Vintage Choose Happiness for As You See It Challenges

Well, I'm afraid I got a bit self-indulgent, but it did my soul good.  Every once in awhile, I like to go overboard a bit and create a vintage card, the reason I started stamping in the first place.  I have always loved that fragile, aged and slightly worn look, but I don't often get the chance to do it.  It is not a good design for a class or a workshop, because there are so many fiddly layers.

However, lately I have been seeing reams of vintage labels on Pinterest and it was encouraging me to try one out.  Wouldn't you know it, but this weeks As You See It Challenge #047 has a label on the front, and I knew it was time!

• I rather lost count of all the stamp sets I used to create this card, but let me give it a try:  Choose Happiness for the sentiment, Kinda Eclectic for the butterflies and leaves, Traveler for the passport, and World Map, Backgrounds Rule and Gorgeous Grunge for the background on the label.
• I used strictly Very Vanilla cardstock for the card.  The back panel was embossed with the Lovely Lace embossing folder.

• I stamped and sponged with strictly Neutrals as well:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Soft Suede. The sponging is a really important element in vintage cards. All the edges you can see are sponged with Soft Suede.
• The flowers are created with the Spiral Flowers Originals Die for the Big Shot.  It creates a scalloped spiral which you then twist around a small wooden skewer and roll up.  You anchor all the loops on the base at the end and you can use glue dots, hot glue and regular glue, and then press the center of the spiral in place and let it set until you get the rest of the card ready.  
• I used some Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon and tied a bow in it then spritzed it with water and crunched it up well.  This created the "old" look, then I dried it on the low setting on the Heat Tool.
• If you look hard, you can see some retired product on that label.  See it??  Leave me a comment with your guess!

                                        

Big Shot Promotion During the Whole Month of August!!

This is great news whether you want to purchase the Big Shot now, or whether you already own one.  If you buy a Big Shot in August you  get your choice of one of the above bundles for free!  (PS: If you like it, pick the most expensive to really make your money go farther!)  If you already have one, or after you buy one in August, you can get any of the above bundles for the discounted price which is 15% off!  How great is that??

Here's more good news:  If you purchase a Big Shot from me during August, I will pay shipping for the Big Shot for you, which knocks another 10% off your price

Watch this video from Stampin' Up! on the benefits of the Big Shot:

             

Today is August 1 and you can now order all the Blendability Colours you want.  Check them out here.

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

Choose Happiness Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134195]	Kinda Eclectic Wood-Mount Stamp Set [135347]	Traveler Wood Stamp Set [134510]	Gorgeous Grunge Wood-mount Stamp Set [130514]	World Map Wood-mount Stamp Set [130342]
Backgrounds Rule Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134039]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [101650]	Crumb Cake 1/2 Inch Seam Binding Ribbon [122332]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Early Espresso Classic Stampin Ink Refill [119789]
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]	Stamping Sponges [101610]	Spiral Flower Originals Die [129379]	Elegant Butterfly Punch [127526]	Bitty Butterfly Punch [129406]
Basic Pearls Jewel Accents [119247]	Paper Snips [103579]

Better Late Than Never for As You See It Challenge 017

It's really late, I know, but I needed a blog post for you today and I really liked the sketch for As You See It Challenge 017, so I decided to do a card for the challenge anyway!  Besides, I'm itching to get into the new Occasions Catalogue material anyway!  Here's the sketch:

That Amanda, she's so talented!  You really should try some of these sketches and enter these challenges!

Here's my Design Team Sample:

• I'll bet you can hardly wait to get your hands on some of these new products from the Occasions Catalogue!  As soon as it goes live on Jan. 3, I'll be taking orders!  Or you can shop on-line 24/7 at my On-Line Stampin' Up! Store.
• On my Smoky Slate card base, I've used a background panel of Watercolour Wonder Design Series paper.  All the new Design Series Paper will be included in the product shares from the new catalogue.  Keep an eye on my blog for the details next week.
• The sentiment is one I keep having to remind myself about (see my Christmas story below) and you will be able to get this stamp and more like it in the Perfect Pennants stamp set

• I've used a torn piece of Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock to emphasize the "Life doesn't have to be perfect" bit.  The little chevron arrows are from the Circle Card Thinlit accessories dies.
• The rolled flowers are made with a new Originals Die - the Spiral Flower Originals Die.  The size of the flowers it creates are quite large, but I think you could make them smaller by cutting off some of the spiral.  I trimmed off some of the edge to make it shorter.  I will do a video tutorial on how to use it when the catalogue goes live.

I hope your Christmas was a wonderful one.  I know mine was!  It wasn't perfect or even as we had planned, but in the end, it was satisfying and heart-warming.  My daughter, son-in-law and my almost 2 year old grandson came to spend the holiday with us.  We were so excited to have a little one in the house again for the Christmas season!  We planned all sorts of fun activities.  Then, two days before they were to travel here, little Parker came down with a fever and illness, probably the flu.  The fever left before they travelled but he was still very sick and had no energy at all, poor little fellow.

We scaled down our plans considerably, and spent our days looking after him and his mom and dad, who were pretty tired, having to get up with him all the time.  By Christmas morning, he was a little better, but not even remotely interested in opening presents.  We finally got him perked up enough to get interested in the big package for him in the living room, and when he opened it, he was delighted to find a retro style play kitchen with all the accessories!  

Well, that changed the whole atmosphere and he dug into the rest of his presents with gusto, ending the day by eating some Christmas dinner with the rest of us and going to bed happily with some of his new toys.  So Christmas wasn't perfect, but it was wonderful!    

What did you do for Christmas this year?

• Smoky Slate 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Crisp Cantaloupe 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Island Indigo 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock
• Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad
• Circle card Thinlits Die
• Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Watercolour Wonder Designer Series Paper *
• Perfect Pennants Stamp Set *
• Spiral Flower Originals Die*

* Products found in the new Occasions Catalogue, available for order Jan. 3, 2014.