Paper Piercing LNS Challenge

Paper Piercing - what a great technique that is so simply to do, yet adds so much to a project!   Stampin' Up! has come out with some awesome paper piercing packs that totally rock, and I love the fact they coordinate with some of our stamps sets and punches.

For my cards this week I decided to go CAS (clean and simple).  I stamped the background image on the main card front first using the new In-Color, Summer Starfruit.  I then punched a circle on the front panel using the 2-1/2" Circle Punch so the background image was underneath. and paper pierced around the outside of the circle using the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack (on page 181).  I used my Big Shot and one of the Delicate Designs EF to create an edge along the left-hand side.  I stamped the bird twice using the new In-Color Raspberry Ripple, and cut out the bird from one image and just the wing from another.  I used the Bird Builder Punch for the 2 leaves and used Gumball Green c/s.  Very simple, clean and easy!  Here's the details:

Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit
Papers: Whisper White, Gumball Green
Accessories: Big Shot, Delicate Designs EF, 2-1/2" Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Bird Builder Punch, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Pearls, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots, Scissors

LNS Challenge - Insects!!

This week's LNS challenge is to add an insect to your project.  It's been hot, hot, hot here this week (mid 90's), and it's actually been nice not to have to fight the bugs!  But I have to admit I am looking forward to the temps being cooler next week

I don't really have any "insect" sets, so I hope my little butterflies will do!  I used the new set, Serene Silhouettes, for my projects this week.  When I saw this baby in the new catty, I knew it would be quickly become one of my favorite sets!  I colored in the flower image using Primrose Petals, Certainly Celery and Soft Suede markers, and then spritzed the image with water to soften the look.  I used the new embossing folder, Fancy Fan, for my background, and I used the back of the embossed cardstock instead of the front.  I punched a 1-1/4" square in a post-it-note and sponged around the edges and on the flowers using Soft Suede ink and a sponge.  Below is a more detailed list of what I used:

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Primrose Petals, Certainly Celery, Soft Suede
Papers: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Primrose Petals
Accessories: Big Shot, Fancy Fan EF, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Primrose Petals Satin Ribbon, Pearls, 1-1/4" Square Punch, Post-it-Note, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots, Scissors

My second project is actually one that I created for last week's VCRocks blog hop, and dressed it up by adding some butterflies.

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Inks: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green

Papers: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple

Accessories: Big Shot, Delicate Designs Embossing Folder, Finishing Touches Edgelit, Bitty Banners Framelits, Simply Scored Scoring Tool, Raspberry Ripple 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon, White Baker's Twine, Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons. Scissors, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots, Distressing Tool

VCR Blog Hop!

Welcome to my blog and this month's Any Size Card VC Rocks Hop!  You have just arrived from the very talented Stace Coombs' blog.  If you need to revisit Stace's blog to see her beautiful works art again, you can click HERE.  What to take a look at the complete list of all the outstanding bloggers participating in today's hop?  Then you can click HERE for the complete list!

Hope you like what I have made - and here they are:

First Up - Serene Silhouettes Birthday Card!

I think this is such a cool set and am so glad that I ordered it!  I love the soft look of the flowers and the  versatility of this great set.  I colored in the flowers and leaves on the stamp using a Raspberry Ripple and Gumball Green markers.  I spritzed on a little bit of water and stamped the image on a piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I distressed and ripped the left-hand side edge and layered it with a coordinating piece of Raspberry Ripple c/s.  I thought I would try combining the Finishing Touches Edgelit and the Delicate Designs Embossing Folder on each side of a a 4" x 5-1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I then used the Simply Scored Scoring Tool to score some random lines.  Here's a list of what I used:

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Inks: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green

Papers: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple

Accessories: Big Shot, Delicate Designs Embossing Folder, Finishing Touches Edgelit, Bitty Banners Framelits, Simply Scored Scoring Tool, Raspberry Ripple 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon, White Baker's Twine, Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons. Scissors, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots, Distressing Tool

Morning Cup Coffee Holder

I actually made the following coffee mug for this week's LNS ABC (anything but a card) challenge.

I embossed the front of the holder and the handle with the new (and very cool) Fancy Fan EF.  I watercolored in the coffee cups using the colors Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango and Soft Suede, and then cut them out.  They were layered over Soft Suede and Summer Starfruit using the Labels Collection and Apothecary Accents Framelits.  Here's the rest of the details:

Stamps: Morning Cup

Inks: Basic Black,  Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango, Soft Suede

Papers: Whisper White, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede

Accessories: Big Shot, Labels Collection and Apothecary Accents Framelits, Fancy Fan EF, 1-1/4" Square Punch, Modern Label Punch, 3/16" Corner Punch, Pumpkin Pie Brads, Blender Pen, Paper Piercing Tool,  Scissors, Dimensionals, Starbucks Coffee Packet

Field Flowers Happy Birthday Card

I made the following card for one of the teacher's at work, and it was actually quite simple to make.  I stamped the flower image using Rich Razzleberry ink on a scrap piece of Whisper White c/s, and then cut it out.  I faintly inked up the scrip background stamp using Old Olive and gently stamped it on the 4" x 5-1/4" piece of Whisper White c/s.  I distressed the edges, added a little bit of color using my all time fav background stamp, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, using Rich Razzleberry ink.  Added a bow, Antique brad and ribbon, and there it is!

Stamps: Field Flowers, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Script Background Stamp, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Papers: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Big Shot, Bitty Banners Framelits, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Rich Razzleberry Ribbon, Antique Brad, Distressing Tool, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

And last but not least, a Pocket Fun friendship card!

This set, Pocket Fun, is one of those sets I will probably always keep.  I have always loved the flowers the pocket and the other images with this set, and love the fun cards you can make!  This card was a little more time consuming since I had to cut out the 5 flowers and leaves for this card.  I stamped the flowers and leaves on a scrap piece of Whisper White c/s (I am paper hoarder and have tons of scrap pieces!), watercolored them in, and then cut them out.  I used some SU retired silver eyelets on the top corners of the pockets to give it more of a real feel.  The list of what I used is below:

Stamps Pocket Fun
Inks: Basic Black, Poppy Parade, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip
Papers: Whisper White, Poppy Parade DSP, So Saffron, Retired DSP (sorry, having a senior moment and I can't remember the name of this DSP)
Accessories: Silver Eyelets, CAD, Poppy Parade Ribbon, So Saffron Brads, Paper Piercing Tool, Oval Punch, Watercolor Brush, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

Thanks again for stopping by, I hope you liked my projects!  Your next stop on this fab hop is the very talented and incredible stamper, Barb Furlong, and you can click HERE to continue on to her blog.

Have a great day everyone - and Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

LNS ABC (Anything but a Card) Challenge

Fun challenge this week for our LNS Challenge- ABC - create anything but a card is the name of the game this week!  I just got the set, Morning Cup, and thought it would work great with the mug coffee holder that I made.

It's pretty simple to make - you score a 4-1/4" x 9" piece of white cardstock at 4-1/2".  I then cut a along the edge of the top piece to form an indented edge as you can see in the picture below:

I formed the handle by inserting the 1-1/4" Square Punch into the middle of a 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" piece of white cardstock:

I embossed the front of the holder and the handle with the new (and very cool) Fancy Fan EF.  I watercolored in the coffee cups using the colors Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango and Soft Suede, and then cut them out.  They were layered over Soft Suede and Summer Starfruit using the Labels Collection and Apothecary Accents Framelits.  Here's the rest of the details:

Stamps: Morning Cup
Inks: Basic Black,  Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango, Soft Suede
Papers: Whisper White, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede
Accessories: Big Shot, Labels Collection and Apothecary Accents Framelits, Fancy Fan EF, 1-1/4" Square Punch, Modern Label Punch, 3/16" Corner Punch, Pumpkin Pie Brads, Blender Pen, Paper Piercing Tool,  Scissors, Dimensionals, Starbucks Coffee Packet
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Another Color Challenge Post

I thought I would make another card using this week's color challenge (Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight).  I thought it was too plain (first pic), and decided to add a flower and leaves at the top (second pic) - which on do you like?  Here's the details:

Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight
Papers: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Floral District DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, Bitty Banners Framelits, Daffodil Delight Ribbon, Bird Builder Punch, White and Daffodil Delight Brads, Paper Piercing Tool, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots, Scissors

LNS Color Challenge

Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Wild Wasabi - those are the 3 fun colors to use for this week's LNS challenge!  I think these colors look very sweet together and they made the perfect combo for the birthday card I made this week for a co-worker!

I hope you can play along as well, and you can upload your work of art HERE!  Here's the details on my card:

Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi
Papers: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Big Shot, Flower Garden EF, Word Window Punch, Pinking Hearts Border Punch, Daffodil Delight 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Wild Wasabi Brads, Daffodil Delight Brads, White Brad, Watercolor Brush, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

French Foliage

Well this is my last week of work and summer break officially starts on Thursday at 1:20pm!!  We all chipped in to buy our supervisor, Mike, a year end gift.  I needed a "manly card" to put the gift card in, and cased a card that I saw on SCS, and you can see it HERE.  But I recently found out that the real artist behind this card is the wonderfully talented Connie Tumm.  You can see her ORIGINAL card HERE I already brought the card into work, so hopefully I can remember what supplies I used:

Stamp Set: French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Inks: Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green

Papers: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Midnight Muse

Accessories: Word Window Punch, Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Antique Brad, Distressing Tool, Sticky Strip Tape, Sponge, Scissors, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

June SCS SU Design Crew Challenges!

It's June 1st and that can only mean that it's the beginning of this month's SCS Stampin' Up! Design Crew Challenge!  We have 4 very interesting challenges for you and here they are:

Holiday Focus - Manly Men!
Our challenge was to design a card based on a song by Brad Paisley (and I have to admit that I have never heard of him until now!) and my card is based from the line "when you see a lake you think picnics....."  I don't have any stamps with picnic baskets, but I do have stamps with trees and sail boat, and I created this card for my husband for Father's Day.

To create my card I first stamped the sail boat three times - once on a scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock, again on a 4"x5-1/4" piece of white cardstock and again on a post-it-note to create a mask.  I cut out just the sails from the stamped image on the post-it-note  and layered it over the sails on the card front.  I then stamped the trees from the set, Lovely as a Tree, over the masked sail boat.  The trees were colored in with Gumball Green and the grass area was added by using a sponge.

I used the 1-3/8" circle punch to create a mask for the sun.  I did this by punching the circle out at the top of a post-it-note.  I placed the post-it-note with the circle punched out by the trees and sponged in the circle using Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango.  I then took off that post-it-note and placed the punched circle over the sun to cover it, and sponged the sky using Bashful Blue and Midnight Muse.

I cut out just the sails from the image I stamped on the scrap cardstock and watercolored in the edges using Midnight Muse and my trusted watercolor brush.  I watercolored in the waves by the boat with the same color and then sponged Midnight Muse around the boat.  I added the appearance of the sun's reflection by spongingDaffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango over the blue.

I added some brads at the bottom, stamped Happy Father's Day on a scrap piece of cardstock and cut it out using the Modern Label Punch.  I used the CAD to set some Night of Navy eyelets and then tied some Early Espresso Baker's Twine through them.  I used the set, Teeny Tiny Wishes, for the saying.  I am so glad that I purchased this set - it has a ton of every day and holiday sayings and I find that I reach for it constantly!

I like how it turned out and I hope he does too!

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Sail Away, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Soft Suede, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Bashful Blue
Papers: Whisper White, Midnight Muse
Accessories: Modern Label Punch, Vintage Brads, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Night of Navy Eyelets, CAD, Watercolor Brush, Paper Piercing Tool, Sponge, Dimensionals, Post-it-Note, Scissors

Card #2 - Happy Anniversary DSP/Color Fucus
For this card challenge we needed to make a card using only White, Basic Gray and one new In-Color.  I went with Raspberry Ripple and like how it goes with the Basic Gray.  This is a card for my in-laws who are celebrating their 67th anniversary this coming Friday!

This was a pretty simple card to make - I started by stamping the leaves from the set, French Foliage, along the edges using Raspberry Ripple ink.  Next I stamped the background image and saying in Basic Gray; then I distressed the edges and added some gray along the edges as well.  I stamped "Happy Anniversary" using an old SU stamp, and cut it out using the Apothecary Accents Framelit.  Added a pewter brad and some Whisper White Organza Ribbon and there you have it!  Here's a list of what I used:

Stamps: French Foliage, Happy Anniversary (Retired SU Stamp)
Inks: Raspberry Ripple, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Papers: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple, Basic Gray
Accessories: Big Shot, Apothecary Accents Framelit, Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Going Gray Brads, Paper Piercing Tool, Pewter Eyelet, CAD, Distressing Tool, Sponge, Dimensionals

Challenge #3 - Catalog Focus
This challenge was to use one "new item" in combination with an "old" item - my new items is the In-Color, Raspberry Ripple and my "old" item is the stamp set, Elements of Style.  This card is actually a case from the new catty (page 113) and I changed it up a bit.

I stamped the flower image using a the new Basic Black inkpad - which by the way, I love!!!  I watercolored in the flowers with Raspberry Ripple and leaves with Basic Gray (keeping with the white, gray, new in-color theme).  I then ripped the paper and layered it over the rectangular design frame.  Since I don't have any Raspberry Ripple ribbon yet, I dyed some scrap pieces of Whisper White Organza Ribbon to using a sponge and a Raspberry Ripple inkpad.  Here's a list of what I used:

Stamps: Elements of Style
Inks: Raspberry Ripple, Basic Gray, Basic Black
Papers: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple, Basic Gray
Accessories: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper EF, Designer Frames Folders, Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Pearls, Sponge, Scissors, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

And last but not least, Challenge #4 - Scrapbook Focus
Did you know that June is national strawberry month?  So in honor of this important observation, our challenge was to make a scrapbook page that contained elements based on Classic Strawberry Shortcake.  Our pages needed to have: the colors Real Red, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla, one group of three items (three layers, pictures, etc.), and something soft (a torn edge, ribbon, lace, etc.).  The groups of three that I used were: layers of Real Red, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla, I layered 3 flowers together, 3 sayings together and 3 buttons together.

I found a picture that my mom had of my daughter, Chelsie, when she was 4 days old and built the page around the picture.  I have to admit that I struggle with scrapbooking, but did enjoy making this page.  Maybe I put too much pressure on myself that every page has to be a "wow" project with a lot of "zing and bling".

Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms, Warm Words
Inks: Real Red
Papers: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Real Red DSP, Summer Smooches DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Die, Adorning Accents Edgelits, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Paper Doily Sizzlits, Boho Blossoms Punch, Blossom Punch, Modern Label Punch, Bird Builder Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Real Red Buttons, Very Vanilla Buttons, Crumb Cake Buttons, Real Red Brads, Very Vanilla Brads, Crumb Cake Brads, White Baker's Twine, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots