SSSC76 - A Muse Zinnias

This day was a day that ran off and left me behind! Does that happen to you too? All I know is that it was suddenly 8PM and my fingers were itching to touch something stampy!! So I quick whipped this card up based on the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 76. Did you happen to see the post on the Paper Crafts Connection blog today - It was hosted by Teri Anderson who is one of my favorite papercrafters ever!! Her work is always so inspiring to me and makes me want to play with my crafts stash in new and different ways!

The post was entitled - Tooling Around with Teri: Slicing it with Fringe Scissors. I bought these scissors with big plans to make lots of grass but then they got put in the drawer and forgotten - When I saw what Teri had done with them I dug them out and put them to work!! Fun!! The flower stamps, ribbon and gingham paper are from A Muse; the sentiment and button are from PTI and in the background is my favorite embossing folder from Cuttlebug -

GASP! I only have one piece of kraft paper left in my cabinet - this calls for an emergency trip to Hobby Lobby first thing in the AM!!

Mass Production - Part II

Corey's sister in Seattle is expecting another baby!! We are so excited! Time to make some baby thank you's. This time Jen is having a boy!! Stella is going to be such a good big sister!!

First step, of course, is to decide the layout of your card - Jen mentioned that she liked this card so I decided to adapt it for baby. Next was time to gather up your materials - The gorgeous shimmer paper (adds so much elegance to a simple card!!) and sentiment are from A Muse; the ducky punch is from The Paper Source.

One important tip I have for mass production is to ALWAYS do your stamping before you assemble your card. Have you ever finished the "perfect" card and then did a bad job stamping the sentiment? I have! - no matter how well you've put your card together a badly stamped sentiment/image will be the thing that draws your eye! What I do is "mock up" my card layout and then stamp - I lay the layers onto the cardstock without gluing down and stamp (doing this ensures that you stamp in the right area of your card) and then move to the next one - I tried to demonstrate that in the above picture. The layers on the bottom are ready to be stamped - the ones above have already been stamped. Another good tip is that if you stamp poorly you can just turn over the cardstock - if you've glued it down you lose that opportunity!

Next step was to glue down the shimmer strip and punch the hole that the bird would peek through - This kind of card is fun cause it is cute when you open the card too!

There it is - a stack of 12 completed cards - took hardly any time at all! I find mass production to be really therapeutic because all the decisions are made at the outset and then you can just relax and craft. Sometimes doing a quick dose of mass production is the antidote when your creative juices seem to be dried up - Being able to construct a finished product makes you happy and can be just the thing to get the creativity moving again!! Happy Stamping!!

CAS97 - Embossed kraft with flowers

This sketch was from Clean & Simple Stamping Sketch 97 - To add a fun dimension I embossed the kraft paper with my Cuttlebug folder that is a branch with leaves -
I added more of the flowers that were made with my new Papertrey Ink dies. The patterned paper and sentiment are from A Muse.

PDCC36 - Red bird . . .

This card is based on the Play Date Cafe Challenge #36 - Use Pink, White and Red for a card plus the PDCC design team issued an 'insider challenge' to one another to design something using birdcages, or to be exact,Tim Holtz's Birdcage Die Cut from Sizzix. Since I just got that diecut I decided to highjack that part of the challenge too!

These colors are not ones I would ever go to on my own - I would definitely replace the pink with a different color. But that is what a challenge is all about - going out of our comfort zone to try new things.

What I couldn't capture in the photo is the fact that the pink background is very shimmery due to my new Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist that I sprayed over the birdcage that I cut out. The Glimmer Mist is part of my Stamping Royalty prizes - Funny how something that I would never purchase is the first thing that I used! I like the little pun I was able to sneak in this card - "Just A Note" - get it?? hee hee

Moxie Fab - A Pleasing Palette

This card is based on Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger - the inspiration pic is below. . .

I was immediately drawn to the pleasing hues - the robin's egg blue, pink, green and orange and wanted to use them. I planned originally to just use the colors but since I have the new Papertrey Ink teacup die, I couldn't resist making this card closely resemble the trigger photo.

Everything on this card was die cut with the exception only of the background kraft paper (embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder) and the cardbase. The flowers, label and teacup are all PTI dies. The leaves are a SU! die.

Don't be surprised when you see these flowers popping up in the future - I cut a bunch out!

All the beautiful colored and patterned papers (gingham, kitchen and solid papers) are from A Muse. Hope you have a beautiful weekend!

2010 Stamping Royalty

LOOK what the mailman dropped off today!! My Paper Crafts Stamping Royalty prizes! I was so excited that I tore right into that box!

Look at the totebag - I know that I've been dissing pink here lately but look closer -

It has my name on it!! This is some pink that I will gladly/proudly carry around!! WHOO HOO!! Gotta dash - I'm off to play with my new toys!!

Papertrey Teacups

I made a card with my Papertrey Ink (PTI) playthings - they've been releasing so many great items but my budget is limited, sigh. . . so I opted to get the new teacup die and the Tea for Two Additions stamp set which I coupled with some PTI patterned paper that I already had (Green Tea Leaves Collection and 2008 Bitty Dot Basics)

I used two sketches for inspiration - 2Sketches4You inspired the card and Get Sketchy #44 inspired the envelope. Do you stamp and embellish envelopes for your cards? I tend not to - but to me this sketch just screamed out envelope!

Love how the teacup, patterned paper and sentiment echo the look/feeling of the card. I even used my new favorite EKSuccess border punch (5 times in the last week!) on the envelope flap and for some decorative strips on the envelope front, as well. An application of Distress ink with the Inkssentials foam tool helped to "age" the paper a bit.

A tiny Zva pearl flourish was just the finishing touch - I cut this swirl into pieces, a tiny bit of it is on the envelope too.

I "heart" how these turned out - definitely not my usual look but one that I love! BTW - Have you checked out A Muse U today - it is all about inspiration - what a great post! plus - I won the Play Date Cafe Challenge this week! WHOO HOO!!