Constantly Stamping

April Showers Bring Sweet Summer Flowers

If it is true that April showers bring May flowers, then the honey bees should have a delightful spring. We certainly have had our share of April showers here in Tennessee, especially over the past few days. Thankfully the sun was shining again yesterday and it is supposed to be beautiful for the next several days...I hope so!

This bright and cheerful card began as a watercoloring exercise. I don't watercolor much for some reason. I guess it that I don't care too much for the texture of watercolor paper. But every once in a blue moon I break out my Aqua Painter or Blender Pens, watercolor paper, and classic pads/reinkers and create something. I used Black Stazon Ink to stamp the image from the Sweet Summer Sale-a-bration set (no longer available). I had to mask the leaves in order for all three flowers to fit on the panel. I haven't always gravitated toward such bright colors, but after such a long, cold winter, I think I was just ready for something cheerful.

I think this card is pretty straight forward. I used Sunny Garden DSP along with Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight card stock to create the base of the card. I added a bow made with the Poppy Parade 1/2" stitched-poly ribbon and used mini glue dots to add some sweet designer buttons for interest. I added some tiny little pearls to the center of the flowers for a little more bling. The "thanks" is from the level one hostess set, Afterthoughts.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Please Pray for the Families of Tornado Victims

Wednesday was a heartwrenching day here in the South as devestating tornados ripped through several states killing over 300 people and injuring thousands more. I am so thankful that we were spared from this tradegedy. I still have vivid memories of the tornadoes that ripped through our neighborhood and several other Nashville communities almost fourteen years ago. My heartfelt sympathy and prayers go out to all the families who were affected by the storms on Wednesday.

MDS Boho Blossoms Birthday Hybrid Card

Just a few weeks ago Stampin' Up! upgraded the My Digital Studio software and added some new professional printing options. One of those options is a new 3.25"x3.25" tag. They also offer an adorable download that can be used with this new tag option. The Boho Blossoms Birthday Tag Template (#125783) is a bargain at only $0.95. The low price makes this cute tag just too tempting to pass up. The cuteness factor on this tag was already high, but with a few extra steps it goes from a great tag to an over-the-top birthday card. Let me share with you quickly what I did to turn this tag into a card.

After you have upgraded your software (for free) and purchased the Boho Blossoms Birthday Tag digital download, you are ready to get started. The first step is to open a new MDS document and choose the tag option. Choose "designer template" and open your new tag. Make any changes you would like to the type and then export it as a .jpg file. Now you can open a new 8.5"x11" document and pull the tag in as a photo. If you want to layer your card like I have done here, you will need to copy it twice so that you can cut out the flower and the flower center. After your have hand cut the flower and the flower center, use two-way glue and some dazzeling diamonds glitter to add some sparkle to the edges. Use dimensionals to give each layer some lift and mount the entire card on some Melon Mambo card stock. The finished card is 4.25" square. Now get ready to have all your friends say "WOW...I can't believe you MADE this card!"

 

FTL136 - Sew Suite Button Card

There are only a few cards that I have ever fallen in love with, but this one is definitely in my top 10 favorites of all time. I have had the base of this card sitting on my work desk for several weeks. I kept looking at it...over and over again, trying to figure out something extra special for it. I love how the Sweet Buttons embosslits cut from Crumb Cake CS and applied to a matching CS base make this card look like it has been embossed with an embossing folder.  It took several runs through the Big Shot (about 6) to get enough buttons for the card front...but it was worth every crank of the handle. (Here's a great tip: I applied a Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet to the back of the card stock before running it through the Big Shot Machine. Then  all I had to do was peel-n-stick them to the cardstock base.)

I used the FTL136 layout from Clean & Simple Stamping. It was absolutely the perfect layout to use on this card. I rotated the layout 90 degrees and it worked perfectly for what I had in mind. I didn't really include a sentiment on this card...which makes it much more versatile. This would be a fabulous Mother's Day card.

I have memories of visiting my grandparents house when I was a young girl. My grandmother did a lot of sewing for other people. I guess you could call her a seemstress. Anyway, she had one of these wire form dress stands in her sewing room. I always thought it was really fascinating. That is probably one of the reasons I love this stamp set. I really wanted to make it look like there was a dress actually on the form, so I stamped it on the back of the dsp and cut it just outside the lines, flipped it over, and then adhered it to the stamped image. I made the skirt by punching some Love Notes DSP with the Scallop Circle punch, making a small snip to the center, and then fan-folded it between scallops. I used Tombow Multi-purpose Adhesive to attach the skirt to the card. I found some adorable little 3/8" wooden spools at the craft store (in the wood dept.), so I wrapped one with some thread and then used mini glue dots to attach it to the card.

I hope you have a great Easter weekend.

MDS Hybrid Card & Tutorial

Lately, I've been feeling really guilty about neglecting my MDS followers...so this post is all of you. This a fun little hybrid card I did using the Word Play digital download. It makes a cute card and I think it would be great on a scrapbook page. Here is a quick step-by-step tutorial on how I did it.

 

 

 

One of the great things about this particular download is that you can add it as the whole image or you can paste it in as two seperate parts. For this project I used the two seperate pieces.

 

I changed the color of one part (Go confidently) to Early Espresso and the other part (Dreams) to Pacific Point. Then I aligned the two parts together.

 

 

 

Next I placed a square punch over the word "GO". It actually took two punches that I resized into rectangles. Then I changed the rectangles to whisper white to match the background.

 

 

I typed the word "GROW" in Real Red and resized to fit perfectly over top. (The font is "An Unfortunate Event".)

 

 

Next I used a circle punch to cover the "o" and changed it to Whisper White. (I had to resize the circle so that it only covered the "o". You could also just highlight the letter "o" and change it to whisper white and leave the other letters real red.

 

 

Finally, I added the large flower from the Play Date embellishments and resized it to fit in the space. Then I added the digital bird stamp from Cheep Talk, changed it to Pacific Point and resized it to fit on top of the arrow.

One thing to note is that you should try to start out with the size you want the finished product to be. If you don't, however, the new software update will allow you to group everything and resize it. Everything will resize except the word "Grow" because that is typed. But you can just highlight the word and change the size of the font...so it is not that bad.

Here's another look at the finished card. You can see that I added a more mustard brad to the center of the flower for some dimension. I created a square card base (4.25") with Pacific Point CS added a layer of Real Red CS and then layered on some Celebrations DSP. I tied on some Pear Pizzazz Stitched-poly Ribbon and a Real Red button tops everything off nicely.

I'll be seeing you again soon!

 

 

Finally Finished!

Most of you know that I have entered the SU Artisan Award competion for the past three years. I was a finalist two years ago, but I have never won. I have had quite a few people ask me if I am going to enter again this year. Truthfully, I wasn't sure until just about two weeks ago. I thought I was going to, but I was hung up on a couple of projects, so I really didn't want to say until I knew for sure. Now I can finally say that "YES" I have entered again this year. The box went to the post office yesterday afternoon. Whew, what a relief to have it on its merry way a week before the deadline! Entering the Artisan Award Competion requires a lot of time and energy on my part AND a lot of patience on the part of my family. I have had some people ask me why I put myself through it every year. My answer? I find it personally rewarding to commit myself to giving something my very best effort. I honestly feel that each year my creativity grows and I become a better demonstrator because of it. So many talented demonstrators enter each year and art is so subjective, so I don't know if I will win, (or even be a finalist) but this year I am very pleased with my projects...so who knows. I have seen some past project entries by fabulous demonstrators that I thought should have been winners for sure, but they weren't. I won't get my feeling hurt if I am not chosen...I will just keep plugging away and I hope that maybe this will be my year to shine.

One of the things I do when preparing for the competition is save back just about anything that I think may remotely be a contest entry...that way, if there is a personal setback, like an illness or some other unforseen life event, then I have several projects to choose from...primarily cards. Now that I have submitted my entries (5 cards, three scrapbook pages, and 2 three-dimensionals items), I can begin to share the projects that didn't make the cut. So today, I thought I would share one of these cards with you. I absolutely love this card. It actually made the "short list", but in the end there were other cards that I thought fit the total package better because this one didn't have any stamping on it. Each entry is judged as a whole, (not individual projects), so I tried to choose a variety of items that demonstrate a wide-range of skills and creativity, while focusing the most on stamping.

I made this card several weeks ago and as I look at it now, I have to stop and ask myself how I did it. No worries...I remember. I used the Big Shot machine for several steps. I started with a Daffodil Delight card stock and put the fold at the top of the card. I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder to add some texture. Then I cut some Brights DSP (Real Red) with the Tasteful Trims Die and backed it with Tempting Turquoise CS. I used a portion of the Sew Suite DSP for the center image, but the die cut buttons didn't quite fall where I wanted them to, so I added an additional panel of Daffodil Delight CS to cover the center and attached the buttons to that. The buttons were cut with the Sweet Buttons Embosslit several times with Tempting Turquoise CS. Yes, if you count them, it took fifteen passes through the Big Shot to get enough buttons for this project. Can you imagine how much it would cost to use "real" buttons...especially if you make more than one card? Besides, it is really cute to have them made from card stock so that you can customize the colors for your project.

Thanks for being patient with me. I know I haven't been a good blogger lately. Please forgive me and I promise to do better. I have lots of things to share, but I have to balance it with getting caught up with life. I haven't forgotten my MDS followers either...I have some fun things coming up to share with you as well.

 

MDS Video - Aligning Objects

Stampin' Up! just released the latest version of My Digital Studio (v. 1.0.6) and it is available for free to everyone who has purchased the software. Here's are two quick videos from the home office on how to group and align objects using the new version of MDS. If you are an advanced user, you may have already figured this out, but these are great tutorials for beginner/innermediate users.

 
Find more videos like this on My Digital Studio

Find more videos like this on My Digital Studio

RAK - Black Magic with a White Twist

A while back I had one of my blog readers, Rose Ambrose, contact me with some questions about My Digital Studio. She was very nice, so I spent a lot of time answering her questions. Well, a few weeks later I received this beautiful card in the mail. So while I am working on some things that I can't share with you yet, I thought I would share this card by Rose. Thank you so much Rose!

I have seen this technique before on Karen Barber's blog here, but I have never really spent time trying to master the technique she calls Black Magic with a White Twist. BTW, Karen's blog is amazing and she has such a beautiful spirit about her. You really need to spend some time browsing Karen's blog...incredible!