Kissed by Nature

Here is another 'Kissing' card from tonight's Technique Tuesday class ... we used the Inspired by Nature stamp set in Pink Pirouette which was kissed with the En Francis in Early Espresso and featuring a 'framed' Labels collection ... and a little Framed Tulips and the Tasteful Trim in Baja Breeze.

I used my Color Coach for the palette and the layout was inspired from over at 'Just Us Girls' which was a nice simple but elegant layout. 

If you have a moment hop on over and check them out ...

 Just a reminder that this month Stampin' Up is offering paper crafters a chance to try out the My Digital Studio Express for FREE for 30 days so that you too can fall in love with everything it has to offer ... check it out here!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Stampin' on a Tuesday 411 style

Another Inspired by Nature offering using the Pastels, Color Combination from Stamping 411 and the template this time from Try Stampin' on a Tuesday from last week and the every lovely Everyday Enchanted.

Stampin' 411

 Try Stampin' on a Tuesday

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Inspired by Challenges

Nothing like a good challenge blog to get the creative juices flowing in the ole craft corner ... and this week has been full of a few ... I combined the Stamping 411 Color challenge of Island Indigo, Pool Party, Coral Calypso and Lucky Limeade with the Friday Mash Up use Pastels on a Birthday themed challenge and finished it up with the Just Us Girls layout sketch challenge to come up with the following offering!

 

The Inspired by Nature stamp is so fun to use the pastel chalks on ... the cone flowers just pop right off the page!

The new stamp set Take it to Heart has a little ribbon stamp that I just LOVE as a sentiment accent for a card. I can see myself using this on a scrapbooking layout too! 

The Loving Thoughts stamp set in the Occasions mini was designed to fit perfectly inside this which is awesome! However the other great thing about Stampin' Up is our coordinating products - cause it fits so many of our other sentiments neatly inside it as well so if you do not have the Loving Thoughts stamp set yet - not worries ... I used the Wish Big sentiment from Short and Sweet stamp set and added some pearl accents to balance it off.

The paper piercer is also a marvelous tool - my card felt a little 'lopsided' to me so I added some subtle paper piercings up in the corner - which helped to balance it out for my anal mind!

I am just loving this color palette of the Sale-abration Everyday Enchanted paper .... if you love it too you can earn it FREE with a $60 order as of January 24th or you can book a workshop during Sale-abration and you can earn hostess dollars AND free Sale-abration products ... win win! 

In the mean time hop on over to the following blogs and check out the wonderful offerings other card designers have come up with using these challenge inspirations!

The Friday Mashup

 Just us Girls

Stamping 411

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Inspired to Peek ...

Another card where I was having fun playing with the 'Peekaboo Embossing' technique .... we made  this tonight at our Technique class using the Inspired by Nature stamp set and the Strips Embossing folder to look like a 'fence' with a garden behind it....brushed some Soft Suede along the raised strips to help with the illusion of the fence :)

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Some 'Kissing' going on this season

Well Christmas was AWESOME around here ... we really scaled back on the 'presents' and instead spent some quality time together playing cards and having fun on Christmas day - which is truly what it is all about! 

And well I have to admit as much as I love the holidays I LOVE being on vacation ... carved out sometime to spend sometime playing around in the Stampin' Cave with some techniques on my 'wish I had time to try this' list and here is a sample from one of them ...

Embossed kissing ... it is a little bit tricky to master the 'timing' to get it to turn out just right - cause you need the ink to dry but not the 'versamark kiss' before applying the embossing powder! 

However I love the effect of having the 'embossed image' overlaying JUST the stamped image of the floral focal - gives my old favorite Inspired by Nature a pop having the En Francis stamp as an overlay in the Tempting Turquoise embossing powder

Here is the 'sentiment' hiding on the bow with the Tiny Tags and Jewelry Tag punch!

Happy 'A La Card Monkey' Easter

Hope everyone is having a peaceful and restful long Easter Weekend ... I have so been relishing the wonderful extra days! Friday we took in a Toronto Blue Jays game which was totally awesome - close action packed game that went into extra innings!

Then 'reality' hit for yesterday with errands - what a zoo at Holiday can make of the grocery stores man - twice as many shoppers equals three times as long line ups for some reason!

Thankfully today I got to spend lots of time in the craft room catching up and relaxing ... partaking in some challenge inspired card making!

Thank you to the Colour Q for the following color combo ...

Along with the A La Card Monkey Challenge for the following layout challenge ... which was just too cute and inspired the card belong!

So had to tweak the Color Q colour combo a wee bit using a Subtle's collection of Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, So Saffron and Pink Pirouette and incorporating the Easter Blossoms stamp set with the Inspired by Nature set and using the Scallop Edge border punch with the Decorative Label punch ...

and of course a nice close up of some bling on the sentiment as well as in the basket of the little girl!

Happy Easter too all - and for those of you who get tomorrow off as well enjoy the extra long weekend and for those heading back to normal work life - hope the Bunny was good to you and that his arrival will continue to mean sunny warm days for those of us who have so been longing for more signs of SPRING that we have had this weekend!