Ships and Postage Stamps

The new stamp set in the Summer Mini, The Open Sea, is sooooo not me. Heck, when I first saw it mid-March I thought to myself "Who is going to buy that???  Boats?"  Well, I knew it would be someone's cup of tea, but certainly not mine.  I'm eating my words now...

I saw a few samples made with the stamp set at a recent meeting with my upline, saw a couple on Splitcoast and, well, I was hooked. I could make FABULOUS masculine cards with it and it was very versatile. So I took the plunge and ordered the set that was so not me ;)

Us demos know, this happens often... a stamp set we don't particularly like becomes a favorite after we see samples with it. Accessories or punches that we can never see ourselves using also become our faves. I think this is happening with this stamp set :) My next project will use the coordinating DSP, Nautical Expedition.

I made this card for this week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge. We were challenged to do a clean and simple card using buttons. I tend to use buttons a lot so I swapped them for compass 'postage stamps' using the new Postage Stamp Punch (LOVE IT!). I also used the Chocolate Chip Baker's Twine. I was introduced to distressing of card stock a few weeks ago and love the effect.  I just used my Craft and Rubber Scissors and 'scraped' them along the edges of the card stock.  If you look closely, I tore it too, but I didn't mean to ;)

So what do you think? Yay or nay for the stamp set? Clean and simple enough? Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

A little 'Tuesday' Mojo and Stamper's Group Sneak Peak!

I never do this. I want my Stamper's Group members to have a 'surprise' (hopefully a good one ;) ) when they come to make their projects every other month. But I loved the Mojo Monday Sketch so much this time around that I wanted to use it for one of my projects this month. So what I'll do is post the card but no dets - you'll have to wait 'til Sunday next week to get those - sorry!  All I'll say is that a lot of what you see  are new Summer Mini products and there is some 'old' in there too, just used in a different way :)

Enjoy, and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Springtime Vintage Sympathy

Wow - it's been a long time since I posted. I really do want to post more, but I've just been so busy :) Today is Monday, which means another Mojo Monday Challenge. I really like the sketch this week, it lends itself beautifully to layering Stampin' Up!'s coordinating designer papers. Sadly, the card I needed to make today was a sympathy card - my friend's husband lost his 93-year-old grandmother over the week-end. Although this designer paper has spring-like colors in it, I don't think the card is too 'cheery' and helps convey my family's condolences to our friends.

I used the Fabulous Florets stamp set from the Summer Mini as well as the Springtime Vintage from the current Occasions Mini - so I used a little old and a little new for my card. On its own, the flower seemed a little plain so I added a bit of glass glitter in the middle and I like what it added to the card.

The sketch has stitching around the edges of some of the layers. As my customers can tell you, I don't stitch. I don't even particularly like paper piercing in that great a quantity. So I sponged the edges in Early Espresso. It didn't give the exact same effect, but close enough ;)  I used Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment. It actually says "With Sympathy" but I wanted to use the Tiny Tags Punch so I simply punched out "Sympathy."

 

Finally, to make the card extra special, I decorated the envelope with coordinating Designer Series Paper. So easy to do! Cut a piece of DSP just slightly narrower than the envelope and about an inch longer than the lip of the envelope. Put Snail on the lip of the envelope and put in the DSP. Use your Paper Trimmers to trim the edges of the lip of the envelope.

Hope you've liked my card and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Pretty Daffodils

This week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge 88 intrigued me. It was a Celebrity Color Challenge (colors chosen by Blog Designer Veronica McCollum) and the colors were Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz and Daffodil Delight. I love Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz has grown on me and I've always liked Crumb Cake for more 'natural' looks. But together? Seemed like kind of a blah combination.

Of course, being the person I am, I wanted to prove myself wrong. That I could make a pretty, exciting and fun card with this color combination. So far the Pals Paper Arts ladies have had fabulous color ideas, sketches and other challenges - I knew they couldn't be wrong this time ;)

I have a card on my display board that I got in a swap that I have wanted to CASE for a while. So, I went that route. Since Daffodil Delight is the brightest of the three colors, and my favorite, I decided to make it the focus of my card. I stamped the blossom petals in Daffodil Delight with the Build a Blossom set. I punched them out with the coordinating punch. I also punched out coordinating petals in Daffodil Delight card stock and layered them to give my daffodil dimension, like on the card I was CASEing.

I used the Daffodil Delight Pom Pom Trim again because, well, it's SOOO fun! Why oh why did I not get any of this stuff sooner? lol!  The background in Pear Pizzazz is the 'En Francais' stamp. I am generally not a huge fan of the big background stamps, but I do love this one :) It's so versatile, easy to use and has enough detail that it makes a nice background. Love those jumbo button in the Occasions Mini. I did use the new Baker`s Twine (Summer Mini) for the center of the button.

Thanks to the Pals Paper Arts gals for another great challenge :)  This was a fabulous color combination and perfect for a gorgeous spring day like today.

Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity.

Creative Canvas Class for Mother's Day

Although I love making cards and scrapping pages, I also like making some other things that I can use to decorate our home. This past week-end I was lucky to attend a Creative Escape Week-end Retreat. We made this gorgeous canvas. I love the colours we used and it worked perfectly for Anna's school picture from last September.

I'm offering this canvas as a class on Wednesday April 27th at 7:30. So now you can make your own beautiful canvas! Either for yourself, or for your mom for Mother's Day. For only $30, you get the canvas, a roll of Early Espresso Satin Ribbon and a package of Trinket Keys.

Register by April 17th at stampingmonica@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there :)

Spring Stamp-a-Stack Sneak Peak

It's Monday and my class is on Saturday - this Saturday April 9th. So I thought I should probably get cracking and plan these lovely cards. Luckily it's also Mojo Monday and I had a fabulous sketch to work off, the Mojo Monday 185 (pictured to the left).

Since I went to the Creative Escape Weekend Retreat this week-end and won a fabulous prize consisting of the Sweet Stitches DSP and Daffodil Delight Pom Pom Trim (and some other goodies), I wanted to use them in the card. I just love the colors in this DSP, so fresh and bright!  Instead of stamping with the Button, Button set, I punched buttons out of the DSP :)

Are you looking at the sentiment, wondering how I did that with the Modern label Punch? It's really easy! Everyone loves this punch, but there's no coordinating punch to make a mat, like with the oval and circle punches. I learned how to make an easy mat on Mary Fish's blog. Take your 'mat' and cut it in half. Adhere it to your top layer, as pictured below. You can make a vertical or horizontal mat, whatever you prefer :)

I love easy tricks like this. Stay tuned for more easy tricks in the next couple of weeks! Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Fabric and Spinners

I've realized it's been almost a month since I posted!  Yikes.  I've been busy crafting and doing a bunch of other things.  I recently started a new blog too (dairyfreedairyfiend.blogspost.com), so now I need to manage writing both blogs :)

Last month, I did some fun projects with my stamper's groups. I've been getting lots of questions on Stampin' Up! fabrics and the spinner cards, so I decided to do both. For the fabric card, we used the Fun Flowers L die as well as the Sweet Stitches fabric. We also used the double-sided adhesive sheets from the Occasions Mini. We adhered the fabric, wrong-side down, to the adhesive sheets. Then we ran the whole thing through the Big Shot with the Fun Flowers die.

We also created a sweet ribbon with the fabric. A strip of 1" of fabric was cut and tied into a knot. Simple, but adds a lot to the card. We also put a Flower Brad through the center of the fabric flower, just to dress the card up a bit more.  I love the added texture that the fabric gives and I just adore the Fun Flowers die. The flowers layer so beautifully and open themselves to many different possibilities: cards, bookmarks, scrapbook pages, anything :)

Anyone who has received a card from me recently knows I LOVE the spinner cards!  I've given them to pretty much everyone and anyone that has had a birthday recently. And I will keep giving them :) They're so easy to put together, washer underneath the card, spinner hand and brad at the top. To make sure your spinner card spins, take your paper piercer and pull up under the game spinner hand and brad.

We also did a 'tie-dye' technique on the card. Using Glossy Paper, emboss your image (in this case, an image from the Take a Spin stamp set) in white. Spritz with water. Take Stampin' Reinkers and put a drop or two of 3 or 4 colors on a paper towel. With your Aquapainter, add color from the reinker to the spritzed image in different areas. Add another color. Re-spritz with water as needed and until you are happy with it. When dry, we punched it out with the 2-1/2" circle punch. The colors we used on this card were Cherry Cobbler, Tangerine Tango and Marina Mist.

 
I hope you've enjoyed these cards and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!



p.s. Clearance rack items are on sale at 60% off and they added a whole bunch more! Take a look see!
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