CtS and CTD: Birthday Rose

I put a couple of challenges together to create a floral birthday card for someone at work.  I don't know her well - I only know she gardens so I stuck with flowers.

I was intrigued by the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch and started browsing my stash for a border type die.  I stumbled on this retired die by Stampin' Up that I think is stunning and I just haven't used enough.  So I cut it edge to edge across the card. I did experiment with a little distress ink and inlaying the colored pieces, but that got too fussy really quickly.  So I found a cheerful yellow polka dot and backed the rose with it.

I thought it would be fun to pair with another classic pattern and found the gingham hiding in the paper stash.  Initially I was feeling like I should find a brighter color (or perhaps a green for the leaves!) but then I remembered another current challenge that I had bookmarked as wanting to try - the current challenge at the Color Throwdown.  So I stuck with the gray gingham and added a simple kraft banner.


It's a gorgeous color combo and definitely not one that I would have come up with on my own.

SUPPLY LIST
(Everything I used is retired - sorry!)
Stamps: Stampin' Up And Many More
Dies: Stampin' Up Rose Garden
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up Polka Dot Parade and the gingham no longer had a label
Embellishments: Stampin' Up Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes

AAA Cards: A Softer Christmas

I got worried in June that I hadn't done a single Christmas card, so I decided to do a big Christmas in July.  So here it is July 14th and I've only done two others.  So here's #3 - but I actually did four of them so I'm at a grand total of six Christmas cards done!


I lined up the sentiment and the blue tree then stamped directly to the card front. The stamp set is a great builder set - so I added the tree trunk and the horizontal lines.  I masked off the sentiment with some removable tape, then used the big Clarity Stencil brush to add the blue glow. Then I mixed a few drops of white acrylic paint with a few drops of water, picked some up with a paintbrush and used my finger to tap the paintbrush and splatter the paint/snow on the scene.

Separately I created the pink tree with the vertical lines and the green tree with the ornaments.  I tapped the white paint over them too.  I wanted each tree to be distinctly different so I die cut a tree trunk from the coordinating die set for the pink tree and added a sparkly star to the green tree.


This card was inspired by this AAA Challenge.

Obviously I liked their grouping of trees. I had originally intended to go with the bright colors - but then I fell in love with the sentiment and had to go softer.  Hmmm...I think I'll have to try a bright one too!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Prints Christmas
Dies: Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Prints Christmas die and Lucky Stars die

Freshly Made Sketches: Celebrate Me & You

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Jen Mitchell.

I'm feeling lucky...I had been playing around with these dies/stamps on another card and never quite got it together.  Then before I cleaned off my desk, I took a peek at the sketch - and knew right away those same dies/stamps would work!


I love the fun of the angled panel.  I decided the main panel was perfect for the "celebrate" with the angled panel making it fun for an anniversary.  The soft bokeh seemed like a good fit too!  (The card was simple, but the photography gave me fits.  I hate glittery stuff.  I see others photo it and it looks great, but for me, it does weird things to the focus and the color.)
I hope to see you playing along with us!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Neat & Tangled Celebrate
Dies: Neat & Tangled Celebrate
Paper: Stampin' Up Lost Lagoon Cardstock, Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh in the Snow, Silver Glimmer from Michaels, Vellum
Embellishment: Pretty Pink Posh stars

Taylored Expressions: Retirement Sale

As much as I hate it, stamp companies simply have to retire products once in awhile, otherwise they'd have to have Amazon-sized warehouses.  I get it - but I do hate that some of my favorites are going away.  The good news for you is that there's a sale!! 

Taylored Expressions is bidding a fond farewell to over 200 products as we retire some of our favorite items with an amazing SALE. Choose from a variety of stamps and dies at prices up to 70% off -- but hurry, once they're gone, they're gone forever! Visit the SALE HERE to start shopping!

Plus, for a limited time, you can receive additional savings on these soon-to-be collector’s items. Additional discounts expire 11:59 pm CST on July 20, 2018.

To get you started with some ideas, here are a few cards that I've made in the past that include retiring items.

EVENTFUL - BBQ and BLOCK PARTY - PARTY

The BBQ border has so much wonderful detail. I love it sitting on top of the Block Party - Party die. Original post here.


EVENTFUL - FRIGHT NIGHT Another fabulous border scene is Eventual - Fright Night.  For this card, I trimmed it to the narrow part of the card and overlapped two sides.  Original post here.

MARLEY STAMP & DIE COMBO and TANNER STAMP & DIE COMBO and WATSON STAMP & DIE COMBO These are some of the cutest little guys you'll ever see! Original post here.


LOVE ALWAYS WINS STAMP & DIE COMBO

You really can't go wrong with a tic-tac-toe set that includes I {heart} U!  And the sentiments are charming.  Original post here.

CENTER STAGE CUTTING PLATE and the MR. & MRS./CONGRATS BANNER You can put just about anything on a stage! Original post here.


PEEK-A-BOO CHRISTMAS and PEEK-A-BOO CHRISTMAS DIES A wonderful set of basic Christmas images and fun sentiments.  Original post here.


PICTURE PERFECT - SMILE/HELLO The Picture Perfect series of dies is great for scrapbooking but are also excellent for framing scenes on cards.  Original post here.


RAINBOW SCALLOP BORDER It's lovely on its own - but check it out as the ocean!  Original post here.


SACK IT - MOOSE It just doesn't get much cuter than this!!  A lot of the Sack It dies are going - they all coordinate with Sack It To You.  Original post here.


SIP, SIP HOORAY and SIP, SIP HOORAY DIES Absolutely perfect for hot sunny summer days. Original post here.


IN & OUT THANKS I hesitate putting this on one the list because there aren't many left in inventory and you'll have to run fast to shop (with your fingers crossed).  But not knowing it was going to retire, I just used a stamp from this set to coordinate with the Thanks Script die and the new Thanks Script Backer - Mixed Media die.  It's a very handy set of "thanks" in different fonts plus add on lines to go with dies.  (FYI - In & Out Wedding is also retiring).  Original post here.

There are many, many other items but I didn't think you'd want to be scrolling through my post when you could be shopping!  Here's a link to all of them and here are the ones that I picked to show you.

RETIRED ITEMS

The Paper Players: Celebration

There's a can't-miss challenge going on right now - the 400th challenge from The Paper Players!!  Four hundred challenges is an amazing milestone.  They have a very talented design team so, whether I play or not, I always check out the challenge for their inspiration.  I'm hoping as my life has settled down recently, I'll have more time to be inspired and to play long.

The theme for this challenge is Celebration.


I stuck very close to their inspiration photo with a bouquet of balloons in the outdoors - only mine are floating to the sky with some subtle clouds stenciled in the background using Clarity Stencil Brushes to be able to stay as soft as possible.  I used the lightest blue on the outer edges of each row of clouds with the medium blue in the middle.  I did a long row along the bottom, making the row smaller as I moved up so that the upper right is still all white.  (The darkest blue in the supply list is actually a darker tone on the bottom left of the blue balloon which you can't even see after I put it all together.  You can see the two oranges on the orange balloon, also the yellow if you look closely!)


I wanted to add something slightly unique so I added a stitched frame twining it above and behind the sentiment, balloon strings and the balloon.

Congrats to the Paper Players!  I'm looking forward to the next 400!

SUPPLY LIST

Taylored Expressions: Fintastic Day

I have a friend who is an avid mermaid collector.  (She recently found a Christmas stocking in the shape of a mermaid tail!)  Her birthday is next week and the theme was a no-brainer.  I also realized it would give me a good chance to continue getting comfortable with watercolors because what do you need with a mermaid??  Water.  And color!!


I wanted to try a stencil but I quickly realized as I was poking around for some tips and hints that it's a problem because watercolors bleed under the stencil.  But I figured it wasn't a problem for this card since I was doing an ocean and I didn't need totally clean and neat lines.

After taping down the paper and the Go with the Flow Stencil, I added a couple drops of Cookie Monster Liquid Watercolors and a couple drops of Shimmer Liquid Watercolor.  I painted the top part of the stencil, section by section.  I wasn't being totally neat and tidy, but I didn't just color over everything because I wanted to have some definition.  Then I dipped my brush in some water before dipping it in the the watercolor mixture so that the next rows were slightly lighter.  I did this about five times to get to the bottom so that the bottom sections are quite light.  Then I dipped my brush in water one more time and painted the lightest shade over the entire ocean. 

The shimmer is important.  Check out how it looks on the water, plus I painted just some uncolored shimmer on the fish!  LOVE this stuff!!


I am having a lot of fun with the liquid watercolors.  I'm not sure that I would have said that a few weeks ago.  Have I mentioned that I like being in control - and watercolors tend to do their own thing?  But I've learned that there really are ways to use them that are stunning and not particularly hard!  I've stepped out of my comfort zone and feeling pretty good about it.  I can't say they are my go-to coloring method now, but they definitely have a place in my crafting!
SUPPLY LIST

Freshly Made Sketches: A Simple Thanks

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Cécile.

I had a lot of false starts while coming up with something for this sketch.  I ended up using some exciting new-to-me products and not quite following the sketch for sentiment placement. (Sorry!  I'm usually a fairly strict follower of sketches, but I really wanted to use these dies!)


Life has calmed down a lot lately.  We are in our new house.  There are still bits and pieces to finish up, but it's good - and the old house is no longer ours as of this coming Friday.  My youngest son has graduated from high school and then made the big decision to defer college for a year - that's actually good too.  So I get to think about making cards again and the first thing I did was a big shopping binge.  I did a great job of cleaning out my wishlist although some of it dated back years.  That's why I say "new-to-me" as I definitely can't claim that I'm on top of things, but I have some fun new stash to invigorate me and it's done the trick.  These dies are from Frantic Stamper.  I also did three cards earlier this week from that particularly shopping binge and I have a few more dies to play with.  Then I can move on to my binge from Neat & Tangled and from Altenew - all before I get my Stampin' Up order!!  I am having a blast!!

I hope you have a blast too while you are playing along with our sketch!!!

SUPPLY LIST
Dies: Frantic Stamper Modern Thanks, Reverse-Cut Leaves
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Flirty Flamingo and Granny Apple Green plus I used a scrap of black/white to back it with
Sequins: Webster's Pages Party Time