HB FROM THE GANG

Our precious granddaughter, Stella, became a TEENAGER yesterday! Wow! We celebrated her special birthday virtually. <sad face>

This is the birthday card I made for her.

The stars of the card is the gang from the darling stamp set, From All of Us, found on page 93 in the Annual Catalog. 

They all seemed so eager to send happy wishes to the new teenager! Don't you agree? 

I stamped them onto Whisper White cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with my beloved Stampin' Blends. I stamped two of the characters separately on another piece of Whisper White, the ostrich (?) and the toucan. After coloring these two I adhered them with Stampin' Dimensionals carefully over their counterparts on the original stamped gang.

The Stampin' Blends I used were: Light Pink Pirouette, Dark Daffodil Delight, Light and Dark Gray Granite, Ivory, Light and Dark Call Me Clover, Dark Smoky Slate, Dark Cajun Craze, Dark Pumpkin Pie, Light Granny Apple Green, Light and Dark Crumb Cake, Light Basic Black, Dark Mango Melody and Light Real Red. Whew.

The sassy bunch all finished and waiting for Stella 

to open the envelope to receive their happy wishes.

After using one of the Stitched Rectangles dies on page 183 of the Annual Catalog to cut out the gang, I added them to a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of retired Designer Series Paper that I feel complements the gang and their colors admirably. You can see only a peek of it in the second photo, but I added the same paper to the inside of the card, where I stamped the cute sentiment "happy, happy birthday" from the set, along with the big number 13.

Happy Birthday, Stella!

Happy

Birthday

Smiles.

PEACE

Christmas 2020 is come and gone. We are nearing the end of this devastating -- in so many ways -- year. Try to enjoy the rest of it, and know that my wish for you all is: 

Cherish each other. Stay safe and healthy.

Peaceful

Smiles.

THIS SEASON

Sorry all. More snowflakes for you. 

This card, although it looks like it is very delicate and maybe fussy to create, is super easy. All thanks once again to the wonderful snowflake dies that come in the So Many Snowflakes set on page 38 of the current mini catalog. 

When I received this particular set, although there are so many beautiful snowflake dies, this one especially intrigued me. It had a HOLE in the center, surrounded by nifty stitching and SNOWFLAKES! I love how the snowflakes overlapped parts of the opening.  

When the open portion is popped up over the sentiment with Stampin' Dimensionals, the whole card, well, POPS! Look at that wonderful dimension. 

I wanted to add a bit more of the snowy things around that frame portion, so I stamped some of the smaller snowflakes that come in the coordinating stamp set, Snowflake Wishes, in VersaMark ink all around the edges. This gave it a tone on tone look that was perfect without overwhelming the card.

I actually popped up a couple of the layers.

Just a close up of the focal point.

Following I will provide a tutorial on how to recreate this card.

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Seaside Spray cardstock

Snowflake Wishes stamp set (page 38 of the Mini Catalog)

Winter Woods stamp set (page 61 in the Annual Catalog)

Seaside Spray ink

VersaMark ink

So Many Snowflakes Dies (page 38, Mini Catalog)

Die Cutting/Embossing machine

Stampin' Dimensionals

Heat Tool

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 3 3/4" x 11" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Stamp the sentiment in the center of a 2 7/8" x 4 5/8" piece of Whisper White cardstock in Seaside Spray ink. Set this aside momentarily.

Take a piece of Seaside Spray cardstock that measures 3" x 4 3/4", and, centering the snowflake die with the opening on this piece, run it through your die cutting machine. Using VersaMark ink, stamp the small clusters of snowflakes around the edges of this piece. Use the Heat Tool to dry the ink so you can continue working.

Set the die cut piece over the sentiment piece so the words are centered inside the opening and adhere it in place.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere thisi piece to a 3 1/2" x 5 1/4" piece of Seaside Spray cardstock.

Using a few more Stampin' Dimensionals, add this to the white card base.

Seasonal

Smiles.

A TRIO OF SNOWFLAKES

I know. I know. You all are probably getting tired of being bombarded with my snowflake cards. I did give you a little break though. My last blog post featured ornaments, not a snowflake in sight!

Here are three more cards with snowflakes on them. I decided to throw them all into a single post since I'm running out of posting days before Christmas. After today, only one more blog post to publish before the big day!

The snowflake dies on these three cards are not Stampin' Up! dies unfortunately. You would think I could be content with the wonderful snowflake dies I got this year in the So Many Snowflake Dies set on page 38 in the Mini Catalog, wouldn't you? I HAVE played with those dies on many occasions and love them to pieces. 

However, these two particular dies produce large snowflakes, about 3 1/2" in diameter, that are incredibly detailed and fill up so much of a card front. They truly are the star of a card! Without a doubt.

The first card I show you has the snowflake mounted against some of the lovely Snowflake Splendor Designer Series Paper on page 37 of the Mini Catalog. 

I admit I did use a retired Stampin' Up! cardstock, Island Indigo. I love how it contrasted with this particular piece of the DSP. 

Two other retired products I utilized on the card were the exquisite greeting (I LOVE this!) embossed in the retired Pewter Embossing Powder. I sincerely wish that Stampin' Up! would bring ths classy embossing powder back into its product line. When I saw it was retiring, I bought an extra jar, so I still have quite a lot on hand.

A couple of Basic Rhinestones added to the center and to the arms of the snowflake provided the perfect, subtle, amount of bling.

My! I do so love a square card! This one measures 4 1/4" square, a perfect size in that it fits nicely inside an A2 envelope, negating the need for extra postage, which a square envelope requires. But, I just love the way a square card looks.

This card uses more current Stampin' Up! product. The exquisite snowflake, a different die from the first one, is cut from the glorious Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper on page 37 of the Mini Catalog. In fact, during Stampin' Up!'s year end sale, going on now, I bought an extra pack of this sparkly beauty for half price!

I wanted this glistening snowflake to look like it was the star of the blizzard snow by mounting it against a background of (retired) snowflakes (dots) embossed on Whisper White cardstock.

This was mounted onto a 4" square of Balmy Blue cardstock, then, finally to the base of Whisper White.

It certainly would have been overkill to add any kind of bling to this card! Don't you agree?

For my third snowflake card, we are back to a little bit of retired product. I chose Almost Amethyst cardstock (remember that color?!? Such a fabulous subtle light purple!) for both the die cutting and the card "mat". 

I did a little experimenting with the embossed piece behind my snowflake. Originally I had planned on using Whisper White. But then I thought, being that snowflakes seem somewhat ethereal, I wondered how embossed VELLUM would look behind the snowflake. I first tried the same large dotted embossing folder I used on the previous card, but that didn't do anything for me.

Finally, the choice I went with was vellum cardstock embossed with the Subtle Embossing Folder (page 185 in the Annual Catalog). What a cool look!

Unfortunately, as everyone knows, vellum is a crazy uncooperative material to be working with where adhesive is involved. I ended up using a bit of liquid adhesive on each of the corners and under the snowflake. To disguise the glue at the corners, I added iridescent sequins. One in the center of the snowflake balanced the subtle bling the sequins added.

I have just been having so much fun with my manmade snowstorms this season. I hope you don't mind that I am sharing the stars of snowstorms with you!

Flaky

Smiles.

SIX ORNAMENTS

 To be perfectly honest, as I was leafing through the current Mini Catalog when it first came out, I wasn't all that impressed with the stamp set (and coordinating dies) on page 40. After all, I never have any intention of decorating or fancyfying (a word??) my envelopes for Christmas cards. 

I am not of the "decorate your envelope" school. Not at all. I put my heart and soul into my cards, and once a card is done, that's it. The envelope just carries it to its destination and usually just gets tossed in the garbage anyway.

But, I must admit that I was quite taken with the stamp of the six ornaments that came in this set. So taken, in fact, that I ordered the set (Yes! Just for that one stamp! Have you ever done that?) and have played with it countless times during this pre-holiday season. If you are a reader of my blog, I'm sure it looks incredibly familiar to you. Right? Since I've used it many times in blog posts. 

One of the cool things with a line art stamp like this one is that it lends itself to a plethora of techniques, making play so much fun. 

In this card, I used it in a fairly traditional way, in that I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then colored the ornaments in with my beloved Stampin' Blends.

Incorporating a snippet of one of the plaids from the Plaid Tidings Designer Series Paper on page 57 of the same catalog, complemented the colors I chose for my ornaments.

Adding the sentiment and two Stampin' Blends colored Basic Rhinestones to a precious label from the Ornate Labels set, then placed upon a folded piece of white Stampin' Up! ribbon . . . well, voila!

Read on for a tutorial on how to recreate this card.

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock (which is going to be replaced by Basic White cardstock!)

Plaid Tidings 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper (page 57 of the Mini Catalog)

Ornamental Envelopes stamp set (page 40, Mini Catalog)

Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set (page 62, Annual Catalog -- You GOTTA get this set!)

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Stampin' Blends in: Dark Mango Melody, Light Cherry Cobbler, and Light Call Me Clover

Ornate Frames dies (page 182, Annual Catalog)

Cutting/Embossing Machine

Basic Rhinestones colored with Dark Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blend

White Ribbon

Stampin' Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder. NOTE: When I am making a horizontal card, I cut my cardstock this way because -- well, you know -- horizontal cards cut the other way eventually collapse flat when they are standing. This way it stands very well.

On a 2 1/4" x 4" piece of Whisper White cardstock, stamp the six ornaments in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Color in the ornaments as you wish. I used Stampin' Blends in the aforementioned colors.

Take a coordinating piece of the Plaid Tidings DSP that measures 2 3/4" x 4", and, using Stampin' Dimensionals, adhere it to the right side of the card base. Butt the colored piece right up to the DSP, giving you equal margins all around.

On a scrap of Whisper White cardstock, stamp a seasonal sentiment. Die cut the sentiment with one of the dies from the Ornate Frames die set.

With a Dark Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blend, color two of the larger Basic Rhinestones. One thing that I have discovered when coloring rhinestones or pearls with the Blends is to NOT use the brush end. Doing so seems to do a number on the sharpness of the brush. Use the writing end instead just to preserve your Blends as much as possible.

Add the colored rhinestones on either side of the sentiment.

Take a 6" - 7" piece of white ribbon and fold it in half, adhering it folded to the back of the sentiment label.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to attach the sentiment and ribbon to the Designer Series Paper side.

Ornamental

Smiles.

MULTICOLORED SNOWSTORM

I thought I was getting a little flaky in this pandemic, but when I review the cards I've been making recently, it was confirmed. I seem to be concentrating quite a lot on snowflakes this season!

Stampin' Up!'s lovely suite, Snowflake Splendor, has some wonderful snowflake related tools to use.

 When the catalog was first released, I purchased the bundle on page 37 of the Mini Catalog, which included the So Many Snowflakes dies as well as the Snowflake Wishes stamp set. 

I also got my greedy little fingers on the Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper, which you can enjoy on the card in this Snowflake Wishes post. The snowflakes on that card were die cut from that paper with a couple of the dies.

For this card, I just couldn't resist the temptation to create a multicolored snowstorm! 

To do that, I die cut some of the snowflakes from a piece of scrap cardstock, and used the negative space created from this die cutting as stencils. I moved my "stencils" all over a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock, using Sponge Daubers to add the snowflakes in three colors of ink, Pretty Peacock, Pear Pizzazz and Melon Mambo. I know, the green and bright pink were weird choices. But I love the way the colors all look together. 

Once the snowflakes were stenciled, I took another of the stamps from the set and stamped mini snowflakes amidst the larger ones, this time in Pear Pizzazz.

I let the Pretty Peacock continue to play on the card. Using Pretty Peacock cardstock, I die cut a trio of snowflakes to add to the background. 

The sentiment, a stamp from the Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set on page 62 of the Annual Catalog, was used with Pretty Peacock ink. 

A die from the Painted Labels Dies on page 177 of the Annual Catalog was perfect to cut out the sentiment. I added a handful of the Metallic Pearls (page 156 in the Annual Catalog) to the sentiment. 

I then popped up the sentiment with Dimensionals after adding a little Pretty Peacock diecut strip to the sentiment label.

The final step for this card was to mount it onto a base of Pretty Peacock.

What do you think of the color combination? Does it work -- or not?

Hope your holiday card making is going well!

Flaky

Smiles.

SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE

I don't know about you, but personally I find the resist technique simply irresistible. Working with the snowflakes from the Snowflake Wishes stamp set on page 38 of the current Mini Catalog, is an absolute delight.

To do the resist technique, you start with embossed images, then add ink over the embossing with a stamping sponge. Wherever the embossed images are, the ink will be resisted, coloring everything except the embossed areas. 

Starting with a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock, I stamped in VersaMark ink the smaller of the snowflakes from the set haphazardly onto the cardstock. Since it is difficult to see exactly where I had stamped the snowflakes, I only did a handful when I went to the Heat Station to add white embossing powder to the stamped images and heat embossed them.

Then I was able to see much better where I needed to fill in a bit more with snowflakes. So I stamped in some more of the chilly little things in VersaMark, then heat embossed them too. 

I went back once more to fill in a few of the blank spots around the edges with more snowflakes. 

Usually when doing a resist, I would use clear embossing powder. But, in this case, I really wanted these snowflakes to POP, so I opted for white embossing powder.

Once my embossed snowflakes were completely cooled, I started in on my resist by sponging Seaside Spray ink all over the white cardstock. I gave it several coats so there were lighter and darker areas of the same beautiful blue.

To add a bit more depth to my snowstorm, I stamped a few of the smallest snowflakes here and there among the embossed snowflakes in full strength Seaside Spray ink, wiping any excess ink from the embossed snowflakes. 

I had never done that before and wondered how it would look. To be honest, I am thrilled with the extra dimension and interest these little blue snowlakes added.

The background of this card was so lovely and snowy, I just did not want to cover up too much of it. So, I opted for a fairly small focal point, if you will. I stamped "thinking of you with love" in Seaside Spray ink onto white, then die cut it with one of the gorgeous lacy dies from Ornate Dies (page 182 in the Annual Catalog). I popped that atop a Seaside Spray square cut with one of the Stitched Shapes dies (page 183, Annual Catalog). Before I attached the two layers together though, I threw a snippet of beautiful sparkly white and silver ribbon between them.

The sentiment panel was then popped up raised a bit from center with Stampin' Dimensionals.

To finish it off, I added Basic Rhinestones to the centers of chosen snowflakes. Adhered to a Seaside Spray card base - - - I love this card.

How are you doing on your Christmas card making? If any of you would like to exchange holiday greetings with me, just let me know -- I would love to do that!

Snowy

Smiles.

#dailycreating JULY 2020

 Well, already, it's time for another installment of #dailycreating. I am sharing with you some of the drawings that I did for this Facebook group hosted by Terry Runyan from the month of July. 

Apparently, looking through my sketchbook, July was not a great month for me to draw. The pickings were sort of slim when trying to decide which ones were actually good enough to show in public.

During July, I was still using a lot of Prismacolor Pencil in conjunction with my Copic Markers. I am not always pleased with the effect I get with this combination. It is often too grainy for my taste. I think part of the problem is that it is difficult to find paper that is good to use for both of these media. And I haven't yet hit upon the perfect combination paper. 

In the past few months, I have drifted away more and more from using Prismacolor Pencils in my work and use almost exclusively Copic Markers.

As in the past months of sharing with you my #dailycreating drawings, I will post the prompt, as well as any other pertinent information, above each of the drawings.

Sit back and bask in my slim pickings.

#invent a fish

(I named it a Blue Dotted Floozy Fish)

#thing on thing

#fireflies

#thing on thing

southern ground hornbill

#nature

marsh frog (rana ridibunda)

#red

scarlet ibis

#orange

#green

european tree frog

#violet

homing pigeon

#guitar

#when in paris

#thing on thing

german spitz

#this day in history 

I have to admit that the week that we had a different color for each day as a prompt was a real treat for me. It opened up so many options for subjects to draw. 

Sometimes I just have a difficult time relating to a particular prompt. As hostess of the group, Terry posts a list of prompts for the upcoming week on Sundays. Then we have the option to either follow the prompt or do anything else, whatever moves us at the particular moment. 

I almost always follow the prompts, but as I said a few sentences ago, some of the prompts just do not like me, nor I them. That is when I drift off on my own and usually do something animal related. 

Back in July, I was still following the prompts, but recently that has not always been the case. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little lapse away from papercrafting. Well, not really, I DRAW on PAPER, right? Here, I should mention that a lot of the artists in this group have entered readily and happily into the 21st century and do mostly digital work, usually using a program on their iPad called Procreate. I don't think I could handle the learning curve of this digitizing. So I remain old school. 

Please remember that these pieces are my personal artwork and not to be reproduced or borrowed in any way without my express consent. I am always willing to have a high quality Giclee print made for you. Just let me know!

#dailycreating

smiles.

SPLATTER WASTE BACKGROUND

Doctors have been trying for about nine months now to figure out what is wrong with me. One of my blood levels is inordinately high, and the neurologists are mystified. This afternoon, I had just arrived back home after they drew another three tubes of blood to do more testing, and was feeling sort of bummed.

To help the "bumminess", I decided to head downstairs to start writing out my Christmas cards. 

Before I began, however, I wanted to do a little creating. 

With no plan whatsoever, my eyes landed on a colorful scrap on my work table in my Creation Station.

A couple weeks ago, I'd done a collection of four different cards, all using the same ornament stamp, but with a variety of backgrounds. The post I am referring to can be seen HERE. 

The last card I made of these four involved using ink on my craft sheet. After I was finished with the card, I needed to clean up the craft sheet. So, instead of just wiping it all away with a paper towel, I took half sheets of scrap cardstock (not Whisper White) and dabbed and dabbed until all the ink was used up.

Anyway, the scrap I had laid eyes on today was one of those pieces. When I saw it, I thought it would make a lovely backdrop for a Christmas card. 

I had ordered a new stamp set, Arrange a Wreath, found on page 127 in the Annual Catalog, I figured this was a great time to finally put some ink to a few of the stamps from the set.

Using Mossy Meadow ink, I stamped the large wreath onto the waste background. Adding a little Light Poppy Parade and Light Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends, I finished off the wreath.

From Poppy Parade cardstock, I die cut a bow for the wreath using the long retired Pretty Pines Thinlits.

The "Merry Christmas" is also from the Arrange a Wreath set and I stamped it in Mossy Meadow and cut it out with one of the wondrous dies from the Ornate Frames (page 182 in the Annual Catalog). Honestly, this die set is the single best set of dies I've ever had (right ahead of Stitched Shapes). I use it ALL THE TIME! The sizes and ornate-ness of the dies varies so much, you can almost always find a die that is so perfect for any sentiment.

Layering the sentiment piece atop a snippet of Mossy Meadow ribbon folded in half, I added it beneath the wreath with a few Stampin' Dimensionals..

A couple of sparkly embellishments added the perfect finishing touch to the sentiment.

Not much dimension, so would be perfect for mailing! I love that!

So, be honest now. Would you have thrown this splotchy piece away?

Waste-less

Smiles.