Inspired by Kristina

If you are like me, you are always on the lookout for ideas for man cards, as I call them. So this one is inspired by Kristina Werner. I stamped some stars on a pumpkin strip and adhered it to a true thyme piece that I pierced along the top. I added a river rock ribbon and HB, attached it to a chocolate base, and that's it! Easy peasy.

Thanks for stopping by, stay tuned for swap cards this week!

Supplies:
stamps - Wanted, It's Your Birthday
paper - chocolate, true thyme, pumpkin
ink - pumpkin, chocolate
acc - mat pack & piercer, river rock gg

Stamp Something Friday!

It's Friday, and that means it's time for another Stamp Something challenge! Today's challenge was to make a red, white, and blue anything-but-a-card. If you've read my blog for any period of time, you will notice that about the only thing I do is cards. So this was a stretch for me, but I did it! Make sure you visit the rest of the team's blogs to see what they came up with.
This is most likely a centerpiece or table decoration. I took a Pringles can and cut it down, then covered it with strips of patterned paper (note: 9-1/4" length is just about right to go around a Pringles can). I stamped large stars with Classic Backgrounds and punched them out, adding small stars and embellishments to the centers. I then stamped the Happy 4th and Celebrate usa circles and embellished as well. I attached different length candy (sucker) sticks to each element and tied pieces of ribbon on each stick. I then stuck each one in a piece of foam in the bottom of the can so they would stay where I wanted them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
stamps - Classic Backgrounds, Fundamental Phrases, Short Order Alpha and Numbers
paper - ww, real red, not quite navy, soft sky; real red, Jersey Shore, soft sky dsp
ink - sky, nq navy, real red
acc - ribbon (red-striped gg, 1/4'" red gg, sky and bayou double-stitched gg, white taffeta); punches (large and small star, 1-1/4 & 1-3/8" circle, scallop); red, silver, and rhine-stone brads; mat pack & piercer; EE buttons; Pringles can; craft knife; sticky strip; sucker sticks

More Clean and Simple

Just another easy card for you to enjoy!
Here I ran a piece of transparency through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder, it was so fun! Except I couldn't tell which side was the front afterwards, not that it matters! I adhered it at the top of the card base, then tied a ribbon to hide the adhesive. The olive circle is adhered to the back of the transparency to hide the adhesive of the flower and sentiment. You gotta try the transparency-in-the-CB trick!
Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
stamps - Everyday Phrases
paper - soft sky, old olive, ww
ink - old olive
acc - acetate, flower fusion, olive grosgrain, word window punch, circle cutter, CB folder, white brad (Darice)

Clean and Simple Stamping

Just an easy card for you today, no stamping on this one (no ribbon either)!
Thanks for stopping by, hope your week is off to a great start!

Supplies:
paper - white textured (Bazzill), Jersey Shore dsp, Bali Breeze dsp
acc - lime daquiri Thickers (American Crafts), silver brads

Stamp Something Friday

It's Friday again, and here is my sample for this week's Stamp Something challenge. Emily gave us a sketch to use, and let me tell you, it was way easier than the last sketch challenge! I will definitely use this one again, thanks Emily!
I started with a 5 x 5 square card base, and layered on a square of rose red dsp matted on ww. I attached the celery strip with brads, and tied a black grosgrain ribbon across the top. The main layer was stamped with the sentiment, I added piercing, and attached it to an olive mat with dimensionals. I attached two Flower Fusion flowers together with a rhinestone brad and adhered it to the main layer with mono multi.

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry I've been a bad blogger, it's been a busy week. Another wedding and my niece's graduation party are on Saturday, so I spent a lot of time this week baking cookies for my part in the party. I've got to get busy on some more swap cards next week.

Supplies:
stamps - Fundamental Phrases
paper - rose red, ww, celery, olive, rose red dsp
ink - basic black
acc - silver brads, black gg, mat pack and piercer, dimensionals, rhinestone brad, Flower Fusion

Busy Weekend!

I'm sure many of you had busy weekends also! Between a wedding/reception, two graduation parties, and Father's Day activities, I did no stamping the past few days. But I have a list of stamping stuff that needs to be done this week, so I'm hoping to get started on it today.
I made a card similar to this (different date) for the wedding we attended Saturday. It was the wedding of a former student of mine, and boy, I don't feel old enough to be having former students getting married! She was in my first home room class eight years ago, and she also played basketball and volleyball on the many teams I coached. A very sweet, fun girl and she married her West Point graduate fiancee on a beautiful day! It was a sweet wedding, and the end was soooo cute and funny - they were getting ready to go back down the aisle at the end of the ceremony when the best man flipped the groom's hat (he was in dress blues) to him, the Indiana Jones theme started playing, and he picked up his bride and ran down the aisle!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

Supplies:
stamps - Wedding Day (PTI)
paper - Curious Cryogen White shimmery, spring moss, old olive
ink - spring moss, old olive, chocolate chip
acc - chocolate satin ribbon, rhinestone brad, Bazzill flower

Stamp Something Friday!

Today's Stamp Something Friday challenge was to create a monochromatic color-schemed project. I used blues (bashful and ballet) to create this card:

I punched random size circles out of ballet blue cs and bashful blue dsp, attached random embellishments to the centers, and layered them on a white card base. I stamped the sentiment in ballet blue ink and added piercing and a ribbon (of course!).

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to check out the rest of the team's samples, and go stamp something!

Supplies: stamps - It's Your Birthday, Classic Backgrounds paper - ww, ballet blue, bashful blue dsp ink - white craft, ballet blue classic acc - assorted punches, white brads, pewter brads, bashful blue brads, ice rhinestone brad, jumbo eyelet, bashful taffeta, white button, page pebble, mat pack & piercer

A Little Practice

I had a chance a few days ago to sit down and just practice with my copics, and this one turned out well enough to actually use on a card!
Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
stamps - Embrace Life
paper - olive, Jersey Shore dsp, pumpkin, ww
ink - palette noir, copics
acc - black brads, dimensionals, circle nesties

Simplicity and What Was For Dinner

As I was designing this card, I was aiming for a zen, spa-like feel in the layout and colors. I used my new Unity stamps, though I don't know why I got this set because it is very similar to SU's Stem Silhouettes! Oh, and yes, the bamboo branch is upside down, I just realized that. Oops!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

stamps - Gratitude=Joy (Unity)

paper - artichoke, sky, sand, moss

ink - artichoke craft

acc - choc taffeta, silver brads

And what was for dinner last night! (I tried to post last night, but we were having some pretty good thunderstorms. I gave up after the electricity went out twice.)

It was yummy! Layers of lettuce, cucumber, grilled shrimp, peas, cheese tortellini, red pepper, topped with a dressing of pesto, mayo, and buttermilk. The perfect summer dinner!

Stampin' Success Case

I cased this card from a recent issue of Stampin' Success. I just love the crisp cleanness of the layout and color combo! I stamped off the flower in river rock ink, then overstamped the outline in always artichoke. I added a rhinestone to the middle and popped the flower up on a dimensional on the circles.

Thanks for stopping by! I also have some samples up on the clean and simple blog today.

Supplies:
stamps - Flexible Phrases, A Beautiful Thing
paper - artichoke, olive, rock, ww
ink - rock, artichoke
acc - circle punches, dimensionals, rhinestone, silver brad, olive gg

Stamp Something Friday

Here's my sample for today's challenge at Stamp Something. The theme is "In the Wild", so naturally I pulled out Wild About You and got to work.

I tried to make the animals the color they are in real life, but that made it hard to come up with a specific color combo, so I didn't! I just went with the colors of the animals and made it work. You will also notice there is no embellishment on the card (I think that's a first for me!). A couple of details: the grass was cut using a craft knife, and I just freehanded it. The elephant's eye is colored using a white gel pen, and the lion's mane was cut out and popped up on dimensionals. I made the bird red for a pop of color.

Thanks for stopping by, make sure to check out the rest of the team's samples!

Supplies: stamps - Wild About You paper - basic gray, celery, wasabi, ww, more mustard, so saffron ink - basic gray, real red classic; mustard, caramel, cocoa craft acc - craft knife, dimensionals, white gel pen

Third Swap Card

I signed up for all four groups of our last swap because I don't want to miss out on anybody's cards, lol! So here's number 3, again for the Any Size/Shape Except for A2 swap.

I cut out all my circles, stamped the words, and added the stars. Easy peasy! Thanks for stopping by, tomorrow is another Stamp Something Friday!

Supplies:

stamps - Great Grads, Classic Backgrounds

paper - rock textured, blue bayou, soft sky, wild wasabi, real red

ink - blue bayou, wild wasabi

acc - circle cutter, large and small star punches, silver brad, dimensionals

And a picture of my little guy playing in a box! He just makes me smile!

Another Swap Card and News

This is a card I made for the Great Swaps Girls Any Size/Shape But A2 swap. I love these little circle cards!
I cut out my circle, purposely leaving a flat side where the fold would be if you made a full card (our swaps are for fronts). I cut strips of Summer Picnic dsp, attached them, and trimmed the excess. I added brads, ribbon, a sentiment, and some piercing for details. The apple body is cut out and popped up for dimension. I would have put CE on the apple to make it shiny, but it always turns red ink pink. Does anybody know if heat setting red ink prevents this? I'm going to try it and find out. One of these days.

And for the news: I am going to be a contributor to Natasha Trupp's new blog Clean & Simple Stamping! I am very excited and can't wait to get started!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
stamps - Tart & Tangy, Absolutely Fabulous
paper - chocolate, ww, summer picnic dsp
ink - real red, chocolate, choc & olive markers
acc - circle cutter, silver brads, olive twill, mat pack and piercer, dimensionals

Quick Thanks

My sister needed a thank-you card, so I whipped this up in a few minutes using a layout from a previous SU catalog.
Thanks for stopping by! I'll have a few more swap cards to post this week, and I have to get cracking on graduation cards.

Supplies:
stamps - Classic Backgrounds, Fundamental Phrases
paper - bashful blue, buckaroo blue, certainly celery, wild wasabi, ww
ink - bashful blue, white craft
acc - large star punch, red brad, red striped grosgrain, dimensionals