Herringbone Technique Card

I absolutely love this card technique! One of my May classes is going to be "Using Your Scraps" and I've been looking for some good designs. This design came from one of my favorite blogs for inspiration: Too Cool Stamping. I love all her designs.

I decided to make one card using the Lost Lagoon, Island Indigo, Mossy Meadow, and Pistachio Pudding side and one using the Strawberry Slush, Blushing Bride, and Daffodil Delight side of the All Abloom DSP stack. The end result is two very different cards with the same design. I'm loving them!

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Strawberry Slush; Mossy Meadow
• Cardstock: All Abloom DSP; Strawberry Slush; Blushing Bride; Daffodil Delight; Mossy Meadow; Lost Lagoon; Island Indigo; Whisper White
• Accessories:
• Tools: Ovals Framelits; Petite Petal Punch; Hexagon Punch (banner ends)

Another Thank You Set

I have too many scraps of pattern paper. Solution... make a set of fun thank you cards for my friend's wedding. She has gotten so many great gifts already, she needs a ton of thank you cards to send out. I took a giant pile of pattern paper and started punching out hexagons. After amassing a huge pile, I started do random patterns on pieces of white paper.

Some the cards ended up being almost monochromatic. Some were varied colors. 

I ended up loving all the different variations of cards and I used a ton of scrap paper pieces. Plus, my friend now has a ton of thank you cards to use.

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful; Hip Notes; Wacky Wishes
• Inks: Chocolate Chip; Staz-on black
• Cardstock: 2012-2014 In Color DSP; Stack of random colors and scraps
• Accessories:
• Tools: Hexagon Punch; Labels framelits

Set of Thank Yous

For my friend's bachelorette party, I made these cute little thank you cards for the favor bags. You'll never guess where I found the paper... Target Dollar Spot!  They have some cute Easter and spring themed papers right now. I added a bit of washi tape, a sentiment, and enamel dots to finish off the look.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Staz-on Black
• Cardstock: American Crafts designer paper (Target One Spot); Random scraps
• Accessories: Enamel dots; Washi tape
• Tools: Labels framelits

Two Color Balloons

Today's card was my individual swap card for March. I found this beautiful card design from Allison Okamitsu @ Nice People Stamp and knew I had to recreate it for my swap buddy. I've really been into heat embossing lately and this card has just enough to satisfy my craving.

The two color balloons are incredibly easy to make. Simply ink up one color (for example Pool Party) and then sponge another color (Wild Wasabi) directly onto the stamp. Stamp your paper and voila! instant two color balloon! I love the look, but the next step took this card to the next level. Next I inked up the confetti stamp with Versamark and then heat embossing with pewter embossing powder. I don't have gold like Allison's card, but pewter turned out very nice! In the photo below, you can see that the embossed parts are a bit shiny. Very pretty! I added a few die cut bows and a heat embossed sentiment on vellum to complete the card. Love this one!

• Stamps: Celebrate Today; Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Pool Party; Wild Wasabi; Daffodil Delight; Calypso Coral; Basic Gray; Versamark
• Cardstock: Pool Party; So Saffron; Daffodil Delight; Wild Wasabi; Whisper White; Vellum
• Accessories:
• Tools: Balloon Framelits; Pewter Embossing Powder; Heat Embossing Gun

Sympathy and Congrats

One of March-April's featured classes is Special Occasions. You often need a sympathy, congratulations, wedding, and baby card throughout the year, but don't usually make them. This class fixes that problem while using some great new products from SU!

Card #1

The first card made is a sympathy card. I like sympathy cards that aren't fussy or overwhelmingly embellished. I also notice that I tend to lean toward monochromatic sympathy cards. This one hits all those points. 

For this card, I stamped onto vellum and heat embossed it with pearl embossing powder. I then sponged just the center of the flowers. Turning the vellum over, I stamped and embossed the sentiment in pewter. The flowers don't show up well in photographs, but they are gorgeous in person. This is a nice muted card with a bit of sparkle. As a last touch, I added Blushing Bride candy dots to the four corner to help hide the glue dot adhesive.

• Stamps: Flower Shop; Best of Greetings (retired)
• Inks: Versamark; Blushing Bride
• Cardstock: Blushing Bride; Vellum
• Accessories: Blushing Bride Candy Dots
• Tools: Heat embossing gun; Pewter Embossing Powder; Sponge Daubers

Card #2

For my congratulations card, I wanted to play with patterns. I love the Painted Blooms DSP and wanted to highlight it. The contrast between the leaves and subtle watercolor of the blue paper make a nice contrast. Add in the patterned ribbon, and I have a very visually striking card.

• Stamps: Lotus Blossom; Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Island Indigo; Lost Lagoon; Wild Wasabi
• Cardstock: Lost Lagoon; Painted Blooms DSP
• Accessories: Gumball Green Ribbon (retired)
• Tools: Scallop Tag Punch

Floral Cards #2

The second half of my All About Florals class focused on simple yet beautiful cards.

Card #1

I saw a great card on Pinterest using hexagons to make flowers. I definitely needed to try this idea. This is a great card design to play with patterns and colors. I pulled a few patterns from the All Abloom DSP stack that spoke to me and played with the combinations until I settled on these. I love how the patterns don't match but do coordinate. For something extra I embossed the white piece and DSP with my Decorative Dots Embossing folder. Just a little bit to make the card more special.

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Strawberry Slush
• Cardstock: Blushing Bride; All Abloom DSP; Whisper White
• Accessories: Dots Embossing Folder
• Tools: Hexagon Punch

Card #2

My last card also had an inspiration from Pinterest. I love using washi tape and this design is the perfect excuse to use a ton! I pulled similarly colored washi tape (from two different SU collections) and created a pattern of colors as a background. For the stamp, I masked out the "hey there" greeting and just stamped the flower. I love how easy it is to masked out parts of stamps that you don't want! I do not have the Crisp Cantaloupe marker otherwise coloring the stamp would have been just as easy. I added a different greeting layered over the flower. The white piece was feeling very plain so I mounted it to a piece of Basic Gray to give some dimensional. Finally I threw on some silver sequins to liven up the card a bit.

• Stamps: Hey There Buds; Simple Wonderful
• Inks: Crisp Cantaloupe; Basic Gray
• Cardstock: Basic Gray; Smoky Slate; Whisper White
• Accessories: Silver Sequins; Sweet Sadie washi tape; Sweet Dreams washi tape
• Tools:

Sale-a-Bration Simply Wonderful Cards

Any two great cards featuring Sale-a-Bration products. Initially I wasn't super excited about the Simply Wonderful stamp set. It looked a little too plain for me. But then the nice sentiments really grew on me.

Card #1

A nice and simple card highlighting some of the great SAB DSP.

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Calypso Coral
• Cardstock: Best Year Ever DSP; Basic Gray
• Accessories: Sweet Dreams Washi Tape
• Tools:

Card #2

For my second card, I wanted to play around with color and pattern. I had the tag mostly white, but it looked way too plain. My stripe decorative mask came to the rescue adding just enough visual interest to complete the card.

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Calypso Coral; Hello Honey
• Cardstock: Best Year Ever DSP; Crushed Curry
• Accessories: Beach House Washi Tape
• Tools: Scallop Tag Punch; Stripe Mask