Sweet Simple Fourth

This card is a combination of three things that came together perfectly. I have had this wonderful set from Papertrey Ink for a while - Vintage Picnic. I just love it. Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge this week is to focus on using STARS on our projects in any way we choose. I decided to go with fourth of July stars, and then I pondered my layout. Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #75 brought it all together for me.

I just loved working with the stars, the stamps and the sketch! My card is 5 1/4" square.

Here are my ingredients:

Stamps~Papertrey Ink's Vintage Picnic, Verve's Starstruck (stamped on the inside with River Rock ink).

Ink~Memento Rich Cocoa, Versafine Black Onyx, Ranger Antique Linen Distress ink, River Rock.

Paper~River Rock, Riding hood Red, Ninah Solar White, Soft Sky, Western Sky DSP (SU retired).

Accessories~Nestabilities, Copic markers, white mini brads, Dimensionals, glue dots, natural twine, buttons, SU Modern Label Punch, Sponge, SU striped 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.

Thanks for stopping in and happy Fourth of July weekend!

Cosmo Bella

I love this stamp - Cosmo Bella from Stamping Bella. I have had it for a while and not inked it up yet. When I ran across this sketch on Bloggabella this week, I knew just what to do.

I stamped my Cosmo Bella with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and colored her with Copics. I used white for my card base and added a layer of Dusty Durango. The background patterned paper is from s.e.i. The striped panel is the back side of the same paper. I took a chance using Rich Razzelberry ribbon and mat for the square piece. It's a little intense, but I like it. The green patterned paper mounted on the Rich Razzleberry square is from SU's Cottage Wall DSP. I used layers of foam flowers and put them together with a Basic Grey brad. The largest flower was white and I colored it with a Copic marker to match the Dusty Durango panels. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Chillax set. Cheers to you! Thanks for stopping in.

Stamp Simply Thank You

This week, Sharon's Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge #145 is a color challenge. The challenge colors are YELLOW and GRAYwith EITHER White or Ivory as your neutral and adding Black for a little POP if you so desire. I had this short piece of wide yellow striped grosgrain ribbon from SU that I have been wanting to use up. I started with that for my yellow piece, and built the rest of the card around it. I used this fabulous new stamp set I purchased from Waltzing Mouse Stamps called Very Vintage Labels #5. The stamps are designed to be compatible with Nestabilities Labels Five. Claire Brennan is the designer, and her stamps are gorgeous. There are many other sets in Claire's collection that are designed to coordinate with Spellbinders label dies. This set will get lots and lots of use. The possibilities are endless!! The sentiment is from Verve. I received it as a thank you gift with an order. Very elegant. I really love the way this card came out. Thanks for the inspiration Sharon!!!

Fourth Grade Memory Book

Each year, for the last four years, a friend of mine and I have worked with the kids in our children's classes to make memory books for their teachers as an end of year gift. There are two classes and 2 teachers. I have twins, so our family always has both teachers. Emile distributes the card stock to the class through our kids, and she makes photo collages from the year's activities for the book. I make the cover. The kids write, decorate, draw, attach photos - whatever they wish to do to contribute a page to the memory book. We decided that this would be our final year doing this. We are so glad we gave it one more go. One of the teachers was a brand new teacher. She did such a wonderful job with fourth grade. The kids loved her and she did so many great projects. As I read through the kids' memory pages, it was so evident that she really made an impact. The other teacher is a seasoned teacher. This was, however, the first time she received a gift like this from the hearts of the kids, and she loved it.

I forgot to take a picture of it at home, so here is a quick shot of it that I took with a colleague's camera. I CASE'd THIS creation from Theresa Momber using Back to School from Gina K. Designs. I stamped the globe and microscope images and used the masking technique to place the globe behind the microscope. I stamped the books image, cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals. I used Copics for coloring. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Techer's Apple. I really love the way this came out, and I am so glad Emile and I did this one more time. The teachers were both very touched by this gift of the heart. The children were very proud of their memory book. It was a great way to end a very happy fourth grade year!

I had a stroke of genious when I thought to use my Just Rite 2" round stamper and 15 point Times New Roman font stamp set to personalize this graduation card design. I have made many of these and the kids just love them!!! I CASE'd THIS card by Debbie Olson, personalized my cards with the school colors, the school initials and the graduation year. The stamp set is "For the Graduate" from Papertrey Ink. I love how these turned out and I have made many of them for this year's grads.

Your Couch or Mine?

I have been having a lot of difficulty making time to stamp. Life is a little crazy lately, but what else is new? Anyway, I just LOVE this stamp set, "On My Couch" from Papertrey Ink. I stamped the images on watercolor paper and water colored them with Twinkling H2O's. This was my first try with them, and I was really pleased with the result. When I saw Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #71, I knew just what to do with my image.

I turned the sketch on it's side to accommodate my sideways oval focal piece. I used "A Little Argyle", also from Papertrey Ink, to stamp the background right on the Rich Razzleberry cardstock. I made the side piece with Rich Razzleberry 5/8" polka dot grosgrain ribbon, Tempting Turquois 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, and Certainly Celery 1/2" grosgrain ribbon along with a paper scrap. Thanks for stopping by today!

Success & Dreams

"Tis the season for all kinds of celebrations, and I am trying to be ahead of the game. This is a graduation card for a friend's daughter.. her school colors are green & white. I love this new set from Papertrey Ink called "For the Graduate", and when I saw Jen del Muro's Skipping Stones Designs guest designer sketch for this week, I knew they would go together nicely. I really love this sketch.

There is some detail that you can't really see in the photo, but they really enhanced this card. The cap & tassel are stamped twice in black and cut out. I colored the cut out with a black gel glaze pen to give it some shine & texture. Also, the black circle in the middle of the focal point is cut from black glitter paper that I got at Target a while ago. I also used that paper for the star that is popped up on the greeting band. I am happy with the way it all came together.

Ingredients:

Stamps ~ Papertrey Ink's "For the Graduate".

Paper ~ Papertrey Ink White cardstock. Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Yo Yo Yellow, black glitter (unknown source), BasicGrey Origins DP.

Ink ~ Versafine Onyx Black.

Accessories ~ Nestabilities, Papertrey Ink Matstack 1 Die, Dimensionals, Swiss Dots EF, Sakura black glaze gel pen, atyou spica glitter pen, SY star punch.

Thanks for looking...