A Valentine--#tgifc249

This week's TGIF Challenges theme challenge is Valentines.   I remember spending hours in the card shop looking for just the right cards to send to my Great Aunts Hattie and Lucile.  I always think of them as Valentine's Day approaches and wish they had lived long enough to get some of the Valentines I've made since joining Stampin' Up! In their honor, I have added a vintage touch to my Valentine with Pressed Petals specialty designer series paper (#149500).

The hearts were all die cut using the Stitched Be Mine dies (#148527) dies.  They are Pressed Petals paper, Rose Glimmer Paper (#146960), and Mossy Meadow and Rococo Rose card stock.  The large Mossy Meadow heart was embossed with the Coastal Weave 3D embossing folder (#151503).

The dotted background was stamped in second generation Mossy Meadow ink using a stamp from the Artisan Textures stamp set (#151278).  The greeting is from Parisian Beauty stamp set (#151466) and was stamped in Rococo Rose.  Sequins from the Woven Threads sequin Assortment (#149498) and a bow out Mossy Meadow twine from the Magnolia Lane ribbon combo pack (#149485) complete the card.

Card stock layers are Very Vanilla, Rococo Rose and Mossy Meadow.

For lots of great Valentine ideas, head over to the TGIF Challenges Blog here.

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!

--Sara Nell

Creation Station February Blog Hop--The Full Monty

Welcome to the Creation Station February Blog Hop!  Whether you have hopped here from Kathy's blog or have started here, I'm glad you've arrived at my blog.  You are in for a lot of inspiration today.  We are sharing The Full Monty.  That means, we are picking a suite  of products and are using every product in the entire suite. 

The explanation of the theme given to the Creation Station design team was to create one project using everything in the suite.  Well, I could not do that.  I picked out my favorite suite in the Spring Mini--Peaceful Poppies.  It is what Stampin' Up! calls a super suite:  two stamp sets (Painted Poppies and Peaceful Moments), two coordinating die sets (Painted Labels and Poppy Moments), Peaceful Poppies designer series paper, Peaceful Poppies Sequins (to die for), Whisper White Crinkled Ribbon, and Peaceful Poppies elements. There is so much to use, that I chose to create five projects using several products in the suite plus a bonus one with a gold foil pizza box I had out on my desk and some paper I love but couldn't figure out how to use on the other projects.  Have fun checking out something from each of the products in the suite.   Note:  I am totally in love with the Peaceful Poppies Sequins--you'll see them featured on one project and used on all of them.

For this card, I picked out three paper patterns that included Blackberry Bliss, cut them in strips and placed them at slight angles on the Whisper White card stock.  I stamped the greeting from Peaceful Moments in Blackberry Bliss and adhered it to an open circle of Blackberry Bliss card stock die cut using a die from Painted Labels.  I used a Blackberry Bliss Dark Stampin' Blends to color the ribbon and then tied it in a double bow.  Gold sequins finish the card.

This card features the Peaceful Poppies sequins.  The colors are clear, black, gold and light and dark Poppy Parade. I used just the flat sequins on the card.  The sequins were layered over Blackberry Bliss card stock embossed with the Subtle 3D embossing folder.  I laid out my design with Tear & Tape adhesive, cut in half lengthwise, then added the sequins.   The design was inspired by the bare branches I walked into about 5 in the morning while walking Roxie.  Instead of being angry myself, I stepped back and noticed the shape of the branches backlit by a street lamp at the end of the block.  The shapes brought me joy in that moment, so I decided to make joyful branches on this card with sequins.    I added the perfect greeting from Peaceful Moments, stamped in Blackberry Bliss on a square created with the large rectangle die in Painted Labels (I put the Whisper White card stock and label die through the die cutting machine twice to create the square--the die is very easy to line up for the second cut).

This is my bonus project--a very simple one.  Since it is the last of my "Blackberry Bliss" projects, I put it here.  I am so happy that the gold Mini Pizza Boxes have carried over from the Holiday Catalog.  I fussy cut the watercolor style poppies from the paper. which is the reverse design on the Blackberry Bliss dotted paper.  I popped the smaller poppy up with dimensionals. I fussy cut the greeting from Peaceful Moments and popped it up, too.  Of course, I added sequins--gold to match the box.

Instead of using the big poppy and leaf dies in the Poppy Moments die set that I have seen on lots of beautiful cards, I used the openwork background die for this card.    I used the die twice to create the 5-1/4" x 2-1/4" Basic Black piece.  it is layered over the Pool Party with white stripe design from the Peaceful Poppies designer series paper pack. The greeting from Peaceful Moments was stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento ink on a Pool Party banner.  Whisper White crinkled ribbon and black poppy-shaped sequins finish the card.

This card uses the embossed watercolor paper poppy and leaf designs from the Peaceful Poppies elements.  I watercolored the leaves with Old Olive and the poppies with Poppy Parade and Blackberry Bliss.  The poppies dried to a Calypso Coral color, so I layered Calypso Coral under the Old Olive striped pattern from the Peaceful Poppies paper. The greeting was stamped in Mossy Meadow and then die cut using a label die from Painted Labels.  Gold poppy-shaped sequins finish the card. This is a 4-1/2" square card.

This final card uses two images from the Painted Poppies stamp set.  I stamped the poppies image twice in Old Olive ink, then used the Poppy Parade Combo, Calypso Coral Combo and Basic Black Dark Stampin' Blends to color them.  I used the large dotted filler image to create a Pool Party backdrop for the poppies, using second and third generation stamping.  For a fun touch, I added Poppy Parade light and dark and clear poppy-shaped sequins to the field of poppies.  The greeting is from the Peaceful Moments stamp set, stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento ink on Poppy Parade.  The Whisper White crinkled ribbon was colored black with the Basic Black Dark Stampin' Blends marker, then wrapped around the Poppy Parade 6" x 3" card base.  

Hope you've enjoyed my Peaceful Poppies projects.  Now it's time to see what Dena has in store for us today--it is sure to be wonderful!

to Dena's blog . .  .

   

Here's a little guessing game for you.  How many times did I type "poopy" instead of "poppy" while preparing my blog post today?  LOL--my typing skills are truly lacking.

Have a great February!  I hope you are always finding joy in the little things.

--Sara Nell

John 15:11

Painted Poppies Shaker--#tgifc248

For this week's TGIF Challenges inspiration challenge, we are to create a project inspired by the cover of the Spring Mini Catalog or the Sale-a-Bration brochure.  Well, I was inspired by both.  The Spring Mini cover highlights my absolute favorite suite in the catalog, Peaceful Poppies.  And, I was taken by the rectangular shaker tag on the cover of the Sale-a-Bration brochure.  So, I created a shaker card with a rectangular window using the Painted Poppies stamp set (#151599).  

I don't believe I have ever been as taken with a sequin set as I have the Peaceful Poppies one.  I love the colors (black, clear, gold and dark and light Poppy Parade) and I love the tiny little flower shapes included with the regular round sequins.  I picked out the little flower shapes to use in my shaker window with the stamped field of poppies.  I stamped these and the larger poppy image in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and colored them with the Poppy Parade combo and Old Olive combo Stampin' Blends.  The greeting from the Peaceful Moments stamp set (151595) was also stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.  I fussy cut both the greeting and the large poppy image.

To create the shaker, I die cut a rectangle out of the Poppy Parade piece using the  Stitched Rectangles dies (#148551).  I stamped this piece with images from the Painted Poppies stamp set using Poppy Parade ink.  Then I adhered a Basic Black frame die cut with two of the Stitched Rectangle dies (the same one I used for the window and the next size up).   I covered the inside of the window with a piece of Window Sheet, framed my stamped poppy field image with Foam Adhesive Strips, added the sequins inside the frame and then topped it with the Poppy Parade window piece.  

There are so many ways to be inspired by these two catalog covers.  Be sure and check out more projects created for this challenge over at the TGIF Challenges blog here.  Be inspired!!!

Thanks for stopping by!--Sara Nell  

Dinoroar Birthday--#tgifc247

The theme challenge this week at TGIF Challenges is "Happy Birthday".  It came at a great time because I am working on a banner for a very special birthday coming up next month.  Easton, my grandson, is turning 1.  The theme is dinosaurs because he has a lot of them to love on and a lot of cute dinosaur clothes.

This is him at five months with a couple of dino friends:

I'm still working on the banner, but I made a dinosaur birthday card  for this challenge.  

The background is Dinoroar designer series paper (# 149589) covering the Whisper White thick card stock base.  The embossed layer is Pool Party card stock embossed with the new Coastal Weave 3D embossing folder (#151503). Over (and around) this layer are arranged three stamped and die cut palm branches, two stamped and die cut dinosaurs and one flying dinosaur (I guess I'll have to learn the names of these guys in the near future) die cut from the Dinoroar paper.  The stamps are from the Dino Days stamp set (#149406) and the coordinating dies from the Dino Dies die set (#149636/bundled with stamp set, #151139).  The "happy birthday" was die cut from Pretty Peacock card stock using the Well Written dies (#148534). I cut three of each word and layered them together for the card.

Here's a photo of the inside:

The greeting is stamped in  Pretty Peacock and the dinosaur die cut from the Dinoroar paper.  Tip:  The dinosaur dies do not cut the ridges on the dinosaur images. For the stamped dinosaur on the front of the card, I stamped the ridges, die cut them with the coordinating ridges die and adhered them to the top of the die cut dinosaur.  For the inside dinosaur, I die cut the dinosaur image from the Dinoroar paper, then snipped out the ridges from the paper, retaining the bottom edge that was remaining after dinosaur was die cut.  Then I placed the ridges edge to edge with the dinosaur body and attached them on the back with Tear & Tape adhesive.   

I am having fun playing with the Dinoroar Suite for Easton's birthday.  I'll share more later.

In the meantime, check out all the birthday projects over at the TGIF Challenges blog here.

Have a great day!--Sara Nell

My True North--#tgifc246

When I saw this week's TGIF Challenges sketch challenge, I immediately thought of the Sailing Home stamp set.  Usually, that does not happen.  I like to think about what stamp set I'll use with this kind of challenge.  Even though I had to flip the sketch and move some of the elements around, I stuck with Sailing Home:

I used several products in the Come Sail Away Suite on this card:  Sailing Home stamp set, #149457; Smooth Sailing dies, #149576; High Seas 3D embossing folder, #149577; Come Sail Away designer series paper, #149481; Night of Navy/Sahara Sand baker's twine, #149483; and Sail Away Trinkets, #149482.  Actually, that's the entire suite except for the Come Sail Away Memories & More Card Pack (#149552, which is awesome, by the way).  I added Whisper White thick card stock for the card base, a Silver Foil layer and Night of Navy card stock to complete the card

You can see how I changed up the sketch a bit to fit my stamp set choice.  Challenges are all about inspiration, though, and my card definitely shows the inspiration from this sketch.  See more projects using this sketch over at the TGIF Challenges Blog here.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

--Sara Nell

Psalm 27:1

Poppy Sympathy Card--#tgifc245

This week's TGIF Challenges color challenge is Blackberry Bliss, Rich Razzleberry and Very Vanilla.  It took a little thought for me to decide how to use these colors. It is kind of an elegant and subtle color combination to me, so I decided to create a sympathy card to have on hand.

The Peaceful Poppies Suite of stamps and dies was perfect for this card.  I chose to layer a Blackberry Bliss/Rich Razzleberry patterned paper from the Peaceful Poppies designer series paper pack (#151324) over the front of my Very Vanilla card base.  The polka dots on the paper were Whisper White, so I colored them in with the Rich Razzleberry Light Stampin' Blends (#144583).  

I stamped the sympathy greeting from the Peaceful Moments stamp set (#151595) in Blackberry Bliss on my very vanilla card stock layer.  I also stamped the large splatter image from the Painted Poppies stamp set (#151599) on the card stock layer.  I stamped it randomly in the left-hand corner using Rich Razzleberry ink, stamping it off twice before stamping on the card stock.

On a scrap Very Vanilla card stock, the poppy outline images from Painted Poppies were stamped in Blackberry Bliss, then the "filler" image was stamped over them using Rich Razzleberry ink, stamped off once for the smaller poppies.  These were die cut using the Painted Labels dies (#151605; bundled with Painted Poppies stamp set, #153827).  The poppies  were arranged on the card front with three Old Olive leaf images die cut with the Poppy Moments dies (#151594; bundled with the Peaceful Moments stamp set, #153824).

The Very Vanilla stamped layer was layered over a piece of Blackberry Bliss card stock and then adhered to the card base with Stampin' Dimensionals. 

For more projects created with this elegant color combination, head over to the TGIF Challenges blog here. 

So happy you stopped by today!  Happy New Year!

--Sara Nell

Creation Station January Blog Hop--Resolution Solution

Welcome to the Creation Station January Blog Hop!  I'm glad you've stopped by either via Kerstin's great post or by starting here.  This month our theme is Resolution Solution.  We hope to inspire you in this New Year (and new decade--where has the time gone!). Be sure to click on the "Next" button at the end of each post to see all the design team has created for you.

This year, I have changed up my resolution and intention setting strategy.  I have given myself two overriding goals from which everything else I hope to accomplish will flow.  The first is to grow in faith and knowledge of God and my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:3).  I read my Bible and devotions on a regular basis but find I am just reading and not thinking about the words.  To  "think on these things"  (Phil. 4:8) is my goal.  The second is to find joy in the everyday.  I've experienced lots of joy this past year when spending time with my new grandson and family, but I have also struggled a lot with stress and anxiety.  I want to turn that around by seeking joy in little things.  "As [s]he thinketh in h[er] heart, so is [s]he" --Proverbs 23:7. 

Writing in a journal has never been my "thing", but a journal is a great solution to help me with the resolutions I have made.  Lucky for me, Stamping Up! has created the Pressed Petals Journal (Item #149588).  It has great gratitude prompts and many blank but decorated pages on which to write my thoughts as I read and study.  I chose to decorate my journal with the Peaceful Poppies designer series paper (#151324) because it makes me smile--Poppy Parade is one of my all-time favorite colors.  I added a circle die cut out of Vellum card stock using a die in the Painted Labels dies (#151605); a pair of poppies die-cut from Peaceful Poppies Elements (#151327); sequins from Peaceful Poppies Sequins (#151325); Pearls Basic Jewels (#144219); and Poppy Parade 1/2" textured weave ribbon (#147813).   "Here's to always finding joy" is a part of a sentiment from the Path of Petals stamp set (#149383)--it says it all, doesn't it! 

My little joy banner is a reminder I'll hang on a shelf in my stamping room.  It will be the first thing I see in the morning when I bring my coffee in to start the day.  I die cut the letters in Basic Black card stock using the Hand-Lettered Prose dies (#149550), then I dipped them in VersaMark and heat embossed them with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder (#109130).  I used the same paper and more labels from the Painted Labels dies for my banner.  The Basic Black twine is from the Country Club Twine Combo Pack (#151318).

Now click below to hop over and see Denita's resolution solution.

To Denita's Blog . . .

Here's to always finding Joy!

--Sara Nell