Just Add Ink meets the Color Q

Well this week over at the Just Add Ink blog the challenge was to CASE (copy and share everywhere) something from the wonderful and amazingly talented Tania Gould ... just peruse her inspiring blog to see how easy a feat this will be for card bloggers to rise to this challenge! 

Her work is breath taking! I was particularly inspired by this card ... one of my favorite stamp sets combined with a Vintage look and bling - what more is there too love?

So after being inspired by some of her amazing designs and 3D flowers I decided I needed a color palette inspiration to avoid being tempted from just totally 'casing' her card colors and all ... so I headed over to another of my favorite blogs the Color Q , for some inspiration! 

Found this weeks color scheme of Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Sahara Sand and White and thought THAT IS JUST PERFECT!

So down to the craft room I went to create the following offering ... I created the distressed background paper by sponging with Night of Navy, Marina Mist and Bashful Blue and than stamping with the En Francis background - applying the Foxy Oxi technique and crumpling the paper while it was  still damp - always makes one cringe a little to crumple their hard work!

Once it was dry I distressed the edges and sponged with Night of Navy to darken them up again cause the Foxy Oxi removed quiet a bit of color on me. I than stamped the Cherish sentiment and the Baroque Motif image in Night of Navy and created a matching envelope so it does not arrive 'naked' to whomever gets this treasure.

I created the accent piece with my 2 1/2 inch scallop circle punch. I first stamped a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock with the En Francis stamp in Night of Navy and than punched out 6 scallop circles, sponged the edges with Night of Navy and spritzed with water and crumpled them to distress them. Opened the scallops and layered them on top of each other to create my flower and adhered them together with a vintage brad and spritzed the flower with Vanilla Shimmer mist.

 The leave accents are from the Bird Builder punch which were covered with Tombow and fine galaxy glitter in the Champagne color - this card really is stunning in real life with the dimension and shimmer and glitter ... very fun to make!

A huge thank you to the wonderful challenge blog creators out there who help to get my creative juices flowing - your hard work and inspiration truly is appreciated :)

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Doing the Monkey Mash ....

Having fun this week combining The Friday Mash Up color challenge of Aqua, Chocolate and White...

With the A La Card Monkey Challenge layout below ....

And coming up with the following Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso and Whisper White / Silver offering!

 

 I used the branch from the 2 Step Bird Builder punch to create the Glimmer wreath and than I created my own Tempting Turquoise glitter for the berries on it ... how cool is that?

All you need to create your own glimmer paper is some Versamark,  Heat and stick powder and glitter of your choice - I made up a 2x2 square of this and than punched out my berries as well as a tag for my sentiment!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Cardinal Bliss ...

Just loved this inspiration over at JUST add INK ... the minute I saw it a Bird Builder Punch Cardinal popped into my head flying over some Pine trees this time of year!

I also just loved this one over at Stampin' Royalty blog and wanted to play along with this one with visions of glittery paper coming to mind at the back and the above sketch incorporated into the circle on this one!

And well being that I am preparing for Christmas the traditional color inspiration over at Just Us Girls was still in my head ... 

And well here is my challenge inspired offering ... A Christmas Cardinal using the Bird Builder and the Lovely as a Tree Stamp set with some 'berries' from the Cupcake Builder and well BLING from our red and silver glitter paper and a sentiment from the Many Merry Messages to tie it all together!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Playing with Punches - Shoebox Swaps

This offering is from our Playing with Punches - shoebox card swap with my upline team! Nancy designed and shared her shoebox with us to get to make this card - it was so much fun!

This card used the Lattice Bigz Die with it handcut to create the Celtic knot look, the Butterfly punch, the Boho Blossoms Punch, the 2 Step Bird punch and the ribbon punch. It also features the 2011-12 In Colors and the Butterfly Prints stamp set!

Also wanted to share that I am able to invite a 'guest' to the Upline Team meetings so of you ever wanted to come out and see how supportive and fun being a Stampin' Up Demo can be - drop me a line!

Happy Stampin'

Strength and Hope CASE

I saw this flower daffodil crop up on a couple samples out there in the Stampin' Connection site and thought it was too cute ... my apologies for not having a link to site did not think to go and bookmark the blogs of the demos who shared the flower tutorial :(

This week I decided to try it with the Strength and Hope card for the Color Throwdown challenge last week of the Navy and White with another 'color' but did not submit this one case I ended up with two other colors cause the daffodil looked silly without some 2 step Bird punch leaves in the Old Olive :)

This is another one of those 'sparkly' cards that a photo does just not do justice! I embossed white on white with the words from the Strength and Hope set and than used the Iridescent Ice over the Night of Navy butterfly with some pearls as accents!


This is a perfect card for this weeks Shabby Tea Room challenge as well .... make something with butterflies ... with the new Strength and Hope Campaign set I think I could be entering everyday this week cause I am so loving this set!

Keeping Warm by the Fire

Is this not the coolest card - I received it at the Regional Convention Swap ... I love the use of the 2 Step Bird as the 'fire' and the Word Window as the logs! The Lovely as a Tree stamped off in the background and sponging using a mask technique!

I think this is a nice gender neutral card the would be awesome for a person who loves the outdoors for a birthday or in the spring for Fathers Day!

Things are 'Looking Up'

Is this snowman not the cutest little thing you have ever seen - I love all the punch art ideas that are out and about on the Internet and am not sure who the original designer of this snowman was cause I have seen him used by several Stampers - but I loved him so tweaked him up with the punches I had!

So I used the 2 1/2 inch circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch and 1 1/4 circle punch for this one with the branch from the 2 step bird. The eyes are made with two brads, pumpkin pie sliver for the nose and I drew on the coal with my basic black tip marker and tied a bit of Cherry Cobbler seam binding for the scarf! I than stamped tone on tone serene snowflakes on the Marina mist and paired it with the Ornament punch and the sentiment from All Holidays stamp set stamped in versamark and embossed with white emboss powder. A little bit of the Tinsel ribbon to make the hook for the ornament and we are as good as gold!

This is one of the offerings for this weekends Stamp a Stack at my house - we are making a combination of 5 projects ... some 3D paper crafting, a hostess gift and some cards - everything you need to get you started on your Holidays!

Joy Banner - traditional style

So here are my 'traditional' Joy Banners created from my digital template!

Horizontal Banner ... admitting I did not like the way this one hung on the wall - so I did it over again ;)Second time is a charm ... here is my Vertical Joy banner which I was happier with the way it hung ... well that and in my home I totally have more places to hang a vertical designed banner than a horizontal one.

I designed the 5 panel Banner so that if I wanted I could have the option to create one that either says Joy, Peace or Love depending on my inspiration. I went with the Joy because I wanted a 'winter' theme that could stay up past Christmas and well it allowed for the Ariel Snowman to be incorporated into the O and I am just in love with snowman this season!

So my first panel is Mr Christmas Owl in his fancy vest showcased on the polka dot embossed whisper white paper!

The letter J encased on the ornament punch which was stamped with the polka dot ornament from the Delightful Decorations set and the Serene Snowflakes in the background.

Letter O panel features a Ariel view snowman punched with our circle punch, arms are from the 2 Bird punch set with brad eyes, real red grossgrain ribbon accents.

Letter Y panel is embossed with the Northern Flurry folder and paired with the 2 Step Bird to make a Christmas Cardinal and of course some Rhinestone bling!

Final Panel with the Tags til Christmas stamp set punched out with the ornament punch in the Baja Breeze ink with a little Rhinestone bling paired with some Vanilla Smooch Spritz to add some glitter!

Joy Banner

I am preparing for next weeks Holiday Stamp a Stack and wanting to create a JOY banner as one of our projects - one of the things I really enjoy about My Digital Studio is being able to plan out a project digitally before creating it the real thing ... so here is my digital banner layout and now I am off to the craft room create the real one which I will share tomorrow to show the difference!

Once Upon a Time ...

there we two little girls who believed in fairies ...

Little girls who grew up and still believed in fairies and often went to Fairyfests and frolicked with their fairy friends!

Than one day the Fairy met a Dragon who captured her hear ... and not long after they were wed in a forest wedding where all the fairies and dragons came together to celebrate their love ... and what a party it was!

What a total blast to scrapbook fun photos like these ... this is my cousin Raya's hand fasting to her soul mate Amoun in a pagen festival that was full of music, laughter and celebration around the fire until the wee hours of the morning - amazing day for two amazing people ... 2 years later and still living a happy ever after!

Traditional Spooky Banner

As promised here is the traditional paper crafted Spooky banner for my upcoming Halloween Stamp a Stack afternoon!

This project uses the Clear Scallop Square Bigz Die as the base of each panel and each panel is attached to the long strand of black satin ribbon and tie is made with our Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain Ribbon!

S panel in Rich Razzleberry cardstock spritzed with Silver Smooch Spray and sporting our cute 2 Step Owl sitting on the branch from the 2 Step Bird punch. Letters are cut using the Timeless Die Cut set for the Big Shot.

P panel is using the Wicked Cool designer series paper and accented with the Wicked Cool Spider web stamp and a hand punched spider using the circle punch and some photo corners and our Bitty Bat punch in the opposite corner.

O panel with Old Olive cardstock and the Wicked Cool Witch Hat, Boots and bats stamps and spritzed with Vanilla Smooch Spray.

O panel in Basic Black cardstock embossed with Spider web folder and sponged with Whisper White ink and adorned with a couple punched spiders (not Stampin' Up unfortunately - but my hands are not so good for cutting out a spider by hand and we do not carry a spider punch yet).

K panel with Pumpkin Pie and embossed with the Polka Dot emboss folder and adorned with the Bitty Bat and a hand punched ghost using the wings from the 2 Step Bird punch.

Y panel with the Wicked Cool Designer Series paper and some more handmade ghosts using the 2 Step Bird punch.

Spooky Banner template

Below is the template layout for a Halloween Decor decor banner I am working on for my upcoming Halloween Stamp a Stack this Saturday ... if you have not already signed up don't miss out I have lots of great ideas to share on how to use paper crafting and stampin' to decorate and there are only a couple spaces left!

So I have used the My Digital Studio to help me with the colours, layout of embellishments and so forth than later tonight when I can have some uninterpreted time in the craft room I can whip up the real thing! Another thing to love about the My Digital Studio ... you can map out a template for your projects without using up your paper with any 'duds' that seemed awesome in your head but did not translate into real life ... with the digital option there is not waste cause if you do not like what you created you just move it around until you do and than hit save!

Now the real thing will not look exactly the same cause with real life there are some more techniques and stamps and so forth I have as an option that I do not yet have for the My Digital Studio so check back tomorrow morning for the 'real thing' to see how it came to life for me!

Bookmarks

A collection of hand stamped bookmarks for the Run for the Cure fundraiser.

I used the Table Setting Bigz Die for the bookmark. Bookmarks are featuring the stamp sets Priceless, Eastern Blooms, Inspired by Nature, Flight of the Butterfly and the 2 Step Bird Punch and Butterfly punch.

2 Step Poinsettia

This card is SO cool ... although looks like I need to practice my symmetrical placement of pieces .... but aside from being off centered .... look how the poinsettia leaves are the perfect cuts each time! Wondering how that is done? Easily peasily .... cause this card features the 2 step BIRD punch! Amazing eh?

Plus Nancy sprayed the real red paper with some Platinum Shimmer paint - which she mixed with alcohol in a spritz bottle to mist it - which worked to make it all sparkly - something that never shows up as pretty in a photo!