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Monday 31 July 2017

Wishing you well

This week's card was a custom order for my dear friend and neighbor, D.  She has a co-worker who is retiring to a lovely plot of land in another province and wanted to wish her well in her new adventure.   I recently purchased a retired bundle from my upline and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to play with it!



I tried to create what I pictured as the new homestead--water for fishing, lots of trees--as well as the expected joy of waking up to beautiful mornings in retirement!  It's what we all dream about it, isn't it?

I started with a little Soft Sky for the base, a few different shades of green for the forest to give it some dimension, and a beautiful yellow sunrise to top it all off.  I clear embossed the lake so that in real life it is shiny, and coloured a little red house for the bottom corner.  Unfortunately I didn't have any fishes that were small enough to "swim" in the lake, so I saved them for the interior of the card, along with a wish for a happy retirement.

I had a lot of fun creating this card and using some of my retired (and thus not often used) stamps and dies.  It was like getting new stuff!

Stayed tuned for info on my August card class, which will be taking place on August 18.  I am featuring watercolouring techniques, since I am IN LOVE with that look.  It is so forgiving!  No such thing as a mistake with this colouring technique :).

I am looking forward to some extra crafting time this coming weekend as we celebrate another long weekend here in Ontario.  I'd love to hear what plans you have!

Barb
@justBstamping




Sunday 23 July 2017

Anniversary Wishes

I had a few unexpected vacation days last week, which was a very pleasant surprise.  I usually don't take my holidays until the last week of August, so it was a special treat to get a few days this early in the season.  Even better, because of the last-minute nature, I didn't have time to stress about what to do with the kids!  We ended up treating them to a whirlwind 24 hours at a waterpark hotel in Niagara Falls, and it was a blast.  I spent my time relaxing pool-side and designing future cards--I have a lot in the queue!  On to this week's card....

My parents do not like to be the centre of attention, but they celebrated their 48th Anniversary this week, and you can't just let that go by unrecognized!  Forty-eight years, five successful kids (I have to say that, I think they all read this blog!), and eleven grandkids is a legacy they should be proud of.  They are an incredible example of how to make it work. 

In keeping with their preference for short and sweet when it comes to sentimentality, I made a simple card to help celebrate their day.


(you may have noticed that the photo is terrible again....I took this picture before I finished my DIY photo box, and I can't believe the difference.  I did, however, figure out how to watermark my photos, so bit-by-bit I'm getting there!  Hopefully by next week I'll have all the pieces put together into one fantastic photo!).

This card was very easy to make using the Celebration Time bundle.  Isn't the bow on the top of that cake so pretty?!  I love the really intricate dies that Stampin' Up has been putting out, they are so detailed.  I heat embossed the "icing" in copper powder on Powder Pink cardstock and mounted the cake on a Very Vanilla stitched oval, accented with copper thread.  I anchored the cake piece to my card with a strip of Sweet Sugarplum cardstock topped with some Burlap Ribbon.  The Very Vanilla card base is double-mounted with Powder Pink and Crumb Cake layers, and I dry embossed the Crumb layer with the Softly Falling folder (it's not just for snow!).

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Love,
Barb



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Monday 17 July 2017

A Pocketful of Birthday Wishes

Hello Everyone! 

My card this week is in celebration of my Dad's birthday; he turned 74 over the weekend.  Brief background:  my Dad has been a life long farmer (dairy and beef), and when I say life-long, I mean LIFE-LONG!  He farms the land my great-grandparents started and tells incredible stories about helping out his Dad from the time he was able to lift a bale of hay.  Seventy-something and still going strong!

So if masculine cards are tough, farmer cards are even harder!!  I was thrilled when I saw the new Pocketful of Sunshine stamp set and coordinating Pocket Framelit Dies in the new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue.  My dad spends most of his time in denim, so I knew this would help me make the perfect card to celebrate his birthday.



I stamped the pocket on Dapper Denim (can't get much more authentic than that!), and added a balloon bouquet with the Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set (don't tell my Dad the set has such a girly name!).  The best part is that this set coordinates with the Balloon Builder Punch--so no fussy cutting for me!  I added some shine and texture by heat embossing silver decorations on the balloons, and tied them to the pocket using silver metallic thread.  The pocket is popped up with dimensionals, and somewhere in my head is an idea percolating on how to make this into a gift card holder.  I'll let you know if I'm successful, as I think that would make a great teenager card (they are almost as hard as farmers to craft for!).

But back to this card!  I created my own background using the smaller stamps from the stamp set, stamping tone-on-tone on Smoky Slate cardstock, and matted everything to a Basic Grey card base.  I added a little pop of colour with the sentiment, stamping it on So Saffron, as it reminded me of the yellow thread some denim makers use when sewing jeans.  I also added two small "grommets" on the pocket, which I think just help make the pocket look that much more authentic!

I'm happy with the final result and I think my Dad was too.

Thanks for checking out my post,

Barb
@justBstamping


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Saturday 15 July 2017

Christmas in July Card Class

I think I am ready for my first card class!  If you are interested in make some Christmas cards, I'd love for you to join me!  I'll be making three cards and three gift tags, and I'd love some company. :)
 
 

Wednesday 12 July 2017

Christmas in July?

I love Christmas--the lovely decorations, the secret shopping trips, the look of surprise and delight on the kids faces...it's all good with me.  BUT--it's July.  Summer has just officially begun.  Am I really ready to jump on the Christmas band wagon six months out?  Ten years ago I would have said no.  Plenty of time for Christmas prep in November.  But now?  It was November five minutes ago, wasn't it?  The days are just speeding by, and last Christmas I realized that my enjoyment of the holidays was being hampered by my to-do list.  That's not okay with me.  So when my fabulous up-line suggested that our theme for our team swap this month was going to be Christmas in July, it only took me a few minutes to realize this was a great opporunity for me.  I don't want anything about my holiday traditions to just be "crossing it off the list", and this would be a great chance to get my Christmas cards ready well in advance of needing them (since it seems to take me FOREVER to get them addressed and in the mail come December!). 

So I sat down this weekend determined to make Christmas cards with some of the holdover Christmas sets from last year's holiday catalogue.  And hit a brick wall. I am a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas--wood, burlap, I love it all.  But I just couldn't get red and green, fireplaces and stockings, to feel "right" while I have a sunburn! 

Then inspiration struck, and I went with a Christmas in Candyland theme.



I used the stitched circle thinlits to cut out three varying sizes of circles in Pool Party, Powder Pink, and Lemon Lime--most definitely NOT traditional Christmas colours, but I think they look lovely as a holiday vignette.  I used two stamps from the new Merry Mistletoe stamp set to add some interest to the circles, stamping the tree in Powder Pink on the pink circle, and the beautiful holly stamp at the top of the lemon lime circle.  I also clear embossed the Striped Background stamp on the pool party circle, and I love the shine it adds to the card.  The sentiment also comes from the Merry Mistletoe set and is heat embossed in gold.

I embossed a rectangle of Very Vanilla cardstock with the new Ruffle embossing folder for some subtle texture, and then gilded the edges with versamark and gold embossing powder.  The die cut stocking is one of the holdover sets from last year (Christmas Stocking Thinlits) and pairs with the Hang Your Stocking stamp set.  I backed the stocking with vanilla card and popped it up with dimensionals, then added some looped gold metallic thread behind.

I am really happy with how it turned out!  I think it has lots of interest, texture and shine, and yet was simple enough to make multiple copies (I needed 7 to share with my team).

Bonus:
After I got the pastels out of my system I was able to go back and finish the traditional red-and-green card I was struggling with at the start!

 
This will be part of my Christmas in July class next Friday, so please contact me if you're interested in saving a seat!

Until next time, I'll justBstamping!

Barb

Monday 3 July 2017

Happy Canada Day!

Proud Member of the "Eh" Team!

My goodness, where does the time go?!  How can it possibly be almost 2 years since my original blog post?  I wish I could say that I have been busy doing incredibly exciting things, but the reality is I've just been caught up in the regular ol' day-to-day.  No more!  I have set some goals for the next 12 months and plan to get over my fear of technology and really get this blog hopping!

Stampin' Up's new annual catalogue was released last month, and I have finally gotten my fingers inky with some of the new products.  So many great things available, I had a hard time figuring out what to get first!  When push came to shove it I couldn't resist the new "Seasons of Change" bundle.  It has stamps and matching dies to last the whole year long!  I'll be making more projects with this bundle in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I had to use that gorgeous maple leaf to celebrate my country's 150th birthday!

I was a bit of a history geek in high school (still am, truth be told!), and can't let this momentous occasion pass without referencing some of the highlights of this great country!  We are celebrating our sesquicentennial (thank you spell check!) birthday, which is a very upper crust way of saying we are 150 years old.  As countries go, that's pretty young!  Canada was once known as " British North America", but 1867's Confederation saw us establish our own country.  Our red and white flag with the symbolic maple leaf identify Canada around the world.  We wear it proudly everywhere we travel.

As cultural stereotypes go, I'm okay with being known as a polite, laid back, line-loving, "eh" using Canadian!  And I tapped into some of those symbols when creating today's card.



I started with a Real Red card base, and used the Labeler Alphabet stamp set to create my custom EH? sentiment, which I clear embossed randomly over the card base.  The Labeler set is so versatile, with both block letters and a clear background, and I actually used both types on this card.  I then used my versamark ink pad to make a gold embossed background on some Whisper White cardstock with the Diagonal Stripe stamp set.  It's so shiny!

My favourite thing these days are stitched die cuts--I love how homey they look, and they add just a bit of an upgraded look to a plain circle or square.  I used two circles from the Stitched Shapes framelit set, one in Real Red and one in Whisper White.  I also used part of a square from the same set, but I manipulated it so that I just got a stitched line down the edge of the white rectangle I used for my sentiment.  So cool! 

The real highlight of this card is that gorgeous gold foil intricate maple leaf die cut.  The Colorful Seasons stamp set and coordinating thinlit set is full of detailed, fun images that can be used throughout the year.  I stamped the small red maple leaf image onto white cardstock, and then used the matching die to make it a 3D piece, which I adhered to the card with dimensionals.  A little red floss wrapped around the sentiment tied everything together.

I think this card is a fun way to celebrate being Canadian!

Until next time, I'll justBstamping!