Stamp Review Crew: Wetlands Edition

Oh my gosh, I am so excited about this round of the Stamp Review Crew! This is one of my absolute favorite sets that came out in the last catalog. It can take you from the forest and lakes right to the beach!! Love it!!

If you started at the beginning of the hop, you just arrived from Lisa Young's blog. Such natural beauty, right?! If I am your first stop, thanks for letting me be your first ;) If you get lost along the way at any time, you can refer back to the Stamp Review Crew post for this hop. You can check out any of our past hops there too. The links always go right to the correct post for the specific hop :)

My first project is a Very Vanilla card with a watercolor paper banner. I stamped the birds image and the Thank You sentiment after I watercolored with Calypso Coral and So Saffron and let that dry! I love how this card turned out!

• Stamps: Wetlands, Another Thank You, Positively Chevrons
• Ink: So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Gold Encore
• Paper: Very Vanilla, Watercolor
• Other: Big Shot with Banners framelit, Gold Sequin trim, Burlap ribbon, dimensionals, sewing machine and thread

 There are a few more little birds on the inside, in Gold ink again :)

I decided to play with my new Blendabilities markers and one of the new In-Colors for this card. I am already obsessed with these alcohol markers! The embossed layer is on dimesionals and I paper pierced on and around the oval for added detail. The Blackberry Bliss and the Wisteria Wonder go together surprisingly well here!

• Stamps: Wetlands
• Ink: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry , Momento Tuxedo Black
• Paper: Blackberry Bliss, Wisteria Wonder Core'dinations, Naturals White
• Other: Big Shot with Ovals framelits and Modern Mosaic embossing folder, Sanding Block, Signo white gel pen, Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Dimensionals

 And, of course, I repeated the image on the inside.

 This card grew from the white banner and senitment piece that were just laying on my desk :) The ribbon behind them is the 7/8" Natural cotton ribbon stamped with a dotty image in Gold Encore ink. Slick, I tell you!

• Stamps: Wetlands, Perfect Pennants, Happy Watercolor
• Ink:Whisper White, Gold Encore
• Paper: Whisper WHite, Blushing Bride
• Other: Big Shop with Banners and Chalk Talk framelits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Watercolor Wonder Washi Tape, Signo white gel pen, Gold Sequin Trim, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, 7/8" Natural Cotton ribbon, Dimensionals

 Then inside, I did a set of generational stamping in Gold Encore ink. I love how shimmery and lovely this ink is, don't you?!

Well, that's all I have for you this hop. Now fly away to Rita Wright's blog and see what delights she has for us!

 

Paper Crafters Sampler: Thrice in Design

It is the 10th of the month again, which means it is time for another issue of the Paper Crafters Sampler! Here is what our founder has to say about this month's issue:

"We've put together a fun yet challenging Sampler together for May.  This month offers three times more flair than the previous issue.

 

The request this month varied from holiday and seasonal issues we've had in the past.  Our May issue, "Thrice In Design", takes a whack at design projects with trio's, three's and third's in mind.  Each project simply had to contain "3" of something, be it images, layers or shapes.

 

Once again the design team pulled through and the creativity of each project shows. 

 

This month's template is also designed with the trio concept in mind; the Pocketed Triptych ."

 Here is a peek at the project I designed for the month of May!

Stamp Review Crew: By the Tide edition

Welcome back friends! We are so happy to have everyone stop by again for another edition of the Stamp Review Crew! We have a fun hop planned for all of you. Everything nautical seems to be very popular right now, and this set has so much to offer. I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with :)

If you started at the beginning of the hop, you just arrived from Heidi Bak's blog. So darling, right?! If I am your first stop, thanks for letting me be your first ;) If you get lost along the way at any time, you can refer back to the Stamp Review Crew post for this hop. You can check out any of our past hops there too. The links always go right to the correct post for the specific hop :)

I am going to start off with something soft and a little blingy with the burlap, sequins, and Gold Foil vellum. That little seahorse is so darn cute, I just had to make him a prominent feature on this card :) He is stamped once in Baked Brown Sugar full strength, then stamped off once for the rest in the circle. Gold Encore ink is used for the "hello" sentiment. A little tone on tone stamping for the Soft Sky coral in the lower corner finishes it off.

Along the inside edge, I stamped the seahorse in Baked Brown Sugar and once in Gold Encore ink.

Here is a little masculine birthday action. The Island Indigo Core'dinations panel was sanded, then stamped with the lobster image. The greeting is embossed in Pewter embossing powder. I used Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, and Crushed Curry for the circle image on the flag and tied a little Silver Baker's Twine on the banner. It might be hard to see, but I also paper pierced all the way around the banner and popped it up on the card front.

Inside, the lobster is a stamped off image and a little more yellow.

Last up is a tea light box. I have made these for years and they are so easy to make, especially now that we have the Simply Scored tool to help us out! The shel may be hard to see in the picture, but it is stamped on the Blushing Bride in White, the poem in Blushing Bride, and the coral in Gold. THe sentiment is from Four You and is stamped in Early Espresso.

As usual, I stamped inside the box also, which is made out of Naturals White card stock. I tied some of that yummy sequin ribbon and added some loose sequins to the box cover. I chose not to stamp on the candles right now, but I may change my mind before I gift this to someone.

Alrighty-then! I hope you got some inspiration here. Time to go check out the every lovely Rita Wright's blog to see what sweetness she has in store for us!

Stampin' Addict's Retiring Stamp Set Blog Hop: Simply Stars

It is that time of year again. Stampin' Up! has posted the Retiring Stamps and Accessories Lists and we must say goodbye to a few of our favorites. Join us in the Sixth Annual Stampin' Addicts Retiring Stamp Sets Blog Hop as we share a few projects with some of the sets on this list.

This hop was put together very quickly, lol! We had to wait until the retiring list came to do anything, and this is what we came up with in just 4 days :)  If you are following in order, you just arrived from Rhonda Griffin's blog where she featured Secret Garden. Such a lovely set, and didn't she do just a lovely job?! If you get lost along the way, you can always pop back to the Stampin' Addicts thread for this hop and find your way again :)

I am the last stop on the hop and I am featuring Simply Stars as my set. It was a new set in the catalog this year, and I knew I had to have it right away. Sadly, there was so much new stuff that I had to have right away, this set was rather neglected.... but I was able to come up with these three cards within 4 hours of signing up to feature them for this blog hop!

 My first card is a combination of two challenges: Nacho Average Challenges color challenge (Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, and Strawberry Slush), and Retro Sketches challenge #111. I managed to use all but one of the stamps in this set. There is actually another star in the Perfect Pennants set that the sentiment came from , but I didn't think about that until the card was done.

Next up we have this card that had a bit of a bulls-eye and some sparkle. The bulls-eye was created with the Circles framelits and is two hollow circles glued onto a gray circle, and then paper piercing with the Essentials Paper Piercing Mat. The little star popped up on the Glimmer star is actually cut from the center of the same star image as is in the background. And MDS is always helpful to get just the right sentiment.

Last up, I have these little stars strung across the card front. The "string" was actually drawn on with an Early Espresso marker after the stars were stamped. The sentiment is from Just Sayin' and I just inked the saying with a marker so I did not get the word bubble with it.

Sadly, the day before this post goes live, Simply Stars has already sold out!

I hope you enjoyed this stop on the hop, and now it is time to head on over to Adriana Benitez's blog to check out the amazing things she has done with Blast Off!

My First Gandbaby is Born!

We have been patiently anxiously for this little peanut to arrive, and last night he finally did! Our oldest son and his wife have blessed us all with a darling baby boy! He was 40 weeks 6 days gestation. That's 1 week overdue for those who didn't know :) Carrie was induced Wednesday morning at 08:30 and did not progress well, only getting as far as 4 cm dilation by 10:00pm, and her epidural did not work... she was getting pretty worn out after many hours of contractions 2-5 minutes apart. So, she had baby by c-section! Both mom and baby are doing well :)

Here he is! Look at that hair! It is kind of curly and dark brown with maybe a little red tinge to it. Believe it or not, his father had more hair!

Carrie will probably want to kill me for posting this picture seeing as I had to almost beg to get her to let me take this picture! She felt like she really needed a shower and to fix her hair first. That was not going to be happening for a while yet, but I think she looks beautiful! David is a big gooey mess over his new baby, but he is so darn cute, how could he not be :)

Grandpa Jamie loves babies so much already, it is fantastic to watch him cuddle and coo over his first grandbaby! I almost didn't get a turn to hold him!

Uncle Geoffrey getting to hold Cameron. Geoffrey has held some of his little cousins, but not much! He will have to learn all kinds of baby stuff now :)

I finally got a turn, and thought I might like a picture of me holding the little peanut someday, so here it is. I unwrapped him and was trying to wake him up so momma could feed him. It had been about 6 hours since he had breastfed last and momma was getting worried. Already a great mom!

At 4 months gestation, the ultrasound had shown that baby was a girl, so momma had gotten all kinds of baby girl stuff, and baby girl type gifts and hand-me-downs were gathered and given. Momma had dreams of the things she would do with a little girl. Then last week, they did another ultrasound and found evidence of baby being a boy! Momma had to mourn the dream of her baby girl and think about getting baby boy clothes, blankets, etc for this little fella! It was probably a good thing she had a week to get used to the idea of a little boy :) This is the second time in the last 6 years in our immediate family that this has happened! My husband's brother Jeff and his wife Heidi thought they were having a girl, right up until they delivered little baby boy Caden! Surprise!

I am sure you will be seeing more of this handsome little man in the future :)

Kind and Cozy Thoughts

This is the second card design I did for the recent swap. I think it turned out quite nicely :) It is also the first time I used the Kind & Cozy set, even though I have had it for months! I tend to think I am going to use stamp sets sooner than I do. Mostly because I make sure I have plenty of stamping "assignments" between the Stamp Review Crew, the Paper Crafters Sampler, swaps, and Stampin' Addicts blog hops that I rarely have a time when I don't have a deadline approaching. This is self induced, mind you, lol! And I like to have goals.

I had not used my colored embossing powders lately and thought this would be the perfect time. The gingham label circle is embossed with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. I have found that this particular embossing powder will turn color if heated to long, just as an FYI. Doesn't it look sharp on the Baked Brown Sugar cardstock?! I also did a lot of inking with markers. I found a great tip on how to refill your markers here, so I was able to get my Old Olive nice and juicy again in just a few minutes. The rest were still nice and juicy already. 
I don't know if you can see it on your computer screen, but I also stamped the Hardwood BG in Illuminate ink on the Whisper White panel. It looks quite lovely in person :)

• Stamps: Kind & Cozy, Hardwood BG
• Ink: Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler, Illuminate
• Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay
• Other: Burlap ribbon, Signo white gel pen, 2½" and 1¾" Circle punches, Brights and Regals Candy Dots, dimensionals, Embossing Buddy, Cherry Cobbler embossing powder, Heat Tool

 Since I used a dark card base, I needed to line the card. A white panel is stamped in the lower corner with the floral image from the set.

Stamp Review Crew: Six-Sided Sampler Edition

Woo-hoo! Another Stamp Review Crew hop! These are my favorite days of the month :) We have quite the challenge for the Crew members this time. How much can you do with a set of seven hexagons and three sentiments?! Well, we are about to find out, lol!

If you are following along in order, then you just arrived from Shana Graff's blog. Such awesome stuff, right! If you started with me, I'm so honored :) Otherwise, if you ever get lost along the way, you can refer back to the Stamp Review Crew site and post for this hop. While you are there, you can check out any of our past hops. The links always go directly to the projects for that hop :)

I went a little crazy with the little flowers on this card. Well, it is spring! At least in most of the country, lol! I still have some snow on the ground and some gladiolus and dahlias just waiting for the ground to thaw so I can plant them :) Until then, I have to make do with creating them, instead of growing them.
I used some Silver Encore ink to stamp the outlined hexagons, then glued a little flower into the centers. I couldn't decide between pearls and rhinestones, so I both :)
I just got my Fringe Scissors too, so I had to play with them on this project!

You can see the hexagons a little better in this picture. It is sure tough to photograph shiny things!

Here is the inside of the card.  I love how easy it is to create a pattern with these little hexagons :)

Now it is time to hit the next stop with Betty Traciak, I can't wait to see what she has created!