Stampin' Up!

July Tour de Freaks…Free for All!

July 19, 2014 By Connie | 8 Comments

Woohoo! It’s time for the Tour de Freaks…brought to you by the Control Freak Swappers! You’ve probably just come from LeeAnn Greff’s blog…weren’t her projects fun? Since many of our swappers are at Convention (lucky!), it is ANYTHING GOES this month! Many will be sharing the swaps they made for Convention! Since I didn’t go this year (sob!), I did a set of items up with my favorite set, Beautiful Bunch.

I absolutely LOVE the colors on these flowers! I stamped Calypso Coral over Crisp Cantaloupe, then Blushing Bride over So Saffron for the centers! The leaves are Mossy Meadow stamped on Old Olive. They are SO striking in real life!

The holder is a ~~Crystal Light Container~~ (edit: sorry, it is a Great Value Drink Mix container) that I saved…after I removed the label, the base was the perfect shade of Sahara Sand!

I used Sweet Taffy Designer Paper to wrap around the container and the Deco Label Framelit of Whisper White under the flower. The Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon wraps around the entire container. I even decorated the top with more DSP and a little flower.

The base of the card is Calypso Coral and it really makes the flower POP! I used all the same supplies as the container, but added the greeting from And Many More and the scallop design from Boutique Borders with Mossy Meadow Ink on the Sahara Sand cardstock for a little extra whimsical look!

I really love how these turned out. Make sure to continue around the Tour de Freaks tour with your next stop as Cindy Elam…you will love her projects!

CCMC-SUM14 Week 4 Beautiful Bunch

July 19, 2014 By Connie | 4 Comments

Oh, wow! It’s the LAST day of the Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection! Can you believe it? Where did the time go? It always goes by SO fast! Although I must admit, I’ve had my projects and cards done for several weeks because of getting ready for the Create LIVE event…I didn’t think I’d survive doing both at the same time! lol!

Anyway…the awesome Design Team has used this color combination for the Week 4 challenge:

And here is my card:

Of course…I’m using Beautiful Bunch again! I love how Lost Lagoon looks stamped on Whisper White to make this flower! Here are the details:

The base is 4 1/4 x 11 Lost Lagoon folded in half.
I stamped the bottom 2/3s of the front with Hardwood Background Stamp with Lost Lagoon ink.
The pennant from the Pennant Die is cut from Sahara Sand cardstock.
I stamped the greeting from A Dozen Thoughts with Mossy Meadow on the pennant, then wrapped the Lost Lagoon Stitched Ribbon around the front and adhered in the back.
The Beautiful Bunch flower is stamped twice with Lost Lagoon on Whisper White and punched with the Fun Flower Punch. I stamped the center with Mossy Meadow on Mossy Meadow cardstock and punched with the 7/8″ Scallop Circle Punch. I added a Rhinestone Jewel for some bling. It is popped up on the front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
I stamped the flower again with Mossy Meadow on Mossy Meadow cardstock and cut two of the petals for leaves, then tucked them behind the flower.

OK…make sure to check out what the rest of the Summer Design Team did for our last challenge this week over on Create with Connie and Mary!

CCMC312 Garden Party

July 17, 2014 By Connie | 8 Comments

It’s Thursday and Create with Connie and Mary has a FUN color challenge for you to try this week! Since I already had my Garden Party stamp set sitting on my desk, I decided to go ahead and use it again!

These colors are direct from the Moonlight Designer Paper Pack, so I grabbed that DSP to use, too. Luckily I had a couple scraps and this came together pretty quickly! If the sketch looks familiar, it is a past CCMC challenge!

Here are the details:

The base is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Hello Honey, folded in half.
I added a 4 x 5 1/4 layer of Blackberry Bliss cardstock.
On top of that is a 3 7/8 x 5 1/8 layer of Sahara Sand. I added 1/2″ strips of the Moonlight DSP both vertically and horizontally.
I cut the Window Frames Framelit with Blackberry Cardstock and placed it at the intersection of the DSP.
I punched a 2″ Circle of Whisper White and stamped the border image in Garden Party across the center in Blackberry Bliss Ink. Then adhered the circle to the Window Frames Framelit.
I stamped the flowers three times with Hello Honey Ink and three times with Sahara Sand Ink on Whisper White and cut out the blossom and leaves separately. I placed them back together in the center of the circle with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Finally I stamped Hooray for You! with Blackberry Bliss Ink above the DSP.

I really like how this turned out! Make sure to check out the rest of the Challenge Team this week to see what they did with the color challenge over on Create with Connie and Mary!

SUOC101 – Garden Party

July 15, 2014 By Connie | 3 Comments

The theme this time over on SUO Challenges is Bows, Bows, Bows! Well, you KNOW I love ribbon…so this theme isn’t a hardship for me! I have also been wanting to try something with my Blendabilities and this was perfect timing! I wanted to know if the Blendabilities would make stripes on ribbon…I found out that they will without bleeding! WOOHOO! My experiment worked! I was inspired by something I had seen done with Copics in the past!

I really let the ribbon be the star of this card and kept everything else to a minimum. Here are the details:

The base is 4 1/4 x 11 Whisper White, folded in half.
On the 3 3/4 x 5 layer of Crumb Cake, I stamped the leaves image from Garden Party with White Craft Ink above and below where I would be placing the ribbon. Then I rounded the corners with the Corner Rounder Punch.
On the White Organdy Striped Ribbon, I used a clear ruler and the Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight Blendabilities to draw lines across the center of the ribbon.
I placed a long strip of decorated ribbon, cut with flag ends, across the front of the cardstock. Then I made two loops of the remaining ribbon and secured with adhesive.
I punched a 1 3/8″ Circle of Pumpkin Pie cardstock and used Stampin’ Dimensionals to secure it over the ribbon.
I stamped the images in Garden Party with Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie on Whisper White and cut out the larger image, and punched the center with the 1/2″ Circle Punch.
I colored the Rhinestone with Daffodil Delight Blendabilities marker and placed in the center.
Finally, I stamped Hooray for You from Garden Party with Soft Suede Ink on the Crumb Cake layer.

Amazing, huh? You can customize your ribbon however you want easily with the Blendabilities markers! Make sure to check out the rest of the Bows over on SUO Challenges! Then grab your stamps and play along…can’t wait to see what you do!

Create LIVE event

July 14, 2014 By Connie | 3 Comments

Last Saturday, Mary and I did our first Create with Connie and Mary LIVE Event! A lot of work, but it turned out AWESOME if I must say so myself! Many, many people who attended came up and want us to do another one! lol! You can see more photos of the LIVE Event over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Since we went with a beach/luau theme for our LIVE event, I made up a LOT of these Hibiscus Flowers for all kinds of decorations! The Flower Frenzy Die made them easy to make! I cut the flowers from Melon Mambo, Tangelo Twist, Rich Razzleberry and Daffodil Delight. The centers were Daffodil Delight or Tangelo Twist. The leaves were Garden Green and embossed with the Delicate Dots Folder. These I sprinkled the flowers randomly around the Raffle, Food and Display tables.

I stamped WOOHOO! from Bravo Stamp Set in the center of some more flowers for Prize Patrol giveaways! Everyone went home with a Prize!

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I decorated my Prize Wheel with the Flower Patch Stamp Set in colors to match!

I made some for the Name Tags for the helpers, Mary and I. I used the Apothecary Framelit for the base and layered the Sweet Taffy Designer Paper on top of chipboard to keep them sturdy and adhered a pin on the back.

After the event, I used the display flowers to make Thank You cards!

I used scraps of Sweet Taffy Designer Paper and the Watercolor Thank You on the front of Whisper White. I did add a Rhinestone Jewel to bling up the cards.

It really was lots of FUN coming up with ideas to decorate…one of my favorite parts! Again, check out Create with Connie and Mary for more photos of the actual event! It was a GREAT day!

CCMC-SUM14 Week 3

July 12, 2014 By Connie | 3 Comments

It’s the end of Week 3 of the Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection 2014. Just like summer, it is going by MUCH TOO FAST! We had fun doing Card Set Tutorials this past week…each Design Team Member chose a new stamp set to feature! Great ideas! It’s not too late to join! All the projects will be available for a YEAR after the session ends so you can refer back to them 24/7!!!

Every Saturday we have a challenge to end the week…this week it is a very fun Sketch Challenge…and everyone is welcome to play along!

Here’s my card…I haven’t used In This Together stamp set very much…I thought the sketch was perfect for it! The background angles give it a whimsical touch!

Here are the details:

The base is 4 1/4 x 11 Whisper White, folded in half.
I’m not even going to try to give you measurements, but I cut a piece of Sweet Taffy Designer Paper on an angle, then a piece of Melon Mambo cardstock on an angle for the background. Then I cut another design of Sweet Taffy 3/4 x 4 1/4 to go across the bottom.
I stamped the two girls from In This Together with Black Stazon and used my AquaPainter and Stampin’ Write Markers in Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie…outlining the edges a little darker.
I cut them out with the Circle Framelits and layered it on the next largest size of Rich Razzleberry Cardstock. It is popped up on the front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
I stamped the greeting with Black Stazon on Melon Mambo cardstock and punched with the Banner Punch, then layered on a larger piece of Rich Razzleberry cut with a flag end.
Finally, I added a sprinkle of Rhinestone Jewels for the “rain” above the umbrella!

Very fun stamp set and designer paper to go with the whimsical sketch, don’t you think? Make sure to check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this fun sketch over on Create with Connie and Mary today!

CCMC311 Pictogram Photos

July 10, 2014 By Connie | 8 Comments

Oh, I love the sketch this week over on Create with Connie and Mary! You have to check out all the DIFFERENT looks the Challenge Team came up with using this sketch! Amazing! Go to Create with Connie and Mary and see for yourself!

Of course, the first thing I thought of was using a flower…but, I forced myself to think out of the box and go with something a little different than my usual florals. Here is what I came up with!

I LOVE the colors in Lullaby and took them directly from the Designer Paper! Here are the details:

The base is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Whisper White, folded in half.
I added a 4 x 5 1/4 layer of Baked Brown Sugar.
On top of that is a 3 3/4 x 5 layer of Pistachio Pudding embossed with the Large Polka Dot folder.
I cut the star with the Star Framelits from Lullaby DSP and then the 1/2″ x 5″ Chevron pattern, I cut one end with a point and the other with a flag end.
The moon from Pictogram Punches was stamped with Baked Brown Sugar on Whisper White and hand cut out.
I also stamped You’re A Star with Hello Honey Ink on Whisper White and cut a flag end on this piece, too. I punched a little star from Gold Glimmer Paper and added with a Stampin’ Dimensionals.
I also stamped two stars from Pictogram Punches in Hello Honey Ink on Whisper White and punched with the little star punch.
Finally, I added Rhinestone Jewels to the moon and the stars!

So sweet! I love how it turned out! Again, make sure you check out the Challenge Team ideas over on Create with Connie and Mary...and grab your stamps and play along!

Age Awareness

July 8, 2014 By Connie | 1 Comment

Mary and I are BUSY, BUSY, BUSY getting ready for our Create with Connie and Mary LIVE event on Saturday!!! Today, I’ll be working on a few display items and finish sorting my last project into bags! Can’t wait to see those that are coming!

For this card, I used a sketch from Create with Connie and Mary Week 1 Saturday challenge. Well, actually, this card was done FIRST and then I changed it out to the one that I showed earlier because I liked it better! lol! (See it here.)

Here are the details on this one:

The base is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Crushed Curry, folded in half.
On the 3 3/4 x 5 layer of Whisper White, I placed two pieces of Tangelo Twist Satin Stitched Ribbon on the left side, adhering them on the back.
Then I added a 1 1/4 x 4 1/4 piece of Confetti Celebration Designer Paper cutting the end into a point.
Above that I stamped Happy Cake Day with Tangelo Twist and Basic Gray Inks. LOVE that Stampin’ Up! clear stamps make it easy to line up!
I stamped the little row of candles with Tangelo Twist and Crushed Curry markers on Whisper White, then punched with a 1 1/4″ Circle Punch.
I layered the circle on a Hexagon Punch of Crushed Curry cardstock and popped it up on the front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Finally, I added three Rhinestone Jewels, colored with the Daffodil Blendabilities! LOVE that we can do that with Stampin’ Up! product now!!!