You Overwhelm Me with Your Awesomeness!

Happy Monday!  You overwhelm me with your awesomeness today!  Really!  Go look in the mirror! Are you not the very picture of incredibleness?  You can handle whatever you encounter today!  I can tell by just looking at you!  Go take on the world!

I needed to give and receive a little pep talk today.  It has been a discouraging week in my corner of the world, but I believe we should be doing more to build each other up, instead of trying to drag everyone down to our level of misery. So I decided to create something a bit up-lifting while using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

 and the colour palette from Pals Paper Arts:

And here is what resulted from that happy marriage:

• I love those three colours, Hello Honey, Crumb Cake and Blackberry Bliss together!  It's such a sophisticated look, with a little splash of fun as well.
• I used the Blackberry Bliss Honeycomb design from the Moonlight DSP stacks, as well as the polka dotted Crumb Cake pattern from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stacks for the background panels.
• I love how the Venetian Crochet Trim on the Crumb Cake panel takes it up a notch or two!  It softens the graphic design of the Flower Patch stamp set images.
• And how about that Flower Patch Photopolymer Stamp set.  It is so much fun to use with the  overlay images that are so easy to position in just the right spot.  Make sure, on the larger solid stamps that they are free of dust and grease so that you get a solid image.  In my case, it took a second attempt to get a good solid image, mostly due to dust specks on the stamp. Try stamping your image with your cardstock on a Stampin' Pierce Mat for better coverage as well.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

Flower Patch Photopolymer Stamp Set [134207]	Moonlight Designer Series Paper [133701]	Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack [130132]	Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133675]	Hello Honey 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133678]
Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [100730]	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad [133642]	Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad [133643]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Venetian Crochet Trim [134581]
Envelope Punch Board [133774]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Yay! Finally a Sneak Peek for As You See It Challenges!

My hubby came up to the Fort to fetch me home after a couple more days visiting and guess what he brought up with him?  Yes!! My box of new products from the new Annual Catalogue! And the first thing I did was make a card for As You See It Challenge #37, lots of sneak peeks just for you!

Here's the great sketch created by Amanda:

And here are the new products, showcased:

• First notice the new In Colours for 2014 -16.  Here you see Hello, Honey, Lost Lagoon and Blackberry Bliss (which is stamped off once).  The other two colours are Mossy Meadow and Tangelo Twist.
• The Designer Series Paper is Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack.  Paper Stacks are always a real bargain and perfect for card making with the 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 paper size.
• The stamp set from which all the images come is a sneak peek for the stamp set Work of Art, which reminds me of Happy Watercolour from the Occasions Catalogue.  I love the brush strokes and the fonts of the sentiments.

• I used two colours of the new 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon, Hello Honey for the little folded flag at the bottom of the oval and Lost Lagoon across the page.
• The only things that are NOT sneak peeks are the Whisper White Cardstock and the Oval framelits I used to cut the oval shape for the main image!

Have a great weekend and next week will be solid sneak peeks, making up for lost time!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

• Work of Art Stamp Set*
• Lost Lagoon cardstock*
• Hello Honey cardstock*
• Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [100730]
• Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad*
• Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad*
• Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad*
• Ovals Collection Framelits Dies [129381]
• Lost Lagoon 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon*
• Hello Honey 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon*

*Preview of new products available in the new 2014/15 Annual Catalogue, June 2, 2014.

A New Granddaughter! and Faux Tearing Technique

Here is the reason that I am not at home, have a package of new catalogue goodies at home, untouched, and I'm posting a variety of projects I made ahead of time to cover me while I'm away! As the receiving blanket colour may tell you, I have a new grandchild - my first granddaughter! Meet Cedar Meriel, who arrived yesterday morning at 1:49 am after a short two hour and forty-nine minute labour! She's a beauty and I can hardly wait to go out and buy a bunch of girly stuff for her!

Eyes open for a bit!

Baby footprints

Cedar's big brother, Kesten, looking a bit dubious about the whole thing!

And yes, I am dying to start using my new toys waiting at home for me from the  new 2014/15 Annual Catalogue, but some things are more important than stamping! Wait! What? Did I just say what I think I said? I know you're dying to see some sneak peeks of the new products, and I promise, you'll get those non-stop in the next two weeks before the catalogue goes live. In the meantime, here is a project we did at our last Technique Night. The project is called "Faux Tearing":

• The card structure itself is very simple, almost a one layer card except for the Coastal Cabana card base.
• The technique involves taking a sheet of ordinary printer paper and making one uneven tear in it.  You use the bottom and top of this sheet as masks for sponging and stamping the colour and images on the paper.  The tricky part is getting the paper to stay in place while you sponge and stamp.  I tried the Two-Way Glue Pen, but even a small amount left to dry completely for a temporary adhesion, ended up pulling up a bit of the Whisper White cardstock when it was removed.  I finally figured out how to do it.  I used Snail Adhesive to adhere to pieces of Post-It Notes sticky side away from the two torn paper pieces. Then I used the sticky side of the Post-It Note to adhere the torn paper to my project about 1 1/2" apart.

• I sponged Pool Party and Island Indigo ink using Stamping Sponges near both edges of the tear and Coastal Cabana and Pear Pizzazz in the middle.  
• I stamped the butterfly images from Papillon Potpourri in Island Indigo and Bermuda Bay with the torn pieces still in the original places.  It's important that the images don't go outside the sponged areas for the torn paper to look effective.
• I removed the torn paper but repositioned it just slightly above or below where it was previously.  I then use Pistachio Pudding, and Pool Party, both light colours to sponge lightly in the gap, giving that underlayer you see when you tear cardstock or other multiply paper.
• The sentiment is from A Dozen Thoughts and the stretched out length makes it perfect for this all occasion card.

Give this technique a try.  It's not hard and it creates a really neat effect.

3/16 INCH CORNER PUNCH Price: $8.95 $6.71	BBQ BLITZ ENSEMBLE - DIGITAL DOWNLOAD Price: $13.95 $8.37	ETCETERA DESIGNER SERIES PAPER Price: $13.50 $10.46	FLOWER GARDEN TEXTURED IMPRESSIONS EMBOSSING FOLDER DIE Price: $9.95 $7.46
PERFECT PENNANTS BIGZ DIE Price: $40.95 $30.71	RETRO FRESH DESIGNER JOURNALING TAGS Price: $5.95 $4.46	TASTEFUL TRIM BIGZ DIE Price: $52.95 $39.71	THIS AND THAT EPIC DAY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER Price: $13.50 $10.13

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

Papillon Potpourri [132058]	Papillon Potpourri Clear-Mount Stamp Set [123759]	A Dozen Thoughts Wood-Mount Stamp Set [131056]	A Dozen Thoughts Clear-Mount Stamp Set [131059]	Coastal Cabana 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131297]
Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [100730]	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [126982]	Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad [126986]	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad [131175]	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [131180]
Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad [131177]	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [131171]	Stamping Sponges [101610]