Sailing, Sailing...

 I saw this idea on Pinterest but it wasn't until i make one that I realized how clever this was. You just cut one of the triangles from the Paper Pumpkin kit with the little adhesive tab attached. Then cut off the tab and flip it over using the adhesive strip already on it to make the sailboat. Then cut the triangle down the middle. I did cut a little off one side to make the sails a different size., The largest sail was adhered using a dimesional . All sailboat pieces were adhered to a piece of sponged Marina Mist cardstock. I used a torn sheet of copy paper and repositioned it as I sponged for the wave effect. A little Marina Mist  enamel shape or candy dot was added to the boat.
My biggest challenge was picking the expression. I started with "get well sooner" from the Greatest Greetings, then saw the "Sending Smiles" also in that set.

 Then I spied the "Little Mr. Right" stamp and thought it would make a cute baby card. So, stamped one with it.

 And lastly pulled this retired stamp out to use.

For this card I used the retired tree punch and some gold foil sheet to make the center tree flanked by trees cut from the box paper (a little gold foil cut for tree trunks). The trees were adhered to a piece of white sponged (Emerald Envy and Soft Sky).
After all was done I decided I should have stamped the ground with snow. Oh well!

Masking Today

 Today's commercial card copies are one layer cards but they involve a lot of masking. It was fun to make them and see what I had in my supplies to create the copies.
First card up is the pretty butterfly card. I really liked the background and vibrant colors of the butterflies.

So  I pulled out some stamp sets and started with a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock. First I stamped the large center butterfly using Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz, and Watermelon Wonder.  I made a mask of the butterfly by stamping onto copy paper and then fussy cut that out. I placed that mask over the stamped butterfly and then stamped the flower using Pear Pizzazz ink. Then I used my Chalk Pen to color the open spaces on the flower. I really liked how this turned out... going to have to do some more. Then I stamped my smaller butterflies. I used Pear Pizzazz and Soft Suede on the lower one and Delightful Dijon, Calypso Coral and Watermelon Wonder on the top butterfly. I cut masks of the flower and small butterfly and covered them so that I could stamp the swirl with Versamark ink. Then with the masks still in place I sponged color on the background using Calypso Coral, Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz and Watermelon Wonder. Once the background was done I stamped the body and antenna for the large butterfly in Basic Black and the body and antenna of the small butterflies in Soft Suede.  Then I layered on Whisper White card base... I guess technically this isn't a one layer card. This card was a lot of work but I love how it turned out!

The second commercial card that also inspired one layer stamping required the use of mask again so that the lacy edge would be underneath the flower image.

Here's my card. I couldn't really find a floral stamp in my collection that was the look I wanted. I finally decided to use Bloom with Hope set and combined two images to make this larger flower. I used my markers to color the stamp with Garden Green and Watermelon Wonder on Pistachio Pudding cardstock. Then I colored in the flower and leaves with the fine tip of Watermelon Wonder, Garden Green and Old Olive markers. I used my white gel pen to add more lines to the flowers. Then I made a mask for that little flower so I could stamp the white border. If I hadn't had the commercial card as an example I probably would have thought this card was in need of something more.  I learned that some blank space is okay, it's all in positioning the elements.

Technique Week

This week I'm going to focus on some different techniques. This card using a masking technique. I used one of my square framelits to make a rectangle frame on a piece of copy paper measuring 4" x 5-1/2 " overall. You could use a pair of scissors or a square punch (punching multiple times) to also make a frame. Then I used some washi tape to attach that piece of copy paper to the same size of White Shimmery Paper.  I sponged Tip Top Taupe and Perfect Plum to make a background.

You are going to have to take my word on this one. I just couldn't get a good photo to show the shimmer in the paper. This is a white card stock that Stampin' Up! offers that is a little heavier than their regular Whisper White card stock. What makes it really special is the little bits of white sparkle embedded in it.  With shimmery paper you get little bits of white shimmer that pops through the sponged area. Very tiny, hardly visible unless you are looking for it. And of course the white frame around that sponged area has lots of shimmer. I stamped the images with Elegant Eggplant which drew out the subtle Purple Plum areas in the background.

This card is also a CASE from Linda Heller.

Paper Options

This week I decided to concentrate on the many special papers available from Stampin' Up! This card uses the Irresistibly Yours Specialty Paper. It is paper that has embossed images on it. In this case, the white flowers. So, all you have to do is add some color to the paper and then wipe the ink off the white embossed flowers. I used sponges to add the Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral and Rose Red color. SU! offers these papers every so often. Of course, you can make your own by stamping any image with VersaMark ink and heat embossing with white embossing powder.
This card also uses a little piece of gold foil for the banner. See another card using silver foil tomorrow.

Christmas Cards!

I decided it was time to play with a few of the stamp sets and new tools in the Holiday Catalog. What fun! Here's the first card design I wanted to share.  

I made this one with Pool Party and Basic Gray card stock first. I wanted to do some more sponging and used the same layout as my Halloween card from last week. But I also wanted to use the new Confetti Stars Punch (135861) with the Holiday Home stamp set (135095 photopolymer) and Homemade Holiday framelits (135857). Get the Holiday Home and Homemade Home bundle (137631) and save 15%. I wasn't happy with the stars punched through the sponged moon and I wanted to try the design in another color combo. 





So, on the second card I punched a circle for the moon instead of sponging around a sticky note circle. The colors in it are Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight card stock. I used Blendabilities (Cherry Cobbler 130995, Old Olive 130999, Smoky Slate 131005 and Crumb Cake 131004) Assortments to color the house on both cards. Basic Gray ink pad was used to stamp the trees, sentiment and sleigh on the top card and Smoky Slate and Pool Party ink were used to sponge the background.  Garden Green was used for the trees on the bottom card. Soft Suede was used for the sleigh and Whisper White for the sentiment. The background sponging was done with Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Garden Green.