Create with Connie and Mary--Valentine's with a Twist!

Welcome friends! Thanks for checking in this week to see what we are creating! This week we are making valentines projects with a color twist or untraditional colors. I immediately thought of using the color blue as we have so many fabulous blue shades to choose from! And I felt like blues would lend themselves to making a more masculine feeling valentine.

If you have been following along on my recent crafting journey (please follow me on Instagram—@stampwithbrenda) than you would know I have been having a lot of fun with our new fantastic Blending Brushes. I decided to use three shades of blue to create a background to cut with the Floral Heart Dies and unexpectedly ended up with an idea to create a partner card!

My original idea was for the card on the left. I used my Blending Brushes with Seaside Spray, Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight. Once I cut out the floral heart I was left with this amazing free floating heart that I couldn’t waste—so I used it to create the card on the right.

I ended up using a variety of products to create these two cards. I wanted smaller sentiments that wouldn’t take away from the floral or heart dies. The Valentine Keepsake stamp set was a perfect fit as the “Be Mine” and the “With Love” phrases fit perfectly in a 1 inch circle punch. Both sentiments are stamped on Balmy Blue card stock with Misty Moonlight ink.

I really wanted this card to showcase the Pearlescent Specialty Paper too. You can see how it looks when added to a white card base and the blended die cut background really pops on this clean canvas. The accent hearts on the bottom of the card are stamped in Seaside Spray and are found in the Always in My Heart stamp set.

I made this second card because I had this amazing blended heart cut out and couldn’t waste it. This card base is Misty Moonlight with the same little hearts stamped along the bottom. The designer series paper layer is from the Flowers for Every Season collection. The floral heart die is used to cut out the Seaside Spray card stock and the banner on this card is also cut from the same die set using the Pearlescent Specialty Paper. I really love how both of these cards turned out!

I can’t wait to see what amazing creations Melissa and Connie have designed for this week. You can go BACK to visit Melissa if you are starting here and NEXT to continue on the hop and see what Connie has created.

Flip & Pull Mini Album Project

I wanted to share a mini album I made for my Mother in Law for this past Christmas. I took a class that my friend and fellow demonstrator Jessica, @jessbstamps, offered in November. We put this album together over 2 sessions and then were left to add photos and embellishments on our own. It truly is a one of a kind project and gift!

This completed album definitely has some weight to it. Because the album was so interactive with photo panels opening and flipping in every direction, I did have to be more aware of embellishing. So while I didn’t embellish to my typical avid standards I am happy with what I was able to add into the album. I think it will make a really great keepsake as it is pretty well constructed. We used a lot of Tear & Tape on this project!

I want to note that because I do not have this album in front of me anymore, I cannot exactly remember the order of the pages. So the way my photos are shared my not actually be how they are in the album! Disclaimer! And I have NO measurements or anything for you as I did not design this project.

We have so many fantastic stamp sets to choose from that I had no shortage of inspiration to embellish this album. I added in a variety of ribbons and Silver Metallic Pearls through out and kept the colors true to the Peony Garden DSP. The base of the album is Smoky Slate card stock and we almost used an entire package to make this album and almost the entire package of Peony Garden DSP.

We have a very large family on the Nelson side. 19 grand kids! My nephew recently married so we are now at 20, plus all of the adult adults! So this project was a perfect way to showcase everyone and reflect on the many amazing family memories we have made so far.

My favorite aspect to this album are all of the fun pullout pages and the pages that lift up in every direction possible. Some flip up, some flip down! Pages pull out and fold it. Its actually quite spectacular!

There is so much to explore and see while looking through this project.

One of the gals that took this class with me called these little panels ‘Saloon Doors’, we all thought that was the perfect way to describe them!

I hope this project has inspired you! I would love to make another one and fill it with memories of my family, but for now I know my Mother in Law and extended family, who live a province away, will enjoy looking at this mini album!

Create with Connie and Mary--strip it down!

This was actually a really good challenge for me this week as I am not someone who typically does simple stamping or one layer cards! SO I had to get creative to see what I could come up with!

I almost always have a card base with a least one layer of card stock on top. Sometimes there is another layer of Designer Series Paper on top too! So I knew that the first thing to go with my ‘strip it down’ challenge was to stamp direct to my Basic White card base.

I decided to create a fun background using our new Blending Brushes and the Curvy Dies (available in the JJ Catty). I used Coastal Cabana Ink to blend the background and then tapped some water on top with my large Water Painter brush. I was just playing around and am happy with how it turned out. The water acts as an ‘eraser’ and makes the ink disappear. You can see it happen before your eyes!

This is the template I used to create my blended area

Once I had my fun area blended, straight to the card base, I reached for the Snail Mail stamp set. I just love the little mushroom image! I used my Stampin’ Blends in Granny Apple Green, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay and Purple Posey.

Adding in a bit of white twine added a little something, but I still feel like for my stampin’ style this card is pretty stripped down!

I stamped the sentiment, Hello, straight onto the area I blended and I resisted every temptation to add some bling or anything else to this card.

And you know what? I actually love this clean and simple finished card!

I can’t wait to see what the other gals create this week! You can go BACK to see Melissa or NEXT to see Connie!

Please feel free to leave a comment!

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!