Thursday, January 27, 2011

Ooh, I should have waited to take a photo of this card until my lighting was better. But waiting on good lighting sometimes puts a crimp in my motivation so it didn't happen today. Today we'll all have to use our imaginations (and squinting just so) to see how it looks in real life. Actually, you don't have to squint at all to see that my stamping is crooked. Let that be my lesson to you today that you should always stamp your images first! Then if you mess up you can turn the paper over and do it again, or start fresh. Today, I stamped last and so everything else was already there and I decided that I didn't want to start completely over. But I'll take my own advice next time!


Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Party Hearty
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
DSP: Sweet Pea (retired)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist
Punches: scallop edge border, 3/4" circle
Other: Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon, silver brads, paper piercing tool, stitching

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Mixing Sets

Do you have a hard time combining sets? I do! I think it has more to do with how I store my stamps than anything else but combining two sets to make a card almost never occurs to me. Today I forced myself to do it though and I think it turned out well!

Can you see the detail in the flowers? I was able to get that texture simply by placing my punched piece on the foam that comes in the paper piercing set and pressing down into the flower with the end of a pen cap. I think it adds a little something to the flower. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Season Of Friendship, Happy Moments (retired)
CS: Marina Mist, Whisper White, Rose Red, Pretty In Pink
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Pear Pizazz
Punches: 1 3/4 x 7/8 oval, Flower Trio (retired)
Other: Pear Pizazz stitched poly ribbon, Basic Pearls


Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Valentine Pinwheel

A special thanks to Dawn Griffith for inspiring this card. I love this technique and hope to use it a lot in the future. It's perfect for using up small amounts of leftover designer series paper as I have done here.



The pinwheel is created by using two 2 5/8" square pieces of cardstock (in this case red) layered on top of one another but off set. You then punch out 8 squares using the 1 1/4" square punch, 4 each of two designs. Adhering only one corner of each piece, you place them in an overlapping fashion to the cardstock. When you reach the last one, you tuck it under and you're done! It looks much more complicated than it is. Let me know if you have any questions!

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
CS: Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Very Vanilla
DSP: Sending Love Specialty (retired)
Ink: Real Red
Punches: 1 1/4" square, Modern Label, Word Window, Trio Flower (retired)
Other: Pretty In Pink brad, Basic Pearls

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sending Love

The design for today's card was inspired by the card on page 18 of the new Occasions Mini Catalog. I love using our catalogs as jumping off points for my own designs.


I would have liked to use black ribbon on this card but the satin was too shiny and the grosgrain was too stiff. I really hope that we will get the seam binding ribbon in every color we carry! Wouldn't that be awesome?

Stamps: Love You Much
CS: Very Vanilla Textured, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Very Vanilla
DSP: Patterns DSP Stack
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black
Punches: Spiral Border, Heart To Heart
Other: Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, black brad


Sunday, January 23, 2011

Special Thank You

Today's card is for a special mentor of mine. I hope she likes it! It was not a quick and easy card for sure but it was fun to make.


The flower was made by punching out a total of 5 scalloped circles and then folding 4 of them into fourths and then adhering those onto the fifth scallop. Before I folded them, I spritzed them with a combination of alcohol and champagne shimmer paint to give them a little shine and crumpled them up. I gave the leaves the same treatment. I like how it turned out. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Thank You Kindly
CS: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Punches: 1 3/4"Scallop Circle, Scallop Trim Border, Decorative Label XL , Corner rounder (non-SU)
Die: Birds and Blooms
Other: Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, Self Adhesive Rhinestones, Sending Love brad (retired)