Thanks, Coach!

Last weekend my son's baseball season finished up.  He has had a wonderful experience, thanks in large part to his coach.  He was so patient with Max and took the time to teach him the fundamentals of the game and we saw a huge improvment in Max's play over the course of the season.  To express our appreciation I made special card for Max to give along with a Tim Horton's gift card because that's what we Canadians love most! ;)

Coach Thank you card using the Circle Card Thinlits and the Alphabet Rotary Stamp

Of course, I left making this until the morning of his big finals day, so I had to design quickly.  I knew I wanted to use a baseball on it somehow, so I pulled out my Circle Card Thinlits die.  I used Basic Gray card stock with the die to create the card base.  Then I pulled out some Tangelo Twist and Basic Black card stock (Max's team is the Orioles).  I embossed the Tangelo Twist with the Lucky Stars TIEF and the Basic Black with the Stylish Stripes TIEF.

To create the baseball, I simply punched a 2-1/2" circle from Whisper White card stock and then used the negative from the punch to trace my stitching lines on the ball using a Real Red Stampin' Write marker.  I added the little "v" stitches and sponged the edges in Smoky Slate ink...quick and easy baseball. The sentiment is stamped using the Alphabet Rotary stamp (so love that thing for creating personalized greetings!) in Basic Black ink.  Now, everybody likes some sparkle, so I added some silver glimmer stars, punched with the Confetti Stars punch and the Itty Bitty Accents Pack, by way of embellishment.

On the back of the baseball, I added a little banner created using the Banner Banter stamp set and coordinating Banner punch.  The little You're The Best greeting was perfect for this project. I left space on the back of the card for Max to write a message of thanks to his coach.

Have a fantastic weekend!  I am gearing up to spend the day with 24 fellow demonstrators at my Christmas in July event tomorrow.  Lots of stamping and fun will be had!  I'll share photos next week.  Till then, happy stamping!

Blended Paperpieced Bloom

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a fabulous weekend!!  The weather here was simply perfect once again, but I was busy in my soon-to-be craft room most of the weekend.  My little piece of stamping heaven is coming along.  It won't be long till the big reveal...stay tuned ;)
I was so busy I completely forgot to post my project for this week's challenge over at The Technique Twist.  This time we are working on 3D Paperpiecing...a fussy, labour intensive technique that we experimented with to find ways to make it a little less daunting.  Here is my take on it:

Thank you card featuring the Blended Bloom and Banner Banter stamp sets

Instead of colouring the entire image, I paper-pieced different patterns of DSP for the various layers of the flower.  Here is a side-view:

I added shadows and coloured the centre with Coastal Cabana and Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.  To get the dimension I burnished the wrong side of the layers with a stylus on a piercing mat.  It causes the paper to curl ever so slightly...you have to take care not to press too hard when burnishing so as not to tear the paper.

The sentiment in the banner is from the new Banner Banter stamp set.  I love all the little sentiments that fit perfectly inside the Banner punch.  For the background I used the Pretty Print TIEF (retired)...sure wish that one was still available...it is one of my favourites!
I used a few little In-colour sequins and some Hello Honey stain ribbon to pretty this one up.  What's not to love about ribbon and bling??