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stamp review crew: forever fern

Hello, my crafty friends! I guess it’s been awhile since I have posted anything. I’m still here and creating, it’s just been a busy couple of months. A blog hop with The Stamp Review Crew is a great time to get back in gear. So, here we are, shining a spotlight on the Forever Fern stamp set.

I decided to go for a different color combo for these beautiful leaves – Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate, and Basic Gray.

For my first card, I colored some embossing paste with Coastal Cabana ink refill and spread it through a stencil. The photo really doesn’t show off the great texture on the card.

My second card features a beautiful background created by stamping the leaves in Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate and the splatter in Basic Gray. Great way to create your own background paper in any color scheme you want!

Thanks for stopping by! Continue through the blog hop by heading on over to Jay’s awesome creations! Or, if you are going backwards through the hop, head on to Mike’s great projects!

Thanks for stopping by! I do hope you will join me again to shine a spotlight on creativity!

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stamp review crew: tasteful touches

Hello crafty friends! I’m here with the Stamp Review Crew for a fun blog hop featuring the Tasteful Touches stamp set. This is a fun and versatile set. At first glance, it looks like it is only for vintage-y type projects, but let you creativity loose and see it can be so much more.

I am getting desperate for spring, unfortunately I’m in MN and that is still a ways off. My projects this time of year seem to work to bring spring into my house as much as I can. I went with a bright springtime color combo of Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, and Coastal Cabana.

For my first card, embossed the flower image with white embossing powder on white card stock. Then, I did some ink blending with Stampin’ Up!’s new blending brushes.

I took the Opal Rounds embellishments and colored them with the coordinating Stampin’ Blends. A fun springtime Hello.

My next card has a similar blended background, but this time I achieved it with water coloring.

I did a light watercolor wash of the three colors. Once dry, I stamped the lace like image in each color. Then I took a watercolor brush over the stamped images to blur them out some.

A fun springtime duo to showcase a great stamp set! Now, it is time for you to continue through the blog hop. You can move on to Charlet by clicking the NEXt button below. Or, if you are doing the hop in reverse, you can head over to Cindy by clicking the PREVIOUS button below.

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thank you for being so sweet

Hello friends! I had a chance to visit the Taylored Expressions store in November. It was such a fun visit and included a super cute make&take project! I was introduced to (and completely hooked on) Mini Slim cards. These cards are 3.5″x6″. I have been having a lot of fun creating in this size.

I decided to play along with Taylored Expressions #TEmakerchallenge for January.

I love the Rio color pallet: Strawberry Milkshake, Lollipop, Confetti Cake, and Blue Raspberry. I used it with the Zig Zag Mini Slim Stencil.

My “something that begins with A” is and anemone flower from the Stampin’ Up! Floral Essence set. I created the flower center by distressing some Lollipop card stock and gluing the paper fluff to the flower center. I finished off the card with a Simple Strip sentiment and some clear drip drops.

A cheerful card to send to a friend. Thanks for stopping by! Join me again to shine a spotlight on creativity!

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pcc #411

Hello friends! I’m here with my creation for this week’s Paper Craft Crew sketch challenge. I really enjoy using card sketches as a starting point for a card.

Sometimes, I stick to a sketch closely. Sometimes, I like to look for unique takes on elements in the sketch. This time, I did a bit of both.

I used a stencil and blending brush to create the “wash” background and a flower for the circle element. The rest of the card is true to the sketch. A fun card for a friend.

Come on and play along with the Paper Craft Crew! I’d love to see what you create with this sketch!

Thanks for stopping by! Join me again to shine a spotlight on creativity!

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pcc #395

Hello friends! Welcome to the end of September. It has been a crazy busy month as we have counted down the days to our daughter’s wedding. We are now 2 days away!!!

I did find time to play along with this week’s Paper Craft Crew sketch challenge.

Here is my creation:

The card base has a wood grain dsp panel on it. It kind of blurs out in the photo. I used Free As A Bird stamp set and Peony Garden, Forever Greenery and Wood Grain (retired) DSP.

I’ll see you next week after I recover from the weekend’s wedding frenzy!

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sunflower love

I’m back with another sunflower card! This giant image is so much fun to work with. It is great for coloring with markers or watercolor. Plus, the image looks great stamped on its own without any coloring. You can also stamp it on colored card stock.

For this card, I stamped it on Daffodil Delight card stock in Cinnamon Cider ink, leaves are stamped on Old Olive card stock in Mossy Meadow ink. I colored the flower center with a brown colored pencil and added highlights with a white one. For added texture I embossed the flower and leaves with the Subtle Embossing Folder.

Thanks for stopping by! Join me again to shine a spotlight on creativity!

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osat blog hop: card-pe diem

Hello friends! Welcome to this month’s One Stamp at a Time blog hop. The team has some wonderful inspiration for you around our theme: You’ve Got This or “Card-pe Diem”. I remember when the phrase Carpe Diem was really popular, right after the movie The Dead Poet’s Society came out. 1989, just after my high school graduation. We were Carpe Diem-ing everything!

I was thinking about this theme as I was playing around with the Cute Fruit stamp set. The little faces in it reminded me of drawing faces in my school notebooks. Instantly I knew what I needed to do…

How did I get those yellow circles? I turned the kiwi and citrus centers over and used the reverse side as a stamp! Stamp away and you get a card full of cheer smiling away at you!

Card or treat holder – both are a great way to encourage a friend.

To continue on through the blog hop, PLEASE CLICK THE BLUE BOX FOR A POP UP LIST OF THE DESIGN TEAM.

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stamp review crew: forever fern

Hello friends! Welcome to a bonus round of the Stamp Review Crew! Today we are letting the awesome Forever Fern set take center stage. This set has become extra special to me – I used it to make my daughter’s wedding invitations! I’ll share that after the wedding in October.


Forever Fern is part of the stunning Forever Greenery suite. The Forever Greenery DSP is absolutely gorgeous. As I usually do with Stamp Review Crew sets that are part of a suite, I decided to look beyond the suite colors and DSP to show you the versatility of this great stamp set.

I have worked a lot with bold colors this summer, so I decided to change things up and go for a neutral/ tone on tone scheme for my first card.

I started with a Crumb Cake card base embossed with the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder. Foliage is stamped in Crumb Cake and Whisper White on a Crumb Cake Stitched Rectangle panel. Sentiment is embossed in white on Whisper White and die cut with a Tasteful Labels die. Crumb Cake ink was sponged over to reveal the sentiment. Finished off with Polka DotTulle ribbon, Linen Thread and some rhinestones.

My second project stayed with a neutral background with little pops of color. I was inspired by a card I saw on Instagram by the talented Susan Wong. The card base is Whisper White with some of the In Good Taste DSP. I love this wood panel print!

The leaves were stamped in Just Jade and cut out with the coordinating Forever Flourishing dies. I also added some vellum leaves. The scalloped edge is from the Stitched Be Mine die set cut out of Magenta Madness DSP. The layers of ribbon add wonderful texture, as do the staples on the sentiment strip.

Forever Fern is such a wonderful and versatile set. It will be a staple in my studio for a long time.

Are you ready for more Forever Fern inspiration? Go check out the amazing projects Lou has waiting. Just click on the NEXT button below. Or you can go back to Heidi and her awesome creations by clicking the PREVIOUS button.

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paper craft crew challenge #390

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for the next Paper Craft Crew Challenge! Each Week, PCC issues a new challenge to inspire your creativity. The design team kicks things off to offer up some inspiration for you. This week it is a fun vertical layout.

I am trying to hold on to summer, so I went with a bright, summer fruit for my card using the Cute Fruit stamp set. I have to say the color scheme is inspired by my daughter Rachel’s bedroom. And the pineapple is a nod to her FAVORITE tv show (and one of mine) Psych.

I used the rock and roll technique on the pineapple base to get the two tone look. To make the pineapple stand out a bit more I used my black Stampin’ Write marker to color the edges of the cut out pineapple.

I can see so many possibilities with this sketch. I will definitely be using this one again. Why don’t you try it out for yourself. Then head over to the Paper Craft Crew and link your creation to share with us. I’d love to see what you create.

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stamp review crew: celebrate sunflowers

Hello, my crafty friends! I’m so glad you are stopping by today. The Stamp Review Crew is back to shine a spotlight on one of my favorite new stamp sets: Celebrate Sunflowers!

I liked this set when I saw it in the new Stampin’ Up! catalog. Once I got it and started plying with it, it quickly became one of my favorites. the giant sunflower is so much fun to color in. But, it is also great if you just stamp the outline image. Or add a watercolor wash background. Or….well, there are SO many possibilities!

I have been on a watercolor kick lately. So both of my cards use some different watercolor techniques. For my first card, I spritzed a panel of watercolor paper with water. Then, I stamped the flower and leaves on watercolor paper in Bumblebee and Old Olive inks. This made the ink bleed out. before it was completely dry, I stamped the images again to get back some of the stamp detail.

I added the Early Espresso center with my water painter. I wish I would have gone a little lighter. Maybe I should have used Soft Suede. The layered panel is a piece of vellum that I embossed with the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder. I think the wood grain print from In Good Taste DSP pack is a perfect base for this lovely flower. I finished off with some Linen Thread and a few Cinnamon Cider enamel dots.

For my next card, I started with a watercolor wash of Blackberry Bliss, Magenta Madness, Melon Mambo and Bumblebee.

I added some black flecks with my Stampin’ Write marker and stamped the smaller sunflower in black. Don’t you just love that large sunflower die cut! I went back to the In Good Taste DSP pack for the lighter woodgrain base and added a couple of bits of Bumblebee DSP. A few rhinestone and some Magenta Madness and Embroidered ribbon finish it off.

Celebrate Sunflowers is definitely a set you need in your collection! I have so many more ideas I want to create with this. Make your way through the rest of the blog hop for some more amazing projects to inspire you! I’m going to send you over to Mike and his awesome creations, just click the NEXT button below. Or you can go back to Kelly and her fantastic projects by clicking the PREVIOUS button.

Thanks for stopping by! Join me again to shine a spotlight on creativity!

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