Thursday, February 28, 2013

March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!



Welcome to the March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  I'm so excited you're here.  If you've arrived here from Lori Brown's blog, Saving Mine, welcome!

This month's stamp set is called Floral Happiness, and here it is:



I wanted to use a pastel color for the roses, so I chose Blush and Hollyhock.  This is what I came up with.  I did a lot of paper piecing for the flower, so there's 3 layers of paper on the rose.  I also embellished it with the Pink Glitz Glitter Gel and the mini opaque pearls.

The Hollyhock frame around the words is from the Cricut Artiste cartridge.  It was a mini-scrapbook page, and I cut off the bottom where the holes for the binding (rings) go.




Supplies Used:  

Chantilly Paper Pack (X7163B, $9.95)
Floral Happiness (March Stamp of the Month, S1303, $17.95 or $5 when you purchase $50)
Words of Comfort (C1524, $13.95)
Cricut Artiste Cartridge (Z1790, $99)
Card Stock:  Hollyhock, White Daisy)
Ink Colors: Olive, Blush, Hollyhock (2nd generation), Sweet Leaf
Glitz Glitter Gel (Pink, Z1770, $2.75)(Green, Z1771, $2.75)
Bitty Opaques Pearl Gems (Z1707, $2.95)
Foam Mounting Tape

I also tried making my own patterned paper with this stamp set - using the Blush/Hollyhock combination and Honey (first and second generation stamping).  I also did some sponging with a Hollyhock sponge dauber on the flower in the middle.




Supplies Used:
Floral Happiness (March Stamp of the Month, S1303, $17.95 or $5 when you purchase $50)
Words of Comfort (C1524, $13.95)
Cricut Art Philosophy (Z1686, $99)
Card Stock:  Olive, New England ivy
Ink Colors:  Honey, Blush, Hollyhock, Olive, Sweet Leaf
Foam Mounting Tape 

I cut out the leaves on both cards and did some paper piecing.  Lots of fun!

I hope you have fun with the hop and this stamp set.  If you want to come and play with us this month - come to a card class, or place your order online and get your own set!
Now HOP on over to Michelle Johns' blog, My Flights Of Fancy, so see what she has in store for you!





Sunday, February 24, 2013

More February Stamp of the Month

I was inspired by Melinda Everitt's blog post on the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop (see my January 31, 2013 blog post to see what 60 other Close To My Heart consultants have done with the Stamp of the Month or click HERE).

Melinda did a quilt-y card.  I liked it a lot, and thought it went great with the country feel of some of the sentiments in the set.  After I saw her card, I googled "simple quilt patterns" and saw one like this, which I totally copied for my card:




The quilt pattern looks complicated, but it's really quite easy.  My finished card is 6x6.  The square in the middle is 3x3.  I used 8 qty of the yellowish squares (1 1/2" x 1 1/2") and 4 qty of the brownish squares (1 1/2" x 1 1/2").  4 of each colored squares get cut into triangles.  All from the Clementine paper pack.

To create the center sentiment I stamped on a 3x3 piece of vellum with Chocolate ink, coated it with Detail Clear Embossing Powder and heat embossed it. (to set the ink and teach you a cool technique!)

Then I attached the vellum to a 3x3 piece of Twilight card stock using bronze mini brads.  (The inside orange piece underneath is 2 1/8" x 2 1/8".)

After I put the card together, I sponged the edges with Chocolate ink.  I think it looks very authentic quilt-y.  (pretty good for me, who cannot sew!)

This week, my friend and customer, Aurora, taught me how to make a 6x6 envelope with my Martha Stewart Scoring Board.  So I learned something today, too!  Yay!!

Supplies Used:
Clementine Paper Pack
Home Sweet Home (February Stamp of the Month)
Card Stock: Twilight
Vellum
Chocolate Stamp Pad
Detail Clear Embossing Powder
Heat Gun
Bronze Mini-Brads
Piercing Tool

Stamp Happy!

Lisa

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Fun with Chantilly Complements Dimensional Elements

I've never used the MyStickease or Complements/Dimensional Elements on a card before (or if I have, it's been ages).  I think partly it's because I'm too cheap (um, practical??) to make a bunch of cards out of something that there's a finite number of (stickers) as opposed to stamping an unlimited number of whatever I need.

But as soon as I saw the Chantilly Complements Dimensional Elements (X7163C, $4.95) (printed-on chipboard shapes which coordinate with the Chantilly paper pack), I knew I had to make some cards with them.  There's 46 shapes in the Complements set, of varying sizes and shapes.  There's an assortment of flowers, words, birds, bows, borders, umbrellas.  All very cute.




Anyway, I wanted to show you a great (easy) way to create a card with the MyStickease/Complements.  No stamping and/or detailed cutting required! (unless you want to put a sentiment, like I did.)

The sentiment  I used is from the Chantilly Card Making Workshop On The Go (G1061, $29.95).

It's a simple card - but those are nice, because they are easy and fast to make.

Supplies Used:
Chantilly Paper Pack (X7163B, $9.95)
Chantilly Complements Dimensional Elements (X7163C, $4.95)
Stamp Set: Chantilly Workshop on the Go Card Making Kit (G1061, $29.95)
Stamp Pads:  Twilight
Card Stock (colors in the paper pack): Twilight, Cotton Candy 
Card Stock (not in the paper pack): White Daisy, Sweet Leaf, Buttercup
Embellishments:  Clear Sparkles colored with pink Sharpie Marker
Other: Sponge

Happy Creating!

Lisa



Saturday, February 16, 2013

Tropical Flowers, anyone?

As soon as Valentine's Day is over, I think it's spring...especially if it's not snowing in Seattle.  So I'm now in spring-flower mode...and am ready to give up the dreary snow-and-clouds thoughts in my head.

The new Spring/Summer Idea Book/Catalog is exciting!  There's so many new stamps and papers!  and you KNOW I love flowers! 

This is the new stamp set called HELLO BLOOMS (C1540, $13.95).  The flowers are Cricut cuts, which is wonderful (no scissors!).   I also used the Boutique Assortment (retired) to bling up the flowers and the Silver Shimmer Trim (Z1799, $4.95) (the strip across the card).

The center green strip is from the very cute LATER SK8R Paper Pack (X7167B, $9.95), paired with some Lagoon Card Stock.



Here's the entire stamp set.  Love the birdie, too!  I'll have to use him on a different card.



This is one of the cards we're making at card class this month - email me if you want to join us.  It's really fun!  The next classes are Thursday, February 21 at 10am and Friday, February 22 at 6:30pm.

Supplies Used:
Cricut Artiste Cartridge (Z1790, $99)
Hello Blooms (C1540, $13.95)
Later Sk8r Paper Pack (X7167B, $9.95)
Card Stock:  White Daisy, Buttercup, Lagoon
Ink Colors:  Lagoon, Hollyhock
Embellishments:  
Silver Shimmer Trim (Z1799, $4.95)
Boutique Assortment (retired)
Other:
Glue Dots
Foam Mounting Tape

Hope to see you soon!

Lisa