Easter Friends

No question about it, my favorite Stamp Set from the new January-June Mini Catalog is called Easter Friends. It has the cutest little duck, bunny and chick, some Easter sayings and a little mound of grass to ground the cute little critters on. I have had so much fun playing with this set! I remember my cousins in Nashville got brightly colored chicks every year for Easter. When the chicks got too big to keep in the city they would bring them out to our farm and we would finish raising them. By then they were nearly all white but still had a little bit of the fun color on them. That was my inspiration for the Ducks. The Ducks show so much joy in their cute little faces that I wanted to use them for the brightly colored animals. I imagined them running down our country driveway in the puddles that they loved to play in after it rained. Of course my Coastal Cabana splashes are much prettier than the brown muddy splashes they made way back then! I have made several other cards with this set and will probably make a lot more because I just love these little animals!

It took a few tries to get the masking just right on my joyful ducks but it was worth it. I hope these cute little guys bring a smile to your face today!

I used Granny Apple Green cardstock and blends; Pool Party cardstock and blends; Daffodil Delight, Highland Heather, Petal Pink and Misty Moonlight blends; Holiday Rhinestones, Basic White Cardstock and Rectangle Stitched Framelits. Oh, and the puddle splashing dots are from the Friends are like Seashells set. "Joy" is from a retired Christmas set but joy seemed to express the mood better than "happy" would. 😊

For this card I colored 3 of the sweet little chicks with the Daffodil Delight blends. The striped paper is from the You're a Peach DSP pack and the print is from the Hand-Penned pack. Lots of the Holiday Rhinestones to define the line between the 2 papers and mats and Happy Easter were cut from Misty Moonlight cardstock. Happy Easter is from the Word Wishes die cut set. 

I know it's a while until Easter but I'll be ready with lots of fun cards to cheer people up. I can't wait to make a scrapbook page too!

New! July-Dec mini catalog AND Sale-A-Bration catalog!

 Fall is just around the corner.  It's still very hot out in my garden every morning but the plants are starting to fade a bit and school buses pass by so kids are back in school.  The new July-Dec mini catalog is out along with a second Sale-A-Bration catalog!  I'm pretty excited that they are doing Sale-A-Bration twice a year because who doesn't love free stuff?  There are stamp sets, dies and paper available in this catalog, free with a $50 order or the beautiful Delicate Dahlias stamp set and Summer Shadows die set free with a $100 order.  And the free items include 4 different packs of Designer paper to choose from as well!  

First, here are 2 cards I made with a Sale-A-Bration set called Feels Like Home.  It's a quaint little scene but I'm thinking that if you use brighter more current home colors on it you could do a card with a completely different feeling.  

 And if you are completely over Summer, here are a few cards I made with one of the new Christmas stamp sets!  It's called Classic Cloche.  This sampling includes one with the shaker dome for an extra special card as well as a couple without the "cloche".   

 Hi, I'm still here and still making cards and scrapbook pages using the great, color coordinated Stampin' Up products.  I've endured through the pandemic and just started doing classes.  It is so much fun to be able to create with friends again!

A new catalog started last month, it's always so exciting to look through a new catalog and find stamps, dies and embossing folders that will help make cards and scrapbook pages easier and prettier!  I made a couple of cards with a new bundle that I am pretty crazy about.  I need to print some beach pictures so I can do some scrapbook pages with it too.

The bundle is called "Friends Are Like Seashells" and includes the stamp set and dies.  There is also an embossing folder called Seashells that matches with the stamps and/or the dies.  I used all 3 of these on both of my cards.  First, I used the Costal Cabana and Crumb Cake ink pads directly on the embossing folder, being sure to apply them on the side that will be raised out.  After applying the ink I spritzed both the embossing folder and the white cardstock with water and ran it through the die cut machine.  This helped bleed out the lines the ink pads left so it is a nicer blend of colors.  After it dried good I added the little star fish, seashell and tied a length of linen thread around the embossed layer.  Then I stamped the sentiment on the sand dollar and applied it with Stampin' Dimensionals.   A few Basic Rhinestones finishes off the front and then I layered it on Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake.

The other card uses the very popular alcohol spritz technique.  I colored circles with Coastal Cabana and Evening Evergreen Blends markers on vellum and spritzed them with rubbing alcohol (has to be at least 90%).  After it dries it's ready to use on a card.  I cut a piece of Basic White cardstock the same size as the vellum and stamped the dots from the stamp set on the bottom of the white layer before adhering the vellum to it.  To adhere, I sponged liquid glue all over the back of the vellum and carefully placed it on the white layer.  Then I put it under a heavy book all night to help straighten it out.  Vellum curls when it gets wet!  The next day I added some shells and a sentiment that I used one of the Ornate Frames dies to cut out. I layered all this on a Coastal Cabana background.  I'm thinking it would look good with some twine and gems too!

Tomorrow,March 31st is the last day to get free Sale-A-Bration stamps, dies and paper this year.  I had a lot of fun creating with the Lovely Lily Pad stamp set that is included in the mini Sale-A-Bration catalog. And it was even more fun because they have a matching (free) die cut set.

First is one I embossed with white embossing powder on vellum. I love that look!  You do have to be careful not to get the vellum too hot but it turned out so pretty and delicate. I die cut the flowers out and put them on a layer of embossed cardstock.

Below I stamped 3 of the largest Lily's and colored them with the Pool Party Blends alcohol markers. I cut them all out with the die and put Stampin' Dimentionals on only one of them. I layered a triangle of Pool Party cardstock on a card front, stamped a series of the water ripples on it and then added the flowers, the center one being the raised one. The heartfelt sympathy sentiment is from the Well Said stamp and die set. 

The other card I stamped a white layer with the large lily in black as a background. The lily focal point is colored with the Bermuda Bay Blend set and I added a bow of our 3/8" Fluttered Organdy black ribbon. 

 Three more cards  (see, I told you I had fun with this set!)  On the left I used a more colorful stamped background than the black and white one from before. Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo are a great combination for a bright card. I stamped the flower in Melon Mango ink on Melon Mango cardstock and cit the layered die from Melon Mango cardstock as well. It was a fairly quick and easy card.

In the middle is a white on white card that turned out as pretty as I had imagined it. Sometimes a simple color choice is just what you need!

And the 3rd card above used die cut flowers of Perennial Essence Designer Series Paper and Pretty Peacock cardstock.

Have you ever had a card or scrapbook page come to you in a dream? This one did. At least I saw the stripes of the Nobel Peacock Foil Sheets in my dream. When I woke up I couldn't remember what else was on the card. So I made the background and laid it beside my table for a few days until the inspiration hit to cut these flower outlines without backgrounds and add to the center.   I really like the way it turned out!  

Don't miss out on free stamps, order today before they are gone until January 2021!

At our retreat we made 9 cards and a cute little box. Since the set Under My Umbrella came with the cost of the retreat we did 4 cards with that set.  Mary Deatherige has a blog called Stamps-n-Lingers.  We CASEd the first card from her.  It uses water color paper for the background. Some of the ladies hadn't used the water pens and ink to do watercolor backgrounds so this was a quick and simple introduction.  The card also uses the technique of stamping on our Designer Series Paper and cutting it out, or punching out for the umbrella.  This new punch has both an open and closed umbrella as well as the handle.

The second card is a quick one since we were doing 10 projects. Just a quick scribble with a marker for the fun background and a little practice shading with the amazing Blends alcohol markers for the umbrella and boots.  This card was designed by Arie Hi who I think is from Germany.

I think I need to work on my direct to paper skills that we used on the Hello Sunshine card below. We just swiped a few times with the Versa Mark ink pad and poured embossing powder over it and used the embossing gun to heat set it. The Daffodil Delight ink was sponged on until it looked right and then some Granny Apple Green grass was also sponged on. This fun idea was from Paula Dobson. 

 The Whisper White 1/4" Crinkled Seam Binding was left white on this card but was colored with a Blend on another one. You can get one roll of the ribbon and make it match our cardstock exactly with this method. Cool!

The last card was a bit more detailed but I love it. The umbrella is punched from the Pleased as Punch DSP so that part was easy. The background was another great technique of rubbing the ink pad in the embossing folder before placing the paper in it and running it through the Big Shot. It makes great embossed effects but one of my favorites is the look of a wooden wall like this card.  

I love the Under My Umbrella stamp set. I hope it will be carried over into the next catalog because I can think of lots more things to try with it!  

Wow, life has been zipping by, my last post was nearly 2 years ago!  I'm still a Stampin' Up Demonstrator and I still scrapbook and make cards.  I guess now that I am self-quarantining maybe I'll have time to blog some and get back in the habit.

We have just a bit over a week left for Sale-A-Bration this year.  You probably need free stamps, paper, embellishments or a cute punch.  I know I needed them!

One of my favorite Sale-A-Bration sets is called Little Ladybug.  I've always loved ladybugs and the ones in this set are so cute I loved them too.  And the big flower speaks to me as well so that makes the set even better. 

Here are some of my Little Ladybug cards.  The first card I embossed the different ladybugs with silver embossing powder and colored one of the bugs and a flower to pop on top with a simple (but sweet) sentiment. 

These are cards I used for a swap at a Stampin' Sisters Spring Retreat.  I couldn't decide which color combination to use so I did both!  Bermuda Bay for the blue and Granny Apple Green for the green one.  I colored the ladybug wings and the flowers with the wonderful Stampin' Up Blends, our alcohol markers that are so easy and fun to use.  I used a card I found on Pinterest by Carole Parsons for my inspiration.

And the last card is one of the cards we made at the retreat.  2 friends and I put the retreat together and came up with all of the projects, most were CASE'd from online.  This one was borrowed from a demonstrator in Sydney Australia named Libby Dyson.  The card gave us a chance to show the ladies how to mask to stamp all those flowers and how to add a little water-coloring with the water pen for the background.

I'll try to post  more cards with some of the free sets real soon.  Until then, if you want to check out the catalogs you can see them on my Stampin' Up website here:
www.elainestamps.stampinup.net

The Little Ladybug is a hostess set so you would have to hurry to get a few orders together to earn it.  But there is over a week so email, text, call, use the best way to get in contact with your friends who may be getting tired of being home with so much time on their hands. They will want to find something to do with that time so they might want to try some of our kits that have almost everything they need to get started or they may already craft and need more paper and - what I am running low on - adhesive to keep crafting through the next few weeks!

New Catalog!!!

I always love it when a new catalog comes out.  And the new 2018/19 catalog is great!  There are some absolutely gotta' have new sets in there, I've ordered several already!  I got the Springtime Impressions thinlit set and found a little time to play with it.  It's a great set! 

BTW, I don't think the link to my website on the right sidebar is working.  You can try this link to see the new catalog.  www.elainestamps.stampinup.net 

 First of all, I used just a portion of the flowers on this card.  I water painted the background in the new Merry Merlot and also cut the flowers from that new color.  I can already tell it is going to be one of my favorite colors!  How do you like that new ribbon?  It's a little hard to tell in the picture but it is so pretty.

Here is another card with the Springtime Impressions thinlits.  The 3 flowers are clipped from a portion of the large flowered piece but the single flower is one of the dies in the set, as is the butterfly.

I did the background by scribbling long strokes on the largest clear block with the broad tip of 6 different color markers.  Then I spritzed it with water and stamped it onto the card front.  I love the delicate touch it gives to the background. 

This is the full design of the largest piece in the Springtime Impressions framelits.  I cut it 4 times of different colors and snipped them apart and arranged them on the green background.  It wasn't easy to snip either.  I forgot to bring my Stampin' Up paper snips to Wyoming with me so I had to use regular scissors.  Needless to say, I ordered another pair on my last order for the new stamps!  I sure miss those little guys.  :~)





And my last project to share today uses the Springtime Impressions upside down so it embosses instead of cutting the cardstock.  Then I used a few of the leftover flowers from the previous projects and another new thinlet set that says Happy Birthday.  It was a quick and simple card since I had the leftover flowers laying around. 

A Little Wild - It's a lot adorable!

I've really been neglecting my blog for a long time!  I'll try to be better about it but things are changing around my house so I can't make any solid promises.  Part of my excuse is that I spent some time in the hospital after getting a tick borne illness called ehrlichia.  It was a horrible illness and I strongly advise against getting it.  I've never been so sick in my life.  I actually wanted to just go ahead and die by the 3rd day.  Then I went to the hospital and was there 6 more days.  I feel better physically but my brain is still a bit confused so I've just been trying to take it as easy as I can while it heals.

In the mean time, the new Stampin' Up Annual Catalog came out and my very favorite stamp set is one called A Little Wild.  I have found a bit of time to play with the set so I have some cards and a scrapbook layout to feature on today's blog post.  The stamp set is designed to be small tags, perfect for birthday and baby shower gifts.  But they can be stamped and used with just the front of the animals like this card.  I stamped them on watercolor paper and used the new watercolor pencils to color them in.  Obviously, I need a lot more practice with water coloring!  I used Pacific Point cardstock to brighten it up some and the Woodland Embossing Folder to add dimension to the background.

I've been doing a lot of Christmas cards and treats lately.  I have several more craft fairs coming up so I need fun things to sell at those.  I got to pre-order from the Occasions mini catalog and the Sale-a-Bration catalog but haven't had much time to play with my new stamps.  I did manage to eek out a few minutes to create this card with the fun FREE chicken stamp set though. It is a Sale-A-Bration set called Hey, Chick.  I paired it with a stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog called Birthday Blast for the background.  I need to make a scrapbook page with pictures of my chickens with the cute Hey, Chick stamp set.  Will I get time before Christmas?  I doubt it!  Something to look forward to, huh?

As  you can tell, this picture was made before Halloween.  I've been making cute earrings with the Cookie Cutter stamp set and punch out of shrink plastic.  I always used the oven to shrink the plastic but someone said they used their embossing gun so I tried that and it is great!  Fast and easy and so much more fun to watch than leaning over the oven door.  

Hi everyone, I think the blog problem has finally been solved!  What a year it has been for me, I wouldn't have had much time to post if my blog had been working correctly anyway.  Last June my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer.  He had the large tumor and about 10 inches of his colon removed but the biopsy showed that there was cancer outside of the colon also and he had stage 3-B cancer.  He didn't want to do chemotherapy so I studied up on natural treatments and developed a program of very clean eating including NO sugar at all because I discovered that sugar feeds cancer.  I also made some herbal remedies and used essential oils to fight the cancer.  It must have been the right combination because at his year follow up appointment with the oncologist all the tests showed no cancer at all!  Needless to say, we are very excited with that news.

During this rough year we had a bright spot with the birth of our 7th grandchild.  She is such a cutie and we are loving having a baby since our last grandbaby is already a big 3 year old.  And our daughter who lived in Colorado moved to East Tennessee so they are much closer to us so we will be driving East a lot now!

Now, on to Stampin' Up goodies!  When I looked in the new Holiday Catalog I knew I had to order the Cookie Cutter sets and punch, it is just too fabulous!  And I love that it has a punch to make all t ht cuteness easy.  :~)

 The first project I made was a fun card for Halloween.  I used the small stamps from the Halloween Cookie Cutter stamp set as a background and added a piece of DSP behind the 3 Halloween spookies.





I found the idea for the little box online somewhere, I can't remember who to give credit for it.  I used the envelope punch board to make the box and then used the reindeer from the Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set.

The fun stamps in the Christmas set were begging me to do a scrapbook page with them.  I'm sure I will be making more pages soon.  Since Halloween is first I'll soon have pictures of the grandchildren dressed up that I will need to get into my scrapbook.  I used the 12X12 Kraft cardstock as a border, cutting out the middle of the sheet to use as mat layers and the stars.  One of the inch wide strips I cut off the Real Red cardstock was used on the right border with some paper from the wonderful Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper.

By the way, check out the DSP sale!  During the month of October if you buy 3 packs of Designer Series Paper you will get your 4th one one FREE!  I think this link will take you to the right place to order if you need some of our beautiful paper. https://www.stampinup.com/ecweb/default.aspx  

One of my favorite projects with these fun sets is the shrink plastic earrings.  Aren't they adorable when you shrink them down to the perfect earring size?  I just bought the Ruff and Ready plastic at the local craft store and stamped in Staz-on on the slick side and colored on the back with Sharpies or colored pencils.  And the skeletons and mummys don't even have to be colored, extra quick and easy!   

I'm so glad to be back, I hope it continues to work ok because I struggle with computer problems.  I'm amazed by what a computer can do but when it doesn't do what it is supposed to do, I'm just lost!  Too bad I can't just stamp it back into shape!