Try Stamping On Tuesday

Time for a sketch.  :)  I've been busy working behind the scenes on cards for upcoming design team projects, and wanted to spend some time today making a card just for my blog readers.  :)  When I saw the sketch posted this morning on Try Stampin' On Tuesday I was instantly inspired to go create.

It's very fitting for all the rain we've been having here.   The nearby river has been at or near flood stage for a week now, but today the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and our neighbor even has his lawnmower going.   Ahhh...the sounds of Spring.

This card also gave me a chance to pull out some neglected new goodies.  Can you believe I've had this stamp set and builder brads for at least 2 months and never used them?  

Try Stampin' On Tuesday #158

The twist for this week's challenge is to use stripes and squares.  This sketch will be going in my file for future use.  You can do so much with it and it's a great sketch for showcasing your patterned paper.

This card is also being linked up with Cardz 4 Guyz.  Their challenge this week is typography, words or a name.  When I made this card I planned to put it in my OWH box and I try to make most of my OWH cards "guy friendly" so they can be sent either to or from a guy.  ;)



Card Supplies:
Stamps: See Ya Later (SU-SAB)
Ink: Marina Mist
Paper: Cowboy 6x6 (MME), Basic Gray, Very Vanilla
Misc: Grey Baker's Twine (Pretty Pink Posh), Builder Brads (SU), Neutrals Candy Dots

Sylish & Splattered

Challenge week continues for me with today's Christmas card.  For some reason I have really needed a jumpstart to work on my Christmas cards.  Searching the web for challenges has been really helpful!

 

I combined two challenges to make this fairly simple card.  Try Stamping on Tuesday Sketch #143



#143

And the CASual Friday challenge to use embossing.  Actually most of the cards I have made in the past week have had embossing on them.  It's funny how I turn to one technique and use it several different ways for a week or two then move on to the next thing.



CFC119


First I made the card in blue.

Then I made it again in red and filmed it.

***Note: If you are reading this post in an email or reader you may need to go to my blog to view the video below.  :)

It's hard to capture the sparkle, dimension and colors of these cards, especially with the gloomy weather we have here, so I'll give you another look at the red. 

I hope you will give this card a try.  Imagine it with hearts punched out for Valentines day, or use some DSP and punch out snowflakes.  The possibilities are endless.


Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Supplies:
Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Merry Minis (retired)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Midnight Muse
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Midnight Muse, Silver Glimmer Paper, Whisper White
Accessories: Star Punch, Word Window Punch, Baker's Twine, Stylish Stripes Embossing Folders, Merry Mini Punch Pack (retired), Bitty Banners Framelits




Stylish Stripes Embossing Folder



Silver Glimmer Paper



Thanks from the Heart

Now that Christmas is over, it's time for me to make and send thank you cards for those wonderful Christmas gifts.   My only problem is that I am overwhelmed by all the fabulous new goodies I have to create with.   What's a girl to do?  Why, go look for some challenges online and use one or two to make you card.

First up, a sketch challenge.  (Big surprise, eh? I LOVE sketches!)  Try Stampin On Tuesday has a sketch that was perfect for the Thank you sentiment I wanted to stamp.  Don't you love when that happens?


TSOT #99

The scallops were a bit hard to see, so I grabbed my Pool Party ink and sponge, then just sponged the tips of the scallops so that there was some definition.  It's still hard to see in the pictures, so I took a close up to show you what I mean.

This was the easy part.  The hard part was choosing colors, so I went for a color challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Then I went looking through my new paper to find paper that would work.  The More Amore DSP pack was PERFECT! 




HSS #150

How many thank you cards do you need to make this month?  I still have 5 more to make, I think, so come back to see what I come up with.  Hopefully it will inspire you to create your own!

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe: (all items from Stampin' UP!)
Stamps: Hearts A Flutter, From My Heart, P.S. I Love You (retired-on Clearance Rack)
Paper: More Amore Specialty DSP, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Basic Black, Primrose Petals, 2011-12 In Color DSP Patterns Stack
Misc.: Scallop Circle Punch, Hearts A Flutter Framelits, 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Crystal Effects, Scallop Border Punch



Hearts A Flutter Bundle



P.S. I Love You
Clearance Rack WSL




More Amore DSP



From My Heart



Oh Christmas Tree

Last year my favorite holiday stamp set was Christmas Lodge.  I was so excited that SU kept it as a part of their annual catalog.  This year though it has sat lonely on my shelf.  I decided to pull it out and give it some ink for today's card.

I used two challenges to help me create this card.  The first was a sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday.  It's perfect for this nice big tree.

I was trying to decide which shade of green I should use for the tree and thought a color challenge might be in order.  This time of year it's pretty easy to find a Christmas color challenge, but most of them I found were in shades of blue.  Then I clicked on Color Throwdown's site and fell in love with their color combo this week!  It is perfect!

The only snag I ran into was the bow.  I wanted to use Baker's Twine, but all my twine uses White as a base. It was too stark against the crumb cake.  I tried linen thread, but it was so similar to the crumb cake that you couldn't really see it.  So, I took out my crumb cake ink pad, a sponge dauber and the Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.  I placed the twine on my ink pad and with the sponge dauber pressing into the twine I pulled the strand across my ink pad.  I did this several times, turning the twine to get all the sides inked.  It worked pretty well.  I did let it dry for awhile, as my ink pad is super juicy.

The sentiment is embossed with black embossing powder and all the layers a sponged with crumb cake, except the black mats.  You could leave off some of those black mats, but I really like the look of all those layers.  :)

The banner is popped up using Dimensionals.  Mostly to get it to lay across the front of the card.

I like to decorate this inside of my cards to match the front.  Instead of embossing the greeting, this time I used Black Staz-On.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Christmas Lodge
Ink: Crumb Cake, Gumball Green, Versamark, Staz-On
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Fan Fair
Misc.: Black Embossing Powder, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine

Masculine Monday ~ Get Well ~ TSOT#83

My Father in Law is going in for knee surgery soon and I wanted to make a couple of Get Well cards that we could send him while he is recovering. 

It's nice to have masculine get well cards on hand.  I've found it difficult to find them in the store.  The stamp set I used was Friendship Preserves, then I used a stamp from Perfectly Penned to cover up the "yum" with "Get Well".  Of course this card was completely inspired by this week's sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday. 

All the papers are from the Festival of Prints DSP stack.  It's not just for Christmas, as you can see.  This is a great pack of papers.  I've made several cards with it, and have barely made a dent in it.  :)  I love stacks like that!

I made another Get Well card over the weekend that could easily be sent to a man or a woman.  I'll be sharing it later this week, so if you want more masculine or well wishes card ideas be sure to check back in. 

Creative Blessings,
Heather North



Friendship Preserves Bundle



Festival of Prints DSP Stack

Perfectly Penned

Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon

Forever ~ TSOT#82

I filmed a video while making this card, but it's reallllllllllly long, so I need to edit it down.   In the meantime though I thought I would show it to you.  :)

Inspiration came from this week's sketch on Try Stampin' On Tuesday.



It's a tent fold card, and I decorated the inside as well. 

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Stamps:  Forever With You
Ink: Primrose Petals
Paper: Whisper White, Gumball Green, Snow Festival DSP
Misc.: Gumball Green Stitched Satin Ribbon, Vintage Trinkets, Jewelry Tag Punch

 

Hello School ~ TSOT81

For many of us it is back to school time.  The SU Storytime DSP pack makes me think of school, so I thought I would play with it today as my kids finish their first week of school. 

I used this weeks sketch at Try Stampin' On Tuesday for the base inspiration.  My first thought was to use strips of paper from the Storytime pack, but then I saw this ruler paper that already had strips.  :)  Made it easy to put this card together.

Challenge #81

I added a strip of white paper to make my window framelits stand out from the background paper.  Instead of a button I used a ribbon slide, and adhered it using glue dots.  :)

Sorry the colors are washed out.  I'm not sure why.  They look vibrant on my camera, but washed out on the blog.  ???  One of life's many mysteries.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

SU Items Used:
Stamps: Friendship Preserves
Paper: Storytime DSP, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Ridinghood Red, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi
Misc: Wild Wasabi Stitched Grograine Ribbon, Window Frames Framelits, Round Designer Ribbon Slides

Office Kindness ~TSOT#80

Our card-a-day blog group has a new challenge this week.  The challenge is to make a card with an office theme.  When I think of office I think of secretaries, paper, mail, phones, typewriters, computers, keys (don't know why), desks, etc.

I really need a card for someone at work so I decided to jump back into making cards with this challenge.  I thought about making a card similar to the one in this post clicky, but when I pulled out the Fan Fair paper I found this postcard image that I thought would be fun to play with.

Once I had the main image I looked through my pile of sketches.  I've been printing them out the past couple of weeks, but haven't had much creative time.  The sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday was PERFECT!  I really like this sketch, and I'm thinking about using it to create a scrapbooking page. 

The swirls in the background are what really captured me about this sketch.  It's hard to see with my focal image on there, so I took a picture before adhering it.  If I use this sketch again for a card I will use a smaller image.  The swirls are from the Everything Eleanor stamp set.

As for the details, I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set Blooming with Kindness.   The ribbon is Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon and the pearls are from the Basic Pearls set.

For the inside I took another image from the Fan Fair DSP and stamped Thank You, then cut it out.   I wanted the paper I stamped on to match the paper on the front of the card and this worked very well.

I'm giving this to someone at work to thank them for always going above and beyond.  The best part is it really could be given to a man or a women.  I would probably switch out the pearls for brads if I was giving this to a man though.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe of SU products used:

Paper: Fan Fair, Everyday Enchantment (retired), Very Vanilla, Island Indigo
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Blooming With Kindness
Ink: Basic Grey
Misc. Basic Pearls, Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon

Forever ~ TSOT#76

Can you believe I am actually making the current Try Stamping on Tuesday card ON Tuesday?  :)  This may be a first.   I love stamping on Tuesdays, but I often don't get my cards posted the same day that I make them.

After seeing my card it will be easy to see I was completely inspired by the sketch.  The only thing I didn't notice until now are the staples on the banners. I really like them, so I may go back and add them in... or not...

Clean and simple (CAS) does not come easy to me.  When I first saw the sketch my thought was, "I can't do that, there's too much white space, and my cards never turn out well when they are CAS!"  My next thought was that I need to at least give it a try, because if I can master CAS then I can make & send even more cards.  :)  Since I love using banners, I decided to give it a try.  I even used my least favorite SU color on this card, and it's not so bad.  LOL

Do you think I need to add those staples?  I only used one stamp on this paper, and to get the variations in color I used my markers. The colors for this card came from the Fan Fair DSP pack.

Head on over to TSOT and see what you can create using their sketch.  You have plenty of time.  If you do, please let me know in the comment section of this post and I will be sure to visit your blog to see what you make. 


Creative Blessings,
Heather North

P.S.  I had an hour today with no kids and no hubby at home where I was able to make a video about my swap cards!  I'll be editing it and hopefully have it up on my blog in the next few days.  :)

Forever with You

Fan Fair DSP

Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch