Wednesday Sketch Challenge

Can you believe this is the last day of March? Here in Minnesota it went out like a lamb. Not really sure what that meant. I think it came in the same way too! It's springtime in Minnesota. A bit early but that's ok, most of us are ready for it. Me, I still like winter but I will manage to make it through this beautiful spring weather!

"It's a Stretch"! That's the Stampin' Up! set I used in this weeks Sketch Challenge at SplitCoastStampers. This sketch had lots of layers which you all know is something I REALLY love! The more the better. I love it until it comes time to mail the card!!! LOL

I don't use this set much at all. I think I bought it because of the adorable Christmas stocking in the set. I need to stop buying a set because of one image in it. Oh my, how many times have I said that? I guess I could say it until I'm blue in the face and I would still buy a set because of one image! I will never learn!

Anyway, back to this fun card. I used the Dotted Swiss embossing folder on the Pretty in Pink background. The cupcakes paper are from a huge DCVW pack. I also used the "Sincere Salutations" set for the Birthday wishes. I stamped that on a scrap piece of Pink Pirouette card stock I couldn't believe I still had. But it went with the card perfectly. I wanted that piece to be pink but a very light pink. My other option was to sponge in the pink until I got it the color I wanted. But fortunately I got to take the easy route when i found that scrap of Pirouette Pink. Lucky me!

I colored in the cake with a Pretty in Pink marker and I gave it some highlights using the Regal Rose marker. I took the Barley Banana marker and went around the image to give it some color. just coloring in the cake was not enough, it looked too blah. This brightened it up and it also pulled in the yellowish color from the cupcakes paper.

All in all this was a pretty quick card to make. I think it took me longer to cut all the card stock than it did to color it and put it all together. Ok, the taping did take a while to do. But the whole card was done in less than 20 minutes!

Such a fun sketch. If you have time play with this card layout. Go over to SplitCoastStampers and see what the other gals did with this layout. That is the funnest part of this to me. I LOVE seeing how much different a card can look with working from the same layout. It's amazing and it's fun to see how creative these other gals are!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Happy Together Card

I just love this cute little quail set. It's called "Happy Together" by Stampin' Up! I always think of the Partridge family when I see this set. Is it a quail or a partridge? I'm thinking it's a quail. Do partridges have that "thing" on the top of their head? I haven't a clue! I just like the set.

My friend Denise make this card. I just love how she did the front part of this card. She used the Scalloped Square die. The card stock was folded and then cut. The top fold was put far enough down into the die that it wasn't cut.

It's such a cute and sweet card and I just love the layout. I have plans for that layout with other stamp sets. I have plans for lots of my stamp sets. Just with I had TONS of time to play!

Isn't this just the cutest card? I am SO fortunate to be among such wonderful talent!

Thank you Denise for letting me post your fabulous card on my blog!! You're famous too!

Thank you for visiting today,
Wanda

3D Technique

I can't believe I'm starting my fourth set of Technique Pages! WOW, that's a lot of techniques and there's still many more out there. I have a very long list of ones yet to do. Some techniques are very old ones but none the less they are a technique and in good time will go into the book! I even had to start a new album. My album only held three sets, 60 pages. I suppose I could add a few more pages but I don't what the album to bulge. Fortunately I have another 6" x 6" leather album so I'm set. I have one more but it's got my recipe pages in it. But if I have to sacrifice the recipe pages to make room for the technique pages I will!

Anyway, onto this fun technique. You need to use two different color inks to make the image look like it's 3D. This would be fun on the background of a card or scrapbook page.

Just a reminder here. I finished the third set and it is ready for sale. You can email me if you are interested in purchasing a set of these finished pages. I will be adding them to my web store next week so it will be a lot easier to purchase. The store figures out the postage and everything for you. I have not mastered how to work the store. I am capable of entering an item but I do not know how to work with the photo. It's got to be sized a certain way and I have not learned how to do that yet. But I'm sure I will and then I will be posting a lot more things quicker!

The best part about this technique is that I have it all done and boxed up! I had to spend some time in the hospital waiting room on Thursday so I brought some stuff to work on and I completed these pages plus part of the next technique page I'm going to be posting. I am hoping to post a page every week to ten days. The problem with the pages is getting them all put together. I make a lot of copies of the technique and there is a lot to putting one together. I LOVE to sponge the edges and that takes time. There is the typing of the page, the stamping on the background. Making the technique over and over and over so I have enough for each page I'm making and then putting those pieces on the page itself. Then the page is layered on top of a piece of coordinating card stock. Once all that is done they go into a box, a label goes on the box and it goes into a larger box to wait for the rest of the techniques in that set to be completed! Making one page doesn't take much time at all but to make a bunch of them takes a lot more time and I tend to make the pages, cut all the parts for it and put that in a box. Then when I have a road trip or have to sit in a waiting room I will put together the pages. And then there are times where I just have to sit at my worktable and put together pages so I don't get too far behind! I don't complain about it, I like making them but I do get a bit stressed when I get down to the last page or two and I have several boxes of pages that need to be put together. And there you have it, the technique page making saga! Aren't you glad you know? LOL

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Sharon's Bunnies Card

Sharon is one of the gals who comes to my home to stamp. She is such a sweetie and we all love to hear her stories! She's such a delight. She is a very good stamper too and don't let her tell you different!

Isn't this bunny card just the most adorable? I think it is absolutely the sweetest!!! And I think she did a fabulous job on it.

Materials used here:

Happy Easter is from the "Well Scripted" set by Stampin' Up!
The Four Bunnies is by Hampton Arts
White card stock
Melon Mambo card stock
Melon Mambo ink
Melon Mambo Polka Dot ribbon

This is a very easy and fun layout to play with. I have used it many times and I was glad that Sharon liked it and was able to use it on her cards!

Didn't she do a fabulous job?

Thank you for letting me post your card on my blog! You're famous Sharon!!

Thank you for visiting today,
Wanda

Thoughts and Prayers Card

Ok, I had finally gotten my Stampin' Up! butterfly Sizzlet and hadn't played with it. Last week one of my stampers had used it and I was SO jealous!!! SO I finally made a card that I thought the butterflies would look great on and it did. Don't you just love it when what you see in your mind actually looks great on the end product? I was pleased at the way this card came out.

It was a very simple card to make too. I do have one regret on it. I should have used Rich Razzleberry card stock behind the image piece instead of the polka dotted decorative paper. The only part of the dots that show are at the very top and they look out of place. Oh well, once you tape decorative paper the odds of getting the tape to come off nicely is rare. I have better luck when it's card stock taped to card stock than card stock taped to decorative paper. SO I just left it as it was. It's still pretty just not "perfect" like I wanted it to be. UGH, I gotta give up on this perfectionist stuff!

SO once I got the card done I could see that the front of it needed just a bit more and that is where the butterflies came in. The fit well with the theme of the card. The flowers on the card and butterflies certainly do go together!! These are the smallest butterflies in the die and they were just perfect for this card! I didn't think I would love that die as much as I do! I'm going to be having fun with it. Spring is around the corner and soon the real butterflies will be out. I hope to get some photos this year and I want to scrapbook them and add these butterfly dies to the pages. These will be used on a lot of my projects this coming spring!

This card can be used for many other occasions too. Like Birthdays, Sympathy (of course, that is what the set was designed for), Get Well, Mother's Day and Friendship.

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Magnetic Card Holder and Cards

I was going to just make one card and this is what I ended up with. I did make the card. I was going to leave it blank on the bottom to stamp what I needed when I needed it. But then I thought I would just go ahead and stamp on it and make another card and leave it blank. Well, I had the Stampin' Up! "Sincere Salutations" set out so why not make another card and use the stamps in that set?

First is the picture of the four cards I made. I took the Stampin' Up! "Boho Blossoms" punch and the "Sending Love" designer paper to do the "flowers" across the tops of each card. No stamping involved there at all. Just some punching, some pretty paper and brads!

Next I centered the Pretty in Pink satin ribbon on the front of the card panel. In doing that it left me the bottom half for the words. I made the birthday card you see, a thinking of you card, a get well card and a thank you card. A variety that is commonly used. I thought about using one of those card box patterns that are around on other blogs but then I thought I should design my own and that is exactly what I did.

The front of the box is done using the "Sending Love" designer paper and a ribbon is wrapped around the layers and a bow added. It made it just sweet enough to be cute!

The inside of the holder is set up for one side to hold the cards and the other side to hold the envelopes. And it all folds up like a wallet and it stays closed with a magnet.

The pattern is available in my web store. You can access it by clicking the link at the top right of the sidebar or you can click here to go to the store. You can use these for Stamp Camps, Craft Fairs, Hostess Gifts and Customer Appreciation Gifts. These would also make a great teacher gift too!

The pattern has diagrams, photos and step by step instructions for you to make your own card holder. You can decorate it as you wish and make coordinating cards to go with it. They really do make a lovely gift!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Sweet Pea Stitched Felt Flowers Card

I am so loving these Sweet Pea stitched felt flowers. I certainly wouldn't want to make my own! That stitching on them is so darn cute but I could not see myself sitting at my sewing machine sewing those! But as long as someone else took all that time to sew them I feel that I MUST use them!

As you can tell I'm using the same decorative papers as I did in my card yesterday. I guess that means I didn't put the paper away when I was done! I don't like to put stuff away. I have better things to do than clean up after myself! LOL Doesn't it save time to just put it all away when there is no room left to work? I mean why put it away when you are finished with it? Are you really finished with it? See I even save time and steps by not having put it away, it's at arms reach for the next time I need it! There is a means to my madness!

Ok, onto this card. This was a very simple card to make. The original was done by Julie at "Kewl" Stamps-n-more. She's got a few more cards on her blog I want to CASE if and when I get time. But for now I just CASED her felt flowers one. I did mine in different colors but it's still her layout. I also didn't have the stamp she used for the stems so I just drew mine in with an Old Olive marker. See, I can actually make due without! Hers was an Easter card and I made mine into a Birthday card. Isn't it just a sweet card? And OH SO easy!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Wednesday Sketch Challenge Spring Song

Last week one of the gals who was over stamping (Kay!) was using my Stampin' Up! "Spring Song" set. She had stamped and colored the humming bird. Now I originally bought this set because of the other bird. I'm not sure what type it is, it sort of looks like a robin but could be a blue bird too! Anyway, I had plans for that bird. Now to date I still have not used that stamp for the project I had in mind. Now when the Sketch Challenge was posted at SplitCoastStampers that set was sitting on my worktable and I placed the circle piece over the robin type bird and thought I would go with that one. I did stamp one, embossed it and began coloring it in but I was not pleased with the way it was going. Then I thought I would give the hummingbird a try. I like hummingbirds but they are not among my favorite birds so to color it was an effort to me. But I managed and I was pleased at the way the colors came out. I even went online to see what colors hummingbirds were. Well, I found out there are a lot of different kinds and shapes of hummingbirds. I did not know that and that find was of no help to me! SO I shut down the computer and went to my other worktable and started to color on my own!

On my card I used the Old Olive decorative papers a small piece of Old Olive card stock and Whisper White. I always seem to layer black on my cards when I do these sketches. I just think it makes the other colors pop.

I colored in the flowers with my blender pen and the Melon Mambo marker. Then I came back in with the Rich Razzleberry marker and darkened the flowers. The bird has many colors in it and honestly I don't think I can reproduce it!

I cut out the bird and set it in place with Dimensionals. If I would have just taped it in place it would have laid funny on top of that circle layer.

I do like how my card turned out. And the biggest shocker here is that I didn't use the "Vintage Vogue" set!!! LOL

This card can be used for a lot of different occasions. Gotta love that when you make a card you aren't going to be using right away!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Quick and Simple Get Well Card

One of my all time favorite word sets has been the Stampin' Up! "Sincere Salutations." I have always loved the font and the choice of words in the set. They seem to cover the occasions I needed them to. Plus they actually look like they belong on a card. Hard to explain what I mean there. They just look like a greeting card font!

This card is very simple to make. I just took a half sheet of white card stock and cut it at 4-1/4" on the short side. I folded it in half.

The Melon Mambo piece was cut at 4-1/8" x 3" and the center white piece was cut 4" x 2-7/8"

I stamped 4 flowers from the "Vintage Vogue" set and cut them out. I am SO loving that set too!

I used my piercing tool and poked a hole in the center and added a brad. Behind the flower is a Dimensional. I like to use these when a brad is used. It's sticky enough to hold the brad to the paper and card. If a Dimensional is not appropriate then I will use the Stick Strip tape but just a little piece, that stuff is VERY sticky and when you put it down you'd better be sure where you want it to be because there is no going back with that stuff!

On the center of the layer I added a piece of Melon Mambo Polka Dot ribbon. Below that is where I stamped the words using Melon Mambo ink.

This layout is very simple to work with and you can use it for many occasions. This would make a wonderful thank you card, birthday card, thinking of you card and even a pretty Mother's Day card.

I have a fun project coming up this week using this layout so stay tuned!

Such a simple card and a VERY quick one too!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Scalloped Envelope Box Weekend Project

With Easter right around the corner I thought I would make a basket. I wanted to make the basket because I thought that not everyone would want to have Easter baskets around that they would have to store. These are great because you can leave them as they are or add a handle, either way they are a basket!

For my basket I used a piece of Stampin' Up! decorative paper from the "Cottage Wall" pack. You need 4 pieces that measure 5" x 5-1/2" each and you need the Stampin' Up! "Scalloped Envelope" die. You cut out 4 and tape the sides all together. The bottom is done by folding a flap over flap. I didn't do mine that way. I just taped them together flat and placed a piece of Rich Razzleberry card stock in the bottom of the box. It gave the base a bit more stability and it is smooth on the inside.

I taped the flaps down on the sides and on the front I added white brads. I also added a border around the bottom. It was created using the Stampin' Up! "Scallop Trim" border punch.

This box was very easy to do. The most difficult part was deciding what paper to use! Seriously, it was a very quick project. You can make it a longer project if you'd like. Add a handle. Add some ribbon around it. Attach a design image. There's LOTS more you can do to make it a longer project. It's all in how much you want to embellish it! I opted for quick and easy since it was my very first Scalloped Envelope box ever! Yup, ever! I'd seen them around on SplitCoast and on other blogs but I had never had time to give it a try. And that was just too bad because it was so very quick and easy! But now that I know that I will make them for other occasions.

You can find the tutorial on how to make this box at SplitCoastStampers. This link should take you directly to the instructions.

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

FYI Card

This is another card I had made at Sue's "Card Buffet" last month. It's among my favorites.

I LOVE the colors (Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo) in this card. The Rich Razzleberry just makes the Melon Mambo just pop, doesn't it? And that white on the left side is the "Bride" specialty paper.

I LOVE the layout of this card too. I don't have this set but I can do this layout with other sets I have.

This is another one of those really quick cards you can whip up in a few minutes, pop it in the envelope and off you go! Not that I ever do that!!! LOL

This card layout is unique. The FYI is attached to the "Bride" paper and that is the front of the card. The Melon Mambo card stock you are seeing is actually the inside of the card. You can write within that square area of the FYI and it won't show above or below the FYI panel. I just think it's a fun layout to try. And it is even nice if you were to tape the FYI piece on top of the Melon Mambo and make the front of the card a solid piece. I don't think there is a way to make this layout ugly! Oh wait, I bet I could!!! LOL

It's a fun and quick card and not to mention pretty too! And it's very versatile too. You can use it for many other occasions. I love that in a card and layout.

This week I have some fun projects coming up so be sure to stay tuned!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Quick and Sweet Thank You Card

Not only can you use this as a Thank You card but you can use it for several other occasions too. I love it not only when I find a stamp set that is versatile but when I find a card layout that is too! And when you combine the two of them, well..... need I say more?

This is a card I made at Sue's Card Buffet last month. I never did get through the group of cards I had made. Isn't it just a simply sweet card? And do you see how easy it is to use this card for other occasions too?

I love that decorative paper. It's from the Stampin' Up! "Groom" speciality paper pack. It's not that I'm hoarding that paper, it's just that I have not used it much in my cards. I'm sure I will use it more when I find a card or layout that I think it will go well with. And with a card like this, the piece is so small that you'll still have lots of paper left over for other projects!

I don't know the name of the set used here. I need to start writing that down when I do these cards. SO much time has passed since I did them that I barely remember doing them!!!

You can even change the colors here (using this layout) and make this into a masculine card without the flowers! A quick card all around!

I just love the simplicity of this card and I also love how quick it was to make. If you need a quick birthday card you can whip this one up in no time.

Thanks Sue for the fun card with the fabulously quick layout!

And thank you for visiting my blog today,
Wanda

Sandi's Bunny Card

Wednesday one of the gals that were here stamping made this adorable bunny card.

She cut white card stock for the face and ears. The nose and inside the ears was sponged in.

The background is from the Stampendous set "Egg Boarders".

The words are from the Stampin' Up! set "Well Scripted." Don't you just LOVE the font? It's so elegant looking.

Isn't this just an adorable card? When (I never mention names here, do I? LOL) Sandi finished her cards I told her I just had to take a picture of it. I thought it was just TOO darn cute not to share it.

Thank you Sandi for allowing me to share your wonderful card with the rest of the world!

And I thank you for visiting here today,
Wanda

Jelly Beans in a Cup!

As I was cleaning up this HUGE overwhelming mess I have in our tv room I ran a cross these containers I had purchased empty from Stampin' Up! It was nice to just take the containers out of the package and be able to use them right away as opposed to using up the "stuff" in a container and peeling off the label. And it's such a great time saver too!

I filled these containers with gourmet jelly beans and then over to my stash of decorative papers to find some I could use that would look wonderful on top of these containers. I used the "Shades of Spring" designer paper and the "Flower Daisies #2" die cut. I cut out two flowers to make the one flower you see on the container. I stuck them together with mini glue dots and the same with the buttons. I used two glue dots stacked on top of each other. I had to do that because one wasn't thick enough to touch the plastic lid because of the thickness of the papers. Now if I didn't have the glue dots on hand I would have used Crystal Effects to stick all of these together.

Aren't they adorable? I made a dozen of them all together and they really didn't take that long to make. I haven't played with that die as much as I'd like to. I do have some ideas to do with it and can hardly wait to find some time to see those ideas in real life!

These make great gifts for the kiddies, teachers, friends, neighbors, etc. And they are easy to make too! You can get the kiddies to help make them, if they promise not to eat the jelly beans until you are all done!! Good luck on that one!

Thank you SO much for visiting,
Wanda