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.

NC Demo Sale-a-Bration January Blog Hop

Creative minds have been at work here in North Carolina!  Welcome to our monthly Blog Hop. I hope you are getting lots of inspiration from the NC demos blog hop today.  Our theme this month is Sale-a-Bration, which means a FREE project for every $50 purchase from Stampin' Up.

I am sure as a paper crafter, you are probably aware of the popular new craze called adult coloring books.  The book publishing geniuses really hit the mark when they started offering coloring books for grown-ups.  A lot of us didn't even know how much we secretly missed them!   Not only is coloring super relaxing and fun, but it also takes us back to simpler times - when all we had to worry about was making sure we put our toys away.  As a child, coloring and paper dolls were my favorite things!  I didn't play with baby dolls or do sports, but give me a coloring book and I was happy.  It was so fun to get a new pack of crayons and try out all the colors - especially if you got the super big package!!  Fast forward to our new Sale-a-Bration catalog and guess what?!  Yes, a designer paper just begging to be colored.  It is Stampin' Up's! answer to this fun, out-of-the-blue craze.  The Inside the Lines Designer Series Paper leaves you with the opportunity to make the colors of each paper your own.  Think of all the ways you can use this paper!

I have chosen to highlight the Inside the Lines DSP for my projects.  There are so many choices when it comes to using this DSP.  Hopefully, you will enjoy what I have done with them.

I'm excited to share these cards with you.  Each card is colored using a different tool such as:  sponging, watercoloring, markers, and sponge daubers.  Each method provides a different look to the paper.  While the cards are different from each other, they are simple to make with only a few additional layers and embellishments.

For the first card, I cut a 3" x 5 1/4" strip of DSP and colored it using Stampin' Up markers.  I used the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits to cut the white card stock (4" x 5 1/4").  The middle piece was adhered on top of the DSP which was then adhered to my white card.  The two pieces on the left and right were popped up with dimensionals.  I stamped the sentiment from Thoughtful Banners and punched it out with the Duet Banner Punch.  The final step was to sprinkle silver sequins all over the card.

 My next method of coloring was with Copic Alcohol Markers.  I cut a flower out of the DSP and used the Watercolor Pencils to color the flower.  I popped the flower up with dimensionals.  I used my Two Way Glue Pen on the flower and sprinkled it with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.  The sentiments are all from Thoughtful Banners and each one is popped up.  Can't wait to send this to my daughter!

My next card is watercolored using the ink from the Peekaboo Peach and Wild Wasabi ink pads and my aqua pen.  As long as you don't get your aqua pen too wet, the paper won't buckle.  I did use a SU marker for the darker orange (Tangerine Tango).   The sentiment (from Layering Love) is stamped on a piece of Peekaboo Peach cut out with the Stitched Shapes Framelit.

For my next card, I only used a small strip of the DSP (2" x 4") which was colored with Copic markers.  I used a lot of glue dots to hold down the pleated Sweet Sugarplum ribbon.  (You can find this ribbon on page 21 of the Occasions catalog.  It is the Succulent Garden Combo Pack.)   The sentiment is from Heartfelt Sympathy (pg 51 of annual catalog.)

For this card, I used the wonderful Watercolor Pencils found in the Occasions Catalog.  Sales for these pencils have exceeded Stampin' Up's forecast and are continuing to sell strong.  Because of the cost incurred in back orders, Stampin' Up has made the decision to place the pencils in not-orderable status as of last Thursday (1/26).  The estimated availability for them is Feb. 13.

I scribbled the pencils on the paper and then used my Wink of Stella to blend the colors.  You could also use an aqua pen (but not real wet) or a blender pen.  I have tried all three but I think I prefer the Wink of Stella (clear)!

My final card is super simple.  I used a sponge dauber and just daubed the Sweet Sugarplum ink randomly on some of the flowers.  I colored the leaves with the Watercolor Pencil also, blending it with my blender pen.  The circle is die cut from Stitched Shapes framelit.  I also die cut the flower from the Sunshine Wishes framelits.  This is a great set of framelits to have - check it out on page 194 of the annual catalog.  Not only do you get this flower but also the little butterfly, a heart and four sentiments (hope, love, congrats and sunshine).

I hope you enjoyed my take on the Inside the Lines Designer Paper and you are inspired to create your own cards using this paper.

Hop on along now to the next stop on the Blog Hop -

Tamra Davis -

Jo Anne Hewins

Michelle Irinyl

Tracie Evans Langley

Sharon Maranich   (you are here)

Laurie Meier