Around the World on Wednesday--Favorite Inspiration

This month we are exploring where we get our inspiration from which I think is super interesting. Sometimes I have an idea, or want to use a specific color, but get stuck thinking about what other colors might coordinate. My number one go to tool are the Color Coach cards that Stampin’ Up! has developed. I know everyone who is participating in the Hop this month will have some fantastic tips and inspiration for us to get inspired when we are feeling stuck!

The Color Coach cards are a Demonstrator resource found in the Printing Place. I am sure if you ask your own local demo she/he would be more than happy to share them with you. As a demo myself I have offered this as class project. We organized all of our Color Coach cards into one of our 6 x 8 albums with a card stock sample. I reference this book ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I just need a bit of color inspiration!

So for our project today, I opened up my Color Coach and selected a Calypso Coral Color Coach Card (say that 5x fast!) and used the 3 colors to create my project—Calypso Coral, Petal Pink and Sahara Sand. I used gold as my accent color to add that glitz aspect.

We have so many options to add gold to our projects—we can emboss with gold embossing powder, add gold foil paper to our projects, gold embellishments (so many options) or our brand new gold Gilded Leafing embellishment. The Gilded Leafing has a bit of a different look to it than gold embossing and I wanted to play around with it on this project.

Because I wanted to incorporate all three colors from the Color Coach Card onto my project I reached for my Blending Brushes which are a brand new tool being offered by Stampin’ Up!. I started by blending the Petal Pink color first because I was then able to use the SAME brush to add in the Calypso Coral! These brushes are totally amazing.

The Petal Pink is blended across the mid section of the card. I then added in the Calypso Coral along the bottom left corner and brought the Sahara Sand in from the top right. The Sahara Sand just gives our paper a subtle color but you can see the difference when you add the sentiment which is on Whisper White/Basic White card stock.

The sentiment is from the stamp set Always in my Heart

I continued the gold theme by accenting my sentiment with some Gold Foil paper cut with the scallop die from the Peony die set and some Gold Metallic Pearls.

I stamped both opposite corners using the Sale-a-bration stamp set Corner Bouquet. To apply the Gilded Leafing to my image I started by stamping it with Versamark and then adding Heat’n Stick Powder over top.

HOT TIP: To use your Heat’n Stick Powder successfully only heat it until it starts to glisten. Once this happens it has become sticky and you can add another ingredient on top. If you over heat or cook it too long, it actually loses its stickiness

After heating the powder you can add your Gilded Leafing. I have dumped out my jar (which will explode in volume) into a large container. You can press your card right into the leafing in the bin or you can add it with tweezers. Either method works but I prefer pressing it into the container. Once you have it attached it, it will look like a hot mess (trust me you are going to look at this and think ‘this ain’t pretty'), you need to use either a Stampin’ Sponge or the large Water Painter brush to brush away the excess and bring the detail to life. I was able to apply extra Gilded Leafing to my project in areas where I didn’t feel there was enough. You can use your finger to rub it with some pressure to your project as well.

In the end, I think it turned out pretty spectacular!

I am so curious to see where everyone else gets their inspiration from. I hope you enjoy our hop this month and if you live in Canada you can shop with me anytime by using the hostess code. Gratitude and thanks in advance! Up next on the hop is the amazing Tricia Butts from the United States!

Create with Connie and Mary--Pile it on!

Hello friends! This week our theme is “Pile it on” which means layers and embellishments and all the stuff you can possibly pile onto one card! I was excited about this challenge and knew that I wanted to use the new Sweet Ice Cream bundle.

Being on the Design Team is tons of fun as it challenges me to create new things and play around each week. I knew I wanted to create a soft background as my first layer so used the new Blending Brush with Seaside Spray ink.

After I had the background a nice light blue I stamped “Treat Yourself” in the same ink color (Seaside Spray) and then took my ink pad and water painter to create a spray of ink. I really piled on the elements for this first layer!

Creating the stacked ice cream cone was alot of fun. I started with the cone and Cinnamon Cider ink. The triangle of the cone is stamped off so it is a tone lighter than the waffle layer added on top. I love to get my icecream in a waffle cone, don’t you?

For each of the ice cream flavors (colors) I used two ink colors and a rock’n roll technique to blend them.

For the top layer I used Mango Melody and then rolled the stamp edges around on the Crushed Curry ink pad.

I added as many of the teeny yellow Ice Cream Corner Sprinkles as I could on this layer!

The middle ice cream scoop is Magenta Madness and Melon Mambo with some Wink of Stella on top.

The first scoop is Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape with some Gorgeous Grape sprinkles stamped on top. I added a few of the Purple Posy Ice Cream Corner Sprinkles around the base of the of the cone. These are easily applied with the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

I added a bit of the Gorgeous Grape 3/8 Sheer Ribbon (found in the Hydrangea Hill Suite) to the top left corner of the card. I stamped “You’re Cool” in Seaside Spray ink on the coordinating card stock color. A little bit of white twine from the Snail Mail Twine Combo pack was as added touch along with a few more of the Purple Posy Ice Cream Corner Sprinkles.

I also used the waffle stamp on the HIghland Heather card stock layer using Gorgeous Grape ink. It just gave this layer a bit of added interest instead of leaving it plain. The base of this card is Gorgeous Grape. I hope you love this project as much as I do! It actually has quite a few steps once you break it down.

Can’t wait to see what Melissa (BACK) and Connie (NEXT) have to share with us this week!

In a While Crocodile!

Are you loving the new January to June catty as much as I am? I love the variety of stamp sets in this catalogue. We have fun whimsy sets, vintage inspired sets, line image, Reversibles and much much more! I created this super cute and fun card with the new Oh Snap stamp set on page 47. Who doesn’t love a cute crocodile?

I wanted to create a soft water background so I used the new Blending Brush with Seaside Spray ink. I added a few little waves in the same ink color near the bottom.

The Croc is stamped in Momento Ink on Whisper White card stock (which has now been replaced with Basic White card stock). I colored this cute croc in with our Stampin’ Blends in Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce and Seaside Spray.

I wanted it to look like my crocodile was snacking on “Its Your Birthday”, so I used Highland Heather ink on Purple Posy card stock punched into a 1 inch circle which fit perfectly in his mouth.

My croc is popped up on Dimensionals as well to give it some height.

I added a couple little banners to the top left using the In Color 6x6 DSP stack and the woodgrain pattern. I added the Gorgeous Grape little heart on top. This cute little heart can be found in the Kangaroo Dies (pg 17).

I don’t think it matters how old you are, receiving this card is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face!

Color Fusers-January 2021

Hello friends! Welcome to our first blog hop of 2021! I can’t wait to share in creativity with the Color Fusers Team this year! I hope you leave every hop being inspired to create a project with our featured color combo and to start experimenting with different color combos yourself!

This month we have a color challenge that features FOUR Stampin’ Up! colors. Now I won’t lie, I did find this combo a little intimidating but I am actually really happy with what I was able to create! The featured colors for this month are Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Garden Green and Mango Melody!

I knew that the only way I could make sense of this combo was to create something with a floral vibe and with our new January to June catalogue there are so many floral stamp and bundle options.

I wanted to use a set that might not be at the top of your list but may actually surprise you with its potential! I used the Back to Back Blooms stamp set which is a ‘Reversibles’ stamp set. This means you stamp the line image using one side of the photopolymer stamp and then clean and flip it (reverse it) to use the other solid side as a filler. Its actually quite genius!

I actually really love how crisp and clean this card feels even though it has four colors in the design.

I started with a base of Pacific Point and created an second layer in the same color that is 4 x 5 1/2. I then layered Whisper White over top.

The strip of designer paper is actually from the Sale-a-bration paper, Berry Delightful.

I stamped the Melon Mambo and Mango Melody flowers on Whisper White and hand trimmed them.

The leaves are stamped in Garden Green ink on the same paper. But my favorite part of this card is the “Thanks” banner! Its so adorable and so fun! The Back to Blooms stamp set actually doesn’t have any sentiments so I had to bring in another set. One of my new favorites is the You Are Amazing stamp set. This set is the partner set needed to complete the You Are Amazing card kit. However, it has so much potential! You will see it a lot in my upcoming designs.

I trimmed the ‘Thanks’ from its original form and used MIni Dimensionals to pop it up on the Label Punch. I added some White Bakers Twine to the back—-I am so happy it is available again in a combo pack with Blushing Bride! Yay! I added a few Opal Rounds (LOVE) to fill in a bit of the white space and add some subtle glitz!

I am really so happy with how this card turned out and I decided I needed to add a little something to the inside too! I did some simple and easy masking with the large flower and added another sentiment to the inside. I kept the flowers to their line image only for that fresh crisp feel. I think anyone would be so happy to get this cute card in the mail!

I cannot wait to see what Nicolle has created to share with us this month. If you want to go backwards, you can and you will be visiting Melanie. I hope you are able to hop all the way around and please feel free to leave a comment :). Happy New Year!

Create with Connie and Mary-Favorite NEW Product!

Hello friends! Welcome to a new year and new projects and inspiration! So excited to have you joining us every Saturday for 2021. Wishing you and your family all the best as we kick off 2021 with a renewed spirit and intention. My theme for 2021 is Make it Happen. I have big goals to accomplish this year!

Our first weekly theme is FAVORITE NEW PRODUCT! I have to say, it was almost hard to pick because there are just so many fabulous items in the new January to June Catalogue (or the JJ catty as some are calling it!).

I landed on the Fine Art Floral Suite. Florals just have so much potential as you can use them on every single theme in one way or another. I wanted to kick off my first project share in the Create with Connie & Mary Hop with a great gift or home decor idea using this suite.

I can often find these rustic frames with the built in clip at Homesense. I snatch them up whenever I can find them! They are perfect for embellishing with your favorite stamps!

I started with a large base of DSP from the Fine Art Floral collection and layered on a mat of Poppy Parade. I stamped the flowers from the Art Gallery stamp set in two colors for each flower. The large bloom is actually designed to work this way as there are two separate stamps. The cluster of blooms is only a single stamp with one extra stamp for layering. I decided to use a marker to tap on a darker color.

I used the colors in the DSP to guide the colors I used for the flowers. The flowers in this DSP were actually hand painted on a canvas! I love this paper especially the sheets that look like paint smeared on canvas, so I chose that piece to stamp my sentiment “You Make the World...” in Versamark with Gold Embossing Powder.

The sentiment is from the Beautiful World stamp set in the Annual Catalogue.

I added some Wink of Stella on top of the flowers for a little shimmer!

The Art Gallery stamp set only has one stem image so I stamped it in Old Olive ink on the same color card stock and then cut it apart to look more like leaves. The Fine Art Floral ribbon was also perfect to layer behind sentiment (cut with Stitched Circle Dies) to continue the gold theme on this project.

I stamped “You are Lovely” in Old Olive Ink on the coordinating card stock and cut it with a die from the Floral Gallery Dies. I added a couple more flowers underneath the sentiment.

After I took this picture I thought…it needs something! So I went back and cut the word “friend” in Gold Foil paper using the Well Written Dies (see the first picture to notice the addition!).

I was so happy to give this gift to my friend Tammy. We met on the Alaskan Incentive Trip and have kept in touch ever since. This is a picture of us on the Greek Isles Incentive Trip in the infamous Hospitality Room. I absolutely LOVED this trip and am keeping every body part of mine crossed that we can see each other again in Maui this spring!

I can’t wait to see the other members of the Design Team are sharing a their favorite new products. You can go BACK to see what Melissa has designed and NEXT to see what Connie has created! Please feel free to shop with me if you live in Canada! All of these new and amazing products will be available on January 5th. If you live in Canada you can shop my Online Store or use my Hostess Code at any time!