Special Thank You for a Special Teacher

My daughter Anna is finishing up Senior Kindergarten this year and she has been lucky enough to have the most fantastic teacher for the past two years. She is patient, caring and just plain fantastic. We truly couldn't have asked for better. Last year I gave her an alphabet collage (on the left) that she loved. We didn't know she'd have her again this year again and I knew I couldn't really top last year's gift (I gave her 10 handmade cards and garnet earrings straight from the Czech Republic). But I could make her a great card ;)

I used two challenges as the inspiration for my card:
1) The Paper Players challenged us to use Basic Grey, Lucky Limeade and Melon Mambo in our card.
2) Try Stampin' On a Tuesday (a NEW one for me!) gave us a great sketch to work with.

I was pretty happy with the final product and her teacher liked it too :) My daughter goes to an all French school so I used this non-SU! embossing folder that has 'Merci' in it.

Tips & Tricks:

*I colored the apple stamps from Fruits and Flowers with Stampin' Write Markers, cut them out and then re-stamped them with Basic Grey ink and cut out the center heart.
*The apples and hearts are both mounted on Stampin' Dimensionals to make sure that they pop out. I love how easy it is to add texture to cards with these little sticky pop-ups.
*To coordinate my button 'thread' with my card (and to add a bit of visual contrast in colors) I threaded a thin strip of card stock through the button. It really pops!
*I did stamp the whole apple, including the center heart, in Melon Mambo. I wanted that little bit of pink peeking out from under the grey ;)
*I've been in a bit of a Crystal Effects mode lately. I love the glossy look it gives my card elements. I've had the same bottle for almost four years now and used it for many many projects. Talk about good bang for your buck!

I'm glad Anna's teacher loved her card and hopefully this will inspire to make a special card for your child's fantastic teacher. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Gone to the Birds...

A couple of weeks I *finally* acquired the gorgeous stamp set Nature's Pace. I am not sure why it took me so long to buy it. It's been around for over a year! So from now on, when I like a stamp set, I will just buy it. Not sure my business account will agree, but atleast I can write it off on my taxes, right?

For this week's Friday Mashup Challenge, we had the option of
1) making a project using the sketch to the left;
2) making a project featuring birds; or
3) or Mash It Up and create a project using the sketch featuring birds.

So I turned to the bird from Nature's Pace as well as the Certainly Celery prints from the Twitterpated DSP. I also pulled out my Aquapainters and colored the bird in a soft So Saffron. I should really remember to watercolor more often.

Tips & Tricks:

*To follow the stripes theme of the sketch, I embossed my Pink Pirouette card stock with the Stripes Embossing Folder. Coordination made easy.
*To get the various shades of Saffron in my bird, I watercolored him one, let him dry and then watercolored him in spots to darken the color. Love how he turned out!
*I love second generation stamping for a softer look. To make the 'no. 147' a bit softer than the bird, I stamped off on my grid paper and then stamped on my card stock. It's a bit paler so it doesn't take over the image.
*I'm still loving how the Stitched 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon effortlessly adds that little something extra to my cards!
*To adhere buttons onto my cards, I always use Glue Dots. They may be small, but they're incredibly tacky. Even for a bigger button, I only needed one!
*If you know my style, you know that these are not my typical color choices. I got the my inspiration from the Twitterpated DSP. I love how it helps me come up with new color combos!
*There's no fancy cutting on my card. No fancy techniques except the watercoloring. But I think this goes to show, sometimes simple is just right :)

My friend just moved out to a country house and loves all the different birds that visit her birdfeeders. I think she'll enjoy this card for her birthday :) 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Clean and Simple with the Baby Wipe Technique Tutorial

I first did this technique over a year ago at a Demonstrator meeting. And I've been meaning to do it again but somehow I just haven't gotten around to it. When I saw the sketch for the Clean and Simple Stamping Challenge #193. I did change up the challenge a bit, because all three of my flowers are the same size, so I guess I broke one of the challenge's rules. But who am I to follow rules? lol! Oh and I'll say it again... THANK GOODNESS this challenge is open for two weeks :p Otherwise I wouldn't have made it!

I've also done up a little tutorial for the baby wipe technique. It is *so* easy and I wanted to show you how to do it :) What I love best about it is that each image you stamp has just a wee bit different color distribution. And the tie-dye effect - love it! With respect to my tutorial, I know the photo tutorial is sooo passe... but I can't get organized enough to do a video... yet. ;)

Step 1: Take a baby wipe and fold it twice. Then choose the colors you want for your stamped image. For my flowers, I chose Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals - all new In Colors :)

Step 2: Put a few drops of reinker on the baby wipe in each color. Put the reinker on the baby wipe in any pattern you wish. I did three stripes.

Step 3: Use your inked up baby wipe as a custom ink pad: stamp your image on it :) I washed my stamp in between stamping to try to keep the ink even on the baby wipe. See how the three colors show up on the stamp?

Step 4: Because of the dampness of the baby wipe, the ink goes onto the stamp and the card stock really nicely. Do you like how each flower looks different?

My card base is Primrose Petals. Isn't it a lovely pink? I also love the Gumball Green that I used for my flower stems. I stamped the greeting in Raspberry Ripple. What a gorgeous, rich color! I did cut out all my flowers and I admit, that took a lot of work. I tried to get around all the little nooks and crannies and there sure were a lot. But these flowers from Fabulous Florets were perfect for this card.

I hope my tutorial made sense, and made you realize how easy and wonderful this technique is. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

With a Cherry On Top!

I'm *just* squeaking in for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge this week. I had a super busy week with my New Cattie Event as well as Retired Merchandise Sale. I was busy stamping, but also pricing, setting things up, didn't have the time (or energy) to post. Which is really awful, I want to post more than every 8 days :p And here I was doing so well at being consistent.

But I really wanted to make sure I got in this sketch challenge. I really like the simplicity of it, but also the fact that you could make a bit more ornate. It has a great space for a focal image, a spot to use our fab DSP and ribbon. Does it get better than that? True to my style, I did have to change it up a bit and I rotated the image.

These are the cherries from the Mouthwatering stamp set. It was carried over from the 2012 Occasions Mini. Don't they look good enough to eat?

Tips & Tricks:

*Like the two-tone image? I used my 2012-2014 In Color Stampin' Write Markers to stamp the image.

*I'm not much of a green girl, but I'm loving the Gumball Green color! I didn't have any non-Christmas Gumball Green DSP so I dug into the new Christmas Cheer DSP and found this cute polka dot pattern! I think it's fun and works for this non-Christmas card.
*Are you loving the Raspberry Ripple color as much as me? Can you say YUM! And it works for the cherries.
*When I think cherries, I think juicy, plump and sweet. I used a whole lot of Crystal Effects on them to give them that plump sheen. Just make sure you give your image enough time to dry if you use a thick layer of the Crystal Effects.
*When I first heard SU! was retiring the 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, I wondered what they could possible replace it with. As usual with SU!, I needn't worry. I LOVE the Stitched 1/4" Grosgrain. The stitching adds just a wee little something special ;)

I hope you've enjoyed this juicy card and I'll be back really soon! In the meantime, if you're in the Ottawa area and looking for bargains on retired stamps, DSP, punches, Big Shot Accessories, etc., send me a note! I still have all the items from the garage sale set up so you can come check them out anytime :)

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

Teacher's Gift Card Holder

It's that time of year again ~ the end of the school year! I can't believe it's June already, time flies. Soon I'll be knee deep in summer camps, blow-up swimming pools and sunscreen. But, in the meantime I have to focus on making sure that my kids' awesome teachers get a proper thank you.

I used the new DSP, Floral District, as well as the Itty Bitty Banners and Bright Blossoms stamp set. For the card sketch, I used this week's Retro Sketch. I was also inspired by a gift card holder I saw on a blog this week. But, for the life of me, I can't remember which blog it was!

Tips & Tricks:

*For my gift card holder, I scored at 1-1/2" and 6-1/2". To make sure the gift card stays put, I secured the inside flap with the Mini Silver Brads.
*Although the Itty Bitty Banners stamps coordinate with the Bitty Banners Framelits they're super cute on their own too. I love the wavy curves of the "thank you".
*I love the colors in the Floral District DSP. Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight... can't go wrong!

*Sometimes the right image is just enough. Even though this flower vase from Bright Blossoms is small, I love it! And it's just right for this card.
*What do you think of the new Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon? I love the little extra effect the stitching adds :)

I hope the ladies who come to my New Catalog Event and BOGO Sale enjoy this make-and-take ~ yup, this is one of the projects they'll be making! I hope they love it :) 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!