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