Effects.
Now to the Monday Mailers.

This is MM#1 from Jen. She used Family Phrases, Window Dressing (Hostess set), Enjoy Every Moment and All in the Family (all stamp sets) to make this card. I really like the way she folded the card and the image fits perfectly in the circle window (I didn't do a good job photographing it). Here you can see how it's folded:

She used three punches on the card, the slit punch, scallp circle punch and a circle punch. The card stock: Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouette. Ink: Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze and Basic Black for the image.

This is MM#2 from Jen. Here she used Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point card stock and ink pads. The card base is Whisper White. The stamp set is Upsy Daisy. I think these colors are great together and white really makes them pop up. Thank you so much Jen!!!

Next weekend is the last weekend before I go on my trip to Iceland (my DS and I will be spending a month there with family and friends) but I'll try to post while I'm there. Next weekend I'll be using Eastern Blooms and while I'm in Iceland I'll show you a few Christmas cards I've been working on.

I don't know if you noticed that you can order Stampin'Up products online now!!! You can do it through my website, I'm still working on it but the link is http://huldap.stampinup.net/ (US customers only for online ordering please).

Have a great week and TFL!

Bronc Buster 2

I decided to give the Bronc Buster set another try, just for fun.

This card here is just the base and one layer. The base is Naturals White card stock and the layer is Whisper White. I brayered the WW with Sahara Sand and stamped the Bronc Buster on it. I used post it notes to cover the top of the card and sponged around the image with sponge daubers and Going Gray ink and Basic Gray ink. I then brayered the top with Going Gray and sponged it with Basic Gray. I then used my Bronco Wheel and Basic Grey ink on the top part. Added a little bit of faux stitching with my Going Gray marker and stamped the swirls with Versamark. And the card was done.


Here I wanted to try NOT using the biggest image. I'm not sure if I like it or not. The colors are not my usual colors except for Chocolate Chip. More Mustard and Creamy Caramel are not on my Favorites list. I stamped the swirls with Versamark and I used a Chocolate Chip marker for the stars and horse shoe. Added Crystal effects on the stars.


Here I stamped the image with Versamark and used my pastel chalks to give the image a little bit more color, then covered it with Crystal Effects, which I think was a mistake, I don't think I'll do that again. The colors in this card are Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel and Really Rust.


This card is a simple one. I stamped the image with Versamark and used my chalks to give it more color. I then used a sponge dauber to make the card look a little bit dirty. I used a marker and colored the sentiment before I stamped it. Added the Chocolate Chip layer and the hemp cord.

Next weekend I'll use Embrace Life and the weekend after I promise to use one of the new sets ;)

Here's a link to more inspiration

TFL

Pocket Silhouettes

I made sure I'd have some alone time to make these, I got up early, about 2 hours before my DS, and got 3 of them made before DS woke up. but I've had so much fun making these. I've fallen for the designer paper I used, Urban Garden.

This card is my absolute favorite. I brayed the background, could have done better there but I still like it. I then used a sponge for the edges. Colors: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Not Quite Navy. I used Whisper White for matting and Basic Gray as the base. And just a little bit of designer paper.

Not much to say about this one. Colors: Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy and Whisper White. I used my word punch for the sentiment and scallop border punch for the scallop strip.

I stamped the image in basic Black on Very Vanilla. Matted with Baja Breeze. The card base is Basic Gray.

I don't think this needs much explaining either. This is cardboard covered with designer paper and card stock. I used my scallop border punch, my scallop circle punch and my Coluzzle circle template.

Monday Mailers

Here are the last 2 MM's that I received from Dacia. We had to do FAUX anything and she was so creative.

You probably look at this card thinking....FAUX WHAT? I know I did, until I noticed it's not designer paper she used in the background. She did faux tearing and faux dp in one. Brilliant idea!

This card is so pretty, I wish I could make that stamp set look so good. She did a faux diamond on the image. You might be able to see that it sparkles on the picture. I'm not sure how she made the scallop circle, I was trying to see it but didn't want to tear the card up.

I have not decided what stamp set to use next weekend, it'll be an old one though, gotta give the old stamps some lovin' too :)

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

Pop-up Christmas card

I got a request for a pop-up tutorial. Well, I had never done a pop-up card before but I had this idea to make a pop-up christmas card (after I received a birthday card from my Upline).

I'll start by showing you how I did the pop-up part of the card (that's where I started). You can scroll down to the bottom of the post if you want to see the card first.

I started off with a white base, 3 1/2 x 7 inches.

I used my bone folder to score at 3 1/2 inches (the middle)

I drew a line 1 inch from the middle, to see how far up I needed to cut.

And used my paper trimmer to cut from the line to the middle, 1 1/2 inch from each side.

I then scored each end of the "flap" so it would be easier to fold the opposite direction of the rest of the card.

Now would be a good time to stamp the background on the top part (I didn't know that then though *lol*)

Next I cut a piece of designer paper, it is better to cut it a little bit bigger than the white cardstock because you can always trim it when you've glued it down.

I glued the dp to the top part of the white cs. Be careful not to put glue on the "flap".

Before I glued the dp to the bottom part I adhered a ribbon to the front and tucked it under the dp to hide the end.

I then added the image I wanted to pop-up.

I then adhered ribbon horizontally on the back of the base so I could us it to close the card. And I adhered the whole thing to my card base. And this was the result:

Untie the ribbon:

And Voilá!

Now how is that for a first pop-up card and a first tutorial in english?

Supplies

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Whisper White, Ruby red, Kiwi kiss

Designer Paper: Holiday Treasures

Stamps: Christmas Classics

Ribbon: Always Artichoke

Markers: Old Olive, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard

I'll be back this weekend with "It's a stretch"!!!

TFL

Serene Spring

The stamp set I'm showing you today, Serene Spring, is one of the hostess sets in the new Ideabook & Catalog.

This is the first card I made with the set. I stamped the image on Very Vanilla. I'm not very good at coloring on VV card stock. I used my inks and my blender pens to do it. But what I think turned out just the way I want it is background. I wanted the background to look like a wall behind the image. So I used a technique called the Grid Technique to make a faux tile background. I used my bone folder and my Fiskars cutter to emboss lines on a sheet of Very Vanilla. I then used my brayer to cover the card stock in close to Cocoa and if I remember right, Baja Breeze. I don't have the card here to look at, I sent it as a Monday Mailer to Wanda.

I really wasn't sure what to do with this one. I wanted the focus to be on the image but I didn't want it to be just the image on a white background....but now I think I should have done just that, I should have kept the background just plain white and not added those layers or brayered the card base. Oh, well, I'll keep that in mind next time. I stamped the image on watercolor paper and colored it in with my inks and my blender pens.

Here's another easy faux tile. The image is stamped on watercolor paper and colored with inks and blender pens. I used the new scallop border punch for the scalloped edge.

Here is another image stamped on Very Vanilla and colored with blender pens.

I'm keeping this post short because I'm not feeling all that good, got some kind of stomach virus I think. But I want to show you a birthday card I received last week from my NCSUdemos group and the Monday Mailer I got from Dacia last week.

I don't know much about this card except for the stamp. *lol* I like the pattern paper, I'm pretty sure it's a retired one. the stamp is from our last SAB and it was stamped and heat embossed, then punched out with our scallop circle punch. Pretty card don't you think?

Here is the Monday Mailer I got from Dacia. Looks like she may have used the Heartfelt thanks stamp set. She was going for the faux silk and it turned out great! I think she picked a wonderful color combination too. Very pretty!

Next weekend I'm going to show you a new stamp set called It's a Stretch.

Until then....TFL