Freshly Made Sketches #450 Whiskey Business

 I needed a masculine birthday card so I decided to use the Freshly Made Sketches #450 as inspiration for my card.  I don’t know about you but I have the hardest time with masculine cards. As soon as I saw this sketch I knew exactly what stamp set I would use for it.

I actually made two cards because I couldn’t decide whether to use a white card base or very vanilla. I ended up entering the Very Vanilla card in the challenge. 

I used a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 piece of heavy Very Vanilla paper and scored it and folded it in the middle. I Very Vanilla card stock. I then heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I colored the images using Light and Dark Cinnamon Cider Stampin Blends. I then used my wink of Stella over the images to give them some shine. It’s hard to tell from the picture. I then fussy cut the images out. I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set in the center bottom of my card stock using Cinnamon Cider Ink.

I cut a piece of World of Good DSP to 3 1/2 x 3/12 and layered on a piece of Brass Foil cut to 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 . I then glued this to the very vanilla card stock centered at the top. I then add a piece of Metallic Ribbon tied in a knot centered between the Brass Foil and the sentiment. I glued the two glasses to the DSP and popped up the decanter using dimensionals. To finish off the front I added 3 Gilded Gems.

For the inside I cut a piece of Whisper White to 4 x 5 1/4. I stamped the sentiment in Cinnamon Cider, added a couple of strips of the DSP and stamped the orange twist in Pumpkin Pie ink in the bottom right corner. 

I always try to coordinate my envelope to the card so I glued a piece of the DSP to the flap of a Very Vanilla envelope and again stamped the orange twist with Pumpkin Pie ink in the lower left corner.

Here is the version with Whisper White and I used a different ribbon and made the Brass Foil piece a little larger. Which one do you think looks better? I loved to get your opinions.

All the products used on today’s card can be purchased from my Stampin Up store. Just select the Shop Stampin’ Up Now button on the top menu bar. I would love to have you as a customer.

Autumn Greetings Extended Z Fold Card

 Today’s card was inspired by a card design made by Meg Loven @ Lovenstamps.com. It’s such a simple card but very elegant.

I started with a piece of cinnamon cider card stock cut a 4 x 11. This was scored at 1 1/4 and 5 1/2. Next I cut pieces of the Gilded Autumn DSP at  4 x 4 and then 1 3/4 x 4. The 4 x 4 piece was glued to the back of the 1 1/4 flap to create the card front. The other piece was glued to the other end of the card stock. I cut a piece of metallic DSP to 1 x 4 and glued it to the right hand side of the front flap.

I stamped several leaves from the Love of Leaves set in Bumblebee, Mint Macaron, Cinnamon Cider and Cajun Craze. These were then cut out using the Stitched Leaves Dies. I popped these up with dimensionals making sure I only put them on the front side so they wouldn’t stick to the back of the card. I then used some linen thread to tie a bow and added an acorn from the Acorn Trinkets. I stamped the sentiment from the Autumn Greetings stamp set and then fussy cut this out and add dimensionals to the back and adhered it to the bottom left of the leaves.

For the inside I cut a piece of very vanilla card stock to 4 x4, stamped the sentiment from the Autumn Greetings Stamp set and adhered a left over leaf to the right hand bottom corner. I then glued this down.

For the envelope I used a very vanilla envelope and cut a piece of the Gilded Autumn DSP to 2 1/4 x 6 and glued it to the back flap and then trimmed it down to the size of the flap. I then stamped 2 leaves on the front bottom left corner in mint macaron.

Freshly Made Sketches #449 Happy fall, y’all

 We woke up to thunderstorms and rain this morning. Reminded me of fall so I decided to make a fall card for this weeks challenge. I’m entering this card in the Freshly made sketches #449 challenge.

I started with Bumblebee card stock cut at 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. I scored and folded this in half. I next cut a piece of very vanilla and vellum to 4 x 5 1/4. On the vellum piece I cut 3 triangles per the sketch. I used the new stitched rectangle dies for this. I then used the same triangle dies to cut a small and large triangle from a piece of plaid tidings DSP and then a large triangle from a coordinating piece of the DSP.

I used the vellum overlay to determine the correct locations to glue the plaid triangles to the very vanilla paper. I then stamped the sentiment on scrap of Cajun Craze with versamark Ink and embossed with white embossing powder. I then cut this down and snipped each ends to make a small banner. I glued this to my vellum piece and then placed a dimensional on the back of the vellum to pop it up. I took an acorn trinket and put it through a short piece of metallic ribbon and then glued it down and then put a dimensional over it to pop up the end of the banner tag. I placed a few pearl dots that I colored to match the card stock. I used these to hide additional dimensionals to keep my vellum popped up from the card stock.

For the inside I cut a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of very vanilla and used two 1/2 strips from the plaid paper at each end. I then stamped the sentiment from the Autumn Goodness stamp set in Cajun Craze ink and then glued it in place.

I hope you enjoy your day and are able to find some time to do something creative!

Paper Players Challenge 505 Forever Greenery DSP

 I made today’s card for The Paper Players Challenge 505. It was such a great sketch to use for a masculine birthday card that I am needing for a family member’s birthday in a couple of weeks.

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I did making it!

I started with a Soft Sea Foam card base cut at 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and scored at 4 /4. I then cut the first diagonal shape from Pretty Peacock card stock and then embossed it with the hammered metal embossing folder. Next I choose 2 coordinating papers from the Forever Greenery DSP. I then glued these pieces to complete the front shape. I then stamped the sentiment with from the Itty Bitty Birthdays stamp set in Pretty Peacock Ink. I cut the sentiment out using a stitched rectangle framelits die. I popped this up using dimensionals and placed on the card about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom. I added a couple of leaves from the Forever Gold Specialty DSP and finished off the front with 3 of the gold gilded gems.

For the inside I cut a piece of whisper white card stock to 4 x 5 1/4 and then add 2 strips of the DSP used on the front cut to 1/2 inch by 4 and glued on the top and bottom. I added a couple more of the gold leaves to match the front in the lower right corner. I stamped the sentiment from the Itty Bitty Birthdays again using Pretty Peacock ink. I then glued this into the inside and my card was done. This was one of the fastest cards I have made!

Bazaar stamp birthday card

 Today’s card is a little out of the ordinary for me. Eric has a friend that is a big stamp collector and he asked me to make a card using an image of a stamp he found on line. 

I resized the image and then cut it out with a scalloped rectangle frame. I then layered this on a piece of soft suede card stock cut to 3 3/4 by 5. I then added dimensionals and layered it on la 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 piece of night of navy card stock folded in half. I thought these two colors matched the stamp image. I then printed a sentiment on my laser printer on misty moonlight card stock for a little contrast and then used some silver foil and ran it through my Royal Sovereign laminator. I cut each end to make it a banner and glued it to the front of the card below the stamp image.

For the inside I cut a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of very vanilla with a scalloped rectangle die. I was trying to keep to the stamp theme. I stamped the sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthdays with Versamark ink on a piece of misty moonlight and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I then used the rectangular postage stamp punch and cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals.

I always find masculine cards very challenging to make! Eric was pleased with the way the card turned out so I’m hoping his friend enjoys it.

It’s been very hot here and now we are dealing with very unhealthy air quality due to the smoke from all the fires in California. I have to say I am looking forward to fall and cooler temperatures!

Hope you all have a nice relaxing weekend!

Fall card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge 448

 Very hot day here in Nevada and a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon so I decided it was a good day to be crafty. Today’s card is a fall card that I planned to enter in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #448.  The challenge closed at 3 ET so I was too late to enter. Lesson learned: Don’t procrastinate!

I started with a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 piece of heavy very vanilla cardstock. I scored it and then folded it in half.

I then took a 4 X 5 1/4 piece of Gilded Autumn Speciality DSP and cut it at a diagonal in the middle. I trimmed each end so the opening in the middle would be 7/8 inch which was the size of the leaves from the Autumn Punch Pack Punch. I punched several leaves out of mint macaron, cajun craze, and early espresso to coordinate with the DSP. I punched one leaf for the middle out of gold foil paper. I used dimensionals to pop up the DSP and then glued the leaves to the cardstock in the middle opening. I thought the card needed a little something so I cut two 1/8 inch strips of the gold foil and glued to each side of the opening.

I stamped the greeting using a stamp from the Autumn Greetings stamp set on very vanilla. I cut the strip to 3/4 inch and then trimmed each end with the new Banners pick a punch. I thought it was a little plain so I cut a 1 inch piece of Cajun Craze card stock and trimmed it with the punch to add a nice background. I then popped this up with dimensionals as well. I added some of the gold gilded gems to finish off the front of the card.

For the inside I cut a small piece of DSP and glued to the bottom along with another gold foil leaf. I stamped the sentiment from the Autumn Greetings Stamp set. I added a piece of DSP to the flap of a very vanilla envelope and glued another gold foil leaf to the front of the envelope.

I sure hope fall comes soon. It’s been a pretty hot summer. I love the thunderstorms but unfortunately they have started several large fires around the area.

If you are new to paper crafting the paper pumpkin kit is a great way to start. It comes with everything you need to make great projects each month.

With this month’s one-of-a-kind kit, you can celebrate what you love most about autumn! Whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, pumpkins, or leaves, September’s kit has everything you need to create custom fall crafts.

The September kit will include:

• Kit contains enough supplies to create 20 cracker box treat packages.
• Each cracker box treat package can be customized to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, the autumn season, or all three!
• Coordinating Colors: Bumblebee, Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Cinnamon Cider, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, white

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Freshly Made Sketches #447 Forever Fern Card

 Wow! Can you believe two posts in one day. I’m on a roll. Actually it was very hot outside here today so I spent the day inside in the air conditioning.

I’m entering my card in the Freshly Made Sketches #447 Challenge.

I’m using Stampin’ Up’s Forever Fern stamp and DSP for my card.

I started with Whisper White Heavy cardstock for the card base. I ran it through my new Cut and Emboss machine using The Greenery embossing folder. I then cut a 2 x5 1/2 piece of Just Jade and layered it with a piece of the Forever Greenery DSP cut a 1 3/4 x 5.  I trimmed down one of the elements in the Forever Gold Specialty DSP and layered a piece of just jade stamped with a sentiment from the Forever Fern Stamp Set. I finished it off with a couple of gold gilded gems.

Flowering Blooms

 I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. I've been making cards but haven't found the time to post and upload the pictures. I've been busy trying to organize my craft room so I know what I have and where it is. I've finally got all my Stampin Up stamps and dies loaded into to Evernote. It makes it so much easier to find the stamp that I need. Also helps to avoid buying duplicates! 

Stampin Up just released the latest mini catalog. So many great new stamps and dies, I had a hard time deciding what to buy. I wanted it all but my budget said NO, NO, NO!

Today I used the Flowering Blooms stamp set from the 20-21 annual catalog to make a birthday card for a special friend. 

                                      Free Flowering Blooms Card PDF

Click the above link if you would like a free PDF direction sheet for the above card.

Hope you enjoy your day! Try to find time to do something creative!