My grandmother LOVES the color blue and flowers, so when creating this card for her birthday, I wanted to incorporate those elements.  Lucky for me, I have the fun Mixed Bunch stamp set and the coordinating Blossom Punch to stamp and then punch my image with.  As you might be able to tell, I wet embossed the blue flower.  You might be wondering how I did that...it's pretty easy...ink your stamp with Versamark ink followed by any color classic ink pad, then stamp your image onto paper.  Working quickly, apply clear embossing powder and heat with our heat tool. I love using colored embossing powder when its available because the image is more solid, but this method works when you don't have the right color at your fingertips. I also used the Versamark pad to create watermarks on the Crumb Cake cardstock.  The leaves behind the flower image are from our Little Leaves Sizzlet.  I also used our Pearl Basic Jewels to fill in all the polka dots on the center of the flower.  The scallop trim was cut using our Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die.

Summer Smooches!!!

I just placed an order for some things from Stampin' Up! and I can't wait to get them. I needed to order some supplies for working some bridal shower invites (to be posted after the bride-to-be has seen then) and decided to throw in some of the awesome Summer Smooches line that is available during April! I can't wait till they arrive so I can play with them. Here's what I'm drooling over!

First, the series contains some of my most favorite colors all rolled up into one suite: Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry.

Those of you who love to use fabric in your crafting will LOVE our Designer Fabric, which coordinates with this suite.

In addition, any crafter (paper or otherwise), will love our Fabric Designer Brads - which are beautiful and ONLY available in April.

And those of you who dabble in digital will be delighted by both of our offerings: the Summer Smooches Photobook Template and the Digital Kit (both are My Digital Studio downloads).

Here's the details:Item #125495 Bright Blossoms Wood-Mount Set $16.95
Item #125497 Bright Blossoms Clear-Mount Set $12.95
Item #125409 Summer Smooches Designer Paper $10.95
Item #125583 Daffodil Delight 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon $10.95
Item #125411 Summer Smooches Fabric $9.95

Item #125589 Summer Smooches Fabric Brads* $6.95
Item #125626 Summer Smooches Décor Stencil* $7.95
Item #125606 Petite Purse Bigz L Die $32.95
Item #129919 Summer Smooches Photobook Template $17.95
Item #129601 Summer Smooches Digital Kit $9.95

*The Summer Smooches Fabric Designer Brads and the Summer Smooches Decor Stencil will only be available during the month of April. They will NOT be in the new catalog.

You may order from my Stampin' Up! website 24/7 or by contacting me directly. My e-mail link is at the top of the screen.

Bing Crosby Challenge

In the spirit of the holidays, my demonstrators group decided to look to a Christmas CD album cover for our inspiration. We chose to use his Merry Christmas CD, which has a retro feel, a centered focal point, lots of white space and a red, green, and black color scheme. I decided to mimic the centered, circular focal point and use the red, green and black colors as a jumping point. I was a bit intimidated about using black on a Christmas card. I know, Iknow...it's classic, it can be elegant, and it goes with a lot. But it also somehow seems morbid. But I was determined to get over it, and since I absolutely love our Love Letter designer series paper, to turned to it as my jumping off point. I opted for Very Vanilla over white Very Vanilla was used in the patterned paper, and then I opted to tone down the bright Christmassy red and green to the more sublte Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green. I wanted the black to be a bigger proportion of color, and I wanted to center the focal image just as they did on the CD. I used my Two-Step Bird Extra-Large punch to punch out the leaves for the wreath and then trimmed down the stems as I laid it out in a circle. I topped it off with some Cherry Cobbler brads for some cute berries, and voila! What do you think of when you see this CD cover? How does it inspire you? I'd love to see your work, please leave a comment with a link if you are inspired to do so!

More Fun with the Color Challenge

Wanna see more great ideas using this color combo? Check out my friends at the following links:

Ann Truenow

Dawn Olchefske

Jan Carlson

Lori Zoellmer

Paula Curtis

Color Challenege - Poppy Parade, Old Olive, and Concord Crush

My demonstrator's group has been participating in challenges these past few weeks, and today our challenge was to use Poppy Parade, Concord Crush and Old Olive. This was a fun chance to use two of this year's In Colors, with one of my "go to" classics!

I thought the colors lent themselves well to a Christmas theme...the richness of the Concord Crush makes me think of royalty or special occasions and the Poppy Parade paired with the Old Olive create a modern twist of the standard red and green for this time of year.

The card base was embossed with our Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder and the poinsettia stamp is retired from last year's holiday mini (Berry Christmas)...this is still one of my favorite sets! I topped it off with our In Color Ribbon and our new adhesive pearls.

Happy stamping!!!

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!

Please click HERE to order 24/7!!!

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.