Teamwork Blog Hop

Good evening and welcome to the May Blog Hop by NC Demos.  For this month's blog hop we will be focusing on new products in the 2021-2022 Annual Catalog but with a twist!  Our project will feature at least one new product from the new catalog and some "old" products that carried over to the 2021-2022 catalog.  So these two - old and new - will work together just like a team!  My "old" product is the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set and my "new" items are the In Colors Stampin' Blends,  the sentiments on my two cards and the Artistry Blooms Sequins.

I decided to use the spotlight technique with the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set.  I used my Stamparatus to easily stamp the image and sentiment  in Memento black ink.  Then I colored them with my Stampin' Blends Markers.  I love the pop of color the new In Colors gave these cards.  

The center panel is 2 5/8" x 4". Double check to be sure your sentiment fits!  The Basic Black mat is 1/4" larger on each side of the center panel.  To keep the layers together while stamping, I put a small amount of adhesive on the back of the small layer and then pressed it a few times against my clothes to take some of the stickiness off.  (Another option is to gently use your Embossing Buddy on the adhesive.)

The sentiment "thanks" comes from Artistically Inked stamp set and "you are amazing" is from Color & Contour stamp set.

I just love these new In Colors and keep changing my mind on my favorite.  But, I'm pretty sure my fav is Polished Pink!  What about you?  

I used Pale Papaya Blends on this card with a little bit of Pumpkin Pie Blends.

I think this is my favorite using Polished Pink light and dark Stampin' Blends.

Now continue along to Laurie's blog and see what a great project she has for us.

Tracie Evans Langley
Amy Kinler
Jo Anne Hewins
Toni Campana
Tina Lesson
Sharon Maranich   You are here
Laurie Meier
Neidine DuPree
Frances Wagner

Celebrate - the Season and Fall!

Well,  almost a week later since my last post and I have no excuse!!  Just laziness.  I am addicted to a card game on-line (Hand and Foot) and it seems like I play it all the time!  I have even gotten my sister, Marianne, addicted to it too!  I did play cards with real people on Monday and Tuesday though.  Hand and Foot Canasta on Monday and bridge on Tuesday.  During this pandemic, I have played Hand and Foot with the same 3 gals every week.  We started in May and we are still going strong and look forward to it every week.  We take turns going to each others homes.  We all bring our own lunch and the hostess prepares a dessert for us.  It's been fun trying out new dessert recipes.  (Maybe that is why I have put on a few extra pounds!)

I have made a few cards lately and have some new stamp sets that I haven't opened yet.  Here are a couple I made this week.

I used the blender brushes to blend Highland Heather and Pool Party in the middle of the card and stamped the trees from Winter Woods in Memento Black ink.

A lot of stamp sets went into making this card.  I stamped the daisies (Daisy Lane) with Pretty Peacock on Mint Macaron cardstock and punched them out with the Daisy Punch.  The center is stamped with Bumblebee ink.  The leaves in the background are done a different way.  I used Cajun Craze, Old Olive and Bumblebee cardstock and the dies from Gather Together and Rooted in Nature.  The Cajun leaf was stamped with Cajun ink and die cut.  For the Bumblebee and Old Olive leaves, I pressed the dies into the ink and onto the cardstock.  Then I die cut them.  The Crumb Cake leaves are from Bouquet Bunch framelits (retired).  The sentiment is from Celebrate Sunflowers.  I adhered all the flowers, leaves, etc onto a circle from Stitched Shapes.  I adhered a 1 1/2" piece of Plaid Tidings across the bottom of the card.  I added a bit of bling using the 2019-2021 Faceted Dots.

Love those sunflowers!

What a difference a die can make!  I showed you this card  a while ago and I really liked it.  But yesterday as I was cleaning up, I found a white outline sunflower that I had die cut but put the adhesive sheet on the wrong side so I didn't use it at the time.  I didn't want to throw it away so I glued the center down onto this sunflower (below) (leaving the sticky part of the die face up) and poured glitter all over the sticky die piece.  Make sense??  Anyway, I love the way it looks - that white die really pops that flower.  (Now if I'd only gotten the sentiment stamped straight!)

What do you think?

Just remember .... dies can sometimes make the difference in what you are making .... plus you save 10% by buying the bundle instead of the stamp and die separately.

Happy 92nd!

Yesterday was mom's 92nd birthday!  She was so happy just to be able to leave the house and go somewhere different!  We had a family party at my house - Sonny and I, Mom, my two sisters and my brother-in-law.  It was a fun get-together.  I made chicken salad and egg salad and a fruit pizza for dessert.  Marianne made a relish tray and picked up tuna fish salad and made chocolate chip cookies and Angela brought along chips.  It wasn't terribly hot yesterday so we were able to sit outside on our deck and visit while Sonny and Greg worked on a project in the garage.

Here is the card I made for mom using the Celebrate Sunflowers set and patterned paper from Playing with Patters (6x6 pack).  I water colored the sunflower with Calypso Coral and Crushed Curry.  The leaf sprigs are die cut from bronze foil paper.  The little scallop on the side is from the Ornate dies.

Loving Sunflowers!

I've been playing around again with the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp bundle.  I love these sunflowers and they are so easy to color with the SU Blends.

I really like this sunflower on the Cinnamon Cider cardstock!  The pattern in the strip at the bottom is from Tasteful Touches which also can be purchased as a bundle.  The dies that come with this bundle are labels - Tasteful Labels Dies which I can see myself using them a bunch!

Another sunflower card - this time using Bermuda Bay and black cardstock.  

I trimmed some of the flowers off the front of the card and used them on the inside.  Makes a pretty inside.

I got to meet the newest member of our family last Sunday.  We had a family get-together at my sister, Marianne's house.  Derek (my nephew) and his wife brought sweet little Abigail who is 2 months old now.  I didn't get to hold the baby but mom did which was great.

Celebrate Sunflowers

Don't you just love sunflowers?!!  When I lived in Washington state, I had sunflowers in my garden and loved them.  Here are some interesting facts about them that perhaps you didn't know.

• Each sunflower is actually thousands of teeny flowers.  The yellow petals and fuzzy brown centers are actually individual flowers themselves.  As many as 2,000 can make up the classic sunflower bloom.
• You should harvest sunflowers in the morning, not the afternoon.  They may wilt if you clip them in the afternoon.
• Sunflowers are native to the Americas and were domesticated around 1000 B.C.  In 2014, 1.7 million acres were planted in the US.  The majority of those were found in North Dakota.
• A dried sunflower makes a unique, natural bird feeder.  Our feathered friends love to snack on sunflower seeds just like we do.
• Each sunflower can contain as many as 1,000 to 2,000 seeds (lots for the birds to munch on!)
• There are about 70 species of sunflowers.
• The French word for sunflower is "tournesol," which means "turns with the sun."
• The tallest sunflower on record was over 30 feet tall!
• Sunflowers have been planted to help soak up nuclear radiation.

In the new Annual Catalog, the Celebrate Sunflowers bundle can be found on page 13.  It is in the Flowers For Every Season suite.  Here is one of the cards I made with this set.

I stamped the base sunflower with Memento Black Ink and used my So Saffron SU Blends to color the petals.   The sunflower outline and detail center piece is die cut with Copper foil paper.  The very center is die cut from Early Espresso cardstock.  I die cut the leaves in Mossy Meadow.  I found the little circle embellishments in my stash and decided to use them for an accent.  The base card is So Saffron.

Close up of the sunflower.