Life is Better--#tgifc274

My card today is all about texture:  a textured designer series paper pattern, texture in the placement of the paper, texture in the glimmer paper and texture with heat embossing.

I started this card using scrap pieces from this designer series paper pattern from the In Good Taste designer series paper pack (#152494).  I had several different widths of scraps so I decided to use them (plus a couple of other pieces I cut to fill up my space) in a random stripe pattern.  I arranged and adhered the pieces on Whisper White card stock, then sponged the edges of the piece with Night of Navy ink.

A floral image from Bloom & Grow stamp set (#149229) was stamped twice on the striped piece, once right side up and once upside down, in VersaMark ink and then heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.  

The greeting from Peaceful Moments stamp set (#151595) was stamped in VersaMark on Night of Navy and also heat embossed in gold.  Both ends of the Night of Navy greeting piece and the slightly larger Gold Glimmer paper piece (also scraps), were punched out using the new Banners Pick a Punch (#153608/available beginning 8/4/2020).  The striped piece was layered over Gold Glimmer Paper and then on a Night of Navy card base.

Find more projects made using paper scraps on this week's TGIF Challenges product challenge entry here.

Have fun using up your paper scraps!!!

--Sara Nell 

  

  

Childlike Wonder--#tgifc273

My card today was inspired by my fifteen month old grandson Easton's recent visit and the memories it invoked from my own childhood.  Easton loves to be outside and we took several walks together in our yard--where I had picked out a secret hideout for him under a low lying tree branch.   He loved our trees (he only has Palmetto Palms in his yard and neighborhood)!  He went into his little secret hideout and looked up and laughed and clapped his hands. Then he ran under another tree and looked up and turned around and laughed and then moved on to another tree.  He could have done that all morning.  I loved seeing the wonder and joy on his face as he watched the play of sunlight on the leaves.

Fast forward to this week and the inspiration challenge at TGIF Challenges:  Silhouettes. As I started to think of "silhouette" ideas, I thought of trees silhouetted against the sky and about Easton's joy under them.  Then I thought about my own joy under the trees.  As a kid on family camping trips, I loved to sit late at night and look up through the forest at the stars.  There is nothing like a star-filled sky away from city lights.  It is wonder-filled and magic!

I recreated this memory for my card:

The background started with a watercolor wash in Misty Moonlight and Rich Razzleberry on Shimmery White card stock.  After this dried, Frost White Shimmer Paint was splattered on the card with a dry Water Painter.  These splatters are my stars.

After the shimmer paint was completely dry,  I used the Stamparatus to stamp the tree images (a Loblolly Pine from the Rooted in Nature stamp set, #146482).   I placed the trees around the sentiment from the vantage point of looking up from the ground, through the trees to the sky.  I stamped each tree twice in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.

The sentiment is from the Hallows Night Magic stamp set (#153356), which will be available for purchase when the August-December 2020 Mini Catalog goes live on August 4.  This greeting was perfect to express the magic and wonder of the scene--it's not just for Halloween! I used the Stamparatus to stamp it twice in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and once in VersaMark and heat embossed it with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Silhouettes are so fun to do and can be made with any stamped image, not just the silhouette stamp designs in our catalog (which I love, by the way).  Check out the wonderful samples in this week's TGIF Challenges Blog here.

I hope you are inspired to look at our world with childlike wonder today.

"Be still and know that I am God."  Psalm 46:10.

--Sara Nell

To a Friend--#tgifc272

There's a fun sketch challenge this week over at TGIF Challenges.  I don't believe I've ever made a card with a feature like this one before.  I had fun with it and have a tip for you on how to use a Rectangle Stitched die (#151820) and a Tasteful Label die (#152886) together.

As I thought about my project, I kept going back to the idea of using the featured part of the sketch kind of like a wrap for flowers.  I wasn't "feeling" my floral stamp sets this morning.  So, instead, I made a bouquet of leaves using the Forever Fern stamp set (#152559) and the coordinating Forever Flourishing dies (#152714).  I flipped the sketch 90 degrees for my card:

I started with a background pattern from the In Good Taste designer series paper pack (#152494) which was layered on a piece of Soft Suede card stock.  Then I stamped leaf images in Shaded Spruce, Just Jade and Mint Macaron inks on Whisper White card stock.  These were die cut and other die images were die cut out of Crumb Cake card stock. These were all arranged on the background after I glued my wrap pieces on the card. 

My wrap was created with two different dies because I couldn't find another die that I liked for the wrap I was envisioning. I wanted a stitched edge wrap with a pointed end so I could punch a hole in each end and thread linen thread through each hole.  I found my pointed end in the Tasteful Labels die set and then found a stitched rectangle die with the same width.  I die cut two rectangles first and then placed my Tasteful Label die as shown in the photo on the rectangle.  I rolled the die sandwich into the die cutting machine just until I heard a click and backed it out of the machine:

It was very easy to find the right position for the second 

die because the two dies are the same width.

After deciding on how to position my pieces, I folded the ends around to  the back of my Soft Suede layer and adhered them to the back with Multipurpose Liquid Adhesive.  I used an 1/8" hole punch to create the hole to thread two pieces of linen thread through each end.

The greeting was stamped in Shaded Spruce and die cut using another Tasteful Label die.  Some gold metallic pearls and a Just Jade card base complete the card.  

You'll see some fun and beautiful projects using this challenge sketch over at the TGIF Challenges Blog here.

Have a great week!  Hope you got your taxes filed--I nearly forgot!!!

--Sara Nell 

A Field of Flowers--#tgifc271

This week's color challenge combo over at TGIF Challenges is bright and happy and made me want to hang out in a field of flowers.  So that's what I did:

The field of poppies image from Painted Poppies Stamp set (#151599) and the greeting from Peaceful Moments (#151595) were stamped in Tuxedo Black on to Whisper White card stock.  Both were die cut with Stitched Rectangle dies (the larger one was manipulated in the die cutting machine to make the die cut shorter).  The flowers were colored with the Mango Melody Combo and Flirty Flamingo Combo Stampin' Blends.  This piece was layered on a piece of Mango Melody and then wrapped with a piece of Whisper White 1/4" crinkled seam binding colored with the Granny Apple Green Dark Stampin' Blend.  

The flag layer was made using Flirty Flamingo card stock, the Banner Triple Punch (#138292) and the Old World Paper 3D embossing folder (#153200).  This embossing folder is working its way up to becoming my second most used embossing folder, right after the Subtle 3D embossing folder (#151775).  Speaking of which, I used it on the Granny Apple Green layer after the layer was stamped randomly with the leaf image from the Painted Poppies stamp set.

A card base of Granny Apple Green and some Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels (#150457) complete the card. 

Check out all the bright and happy cards this week over at the TGIF Challenges Blog here:

Have a bright and happy week!

--Sara Nell

Creation Station July Blog Hop--In Color Combos

Welcome to the July Creation Station Blog Hop!  I'm happy you are visiting today!  We are an international group of Stampin' Up! independent demonstrators who create a themed blog hop for you each first Sunday of the month.  This month's theme is "In Color Combos".  We are highlighting our five new 2020-2022 In Colors:  Bumblebee, Cinnamon Cider, Just Jade, Magenta Madness and Misty Moonlight.

I love the new In Colors plus I love the new packaging options in our 2020-2021 Annual Catalog.  One of those options is the 3-1/8" x 3-1/8" Acetate Card Boxes (#150428) which hold up to five 3" x 3" note cards and envelopes.  Five new In Colors and 5 note cards to a box.  Perfect for a little monochromatic In Color fun!

I wanted to do something a bit different for my monochromatic theme, so I chose to create watercolor emboss resist designs.  I used images from the Four Season Floral (#152801, in the Beginner's Brochure) and Celebrate Sunflowers (#152517) stamp sets  and combined them with texture/background images from Comfort & Hope (#152509), Very Versailles (#149275) and Forever Fern (#152559) stamp sets.  Each image was stamped in VersaMark onto watercolor paper and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder before the watercolor wash was applied in one of the In Colors.   I had a whole lot of fun with these and have the ink-stained fingernails to prove it!

The sentiment labels were die cut using the two smallest dies in the Stitched Nested Labels die set (#149638).  Whisper White baker's twine was used on each note card. 

The box was decorated with a 3" x 3" piece of Just Jade card stock, a Daisy/Bumblebee watercolor resist piece, and a 2020-2022 In Color Enamel dot (#152480).  It was tied closed with the Just Jade gingham ribbon from the Flowers for Every Season ribbon combo pack (#153620).  The ribbon was placed so that it can be untied to open the box without disturbing the decoration. (And, yes, all five note cards & envelopes fit neatly inside!)

Now it's time to see what wonderful projects Kerstin Kreuger has for us today:   

To Kerstin's Blog . . .    

Hope you enjoy all of the In Color inspiration today!

--Sara Nell

Picking Blueberries--#tgifc270

This week is theme challenges week over at TGIF Challenges.  This theme this week is Summer Vibes.  I immediately thought I should do bright colors and a beachy/tropical card, but I couldn't make it happen.  Probably because my favorite Summer Vibes are not beachy/tropical vibes. 

My family always spent three weeks in August camping by lakes in Northern Minnesota and Ontario, Canada.  We had favorite camping spots (some in campgrounds, other requiring a fire permit from the ranger's office and a boat to get to). We would return to these spots from time to time but not every year.  The best spots had great wild blueberry patches nearby with their fruit ripening in August.   Mama would rig up an oven out of tin foil and make blueberry cobbler in the fire ashes for dessert and then pancakes cooked over the fire for breakfast.  We were sorely disappointed when the bears got to the blueberries before we did.  One time, we and a bear arrived at the same time.  We let the bear have the blueberries and then grumbled all the way back to camp. No blueberries meant no cobbler and no pancakes.

Those camping trips are probably what drew me to the new Field Journal stamp set in the Annual Catalog (#152609).  This set has a wild blueberry image and other images from the lakes and woods.  It seemed like I discovered a treasure when I saw this stamp set. These are my Summer Vibes!

Here is a simple note card highlighting the blueberries.  The image was stamped in Soft Suede then colored with Crumb Cake Combo, Misty Moonlight Combo, and Granny Apple Green Combo Stampin' Blends.  The stamped piece was layered on a piece of Misty Moonlight card stock and then on a Whisper White note card.  Linen thread finishes the card.

Lots of bright, fun cards representing Summer Vibes over at the TGIF Challenges Blog here.

I hope you are able to enjoy your favorite Summer vibes and Summer Places this year!

--Sara Nell