Stampin’ Write Markers – ConstantlyCreating.Me

Friends Are Like Seashells with Flowers for Every Season for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday Blog Hop

Scraps of paper can make something beautiful!

Hello and thanks for stopping by my part of this Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday team blog hop! We’ve made cards “for the ladies” today.

One of my favorite things to do is to encourage my girl friends and other women on my life’s path. I had a Mother’s Day card in mind to create, but I’ve had an excess of other work during the last couple of weeks—so I went with this butterfly one instead. It’s a card I would send to one of my dear friends as a thinking of you or a birthday or a card of encouragement, to brighten their day and make them feel special.

I began the card really just wanting to use up some of my scraps of Flowers for Every Season 6×6 DSP (item #152486, currently on sale for $6.90 on stampinup.com during the Annual’s Last-Chance sale). I found three long and skinny scraps that were around the same size and had a pretty pattern among them that I could use as a center strip.

I decided to use the Misty Moonlight color in two of the strips as the color of my card base, and I glued a mat of Very Vanilla cardstock (item #101650) atop the card base, leaving about an 1/8″ border, to give some separation and definition to the colors in the papers that would be on top. (Forgive me for the guesstimate, but I don’t really measure things; I just work with things until they feel right.)

Once I glued the patterned DSP, I felt the strips also needed some Very Vanilla to break the color clash. Those strips are definitely an 1/8″ each because I cut them with my trimmer intentionally. 🙂 I also measured the smaller edge of the DSP strips so that I could place the floral pieces in exactly the center. I use a ruler on my work mat and inch inward by eighths and quarters until I figure out where the middle is. (I do better with seeing physical measurements than with abstract figures.)

To add the butterfly, I first took a piece of recently sold out Bijou Butterfly DSP and fussy-cut the largest butterfly with my Paper Snips before popping up the butterfly on foam Dimensionals (item #104430) in the top half of the card, leaving room for a sentiment below.

To create that sentiment, I used one of the Stitched with Whimsy Dies (item #155314) and Misty Moonlight ink (item #153118) with a sentiment from the Friends Are Like Seashells stamp set (item #158203).

I first took the die to a scrap of Very Vanilla, which impressed the stitching into the paper. The die does not cut around the stitching; I fussy-cut around it myself with my Paper Snips (item #103579) using the edge of the impression as a guide and then edged it with a Misty Moonlight Stampin’ Write Marker (item #153125 for the In-Color Pack of five).

Then I placed my sentiment stamp on my Stamparatus stamping platform (item #146276), created a few test sentiments for placement, and finally stamped it where it would fit before decorating the sentiment box with embellishments from Wonderful Gems, Blue Adhesive-Backed Gems (item #153547), 2020-2022 In Color Enamel Dots (item #152480), and Playing with Patterns Resin Dots (item #152467).

I was able to pull out each of the colors used on the card with those embellishments, so I was pleased. (The white space in the corner was just too much for me. If you follow my blogs, you’ll have heard that I’m not a big fan of white space.) I also felt that doing something different with the gems like that spoke to the “unique” idea of the card.

I plan on decorating the inside of the card with a thinner strip of the floral paper and then selling the card to my local gift shop so one of their buyers can encourage a friend or relative too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today. To continue on with the hop, press the Previous and Next buttons or click on the linked names in the list. My team members always come up with inspiring and beautiful projects! Thanks again for hopping with me. If you like this card, please leave a comment or consider following my blog for future posts. 🙂

3D Enjoy the Moment with Dandy Wishes for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday Blog Hop

Playing with pieces and parts can make something beautifully unexpected.

Hello again, and welcome back to my blog! I’m joining Amy Koenders and the rest of my Stampin’ Up team for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday Blog Hop group—and this month we’re celebrating spring with our cards! (Spring IS on its way, right? It may look all green right now in Ohio, but we’ve been fooled before!) One of the things my husband watches for as spring breaks is how high the grass grows (read: how soon he’ll have to mow). And what comes with the growing grass but dandelions? Sometimes lots of them, if you put off the mowing! 🙂 I always liked it when they turned white and round and seedy when I was a kid, but I’m featuring the younger yellow kind on my card today. 🙂

My card also works for the Paper Players challenge this week, as they are focusing on spring cards as well. I’m linking my card to their challenge too. 🙂

I started making my card a couple of weeks ago, but the blog deadlines pushed me to finish it. I knew what I wanted to do; I just picked up other things first. (In between, I made a baby card, a wedding card, and the Alice in Wonderland “Hello there” card I posted on Instagram [see it at annegirl77!].) Does anyone else work on several cards at once, or is it just me? My attention wanders where it wills, creatively, and then I finish a bunch of cards at once. I didn’t set out to do anything specific with this card. It was just that the scraps from the last couple of posted dandelion cards were still sitting nearby and I wanted to use them up. I was merely playing around with the products and liked what was developing. I do love those yellow dandelions on the blue background, though. 🙂

For this card, I started with one of the Assorted Memories and More Cards and Envelopes (item 159234). I’m still using up my old Whisper White ones, so since I was just playing and didn’t know what I was making, I didn’t intentionally grab one of the yellow-and-white card bases in the Dandy Garden Memories and More Cards and Envelopes. So you might decide to change that if you make a similar card.

I made my bottom background layer out of a piece of Misty Moonlight Cardstock (item 153081). It measures 6″ by 4″. I didn’t adhere it right away, though. I built my scraps of Dandy Garden 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (item 154297) on top of it instead. One side of the card, the DSP is 1.75″, and the other side is 2.25″. I love the Braided Burlap Trim I put with it, but it is retired. If you want to stay current, you could try the 3/8″ Fine Art Ribbon (item 154561). I used my burlap ribbon to cover the seam where the two papers met. When I did adhere the background assortment to the card base, I popped it up onto Foam Adhesive Strips (item 141825) so that the thickness of the Braided Burlap Trim wasn’t an issue with the papers below it in terms of bulges or strain on the pieces. The dimensional foam strips allowed me to tuck the ribbon under the cardstock without any worry that something would tear later or look funny.

Then I got to wondering what to put on the yellow-and-white striped DSP. I hadn’t used my Dandy Wishes Dies yet (item 154315), so I made a yellow dandelion to match the other side of the paper, which has three. I cut the five layers of the blossom from Bumblebee Cardstock (item 153077) and layered the two largest graduated sizes together, gluing them completely flat. But for the next three layered sizes, I curved the little squares of the outer rims (I’m sure there’s a better name for this) in opposite directions, and I put one Stampin’ Dimensional (item 104430) in between the middle layer and the second from the top. With my fingers, I curved the middle layer (the largest of the top three) up toward me, then the next smallest size down toward the card, and then up toward me again for the smallest layer. The smallest is about 3/4″ across. The bending of the square “petals” gives it a 3D look as it pops out at the recipient yet isn’t too high to mail. When I glued them, I made sure to stagger the squares onto the empty spaces of each layer under it. It looks pretty cool in person.

I cut the stem and the leaves of the dandelion from a double-sided piece of Mossy Meadow DSP from the Neutrals 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (item 155226). This was one of the five DSP packs that new demonstrators got as their free gift when they joined during this passed Sale-a-Bration. One perk of already being a demonstrator is that we get to order these kinds of products too. 🙂 There are several great designs in the pack of ten colors (times five), so I will be using them a lot. (I’m sorry that this is now two non-current items on my card, but I didn’t have any blogging intentions at the time of creation. I’m sure that whatever you use will look wonderful too!) I wish I had reversed the direction of the two taller “toothy”-looking leaves, though, because I feel like they’re too close to the stem this way. Dandelions spread out more, I think. (Of course, since my husband is the one who mows the lawn, I haven’t had to look at dandelions recently. :-D) If I make the card again, I will switch them. I do like how the two different patterns give definition and individuality to the bunch. Everything blended in too much when they were all the same pattern. I cut and glued the two grass dies on and under the leaves for an illusion of dimension.

For the sentiment, I held up several and determined that the friendship one from Enjoy the Moment (item 154452) fit best in the die I’d already selected from the Rectangle Stitched Dies (item 151820). I didn’t want one that was too tall or too wide, just something that nestled in there quietly between the art elements. I stamped the sentiment in Misty Moonlight ink (pad item # is 153118) on Shimmery White Cardstock (item 101910) because I just love the sparkle in the latter! I use it often. I die-cut the white cardstock and also decided to die-cut one in kraft cardstock (another retired item). Then I manually cut off the stitched border of the white, along with a bit more with my Paper Snips (item 103579) so I could layer the two cardstocks together. I thought the kraft cardstock looked nice against the burlap ribbon and gold/brown tones of the card. Last, I added three of the smallest Playing with Patterns Resin Dots (item 152467) in Crushed Curry on the sentiment. I almost went with two, but three filled up all that white space beside the sentiment. You may choose to do something else.

I guess that’s it for how I did the outside. I made the inside sentiment (“I’m So Happy I Found You”) from the Friends Are Like Seashells stamp set (item 154368) on Shimmery White cardstock, which was stamped in retired More Mustard ink since I don’t own the In-Color Bumblebee ink pad or refill yet. I also matted the white piece with Misty Moonlight cardstock so it would pop off the page better. I cut out the words with the smallest longest die in the pack and chose the next size up for the Misty Moonlight layer. I off-centered them against the middle to save some room. On my border piece, the blue cardstock was left over after I cut two horizontal edges to use on other projects. It was tidy enough that I thought I could use it here too. I used stickers from the sticker packs in the Dandy Garden Memories and More Card Pack (item 154302) to decorate the inside border.

I also decorated the envelope by stamping two pieces of flowers from the Garden Wishes stamp set item (item 154408) with my Stamparatus (item 146276). I used my Stampin’ Write markers to color them since I only have the Bumblebee color in a marker (it’s a current In-Color, and I purchased that set of five markers). I stamped on the front of the envelope, which I rarely remember to do, because the matching 6″ x 6″ DSP was not large enough to cover the entire flap in this size of a card. 🙂

Well, that’s all I have for you today. This card was pretty easy overall. I hope you enjoy making one of your own. Thank you for visiting my blog today; I love readers! Be sure to hop down the list of my teammates to see the beautiful “spring” cards they’ve made for you!

Click the Previous button to go back to Donna Leonard’s blog!

Click the Next button to go forward to Jillian Good’s blog!

Jaimie Babarczy: https://wp.me/p79UhD-4VN
Karen Ksenzakovic: https://wp.me/paaNf4-4e9
Mary Deatherage: https://wp.me/p5snyt-h1y
Sue Prather: https://wp.me/p5yitZ-2tQ
Donna Leonard: http://stampdabbles.com/?p=4619
Connie Troyer: https://constantlycreating.me/2021/03/09/3d-enjoy-the-moment-with-dandy-wishes-for-stamp-with-amy-ks-tuesday-blog-hop/
Jillian Good: http://dyedwith.love/?p=139
Tara Carpenter: https://tarabethstamps.blogspot.com/2021/03/stampin-up-arrange-wreath-happy-easter.html
Leslie Larkin https://leslielarkin.com/ice-cream-corner-suite/
Terry Lynn Bright: https://tlsbrightspot.com/2021/03/09/stampin-up-celebrate-spring/
Akiko Sudano: https://wp.me/paOv8E-2ww
Karen Finkle: https://karenscardkorner.blogspot.com/2021/03/stampin-up-wildly-happy-for-amys-inkin.html
Amy Koenders: https://wp.me/p2SFwf-moQ
Krista Yagci: https://www.thestampingnook.com/post/stampin-up-jar-of-flowers-welcome-spring-card

“A Good Man” Stamp Set with Seaside Spray In-Color for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday Blog Hop

A masculine card for use during Father’s Day (or any day!) for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday blog hop.

Hello again and welcome back to my blog—or thanks for stopping by if you’re a new visitor! The theme for Stamp with Amy K’s current Tuesday blog hop is “masculine,” so I decided to create two “Father’s Day” type of cards that can be used at any time for the guys in our lives. Since they are going to my local gift shop for sale, I needed to create something that didn’t explicitly say “Happy Father’s Day” (best for a longer shelf life!).

I’ve used all current or upcoming products that are available on June 4, when Stampin’ Up customers can order from the new catalog. I was able to preorder some things because of my demonstrator status. So I’m using stamps from the new cling set “A Good Man” and one of our brand-new In-Colors, Seaside Spray (only available for purchase June 4, 2019 through May/June of 2021).

Seaside Spray is a gorgeous color that reminds me of a smoky blue. It’s one of the shades in my valances, actually, so I have a feeling I’ll be using this color for years to come even after it retires. 🙂 And “A Good Man” is one of those casual, contemporary sets that have a sketched look to the images, with some slight distressing on the sentiments.

I began each A2 card with a Seaside Spray card base, taking an 8.5×11 piece of cardstock and cutting it in half. I wanted to use two of the colorable images in the stamp set, one on each card, and quickly figured out which rectangles my chosen images would fit inside in my new Stitched Rectangles die set.

I stamped each colorable image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and die-cut the first rectangles. Then I colored them with some of our Alcohol Blends: Dark Mango Melody, Dark Old Olive, Dark Smoky Slate, Dark and Light Basic Black, Ivory, Bronze, Dark and Light Shaded Spruce, Dark and Light Balmy Blue, and Dark and Light Real Red. (I need to get a dark blue yet, so I had to color all pants in various shades of black and gray.)

Seaside Spray isn’t one of the colors I own in the Blends yet either, so I used Light Balmy Blue for the sky and border, hoping it would look all right. Turns out it does sometimes…but not if there’s a lot of concentration. I filled in the background of one of the images but left the other white. I wasn’t sure which way to go. Tell me which one you like best. 🙂

Next I die-cut other various-sized rectangles from the Come Sail Away and Perennial Essence Designer Series Paper packs and and staggered them with the images and sentiment block.

I also carefully edged around the border of one of the die-cut, colored images with my Balmy Blue Blend. I wanted to do something in the corners the way I would dye ink, but I didn’t trust myself enough to try it with the Blend. I’ve had to redo enough this evening. I’m actually pretty pleased with how the edging turned out. It was easy and looks clean and simple. I liked it so well that I did it on the second card too, with a Night of Navy Stampin’ Write Marker (but it was much easier to accomplish with the Blend, at least tonight!).

After I placed the sentiment block and glued the rectangles for the first card, I added three Heart Epoxy Droplets to two corners to finish the card.

And here is where I have to confess something. Two things, really. I lost a stamp before I finished my cards or this blog post. Specifically, I lost the main sentiment for the front of the cards. I have torn this room apart, searching through my trash can, cleaning off my desk and the cart next to me, checking my clothes…. It still hasn’t turned up. (Please tell me I’m not the only one this has happened to!) I can attest that the new cling stickers are really sticky, because I had the stamp rubber-side down in the case with the sticker facing up so I could quickly grab it and stamp it after I was done with the inside pieces. I’m certain it’s stuck to *something*. 🤦‍♀️ So... Sigh. I handwrote the same sentiment in a similar kind of font and lightly stuck it to the card—for this blog’s purposes only—where the real sentiment will be stamped in Night of Navy ink on Seaside Spray cardstock. When I find it. Humor me, please. (If I can’t find the stamp eventually, I may just have to repurchase this set because that pair of sentiments is essential!)

This card has now also convinced me that I need to get the Subtle 3D embossing folder. The background still needs something. I thought of stamping too late, after I adhered the rectangles. I’ll pretend I’m going for “clean and simple.”

Another angle, showing the hearts a little better.

And now for my second confession. My roll of Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Baker’s Twine has gone AWOL as well. (I’m betting the cat did it. She’s been known to do so.) So I’m using most of the piece of twine that I snitched at OnStage for my Come Sail Away card I finished later at home. I also cut card #2’s heavy-striped piece of Night of Navy/Whisper White DSP the wrong size…and that was after I spilled ginger ale on four newly opened papers and cut out the wet sections. 🙄🤦‍♀️ Trust me, if I can make cards I’m proud of with all this chaos, anybody can!

So this is what I refigured for the second card, after some challenges (like the fact that I had to use the Color Lifter too, even before I cut the striped piece incorrectly). I used Linen Thread at the bottom of this one. I felt I needed to separate the Balmy Blue Blends background from the Seaside Spray cardstock because, for me, the color difference was too much to have them next to each other. My first thought was to have the striped paper cover the entire card front, but obviously that went awry. I decided that the mistake wasn’t so terrible as to have to redo that too (and I sort of hated to cover up all that beautiful new In-Color anyway), so I just went with it. I hate wasting paper. (My apologies again for the handwritten sentiment. It will look so much better with the real one….)

The insides of both cards are identical, and they went so much smoother than the rest. I was even watching a TV show while I stamped. (That does it—I should always watch TV while crafting. But not in the dim light, because I think that’s when I lost my stamp.)

So that’s it for me tonight. It’s time for bed. Thanks again for stopping by my blog! So sorry about all the mishaps. Some nights just go like that.

If you’re interested in receiving a catalog, I’d love to send you one. Just drop me an email with your info using my Contact Me form.

If you want to continue the hop to see what the rest of my fabulous team members made, click the Next button to see what our fearless leader, Amy Koenders, has made, and if you’d like to go backward instead, click the Previous button to visit Sue Prather’s blog.

Karen Ksenzakovic – https://wp.me/paaNf4-Bn
Terry Lynn Bright – https://wp.me/p8fxPh-80
Jaimie Babarczy – https://wp.me/p79UhD-2Pa
Mary Deatherage – https://wp.me/p5snyt-88U
Karen Finkle – https://karenscardkorner.blogspot.com/2019/05/stampin-up-wood-textures-dsp-for-amys.html
Akiko Sudano – https://stampininthemeadows.com/?p=462
Shirley Gentry – https://stampinwithshirleyg.com/?p=5240
Sue Prather – https://stampwithsueprather.com/?p=4744
Connie Troyer – https://wp.me/p8xvI6-nm
Amy Koenders – https://wp.me/p2SFwf-frW

Red Foxes in Winter Special Birthday Card

Back in the summer, I was asked to make a special birthday card for a special friend’s son who has a fondness for foxes—all shades and types. She gave me free creative rein and said she didn’t care what I did with the idea, but that he might like a red one. I considered several different fox stamps and stickers but finally chose a particular stamp that shows foxes in a wintry scene since his birthday was in February (“300-16 Red Foxes and Birches,” Stampa Rosa).

I’ve never really thought much about foxes in my life, other than thinking they’re beautiful animals in general, so I had no idea how to shade one. Coloring is something I’m still not comfortable with, because I feel like the concept of shading is one I haven’t begun to learn. Luckily for me, the wooden stamp I was using had a colored picture on the front that I just had to attempt to recreate! 🙂

First I had to choose the right paper, though, which evidently was not the bumpy watercolor paper I tried to stamp on first (twice). I knew that, but I was thinking of using my water-filled Aqua Painter on it and felt the paper would handle it. I liked the textured look of the watercolor paper too, but the image was too detailed to stamp cleanly with the bumps in the paper. Then I remembered Stampin’ Up’s Shimmery White cardstock, a must-have in my collection. It’s not any thicker than the rest of their cardstock (other than the aptly named “Thick” cardstock in the line), but it’s smooth and somehow holds up great with watercoloring–and it’s sparkly to boot (hence the “Shimmery” part of the name). Bonus for me was that the paper helped my snow scene sparkle.

Once I had the paper figured out and the stamp stamped correctly, I took my watercolor pencils and tried to emulate what I saw on the wooden stamp block. I had to mix a few shades to get that red fox coat color with the darker spots. After using the watercolor pencils, I took my Aqua Painter to it as planned and went back and forth between the two tools a few times until it felt right (because I have no idea what I’m doing, really. I’m assuming I’ll get better as I learn by trial and error).

After I was satisfied with the colors and the paper had basically dried, I went over the snow and snow-covered branches with my Clear Wink of Stella brush marker to bring back the sparkle to the snow that I’d ended up coloring over with the white pencil. (The sparkle shows through the color a little, but I really wanted the snow to glimmer.) Then I set aside the piece to dry while I figured out the rest of the card.

My favorite crafty thing to use these days are metal cutting dies. They’re simple, quick to use, and make things prettier or more elegant than I could come up with on my own. (They’re also faster for me than my Cricut.) I hang most of them on my wall and the back of my door on large magnetic sheets or vent covers so that I can easily walk over and try different sizes and shapes with whatever I’m wanting to cut out, rather than taking time to flip through a box and take die sets out of envelopes.

For this card, I looked at a bunch of large shapes, trying to decide whether to cut it into a type of oval or a fancy square or a rectangle. I ended up using one of my new sets from Spellbinders that hadn’t yet made it to my wall (Art Nouveau Designer Series “Water Lilies Decorative Element”), because it fit the image perfectly without making me cut it down too much (after all that hard work in coloring, I hated to do that!).

I debated whether to use a SU Cajun Craze cardstock base or a white base and which color to set off where. I ended up cutting several different colors of cardstock with the frame die to test them and see what worked. The card finally fell together color-wise when I brought in the darker wood-grain paper (SU “Country Lane” DSP) as a background to echo the dark shading in the picture. The dark complements the darker orangish-brown Cajun Craze well enough while keeping the same tones. With the white base, there was too much contrast and the frame jumped out at me rather than letting me focus on the colored image. So I ended up using a Cajun Craze base but covering the entire front with the wood grain and using a Cajun Craze frame on top and beneath the white colored image. (It’s a solid piece that gives a mat to whatever is inserted into the sides.)

This particular frame die acts like a gift card holder where the center flowers are, gently opening up and holding whatever is placed in the solid middle. That took some thinking, trying to measure and cut down the colored image so that it fit into that space under the flowers just right. The opening/middle rectangle is much larger than a gift card, but it’s the same idea…though this is only one way to use it.

The one thing I forgot to do to the test pieces was to make sure they were embossed well also. (One reason I love Spellbinders is because they have awesome sections of the dies that are intended to be embossed to give it a little something extra. I miss that feature when I use other brands.) So the embossing could have been done a little better in parts here, because I forgot to take that step to make it pop. I didn’t remember it until I’d mailed the card and noticed it in the pictures. In the photos above, perhaps you can see that the center flower pieces are more deeply etched than the corners above and below them. Next time…I shall remember next time. 🙂

My customer wasn’t picky about what to say on the inside either, other than asking me to write his name and theirs in it and mail it straight to him. So I had to dream up something based on other things she had said to me. After adding fox washi tape to the bottom of a white piece and then matting the paper onto a different kind of wood-grain patterned paper from a 6×6 pad (can’t remember which one now), I used three different stamp sets and another die to make the sentiment section. “A little expression of love” is from SU’s “Painter’s Palette,” “just for you” is from SU’s “From the Herd,” and “Happy birthday” is from MFT’s “LJD For the Boys” (part of the “Happy Birthday, Handsome” stamp). The die is among those in a retired nested set from SU called “Deco Labels.”

I used my stamping platform and its grid to line up the sentiments on the die-cut and stamp out a couple of test pieces in Cajun Craze ink to make sure they sat where I wanted them. (I had tried stamping right on the matted liner paper but I accidentally got ink where I shouldn’t have, so at that point I just had to cover it up because it was already adhered.)

After the sentiment box was stamped, I edged around the die-cut with my Cajun Craze Stampin’ Write Marker so it would stand out against the white paper. And, once again too late, I saw that the double fox spot on the washi piece. I didn’t create that intentionally; it’s just how it came off the roll. I wish I had seen it sooner; it bothers the part of me that prefers symmetry. 🙂 I also added two gold glitter hearts from MME (“Niche/On Trend Foam Stickers”) in the white space of the sentiment box.

I like how this one turned out even though it tested me at times and there are a couple of things I wish I could do differently. It’s always easier to make a similar card a second time. Maybe I’ll try to do one for the local gift shop. After all, I’m not completely convinced that winter is over with where I live.

Some of the Stampin’ Up items I used on this card are retired, but you can purchase the ink, cardstocks, and other current items through my online store if you want to try them (please use code 6WPHJ2MC at checkout unless your order is over $150). The thumbnails below will take you right there…and this is an awesome time to get them since Sale-a-bration is still going through the end of March. For every $50+ order before tax and shipping, you get to pick an item out of a select group of almost two dozen items and Stampin’ Up will send it to you for free with your order! Plus you’ll also get a free gift from me. 🙂 Please contact me if you have questions.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I truly appreciate my readers. ❤️ Have a lovely day! #neverstopmaking #mftstamps

Product List

Shimmery White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock

[101910]

$9.00

Cajun Craze 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock

[119684]

$8.50

Cajun Craze Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147085]

$7.50

Cajun Craze Combo Pack Stampin’ Blends

[147931]

$9.00

Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack

[144177]

$11.00

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$8.00

Watercolor Pencils

[141709]

$16.00

Aqua Painters

[103954]

$17.00

Blender Pens

[102845]

$12.00

You’re Not Old…You’re Retro! (“Free Cake” Birthday Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up)

Hopping with Amy’s Inkin’ Krew for a Birthday Theme!

Hello again! It’s “birthday month” for Amy’s February blog hop! 🙂 I’ve made a card using the “Free Cake” stamp set to show you this time.

I all too often create on a quick timeline, but I had to fly at double speed that night so I could first listen in on our team meeting (while driving home…shh!) and then get my blog link up to the group before the deadline. And I had to create the card, or at least know where I was going with it, before I could do the link. What that means is that I made a REALLY SIMPLE CARD that any of you can recreate. 🙂 #simplestamping for the win.

I guess I have a wacky sense of humor. I like puns and sarcasm and slapping-my-knee funny and maybe slightly snarky stuff. I have several stamp sets in my possession that reflect this. And I recently acquired another one—the “Free Cake” set. It is current in the 2018-2019 Annual Stampin’ Up Catalog (page 70, to be precise). I was a little torn about which combination of stamps to use, so I just had to pick one and start. The good thing about owning the stamp set is that I can make the other card percolating in my brain at any time. 😉

I’m actually making this one for our team swap, which requires me to use current products in case the receiving demonstrator wants to use it on display. This is a big one for me to remember, because I have lots of retired products at my fingertips that I still love to use too. I use things up sparingly. 😉 And I confess that the one I’m sending for the swap is actually my second attempt. I didn’t like how I forgot to turn one of the radios when I was stamping, so I redid it since it may be used for demonstration. Not that it really matters. Either card is fine. I’m merely fighting my perfectionistic streak. 🙂 (And it was such a quick card that I had time to make a second!)

I’ve used the 2018-20 In-Colors (Lovely Lipstick, Grapefruit Grove, Pineapple Punch, Call Me Clover, and Blueberry Bushel) for inks, as well as our Archival Basic Black. I’m just now realizing that the Archival pad retired. I should have used the Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Oops. 😦 I also used the fantastic Thick Whisper White cardstock for my card base.

I’m a child of the ’80s…mostly. So I remember the big boomboxes and all the other fun things we grew up with. It is unfathomable to me how I could be so OLD already—like, practically middle-aged. Ugh. I don’t even like typing that. But I do love the big transistor radio featured in the stamp set probably because of it. I stamped with the radio rather randomly (with a bit of placement 😉 ) in most of the In-Colors mentioned above. I saved the Pineapple Punch for the stars around the radios on the swap card (though the first card has both). If I make it again, I think I’ll stamp the stars while I’m stamping the radios. It was a bit tricky to place the stars afterward. Sometimes I wiped off part of the stamp so I could work around the radios and not be stamping so many stars at once. (You should see my inky fingers!) I did also use a bit of Lovely Lipstick Stampin’ Write Marker to one of the radios on the initial card when I didn’t get it inky enough the first time, though that card is pictured at the end.

I had already decided to split the matching sentiments between the front and the back, so I knew I was going to put “You’re not old…” on the front and “you’re RETRO!” on the inside. That meant I could keep the front simple and place the opening phrase underneath the featured black radio, which I then stamped on a separate piece of paper, matted with a scrap of Classic Garage Designer Series Paper (the oil/gas can sheet), and popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I chose this DSP because it reminded me of the ’80s stonewashed look up close and was also black, meaning I wasn’t featuring one color over another.

Before I glued the stamped black radio to the DSP, I distressed the white edges with my scissors first. I love the distressed look and don’t always remember to do it. But since this is a gender-neutral card and could go to men, it seemed appropriate. Truthfully, it was also because I need to change the blade on my trimmer, so I was either going to have to trim off the leftover fuzzies with my scissors or make them worse intentionally. 😂

Stampin’ Up has been asking us to create simple cards anyone can make with just a few supplies and to hashtag it with #simplestamping…so this is my first try at that. This month they, too, are focusing on birthday cards and suggested that we use only ink, paper, stamps, and some DSP…so I intentionally didn’t embellish the card further. The front was done.

For the inside, I had to add the “you’re RETRO” saying, but I didn’t want to put only the words, and I also wanted to vary how I do the insides of cards. I tend to default to a fancy-edged die-cut with the words inside and DSP scraps. To change it up a bit, I chose one of the IC inks, Lovely Lipstick, and stamped off on scrap paper first to lighten it up before stamping it straight onto the card (skewed). Then I used my stamping platform to line up the “retro” sentiment and added the “Happy Birthday” from the same set as well. I stamped the words in the Archival Basic Black again and then stamped two star bunches to frame the entirety. (For the inside of the first card, which was now being made simultaneously with the swap card, I used Grapefruit Grove ink without stamping off, and that actually turned out better because it’s a lighter color than the stamped-off Lovely Lipstick.)

I attempted to pretty up the blank envelopes as my team members do. The front turned out great with a Lovely Lipstick tilted radio and two bunches of stars near it, but the flaps–nothing but stars–gave me some trouble. They’ll pass, but I’d redo them if they were more important.

As far as that other card goes, it is not spoken for yet…though I’m tempted to give it to my also-aging brother when his day comes around. What are siblings for, right? 😂😜

The products I used for these cards will be at the bottom of the post. If I can help you order or if you need a Stampin’ Up demonstrator, please feel free to comment or email. I’d love to be of assistance. Sale-a-Bration is the best time of the year to shop because you earn free products with every $50 spent. New choices hit the website on February 15, too. 😁 You can shop with my direct store link in the sidebar.

Thanks for joining me on the blog hop today! To continue “hopping” with our birthday blog group, click the Previous button to go visit Karen Finkle…or click Next to see what Sue Prather created. Links are below as well. Happy crafting!