Happy Friday! and a sketch for you, too!

Hi - I'm back with a quick post for you! It's a little bit of a sneak peek, too!  This is a new Stamp Set from the SU! Summer Mini that will be available on May 1st (tomorrow!).  It's called Elements of Style.  I just love all the images from this set.  I also used the Peony from the tutorial I posted here.  Here's the 2S4Y #51 sketch that gave me the inspiration:

I like the simple and clean lines of this sketch.  Here's a look at the full card for you:

Are you wondering what color blue cardstock I used?  I actually pulled that one out of the vault - it's the SU! retired Cool Carribean paper, which I just love.  Luckily, I bought an extra pack and bring it out every once in a while to use that pretty aqua blue.  Here's the recipe for you:

{Peony Style Card}

All supplies Stampin'Up! except where noted

*Stamp Sets: Elements of Style

*Cardstock: Cool Carribean, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Pretty In Pink

*Inks: Melon Mambo Classic Pad, Creamy Caramel Classic Pad (used with a sponge dauber to soften up the oval punched edges)

*Accessories: Scallop Border, Impressions Square Lattice embossing folder, Pretty In Pink Satin Ribbon, Scallop Oval and Large Oval punches; button and twine {PTI}

Thanks for coming by! Have a great Friday!

Oh - and if you haven't seen who the lucky winner is of April's Freebie Friday giveaway, you can find out in the post below!! Bye for now :)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Hi Blog Peeps!! Sorry for being so quiet on the blog front this week.  It has been super hectic for me, so sadly, I haven't had time to post.  However, it is that time to announce the winner of April's Final Friday giveaway!!!  Are you ready to find out?  I read a lot of interesting responses to my question about going back anywhere in time and it sounds like I've got mixed responses.  Some want to go back to simpler times, or historically significant times.  Others didn't want to be anywhere but the current day.  Still others wanted to revisit times with loved ones.  It was great to find out what you guys thought!  Now, as far as my own thoughts, I think I would love to relive my wedding day too - perhaps as an observer so I could watch the events as they unfolded.  That would be an awesome experience.

Well, let's find out who the lucky winner is, shall we?  This month's lucky winner is....

Lucky number 36!  And this happens to be an international visitor - Moka, from Italy!  Here's what she had to say:

I'm sure you all understood that, right?  Well, thankfully, translation tools have come a long way.  Here's what Moka had to say (I think you guys will get the gist):

Thanks so much for playing this month!  Stay tuned for May's Freebie..I'll be posting that next week!

{Mother's Day} SWAP parade

Hi there!  How was your weekend? Hope you had a good one.  I had a fantastic weekend!  We went down to San Diego for a quick weekend trip to celebrate one of my good friend's birthdays and just got back today.  It was so nice to catch up, hang out, and celebrate!  We don't get to see our friends as often as we'd like because with everyone's busy schedules, it's hard to carve out the time to travel - even if it's just a few hours away!  But what's great about good friends is that you realize no matter the distance, your friendship never skips a beat.  That's what I've come away with, and it's a wonderful feeling. 

For today's post, I thought I'd share the Mother's Day Cards I received from my swap group for our April swaps.  Lots of great ideas here!  I think you'll enjoy them as much as I did receiving them!  Here we go:

First up, we have Carole'Anne, who is a super talented stamper from Canada.  I love this color combo, and what an cool technique she did!  This card is just gorgeous.

Then we have Krista, from the Netherlands, who's got an awesome clean and crisp style!

Our next creatively talented stamper is Lee, who made this pretty and happy card using the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set.  I love how she made her lovely bow:

This next card by Liane  has gorgeous detailed hydrangeas that literally pop off the page!:

Now how amazing is this card by Sandi MacIver!  Love how she used the lattice background.  Very delicate and beautiful card!

And last, but definitely not least, we have a lovely and sweet card by Sharon.  I love the soft colors of this card!

Now, wasn't that card parade fun?!!! Aren't these stampers amazing?  Hope you got some great Mother's Day ideas from these!  I know I did. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Thanks for coming by!

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge 110

Happy Saturday, blog peeps!  I've got just a quick post for you today - it's a card/CD Holder I created for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge 110.  Here's a look at the sketch:

And now for my full card:

I really do have the Hawaii theme on the brain...counting down the days til our summer vacation, I guess!  I've also been playing with the different flower combinations I can create from the Island Floral Bigz die. The center flower is from the Blossom Party die, however.  Here's a little bit of a brighter shot:

How about those leaves?  I used the Ornament punch and then ran it through the new Impressions Square Lattice embossing folder available in the SU! Summer Mini on May 1!  I also even stenciled it up a bit in the background, using the Kind Thoughts Brocade Stencil.  Wanna see the inside of the card?  Here it is:

More of the island theme carried into the card too!  These CD holders are fun to use - lots of things you can do with them! 

I've actually got to get going, so I'll catch up with you guys a bit later!  Have a great weekend! Thanks for visiting!

Peony Flower Tutorial!

Happy Friday, blog peeps!  As promised, I have the tutorial on what I'm calling the Peony Flower that I created on this post.  I really love how this flower looks!  I've seen many renditions of it now, using different flower dies (scallop circle, flower layers, etc), but the flowers I'll be using today are from the Stampin'Up!Blossom Party Bigz die.  Here's a look at the flower pieces:

Aren't those flowers fun? Ready to get started?  Here's what you'll need: 

{Supplies}:

*4 large blossom die cuts and 1 small flower die cut on Whisper White cardstock {or any color cardstock}

*spray bottle filled with water and a small towel (to absorb the water spray!)

*paper piercing tool and mat

*brad

*2 ink pads - I used Melon Mambo and Pretty in Pink {basically 2 colors, one lighter than the other}

1.  Spray the flowers with water until they are moist.

2.  Scrunch up each of the flowers into a little ball.

3.  Gently open up the large flowers, then place them directly onto the Pretty In Pink ink pad.

You'll see that the ink will absorb on the creased parts of your flower, creating a "veiny and mottled" appearance:

5.  For the center small flower, place that direcly onto the Melon Mambo ink pad:

6.  Once all your flowers have been dipped (face down) in the ink pads, stack them up and create a hole in the center with your paper piercing tool.

 

7.  Secure your flower with a small brad.  It's starting to come together!  You can stop at this stage if you want your flower to look more like a dahlia. 

8.  If you want to keep going, take that pretty flower and spray lightly with the water bottle just to moisten it up a little.  Then, scrunch it back up into a ball - so it sorta looks like a clam at this point.

9.  Now for the big reveal - slowly uncrumple the petals and and scrunch as you go.  You'll get a flower that looks like this.

Viola!!! You've now created a beautiful peony flower!  It may be a little damp, so set aside and let dry.  You'll see that the petals will hold the nice and scrunched shape. Too fun! Enjoy!!!

Thanks for coming by!

a card for my niece

Hello there friends!  How goes it?  Hope your week is going well.  I know I had a flurry of cards earlier this week - perhaps it was the wind that blew them all onto my blog!  It has been super windy here these last couple of nights!  I don't want you to get spoiled and think my 3 posts in one day is a standard ;)  Let's just say that was out of the norm, and had lots of pent up creative energy going for me!

For now, I've got just a quick card share for you - it's a fun card I made for my niece, Marina's upcoming birthday.  I used one of Jane's digistamps that I had won {woohoo! - gotta love that!}. She's named the stamp "Mia and Bosko", which I affectionately refer to as "Marina and Milo."   It's amazing the uncanny resemblance of this stamp and my niece - she even has those boots, for goodness sakes!! For the background, I used a new Stampin'Up!set that will be available in the Summer Mini called Watercolor Trio.  I'm hoping to create some more SU! sneak peek samples for you next week, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, hope you enjoy this little happy image and have a wonderful day!

Bye for now!

{bonus} Sketch!....

Oh my!  Yes - it's me AGAIN.  I couldn't help myself.  I was inspired to make yet another card for the 2S4Y bonus sketch.  Doesn't that sketch look so fun?  Of course, had to do a flower, since I seem to be obsessed with the Island Floral Bigz die! Here's a look-see at what I made:

The flower reminds me of a dahlia, which I think are just gorgeous flowers!  I used the Extra Large Fancy Flower punch to layer with the large Island Flower, and the center flower is also from the Island Flower Bigz die.  Don't you just want to get it?!  The die will be in the Summer SU! Mini catalog.  For the background I used the Circle Circus stamp set, which I hadn't used in a while, so I'm glad I've revisited it :)  I LOVE all the circle prints - too fun!  And of course the sentiment.  Another stamp set revisited - On a Pedestal is a fave of mine.  It's amazing how going through your stamps can bring back even not-so-old favorites!  Every now and then, it does help jump start my creativity to look at stamp sets I haven't used in a while.  These are all current in the SU catty :)  Here's one last look at that big flower:

I like the Basic Gray/Crushed Curry combo because there's a clean, crisp and modern feel to it.  What do you think?  Here's the recipe for you: 

{Sweet Island Circus Flower}

All supplies Stampin'Up!

*Stamp sets: On a Pedestal, Circle Circus

*Cardstock: Basic Gray, Crushed Curry, Whisper White

*Inks: Crushed Curry Classic Stamp Pad; Crushed Curry and Basic Gray markers

*Accessories: Island Floral Bigz die, Extra Large Fancy Flower punch, Scallop Trim Border punch, corner rounder punch, Crushed Curry polka dot grosgrain ribbon, basic gray corduroy button

Sidenote - It's pouring here in Southern CA!  Maybe that's what inspired me to use the gray ;)

Thanks for stopping in!

Edited to Add:  Thanks to LeAnne for telling me about this week's Curtain Call challenge over at Stacey Shafer's blog.  While it's completely happenstance that I used these colors, they were close enought to the challenge (3 out of 4 colors), that I thought I'd throw my hat in ;)