For my first project, I racked my brains to come up with something special for my friend Fonda's birthday card (...because she is special, and I don't mean just short bus special). I decided to try the Chalkboard Technique, and you won't believe how beautifully the project turned out! I'm going to leave you in suspense, though, since I should hold off on posting the card until after her birthday, just in case she swings by before then to read this. Trust me, it'll be worth the wait!
Soooo... my next project was to make a set of sample cards for my upline (Hi, Hewitt!) using one of SU!'s new level 3 hostess sets, Window Dressing. Is this a gorgeous set or what?
This first card is partially CASE'd from a card I saw on SplitcoastStampers (if it's your design, speak up so I can give you credit!) I loved the layout and the color combination -- Baha Breeze, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose -- and I got to play with my new scallop border punch. Aren't the curtains the cutest? OH! I have GOT to tell you: After years of staring at my Stamp-a-ma-Jig with fear and loathing, I finally made friends with it for these projects. Now I wonder, how could I ever have lived without it?? It's the best thing since sliced bread!
I like the boldness and simplicity of this next card. Colors are Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, and Riding Hood Red. The "For You" is from the Happy Everything set. Sidenote: In the past I've grabbed ink from my inkpads with my blender pens to color with the "In Colors" since SU! doesn't offer markers in those colors. The result has been a kind of watercolor look, which is fine. However, this time around I invested in ink refills for this year's In Colors, and found that by dipping my blender pen in a drop of ink, I get bold coloring, just like I would from a marker! I know this may not be a news flash to a lot of you, but to me this is HUGE!
Here's a card that was fun to make! I colored the window image with blender pen and pastels (Close to Cocoa, Lovely Lilac, Riding Hood Red). Next I colored and cut out a second set of the shutters and placed them over the first ones with Stampin' Dimensionals, to create a 3-D look. I used the scallop circle punch to create the window valance, and accented it with my trusty white gel pen. Finally, I made a fence using the word window punch. A few flowers and gold brads later... voila!
I made two versions of the following card. The first one is for my upline and uses only current SU! products. The main colors are Apricot Appeal, Pacific Point, Baha Breeze, and Tangerine Tango. The leaves in the background are from the set Thoroughly Thankful. The photo doesn't show it very well, but the shutters are cut and folded slightly upward to give them the look of being partially open.
The second version is very similar, just minus one layer. I used the Rough Texture wheel on the background this time in hopes of creating a stucco look.
The only stamps in the Window Dressing set I hadn't used at this point were the snowmen and the Very Merry Christmas -- so naturally it was time to make Christmas cards. The card base on these is Pacific Point. I punched out a 1-3/8" circle in the front of the card, then used my new friend, the Stamp-a-ma-Jig, to stamp the snowmen on the inside of the card, which I had already layered with a scalloped piece of Whisper White. I created a frame for the circle using the scallop punch and then paper pierced each of the petals. I added the Very Merry Christmas to the inside and added color to the snowmen. One version of this card has the greeting at the bottom in black on white with a small crystal, but on the rest I used white craft ink and white embossing powder to make the greeting from Heard from the Heart really stand out.
