Simple Friendship #6

Last one for August Inspiration Class. I cased this card from Tessa Wise.
{True Friend}
Stamps: Simple Friendship
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Versamark
Paper: Regal Rose, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Delicate Dots DSP
Accessories: 1 3/4" circle punch, dimensionals

Simple Friendship #5

{True Friend}
Stamps: Simple Friendship
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Bali Breeze DSP
Accessories: dimensionals

Simple Friendship #4

{Razzleberry Friend}
Stamps: Simple Friendship
Ink: Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper: White, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Razzleberry Lemonade
Accessories: 3/4" circle punch

Simple Friendship #3

Card #3 for August Inspiration Class. I used the images from the Simple Friendship set to make my own designer paper. And I'm really loving these new colors. {Friend}
Stamps: Simple Friendship
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry
Paper: Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Whisper White
Accessories: Big Shot, embossing folder, circle punch

Simple Friendship #2

Another card from August Inspiration class. I don't htink you can see it very well, but the edges of the flower have glitter on them. {True Friend}
Stamps: Simple Friendship
Ink: Cameo Coral, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst
Paper: White, Cameo Coral, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst, Tea Party DSP
Accessories: rhinestone brad, glitter glue, scallop edge punch, circle punch, celery ribbon

Simple Friendship #1

Here's the first card from August Inspiration Class. I CASEd this card from Tessa Wise. I love this Parisian Breeze DSP. Sure wish I had used it before it retired!!! {True Friend}
Stamps: Simple Friendship
Ink: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand
Paper: White, Kraft, Parisian Breeze DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note die, eyelet punch

July Stamp Club Card #3

Pretty new colors. My favorite new DSP is the Razzleberry Lemonade! {Thanks So Much}
Stamps: Kind and Caring Thoughts
Ink: Dusty Durango
Paper: PTI White, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Whisper White, Razzleberry Lemonade
Accessories: none

July Stamp Club Card #2

Loving this new color, Bermuda Bay! {For You}
Stamps: Fresh Cuts
Ink: Bermuda Bay
Paper: Fresh Cut notes, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay
Accessories: large oval punch, oval scallop punch, small oval punch, clear rhinestone brade, Bermuda Bay polka dot ribbon

July Stamp Club #1

Well, I had one more card from the Retirement SAS, but the photo's gone missing, so I'm moving on to something else. Since new stamp clubs started in July, I made two sets of club cards. This little birdie card was cased from this card on Splitcoast. I was just getting around to using Pacific Point in June. Turns out I love the color, and now it's gone. {Good Friend}
Stamps: Good Friend
Ink: Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron
Paper: Whisper White, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Accessories: none

Retirement SAS #5

Here's another one of my favorites from the Retirement Party back in June. I love the Heartfelt Thanks stamp set! This card was inspired by this card by Renee Van Stralen. {Gratitude}
Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, Define Your Life
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Pink Passion, Certainly Celery
Paper: PTI White, Whisper White, Pink Passion
Accessories: White satin ribbon

Retirement SAS #4

{Doodle Birthday}
Stamps: Doodle This
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories: Stickles, SU! markers in Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, and Mellow Moss

Happy Birthday, Zan!

You know how you have certain people in your life that you just utterly enjoy being around? My dear friend and former teaching colleague, Zandria, is one of those people. She's fun, smart, witty, creative, talented, and to put it simply...FABulous! A few weeks back, she came for a visit and we spent the weekend designing and assembling custom invitations for her 40th birthday bash. Here's what we made:

Happy Birthday, Zan!!! Sorry we can't be there for the big celebration, but we're looking forward to seeing you for a visit afterwards.

Retirement SAS #3

This was one of my favorites from the retirement class. I love beach images. This card uses the shells from Seaside. To make each shell, I stamped them with Sahara Sand onto soft colors. After cutting out the shells, they are arranged and popped up on dimensionals. The sand in the background was made with the splatter stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds. {Warm Wishes}
Stamps: Seaside, Hugs and Wishes
Ink: Sahara Sand, Basic Black
Paper: PTI White, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Soft Sky, Blush Blossom, Sahara Sand
Accessories: twine

Retirement SAS #2

I think there was a sketch challenge of some sort with this layout because I saw several cards on Splitcoast with this layout when I was browsing through the Wild About You category. So, I took my turn to make a simliar card. This is a quick, simple, and cute card that you can whip up in no time when you need to. {Sweet Little One}
Stamps: Wild About You, Holidays and Wishes
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery
Paper: PTI White, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery DSP
Accessories: square punches

Retirement SAS #1

The first set we said goodbye to at the Retirement Party was Seeing Spots. This set is great for making your own patterned paper like I did in this card. {Congratulations}
Stamps: Seeing Spots, Hugs & Wishes
Ink: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, PTI White
Accessories: none...really????

Wild About Penguins

Oops! I thought I'd scheduled more posts automatically, but apparently Monday was the last one. Sorry about that.

This card didn't make the cut for my Retirement Stamp-a-Stack class back in June, but I thought I'd post it anyway. The cards that did make the cut are coming up in the next few days. {Fabulous Penguin}
Stamps: Absolutely Fabulous, Wild About You, Seeing Spots
Ink: Summer Sun, Basic Black
Paper: PTI White, Summer Sun, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories: Basic Black and Summer Sun markers, square scallop punch (non-SU!)

June Stamp Club Card #3

This was the third and final club card for June. Maybe you noticed that all of the stamp sets used for club cards this month were ones that were retiring from Stampin' Up'! We said goodbye to some more favorites at my Retirement Party Stamp-a-Stack at the end of last month. Those cards are coming up next. {Blooming with Love}
Stamps: Blooming with Love
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Sahara Sand, Basic Black
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Hawaii Papaya DSP
Accessories: circle punches, round scallop punch, 5/8" chocolate brads

June Club Card #2

This one is a direct case of a card I saw on Julie Davison's blog. I love how the bright colors pop off of the kraft cardstock. Plus, it used the Pink Flamingo DSP, which is simply gorgeous! {Hi, Thanks}
Stamps: Say it with Scallops, Jumble Alphabet
Ink: Real Red, Basic Black, Pacific Point
Paper: Basic Black, Kraft, Whisper White, Pink Flamingo DSP, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Accessories: corner rounder, black gingham ribbon, square scallop punch, square punch

June Stamp Club Celebrates the Fourth!

And here we are with another belated holiday. This was one of the cards we made for June Stamp Club. I cased this card on SCS moving things around just a bit. A stamp club member, Sharon, was very clever and thought of the idea to add these little rhinestones to the stars. I think it really adds to the card. So, I did what any respectable stamper would do. I copied her. {Happy Fourth}
Stamps: Independence Day
Ink: Craft White, Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: circle punches, self-stick rhinestones, cuttlebug folder - dots, sizzix machine

Belated First Father's Day

Hello, friends! It's been awhile since I've posted, and that's because I've been enjoying spending summer time with hubs and baby AND I've been stamping! Yesterday, I photographed and uploaded 20 cards/projects to be able to share with you.

To celebrate Keith's first Father's Day, I made him a card and a canvas. Here's the card. I really like how it turned out. Super simple and masculine. I realized that I NEVER make masculine cards...ever. My poor stampers. I'll have to make a point to at least make a few a year.

The BEST thing about this card (besides the fact that it signifies we are finally parents) is that it scored me a Big Byte (you know...the Crop-O-Dile's cousin). That's right. This is actually a $50 kind of card. I couldn't help it if my Crop-O-Dile just wouldn't reach in far enough to set those inner jumbo eyelets. And, of course, by then the whole card was finished except for those. So, it had to be done.
Confession...I did write on the inside before I photographed the card. Before I wrote on it, this IS what it looked like, but I had to cheat and make a temporary inside so I could take the picture without the writing.

Now I also made him a super simple canvas using a photo of Kate from when she was only 11 days old. I just love the way she's looking up at him. All I did to make the canvas was paint it cream colored and slap on the photo and these pre-made vinyl words. I was not up for being very creative with this project.

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Linda's May Club Card #3

Here's the last of the May cards. I really like this one. I don't do many wedding themed cards. I don't know if you can tell, but the basic gray layer is stamped with the large flower stamp from the Ever After set. The chocolate strip is crimped. {Happily Ever After}
Stamps: Ever After
Ink: Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Going Gray
Paper: Going Gray, Basic Gray, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Whisper White
Accessories: circle punches (1 1/4" and 1 3/8"), ticket corner punch, white organza ribbon

I want to say thanks to Linda for creating the club cards for May. I really appreciated it. I was still so tired then, I couldn't have pulled off a stamp club without her. I am happy to say that little Miss Kate has been sleeping 6-7 hours a night lately. And you know what that means...I'm stamping again (well, whenever I can sneak a moment). Yay!

Linda's Father's Day Creation for May Club #2

Here's another card designed by Linda K. for our May stamp club. I like how she strung the word windows together with linen thread. Actually, I think she used twine, but I didn't have any, so my sample is the thread. I also really like this tree set, which I don't have, so it was nice to play with hers. {Father's Day Trees}
Stamps: Trendy Trees, All Year Cheer II
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Brocade Blue
Paper: Kraft, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Brocade Blue, Naturals Ivory
Accessories: 1/4" chocolate grograin ribbon, linen thread, word window punch

May Stamp Club #1

My downline Linda K. designed the cards for our clubs in the month of May. I just still didn't have it in me during those first few weeks to do anything creative. Thank you, Linda!

She used one of my favorite stamps sets for this card, Always. Don't you just love that set? It's so versatile. I'm glad it's not retiring yet. All layers are stamped tone on tone, except the main image.{Your So Thoughtful}

Stamps: Always, Absolutely Fabulous

Ink: Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Accessories: 1/8" hole punch, 1/4" apricot grosgrain ribbon

Good baby news!!! Kate has been consistently sleeping about six hours a night for the last week and a half. Life is good!!! She's 10 weeks old today. This picture of her was taken for Faces of Bellingham about a week or so ago. So cute! Her eyes are actually still blue, but you can't tell in the picture. Everyone (except my mom) says she looks like her daddy.

Shoebox Swap Cards by Kathy

Just a quick post to share these swap cards were made by another gal in one of my clubs for our April meeting. I love the way she used the Parisian Breeze Specialty papers for her beach cards. I wouldn't have thought of it by looking at those papers, but I love it. After we made these cards, I ordered that paper because I liked it so well.

I've still got May and June club cards to share. Plus, I'm doing a Retiring Stamps Stamp-a-Stack, and I've got cards for that to share too. I'm on a roll!!!

April Club Shoebox Swap by Terri

Since Kate was due in April, I moved all of my clubs to either March or May. I do have one club that meets monthly though, so we scheduled it for the very end of April and members made shoebox swaps. Only two gals came, but we had a lot of fun. This first card was designed by Terri J. I love the color combination she used and the way the stars just pop off the card. The DSP is an old retired SU! one, I think from back in the day before they were double-sided. The stamp set is also a retired SU! one that coordinated with the large star punch.

March Stamp Club #3

This card was stolen directly from the Sale-a-Bration mini-catalog. The only thing I changed was the accessory. I used a flower instead of buttons. {Be Kind}
Stamps: Botanical Blooms
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White
Accessories: white embossing powder, paper piercing tool and template, flower fusion two, yellow brad

March Stamp Club #2

Here's another super simple, monochromatic card. The butterflies are cut out and folded upwards so it looks dimensional. I rolled up a glue dot to place along the body and adhere to the card front. The big butterfly is stamped on the card base and then covered with a cut out butterfly. To make this card even faster, you could just stamp all the butterflies directly on the card base. In order to get the two-tone effect using one ink color, I stamped off the image onto scrap paper first, then onto my cardstock to get the lighter shade. I just stamped regularly to get the darker shade.{Butterflies}
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Ink: Baja Breeze
Paper: PTI white
Accessories: striped Baja Breeze ribbon

March Stamp Club #1

We made this card for March stamp club. I actually made it for Lauren's Saturday Sketch, but I never got it posted. Speaking of Lauren's Saturday Sketch, I had to bow out of being on the design team. I just wasn't getting cards made for the posts, and I didn't feel it was right for me to continue as a design team member. She's changed up the Saturday Sketches to have other challenges too. I'm enjoying following what she and the gals are doing each week.

I didn't get any of the new cute Stampin' Up! Easter sets from the Occasions Mini-Catalog, so I had to scrounge a bit. I used Loads of Love and its Accessories sets to make this card. The images are colored with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I was reminded of why I never use the watercolor pencils. I never like the way the images turn out. Maybe it's just me and my bad technique, but I don't feel as though it looks as watercolored as when I just use the classic ink pads. The purple piece is embossed using the dots texture plate and Big Shot. The black trim is made using the eyelet trim punch.
{Easter Wishes}
Stamps: Load of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: PTI White, Pretty in Pink, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories: Coluzzle circle templates, eyelet trim punch, watercolor pencils, blender pen, texturz plate, big shot

February Stamp Club

These are the cards we made back in February for stamp club. So, if anyone from club is reading this and you were absent, now you can finally put the stamped pieces together! Yay!

{Loads of Love}

Stamps: Loads of Love, Priceless

Ink: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink

Paper: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Basic Black

Accessories: SU! markers real red, basic black, going gray, pretty in pink, regal rose, and close to cocoa, silver brads, stickles, circle punches (1 1/4 and 1 3/8)

The image is colored with markers with stickles on the hearts. Here's a hint...Wait for the markers to dry a bit before adding the stickles. Otherwise the markers will bleed. Guess how I know this??? Not only have I done it before, but I also forgot to tell the stamp club members that before we made this card. Theirs bled. Oops!

{Valentine Fish}

Stamps: Holidays and Wishes, retired heart wheel

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze

Paper: Basic Black, Naturals White, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze

Accessories: red tafetta ribon, punches: scalloped edge, 1 3/4 circle, five-petal, 1/4 circle, boho blossoms, heart to heart (at the time I made the card, I didn't have this punch so I had to hand cut it)

I cased this card from an issue of Stampin' Success. One of my club members just happened to have googly eyes in her car. How convenient is that? Girl scout mom. So that club added adorable googly eyes to the fish instead of the punched and colored ones. Increases the cuteness factor by 110%.
{Monochromatic Thanks}

Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive

Paper: Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss

Accessories: Kiwi Kiss striped ribbon

The more solid images were stamped multiple times...maybe three...to get the different shades. The outline stamp was stamped full-strength over each blossom. I used Old Olive ink to stamp the Thanks, but we found out it didn't really matter if you used that or Kiwi Kiss. The greeting turned out pretty much the same each time. Thanks is popped up on dimensionals. This is a quick, simple card you can create in less than 10 minutes in any color scheme. Gotta have a few of those in your tool box for times when you need a quick card.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll leave you with one last image. Kate started smiling almost three weeks ago, and it's happening more and more these days. Keith (DH) is very good at getting smiles out of her. We took this picture last weekend when she was six and a half weeks.

I'm a Mommy!

Remember me? Some of you have probably forgotten that you used to even read my blog. I have been quite absent from the stamping and blogging world...obviously. But, I'm back! I've promised my club members that I'm going to post the cards from our stamp clubs these past few months. I'm getting on it this weekend, girls! My goal is to upload those cards and schedule a couple of weeks worth of posts.

First though, I thought I should start out with the most important business...our sweet Kate. Katherine Elisabeth was born on April 7. It's hard to believe that she's seven weeks old already. How time flies! We are blessed, happy, and utterly sleep deprived!

These are some pictures we had taken of her when she was just 11 days old. Those of you on our email list have already seen these. I'll make an effort to post some more recent photos soon.

Isn't she adorable? Okay, maybe I'm a bit biased though. I just love her! Sigh.

Valentine's Day Saturday Sketch

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do you have special plans with your sweetie? We are going to afternoon tea together. Yes, he will actually do this with me, AND he'll enjoy it! I'm so LUCKY! I told my hubby that I didn't want a gift (preparing to be poor...relatively speaking), I just wanted an organized garage. We have so much junk (read: he keeps so much junk that just piles up), and we (he) never seems to go through it or at least doesn't make much of a dent. He did put together some Costco shelves a few weeks back, and today we threweverything into a box and onto a shelf. At some point, we (mostly he) will actually have to go through the boxes, but in the meantime, it feels much more organized. I have several other organizing tasks on my to do list. All this is leading up to clearing out a bunch of stuff from the baby room so that we actually can put together the nursery. Is this what they call "nesting" perhaps? Well, onto today's sketch...

For this card, I used Karen Lockhart's beautiful rosebud cupcake stamp. I colored the image with my Copics, ran a glaze gel pen over the rosebuds, and also added a few stickles. You can't really see the glaze or stickles in this photo though. The sentiment and little hearts are from a Stampendous clear stamp Cupcake set. Belatedly, I realized that I won't be giving this valentine to my cupcake. It's really just too girly to make a good valentine for a boy! Oh well!
{For You Cupcake recipe}
Stamps: Karen Lockhart rosebud cupcake, Stampendous
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Whiper White, some random double-sided pattern paper from my stash
Accessories: paper flowers, Build-a-Brad, Marvy square scallop punch

Be sure to check out the other designs for today's sketch:
Lauren Meader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
MacKenzie Bruckler
Alicia Weiman
Kendra

Thanks for stopping by!

January Stamp Club Card #3

A whole week of regular blog posting. Can you even believe it??? This card is made with one of my all time favorite SU! stamp sets, Always. The hearts are stamped in craft ink and clear embossed. The background is stamped tone on tone with Pink Pirouette. {Always recipe}
Stamps: Always
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie craft, Regal Rose craft
Paper: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, and Sweet Always DSP
Accessories: chocolate chip grograin ribbon, clear embossing powder

January Stamp Club Card #2

I love this little latte image. Going for coffee is one of my all time favorite activities...not that I drink coffee, I don't. I just love hanging out in coffee places. This quick, simple card can easily be turned into a gift card holder for a coffee gift card. I love the patterned paper on this one. It comes from the Fall/Winter catalog level three hostess set with the Seasonal Icons stamp set. {Love You a Latte}
Stamps: Pun Fun, Seasonal Icons
Ink: Basic Black, Pink Pirouette
Paper: PTI White, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, DSP from Seasonal Icons hostess bundle
Accessories: blender pen

January Stamp Club Card #1

Remember how I said I was sick of winter? I wasn't kidding. All of my January club cards were Valentine's Day cards, starting with this little guy. Isn't he cute? Since I wasn't quite with it enough to order any new Stampin' Up! stuff over the holidays (and still haven't yet), I had to make due with my current stash. Okay, it's not like I'm lacking in the stamp department, but new stuff is just so much fun. This elephant is from last year's Valentine Bundle set called Happy Heart Day. I used markers to color in the grass, stems, hearts and ear, then used a blender pen and gray ink to color in the elephant. Stickles on the hearts makes for a little sparkle. {Unforgettable Friend recipe}
Stamps: Happy Heart Day
Ink: Basic Black, Going Gray
Paper: PTI white, Real Red, Basic Black
Accessories: black gingham ribbon, black brad, stickles, blender pen, markers in Garden Green, Real Red, and Pretty in Pink