This Week in Cards with an SOA sneak peek.

As guest designer over at Stamp Nation this month, I've been super busy getting ready for the release of the new Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic box.  It's just been so much fun!  I still managed to sneak into my craft room late at night to finish up a few cards for me so I would have a few to show you for This Week in Cards.

First, I made this Halloween card using my new favorite grid stencil  from My Favorite Things.   I didn't have any orange patterned paper on hand so I made my own to match perfectly with that cute little jack-o-lantern from Clearly Besotted's Boo To You stamp set.  

Shhhhhh if you look closely you'll see a sneak peek hiding in there from the new Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic box.  ;)

For this card I used The Ton's Round Diamond stamp set and did a little watercolor to add some fun dimension to the tag.  This tag die is actually one that came in the Stamp of Approval Friendship box back in August.

This card I made for a very special little girl who's having a birthday this month.  I think she'll like this pretty little Clearly Besotted bicycle and those cute little watercolored Lil' Inker balloons.  The Wishing sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.  There's that Grid stencil again along with a chevron stamp from My Favorite Things Textile Background set.

Keep your eyes peeled for some fun sneak peeks into the new Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic box.  Catherine Pooler and all of the amazing designers from over at Stamp Nation are geared up and ready to share some fun projects.  And don't forget to get your name on that notification list so you don't miss out! 

Have an awesome day!!

Baby it's cold outside!

But thank goodness the weather is not frightful yet.  I've just been getting a head start on my Christmas cards this month.  Using my favorite color blue and an awesome new stamp set from the soon to be released Stamp of Approval Box: Holiday Magic by Catherine Pooler I made this cool blue beauty.  It makes my teeth chatter just looking at it.  LOL!   

I tried to keep this card clean and simple.  The background turned out just beautiful and I really didn't want to distract attention away from those gorgeous embossed snowflakes.   I stamped them  with Versamark ink and embossed them in white.  Then I inked over the snowflakes with distress ink.  I achieved a nice glow by inking it a little darker in the center of each snow flake and then blending it out to a light haze.  A little bit of silver sparkle card stock was the perfect touch of "ice" this card needed.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps:

Bring on the Snowflakes (Stamp of Approval Box/Cas-ual Fridays)

Holiday Lyrics (The Ton)

Dies:

Funky Flakes (Stamp of Approval Box/Cas-ual Fridays)

Textile Rectangle Frame (My Favorite Things)

Stitched Mats: Rectangles (Lil' Inker Designs)

Ink:

Peacock Feathers (Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Mini)

Onyx Black (Versafine)

Clear (Versamark)

Cardstock:

White 110 lb (Neenah)

Silver Sparkle Cardstock (My Favorite Things)

I also used:

Embossing powder: Opaque Bright White Superfine (WOW)

silver twine

3M dimensional tape

If you'd like more info on the Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic Collection<-----click here.  It's an awesome box of goodies!

Cards from around the world.

What a busy, fun, amazing weekend we had over at Stamp Nation celebrating World Card Making Day.  Wow!  I was so amazed at all of the awesome talent over there.  So many great cards were entered into these challenges.  Every few hours we were getting new inspiration from a new country.  It was so cool to see how different everyone's cards were working off of the same inspiration photos.

Along with the three cards I made as guest designer I also joined in the challenges and really had a great time.  I spent the whole day Sunday working on these challenge cards and got so much done.  So hold on to your hat, we're about to fly around the world!

France (damask)

Japan (floral kimonos)

Malaysia (Batik)

Scotland (plaid)

Switzerland (Edelweiss Flower)

United States of America (bandanna)

I also made these two extra cards to represent

 Canada (Hudson Bay blanket).

Wasn't that fun?  Which one do you like best?

If you're not a member of Stamp Nation yet, stop on over and check out some of the benefits.  All of the challenges for prizes are going to remain open for two week so there's still plenty of time to join in the fun.  My sneak peek cards are posted over there in their WCMD postings.  Hope to see you there!  

  

World Card Making Day #3

Yep, we're still going strong over at Stamp Nation, celebrating World Card Making Day.  The projects that are being posted by members over there are amazing. So many people are joining in on the fun this weekend.

I have one more sneak peek for you.......

A little hint....this card was inspired by a country that runs deep in my family's heritage.

And just to let you know, there is still plenty of time to sign up and and play along with these challenges.  New World Card Making  Day challenges will be posted through tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 4th)  There is still a ton of fun and prizes to be had at Stamp Nation.  See you there!

  Thank you so much to Catherine Pooler for the opportunity to guest design for this cool event.  I've had a blast!  

Another Sneak Peek Into World Card Making Day - Day#2

 It's the second day of our World Card Making Day over at Stamp Nation.  I hope you've had a chance to make it over there to check out the fun.  Wow!  There are some awesome things going on and the cards that are being posted for this event have been amazing!!  So much talent!!

My second card has just been posted and I admit I'm a little nervous.  This one was  definitely a challenge for me. 

Here's a little sneak peak for you.....

I hope you'll stop on over to Stamp Nation and check out all of these amazing cards that are drawing inspiration from around the world.

There is still time to join in, have some fun and take advantage of all the discounts and prizes the World Card Making Day sponsors are offering.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy World Card Making Day!!

Today is the day!!  Stamp Nation is kicking off it's World Card Making Day! Woohoo!  I have to tell you I've been so excited about this day, ever since Catherine Pooler asked me to be a guest designer over at Stamp Nation for the month of October.        

Over the next three days, we'll be following our sistahs to 10 different countries to find our inspiration for making some awesome cards.  I've already made a few fun cards to share over at Stamp Nation that will be showcased both today and tomorrow.

Shhhhhh.......here's a little sneak peek for you.......

Can you tell which country inspired me for this card?

  

If you'd like to see more just click on the sneak peek photo (above) and it will take you right over to Stamp Nation where you can learn how to sign up and become a member just in time for World Card Making Day!

Did I mention there are some awesome sponsors for this World Card Making Day event?  Take a look.......

These companies are offering Stamp Nation members some great discounts at their online stores this weekend.  Plus there will be lots of challenges and giveaways so don't miss out, it's going to be a blast!   I hope you see you all over there!

Have a great Day!!

This week in cards with my little stamping buddy Rylee.

I've had such a busy week with my card making.  I started out on Sunday, stamping with my buddy, my niece Rylee.  

She's such a joy to have in my craftroom.  We decided that she needed her own space so we spent Saturday finding her a folding table and chair that she could set up every time she comes over.  That way she can spread out all of her stuff and just leave it up for her entire visit so she can get creative any time the mood strikes.  This also fits her so much better.  No more balancing precariously from a stool at my counter high table.  And she can now stand to do her stamping so she can line things up so much easier.  This table and chair tuck away nicely behind the door also.  Perfect fit!

  So...I guess you'd say my craftroom has officially become "our" craft room.  

I also taught her how to use my best friend MISTI.  She was over the moon happy about that!  She made a one layer card that turned out awesome and it was so much easier with the MISTI.

I've been working on so many card projects myself this week that my head is spinning.  It's Christmas card time again so I have made up about a dozen different designs that I'll be posting here sometime soon.  I've also found some time just for some fun cards.  Birthday cards are always a favorite of mine, especially when they involve cake and balloons.  I used MFT's sketch #182 for this cute lil' shaker card along with their awesome Piece of Cake stamp set (notice the cute little candles stamped in the background?).   LOVE!

I came across this awesome Birthday Centerpiece die from My Favorite Things and absolutely love it!!  Clean and simple all the way!

I did a fun resist watercolor technique for this card mixing some of my older Martha Stewart stamp sets along with some Technique Tuesdays word dies and a cute friend stamp from Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval Friendship box.

A couple different stamp sets from Technique Tuesday caught my eye this week.  Actually I've been eyeing them for a couple months but finally broke down and ordered them on Monday because they're just so darn cute!  First the Chickadees.  Love, love, love these little whimsical birds!  

Then, look at this adorable little fan!  It has the cutest sentiments with it that make me excited to make more cards.  I'm also loving that wave background stamp from My Favorite Things.

Well, that's my week in cards.  Keep your eyes peeled for some awesome Christmas cards, coming soon.  I'm excited to be trying out some fun, new stamps and dies this year and can't wait to show you!

Have a great weekend!

Christmas in September?

Cardmakers around the world are gearing up for their biggest card giving season.....Christmas!  I usually start dabbling in designs by September.   With around 50 cards to make and send by December, a three month jump on the holiday relieves a lot of pressure which makes it a much more enjoyable experience for me. Sometimes I try to come up with simple designs that I can reproduce and will go through the mail easily.  Other times I just throw caution to the wind start piling stuff on for the fun of it.   If I really like a card I will make up to five in a similar design but most of the time my cards are original.

Today I'd like to share my first two Christmas cards for 2015.  First, a more traditional style card that doesn't have a lot of layers or a lot of bulk.  This is a card that I will definitely revisit when it comes time to really produce the masses.  I think I'd like to change up the colors a bit though and make them each a little different.  

 I started this card by stamping the first layer with the Diagonal Stripes Background stamp from My Favorite Things.   I used WPlus9's  awesome Woodland Wreaths stamp set to layer this wreath on a white background and then used a Lil' Inker Designs Stitched Mats Rectangles die to cut it to size.   The sentiment is from LID's Instant Camera: Christmas stamp set.  I raised the white stamped panel with some dimensional tape and then sprinkled the wreath with some diecut sequins using Mama Elephants Confetti dies and some gold foil cardstock.

This card has a few more details with less stamping and more diecuts.  I used LID's Long and Skinny Rectangles to add the stitched border on the red piece.  By the way, isn't that red fabulous?  It's Simon Says Stamp's Lipstick Red.  I love it!  Anyway, I cut the white piece with LID's Anytime Tags die and stamped it using WPlus9's Just Geometric Triangles.  I encircled one of  WPlus9's Stag Trio diecuts with a Tim Holtz's Scribbles and Splats Thinlets die cut out of gold foil cardstock.  Once again I used Mama Elephant's Confetti die for the sequins.  That awesome wide black and white striped paper on the side is from last years Heidi Swapp Believe Collection.

Well, I'm off to make some more Christmas cards.  Thank you for stopping by today.  Have a great day!

September Mix

I started out this month of September with a whole mix of cards.  Take a look!

First I used a new adorable stamp I ordered from Art Impressions.  I really love their stamps because they're so easy to color with my Kuretake Zig markers.  This little owl is the perfect size!  I plan to make a few of these to keep in my stash.  They are easy to personalize by adding the number later.

This little Thank You card I'll call my cheater card.  I picked up a stack of Me & My Big Ideas card fronts at Michael's a few months ago because they just looked like something great to have on hand for a quick thank you card.  They come in a pack of 36 assorted designs and colors. All I added was some dimensional tape, My Favorite Things Hip Clip die cut and some adorable flowers using Casual Friday's Friendly Flowers dies that I received in Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval Box.   I thought these card fronts would be a great tool for my niece Rylee when she makes her next batch of thank you cards. 

For this note card I was inspired by a card that Catherine Pooler did using this great faded stencil background technique.  It's a great way to add depth to a one layer card.  I stamped and embossed some sequins in silver to sparkle it up a bit but still keeping it one layer.

This was definitely my week for clean and simple cards.  I did a little chevron stenciling to add pattern to these accents and then added them to a crisp white background.  The layered Paper Smooches rose was sparkled up a bit with a clear Wink of Stella glitter pen.  To finish it up, a simple hello sentiment from Technique Tuesday. 

Playing with these little puffy dimensional fish stickers that I've had in my stash forever I went for an under the sea/aquarium look for this shaker card.  I don't usually use stickers  but I had these left over from a project I did a couple years ago.  I'm proud to say none of them went to waste.  Not even the poor little guy who's swimming in the wrong direction.  ;) 

That's my week in cards.  Thanks for stopping by.  See you next week!

Keeping it fun!

With all of the beautiful techniques out there and gorgeous, frilly stamps with flowers and lace, sometimes I can get a little too focused on making girly cards.  But when I look at the whole picture of cardmaking I can see that there is an area where I need to focus on sometimes, just to keep it light and fun.   Back in the "old days", when I use to buy my cards in the store, I always went for the humorous cards.  Cards that would make the recipient chuckle a little.  Make them smile.

These days, I find myself searching through the stores for humor again.  This time, instead of cards I'm searching for stamps.   The snarky sayings and the comical scenes are what I'm lacking in my card supplies and they don't seem to be in abundant supply in the card world either.  Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places?

Well anyway, I thought I'd share a couple light cards with you.  Art Impressions have an awesome line of stamps that have a humorous side.  These little Fainting Chickens caught my eye not only for the cute factor but also because they looked super easy to color with my Kuretake Zig Real Brush markers.

Have an awesome weekend and don't forget to SMILE!

Friendship

This week I'm celebrating friendship with a whole bunch of new coordinating stamps and dies that came in a pretty little box marked Stamp of Approval.  It's a whole box of goodies that Catherine Pooler put together over at Stamp Nation and her website CatherinePooler.com.

Just look at all of this fun!!

I actually received this box over a week ago and just got the opportunity to really dig in and play with it on Sunday.  I whipped up a few different cards and boy do I mean different!  Take a look.

I did a masking technique for this card using a die cut tag image.  I then used Eva's Favorite Flowers to stamp the masked off area.  To accentuate the tag shape I blended a  light blue haze around the edge.

I blended some pretty blue distress inks together on this tag and used Casual Fridays Love Ya die for the sentiment.  Isn't that Curtis background stamp so cool, adding a little touch of bubblegum pink?

I used the Friend stamp set to make the floral background for this card.  Using the stitched diagonal die from Lil' Inker Designs I was able to create a focal point with some of the same flowers in bright blues.

Another use for that awesome tag die set is to make it into a shaker card.

And I saved this sweet little Love Ya  Sistah for last.  I am really loving those flower dies.  There are so many great ways you can layer them.

  I think Catherine did an awesome job putting this box together.  Everything coordinates so beautifully.  The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for stopping by!

This Week in Cards - August 2nd week

With so much of my energy focused on my tropical card set I didn't have much time for extra cards this week.  I did complete a few Clean And Simple ones though that I thought turned out pretty cute.

I really love the simplicity of this card but still showcasing some fun stamping.  I love the way the black "ink spots" pop off the clean background and I really think these colors look great together.  I used stamps and dies from WPlus9 and My Favorite Things.

I made this pretty princess card using a stencil and stamp that I've had for a long time but have never used.  Mainly because they both stumped me.  I fell in love with the sentiment on this stamp and honestly it has been displayed in my craftroom  more as a decor piece than a working stamp.   Once I came up with the idea to cut around the shoe and pop it up off the card as an embellishment the plan came together fast.  I thought it would be the perfect card for a bridal shower or engagement.  And check out that fantastic silver sparkly paper from My Favorite Things!  LOVE IT!

This last card kind of steps away from the styles that I'm most comfortable with.  Lots of patterns, stamping and coloring on this card.  I went with a checked background stamp from My Favorite Things and a cute little cherry stamp from Sizzix.  Then I found this adorable little Art Impressions bunnny stamp last week that I just had to have.  I admit, it's quite a bit smaller than I had anticipated which meant I had to break out my glasses when it came time for coloring with my Kuretake real brush markers.  I can't wait to use that bunny for a few Easter cards in the spring.

And this right here is why I loved that bunny stamp.  Isn't this adorable?!!

Thanks so much for hopping by.......I mean stopping by!  We'll see you next week!