Thursday, July 30, 2015

Christmas in July, day 6 (a day late...)

I missed yesterday's post. Whoops! Little Miss is still not up to par, and her brother feeds off of her whining, which alters his usually sunny personality to a whiny ball of crying, and then we had errands to run.... All in all, I found myself wishing for another 3ish hours in the day yet again.

Today's post has two cards, both with the same basic layout (another flat shaker) but with two different color schemes. The basic technique on the card was to create a flat shaker pocket with my wrmk Fuse tool, then I created a panel with a subtle background pattern. For the pink, I used the Market Street Stamps diagonal striped background in Silver Pearl embossing powder in Aqua Mist cs, and the gray panel (fog cs from  Avery Elle) was stamped with charcoal ink using the Hero Arts Aspen Frost cling stamp. I die cut a circle out of the center, then added my poinsettias and pine boughs to the bottom to create a sort of half wreath. I die cut the Season's Greetings sentiment from silver foil and charcoal glitter cardstock, then adhered them to the shaker. A die cut and stamped bow from the Tinsel and Tags kit finished it off!

I hope you all enjoyed! I will be back tomorrow with the last of my Christmas in July posts! :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Christmas in July, day 5

I'm kind of glad that I remembered to post today... One of the twinkies has a double ear infection, so it's been a long, long day. Poor baby girl. :( nothing worse than a stick kiddo. I hope you'll forgive if I'm a little more incoherent than normal.

Today's card is inspired by those vintage-y graphics you see on Pinterest all the time, the ones with the beautiful typography surrounded by a lovely floral wreath. I used my distress inks to stamp the images, including the sentiment, then I took my trusty paintbrush and water (not a water brush) and spread the ink out. I added a little bit of shading to the poinsettias (from PTI's Bells and Boughs) and the greenery (from PTI's Tinsel and Tags) using my paint brush and distress ink pads. The sentiment, from Mama Elephant, was also done this way. I added a little dimension with some glossy accents over the top of the berries and the bow. Nice and flat for the mailbox!!

I hope you enjoyed this one! We are in the home stretch of Christmas in July week; then I will be back to inundating you with flowers. :)

Monday, July 27, 2015

Christmas in July, day 4!

Hi all! I hope you aren't sick of my Christmas cards. :) Today's card is one of my favorite Christmas combinations: aqua, pink, and silver. My mom had a Victorian-themed Christmas tree that was an homage to these colors, and it was stunning.

I recently purchased a wrmk Fuse tool specifically to make flat shakers and that nifty gift card shaker thing that Jennifer McGuire made in one of her recent videos. I used it and some inexpensive scrapbook page protectors to create my shaker pocket for this card. I filled it with some aqua seed beads, some clear pink sequins from The Ton, a few snowflakes, and some artificial snow. In order to make the card front, I used the Hero Arts Aspen Frost cling stamp with silver pearl embossing powder on aqua card stock. After heat embossing the panel, I used the Ornament Shaker die from Papertrey Ink to cut the window, then adhered my shaker pocket behind the embossed panel. I mounted it on a Sweet Blush card base, then adhered a die cut (in the Neenah metallic paper) from PTI's Wet Paint Christmas on the front of the shaker panel. A white silk bow finished it off.

Only three more days of Christmas to share with you! Hope you are enjoying!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Christmas in July, day 3

Happy Sunday! It's been a lovely weekend for us, thus far. My mom came to visit, so hubby and I got to go out on a date last night! It was quite nice to just go and relax... Had some yummy seafood, then a few cocktails and dessert... My idea of a good time with my cute redhead!

Today's Christmas in July post is very technique-y. I love the magical, nebulous look of bokeh, as I'm sure you've noticed, and I thought what is more magical than the idea of a reindeer that can fly?? I started with a panel of watercolor paper and blended several shades of blue on it: TH distress inks in chipped sapphire and tumbled glass, then some SSS island blue for my medium shade. I then took my bokeh dots set from Ellen Hutson and stamped various size dots, some stamped off once, in the same ink shades. I stamped one of the "burst" stamps from the EH set in Delicata Silver ink, then pounced some Perfect Pearls to add even more shimmer and sparkle. I double heat embossed the sentiment from Mama Elephant in super fine silver embossing powder, then added the reindeer die cut (a wplus9 die) cut with silver glitz paper from dcwv. A very easily mailed one layer card, but definitely a lot going on here!

I hope you all are enjoying these posts, even if they aren't really seasonal... I'm loving having a jump on my Christmas cards! I'm thinking I will attempt to keep making one card a week, that way I'm not overwhelmed come November. Back tomorrow with a flat shaker card!!

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Christmas in July, day 2

So it's super hot out. So hot that we got the baby pool out! The little ones will play in that after their nap. :) I'm hoping this Christmas card will help me ignore how hot it is.

I was so inspired by Betsy Veldman's ink blending this past release, and I love the look of Aqua Mist blended on white card stock. This sentiment is from Mama Elephant's Seasons Greetings, and I blended some aqua mist ink around the edges of a Nostalgic Notions die cut. The poinsettias are wplus9's Pretty Poinsettias stamped in Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, and Tropical Teal inks. I die cut some PTI pine boughs from Neenah metallic silver card stock (love the weight of that stuff!) and created some little arrangements. I put some glossy accents over the sentiment and the center of the flowers. The background of the card base was stamped in Aqua Mist using a Hero Arts Aspen Frost cling background stamp (one of the two cling stamps I got this week! Love the detail!)

That's all for me today! Hope you enjoyed it. Merry Christmas in July! I'm off to put my feet in the baby pool.... :)

Friday, July 24, 2015

Christmas in July!

Merry Christmas!

No seriously.

I love Christmas. (I know, I know, who doesn't??) But seriously. Christmas was always one of my absolute favorite times. My mom was a single mom, so we didn't have a ton of money, but good gracious did she know how to make Christmas special. We always had an incredibly beautiful tree, a ton of decor around the house, and we always did fun things at Christmas time... Going to the Santa Claus parade, visiting Santa at the mall, watching holiday movies, baking (aka sampling...don't judge) cookies (aka dough. Or maybe that was just me... Don't judge!) until we were so full of cookie (dough) that we could probably have burst. Our house always smelled like vanilla, peppermint, and cinnamon when my mom got out the Christmas decor. The combo sounds kinda gross, I know, but seriously, it worked to create this blend of scents that permanently etched themselves into my olfactory glands.

Now that I have my own little ones, I hope I can do as good a job as my own mom of instilling a love of all things holiday in them. (Hubby has been a bit of a Grinch until Christmas Eve, but he is just going to have to learn to fake it.) I'm sure Pinterest will help! (Oh, the things my mom would have done if Pinterest were around back in the eighties and nineties!)

I got a few Christmas stamps during Ellen Hutson's sale, which put me in a crafty holiday mood, though I haven't turned on any holiday music....yet!! I thought I'd do a week of holiday projects in honor of the completely-made-up Christmas in July! For our first day, I have a chalkboard style one layer card. Super flat, easily mailed, and pretty trendy. Sounds good to me!

I used Waltzingmouse Stamps " 'Tis the Season" for the sentiment, and a variety of Christmas greenery from PTI's Bells and Boughs and Tinsel and Tags Sprigs to create the little clusters at the top and bottom. The main blooms and evergreen boughs were white heat embossed, while the little additions were simply stamped in white pigment ink. I dabbed some white pigment ink on my finger and swiped that over the sentiment, then swiped the ink pad around the edges. A Teresa Collins jewel finished off the centers of the flowers.

I hope you enjoyed! I will be back tomorrow with a bokeh-inspired card! Have a fabulous day, friends!

Monday, July 20, 2015

Thanks a bunch....

The Ton Stamps has a ton (forgive me, but pun intended) of gorgeous floral stamps, and I love them all. You've seen my obsession with the multi-step peonies, then the mini peonies, and now I have a card showcasing the Wild Florals stamp set from their last stamp release. (Oh, and I have their peony background set on the way to me.... My first rubber cling stamp!)

This card is loosely inspired by Rifle Paper Co and their stunning artwork, particularly the color scheme and general flowery imagery. I used Altenew's Ruby Red and Coral Berry inks for the large flowers, HA field greens, memento pistachio, and PTI spring moss for the greenery, and wp9 Bloomsberry for the little wisteria-esque sprigs. I lightly traced a circle die to use as a guide for my wreath, then erased most of the pencil marking so that it was barely visible. I tried to utilize the "rule of three" principle to keep some balance and create a visual triangle, but after I stamped the main flowers, I just filled in with greenery. I stamped the wisteria to fill in any holes. "Wild Florals" is certainly an apt descriptor for this card. A sentiment double heat embossed in Ranger Princess Gold finished the stamping. I thought it looked better as a square card, so I trimmed it down and mounted it with fun foam to a PTI linen card stock base. A twine bow finished it off and added some dimension. I used my wmrk envelope punch board to create a coordinating square envelope from some dcwv lightweight pattern paper.

I hope you enjoyed! Have a wonderful week, friends! 

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Simple Saturday... I know, I'm technically late.

I'm writing this at 12:10 am. I really need to go to sleep, but I don't want to give up on my "Simple Saturday" goal already. (Let's just pretend we are on mountain time, okay?) I intended to get a project done this afternoon to show you all, but hubby was finally home today, so he sent me off to the mall to do a little shopping all by my lonesome! Then my bff and I had a little girls night... Had some sushi and saw the new Amy Schumer movie. Like all Judd Apatow movies, a little raunchy and unorthodox but with a sweet overall theme. It was a nice way to end a very long, stressful week. Thanks to my sweet hubby for letting me off for the night!!

Anyway, here is a monogram card and matching gift box created with Altenew Vintage Florals and the frame from Beautiful Brushstrokes by PTI. The monogram is from the PTI Bookprint die set. The background is created from the PTI Twisted cover plate cut from gold Bazzill foil card stock. I created the box using my envelope punch board, and I really love it! Very simple (especially if you take away the stationery box), no fancy techniques, just stamps and ink and dies.

Hope you enjoyed! Tomorrow I plan to spend the day hanging out with hubby and kiddos and probably folding the mountain of laundry I've been avoiding all week.... Have a great Sunday, friends!

Friday, July 17, 2015

Create with us!

I don't always get to participate in the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday contests, but I usually enjoy the spark of creativity the videos bring. During release week, the creativity from the design team knows no bounds, and they are so inspiring that I always want to create (but usually I am impatiently wanting to create with the new goodies they are releasing that week). Well, Nichole announced that they are going to have a challenge for us to create something based on a project the team showcased during release week in lieu of the make it Monday! I'm really going to enjoy this challenge, I think, because my creativity is always so inspired to use my NEW goodies, and sometimes I forget about my oldie-but-still-goodie goodies.

I was seriously in love with Betsy's ink sponged projects this week. They highlighted the beautiful stamping so wonderfully that I couldn't wait to try it on my own. Then I remembered that my ink blending skills are less than stellar, so I did my best. It's still not that great, but luckily I didn't have much space to have to try to cover with ink blending haha. (Can I just say I love the cross hatch design when you blend on the linen card stock?!) I used my Nostalgic Notions stamps to create a floral cascade and a die cut from the Scripted die set. I added some glossy accents to the center of the flowers and the die cut sentiment to add a little dimension.

Hope you enjoyed this card! I'm going to enjoy looking through the rest of the entries after my kiddos go down for their nap. :) I will be back tomorrow with Simple Saturday. Have a great weekend, friends!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Have a super day!

Our kids were invited to a birthday party for a three year old superhero a few weeks ago. I didn't have time to make him a new card, but I was so inspired by his invitation that I translated it into shaker card form! I used Papertrey Ink's Zappy Birthday and Superhero stamp and die sets, as well as their Mat Stack 7 dies to create the shaker front. I blended some Simon Says Stamp Island Blue ink to create the blue sky background. (I had intended for there to be more dimension to the sky, but my ink blending skills are sorely lacking...) I filled the shaker with some Pretty Pink Posh stars and sequins, some mini star sequins from Michael's, as well as some mask die cuts from the Superhero die collection. The skyline is a Spellbinders die that I got at Hobby Lobby.

It's a little out of my comfort zone, but I have a card at the ready for the next time we get invited to a birthday party!! Hope you liked it! :)

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Bokeh love

I love the bokeh look. It's so trendy, but there is something about it that I think is so ethereal and magical. There are several ways to create the bokeh look with stamps, and my card is pretty simplistic as far as technique is concerned.

I used the Bokeh set from Ellen Hutson's Essentials by Ellen to create this cascade of bokeh dots. It reminds me of the sparkles that came out of the fairy godmother's wand, and that magical feeling is what I was trying to capture. I used Delicata gold and Simon Says Stamp Island Blue inks to create the cascade. The princess and her shoe were die cut from Bazzill gold card stock. I added a few gold sparkle die cuts from the Shakers and Sprinkles kit by PTI.

I hope you liked this card! I created 4 different backgrounds with this great stamp set, (you saw a sneak peek of them if you follow me on Instagram)but my mojo has kinda taken a hiatus, and I haven't figured out what to do with the remaining three. We shall have to see! Have a fantastic week, friends!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Simple Saturday, volume III

Today's post is probably one of my simplest cards, but it is one of my favorites. It's inspired by one of Betsy Veldman's cards from the last PTI release, but in a much simpler form. I love the look of bright flowers on a dark base, and so I used the Nostalgic Notions kit and the Still Life: Summer mini kit to create this little cluster of painterly blooms and fruits. I added a little shimmer with my Wink of Stella to a white linen die cut "thanks" from the Still Life: Summer kit to complete this incredibly simplistic card. As I was editing the photos, I thought it needed something, so I am going to go back and add a few rain stones, I think. Other than that, just stamps, dies, and some pretty ink colors. Sounds good to me. :)

My sister in law is having a baby in a few months, and our other sister in law and I are planning the baby shower. I'm so excited to start working on it, and I will be sure to show you the finished result! It's going to be darling, I think. Busy busy busy!

We had a fairly restful day, and tomorrow looks to be just as relaxing and fun. I hope the rest of your weekend is wonderful! Talk soon!

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Simple Saturday, volume II

Today's Simple Saturday post is super quick. I'm making it in just under the self-imposed deadline, since we let the twinkies stay up a little (a lot!) Late top watch fireworks, and I only just now have a second alone with my phone.

I had a picture in my head of an aqua background with pink roses (I have a thing for pink flowers, obviously), but I also wanted to keep it as simple as possible. This "keep it simple" rule is one that I struggled with... I kept wanting to add something... Heat embossing, watercolor, etc. It was much more challenging than I expected to stick with just stamps and ink. I used Altenew's Vintage Flowers stamps and dies, along with their red ink quartet and PTI's simply chartreuse and new leaf inks for the leaves. The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter. The background stripes are a Market Street Stamps background stamp, stamped with Simon Says Stamp Sea Glass ink. (Sadly, MSS is no longer in business.) A few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finished it off! Simple techniques, easily mailed, simple layout... I'd say that fits the bill! I like the idea of challenging myself to not fuss over things so much, but boy was it more difficult than I expected.

I hope everyone is having an absolutely wonderful holiday weekend! Stay safe, make good choices, and have fun!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

MIM #216: Adding Color to Cover Plates

Laura Bassen's cards exude happiness. Bright colors, fun, playful nature, lovely techniques... It's amazing how much talent one person can have. Her video this week focuses on adding color to your cover plates. I have several cover plates, and I love them all, so I had to give this one a try.

One of the most beautifullystunning projects I've seen from her was her Copic colored Garden Gild cover plate from a couple of releases ago. I tried my own version with the Ziggy Ziggy Zig pens, but as it was almost a direct copy of Laura's card (completely unintentional, but her card must have seared itself into my creative subconscious), I decided I wanted to make something a little more unique.

I cut the Balloon Bash cover plate from watercolor paper and blended some lovely shades of dried marigold and ripe persimmon and picked raspberry, then "painted" the outlined stars with some Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls mixed with water. I added some die cut balloons from the Birthday Style die set that were cut from watercolor paper. I used my Ziggy pens to add color and shading to match my cover plate die cut, then covered them with Glossy Accents. Some gold die cuts, hot pink sequins from The Ton, and an appropriately celebratory sentiment from Wet Paint III finished it off.

Hope you enjoyed these! I have been working on some backgrounds that I hope finish into cards to show in a day or two. Have a fabulous day, friends!