Butterfly & Blooms Birthday Card

Pin It Now! Hey crafty friend!  Today I'm sharing the birthday card I'll be making for my church ladies' July birthdays.

The fresh new patterned paper pack, All Abloom, is full of pretty patterns.  I layered two of them for the card base, and punched 4 different patterns with the butterfly punch and layered them, securing with a linen thread wrap.  

The vintage newsprint is awesome! It's Typeset Specialty DSP, and I used it for the "Happy Birthday" strip as well. 

I scrunched and bunched a knot full of Pink Pirouette seam binding ribbon for a bit of a shabby look because none of the fancy bows I made seemed to complement the card. 

The burlap ribbon did a nice job of warming up an otherwise sherbet-y card.  I like the way the butterfly stack turned out!

Inside:

I'm playing with these two fun card challenges.   Click on the pictures to visit them and join in the fun!

Who doesn't love choices in a challenge??  I picked a diagonal tic-tac-toe of BIRTHDAY, PATTERNED PAPER, & ANY SHADE OF PINK. Fun!

And this sketch is going into my permanent go-to file.  I flipped it upside down.  

Have a blessed and creative day! ~ Erika

SUPPLIES:

STAMPS:  From My Heart

INK:  Mossy Meadow

PAPER:  All Abloom DSP, Typeset Specialty DSP, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White

EMBELLISHMENTS:  Pink Pirouette seam binding ribbon, In Color Sequin Assortment, Linen Thread, Burlap ribbon 1-1/4"

Flowers for Mother, the kind that last!

Pin It Now! I always tell my husband, please not to buy me flowers for holidays.  They are overpriced and are gone in a flash.  Pretty, but not for long!  He asked what I want...I said MONEY, of course!  Or a foot rub.  He asked how much money :-O Haha.  Enough for my first SU order from the new catalog will do!  But I digress...

I made this little paper flower bouquet to send to my MIL in Florida.  It will pack easily, won't be a bunch of money to send, and will last for a long time.  She is wonderful to us, and she always brags about my papercrafts!  Awww!

A combination of flowers, butterflies, and elegant backgrounds create this little gift set.  I'm using the color combo in the current Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge #159 - Use colors Real Red, Summer Starfruit, Bashful Blue, and Basic Black.

The card is stamped in Summer Starfruit with the big background Ex Libris stamp.  What an elegant stamp!  The top window portion is a separate piece of Vanilla, stamped with En Francais, hand cut and adhered.  The butterfly is layered with a Boho Blossoms flower in Real Red and embellished with a Bashful Blue glimmer brad.  "Mother" from Delightful Dozen, is punched and finished with tiny brads.

The mini milk carton is also stamped with En Francais in black, and a bunch of paper flowers are formed with the Boho Blossoms punch and 2-3/8" scallop circle punch.  They're hot glued to unfolded paper clips, and floral tape is wrapped around the base of the flower and the metal stems. A little more decorating with the Elegant Butterfly punch and Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon, and it's ready to ship!  

What do you think of the color combo?  It's another grouping of colors that I would never, ever have chosen on my own, but I think its fabulous!  LOVE the challenges for breaking out of my bubble.  Won't you join in?  Click the pic below...

I was inspired by The Paper Players challenge for my project theme, too.  Give them a visit, their design team samples are just beautiful!

A blessed Mother's Day to all mothers, those who care for others like mothers, those who love their mothers, and to those who miss theirs as well.

SUPPLY LIST:

STAMPS: Ex Libris, En Francais, Delightful Dozen, Petite Pairs, Papillon Potpourri

INK: Summer Starfruit, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Basic Black

PAPER: Very Vanilla, Real Red, Summer Starfruit, Bashful Blue

EMBELLISHMENTS: Tiny Brads, Sponges, Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon, Real Red Stitched grosgrain ribbon, Glimmer Brad in Bashful Blue, Mini clothespin

PUNCHES / BIG SHOT: Boho Blossoms punch, Elegant Butterfly punch, Bigz Mini Milk Carton die, 2-3/8" scallop circle punch

Hello There, Herringbone!

Pin It Now! Well, I am not a particularly technique-y papercrafter.  I love my Big Shot, layers, and bling.  So when I read the HSS challenge for this week - Herringbone - I thought, "Yes, you mean Chevron". So out came the big shot, chevron embossing folder, and a card was born :)  What I didn't realize til I was going to post the card to the HSS blog is that Herringbone is a PAPER PIECING TECHNIQUE!  Hahaa.  So I'm up at 5:00 am this morning to show you the difference between Chevron and Herringbone.  If you're interested.  Where's my coffee?

So, the diagonal strips are herringbone. This is an adorable technique that I quickly picked up by checking out this tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers.  At first glance, I didn't much care for the wild patterns in the gallery going here and there.  But I picked a smaller block to work with, and as I was placing the strips, I was so delighted with the result! I loved it!

Here's a closer look.  Don't look too close, it's far from perfect.  But it was FUN to do. You have to try it.  

The little rain boot is from a new hostess set, Happy You.  It has a wide assortment of stinkin' cute images, including a wreath for Christmas, baby, birthday cake, and a pinwheel.  The doily it's sitting on is the Delicate Doilies Sizzlit #126999, and has a set of 3 doilies - super border patterns, zero space in your craft room.  

Here's my original card - Chevron!  Yes...  Not herringbone!
We actually made this particular card at my workshop last week, and it was a CASE of this Christmas card by Maureen Merritt.  I really liked this card, but once I was done with the herringbone technique, I am really pleased with the cheerful splash of color.

Won't you play along with HSS this week?  Click here to see all of the inspiration the DT has to offer!

I'm also playing along with The Paper Players, for their paper piecing challenge this week.  Cute ideas over there, too! Check them out...

Have a blessed and creative day! Erika

Can'ts Into Cans Hybrid {CAS Summer}

Pin It Now! Hi crafty friends!  Today's card has several purposes.  It's a hybrid card, using a really pretty word art download from My Digital Studio.  Makes for a quick and simple card, but the fonts really give it style!

My reason for creating this particular card is to give a shout out and a hug to two of my fellow design team members on HSS, Mindy Backes and Erica Cerwin.  They are FINALISTS for the Stampin' Up! Artisan Award 2012, which is SO prestigious and sought after. I'm so blessed to work with such talent, and I pray that they both win!  We'll find out later this week, so fingers crossed for these lovely friends!!!

I wanted it to look like framed art, so I used the Tulip Embossing Folder.  This week's challenge at my favorite hangout, Hand Stamped Sentiments, is the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique. How easy is this technique, and it's so simple to incorporate it in a card to give it GLITTER POWER!  Woohoo!  The butterfly is adorned with the glittered embossing powder, and that was all it needed. The heat setting really brought out the colors, too.

I'm also joining in The Paper Players challenge this week, using words as the main element of my card.  Perfect!

Hope you have a lovely week, and make some time to do something pretty!

erika

Papillon Potpourri with Paper Pleating for HSS123

Pin It Now!

It's Tuesday, and that means another fun challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments! This week's challenge is to use paper pleating on any project.  I made a card using a new favorite set of mine, Papillon Potpourri.  I just never get tired of banners and butterflies!

 I was crunched for time today, so I went fairly clean and simple. Just a couple colors, adding a few shapes and a pop out here and there.

My pleats are inverted with a little paper piercing down each square. These are so easy, just cut a length of cardstock and score continuously at 1/4" and 1/2", then it's just a matter of folding behind then forward. Play with a scrap piece first and you'll see how easy it is to jazz up your card.

 Each butterfly is punched with the new SU Elegant Butterfly Punch. The center butterfly is stamped with Melon Mambo (stamped off on scrap once to lighten up), edges are curled with the paper piercing tool, and it's resting on a cutout center of the Paper Doily Sizzlits Die. A Vintage Faceted Button finishes it off.

Come on over to Hand Stamped Sentiments and play along this week! I know you'll find a way to incorporate this challenge into your crafting this week!

I'm also joining in the 100th Anniversary fun at The Paper Players!  They challenge us to use ANY previous challenge. So I chose PP16, a lovely sketch, because I love repetitive shapes on my projects. 

On a personal note, I'm a little rushed in my posts this week because I'm in the hospital, sitting by my precious son's bedside as he fights a nasty infection as a result of some stitches received on Friday. Please say a little prayer for him! I believe in the power of prayer for healing and know there are so many of you out there that do, too!  Here's my feisty little Ryan...

UPDATE! Ryan is doing much better, and was released from the hospital to rest at home on oral antibiotics.  His infection was not the dreaded MRSA that is so dangerous, but a lesser but aggressive strep infection. I know it was prayer that's healing him, because the Dr. was so sure of the infection that they continued to grow it in the lab for an extra 2 days!  Every time they came into our room (in isolation), right up until we were released, they all still wore total body cover (?!?).  But Ryan seems to be healing quite well, and the hardest part right now is keeping him still enough for his leg to heal without those stitches that he needed in the first place! 

Thanks everyone, for your well wishes and prayers! 

Thank you! Have a blessed and creative day! Erika

SNEAK PEEKS BEGIN! ...with a Paper Players Challenge

Pin It Now! Oh, wow, my friends!  I am in possession of some gorgeous new items from Stampin' Up!'s Spring Occasion Mini.  This catalog is bright, fresh, and innovative.  Lots of brand new ideas.

I used my new stash for this pretty little treat topper.  The Paper Players #75 challenges us to use non-traditional colors for a Christmas project. So I used Blushing Bride and Wild Wasabi, with a smattering of silver glimmer.



The topper was cut from a new product called Framelits Labels, there are several of the same shapes you can cut with the Big Shot and the all nestle.  Nice!


The ribbon is new also, Pleated Satin.  It comes already pleated and stitched!  I formed it into a little Christmas tree. 

I topped my tree with another newbie, LARGE Basic Pearls!  They're big, 8mm.  More is more, right?!  It's backed with a silver glimmer punch from bitty punches, and the tree trunk is another snip of silver glimmer paper.


The banner is a stamp from Pines and Poinstettias, stamped on watercolor paper, and brushed with a little Blushing Bride with a watercolor pen.


I filled them with some yummy Mint M&Ms, tucked into a Small Cello Bag.  Don't eat them, though, I'm pretty sure there's glitter in there!  Hee hee!

Here's the Paper Players Challenge.  Why don't you give it a try??

Have a blessed & creative day! Erika. www.erikaclark.stampinup.net

Clean & Simple White Christmas

Pin It Now! Oh, how I love clean & simple cards, but they're SO hard for me to do! A couple of reasons-
1) I can't keep anything clean &
2) I can't keep anything simple.
Inkypinkies is truly what I am, I get ink on everything. And isn't it easier to keep adding things to a card til you're satisfied that it's brilliant?! {sigh}

But I digress. A clean & simple color palette paired with a beautiful sketch made a Christmas card as fresh as the driven snow...


I wanted to use almost exclusively white for this card, with just a touch of Night of Navy, so to give it the punch it needed but keep it monochromatic, it needed two things: Texture (Simply Scored) and Lighting (Stampin' Dimensionals).

The quilting effect on the background was done by scoring a sheet of Whisper White into 1/2" squares, then cutting down to the size I needed. I popped that background off of the card.

The rosette is a 1-1/2" of Whisper White, scallop punched along one end. Then scored at the dip in each scallop to give it a nice, uniform look. The centerpiece layers are (1) a 1/2" circle punch of white, (2) a silver glimmer snowflake and white snowflake layered with dimensionals, and (3) a medium Basic Rhinestone.

I used Crystal Effects to adhere everything, it tacks up quickly and is truly clear and doesn't leave a residue.

The vertical strip is a 1-1/2 x 5 strip of white, double scored along both sides, and embellished with silver glimmer paper snowflakes. 



The Joy (from The Sounding Joy) was first stamped onto Whisper White, then run thru the Big Shot with one of the Designer Frames embossing folders. Then hand cut and adhered with dimensionals.



Here are the two challenges I was inspired by...


   
An aside...
Every time I create something, I place it somewhere conspicuous so I can love on it every time I walk by (LOL, don't you do the same thing??!!!)  My son has started doing the same thing.  He created this catapult out of K'Nex, and here's what I saw when I walked by my srsly retro den this morning...

Haha!  He's just like his momma!

...and yes, those are reel to reels. And a TV from 1957.

Have a blessed & creative day! Erika. www.erikaclark.stampinup.net