Beautiful World

Do you struggle when making masculine cards?  Well, I usually do.  BUT this stamp set that I just got is making the task much easier.  Check out Beautiful World on page 26 of the Annual Catalog.  Actually, the whole suite is amazing - the patterned paper, embossing folder, stamps, dies, trim and the foil sheets.  Check out these cards I made last week with this set.

This card is a semi-CASE that one of our NC demos (Lisa Tedder) did during last Saturday's NC Demos Stamp Along event.  I made my card in silver - the globe, silver mat, and "flag" pieces on the sentiment.  I used the die for the globe and backed it onto a Misty Moonlight circle.  I colored the ribbon with my Misty Moonlight SU Blend pen.  To make the silver mat on the card, cut out the center of the silver foil and save it for die cutting the globe and flag pieces (a savings tip!)  Take a brayer and ink it up with  White Shimmer Paint.  Roll it over the Dry Brush stamp (or the Birch stamp) so the shimmer paint covers it.  Lay a piece of 5"x 3 3/4" black cardstock over the stamp and rub to transfer paint onto the black cardstock.  Heat set.  Next I took my Aqua Painter and splattered watered down shimmer paint all over the black cardstock.  Assemble the card using Misty Moonlight for the base.  I embossed the sentiment in silver.  I think it looks sorta like the Milky Way!

This card was a little bit of an experiment.  I embossed a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock (2 1/2" x 5 1/4") with the World Traveler embossing folder.  This folder retired a couple of years ago and I never used it.  It is one of the reasons I purchased this stamp set - because I thought they went together well.  I used a sponge dauber to ink up the embossed strip - in Misty Moonlight, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.  Next I inked the piece up with VersaMark and sprinkled Copper embossing powder over it.  I took a paintbrush and brushed away a lot of the embossing powder before I heat embossed it.  I tried to just accent the coast lines of the countries with the powder.  I mounted this piece onto Misty Moonlight cardstock.  The globe was stamped onto Very Vanilla cardstock.  I sponged a bit of Misty Moonlight and Crumb Cake over the circle.  The mat is Soft Suede which is stamped with splatters and embossed on the very bottom before adhering it to the Misty Moonlight card.

OK - this is a simple one but is very striking!  I used the retired World Traveler embossing folder and embossed a piece of copper foil paper.  I wrapped a piece of (retired) black ribbon around the copper piece and adhered it to a black cardbase.  I made a 2" tag in black and adhered one of the globes in the center.  I stamped the sentiment on a window sheet with Versamark, embossed it with copper powder and used the die to cut out the sentiment circle before adhering it to the globe.  

Another easy one!  The card is Very Vanilla with a black mat adhered.  Next is a piece of patterned paper that I found in my stash.  I sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink.  I used colored pencils to lightly color the globe.  The globe stand is copper foil paper.  The feather is stamped with black ink;  I used a yellow pencil to color the feather before using Wink of Stella on it.  It's hard to tell, but I stamped the sentiment on a clear window sheet and adhered it to the card.  The globe base and the inkwell are both on top of the window sheet.

This card actually looks like it is embossed but it is not.  I used the matching die and die cut 7 globes.  Before die cutting them,  I adhered them to a piece of Merry Merlot cardstock with the new (welcome back!) Adhesive Sheets (see them on page 162.)  Then it was easy to adhere them down to the 5" x 3 3/4" Merry Merlot cardstock.  I sprinkled gold Wink of Stella over the whole card.  The feather is embossed in gold and the little swirl is die cut from gold foil.  The tag for the sentiment is from the Tasteful Labels dies in Smoky Slate.

Picture Perfect Starfish

These are a few cards that Ashley made when she was here.  She used the starfish stamp from Picture Perfect (retired) with different backgrounds and embossing folders.  Makes you want to go to the beach, huh?  We are researching a possible beach trip at the end of August to Emerald Isle.  I haven't visited this NC beach before but one of the things we have to consider in our research is Corona-19 virus and how many cases the county has!  So far, Emerald Isle is our best shot with a low number of cases.  Let's just hope it continues!!

BLOSSOMS IN BLOOM bundle

Enjoy these cards using the BLOSSOMS IN BLOOM bundle!  

I LIKE YOU A LOT CARD

4-1/4" x 5-1/2"  

1. Stamp flower center image repeatedly in Just Jade ink around edges of Just Jade card front.

2. Die cut large flower pieces from Calypso Coral and Whisper White Cardstock; layer and adhere to stamped card front.

3. Stamp sentiment in Bumblebee ink on Whisper White Cardstock (4-1/2" x 1/2"; 11.4 x 1.3 cm). Notch left and right ends of cardstock and adhere to card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

4. Adhere Flowers for Every Season Gems to card.

PRODUCTS USED:

Blossoms in Bloom Bundle; Calypso Coral, Just Jade, and Whisper White Cardstock; Bumblebee and Just Jade Classic Stampin’ Pads; Flowers for Every Season Gems; Stampin' Dimensionals

 

THINKING OF YOU CARD

4-1/4" x 5-1/2" 

1. Stamp images in Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, and Just Jade ink on Whisper White Cardstock (4-1/8" x 5-3/8"; 10.5 x 13.7 cm). Stamp sentiment in Just Jade ink on Just Jade Cardstock (2-3/4" x 3/4"; 7 x 1.9 cm).

2. Die cut flower pieces from Calypso Coral and Whisper White Cardstock; layer and adhere to stamped cardstock.

3. Adhere Flowers for Every Season Gems to stamped cardstock; adhere entire piece to Whisper White card.

PRODUCTS USED:

Blossoms in Bloom Bundle; Calypso Coral, Just Jade, and Whisper White Cardstock; Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, and Just Jade Classic Stampin' Pads; Flowers for Every Season Gems; Stampin' Dimensionals

4th of July Lake Living

These are pictures I took when my daughter was visiting us.  Luckily, our boat was out of the shop by the time she got here.  It had been in the shop for about 3 weeks.  They had to order some parts and install them plus we were waiting for a new bimini top to arrive.  We were lucky and they all arrived the day before Ashley did!

Sunset on July 4th - waiting for fireworks to start.

Ashley enjoying her time off!

Our captain!

July 4th group selfie!

Friday night - we stopped by King Canary Brewery to have a beer after dinner at Flock.

My patriotic card I made for the 4th!  I used my SU Blends to color this DSP (Flowering Foil from Sale-a-Bration)

3 D POP UP CUBE CARD

What a great weekend I had!  Ashley was able to come for a visit!!  It was touch and go for a while, but she was finally allowed to travel.  She didn't find out for sure if she could come until late last Thursday so it was after midnight when she and Bogart arrived!  On Friday she and I played around in my stamp room after going to water exercise in the community pool.  Saturday we went out on the boat for a while and were able to watch fireworks on the lake.  Sunday we drove to Fort Mill, SC to get some peaches (Ashley's favorite fruit.)  On Monday, we did the water exercise again and played around with stamping some more.  Tuesday, again ... water exercise and back out on the boat for a couple of hours until it started raining.  The best thing that happened for Ashley on Tuesday was that she went to my hairdresser and got her hair cut and colored.  

Here are a couple of 3D cards that we made.  We watched a video by Debbie Henderson (on Facebook) to make this card.  It folds flat for mailing.

This one is Ashley's.  She used Seaside Shore (retired) and High Tide for her card.

Isn't it cute?

This one is mine.

I needed to put my birds up a little higher so they would show better.  I used Bird Banter for my card (retired)

So this morning when it was time for Ashley to drive back to Maryland, Bogart (her cat) was in his carrier .... until he saw Ashley with her suitcase heading toward him.  He quickly got out of the carrier and went into hiding.  We found him upstairs in one of the bedrooms hiding among the stuffed animal corner!  Can you spot him below?  It reminded us of ET when he hid in the closet among all the stuffed animals!

After Ashley got her hair done, we met Mom and Angela at an outdoor restaurant for dinner.

BONUS DAYS are here again!

Earn Coupons with Bonus Days in July and redeem them in August! Don’t forget… the Holiday Mini Catalog launches on August 4th. 

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.

Press-N-Seal Tasteful Touches

I love this card!  I followed a tutorial by Andrea Walford and made a few little changes.   It's not as complicated as it looks!  I used the flower from Tasteful Touches and the sentiment from Blossoms In Bloom.

I stamped the flower image 5 times onto white cardstock using the following ink colors:  Gorgeous Grape, Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Mango Medley and Granny Apple Green.  I then fussy cut each flower trying to cut as close to the edge as possible so not a lot of white shows.  Next I positioned the flowers where I wanted them on the card and then placed Press-n-Seal on top of the flowers, gently pressing the Press-n-Seal against the fussy cut flowers.  This is called the Press-n-Seal technique which I had never done before.  Press-n-Seal is a unique "like saran wrap but much better" product that makes this card much easier to make.  After arranging all the flowers on the card, I used Press-n-Seal to pick them all up at once.  This made it easy to stamp the leaves where I wanted them (with the help of my Stamparatus) and to apply adhesive to the back of everything and place it back into the original spot.  Such a time saver!  The leaves were stamped in the same color as the flowers but they were each stamped off once.  Using Tombow liquid glue, I adhered a 1/2" strip of gold foil paper to the right side.  Lay the Press'n'Seal flowers back on top of the stamped (leaves) cardstock panel.  Carefully pull back the Press'n'Seal off the flowers and put glue on all the flowers (except Grape).  Allow a few seconds for the glue to set up and then gently remove the Press'n'Seal.  Put a couple of Glue Dots for the gold thread in a spot under the Grape flower so it does not show.  Adhere the Grape flower with dimensionalds and add your text and a little bling.

Give Peace a Chance

This world just seems like it has turned upside down!  In North Carolina, where I live, we are in Phase 2 of re-opening and I'll be honest .... it scares me.  We have had an increase of confirmed cases since the state was opened up a little a few weeks ago.   I am still staying at home as much as I can, but wearing a mask each time I venture out.  I try not to overreact but honestly, I feel like a lot of people are just going right back to normal and are not taking the precautions they ought to.  We drove to South Carolina over the weekend.  Our first stop (with our masks) was Frugal McDoogals (a wine and liquor warehouse in Fort Mill, SC.)  The line to get in the store was funny to me but I was glad that the correct precautions were taken.  Next we went to the Peach Stand.  Same thing - people lined  up (most with masks) to get in the little market.  After those places, we drove to a little restaurant that we love.  They have the best fried chicken and veggies.   Yum!  Since we were there at an odd time (2:00), we didn't figure they would be very busy - plus, there are only about 15 tables in the restaurant and several had "do not sit" signs on them for social distancing.  By the time we finished our meal, the restaurant was almost full with only a couple of tables left.  Guess everyone else had the same idea as we did about going early (or late depending on what your meal is.)

Ashley just sent us these Steelers masks!

And if COVID wasn't enough for all of us to deal with ... the country seems to be at war with each other in terms of the unrest we are experiencing.  I feel like we are at a turning point.  It saddens me that a video of a black man getting murdered right in front of our eyes has happened for the world to stop and pay attention! 

Let's all sing John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance" which was an anti-war song.