Embossed Polka Dots

Embossing powder is my new thing this month. I had gotten away from embossing as one of my past club ladies really hated embossing after she almost burned herself with the heat gun. Stampin' Up has a ton of great colors of embossing powders now, and I finally got all of them.

I pulled out the good old Distressed Dots background stamp and inked in  up with the Illuminate ink. I like it better that the Versamark because I can see it better and it seems to clean off the stamps easier. Then I put 3 different colors of embossing powder, one at a time on it. LOVE it!

• Stamps: Best of Birthdays, Distressed Dots
• Ink: Illuminate, Early Espresso, Tangerine Tango, Wild Wasabi, Pool Party
• Paper: Tangerine Tango, Wild Wasabi, Core'dinations and plain Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Ovals framelits , Adorning Accents Edgelit and Embossing Folder, Sanding Block, Essentials and Occasions Paper Piercing Packs, Paper Piercer and Mat, Blender Pen, Vanilla 5/8" Flower Trim, Tangerine Tango Sycamore Street 1/4" Satin ribbon, Pearls Basic Jewels, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals

This is the last day to get any of the Sale-A-Bration goodies, don't forget to get yours!

Orange Umbrella

Embossing, embossing, why can't I stop embossing?! I just love it lately! This little card took no time at all to develop. I knew I wanted to feature the umbrella and a general greeting. Then I dug through my scraps of DSP I had printed off MDS and found something that coordinated with the embossing powders I have.

I know that raindrops should not land under an umbrella, but they add some balance to the focal image. As for the ribbon, aren't you glad you got some of it before SAB ended?  Well, if you didn't there is still time. SAB runs until March 22, you have 4 days left. The DSP is from SAB too :)

• Stamps: Rain or Shine and Oh, Hello
• Ink: Illuminate, Basic Gray, Pool Party
• Paper: Sahara Sand, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Sycamore Street DSP
• Other: Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Tangerine Tango Sycamore Street ¼" Satin ribbon, Neutrals Designer button, White Baker's Twine, Embossing Buddy, Heat Gun, Tangerine Tango embossing powder, Rhinestones Basic Jewels

Poetry in Blue

We have less than 3 weeks left of Sale-A-Bration for this year, can you believe it? Time goes so quickly... I thought I better start posting some stuff made with the SAB swag for this year :)

Lots of marker usage on this one, direct-to-stamp style. I had a lot of fun with this, and for once, I picked my DSP first and let that decide my color combo. I usually do it the other way around and don't have any luck finding something that fits! Silly aren't I! I did emboss the Basic Label. I don't think I like it as much as just stamping it, but it was worth a try.

• Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous, Basic Label
• Ink: Marina Mist, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Early Espresso
• Paper: Summer Starfruit, Naturals White, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Poetry Prints DSP stack
• Other: Big Shot with Cloudy Day EF, Apothecary Accents and Floral Frames framelits, Midnight Muse Stitched Satin ribbon, Paper Piercer and Mat, Early Espresso embossing powder, Embossing Buddy, Heat Gun, Bitty Butterfly punch, Sticky Strip, dimensionals, sewing machine and thread, Signo white gel pen

Yes, I did freehand paper pierce around the flower diecut.  It turned out ok. I didn't feel compelled to throw it out and start over, lol!

ETA: For the butterfly, I inked the stamp up with Summer Starfuit, then with markers added the Marina Mist to interior of wings, outlined the image and the body with Midnight Muse, and thumped the whole image with the Midnight Muse marker also. Then I huffed on the image and stamped it. Voila!

Poetry in Green

This card feels a bit unbalanced to me, like it needs buttons on it maybe. But all that bulk can make it hard to mail, so I will settle for the rhinestones....

The flowers were inked with markers by adding the yellow first, then the red. For the butterfly, I inked up the stamp with Summer Starfruit, then added Gumball Green and Primrose Petals accents with markers. Pretty slick huh!

• Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous, Basic Label
• Ink: Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals, Early Espresso
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White Primrose Petals Core'dinations, Poetry Prints DSP pack
• Other: Big Shot with Needlepoint Border EF and Finishing Touches edgelit and Apothecary Accents framelits, Bitty Butterfly punch, Sanding Block, Signo white gel pen, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, dimensionals

Haven't done your Sale-A-Bration shopping yet? You have 2 weeks left, and 3 weeks left to get the Basic Label stamp. Don't miss out!

Vintage in Pink

Going for a vintage feel with this card, and I did lots of sewing on it to. I really like to sew on my cards, it adds such a lovely texture and feel to them.

Does anybody else have a hard time mixing prints? I never am quite confident with it, but I am working on it. Don't you love how the Ferris Wheel nestles into the design of the DSP?

• Stamps: Feeling Sentimental, Oh Hello
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Primrose Petals 
• Paper: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Primrose Petals Core'dinations, Print Poerty DSP pack
• Other: Primrose Petals Stitched Satin ribbon, Victoria Crochet Trim, 1¼" Square punch, sewing machine and thread, sanding block

I think I should have gone with a darker ink for the Ferris Wheel, maybe next time.

"Life...

...is a daring adventure or nothing." I love that quote from Helen Keller. And yes, it does fit with the phone booth because I can't think of it as anything other than the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Time and space travel with the Doctor are always an adventure!

This was my first attempt at a swap and I honestly don't know why I decided not to use it as a swap... maybe I just wanted an excuse to play with this stamp set more :)  Then again, maybe I had done too much paper piercing on all of my other swaps, lol! My recurring tendonitis in my right arm does start to act up when I do too much of the paper piercing, and stamping too! Good thing I have a high pain tolerance and am stubborn because I would hate to give up this hobby!

• Stamps: Feeling Sentimental, Daring Adventure
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Old Olive
• Paper: Old Olive, Pacific Point, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Lacey Brocade Embossing Folder,  Paper Piercer with Essentials Paper Piercing Pack and Mat Pack, Silver mini brad, Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, Signo white gel pen

Free tutorial with $35 purchase

Just place your order on my demonstrator website!
More details on the Virtual Stamp Club tab.

Calling All Whovians!

SAB has started!! Time to get in on all the free stuff , and what better way to kick it off than with a Time Machine! What, you don't see a time machine here? Really? It's right there! The TARDIS from Doctor Who! I may have mentioned this before, but my family is a bunch of Sci-Fi freaks, and we love Doctor Who, so I had to get this set :)

I tried to give a little impression of the opening credits with the watercolored piece behind the main image. First I did a wash of Wisteria Wonder over the whole piece of watercolor paper with an Aquapainter, then while it was still wet, I dabbed the Aquapainter with Island Indigo reinker all over the paper. After I had all 10 of those done (for the swap) I decided I needed to add a little shimmer to the watercolored piece, so I stamped the TARDIS (phone booth) all over it in Illuminate ink. I had a great time making this card, and my boys already have plans for who to give my copies too, lol!

• Stamps: Feeling Sentimental (SAB 2013)
• Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Illuminate
• Paper: Naturals White, Wisteria Wonder, Watercolor, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Lacey Brocade embossing folder, Aquapainters, Island Indigo and Pool Party ¼" Satin ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

Free tutorial with $35 purchase

Just place your order on my demonstrator website!
More details on the Virtual Stamp Club tab.

Madison Avenue: SA SAB Blog Hop!

We are approaching the Christmas of Stampin' Up, Sale-A-Bration! All kinds of goodies to earn with your purchases from January 22 thru March 22, 2013! A bunch of us from Stampin' Addicts are here to show you a pile of great ideas to play with your haul from SAB too :)

If you are starting this hop at the beginning, I am the first stop! And if you started somewhere in the middle, you probably just arrived from Debra's blog where she featured the One Big SAB CD with all of the SAB exclusive material. Didn't she do an awesome job?!  Here is the link to the Blog Hop thread on Stampin Addicts in case you get lost :)

I am featuring the set Madison Avenue, which was not my first choice, but only because I wanted to do a bunch of TARDIS and Doctor Who stuff with a different set and someone beat me too it. I got over that once I started playing with this set. It is so cheery :) (Plus you will be seeing some TARDIS cards later next week)

I must confess, I got the MDS disc with all of the SAB content on it and this is a hybrid card. I printed the Sycamore Street paper and the Madison Ave flower off and cut and punched them out. Worked great!  I did get the actual stamp set also, since it is a little hard to emboss, and a few other fun techniques, with MDS  ;) This was also one of my SA swap cards. I get the best swap cards from these ladies!

• Stamps: Madison Avenue
• Ink: Rich Razzleberry
• Paper:Naturals White, Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Sycamore Street DSP
• Other: Big Shot with Hexagons ef, Blossom and 1-3/8" Circle punches, Signo white gel pen, Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat

 Next I made a 4¼" square card and added a sentiment from the My Friend set. It may be hard to see, but I also did some dry embossing with the new Simply Scored Borders plate on each side of the main panel.

How about a smattering of flowers from corner to corner in some soft colors? I splashed some Bitty Buttons and Pearls on it too :)

Lastly, I tried to go a bit modern with this card. The Pool Party DSP is from the SAB Sycamore Street DSP and the Gumball Green DSP is from the Paper Poetry DSP pack in the Occasions Mini. The flower is also embossed with the Pool Party embossing powder!


That's all I have for you and now it is time to hop on over to Rhonda's  blog where she is using the Vines Embossing Folder. All I can say is wow!

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Love in November

I know most of us are thinking about Thanksgiving, and maybe about Christmas right now, but I have been doing some stuff for my Operation Write Home box. Christmas and THanksgiving are over for the deadlines for OWH, and it is time to think about Valentine's Day. General "love" are more versatile though so they encourage us to make more of them than the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment.

This is just one of several designs I made for the box and I am trying to combine some stash-busting with this project :) The DSP is from the Everyday Enchantment packs that were part of this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion. I have a bunch of it and it is so pretty! I think I can stop petting it now and use it up :) I also pulled out some retired cardstock and a retired stamp set, but I did use the new Illuminate ink! Love that stuff! It is like Frost White Shimmer Paint in an inkpad!!

• Stamps: You Are Loved, P.S. I Love You (retired)
• Ink: Poppy Parade (retired), Pool Party, Illuminate, Early Espresso marker
• Paper: Poppy Parade (retired), Pool Party, Everyday Enchantment DSP (2012 SAB), Very Vanilla
• Other: Big Shot with Delicate Doilied sizzlet, 1¼" Circle punch, dimensionals, Pearls Basic Jewels

Come back tomorrow to see what else I love!