Another Challenge!

Okay, so this afternoon another card stamped, another mess to clean up (including sticky fingers from the hubba bubba he managed to get out of the little machine, a dum dum pop he found – oh ya, he was proud of himself for that!, and fingers covered in chocolate chip ink – yes, my 13 month old knows how to open up our stamp pads, and popcorn pieces all over my freshly mopped floor.  You get the idea, I’ll stop there.)

Anyway, Kristina’s Color Challenge was almost exactly the same as the last one so it was again colors I’m not used to using all together as I usually stick with 2 – 3 colors plus a neutral.  But, I like what I came up with and I hope you agree!  Let me know with a comment on here if you have a second.

I changed out the Wild Wasabi for a current Stampin’ Up! color, Old Olive.  I used the new small Felt Flurries.  They are so pretty and fun and I’ve used them a few times now, but hadn’t used the Real Red ones yet.  I mean, who’s ever seen a red snowflake?  Anyway, I decided to emboss the red snowflake with Iridescent Ice EP and Whisper White Craft ink.  This gives the snowflake more of a Rose Red color (to go along with the color challenge) and a little icy and snowy.  The wide grosgrain ribbon is Old Olive and then I added the Bashful Blue color with an Ice Circle Rhinestone brad.  The cardinal is watercolored with Rose Red ink, So Saffron (like how I snuck that color in there? LOL), and Old Olive with my aquapainter.  The cardinal and the sentiment came from A Cardinal Christmas stamp set and the snowflakes (the only way I could figure out how to work Bashful Blue in with a cardinal!) came from the lovely Snow Swirled stamp set.  Enjoy!

Again, I apologize that my pictures aren’t as good as they could be.  I still haven’t figured out the best way to take a picture of my work!  I’ll keep trying and hopefully you can envision how much better they look IRL!

Cards from Friends

I love getting mail, don’t you?  Check out these cards.

This one is from Pam.  It’s a nice card on the outside, clever use of the three flower punch to create ‘brackets’ of sorts…

and then check out the inside!  Pow!  Three onesies pop right up at you!  Isn’t that cute??!!!  And even the three stars with three little ducks are all cut out and then popped up on dimensionals.  How sweet?  Thank you Pam!

And here’s one I received from Patty.  How pretty??  It uses the Purely Pomegranate (such a great color) and the new Pacific Point.  The ink is Ballet Blue but I think it looks great paired with the other two colors, don’t you?  All four flowers were cut out by hand and then dazzling diamonds was added to the center of each.  Isn’t that great?  I love seeing all the creative uses for the Eastern Blooms stamp set!  Thank you Patty!

Poinsettia Card

Do you like this card???  I hope so because I do!  And I made a video tutorial on how to make it!  Just keep scrolling to see the two video options.  Enjoy and leave me a comment here to let me know what you think, please?

Here is a list of supplies used on this card – all Stampin’ Up! of course.

Base: Kraft (8.5" x 5.5”)
o2nd layer: Real Red (2.5" x 5.25”)
o3rd layer: Old Olive (coluzzle circle)
4th layer: Ski Slope DSP (eight 1-3/8" circles)
Stamp Set: A Cardinal Christmas 
Inks: craft: Old Olive, classic: Chocolate Chip 
Accessories: 1-3/8" circle punch, dimensionals, Coluzzle, Bone Folder, Anywhere Hole Punch w/ Hammer, Crystal Clear EP, Embossing Heat Gun, Scallop Edge Punch, stamp-a-ma-jig
Embellishments: Rhinestone Brad from Pretties Kit, Wide Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon

 OKAY!  I got it!  Here are the videos. The first is how to do create just the poinsettia.  The second video gives step by step instructions to create the rest of the card. (To see the first video in high quality click here and then click "watch in high quality" to the bottom right of the video screen; and to see the second video in high quality click here.)

6 x 6 scrapbook page or card – your choice

I had a workshop this past weekend and knew that most of them attending would be scrapbookers, but I wasn’t sure if ALL of the guests would be scrapbookers.  So, while at Convention this past summer one of the fabulous presenting demonstrators (sorry, I can’t remember who!) had said that she gives her guests a choice between making a 6 x 6 page or a 6 x 3 card using the same materials.  I KNOW!  GENIUS, RIGHT?!?!  Well, that’s what I thought back in August and I finally got a chance to try it out in my own workshop.  It was great.  Two out of the seven guests made the card option and that was enough for me to say it was a successful experiment and that I’ll definitely be offering that again in future workshops.  So, I know you care more about seeing the projects than reading my babble on the ‘why I did it’ (lol) so here you go:

They both use the following suppies (of course ALL supplies are Stampin’ Up!):
 

Hope you like!  Club members, go over to your page to see the 6 x 6 page turned into a 12 x 12 page!

Stamping for Me and Seeing Spots!

As much as I adore stamping it’s rare that I actually stamp something completely for myself.  Tonight I attempted to do that and participate in Kristina’s Color Challenge.  Her deadlines always come up quickly on me and I have only ever "played" in one other challenge, and that card was for a class!  This card has no plans, as of yet.  It was just one for me.  I have this great stamp set that I haven’t played with much (Flight of the Butterfly) and with the autumn season upon us I don’t feel it’s appropriate to do butterflies for classes and workshops and such.  So, anyway, while my 13 month old TORE apart my office I attempted to create.  It wasn’t a nice, serene stamping experience, but at least I did it!  I encourage you all to attempt the same.  It’s worth the mess I have to go clean up just to stamp something for no other reason than ‘you want to.’  Hope you like it!

It’s the same card in both pictures.  I just wanted to make sure you could see that the butterfly wings are ‘lifted’ off the card front.  I used mini glue dots in the center of the butterflies toadhere them to the card.  The colors for the challenge were So Saffron, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, and Ballet Blue.  The Rose Red DSP you see is from the hostess Prints Pack from last catalog.  I love having those packs of paper!  Everything else is current supplies.  I cheated a tiny bit in that the ribbon is actually Brocade Blue and not Ballet Blue, but I thought it still worked!  The ink used was Ballet Blue!   Quite a few polka dots, huh?  LOL  I love polka dots, which is kind of funny because I am not a fan of full  blown circles.  (I know, I’m strange!)  But tiny little dots are definitely ‘me’.  So, it uses the Polka Dot background stamp with Certainly Celery ink on the So Saffron CS.  The scallop edge punch was used on the Certainly Celery CS (how did I ever live without that punch???).  And I layered a smaller butterfly found in the set on top of a larger one, just to get a touch more color in the card.  If I had time to do it over again (ya right!) I’d make the white layer an 1/8" smaller all the way around.  But, oh well!  I still like the way it turned out.

Anyway, just thought I’d share!  I’d love to see what you come up with using these colors!