A LITTLE WINK...

...Wink of Stella, that is!

Hello!

I'm super excited to show you this project today.  You know, as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I try to stick with Stampin' Up! products in my crafting but a year or so ago I saw a few card makers using this amazing glitter brush pen called Wink of Stella.  Well, after seeing it used a few times, I broke down and bought one.  I've been loving it ever since!

Then when the Occasions Catalog came out this year, and I saw that SU! now carries the Wink of Stella brush pens, I couldn't contain my excitement and I've been using it on all sorts of projects and have now ordered a second one! They come in Clear and Gold.  Woot!

So let me show you my favorite project so far using the Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush:



Please, please, please look at the full-sized image if you possibly can.  I haven't seen a camera yet that can capture the magnificence of the amazing glitter effect the Wink of Stella gives to projects.  But trust me, it's AMAZING.  Even better? No stray glitter on your pets, under your eye, on your husband's shirt....you get the idea.  :D

Here's a full view of the stinkin' cute 3x3 card I made.  And again, for the love of all things crafty, look at this photo as big as you can to see the glimmer. You won't regret it.



Those Honeycomb embellishments are adorable, too are they not?  And they coordinate perfectly with the Sale A Bration stamp set, Honeycomb Happiness. If you love this stamp set, (and how could you not?), you can earn it for FREE during Sale A Bration with a $50 order.  Who doesn't love a free gift when they spend money?


Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

I really appreciate you choosing to shop at my online store!

A BIRTHDAY CARD

Hello and Happy October!

I thought I'd share an idea for a quick and cute card.  Hand making cards doesn't need to take a long time to get great results.  All you need are some scraps of patterned paper, some twine and a sentiment and boom...a card that your recipient will love!

I stepped it up a little by running the panel through my Big Shot with the Lucky Stars embossing folder from Stampin' Up!  I made this card for my son for his birthday so wanted to keep it a little more simple.  The Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  And I love that Smoky Slate thick twine! Here's a close-up:

Simple, but I love it.  My son thought it was pretty great too. :)

Your challenge:  Pull out your patterned paper scraps and make someone's birthday special!

Thanks for joining me at The Table today!

SAME DESIGN, STAMPIN' UP! STYLE

Hello!

I'm back with a second version of my Rustic/Chic card, this time using ALL Stampin' Up! supplies.  This time I used the Flower Patch stamp set.  I used the same ink colors and design as the card in my last post and I think it turned out so good, if I say so myself. ;)

And just because I like to practice with my Ollo Clip, here's a super close-up!

So don't think, just because you don't have the same stamp set as a card you fall in love with on the internet, you can't recreate the same feel with stamps you already have.  Just be brave and experiment and you will be so happy with the results!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

RUSTIC MEETS FEMININE

Hello!

As promised I'm back with a card share today.  My daughter's wedding theme was kind of Rustic Chic.  Her new husband is very much an outdoorsy guy.  The boutonnieres were empty shot gun shells filled with flowers, for crying out loud!  LOL.  My daughter on the other hand is very much a girl and is not so much the outdoorsy type.  They say opposites attract, right? ;)

Anyway, as I was thinking about her burlap and lace table runners, I was inspired to create a rustic chic card.

It took me awhile to warm up to the new In Color Tip Top Taupe but now I LOVE it!  I used that ink and the Hardwood background stamp for my Very Vanilla card base.  Then I ran that through the Big Shot with the Woodgrain embossing folder for added wood-like texture.

I'm hanging my head a little because the stamp set I used is not Stampin' Up! and that's a no-no for us demonstrators but it was close at hand so I just grabbed that (I was due to go out the door to another wedding so I was short on time. LOL).  I took a smaller Very Vanilla panel and just started stamping the flower images where I thought would look good.  At first I scared myself because I hated how the colors were coming together, but I told myself to keep going and I'm so glad I did!  It's the perfect mix of rustic and feminine.

The ink colors I used for the flowers were Delightful Dijon, Pool Party, Coastal Caribbean (retired), Watermelon Wonder, Crisp Cantaloupe (retired), Pear Pizzaz, Always Artichoke, Perfect Plum and Wisteria Wonder.  I tied everything together by stamping the flower centers in Delightful Dijon, another color I'm learning to love!

In the next few days I'm going to recreate this card using a Stampin' Up! flower stamp set and I'll be sure to share. :)

Stop by my website to purchase your own fabulous Stampin' Up! supplies!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

NO INK OR STAMPS?

Hello!

I don't do this often enough but I LOVE the look of stitching on paper crafted projects.  I've stitched on cards, home decor, and scrapbook layouts and the finished results make my heart go pitter-patter every time.

Today I decided to break out my Updated Essentials Paper Piercing Pack and make a sweet card.

Let me first give you a little tip when piercing on paper.  When you poke a needle into fabric, the threads are, of course, much more flexible than paper fibers so they kind of close back up around the hole which means you can't really see where the needle went through.  Paper, on the other hand, is not so forgiving.  When you break the fibers, they're broken and leave an obvious hole behind.  So the trick to hand stitching on paper is to use a finer needle.  You'll still see the hole, but it won't be as noticeable and if you are stitching words, they'll be able to read easier.

Apologies for this blurry photo.  I tried several times but couldn't get my camera to focus!  But I still think you can see well enough the differences in needle sizes.  The stitching on the left uses a larger needle while the stitching on the right uses a smaller one.  It's subtle but you can definitely see the difference.  The right side just looks smoother.

 Here's the completed card.  I used to think you couldn't pair white and vanilla on the same project but I just love the two together!  I've now used up another pack of my Tea Lace Paper Doilies and must buy another.  They've become a staple in my supply stash!

Here's a little close-up of the butterfly.  I layered some gorgeous Gold Glimmer Paper under the patterned butterfly to give it a little more texture and interest.  Pretty Petals DSP is what I used for the top layer.

And another angle.  The curly-cue stitch that I used as the butterfly trail is also found in the Updated Essentials stitching pack.  And you can't go wrong with the gold metallic thread!  I used a double thickness to make the stitching stand out a bit more.  Then I finished it off with a few small pearls.  Almost out of those too!

And there you go.  A beautiful card made without the use of stamps or ink this time.

You can order all of these supplies on my Stampin' Up! website. :)

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

JULY PAPER PUMPKIN PROJECTS

Hello!

Just a SUPER quick post today featuring the July Paper Pumpkin kit.

I do have to be honest, I wasn't super excited about this kit.  At first.  But once I started playing around with the two-step stamps and the fun papers and stickers, I quickly became enamored with it!

Did you notice the card in the center on the bottom?  That was my attempt at using this kit to make a Christmas card! LOL.  I kept hearing Holly Jolly Christmas when I saw the "a cup of cheer" stamp so I had to work it into a Christmas card. ;)

I don't have much time to go into detail about each card, other than to say, the top right card uses the edges of one of the envelopes as border accents.  You can always click on the photo to get a closer look!

Are you a Paper Pumpkin subscriber?  If not, you can sign up HERE and have the fun delivered right to your mailbox each month!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

WEDDING PREP

HELLO!

My daughter's big day is quickly approaching and I've been busy making thank you cards for the bridal showers people have been so kind to give her.  I think I've made close to 80 or so thank you cards!  I was going to make the 200+ for the reception itself but our photographer was able to get us a great deal and so I said go for it!  That'll free up some time for me to work on other decor.  Sometimes a maker needs to know when to be a buyer. ;)

When time is precious, and I have lots of other things to take care of, I like to turn to the variety of Stampin' Up! publications for beautiful and fun crafty ideas.

This card is a CASE from one such publication.  I think it was from the Occasions Catalog.  I just changed up the colors a tiny bit to match my daughter's wedding colors.  I just love this design!

I used a few retired products on this project so please excuse that, but you can most likely find them somewhere on the internet.

I used the Watercolor Thank you stamp, which I LOVE.  I'll be holding on to that even when it retires someday.  I also used the Naturals Ivory card stock.  I was so sad when that retired that I bought up a few packages just for my stash. A couple other retired items i used was the stamp set Your Perfect Day.  Again, so sad it didn't make it into the new catalog.  I just love it.  The last retired product I used was this Calypso Coral ribbon.  If I'm giving thank you cards as a gift, I like to package them up in a cute way.  

So really, the only current products in this project is the Watercolor Thank You stamp, Calypso Coral ink, Rich Razzleberry ink, Sahara Sand ink, and Old Olive ink.  But I think they made a really great finish project, don't you think?

Well, back to the craft room to continue working on wedding decor.  But check back soon for some July Paper Pumpkin projects!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

IT'S A PAPER PUMPKIN KIND OF DAY!

Hello!

It's actually a very HOT kind of day here in my corner of the world.  Temps over 100 degrees for the last few days make me want to eat all the ice cream!  I love summer but don't like it when it gets too hot.  It triggers my "personal summers" even more....or as I like to call them, "power surges". LOL.  But summer brings beautiful views like this, so I can't complain too much.

Summer also gives me an excuse to sit in my air-conditioned craft room and play with my Paper Pumpkin kits!  I held my June Paper Pumpkin Playdate last week and had a great turn out!  A few of my guests weren't really sure about Paper Pumpkin at first and I had work my magic to assure them they would love it if they subscribed, and guess what?  They do!  Even my die-hard "I don't want a kit, I want to create my card/project start to finish" subscribers love it!  If you want to have a box of fun delivered to your mailbox every month, just click this link: https://mypaperpumpkin.com?demoid=2060080.

Anyway, the projects at the bottom of the photo are the intended June PP projects and the cards on the display board are alternative ideas.  Thank goodness for Pinterest since I had to make all of these a couple of hours before my guests were to arrive!

And here are some close-ups.

I haven't used Tempting Turquoise in a LONG time...I'm so glad I pulled it out!

This card is a creation from my own little mind.  Do you see the gold glitter dots?  Those are the glue dots that were included in the kit.  I just placed them, pulled off the backing and doused them in glitter.  Such a fun and unique embellishment!

This was also from my brain. I had used up a lot of my pieces before my guests arrived so I was just playing around while they put their cards together and came up with this.  I think it turned out cute!

This one kind of looks like a tie, don't you think? Ha!

And then one more look at the intended June cards.  Love them!

 Well, there you have it.  Want an excuse to stay out of the heat?  Subscribe to Paper Pumpkin!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

LET'S TALK ABOUT KISSING FOR A MOMENT...

Hello!

Do you like to kiss?  Me too!  But the type of kissing I'm talking about doesn't require you to dig out your chapstick first. ;)

Kissing is a stamping technique that has been around a long time.  It's when you take an inked solid image stamp and "kiss" it to an uninked stamp with lots of detail.  Like this:

This solid image has been inked with Cucumber Crush ink.

Kissing it to the uninked Woodgrain background stamp.

This is the awesome result:

Another way to kiss is when you ink up the detail stamp and "kiss" an uninked solid image like this:

Uninked solid image with inked detail image.

The result is this fantastic effect:

Here are versions 1 and 2 of the kissing technique side by side.  You can see they are both very different and both VERY cool:

Kissing technique 1 (left) and 2 (right).

Next I pulled out the I Think You're Great stamp set from Stampin' Up!  This set was purposefully created to do the kissing technique.  I'm about to show you a third way to "kiss" your stamps so keep reading!

I used the solid cloud "hi" stamp and the fun, funky scallop detail stamp for the next few images.

I pulled out my Tempting Turquoise ink and did version 1 of the kissing technique.  This was the result.  Isn't that so fun?

Here's where the third kissing technique comes in.  Ink up your solid image in a light color and then ink up your detail stamp in a darker shade and kiss them together.

Both stamps are inked in different shades of blue.

The outcome of this third technique are the images at the bottom of the photo.  For the left one I used Tempting Turquoise and Island Indigo, for the image on the right, I used Soft Sky and Bermuda Bay.  I love how this turned out!  You can see I experimented a bit.  I was having a lot of fun!  The image at the top right, is a little hard to read so if your solid stamp has text or writing in it, you might want to forgo trying the second kissing technique.  I'm going to keep this image though and layer it underneath something else because I still love how it looks.

Here's the card I made with my "kissed" cloud.  The Daffodil Delight image is also included in that stamp set.  So pretty!  I finished off my card with some white Baker's Twine, a piece of doily that I inked with Watermelon Wonder ink and added some Temping Turquoise candy dots.

So go ahead, put that chapstick away and try this fun kissing technique!  You can purchase all these products HERE.

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Mint Macaron Sympathy

Hello!

I made a little time this week to play with some new in-color product.  Our neighbors' daughter just passed away and I wanted to make them a card
to tell them we're thinking about them in this very difficult time.  She has been suffering for many years so I'm sure this is a bittersweet time for them.

I thought Mint Macaron was the perfect color to convey a heartfelt greeting.  I can tell this is going to be my favorite in-color.

I combined a few techniques on this card plus an older stamp set that, I'm ashamed to admit, I have hardly used!  I bought this Thoughts and Prayers stamp set when it was first introduced and have only pulled it out a time or two.  But combining it with the Mint Macaron has made me see it with new eyes.  I know I'll be pulling it out a lot more this year.

So first off, I decided to alter the Honeycomb embossing folder.  I ran a piece of card stock through and then lined it up with my stamped image.  Then I took a pencil and drew a light pencil line where I thought I'd want to cut it apart.

Please, please forgive these next couple of photos! It was gray and rainy outside and it made the Mint Macaron card stock not look very good no matter what I tried.  I PROMISE, this color is AMAZING in person!

Then I put some Tombow on the back to make sure it stayed put on my stamped piece.

I couldn't leave out my GORGEOUS Mint Macaron Dotted Lace Trim.  You guys!  That lace trim is just so luxurious feeling!

I adhered the lace with my Fast Fuse (another product I'm just now pulling out!  What's wrong with me! LOL), then adhered that whole panel with dimensionals to the card front.

You can see I made a boo-boo stamping the vine image the first time.  Luckily, there are always two sides to a piece of card stock!

Once it was put together, I felt like it needed one last touch.  I showed it to my daughter and she and I talked about maybe adding more color, but that didn't feel right. So I pulled out my Antique Brads and did one last technique.  I embossed it with white embossing powder.  This is a technique I learned from one of my favorite demonstrators when I was in her Stamp Club years ago.

This was just the added touch I was looking for!

The Mint Macaron card stock and ribbon will be available for purchase starting on June 2!

I don't like making sympathy cards because that means someone is going through a heart breaking time, but hopefully this pretty card will convey our feelings of love and prayers for them and their family.

Thank you for joining me at the Table today!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog