watercolor sunset

November 7, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Hey crafty friends! I am basking in the sun in Orlando! Today is check in day for Stampin’ Up! On Stage!!! I am so excited to celebrate Stampin’ Up!’s 30th anniversary with many of my demonstrator friends from around the world! Lots of fun, laughter, swapping, and possibly some shenanigans ahead. Plus, we get to see the NEW Occasions catalog and Sale-a-Bration offerings!!! Squeee! I’m so excited! I thought I would share one of the cards I made to swap with fellow demonstrators this week.

I blended Pineapple Punch, Mango Melody and Grapefruit Grove for a fun sunset look. The perfect backdrop for a sweet daisy flower. Stay tuned for an On Stage recap next week after I get home! I’m off to swap (and maybe a visit to Disney this evening!)

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

stamp review crew: farm house Christmas

November 4, 2018 By Mary Haugen

The Stamp Review Crew is starting off November with a fun holiday set: Farmhouse Christmas! This set is loaded with possibilities! Make sure you go through all of the stops on the blog hop. You don’t want to miss any of the amazing creations we have in store for you! As always, you can find the full blog hop list on the Stamp Review Crew page.

Growing up in northern Minnesota, this set brings back a lot of great holiday memories. My three cards today draw from those memories. For my first card, I wanted to feature the coordinating Festive Farmhouse DSP.

Of course, this set and DSP pairs wonderfully with the Wood Textures DSP. (Then again, what doesn’t!?) The card base and stitched circle are Pear Pizazz. I took a couple of leaves off of one of the Boxwood Wreath embellishments and three of the red rhinestones to create the holly. I think it is the perfect little embellishment.

For this next card, I wanted to feature the fantastic little truck. And again I went with the Festive Farmhouse and Wood Textures DSP’s. What can I say. When it works, it works! I colored the truck with Mint Macron and the tree with Shaded Spruce Stampin’ Blends.

This last card is all about texture with embossing folders and framelits. The Crumb Cake card base is embossed with the Pinewood Planks and the Pool Party panel is embossed with the Subtle embossing folder. I cut a piece of Sparkle Glimmer Paper with the snow mound die in the coordinating Farmhouse Framelits and layered it behind the fence cut from Wood Textures DSP. The tree is cut out and colored with Stampin’ Blends. Don’t you just love those tiny little red bows? There is a die in the Farmhouse Framelits that cuts out six off them at once! So much fun!

Did these projects stir up any nostalgic holiday memories for you? Leave me a comment, I’d love to know! Now for some more creative inspiration, I am sending you over to Holly and her fantastic creations! or you can always go back to Stesha and her amazing creativity.

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

snow is glistening

November 2, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Stampin’ Up! has a fantastic new Suite of products: Snowflake Showcase – that is available for a LIMITED TIME. You only have until the end of November to snatch this awesome group of products. You won’t want to miss out! There are two stamp sets. One is perfect for Christmas and one is for year round fun. Plus some awesome coordinating dies and fabulous embellishments: white flocked paper and snowflake trinkets! I LOVE IT ALL!!

I love the snowflakes in the Snow is Glistening set. I decided to recreate a card I previously made with this new set.

I started with a Pool Party card base that I embossed with the Pinewood Planks 3D Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I stamped the snowflakes in Pool Party, Tranquil Tide and Crumb Cake on a pice the Wood Textures DSP which is layered on a Tranquil Tide panel. The Joy sentiment is stamped in Whisper White on Tranquil Tide and wrapped with Linen Thread. It is a quick and easy card with a wow look.

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happy 21

October 31, 2018 By Mary Haugen

This past weekend was my daughter Rachel’s 21st birthday. When did that happen? 21!? Life continues forward far to quickly. I love you to the moon and back, Rachel! I wanted to share the “card” I made for her. She really likes pineapples, so I used that as my starting point. I decided to make an explosion box and somehow incorporate 21 pineapples.

I used Concord and 9th’s Pop Art Pineapple for the 12 pineapples around the exterior of the box. They are stamped in Stampin’ Up! Pumpkin Pie ink on Pumpkin Pie card stock. Four pineapples are stamped in Pineapple Punch and Granny Apple Green and cut out with the coordinating dies. I added the Happy Birthday Thinlit and some Braided Linen Trim to the Granny Apple Green box top. But what about the inside? When I saw this folded pineapple by Martha Inchley on Pinterest, I knew I had the perfect center for the explosion box. Thank you, Martha for sharing your pattern!!

I added eight tiny pineapples in Pineapple Punch and Granny apple Green and punched out with the retired tiny pineapple punch. I am so happy with how it turned out. What’s more, Rachel loved it! Thanks for stopping by! Join me again to shine a spotlight on creativity!

stamp review crew: little twinkle

October 28, 2018 By Mary Haugen

It’s time for a bonus round with the Stamp Review Crew! Join us for an inspirational blog hop shining the spotlight on Little Twinkle! This is a very fun set and is part of the sweet Twinkle Twinkle product suite. (See what I did there?) I have previously shared a couple of cards I made with this suite. You can see them HERE and HERE. This time around I wanted to try something different. I decided I wasn’t going to use the coordinating Tinkle Twinkle Designer Series Paper or similar colors – with the exception of Night of Navy. I also wanted to see if I could come up with something other than a baby card.

This card started with a White card base embossed with the Oh My Stars embossing folder. I stamped the sentiment and stars in Night of Navy on a smaller white panel. I used stars and dots punched from the Twinkle Builder punch in Lemon Lime Twist, Gorgeous Grape (for some reason, the Gorgeous Grape stars look Navy in the photo) and Coastal Cabana and glued them on randomly. The Take Your Pick Tool came in handy for this task! I added a strip of Night of Navy striped pattern from the Neutrals DSP stack and tied some Night of Navy Medium Bakers Twine. I love the bright color pops on this card.

For this next card, I decided to have a go with my Brushos. Would you believe I have had them since April and this is the first time I have used them! Crazy, huh? I started with a pice of watercolor paper. I wet it down and sprinkled some Prussian Blue brusho on. I moved it around with my aqua painter and added more Brusho until I got the depth of color I wanted. Once this panel was completely dry, I stamped the small stars and embossed them in gold. I stamped the star in Night of Navy and cut it out. I added some Gold Foil, Gold Glimmer Paper and Gold sequin trim behind the star for extra texture contrast. The watercolor paper panel is layered on Gold Glimmer paper and a Nigh of Navy card base. This would be a great card for many different occasions!

I hope now you look beyond just baby cards for this fun set. Make sure you travel through the entire blog hop for more amazing Little Twinkle inspiration! You can head on over to Tanya or go back to Stesha and remember you can always find the full blog hop list on the Stamp Review Crew page.

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

inky friends: dc 11

October 26, 2018 By Mary Haugen

It is time for another design challenge with My Inky Friends! This one is based on a card layout on page 122 of the 2018-19 Stampin’ Up! catalog. Here is my creation.

I used Dashing Deer and Detailed Deer Thinlits. I think this is my favorite Christmas bundle in the Holiday Catalog. The Crumb Cake card base has a Crumb Cake layer that I ran through the Corrugated Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. The sentiment is from Merry Christmas to All. I colored it and the swag with Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow and Crumb Cake markers to get the multi color images. It is hard to see in the photo, but the Cherry Cobbler circle was stamped with the Burlap background stamp before I cut it out with the Stitched Shapes circle. I finished off with a few strips of Festive Farmhouse designer series paper and some Linen Thread.

Make sure to check out what the rest of the design team has created for this challenge and then play along! Make your own creation based on the sketch and share it by linking it to the My Inky Friends page.

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

bubble wrap background

October 24, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Hello! I’m back with a quick tutorial for that fantastic watercolor background featured on this card yesterday:

Would you believe it is done with bubble wrap?! Seriously… it is! It is really easy, you just have to resist the urge to pop all of the bubbles! You will need watercolor paper, markers (I used Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie and Rich Razzleberry) a spritzer filled with water and of course bubble wrap.

Use your markers to color directly on the bubble wrap, starting with the lightest color. Make sure you color on the bumpy side, not the smooth or you won’t get the dot effect.

Next spritz the water color paper with water. Make sure to get it good and saturated. less water means a more dotted, less blended outcome.

Next press the bubble wrap colored side down onto the wet watercolor paper. You can lift and set back down to fill in light areas or to blend colors more.

Let the paper dry fully before assembling the card.

Every time you do this it will turn out a little different. Use less water if you want more of the dots to show, More water if you want it more blended. Color options are endless. Let me know if you give it a try! I’m off to finally pop that bubble wrap…then go get some more!

That’s a wrap for today. Join me again to put a spotlight on creativity!

october creative class projects

October 22, 2018 By Mary Haugen

I taught a Creative Class at Stamp-n-Storage on Saturday, October 20. We had a great time stamping and creating five fall themed cards. I thought I would pop on today and share those projects with you.

We had a lot of fun putting these cards together. Especially that last one! I was able to teach a fun new water color technique. I will be back on Wednesday with a quick tutorial for this.

Here is everyone with their finished projects! They all did a great job.

The next Stamp-n-Storage Creative Class is Saturday, November 17 at 1:00PM. You can find more details and register for the class over on the Stamp-n-Storage website HERE. I’d love to have you join us!

That’s a wrap for today. Join me again to put a spotlight on creativity!

a season of good cheer

October 19, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Hello crafty friends! I have a quick and easy card to share with you today. The Joyous Noel designer series paper does the work to give this card a wow. Don’t you just love those copper accents? They really make this card POP!

The DSP has a layer of Basic Black card stock underneath it to help give it a bit more depth. I cut a Stitched Shapes circle out of Crumb Cake and punched out the leaf punch on the edge of the circle. I put a circle of Tranquil Tide dots pattern from the 2017- 19 In Colors DSP stack behind the leaf outline. The sentiment is stamped in Memento Black Ink. I took one of the Galvanized Buttons and covered it with Copper Shimmer Paint. Once dry, i threaded it with Linen Thread and adhered it to the stitched circle.

That’s a wrap for today. Join me again to put a spotlight on creativity!

happy 20 my son

October 17, 2018 By Mary Haugen

I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that my son…my youngest child…my baby boy…turned 20 on Monday. I no longer have any teenagers. When did this happen? I swear he was just starting Kindergarten. Now, he is in his second year of college. I wanted to share the card I made for him. Full disclosure: it uses some retired paper and ink colors.

I made a shaker card with 20 candles in the “0”! The “Happy Birthday” (stamped in Crumb Cake) is from Picture Perfect Birthday. The banner is from Birthday Banners and sentiments are from Broadway Birthday. I used a white gel pen to make the dots around the shaker panel. I am happy with the final result, but it took me a while to get there. It is hard making a card for a 20 year old boy…um, young man….er, guy. I think I need more time to full grasp this milestone. But, another is right around the corner. In 10 days, my middle child turns 21!! Someone hit the pause button. Time is moving too fast.

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