Cardinal Ornaments

Hello All!

I'm so sorry for neglecting my blog for so long. Sometimes life just gets in the way of creativity!

This morning I created a couple of Christmas ornaments using my Big Shot. The inspriation for these came from the hat decoration on Gretchen Barron's Frosty Top Note Box. I just loved the little cardinal and wanted to do something with it.

My first ornament is actually a combination ornament and Christmas card. I cut the Scallop Circle with my Big Shot, folding my cardstock first and placing it on the die so that a few of the scallops would be cut off at the fold. This creates the base of the card. I cut the circles with my Circle Scissor Plus. The Whisper White is 3 3/4" and the Brocade Blue is 3 1/2". I used the Sparkling Jumbo Wheel to create the pattern on the Brocade Blue circle. I cut the pieces for my card front using the Birds and Blooms and Little Leaves Sizzlets. The snowflake was punched with the Jumbo Snowflake punch. I covered the snowflake with 2-way glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter for some sparkle, and I sponged the leaves and the cardinal with Whisper White Craft Ink for a "snowy" look. On the inside of the card I placed a 3 3/4" circle stamped with my sentiment. When my card/ornament was complete, I added the hanger. The Round Tab punch makes a perfect hanger! I attached it with Sticky Strip, just to be sure it holds through multiple handlings.

My second project is made completely from die cuts - no stamping! I used the Snowflake #2 die and cut 2 snowflakes for the base of the ornament. I did double my Whisper White cardstock before cutting it by gluing two pieces together with my glue stick. I did this to make the ornament a little more sturdy. After I cut the snowflakes, I covered one side of each one with 2-way glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Then I placed them "back-to-back" and attached them together with a rhinestone brad. By placing them back-to-back, I have glitter on both sides. I cut and sponged the cardinal and leaves the same as for the first ornament. I glued the leaves in place with Tombo Multi Purpose Adhesive, then attached the cardinal with dimensionals. The cardinal is hiding the backside of the rhinestone brad - the front of the brad is on the backside of the ornament.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Tammy

20 years and counting......

Good Morning Everyone!

Today my husband and I celebrate 20 years of wedded bliss, so of course, I had to create a card for my sweetie! It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to do, so I decided to keep it simple, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I chose Taken with Teal for my color because that was our wedding color. For the front of my card, I stamped a sentiment from the Happy Everything stamp set along the bottom of a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock. For the top portion, I added texture to a 2 1/2" x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock with my Big Shot and Perfect Details Texturz plate. I then layered this onto the first piece. I adhered a 3/4" strip of Taken with Teal cardstock across the center so that color would show through my ribbon. Then I tied a piece of White Organza ribbon around this entire layered piece and adhered it to my card front. After I did that I decided it still needed "a little something", so I stamped two hearts from the Priceless stamp set on Whisper White scraps and cut them out. These are popped up on dimensionals. For the inside of my card, I printed out a computer-generated sentiment on Whisper White cardstock and adhered it in place. I hope my hubby likes it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

Tammy

Sparkling Dasher

Happy Tuesday!

Today I have a card to share that I made with the beautiful Dasher stamp! I just love this stamp! This card has some extra sparkle created with Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder that just makes it extra special!

I began by stamping the Dasher image on Whisper White cardstock with Soft Suede ink. I then covered this piece with Versamark and Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder and carefully heat set it. The whole piece is very sparkly and pretty. Then I matted this on Soft Suede and Real Red, added a couple of silver brads, and set it aside.

I used Holiday Lounge DSP for the background of this card. Taken with Teal is one of my favorite colors, so I love this DSP! I matted two pieces of DSP on a Soft Suede rectangle and added Real Red ribbon to hide the seam. The ribbon is wrapped to the back of the Soft Suede piece and adhered. I then chose where to place my completed Dasher piece and adhered it in place.

I punched two snowflakes from Real Red and Whisper White using the new Jumbo Snowflake punch. I covered the Whisper White snowflake with Versamark and Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder and heat set it. I then layered the two snowflakes together and pierced a hole in the center with my Paper Piercing Tool. I decided where on my card front I would like to place the snowflake and pierced a hole through the DSP and Soft Suede panel. I then attached the layered snowflakes using a silver brad. The final step was to adhere this entire decorated panel to my Real Red card front.

On the inside of this card, I have attached a Whisper White panel stamped with a sentiment from Many Merry Messages. Along the bottom of this panel, I have attached a strip of the Taken with Teal DSP to dress it up a bit.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Tammy

Halloween Smiles

Good Morning!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing weekend! Today I created a Halloween card for the Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge.

I used the Pumpkin Patch stamp set to make this card. I just love these happy little guys! My colors are Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant (sounds like a menu, doesn't it?), and Whisper White.

I began by stamping my pumpkins on scraps of Whisper White and cutting them out. I stamped the grass along the bottom of my 2 1/2" square and decided where I would place my pumpkins, then I used a Stamp-a-majig to correctly place the little curly-cues near the stems. The larger pumpkin is adhered directly to the square, while the round pumpkin is popped up on dimensionals. I matted this entire piece on Pumpkin Pie (2 3/4" square) and Elegant Eggplant (2 7/8" square).

For the strip across the card I started with the Pumpkin Pie piece. I cut it at 2" x 5 1/2" and used my Scallop Border punch along one long edge. Using this border punch cuts off 1/4" from the original piece, so I cut my Designer Series Paper strip at 1 3/8" x 5 1/2", so there would be an orange border along both the top and bottom. To tie in the Elegant Eggplant from my focal piece, I added the narrow strip along the top. I added 3 Old Olive brads to one end of this piece. I stamped my card front with the Sanded background stamp to give it a little texture and then adhered these finished pieces to my cardfront.

My sentiment was stamped with Black Staz-On ink and punched out with the large oval punch. I then punch out two scalloped ovals in Pumpkin Pie and Elegant Eggplant and played around with these pieces a bit. Using only one of the colors didn't work for me - it just looked like it was missing something. Creating an Elegant Eggplant border around the whole thing, like I did on my focal point, made it too heavy. So I finally settled on just offsetting the Elegant Eggplant behind the Pumpkin Pie. I like how it ties the color scheme together and kind of looks like a shadow below the sentiment. This piece is popped up on dimensionals.

On the inside of my card, I attached a piece of Whisper White cardstock to make a nice writing surface. I added a third little pumpkin down in the left-hand corner.

Thanks for stopping by! Go out and make today a great day!

Tammy

Think Pink!

Good Morning!

As we all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The search for a cure is ongoing and hopefully we will see one in our lifetime. While you may not have personally had to deal with the challenge of fighting breast cancer, you probably have a friend or relative who has, and you know how devastating it can be. Pictured at right are some of the many products Stampin' Up! sells that are either tied to Breast Cancer or come in one of our many pink colors. For the entire month of October, I will donate 10% of the purchase price of these products to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. It is a win win for all of us. You get great Stampin' Up! products, and together we fight Breast Cancer. To place an order contact me by phone or email or shop on my website.

To view the products included in this promotion, please click here.

Stay tuned for some upcoming classes that I will be offering related to this promotion!

Make today a great day!

Tammy

Pretty in Gray Shadows

Hello Again!

What a beautiful day it has been here today! I have actually been able to open the windows and have a nice breeze - such a major difference from the heat and humidity we have had recently. Hopefully fall (such as it is in NW Florida) is on its way!

For inspiration today I went over to Splitcoast Stampers to check out this week's color challenge. The challenge today was to use Pretty in Pink, Going Gray, and Sage Shadow. In the description Emily mentioned that she likes to use pink in her Christmas cards. Now just this morning while I was out walking I was thinking, "How can I work some pink into some Christmas cards?" So I figured this was a sign, and I should do this challenge! Here it is!

I pulled out a Christmas set that I have had for quite awhile, Season of Joy. I really like this tree. I stamped the tree three times, once in each color, and cut them all out. I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the swirls for some sparkle. I mounted them with dimensionals on a piece of Whipser White cardstock cut to 2 3/4" x 3 1/8". This was matted with Going Gray (2 7/8" x 3 1/4") and Pretty in Pink (3 1/8" x 3 1/2"). Notice that the difference in measurements from the Whisper White to the Going Gray is 1/8", while the difference between the Going Gray and the Pretty in Pink is 1/4". This creates mats of varying thickness. I like to vary the thickness of my mats to add a little visual interest to my cards.

My card base was cut lengthwise (4 1/4" x 11") and folded in half. The front of my card was stamped all over with Versamark ink using the snowflake stamp from a current level 2 hostess set called Christmas Punch. The knot tied around the bottom was created with Whisper White Organza ribbon and Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon. I layered the two pieces of ribbon together and tied them as if they were one piece. On the inside of my card, I stamped some pink snowflakes and a sentiment from Four the Holidays.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a beautiful day!

Tammy

Two cards from one sketch!

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing weekend! Today I chose to play along with the Saturday Sketch Challenge posted on Stamping 411. Yes, I know it's Monday - but that's okay! I made two very different cards using the same sketch. The nice thing about sketch challenges is the layout work is already done for you! All you have to do is follow the sketch with your chosen colors and stamps and have fun!

Here's my first card:

This card was made with a card base of Old Olive, a mat from Elegant Eggplant, and Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper. I stamped the butterfly from the Great Friend stamp set with Orchid Opulence ink and then used a sponge dauber to add Elegant Eggplant ink around the edges. Once the stamp was all inked, I huffed on it to make sure the ink was moist before I stamped my image. After the butterfly was stamped, I cut it out and mounted it on a medallion created with my 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches and my Scallop Circle punch. The butterfly is only attached along the center, so the wings can be curled up for a 3-D effect. The sentiment came from the Trendy Trees stamp set. The background of this card was textured by running it through the Big Shot with the Flourishes Texturz plate (after the sentiment was stamped).

On the inside of this card, I added some Whisper White cardstock as a writing surface. I "fancied up" the corners a bit with my Scallop Edge punch. Here is how I did this:

I placed the corner of my cardstock into the punch at a 45 degree angle, centering it on one of the scallops, and punched. Nothing to it! After I punched the corners, I sponged the edges with Elegant Eggplant ink and stamped the leaves with Old Olive.

My second card was created with the Winter Post and Four the Holidays stamp sets. I used a color combination of Real Red, Chocolate Chip, and Kraft. All of my edges were sponged with Chocolate Chip ink to give the card a vintage look. The great scallops around my 1 3/4" circle were created using this great tutorial from Selene Kempton. Thanks for the awesome idea, Selene!

So, that's it for today! I hope you all have a great day!

Tammy