FabFri22: Chalk Talk

Hi stampers! Long time no see! I'm so sorry for not posting much lately. Life has been CRAZY! Between having two kids home all day everyday, wanting to make the most of summer, and getting ready for Stampin' Up convention next week, I just haven't had much time to stamp. I have been doing a little bit of stamping for my birthday card class tonight and a few swaps for convention (which I will post after convention). Be sure to check back soon to see all of those cards!

Well, it's Friday and time for another Fab Friday challenge- yay! We have a color challenge for you this week. Check it out!

I decided to do a birthday card for my design team card so that it could also be one of the cards for tonight's birthday card class. I think this is a great color combination for masculine cards. Here is my card...

 

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:
Stamps: Chalk Talk
Paper: Basic Gray, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Big Shot, Chalk Talk framelits, Houndstooth EF, Epic Day washi tape, small silver brads

I really like the Chalk Talk stamp set and matching framelits. I used three different framelits from the set on this card. The Real Red layer is the first. The Tempting Turquoise layer was made by using two of the top halves of the long, thin label. The stamped image was cut out using a third framelit. Another fun, new product I used it the diagonal striped washi tape in the background. If you have never tried using washi tape, give it a try. It is so easy to use and there are so many ways to use it. I especially love that it can be torn and that it is repositionable!

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to play along with us this week at Fab Friday! I can't wait to see what you make.

Marla  Pin It

FM114: Brick Wall

In my quest to do more stamping for fun this summer, I have been keeping my eye on all of the challenge blogs out there. I saw that The Friday Mashup had a really technique challenge that I hadn't tried before called "Brick Wall", so I decided to give it a try.

And here is my card (a little early since it is very fall-ish, but oh well)...

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:
Stamps: Gently Falling, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry
Accessories: Big Shot, Woodgrain EF, Modern Label punch, Word Window punch, Tombow Multi Liquid Glue, paper snips, sponge
Techniques: Brick Wall, 2-Step Stamping, Stamping Off, Sponging

Isn't that a cool technique? I really had fun making this card for my dad's birthday in November (provided that I can keep track of it that long). ;-)

A couple of thoughts and tips for this technique...

• Check out the photo tutorial on Splitcoaststampers and watch the video.
• Allow yourself some time to play. This is not the technique for those times when you have ten minutes to make a card.
• I found that drawing the bricks on the backside of the cardstock and then cutting worked better than using the trimmer.
• When cutting apart your stamped cardstock, do one strip at a time and immediately sponge it and glue it down. Otherwise, this will become a very tricky jigsaw puzzle.
• I found that using liquid glue worked well because it allowed me some time to make adjustments and make sure everything was straight.

OK, I think that's all of the advice that I can offer. This is a fun one! Give it a try!
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TGI... Fab Friday

As if Fridays weren't fab enough... it's time for another challenge at Fab Friday! Mindy has a color challenge for us this week. I have to admit, I struggled with this one. I love these three colors, but I had a hard time coming up with a good way to use them together, but what good is a challenge that doesn't challenge us and make us stretch our creativity a little, right? I encourage you to play along with us this week and see how you can grow creatively.

This was my take on these colors. I was inspired by a sketch that I found on Pinterest that was originally posted on the Try Stampin' on Tuesday challenge blog. It is a fun and versatile sketch.

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Stamps: Perfectly Penned

Ink: Midnight Muse

Paper: Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit, Whisper White, 2012-2014 In Color DSP stack, Summer Smooches DSP

Accessories: Big Shot, Chevron EF, Holiday Collection framelits, Island Indigo ruffled ribbon

All in all, this is a very simple project, but I like the way it turned out. I'm not sure what is up with my camera lately, but I really did use Summer Starfruit (even though it looks more like Daffodil Delight in the picture).

Please be sure to pop on over to the Fab Friday blog and link up your own project using these fun colors. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

If you need a little additional inspiration, check out the blogs of my fellow design team members! They are all amazing stampers!

Mindy Backes
Cindy Beach
Jason Casper
Amanda Mertz
Brenda Myers
Jan Tink
Wendy Weixler

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Blast Off!

Hello all! My hubby just gave me a crash course in Photoshop and I was playing around with a picture of a card and decided to go ahead and post it. Also, notice my new watermark! My hubby also created it for me this evening. I have been wanting to add a watermark to my pictures for a while now, but just lacked the computer know how to make it work. Good thing I am married to an IT specialist!

If you are wondering about the squirrel in the watermark, all I can say is that squirrels are my favorite animal (not in an "I want one as a pet" sort of way, but more in an "I enjoy watching them scamper from a safe distance" kind of way). There were squirrels in the yard at my first grown up apartment and I used to watch them in the mornings while I drank my coffee and ate breakfast and my love of squirrels grew from there.

OK, enough about computers, watermarks, and squirrels! You probably would like to see a card. Well, here you go!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:
Stamps: Blast Off, Outer Space wheel
Paper: Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Whisper White
Ink: Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Tangerine Tango, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Raspberry Ripple
Accessories: 2 1/2" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, Color Spritzer, dimensionals

I just love this adorable little set! My son, Isaac, is almost seven and he chose this as "his" set, so that gave me a little extra motivation to order it. He has already stamped a couple of cards with it that I will have to post sometime. It is a great set for little boy cards!

The moon is made with two circles punched with the 2 1/2" circle punch. The top layer was punched with a 3/4" circle, 1/2" circle, and a standard office supply circle punch (1/8" inch, maybe?) to create craters. I then used the color spritzer with the Summer Starfruit marker to give it a speckled appearance and popped the top layer up with dimensionals making sure to line it up with the bottom circle.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to stop back by soon. I have a class this Saturday and all of the cards we are making are my own original designs (first time that has ever happened!). I will be posting them very soon, so be on the lookout!

~Marla Pin It

Freshly Made Sketches meets Hand Stamped Sentiments!

Hello again! Here is my second challenge card. This one combines the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches with the theme challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:
Stamps: Workshop Words (Convention 2011 exclusive)
Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday DSP
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots EF, Large Star punch (retired), Small Star punch (retired), mat pack, paper piercer, brights brads

Check out these two fun challenges and play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Marla Pin It

Card Class Preview

Hello! My apologies for not posting in a while! We had a little "incident" with our camera. My son knocked it off the top of our curio cabinet and broke it and we had to buy a new one, so I had a couple of weeks where I couldn't take any pictures. Let's face it- blog posts with no pictures just aren't much fun! I hope that you are enjoying the summer weather! We have had HOT weather here lately, but it has cooled off and been absolutely beautiful the last few days, so no complaints from me! To try to make up for not posting regularly, I have a HUGE post for you today. These are the cards that we will be making at my masculine-themed card class tomorrow afternoon. I always find masculine cards to be a challenge, but I am really happy with how this group of cards turned out! Enjoy!



Supplies Used:
Stamps: Sail Away (summer mini), Thoughts & Prayers
Papers: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy
Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine (summer mini), Wide Oval punch
Techniques: Torn Edge
CASE of: this card

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Totally Tool, Woodgrain (background)
Paper: Cajun Craze, Chocolate Chip, Cake, Whisper White
Ink: Stazon, Cajun Craze, Basic Gray
Accessories: Blender Pens, Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Silver Brads
Technique: Watercoloring with Blender Pens


Supplies Used:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Something to Celebrate (Occasions mini), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (retired)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White
Ink: Early Espresso, Early Espresso marker, Pear Pizzazz marker
Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, Tasteful Trim die, 2 1/2" circle punch
Techniques: marker to stamp, dry embossing
CASE of: this card





Supplies Used:
Stamps: Bring on the Cake (Occasions mini)
Paper: Marina Mist, Whisper White, Pacific Point, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight
Ink: Staz On
Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Blossom Petals punch (for the flames), Decorative Label punch, Marina Mist 1/8" taffetta ribbon
Techniques: sponging, dry embossing
CASE of: this card

I hope you liked these cards! I'm so excited today because I have a shipment of all new SU! supplies coming today. It has all of the brand new in colors (they are gorgeous!) as well as a copy of the new catalog! I can't wait to see it! I've heard it is the best yet! Be on the lookout for posts containing all my new goodies! Have a great day (I know I will)!

~Marla Pin It

Mascuine Birthday SAS #5

Hello! This is the fifth and final card from my card class on Friday. It is a very simple masculine birthday card. I always try to include a masculine card in the mix when I do classes because I find them to be a bit of a challenge to make and when I need one, I don't always have one on hand. I CASE'd this card from one made by Bard Mullikin that I saw on splitcoast (of course!). It went together very quickly and easily. I love this pattern in the Greenhouse Gala paper because it isn't flowery and works well for masculine cards. Enjoy!

I worked on the invitations to my kids' birthday party (their birthdays are one week apart, so we can get by with just one party, how lucky is that?). I will post it tomorrow. Until then, have a great day and try to stay cool!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Perfect Punches

Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White CS, Greenhouse Gala DSP

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: Wide Oval punch, Big Shot, Lots of Tags Sizzlit, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

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Pendant Park Hello

Hi there! Isn't this a cute little set? I've had my eye on it for over a year and I finally ordered it. I love that it is one of the few older sets that they made available in wood mount or clear mount. I am a sucker for squirrels (even tiny ones like these!) so I knew it was only a matter of time before this set would be added to my collection.

I CASE'd this card from one posted by a posted called LYP on splitcoast, but I did change mine up quite a bit. I used different colors and made my card landscape rather than portrait. I love the little strip behind the main image panel. It is made from one of the stamps in this set. It is only about 4" long, so not long enough to make it all the way across a card front, but I solved that problem by stamping it, cutting it out, layering it on a piece of Soft Suede CS, and then cutting the strip in half before adhering it to the card front. With the image piece layered on top, you can't tell that it is cut.

I also used a technique called masking on this card. Do you see that the tree does not show behind the bench? I did this by stamping the bench on the CS, then stamping it again on a post-it and cutting it out. The post-it is then stuck directly over the bench on the CS. I then stamped the tree and the part that is covered by the post-it is left clean. Lift up the post-it and it looks like the bench is blocking the view of the tree. Cool, huh? Sorry if my directions are a little confusing! Leave me a comment or send me an email if you want clarification. :-)

I think this card turned out cute and is a nice, somewhat masculine card. (I always need masculine cards!) The sentiment could easily be switched with one from Teeny Tiny Wishes, so if could fit any occasion. Well, hope you like this one! Card #4 tomorrow! Stop back by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Pendant Park
Ink: Soft Suede, Old Olive
Paper: Very Vanilla CS, Old Olive CS, Soft Suede CS
Accessories: Small Oval punch, Large Oval punch, Scalloped Oval punch
Techniques: Masking Pin It

New Catalog CASE

Hello! This card was CASE'd from the new catalog. I just love this little rocket ship from Pun Fun. It is the reason that I bought the set. This was a really fun card to make and I think a little boy would love getting this card for his birthday. The rocket is stamped on the less shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil glued down to a piece of cardstock. I have to give my sister the credit for that idea. She came up with it while I was working on this card. The inside is stamped with the circle stamp from the Starring You set and there is a border of stars stamped from the same set along the bottom of the inside. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the inside, too!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Pun Fun, Starring You, Whimsy wheel

Paper: So Saffron CS, Old Olive CS, Always Artichoke CS, Brilliant Blue CS (retiring)

Ink: Jet Black Staz On, Brilliant Blue (retiring)

Accessories: 2-way glue pen, 1 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, 1/4" circle punch (non-SU), Large Star punch, Star punch, So Saffron brads, aluminum foil (non-SU)

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Masculine Birthday

Hello again! Two days in a row, can you believe it? Masculine cards are a great challenge for me. That's why I'm so glad that I finally bought the "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set. It is definitely a classic in the SU catalog. It's been around forever and I was sure it was going to retire, Tbut it didn't. We get this one for at least another year. It is quickly becoming my go-to set when making masculine cards.

This card was cased from a card I saw on splitcoast. If you've never checked it out, the address is splitcoaststampers.com. If you go to the gallery, there are literally millions of pictures of cards, scrapbook pages, and gift ideas. There is even a SU gallery where you can search by specific stamp sets. It's a very cool site. Anyway, back to the card, I did change several elements from the original. The colors are different and I added the brads in the corner as well as adding the woodgrain.

Hope you enjoy this one and I will try to post again tomorrow! Have a great Sunday!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Woodgrain background

Paper: Dusty Durango CS (retiring), Close to Cocoa CS (retiring), Kraft CS (being renamed Crumb Cake in the new catalog) Always Artichoke CS, Very Vanilla CS

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Always Artichoke brads (retiring), 1/16" hole punch

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