Clean and Fresh Like Laundry

I wanted to play with the retiring set House & Home.  I always seem to lean towards a clean & simple (CAS) layout for this set, so I perused the Freshly Made Sketches website for some inspiration.

A good excuse to use a mini clothespin too!


Stamps: House & Home, Sweetly Said (also retiring); Paper: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Domestic Goddess DSP; Ink: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Basic Gray, Basic Gray marker; Accessories: Silver mini brads, Mini clothes pins (retiring), Pinking Hearts border punch (retiring), Perfect Polka Dots EF, Big Shot, Sewing machine, Thread. 


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Some Thank Yous

I needed to send out some customer thank yous.  It is my favorite time to play along with some clean & simple challenges.

This first one uses Clean & Simple challenge #187.

Stamps: Wonderful Words; Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Pocketful of Posies DSP; Ink: Rich Razzleberry; Accessories: Circle punches, Perfect Polka Dots EF, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

And the second one uses Retro Sketches #6.

Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet, Curly Cute; Paper: So Saffron, Whisper White, Just Eat Cake DSP; Ink: Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze; Accessories: Silver mini brads, Dimensionals, Toothpicks.

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FM57 Poppin' Up for Mom

This week the Friday Mashup is teaming up with the Paper Lovin' Gals for a combo challenge. The Paper Lovin' Gals use inspiration photos, so if you can incorporate an inspiration from the photo below into your mashup card, you'll be playing along with both!

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

1. Make a project for "Mom, Grandmother, Aunt etc...".
2. Or Make a project with a " Pop-Up Element ".*
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Pop-Up Project for Mom".
4. Or join in Both challenges and create a "Pop-Up Project for Mom using the inspiration photo above."

*There are many different variations of Pop-Ups... Make sure something pops up when you open your project.

If you've been around Stampin' Up long enough, you might recognize this pop-up card from a few years back, in Stampin' Up's magazine called Stampin' Success, May 2009 issue.  In fact, it was this card I wanted to make for my mom, so I chose this challenge to coordinate with it.  I just needed to change up the colors to match up with the Paper Lovin' Gals challenge.

This is a good reason to use the retiring stamp Fifth Avenue Floral too.  I added Crystal Effects to the stamens of the lily and silver beads to the center of the other flower.

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Wonderful You, All Holidays; Paper: Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, Naturals White; Ink: Rose Red, Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Basic Black, Basic Black marker; Accessories: Crystal Effects, Silver beads, Pearl Jewels, Felt flowers, Color Spritzer Tool, Pink gingham ribbon, Corner rounder punch, Sponge, Crop-o-dile.

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SUOC44 There's No Place Like Gnome

Today we are making Mother's Day projects at Stampin' Up Only Challenges.  My mom loves to garden, so I thought I would put together a little seed packet holder for her.  And the gnome set from the Occasions mini seems like an appropriate choice for a garden-themed card.

Lots of paper piecing to make a fun scene.

My daughter made a card before I did, and she wanted it to be "on the computer".  Well, why not?  She did a great job!

The packet dimensions are 4 x 12", score at 4-3/4, 9-1/2, 10".

Stamps: Gnome Sweet Gnome; Paper: Real Red, Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Frostwood Lodge DSP; Ink: Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Blush Blossom, Wisteria Wonder, River Rock, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Stazon; Accessories: Blender pen, Oval punch, Circle punches, Mini brad, Perfect Polka Dots EF, 3" Circle die, Big Shot, Sticky Strip, Seed packet.

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Nursery Times Projects, A Closer Look

Thanks for coming back for a little closer look at the projects using the retiring set Nursery Times.  I think this z-fold card is my favorite.  It enabled such a cute little scene.

I created the Humpty's brick wall with the Simply Scored scoring tool, and I brayered the background nighttime sky.  It was simply a happy accident that I was able to pull off a daytime and nighttime scene on one card.

Stamps: Nursery Times; Paper: Baja Breeze, Cajun Craze, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Just Eat Cake DSP;  Ink: So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Blush Blossom, Blushing Bride, Pumpkin Pie, Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Black Stazon; Accessories: Aquapainter, Cupcake builder punch, Simply Scored, Sponges, Brayer, Square Lattice EF, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

I wanted to show you all the pages of the coloring book I created for my daughter.  She is anxious to start filling it up.

I created the rhyme text on My Digital Studio and then stamped the images.  The pages were folded pieces of card stock.  The binding was created by punching two holes with the Crop-o-dile and running some ribbon through.  If I did it again, I would not use colored card stock, and it made the book too bulky.

Stamps: Nursery Times; Paper: Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Just Eat Cake DSP;  Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Black Stazon, Blush Blossom marker; Accessories: Whisper White taffeta ribbon, Aquapainter, Circle punches, Scallop circle punch, Eyelet border punch, Crop-o-dile, My Digital Studio, Crayons.

And the merry-go-round was such an undertaking, it definitely deserves an up-close look.  I added silver glimmer paper on the inside wall, reminiscent of mirrors.

 

Perhaps you can see the entire carousel sits on a mat of brick, similar to Humpty's wall in the z-fold card.

In this photo, you can see that I stamped a reflection image for the backside of each character and appreciate the fine cutting involved. 

I found the template online, link here.  I knew that it would rotate, but when I was doing the final assembly, I noticed the character poles going up and down.  Well, how cool is that?  That was a neat little surprise after a day's work.

Stamps: Nursery Times; Paper: Baja Breeze, Cajun Craze, So Saffron, Whisper White, Just Eat Cake DSP;  Ink: So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Blush Blossom, Blushing Bride, Pumpkin Pie, Marina Mist, Sahra Sand, Soft Suede, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Black Stazon; Accessories: Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, 1-3/4" Circle punch, Silver glimmer paper, Aquapainter, Simply Scored, Sponge, Circles #2 die, Big Shot, Ruler, Stylus, Toothpick.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stampin' Addicts Retiring Sets Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts official good-bye party, the Retiring Sets Blog Hop! Have you scoured through the retiring list? I recommend you mark up your catalog with all the retiring sets, and by all means, grab those talking to you before they are gone! If you have been following the blog hop in order, you have just come from Twila's blog featuring the Party This Way. Weren't her projects adorable?

Today I'm featuring the stamp set Nursery Times. This set would be great for a baby card or announcement, baby book or scrapbook page, or handmade brag book.  Today I thought I would show a few not-so-straight-forward projects with this set.

First, a z-fold card.  Using this fold, each image from the stamp set can be highlighted to create a cute little scene.

I brayered the background sky and created Humpty's brick wall with the Simply Scored scoring tool.

My daughter loves coloring, and she is actually the reason I have this stamp set, so I created a small coloring book for her, along with the appropriate nursery rhymes.

And finally I woke up yesterday with some inspiration (or I lost my mind).  This project took an entire day to make, and many a time I had to keep telling myself it will be worth it.  I had to keep going as I didn't have time to change gears.

Click on the picture to see it up-close.  The merry-go-round actually rotates.  It uses a template available on the web, and I was surprised when I put it together that the little images go up and down when it rotates.  Wow!  I added silver glimmer paper on the inside wall, reminiscent of mirrors, and I even stamped a reflection image for the backside of each character.  I'll share the link to the template on Monday.

Need more inspiration?  I also made a swap card for the Leadership Conference with this set.

If you aren't yet a member of Stampin' Addicts, you can sign up here. Make sure you check out the next stop to see what Katherine put together using Pony Party. Her projects are always amazing.

 

The complete hop list:

1) Sara (lilyinkpad) -- Turtle & Co
2) Lisa (genesis) -- I {Heart} Hearts
3) Twila (tjdstampsalot) -- Party This Way
4) Heidi (hlw966) -- Nursery Times
5) Katherine -- Pony Party
6) Carmen -- Under the Stars
7) Yapha -- Season of Friendship
8) Debra (WebDeb) -- Flight of the Butterfly
9) Shelley (packerfan) -- Fifth Avenue Flower
10) Rhonda (rhondag) -- Inspired by Nature
11) Tanya (tanya27) -- Autumn Splendor
12) Kim (s1itcher46) -- Upsy Daisy
13) Betty (kittystamp) -- Nature's Nest
14) Krystal (skdeleeuw) -- Extreme Elements
15) Paula (scrapshappen) -- Borderlines

Thanks for stopping by!

FM56 Texty Grad

It's Kim's turn to challenge us at the Mashup.  Today we are focusing on graduations.  I don't have any upcoming grads in my life, so this will be a "just because" card for me.  Oh, and you get my post a wee bit early, because it's the Stampin' Addicts Retiring Set Blog Hop tomorrow (don't forget to check that out!).

image © Bakerella

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

1. Make a project for "Graduation".
2. Or Make a project using " Text or Definition Stamps and/or Paper".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Graduation project with Text or Definition stamps/papers".

Don't you want to make (and eat) those grad cap pops?  Holly's killing me with those graphics!  I thought a spring card would be a nice mortar board card, and I haven't made a spring card before.

I used black linen paper from the Taste of Textiles Specialty paper pack for the cap (check out the nice texture of the paper), text paper for the rolled diploma, colored a 5/8" brad with a sharpie, and created the tassel from crochet thread.

The backside of the cap has a space for a personal message,

and the card folds flat for mailing.

Stamps: Word Play, Something to Celebrate; Paper: So Saffron, Basic Black, Whisper White, Taste of Textiles Specialty DSP, First Edition DSP;  Ink: Basic Black; Accessories: Basic Black taffeta ribbon, 5/8" brad, Black Sharpie, Crochet thread, Dimensionals.

Edit to add: Here is the link to the spring card tutorial.

4/4/13 update: I created a video showing how to make this graduation spring card.  Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!