Friday, November 22, 2013

Business "Thank You"

Work and "real life" has been interfering with my stamping time this week! ;) Here is a very simple project. I LOVE the Another Thank You photopolymer stamp set - especially the really large image. It is so elegant, you don't even need much other detail! I made this card to use for work. The blue is my company's "color," and we are sending these to businesses we worked with last month.


Stamps: Another Thank You
Paper: Whisper White CS
Colors: Pacific Point Ink
Tools: Ticket Corner Punch 
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals 

italics = retired product

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Current Weekly Deals

Check out what is on sale this week!

http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryid=1634

Don't forget that the Holiday Sale is also going on now through December 2!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

24 Hour Sale!

Check out the Stampin' Up! online store - three great items are on sale JUST TODAY! Click on the picture to go shopping!

http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryID=1666

Besides the 24-hour sale, there are tons of other items on sale until December 2. This picture shows just a handful!

http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/CategoryPage.aspx?categoryid=1664


Tuesday, November 19, 2013

From Our House to Yours

The Snow Festival Designer Series Paper from last year's Holiday Catalog is so much fun! I wanted to use the pattern with little houses on it, and I found the perfect sentiment to match. I'm entering this clean-and-simple card into the Curtain Call Challenge: CAS-ual Christmas.


I thought Primrose Petals would be a fun, non-traditional Christmas card color. On both the front and inside of this card, I stamped in VersaMark ink, then heat embossed with white embossing powder.


The inside uses the new Endless Wishes photopolymer stamp set. The coolest thing about photopolymer stamps is that they are COMPLETELY see-through! So you don't even need a Stamp-a-ma-jig, because once you ink it up, you can see exactly where you are going to stamp! (Well, it was a little difficult when using VersaMark, since it is also clear. But with normal ink, you're good to go!)


You know I made a matching envelope! :)


My Sweet Season stamp set is for sale. Click here to see it on Etsy, along with many of my handmade card sets!


Stamps: Sweet Season, Endless Wishes
Paper: Snow Festival DSP, Primrose Petals CS 
Ink: VersaMark
Tools: Extra-Large Oval Punch, White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool, Embossing Buddy, Big Shot, Envelope Liners Framelits
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals 

italics = retired product

Monday, November 18, 2013

THREE Posts Today!

Wow, I must be on a stamping roll! Actually, I realized this morning that a bunch of challenges were ending today, and I really wanted to participate, so I had to hurry up and make cards for them! This one is for the Color Throwdown Challenge #268 (CTD268).


I stayed true to the colors, even though I kind of wanted to substitute Soft Sky for the Pool Party. This combo made me think: flowers, stems, and sky. So that is what I made! (With pictures, there is a fine line between accurately representing the colors, and not washing out the white parts of the card - sorry.)



The leaves were also made with the flower punch - I just cut the "petals" apart. The stems are very thinly cut strips of cardstock. 



The flowers and sentiment are popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.


Had to make a pretty envelope! This way of decorating an envelope just requires Snail and Paper Snips - no Big Shot or special tools.


Operation Write Home is always in need of more "miss you" cards for soldiers to send home to friends and family. Learn more about donating cards here. This card will be headed their way once I have a decent amount of cards to send.

If you would like to donate, but don't have time to get envelopes, follow all the rules, etc, feel free to send cards (or card-fronts from swaps and whatnot) to me. However, please make sure you at least take a look at their deadlines; i.e. don't send me any Christmas cards at this point in time. Write a comment below or send me an email at funkyj25@yahoo.com and I can give you my mailing address. Thanks! :)

Stamps: Polka Dot Punches, For the Birds
Paper: Certainly Celery Prints DSP, Really Rust CS, Certainly Celery CS, Regal Rose CS, Melon Mambo CS, Pool Party CS, Whisper White CS
Colors: Really Rust Ink, Regal Rose Ink, Melon Mambo Ink, Pool Party Ink
Tools: 5-Petal Flower Punch, Big Shot, Top Note Bigz Die, Bitty Banners Framelits
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals 

italics = retired product

Freshly Made Christmas Sketch

I really like this week's Freshly Made Sketch #112 (FMS112). It's very clean and simple, and is a good way to use up DSP scraps!


I made four different Christmas cards using this sketch, and I'll be sending them to Operation Write Home as Any-Hero mail for the holidays. See more info in yesterday's post. Any-Hero mail should not be in an envelope; thus, I did not make any fun coordinating envelopes (despite wanting to!). I did something a little different with each card. I like this first one the best, with the rounded edges, on the Very Vanilla background.








Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Merry 
Paper: Jolly Holiday DSP, Old Olive CS, Cherry Cobbler CS, Very Vanilla CS
Colors: Old Olive Ink/Marker, Cherry Cobbler Marker
Tools: Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Hexagon Punch (for flagged ends), Envelope Punch Board (for rounded corners) 
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals 

italics = retired product

CAS Christmas

CAS = Clean and Simple, for any newbies reading. :) The colors for this card were inspired by the 'Tis the Season Challenge #4 (TTS4). I wanted to use twine on my card (the optional trimming), but I only have the thick hemp kind. So I started searching around on SplitCoastStampers for ideas of how to use my twine and found this card, which I completely CASEd.


I love the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set! It has 24 different cute little Christmas images that are great for punching out. That's just what I did on this card. They were also calling out for some bling. :)




I'll be sending this card, along with any other holiday cards I can make in time, to Operation Write Home as Any-Hero mail. I've donated cards to this organization before - they are awesome. They provide handmade cards for deployed servicemen/women to use to send notes home to their loved ones. Additionally, they provide "Any-Hero mail" with each box of cards. This Any-Hero mail gets distributed to the people who don't get as much other mail. The idea is to write some quick words of thanks and encouragement to them for serving our country. Check out any of the hyperlinks I've included - here is the one specifically for holiday Any-Hero mail. I hope you'll consider sending in some of your own handmade cards sometime, or sending Any-Hero mail for Christmas or another time of year. (No glitter! Glitter can flake off and make our soldiers susceptible to being spotted using night-vision goggles.)


Stamps: Jolly Bingo Bits, Warm Words 
Paper: Marina Mist CS, Cherry Cobbler CS, Baked Brown Sugar CS, Whisper White CS
Colors: Marina Mist Ink, Cherry Cobbler Ink, Baked Brown Sugar Ink
Tools: 1" Square Punch, 1-1/4" Square Punch 
Accessories: Rhinestones, Hemp Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots

italics = retired product

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Trendy Banner Card

I just recently got the fun hostess set, Perfectly You. You can get this set if you host a workshop or party - just invite your friends over to stamp and unlock your creativity!


It coordinates with the Hearts-a-Flutter Framelits, which were recently on sale (therefore, I bought those too). The framelits, of course, also coordinate with the Hearts-a-Flutter stamp set, which was also recently on sale! Guess whether or not I bought it. ;) I wanted to use the Christmas stamp, and of course use the matching framelit, so I came up with this card. Banners are so trendy right now!




To make the bigger flag behind the stamped images, I traced the outside of the framelit itself and cut it out. Perfect size! This would probably work with any other framelits... Something else I'll have to try!



Stamps: Perfectly You, Hearts-a-Flutter
Paper: Dashing DSP, Real Red CS, Old Olive CS, Very Vanilla CS
Colors: Staz-On Jet Black Ink, Real Red Ink/Marker, Old Olive Ink/Marker
Tools: Big Shot, Hearts-a-Flutter Framelits, 1/8" Circle Punch, Envelope Punch Board
Accessories: Linen Thread, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots 

italics = retired product

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Crushed Razzleberry Cake

Doesn't the title of this post sound like it would be yummy (if such a thing existed)? It's actually referring to the color combination that I got from the Pals Paper Arts color challenge #179 (PPA179). I also used the clean & simple sketch challenge #266 (FTL266) for the layout.


I already made one card with this color combo here, but I kind of like these colors together (plus I wanted to use up more Razzleberry Lemonade DSP). I think I like this one better!


I used Stampin' Dimensionals to make my flower "pop" off the card.


This happy birthday stamp is from the hostess set "Banner Greetings." You can only get this set if you host a party or workshop (or spend over $150 by yourself!). I think it is a must-have. Once I stamped the image, I cut it out with my Paper Snips.



I always forget that there are medium envelopes in Crumb Cake! I thought this one matched my card very well. I made the pretty liner with the Envelope Liner Framelits.


Purchase this card here!

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Banner Greetings
Paper: Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Crumb Cake CS, Crushed Curry CS, Whisper White CS
Colors: Crushed Curry Ink, Rich Razzleberry Ink
Tools: 3/4" Circle Punch, Blossom Punch, Paper Snips, Big Shot, Envelope Liner Framelits
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots

italics = retired product