TGIFC 131 & INK 146 - Happy Birthday

Hello and welcome back! Today I have a very special birthday card made using the eclipse technique. These cards are all over Pinterest, but this is the first time I've tried it.

The card is an unusual size, because I needed to fit 5 of the large letters on it. Luckily, with the Envelope Punch Board, it's easy to make an envelope to fit any card! I love the look of the popped up letters that let you see a peek of the color underneath.

I wasn't sure how to add the "birthday," but then I thought the copper embossing would be perfect. What do you think?

This card is for the eclipse technique challenge at TGIFC and the autumn challenge at Inkspirational.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi



Supplies used:

Stamp sets - Lighthearted Leaves (retired), Milestone Moments, Suite Sentiments (retired)
Paper - Very Vanilla Thick Cardstock; Very Vanilla and Early Espresso Cardstock; Spooky Night DSP; Neutrals Envelope Paper (retired)
Ink - Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Versamark
Accessories - Early Espresso 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon (retired), Copper Embossing Powder
Tools - Big Shot, Large Letters Framelits, Heat Tool, Foam Adhesive Strips, Multipurpose Liquid Glue, SNAIL, Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board

AYSI 157 & TGIFC 123 - A Sympathy Card

Hello and welcome back! Today's card is for the sketch challenge at As You See It and the color challenge at TGIFC.

And here is today's card.

For this card, I went with a clean and simple look. I first tried stamping the background flourish with Peekaboo Peach but it was a bit too garish, and when I tried stamping off, it was too faint. I think the Soft Sky looks much better. I used the Peekaboo Peach for the die cut flower, layering two of them together. Once again, I pulled out my Stitched Shapes Framelits. They sure get a lot of use!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi



Supplies used:

Stamp set - Flourishing Phrases
Paper - Whisper White Thick Cardstock; Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Peekaboo Peach, and Whisper White Cardstock
Ink - Early Espresso, Soft Sky
Accessories - Basic Pearl Jewels
Tools - Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Flourish Thinlits, SNAIL, Stampin' Dimensionals, Fine-Tip Glue Pen, Stamp-a-ma-Jig

TGIFC#109 & PP#346 - Faux Dry Embossing

Hello and welcome back! Today's card is for two challenges - the inspiration challenge at TGIFC and the sketch challenge at the Paper Players.

Here is today's card:

I spent way too much time browsing on Pinterest today and found a wonderful technique video from Alisa Tilsner for faux dry embossing. With all of the dragonfly inspiration from Rochelle Blok, I thought this would be the perfect way to try it out!

I created my card base from Smoky Slate cardstock and then die cut 7 of the small dragonflies from the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits and glued them onto the card front using the Tombow glue. I lined them up diagonally like Alisa suggests in her video. I was able to use some of the parts I cut off to fill in the empty spaces. Then I just added a banner of Pink Pirouette, a sentiment from Eastern Beauty, and a little sparkle with some Silver Glimmer Paper. It's a pretty simple card, but it packs a lot of punch, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

--Cindi



Supplies used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamp set - Eastern Beauty
Paper - Smoky Slate, Pink Pirouette, and Whisper White cardstock, Silver Glimmer Paper
Ink - Basic Gray Archival
Tools - Big Shot, Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits, Layering Squares Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Banner Triple Punch, Tombow Multi Glue, Stampin' Dimensionals

A Sympathy Combo Challenge

Hello and welcome back! Today's card is for the challenges at Freshly Made Sketches and TGIF. 

 Here's my card for the challenges:

I wanted to try one of the new In Colors on this card, so I pulled out the Tranquil Tide ink and cardstock. I used the large stamp from Flourishing Phrases to create the side panel, then added flowers cut from Emerald Envy and Calypso Coral with pearl accents. The sentiment was stamped and cut with the Stitched Shapes oval and backed with a scalloped Layering Oval. I even refrained from adding ribbon to this one, because I wanted to keep it really simple.

I hope you like it.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi



Supplies used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamp set - Flourishing Phrases
Paper - Very Vanilla Thick Cardstock (NEW); Very Vanilla, Tranquil Tide (NEW), Emerald Envy, and Calypso Coral cardstock
Ink - Tranquil Tide
Accessories - Pearl Basic Jewels
Tools - Flourish Thinlits, Layering Ovals Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Big Shot, Stampin' Dimensionals, SNAIL, Fine-Tip Glue Pen

TGIF Challenge #38 - All About Pets!

Hello and welcome back! Today's card was inspired by the challenge at TGIF. It's all about pets today!

We have two cats at my house - Grace and Arthur - who make us crazy sometimes, but we love them! Here's a picture of them together - not an easy task!

And here is my card:

I don't know why, but there are no cat stamps in my stash. Hard to believe, since I own so many stamp sets! So I decided to try some punch art. It's not something I do often, but I found lots of inspiration on Pinterest. This was inspired by a card made by Jen Shults, which you can see here. And now that I've just linked that post, I notice that I have forgotten to add the whiskers! Oops! I'll have to edit this, but I need to get it done in time to enter in the challenge.

Hope you like my whisker-less kitty! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

--Cindi

Added after midnight!

Here's a new photo with the whiskers added!

And now I have time to describe how I made this cute little fellow!

The base of the kitty is Soft Suede cardstock, the accents are Crumb Cake, inside of the ears is Blushing Bride and the nose and eyes are Early Espresso. I used the Circles Framelits to cut out the body and head and the white part of the eyes, the center of the eyes is the 3/4" circle punch with little 1/16" holes for the accents. The area around the mouth was punched with the XL Oval punch and then notched with the old small oval punch. The nose was punched with the Triangle punch, then I rounded the corners with my snips and drew the mouth with the brush end of my Early Espresso marker. The pointy "stripes" on the sides were punched with the old 5-point flower punch, then the petals were cut apart. The feet are punched with the old small oval punch as well. The ears were punched with the old Pennant Builder punch. I sponged the edges of every piece with matching ink before assembling the kitty.  Oh, and the whiskers are thin strips of vellum attached with a glue dot. I had originally planned to make this kitty into a card of its own, but decided I liked it better on a standard card base. He/she reminds me of my cats when they lay down on the floor and tuck everything in. You can't see their tails or their back paws, and sometimes you can't see the front ones either!

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PPA#277 & TGIFC#31 & PP#273 - Christmas Remix Sketch

Hello and welcome back! It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, and now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to get working on some Christmas cards. Today's card is a combo for the sketch challenge at Pals Paper Arts and the remix challenge at TGIF.

So here is my card:

I created this card on a base of Whisper White Thick Cardstock, layered it with Soft Sky, then a Whisper White layer embossed with the "vintage" Snow Burst embossing folder. The snowflake is stamped on Soft Sky with Soft Sky ink and punched out with the Flower Medallion punch. The sentiment is stamped on Soft Sky with Pool Party ink. For some added interest and bling, there is some silver sequin trim, a small silver metallic doily, and a large rhinestone jewel (from my stash of retired products).

Here's a better view of the doily under the snowflake.

This card went together very quickly and would be easy to replicate in batches. Maybe it will be one of the cards I send out this year.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi

P.S. - I've also entered this card into the Tic Tac Toe challenge at The Paper Players this week. Can you tell which way I was able to make the tic tac toe?

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TGIFC#26 - Thankful Challenge

Hello and welcome back! Today's project started out as a going-away thank you gift for a special person, so it turned out to be perfect for the TGIFC Challenge this week!

Here's the first photo of my project, with more to follow, along with explanations and instructions:

Our church's pastor of care ministries is moving to North Carolina, and today is her last day with us. She has gotten me through some rough times over the past several years, and I cherish her friendship. I am very thankful that she has been in my life, so a simple going-away card was not going to cut it! So I turned the card into a mini album!

I got the idea from Pinterest (don't we all?!), from Sarah Willis. You can find her tutorial here. I wanted something a bit smaller, so I made mine using 4 note card envelopes. My inspiration for this album was the Banner Blessings photopolymer stamp set, but I wanted to expand on that. I stamped each of the images from Banner Blessings onto Whisper White cardstock and fussy-cut them out. They were layered onto various shapes and then attached to cards made from the old Sale-a-Bration Irresistably Yours DSP which were sponged with matching inks. Tabs made from matching ribbons were stapled to the cards, which were then backed with matching solid cardstock. Each one was tucked into one of the envelopes, and those were also embellished. Here is what the rest of the album looks like:

All of the sentiments on the envelope pages were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder. The sentiments on the front and inside back covers were embossed with white embossing powder, as were the vellum flowers on the front cover.

So here are the numbers for my version of the envelope mini album: The base was cut 5-3/8" x 7-7/8" and scored on the long side at 3-5/16" and 3-15/16". The layers on the envelopes are: color cardstock 3" x 5", white cardstock 2-3/4" x 4-3/4", DSP 2-5/8" x 4-5/8". For the front and inside back cover, the white cardstock layer is 3-1/4" x 5-1/4" and the smaller layer is 3-1/8" x 5-1/8". The insert cards are 3" x 4-7/8". 

The following products used are all retired Stampin' Up!: Pretty in Pink cardstock; Crushed Curry and Pear Pizzazz chevron ribbon; Melon Mambo and Marina Mist organza ribbon; Melon Mambo and Marina Mist dotted ribbon; Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon; Irresistibly Yours, Polka Dot Parade, Sunshine & Sprinkles, and Nursery Nest DSP; old-style Brights Designer Buttons; Rhinestone Brads; Large Pearl Jewels; Hearts Framelits; and the Petal Potpourri stamp set. All current products will appear below.

I hope Patsy likes this album. I'm sure going to miss her!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi

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TGIFC#23 and CCMC#375 - Thanks Much!

Hello and welcome back! Today's card is inspired by the color challenge at TGIF Challenges and the sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary. 

Here's today's card:

This card was created on a Very Vanilla base. I added a layer that was embossed with the Honeycomb embossing folder, then wrapped with Old Olive Bakers Twine. The three hexagons were stamped in three different colors, then attached to the card front with dimensionals, as was the circle punched sentiment. Quick and easy!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi

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CCMC #373 & TGIFC #21 Challenges - Happy birthday!

Hello and welcome back! Today's card is for two challenges - the sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary, and the birthday challenge at TGIF.

And here is my card:

I had originally planned to make this card for a third challenge, but I just couldn't work with the color combination for that one. I pulled out my trusty Color Coach (I really miss having that in the current catalog!) and chose a card blindly to determine my combo. I really like this combination, because these colors remind me of fall, and today is the first day of autumn.

I pulled items from my retired stash for this card - the Brights DSP and the Brights Glimmer Brads. This stamp set is one of my favorites, partly because of this large sentiment, which is great for card fronts, and can be stamped easily in two different colors because the words are two separate stamps and they are photopolymer.

Once again, there is no ribbon on this card, which is very unusual for me. I added a bit of interest with the layered punch flower by snipping into the center to create the petals.  (I wasn't sure how I wanted to layer the colors, so I punched all three colors in all three sizes and played with them until I got the combo that I liked best. Now I can make two more cards, since I have two more flowers!)

That's all for today. I hope you like this one!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

--Cindi

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