Tag Archives: thank you

So RemARKable! A Brights World Card Making Day

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So glad you came back for more… at post time, it’s midnight in Hawaii, but you East Coast early risers are greeting the sun!  A special shout out to all the crazy all-night crafters at the RemARKably Hot Retreat this weekend 🙂

Choosing a favorite color family is out of the question, but the Brights are easy and fun to work with.  Face it – they’re like opening that fresh box of Crayolas on the first day of school, all shiny with their perfectly shaped crayon tops and intoxicating with that special waxy-Crayola smell.  Brights inspire me in the same way – fresh and lively!

Wouldn’t this card brighten up your birthday?  I’ve made a special effort to see that ALMOST every card in today’s blog hop can be popped into a (Stampin’ Up!) envelope and mailed without extra postage.  There are a couple of exceptions, but with rules, as I said in my first post, I make ’em, I break ’em!  The Brights just don’t seem to have any bad color combinations.

That being said, there MAY be some color combinations meant only for Very Special Friends.  Tangerine Tango and Melon Mambo sound like dancing words…or cocktails…or a dance you do while drinking (plenty!) cocktails!!  Life’s too short, and to quote my son “YOLO, Mom – You Only Live Once”.  Sounds good to me.

I struggled with a place to put a nice “Merry Christmas” on this card, but friends, if this doesn’t say it out loud I don’t know what would!  I assure you I stamped a greeting on the inside – and the insides of these cards will be part of the follow-up posts later this week – but who could argue with ornaments on a tree?  Not this girl!

Do you feel brightened up?  My Maui friends are up past their bedtimes, my Easties are greeting the day, and the Westies – well, I’m guessing most of you are sound asleep.  Bright Dreams!

Now head on over to see what Stampin’ Riri has in store for you…

Next Stop on the World Card Making Day RemARKable Blog Tour

It’s RemARKable!! An In-Color World Card Making Day

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Aloha, and welcome to Maui!  You’ve reached the western-most destination on today’s World Card Making Day RemARKable Blog Hop!!  (Go ahead – say that 5 times!!!)  I’m happy to be part of this adventure and hope you’ll enjoy all the fabulous cards the talented RemARKable artists have created.

There will be FIVE posts today in honor of WCMD, so be sure you check in throughout the day.  The posts aren’t going anywhere, so if you want to come back and browse we hope you will.  Be sure you leave these hard-working bloggers a little bloggin’ love – we appreciate each and every one of your comments so much.

I think I’ve found a fun way to organize my posts – we’ll explore one of the Stampin’ Up! color families each round.  I’ve packed a lot into each post, so if you’re looking for specifics on each card, check back later this week. I’ll start with the most popular, so be sure and “vote” for yours!

Let’s get started with the 2012-2014 In Color Collection – Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse and Raspberry Ripple:

  Love that Patio Party Designer Series paper and I will tell you right now that it was a struggle not to use that Summer Silhouettes stamp set for EVERY SINGLE POST.  My absolute fave!  This is definitely a card for that girlfriend who lives out loud!!

I’ll confess that I wasn’t a big fan of this particular crop of In Colors  until I started to play with them, but I’m a convert now!  Oh, Summer Starfruit!  I apologize for saying you looked like – well, I don’t want to share the exact words I used but it wasn’t pretty!  This not-quite-yellow, not-really-green hue is a natural companion to loads of combinations, but especially my favorite blues and greens.  The versatiity of this color caught me completely by surprise and once again I must admit I was wrong to judge a book by it’s cover.

Gotta have some bling on a Christmas card, don’t we??  Our latest glimmer paper is Champagne (ooh, just the word makes me think party!)    Love that sparkle – and just for good measure, I added some Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint AND a couple of rhinestone jewels.

The Watercolor Winter set in our Holiday Catalog is my favorite of all the Christmas sets.  I’m a poinsettia girl, and they grow – and bloom – all over  in the islands.  Not at my house, of course – I grow bugs on plants much more successfully than the plants themselves – but I catch my breath when I come around the corner on certain roads and see an entire poinsettia hedge blazing in red on the side of the road.

And yes, for you eagle-eyed, rules-checking blog readers, I DID use Early Espresso and Crumb Cake on that card.  It had to be done.  And she who makes the rules gets to break them too.

All right!!  Hele on (get going) to see what Maria has in store for you!  Mahalo for stopping by, and see you back in 6 hours 🙂

Next Stop on the World Card Making Day RemARKable Blog Tour

Don’t blink, it just might change…

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…not the post, but the look of the Maui Stamper.  I’ve been playing around with My Digital Studio, a VERY cool program.  It does so much!  I’m just experimenting with blog headers right now, so bear with me.  You could compare it to changing your hair, except this transforms in the blink of an eye.  That’s actually something of a problem.  Imagine if you could go long to short to straight to curly to auburn to blond…all with a couple of clicks.  How’s a girl supposed to make up her mind?

How about a hint of Razzleberry  to offset all this green?

Just Believe in Razzleberry

  • Just Believe and French Script stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry and Wild Wasabi card stock
  • Rich Razzleberry and Wild Wasabi Classic ink pads
  • Rich Razzleberry 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon
  • Oval and Scallop oval punches
  • Basic Pearls, a Blender pen and a Stampin’ Sponge

It’s all about the color and the pearls, girls.  I can’t see myself walking out of the house in these colors but I sure love them on a card.  I suppose if they were put together just right in a print I would wear them, but it would have to be in measured doses – I’m too short for more than that.  You can dream about long skinny legs all you want, but for me it will just be a dream.  Closer to the floor when you trip, that’s my motto.

What all of that has to do with cards is a mystery to me, but it’s late and I’ve played too long with my new header.  Take a good look because I’m not promising it will stick around!!

So very Charming

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The February Stampin’ Success magazine had an article about combining purple and yellow.  It’s a bold combination that I’ve always loved, though I tend to mute one hue or the other.   I also tend towards monochromatic color schemes, so it was easy to start with Lovely Lilac and Almost Amethyst.

Charming in purples and yellows

  • Charming, Bella Toile and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Almost Amethyst and Lovely Lilac card stock
  • Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst and So Saffron Classic Ink pads
  • Styled Vanilla Hodge Podge Hardware, Piercing tool and template, small oval punch
  • Paper snips, So Saffron 5/8″ Grosgrain (last year’s SAB) and Stampin’ Dimensionals

I started defining the Lovely Lilac panel with scoring, but it was just too subtle.  If you know me at all, you know I’m not subtle.  Nope.  I wanted to line up my piercing template with the scored lines, and by using my Grid Paper, I was able to do a pretty successful job of it.  And yes, I did go a little over-the-top on the trimming of the floral spray.  It was just one of those things that had to be done.  Good thing I had a nice sharp pair of snips!

Ah, Medallion!

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If I had to choose only a few stamps to work with, Medallion would be very near the top of the list.  It’s elegant, it’s symmetrical, it’s layerable, and it looks great even if you cut part of the image off.  There are so many ways to embellish it, and it looks wonderful all by itself with no embellishment.

I felt the need to step away from Christmas.  This is the week to give thanks, to remember, to be grateful.  I looked for a color combination that I hadn’t worked with lately, and pulled out a sheet of Bravo Burgundy.  What a wonderful, rich color…a perfect Autumn color…but I wasn’t necessarily looking for an Autumn card.  It wasn’t until I had this card put together with Brocade Blue that I realized these were the colors from my oldest daughter’s high school.  I really like the medium blue with the burgundy.

  • Medallion and Thank You Kindly stamp sets
  • Brocade Blue, Bravo Burgundy and Very Vanilla cardstock
  • Brocade Blue and Bravo Burgundy Classic ink pads; Versamark ink pad
  • Clear embossing powder, heat tool, 1/8″ circle hole punch (retired), Stamp-a-ma-jig, Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon, Wine Organza ribbon (retired)

Those little burgundy dots are just holes punched from cardstock and attached with the indispensable Tombo All purpose adhesive.  I apologize for using a retired ribbon, too….it used to be a regular product in the catalog, and I happen to have a stash of it because I’d used it for a custom invitation a few years ago.  Seems like organza has fallen out of favor, but I enjoy using it as a layer.

I found a great use for the Stamp-a-ma-jig.  Sometimes I can’t decide what image, especially sentiment, I want to use to finish a card.  I was goofing off one day and realized I could put the options on different corners of the SAMJ and layer them over my project to see how each would look – like this:

“Thanks” on the Stamp-a-ma-jig

“A Note of Thanks” on the Stamp-a-ma-jig

I think it looks good with either choice, but I liked the more ornate font on the “Thanks” stamp to dress up the simple layout of this card.

The added bonus of this trick is that your SAMJ is all ready to go when it’s time to add your sentiment, so you’re less tempted to wing it – and end up with a crooked sentiment.  Not that I ever have crooked sentiments.

 

 

 

Bunches of flowers

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These floral outline stamps make a quick and easy card.  It’s easy to layer them by using a simple mask:  stamp the image on a re-positionable note and cut the image out.  When you’ve stamped your first image, cover it with the mask and stamp an overlapping image.  I keep my masks in the plastic box the stamp sets come with, because a little bit of Dotto will refresh the “stickiness” of the mask for many more uses.  You can use scrap paper and dotto with the same results, but make sure the paper you use for the mask is lighter than cardstock weight or you’ll have gaps around the edges of your mask.

5th_Ave_Thanks_crop

  • Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set and a retired sentiment
  • Dusty Durango, Pumpkin Pie and Apricot Appeal Classic Ink pads
  • Very Vanilla, Dusty Durango and Apricot Appeal (sorry, it looks kinda yellow) card stock
  • Pumpkin Pie narrow grosgrain ribbon and Scallop Edge punch

The Stampin’ Up! color families make it so easy to design a monochromatic card.  It’s one of the things that sold me on Stampin’ Up! right from the start.  It would be simple to change this color scheme into pinks, reds, golds, lavenders, even blues and greens if your flower favorites run avant garde.

Gratitude

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How easily the words “Thank you” roll off our lips.  We say thanks so easily for so many small things…a kind gesture, a small gift, a thoughtful compliment.

Gratitude implies something more.  It implies we’ve thought about what was given or done for us, turned it over in our minds and acknowledged that extra effort was put into the gift.  It feels more Thankful, not just thanks.

This card was inspired by a couple of challenges at Splitcoast.  One of them was to use the color red, and after a couple of false starts, everything fell into place.   I’m grateful.

Gratitude

Gratitude

  • Naturals White, Real Red, Chocolate Chip and Sahara Sand card stock
  • Real Red and Chocolate Chip Classic Ink
  • Real Red Stampin’ Write Marker, Paper piercing mat (used with marker)
  • Versamark ink, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool
  • Button Latte assortment, Red Hemp twine (retired, sadly)
  • Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder, Big Shot