inspired by a t-shirt

Last week, while out and about, I saw a woman wearing a top that caught my eye. It was kind of a dip-dye style, white at the top, fading into a darker orange towards the bottom, but it also had a black & white line print all over it. It kind of reminded me of something from a coloring book, which then reminded me of this great designer series paper that we had last summer, I think. So I came up with this super-simple card:

Stamps: NONE!
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Sweet Sugarplum cardstock, Inside the Lines Designer Series Paper
Accessories: sponges, Wink of Stella brush on the bee

Cut the background paper to size, use a sponge to add color to the paper, building up to full coverage at the bottom. Add Wink of Stella to the bee to sort of jazz him up. Ta da!

Tap tap tap...

You know, it's been forever since I even stamped, but every so often I ink up a stamp and tap it onto paper. How about I post the cards I've made in the last couple of days?

First up:

(All supplies used came from Stampin' Up!)

Stamp set: Eastern Beauty

Ink: Lemon-Lime Twist, Dapper Denim, Tranquil Tide

Paper: Lemon-Lime Twist, Dapper Denim, Smoky Slate card stock, Eastern Palace specialty designer paper

Accessories: Eastern Gold vinyl stickers, Eastern Medallions Thinlits dies

Fairly simple, just a touch of shiny with the sticker on the designer series paper.

Next up:

Stamp set: Tuscan Vineyard

Ink: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler; Tuxedo Black Memento ink pads; Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Always Artichoke, Garden Green markers

Paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White card stock

Accessories: Crumb Cake woven ribbon, Glitter Enamel Dots, Stampin Dimensionals

My next trick will be to make something sooner than 10 years from now. Let's see how that goes, eh?

Vintage Vogue cards

By popular demand... :)

For my return to stamping, I thought I'd start fairly simple, didn't want to tax my brain too much:




Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Soft Suede (09/10 In Color)
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Accessories: um...dimensionals?


For my next card, I thought I'd kick it up a notch. I actually got the idea for the layout from somewhere (PaperCrafts magazine?), although mine has completely different colors and images and whatnot.




Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Pale Plum, Pretty In Pink, Very Vanilla card stock; Sending Love Specialty Designer Series Paper (I love that it has glitter already on it!)
Accessories: scalloped edge & corner rounder punches; black button, gold cord, glue dots


So there you go. It's a start. :) I even made a different card today, but I wouldn't want to overwhelm you (or me) with TOO much all at once!

oh hai

You know, I actually made a card a couple of days ago. I ought to take a picture and document it. For all of my readers. Heh.

Sock Monkey!

In addition to stamping, I also knit and crochet, and because of that I really love the new Sock Monkey set! I made this card for a friend of mine. She loves monkeys, and this was for her baby shower:



I also know that Mary likes purple, and the baby was going to be a girl. I'd crocheted a pink and purple blankie, and those colors were pretty close to our Perfect Plum and Regal Rose, which led to the card's color scheme.

Stamps: Sock Monkey
Ink: Basic Grey, Regal Rose, Perfect Plum stamp pads
Paper: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Regal Rose, Pretty In Pink, Whisper White card stock
Accessories: Watercolor Crayons (Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Pale Plum, Regal Rose), Blender Pen, Crystal Effects, rose glitter (SU!, but retired), Elegant Eggplant and Pretty in Pink narrow grosgrain ribbon

Oddly enough, I remembered to take a picture of the card, but completely failed to get a picture of the blankie. Heh.

okay, another Convention swap

I've been almost too excited to stamp this week, because I'm waiting for my Big Shot! I just know that as soon as it comes, I'll want to break it out and play with it, and I don't want to get started on anything and have to pull myself away from that. Oh yeah, and watching Olympics coverage.

So, how about another of the cards I swapped at Convention?



Like I said, I made fairly simple cards to swap, but I just loved the bright colors on this one!

Stamp sets: A Beautiful Thing
Ink: Barely Banana, Summer Sun, Green Galore, Gable Green, Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise classic stamp pads
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White card stock
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals

I crumpled up the Lilac card stock, then flattened it out before adhering the white layer on top, to give it a little extra dimension. The other thing I did to make this go a bit faster is to take a whole sheet of Whisper White card stock, cover it with the flowers and swirls, and then cut it into strips. It means that each card comes out random, but I think that's part of the fun! :)

convention swap!

Quick post, or else it'll NEVER get done...I guess it's been a couple of weeks since I was in Salt Lake City for the Stampin' Up! Convention, and boy, did I have a great time! Lots of new stuff learned, I'm so excited about our new products (especially the Big Shot!!!), and I got some great ideas from swapping there too!

Now, those of you who know me may know that a couple of years ago, faced with the daunting task of making hundreds of swaps, I just said no. I wasn't going to do it, it was too much pressure, I'd let my friends swap and hopefully they'd let me see some of the samples they got, but I just couldn't do it myself. So I didn't. And I have to say, it was a little sad to not participate in all the fun, but at the same time, it was GREAT. No pressure to make the Best Cards Ever, no worrying whether someone would turn up their nose at mine, or whatever. I still had a great time learning stuff in the classes, and I did get to see swaps from my friends, but I didn't have that added stress.

But then this year, I couldn't resist the temptation, and I made 4 different card(fronts), and just a few of each, for a total of about 85 swaps. That was it, it wasn't too much work, I didn't get a repetitive stress injury from too much stamping, I had fun working on them and on swapping, and it was great. Maybe I'll keep doing that, just make a hundred or so and not let it take over my life. Stamping is supposed to be fun, right? :)

Anyway, after all of that, here's one of the cards I made. It was the first one that ran out, so I guess that means it was the one that people liked the most.



Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive Classic Pads; Very Vanilla Craft Pad
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Old Olive, Very Vanilla card stock
Accessories: clear embossing powder, sponges

The word at the bottom was stamped in Very Vanilla Craft ink, then I embossed it with clear embossing powder. I felt like it needed a little more something, so I rubbed in Elegant Eggplant ink around it, to help highlight it a bit more.

Picture taken in my hotel in SLC, because I completely forgot to do it before I left home! I'd even started swapping, and then realized I didn't have pictures of these, so I needed to hold back a few to make sure there was a record of them.