Timeless Birthday

Today I want to show you a card I designed for my monthly Tri-City Stampers team meeting last night.  Several of my team members had never tried using our Stampin' Around wheels before, so I wanted to come up with a design that incorporated the use of a wheel.  Here is what we did:

Birthday card featuring the Timeless Talk stamp set and Music Notes Stampin' Around wheel.

Inside view with sentiment from A Dozen Thoughts

If you are like my team members and have never used one of our wheels before, let me caution you that there is a bit of a learning curve to get a perfect image.  It isn't difficult once you get that hang of it and with a little practice, you'll be wheeling like a pro!  For this card we used the Music Notes wheel twice; once on the small panel on the front of the card (to break them in gently) and a second time on the inside panel.  We used the Smoky Slate ink pad to ink the wheel...no need for ink cartridges when using the wheel on a card, though if you want to do a larger scrapbook page, you'll want the continuous inking a cartridge provides.  The other thing to be sure of is that you have a straight edge to guide your wheel...it is virtually impossible to get the image perfectly straight without one.  I'm proud to say that every one of my team members managed to successfully wheel the music image on both the front and inside of the card. :D
The rest of the card is straightforward.  The DSP is from the I Am Me DSP pack. I stamped the victrola and the sentiment in Basic Gray and the speech bubble in Smoky Slate.  The sentiment on the inside, from the A Dozen Thoughts set, is also stamped in Basic Gray.  I used the Ovals Collection Framelits to cut out the Victrola image, which gave my team a chance to try out the new Magnetic Platform.  They loved it as much as I do!!  It is so easy and quick to use the Framelits...no more fussing with post-it notes!  Far and away my favourite new product!
On another note, one week from today I will be in Salt Lake City for Convention!!  I am getting so excited!  Be sure to check in here daily, as I will post the highlights for you.  I will also be tweeting live during convention, so be sure to follow me on Twitter (@lgirsa) so you don't miss out on a single bit of the convention excitement!

Time for some more sketch Inspiration!

Well now that I'm on holidays I am able to stay  more on top of my poor blog!  Believe it or not, I'm actually AHEAD on my sketch inspiration projects!  Hard to believe, I know, but since I will be gone for 6 days for convention I wanted to have some things to pre-post for you while I'm away.  Today I have another take on this months sketch:

Friendship card featuring the Perfect Blend stamp set and Soho Subway DSP.

This time I used the sketch on a vertically oriented card.  That's something to keep in mind when working from a sketch...don't limit yourself to the orientation of the original sketch.  Play around with it...rotate it, flip it until you come up with something you like.  The sketch is always just a starting point.
For this card I stamped the coffee cup image in Early Espresso (of course!) on some Naturals Ivory card stock.  Now why is it that I'm only now discovering how fantastic that stuff is?!?  I was able to shade the cup using my blender pen and just the ink from the stamped image without the card stock tearing or pilling.  How great is that???  I grunged it up a bit with my spritzer, some spots from the Paper Pumpkin Welcome Kit stamps and lightly stamped the Off the Grid stamp in the corners as well.  I matted it on a piece of Early Espresso card stock cut just 1/8" larger than the focal image piece...this gives a very narrow border.  I used three different patterns from the Soho Subway DSP pack...I'm going to need to get more of that stuff during this month's B3GO promotion.  I used the grid for the background and again, grunged it up a bit, this time also adding little bits of Washi tape in the corners. Sooo....there you have it!  Another take on a great sketch.  Now go make something!!

Sympathy for a Friend

Last week a good friend of mine lost her Mum to Alzheimer's.  Although it was the inevitable conclusion to a horrible disease, it certainly wasn't easy for her to lose a parent.  I made this card for her:

Sympathy card featuring the Flowering Flourishes and Papillon Potpourri stamp sets with sentiment from Best of Greetings

Inside View with sentiment from Blessings From Heaven

I wanted this card to be soft and soothing, so I chose several of the new In-colours to feature.  I used Pistashio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe and Blushing Bride for the flourish.  The butterfly and the sentiment are both heat embossed in pewter.  I layered the front panel on a piece of Smoky Slate, which worked quite well with the embossing.  Rather than punch a label for the sentiment on the front of the card,  I opted to highlight the it by paperpiercing a label shape using my Essentials Paperpiercing Template.  On the inside I oped for the punched label so that I could layer it over top of the stamped image. 
Although this was designed as a sympathy card, a change of colour scheme and sentiment would make a lovely wedding or anniversary card.  Gotta love a versatile design!

More Birthday Fun

I am really loving the Birthday Basics DSP.  I used it on a card for last month's sketch challenge, but never got around to posting it for you.  So, better late than never, is another take on last month's sketch:

First a reminder what the sketch looked like:

And a different spin on it...

Birthday Card featuring the Birthday Basics DSP, the Alphabet Press TIEF and sentiment from Sassy Salutations.

I rotated the sketch for this card, using a horizontal, rather than vertical orientation.  It was super quick and easy to put this one together...perfect for when you need a card in a hurry.  Done in under 10 minutes...faster than you could run to the store and buy one, for sure LOL.  My colour scheme came from the DSP:  Summer Startfuit, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, Bermuda Bay and Basic Gray.  I used the Hearts A-flutter and Bitty Banners Framelits to cut out my banners and added a bit of stitched satin ribbon in Summer Starfruit for texture and shine.  This one will be finding its way to a class near you later this month ;)

Just a reminder to check out the Monthly Sketch inspiration tab at the top of this page for more sketches and ideas to get your Mojo working!

New month, new sketch!

It's time for a new inspiration sketch.  I'll admit that last month I did a less-than-great-job of posting variations on the sketch...June is such a crazy  time for  us teachers!  But now I'm on holidays and there is absolutely no excuse for not staying on top of it.  So, here is the sketch for this month:

Inspiration sketch for July

...and here is my first sample:

Birthday card featuring the Sketched Birthday stamp set and Birthday Basics DSP.

Inside view with sentiments from Remembering Your Birthday.

I just love this Birithday Basics DSP!  It has such fun  patterns and trendy colours and is so much fun to work with.  I had a hard time choosing the patterns to use on this card...I love them all!  I was really glad to see some new birthday stamp sets in this year's catalogue.  Birthdays, by far, the occasion I get the most requests for at classes and workshops and  I was getting a little tired of the same old sets I had.  These new ones offer great images that are fun to colour and some new sentiments to boot.
Now in case you missed it, there is a great deal on DSP this month.  When you purchase three packages of Designer Series Paper from the new Annual Catalogue, you get to choose a fourth pack absolutely FREE!  If you're a DSP addict like me this sale will be right up your alley!  Call, click or email to place your order today!

Christmas in July Preview...

One of my favourite things about this time of year is our pre-order for the Holiday Catalogue.  I know, you're probably thinking it's a little early to be thinking about snow and Christmas, but I love that during the summer I have time to play and design fabulous Christmas projects that I just don't have the time for once the Holiday season arrives.  Today I want to show you a Christmas  card I designed for a swap I am participating in at Convention in just a couple of weeks. 

Christmas card  featuring the Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder and Mosaic punch with sentiment from More Merry Messages.

This is a quick and easy, yet festive Christmas card. Good thing, because I may well be putting these together on the plane to Salt Lake City!!  So much to do and so little time...hard to believe I'm on holidays :)

Happy Canada Day!!

I hope my Canadian readers are enjoying today, celebrating this great country of ours with friends and family.  Today I have lots to show you, so let's get started!

It is time for a new challenge over at The Technique Twist Challenge!  This time it is a technique I had never tried before called Rolled Quartz.  For those of you who are like me and need a how-to, Anne Hayward has done a fantastic tutorial HERE...check it out and then get busy.  This is a really fun technique!  Here's a little inspiration to get you started:

Masculine card featuring the Rolled Quartz technique and the Daring Advanture and Need for Speed stamp sets (both retired)

Rather than explain in detail how I created that cool background, I'll refer you to the tutorial, as I followed that pretty much exactly.  The only difference was I used a piece of Whisper White card stock as my base, rather than a window sheet.  Now, it did get a wee bit saturated with the Crystal Effects, so if I were to do this again I would likely used some Naturals White card stock instead, as it is a bit sturdier.  To create the boat I stamped the image using Staz On on water colour paper and then coloured it using my markers and blender pen.  I fussy cut it out and adhered it to my rolled quartz background using dimensionals.  The sentiment panel is die but using the new Chalk Talk framelits...so falling in love with those great shapes!  I added a little manly detail with some silver mini brads along one side and some baker's twine to add to the nautical feel.  I hope you'll play along with us at the Technique Twist this week...what better way to spend Canada Day than with ink and stamps!

Now, I need to show you June's bonus project from Craft Project Central.  I was supposed to have posted this yesterday but was busy in the garden and forgot.  It is designed by Amanda Corbett..

Dress Up Wardrobe designed by Amanda Corbett

This fun wardrobe includes five different card designs and matching envelopes!  Each card has a different fun dress design that you can make in minutes!  You can build your own fashionable wardrobe! What a great project..Amanda is one very talented lady!