My 2nd try at a one layer card

Every year I admire the wonderful one layer Christmas cards that I see and it is always amazing to see what people create.  There has only been one other time where I created a one layer card, here, so I thought I would try it again.  I am sure that there are plenty of similar cards that inspired this one, I just haven't a clue as to which one it would have been.

Ok, so I guess that this one truly isn't a one layer card because the sentiment ended up on a colored piece of cardstock popped up on dimensionals.  But that is because I was holding my baby while stamping and she hit my hand right as I stamped the sentiment and it was soooooo crooked I had to do something because I couldn't scrap the whole card.    It looked better when it was one layer. 

Stamps: Holiday Line Up, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Basic Black, Bordering Blue, Many Marvelous Markers, Going Gray, Blender Pen

Paper: Shimmery White, Bordering Blue

Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals

Tools:  Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Sponge, Modern Label Punch

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Its a dashing Christmas card!

It is over 100 degrees outside but Christmas in my heart!  I just love Christmas music, I can listen to it year round.  Today’s card is a little more Christmas in July.  I love the new Dasher stamp set on the under $10 list, I hope to be able to earn the level 2 Dasher Decor Element to make a fun Christmas decoration.

When I sat down with the stamp set, I decided to try and work some more on my brayering.  The hardest part was trying to figure out what colors to use.  When I figured out the colors I wanted to use the card put itself together.  For the sky I inked up some saran wrap in first navy and then silver and then I used a little silver around the ground.

Stamps:  Dasher

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Taken With Teal, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Basic Black and Silver Encore

Paper:  Brushed Silver, Whisper White

Accessories:  Whisper White Organza, Night of Navy Grosgrain, Clear Rhinestone Brad

Tools: Horizontal Slot, Crop-a-dile, Saran Wrap, Brayer, 1 1/4 inch circle punch, Post it note

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Birthday Butterfly

I just have to toot my own horn for just a minute.  Last week I participated in Kristina Werner’s Color Inspiration Challenge with this card.  I love them because they are usually color combos that I wouldn’t try on my own.  This last one was a doosey with all of the colors she included but I saw it and knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I just enter for fun and love looking at all of the other samples that people submit.  I never imagined one of my cards would be in her favorites round up, so I was shocked when I got a congrats email from a friend and I had to go check it out.  Sure enough, my little bug was there along with other fabulous cards.  Run over and check out the other cards in the round-up as there are some great ones there!

Ok so on with today's card.  I just fell in love with the new Cottage Wall DSP when I got the new catalog.  In fact it was the very first thing on my must have list.  I really like the color combination, since Kiwi Kiss has retired, Old Olive is my favorite color and it is combined with some other great colors that I would not have done on my own.    I knew I wanted to use my sizzix beautiful butterflies die with the paper.  Anyways here is my card. 

The colors are off a bit, the base is Rich Razzleberry.  Also it looks like the center image is way off but that is because of the angle I took the picture combined with the fact that it is mounted on dimensionals.  I promise in real life it is centered.  A word of warning: I carefully lined up the crop-a-dile to where I wanted to punch the holes but I guess I didn't tighten the little screw all the way because you can tell that it shifted as I went along the scallops. 

Paper:  Whisper White, Old Olive, Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, Cottage Wall DSP

Accessories: Whisper White taffeta ribbon, wide old olive grosgrain, dimensionals

Tools:  Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz XL die, scallop edge punch, crop-a-dile

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Pull, Push, Twist and Smoosh

There is a wonderful video tutorial for demonstrators on the Stampin’ Up! website that shows how to make a couple of different boxes.  (Now is the perfect time to sign up to be a demo with the special starter kit for only $85 just ask me how!)  I love this cute “twist box”.  It was so much fun to make so I made two of them.  I gave away the first one right after I made it, minutes later.  I stuffed it with some candy that I had around the house. 

I missed the box after I gave it away so I had to make another one!  This one I dressed up a bit more with some of the tags from the Matchbox Bigz XL Die and the new Many Thanks Sizzlit.   Aren’t they cute.  I definitely will be making party favors with these little boxes in the future!

Paper:  Tall Tales DSP, Chocolate Chip Textured Cardstock, Whisper White and Rose Red

Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals, Sticky Strip

Tools: Big Shot, Matchbox Bigz XL die, Many Thanks Sizzlits Die

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Busy Busy Busy

I have not had much time in the past few days to spend at the computer.  We have been busy with summer activities and I have been working on a few different swaps.  I will be able to show you some of that work after the have been received as I do not want to spoil the surprise because I know that a group of ladies from one of the swaps check here.  I was “hired” by Sherrill Graff to make some convention swaps for her.  I replicated a previous card but swapped out the retired DSP for a current one (tall tales dsp).  I had actually started these a while back by working on the sunset and somewhere in my stamp room I have approximately 18 sunsets hiding from me.  So I gave up on looking for them and went to work starting over with all of the brayering and sponging.  This is what my fingers looked like after I was done with all of the sponging and after I had used stampin’ mist to wash my hands (for several minutes) so it is not as concentrated as it began.Now don't look too closely because I need some serious lotion at this point after working on the cards and all of the scrubbing trying to clean my fingers.  I gave all 4 kids baths and did a large sink full of dishes and they were still pretty stained.  It is now 3 days later and there is still some ink that has not completely faded through all of that.   But it was all worth it because the cards came out great.

  This is the pile that they were tossed on as I finished each one up.

Here is a nice neat stack of the swaps!

There are actually two different designs in the dsp.

Stamps:  Upsy Daisy

Ink: Versamark, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust

Paper:  So Saffron, Basic Black, Tall Tales DSP

Accessories: Stampin’ Dimensionals, Vintage Brads, Black Embosisng Powder

Tools: Embossing Buddy (a must!), 1 1/4 inch circle punch, post it notes, heat tool

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Cutest Little Bug

I just knew that I had to have the level one hostess set Love Bugs as soon as I saw it. I just love the baby bug in the carriage. My only wish would be that the stamps were a little bit bigger. Well when I saw the fun colors that Kristina picked for her color challenge, I knew that I had a starting place for this fun set. Here is her inspiration:

The colors she picked from the picture are red, pumpkin, saffron, celery, ballet blue and white. It was a lot of colors to work into a card and almost intimidating. Here is my card:

I took the time to paper piece the “capitiller” (as my 2.5 year old would say), because I wasn't too happy with just coloring it with my markers. It was pretty easy until I got to the hearts on the first body segment below the head. It was so frustrating because as soon as I cut one out I would loose it there are now 7 various itty bitty hearts somewhere in the room. After all of the trouble with the hearts I decided to just color the boots. Here is a close up of the details.Stamps: Love Bugs

Ink: Black, Real Red and So Saffron markers

Paper: So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, and Whisper White

Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals

Tools: Paper Piercing Tool and Mat Pack

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Birthday Bots

Wow, I cannot believe it is already Thursday.  Where did the time go.  Well I have been working on several different projects this week and haven't had the time to stamp for my blog.  (One of the projects lead me to playing around with my watermark so I have a few new ones to try out.)  This morning the kids were all working together to get their rooms clean so they could go to their cousin’s birthday party so I stole a few moments to stamp a card for his present. 

I decided to use bold brights colors since it is for a 6 year old boy.  There is one more bot on the inside of the card so that there are 6 total on the card for his 6th b-day.  This is an irregular size card made for another LNS challenge.  The card is 6 by 4 1/8.  I received several card blanks and envelopes from a friend a few years ago and decided that this would be the perfect time to use one. 

Stamps: Lots of Bots

Ink: Glorious Green, Summer Sun, Brilliant Blue, Only Orange, and Tempting Turquoise

Paper:  Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue

Accessories:  Tempting Turquoise and Brilliant Blue Brads from the Bold Brights collection

Tools:  Big Shot, Perfect Details Texture Plate, Mat Pack and Paper Piercer

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Embossed Thanks

This weekend I wanted to make some thank you notes to give to a friend.  I didn't have a lot of time with many other things going on so they are simple a quick but cute!  Just an embossing folder, some ribbon, a little gel pen and a sentiment and voila a thank you card.  I whipped   up a batch of 20 of these in less than a half hour.

Then I flipped the embossing folder around and added a different ribbon.

Stamps: Trendy Trees

Ink: White Craft Ink

Paper:  Pink Passion

Accessories: Whisper White Grosgrain, White Organza Ribbon, White Gel Pen

Tools: Big Shot, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder

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Blushing Bride

Several months ago I saved a picture to my computer of a really cute punch art bride.  The recent challenge on late night stampers has encouraged me to try my hand at creating one of my own.  I cased this pretty little lady from Samantha Parisi.  She is created completely out of current SU! punches.  The bouquet was  made using the Boho Blossoms punch.  With each flower I cut a slit between two petals to the center and then using adhesive overlapped the two petals to make a cone shape.  The leaves were all made from the largest flower in the punch cut into pieces.

She was so pretty I had a hard time turning her into a card.  Everything I did seemed to take away from her and since she was the bride I wanted her front and center. 

Paper: Shimmery White (dress and shoes), Whisper White (collar), Blush Blossom, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Vellum Cardstock, Brushed Silver

Accessories: Dimensionals, Pastels (blush on cheeks)

Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Details Texturz Plate, Crop-a-dile (for the 1/8th inch circle punch), 1/2 inch circle punch, 3/4 inch circle punch, Scallop Circle punch, Small oval punch, large oval punch, word window punch, 5 petal flower punch, boho blossoms punch, and round tab punch.

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Free Big Shot Items Give Away!

Free stuff is always exciting news, especially when it is brand new product from the new Stampin’ Up! catalog!   www.StampinAddicts.com has tons of ideas using the Stampin’ Up! Big Shot and is giving away a Big Shot Die Pack as part of the Stampin’ Up! summer celebration. To enter, all you have to do is write about it. This is my entry so why don't you hop on over check it out and enter yourself.

Stampin Addicts is a fun website with an ever growing gallery and forum area.  It is fairly new so why not hop on over and get involved.  I just wish I had more time so that I could spend hours over there chatting in the forums and viewing the gallery.

Good Luck, but in all honestly I hope I win!

Kirsten Brown

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Christmas in July

I always like to get a start on my Christmas cards in July so here is my first shot.  I used Mary Jo’s Monday Lunch Time Sketch (TSSC77).  This is my newest Christmas set, new to the catalog, called Sparkly and Bright.  It is such a fun whimsical little set.  I also used the new Soft Suede In Color for the first time.  I was not too thrilled with the color when I saw it in the set of In Colors, but once I separated it from the rest of the colors I saw its true potential.  I think that I am really going to like this brown color. 

 

Rudolph’s nose was colored with a real red marker and cover in crystal effects so that it is bright and shiny.  I stamped the snowflake image on the patterns dsp to add to the Christmas-y feel.

Stamps: Merry & Bright

Ink: Real Red, Soft Suede

Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red, Soft Suede, Old Olive Patterns DSP

Accessories:  Crystal Effects, Dimensionals, Real Red Striped Grosgrain

Tools: Ticket Corner Punch

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New Toys, New Toys!

I was able to play with a few of the items from the new catalog last night and they were sure fun.  On this card I used the new Perfect Details texturz plate, Elegant bouquet embossing folder, Orchard Ribbon originals and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set. 

It has been awhile since I have done any challenges so this week I hope to find the time to participate in a few.  For the Late Night Stampers group the challenge is "Here Comes The Brides......and Grooms!"  This was the first time that I tried out the cute little dresses made from the scallop circle die that have been every where.  It was so easy to create. 

I was excited to be able to maneuver the dress in the embossing folder so that only one side of the bodice part of the dress was embossed.  I used the shimmery white cardstock and really like the look of it with the embossing.  This was a really simple card to throw together, perfect for a club or workshop.  I might even use this for my little class on Friday night. 

 

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink

Paper:  Lavendar Lace, Elegant Eggplant, Shimmery White

Accessories:  Orchard Ribbon Originals, Dimensionals

Tools: Big Shot, Scallop Circle Die, Perfect Details Texturz plate, Elegant Boquet embossing folder

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Old Stamp Set, New Colors

I was lucky enough to trade some retired stamps for a CDO so I am not so patiently waiting for “Mr Brown”  to come deliver me some new goodies.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it would be coming so soon since it was not an expedited order, SU! is really on the ball for this catalog roll out.  So in the mean time I played with an oldie but goodie stamp set, Pick a Petal.  I was inspired by the samples in the catalog.

It is hard to tell from this photo by the flowers are popped up using dimensionals and the leaves are adhered to the card in the center but have a dimensional at each end.  I have found out that I like the new in colors a lot better when I look at them individually instead of as a whole. 

Stamps:  Pick A Petal, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Rich Razzelberry, Crushed Curry

Paper:  Tall Tales DSP, Whisper White, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy

Accessories:  Pretties Kit, Dimensionals

Tools:  Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch

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More Bots

I am forcing myself to really use this stamp set until I can place an order because I need to start liking it before I get other things or I will never use this stamp set.  I do have to say that my feelings are not so negative anymore towards these little guys after doing a few more cards.  I really like cutting out the round-ish bot.  He is easy to cut and it goes fast and creates a cute look for him.    Oh I cannot wait to get some more DSP as I don't think I have anything left current except some chocolate patterns. 

Stamps: Lots of Bots

Ink: Black, Crushed Curry and Many Marvelous Markers

Paper: Basic Gray, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Breeze, Whisper White

Accessories: Dimensionals, Silver Eyelets, Real Red Grosgrain

Tools: Crop-a-Dile, Spiral Punch

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Yesterday

July 1st is always a busy day for me.  Of course it is the day that we get to see the new Stampin’ Up! catalog and the stamping year starts over.  It also happens to be my anniversary and my Mormor’s birthday(grandmother in Swedish).  Yesterday we celebrated our 9th anniversary and my husband was actually able to take the entire day off!  It was so nice to have a fun day with him.  We spent the morning with the kids since they don't see much of their daddy right now and then the afternoon and evening was kid free!  It really was a wonderful day.  

This is the card that I made for my dh.  It was really hard but I tried to keep it simple and masculine.  Of course now most of this is retired.  (I am currently mourning the loss of my beautiful kiwi kiss.)

Stamps: Inspired By Nature, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss

Paper:  Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Walk in the Park DSP

Accessories:  Chit Chat Rub-Ons, Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Tools: Big Shot and Top Note Bigz Die

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