Stylish Stems

Today's cards were fun to create. Using the Stylish Stems framelits, I die cut the flower first on a piece of white cardstock and then die cut the stem and leaves.  (The first time I die cut the white cardstock, I cut both the stem and the flower at the same time.  That left too much space between the stem and flower.)  I die cut the stem/leaves using green cardstock.  After adhering the white top layer to the flower color cardstock layer, I inserted the green stem and leaves into the negative space.  I also cut the flower in another color, just to have the center of the flower a different color.  The sentiment is from the  Special Celebrations stamp set.  Over the weekend, I will make a few more cards using the same die as a set for gift-giving.  Have a great weekend!

Halloween Cat & Jack-o-lanterns

Today's adorable Halloween card was created by my friend, Paula.  Needless to say, that little cat is the focal point of the card and she really stands out against the textured wood background.  Paula fussy cut all of the jack-o-lanterns.  The Spooky Night DSP was used for the cat, jack-o-lanterns and the word paper on the lower portion of the card.  I do enjoy creating Halloween cards and admiring and copying the cards created by others.  I have said it before, "I hang out with some very creative ladies!"  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Mini Birthday Cake

Back in July I had made two Hershey Nugget birthday cakes.  I told myself back then that I wanted to see how a smaller cake would look.  This time I used a  5" and a 3" foam circle. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours making this cake.  The only stamping I did for this cake was the banner.  Other than that, most of the time was spent in wrapping the Hershey Nuggets.  And that wasn't so bad as I put a rectangle the right size on the Cricut Explore mat and duplicated it 25 times.  The wrappers were all cut out for me.  Have a great day!

Halloween Bits 'n Pieces

Over the last couple of weeks, I have accumulated quite a few Halloween pieces~~die cut, punched, fussy cut and Cricut cut.  So after giving a few away over the weekend, I decided to use the remaining Halloween items for today's card.   The tree was cut on my Cricut Explore.  The jack-o-lanterns were fussy cut from the Spooky Night DSP.  The cat was punched from the same DSP pack.  The bats are from Amuse thinlets.  The Pumpkin Pie and Lemon Lime Twist frames were cut using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rectangles framelits.  Finally, the white background was also cut using a framelit, but I am not sure which company it is from.  All in all, not too bad for using bits 'n pieces to create today's Halloween card.  Have a great day!

Love Eclipse Card

I had to try another Eclipse card.  The "Eclipse" is the outline left when you raise the letters and the lines of the darker cardstock show thru.  But unless you turn the card a little sideways, you do not really see that fine outline. I wanted to see if using  the thin strips of  adhesive foam would let more of the dark outline show more.  I started with beautiful paper from Momenta (never heard of Momenta, but they do have a website) and then used Berry Burst for the contrasting cardstock.  When the card was finished, I added some sparkle with the Stampin' Up rhinestones.  I do not see a difference between using the thin strips of adhesive foam versus cutting dimensionals.  That being said, it was easier to run the thin strips along the letters rather than cutting the dimensionnals to fit and adding those along the letters.  Have a great day!

Three Pumpkins

Since I am having friends over this weekend, it was time  to clean my scraproom.  As usual, I didn't get around to the cleaning.  But I did create today's card!  At first I was going to just use the larger two pumpkins from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  One more would look better, but it needed to be smaller.  A Simon Says stitched pumpkin was the perfect size.  The little tag is from Stampin' Up's Wood Crate Framelit set and the sentiment is from the coordinating Wood Words stamp set. After die cutting the pumpkins in three different colors, I sponged them all with Tangerine Tango ink.  The background paper is from the DCWV Luxury Stack which was purchased a while ago.    Have a great weekend!  

Eclipse Technique

Recently, I have been seeing examples of "Eclipse" cards.  So, I decided to try my hand at it.  First you stamp images on the white top layer and then using the Large Letters dies, you die cut the word you want to use.  I thought "Fall" would be good as the four letters fit nicely on the top layer.  The Eggplant leaves are from the Gently Falling set. The little Pear Pizazz leaves are from the Colorful Seasons stamp set.  After adhering the white layer on the dark cardstock layer, you then pop up the letters and place them in the negative spaces.  All in all, the card turned out okay, but next time I will use lighter colors on my images so the dark outline shows up better on all the letters.  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!

A Fall Birthday Card

Fall is a very pretty time of the year.  So for the next couple of weeks you will probably be seeing a lot of leaves and Halloween cards!  When I purchased the Seasonal Layers Thinlets and the coordinating Colorful Seasons stamp set, it was all about the Adirondack chair die and the beach chair stamp.  But now it is all about the leaf stamps and thinlets.  Stamped leaves, die cut leaves, layered leaves, I am making good use of both stamps and thinlets.  Today's card is quite simple.  The solid Cajun Craze leaves were stamped off once before stamping on the card.  The veins of the leaves were stamped directly with Cajun Craze ink.  The solid Crushed Curry was stamped off once and then a die cut of the leaf shape and veins was adhered over that image.  The white background was embossed using the Pinewood Planks folder. The sentiment is from the Special Celebrations stamp set.  And, of course, I had to use sequins to fill in some of the white space.  Have a great day!

Witch Way Is The Candy?

Today's card is by my friend, Cherie.  It is just adorable.  Cherie created this card using a stamp set and coordinating dies from My Favorite Things.  The set is a Birdie Brown set, Which Way Is The Candy.  Remember the cards and candy cakes I made using the cute little mermaids?  She designed that set, too.  Birdie Brown is an illustrator and on the My Favorite Things Design Team.  Her little people and critters are all sooo cute.  And then you have the card maker who uses the cute little people, animals and other images to make a really cute shaker card!  Have a great day!

Cute Medieval Birds

Sydney wanted to make something special for her and her baby cousin's room at Grandmum and Papa's house.  When she was here a couple of weeks ago, I showed her a little bird dressed in a witch hat that I had made with the Cricut.  She liked it very much so we looked at the cartridge on line which included the little blue witch image, 3 Birds on Parade.  Well, it was the perfect cartridge.  (Sydney and Ayden's daddies like things having to do with medieval times.)  There was a little bird king, bird wizard, bird princess and a bird knight.  I told her she could think about if she wanted those birds and let me know.  Sydney called and asked if I could make a picture of the birds.  Out came my Cricut Explore.  I brought the four birds to the mat and made them the size that would fit in a 10 x 10 frame.  And just before I was going to cut all the pieces, I remembered reading that I could flatten the images on the mat, print them and then the Cricut would cut them!  Worked perfectly!  The only thing I will say is that I wish I had a white frame.  But with the black checked paper and black outline on each bird, the black is good, too.   Have a great day!

Seasonal Layers

Happy Friday!   Today's card was created using the Seasonal Layers Thinlets and the small leaf stamp from the Colorful Seasons stamp set. I used a color combination I very rarely have used, Soft Suede, Baked Brown Sugar (retired) and Very Vanilla.  Versamark ink was used on the little leaf stamp to create the background.  The large leave was die cut using Soft Suede for the solid layer and Baked Brown Sugar for the leaf with the vines.  I even had some retired Soft Suede ribbon. The card needed a little something more, so I used the copper metallic thread behind the Square layered pieces.  There is no sentiment as of now.  Depending on what this card is used for, just the inside sentiment  might be enough so that there will be no need for a sentiment on the card front.  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Embossed Daisies

Today's card is one of the easiest card I have made.  A while back I purchased a Darice embossing folder.  It has been on my counter for a while now.  When I was cleaning up my scraproom a bit, I came across it.  After embossing the daisies, I colored the center of each with a yellow Spectrum Noir marker.  The sentiment is from the Just Rite stamp set. Large Fancy Sentiments.  Layered on black with a yellow card base, the card is clean and simple.  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Fall Pumpkins

When I get something new to play with, I have to try it right away.  The pumpkins, vines and leaves are a set of dies from Elizabeth Craft Design.  The dies for the pumpkins and leaves emboss as they cut. The pumpkins were die cut using Tangerine Tango cardstock and the leaves and vines using Old Olive.  As I sponged the pieces, the embossed areas really brought out the dimension of the pumpkins and leaves.  I adhered the pieces to a Very Vanilla oval which is adhered to a pattern paper that was close in color to Old Olive.  I have a beautiful pad of  pattern paper and the design/color used for this Fall card was perfect.  Have a great day!

Lemon Lime Twist

Stampin' Up's Lemon Lime Twist Ombre ribbon has been calling my name since I first saw it.  When it arrived, I knew it would be perfect for a Halloween card.  The Cricut was on the counter so I cut out the pumpkin image using Lemon Lime Twist, Tangerine Tango and Black cardstock.  The sentiment is from the retired Good Greetings stamp set.  Not sure how often I will use Lemon Lime Twist, but I ended up ordering the stamp pad, too!  Have a great day!

Wedding Shower

Today's wedding shower card was made for our friends, Nikki and Nick.  The embossed layer is actually Pink Pirouette but it surely doesn't look it.  The flowers were made using the Heartfelt Creations Dogwood stamp set and dies.  I used my Cricut to write the sentiment on white cardstock  I should have left a little more space between the lines~~next time!  I used an oval framelit to cut it out, adhered it to the Pink Pirouette layer and then arranged the flowers and leaves.  I put the card in one of Stampin' Up's clear envelopes and attached it to the gift.  Without taking the card out of the envelope, Nikki saw the card and knew it was from me and Jen!  Have a great day! 

Little Pumpkin Pizza Box

Stampin' Up's mini pizza boxes are darn cute.  I decorated today's box using pumpkin paper from a Martha Stewart  pad of paper I purchased at Michael's a couple of years ago.  I cut the paper and adhered it to the box.  There was such a stark difference between the white box and black paper, that I decided to sponge the white edges using Tangerine Tango ink.  I stamped the sentiment on Tangerine Tango cardstock and then ran it thru the Big Shot using one of the Layering Circle framelits.  The box was wrapped in black tulle.  Before adding the scallop circle, I sponged the circle with black ink.  Halloween twine and sequins complete the box.   Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!

It's Your Day

Today's beautiful card was created by my friend, Nancy.   This type of card is known as a Joy Fold card.   Nancy used the retired and pretty Designer Series Paper, Floral Boutique, together with the currently available stamp set, Floral Phrases.  (The inside sentiment is not Stampin' Up.)  The navy and white color combination is striking.  This card is truly much prettier in person. There are directions for making a Joy Fold card on Splitcoaststampers.com under Tutorials and then Joy Fold Card.  Thank you for sharing, Nancy.  Have a great day!

Dogwood Flowers

When I was at the Scrapbook Expo a couple of weeks ago, the Heartfelt Creations booth caught my attention.  Heartfelt was demonstrating how easy it was to make flowers using their stamps and dies.  I purchased their flower tool kit and the Dogwood stamp and die sets. I recently decided to try my hand at the flowers!  I watched a video and made my first flower~~oops!  Looked nothing like the video showed.  I watched a couple more videos. So I played more and made more flowers. My biggest problem is making the little stamens for the middle of the flowers.  Those need a lot more practice compared to the flowers!   The Elegant Eggplant card has two of the better flowers, including stamens.  I will keep trying.  Have a great day!

That Halloween Cat!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Labor Day weekend! We certainly couldn't have had better weather even with the clouds on Monday. 

I spent some time down in my scrap room.  One of the items I made was today's Halloween card.  I used the Spooky Night Designer Series Paper and the cat punch~~both in the Holiday catalog. The cat was punched from a page of DSP that consists of orange and black cats which fit the punch perfectly.  I also punched three cats out of cardstock and layered them under the printed cat.  After sponging a white circle with Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight ink, I punched a cat out of the circle.   The punched and layered cat was then placed in that negative space to give the cat a little dimension.  The sentiment is from a retired set that I use very often.  Have a great day!

Happy Bird-day!

Today's card was created by my friend, Dawn.  You all know that I like cute bird cards and this card is right up there with really cute bird cards!  Dawn used Elizabeth Craft Design's Bird-day Party stamp set and dies.  When Dawn was here I stamped and cut a few of those birds.  Now I need to get to work and color and create with them!  Have a great Labor Day weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!