Another Simple Stamping Card

I am taking part in Stampin' Up's Simple Stamping challenge, and this month's theme is a thank you card. Requirements: one stamp set, ink, and a note card. Done...challenge accepted! Here are my cards for December's challenge. I loved the design so much that I made three more in different color combinations.

I gotta say, simple stamping is not usually my style but this card was fun to make! Very simple, no tools needed...just a few ink pads and you're off to a world of fun. This would be an awesome class for beginner stampers as this is a beautifully simple card to make.

To make my simple stamping card, I used one of the beautiful leaves from the Tropical Chic stamp set. I marked where I wanted the middle of my leaves to all meet up and stamped my leaf one color at a time forming a Y shape. Then I repeated this step with the other 2 colors and finished off my card by stamping my sentiment in Memento black ink. 

Here's a look at each of them with the colors I used for each card. 

This was the first one I made using Lemon Lime Twist, Coastal Cabana, and Balmy Blue.

This one was made using So Saffron, Mango Melody and Pumpkin Pie.

For the pink lovers, I made this in Petal Pink, Flirty Flamingo and Melon Mambo.

Lastly this card was done using Lemon Lime Twist, Coastal Cabana and Mango Melody.

So these are my simple stamping cards for today, which one is your favorite?! Thanks for stopping by today and hope to see you next time! Happy crafting!

Last Hurrah for the Snowflake Showcase

Sadly, today is the last day for the beautiful Snowflake Showcase. If you haven't ordered it by now, it would have been too late as these beauties are only available for the month of November. And since today is the last day it is available for purchase, I am paying homage to this beautiful bundle and creating one more Christmas card with it. Here it is...

This card was created by white heat-embossing the little snowflakes from the Snow is Glistening set all over my piece of Whisper White cardstock (4" x 5 1/4"). I then used the emboss-resist technique, sponging around my snowflakes using both Gray Granite and Balmy Blue ink pads and my sponge daubers.  To help blend my inks, I just sprayed it with my shimmer spray (Frost White shimmer paint + water). This makes for a fun DSP-looking background piece!

Next I stamped my sentiment on a strip of Whisper White cardstock (3" x 1 1/2") in Balmy Blue. I trimmed the right edge of it using my Pretty Label Punch, then layered it on top of a Gray Granite strip (3 1/8" x 1 5/8") with the edge punched as well. 

I die cut my beautiful snowflakes from the coordinating Snowfall Thinlits, the biggest one in silver foil sheet, then white cardstock for the middle, and Balmy Blue cardstock for the smallest snowflake. Then I just added a glitter enamel dot in the middle to complete the look. 

This whole piece was then layered on a piece of Gray Granite cardstock (4 1/8" x 5 3/8") before adhering it to my A2 sized Whisper White card base. And that is my card for today! The Snowflake Showcase is truly a beautiful bundle, I am so sad to see it go...I'm still hoping that these will carry over! Anyway thank you for stopping by and hope to see you next time. Happy crafting!

Floral Frames for Christmas

I needed to make more Christmas cards to add to my stash but was running out of fresh ideas. Floral Frames to the rescue! Not exactly a Christmas stamp set but it all worked out in the end. Here's what I ended up with...

I love this stamp set because the frames are just gorgeous, just add your sentiment and you'll have a beautiful project no matter what. Don't ya just love that?!

Now to create my Christmas card, I started by white heat-embossing my floral frame on a piece of Tranquil Tide cardstock and then cut it out. Then I used my 2" circle punch and cut out my Whisper White circle for the sentiment. My Christmas sentiment was from Peaceful Noel (one of my fave Christmas sets) which I stamped in Merry Merlot ink. I also stamped the pine and holly from the same stamp set using Garden Green and Merry Merlot ink pads.

To make it look more Christmasy I added holiday sprigs using the Sprig punch and Frosted Bouquet Framelits on Tranquil Tide and Merry Merlot cardstock. My background piece is a 2" x 4" piece of Whisper White stamped with the Buffalo Check in Merry Merlot ink, with a few black lines added for interest. I also ran a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock that's 4" x 5 1/4" through my Big Shot with my Cable Knit embossing folder.

Now it's just a matter of putting my card together. I used Merry Merlot cardstock (A2 size) for my card base and layered my Crumb Cake mat piece on top of it. Next my Bufffalo Check piece goes on top with a strip of my Striped Burlap trim running right down the middle.  Finally I just add my floral frame and arrange my holiday sprigs around it, gluing them securely onto my card. 

And that is my project for today! I love how flexible our products are, you can really use them for any occasion. All you need is a little bit of imagination, some inspiration, and have some fun with it. 

As always, thank you for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed today's project. See ya next time. Happy crafting!

The Red Barn

The 2019 Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue is just about to be released which means lots of new and cool stuff to play with! But before I dive right in to that, I decided to look at my stamp collection and use sets that I have not even had a chance to play with yet. So today's card uses the Barn Door stamp set and coordinating Sliding Door Framelits. Just one of my 'old' unused sets. Here's what I came up with. Can you guess who's hiding behind the bard doors??

Yup, it's Rudolph! I just had to have a little fun with it.

Creating this card was very straight-forward. I stamped my barn doors and wreaths on a Whisper White cardstock and cut them out using the coordinating dies. For my wreaths, I used Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler inks. Next I cut out Rudolph from a piece of Early Espresso cardstock using the Detailed Deer Thinlits die, covered it in Wink of Stella to give him that 'ethereal' look, then put in some highlights using my white gel pen to make him stand out. I then cut my barn door in half so you can take a peek at Rudolph and my white heat-embossed sentiment from the Snowflake Sentiments stamp set. 

I assembled all my elements on a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and added white lines to finish off my red barn, then adhered this piece onto my Whisper White card base. I also added a white beam on top of my doors, just to finish off the look. Oh, and of course I added Rudolph's red nose which is a rhinestone jewel that's coloured in with red marker. 

And that is my card for today...mixing the old with the new! Now I'm off to see what other stamp sets I have yet to play with. See you next time and happy crafting!

Beauty in Simplicity

So in keeping with the simple stamping challenge, I dared to take another stab at it. Simple stamping is indeed proving to be quite a challenge for me as this is not my style at all. I tend to like creating more detailed and intricate cards, and I do love my techniques! So to just put ink onto paper and leave it as is is difficult for me, but after these cards, I must agree that sometimes simple can be utterly beautiful!

I used the absolutely beautiful host set Very Vintage for my simple stamping cards today. The images on this set are just gorgeous, which makes creating a simple stamping card really easy! So easy in fact that I created four cards of varying colors in less than ten minutes. Simple and super easy and quick to make...perfect!

For the white card I stamped my images using Soft Suede on a piece of Whisper White cardstock (4" x 5 1/4") and layered it on top of a Crumb Cake mat piece (4 1/8" x 5 3/8") before mounting the whole piece on my card base (I used A2 sized Whisper White card bases for all cards).

The blue card was done by stamping my images in Pacific Point ink on a piece of Pool Party cardstock and then layered on top of Pacific Point mat piece. 

For the pink one, I stamped my images using Berry Burst ink on a Powder Pink cardstock which I then layered on top of a Berry Burst mat piece.

And lastly, my favorite one I think is the Very Vanilla card. My images were stamped in Soft Suede and then I layered this piece on a Crumb Cake mat piece.  

So as I have said these cards are super easy to make, but as you can see, they surely are not lacking in beauty. These will be awesome for your first-time stampers who thinks that card-making is a complicated thing. 

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you'll have fun with the simple stamping challenge! Hope to see you next time and happy crafting!

Simple Stamping

Sadly I didn't get to attend the most recent OnStage in Orlando but from what I've been reading, we are being reminded of how important it is to keep projects simple...a back-to-basics, simple stamping! So I took that advise and created simple cards for today. Super easy to make (which I love, who doesn't?!), but still pretty. Here it is, hope ya like it!

So for these cards I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock ( 4" x 5 1/4") and stamped it with my Buffalo Check background stamp with my Merry Merlot ink pad. I wasn't quite satisfied with my background so I added a few lines using my black and gold markers. Easy to do but really changes it up alot!

Next I stamped my trees from the gorgeous Winter Woods stamp set on another piece of Whisper White cardstock (3 1/2" by 2 7/8") using my Versamark ink pad, and then covered it with gold embossing powder. I heat-set my image and then just lightly sponged the borders with Soft Suede to make the trees pop a little bit. Then I stamped my sentiment (from the sadly retired Blended Seasons stamp set) on strips of Whisper White and Merry Merlot cardstock. I stamped it with Merry Merlot on the white strip, and to change it up a bit I gold heat-embossed it on the Merry Merlot one.

To assemble my card, I created mats with my gold foil sheet. I cut up a 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" piece and then cut inside it for the smaller mat which is 3 5/8" x 3", just to save up on paper! I layered my pieces and adhered it to my Whisper White A2 size cardbase, and then just added a bow using the Merry Merlot/Copper ribbon as a final touch!

And that is my project for today, I tried to keep it simple and sweet! Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you next time. Happy crafting!

Another Twist & Pop Card

So my friend asked me to make a special card for her grandma who's turning 100. I mean, of course I'll do it! But 100, man, that's a very special birthday to say the least! And what do I make for a very special birthday? Well, I turned to my favorite fun-fold, the twist & pop card. So easy to make, and yet it has that POP! If you want instructions on how to make this card, click on this link to one of my previous posts with a video tutorial to boot.

For this special card, my friend said anything with purple (her grandma's fave color) and sparkle will do. Perfect! Let's get started!

I decided to use the retired Color Your Season stamp set for my flowers. I know it's not a current set but that doesn't mean I can't make beautiful cards with it. I stamped the big flower bunch with my black ink then clear heat-embossed my images for easier coloring. I used my alcohol markers to color my flowers in then cut my images up.

Next I created my mechanism piece the same way (please refer to tutorial here) and my folding panel (2" x 10") in Whisper White cardstock. I glued down my flower bunches onto my folding panel, making sure to cover as much of my panel as I can. Then I scored the panel at an interval of 2 1/2", effectively dividing my piece into 4 equal panels. Assembly of the twist & pop mechanism is the same as my previous card. I then covered my flowers with Wink of Stella for sparkle then added panels of Highland Heather (3 7/8" x 4 1/8") and Gray Granite cardstock (3 3/4" x 4") to line the inside of my card.

For my card front I wanted to keep it simple. I used First Frost stamp set and stamped on vellum using Gorgeous Grape, then clear heat-embossed my images to prevent smearing of ink. This gave my images a nice shine too, so bonus! I die cut them using the coordinating Frosted Bouquet Framelits Dies and then glued them down onto a piece of Gray Granite cardstock (4" x 5 1/4") that is layered on top of a piece of Highland Heather (4 1/8" x 5 3/8"). 

I used my Cricut to make the 100th on both Highland Heather and gold glimmer paper. I must say that I actually ran out of gold glimmer paper so I made my own using the retired SAB item gold tape and taped over a piece of scrap cardstock. Instant glimmer paper minus the hassle of glitter fallout...works for me! Finally my happy birthday sentiment is from the also retired set We Must Celebrate stamped in Gorgeous Grape.

And that is my special card for today! It is a mix of retired and current items, just whatever I owned that works. I really hope that my friend's grandma likes it, after all, it's not everyday you turn 100!!!

Buffalo Check Meets Detailed Poinsettia

So while I am so bummed about missing the big 30th anniversary OnStage celebration in Orlando, I tried to use my time making more Christmas cards instead. I wanted to use some of the supplies that I haven't used in a while now. Enter the Embossing Paste! My embossing paste has been hiding in one of my craft cabinets, I can't even remember the last time that I used it! Along with my embossing paste, I also used my Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I forgot that I even had this glitter...crazy!!! 

So this is the card that I came up with using both old and new supplies in my craft room. 

I started with a Merry Merlot piece of cardstock (A2 size that later I trimmed down to 4 1/8" x 5 3/8") and stamped my Buffalo Check background in Night of Navy. Next I used a piece of Thick Whisper White cardstock and die cut my poinsettia corner piece from the beautiful Detailed Poinsettia Thinlits set. I then used this as my stencil.

I placed my stencil on top of my stamped buffalo check piece and applied some embossing paste on it. After taking off my stencil, I then sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds glitter on my embossed images to make it super sparkly!

Lastly my sentiments came from the Snowflake Sentiments stamp set, which I white heat embossed onto my card. I trimmed my piece and then adhered it to a Whisper White card base. Since it was already super sparkly from the Dazzling Diamonds, I decided that it didn't need any more embellishments. 

And so this is my card for today. Super easy to make, and I just love the results! Plus I'm happy that I was able to utilize my neglected craft supplies again. Thanks for stopping by and see you next time! I'm off to more snooping as to what new goodies we get in the new catty!

Tic-tac-toe Blog Hop Challenge

Hello and welcome to our newly re-vamped monthly blog hop! This month we at Ink.Stamp.Share are participating in a Tic Tac Toe challenge. Now this is my first time doing this challenge, but the rules are simple. We are given a 'board' and we just choose a line and utilize all three items in that line on your card. Got it? Let's play!

Here's our Tic Tac Toe board:

For my card, I decided to do the top horizontal line which consists of Christmas, Embossing and Circle. And here's what I came up with...

Fun, huh?! The moment I saw the candy cane I immediately saw a sled. And who better to ride a Christmas sled than a Christmas Bella?! I thought she looked cute! 

For instructions on how I created my card, I made a video tutorial down below. Full disclosure, I did the video in a rush and made a few mistakes in the process so I apologize for that! If you have any questions, just lemme know. 

Thank you for joining me today and please continue to hop along with our creative team and see what lovely projects they have created for this challenge! Hope to see you next time. Happy crafting!

MATERIALS USED:

Bella & Friends stamp set                                          Balmy Blue cardstock

Candy Cane Season stamp set                                 Whisper White cardstock

Winter Woods stamp set                                            Silver Foil Sheet

Peaceful Noel stamp set                                            Cherry Cobbler cardstock                  

In the Woods Framelits                                              Night of Navy ink pad

Candy Cane Punch                                                    Balmy Blue ink pad

2" Circle Punch                                                          Berry Burst ink pad

Softly Falling Embossing Folder                                Versamark

White embossing powder                                          Vellum

Wink of Stella                                                             Santa's Workshop Memories & More

Frost White Shimmer Paint                                        Big Shot

Roll Call List

Laura Mackie

Cindy Mitchell-Clark

Karen Pearmain

Sandra Roberts

Deb Naylor

Jo Blackman

Sue McDonald

Janey Backer

Rebecca-Jo Unwin

Linda Handford

Sandrine Jse

Shirley Merker

Ginger Rabesa

Phoebe Borromeo-Carr

Jacqueline Bobeldijk-Schilder

Melissa Tennison

Tricia Butts

Thinlits to Stamps

Have you ever looked at one of your thinlits or dies and wished that you could stamp with that image? Well I have, and so I've played around with my thinlits and created my own stamps with them. All you need is craft foam...super easy!

Today I played with my Detailed Poinsettia Thinlits. I wanted a big poinsettia with leaves, but unfortunately the coordinating stamp set did not have this image. So I went on to make my own. I just die cut my images on a piece of craft foam and mounted these pieces onto my acrylic blocks and voila! Instant stamps...how easy was that?!

For my card I decided to gold heat emboss my images on a piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock (4 1/4" x 5 1/4"). I made two of these since I was making a total of four cards. Then I just cut my embossed piece in half and layered it on top of a gold foil sheet.

Next I used my Buffalo Check background stamp and stamped on two pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") using my Mossy Meadow ink pad, and then cut these in half as well. 

I used my 2" circle punch to cut out my Mossy Meadow circle pieces, as well as my Starburst punch for my Very Vanilla layering piece. My sentiment comes from the set Snowflake Sentiments, which I gold heat embossed.

Lastly for embellishment I just die cut the same leaf image from the Detailed Poinsettia Thinlits on a piece of gold foil sheet with the multipurpose adhesive sheet stuck at the back. Then it was just assembling everything on top of an A2 sized Very Vanilla card base.

And these are my simple cards for today. With all of our beautiful thinlits, the possibilities are just endless! I hope you liked today's cards and my quick tip as well. Happy crafting and see you next time!

Snowflakes Galore

I just recently finished a big order of handmade cards, and because of this, I realized how much I appreciate making cards that are super easy and quick to make but with pizzazz and appeal. So for today's project I decided to make simple cards featuring the beautiful snowflakes in the Blizzard Thinlits and Snowfall Thinlits (Part of the Snowflake Showcase which will be available all of November. Contact me for ordering details!) Here's what I came up with...

I started with two pieces of Whisper White cardstock that is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". I wanted to emboss these with my Blizzard thinlit die, so I used my silicone mat for this (I do not currently own the Embossing mat) and ran it through my Big Shot. My layers were as follows: Base plate, silicone mat (or Embossing mat if you have it), cardstock, thinlit, and finally the top plate. I added some paper shims to make it snugger (as needed).

Next I sponged my embossed pieces using Calypso Coral, Merry Merlot, and Crushed Curry ink pads. Finally to make my colors blend better I sprayed it with my shimmer spray (Frost White Shimmer Paint + water). I then just cut up these pieces in half for my four cards.

Moving on to my die-cut snowflakes, I used the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet and adhered it to the back of a piece of Gold Foil Sheet to make it easier for me to assemble my card later on. I then die cut multiple snowflakes in different sizes using the gorgeous Snowfall Thinlits.

To assemble my card, I layered my sponged piece on top of a Merry Merlot piece of cardstock 2 3/8" x 5 1/2". This whole piece was then adhered to my A2 sized Very Vanilla card base. I then stamped my sentiment in Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad which is from the Half Full stamp set, and finally just stuck my snowflake die-cuts randomly on the card. 

Now how simple was that?! I enjoyed making these cards and exploring more non-traditional Christmas colors. Thank you for stopping by today and I hope to see you next time. Happy crafting!