Monday, January 28, 2008

Bali Breeze Color Stretch

Today I decided to continue working with Stampin' Up!'s Bali Breeze double-sided designer paper. The colors that coordinate with this paper are Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, and Old Olive. When I saw the papers in the preview brochure, I just HAD to have them, (you know how that goes!), but once they landed on my desk, I spent days staring at the colors and wondering what I was thinking. These colors have me out of my comfort zone, but I forged ahead... and I think I came up with some decent cards. You be the judge.



This first card is the the boldest of today's creations -- don't you just love the paper? I think this is my first time layering the corner punches, and the brads match perfectly with the Pumpkin in the print. The "Smile" is from the Word By Word background stamp. Such a simple card, but fun!






The following card is Old Olive with River Rock accents. It looks a bit washed out in the photo, but in real life it looks pretty classy. Gold Stickles adds a bit of pizazz.






I was hesitant about putting Old Olive and Taken with Teal together in the same card, but with the encouragement of a friend I moved forward on these two; and I'm very pleased with the results. Stamps are from "Embrace Life," and I also used blender pens, white grosgrain ribbon, and green jewel brads that coordinate well with the Old Olive in the center of the flowers.








This last card is Old Olive and Very Vanilla, with gold flower brads to give it a bit of bling. The "Give Thanks" stamp is from The Angel Company. I used my trusty Corners punch and the retired Wrought Iron corner punch. The little envelope came in a package of goodies sent to me by the list mom for the KraftingKarensStampCamp Yahoo! group who was cleaning up her work area and offered to send her "junk" to someone. I jumped at the offer, as one person's junk is another person's treasure! I'm looking forward to incorporating the other goodies into future cards.









I'm heading out today to see the doctor and run some errands, but I can't wait to get back home and continue working with the Bali Breeze papers!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

January's Not-So-Great Card of the Month

This pathetic little card took me nine hours of struggling with lots of breaks, and I'm still not happy with it; so I'm dubbing it January's Not-So-Great Card of the Month. Colors are simply Taken with Teal and Whisper White, with the patterned paper being out of the Bali Breeze double-sided paper series. Stamps are from Stampin' Up!'s Simply Said set. It's too vertical for my tastes (yes, it's a design flaw), but at least the ordeal is over. Sigh. Has anyone seen my Muse?



January 28th Addendum: Okay, you guys are right, I'm being waaay too hard on myself. I've been looking at this card for a few days now, and it's growing on me. After making the cards in the above post, I think the color Teal is starting to make its way into my heart... well, sort of. There's hope, anyway. At any rate, thanks to everyone for the encouragement!



Thursday, January 10, 2008

Hero Arts Card Exchange

I made these cute little fellahs for my first month in the Hero Arts Card Exchange Yahoo! group. Needless to say, the main stamps used (Smile, Stitching) are Hero Arts stamps; but I snuck in SU! paper (Ginger Blossom) and a stamp from the Garden Silhouettes set.




Sunday, January 6, 2008

More Ginger Blossoms Cards

I've been working on another gift set of cards using the Ginger Blossoms double sided papers from Stampin' Up!



The words on this first card were trimmed from the Word By Word background stamp. The stitched look was created with a Hero Arts stamp. Cardstock is Cameo Coral and ink is Ruby Red. I kept the card simple because I think the paper design makes a big impact all by itself.






This simple card was made with the Garden Silhouettes set. I added a little coordinating double-stitched ribbon and used the ticket corner punch to jazz things up a little. When I combined the colors Wild Wasabi and River Rock back in November, I felt I had created an ugly card -- but now I love these colors together!






I let the paper speak for itself on this card, too. Cardstock colors are Ruby Red, River Rock, and Cameo Coral. The camera doesn't pick up the gold flecks I made with my Zig Painty, but they look cool with the gold eyelets.






I used clear embossing powder on white craft ink for the "stitches" on this card, and further enhanced the stitched look by using my paper piercing tool. If I had to do it over again, I'd use white EP instead to make it look more authentic. The single flower is from Embrace Life, and the Native American Saying is from The Angel Company.






This next Cameo Coral card features paper piercing on the corner punch accents, and some Stickles around the flower centers for pizzazz.






Here's an other embarrassingly easy card made with Embrace Life. Cardstock is Blue Bayou, and I used a blender pen to give the flowers a little depth. See the pretty Stickles?






The centerpiece for this River Rock card is stamped in Ruby Red using the Garden Silhouettes set. Punched corner accents are Cameo Coral and Groovy Guava.






I used the Word By Word background stamp again on this next card, simply cutting out the word "happiness." Card base is Wild Wasabi, stitching is again the Hero Arts stamp, and centerpiece flower is colored with blender pen and Stickles.