Chalkboard Technique with Forever Young

I have been wanting to try this technique for, well, ever! I've seen it used many times and since I'm doing an All About Heat Embossing Class this Friday I decided to try it out. There's still some time to sign up for the class - we're doing 5 techniques!).

This card is a very special card for my new Godson, Zander, who was baptized today :) I don't have any religious stamps, as I'm not too religious. But to me, trees represent life and growth. I thought that the tree from the Forever Young stamp set and 'Dream' from Loving Thoughts would be appropriate. The tree in white and the white ribbon represent the purity that Zander's baptism has given him.

This week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was a very simple one, with just the one big element on the card. I did add the ribbon because my card needed it with the Oval Accent. And I always need to do things my way ;) I really love this technique because it's soooo simple, but makes a big impression. Here are some Tips & Tricks:

*For a crisp white embossed image, use Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White Craft Ink. It's a bit thicker than the VersaMark and will lead to a crisper white on the black. But careful not to goop your stamp up too much ;)
*I sponged the edges of my Basic Black card stock and the surface with some Whisper White Craft Ink. I didn't want the ink on my card stock to be too heavy, so I spread it out some more with a clean sponge.
*To trim my Oval Accent Die Cut to the right size, I first adhered it to the embossed Baja Breeze layer and only after did I trim it with my Paper Trimmer.

Zander's parents loved the card and were touched by the beautiful image. I hope when he sees it when he grows up he loves it too. I'm honored to be a part of his life :) Amazing what an impact a simple handmade card can make. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Monica
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Card Recipe:
Stamps: Forever Young, Loving Thoughs
Card Stock: Basic Black, Baja Breeze
Ink: VersaMark, Whisper White Craft
Accessories: Stampin' Sponges, Whisper White 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Oval Accent Clear Bigz Die, Stampin' Dimensionals

Oh, Hello Thinking of You

One of the stamp sets we got in our Leadership Kit this year was Oh, Hello from the Spring Mini Catalogue. I'd been thinking about buying the set and was thrilled to find out we were getting it with our kit!

It's so versatile and coordinates perfectly with the Ovals Framelits. I've had a few sympathy and 'thinking of you' cards to send out this week, so I used this stamp set and a lovely sketch from Freshly Made Sketches (though I did take a few creative liberties).

I used the 'chevron' stamp from the Oh, Hello stamp set and colored it with markers for the accents on the ends. I also cut it apart. And doesn't the chevron background for the flower look like DSP? Love that stamp as well as the new ink pads which make everything so crisp!

Tips & Tricks:

*I wasn't sure about the Natural Trim Ribbon from the Mini. But it's so soft and I love how it frays on the ends ever so gently.
*The Needlepoint Border Textured Impressions Embossing Folders are just lovely. They add a very gentle and sweet accent to your projects. For this card, I simply placed it diagonally along my Midnight Muse layer.

*The Tea Lace Paper Doilies. Need I say more? For $3.95/24 doilies, they're not only a great value but so versatile! Here I cut one in half, cut the edges off and layered the them under my oval accent.

I hope this card brightens someone day a bit in a time that may not be so bright. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Monica

Card Recipe: 
Stamps: Oh, Hello
Paper: Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse
Accessories: Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse and Soft Suede Markers, 7/16" Natural Trim Ribbon, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Big Shot, Needlepoint Textured Impressions Embossing Folders, Ovals Collection Framelits, Paper Snips, Paper Piercing Tool, Paper Piercing Mat, Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, Stampin' Dimensionals

Hallowe'en Layout with Googly Ghouls

I love Hallowe'en. Not as much as Christmas, but there's something so fun about kids running around in costumes, super excited and totally juiced up on sugar ;) My favorite Hallowe'en stamp sets are the cutesy kiddie ones. Which is why I especially loved  the Googly Ghouls stamp set in the Holiday Mini. How can you NOT love witches, ghosts, bats and googly eyes??? Best of all, SU!'s Googly Eyes have glue dots on them so they're easy to stick onto your project.

This week, two of my favorite challenges, Try Stampin' on Tuesday and Freshly Made Sketches had sketches that were just perfect for scrap page layouts. And they worked really well together. So I worked it the best I could :) First, the Freshly Made Sketch:

I used the Howlstooth and Scaringbone DSP for my layouts. I really love the way the Tangerine Tango color pops. It's so vibrant! My second page is using the Try Stampin' on Tuesday Sketch:

Tips & Tricks:

*Not sure where to start with your scrapbook layouts? If you started out as a card maker like me, you may be a bit intimidated. I used a tip from a fellow stamper - approach it like it's a card and build on it. My photo mat is the image mat from the card. I added the 'BOOO 2012' to the left to build on my page. See how simple it is?
*My flagged element on the the second page seemed a little plain. Yet I didn't want to use DSP because I thought it would be too busy. So I embossed it with the Spider Web Embossing Folder. Love how it turned out!

*I absolutely love the Wacky Wishes hostess set. I wasn't sure about it when I first saw it. But it's so fun and cute! It worked so well on my second page.
*Aren't the Googly Ghouls just adorable? Just stamp, punch out and stick on a few Googly Eyes. :)

Once we have all our fun Hallowe'en photos, I'm going to do a class Saturday November 24th so that we can scrap them without a delay :) See my Class List for more information :)

'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Scrappin' Recipe:
Stamps: Googly Ghouls, Wacky Wishes, Wicked Cool
Paper: Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Basic Grey, Very Vanilla, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP
Ink: Basic Grey, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Basic Jewels - Rhinestones, 1/2" Satin Striped Ribbon, Googly Eyes, Big Shot, Tasteful Trim Bigz XL Die, Spider Web Embossing Folder, Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die, Stampin' Dimensionals, 2-Way Glue Pen

A Big Thank You with Betsy's Blossoms

Today I bring you the first hand stamped card made in my brand new stampin' studio :) The studio is not fully outfitted yet, I'm still missing my punch racks and am still trying to sort out storage. But I'm getting there. And very fittingly the cards I made were 'Thank You' cards for the people who helped us move. I will be ever so grateful to them because let me tell you... that move was NOT a walk in the park ;) Next time, movers! Lol!

The photo isn't the best, I know. I have yet to sort out how and where the lighting will be the best for photographing my cards. But it's better than nothing, right? I've currently got an eBay bid in for a collapsible photo tent, so cross your fingers for better photos soon!

For my card, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch. A cute and simple sketch :) I also layered two of my favorite patterns from the Patio Party DSP: the gorgeous flowers and sweet little hearts. I hope the folks who receive this card (as well as a little gift) know how much their help meant to us. For the large blossom, I stamped off before stamping my image to make the blossom a bit paler. I did add a little Basic Pearl in the bird's eye for a bit of extra dimension.

I did promise some pics of my studio. Here we go... please keep in mind that I'd still like to do a bit of stenciling on the walls, and a bit of decor. But it's functional and should be good to go soon!

Back wall. Dasher will probably hang on the right. Any tips with SU!'s Decor stencils? What type of sponges would I use?

I know that SU! doesn't do Decor Elements anymore. But I couldn't resist:

Storage unit (IKEA Expedit). Sadly, I need even more storage ;) Already.

*My* gorgeous workspace with the serene trees in the back. :)

My daughter's workspace/Big Shot table:

Ribbon storage. I got the rolling storage unit below it for only $15 at Home Depot!

Thanks for visiting and looking at my new space! If you're in the Ottawa area and would like to come to my New Studio Grand Opening Party, sign up here: http://studiograndopening.eventbrite.com/ . 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity :)

Welcome Home!

Well folks, we are in our new home! Totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of boxes and not being able to find anything! My daughter on the other hand has completely unpacked herself and filled her room to the brim. Impressive for a 6-1/2 year old! My son... well... he has his crib and some clothes. But he's perfectly happy playing in his sister's new room ;) In fairness, I was going to unpack some of his things last night. But at 3AM the night before I woke up with the starts of a kidney infection. I tried curing it naturally but by 6PM I knew I had to go to the hospital for antibiotics. It's one of the worst I've had and I'm exhausted... I'd spent the day cleaning the old house yesterday.  Never a dull moment. My lovely husband DID get our new tv up and running last night while I was at emerg. So the kids are happy ;)

On to today's project... I made this digi-card using last week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge to announce our move to friends/family. I come from Czech heritage so there's some Czech on my announcement and we also have French friends, hence the French. I downloaded MDS2 just before we moved and was excited to try it out! Let me just say, it is Fantastic! Being able to color stamps with a paint brush is priceless. And larger stamp images allowing us to size them the way we want them? Even more priceless. Of course there are 73 more new features to keep me busy! One step at a time though...

I've changed the address, the original announcement did have our new addy on it ;) I also added the Silver Brads on the left side that weren't part of the original sketch. Something was missing on my card and I had to do something about it! The thing I love most about digital card making is that I can try a bunch of different things and easily change them if I don't like the result!

I love the Seam Binding Ribbon in MDS. It looks soooo real! Have you been wanting to get MDS2? Consider Stampin' Up!'s fully customizable Starter Kit! It's $125, tax and shipping included. That's almost the same price as MDS2 with tax & shipping, but you can choose another $55 in products, you'd get the special Hallowe'en Painter's Tray project kit (worth $75) and all your business supplies (but there is no commitment to sell!). As a thank you from me, I'll even give you a Crazy 4 Christmas Class for FREE! Now that is a good way to get MDS2 ;) More info can be found HERE and HERE or by emailing me.

Well, that's it from me for today. Still lots of things to do! 'Til next time (whenever that is... lol!), keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Water Stamping 'En Francais'

This week on Splitcoast Stampers, the featured technique was Water Stamping. What a fantastic technique. So simple and makes a fantastic background. I'll be demonstrating this technique at my next Stamping Technique Night on Friday August 24th at 7:30PM, along with tie-dye heat embossing. Water Stamping is pretty easy, although I made a few modifications to the technique to make it a smidge easier.

Isn't it awesome? And the En Francais background stamp is perfect for the slightly blurred lines this technique produces. The sketch for this card is from this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge. Something was missing on my card so I added the three adhesive Pearls.

Tips & Tricks:

*Wondering why the new Heat Tool has a low and high heat setting? The high setting is great for heat embossing. But if you need to dry ink, or dry card stock from a technique like Water Stamping, the low setting is great. It won't burn your card stock.
*My card base is Cajun Craze. I wanted to sponge some of this color onto my background, but when I stamped it with water, a lot of pink in the Cajun Craze came out. So I sponged it in just Soft Suede and Summer Starfruit. Much better.
*I first sponged the Summer Starfruit in a few spots on the card stock. Then I sponged over and around it with Soft Suede. I love how the En Francais script comes out looking antiqued on those two colors.
*The Comfort Cafe DSP is really turning into one of my favorites. I love how running it through the Square Lattice Embossing Folder gives it a quilted look.
*I'm really loving Framelits. Especially these new Apothecary Accents Framelits. They make such a fantastic background for many different images, punches and greetings.
*I was going for vintage and I love how the Victoria Trim Ribbon gives everything such a great vintage look.

Hope you love this technique and you'll come and find out my little tricks to do it just right on August 24th. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: En Francais, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Soft Suede, Summer Starfruit
Paper: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP
Accessories: Summer Starfruit Satin Stitched Ribbon, Victoria Trim Ribbon, Soft Suede 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Stampin' Sponges, Stampin' Dimensionals, Adhesive Jewels - Pearls, Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Apothecary Accents Framelits

An Ornament Keepsake Card

I know what you're thinking... another hot day and another Christmas card, lol! It's HOT hot hot, here in Ottawa, with no end in sight, and I've got to stay cool somehow ;) I'm also soooo excited by the 2012 Holiday Mini that I can't help but show off all the fab items in it. Best of all, the Mini is now live so you can shop from it!

I've used the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set on a previous card, but I had yet to use the coordinating Ornament Framelits. Not because I don't like them - I LOVE them! I just hadn't had the chance. Until today :) Best of all, SU! has bundled a bunch of the products in the Mini, so you can get both the stamp set and Framelits at a discounted price! WOOHOO!

And don't you love how the Candlelight Christmas Specialty DSP has the same intricate patterns as the Ornament Keepsakes stamps as well as the Lacy Brocade embossing folder?  Doesn't get much better than that with coordinating products. Admittedly, matchy-matchy can be a bit tacky, but SU! makes it work ;)

Tips & Tricks:

*As much as I love punches and how they coordinate with a lot of SU!'s images, Framelits are even better. I can cut out eight different images with the Ornament Framelits for only $32.95! Love. It.
*I'm still stunned by how fantastic the new Firm Foam Ink Pads are. I know, they're old news, but come on... how gorgeous and crisp is those lines are on the ornaments.
*Somehow 'christmas cheer' (from the Sweet Essentials set) and these vintage ornaments work really well together. :) No punch is big enough to fit the sentiment and I thought the banner looked good. I free-handed the banner with my Paper Snips.
*I absolutely love the Large Pearls but I have a hard time finding images big enough to for them. But this large ornament... perfect!

Hope the thoughts of Christmas cooled down those who are in the midst of this heat wave. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

 


Card Recipe:

Stamp Set: Ornament Keepsakes, Sweet Essentials
Ink: Real Red, Early Espresso
Paper: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Candlelight Christmas Specialty DSP
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Big Shot, Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Ornament Framelits, Large Pearl, Basic Jewels - Pearls

Quintessential Flower with Summer Smooches

I made this card for both The Paper Players Challenge as well as the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge. But because of busy summer weeks and week-ends, I never got around to posting it before the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge closed. It was a lovely sketch so I'm glad that I got to use it!

The Paper Players Challenge was a super fun one. They set up a tic-tac-toe board and we had to choose three elements for our card in a row: left to right, top to bottom or diagonally. My three elements were a floral card using ribbon and punches.  I decided to combine the Quintessential Flower stamp with the Summer Smooches DSP. I also used all the colors from the DSP on the various layers of the flower.

Tips & Tricks:

*Not sure how to combine a bunch of seemingly different colors together? Grab a sheet of DSP. SU! tells us which colors are in it and which colors will look fantastic together.
*I'm loving the Sweet Essentials stamp set. I needed some more greeting sets, I was getting bored of the ones I have. This set definitely fit the bill!
*I love how the Quintessential Flower is five stamps in one! So many options for one simple stamp :)
*SU! card stock is thick enough to distress and pull apart. I did this on my greeting.
*I love the Baker's Twine, especially the 2011-2013 In Colors twine. It's so cost effective and you get 25 yards in the package. So I don't feel bad when I wrap it around the card stock three times ;)

I love how the colors worked out and love The Paper Players idea for a challenge! So much fun :) 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Card Recipe
Stamps: Quintessential Flower, Sweet Essentials
Paper: Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP
Ink: Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Island Indigo Baker's Twine, 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Basic Jewels - Rhinestones

Lacy, Lovely & Quintessential

I had put the Lacy & Lovely stamp set on my Wish List when I first started going through the new SU! catalogue. I didn't order it right away but then I used it at a stamper's meeting (a perk of being a Demo - Monthly stamping meetings with my upline!!!) and I knew I had to have it. It was on my next order ;)

This week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch made good use of circles and it was absolutely perfect for both the Lacy & Lovely and Quintessential Flower stamps. I love how I can use many different SU! punches to layer the different images in these stamps.

Tips & Tricks:

*The Lacy & Lovely stamp set is made to coordinate with a variety of SU! Circle Punches, including the 2-1/2", 1-3/8" and 1" Circle Punch. That means perfectly punched out shapes and no cutting! What's better, use other circle or scallop circle punches to punch out even more lovely circle shapes.

*Both stamp sets I used for this card is a dream for those who love to layer!

*When I first saw the Comfort Cafe DSP I wasn't sure what I thought. But after using it a few times, I fell in love with it! It has gorgeous feminine and masculine patterns. And the colors are so soothing. I can understand why it's called 'Comfort' Cafe.

*Do you love the embossed background as much as I do? It's the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder from the upcoming Holiday Mini. At first I thought it may be a bit busy, but it's not at all! And the pattern is so different from anything else we have in the catalogue.

*Do you see the ribbon I stamped the greeting on? It's also from the Holiday Mini. I received this 7/8" Cotton Ribbon in a special bundle FREE from Stampin' Up! Just one of the many perks of being a Demonstrator :) It's smooth, soft and easy to stamp on. I just love the vintage, soft look of it.

I hope you've liked this card. I don't often use Cajun Craze, but I really love how it works with these colors and have been inspired to use it more! 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Lacy & Lovely, Quintessential Flower
Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP
Ink: Cajun Craze, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede, Island Indigo
Accessories: 2-1/2" Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, 7/8" Cotton Ribbon, Big Shot, Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, In Color Dahlias

What *is* a Papaya Collage?

I'm not really sure... The new Papaya Collage stamp set has the image of a bird, a gorgeous frame, leaves, a funny party hat but I'm just not sure what the papayas are all about ;) Today I got a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) order and this stamp set was in it. There were actually quite a few stamp sets in my order and at first I couldn't decide which one to use. But these Papayas - they intrigued me.

In my order today, I also got the Sweet Essentials greetings stamp set which has the cutest font and a multitude of great greetings! From Congratulations to Merry Christmas to Hello, Baby!. It's just a great set.

Finally, I got a few new packages of Designer Series Paper. I decided to use the Fan Fair paper. I haven't really seen this one used yet and I'm not really sure why. It's so pretty and has some really great patterns. I also love the colors in it. There are seven main colors in this DSP (don't you love how SU! tells up what colors our DSPs coordinate with???) and on this card I chose to use Island Indigo, Pink Pirouette and Crumb Cake.

For today's card I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch. It was a lovely simple sketch. For the middle strip, I used a 1-inch strip of DSP and layered it with the Victoria Trim Crochet Ribbon. I also sponged the edges of the Island Indigo card stock as well as the Very Vanilla/Pink Pirouette card stock with Soft Suede ink to give it a bit more dimension.

I can't wait to give this card to a special friend! I also can't wait to use all the other stamps and accessories I got today! 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Two-Tone Flourishes

I'm really loving the Flowering Flourishes stamp set. It's so versatile and is great as both a background stamp *and* a stamp for the focal point on a card. The stamp set has three flourishes, a large one, a medium-sized one as well as a small one. I used the medium one on my card.

I used two challenges for my inspiration today. The first was the Dynamic Duos Color Challenge. This week's colors were Crumb Cake and 'Our Choice'. Usually I'd turn to Marina Mist or Rich Razzleberry. But I decided to shake things up this week and use my new fave color, Raspberry Ripple. It's not quite pink, it's not quite red, it's raspberry. It's a very rich color and I love it!

The second challenge I used was the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge. We had a nice, simple, clean sketch to work with this week. And guess what? I pretty much followed it to a tee! I even kept the orientation in the sketch! How often does that happen with me? ;)

Tips & Tricks:

*I just LOVE how rich, solid and bright my images come out when I use the new Firm Foam Ink Pads. No patchiness.
*The sketch I was using for inspiration had a thick band across the width of the card. We don't have the 1-1/4" ribbon anymore and I really wanted to use ribbon ;) So I created my own. I layered two strips of Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon and then ran the Stitched Satin Raspberry Ripple Ribbon across the middle.
*I think the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder is my new favorite. Horizontal, vertical, it looks good in either orientation!
*I know the sketch didn't have the button (or any other element) on it on the ribbon. But I liked the way it looked with it. It was the only thing I changed about the sketch ;)
*Something was missing. I finished the card and I just didn't the way it looked. So I added a few Basic Pearls to the flourishes. Voila - card finished!

This is a great simple, blank note. Perfect for birthday, thank you or 'just because'. Hope you enjoyed my tips today. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

A Bit of International Bazaar

Bear with me today ladies, my post is likely going to be all over the place... my mind is going a mile a minute! I earned the Grand Vacation Incentive Trip with SU! today. Totally, 100% unexpectedly. I did NOT expect to get the big trip this year. But next April, I am going to FIJI! I'm still in shock, can't believe it and am so excited. The only unfortunate thing is that the trip falls on my son's birthday. But he'll only be 4 and I'm sure he'll understand ;)

I'm going to do a quick post today, I feel like I could probably go off track easily! I really loved Cindy Hall's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week. It's clean, neat, fresh ;) I really wanted to play with my new, vibrant and colorful International Bazaar DSP. It has some pretty funky patterns that make a very good background! Most of the colors in it are from the Brights Collection which is probably my favorite. I added a few stamps from Bright Blossoms, a greeting and voila, a clean, fresh card :)

Tips & Tricks:

*SU! doesn't make the 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" envelopes anymore so using my Simply Scored Scoring Tool I made my own. Didn't take more than a few minutes and I could customize it with the International Bazaar DSP.

*I love the little flowers in Bright Blossoms and I love to use the 'marker-to-stamp' technique with them. Since the SU! Markers have the same ink in them as the ink pads, you can stamp with them and get gorgeous multi-colored images.
*I thought my flowers needed a bit of bedazzling. So I added on a few Basic Rhinestones :)
*While I absolutely LOVE my Modern Label Punch, I'm so glad that I can use the Ticket Duo Builder Punch to switch things up a bit from time to time. It worked perfectly on this card.

I hope this bright, cheerful card brightened your day a bit. With all the excitement I've had, I don't think it could get any brighter ;)

'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Flowering Flourishes with Buttons

One of my favorite new stamp sets from the 2012/2013 Catalogue is Flowering Flourishes. I thought that the beautiful flowery brocades would make a good background stamp, as well as a beautiful focal point for a card. They would be gorgeous on a scrapbook page, too. I have been putting together my new stamp sets and trying to decide which sets to use for which cards.

After seeing this week's fantastic Freshly Made Sketch, I knew that I could showcase the beautiful large flourish on it. I was really undecided on which colors to use. I really love this particularly DSP from Floral District and based my color selections on it (Baja Breeze, Rich Razzleberry and Daffodil Delight).

Can you imagine how pretty this flourish would be if I embossed it with several colors? Or tone-on-tone as a card background? I can't wait to use it on many other cards ;)

Tips & Tricks:

*I can't remember where I saw the buttons on this flourish, or it may have been the In Color Dahlias, but I really love how it adds a little pizzazz to the already pretty image!
*I really love the stitched grosgrain ribbon. Rich Razzleberry is my favorite Stampin' Up! color so I made sure to order a roll... I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the stitching, but I'm SOLD! :)
*Don't recognize the punch I used for the greeting? It's the new Ticket Duo punch. It punches out a ticket shape. A bit different than anything else they have and I love it!
*I can't get enough of the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder! I used it on all my projects today ;) I think it's going to be just as well as loved as the Polka Dot Embossing Folder.

This card will most certainly make a lovely birthday card for someone special! 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Happy Birthday to My Hubby

This past Friday was my husband's birthday. He turned 35 so I wanted to make sure it was a great card. I also wanted to have gifts on the card because I didn't actually buy him anything. Why do you ask? Because he's a techie guy and likes computer things that I don't understand. He's setting up some computer system for our new house, needed some stuff and I told him to buy it himself :p So atleast I gave him a present on his card.

For my inspiration, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch. It's so simple, yet so great. I don't often leave my card base so exposed and emboss it, but sometimes it gives just the right look! Even though the Patio Party DSP coordinates with the Make a Cake stamp set, I thought it worked really well with the gifts from Patterned Party.

Tips & Tricks:

*I don't use the Houndstooth Embossing Folder too often. But it's great for masculine cards. Like with the Square Lattice, I use Tab 2 on my multipurpose platform with it. Otherwise I find it cuts through my card stock.

*I stamped the gifts image in Midnight Muse and then I restamped in Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple and Midnight Muse. I cut out the individual gifts and mounted them on Stampin' Dimensionals. Love how it make them pop up.
*To add a bit of cost-effective sparkle to my gifts without the mess of glitter, I added a Rhinestone to each of my gifts.
*I free-handed the notches on my 'Happy Birthday' banner. Then I used my Simply Scored Scoring Tool to score two lines on each side of the banner. I folded the banner to make it pop up. I got this idea from the wonderful Tara Murphy from Can't Stamp the Rain. Thanks Tara!

My hubby liked this card and he told me he really likes the new Summer Starfruit color. SU! has given us some great new colors for masculine cards :) 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring our your creativity!