New England Stamper

Happy Partridge Day

Seriously, tomorrow is National Partridge Day.  So in honor of this colorful bird and its beautiful Fall colors, here's a card I made using a new stamp set from the SU catalog called Autumn Days. 

If you need more ideas for stamping in September and or some wacky holidays to celebrate, read this post on Gingersnap Creations.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Autumn Days, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Bella Toile b/ground
  
• Paper: Night of Navy, More Mustard & Very Vanilla
• Ink: Versamark, Earth Elements Markers
• Accessories: Linen Thread, Earth Elements brads
• Tools: 1/16" hole punch, oval punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Visit my Stampin' Up! website to order the above products.

Gingersnaps Design Team

There is a super exciting post over on Gingersnap Creations announcing our new Design Team.  Please head over the there and welcome this group of very talented ladies.

Jean Beck

Debby Boltman

Jo Capper-Sandon

Elina Koutsouradi

Laura Liddell

Hels Sheridan

Erika Taylor

Joanne Wardle

Paula Whittaker

Contributing Artist Lynn Stevens

Here's a notebook I made for the Gingersnaps Rainbow Challenge and I did a quick tutorial this week on how to put it together.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Here's my card for the Crafty Creations Challenge this week - our theme is the farm.  Head over to get tractor loads of inspiration from the design team!

This card came together in a snap.  I stamped the Artistic Outpost image directly onto patterned paper and trimmed.  It's mounted onto Chocolate Chip and Taken with Teal c/stock.  The card base is covered in paper from the same package.  How quick and easy is that?

I'm head over heels in love with this new patterned paper from the Stampin' Up! mini - it's called Autumn Meadows and is perfect for Fall.  The colors are Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, More Mustard, Taken with Teal and Very Vanilla.  The patterns are all distressed and include a wood grain, peeling paint, leaves, stripes and some old graph paper.  Yummy!  It's one of the nicest SU papers for a long time.  It's available to order on September 1st.

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!

Supplies:

• Stamps: Home by Artistic Outpost
• Paper: Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip & Taken With Teal c/stock, Autumn Leaves d/paper, 
• Ink: Chocolate Chip
• Accessories: Hodge Podge Hardware (retired)

Rainbow Color Challenge

This is one of the cards I created for the current Color Challenge over on Gingersnaps, which is to use the colors of the rainbow. 

To make the butterflies, I attached pieces of found papers (old books and letters, sheet music etc) to sturdy white card stock and ran them through my Big Shot machine with the SU Butterfly die. 

I added color with SU pastels and sponge daubers.  And finished them off with a little bling and sponging around the edges.

The black background is a piece of embossed black c/stock I found lying at the bottom of my drawer (you never know what you'll find at the bottom of those drawers!).  The sentiment is from Art Phrases II by Invoke Arts.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to be on a regular blogging schedule soon.

Tag Challenge

Here's my take on today's tag challenge on Crafty Creations and we have an awesome sponsor this week, Trudette.  Head over to the blog and check out other dt's gorgeous creations

No time to chat today, it's my little girl's birthday.  I have a birthday cake to make then we're going shopping!

Supplies

• Stamps: Sentiment from Flair of Summer by ISC, sheet music by All Night Media
• Paper: Black Line patterned paper and Sparrow Story Card both from Jenni Bowlin Studio
• Ink: Distress inks
• Accessories: Chipboard Tag from SU, Vintage buttons from Papertrey, silk ribbon, hat pin, vintage trim

Happy Mail

Thanks to everyone for all your well wishes for my little girl.  We're home from the hospital and she's doing much better.  She's going to take it easy until school starts - only 17 days to go, but whose counting?

When I got home this week I had a package from Papercrafts Magazine waiting for me.  One of my cards is in the September/October issue.

Here it is:

My SU Build-a-Bear goodies arrived while we were away and I'm having a rubber play date with my friend Christyann tonight.  So, I will have lots of new samples and ideas next week.

Have a good weekend!

Sweet & Simple Sunday

I haven't been posting and probably won't post early next week because my little girl is sick.  She had Strep Throat earlier in the week and it became so bad, she wound up in the hospital.  I'm home taking a shower and then heading back to the hospital for the next few days. 

In the meantime, here's the clean and simple card that I promised earlier in the week. I made it for CAS26 challenge and the Pink Elephant Challenge #26.

All supplies are from Stampin' Up!

I did make a collage piece last Monday before she got sick and you can see that at Gingersnap Creations. Don't forget to check out our Design Team call - the deadline is fast approaching.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll post again as soon as I can.  Happy Stamping!

Fall Button Page

Yes, I know it's still summer and this is a Fall page - perhaps I'm looking too far ahead or perhaps I just can't wait for the first day of school!  This page is for Crafty Creation's button challenge and when you're done here, hop over to the blog and check out my fellow design team members' beautiful work.

I had a lot of fun making this page because it includes so many of my favorite things - ribbon, buttons, nature stamps and earthy colors. 

As it is a nature-inspired page, I wanted to add as much texture as possible.  I used textured c/stock, that was also ripped; the page edges were sponged with Chocolate Chip ink and grass from Inspired by Nature was stamped on the bottom.  I added more texture with four different ribbons, buttons and a lot of foam tape to give the page dimension.

The majority of the buttons are from SU's Button Latte collection and I stitched each one onto a piece of wide twill tape with Linen Thread.

Here's a close up of the tag:

I hope you are able to play along with the button challenge this week.  And if you have any questions about the page, leave a comment or send me an email.  All supplies can be purchased from my Stampin' Up! website.

Supplies

• Stamps: Lovely as a Tree (115026), Inspired by Nature (111656), Season of Friendship (111776)
• Card stock: Kraft (107070), Close to Cocoa (101341), Very Vanilla (101650), watercolor paper (105019)
  
• Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic ink (100908), Chocolate Chip marker (100071), Versamark pad (102283), Old Olive Classic ink (102277)
  
• Accessories: Button Latte (114333), Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelets (108431), Twill Tape (105245), Linen Thread (104199), Kraft Taffeta ribbon (109068), Kiwi Kiss striped grosgrain ribbon (retired)
• Tools: Cropadile (108362), Aquapainters(103954), Ticket Corner punch (107215)

Two Celebrations

Our family is celebrating two occasions today.  First, our wedding anniversary - I've been married to my sweet hubby for thirteen years.  I wasn't making my own cards back then, but we knew we wanted to send handcrafted invitations.  We found a local artist to make them and we still have one framed on our dining room wall.  (Sorry for the odd angle, I was trying to reduce glare from the glass).  I guess I liked the clean and simple look back then too.

And the second occasion is my sister-in-law Helene's birthday - Happy Birthday Helene!  Helene and my brother, Richard, had a beautiful wedding last summer in Stockholm - here's a picture of them cutting their cake.  Yes, there are Smurfs on top!  In fact, they just celebrated their first wedding anniversary too.

I was so happy to be able to make their wedding invitations - one side was printed in Swedish and the other side in English.

I did make my regular Monday CAS challenge card today, but I was camera challenged and not able to photograph it properly.  I'll post it in the morning...

Sweet & Simple Sunday & Some Changes

Happy weekend everyone! 

You might have noticed some changes to my blog over the past few days.  At the end of July, my design team term finished with Shimmerz.  I will not be posting as many Shimmerz projects, but you can click on 'Shimmerz Projects' in the sidebar categories section for plenty of shimmering inspiration.  I will now have more time to devote to my other commitments - my Stampin' Up! customers, Gingersnap Creations and having some good old stamping fun!

Enough of that, it's time to share another sweet & simple card with you.  This one is a little different, but it does reflect my split stamping personality. 

Some days I love to make cards like this:

And other days, I like to create projects like this (which are the kind you'll find on Gingersnap Creations):

Most days I find it hard to combine my love of vintage with my love of clean lines and white space.  This card is an attempt to do just that.  At the center of the main panel is a rusty old key that is embellished with a rhinestone and ribbon. The key is adhered to a chipboard heart covered with a scrap from an old dictionary and all this is mounted onto a silver paint chip from the hardware store.

You can see more of my vintage CAS cards here and here.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend and please visit again soon!