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

Old Green Truck

This old truck just has to be used for a Father's Day card or two. I just love coloring it too. And I used 2 of the new In-Colors on this card.

Raspberry Ripple is such a deep, rich purply-red, I love it! And I have already gone on and on about how I love the new Gumball Green :) This image tends to make me think of autumn, but these colors are the lush colors of summer, right now anyway!

The inside is all ready for someone to pick a sentiment, and the River Rock truck is light enough to stamp and write right over the top of it.

• Stamps: Countryside, Teeny Tiny Wishes
• Ink: River Rock, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Jet Black Stazon
• Paper: Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, River Rock, Naturals White, Watercolor paper
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents and Oval dies, Designer Label punch, Signo white gel pen, Aquapainters, Stampin' Dimensionals

Native Father

This stamp set (Dream Catcher) is retired and rare, and I paid  more for it than I care to admit. I bought it off Ebay shortly after I started working in Red Lake, and I am really glad I did. The vision for these cards came to me while driving home from work after a night shift on Friday morning, and I still love the way they turned out!

The new firm foam inkpads make this image so much more crisp and clear, so much more beautiful! I find myself more drawn to the intricately designed stamps because I can get an image I am happy with! I always assumed it was something I was doing that made the images a little mucky.
I used a non-SU set that really helped communicate the message I wanted for these cards. I love the crisp, clean imagery throughout this card.

And this is the second version. The print in the background gives the definition of the word Hero.

And the inside...

I am hoping that this is a popular card, but I only made 1 of each. Maybe I should make 1 more of each.

• Stamps: Dream Catcher (retired SU), My Hero My Dad (PTI)
• Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede
• Paper: Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso, Soft Suede
• Other: 1" Square punch, Stampin' Dimensionals