A Reason to Smile

One layout- two cards- both with the daisy image from A Reason to Smile stamp set today.

I made the blue themed one first using Comfort Cafe DSP and like it so much I made a pink one with a stamped background layer.

For the focal image I stamped the daisy on Very Vanilla cardstock with Black Staz-on ink and the colored it with markers.  I uses four shades of pink and 5 shades of yellow/orange starting with the lightest going gradually darker.

Razzleberry Splash Dresden Card Set

My final design project for Keep Calm and UStamp On uses the Dresden Designs Big Shot die in combination with the Razzleberry Splash Simply Scrappin' Kit.

This one was really fun to design!  There are five different card folds each using the Dresden die.  It uses one half of a Simply Scrappin' Kit (with plenty of leftover pieces) so you can either make two sets or use the other half for another project.  

A full tutorial for this project is available on the Keep Calm and UStamp On member site.  Click on the Keep Calm and UStamp On blinkie to sign up!

Reason to Smile Card Set

Stampin' Up has a special promotional set available this month only called Reason to Smile with pretty little daisy images.  I used this set for my second project for the Keep Calm and UStamp On session.

The Reason to Smile set has both outline and solid stamps that can be used alone or in combination.   A variety of techniques are featured including same-color thumping, two-step stamping, painting with re-inkers, and re-inker color washing.

The complete tutorial is available on the Keep Calm and UStamp On member site.  Membership is  $24.99 and includes access to more than 40 tutorials!  Click on the blinkie below to sign up.




Daydream Medallion Photo Frames

The latest session of UStamp is live and all the projects feature products from the new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up catalog.  When I saw the new Floral Frames Framelit set I immediately thought they would make great picture frames and the Birds of a Feather Designer Series paper would be pretty for a wedding theme.  So....

I created a series of three frames and a pop up easel card that folds flat and will fit in a regular size envelope.  These could be used for so many occasions.  By changing the papers and colors you could have an entirely different look!

A complete tutorial for this and more than 40 others can be found by joining UStamp with Dawn and Friends!  Click on the blinkie below to sign up!




Pride and Freedom

Happy 4th of July!  I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day celebrating the freedoms we have in our great country!

I celebrated this morning by taking a bit of time for some crafting and made this patriotic frame.  It is TOO HOT to do anything outside today!  It is so hot and dry that most of the local fireworks have been postponed.  We have some family activities planned for later--I think ice cream sundaes will be part of the festivities!

I used the My Digital Studio Pride Designer Template to make this.  I changed it by deleting everything except the large red words.  I printed that on Whisper White and used it for the base.  Then I printed the entire template again (I changed the quotes and phrases to Midnight Muse first) and cut out a few phrases, rearranged them and popped them up on dimensionals.

I added some stars with Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details accents and retired ribbon at the side.

Enjoy your day!!     

More Graduation Cards

We had another fun weekend of graduation openhouses.  Graduation cards are one of my favorite to design!

I really like the feeling of motion in this card.  The contemporary style of the Bright Blossoms stamps seemed to fit this sentiment so well.  This uses all the new in-color inks and the lovely Comfort Cafe DSP.

  

Midnight Muse is such a rich color of blue and is fast becoming my new go-to color.  I used it for the sentiment in the above card and in this second card it is the main focus.   

Products used:

Imagine the Possibilities card:

Raspberry Ripple base- 4-1/4" X 11", scored at 5-1/2"

Comfort Cafe layer- 4" X 5-1/4"

Whisper White layer - 3-3/4" X 5"

Inks- Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse

Stamps- Bright Blossoms, Word Play

Go Confidently card:

Midnight Muse base- 4-1/4"X 11", scored at 5-1/2"

Comfort Cafe layer-  3" X 5-1/4"

Very Vanilla layer - 3-3/4" X 5"

Ink: Midnight Muse

Stamps: Open Sea, Word Play

Graduation Card Variations

We have so many openhouses to attend this year!  It is delightful to see so many of the kids we have known since they were babies graduating.   I made two cards for the ones we attending this weekend.

Both use a base layer with a verse printed using My Digital Studio which I stamped on to make the variations.

The daisy outline stamp on the girl version is from the Reason to Smile set.

And the ship and compass on the guy version is from the Open Sea set.

The My Digital Studio layout is one that I made last year and saved so I was easily able add a duplicate page, changed the color of the text and put a border stamp at the bottom.  (The border stamp, called Torn Edges is one of my favorites and comes with My Digital Studio.)  This is what the page looked like when I printed it.

I have tips for aligning the text on the page in this post from last year.  You can see the first version of the card there as well.