SUOC25 Favorite New Set: Up, Up & Away

Today's challenge at Stampin' Up Only Challenges is to use your new favorite set. You've had some time to scour the catalog and order some things. So what's the first thing you are grabbing for these days?

I absolutely love the whimsical feel of the Big Top Suite. I love it all! But the air balloon set is my fav.

If you know me, I use clouds a lot, and now that I have equivalent-sized birds too, I'll be grabbing for those even if I'm not using the balloons.

Stamps: Up, Up & Away; Paper: Bashful Blue, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Beyond the Garden DSP, Pocketful of Posies DSP; Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie; Accessories: Silver mini brads, Sponges, Scallop Circles #2 die, 3" Circle die, Big Shot, Sewing machine, Thread, Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by!

Presents for Dad

You may recall I bought some presents for Dad when I was in Salt Lake City, which they confiscated at security. I did rebuy some of them, and finally I am dressing them up to deliver them.

Here's his birthday card. Dang it if those Stampin' Addicts girls didn't force me to buy the Countryside set!

I totally wasn't happy with the coloring, but it seemed to be easily fixed by running it through the embossing folder. The inside is decorated a la Tanya Boser style. Love decorating the inside so I don't have to write so much!

And here's the whole ensemble.

I've been wanting to make the jam jar tag ever since I saw it on Cindy Elam's blog (and for which I bought the Clearly for You stamp also).

Stamps: Countryside, Clearly for You; Paper: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Newsprint DSP, Concord Crush DSP; Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue, Early Espresso maker, Concord Crush marker, Black Stazon; Accessories: Sponges, Aquapainter, Tag punches, Old Olive ribbon, White Baker's twine, Square Lattice embossing folder, Big Shot, Sewing machine, Thread, Dimensionals.

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PCS Sneak Peek: Make A Wish

Now is the time to sign up for this month's issue of Paper Crafter's Sample, an inspirational birthday party, card, and accessories issue called Make a Wish. There are some great ideas for the next birthday occasion you need to prepare for!

And here is the sneak peek of my project.

Can I tell you my ensemble was created with my daughter in mind? She was so happy to get her hands on the projects when I was done photographing. I can't wait to share these with you!!

Please go to Paper Crafter's Sampler to sign up for exclusive access to the online database. Remember to use code PCSHB, so Melanie knows I sent you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Playing Along with Challenges...

I have a few cards to whip together, so I thought I would play along with challenges. First, I meant to play along with A La Card Monkey, and I forgot the key part, the pennant flags. Doh! I blame the little motor mouth who was helping me.

So this one is the ColourQ challenge. Little Missy colored the straw and umbrella.

Stamps: Tropical Party; Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Gray, Whisper White; Ink: Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Bashful Blue; Accessories: Signo white gel pen, Sponges, Brayer, Hemp twine, Square Lattice embossing folder, Top Note die, Big Shot.

Try again, here's my A La Card Monkey card.

Love, love, love the sewing on the pennants. Little Missy got to color the drink, which she also chose. Can you tell where my inspiration came from?

Stamps: Tropical Party, Cheers to You, Up, Up & Away, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers; Paper: Bashful Blue, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Island Oasis DSP; Ink: Bashful Blue, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Basic Gray, Sahara Sand, Garden Green, Crumb Cake marker; Accessories: Build a Cupcake punch, Petite Pennant punch, Circle punch, Itty Bitty punch pack, Color Spritzer Tool, Brayer, Signo white gel pen, Sponges, Square Lattice embossing folder, 3-1/2" Circle punch, Big Shot, Sewing machine, Thread.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Strong Man Has Arrived...

As per my daughter's request, the strong man got his own train car. I tried to get a photo shot of this train that I like, but nothing doing. So I'll go with the photos I've got.

The whole train -

Some close-ups -

You can look closely to see the 1/4" cardstock boxes I made for the 3-D effect and the acetate strips to stand them up more reliably.

And my little helper - NOT! She laid on it and smushed the lion car. Luckily these things pop back again.

You can get supplies details, more projects, and a link to the blog hop that started this here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Crew Challenges for August Cont'd

This month's holiday-focus over at Splitcoaststampers' Creative Crew challenges is Friendship, Family, or Sister Day. The challenge is to create a project for one of these days using paper piercing, Pocketful of Posies DSP color palette (choose 3), and a sketch.

I have three sisters with birthdays this month, so this is for one of them.

I also used this week's Friday Mashup to help guide my color choices (closest colors to turquoise, red, and black + handmade flowers). ETA: This card also works for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge. What's the chances of that?

Here's the inside of the little pull-out pocket.

Stamps: Best Friends Forever, Under the Big Top; Paper: Poppy Parade, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Pocketful of Posies DSP; Ink: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso; Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Silver brads, Neutrals Collection button, Pearl jewels, Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch, Circle punches, Word Window punch, Paper piercer, Dimensionals.

The scrapbook-focus challenge is one of the easiest subject matters, in my opinion, friendship. Sensing a friendship theme here? How easy is it to find a photo of friends, new or old, and scrap it?

I wanted to use some elements that comes with the starter My Digital Studio CD, since this is a picture from my first Convention in 2009, and it was at that Convention that they unveiled MDS. This picture depicts the lovely and lasting friendships I made that first year. Project 52: Week 31, page 38.

MDS Elements: Stamps: Enjoy Every Moment, Thoughtful Overlays; Other: Summer Home template, Summer Home DSP, Summer Home embellishments.

Hope you'll stop in this month and play with us! Thanks for stopping by!

Under the Big Top Projects

So, if you were here this weekend, you had a chance to click through the Stampin' Addicts Retiring Sets Blog Hop. Thanks for coming back today for a little more info.

Fun Interactive Card - The first thing I thought of when I saw the Big Top Suite was, well, a big top tent. So much fun to create this scene.

I free-hand sketched the tent top, and I added flag details to the top and Baker's twine and mini brads to "secure" the tent.

For the inside, Cindy E. got me thinking about the pop-up stage card with her fun Dinoraur card about a week ago. I used this tutorial to create.

See the three-ring circus? I colored the images with markers to retain bright primary colors. And I used acetate sheet strips for the pop-up tabs, so they don't show. Can you believe I forgot the birthday sentiment? Oh well.

Stamps: Under the Big Top, Up, Up & Away; Paper: Bashful Blue, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, More Mustard, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday DSP; Ink: Chocolate Chip, Black Stazon, Real Red marker, Old Olive marker, Daffodil Delight marker, Tempting Turquoise marker, Pumpkin Pie marker, Crumb Cake marker, Sahara Sand marker; Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Silver mini brads, Acetate sheet, Petite Pennant punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, 1-3/4" Circle punch, Top Note die, Circles #2 die, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Birthday Circus Train - I created train cars by creating thin boxes out of Crumb Cake cardstock, and the circus characters were make three-dimensional by stamping twice and gluing a 1/4" square box between the images.

There are a lot of options you could take with embellishing the train cars and animals. Here's some close-ups.

Stamps: Under the Big Top, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers; Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday DSP; Ink: Chocolate Chip, Black Stazon, Real Red marker, Old Olive marker, Daffodil Delight marker, Tempting Turquoise marker, Pumpkin Pie marker, Crumb Cake marker, Sahara Sand marker; Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Acetate sheet, 1" Circle punch, Word Window punch, Petite Pennant punch, Crop-o-dile, Petal Cone die, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Scrapbook Page - And here are some additional shots of the scrapbook page. This is really one of the easiest pages I put together.

You think I could get the title on straight during some late night stamping the night before the hop? Heck no!

Oh, I just realized I can add a page to my Project 52 count: This is week 31, and I have made 37 pages. Ha, I'm still ahead of the game! :)

Stamps: Under the Big Top; Paper: Bashful Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Big Top Birthday DSP, Brights Collection DSP; Ink: Black Stazon, Sahara Sand marker, Real Red marker, Daffodil Delight marker, Tempting Turquoise marker, Pumpkin Pie marker, Old Olive marker; Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Silver mini brad, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Petite Pennants punch, 3/4" Circle punch, Itty Bitty punch pack, Circle Scissors Plus, Naturally Serif die, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by!