Rainbow of Congrats!

Did you see the awesome watercoloring technique I shared yesterday on my blog? If you didn’t you need to go there right now and check it out as I used the same technique to create the stars for these Congrats cards I made for a group swap!

These cards are just so bright and fun and I know they will make whoever receives them feel even MORE AWESOME for their accomplishment!

I knew I wanted to play around with that water-colour technique again using a brighter color palette and I thought pairing it up with die cut stars would be a great match. The dies are called Stitched Stars and you can find them in our annual catalogue. Keeping the card background on neutral Crumb Cake I think really helps these stars jump off the page!

I was able to get enough stars to embellish 4 cards and each one is unique! I used Magenta Madness, Gorgeous Grape, Coastal Cabana and Mango Melody for my color palette. I think together they make an awesome rainbow inspired combo!

I also flicked Soft Suede over the background of my card too just to give it a little extra!

Now the Congrats font is from the A Grand Kid stamp set, do not overlook it because of its name! It has some really really terrific sentiments in it and you can find it on page 97 of the annual catalogue.

I also wanted to decorate the inside of this card too! So I added in a few more stars and a bit of Magenta Madness ribbon. I think its a fun surprise!

I hope you will give this fun technique a try! It is easy to do, I promise, and is a great way to incorporate watercoloring into your projects!

Create with Connie and Mary--Cute Critters!

This week our creative theme is Cute Critters and if you have looked through the catalogue at all you know, there are quite a few options? So how could I pick just one. I decided to make ONE card template and FOUR critter cards from it! I think this shows how versatile a great card design can be!

What is also worth noting is that on each of the four cards, they only use ONE stamp set per card! This is also important to our customers because it shows the value and potential in a single stamp set.

This little zebra is just too cute for words! You can find him and two other zebra friends in the Zany Zebra stamp set. I added a bit of extra color to his stripes with my light Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blend and Magenta Madness Stampin’ Write Marker.

I absolutely could not choose just one stamp set to use as all of these sets have so much potential and are all ‘cute critters’, even the whale by my definition!

I started with a Coastal Cabana base and layer. I chose one sentiment out of each set to stamp in the background and then I used my Water Painter brush with the matching ink to create a splatter effect in the background. Each card has a strip of DSP from the Flowers for All Season 6x6 collection in a Just Jade polkadot pattern. I love how Just Jade and Coastal Cabana look together, they pair up perfectly! I wanted a little punch of color so I decided to add in Magenta Madness as an accent color. I cut little strips of the woodgrain pattern from the In Color 6x6 collection to add behind the critter on each card along with some Just Jade ribbon. The Playful Patterns Resin dots in Coastal Cabana were the perfect finishing touch!

Each critter is on a white stitched circle and I found one little stamp in each set to add to the circle in Magenta Madness! It could not have worked out better to choose these four stamp sets and this is going to make the perfect class in September!

This little cutie is from the Pampered Pets Bundle and is coloured with the Smoky Slate Stampin Blends!

This was actually my first play with the Hippo Happiness Bundle. What I really love about this bundle are the Hippo & Friends dies. There are 25 dies in this set including 3 different types of labels. It really is a tremendous value!

And finally Mr. Whale as I have nicknamed him from the Whale Done bundle. I love that he is a punch and you can stamp him and punch him out or create him using punch art!

I hope this card collection inspires you to take one design and create different projects from it! Now you can go back on our hop to see what Melissa created or you can keep going forward to see what Connie has designed! Either way, I know you will be inspired! Have a wonderful Saturday! And if you want to shop my store for any of these projects, please do and use the August Host Code! Thank you!

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Around the World on Wednesday--We Are Shaking Things Up!

Happy Wednesday! Thank you for travelling around the world on this virtual blog hop! I love how we have so many people participating from the many corners of the crafting world! So thank you for hopping along with us! I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada!

This month, our theme was SHAKE THINGS UP—-I took this literally, haha! To create a shaker card! Its actually been a while since I have played with this fun card style.

I actually wanted to create a ‘simple’ shaker card and the easiest way to do this is to use our clear envelopes. You can find these in the catty with our medium envelopes on page 153. I use them for card pieces (my stampers have lovingly referred to these bags as their Brenda Bag!), as a glossy surface for water colouring techniques and to create shaker cards!

I took one of these clear envelopes and stuffed it with a piece of Whisper White card stock that was run through the NEW Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine with the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder. Ok, let’s stop right there! The NEW machine is a dream, its like butter! Even my stampers commented how smoothly things run through and how easy it is to use with all of the plaforms being labelled! So well done, SU, well done!

Now I knew I needed some filler for my shaker card and I ended up using the Detailed Hearts Die on some Gold Foil paper. I was thinking convenience people, haha! I knew this die would cut out a ton of hearts and would leave me with a fun piece I could use on a future project! I dropped all of my hearts into the clear envelope, folded it in half and sealed it shut. Seriously, this could NOT be easier and is such a fun way to create a shaker card, especially for new stampers!

I really wanted to play with some new stamps so I decided to embellish the front of my card with the Love of Leaves Bundle and the Plaid Tidings DSP. The little ‘hello’ is stamped and embossed in gold and is then cut out using the itty bitty tag that is a part of the Gift Bow Builder punch. Its literally too cute for words!

I love all of the texture you get with the Love of Leaves stamp set. The dies are fabulous as you can use them to add a stitched detail to your leaves if you choose or just to cut out the image! You can use my Hostess Code if you want to add them to an order!

Next up on your virtual world tour is to visit Tricia Butts from the United States. I can’ wait to see what she has created for us, I know you will be inspired! Just click on the Next Blog and it will take you there! Have a wonderful day!

Flowers for Every Season

I recently had a creative swap challenge with my Team, we needed to pick a suite from the catalogue and create a card project using the elements in that suite. I chose the Flowers for All Seasons Suite (pg 10-11 of Annual Catty) to create with because sadly, I have had all of these supplies and had not used them since I got them in May/June. Who can relate?

I will admit, when a new catalogue is released I go a little crazy ordering everything that inspires me! But there are only so many hours in the day to craft, so sometimes awesome stuff like this product suite sit on my shelf not getting any love!

I did add in a few elements from outside of this suite, the sentiment and the die to cut it out. The sentiment is from Lovely You (pg 22) and the dies are the Tasteful Labels dies (pg 179). I also used the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder on the white card front layer.

I actually chose a bit of a softer color palette as well for my card than what is showcased in the catalogue as well. I wanted something that felt peaceful and relaxing unlike the bold colors of the suite. I started by choosing the flower collection I liked in the Jar of Flowers stamp set. There are 4 options and I liked this one because it felt the fullest. I chose to color it with some soft Stampin’ Blends in Purple Posy, Highland Heather, Pink Pirouette (retired I know, sad face), Pool Party, Mango Melody and Granny Apple Green. There are no dies with this stamp set, just the cutest jar punch! So you will have to hand cut any of the bloom images.

Creating the ‘shaker’ part of this card took a few steps. After I ran the Whisper White card stock through the Tasteful Textiles embossing folder I used the jar punch to create the shaker space. I added in the Mason Jar Shaker Dome (pg 158). I dropped a few of the Flowers for Every Season gems inside the dome. I wanted it to look like there was water in the shaker dome so I used my Water Painter brush and Pool Party ink to swipe some color on scrap white card stock. I then stamped the stems and coloured them with the Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends. I punched this out with the Jar Punch and added it into the space created by the dome. Now this will not seal this shaker dome up, you will need to use another piece of scrap paper (3 x 2.5 should do it) to seal this up after you take off the adhesive strip around the shaker dome.

I decided to add a few white sprigs from the Sunflowers dies as it helped fill in the flower arrangement. I also had to double stack my Dimensionals on the back of the flowers to get them to sit up high enough to match the Mason Jar dome. The rim of the jar is stamped in Grey Granite and hand cut. I added it on with Glue Dots.

I really really love how these cards turned out, especially because I had to make 14 of them! It was actually a relaxing way to spend my weekend, colouring and fussy cutting!

Create with Connie and Mary--Playing With Patterns ALL DAY LONG

When Connie and Mary shared that our design theme for this week was to feature the Playing with Patterns Suite, I won’t lie, I was pretty excited as it is my favourite suite in the new catalogue! I love the fun colors and its one of the best 6x6 Designer Papers we have ever had (in my humble opinion!). Creating this projected also worked out well because my Avid Stamping group that meets monthly, also made these projects earlier this summer. I love when projects can do double duty!

I decided to make three fun and colourful cards with the Playing with Patterns Suite keeping the color palette true to the suite.

When I make cards that all coordinate, whether its the same bundle, suite or stamp set, I do like to present them with coordinating packaging. I think its a great touch and makes giving the collection as a gift super easy as even envelopes are included. I still LOVE our Acetate boxes that are in the catalogue, don’t forget about them because they are not ‘new’.

The stamped envelopes that coordinate with each card are seriously just the cutest. I love getting mail (especially when its not bills) and having these show up in my mailbox would really brighten my day.

The first card I created was this fun shaker option as I had not made one in quite a while. I started with a Night of Navy card base and stamped the stripes in the same color ink on the background (p.s I love that this stamp from the Pattern Play stamp set fits the width of the card!). I used a circle die to cut out the window/shaker component and then stamped some hearts in opposing corners in Calypso Coral with an added marker flick (to take away a bit of the white). The Adhesive Strips were perfect for bending around the circle on the back of the card. I then used the Confetti Flowers Border punch to punch out a selection of flowers in the coordinating colors. I added in some sequins from the Woven Threads as some extra filler.

I cut the Coastal Cabana DSP from the Playing with Patterns 6x6 stack to 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 and secured it to the Adhesive strips to enclose everything and create the shaker.

HI was cut using the awesome Playful Alphabet Dies (a serious MUST HAVE) and added to the Adhesive Sheets so they would be raised up. I love how this card turned out!

For this card, I wanted to use the Playful Alphabet dies in a bit of different way by featuring the negative image of the letters. I started with a Blushing Bride base and cut the word SMILE out. I layered. a strip of DSP behind and raised it up on Dimensionals on the card base. I stamped the chevron image in Coastal Cabana on the card base along with some marker flicking. The Crushed Curry scallop detail under SMILE is cut from one of the dies in the Peony set. I borrowed the word ‘friend’ from the Field of Flowers stamp set.

This card might be my favourite of the three—-I think I love the Coastal Cabana base and using the two different dot stamp sets in the collection. Cue the Confetti is stamped in Calypso Coral ink on Blushing Bride cards stock. I cut four strips of DSP that are 2 1/4 by 3/4 and added them overlapping and at different angles. A couple pieces of ribbon and some embellishments and voila!

I absolutely LOVE this card project and its just the kind of project my Avid stamping group loves! I hope you do too!

I hope you are enjoying the blog hop so far…if you are starting here you can go Back to check out Melissa’s creation or Next to see what Connie has stamped for us!