Rose of Sharon Stamps

One of my favorite Paper Pumpkin kits ever was last month. The kit is called Sweet Sunflowers. I love all the cards inside and the stamp set that was included. Here's a revision of one of the extra card ideas from Stampin' Up! Sunflower Thank You Paper Pumpkin (PP) kits generally include enough supplies to make 9 cards. If you get creative with the supplies included in the kit, along with some of your own supplies, you can usually get at least double the amount of cards, especially if you use the designer envelopes to make cards. For this card, I took the card base of one of the PP cards and cut it in half (5 1/2" x 4 1/4"). I glued the PP card front to an Old Olive card stock base (8 1/2" x 5 1/2", then folded in half).  I wanted to save the die-cut sunflowers from the PP kit for the original cards, so I made my own sunflowers and leaves with the stamp set included in the kit. For the sunflowers, lightly color So Saffron ink on watercolor paper with a Wa...

I love flowers and I love pink, so I really like how this card turned out. This card is mostly made with Stampin' Up!'s Awash in Beauty designer series paper. If you don't mind fussy cutting, you'll love this card too. Be sure to look at the end of this post to see more variations. Awash in Beauty DSP: Awash in Beauty Stamps: Quiet Meadow (speckles), Blessings of Home (words) The base card is Basic White Thick card stock. (5 1/2" x 8 1/2", then folded in half). The pink and white flower paper is from the Awash in Beauty Designer Series Paper (5 1/4" x 4"). The next layer is Shimmery White card stock (4 1/8" x 3 7/8") stamped with speckles in Balmy Blue ink . For this card, the speckles are a stamp from Quiet Meadow (but you could use any speckles you have). I wanted them to be lightly colored, so I stamped on scratch paper before stamping them on the Shimmery White card stock. The floral bouquet was fussy cut from the Awash in Beauty D...

  The cute trailer in the Tree Lot dies reminds me of my family's first trailer when I was growing up. We went camping in the Sierras every summer. My parents slept in the trailer and us kids slept in a tent. Sometimes  we would see deer during the camping trip.   Once or twice in the week of camping, we drove to Hume Lake to play in the water. And nearby, we could drive through the magnificent mountains of Kings Canyon.  These memories inspired this card. Camping Trailer Stamp Set: Snow Front (retired) Dies: Tree Lot (Sale-A-Bration) Measurements: Old Olive CS  5 1/2" x 4 1/4" (fold in half to make card base), Mossy Meadow CS 5 1/8" x 3 7/8", Basic White CS 5 x 3 3/4" Trailer -- Die cut the trailer several times. For my trailer I used Basic Black CS (the base with the tires & trailer hitch), Blackberry Bliss CS  (middle section), Rich Razzleberry CS (top, bottom, curtains) and Smoky Slate CS (windows). Assemble and adhere all the pieces on top of ...

I made this card thinking of my dad. Both my brothers would probably love this card too. Do you have a man in your life who would enjoy a card like this? If so, you're going to like the He's the Man Specialty Designer Series Paper pack and the coordinating stamp set which offers lots of options for making manly cards. Classic Car Card Bundle: He's All That stamps and All That dies DSP: He's the Man 12x12 Specialty Designer Series Paper Use Crumb Cake card stock (8 1/2" x 5 1/2", then folded in half) to make the base card. The car paper is from He's the Man DSP (3 1/2" x 5 1/2"). Glue the DSP to the card base. Stamp the Happy Birthday car image with Early Espresso ink on Crumb Cake card stock . Make sure your ink pad is really inky to get a solid ink image on the car, or use the Stamparatus so you can restamp it if necessary. Die cut the stamped image and a piece of Early Espresso card stock with the same All That die. Glue the two pieces toget...

Happy (belated) 4th of July! I celebrated the day by making some 4th of July cards with fireworks. Since I was so late making them, I didn't have time to mail them to anyone, but I did text a picture of the card to some of my family and friends.  Fireworks - Regular Size I could not find any current stamp sets that had fireworks, so I went through my old stamp sets to find something appropriate for the 4th of July. I found two stamp sets to use: Happy Fourth (SU set from 1999; used the words) and I Love Canada (SU from 2002; used the fireworks). Canada Day (July 1) is close to our Independence Day (July 4), so a lot of the stamps in each set can be used to make celebratory cards for each holiday. Even though I used old stamp sets, I used current paper, ink and embossing powder to make the card. Start with Shimmer White Card Stock . (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"). Use VersaMark ink to stamp the fireworks images. If you work quickly, you can stamp all of the images before adding Clear...

I decided I should make a few more versions of my last card to make the flowers look like Rose of Sharon flowers. So here are two more samples with the same design. White Rose of Sharon Flowers Stamp Sets: Uniquely Artistic, Happiness Abounds Die Set: Harvest I did everything the same as the last card except for the flowers and the words. For these mostly white flowers, I stamped the flowers with Rich Razzleberry ink. To get the lighter color of ink, I stamped the flower image twice on scratch paper before stamping on the Basic White card stock . I colored the ring around the center of the flower with Stampin' Blends ( Light Fresh Freesia and  Light Rich Razzleberry ). You can't really see it in the picture, but I also added some Wink of Stella to the flower centers to add a bit of shine/glitter. Be careful to just dab the Wink of Stella since it is water-based and so is the Rich Razzleberry ink, so the ink will run if you brush it. The "happy birthday" stamp is fr...

I love flowers, so I figured my first blog should be a card with flowers. These flowers remind me of the hibiscus flowers I grow in a big pot by the pool. I can see them from my kitchen window. And if you search for "Rose of Sharon flowers", you will find flowers that look very much like the flowers on this card (just in different colors). Uniquely Artistic Flowers Stamp Sets: Uniquely Artistic & Nature's Harvest Start with  Basic White card stock  (5 1/4" x 4"). Use  Memento Black Ink  to stamp the leaves in the four corners with the stem in the center of the paper. Mask the center with a Post-it® Note or Stampin' Up!'s  Masking Paper . Stamp two more leaf branches on the top and bottom and one on the right and left sides. Use  Stampin' Blends  to color the leaves ( Parakeet Party ) and the background ( Tranquil Tide ). Stamp the flowers in Memento Black Ink on Basic White card stock. Color the flowers with  Stampin' Blends  ( Sweet Sorb...