Paper Pumpkin Mega Deal!

Today's post is a bit different for me, but I want to share a great deal with you that Stampin' Up! is offering.  No, I'm not going to ask you to be a demonstrator (but won't stop you if you'd like to be!).  I've been ordering a monthly kit that Stampin Up! offers called Paper Pumpkin.  Some months they include cards, other months are cute little projects or both (I'll include pics of a few past kits below so you can see what they've offered in the past).  About 6 months or so I started putting them together and they are a quick way to have cards or a gift on hand to give to someone. Anyway this kit normally runs $19.95 a month and for almost 31 hours Stampin Up! is offering it for only $5 USD to anyone who is a new subscriber!  That is a GREAT!!! offer and I would love it if you would give it a try!  

This amazing offer starts tomorrow, Thursday, June 9 at 7:00 PM (EST) and ends Friday, June 10 at 1:50 AM (EST).  Technically that’s just shy of 31 hours—a little more than one day, but it will go by in a blink! 

You will have to use the promo code: ONEDAYDEAL when signing up and order it HERE and it is available only between the hours I have listed.  

• Just a couple of details/reminders...
• The price of the kit is $5 USD.
• Use the promo code: ONEDAYDEAL
• Sign up through me HERE.  
• This $5 offer is open to first-time subscribers only. Discount applies to one kit for June 2016. After the first month, the price for the subscription will return to $19.95 USD.  You can log in and cancel your subscription anytime after June 11 if you don't want to continue receiving the monthly kit, but I would love for you to continue with it!  If I have enough subscribers (for those of you who live close to me) I'll consider doing a once a month get together where we put the kits together at my house (no buying something with the intention of using it, but  instead sits around!).  If you want to change things up and go beyond what the kit shows you would be able to use any of my supplies.  All you would have to provide is two-way tape just like at my stamp a stacks.
• Offer starts on Thursday, June 9 at 7:00 PM (EST)  and ends Friday, June 10 at 1:50 AM (EST).
• This is only available for month-to-month subscriptions, not prepaid subscriptions.

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!

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Stampin' Up ~ Botanical Birthday

Oops!  I forgot to post my cards for today's sketch challenge at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday!  I realized it early this morning, but couldn't get to it until this evening. 

As you can see we have another fun sketch for you to play with today.  I'd didn't follow it exactly, but you get the idea.  Head over to Try Stampin' HERE to see the other great sketches made with this card.  If you get a chance we'd love to see what you create!

It was fun to mix a couple of the 2015-2017 In Colors with a couple of the new 2016-2018 In Colors

Whisper White

Peekaboo Peach

Flirty Flamingo

Watermelon Wonder

Cucumber Crush

As you can see by the first picture I decided to make two cards with this sketch. :)  Just flip the background around, add the flowers, leaves and jewels...and you're good to go!

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! 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:

Stampin' Up! Wetlands Birthday

Today I have a card to share with you that uses one of my favorite masculine stamp sets...Wetlands.  There's so much you can use it for including the sentiments.  When I scrolled through all my Wetlands' posts to see what I made with this set I realized a lot of cards used just one of the sentiments from the set.  Today it has a sentiment, the wheat and the goose. :)  I made this card for my brother-in-law's birthday which was a couple of weeks ago, although I had made the oval part a while ago.  I didn't even know I had it until I went through one of my bags (that's always sitting on my desk!).  I knew it had to be made into a card. :)

It's been so long since I had made it that I had to think about what colors I used on it and how it started it out! lol  I think I started by sponging the water using Bermuda Bay (I masked the sky area with a sticky note first).  Next I added some of the grass using the wheat stamp and Pear Pizzazz, but not a lot yet.  I added the goose and colored him with a Basic Black Marker, and the grass with a Pear Pizzazz marker.  Once that was stamped I added more grass at the bottom by turning the wheat stamp upside down so I was only getting blades of grass.  Then I sponged the area with Pear Pizzazz to soften it up.  I used a blender pen to add some color to the goose.  I blocked off the goose, then sponged the sky using VERY light touches of Bermuda Bay and Rose Red (basically used a sponge and huffed on it  to get it damp instead of adding more ink to it).  To finish it off I used a white gel pen to add ripples and waves in the water.

You can see that I stamped a bit on the inside too.  I did the wheat on each side, then turned the stamp upside down again to add blades of grass in the  middle and used a sponge to blend it all together.

Bermuda Bay

Pear Pizzazz

Rose Red

Basic Black

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:

Sticky  notes