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!

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!

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.

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.

Embrace Life

My mission for the day was to make a small set of cards for my home health aide to complement her other gift. It seemed like the perfect time to pull out my new "Embrace Life" SU! set and Ginger Blossom double-sided designer paper to make some quick ones, easy peasy. Colors used are Groovy Guava, River Rock, Ruby Red, and Cameo Coral. Oh yeah, I used some Wild Wasabi on one of the cards. Not much to them, since the fanciest things I used were a blender pen, some Wasabi double-stitched ribbon, and a bling brad from the Stampin' Up! Pretties kit. Most of the stamped images are from "Embrace Life," but I also grabbed some other stamps that were sitting out.

Moon Cards

This set of cards will be a holiday gift for my nurse, who likes blue and moons.



The image for this first card is embossed in detail silver and then layered on brushed silver cardstock, which is then layered on printed paper on a card base of Night of Navy.






I used the same image on this next one, only this time embossed in Silver Fire Opal. Layers are Whisper White, Night of Navy, and printed paper.






Soft Sky is the card base for the following card, with an image embossed in Gold Fire Opal layered on Night of Navy. I pulled out my southwest corner punch and created a frame for the image with gold string.






This next card turned out really cool-looking in real life, but as usual the photo doesn't do it justice. Images are stamped in Brilliant Blue and layered on Ballet Blue on top of a Brilliant Blue base. I used a spiral border stamp to create a background, and used Stickles to fill in the gaps between the rows.






This photo turned out rather dark, so you can't see how the image stamped in Craft Whisper White pops out against the background. Cardstock includes Night of Navy, Ballet Blue, and Brilliant Blue all layered on Whisper White cardstock. (I don't often think to use white as a card base!) Gold string provides a little interest.






I like the next card for its simplicity. I used the Aida Cloth background stamp with VersaMark on Ballet Blue, and layered the images in Brilliant Blue and Night of Navy. There's gold string on the spine for accent.






The card base for this next one is Brushed Silver. Even though the image is embossed in Detail Silver and looks quite stunning in person, the picture blurs it a bit. Layers of printed paper, Night of Navy, and Brushed Silver are quite striking, and the paper pierced corner adds a nice touch.






Here's a simple moon image embossed in Silver Fire Opal and layered on Night of Navy with printed paper. I added a silver star brad for accent.






I used Blue Bayou and Soft Sky for the following card, and accented with paper piercing and silver brads.






Here's another super simple Night of Navy card with layers of Soft Sky. The image is embossed in Gold Fire Opal, and I made use of my corner rounder punch.

Lovely as a Tree

I couldn't resist making one more card with this set while I had it out. Trees are embossed in detail gold on Handsome Hunter cardstock and layered with brushed gold cardstock.

Cards for Guys (Stragglers)

I woke up itching to stamp, so I whipped these puppies out even before I showered this morning.



Since my tree stamp had gold pigment ink on it already, thought I'd make another card similar to the one I made last night. This time I used a burgundy card base, embossed on Blue Bayou, and used brushed gold cardstock for accents. I'm really pleased with how it turned out!






The image on this next card is also from Lovely as a Tree, but this time I pulled out my detail silver embossing powder. Cardstock is Going Gray and Night of Navy, with print paper from who knows where.

Cards for Guys, by Request

I was requested to make some cards that would be appropriate to give to men for birthdays or whatever, and this is what I came up with. Some cards I created awhile ago and just tweaked today, and others are brand spankin' new.



These first two have a primitive (caveman, ha ha) feel to them. They've been looking for a home for some time, so tonight I added some fibers to the spines and told them they would soon be loved.






These next two were also made some time ago using Hero Arts stamps. The card base for the orange one has a leathery texture to it which is lost in the photo. The other card base is Sage Shadow.






These two are hot off the press, and were made with SU!'s Loads of Love set and patterned paper from DCWV.






This freshly-made card is one of my favorites. Stamps are from Stampin' Up! Trees are from Lovely as a Tree, and I've momentarily lost track of where the "Thinking of You" came from. Colors are current "In Colors" Blue Bayou and Soft Sky, and the trees and words are embossed in detail gold.






I really love the old fart in these next two -- isn't he fun? The patterned paper arrived in the mail today with some stamps sent in a roundabout way from my friend Fonda, and was just what I was looking for. Base of cards are Soft Sky and Close to Cocoa.






This next card has been floating around since last Spring. Card base is Very Vanilla, ink is Chocolate Chip, and patterned paper is from SU!'s retired Au Chocolat designer paper series. I added a bit of coordinating brown grosgrain to jazz it up a bit.






I'm heading to bed now so I can be fresh for tomorrow since I have a lunch date with Fonda's mom. Olive Garden, hooray! I'm hoping I'll be up and functional in time to make two more cards so I can give her an even dozen, but we'll see what happens.

Sing with Me!

To the tune of "Let it Snow" ... ready? Sing with me now!



Oh the weather outside is frightful

But the inks look so delightful

So while the winter is cold and damp

Let us stamp! Let us stamp! Let us stamp!



It doesn't take much convincing

And I've brought a tool for crimping

Choose some paper, turn up the lamp

Let us stamp! Let us stamp! Let us stamp!



When we carefully press just right

How we smile as the image unfolds

Add some color, so bold, so bright

The result is a sight to behold!



Our projects are quickly drying

And there's new techniques for trying

So until we get finger cramps

Let us stamp! Let us stamp! Let us stamp!