Shabby Chic for a Friend and New Classes for Summer

Well, I think I spent too long at the computer yesterday, coming up with my summer schedule and sending out my newsletter. There's an awful lot of work involved with that, but I needed to send out my newsletter before the month was over! At the end of the day, I needed a project to share with you, and so I just got out one of my new favourite stamp sets, Awesomely Artistic, and went crazy! I was going to title this post after the name of the stamp set as I often do, but then I started laughing, realizing how egotistical that would sound, and changed the title!

Oh, and Happy Canada Day, everyone! If you missed my Canada Day card yesterday, you can see it here.

Before I show you the details of this card, please pop over to my Classes page and check out the Summer Offerings! I'm sure you'll find something that will be just right for you.

• I did go a bit crazy on this one, but, you know, I really enjoyed myself, so it was worth it! I love the Awesomely Artistic stamp set because it has so many different elements for collage stamping, shabby chic style like this, grunge or vintage looking projects. You don't have to always use so many of the elements together like I did!
• There was a lot of hand-cutting on this project, but that is something I find soothing, so it was a nice way to end my day yesterday! I cut the dragonflies, the leaves and the fern fronds, although next time I might be a bit more detailed on those if I had more time.
• The cardbase I turned into handstamped DSP using Crumb Cake and Sahara Sand Ink on the Crumb Cake cardstock.
• The dragonflies in the foreground were inked in Pool Party ink then tapped with an Island Indigo Stampin' Write Marker to add a bit of an iridescent look. We have a koi pond in our back yard, and one of my favourite relaxing things to do is to watch the dragonflies as they flit and hover over the water.
• The bow is the Sahara Sand Lace Trim and it's a bit of a fighter when you try to get it into a proper bow, but I finally wrestled it into partial submission anyway!

Don't forget to go on over to the Clearance Rack and look at all the great deals Stampin' Up! added yesterday! There are savings up to 60% off!

And just a reminder that all my retired products are available for sale with great savings for you:

My 2015 Retired Stamp Inventory 

My 2015 Retired Paper Inventory

My 2015 Retired Tools & Accessories Inventory

Send me an email letting me know what you would like to purchase.

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

Awesomely Artistic Wood-Mount Stamp Set [138694]	Awesomely Artistic Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139950]	Schoolhouse Designer Series Paper [138187]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [120953]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [126982]	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad [126976]	Island Indigo Stampin' Write Marker [131905]	Tea Lace Paper Doilies [129399]
Sahara Sand 7/8" (2.2 Cm) Lace Trim [137866]	Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits [135707]	Big Shot [113439]	Paper Snips Scissors [103579]	Fuse Fast Adhesive [129026]
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Glue Dots [103683]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Forty and Fabulous

My friend and fellow stamper, Amy, just turned 40 and her hubby threw a surprise birthday party for her which I attended.  Of course, I needed a card for her and it couldn't be just any old card.  Amy is a very creative and artistic person and she has lots of card makers as friends.  She regularly inspires me with her papercrafting projects so I needed a super card for her birthday!  What came to mind right away was the phrase Forty and Fabulous, because she is!  I knew I had a stamp with Fabulous on it and I had the numbers in 40 from Memorable Moments stamp set and I found a funky ampersand in the Notable Alphabet set.

Here's how I put them together, using one of my favourite palettes of Pistachio Pudding, Island Indigo and Very Vanilla:

• I love how this turned out, with the different fonts still working together, the beautiful DSP from Venetian Romance and the little clusters of Petite Petals flowers.
• I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to get my images placed just right.  Give it a try if you haven't used it yet.
• The Fabulous is What You Are stamp is from is from Million and One stamp set which, by the way, coordinates with the Simply Fabulous Simply Sent Kit.

• I used the Petite Petals stamp set to stamp a variety of flowers in Island Indigo and Pistachio Pudding and then the Petite Petals punch for cutting them out.
• I should have taken a before and after photo for when I added the Pearls Basic Jewels, because they just upped the quality look of the card a hundred fold.

New Class Schedule

I have updated my Classes page with the new class schedule for April, May and June.  Check out the new and repeating classes in which you could participate.  Also, email me if you would be interested in being part of an On-Line Stamp Club.

Thanks for dropping by my blog today!  I would encourage you to leave a comment telling me what kind of celebration you had/would like to have when you turn forty!

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

126375	126377	132047	126357	132039	126682
133152	133152	133155	130144	122923	131294
101650	126986	131177	101049	133322	119247

Moody

Moody.  The word describes the weather today and how I've been feeling.  I went for a walk with some friends this morning, and though it was sunny and very hot, there was a kind of brooding in the air, the kind that signals a change. When I got home, I felt sapped of energy.  I feel like I've accomplished next to nothing. But I guess we all have days like that.

I went online to find some moody pictures and I was hit by a blast from the past:  The Moody Blues!  One of my favourite 70's bands!  Remember Nights in White Satin?  So that cheered me up a lot!

I've been working on remastering some old cards for my Technique Nights coming up.  My Stamp Club ladies wanted to do some cards that involved making different kinds of flowers and they had some favourites from my display board.  But I wanted to update them with current products.  I've got two to show you, one today and one tomorrow!

This is the first one.  The original design was created not so long ago, but all the colours and DSP retired, so I had to redesign a bit.
  Here's the original:

This one was hard to beat.  The colours and the background DSP are so perfect.  I tried substituting Blushing Bride for the Regal Rose, but it had nowhere near the vibrancy needed.  It's a much more subdued pink.  Strawberry Slush was over the top in the other direction - just not fragile enough for this stamp set, Everything Eleanor. 

So I went with Crisp Cantaloupe, and it worked well with the Crumb Cake.  Then I went looking for some DSP to put on the side panels of this gate-fold card.  We have many gorgeous Design Series Paper using Crisp Cantaloupe, but they all had too much colour for this design.  Here was one attempt:

But you can see that the background is just too busy, and it competes in an unhealthy way with the floral focal point!  Sigh!  So I went with just Whisper White cardstock.  By itself it was much too stark and made the card look harsh, but when I added some of the flourish in Everything Eleanor stamped in Crumb Cake, I found the Ta-da!  It softens the white without overshadowing the flowers.

Here's the inside of the card:

I went through this process with you today, to give you some idea of the way I go about designing a card. As you can see, there is definitely some trial and error happening.  I'm a very visual person, so I have to see how things look, to know if they are going to work or not.  In the end, I usually get that, "Yes!!" feeling inside when something works well.  It's a very satisfying process!

Starting in August, I am offering a series of 3 classes called DESIGN 101, and it is for stampers who want to take their card making to the next level and start designing their own cards.  I didn't always create original projects.  I started out going to Stamp Club once a month and doing what I was told!

From there, I branched out into CASING designs I found on the Internet.  When I didn't have a stamp or a colour or DSP like the sample I was CASING (CASE - copy and share everything), I would look for alternatives and then I started making my own changes on purpose.  Only when I was confident doing that did I start to make my own designs.  I tell you this because Designing is a skill you can learn.  If you're at that point, ready to step things up, then I recommend that you register for this class.  Check out the information in my new Class Schedule.  You can register for DESIGN 101 here.

Thanks for dropping by on this moody day!  Happy Stamping!

Stamps:  Everything Eleanor (w131987; c124164); Express Yourself (w130336; c130339)* Hostess set only

Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe (131298) and Whisper White (100730) cardstock

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Crumb Cake (126975) and Crisp Cantaloupe (131176)

Accessories:  Pearl Basic Jewels (119247)

Tools:  Top Note BigZ Die (113463), paper snips (130579)

Everything Eleanor Stamp Set

Pearl Basic Jewels

Paper Snips

Top Note BigZ Die