Mosaic Birthday

 A special someone I know is turning 6 soon and rather than forget until the last minute I decided to be on the ball and make her card now!  OK, so my usual sketch-flipping, creative license is in full force on this one considering the given sketch below.  I think you can see how I got from one to the other (if you squint).  Anyway, it was fun AND I got to put my new Mosaic Madness stamp set and coordinating punch to work so there you go.

And true to form, I mixed in some (really) old with the new.  Don't go looking in the SU catalog for the ribbon slide.  It is LONG gone, and the chipboard 6... I have no idea where that even came from.  However, the numbers stamped in the background- those are from a current set (had to look it up to be sure) called Bring on the Cake.  I just did some creative inking by omitting portions of the stamp I didn't want (like the word happy and the other letters).  The Happy Birthday is current too- yippee!  Itty Bitty Banners it is from and it can be cut out with a framelit called Bitty Banners, although I ended up cutting by hand because it slipped (no I don't have the magnetic base yet but here's a good reason why you should.)  

Anyway, here is the cool sketch.  Click on it to be linked back to the original site!  Thanks again for stopping by.  I do have another card to post if I get around to it...  be prepared for some fall colors and some embossing (wet not dry)!  

~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps:  Bring on the Cake, Mosaic Madness, Itty Bitty Banners

Colors:  Baked Brown Sugar, Raspberry Ripple, Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantalope, Whisper White

Accessories:  Raspberry Ripple stitched satin ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardward (ribbon slide), chipboard, Mosaic punch

Dotted Birthday

More new stuff!  Isn't this bicycle stamp cute?!  It is part of the new Ronald McDonald House stamp set called Moving Forward.  Every year Stampin' Up! designs a stamp set which they donate $3 of the proceeds of every sale to the Ronald McDonald House and this is it.  I stamped it in Basic Gray then added the little flowers which I colored with Old Olive and Marina Mist markers.  And I didn't even need the Stamp-a-Majig, just eye-balled it! 

The sentiment is from the new Itty Bitty Banners cut out with the Bitty Banners framelits set.  Once again found a use for the new Polka Dot Parade DSP too. 

Here is the inside shot.  Wanted to keep with the circles theme inspired by the bicycle wheels so I added a few punched circlesm, a bit of ribbon and the birthday sentiment from the retired Happiest Birthday Wishes set.  My niece is turning two this weekend so this one is for her.

 I'm just tickled with how this one turned out.  Let me know what you think!

Here is the sketch challenge I used for this card.  For the Paper Players 100th challenge celebration you get to choose any of their previous 100 challenges so I chose PP53.  I love this sketch- it is perfect to showcase a fun variety of DSP and still keep it clean & simple, just my style!  Click on the picture for a link to the challenge.  Thanks for stopping by again!
~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps:  Moving Forward, Itty Bitty Banners, Happiest Birthday Wishes

Colors:  Basic Gray, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight

Accessories:  2 1/2" circle punch, corner rounder, Mini Silver Brads, Bitty Banners Framelets, narrow Daffodil Delight ribbon

Birthday Penguin

 Here's challenge number two between Lisa and I.  The picture below was to be our inspiration and we were also to use dry embossing and circle elements on our cards.  It is fun to see how different ours turned out- hers is elegant and just plain gorgeous.  Mine is obviously playful and cutesy. 

I hate to admit just how long this card took.  Piecing together that penguin from the owl punch (thanks to an idea I have saved by Teneale Williams!) and the balloons which have a layer of acetate over them for some realistic shine added a bit of time.  Especially when I kept messing up and having to redo certain parts.  My sketch is from page 88 in the SU catalog- I just love it and will definitely keep it in mind for the future! 

The happy birthday sentiment is from the new set Bring On the Cake in the current mini catalog.  I decided at the last minute to emboss it in white.  It got a little messy but I wasn't about to startover at that point!  Heck, messy embossing is a little like confetti on a birthday card, right?!  At least that's what I'm telling myself. 

Well, thanks for stopping by.  I'll list everything I used in my supplies list in case you're wondering.  Feel free to ask questions if you like, and feel free to join us in this challenge if you'd like!  We'd love to come see what you've done! 

~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Bring on the Cake, Party Hearty (hat)

Colors: Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Certainly Celery, Tangerine Tango

Accessories: Owl punch, Glimmer Brad, Dotted scallop ribbon border punch, Word Window, 1" circle and medium oval punch (from Holiday Mini), small star punch (for part of balloons), Big Shot, Dotted embossing folder, Texturz Plates, white embossing powder, linen thread (PHEW!)

More Teacher Thank You's

As promised, here are the last three of the five Teacher Thank You notes I designed for a friend's son to give to his teachers. This first one ended up being one of my favorites. I used Crushed Curry as the card base and love how it looks with the black and red!

Here's a more jungle-like theme. I like how this one turned out too- actually I like them all or I wouldn't have included them for her to choose from. The sentiment circle on this one is from the old retired set called Riveting. I love the versatility of circular sentiments like this! Colors here are Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and a tiny More Mustard brad. The leaves are from the Little Leaves Sizzlit and the Big Shot.
This one is a CASE of a birthday card I did a long time ago. I was so happy with the original that it is the first thing that came to mind for thank you notes from a little boy. The colors and sentiment are different and on this one the train is simply stamped as opposed to being tediously cut out. I just couldn't see myself doing ten of these if that train had to be cut out! (Color Combo from the Color Throwdown challenge this week!)

So there you have it! Why don't you check out the two from yesterday then post a comment here letting me know which is your favorite. Keep in mind, these are intentionally simple so they can be mass produced (my friend needs ten!). Then I'll let you know what she decided!

Thanks for visiting today! Have a great weekend!

~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Card 1:

Stamps: Darling Dots, For a Friend

Colors: Crushed Curry, Real Red, Basic Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Dotted embossing folder, Real Red dotted grosgrain

Card 2:

Stamps: Wild About You, Riveting

Colors: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Dusty Durango

Accessories: Circle punches, More Mustard brad, Little Leaves Sizzlit, Big Shot, Old Olive marker

Card 3:

Stamps: Choo Choo, Sweet Little Sentiments

Colors: So Saffron, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake (Kraft), Very Vanilla

Accessories: Old Olive wide grosgrain, Right on Track wheel, Distressing tool, Spiral punch

Teacher Thank You's

Good morning! A good friend of mine asked if I could make some thank you notes from her son for his teachers. Well- she asked the right person! I needed an excuse to spend half of the day stamping! Here are the first two of five that I came up with for her to choose from. I'll post the other three tomorrow and let you vote. Then I'll let you know what she decided.

Her adorable son is in LOVE with basketball right now (he's going into kindergarten) so I had to make that an option for her. This one combines one very old stamp set called Have a Ball and the other one is called Sporting (current I think, but would have to check for sure). Doesn't Dusty Durango make a great basketball color?!?

Of course all little boys love vehicles and making them "GO" so had to pull out my trusty By Land as well as It's a Sign and the fun Making Tracks wheel! Guess what I figured out making this card... the new circle punch in the Bitty Punch Pack of 3 in the Summer Mini is the perfect size for the lights on this stop light so I didn't have to color them!

Well hope you like 'em, and hope she does too! Stop back tomorrow to see the other three I came up with. Then I'm afraid I'll be MIA the rest of the weekend due to 6 baseball games and a gymnastics recital plus a houseful of relatives in town for the fun events! PHEW!

Have a great Friday!

~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Card 1:

Stamps- Sporting, Have a Ball, Riveting
Colors: Kraft, Dusty Durango, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Accessories: circle punch

Card 2:

Stamps- It's a Sign, By Land, Making Tracks wheel

Colors: Garden Green, Real Red, Yoyo Yellow, WHisper white, Basic black

Accessories: markers, Bitty circle punch

Happy H*OWL*oween!

OK, corny title I know. And there are lots of cute sayings for owl stamps out there too! Anyway, thanks to my UPS guy (substitutes are always behind) finally arriving with my Top Note Die for my Big Shot I was able to complete my next Craft Fair project!! I am so excited I think they turned out adorable. Now I can't take all the credit... in fact, I really can't take any other than the labor involved. I completely copied this idea from Jackie Wright! I saw these on her blog the other day and just HAD to try them. So easy and fun and.. OK, I already said adorable. But I'm allowed to gush since it was in no way my idea. Go visit Jackie and tell her how stinkin' cute they are!!

The best thing about these is they are done entirely with Stampin' Up! punches plus the Top Note Die!! I used the scalloped circle, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch and the 3/4" square punch. The cardstock is Kraft, Really Rust, Barely Banana (or So Saffron) and Chocolate Chip. Creamy Caramel ink is sponged around the edges for some dimension. For the beak I folded a 3/4" square in half then kind of bent the outside corners to make little tabs to glue down. I love the dimension this adds for a craft fair item, but if I were to do more of these for a classroom project for my kids I would probably use the photo corner punch for the beak. It would save time and effot and still look cute. Here's a closeup of one:

Thanks for poppin' in today! I'll see if I can work on my perpetual calendar now and get that posted tomorrow... we'll see. I'm feeling a bit cross-eyed.

Quick & Easy Gift Idea

Today I needed a little something else to go with a birthday present for my niece who just turned 8. In a matter of minutes (20 or so) I put this together. It's a cute card kit in an extra stamp box. I saw this idea on Splitcoast thanks to Creativetracks' example here. I love the idea of making an extra stamp box into a purse using the Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes for the ribbon handle. Inside I put prescored cards in the '07-08 In Colors, matching ribbon (idea to wrap the ribbon on the round tab punch I got from Lisa Henke), images from Pun Fun ready to color, some scallop punches, and some stamped medallions from Think Happy Thoughts. I also included some new colored pencils with the rest of her gift so she could finish these.

The only problem with this box size is the envelopes didn't fit (so I forgot them at home!). This is super easy to do with the In Colors because they coordinate so nicely, plus I always have the matching ribbon. Some other ideas to include in this kit (had I had more time) would be different colored mats to layer the main images on, brads, personalized address labels, mini address book and postage stamps. Pun Fun was the perfect set for this gift since it contains cute kid-friendly images for 8 different occasions!

Anyway, thanks to creativetracks for the neat idea and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad's birthday is coming up this week so I put this card together for him. I first scoured challenge after challenge then decided, for once, I was going to "wing it" and make a card entirely on my own. Kind of scary- LOL! Just kidding, it was fun and stress free- no rules to follow. I wanted something fun and festive so here it is.

The patterned paper is all from SU's Jersey Shore collection. The bird from Pun Fun is watercolored with the Watercolor Crayons and an aqua painter, along with some markers for the hat. Thanks for stopping by!

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Pun Fun

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Whisper White, Jersey Shore DP

Accessories: Watercolor crayons, aquapainter , 1/2" circle punch, bold bright brads, Striped Wild Wasabi ribbon, Word Window Punch, Sponge, distressing tool