Feathers for You

I am having a tough time keeping up with my blog and with all of the swaps that I signed up for! Convention is just 19 short days away and I have signed up for 11 swaps and have a Blog Hop (July 12-14, don't miss it!) to design for, ahhh! I must be crazy! I have come up with 9 of the swap card designs, and cut, stamped, and prepared them, completed 4 of them, and still need to design 2 more. The last 2 are big ones, so I need to make sure I have enough supplies of whatever I design before I start on them. Upside, I will have almost all of my posts for July done way ahead of schedule :) Downside, I feel like I need to do all of my designing for swaps first. Luckily, this card turned out to be too much fussy cutting for the shoebox swap, which is one of the 2 that I need to design for yet. I do love how it turned out though!

I don't do a whole lot of fussy cutting, but this was very worth it. I actually had to walk away from this card last night and come back to it this morning as I was struggling to put the right accent to the left of the sentiment. I tried to put the goose from Wetlands there, but it was too big. Then I tried some buttons and Natural trim. Too small. then the feathers popped into my head! Why it took so long, I have no idea :)

• Stamps: Fine Feathers, Four You, Positively Chevron
• Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso
• Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla
• Other: Big Shot with Adorning Accents edgelit and Chalk Talk framelit, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat,  Signo white gel pen, dimensionals

Happy last day of June! How the heck did it slip by so fast?!

Vintage Wedding

So, I was cruising through my older Pinterest pins and found some inspiration from this card by Paula. Love hers, but I tweaked mine a bit to make it more me :)

Would you believe the bottom portion is actually sponged with Crumb Cake? It looks so close to the Baked Brown Sugar! I masked off the top part of the Naturals Ivory panel, then clear embossed the flowers and sponged with the Crumb cake. I was not going to stitch or doodle around the edges, but it looked too simple. I broke down and stitched it down :) The banner is a scrap of Naturals Ivory I sponged with Crumb Cake and die cut with a Bitty Banners die.

• Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Label Love, Yippee-Skippee
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Baked Brown Sugar, Illuminate
• Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Naturals Ivory
• Other: Big Shot with Bitty Banners framelit, Artisan Label and Itty Bitty Shapes punches, Pearls Basic Jewels, Clear and Gold embossing powder, Embossing Buddy, Heat Gun, sponge, Baked Brown Sugar Stretch Ruffled ribbon, dimensionals, sewing machine and thread

 I lined the inside of the card with more Naturals Ivory and did a little generational stamping with the flower. This card could really be a wedding or an anniversary card, don't you think?

Strawberry Romance

Time for a little feminine crafting! I've been so focused on masculine stuff lately, I almost had to remind myself to make something girlie :) And I have bee dying to use this fabulous ruffled ribbon. It is sooo yummy!

This card will go in the Operation Write Home box, they always need Love, Thinking of You, and Miss You cards :) This is such a sweet sentiment. The flower embellishment is colored with markers and then some Gold Smooch Accent ink is dotted into the center. You can still get the accent ink on the Clearance Rack.  Love how well the Simply Pressed Clay sticks with a little bit of liquid glue :)

• Stamps: Lovely Romance
• Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Strawberry Slush, Baked Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry
• Paper: Whisper White, Strawberry Slush, Pear Pizzazz
• Other: Big Shot with Chalk Talk framelits and Beautifully Baroque embossing folder, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, and Baked Brown Sugar Stretch Ruffled ribbon, Simply Pressed Clay and Buttons and Blossoms mold, Blender Pen, Frost White and Gold Lame' Pearlized Accent Ink, Signo white gel pen, Sticky Strip, dimensionals

Mountains of Sympathy

We all need a card for a sad occasion now and again, and I like to keep a stash of them so I don't have to rush to make one when I need it. But sometimes you need something a little more tailored to fit the person it is going to. Just such a thing occurred recently when one of my uncles passed away on Memorial Day weekend. He was my uncle-in-law for about 30 years as he and my uncle had been together for that long. I will miss Robert aka: Auntie Bo-Bo! He has had AIDS since the late 80's and had been doing very well, until this spring when pneumonia caught him. This card will go to Jerry and they have lived in the California mountains for a long time, so I needed something simple and masculine, serene. I hope that is what I achieved here.

I masked off the top and bottom of the cardfront and sponged on some Island Indigo, Soft Suede, and Whisper White. Then I stamped the trees in Early Espresso and Whisper White, and the sentiment in Early Espresso. After it dried a bit, I added the white gel pen frame.

• Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Love and Sympathy
• Ink: Island Indigo, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Whisper White
• Paper: Crumb Cake
• Other: Naturals designer buttons, Island Indigo Baker's Twine

Giggling Cheese!

Sometimes you just have to have a funny birthday card and I am so glad that Stampin' Up! came up with this new set! I love the funny stuff! I am not sure who is going to get this card, but I have a few candidates in mind (waggling eyebrows sadistically)!

I was just playing around with this image and this card just kind of evolved all on its own. That is my favorite way to create :) And I just cannot get enough of the Core'dinations papers! They just beg you to touch the card and stare at the texture, sigh....

• Stamps: Giggle Greetings
• Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, Pumpkin Pie, Raspberry Ripple, Smokey Slate
• Paper: Smokey Slate,  Core'dinations: Pool Party, Primrose Petals, and Gumball Green, Whisper White, Naturals White
• Other: Big Shot with Perfect Polka Dots, Alphabet Press, and Chevron EF, Window Frames framelit, and Lardge Scallop edgelit, Festive Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Sanding Block, Blender Pen, Daffodil Delight ¼" Stitched grosgrain ribbon

I may have to CAS myself and make this card with a few different images, I love the colors and patterns so much!

HELLO, Hello, hello!

I am still feeling my way around with this soft and subtle color. Hopefully I will master it soon :) I have seen some fun cards with a repeating sentiment in different colors and thought I would try my hand at it.

This is a rather simple card, maybe a little too simple. I keep looking at it thinking it needs more punch.... I guess we can't love every card we make, can we!

• Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Four You
• Ink: Soft Suede, Pistachio Pudding, Gumball Green
• Paper: Pistachio Pudding, Naturals White
• Other: Mosaic punch, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, dimensionals

Have I mentioned how easy the Mosaic Madness set is to create patterns with?! Sooooo easy! I do love that part of this card :)

Strawberry Curry

When I was doing my projects for the recent SA New Colors Blog Hop, I got a bit carried away! I was having so much fun playing with Crushed Curry, I just couldn't stop :) This started out as a tag, then I stuck it on a cardfront. I better remake the tag, because I think it is just gorgeous!

I haven't quite decided if this will be a birthday or a hello card. I will stamp the greeting where my watermark is later, in Early Espresso. Unless it is too big, then I will make a little banner in white for the sentiment. The flowers are on watercolor paper and the only yellow I used is the Crushed Curry. I love this little Strawberry Slush centers! And can you see the shimmery flowers in the background? They really add something in real life :)

• Stamps: Secret Garden
• Ink: Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Illuminate
• Paper: Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Strawberry Slush, Watercolor
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents and Secret Garden framelits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Signo white gel pen, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Embossing Buddy, White embossing powder, Heat Gun, Doily, Aqua-painter, dimensionals, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Gingham Garden Washi Tape