Tin of Cards Kit Creations

Hi!  Have you noticed that Stampin' Up!'s new 2015-16 Annual Catalogs has some amazing kits?   I love them all, but the first one I just had to put together is the new Tin of Cards kit!  I love the adorable tin that comes with it.   Here's the outside of mine:

And, a peek inside:

I decorated my dividers with the beautiful papers provided in the kit, but I've seen some people are deciding to take these and make cards with them, which I think is also a fabulous idea. The labels were created using stamps from the Tin of Cards stamp set, which is wonderful, and I've been using for cards other than this kit (as you may have noticed in the cards in yesterday's post!)

In assembling the cards, I didn't stray far from the instructions.  (My only real variations were using Tuxedo Black Memento for most of the stamping -- still did use Stazon on the gold foil and doing some additional stamping on the butterflies, which you can see in more detail below).  If you follow the instructions, you can make 16 cards, 4 each of 4 designs:

Here are some close ups of the individual cards so you can see them better, too:

I had so much fun decorating the butterflies -- I think this may be my favorite of the designs in the kit!  Here are some close ups so you can see the fun stamped layer under the intricately-cut Crushed Curry butterflies.  I used the Wonderful Wings set to add more color to them (stamping in Crushed Curry and Calypso Coral, either full strength or stamped off once). And actually, you can kind of see that I pulled out my Papillon Potpourri stamps to stamp under the medium size Calypso die cut butterfly as well.  

Plus, I still have some fun pieces left that I plan to use to create more cards!

 Which is your favorite of the card designs in this kit?  

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle





 

Watercolor Wings In Color

Happy Monday!  I have a couple quick cards to show you today.  These were created on the new, heavier weight Stampin' Up! Whisper White -- so perfect for card bases!!!  I'm really loving the new Watercolor Wings set, which combines so nicely with the Butterfly Basics stamp set, and the coordinating dies for both sets! 

 

The butterflies in both cards are stamped with Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Watermelon Wonder, and Calypso Coral.   The leaves and dots are stamped in Cucumber Crush. 

The background is created with the Watercolor Wash background stamped in Mint Macaron.  And, the "thank you" is from Tin of Cards and is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black.

Hope these brighten your day!

Oh, and be sure to check out the Clearance Rack and Weekly Deals on June 30th!  There are some new items being added and bonus deals, available only while limited quantities last. 

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Father's Day Flashback

Happy Friday!  Can you believe posts two days in a row?!  Whoo Hoo! 

Thought today I'd share with you the special cards I created for Father's Day.  When I was making these, I had great fun finally using the Adventure Bound Designer Paper from the Occasions Catalog!  So perfect for masculine cards!  (Unfortunately, not available at the moment, but with any luck might show up on the Clearance Rack someday!?)  Anyway, on to the cards . . .

For this one, I went with a nautical theme:

 

 

Stamp sets used were Open Sea (ship, world map, and anchor), By the Tide (fish, etc... stamped collage style in the background of the card front), and Guy Greetings (for "Grandpa" and "Happy Father's Day").

 

The next two cards feature the Guy Greetings stamp set:

 Although I did throw in a bit of Gorgeous Grunge stamping on both the front and inside for this one as well:

 

And, last but certainly not least, for this card I used the Guy Greetings and Gorgeous Grunge, plus the stars from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar (yes, I've been reaching for that set a lot lately!).

 

Hope these made the recipients feel awesomely special and loved!  And, hope you are inspired by them to create something for those you love, too!

Thanks so much for visiting!

- Michelle

World of Dreams Wedding Card

Hope you are having a good day!  Thought I'd pop in today and share a card I created for a swap last month (theme was WOW wedding or anniversary).  I know it's been out for a little while, but I finally got my own World of Dreams stamp set and wanted to ink it up for this swap, and was inspired by this beautiful card by Julie Davison  to use a combination of World of Dreams and the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamps.  I wanted some sunshine in there, too, so added the burst image from Kinda Eclectic.  Here's how my card turned out:

Here's a close up of the stamped focal image (you can see I added ombre brushstrokes for the sky behind the nesting birds).  Starting at the top, I used soft sky, blushing bride, and then Calypso Coral. The flowers and hearts are stamped in either Calypso Coral or Blushing Bride.  They blend in a bit, but there are also some small sunburst images in the collage, and those are stamped in Crushed Curry.

Here's a picture of just the base, so you can see the embossing better.  The Very Vanilla panel was embossed first with the Woodgrain embossing folder, and then again with the Lovely Lace.

There's a small bit of Crushed Curry Baker's Twine with a rhinestone in the center on the greeting.

Here's another version I created, which has the heart with "love" embossed with gold powder around the birds:

The heart image is from the You're So Sweet stamp set.

Hoping to get back on a more regular blogging schedule now that we're settling into our summer routine . . . we'll see . . .  Do have lots of fun projects to share with you, just need to get posting!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

- Michelle

Watercoloring with Best Thoughts

One of the exclusive hostess sets in the new 2015-16 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog is called Best Thoughts, and it features two beautiful images and two sweet sentiments.  The images are line art, so lend themselves nicely to watercoloring.  Here are a few cards I've created using this set plus the new 2015-17 In Colors:

This first card is my first attempt at the Borderless Watercoloring technique.  I stamped the images in Tip Top Taupe on Watercolor Paper, then watercolored using Watermelon Wonder and Delightful Dijon on the flowers, Cucumber Crush on the stems, Tip Top Taupe and Watermelon Wonder on the butterfly and Mint Macaron in the background.  The greeting is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black. The card base is Mint Macaron, and on top of that is another layer of Mint Macaron, which I embossed first with the Woodgrain folder and then with the Modern Mosaic folder.  A bit of the Watermelon Wonder 1" Dotted Lace Trim wraps around the embossed card stock.

On this card, the images are stamped in Tuxedo Memento Black ink, the card base is Cucumber Crush, and I embossed a Cucumber Crush layer using first the Woodgrain folder and then the Lovely Lace folder.  I only added a hint of the Watermelon Wonder to the flower petals.

This last card has a Mint Macaron base, a Mint Macaron layer on top of that, embossed with the Lovely Lace folder.  The flowers are stamped in Tuxedo Memento Black, and colored with Delightful Dijon for the petals and Watermelon Wonder on the centers.  The leaves and stem are colored in Mint Macaron.  The "Hello" is from the Crazy About You stamp set.  The greeting banner and Mint Macaron banners layered under it are cut with the Triple Banner Punch.  The little flower next to the hello is cropped out of Delightful Dijon card stock using the flower from the Itty Bitty Accents Punches.  I stamped the center with an image from Summer Silhouettes in Watermelon Wonder ink.  Not really visible in this photo, but I added Crystal Effects on both the watercolored flower centers and the punch art flower center for a bit of dimension.

Hope you enjoyed these cards!  Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

SUper Friends May Swap

Back again today!  School finished yesterday, and we had a busy day, but today has been more mellow -- a good first day of summer vacation!  Thought since I had a few minutes, I'd sneak in here and post photos from the May SUper Friend swap.  Our theme last month was summer, and I think it is great fun to see everyone's take on that!  Hope you agree!

First up is this perfectly awesome and patriotic card by Connie:

I love the star window in the front that allows the "Happy 4th" inside to peek through!  And here's the rest of the inside:

Connie hosted our gathering, and had prepared these adorable treats for everyone:

For her project, Nancy created these super-cute beach totes:

These would be really cute to fill with a chocolate square or some other candy treats for a summer gathering!

Agnes created this wonderfully interactive shaker card with the Sheltering Tree stamp set:

Our newest member is Diana (and you can see more of her fabulous card creations in her etsy shop:  www.etsy.com/shop/GreetingsfromDiana), and she created this sweet card using the cupcake punch for the ice cream and cherry and the tree punch for the cone:

I love how she sponged the coordinating colors on the background!

Jana also created a yummy-looking card, featuring the Sprinkles of Life stamp set, Tree Builder Punch, and gorgeous new Bohemian Designer Series Paper:

She finished the inside of her card with the Bohemian DSP as well (gotta love the coordination!!):

For my card, I decided to use Sprinkles of Life to create a summer scene.  The sun is the burst from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set, I sponged on a sky, using a cloud mask punched with the Tree Builder Punch, and the rest are images stamped from the Sprinkles of Life set (so much fun!!!).  And, the little butterfly lighting on the greeting banner is from an image in the Perpetual Birthday Calendar Stamp set:

I used similar images to finish the inside, too:

Thanks so much for visiting!!!

- Michelle

Baseball and more baseball . . .

There's been a whole lot of baseball around here lately.  Both of my boys just finished their regular seasons playing Little League ball this weekend (though one of them is preparing for more baseball post-season and this summer!  He just can't get enough).  We've been busy with end of season games and parties.  So, now that things are starting to calm down a bit from that, I thought it would be fun to share some of the stamping I did for that!  (I do have new catalog creations to share with you, too . . . hopefully will be back tomorrow with some of those!)

First up are cards I created for my husband to give as thank you notes to his assistant coaches and team mom for our youngest son's team, the Cardinals.  They are made out of Real Red Card Stock, die cut with the Circle Card Thinlits:

The stamps are from retired sets -- the cardinal is from Beauty of the Season, the baseball and flourish behind it are from Great Sport, and the other elements are from Sporting and Extreme Elements.

Our other son played on the Blue Jays this year, and I got creative with the cardinal stamp and transformed it into a blue jay with some help from my Blendabilities.  Here's how the thank you cards for his coaches turned out:

The card base is Pacific Point, and I stenciled it with the Stars Decorative Mask and Pacific Point ink.  The "Thanks" is from the April 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit's stamps.  I created the banners with the new Banner Triple Punch.

I also created some coordinating tissue paper to go in the bags with the cards and gifts for the coaches:

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle