Inspire. Create. Poppy Moments

 My Stampin' Up demonstrator's birthday is coming up next week.  (Or my "dealer" as my husband calls her!)  I pulled out the wonderful flowers from Poppy Moments with some bright and cheerful colors; and I used the sketch from the Inspire. Create. Challenge to create this card.

 

I layered everything tone-on-tone just for the dimension.  I love the bright combo of Granny Apple Green and the retired Lemon Lime Twist. (FYI - I have kept every single Stampin' Up color since the beginning of time! It's amazing how often colors come back around or at least coordinate with something new.  My color revelation in yesterday's post was how well More Mustard and Cinnamon Cider work together!)  

I used the retired Gingham Gala sequins because they included Lemon Lime, but it turns out the iridescence in the Grapefruit sequins kind of coordinates with Flamingo and Mango.  

(Whew! That's a lot of color names.)

I have a vacation day from work today - my family was going to spend some time in the Colorado mountains before my youngest heads back to Illinois for school (knock on wood).  The sad news is that Colorado is experiencing a heavy wildfire year. Yesterday morning we decided to spend time at Chambers Lake.  Yesterday afternoon, I started getting news flashes on my phone about a new fire at...you guessed it...Chambers Lake. It's not that there aren't a lot of mountain locations to visit but there's a heavy layer of smoke over much of it.  The fifth largest wildfire in Colorado history is burning right now and is only 7% contained so will grow.  Another wildfire has closed the E-W interstate through Colorado so it's not easy to get across the state, let alone the country. It's not contained at all and is only a mile from a major power plant. It is horrifying, but at the same time I understand that forests need to clean themselves out once in a while to be healthy. (And our Colorado forests are not healthy.) I just wish somehow it could happen without the destruction and potential death - prayers going up for these hero firefighters.

On a much more positive note, my dealer demonstrator dropped by yesterday with my new order.  Hmmm...vacation day...nothing planned...I'm thinking I'll have a fabulous day in my craft room!!

Thanks to the team at Inspire.Create for the inspiration for today's card.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Stampin' Up Watercolor Wishes (sentiment)

Dies: Stampin' Up Poppy Moments, Stitched Rectangles

Paper: Stampin' Up Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Black, Gingham Gala 6x6 dsp

Other: Stampin' Up Gingham Gala Adhesive Backed Sequins

Fab Friday: Sunflowers

When my first order came from the main Stampin' Up catalog, my demonstrator brought it by and then we spent the afternoon playing with her new products and my new products.  She had ordered the sunflower set.  (I very much want this set but it is so hard to justify more sunflowers in my stash.  Of course, I'm writing this after I ordered from the holiday catalog from which I managed to justify more leaves. Go figure!)  She also brought me some retired papers.  I cut the background from the paper, then I cut a variety of the dies in various colors that I thought would coordinate well but I had not done anything with them until I saw the current sketch at Fab Friday  The sketch had the space to hold it all!

As I was matching up colors, I found that that the old More Mustard is a beautiful match with the new Cinnamon Cider.  I love the golden tones of each.  I also added the new Bumblebee and a bit of Misty Moonlight for contrast. I used the butterfly just to fill in some space on the sketch. I love the fonts on the sentiments from Arrange a Wreath and it fit perfectly in one of the Stitched Labels dies.  I did not adhere the edges of the leaves, butterfly and even the sunflower  to give it dimension.  This shows it a bit better. 

I am really happy with this card or maybe I'm just thrilled to be moving into the colors of fall!  And I definitely need to add this die set to my stash!  Thank you to Fab Friday for the inspiration that pulled this all together!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Stampin' Up Arrange a Wreath

Dies: Stampin' Up Sunflowers, Stitched Labels, Butterfly Duet Punch

Paper: Stampin' Up Cinnamon Cider, More Mustard (retired), Bumblebee, Misty Moonlight, DSP is retired

Ink: Stampin' Up Cinnamon Cider

Other: Stampin' Up 2020-2022 In Color Enamel Dots, Subtles Embossing Folder

Freshly Made Sketches: Your Special Day

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Jen Brum and here’s what I did with it!

I am a huge fan of the cards many people are making with black and white images and color around it so that's what I did!  Using this particular image is kind of funny though.  I specifically bought this stamp set because it has solid images to color the flowers - so what do I do?  I leave it black and white!  It will be fun to add color and I will do that soon.  But the pop of pink, mango and lime green - particularly on kraft seemed like all the color this card needed.  

I hope to see you play along with us this week!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Avery Elle Simple Sentiments, Pinkfresh Believe in Yourself
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Lemon Lime Twist

Other: Stampin' Up Tasteful Textile Embossing Folder, Studio Katia Arctic Breeze Pearls (colored with Copics)

CAS Colours: Oh Happy Day

 I'm squeezing in a last minute entry to CAS Colours & Sketches. Their color combo includes Terracotta Tile and I immediately knew I wanted to play along. Terracotta had gotten no love from me yet and that's surprising - it really is my kind of color.  I pulled out a Memory Box die so that I could use the darker colors for the flowers and leaves - then I just brushed on some Blushing Bride and added a few pink pearls!

Thank you to the CAS Colours and Sketches design team for the inspiration to use this lovely color.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Memory Box Springtime Typewriter Sentiments

Dies: Memory Box Antique Corner Rose Label

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Terracotta Tile, Garden Green

Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride

Other: Studio Katia Arctic Breeze Pearls (colored with Copics), Fun Stampers Journey Black Licorice Silk (for splatters)

Freshly Made Sketches: Can't Wait to See You

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by me! I hope you like it!!

 

As is so often the case with me, I start out with one idea and end up going in an entirely different direction.  This sketch was put together for the rainbow of paper stripes that I'm seeing everywhere and am loving! But my card ended up with soft ink-blended stripes.

 After I put the sketch together, this lovely leafy border die just showed up in my stash.  Not a big change - I figured I'd do a green/blue rainbow of paper stripes but it just seemed too heavy for the delicate leaves.  I had seen a card by Jill Hawkins using a striped stencil that overlapped.  That are 3/4" stripes but there's less than 3/4" between the stripes.  So after brushing on the first rainbow of color, just shift the stencil and apply the second rainbow.  Then I didn't want to cover any of it, so a simple "hello", a splash of gems and it's done!

The hardest part was keeping the inks straight.  I pulled out 9 colors in a rainbow of blues to yellows.  I then alternated them so that I first applied every other color of the rainbow, then I shifted the stencil and went to the other stack. Whew!

I hope you play along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches. I'd love to see what you create with the sketch.

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Altenew Fancy Hello and Leafy Border

Stencil: Taylored Expressions 3/4" Stripes

Christmas Card Throwdown: Bring on the Merry

This is my second post today.

This week's challenge at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is a unique little sketch.  When I saw it, I immediately thought I'd do a row of Christmas ornaments, kind of tumbled together.  As I was flipping through my Christmas dies, I saw these snowman and they were stored right next to the hat dies - so I had a wonderful morning dressing up my snowpeople!

The paper I found is actually a fall pad, but it brought in the orange for their noses.  I was thrilled to find some glitter paper in my stash that coordinated with the paper - then a whole bunch of red and white gems.  They are definitely "merry"!!  I was originally going to skip the banner in the sketch because I obviously couldn't put it over top of the snowman, but I ended up tucking it behind and I like the pop of color that it gives.

Thanks you to 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for the inspiration!!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Hello Bluebird Typed Christmas

Dies: Paper Smooches Snowman, Hats and Bows

Slimine: Sending Prayers

In my new passion for slimline cards, I recently purchased some basics from Pinkfresh - the stitched rectangles and the slim edgers.  And what do you know - while I was shopping, the beautiful flower just jumped right into my cart!

There are so many gorgeous flowers out there and I have too many already, but this one just had to be in my stash.  It's so easy to use with so much detail - yet still so fresh and clean!  It's actually a collaboration between Pinkfresh and Altenew. Then when the flowers and the slimline dies were in my cart, I threw caution (and my bank balance) to the wind and splurged on the Pinkfresh Phrase Builder which has been on my wishlist forever.  Must...stop...shopping!  Having said that, every item on this card will be heavily used.  Good sentiments never go to waste.  An easy flower looks great on a quick card. And as long as I'm enjoying slimlines, the stitched rectangle and edgers are must-haves!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Altenew/Pinkfresh collaboration: Celebrate Us
Dies: Pinkfresh Phrase Builder: Sending, Slim Stitched Rectangles, Slim Edgers
Cardstock: My Favorite Things Pineapple, Stampin' Up Old Olive
Ink: My Favorite Things Pineapple, Stampin' Up So Saffron, Pear Pizazz, Cinnamon Cider, and the old Subtles dsp
Other: Pretty Pink Posh Buttercream Gems