Thank You Card

I made this card with the intent to use Elegant Eggplant Card Stock (as I have never used this color previously) and a background of my own making. I wanted to create my own pattern paper, although when I stamped my background I messed up the nice clean stamped image. Normally I would turn over the card stock and try again, but I decided I really do like the shadowed effect I got. It works very well on this card.

I find that I tend to use the same stamp sets constantly and end up forgetting about the others. I am hoping to pull out those rarely used sets and either use them or let them go. With the Retired list out I may just let go of some of the sets that, while I liked, didn't really use. This next year I will be a little more selective as I did an

inventory and found that of my current sets not counting mini catalog items, and I have 35 sets and 24 are retiring. I'd better choose wisely this year, although with so many new sets maybe less will retire next year. I won't count on that but it is a thought.

Check out the retired list, and be sure to order your favorites before they are gone.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Card Stock: Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Perfect Plum, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant

Stamps: En Francais, Bella Toile, Elegant Thank You
Dies: Adorning Accents Edglits, Lots of Tags

Accessories: Big Shot, Extra Large Oval Punch, 5/8" Organza Ribbon

Thinking of You ColourQ Challenge Card

The colors for this card were chosen from an old ColourQ challenge.

 I have decided that over time I would like to do a card for each of the colourq challenges. I am hoping that this will help me stretch my boundaries and enhance my skills

I made this card using two different techniques. I used the faux mother of pearl and faux tile techniques. To create the tile I used the simply score board and scored at one inch intervals vertically & horizontally.I then rubbed the ink into the grout lines to give my tile definition. I created the mother of pearl effect by using a small amount of Frost White Shimmer paint and saran wrap to dab the paint all over the paper. Once dry I then took my sponge daubers and ink Pool Party & Island Indigo to my paper and added the subtle shading that gives my tile its wonderful color.Although I do have to say that I stamped my image prior to creating my tile and mother of pearl finish. I used the large floral image from SAB set Fresh Vintage.

When I was creating my stamped saying image I totally messed up and ended up having to choose between starting with a fresh piece of whisper white or using the image sideways instead of centered the same direction as the larger label. I really wish I hadn't messed that up but choose to go ahead and use what I had rather than waste the paper.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: 

Card Stock: 

122925 Calypso Coral  

122923 Pool Party

119686/124276 Early Espresso

100730/124302 Whisper White

102599 Glossy White 

Stamp Sets:

w 125115/c 125117 SAB Fresh Vintage

115068 Sincere Salutations

Inks:

122938 Pool Party

122937 Island Indigo

122939 Calypso Coral

101406 Jet Black StazOn

Accessories:

116854 Frost White Shimmer Paint

102892 Sponge Daubers

113439 Big Shot

125598 Labels Collection Framelits Die

127279 SAB Everyday Enchantment Ribbon & Brad Pack

122334 Simply Scored Scoring Tool

Sending Thanks Butterfly

Since my last post, I have been unwell & so busy that I have been unable to do as much blogging or really anything for the last few weeks. I haven't really been spending much time on my computer at all. As for crafting I have made a few items slowly over the same two week period that I will share with you here in the near future .For today's card I will start by sharing a card I made and started blogging about a couple of weeks ago. This post has been almost done, but not quite finished.

 This card was made using leftover pieces of card stock that I had tried a for me newer technique called Faux Mother of Pearl. I really like the look this gives to different elements. This technique is a fun, fabulous and elegant way to give a card added pizzazz.


I am keeping things short as I want to get this posted and I need to be at work in about an hour.

I hope you all enjoy!
DanicaA

Project Recipe: Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black, Whisper White & Glossy White Card Stock, Frost White Shimmer Paint, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum & Basic Black Classic Stamp Pads, Four Frames & Petite Pairs Stamp Sets, Sponge Daubers, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Elegant Lines & stripes Textured Embossing Folders, Decorative Label Punch, Basic Pearls

Life....

has been very busy lately, for me. I haven't been able to do much posting in the last week and I know that the rest of March is going to be super busy, also. I have been able to finish a few projects that I am hoping to post this next week. I have joined a swap that I am trying to complete as soon as possible as I know that if I don't have it done within the next week, it will be impossible to finish. I have been taking my projects to work and working on them during my lunch, in the break room. You would be surprised how much you can get done in 30-45 minutes. Especially, if you have a game plan. 

We had snow on Thursday. I woke up in the morning and thought things were pretty cold, and that I needed to get up take a shower make my morning green smoothie, pack my lunch so I could be at work on time. I so didn't want to get out of bed. Anyway, I got up only to discover the power was out and I couldn't do most of the things I needed or wanted to do. It was very pretty outside though. I did have to scrape the snow off of the car. Coming home from work that night there was a slide on the road, Boy can that be scary. At least it was little and no one got hurt, which could easily happen around here as we have very curvy mountainous roads.

Have a great week and I will hope to post daily this week, and if not as much as possible.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Quilted Top Note Purse

Well today's post has been sitting here on my desk waiting for me to finish the project and then type up. I have finally gotten to it, after almost a week. Life has been a bit busy lately.

My inspiration for today's project came from a fellow Demonstrator on Stampin' Connection, Michelle Yager. Stampin Connection is a site for demonstrators to share projects, ideas and discuss all things Stampin' Up! I really liked the look of her quilted top notes, so I thought I would give it a try. Here is my finished project.

I used the top note bigz die to create my front and back with card stock & chipboard. Two pieces of card stock and one piece of chipboard for each. on the two of the four pieces of card stock. To create the quilt I used my 1-1/4" square punch to punch out my designers series paper and then glued to a scrap piece of card stock. I then ran it through the big shot with my top note die and then trimmed around the edge at the scored line, this then allowed me to glue this piece as an insert on my front piece of Lucky Limeade card stock. I then repeated this step for the back of my purse. I added a box that I sized to the top note and made out of matching CS, I added the ribbon to the sides and then attached a brad to each side to cover up my ribbon holes.

Decorate the front how ever you wish and add some chocolate or pens & pencils and you have a cute little purse to give as a gift.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Lucky Limeade & Whisper White Card Stock, (SAB) Everyday Enchantment Designers Series Paper, Oval All Stamp Set, Basic Black Ink, Big Shot, Top Note & Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Dies,Lots of Tags Sizzlits Die, 1-1/4Square & Extra Large Oval Punch, (SAB) Calypso Coral Organdy Ribbon & Everyday Enchantment Brads

3x3 Note Card Purse

 Today's project is a cute little card purse, I made following the directions I found on Sandi's blog Another Chance. I had fun making this purse and think that they would make great gifts or even a craft fair item as you can create coordinating 3x3 mini cards to include along with envelopes. I changed my version of this purse a little bit. I was trying to use the dazzle glitter for the butterflies's bodies and when I set the purse down with out really thinking through what I was doing the dazzles dripped and I ended up having to come up with a new idea for the body. I used the word window punch and cut the punches down for the smaller butterflies. I don't think they turned out to well, but I tend to be picky in things like that when it comes to my own work.

My cards were made with coordinating card stock & designer series paper. I decided to keep them simple as I do want them to be able to fit inside the purse along with envelopes. 

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Product Recipe: Rose Red , Pumpkin Pie & Very Vanilla Card Stock, Sweet & Sour Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Four Frames, Petite Pairs & I{Heart} Heart Stamp Sets, Basic Black & Rose Red Stamp Pads, Curly Label, Heart & Decorative Label Punch, Rose Red 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Glimmer Brads, Basic Pearls & Basic Rhinestones

Happy Birthday Butterflies

Today's post is a card that I made for a challenge and didn't have finished in time. It is good practice though. I was unsure if I liked how it turned out as the card is a bit busy. I find that I like the more I see of it.

To view other cards that were entered into the challenge visit Color Throwdown

Don't forget to visit my online Stampin' Up! Store before March 31 to take advantage of the Sale-A-Bration specials. 

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Product Recipe: Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade & Blushing Bride Card Stock, Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Dies, Elegant Lines Textures Impressions Folder, Curly Label Punch, Elementary Elegance Stamp Set,  Poppy Parade & Basic Black Ink Pads, Basic Pearls

Treat Box

Today's Project is a treat box I made using the directions from Got Rubber...Will Stamp by Wendy Hawkinson. Hers is a cupcake box, but I think you could probably use it for just about any kind of treat. 

My colors came from the  

Simply Stampin' Challenge

I started with a Whisper White piece of card stock and used the three tea cup stamp from the Tea Shoppe Stamp set. I used my my markers in Melon Mambo, Wisteria Wonder & Pretty in Pink to ink my stamp image, each cup one at a time, changing color or cup, stamping randomly over the paper. Stamping only on the side that would be my outside when my box was finished.

To cut out the piece in the top for my window sheets I used the Label Collection Framelits, the second to smallest sized, placed at an angle. I then used the same label framelit and the smallest to create my tag. I attached the tag to my Melon Mambo Polka dot ribbon with Wisteria Wonder bakers twine. I also used the Scallop Trim Border Punch for my borders around the edges of my box lid.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink Card Stock, Labels Collection Framelits, Tea Shoppe Stamp Set, Melon Mambo, Wisteria Wonder, Pretty in Pink Stampin' Write Markers, Melon Mambo Polka Dot Ribbon, Wisteria Wonder Bakers Twine

Masculine Birthday Card

I created this card at my father's request for a co-workers boyfriends birthday. I had made all our Holiday cards and when she received hers she liked it so much that she still has it sitting out on her shelf. So my dad told her he would see if I had one he could give to her. I haven't made to many masculine cards and so had to come up with something that was masculine and hopefully she will like this card. 

I started out by choosing my designer series paper I had a choice between the Well Worn Series or the Mocha Morning. I decided the Well worn would work best, I then picked out my background card stock of Not Quite Navy & Cajun Craze. After which I began to play with the layout & then went on to add the punch shapes with silver brads as studs and then my sayings. I think this card would also work well for a cowboy theme. 

On the inside I decided that I wanted to continue the well worn feel so, my saying was stamped with the image not quite completely covered in ink.  I then took my Tea Stain & Navy Distressing essintials ink pads and just swiped them across the Very Vanilla Card Stock and around the edges, going in different directions and not covering the paper completely. I did the same to my envelope and added a piece of Well Worn DSP as an envelope liner to have a coordinating envelope.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Cajun Craze, Not Quite Navy & Very Vanilla CS, Well Worn DSP, Decorative Label & Word Window Punch, Silver Brads, Tea Stain & Navy Distressing Ink Spots, Outlined Occasions & Happiest Birthday Wishes (Hostess) Stamp Sets, Not Quite Navy Classic Ink Pad, Very Vanilla Envelope

Mocha Morning Mini's

These cute little mini's were made mostly during my lunch breaks at work. Boy, did my lunch fly while I was busy having fun. I used the Mocha Morning Designer Series Papers and added some color by using Poppy Parade, Pool Party & Island Indigo Card stock and ink pads to give the cards some pop. I like how they turned out. You can tell that I definitely liked the flowers as I kept with that design for the most part.

I am hoping that Stampin' Up! will keep the Tea Shoppe Stamp Set and maybe make some punches for the tea cups. Wouldn't that be gorgeous, I hand cut out the little tea cups but you have to be extremely careful at the handles as the break quite easily. Punches would make that problem non-existent.

Let me know which one is your favorite.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Basic Black, Poppy Parade, Pool Party, Island Indigo & Very Vanilla CS, Mocha Morning DSP, Blossom & Fancy Flower Punch, Labels Framelits, Antique & Basics Glitter Brads, Petite Pairs & Tea Shoppe Stamp Sets, Basic Black, Poppy Parade, Pool Party, & Island Indigo Classic Ink Pads, Espresso Quilted Satin Ribbon