Fun Flowers Thank You

I love this card.  I made it in different colors as a card for the close friend who turned me into the stampin' obsession that I am today.  If I really love the way a card turned out, I will sometimes make it again, changing the colors, and maybe tweaking one or two things.  That being said, my favorite part of stamping is the creative part.  The feeling of "I did that!" when a card turns out just the way you wanted.  So I don't make a habit of reproducing my own cards many times.  But once or twice for a favorite design is totally acceptable! 

Back to the card in this post.  I started with a sketch, but strayed SO far from it that I won't reference it here.  And I have no idea where the color scheme came from!  I made the card 2 weeks ago, and my brain only holds so much information.  :-)

 

I hated Soft Suede at first.  And still kind of feel like on it's own it isn't very pretty.  But I have found that it is a lovely accent color, it almost has a gold tone to it that looks fancy.  How do you think it looks here?

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

Supplies Used

Card stock:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Riding Hood Red, Calypso Coral

Ink:  Soft Suede, Versamark

Stamp Sets:  Day of Gratitude

Other:  Big Shot, Fun Flowers Die, Houndstooth Embossing Folder, Antique Brads, Sponge Dauber, Corner rounder punch, gold embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches #2

Well, my blog name was truthful when it came to this card.  I saw the second sketch over at the Freshly Made Sketches challenge, a card just appeared in my head, and I could NOT wait to get home from work and put ink to paper.  I was very much obsessed.  :-)  Then it didn't quite live up to expectations, so I made it again.  I ended up making the entire card twice, and a few pieces 3 times.  That isn't really like me, I'm not usually a perfectionist stamper.  But without further ado, this is what I ended up with:

The chocolate chip layer is lifted on double thickness Dimensionals.  The first card had only one layer, and it wasn't enough.

The shaped layer is a Top Note run through the Big Shot twice.  I first saw this done on Mary Fish's popular blog.  I took it up a notch by layering Marina Mist behind.  I achieved that by layering a piece of Whisper White onto a piece of Marina Mist, and running them through at the same time.  This ensured that when I flipped them and ran them through again, I would end up with 2 of the exact same shape.  I also trimmed the bottom edge of them while they were still together, so I would have a straight line to make the ribbon placement easier (didn't do this step on the first card).  Then I trimmed the Whisper White layer along the perforated edge.  I also sanded because you can end up with a bit of a bumpy edge from the perforations.

The snow scene was achieved with a torn piece of paper, a couple sponges, Sahara Sand, Not Quite Navy, and Marina Mist ink.  Dasher is embossed with copper embossing powder (non Stampin' Up!, and purchased on my way home from work because I didn't want to use gold on the perfect card in my head!).

The ribbon is 1/8" taffeta Marina Mist layered onto 5/8" organza Whisper White ribbon.  I used a sponge dauber and Marina Mist ink to add some color to the edges of the 5/8" organza (also not done on the first card... it needed something "extra").

And finally, the snowflake.  That's Whisper White and Bashful Blue card stock covered with 2 layers of clear embossing.  I had to switch to Bashful Blue because the Marina Mist was far too dark after it was embossed.  The snowflake is non-Stampin' Up!, but of course you could easily replace it with the Stampin' Up! version.  I layered the two pieces, intertwined the arms, and added my very last Chocolate Chip glimmer brad to tie the colors together.  And it is adhered with more Dimensionals.

And if you made it to the end, I applaud and thank you!  I was so obsessed, I just had to tell the card's whole story.  :-)

Supplies Used

Card Stock:  Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Merry Moments DSP

Ink:  Sahara Sand, Not Quite Navy, Marina Mist, VersaMark

Stamp Set:  Dasher

Other:  Big Shot, Top Note die, Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Marina Mist 1/8" taffeta ribbon, snowflake punch, glimmer brads, copper EP, Dimensionals

Playing with new supplies

I overloaded on new toys fairly recently, and this card uses a bunch of them.

I really liked the last Mojo Monday sketch prior to the well deserved Mojo-vacation, so I started with that, and followed it fairly faithfully. 

I don't remember where I got the color combo from, but I think I came up with that one on my own.

Here's the sketch:






And this is what I did with it:

I didn't always decorate the interior of my cards, but my husband always opened them when I showed him my handiwork, only for me to say, "there's nothing in there!"  So I decided that the inside of the card counts too.  Therefore if you open this card, you'll see this:

Card Components
Card stock:  Island Indigo, Sahara Sand, Lucky Limeade, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White
DSP:  I don't know!  I took this as a single sheet from my friend's stash.
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry
Stampin' Write Markers:  Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Stamp Sets:  Fabulous Florets, Faith in Nature
Other:  Big Shot, Flower Garden embossing folder, Rich Razzleberry satin ribbon, silver brads, eyelet border punch