Snow Day/Cold Day

CAS(E) #306

 Today we are home due to record low temperatures up here in northern IL.  Awoke to -26ºF with windchill -50ºF!  WOW! Then, lost power for an hour.  Luckily it eventually came back on and all is well. What to do when given a free day- laundry and card making of course.  Temporary displaced from my Craft Room, so my hubby can work from home.  Not a bad view from the dining room table as I work.   One of the cards I worked on today is for CAS(E) Sketch #306.  I love my Distress Oxide Inks and want to add to my colors, but for now, I used what I have. I do not have an orange, but love how the Fossilized Amber and Worn Lipstick blend to create an orange hue.   I used an older stamp set.  Sorry, not sure where I obtained the set- but Simon Says Stamping has several similar sets.

CAS(E) This Sketch #306

What I did:
STAMPS: Believe Sentiment stamp set. Similar items at Simon Says Stamp.
CARDSTOCK & PAPER: Whisper White(SU!) card base: cut 5.5 x 8 1/2 scored at 4.25, Whisper White(SU!) cut  5.25 x 4, adhering it to the card base Tear Tape’ , after everything was colored on it.
INK:Versa Mark Watermark Stamp Pad Distress Oxide Inks: Worn Lipstick, Wilted Lilac, Broken China, Fossilized Amber.
Other: Snail Adhesive(SU!) Tear & Tape (SU!) Simply Scored (SU!) Scissor snips
TECHNIQUE: First, I stamped the left hand side with Versa Mark, used white embossing powder over it, and embossed using heat tool.  By embossing this causes any ink added to the card to resist.  I built The different colors using the Tim Holtz Blending tool. I spritzed with a little water and tapped wet paint brush to expose the wonderful benefits of the distressing.  Last, I adhered the card front to the base.

Products available at my Stampin' Up Store:
Remember, through the month of March, for every $50 of product you purchase, you get free items from the Sale-A-Bration catalog.

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One of a Kind

#387 Sketch 25

 I had some fun with this challenge from Less is More and trying a new challenge group: AAA Cards-Clean and Simple.  It truly is One of a kind.  The challenge for AAA#132 was masking- and keeping a majority of the space white. I used Ranger Distress Oxide inks to create the one of a kind color by blending Broken China and Faded Jeans colors together with a blending tool. I used Post-it tape to tape off the sides and get the sharp edge.  I worked top to middle, then bottom to middle and overlapped.  What's so great about Distress Oxide inks, is how they react to water.  In both examples, I flicked water on it to create a distressed look.  In the first example, after it dried I used some Crystal Effect glue drops to create a 3D water droplet over each splatter.  I left the water droplets alone in the second example.

Here is the Less is More Sketch and AAA directions that these are based off of:

AAA #132

Card #1: You're One of a Kind
What I did:
Stamps and Products: Sea of Textures (SU! 2018/19 catalog)
Cardstock & Paper: Whisper White(SU!) cut 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4, White cardstock 4 1/8 x 5 3/8, adhering it to the card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals Whisper White cardstock(SU!) scrap to stamp the Octopus.
Ink: Ranger Distress Oxide inks: Broken China and Faded Jeans 
Other: Classic Label punch, Tear & Tape (SU!) Simply Scored (SU!) Scissor snips. Post-It Tape



Card #2:  Celebrate Your Day 
What I did: 
Stamps and Products: Hello Cupcake (SU! 2018/19 Sale-A-Bration)
Cardstock & Paper: Whisper White(SU!) cut 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4, White cardstock 4 1/8 x 5 3/8, adhering it to the card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals Whisper White cardstock(SU!) scrap to stamp the Octopus.
Ink: Ranger Distress Oxide inks: Broken China and Faded Jeans. The cupcake was stamped using Gorgeous Grape(SU!) and Pineapple Punch(SU!)
Other: Tear & Tape (SU!) Simply Scored (SU!) Scissor snips. Post-It Tape

Visit My Store if you are interested in any of the Stampin' Up! Products.

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Fun Friday Tip

Stampin' Up! has outdone themselves on the Occasions Catalog and The Sale-A-Bration Catalog. I love that there are items your can get free in the  Sale-A-Bration Catalog that go along with items in Occasions.  For example, the Butterfly Gala stamp set/bundle goes perfectly with the Botanical Butterfly DSP.   Just look at the variety.
My Fun Friday Tip is going to Focus on the Butterfly Duet Punch and the Botanical Paper.  You can do this with any paper that you have a punch that goes along with it.
Take a look at this Free DSP paper you can get when you order $50 worth of Stampin' Up! Products.  Even if there is nothing you need, this is a great time to stock up on what you use throughout the year and get free product. WIN-WIN!


This is beautiful, two sided 12 x 12 paper.  The best Stampin' UP! quality you have expected. The punch goes with the paper and with the stamp set.  Remember, when you order the Bundle, you save 10%.

Friday Fun Tip

There are several sheets of this paper that fit perfectly into the Butterfly Duet Punch.  But if you were to just stick the punch by the first butterfly you see, you would end up cutting others in half, essentially wasting paper.  If you tried to stick the butterflies, individually, in the punch, they get stuck.  There IS a tip.  Someone else may have posted this, or found this out already, but I discovered it on my own and thought I would share with you.

This wastes paper- by cutting into other butterflies

I hate to waste DSP paper

Here's how you can punch out every single butterfly without wasting paper:

Cut around the area of each butterfly.  Use a piece of post-it tape or post-it note sticky part could work- regular tape, Washi tape, or painters tape is too thin (I've tried). Use this tape piece as your handle as you feed it into the punch. You will get so many butterflies this way and not waste and paper.

Card Samples:

All Products from 2019 Occasions Catalog :

All Products from 2019 Occasions Catalog :

Hello Beautiful

Hello there!  I have found that I have needed some inspirational cards for friends and family.  These are not get well cards, nor sympathy cards.  These are cards to bring up spirits when someone you love is having a rough time.  These cards can be sent out any time to lift spirits. Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love butterflies and owls.  These butterflies are going to be in so many of my upcoming cards. Still waiting on the owls, though.   I cannot begin to express how much I love the butterfly stamps, papers, punches, and thinlits that are available in the SU! Occasions Catalog and Free in Sale-A-Bration.  Many of the Sale-A-Bration items are meant to go with the regular catalog items.  I also am starting a Friday Fun Tip series.  Each Friday I will post a tip for you.  I am even going to try my hand at videoing some things.  We will see!!!! Check back Friday, Jan. 18 for my first one! It is a tip about punching out these butterflies in my following cards
This card is also being entered in Case This Sketch #305 and Less is More Water challenge:

Case This Sketch #305
Less is More - Water

What I did:
STAMPS: Sentiment- Butterfly Gala (SU! 2019 Occasions)
CARDSTOCK & PAPER: Whisper White(SU!) card base: cut 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 scored at 5 1/2, Whisper White(SU!) cut  5.25 x 4, adhering it to the card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals, after everything was built on it. Watercolor Paper (SU!), and Botanical Butterfly DSP (SU! Sale-A-Bration 2019) punched out using Butterfly Punch ((SU! 2019 Occasions). After creating the watercolor wash the strip of paper was cut into 1.75 x 5.25
INK:Momento- Tuxedo Black (SU!) Stampin' Write Markers:
TECHNIQUE: I'm sorry, I thought I had taken a picture.  I taped down a 4.25 X 5 piece of water color paper and used make Stampin' Write markers to lay down various colors.  I didn't completely fill in the color and saturate the paper, because I wanted the water color wash to do the rest. Colors used: Elegant Eggplant,Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise, and Pool Party.  After laying down the colors (I used the fat side of the marker to just scribble color across the Watercolor paper.  I used my aqua painter to generously spread water over the entire cardstock.  I went over some areas a few times, really getting it wet so the color would spread and bleed into the other color.  I even tapped the brush a few times on the paper to get the little puddle effects.  By doing larger piece of paper I was then able to wait for the paper to dry and cut the paper into strips for several projects.

Products available at my Stampin' Up Store:
Remember, through the month of March, for every $50 of product you purchase, you get free items from the Sale-A-Bration catalog.  This is where the Butterfly DSP came from that I punched out the Butterflies.  When you order the items to create this card, you qualify for the Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper

                       FREE SALE-A-BRATION ITEM:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year. It's been awhile, but I'm back! Last year got a little crazy: moved to a new house, sold our home of 15 years, and renovated the new one. We moved to a smaller house, which proved to be a little challenging. We certainly didn't need all the room, but grew accustom to it. We purchased a foreclosed home. Great price, but needed a lot of work.  We just needed to get it to be habitable, first. Cats took over the house for many months-need I say more? I had a vision for it, and much of what I hoped for, came to be. This is our 'Forever Home' so we will have time to make it our own through the years.  I have some of my favorite before and after pictures I can post another time. I want to get to showing you some of the fabulous new products from the Stampin' Up! 2019 Occasions Catalog.

Of course it's also SALE-A-BRATION Time! For every $50 you spend, you get free product!

 It's hard for me to pick one or two, but I will start with the beautiful florals. SU! doesn't have too many sets that have don't have sentiments with the stamp set.  Bloom By Bloom is one of those.  Only florals, stems, and leaves.  This is a beautiful set. I could see using it as a focal image or background.  My first example uses this Bloom by Bloom Stamp set. There are so many examples with this set using primary colors. The examples in the catalog have a Scandinavia look to them. Very sharp- I went with more spring color tones. With winter in Northern IL lasting several months, I wanted some spring color combos.
I absolutely love, love, LOVE my Stamperatus! There are so many things I can do, now that I have this.  Aside from the layers of the card itself, there are no other dimensions or embellishments.  I was able to stamp the flowers in various positions and then put it on the Stamperatus and stamp the sentiment 3 times, inking again before each time, to get this beautiful dark image. #simplestamping

What I did:
Stamps & Products: Bloom By Bloom (SU! 2019 Occasions) Sentiment: Incredible Like You (SU! 2019 Occasions) Cardstock & Paper: All SU!  Lemon Lime Twist cut 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4,  Black 4 1/8 x 5 3/8, adhering it to the card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals, White cut 3 7/8 x 5
Ink: All SU! Momento- Tuxedo Black, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Flirty Flamingo, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight.
Snail Adhesive(SU!) Tear & Tape (SU!) Simply Scored (SU!) Scissor snips.


This next Card I used  CAS(E) this Sketch #303 as my inspiration.  
Since I decided to come back to the Bloggesphere, I am coming back full force.  Back to entering weekly challenges.  Here is my first go at it, this year!  I wanted to use new Stampin' Up products and stay as close to the design as possible.  What do you think?

 What I did:
Stamps & Products: Incredible Like You (SU! 2019 Occasions) Sentiment: Incredible Like You (SU! 2019 Occasions) Cardstock & Paper: All SU!  Crumb Cake cut 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4,  Balmy Blue 4 1/8 x 5 3/8, adhering it to the card base. White cut 3 7/8 x 5 rune through Dot to Dot textured embossing folder (SU! 2019 Occasions)
SU! Designer Series paper: Needlepoint Nook cut 2 x 5 strip
Ink: All SU! Momento- Tuxedo Black, Balmy Blue, Granny Apple Green.
White card stock-used stitched Framelits oval (SU!), couldn't find my Scallop Framelits so had to cut one out using Cricut. The SU! Scallop Framelits would have looked much better.
Techniques: When creating the flower, stamped off Balmy blue for the lighter inside color. Used Silver Metallic thread, wrapped loosely around three fingers then stuck to the back of scallop oval.
Snail Adhesive(SU!) Tear & Tape (SU!) Simply Scored (SU!) Scissor snips.

What I did:
Stamps & Products: Incredible Like You Sentiment: Incredible Like You (SU! 2019 Occasions)
White SU! Notecard. These are fabulous! Finished card is 5 x 3 1/5
Ink: All SU! Momento- Tuxedo Black,Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green.
White card stock-used stitched Framelits oval (SU!)
SU! Designer Series paper: Needlepoint Nook cut  3 1/4 x 4 3/4
Techniques: When creating the flower, stamped off Poppy Parade for the lighter inside color. Used Silver Metallic thread, wrapped loosely around three fingers then stuck to the back of scallop oval.
Snail Adhesive(SU!) Tear & Tape (SU!) Simply Scored (SU!) Scissor snips.

By the way- you want to know the easiest way to make a card? Start with Note Cards & Envelopes. They're ready for you to make and send a card. Card has thicker cardstock for layering and embellishing. Such a deal: you get 20 notecards and 20 envelopes for $6.50. 
* 20 Whisper White cards: 5" x 3-1/2" (12.7 x 8.9 cm)
* 20 Whisper White envelopes: 5-1/8" x 3-5/8" (13 x 9.2 cm)
Hope you enjoyed these samples.  Plenty more to come in the new year.  You can go to the Stampin' Up! website and order all these products. Order through Stampin' Up! Online
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 You can get your items shipped directly to you.