Not A Christmas Blog Hop

Our challenge for this month's blog hop was to showcase how a Christmas stamp set could be used year-round--getting more mileage out of stamps!

I chose to use the Coming Home Bundle for my interactive Pull Tab card, which I created to celebrate a new driver earning their license.  :)  The design would also work as a retirement card, or a new house....really any occasion for moving on.

Here is my non-Christmas card:

The pull tab opens to reveal a hidden sentiment:

And as a reminder of the intended use, here is the same set on a Christmas card:

I love the coordinating dies because they also come with the horizon pieces, one with trees and one a plain hill.  They are great for adding depth and dimension.

But back to my non-Christmas version!

I started by cutting out my sentiment space with a stitched rectangle die on a Basic Grey panel.  I added a forest background from the coordinating DSP (which just happens to be on sale this month AND the dies cut out the printed images!!).

I inked around the edges of my panel with Basic Grey ink and popped it onto a card base where I had heat embossed "congratulations" in white to line up with the pull out opening.

I coloured a neighborhood of houses with my blends in Soft Sea Foam, Crumb Cake, and Calypso Coral.  My little VW bug is coloured with Burmuda Bay.  I added some accents with a white gel pen.

Because my 16-year-old has not decided to try for his license yet I decided to keep the inside blank for now....maybe someone will move first!

And here is one more look at the completed card:

Thanks for hopping by today, here are the links to see the other projects:

LollyandSand (Sandy)

SimpLeigh Stamping (Leigh)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

LaurelDavisCrafted.Blogspot.com (Laurel)

Snowman Season (Holiday Blog Hop)

Hi Everyone, welcome to another Stamping Symphony Blog Hop!  I'm so glad you came by.  :)

Our theme this month was anything from the new Holiday Catalogue--talk about a tough decision!  This catalogue is 63 pages of awesome!!!  I have been playing with tons of new products designing my holiday classes and card buffets; it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. :)  :)  I finally decided to share this card featuring the Snowman Season stamp set and First Frost DSP with you today:

Isn't he the cutest?  And he can be elegant, like in this card, or totally fun with bright colours too--gotta love the versatility!

I started with a thick white cardstock base and added a 2" strip of the First Frost DSP to the left side.  This paper is so beautiful you don't even need to add anything but a sentiment to it to have a blow-your-mind-pretty-card.  I selected a snowy branch scene but there are oodles of great choices in many colours to choose from.

I stamped my joyful snowman in Memento Black ink and coloured very lightly with my Pool Party and Highland Heather blends.  I love the look of not colouring him in completely, but just giving a touch of colour, which adds to the more sophisticated look.  Colouring is not just for kids!

No raindrops falling on this snowman's head!  Instead I stamped a few snowflakes in Highland Heather.  The "Happy Holidays" sentiment is from the new Itty Bitty Christmas set, which is chockful of all kinds of greetings and sentiments for the season.

I cut my snowman out with a stitched square and matted him on a scalloped circle of Seaside Spray, which perfectly matches the DSP (thank you Stampin' Up! for making that so easy!), and keeps my colour palette frosty.  I popped that whole piece up on dimensionals.

Like always, I had to stamp the inside of my card too!  The "Thinking of You" sentiment is also from the Itty Bitty Christmas set; I stamped it with black ink and then added some more purple snowflakes for that festive feel.

Are you a traditional red & green Christmas fan, or do you like to mix it up with some non-traditional colours too?

Thanks for stopping by today, keep hopping to the sites below to see more of our holiday favourites:

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

Hofkissed (Stephanie)

Garden Lane Zig Zag Mini Album

I am still exploring my new goodies from the new catalogue and it is so much fun! Everything is available to purchase now in my online store.  All that new DSP in particular is so pretty, it's a challenge to play with just one at a time.  For my project this week I was looking for something that would really showcase the beautiful Garden Lane paper, and I found just the thing:  a mini album!

This mini album is the perfect size for the wallet-sized school pictures you get every year.  And because it is such a neutral background it will help those photos stand out!  This album is a fun zig-zig shape, which means you can say goodbye to all of those tough binding options you've seen in other albums, and get all the real estate you need with ease.

I followed this great tutorial by Kay, and I think the design is so cool.  And it would be easy to make this in bigger dimensions to fit other sized photos as well.  Basically you score alternating ends of the pages so they "flip" easily, and then glue them all together and decorate.  Super simple!  And I ended up with six double-sided pages to display my photos, in one sturdy little book.

As I mentioned, I used all of the Garden Lane DSP options to decorate my mini book.  The dimensions worked well to get the little strips of DSP for the "binding' pieces and one "page" background from one 5.25 x 4.0 piece of DSP.  Waste not, want not!

I added a couple little pockets to the album as well (as seen in the tutorial) and tucked in a few little tags for journaling.

For the cover I used the beautiful Stitched Nested Labels and the largest image from the Free as a Bird stamp set, coloured with Blends.  I love that this paper looks great with a variety of the new stamp sets, allowing for more diversity in my projects.

Here's a closer look:

The album is closed with the White Linen Ribbon in the Magnolia Lane combo pack--I can tell that this will be a favourite too.  :)

I am thinking about offering this as an event this summer--let me know if you would be interested in creating your own mini album!

Have a good week,
Barb

First sneak peek of Over the Moon

You know how that old saying goes....you can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl?  Or something like that.  :)  The new Over the Moon stamp set sure appealed to my farm roots and I just had to have it.  Holstein cows, here we come!

I just received this set on Thursday and I have already made....6 cards with it!  Those sweet cows are so much fun to colour ( I even made some Jersey cows, but don't tell my dad) :)

I'd like to say that this one is my favourite so far, but honestly, I LOVE them all.  I'll have all my cards on display at my Open House and BOGO Free sale on June 22, so you can stop by and pick your favourite.  I see a class in my future!

I chose to highlight this particular card because it was SUPER simple to create but I think it has a ton of impact because of the colour scheme.  You can't go wrong with black, white and red for a cow card. 

I created my own background with white embossing powder on Basic Black cardstock and I think those cows really pop!  I added a strip of Cherry Cobbler and some matching ribbon--aren't those little x's too sweet?  This ribbon retires May 31 but there is still some in stock, get yours now!

I used my Blends to colour the cow image--if you haven't tried them out yet, you need to come to my classes!  They are so easy to use and you can get great shadowing with just 2 markers and a little practice.  Easy-peesy.  Even easier--cutting her out with the stitched circles dies.

I decided to leave the card front sentiment-free, but inside I stamped "You're udderly fantastic" in Cherry Cobbler, with another cow peeking in from the bottom corner.  Because who doesn't love a cow pun?!

It literally took 10 minutes to make this card, but I just love it.  Rest assured some of my other samples are....let's just say, more complicated.  You have to have a herd on at least one card.  Maybe watch for a sneak peek of that one on Thursday. ;)

Hope you are having a great week!

Barb

You Are Legendary!

What do unicorns call their father?  Pop-corn!

There's nothing like starting your week with a little punny goodness. And it helps introduce my card this week, featuring the oh-so-cute unicorn from the Magical Day stamp set.  This image is super sweet all on its own, but paired with a sponged "rainbow" and the new Glitter Embossing Paste, it's....legendary. :)

Isn't this a sweet idea?!  I cased a pin from Pinterest and am so pleased with the Stampin' Up! version.  I coloured my unicorn pink with a flowing rainbow mane using my Stampin' Blends.  They are so much fun to play with!  And did you notice I gave the rainbow treatment to the uni-corn too?  Here is a closer look:

From this closeup you can also see a little of my sponged background.  It was a multi-step process:  first I used daubers to sponge some Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry and Pool Party ink onto a Whisper White background, and then embossed it with the Softly Falling TIEF.  Finally, I used the cloud mask from the Party Pattern Decorative Masks along with the new Shimmery White Embossing Paste to make my clouds sparkle.  I'll be honest, I did a little happy dance when I removed the mask and saw how pretty the clouds were.  You get it, I know you do!

I mounted my background on a piece of Pink Powder, and heat embossed my sentiment in silver on a strip of vellum, which I wrapped around the whole thing. Then I glued the whole shebang to my Tranquil Tide card base.  I used the coordinating thinlit dies to cut around my unicorn, and then mounted it on some dimensionals to the vellum strip.

Because I had done soooo much to the front of my card, I kept the inside quite simple.

Wouldn't this be a sweet card for the little girl in your life?  Or her friends?  Or your friends?  :)  We all deserve a little magic on our birthday, right?!

Interested in a creative escape of your own?  Join me in my craft room and we'll take some legendary me-time together!  Email me to make arrangements.

Have a fantastic week!
Barb


Product List

Shimmery White Embossing Paste

[145645]

Magical Day Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[145857]

Pink Pirouette Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

[144592]

Pink Pirouette Light Stampin' Blends Marker

[144593]

Softly Falling Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

[139672]

Pattern Party Decorative Masks

[144103]

Vellum 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[101856]

Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109131]

Powder Pink 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[144244]

Tranquil Tide 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[144246]

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

Magical Mates Framelits Dies

[145660]