First Frost Birthday

I love the new set "First Frost" which has been made as a Frosty Christmas set, but is equally beautiful as a Birthday, or Greeting Card making it a great purchase! How pretty it is with these colours: Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Fresh Fig, Mossy Meadow and Soft Seafoam!

Recipe
Stamps : First Frost, PTI (greeting), Buffalo Check
Ink : Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Fresh Fig, Mossy Meadow, Soft Seafoam
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Soft Seafoam
Accessories : First Frost Framelits, Big Shot, 1/2 Pearls, Dimensionals

Interview Thank You

I spent a couple of days earlier this week over in Boston where my daughter had a job interview (fingers crossed she will get the job!). She wanted to send a couple of thank you notes to the hiring manager and HR manager so I came up with these. She wanted them to be simple but make an impact. Not asking too much then!!!!

The Stamperatus came in really handy or this card. I was able to use SU markers to get colour variation in the leaves. I stamped them in Pear Pizzazz and then used Mellow Moss and Old Olive on individual leaves for depth.

Recipe
Stamps : Vertical Greetings
Ink : Mellow Moss, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, Cajun Craze
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Mellow Moss
Accessories : Braided Linen Trim, SU Markers

Glass of Wine - Thank you!

A couple of my English friends and I spent a week visiting my lovely friend Sue at her cottage on Kiawah Island in SC. We had a lovely time with 85' weather and blue skies and sunshine. Came home to Michigan and it's rainy and autumnal!!!

I made a quick and easy thank you card for Sue which we all signed. I love how it turned out, especially the Crystal Effects on the wine glasses. I couldn't decide on the white wine colour but when I was using the Stampin' Blends, there wasn't much difference between light Daffodil Delight and light Pineapple Punch. However, now it's dry there's a considerable difference, I'm saying that 2 glasses are Chardonnay and 2 are a lighter Sauvignon Blanc!!!!!

Recipe
Stamps : Half Full
Ink : Memento Black
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Soft Sea Foam
Accessories : Stampin' Blends, Big Shot & Layering Oval Framelits, Frosted Epoxy Droplets, Crystal Effects

Rooted in Nature - Masculine

Rooted in Nature is one of the new 2018/2019 stamp sets and I think it's going to be really useful! I needed a 70th Male Birthday card for a friend so I went for a centre stair step card (tutorial can be found on SCS here) with masculine colours, soft suede, mossy meadow and naturals ivory. I love how this turned out.

Recipe
Stamps : Rooted in Nature, Memorable Moments (ret)
Ink : Soft Suede, Mossy Meadow
Cardstock : Soft Suede, Mossy Meadow, Naturals Ivory
Accessories : Braided Linen Trim, Rooted in Nature Framelits

New Home

I've been unable to stamp for a few months after a family tragedy, but with the help of some stamp-y friends (thanks Debra and Barb), I've climbed back into the saddle. Grief affects everyone in different ways, so for a while I was unable to find enjoyment in card-making. However, I placed a small order from the new catalogue and was able to make this card using the new Pop Up House framelit and coordinating set 'Pop on By'. 

The outside of the card is very simple, I used my Stampin' blends to colour the flower boxes.

The wow of this card is inside, when you open it up, the house pops out. There's a knack to making the cut-out, but it's fairly simple once you've figured it out.

I used window sheets behind the windows of the house, and adhered the curtains with mini glue dots.

The outside of the card is the standard 5 1/2 x 4 1/4". The insert is 8 1/4"x 5 1/4" scored at 4 1/8". The trick is to only score about 5/8 in from each end on the 4 1/8 line. When you use the house die, you'll see 2 notches cut out either side of the house which you line up over the score line. Once it's cut out, it's pretty self explanatory how the scorelines fold.

Recipe
Stamps: Pop on By
Ink:Gray Granite
Cardstock: Shimmery White, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Grey Granite, Soft Sea Foam
Accessories: Big Shot & Pop up House framelits, Stampin' Blends, Window Sheet

Graduation Congratulations

I needed a Graduation card for a friend whose niece has completed her Masters Degree. For inspiration, I found a colour combo on Pinterest of Soft Sky, Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand. I think this is such an elegant combination. I used my template for this elongated pop up box card.

Recipe
Stamps : Lift Me Up
Ink : Soft Sky, Sahara Sand
Cardstock : Soft Sky, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Accessories : Very Vanilla Ribbon (ret), layering ovals, Big Shot, Lift me Up Framelits

Birthday Cupcakes

This set has been retired for a long time now but remains on my Top 10 favourites list!

I needed a card for a friend's daughter and thought I'd have another play with "Create a Cupcake". I embossed the frame and cut it out, and added the Happy Birthday tag with some baker's twine. It's a very simple card, true to my card-making style of "CAS".

Recipe
Stamps : Create a Cupcake
Ink : Blushing Bride, So Saffron, Calypso Carol, Old Olive
Cardstock : Whisper White, Blushing Bride
Accessories : Cupcake Punch, Word Window Punch, Baker's Twine, 1/2 Pearls, Embossing folder "frame" (retired)

Feminine 60th

I only just started to use this hostess set in the past few weeks and I'm going to REALLY miss it! So sweet, fresh and pretty. Hopefully I'll find something just as lovely in the new catalogue!

This is a pretty pink 60th birthday card, CAS and really fresh looking.

Recipe
Stamps : Tranquil Tulips
Ink : Pink Pirouette, Old Olive, Perfect Plum
Cardstock : Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Old Olive
Accessories : Big Shot, layering circle framelits, typeset Jr thinlits (ret), olive ribbon

Wedding Commissions

I'm so glad that this stamp set made it into the new 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue! I was commissioned to make a "navy wedding card" and a 40th Anniversary Card. It was a no brainer to use the beautiful Cake Soiree set!

For the "Navy Wedding Card" I stamped the cake from Cake Soiree in Night of Navy and immediately heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The classic inks aren't made for embossing, but if you make it nice and moist the powder sticks nicely to it. I used the new Stampin' Blends to colour the flowers and cut out the other shapes with the coordinating framelits. The background of this card is made using embossing paste and the cake soiree suite stencils. Topped it off with a pearl and some of the crinkle night of navy ribbon.

 This is the inside of the card with the simple sentiment "celebrate". Just enough to finish the card off beautifully and elegantly.

The second commission was for a 40th wedding anniversary card. 40th is "Ruby" so I made this card with Cherry Cobbler. It's very similar to the first, except I used an embossing folder instead of a stencil for the background. The image is coloured with Cherry Cobbler and Pink Pirouette blends.

In the close-up, you can see the heat embossing and the floral images which were coloured with the new Stampin' Blends. This is a really effective card, someone's going to love it!

Recipe
Stamps : Cake Soiree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink : Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler
Cardstock : Thick Whisper White, Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories : Big Shot, Cake Soiree framelits, Timeless Type Alphabet Jnr (retired), Clear EP, Stampin' Blends, 1/2 Pearls, Word Window (ret) and Modern Label Punch (ret) 

Fruit Basket

There's a lovely set in the Occasions Mini called "Fruit Basket". It comes in a bundle with a set of 4 tiny fruit-shaped punches. The versatility of this bundle is boundless. Here are 2 samples from a quick and easy CAS bowl of strawberries, to a fruit-wreath.

Recipe
Stamps : Fruit Basket
Ink : Pear Pizzazz, Cherry Cobbler, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Choc Chip
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories : Itty Bitty Fruit Punch Pack

Congratulations

Sarah's boyfriend Eddie just landed a really fabulous job down in Atlanta Georgia. He asked me for 2 thank you cards to give to his references .... so of course I couldn't send them down without his own congrats card! Apologies for the awful photos. I had to use my phone which didn't give me the best results!

Recipe

Stamps: Lift Me Up

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry, Night of Navy, Basic Grey

Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Smoky Slate, Night of Navy (vellum stack retired)

Accessories : SU Checked Ribbon in Night of Navy and Smoky Slate