Flourishing Phrases

The base on this pretty card is Mint Macaron card stock, with a mat of Sweet Sugarplum and a top layer of Whisper White. The two flag-ended panels are the left are from Blooms and Bliss Designer Series Paper and the ribbon is Sweet Sugarplum.  

The lovely flourish piece is die-cut out of Mint Macaron from the Flourish Framelits that coordinate with the Flourishing Phrases stamp set.  Then the two blossoms were run through again in Blushing Bride and adhered.  

“Just a Note” is stamped in Sweet Sugarplum ink from the Flourishing Phrases set, which has several other lovely sentiments for birthday, thank you, sympathy, wedding and caring.

Thanks for looking,

Carole

Sunshine Sayings

Not too hard, but simply sweet.  The base is Whisper White, with a mat of Real Red and White hearts Designer Series Paper, a smaller black mat, set at an angle (off-center images are all the rage right now).

Add a white panel with a die-cut red heart from the Sunshine Wishes Framelits and “Love” is die-cut from the same Sunshine Wishes Framelits set.

Black, white and red … very striking.









Same design, different colored panels, but equally striking.







And here is the same design in a less traditional Black, White and Calypso Coral.













Thanks for looking,

Carole

Painter’s Palette

This randomly stamped card is just too much fun.

The stamp set, Painter’s Palette, sets the stage for this one. It has the easel image and lots of friendship and birthday sentiment with artsy references and it has the brushstrokes and the paint splatter images. All are fun to execute.  

The base is Whisper White, with a mat of Peekaboo Peach and a top layer of Whisper White. On the left side, there is a panel of Designer Paper from Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack, mounted on a panel of Sweet Sugarplum and wrapped with coordinating ribbon of Emerald Envy, Peekaboo Peach and Sweet Sugarplum.

The rest of the Whisper White is randomly stamped with the brushstrokes and paint droplets in the coordinating colors of ink. 

The easel is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and the Layering Squares Framelits are used to cut the center out. Then the center piece that is cut out is decorated with more paint splatters and brushstrokes in the coordinating inks and the sentiment in black.

Thanks for looking,

Carole



Birthday Blast

When the lovely color Mint Macaron retires in June, I will really miss it. I seem to be using a lot of it in several different ways.

This card has a base of Mint Macaron, with a mat of Designer Series Paper with diagonal stripes from It’s My Party Designer Series Paper Pack.  The same Designer Paper pack also has the balloon paper, which is a 3-1/4 x 3-1/4″ square cut to make the birthday “present.”  
Wrap around the “present” some 1/8″ Taffeta ribbon in Melon Mambo, add the Melon Mambo starburst topper from the Starburst Blast Framelits that coordinate with the Birthday Blast stamp set and you have a wonderful birthday treat for a card.

When the Starburst is die cut, there are 5 stars that drop out.  Don’t throw those out. They can be used to decorate the inside of your card.

Thanks for looking,

Carole



Washi Tape Valentine

Here is an excellent way to use up some Washi Tape. A little goes a long way and there always seems to be lots of Washi Tape left over.

These are two examples of Valentine cards made with Washi Tape. The outline and frame are adjacent sizes of the framelit die-cuts from the Sweet & Sassy Hearts Framelits.  

Take a mat, in this case, Blushing Bride and cut the heart out of the middle with the smaller of two nesting framelits.  Then it can be embossed with Hearts (left) or Falling Petals (right). Set aside.  

With the heart piece that was cut out, adhere it to the white card base and begin applying the Washi Tape over the attached heart. There are two reasons for doing this:  1) you will know exactly how far to extend the Washi Tape without going too far or not far enough; 2) the pink heart underneath the Washi will seep through the very sheer Washi and make everything coordinate with the mat of the card.

With a piece of Whisper White or Smoky Slate (if you have used gray Washi, this is a lovely blended combo), cut another small framelit out of the same heart used to cut the Blushing Bride panel. Once cut, put the next larger framelit over the opening and you can see where to center it over the smaller opening.  Die-cut the larger one and what comes out is a frame, perfect for finishing off your heart. Add a little bow and a little sentiment.

Thanks for looking,

Carole


Happy Scenes

Love, LOVE, LOVE this window framelit.  The Happy Scenes stamp set comes with this Fall scene, a scene with a barren tree and 3 little birds and a scene with 3 fir trees in snow, along with a myriad of other sentiments:  “Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.”; “Happy Winter”; “Deck the Halls”; “Thinking of you with a grateful heart”; Season’s Greetings”; “Celebrate the Season”; “PEACE”; “NOEL”; “BOO” and “Wishing you a Happy Halloween.”  

Additionally, there are tiny snowflakes, tiny dots and a tiny spider web, complete with a spider.

Can you say VERSATILE???  Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas, all rolled into one stamp set and with the adorable window and window sill die cuts from the Hearth & Home Thinlets Die set, what could be easier or cuter?

As for the outdoor scene, I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black and used a sponge with some Soft Sky ink to color the sky and Pear Pizzazz ink to color the grassy knoll.  A little marker in Chocolate Chip colored the tree trunk and a few leaves. Tangerine Tango Marker colored the pumpkins and a few leaves and Cajun Craze colored the rest of the leaves.  

The designer papers pull all the colors together, even though the top pattern is retired and the bottom dark green is not Stampin’ Up.

Thanks for looking,
Carole

Father’s Day / Masculine Birthday Offerings


The focal point on this card is from the stamp set 

Going Global and the coordinating Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The three “banner” flags are from the also coordinating Designer Paper Stack, Going Places.  The sentiment is from the same Going Global stamp set. 

The colors used are Very Vanilla, Delightful Dijon, Lost Lagoon, Basic Black.  

Nothing fancy, just showing the magnitude of your love.








What could be nicer than call Dad/hubby/ brother/uncle/son a “classic”?  This Model T image and matching sentiment come in a stamp set called Guy Greetings. The images there are perfect for so many guy occasions.

The trees “behind” the car are from Lovely As A Tree – an old standard itself that has been around for about 10 years, but one which I hope never goes away.  

Making the trees look like they are behind the car utilizes a technique called “masking”. First, stamp the car on a plain piece of paper (not card stock, just plain paper). That is your “mask.” Then, cut it out very close to the image lines. Then stamp your car image on the card stock. Place the mask over the stamped card stock image and then stamp the row of trees right over the mask.  The mask keeps the trees from showing up through the body of the car.  But you must stamp your front image first.

Colors used are Chocolate Chip, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla Card Stocks and Pear Pizzazz, Archival Black and Crumb Cake Inks, with a little Soft Suede Marker coloring the tree trunks.




Love this little bi-plane image. The mottled sky is a Designer Paper called Perfectly Artistic.  The bi-plane is from a set called The Sky Is the Limit. Both were free offerings with a qualifying order during the Sale-A-Bration sale from January-March. The plane is fussy-cut and mounted to pop with Dimensionals.  An additional propeller was cut and added with a Mini-Brad. The clouds and heart contrail images were stamped with Smoky Slate Ink.






This tall and proud giraffe is partially Iris-folded (the body) and partially just paper-folded (the neck).  His neutral colors make him a good male card for any occasion.















An Iris-folded Lion, King of the Jungle, with his beautiful gold mane, is the perfect king of the family card for Dad. 















The paper-folded Trout is appropriate for any guy card.







May all the Dads out there enjoy this special day with loved ones nearby and may joy and laughter abound.

Thanks for looking,
Carole





Mother’s Day/ Feminine Birthday Offerings

This lovely card is made using the Rose Wonder Stamp Set and the coordinating die-cut Framelits. The colors used are Blushing Bride and Rose Red.

I die-cut the roses, then swapped the inside pieces with each of the colors.  So the inside (normally scraps) are inserted into the openings in the other color and vice versa.  The same technique was used with the leaves.  

Can you tell I love jigsaw puzzles?


The left margin was die-cut with a framelit from Botanical Gardens Framelits under which was placed a contrasting piece of Designer Paper that pulled both the pink colors together.
Here’s another from the same Rose Wonder stamp set, using the same Rose Garden Die-cutting Framelits. On this card, the much larger rose with leaves attached from the set was die-cut out of Gold Foil and the Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green leaves were adhered underneath. 

The “Happy Birthday” sentiment – which could easily have been “Happy Mother’s Day” was stamped on Whisper White and free-hand fussy-cut around the letters.  Not much room there to make a rectangled or ovaled sentiment, so fussy-cut is the way to go.
Lilies are always gorgeous – whether for Easter, for sympathy, for a feminine birthday, get well or Mother’s Day.  These lilies are from the Remarkable You stamp set, stamped with Archival Black Ink on Shimmery White Card Stock (hard to see the shimmer here).  Then the inner part of the petals is colored with an Aqua-Painter and the stamen is colored with Wink of Stella Glitter Brush in Gold.    
You will notice this is a center-fold or gate-fold card, with both panels matted in Hello Honey Card Stock that had been embossed with an all-over floral embossing folder and both panels then opening to an inside center sentiment.
A small strip of Gold Glimmer Paper on the left side adds just enough elegance to make this card special.
This card uses the Botanical Garden Stamp Set and the coordinating Framelits.  The colors are Old Olive, Daffodil Delight and Strawberry Slush.  The Designer Paper on the right margin pulls all the colors together.  Notice the Strawberry Slush focal point flower and how the inner petals appear to “pop up”.  The framelit cuts them so they really do pop up!

While this sentiment reads “Thank You,” it could just as easily have been a pretty Mother’s Day card with a different sentiment.
There’s nothing like a pretty Iris-folded card to make any occasion special.  

Working on the backside and following a radiating pattern, layers are placed in such a way to make the finished image resemble the iris of a camera lens.
And an Iris-folded Sun to show Mom she is the center of your universe.

This pattern uses 5 colors and it’s always fun to intersperse patterned paper with solid colors.  Of the 5 little flower groupings below, the far left, middle and far right are stamped right on the card stock with the sun. The 2nd & 4th flower groupings are stamped separately, fussy-cut and popped up with foam Dimensionals.  All the flowers and leaves are hand-colored with Markers.
May all the Moms out there enjoy a happy day of joy and laughter, surrounded by those you love!
Thanks for looking,
Carole

Lighthearted Leaves – 2

The lovely and elegant Lighthearted Leaves is being displayed again here.  Even though, there was an urge to color each of the tiny sections of these leaves with colorful markers, I decided to go simple.

Stamping the leaves in VersaMark and hot-embossing with Gold Embossing Powder on Sahara Sand and Basic Black seemed to work for me.  I actually stamped the first leaf in VersaMark right on the large top-half of the panel, hot embossed it and then used the coordinating Leaflets Framelits to die-cut it.  I stamped the same leaf in VersaMark on Sahara Sand, hot embossed and die cut it as well.  Then I inserted the Sahara Sand leaf into the negative space left from the die cut black leaf.  It fit perfectly!

The black leaf is then popped up with Dimensionals.  The bottom half of the page is Designer Paper.  The woodgrain pattern is from Farmer’s Market Designer Series Paper (DSP).  This tiny print pattern to the right is from Timeless Elegance DSP. Both are lovely, in my view.

The sentiment is from the Lighthearted Leaves stamp set. Inside can be anything from a blank for your own hand-written message to Thinking of You, Get Well, even a Fall Birthday would work.

Thanks for looking,
Carole

Birthday Blossoms


Love these “connected” flowers.  Don’t you think they should be climbing down a brick wall?    

The flowers are from the stamp set, Birthday Blossoms and were stamped twice to get the length in Memento Tuxedo Black and water colored with Aqua-Painters and Rose Red Ink to get the variations in coloration. The centers of each flower were dotted with a Daffodil Delight Marker


THEN (and only then) is the page embossed with the Brick Embossing Folder, after all the stamping and painting is done.  Using a soft sponge, the bricks were lightly scuffed with a dark brown ink to make them pop off the page.


Using contrasting Wild Wasabi card stock and a designer paper with the same colors (Rose Red, Wild Wasabi) the label and flag-ended accents were created. The label was made using the new Tags & Label Framelits, which is a wonderful set for layering.


This sentiment, “the best day ever” is from the same stamp set, Birthday Blossoms, which also includes a larger single flower and a large pair of leaves, and “celebrate you”, “have a beautiful birthday”, “a day all about you” and “happy birthday.”  Truly a sweet and useful birthday set.


A pair of tiny flowers was fussy-cut for the upper left of the label to pull it all together.  


Thanks for looking!


Carole