I finally received my backordered items from the holiday catalog. It was still showing the stamp set as backordered, but mine shipped. Yeah! I can't wait to use these.
I also put in an Amazon order for some Project Life page protectors. I occasionally use designs other than A, but was running low on a few. I stocked up and grabbed two WRMK that were on discount.
I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired. Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually). You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme. Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host. She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.
This month, I joined eleven swaps. I'll be showing four of the swaps today:
Embossed Stamp -- I started with a large background polka dot stamp in Baked Brown Sugar. I then added stamped and heat embossed the coffee cup and coffee bean using Early Espresso powder. I liked that it didn't come out at as a completely clean image. The smudges add character. I stamped the "Coffee Run!" in Midnight Muse. Finally I added a gold sequin and gold flitter tape to jazz up the card a bit.
Birds -- For the bird theme, I knew I wanted to use my birdcage stamps, but had to play with them for awhile for inspiration. I settled on stamping lighting in Crumb Cake onto the pink gingham paper. That allowed me to layer on the quote (Primrose Petal) and bird (Early Espresso). As a finishing touch, I added some baker's twine in pink. I really love this card!
Stripes -- The stripe theme shouted washi tape to me. So I grabbed some fun different patterns and different colors and started layering. This set took forever to finish, but I like the fun stripes. I completed the card with a "This Week" stamp and some enamel dots.
Washi, stamp, and sequins -- My final swap of the month challenged me to use washi tape, a stamp, and sequins. That's a lot of stuff for one card, but i think I nailed it. I started with some cute lightly patterned blue paper, but realized that I didn't have enough to make the set. I search through the stack and found this striped paper that had a similar blue color. I stamped the Birthday Cake in Midnight Muse and made a sentiment banner in Blackberry Bliss using the A Word for You Stamp Set (retired). For the washi tape element, I layered a few different tapes underneath the sentiment for a cute peek-a-boo effect. Finally I adhered a few large fold sequins to complete the look. Really loving this set!
Week 30
This week was full of great photos and even an insert to include all the photos. And I had to switch from Design A to Design D? to get the vertical photographs into the spread. I used WRMK Official card set and kept the color scheme to blue and orange. I love the unobtrusive journaling cards. I tried to keep it very simple. As for embellishments, I added a few stamps and stickers.
Supplies:
Week 31
Our pictures this week were all about summer and outside play. We visited the park multiple times and the new splash pad. I caught some very cute shots. The two photos on the floral blanket were taken by a fellow mom. (Thanks!) To compliment the photos I used the blue and green cards from Kiwi. I love the pretty bright colors. I added some coordinating stickers and alphas to help accessorize the photos. Very cute!
Supplies:
After the first round of baby 1st birthday cards, we had another invitation arrive in our mailbox. So I pulled out some fun stamps and tried to make a card out of them. This card is completely non-Stampin' Up (except for the ink). Every once in awhile it's nice to pull out old random supplies to use. I think this card is simple, but perfectly adorable for a little boy birthday card.
Description
I got my big Holiday catalog preorder this past week. Unfortunately two of the items that I ordered went on backorder immediately. So, I'm still waiting for the Festival of Trees stamp set and Garden Green CS. They should ship within the week, but I don't have a specific date.
I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired. Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually). You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme. Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host. She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.
This month, I joined eleven swaps. I'll be showing three of the swaps today:
Sketch -- For this swap, we were to make cards based off of this sketch:
I pulled out some random circle stamps from my non-SU bucket and went to town. I added the washi tape underneath the sentiment and a few rhinestones for bling. Not my most favorite card, but it looks much better in person.
Tropical Flora -- This swap was focused on making a floral card but in tropical flowers. I pulled some papers that said "tropical" to me and punched them out using my scallop punches and petite petals punch. I then stamped SU's Five-Way Flower (retired) as a background and adhered the punched shapes. My last touch was added a gold sequin in the middle of the big flower. To me, the sequin makes the card.
Days of the Week -- I chose Wednesday for the Days of the Week swap. No reason really, I just picked Wednesday. I found some great coordinating paper for the background, but didn't have enough to make seven 4x6 cards. Instead I split the different and made two slightly different cards. I added a 3x4 card of white paper with the day stamped in black. To finish off the card, I adhered some silver glitter tape (much prettier in person) and random asterisk stickers. Pretty cute overall!
Week 28
Week 28 was a huge week for photographs. I had taken over 200 photos and somehow had to narrow those down to ~20. I had to include a insert to get all the essential photos for the week. Because of the colorful nature of the photos included, I limited the embellishments. In fact, I didn't include any for the pictures of the summer social.
Supplies:
Week 29
Another huge picture taking week. Plus, it was Arthur's 9 month birthday. So I had to include his 9 month photos. The rest of the photos are typical shots of our weekly events. I did add more embellishments for this week, but pulled them from my random stash. I love the little "Happy Birthday" stickers added to our friend's party. Very cute! I even finally used a button on a card.
Supplies:
Welcome to the Fun n’ Crafty Blog Hop for August! This month we will be showcasing project ideas using the Big Shot. Stampin' Up has an amazing offer of buy a Big Shot and get a stamp/framelit bundle for free! That's right for free! What an amazing deal! For those of us who already own a Big Shot, they've also put five great bundles 15% off during the month of August. So make sure to check out the list of stops on the hop at the bottom of this post to see them all!
Right now my favorite Big Shot product is the Starburst Framelits. I have been using these all the time lately. They are so much fun and much more visually interesting than plain circles. It's a little hard to see, but I also used the Stylish Embossing Folder on the piece of Blackberry Bliss. In person, this card has a ton of dimension. I love it! Plus, the colors are very bright and happy. I may just have to make multiple of this card in different colors.
Stylish Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.
You can check out the the special sale bundles in the chart below. Take advantage of these awesome deals throughout August!
Here's a little preview of some of the other awesome creations on the blog hop!
Blog Hop Participants:
On the 5th of each month I'll be highlighting five pictures of crafty projects, inspiration pieces, or fun products. I wanted to add some great pictures and give everyone a bit of insight into my creative process.
1. The state of my craft half-room... Yeah. I have some major cleaning to do.
2. Prepping the birthday presents for next weekend. All set!
3. Finally figured out where to put my SU markers. I removed some PL card sets and placed the current colors in the first drawer and the retired colors in the second drawer. Now I can easily grab them and they are being stored horizontally as they should be.
4. Still trying to figure out what to do with my destash pile. I need to try and sell some of this on my FB group and possibly a fall garage sale. Other stuff I'm thinking of sending off as RAKs. Need to sort and decide.
5. Put the finishing touches on my first Project Life album (Oct. 2013 - July 2014). Excited to start on the second volume of 2014.
I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired. Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually). You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme. Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host. She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.
This month, I joined eleven swaps. I'll be showing four of the swaps today:
Love -- For the love theme, I immediately knew that I wanted to use this heart tree stamp (Michael's). I found a pretty pink polka paper to be a background and start cutting and stamping. Then came the hard part: coloring all the hearts. I took a bunch of my Stampin' Up markers and went to town. The effect is fun and colorful and I love it! To help round out the card, I added the love stamp from SU Ciao, Baby (retired) and punched it and some pink paper out with SU Petite Curly Label Punch (retired). Very clean card, but lots of fun.
Butterflies -- I pulled two random stamps (medallion and "Live") from my non-SU bucket and decided they would work well together. With added punched butterflies, the stamps actually create a cohesive card. I stamped the medallion in Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, or Primrose Petals. The "Live" sentiment was stamped in Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, and Raspberry Ripple. I then pulled coordinating patterned papers from the SU Print Poetry DSP Stack (stacked) and punched out big (Elegant Butterfly) and small (Bitty Butterfly) butterflies. For the finishing touches, I added some coordinating ribbon (mostly scrap pieces) and a jeweled rhinestone. Love this set!
Fall -- Initially I wasn't super excited about making a fall card, but I thought I would challenge myself. Turns out, I absolutely love this card! I stamped a leaf design (Michael's) in Baked Brown Sugar as a background. I then used my alphabet stamps to stamp "fall" in Mossy Meadow on top. The pumpkin stamp actually had "Happy Halloween" written underneath it. I masked out the words to stamp just the pumpkin in Early Espresso. I then colored in the image with Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, and Pumpkin Pie. The pumpkin was then punched out with the Artisan Label Punch. I layered the pumpkin onto a circle of random paper scrap, added a strip of washi tape (SU retired), and finally added a brad on the pumpkin. Overall this card looks amazing and very fall without being cutesy.
Washi tape -- For this theme, I decided to go simple but with some extra fun. I adhered a few strips of washi tape to the base. I then stamped a few quote bubbles and a camera from the SU Project Life Point & Click Stamp set in Staz-on black ink. Finally I added a small brad in either yellow, blue, or green to help add a bit of embellishment.
