Love and Sympathy

I think this is the hardest kind of card for me to make, so I have been trying to make more of them. Unfortunately, they don't last very long before I, or someone I know, needs to send one of these. The layout and images of this card could be used for many different occasions too.

I was having way too much fun with the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack last week, lol! I have always loved the look of faux stitching so this is fast becoming one of my favorite new tools. The pack has a lot of fantastic guides. I hope you give them a try. I did find that using some pins to hold the guide in place to the mat worked great for keeping everything together while doing the piercing.
And did you notice how well the Extra Large Oval punch is framed by the square Apothecary Accent die? Love it!

Inside I used the coordinating sentiment from the Love & Sympathy set. More trees, and white gel pen to give it a nice finished touch.

• Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Love & Sympathy
• Ink: River Rock, Early Espresso
• Paper: River Rock, Early Espresso, Naturals White, Neutrals DSP pack-Very Vanilla type sheet
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents framelits, Extra-Large Oval punch, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack with paper piercer and piercing mat, sponge, Signo white gel pen, Stampin's Dimensionals, Mini Silver Brads

Butterfly Silhouette Birthday

This week I will be showing you my blog hop projects in a little more detail. I really had a lot of fun making these projects, and I hope the details will be useful to everyone, or someone at least!

For this card, I chose the same layout as a Father's Day card I had made the week before and changed it up just a little bit.  I knew I wanted to used a soft neutral and Crumb Cake is my usual go-to color for that, then River Rock, neither of them seemed to work. Then I remembered poor neglected Sahara Sand! I really love that color, I just keep forgetting about it. Funny how we get stuck in color ruts, isn't it.

I also used the new Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack here. It is so much easier to make the faux stitching with the larger guide. The straight line of stitching is a full 5½" long on the 6" guide!

The Apothecary Accents framelits set has such wonderful shapes, I just can't stop using them! The shape I used is the only one that does not have a piercing guide. I would love one for it, and one for ovals.... maybe that will come in the future :) A girl can dream.

• Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Curly Cute, Woodgrain
• Ink: Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, Pool Party, Sahara Sand
• Paper: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, Pool Party
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents framelits, 1¾" Circle punch, 1" Square punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Essentials Paper-Piercing pack with Paper Piercer and Piercing Mat, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, Signo white gel pen, Stampin' Dimensionals

SA Blog Hop- Serene Silhouettes

Now that we have all had a chance to see the new annual catalog from Stampin' Up! , and some of us have gotten to play with the new toys, it is time to show it all off to you! There is so much to love about the new catty, it is hard to know where to start. I must confess, I made a REALLY long list of stuff I want out of the catalog. Then I went back and tried to make it smaller... I did n;t have much luck there, lol. Then I went back again and divided my wist list into 7 groups by theme with the plan to order one group a month. Sounds like a good plan? Maybe.
Now, allow us to make your list making harder ;)

If you  have just joined the hop, Welcome! Here is a link to the main thread in case you get lost. If you just came from Heidi's blog you will share in my delight in her projects! Who knew you could do that with The Great Outdoors set?

I will be featuring the Serene Silhouettes set. I am not sure why I chose this as one of the first sets to get, other than I don't have any other silhouettes sets right now. And these images are beautiful! I imaging more card ideas!

This is the first card I made with this set, and it has a vintage feel to it. See the Vintage Faceted button? They are so pretty! And next to it is a Naturals button. I love how they look so good together :) As you can see, I used a lot of new goodies on this card, lol.

How about some circles? And bright colors? And the under-used Sahara Sand. Every time I use Sahara Sand, I wonder why I don't use it more often. Add a little Woodgrain BG to the die cut piece, and some yummy little flowers with rhinestones, and I think it is a hit!

We all need a sympathy card or 3 in our stash. I know I am never in the mood, or inspired, when I need one of these cards. All of the images in this set, except maybe the round one, work well for a sympathy card.

My 3D project is a "Sweet Thanks" with milk cartons. This little holder has been around for awhile, and it is still so cute! The silhouette flowers and grass makes a pretty shadow effect with the White and Crumb Cake inks.

Now, on with the show! The next stop on this hop is Debra Burgin's blog where she will be featuring Fine Feathers, and she did a fabulous job! Go check it out!!

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Motorcycle Dad

Motorcycles. I think almost every guy has owned one, or plans on it someday. And SU made this fabulous single stamp a couple years ago. I had actually forgotten to add this stamp to the stacks of stamps I had gathered for making Father's Day cards! Can you believer that?! Then my hubby made a comment that a motorcycle card "would be nice" when I asked him if there was something missing from my selection of complete cards.

I snuck some more banners into this card. After I had it assembled I realized I should have made the blue banner just a little longer so you could see all of the words "best" and "ever". Then I could have stamped "dad" under the motorcycle! Oh well, next time I will :)

Inside is part SU sentiment and part PTI sentiment. They mix really well :)

• Stamps: Motorcycle, Travel Log, Best Dad Ever, Father Knows Best (PTI)
• Ink: Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point, Early Espresso
• Paper: Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point, Early Espresso, Naturals White
• Other: Big Shot with Labels framelits, Corner Rounder, 1",and  1¼" Square punches. Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Signo white gel pen, Stampin' Dimensionals, black pen

 And don't forget to come back tomorrow to join us for the Blog Hop!

Funny Dad

Summer Starfruit. Hmmm. Kind of a tough color for me to love, until I saw this color combo on a non SU card on the web somewhere. Now, I love it!! I am so glad :) We only have this color for 2 years and sometimes a color will take 18 months to grow on me.

I had a request for a funny Father's Day card and Hambo Stamps came to the rescue for the phrases. I used a variety of stamp sets for the images :) The star clusters are from Extreme Elements, The argyle Dad is from Loved Ones, and the lower case dad is from Family Reunion. And I finally used some of the those wonderful Naturals buttons!

And the punchline for this card. I love it!!

Card #2 looks almost exactly the same, but has a different funny sentiment.

How can you not love these?!

• Stamps: Family Reunion, Extreme Elements, Loved Ones, Best Dad Ever, Hambo Stamps funny sayings
• Ink: Summer Starfuit, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake
• Paper: Summer Starfuit, Baja Breeze, Naturals White
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents framelits, Large and Small Star punches, Naturals Designer buttons, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Signo white gel pen, Stampin' Dimensionals

Still Waters

I couldn't resist making another card with this set, and I had not yet gotten my order from the new catalog, I really wanted the Chevrons embossing folder, so I used a Chevron set I had in my stash to simulate waves in the background.

This layout kind of reminds my of those kitschy wall plaques about fish stories, lol!

And inside looks a bit like twilight fishing, when the heat of the day has worn off, the water becomes still and looks like glass....perfection.

• Stamps: Angler, Best Dad Ever, Chevron (PTI)
• Ink: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Versamark
• Paper: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Naturals White
• Other: Apothecary Accents dies with Big Shot, Paper Piercer, Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine, 1" Square punch, Embossing Buddy, White embossing powder, Heat Gun, Stampin' Dimensionals

Trout Anyone?

Another oldie but goodie! Angler is one of those sets that will never leave my collection. I have made many a card with it, and I will make many more I am sure :)

Lots if action on this card, the alternating circle sizes make me think of waves on the lake. The fish swimming by promise a great day fishing!
Living in Minnesota makes fishing an automatic pass time, and both sides of our family have worked in the fishing boat industry, so this is such an amazing set of images for me.
My love of Pool Party has not diminished lately, but I am finding myself using the Island Indigo more now too :)
The boat image is embossed in white to make a vibrant image, and I stamped the lures in the background as the cardfront seemed too blah without it.

More fishies swimming inside!

• Stamps: Angler, Best Dad Ever
• Ink: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Early Espresso, Versamark
• Paper: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents framelits, Embossing Buddy, White embossing powder, Heat Gun, Stampin' Dimensionals, ¾" and 1" Cir