You are a Work of Art

 If  you are looking for the most versatile set in the new Stampin' Up! catalog, check out Work of Art.  I think this stamp set will be my new go-to set for the next few months.  I've already made 5 totally different cards using this stamp set.  And I'll be sharing them with you for the next 5 days.  Sound like a good idea to you?  Hope so, 'cuz that's what I'll be doing.  So here's the first one. 

Stamps:  Work of Art
Ink:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie,
Paper:  Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla, and Pumpkin Pie
Accessories:   Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly Punches, 1 1/4" Scallop Circle Punch, Lg Corner Rounder(ret), Very Vintage Designer Buttons, Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Brights Candy Dots, and Glue Dots

This card was so much fun to make!  The flower is made from a squiggle stamp that is stamped repeatedly.  Just keep one end of the stamp centered and stamp around in a circle.  How simple is that!  Depending which end of the stamp is in the center, you get a totally different looking flower.  With stamping the other end out, the flower has a very feathery look to it. 

The stamp set has several different sentiment to it, so I didn't need a separate sentiment set to make this card.  Easy peasy when it's all right there in the set for you!

The only really addition to the card were the different punches used.  I chose two of the card colors to make a layered butterfly for the corner where it looked a  little bare.  Butterflies are always a nice addition.  I also added a Razzleberry scallop of cardstock underneath the button accent to make it stand out more.  And that's about it.  Quick and simple, but fun with an artistic flair from the loosely stamped flower.

Thanks for sliding by to see what I've been stamping today.  I'll have another card for you tomorrow that uses the same set with totally different look to it.  Come on back and check it out.  See you soon,     Sharon              
ps - Happy Father's Day,  honey!

New Blendabilities

Oh.  My. Goodness!  The new Blendabilities markers that Stampin' Up! is introducing in the new catalog are absolutely fabulous!  I can't wait until they are available in August so I can get my hands on some more colors.  I was able to preorder a few colors - just enough to get me hooked!  Now I really need some more!!  My fabulously talented downline Jan Tink had several of us over for a learning session on how to use these markers.  It was definitely helpful!  I'll share the card we all made together.  Then give you few pointers that I picked up from her and also from just playing around on my own.

Stamps:  Blended Bloom, and Blooming with Kindness
Ink:  Memento Black and Cherry Cobbler  pads, Basic Black marker, and Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities marker sets
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, and Pumpkin Pie
Accessories:  Basic Black 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Sponge, Paper Snips, and Dimensionals

 Boy, no matter how many pictures I tried, none of them did credit to the card, not even close!  The colors of the flower are so beautiful and almost seem to glow!  And happily, once you got the idea of how to use the new marker sets, it was surprisingly easy to do.  That's something I really appreciate.  I mean, if something looks lovely, but takes hours to get it made, I'm not sure if I have the time or the inclination to do it more than once.  But I've already done 2 more cards using these markers and been quite happy with the results.

Tip #1:  Instead of starting with the darkest color and adding lighter over it, Jan suggested laying down a layer of light, adding the medium shading tone, then adding the darkest color tone.  Finally, going over it all one more time with the lightest color to blend.  This seems to give a better blended look when I used them in this way.

Tip #2:  When you're cutting out a project like this one, go over the cut edges with a black marker when finished cutting.  As you can see, this is something I didn't realize until I started taking pics of the card.  There a lots of little white edges that show up terribly in the pics.  Bummer!  Now I'll be prying this card apart and doing little edge touch ups when I'm done here.  But this certainly gives you an idea how wonderful these Blendabilities marker sets are!  Can't wait til August when I can get some more colors to play with!   Yahoo!   Happy stamping - Sharon

Almost Father's Day

Yes, the time keeps right on moving along whether I'm keeping up with it or not.  It's shocking to see that Father's Day is coming up this weekend already.  Where has the time gone?  Since it's time to consider all the wonderful things our dads and grandpas have done for us over the years, I thought it was appropriate to share a Father's Day card that I'll be giving to my hubby this year.

Stamps:  The Open Seas and Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler, and Whisper White
Accessories:  Big Shot with Arrows TIEF, Word Window Punch, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, and Dimensionals

 Yes, this stamp set has been around awhile, but it's still a go-to set when I need something masculine.  And what could be more masculine than a Father's Day card I ask you!?  The layout I chose to use is very basic with a good number of layers.  With using Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler  colors, we ended up with a clean and crisp look to the card.  Just right for the stamp set I used.

The tiny Night of Navy layer under the sentiment was embossed with the Arrows TIEF to give just a little more interest and texture to the card.

And what would I ever do without the Teeny Tiny Wishes little sentiment?  Those little sentiments are just the perfect size to add on just about any card, and they cover just about any sentiment you might need.  Definitely a must-have stamp set.

Well, that's it for today.  Just wanted to say hi to my sister Connie for telling me to get back to my blogging.  Thanks for the push and if I fizzle out again (or is that 'when'), make sure you give me a nudge back into it again.  Alright?  Thanks for stopping by today.  I always appreciate hearing from you.   Happy weekend!          Sharon

Yellow and Gray CAS Card

I'm thinking that one of my new favorite color combos is that of Daffodil Delight and Smoky Slate or Basic Gray.  They are so clean and crisp together and can fit any kind of card.  The card layout I've used today is very versatile, but with these colors and the pretty embossing it's very feminine.

Stamps:  Yippee Skippee
Ink:  Basic Gray
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, and Basic Gray with Watercolor Wonder Designer Series Paper
Accessories:   Big Shot with Delicate Designs TIEF, Daffodil Delight Seam Binding, Bitty Butterfly and Elegant Butterfly Punches, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, and Glue Dots

I just love how pretty this card came out!  So feminine and sweet looking.  The Delicate Designs lace embossing along the top is such an elegant touch to this simple card, and really makes it special.

I had planned on using either Flower Shop or Petite Petals as the accent on the card.   But on further review, I decided the butterflies were a better fit with the overall card look. 

Changing up the sentiment could lend this card to many different uses.  If you have the components to make this, try it with other colors of cardstock and designer papers to get something altogether different.   Just a really nice and happy card style to have on hand.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Happy stamping,    Sharon

Patriotic Stars for You

Again I have used a retired stamp set that I will miss a lot.  The Simply Stars stamp set was such a basic set to add stars to a project whenever needed.  Today's card is very patriotic with it's red, white, and blue theme.  It kind of shouts out - God bless America!

 Stamps:  Simply Stars, and Gifts of Kindness
Ink:    Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, and Cherry Cobbler
Accessories:  Big Shot with Stripes TIEF, Large and Small Star Punches(both retired), Word Window Punch, and Dimensionals

I used the Stripes embossing folder to go with a stars and stripes theme.  The colors of Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler gave the card a slightly more vintage feel instead of a brighter red and blue.

Some of the stars are raised with Dimensionals, but not all of them.  I liked the differences of height to give it more interest.

With all the national holidays coming up, I thought it would be good to have a few of these on hand.  Hope you like this clean and simple idea.  Very quick to do when you're in a time crunch.  Thanks for stopping in again.  Have a great week!        Sharon

Playscape on Steroids

I mentioned a few days ago that there was a huge building project going on over here.  Friends have asked how the building went, when they got finished, and how the boys are enjoying it.  Well..... 


It's actually not even finished yet.  And it's not because they haven't been working at it for hours on end.  I thought you might like seeing a couple pictures to give you an idea of the magnitude of this playscape.

We own a double lot and as you can see the structure is taking up a fair amount of the 2nd lot.  See the little playscape the boys had originally there in the background?

This is the bare-bones structure.  None of the decking and just a few of the side slats are already done.

The weather has NOT been very helpful at all!

One of the slide pods has been installed here and a little more of the west tower construction has been roughed in

Here's mama and the boys checking out the work done that day before they went home.  This kind of gives a good idea of the size again.

Many more hours were spent working over the weekend and on Tuesday evening.  Coming along nicely, but still more work to be done.  And then Tuesday night was still more rain of course, so the work was suspended for today as everything was a little muddy.  Still need the swings attached, the decking on the bottom of both towers, and little touches to finish it all.
Whew!!  What a lot of work the three of them did to get this built.  But the boys are sure gonna love their playscape!

Happy Congratulations card

Today's card reminds me of outdoor parties in the summer with the pretty paper lanterns hanging from the fence and shining in the dark.  The set used is from the Occasions Catalog that will be retiring from Stampin' Up! on June 1st.  So there's a few more days left to get this happy stamp set that's waiting to help you get the celebration underway.

 Stamps:  Happy Congratulations
Ink:  Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar, with Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, and Baked Brown Sugar
Accessories:  Big Shot with Woodgrain TIEF, 3/4" Circle Punch, Gold Baker's Twine, Paper Snips, and Dimensionals

Isn't this great?  It looks like the decorations are all ready for a luau.  The fence is made by making lines with a marker on a piece of Baked Brown Sugar cardstock, embossing it with the Woodgrain TIEF, then snipping each 'board' with a pointy top to look like a privacy fence.

The party lanterns are stamped with different colors of ink onto Whisper White cardstock then punched out with the 3/4" Circle Punch.  A length of Gold Baker's Twine was attached to the fence, then the lanterns were attached with a Dimensional under each.


The inside of the card was stamped to mimic the card front.  And the wording that is part of the set would work well for a graduate, Father's Day, or maybe even a retirement party.  This is one set that is a lot more versatile than you  think when you first see it.

Thanks for coming by to see what's going on here.  Hope you liked this idea and give it a try.  You can always change up the lanterns to fit any color scheme you might need.  Happy stamping,    Sharon