Coffee Cups for You

Today's card is being featured at my birthday cards class. I loved the idea of repeating shapes and so I modified the idea for a birthday card. I die cut a ton of small coffee cups from the awesomely bright Picture Perfect Party DSP stack and created my focal grid. From there it was just a matter of adding some texture via embossing folder and a nice birthday sentiment. 

• Stamps: Picture Perfect Birthday
• Inks: Berry Burst
• Cardstock: Picture Perfect Party DSP; Lemon Lime Twist; Bermuda Bay; Basic Black; Whisper White; Myths and Magic Glimmer Paper (Lemon Lime Twist)
• Accessories:
• Tools: Simple Stripes Embossing Folder; Stitched Shapes Framelits; Coffee Cups Framelits

Wintery Tree

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a Winter Blues card. I'm grateful to live in the San Francisco Bay Area where the temperature rarely goes below 50 degrees. That said, I grew up in Indiana and know what it's like to live through winter. For this card, I stamped a common sight in winter, a bare tree, and added some fun color swooshes. I layered my stamped image onto some coordinating cardstock and them embossed a piece of Whisper White. A simple, but nice card for today.

• Stamps: Sheltering Tree
• Inks: Basic Black; Tempting Turquoise; Wild Wasabi
• Cardstock: Pacific Point; Marina Mist; Whisper White
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Softly Falling Embossing Folder

#25 Nordic Circles

Today's sketch comes from October 2016:

Here's what I originally did:

I bought a pack of the Nordic Noel DSP when it appeared on the clearance rack. The patterns were too good to pass up. And I still have some paper leftover. So I decided to make a card highlighting the great patterns. I love the repeating circles on this card. Lots of fun!

• Stamps: Merry Patterns
• Inks: Garden Green; Real Red
• Cardstock: Nordic Noel DSP (retired); Soft Sky; Real Red; Whisper White
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Polka Dot Embossing Folder; Layering Circles Framelits

#15 Holidays Squared

Today's sketch comes from August 2015:

And here's what I originally did (a birthday card for my grandmother):

Super simple card of layered squares on an embossed background.

• Stamps: 
• Inks: 
• Cardstock: Real Red; Old Olive; Random scrap pattern paper
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Polka Dot Embossing Folder

#8 Blue Christmas

Today's sketch comes from May 2017:

I saw a card on Pinterest that featured a simple triangular Christmas tree with foil paper. I loved the idea so much that I pulled out all the foil paper I had to sort through. This piece of Soft Sky Foil Frenzy DSP caught my eye. After cutting my tree, I added a trunk using kraft paper and then started pulling colors and papers to coordinate. I ended up only using a bit of dapper denim DSP from the Eastern Palace pack and switching out the rest in favor of an embossed piece of soft sky. I love the subtle shine of this card. 

• Stamps: Merry Cafe
• Inks: Dapper Denim
• Cardstock: Foil Frenzy DSP; Eastern Palace DSP; Soft Sky; Dapper Denim; Very Vanilla; Kraft; Dazzling Diamonds Glitter Paper
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Softly Falling Embossing Folder; star punch

Apple Cider Time

Today's post is another fun card using my favorite Holiday Catalog stamp set, Merry Cafe! I wanted to make an Apple Cider card to celebrate apple season. I went simple with the accompanying bits with an embossed piece of Delightful Dijon as a great background. I'm loving the color combination of Delightful Dijon, Cherry Cobbler, and Chocolate Chip.  Now if I could find some yummy Apple Cider, life would be complete.

• Stamps: Merry Cafe
• Inks: Cherry Cobbler; Crumb Cake; Chocolate Chip
• Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler; Delight Dijon (retired); Chocolate Chip; Very Vanilla
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Sweater Embossing Folder; Stitched Shapes Framelits; Coffee Cups Framelits

Cat Duo

Today's post is my last Halloween card of the season. I have completely fallen for the cat punch. I love punching out different patterned cats. I am sure I will be using this punch into the spring. But for this card, I punched a cat from the paper and then one from some great patterned DSP to create this cat duo. I embossed my piece of Very Vanilla leaving a section of un-embossed paper in the middle to layered my DSP strips. Finally I added a punched sentiment. Perfect!

• Stamps: Spooky Cat
• Inks: Basic Black
• Cardstock: Spooky Night DSP; Pumpkin Pie; Very Vanilla; Basic Black
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Cat Punch; Washi Label Punch (retired); Polka Dot Embossing Folder

Blog Hop List:

1. Tobe Buffenbarger <--- You are here!
2. Christine Szekeres
3. Merit Brown
4. Jennifer Blomquist
5. Susan Schultz

On the High Seas

Today's post features a card we made at September's stamp club. I bought the Message in a Bottle stamp set for Arthur and Quentin's pirate themed birthday party (not until October 7th), but of course I was going to make more cards using it. I love the little bottle that can filled with a variety of ocean themed objects. For this card, I decided on a ship in a bottle. I stamped the water onto my paper and onto a piece of scrap paper. To them cut the water out of my scrap paper to create a mask for when I stamped my ship. I wanted the ship to be floating in the water.  From there I added some white chalk marker to my sails and a bit to the water. I stamped my sentiment and stamped a little gray heart that I them glittered up with some Wink of Stella. From there I die cut my image, added my background pieces, and finally added a few sequins.

• Stamps: Message in a Bottle
• Inks: Island Indigo; Smoky Slate; Basic Black
• Cardstock: Bundle of Love DSP; Island Indigo; Very Vanilla
• Accessories: Bermuda Bay Sequins (retired); White Chalk Marker; Clear Wink of Stella
• Tools: Stitched Shaped Framelits; Seaside Embossing Folder

Faux Patina

Today’s card challenge is a technique! I choose to attempt my hand at the faux patina technique. While this technique is more involved than some others, it's really not that hard to accomplish. I found a great tutorial here.

I ended up with a more colorful background than the card in the tutorial, but I love the peeks of color I get with this card. As I wanted the technique to be the focus of the card, I kept my embellishments to a minimum. I added a simple banner sentiment with coordinating cardstock banner put together with a brad. (Side note: Why did I stop using brads? I love how they look on cards. I need to make a mental note to use them more often...) I ended up sending this to my father-in-law for Father's Day last month. The ladies of stamp club made this in June and I loved seeing the varied results. Some chose a different metal (pewter, copper, or silver), some changed up the background color, and some changed the sentiment. I love when they made the cards their own! 

Detail of the heat embossing

• Stamps: Pieces and Patterns
• Inks: Tranquil Tide; Crumb Cake; Early Espresso; Marina Mist; Wild Wasabi; Pumpkin Pie
• Cardstock: Tranquil Tide; Very Vanilla; Kraft
• Accessories: random brad
• Tools: Hexagons Embossing Folder; Gold Embossing Powder

Places You'll Go

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a masculine card. Somehow I bought the Places You'll Go Stamp Set and never used it! Que horror! Thankfully I grabbed it to make a fun around the world adventure card. I was going to just stamp the globe, but then I decided to make a simple watercolor background. From there I found a great simple pattern paper to layer. The card was still missing a bit of something, so I added a great embossed piece of Island Indigo cardstock and some fun gold metallic shapes. 

• Stamps: Places You'll Go
• Inks: Basic Black; Pear Pizzazz; Pool Party
• Cardstock: Urban Underground DSP; Island Indigo; Watercolor Paper
• Accessories: Metallic Enamel Shapes
• Tools: Lucky Stars Embossing Folder