My Dear Kind & Wonderful Friend

This is a quick and easy but very elegant card, if I do say so myself...lol. Yep that's me patting my back...I truly love this sentiment "My dear kind & wonderful friend" I think it's because that's exactly how I feel about the ones I love. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to have such wonderful women in my life, with the kindest of hearts, that I am truly proud to call my friends. I wish they had this stamp but with the word Mother replacing Friend. Although I am lucky that my mom is both my friend and my mother.

So this card is made with Basic Grey and Soft Sky card stock. I am really going to miss Soft Sky when it retires in August with the rest of the In Colour family. I don't know how Stampin Up! is going to top themselves this year! The background is stamped in Encore Silver ink, with the Baroque Motifs (pg. 120 item#109403) and the sentiment (All Holidays pg. 146 item #109397) is embossed in silver embossing powder. Sheer ribbon is added for that elegant touch and voila! Quick and easy and oh so beautiful!

Wonderful You!

I have the cutest little story to tell about my bestest gal pals while we were making this card at a recent club. I'm telling this story with love and affection:-) My girlfriend B was the first to arrive, and she started making this card. When she got to the end she picked up the "wonderful you" stamp looked at it and said "wonderful me!" and stamped it on. My friend L arrived late and about an hour or so later she was making the same card....she picked up the same stamp and said "wonderful me!". B and I started laughing.....I kept looking at them wondering if it was me or their reading! LOL! Actually I know the truth, they were right, they truly are wonderful!

This card was made with Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip cardstock. The background was wheeled on with the Stemp & Silhouettes wheel (pg.91 item #111262) in So Saffron. I stamped the leaf stamp from the Wonderful You (pg. 91 item#111181) stamp set in Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery. It's such an elegant set with so many possibilities. When I got this set I thought it would be great for double stamping....but I have yet to do that with it! I've coloured in the outlines of the flower, I've stamped the solid leaves, maybe next time I'll double stamp!

Happy stamping! I hope you are enjoying creating as much as I am!

Escape with Stampin' UP! and Save!

Put down the phone, turn off the computer, and break free from the ‘e’! Remember when you got letters in your mailbox instead of your inbox? On June 25, 2008, Stampin' Up! is taking the day to unplug and unwind, and reconnect on a personal level with friends and loved ones through handmade cards. And we invite you to eScape with us throughout the month of June!

Reconnect with your “wireless network” by attending an escape event or hosting one of your own! Take advantage of the 25 percent discount on select products in the eScape bundle to help you create that special message from the heart.

eScape Bundle (item 113700):
Circle of Friendship stamp set p. 143 $22.95
Love Notes assortment p. 167 $11.50
Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad p. 165 $6.75
Very Vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon p. 191 $10.50
Total (non-bundled) $51.70
eScape Bundle price $36.05

Contact me to place your order! A great savings so take advantage...I know I will...lol.

Happpy Father's Day!

Manly cards are more challenging than making something pretty and full of flowers and butterflies and all things feminine. Or is it just me? Maybe it's the fact that most of my stamps center on a more feminine theme....that definately doesn't help things :) On the up side that means I get to buy another stamp set...oh no! lol!

Well I figured the best place to start was with a manly colour scheme. I did the same card in two different colour ways....can you guess which one I did first? The top left card is made on basic grey, blue bayou and whisper white card stock. I used the encore silver ink pad to apply the ink all over the dotted stamp, and used the brayer to apply even pressure on the back of the inked stamp. The happy father's day stamp is from the All Holidays stamp set. This has turned into one of the most versatile sets there are! Seriously! Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter, Christmas, My Dear Kind and Wonderful Friend, and many more! The Happy Father's Day stamp is embossed in silver on this card and gold on the next card.
This next card uses Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Blue Bayou card stock. The background is stamped with Chocolate Chip Classic ink pad and accented with Blue Bayou double stitched ribbon. This card is so verstatile, if you change up the sentiment on the front it can be for almost any occassion. In fact some of the stampers at the Bradford Club used the Birthdays are the Best stamp on the front of the card. I should have took a picture because it turned out really good! Why is it that hind sight is 20/20 and foresight not so much? lol!

Baby Onsie card!

I will be honest this card takes some time and patience to make, but it is well worth the effort! If requested I might make this at a workshop but it takes more time and I think I have to finesse the process a little bit.

Start by cutting your card 4 1/4" x 11", so length wise in half instead of width wise (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"). I used the circle punch and scallop punch to cut out the neck line and leg holes. To make the arms and sides I used the cutter and eye balled it. I will make a template so it's more even in the future, but for now I'm roughing it with my eye...lol. Hmmm....a template....yes I think we can do this card with a template! Great idea, glad I thought of it! HAHAHAHA! The center stamp is one from this years Sale-a-bration promotion that I earned for free! It was a limited time offer and the stamp is now retired, but it is so sweet I couldn't help myself!

Bundled in Love

Since I know that my brother and his girlfriend are having a baby boy we made this adorable card! The card stock used was chocolate chip and soft sky...my two favourite colours. This is a fairly simple card, mostly just paper layering and water colouring. The hippo is from the Bundled in Love stamp set and stamped in Blue Bayou ink on water colour paper. Using the watercolour crayons and aqua painter we painted the hippo. Added a little colour for the bow on the hippo, made a bow from the double stitched ribbon in blue bayou and voila! Quick and easy, but I just love the colour combination and the simplicity of the card.

Wild About You!

I am sure wild about baby cards! lol! I've had quite a few requests lately for baby cards so I'm on a roll! This card was done at our Bradford Stampers Club during the May long weekend. Bonnie was the hostess with the mostess and we are all looking forward to Barb's in June! I think they need a stamp that says "hostess with the mostess"..lol. I really am THAT corny...lol.

Ok so back to the card, we randomly stamped the penguin, flower and bird from the wild about you stamp set in Certainly Celery ink on Certainly Celery cs. On a piece of whipser white cardstock we stamped the elephant in Pale Plum, the lion in Soft Sky and the Giraffe in So Saffron. We punched out the animals using the 1 1/4" circle punch. Using the 1 3/8" circle punch and the scallop circle punch, punch circles in Soft Sky, Pale Plum and Barely Banana. After the cardstock (cs) is glued and layered, add some glitter to the animals for that little bit of sparkle. We used the two way glue pen to add glue to the specific areas of the animals, like the lion's mane, and added glitter. The colours are gender neutral so it's perfect for a baby.

Wonderful You!

This card is similar to one I did earlier, in different colours and a slightly different technique. I used the glossy paper and stayzon ink in jet black on this card. I used the markers to colour in the center of the flower first with So Saffron Stampin' Write marker as well as the petals. Tip: colour in only a few petals at a time so that you can use the blender pens to blend the colours. If you take too long and colour in all of the petals before blending the markers, it will dry and doesn't blend as well. The trick to blending is having the ink wet enough to blend. I used Almost Amethyst, and Elegant Eggplant as a dark accent. The glossy paper made a big difference when using the Stampin' write markers. This card that I had made in Mellow Moss was done with regular Whisper White cardstock. The blender pen didn't really blend it, but using the coordinating markers and ink made it a lovely card none the less. There are so many options and techniques when working with the markers and colouring. So much to do...so little time...lol.

Baby! Baby! Baby!

My funny mom, wanted to use each of the animals in the Bundled with Love set so that she didn't get bored making the same thing 30 times! hahahaha!
We used Watercolour paper, and could have used stayzon ink to prevent bleeding of the outline, but we wanted a softer outline and used blue bayou ink for the outline. All in all it didn't bleed too much. My mom used the watercolour crayons in soft subtles and the aqua painter to paint all of the animals. Welcome Baby is from the Short & Sweet stamp set and added something extra to some of the cards. On the little duckie she added a ribbon to the pull string which was really cute! The slot punch was used to create the hole for the ribbon at the top of the card. The rest was layers of paper.

Baby Shower Invitation!

My brother and his girlfriend are having a baby in July and my Mom and I are having a baby shower for our friends and family. These are the invitations that we made. I am sooo excited to have a baby around that I can give back when they're crying and stinky! LOL! And hug and hold when they are happy and satisfied! I'm kidding...sort of...lol. Seriously I love this stamp set, Bundled in Love is exactly what a baby is! We had to make 30 or so of these invitations so I used the computer to create the announcement and shower details. I coloured out our address and phone number for posting purposes...I can't imagine why can you? lol. It's much easier than you might think, I used Microsoft Word, chose my font, and copy and pasted the words on the document, saved and printed it on cardstock.