Off the Edge CAS

The artists over at Addicted to Clean and Simple have come up with a great code word for this fortnight's challenge: Off the Edge. Several of the design team used a floral theme on Whisper White cardstock. I followed their lead. 

My BFF, Lynn Birus, did a "master class" (what I called it) on how to use Stampin' Up's new Blendabilities markers during my recent new catalog open house. When she was finished with her flower, she fussy cut it and then used the darkest Cherry Cobbler Blendabilties marker to color the edge. Whoa! Was that gorgeous! Lynn gave me the flower and it sat on my stamping desk for just the right time to use it.

I embossed a plain Whisper White card base with the Honeycomb Embossing folder then adhered Lynn's beautiful flower to the card and then {gasp!} cut off the flower so that it was even with the edge of the card base. I added a butterfly that I stamped in Black Stazon ink and then "colored" with Dazzling Details. 

I think the black and white with the BIG pop of color is just stunning (if I do say so myself!)

(Stamp Sets: Blended Blossom, Papillion Potpourri; Inks: Memento Black, Black Stazon; Card Stock: Whisper White; Accessories: Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive Blendabilities, Hexagon Embossing Folder, Elegant Butterfly Punch, Dazzling Details)

It's Time for a Color Challenge!!!

Oh my goodness! There are so many wonderful photos and color pallets on the Design Seeds website. I just love looking at the photos everyday. They've inspired my biweekly color challenges. Sometimes the "challenge" is to find a Design See photo that I like AND then find the current Stampin' Up colors (or reasonable substitutes). Another "challenge" is that when I view the colors on my tablet they look like one SU color, but then I view them on the laptop and they look like another color. That happened this week. 

Here's the Design Seeds inspiration

http://design-seeds.com/index.php/home/entry/rustic-bouquet

Based on how my tablet displayed them, the Stampin' Up colors I chose (from top to bottom) are: Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede, Perfect Plum, and Smoky Slate. These are the colors I used for my card. But my laptop says the colors are Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede Basic Gray, Perfect Plum, and Smoky Slate Wisteria Wonder. 

You can use any combination  of colors. The photo and my card here to inspire YOU! Don't feel like you have to use all the colors, either. Just be creative.

(Stamp Sets: Creative Elements, Everything Eleanor, Papillon Potpourri; Inks: Soft Suede, Summer Starfruit, Perfect Plum, Pink Pirouette; Card Stock: Perfect Plum, Smoky Slate, Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride; Accessories: Apothecary Accents Framelits, Circle Card Framelit (for banner), Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Elegant Butterfly Punch, Blender Pen, Soft Suede and Pink Pirouette Taffeta Ribbon, Dazzling Details)

I'd be thrilled if you would play along with my challenge. Just post a link to your card at the InLinkz link at the bottom of this post. You can also email me a photo of your creation and I'll post it for you!!

Springtime Butterfly

I'm playing along with a new (to me) challenge blog today: Freshly Made Sketches. I had originally planned to do another challenge, but the card I made for that challenge, well, it was a hot mess. I was not satisfied with it. I re-made it several times and I still don't like the finished product. So, my dear blog readers, you will never see that card fail. Fortunately, I found this new challenge blog and almost instantly had an idea for it.

Here's the sketch.


I thought this sketch would be great with the springtime colors in the Quatrefancy Specialty Paper. And I'm sort of on a butterfly kick. (Well, in the mess that is my stamping desk, the Papillion Potpourri set was still out, sooo....) Here's what I came up with:

(Stamp Sets: Papillion Potpourri, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Ink: Strawberry Slush; Card Stock: Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight; Specialty Series Paper: Quatrefancy; Accessories: Word Window, Modern Label, and Elegant Butterfly Punches, Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder, Daffodil Delight Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones)

I almost didn't add any stamping at all to the card. I kind of liked the simplicity of the color blocks with the embossed panel. But I decided to add one lone butterfly, a sentiment, and a little bling.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. It's going to be gorgeous here in central Maryland!!

CASEing Minders!

At last year's Stampin' Up convention, I stalked met one of my fave stampers, the famous Minders (aka Mindy Backes)! She makes awesome art, which you can see at her blog Bada-Bing! Paper-Crafting! I was thrilled that Mindy had one of her cards leftover and that she swapped with me. I've had her card on my own throw-back Pinterest board (an actual ribbon board) ever since. I look at it quite often and think I ought to CASE it. Well, I finally did!

This week's Fab Friday Color Challenge (38) was the perfect opportunity to CASE Mindy's card. 
 

Mindy's card used different colors, but I love the design elements she used. Here's Mindy's card.

All images copyright Stampin' Up Artwork by Mindy Backes

Here's my not-as-wonderful CASE of Mindy's card, using the Fab Friday colors.

 

(Stamp Sets: Six-Sided Sampler, Yippee-Skippee!, Papillion Potpourri; Inks: Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding; Card Stock: Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Sahara Sand; Accessories: Honeycomb Embossing Folder, Pistachio Pudding Ruffle Stretch Trim, Tea Lace Paper Doily, Chalk Talk Framelits, Elegant Butterfly Punch, Baked Brown Sugar and Pistachio Pudding Stampin' Write Markers, Basic Pearls, Basic Rhinestones)

I used the Six-Sided Sampler set and the Honeycomb Embossing folder. I colored the Yippee-Skippee! stamp with Baked Brown Sugar and Pistachio Pudding markers and then stamped onto Sahara Sand. The tag is cut from the Chalk Talk Framelits. I liked the way Mindy added some bling to her card, so I followed suit.

Thanks for the inspiration Mindy!!

Sale-a-Bration Pop-Up Box Card

Today is the last day of Sale-a-Bration. You can STILL order on my online store and get a FREE SAB item with every $50 you spend. You also have time to subscribe to My Paper Pumpkin and get a FREE set of In Color Marks. Time runs out for both deals at midnight (MT) tonight (March 31, 2014). 

I'm always a little sad when SAB is over. I fall in love with the products and then they have to be put away. I always hope a couple of items will carry over to the new catalog, but we have to wait to see. Personally, I'm hoping the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder and the Banner Punch carry over. (Oh please, oh please!)

So for my last SAB hurrah, I created one of those pop-up box cards, AKA explosion box cards. Our office is going to give our administrative secretary a gift card for Secretary's Day later this month. I said I'd make a card--and I made a doozy! I've seen lots of these pop-up box cards and wanted to learn how to make one myself. I went to a number of websites and watched a number of You Tube videos and used a hybrid of instructions to make my card. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?

(Stamp Sets: Mixed Bunch, Layered Labels, Petite Petals, Papillion  Potpourri; Inks: Basic Black, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit; Card Stock: Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit; DSP: Sweet Sorbet; Accessories: Blossom, Elegant Butterfly, Petite Petals, Oval, 3/4" Circle Punches, Apothecary Accents Framelit Dies, Little Leaves Sizzlit, Basic Pearls)

I used SAB Sweet Sorbet DSP because I love, love, love that paper. The colors are so Spring-y and, well, sweet. And I thought adding flowers from the Mixed Bunch and Petite Petals sets would make a lasting flower arrangement for our administrator. I showed the card to my work group today--and even the "boys" were impressed--I'm guessing that's because it looks like it's an engineering marvel! Little do they know--it's all about the tools!

Sweet Sorbet Make & Take Idea

I've got a couple of workshops coming up during Sale-a-Bration and I'm looking for ideas for make-and-takes. When I saw this card that Marla Reed made, I knew that I had to CASE it...and then I thought it would be perfect for a make-and-take. I love Marla's stamping style--it's so fresh. The colors on this card are so sweet. I never would have thought about putting Sahara Sand and Pool Party together, but this combo rocks! I used a different background stamp on the tag and I used the Elegant Butterfly punch rather than the Bitty Butterfly punch that Marla used.

So this is one of my ideas for a workshop M&T. I have another up my sleeve that I'll share later this week. I'm hoping for a snow day on Thursday so I can stamp all day!!!

(Stamp Sets: Perfect Pennants, Papillion Potpourri, Delicate Doilies; Inks: Pool Party, Basic Gray, Summer Starfruit; Card Stock: Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Basic Black, Whisper White, Crisp Cantaloupe, Summer Starfruit; DSP: Sweet Sorbet; Accessories: Elegant Butterfly Punch, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Pistachio Pudding Ruffle Stretch Ribbon, Whisper White Baker's Twine, Basic Pearls)

In Love With Color Challenge

I'm a little bit behind on getting a card made for Lyssa Zwolanek's color challenge.  Lyssa posts a color challenge every Sunday and I knew exactly what I wanted to make when I saw color combo #3 from the September 8th post.  I love, love, love these colors together and they're perfect for using with the Papillion Potpourri set--that's on special right now!! Save 15% now through September 30 when you bundle the Papillion Potpourri set with the Bitty Butterfly Punch in either clear (bundle item number 135311--$26.27) or wood (bundle item number 135312--$29.67).  I don't have the Bitty Butterfly Punch, so I used the Elegant Butterfly Punch (127526).

Here are the three choices for Lyssa's color challenge for September 8...don't worry, I'll be creating something for the September 15 challenge, too, and I'll get it posted....eventually!!!

Lyssa's color combos for September 8 are: 

1. Pool Party, So Saffron, Cajun Craze and Basic Gray
2. Crumb Cake, Rose Red, Soft Sky, Soft Suede
3. Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Here's what I made with color combination #3:

(Stamp Sets: Papillion Potpourri, Sweet Essentials: Card Stock: Early Espresso, Rose Red, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette; Inks: Early Espresso, Rose Red; Accessories: Elegant Butterfly Punch, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Adorning Accents Embossing Folder, Adorning Accents Edgelits, Pink Pirouette 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Dazzling Details)

Let me tell you: I also used my brand new Big Shot Magnetic Platform for the Adorning Accents Edgelit.  Those things were a pain in the you-know without the Magnetic Platform and a cinch with it! Wowza! I'm loving my Magnetic Platform.

Here's a close up of the butterflies so you can see the Dazzling Details details! I put a little piece of Stampin' Dimensionals (the part you might throw away at the edge of the sheet) behind each butterfly so they'd be 3D.