So Many Stars Blog Hop

So I've decided--this is my favourite card from my recent Holiday Card Buffet!!  I love the super traditional stars paired with the non-traditional colours.  And that hammered metal embossing folder?? Swoon.

This simple card packs a lot of punch, but can be replicated quickly and easily to mass produce for all your friends and family this year.

I used a combination of Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay inks for my star collage and paired that with a Basic Grey sentiment wishing "peace" this holiday season.

I layered the stamped panel with dimensionals onto the embossed panel, which I had adhered to my thick whisper white card base.  The thick cardstock really makes this card feel substantial.  I also used some retired matching ribbon, which is the best part of Stampin' Up!--complete coordination!

Have you started on your holiday to-do list yet?  It's coming up quick!  I still have several events and classes-to-go available if you need some inspiration. :)

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep hopping to see what everyone made this month too!

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

Simple Perfectly Plaid Card

One of the things I love best about making my own cards is that I can tailor the final product to the person it's intended for, or to suit my mood.  Usually I enjoy making more elaborate cards, with multiple colours, stamp sets, dies, punches, fancy folds--you name it!  But I've been challenging myself to design simpler cards this fall, creating my Classes-To-Go (which use just one ink colour and stamp set), and some Stamp-A-Stack classes as well.

This is one of three cards designs in my Stamp-A-Stack 2 class, created specifically to help create 12 cards in just 2 hours!

I love the simplicity of this card, and the oh-so-traditional look of the green plaid with just a touch of metallic gold.

I stamped my tree in black memento ink and then added Pear Pizzazz leaves and Real Red "lights", and popped him up on a square of Wrapped in Plaid DSP, which was mounted on a slightly larger square of Pear Pizzazz cardstock.  

The "Happy Holidays" sentiment is one of 18--that's right, 18!!--phrases included in the Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set.

The inside message is one of the sentiments included in the Perfectly Plaid stamp set and sends just the right message to your loved one at Christmas.

I hope you will attend one of my holiday events this Fall!  Check out all the details on my "Holiday Events" page (tabbed across the bar at the top).

Follow along on our hop to see what the other members of the Stamping Symphony team created for you this month:

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

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)

Check You Out: Back to School Card (Blog Hop)

Summer is almost over and I have a split reviews about school starting again at my house:  two kids who are putting on the brakes, and one who can't wait to get started!  Of course, she is extra excited this year to be starting a new (middle) school, without any siblings in attendance, so that may be helping fuel the excitement.  ;)

Our blog theme this month was "fall", and for me the first sign of fall is back to school stuff!  I am a bit of an office-supply aficionado (if I do say so myself), and we all enjoy getting fresh supplies to start the year off right.

As always, the products I use are available for purchase in my online store here.

As I mentioned, my daughter is off to a new school this year, so I decided to design a card for her first day.

This super cute little set includes a lot of fun images for the book/school lover in your life, and comes with some great sentiments too.  How perfect is 'starting a new chapter' for this card?!  But it could so easily be used for someone retiring or having a baby or switching jobs or getting married...I love sets that do that!  Ohhh....just had a thought:  how about mirror-imaging two owls so they face each other and making a wedding card?!?!?  That might be next on my craft table...

But back to this card!  Even though my daughter is well past the primary school stage I felt strong, bright colours were the best to evoke a back-to-school feeling, so I chose Blueberry Bushel, Real Red, Granny Apple Green and Pineapple Punch for my colour scheme.

I stamped and fussy cut the owl in Crumb Cake and the library pocket in Soft Suede, and stamped my sentiment in Early Espresso.

This is the first time I have used the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder, and it was perfect to provide texture for my front mat....while looking A LOT like a brick school!  I will definitely be using this folder lots for Christmas cards too; wouldn't Santa and some presents look great with that brick?

I layered everything together for my focal  point and then added some (retired) gold thread behind it all.  Silver and Rose thread is still available on my website, and I LOVE this stuff!

On the inside of my card I stamped another Crumb Cake owl and paired it with the "woo-hoo" sentiment from the Time for Tags stamp set--how perfect is that combination?!  I love that Stampin' Up!'s product line often cross-over, allowing for more versatility and fun.

I'd love for you to comment below, so please consider dropping me a note before you hop along to see what my fellow crafters created this month!  Want what you see?  Everything is available in my webstore, just click on the shopping bags image to see all this and more!

And here are the links to hop over:

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

Hofkissed (Stephanie)

Above the Clouds (Stamping Symphony Blog Hop)

It's time for another Stamping Symphony Blog Hop!  Thanks for hopping along with us. :)

This month we are featuring our favourite item from the new catalogue and I have to say...it was an incredibly tough choice!  I'm still not sure this is my very favourite yet, as I love a lot of the new items, but this one is definitely high on the list (no pun intended).

This is one of the images from the Above the Clouds stamp set, which I stamped in Memento ink and then punched with the coordinating Hot Air Balloon Punch. I coloured my rainbow balloon with the Blends markers and I love how I was able to get the shading so easily with these markers.  They make me feel like an artist every time!

I die cut a stitched rectangle out of Whisper White paper and sponged the edges in Pool Party to give a soft sky look to my background.  I really wanted the coloured balloon to pop so I kept everything else very minimal on my card front.

I added some Smoky Slate clouds to the background piece and then mounted it onto a Thick Whisper White card base.  I added the balloon, basket, and trail of flags (also coloured in rainbow order) using Dimensionals, and they really look like they are going to float right off the page.

I finished the card by stamping "Let your dreams soar" in the bottom left corner in Basic Gray.  Inside I added another line of coloured flags and a sentiment.

This would be a great graduation card, or even a farewell card for someone heading off on their next adventure.

Please leave me a comment below before you hop on to see what everyone else created for you this month.  I truly appreciate your time!

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

Hofkissed (Stephanie)

Thanks for hopping by!

Barb

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

Colour Challenge (TGIFC215)

Hi all, I'm participating in my first ever TGIF colour challenge this week!  I enjoy having my creativity stretched to new places, and I'm hoping this will continue to help me expand my horizons.  :)

This week's challenge was to create a project using Granny Apple Green, Night of Navy, and Pool Party.  I decided to use some bright green DSP as my background, and added some blue elephants in the coordinating colours, for this baby card.  Who says baby stuff has to be pastel?!

I think this is so fun!  Both elephants come from the Little Elephant stamp set and were punched with the coordinating Elephant Builder punch.  The sentiment is from the some set but is meant to be stacked on top of each other in more of a square shape.  A quick snip with the scissors and I made one stamp into two, allowing me to place them side-by-side instead, and ink them in two different colours.

The little corner cutaway was made with a circle die--they are a great tool to have on hand because they come in a variety of sizes, so you always have the perfect one on hand!  I also used the stitched scallop border die from the Stitched Be Mine dies to make that pretty edging on the polka dot panel.

The scalloped rectangle is popped off the card base with dimensionals, and the elephants are popped up too, lending great dimension to this card.

I finished it off with a white twine bow and some candy dots in Pool Party.

Thanks for checking out my first TGIF post--here's to many more to come!