little inklings

Sweet Heart

 I can't believe this stamp set retired without me ever making a card with it. I'm pretty sure that should be a crime or something. I  came across it when I was organizing my stamp space, and had to use it for the layout challenge over at the Great Swap Girls Blog spot. And at the time, my dear friends daughter was having her 1st birthday. Isn't this little giraffe ADORABLE? Almost as adorable as my friends daughter (Hi SP:). 

Here’s how I made it: I first created the Vanilla and So Saffron Ovals using my Nestabilities dies. I then stamped the giraffe image in the center of the Vanilla oval in Close to Cocoa, then again on a scrap piece of paper. I colored him in using blender pens, cut him out and tied the itty bitty ribbon around his neck. I adhered him to the stamped image using dimensionals then assembled the two layers together. Last, I added the paper piercing in the scallops and set the image aside. On the Close to Cocoa layer, I stamped the start & swirls along the top in coordinating ink. I added the So Saffron Designer Series paper. The paper piercing along the top strip of DSP, and then the Chocolate Chip ribbon to hide the seam. I added the sentiment in Close to Cocoa, punched out three ¼” Chocolate Chip circles, adhered them to the bottom of the card, then added the So Saffron brads. I then assembled all the layers using dimensionals. 

Here’s the supplies I used: 

Stamps: Bundle of Joy, Sweet Stars Wheel 

Paper: So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip & Very Vanilla Cardstock, So Saffron Designer Series Paper 

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip & So Saffron Classic Inks 

Extras: Paper Piercer, Dimensionals, Cuttlebug & Nestabilities, Chocolate Chip Wide Grosgrain Ribbon, Craft Store thin vanilla ribbon, Rich Regals Brads, ¼” circle punch 

Measurements: 

Base: 5 ½” x 8 ½” So Saffron 

Layers: 5 ¼” x 4” Close to Cocoa, 3 ½”x 4 ½ So Saffron (large enough to accommodate Nestabilities Scalloped Oval die) 3 ¾” x 2 ¾” & 3 ¾” x 1 ½” Strips of So Saffron Designer Series Paper Image: 3 x 4” Very Vanilla (large enough to accommodate Nestabilities Oval die)

Rock-a-bye-Cutie-pie

I'm so glad its Friday!! Its Thanksgiving weekend here, and I'm looking forward to some family time, and laying pretty low, and maybe getting a bit more stamping done this weekend. Speaking of..I've completely missed Kristina Werner's deadline for submission for her 25th Color Inspiration Challengetonight (sniff, sniff), but I'm going to post anyway. The challenge was to use Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, So Saffron and Ruby Red. The inspiration pic. was so adorable - I had to put a card together. I think this Nursery Necessities set is so cute - and its pretty hard to go wrong with a little baby boy card for this color combo. Anyway, enough yick yack.. hope you like it!

Here's how I made it: My card base is a 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" piece of Confetti White. The next layer is a 4" square of Ballet blue. I paper pierced around the four sides, then I heat embossed the stars with the sweet stars wheel, versamark ink and White Embossing powder, then adhered it to the card base with dimensionals.

The little boat is stamped first on a 1 3/4" square of Whisper White card stock using Ballet Blue ink. I then stamped the boat three more times in each of the colors, then cut out the sails, and adhered them over top of the blue boat with dimensionals. I adhered the ribbons to the right side and set the image aside. The Certainly Celery matte is a 2 1/2" square. I paper pierced along the four sides, the created faux stitching. I heat embossed the sentiment with Versamark ink and white embossing powder on a piece of Celery scrap paper, then punched it out using my word window punch. The final step was to adhere all the layers together using dimensionals.

Here's the supplies I used:
Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Sweet Stars Jumbo Wheel
Paper: Confetti White, Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Ruby Red, So Saffron, Versamark
Extras: White Embossing Powder, White Gel Pen, Paper Piercer, Dimensionals, Celery & Apricot 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Blue Gingham Ribbon.

So Happy!

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope you're all having a great weekend. Our weekend started off pretty good, with nice weather, and some time to get a few things done around the house, stamping included.

I have to confess, I've been a bit of a slacker lately, with my challenges. I even missed Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge deadline last week {GASP}. I know, I know, its quite sad - I look forward to her challenges so much, I feel like I don't fill my creative quota for the week, if I miss. I did put a card together after the fact, which I will share with you this week. But today, I was bound and determined to get back on the wagon, and I did, putting this card together this afternoon, which is quite the accomplishment - stamping during daylight hours. I went to post it before the entry deadline, and wouldn't ya know it, my internet went down - for FOUR HOURS. So, I'm posting anyway, hoping for some grace. Kristina's challenge was to use Sahara Sand, Whisper White, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi. I always find Sahara Sand a challenge to work with, but I liked how this one turned out. Hope you do too. :)

Here's how I made it: I started with a 8 1/2" x 4 1/4" piece of Wild Wasabi card stock (CS), folded in half. The next layer is a 4 " x 4" square of So Saffron CS. The next layer is a 3 3/4" square of Sahara Sand. Along the top, I used my Jumbo Stampin' Around Lots of Dots wheel, inking it up with Wild Wasabi ink. This wheel is tricky - you have to line up the seam at the edge of the paper, before you roll, since there is a bit of a break in the spacing there. Next, I cut a 3 3/4" x 1 " strip of Whisper White CS, and inked up the Nursery Letters jumbo wheel in So Saffron, and rolled it over. Then finished the strip off with the Spiral punch, adhering to the card front. Next I added the Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon.  

The stars and the sentiment are from the Nursery Necessities set, which is ADORABLE, I might add. I stamped the large star first, on So Saffron CS, in So Saffron ink, then punched out using the Large Star punch. The small star is stamped on Sahara Sand Paper, in Wild Wasabi, then also punched out, this time using the small star punch. I added the So Saffron brad in the middle, then adhered both the Stars to the card front using dimensionals. Last, I added the sentiment, stamping it in Wild Wasabi ink on So Saffron CS, and punching it out using the Word Window punch, and adhering it to the card front with dimensionals. All three layers are also adhered using dimensionals. 

Here's the supplies I used:

Paper: Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Sahara Sand & Whisper White Card stock

Ink: Wild Wasabi, So Saffron Classic Inks

Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Nursery Letters Jumbo Wheel, Lots of Dots Jumbo Wheel

Extras: Spiral, Word Window, Large Star & Small Star punches, Dimensionals, Rich Regals Brads, Wild Wasabi Double Stitch Ribbon

Bundle of Joy

I can't believe this was the first time I sat down and used this stamp set. Shame on me! I needed a baby card for a co-worker, and thought this little bear was perfect for the occasion. And since I let it sit on my shelf collecting dust far too long, out it came! This was the second card I put together this weekend, inspired by Beate's Weekend Sketch challenge. I just didn't like the look of the bear off to the left. It was just too CUTE and demanded center stage. So I deviated from the sketch a bit. But look - no Chocolate Chip! :) (Close to Cocoa, yes - but I'm still calling it progress). Hope you like it.

Here's how I built it: The card base is an 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Piece of River Rock Cardstock (CS) folded in half. The next Groovy Guava layer measures 5 1/4" x 4" and is stamped using matching ink and the Jumbo Sweet Stars wheel, then paper pierced around the border.
The next layer is a 4 ¼” x 3 ¼” piece of River Rock CS with strips of Apricot Appeal Designer Series Paper (DSP) measuring 4”x 2” and 4” x 1” adhered to it. The Apricot Appeal narrow grosgrain ribbon was wrapped around to hide the seam, then the whole piece adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. The two ovals for the center Bear image were created using my Nestabilities, Oval and Scalloped dies (BTW - I {heart} my Nestabilities,). I stamped the bear first, in the centre of the Very Vanilla oval using my Stamp-a-ma-Jig (I {heart} my Stamp-a-ma-Jig too!) and paper pierced around the outside. (Beate has a great tutorial on paper piercing curves here).  I stamped the bear again on a scrap piece of Very Vanilla, colored him in with blender pens and Close to Cocoa ink, and cut him out.  I tied the gingham ribbon around his neck and secured it with a glue dot, then adhered the cut out on top of the stamped bear with Dimensionals. I adhered the Very Vanilla oval to the Apricot Appeal Scalloped oval matte, and added the whole matted image to the card front using Dimensionals.

Last, I made the sentiment at the bottom by stamping the large announcement stamp on a scrap of Apricot Appeal CS in Groovy Guava, punched out just the words I wanted with the Word Window punch, and added it to my card using Dimensionals.

Here's the supplies I used:
Stamps: Bundle of Joy (retired), Sweet Stars Jumbo Wheel
Paper: River Rock, Groovy Guava, Apricot Appeal Cardstock & Designer Series Paper, Very Vanilla
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Groovy Guava
Extras: Apricot Appeal narrow grosgrain ribbon, Word Window Punch, Moss Gingham Ribbon, Nestabilities, Paper Piercer, Dimensionals

Rock-a-bye Baby

I have recently become quite addicted to any kind of stamping challenges. A few of my favorite stampers have some wonderful blogs, with some incredible challenges. I didn't have alot of time to play this weekend, but stole away a few free minutes to combine Beate John's weekend sketch challenge found on her wonderful blog here and the limited supply challenge found on my favorite inspiration site, Splitcoast Stampers, found here. These challenges were so much fun!

Here's how i built it: I started by paper piercing the border of my Soft Sky background. I then cut 2" square of the Soft Sky designer paper, and matted them on 2 1/4" square whisper white cardstock. I added my White Taffeta Ribbon and faux white brads that I made with white cardstock and my 1/4" circle punch, and adhered them to my card background. I stamped the adorable little boat in whisper white craft, and embossed with White Embossing Powder, then I cut out each piece. Using my circle cutter, I cut out a 2" diameter circle in Soft Sky, and a matching 2 1/4" Whisper White matte. I drug the edges of the soft sky circle thru the coordinating ink, and adhered the circles together. Then I added the boat pieces using dimensionals, and attached the ensemble to the card. I added the sentiment using White craft ink and embossing powder and Voila! Hope you like it!

Here's the supplies I used:
Stamps: Nursery Necessities Stamp Set
Cardstock: Whisper White, Soft Sky and Soft Sky Designer Series Paper by Stampin' Up!
Ink: White Craft Ink
Accessories: White Taffeta Ribbon, 1/4' circle punch, White Embossing powder, Circle Cutter and Paper Piercer