Birthday Whimsy

My nephew turned 11 this past week so I needed to make a nice boy birthday card. He was born exactly 51 weeks after my daughter....I always thought that was kind of neat! I remember taking my daughter to the hospital to see her new cousin (shortly after he was born). She had been walking for almost two months and she so enjoyed walking all by herself down the hospital hallway to his and his mother's room. It is crazy, but I even remember the outfit she wore and the balloons she carried....The years go by so fast!

I came up with the color combination (Not Quite Navy, Old Olive and VV) using the Color Coach, which is great to use when I am having a mind block on what to colors to combine. The cake was stamped on VV using Not Quite Navy and I cut another one out and laid it on top to give it more dimension. A little bit of Diamond stickles on the candles and cake and it just popped. :o)) The desginer paper is Basic Grey Infuse and it goes wonderfully with these colors. Have a great day!

Stamps: Birthday Whimsy and For a Friend
Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, VV and Basic Grey Infuse
Ink: Not Quite Navy and Old Olive
Accessories: Cuttlebug Folder, Stickles, and Oval Punch

Basket of Apples

I had to break out the Buckaroo Blue cardstock for this card. Obviously another blue would due, but I really need to start using up my supply of Buckaroo Blue (it retired 2 years ago and I still have a pack and a half). For this card, I used a variety of punches and the colors Buckaroo Blue, Creamy Caramel and Ruby Red. I must say, I really like these colors together. The Ruby Red layer I put through the Cuttlebug to make the distressed stripes and I layered it with Creamy Caramel onto the Blue. It kind of just makes it stand out more. Have a great day...maybe this afternoon I will get some more stamping done.

Stamps: Whimsical Autumn, Flannel Plaid and So Many Scallops
Cardstock: Buckaroo Blue, Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel and VV
Ink: Buckaroo Blue, Ruby Red, and Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Scallop Circle, Circle Punches, Spiral Punch, Caramel gingham, SU markers and dimensionals

Whimsical Autumn: Pumpkin

I have had quite a time making cards with the stamp set Whimsical Autumn... The past few days the temperatures have been in the upper 90º's and it seems as though fall will never get here! All the more reason to create some fall themed cards :o)

For this card, I used Pumpkin Pie/Chocolate Chip cardstock and the pumpkin stamp from the set. I colored the pumpkin image using reinkers. The background was made using the Flannel Plaid background from SU. I find it is the nice stamp for making more rustic looking backgrounds.
Have a great day!

Stamps: Whimsical Autumn and Flannel Plaid
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip and VV
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Staz On Timber
Accessories: Giga and Mega Scalloped Oval punch, Polka Dot Organdy Brown ribbon Paper Piercer, and Chocolate Chip marker

Whimsical Autumn

Just this afternoon I received my new Gina K. order...I have been looking forward to the stamp set Whimsical Autumn ever since I saw parts of it a the Gina K. party on the SCS forums (was that just a week ago?...time sure flies!) The sad thing about that night is our power went out and the phone lines went dead, so I had to wait until late that night to even see the complete set, but the samples alone were AMAZING! Enough to make me want the whole set. :o)

Whimsical Autumn was designed by Carolyn King and is a set of 12 stamps. She is donating 100% of her proceeds to the Alzheimer's Association in her grandmother's memory. A really neat thing about purchasing this stamp set this month is that the Alzheimer's Association Board is matching donations for the month of September. So $25 donated is worth $50.... National Alzheimer's Day is September 21.



I also ordered the stamp set Comfort and Peace and just love the tin it came in. Whimsical Autumn came in a nice bag, but I have a hard time keeping up with all of the pieces. So, I found a tin (similar to the one's Gina K.'s sets come in) that I had sitting around in my craft room (from the various SU Accents and Elements sets) and adhered the label to the top so it will be easy to find the stamp set I want. I just cut the label out and adhered it to the front. Easy peasy! My only recommendation...make sure your fingers are free from ink before you start :o) My infant was napping so I wanted to hurry and stamp some too so I smudged the cover a bit...
I am off to straighten the house some so I can get back to playing with my new stamps!
Have a great day!

Flowers for Daisy/Canvas

Sadly I was needing a sympathy card this past weekend and knew I wanted to use the stamp set Flowers for Daisy...not only for the verse sentiments (on the inside of the card, which is not shown) but for the flower stamps as well. With the double daisy stamp, I love to make my own background and this time combined it with the background stamp Canvas from SU. This was made for a sketch challenge on Gina K's forum on SCS by Carolyn King (which is a great sketch to use).
Have a great night!

Punches Three/ Hip Hop Accessories

I absolutely love making baby cards. There is nothing more exciting than a new little baby...I know my little boy has brought so much joy to our family and I just get so excited about a new little one!
I needed to make a card for a friend who recently had a little baby boy and wanted to use the new hostess stamp set Punches Three with the matching Oval Punch. I find stamp sets that match punches so fun to use. I know that with Stampin' Up! it seemed to start with the Tag Punch and now there are so many punches with matching stamp sets that there is something for everyone's style.



When making a card, I like to try to stamp the envelope as well. I don't always do so, but when time permits I sure try. For this envelope, I used the stamp set Hip Hop Accessories by Gina K. Designs as well as the Whimsical letter stamp sets from Stampin' Up. It just makes it all of the more personal to have the name stamped of the new little bundle of joy. Whimsical Upper and Lower it my absolute favorite letter set and I use it all of the time. I find it perfect for baby cards, birthday cards and even scrapbooking because it is whimsical in style and doesn't have to be completely straight which is good for me! :o)
Have a great day!

Recipe:
Stamp set: Punches Three, Whimsical Upper and Lower, and Hip Hop Accessories
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, WW and Nana's Nursery Baby Boy (DCVW)
Ink: Blue Bayou and Soft Sky
Accessories: Swiss Dots CB folder, Oval Punch, Paper Piercer and Scallop Edge Punch

Penny Black: Warm and Cold

I recently bought this snowman stamp at Hobby Lobby when they had their wood mounted stamps 50% off. You just can't beat a $4.00 stamp! I thought he was just adorable and wanted to use the colors Certainly Celery and Real Red for some Christmas cards. I colored him using Bic Markers and love that their are no marker lines! The Certainly Celery layer was embossed using a snowflake Cuttlebug folder and Dazzling Diamonds glitter was added to the snowflakes and snow. The Merry Christmas stamp was punched using the new Oval Punch from SU. I really like this punch and the neat thing is it fits inside of the Marvy Mega Oval Scalloped punch that was all of the rage a year ago. I didn't use the scalloped oval on this card...later in the week I will share a special card I made using it and the new Punches Three stamp set.
Have a great day!

Merry and Bright

Lately I have been in a bit of a Christmas card making mood. I made this card using the stamp set Merry and Bright as well as some retired SU designer paper. It is a nice and easy layout! I used the Cuttlebug on the bottom half of the card to add the Swiss Dots embossing.

This past week I bought a new Penny Black snowman stamp from Hobby Lobby....they were having a wonderful 50% off sale on wood mounted stamps this week and I kept myself to only one! There were others I wanted, however they were gone so that helped my wallet. :o) I will share that the next day or two...right now the images are colored and waiting to be placed on a card layout.
Have a great day!

Best Blossoms

When I saw the new Cuttlebug folder, Leafy Branch, I knew it would coordinate perfectly with the stamp set Best Blossoms (it is my favorite SAB stamp set from several years ago). I used a piece if Mellow Moss cardstock for the CB layer and sponged it with Mellow Moss ink to make the leaves really pop! The Pale Plum card base was randomly stamped with the tri-flowers from the stamp set in Pale Plum ink. To tie is all together, I used the flowers from One of a Kind with the matching punch to make the 5 flowers on the branches. The final touch was Diamond Stickles in the center of each flower to make them sparkle. Easy, peasy! I plan on making lots of these to have handy with different sentiments.
Have a great day!