Birthday Balloon Rainbow

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card using the new In Colors.  I pulled out a great carrying over stamp set and the new colors and pondered my options. I finally decided on a rainbow effect to highlight all of the new In Colors. Such a fun little card to make.

• Stamps: Birthday Wishes for You
• Inks: Lovely Lipstick, Grapefruit Grove, Pineapple Punch, Call Me Clover, Blueberry Bushel
• Cardstock: Blueberry Bushel, Basic Black, Whisper White
• Accessories: 
• Tools: Balloon Bouquet Punch

Sunday Haul #10

I bought a sticker grab bag from Peachy Cheap a few weeks back. And it finally came! I love having random stickers for my Project Life spreads and Memory Planner pages.

Annual Catalog Swaps 2018

Every new catalog, my demo group does a card swap featuring lots of new products. This year's crop of cards is just great! 

Christine Szekeres @ Artful Musings

Monica Van Tassel

Jennifer Stone

Carla Branton @ Copper Pony Stamper

Nicole Flournoy @ Inky Fingers Stamping

Tanya Cabral

Kathy Thisted

Sandra Vargas

Jennifer Blomquist @ Northwest Stamper

Susan Schultz

Tailored Garden

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card from in the garden. What better starting point than the Garden Impressions DSP? Seriously, this is some gorgeous paper. I love all the color combinations and patterns. For my card, I CASEd a design using the Tailored Tag Punch to create an interesting DSP background. I chose a few different paper patterns, punch out pieces, and glued them onto a piece of cardstock. I decided to keep the rest of the card simple with a punched sentiment and some coordinating ribbon.

• Stamps: Accented Blooms
• Inks: Melon Mambo, Calypso Coral, Shaded Spruce
• Cardstock: Garden Impressions DSP, Petal Pink
• Accessories: Metallic Ribbon Combo
• Tools: Tailored Tag Punch

Peekaboo Coffee Cups

Today’s card is my attempt at an unusual technique. I've often seen cards with color that comes peeking through. They remind me of those childhood activity pads where you scratch off of the black to find the picture below. And so I set out trying to recreate the idea in card form. For this specific technique, you start by adding ink to a piece of white cardstock covering the entire piece. From there, stamp am image using Versamark and cover with white embossing powder. After heating the powder, add black ink all over the top of the piece of cardstock. To reveal the color underneath, all you have to do is take a tissue to the Versamarked areas. I tried this using other colors and it turned out all muddled. It turns out that bright or pastel colors are the best to see. After creating my base piece, I added a stamp and cut coffee cup, some ribbon, and a pop of Lemon Lime Twist. 

• Stamps: Merry Cafe (retired)
• Inks: Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Melon Mambo
• Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Whisper White
• Accessories: Bermuda Bay Ribbon (retired), 
• Tools: Clear Embossing Powder; Stitched Shapes Framelits

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Two weeks ago, I got a little carried away playing with a few of my retiring stamp sets. I wanted to make a few butterflies using the Watercolor Wings stamp set and ended up making over 20... Yeah, didn't see that coming. I took my butterflies and dug through my scrap paper box for coordinating papers. From there, I paired each card with a few embellishments (ribbon, enamel shapes, candy dots, doilies, sequins, etc).

• Stamps: Watercolor Wings
• Inks: Too many to list
• Cardstock: Ditto
• Accessories: Ditto
• Tools: 

Currently

Reading: I finally started The Selection by Kiera Cass. A fluffy romance was just what I needed this week.

Watching: Along with my fluffy romance, I needed some feel-good television. Call the Midwife S2 is perfect for this. It's serious, but always makes me feel good at the end.

Listening: After marathoning Black Veil Brides for Arthur, I randomly pulled up a much loved older album: Anberlin's Cities. I sang along to every song.

Making: Working on some floral cards for this month. I'm thinking that may be my theme for the next class I plan.

Feeling: The twins arrive tonight and I am so anxious. I will be super anxious until I get the text that they have landed.

Planning: Working on our plans for next week - activities and meals.

Loving: This past weekend was really hot (over 90 degrees both days). The temps are back in the 70s with sunshine and a nice cool breeze. Loving it!

Crafting Forever Sketch

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card using the sketch below.

I'm a huge fan of sketch challenges, and this one is no exception. For my card, I decided on a simple color palette of Lemon Lime Twist and Call Me Clover. From there, I picked a background stamp set to add some interest to the cardstock and then started building the rest of the card. I love the mix of patterns that resulted. As the last touch, I added some fun Lemon Lime Twist Ombre Ribbon.

• Stamps: Crafting Forever
• Inks: Call Me Clover; Lemon Lime Twist
• Cardstock: 2018-2020 In Color DSP; Call Me Clover; Lemon Lime Twist
• Accessories: Lemon Lime Twist Ombre Ribbon
• Tools: Stitched Shapes Framelits

June Crafting Goals

A recap of last month’s goals:

• Celebrate National Scrapbooking Day (May 5th) -- Fail. We went to a birthday party and the day just got away from me. I did spend time this month scrapbooking, but my schedule is so unpredictable.
• April MP Pages -- Success! Love doing these pages.
• Finish My Retiring Series -- Success! I highlighted a ton of retiring stamps in May.
• Start working on Arthur's 2017 PL album -- Fail. Hopefully in June...
• Start planning classes for June -- Fail. I got so wrapped up in other life tasks that this one slipped on by.
• Add retiring items to my yard sale -- Success! I pulled all my retiring items, priced them, and have them ready to sell. Hope someone wants some of my items...

June Goals:

• May 2018 PL Pages -- Hoping to get back up-to-date this month.
• May MP Pages -- Keeping up...
• June, July, and August SSINK posts -- I definitely won't finish these, but I do want to plan out which ones I want to do.
• Make a summer chore chart -- I've got the idea of what I want to create for this summer, just need to buckle down and make it.
• Arthur's 2017 PL album -- I need to go back and start with the backlog of Project Life months.
• Organize planner supplies -- Right now I've acquired a ton of sticker books and single sheets of stickers for my planner. Unfortunately they are everywhere and I'm taking way too much time each week sorting through them. So, I need to organize these. 
• June, July, and August's SU Purchases -- I want to lay out my purchasing plan for the next few months. This will require me to think about what classes and cards I think I want to make in the next three months. 
• June, July, and August's Classes -- Associated with the above goal, I want to think about and starting planning my classes for the summer.

CASEing Rebecca

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to CASE our newest Design Team Member Rebecca! In looking through Rebecca's Blog, 101 Projects with Rebecca, I was struck by her great designs and color choices! For today's card, I chose to CASE this Share What You Love card from late April. I took her design and changed out her soft palette for a riot of color! I didn't pay a lot of attention to where I placed my bows and gems resulting in a fun haphazard look. After making my card, I realized that I used the Picture Perfect Birthday Stamp Set for last month's CASE card. Guess it's become my go-to. Love love love it!

• Stamps: Picture Perfect Birthday
• Inks: Lemon Lime Twist, Call Me Clover, Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Bliss, Lovely Lipstick, Flirty Flamingo
• Cardstock: 2018-2020 In Color DSP, Blackberry Bliss, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lime Twist, Whisper White
• Accessories: Clear Faceted Gems
• Tools: Stitched Shapes Framelits