Big On Spring

This is another set that I just had to have from the Occasions Mini Catalog – Big On Spring. In addition to this BRIDE to be image, there is one for babies (Let the CUTE begin), and one that says LOVE. I had to have the baby one for my own little bundle of joy that’s on the way and the bride image is perfect for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law!

This card is another one from the April Stamp Camps – it features Irridescent Ice embossing powder. I stamped the image on to Whisper White cardstock with my black StazOn pad and then colored the letters with Regal Rose, Almost Amethyst, and Certainly Celery Stampin’ Write Markers. Once the ink was completely dry, I went back over the letters with my VersaMarker and covered the image with the Irridescent Ice embossing powder. Once you heat this powder, it leaves a little bit of sparkle behind. (This card is very similar to one of my Christmas cards from this past year).

Once the image was embossed, I matted it with Almost Amethyst and layered it on to the Regal Rose cardstock that had been stamped with the Paisley background stamp. The Regal Rose cardstock is layered on to a Whisper White card front. You didn’t think I’d do a card without ribbon did you??? Of course not! That’s Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon topping it all off!

Sparkling Spring Projects

The theme for the April Stamp Camps is Sparkling Spring – we’ll be using all of Stampin’ Up!’s glitters to add a little bling to our projects. We’ll use the new Cosmo Glitter, Chunky Sprinkles, Dazzling Diamonds, and Irridescent Ice. This is the first of the 4 projects – it uses the light green super-fine Cosmo Glitter. This stuff is FABULOUS!!

I paired the glitter with the Wild Wasabi pre-cut/pre-scored cardstock promotion and the new Sticky Cuts letters. The Sticky Cuts letters are made from the same type adhesive as the red sticky strip. Just like the roll of sticky strip, these letters are SUPER sticky so you have to be very careful when you place them on your cardstock. Once they stick, they’re stuck! I put the sticky letter “h” on to the Whisper White cardstock and then removed the protective red covering to expose the sticky side and then covered it with the light green Cosmo glitter. The Whisper White is matted with Brilliant Blue and then mounted over the Jersey Shore patterned paper.

It seems like I can’t get enough of the scalloped edges lately, so I used the corner rounder punch to create a scalloped edge along the small flap on the card front. I used the Happy Everything stamp set to stamp “happy” on the front flap and then “birthday” on the inside of the card. Throw in a little Pumpkin grosgrain ribbon and the card is complete!

Here’s a little tip – to remove and excess glitter from the cardstock (or your craft table), gently rub the area with a Swiffer cloth! Works like a charm!!

A New Old Faithful

I think my new “old faithful” stamp set is Embrace Life. An “old faithful” stamp set is one that you can pull out and use when you’re in a bind and have to pull together a card super-quick. It really lends itself to a variety of occasions and color combinations. What’s even better is it’s a flower set that’s suitable for masculine cards too!

This is a card that I presented at a recent home workshop. The Canvas background stamp was inked with my Mellow Moss Classic Stampin’ Pad and then stamped on to the card front. The fern image was stamped on to the Whisper White cardstock using my Black StazOn pad and then colored with my Mellow Moss Stampin’ Write Marker. It was matted on to Basic Black cardstock and then accented with two Mellow Moss eyelets. The “embrace life” greeting was stamped on to a piece of scrap paper and then punched out with my Key Tag Punch. Since I’m a self-proclaimed ribbon junkie, of course I had to add some Black grosgrain before I finished this project!

Rub Ons

My Stampers 7 Club met last month and we worked on incorporating Rub Ons into our projects. In addition to using the rub-ons on cardstock, we also used them on plastic storage containers, ceramic eggs (for Easter), and even candles! To those that haven’t used rub-ons before, you may not be too sure what to do with them…but once you get the hang of it – they can really add some WOW to your projects!

I had some extra materials left over from my Stampers 7 workshop and I earned a few extra packs of the Sale A Bration set of rub ons, so I decided to use up the materials to stock up on some cards! Each card uses the same basic layout, but by switching up the rub-ons I was able to create 5 distinctly different looks!

Sale A Bration is over, but Stampin' Up! still has a fabulous assortment of rub ons in the Spring-Summer Collection and in the Occasions Mini Catalog!

Scalloped Happiness

During my stint in the recliner, I scoured through my computer files looking through projects from Splitcoast and member blogs just itching to get back down in my craft room. I came across this one card (I honestly cannot remember where I saw it – but it’s definitely CASE’d) that had scalloped edges. The gal that posted the original project had the patience to cut out the scallops by hand. I have neither the steady hand or the patience to cut out the scallops, so I decided to mimic the look by pulling out some retired die cut pieces.

The scalloped Confetti White rectangle was from a set of petal notes available in a past catalog. The rose from Embrace Life and “happiness” from Warm Words was stamped with my Timber Brown StazOn pad. The rose was then watercolored with an AquaPainter and my Pretty In Pink and Certainly Celery Classic Stampin’ Pads. The scalloped rectangle is mounted on to a piece of Pretty In Pink cardstock. No card is complete without ribbon, right? Right! So I tied some Chocolate Chip 5/8” grosgrain ribbon around the matted cardstock before I layered it on to the Chocolate Chip card front. Although I really prefer the cute-ness factor of the scalloped card, I think my quickie version turned out pretty cute too!

Last of the March projects...

Here’s the last of my projects from the March Stamp Camp. This one features the jumbo wheel Its Beautiful. To make it look like the image is continuous over the Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou, and Pumpkin Pie cardstock, I laid the pieces of cardstock end to end and wheeled the image over all three pieces at once. I inked the wheel with my Whisper White Craft Pad and then embossed each of the pieces with white embossing powder. Each piece is mounted on to the Soft Sky cardstock. The striped Wild Wasabi ribbon was tied around the Soft Sky cardstock before it was mounted on to the Wild Wasabi card front. You can’t see it all that well in this picture, I stamped a greeting from Absolutely Fabulous (another one of my faves!!!) on the card front using my Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin’ Pad. This layout was CASE’d from a previous edition of Stampin’ Success (I think that’s where it came from…) and the color combo was inspired by the Hostess Simply Scrappin’ kit from the Fall-Winter Collection.

By the way, Stampin' Up! is running a Free Wheeling promotion right now! If you order one of the pre-selected stamp sets, you get the coordinating wheel FREE!!! E-mail me for more info!

Another new family member!

Not only will my family enjoy the addition of our little one this summer, but we will also gain another family member…my little brother is getting married in June! I know – lots of excitement crammed into a couple of months!!! When I was coming up with projects for the Rock & Roll stamp camp I wanted to make sure that I designed a card that I could use for one of the upcoming showers.

I love the stamp set Wonderful Favorites – its very versatile!! You can customize the perfect greeting for any person and every occasion! The flower & leaf images were wheeled using the Stems & Silhouettes jumbo wheel inked with my Basic Brown Classic Stampin’ Pad. Then I filled in the images by watercoloring them with my River Rock Classic Stampin’ Pad and an AquaPainter. The Naturals Ivory cardstock has a ¼” border of torn Close to Cocoa. “Wonderful” is stamped with my Basic Brown Classic Stampin’ Pad and “to a” and “couple” was stamped with my River Rock Classic Stampin’ Pad. Add a piece of double stitched River Rock grosgrain ribbon attached with a brad and the card is complete!