Stampin' Friends All About Flowers Blog Hop

The new Hues of Happiness DSP from Stampin' Up! was the perfect choice to showcase for this month's Stampin' Friends All About Flowers Blog Hop.  These gorgeous blooms have a coordinating stamp and die set, but are so much fun to fussy cut that you can make so many beautiful projects with just the paper!

Creation Station Inspired By Our Favourites Blog Hop

Sometimes inspiration is nowhere (we've all been there, right?!)...and sometimes you find creative inspiration in many of the things you love.  That is the theme for our Creation Station Blog Hop this month--projects inspired by our favourite movies, novels, food...you get the idea!

My card is inspired by one of my favourite flowers, peonies.  I love, love, love the soft pink buds that transform into dramatic ruffled blooms and come back year after year.  I'm sad that the Prized Peony stamp set is about to retire :(  but I'm glad I had a reason to play one last time with these gorgeous distinctive stamps.

Ombre Watercolour Sympathy (TGIF Challenge)

The TGIF weekly challenge #TGIFC314 was to case the Designer with an Oh My Ombre theme this week.  I decided to have one more go-round with the black and white True Love Designer Series Paper and watercolouring.

True Love (Blog Hop)

This month we are saying goodbye to so many amazing retiring products, including some of my favourites.  :(  I'm excited about all the new offerings that will be available next month, but am having one last round with each before these items retire forever.  So our blog hop theme this month, retiring products, worked perfectly into my plans!

The True Love DSP is a classic--beautiful florals in black and white, customizable to every project or amazing left as is.   For my card I chose a bit of both, keeping some of the paper uncoloured, and creating a raised coloured central focal point too.

Sweet & Simple Sympathy

 No one enjoys making sympathy cards but I think they should still be beautiful, and the Heal Your Heart stamp set makes it easy to create pretty, simple cards of condolence.

For my card this week I paired the "sorry for your loss" handwritten sentiment with some lightly stamped daisies and a layered, textured background.

To create my background I started with white cardstock panel cut to 3.75" x 5.5" and lightly sponged So Saffron ink over a stencil in the bottom left corner only.  With the sponging you get a fade-away look  as you move outward, for a natural ombre effect.  I then ran the panel through my embossing machine with the Tasteful Texture 3D embossing folder, which gives it just the right amount of texture.  I mounted the embossed panel on a So Saffron card base and rounded the bottom right corner for some added interest.

I saw this great, soft effect for the daisy on Instagram and instantly loved it.  You achieve the look by lightly colouring the stamp with markers!  I just flicked my Gray Granite marker from the inside out, and coloured the centre with So Saffron.

I heat embossed that beautiful sentiment in white on a strip of Gray Granite paper that stretched across the front of my card, and anchored it with my coloured daisies (two layered on top of each other).

I repeated the front of my card on the inside, but flipped the image to the bottom right corner and skipped the embossing folder, so there was a smooth surface for writing a message.  Many months ago I received the sentiment stamp I used inside in a Paper Pumpkin kit, and it remains my go-to sentiment for sympathy cards, because it really says it all:  "the loss is immeasurable, but to is the love left behind."

All this week I will be showcasing this great, free stamp set.  There is a great variety of sentiments included in the set, and I love the mix of handwritten fonts.  I also used some fun techniques and folds this week, so be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook to see everything.

Have a great week,

Barb

Stampin' Up! Falling Flowers (Stamping Symphony Blog Hop)

Hi Everyone, and welcome to another Stamping Symphony blog hop!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Our theme this month was to use a retiring set, and I paired that with my theme for my technique class at the end of the month (vellum) to create this project:

There is just something about the combination of soft pink (this time Powder Pink, a retiring In Colour) and pale green (Soft Sea Foam) that makes my senses sing!

I embossed a panel of vellum with the Tin Tile folder (thankfully NOT retiring!) and adhered it to my base.  I added some pretty white and pink flowers from the Falling Flowers stamp set (cut with matching dies) and a sentiment in green, with "sympathy" die cut from the matching cardstock.

I really like the mix of colours and die cuts.

I stamped a few more flowers on the inside of my card, and an incredible sentiment from a Paper Pumpkin kit that reads:  "The loss is immeasurable but so is the love left behind."  It doesn't get more truthful than that, does it?  I often forget about my paper pumpkin sets but I am trying a new storage system for them with the idea that seeing is using....I'll share it with you down the road if it works out as well as I hope it does.  :)

Here's one more look before I point you to the others hopping along today: 

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)
Hofkissed (Stephanie)

Want to play with vellum too?  Join my class on May 30 to make this card and two others highlighting vellum and all its uses!  RSVP here to save your seat.  

Barb

Stampin' Up! Sheltering Tree Farewell

The retiring list is out and for the month of May I am going to focus on spending some final quality time with my favourites while I can.

The Sheltering Tree stamp set is one I have used a LOT, and I'll be sad to see it retire at the end of the month (although I have seen the new catalogue and trust me, there are TONS of great sets I can't wait to get my hands on!).   I love that it can be any season, and really any colour that I want.  This time around I used Petal Pink and Calypso Coral to evoke some spring buds--because if I can't see them in real life at least I can create some on my own!

I stamped my tree in Soft Suede ink (my ink pad was pretty dry, so if yours isn't you should stamp off once to get the same softer colour I achieved) and then stamped the leaves three times:  once in Petal Pink; once in Calypso Coral; and once in Soft Sea Foam, rotating the stamp each time to get a tree full of leaves.

One of the best parts of this set is that the leaves are a separate stamp from the base of the tree, so I don't have to use markers to get the different colours on one stamp.  So much faster to just tap-tap-tap and go!

I used a mask and sponge daubers to create my cloudy sky with Pool Party ink, stopping the clouds about halfway down but lightly sponging the ink all the way to the grass line.

I used Pear Pizzazz ink and the two grass stamps included in the set to ground my tree, and then sponged ink overtop there as well to fill it in.

I layered my front panel on a strip of Petal Pink cardstock about 1/2" wider than the panel, so that there is a thin border of pink all the way down each side.  Then I mounted the whole thing on a piece of wood DSP.

The Wood Textures DSP will also be retiring at the end of the month (or while supplies last) and I have definitely stocked up!  I love the way it adds texture without adding thickness to a project.

I used Pear Pizzazz to stamp the "thinking of you" sentiment from the set on a Sea Foam banner.  It's popped up on dimensionals and anchored to the card front with a burlap twine bow on the left-hand side.

All of the retiring products are while supplies last, so don't wait if you are considering adding this set or paper to your craft room!  You can purchase all of these products and more in my store here.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment below with your favourite season and you could win a prize!

Barb