Stampin' Up! 2016-2017 Annual Catalog

Guess what?!  

The new 2016-2017 Annual Catalog is here and ready for you to check it out!  If you haven't had a chance to look through the new catalog yet click HERE and have some fun checking out the new stuff Stampin' Up! has to offer!  

If you ever have questions or need anything from me please let me know.  I'm always available to answer questions or help you with an order.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Stampin' Up! ~ CAS Gift of Love

Today's card is a CAS one inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #238.  This was a very quick card to put together and I love that about it!  Most of my cards take me WAY too long to make, but I enjoy it so I can't resist it sometimes.  It is nice to whip one out very quickly every now and then though. :)

This card was as simple as cutting out two pieces of whisper white card stock, inking the outline of the stamp and the happy birthday with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Stamping the flowers with Peekaboo Peach and the stems and buds with Pear Pizzazz.  I added a little water to the lid of Peekabook Peach (with ink already in the lid) and using a paint brush flicked some color on the card stock.  I added a few pearls, put the card stock I stamped on onto the card base and I was done!

I can't add the Peekaboo Peach yet, but will be able to as soon as the catalog goes live...I hope!!

Basic Black

Pear Pizzazz

Whisper White

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on card:

paintbrush to splatter ink

Stampin' Up! ~ Sponged City

How about another card from early last fall?  I wanted something masculine and was in the mood to do some sponging at the time.  I also thought the buildings stamp from the set Calling All Heroes was pretty cool and hadn't used it for a bit so I created a simple scene using it.  It's always fun to see how each of the ladies' cards turn out after my stamp a stacks.  All similar, yet their own fun creation!  I love showing the ladies that they can make cards that they thought they couldn't!  I admit that I challenge them with at least one card each time. :)  They keep coming back so they must enjoy it!

Not a lot of colors here, but I like the look of them together...

Basic Black

Basic Gray

Smoky Slate

Whisper White

Marina Mist

This scene is pretty easy to create.  I started by stamping the "city" with Basic Black onto Whisper White cardstock.  Next I punched out a 1-3/4" circle from scrap paper to use as a mask. I attached it with just a touch of removable adhesive.  Using a sponge and Marina Mist I got busy sponging.  For this card I dabbed it up and down...a lot! lol  I started around the moon.  I wanted it to be the lightest around that and to get darker as it got farther away.  Once I had everything sponged lightly all over I started at the corners and worked my way inward until I was happy with how it looked.  I took off the moon mask and assembled my card after I knew the sponged ink was dry.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Stampin' Up ~ Birthday Bird

Today's card is one that I made for one of my stamp a stacks WAY back in September of 2015.  I saw it just sitting as one of my posts that was never posted.  I figured now was as good of a time as any to add some words to the lonely pictures and post it. :)

I love this stamp set and I'm sad to see it go.  I might just keep it around for a little while instead of selling it.  Hmm...guess I'll have to wait and see.  Since I made this card back in September I have to be honest and say I have NO clue what ink I used!  I'll attempt to take a stab at it and hopefully I remember correctly! 

Using two pieces of watercolor paper I place the little piece of watercolor paper directly on top of the bigger piece of watercolor paper, positioning it where I want it to be placed on the card and tack it on with just a bit of two-way tape.  Then I stamped my branches and bird using StazOn Black.  There will be a gap and no leaves when you stamp the branches, but the bare area will be covered up when you add the colored paper later. After taking them apart I used an aqua painter and colored the leaves with Pear Pizzazz.  To make them two-toned I just used less water with my ink to darken it.  I colored the fruit or buds, whatever they are, with Tangelo Twist and did the same thing I did with the leaves...colored them light the first time and darkened them in.  I colored the branches and the birds feet with crumb cake.  To color the bird I think I did the whole bird with a light layer of Crumb Cake, then I added some Soft Suede to his head and a little to his wings.  It looks like I used Cajun Craze too, so I'll go with that color. :)  I did dab the bird's throat area with a damp paper towel to lift some of the color.  To finish it off I added the shadow under the bird using Crumb Cake. After everything was dry  I put all of my layers together (sorry, I don't remember the size of any of the papers) to complete the card.  

Basic Black

Soft Suede

Crumb Cake

Cajun Craze

Tangelo Twist

Crushed Curry

Pear Pizzazz

Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Watercolor Paper from local craft store

Stampin' Up! ~ Hello Summer

Today I have a cute little square card for you inspired by this week's sketch over at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday.  Usually I'm all about flowers, but the theme is summer fun and this stamp from the set Happy Home just made me think of some summer fun. :)

This is the sketch we're playing with at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday.  Click HERE to see all of the other great cards made by the design team.  And if you get a chance to play along we'd love to see what you create! :)

Basic Black

Real Red

So Saffron

Pear Pizzazz

Soft Sky

Night of Navy

To make this card I cut a 2-3/4" circle out of watercolor paper, and a 3-3/16" circle using Soft Sky.  My card base is watercolor paper also and is 4-1/4" x 8-1/2" and scored at 4-1/4".  I started by inking my stamp using Basic Black Archival because it won't bleed.  Once that was stamped I wet the area under the hill with my aqua painter, then added a bit of Pear Pizzazz.  While that was drying I wet the sky area, then filled it in with a bit of Soft Sky.  I went back down into the grass and added more Pear Pizzaz to add some shadows and to add a little more color.  Pear Pizzazz breaks down into browns and yellows also so it looks like I used more than one color, but I didn't.  Then I went back up into the sky and added some more Soft Sky here and there so it had a little detail in it.  Under the circles you can see I added a bit of Soft sky at the top and Pear Pizzazz at the bottom to fill in for the stars from the sketch.  I punched out the sun in So Saffron using the 3/4" circle punch and layered it over two of the Petite Petal punched flowers to give the sun some rays.  I stamped Hello at the bottom and the card is done. :)

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Watercolor paper from local craft store

Fabulous Flora (sentiment)

Stampin' Up! ~ Gift of Love in Watercolor

Usually when I do my pre-order for the Stampin' Up! annual catalog I hold off buying any of the hostess sets, but this time around I wanted to get my hands on a couple of them right away because they made me think Watercolor!  That's exactly what I did with today's card that I made for my mom's birthday. :)

I have to say the picture of this card does not reflect how the colors actually look for some reason.  Yes, I used Pear Pizzazz and that color looks right, but I also used Flirty Flamingo, Peekaboo Peach and Soft Sky (which you can't see at all unless you use a magnifying glass! lol).  The picture makes it look more like I used Calypso Coral.  Anyway I inked the leaves using a Pear Pizzazz Stampin' Write Marker and inked the flowers all over with Flirty Flamingo and went back in and used Peekaboo Peach here and there.  I stamped it on watercolor paper, then used an aqua painter to color the flowers and leaves in with the ink that I stamped the image with.  Since that waters down the image I reinked the stamp like the first time, spritzed it a couple of times (from a good 10 inches away) and using the Stamp-a-ma-jig stamped over the image again.  I used the aqua painter to blend in some of the color here and there again, but not over the whole image.  After that was done I used Soft Sky just next to the image.  I'd put the ink on right next to the image, then clean the aqua painter and pull the color out so it was the darkest next to the image and lightened up after I pulled it out.  To finish it off I flicked a little Pear Pizzazz and a mixture of Flirty Flamingo and Peekaboo Peach and stamped Happy Birthday.

I guess I'm going to skip my normal color blocks today since the new In Colors aren't available yet in that format, but I'm sure they will be soon. :)

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Watercolor paper from local craft store

The Smoky Mountains in Watercolor

Have you ever been to the Smoky Mountains?  If not you're missing out on something beautiful!  We had a chance to go there again not too long ago to celebrate my hubby's 50th birthday a little early.  My In-laws invited all of my hubby's siblings and spouses for a wonderful and relaxing vacation to Tennessee.  We stayed in a cabin that was pretty high up and we had three different levels in our cabin that we could look out on every morning and evening.  We had a couple of beautiful sunsets to watch that's for sure!

Since I definitely needed to write a thank you to them I thought, "Why not try to watercolor the Smoky Mountains for my thank you card".  Now I can't say they look like this at all, but for my first try I didn't think they turned out too bad.  And let's just say I added things here and there that I wasn't planning on adding and did a bit of trimming by the time it was done! lol  Now I can't forget to add that the sketch for this card was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #237 and I turned it on its side.  It doesn't match the sketch exactly either because I trimmed it down more than I originally planned on because there were just some areas that I did not like, so off they went!   

The two mountain ranges in the back were made using the same color even though they look different.  Since the sunset was pink when I added the blue it turned a lavender color.  Then it turned purple the next time because the lavender was there and when I added more blue it turned purple.  Then I mixed a bit of blue and green for the middle mountain range.  I added a bit  more green to the mixture and yet a lot more for the final front mountain range.  It was definitely a live and learn (really paint and learn) experience for this picture, but I wasn't about to start over after all the work I had put into it!

Yes, believe it or not these are the colors I used.  By mixing them I came up with colors that were not anything like the original.  I have to say it was pretty fun seeing the colors that were made each time I added a new color.

Marina Mist

Watermelon Wonder

Soft Sky

Mint Macaron

Mossy Meadow

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card: