Punch Circle Christmas Tree

The last card I posted was inspired by a card I received from another Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Tonight's card is inspired by a commercially produced card I received from a co-worker a few years ago. It was a tree made of gold, silver and gold foil dots and then accented with shiny snowflake a a script font. I chose Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green and Soft Suede as my color combo.

I decided to try my hand a homemade version using various sizes of punched circles. A lot of SU!'s smaller circle punches will work for this...I also used the circles from owl punch to get a good assortment of sizes. The tree trunk is half of punched piece from the modern label punch. I accented it with SU!'s brilliant rhinestone brads and holiday sentiment from the Four the Holidays stamp set!

This would be a great card for mass production...especially for those of you with eager children at home...they will have fun making all these punches for you!

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Card Inspiration Challenge

Ahhh....it's Thanksgiving Day! There's nothing like waking to the smell of turkey in the oven with the promise of a fire in the fireplace, good times with family, amazing food & relaxation. It's also the official start to the holiday season which, for many of us, is the busiest time all year...friends & family to visit, church, work & other social obligations, shopping, baking, wrapping, mailing holiday cards, etc. And if you're like me, you love the coziness & sentimentality of handmade touches.

This holiday, make things easier on yourself, and enjoy your hobbies while still crossing things off that long to-do list. This week, I challenge you to create a holiday card (or card for any other upcoming event) that is inspired by a card you have received from someone else this year. Perhaps you like the layout of the card, or the color combination they used...go for it! Copy it...don't spend time reinventing the wheel...just take it and run with it.

This year, I was lucky enough to receive this pretty pink and brown birthday card from my friend Jan, which was the inspiration for my blue and white holiday card above. The layout, dry embossing, and punched & stamped image are the same, but with a wintery twist! Thanks, Jan, for a great piece of inspiration.

Some Serious Swapping: Home for Christmas

This is the other Christmas card I did for the swap I mentioned in my post yesterday. The requirements were to use three embellishments, so this card has the 5/8" satin ribbon in basic black, embossing powder, and a clip from our Clips Assortment. I have fallen in love (no pun intended) with our Love Letters designer series paper, so I was looking for a way to incorporate that into my card. That drove the color scheme of Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler. Multiple layers and the ticket corners (made with our ticket corner punch) add some detail to this card, which was pretty easy to make! I like to stamp the insides, too...for a little extra surprise.

Happy stamping!

Some Serious Swapping: Season of Friendship

I've been doing some serious swapping this fall and having a blast. It has been fun to create cards & also fun to get some beautiful and inspiring cards back! Thanks to everyone who participated in the same swaps as me...you did great work.

This card is one that I created for a Christmas swap. I stamped the tree (from the Season of Friendship stamp set) in Early Espresso ink onto Early Espresso cardstock and then cut it out by hand with my Paper Snips.

Next I cut a rectangle of Whisper White cardstock, and stamped the snowflakes (also from Season of Friendship) on it with VersaMark ink, sprinkled with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and heat set it. Then I mounted that rectangle on a slightly larger rectangle of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and accented with two Cherry Cobbler brads from the Regals brad assortment pack.

That was all mounted on the card, which I had made by mounting a large rectangle of our Candy Cane Christmas designer series paper adorned with Early Espresso ribbon onto a card made from Early Espresso cardstock. Then I adhered down the tree, stamped the cheery red bird (also from the Season of Friendship set) and called it done. I think it turned out pretty cute. I'm going to try one using fall colors, be sure to check back and look for that!


Also, check back tomorrow to see the other card I did for this Christmas swap! Happy Stamping.

Get Well!!! -

A friend of ours is a HUGE dog fan...she always has at least two romping around her home, sometimes more. So when she had to have a knee replacement I knew exactly which set to start with. I just love this Wellness Wishes set..three great options for well wishes to loved ones. I had fun creating this simple card with Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun and Whisper White cardstock, then accenting it with the image stamped in Chocolate Chip ink, and all tied together with Chocolate Chip satin ribbon.

Sympathy Card Featuring Great Friend Stamp Set

A friend of mine recently hired me to create a sympathy card for her neighbor whose husband had passed away. She had mentioned that the neighbor wanted his funeral to be a celebration of his life rather than a somber gathering for his death. So I thought this card was a nice mix uplifting sophistication while still maintaining a tone of seriousness.

The butterfly and stem of leaves both came from the Great Friend stamp set on page 122 of our current catalog. I wasn't sure if the neighbor is religious or not, so I provided two inserts (one with just the leaves stamped on the corners and one with a religious quote) so that she could customize the card before signing and sending it. The "With Sympathy" stamp came from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

The colors I used are Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Garden Green, and Early Espresso. The patterned paper is from our Regals Designer Series paper pack and is perfect for lots of fall projects.

Please click HERE to order 24/7!!! Supplies used on this card:

Cardstock: Early Espresso, Whisper White

Stamp Sets: Great Friend, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green

Other: Early Espresso 5/8" satin ribbon, Regals designer series paper, dimensionals adhesive and our paper snips for handcutting the stamped butterfly image

Happy H-owl-oween

I just love this owl...there is something very Edgar Allen Poe-ish about it and it could be use for other things than Halloween. I loved using straying a bit from the traditional black and orange Halloween colors. This card uses Rich Razzleberry, Basic Gray, Basic Gray, So Saffron, and Cajun Craze.

The stamped owl comes from the awesome Dark & Dreary stamp set found in our Holiday Mini Catalog. The greeting comes from one of my favorite "go to" sets called "Teeny Tiny Wishes" and the little bit of grunge comes from the Wonderfully Worn background stamp. I found myself playing with my spider web embossing folder again and tried out a technique to ruffle ribbon that I'm seeing everywhere. I created the tag by punching my XL Decorative Label punch one time on each of three colors. Then I cut two of the punchies in half, adhered them behind each other, adhered them behind the so saffron and trimming the little "tails" that peeked out. So easy and add some interest. The brad is from our Regals collection of brads, which are all the perfect colors for fall projects.

Please click HERE to order 24/7!!! Supplies used on this card:

Cardstock: Basic Gray, So Saffron, Cajun Craze, Rich Razzleberry
Stamp Set: Dark and Dreary, Wonderfully Worn, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Basic Black
Other: Basic Black 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, rich razzleberry brad, XL decorative label punch, dimensionals adhesive, spider web textured impression embossing folder, Big Shot machine