Stampin' Up!

CCMC262 Too Kind

August 1, 2013 By Connie | 11 Comments

It's time for another Create with Connie and Mary Thursday color challenge that anyone can play along with! It is a gorgeous color combination. I'm so happy Stampin' Up! introduced Bermuda Bay and the lighter Smoky Slate colors!

I thought I'd use my Stampin' Up! Too Kind stamp set…stamping it in these non-traditional flower colors!

Here are the details:

The 4 1/4 x 11 base of Bermuda Bay is folded in half to make the base card.
I embossed the 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Smoky Slate with the new Beautifully Baroque folder.
Across the front, I added Bermuda Bay Designer Paper Stack pattern (I'm LOVING these patterns!)
I stamped a 2 1/4 x 4 3/4 piece of Whisper White with the Too Kind stamp set and Bermuda Bay for the flowers (background stamped off) and Smoky Slate for the stems.
At the top and bottom I added a 2 1/4 x 1/2 piece of Basic Black cardstock.
I used Rhinestone jewels at the base of each blossom for a little extra bling.
I tied White Bakers Twine in a bow and added it to the largest flower.
Finally, I stamped the greeting with Basic Black on Smoky Slate and punched with the Artisan Label punch, then place it on the front with a Stampin' Dimensional!

Go check out what the rest of the Design Team did this week over on Create with Connie and Mary! Then grab your stamps and ink and play along!

SUOC75 Rev up the FUn

July 30, 2013 By Connie | 7 Comments

Today is the SUO Challenge and when I saw the Back to School theme for this week, I thought…uh oh…I don't have ANY school theme stamp sets. Now, I know I could have done thank you or flowers or something similar, but I really wanted a SCHOOL theme! And what says "school"? How about school buses? I've seen a flurry of activity in the bus lot recently as they prepare the buses for back to school. Make sure to check out what the rest of the SUO Challenge Design Team did this week with the back to school theme!

So…here is my attempt at a "punch art" bus! It really was funny that I had a scrap of the Crushed Curry sitting in my scrap box that had been punched with the Petite Curly Label punch. It looked like windows…so I set out to use it on my bus.

The 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Smoky Slate cardstock is folded in half to make the base card.
I cut a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Soft Sky cardstock for the background.
I layered on a 1 x 5 1/4 piece of Pear Pizzazz Paper Stack Designer Paper across the bottom, then added the Epic Day Washi Tape for the "road".
On the Crushed Curry rectangle with Petite Curly Label punches, I added fenders sponged with Crushed Curry ink and then circle wheels with Vintage Trinket hubcaps.
The "stop sign" is from the Little Labels Punch Pack from Real Red and I added a rhinestone jewel in the center.
The headlight is a 1/2 circle of Smoky Slate cardstock.
I handcut the trunk for the tree out of Early Espresso cardstock, then added 7/8" Scallop Circles punched from the same Pear Pizzazz DSP.
I stamped Rev Up the Fun in Basic Black on Whisper White and cut the flag end. It is added to the top of two fluffy clouds punched with the Cupcake punch from Whisper White.

OK…do you think it represents Back to School? My DIL was just telling me at dinner last night that she only has 2 more weeks before she goes back to teaching! Summer is going by FAST!

Again, make sure to check out the rest of the Design Team over on SUO Challenges!

Flower Shop Yippee Skippie

July 29, 2013 By Connie | 1 Comment

Happy Monday! Hope you enjoyed the Tour de Freaks blog hop over the weekend! This card is one that I had originally thought would be one of my swap cards for an organized swap at Convention, but then I discarded it. I love the new "instagram and poloroid" look that is making the rounds in card making!

Here are the details:

The base is 4 1/4 x 11 Primrose Petals cardstock, folded in half.
On the 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Very Vanilla, I stamped the loopy flower from Flower Shop several times in the bottom left corner with Summer Starfruit ink.
I cut a rectangle piece of Smoky Slate cardstock, then used a square framelit in the center. I adhered it to the Very Vanilla with Stampin' Dimensionals.
Awesome Thanks from Yippee Skippee was carefully stamped with Primrose Petals ink inside the open square area.
I punched the Blossom punch from Primrose Petals cardstock and adhered to the front with Stampin' Dimensionals.
Inside the Blossom punch is a punched Pansy from Soho Subway Designer Paper (yep…still using up a bunch of those that I had punched for another swap! lol!)
I added a punched Itty Bitty flower center of Primrose Petals cardstock and a large Rhinestone jewel in the center.

Like it? I'll have another version of this card later in the week!

July 2013 Tour de Freaks!

July 26, 2013 By Connie | 14 Comments

Welcome to the Tour de Freaks!!! Do you like our new look? Wendy designed some new graphics for the Control Freaks Tour! We're just back from Convention and many of the Freaks were there and got together to swap! I love getting the swaps back from my "freaky" friends…such great ideas with lots of ways to use our stamps, each of us have a unique style! Since it is a smaller group (18 of us) at Convention, we swap 2 different cards for each person. So, the Tour theme is our Convention Swaps (or we could use our Fall Swaps if they weren't at Convention). You've probably just come from Wendy Weixler's blog…weren't her cards beautiful? Make sure to continue around to all the Tour stops for some great ideas!

Here are my cards for this year's convention swap. I've done punch art type cards the past several years for my Freaks swap. A couple years ago was the Pizza card, last year was the Tuxedo card…this year I had a camera in mind…so here is what I came up with! I was thinking of my daughter-in-law who LOVES Melon Mambo pink when I did this one! My August Cards class will be doing this card in a couple weeks…they were excited to see it!

My second card uses By the Tide in a fun way…kind of a play on words! An apology card for being in hot water, maybe??? lol! I even used little pearls for the eyes! I cracked myself up with this one!

OK…I also wanted to show my roommate gift to Annette…she is a former Freak who is rejoining soon, I hope! The minute I saw these snowflakes in the Holiday catalog, I knew I wanted to make jewelry with them. I also made a set for myself! lol!

It is hard to appreciate how sparkly the Frosted Finishes Embellishments really are in person and they are substantial enough for jewelry! I completely made the slider box to hold them, too. I used the Festive Flurry stamps and framelits to decorate it, along with a strip of Winter Frost Designer Paper. I think I'll be doing this project in an upcoming class for holiday gift giving!

OK…enough of mine…continue on the Tour to Patty Bennett's blog…

CCMCSUM13-04 Chalk Talk

July 20, 2013 By Connie | 1 Comment

Wow…can you believe our Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection 2013 is officially over! But, it's not too late to join! All our projects use items from the Main Catalog, so they are available to use for the ENTIRE YEAR! Many of the projects, you'll be able to create in 2 hours or less…making them perfect for classes and camps! And we have lots of gift giving and home decor items, too! Join us…for only $24.95 US, you get 24 FABULOUS step-by-step PHOTO tutorials! That's just a little over $1 each! Check out Create with Connie and Mary now! Relax and let us design your classes this summer!

It's time for the last Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection 2013 Saturday challenge…this week it is a COLOR CHALLENGE for our designers only! Hope you are inspired by their work!

And here is my card using Chalk Talk, one of the sets we featured this past week in our Summer Collection. And, no…Mary and I did not coordinate or plan our cards…but it's funny how similar they turned out! Check hers out over on Create with Connie and Mary.

Here are the details:

The base card is 4 1/4 x 11 Whisper White, folded in half.
I cut a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Bermuda Bay cardstock and embossed with the Mosaic folder.
I cut a 1 1/2 x 5 piece of Bermuda Bay Designer Paper Stack from the Brights Collection and cut a flag end. I adhered it down the center.
I stamped the large tag in Chalk Talk with Pumpkin Pie ink on Whisper White, then cut with the Chalk Talk Framelits. I stamped it again with Bermuda Bay and cut out just the center greeting "something" and placed on top of the Pumpkin Pie one.
I stamped the smaller filligree tag in Chalk Talk with Daffodil Delight and cut with the Chalk Talk framelit, then cut it in half and placed it on either side of the larger Pumpkin Pie tag.
All the tags were placed on the front with Stampin' Dimensionals.
For some bling, I added small Rhinestones in each of the corners of the tag. And, tied a Daffodil Delight button with White Bakers Twine tied in a bow, then placed on the front with a Mini Glue Dot.

For some great inspiration, check out what the Design Team did with this color challenge over on Create with Connie and Mary! And…be watching…soon we will be announcing the Early Bird Pricing for our next Fall Collection 2013!!! You won't want to miss it!

Pop N Cuts Gift Card Holder

July 18, 2013 By Connie | 1 Comment

While Mary and I are at Convention, we are swapping gift card holders for Create with Connie and Mary using the Pop N Cuts Die. It's a combination of two gift holders you've probably seen…but put together in a unique way! If you see us, make sure to stop and say hello and swap with us (while supplies last)! If you are a subscriber…let us know that, too! We'd love to meet you!

Mary filmed a video so you could see exactly how our holder is put together, so if you miss out on getting one…you can still see what we did! Mary used butterflies on hers…I used my favorite Flower Shop and Pansy punch flowers! lol! And we used a combination of colors and designer paper so not all look exactly like these…just sayin'!

Love it…don't you? Sounds like we are in for a fast paced, exciting NEW Convention this year! We can't wait to see it all and catch up with old (and new!) friends! Hope to see you there!

Perfect Blend

July 15, 2013 By Connie | 1 Comment

Perfect Blend is one of the sets we are using this week over on Create with Connie and Mary Summer Edition! I love Starbucks Coffee and HAD to buy this set as soon as I saw it in the catalog! I've already made up several cards and a gift card holder using it! lol! Here's one of the cards:

I used several of the YUMMY In Colors on this card! They all work so well together it is easy to create! Here are the details:

The 4 1/4 x 11 Pistachio Pudding is folded in half to make the base card.
A 4 x 5 1/4 layer of Baked Brown Sugar was distressed along the edges and added on top, and used Gorgeous Grunge and Baked Brown Sugar Ink for a few coffee drips.
Two 3/4 x 4 strips of Pistachio Pudding In Color Designer Paper Pack were added.
Cut a 1 1/2 x 5 piece of Strawberry Slush Cardstock and distress the edges, then added to the right side of the front of the card.
Cut a Deco Label Framelit from Whisper White, then cut off the curved edges to make it straight.
Stamp the coffee cup with Black Stazon on Baked Brown Sugar and the lid only on Whisper White, then cut out and adhere to the front of the Deco Framelit with Stampin' Dimensionals.
Stamp the sleeve portion on the In Color DSP and cut out and adhere over top of the coffee cup.
Add a punched star from Champagne Glitter Paper and an In Color Boutique Button of Pistachio Pudding to the top.
Finally, add the greeting in Baked Brown Sugar in the upper left corner of the card.

I love how the Strawberry Slush color POPS with the more muted Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar!

We are just starting Week 4 over on Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection 2013 ! But, you need to be a subscriber to see all the wonderful projects! Many of the projects, you'll be able to create in 2 hours or less…making them perfect for classes and camps! And we have lots of gift giving and home decor items, too! Join us…for only $24.95 US, you get 24 FABULOUS step-by-step PHOTO tutorials! That's just a little over $1 each! And, these projects use items from the main catalog…so they will be available to use for an ENTIRE YEAR!!! Check out Create with Connie and Mary now! Relax and let us design your classes this summer!

CCMCSUM13-03

July 13, 2013 By Connie | 3 Comments

We are just finishing up Week 3 over on Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection 2013 ! But, you need to be a subscriber to see all the wonderful projects! Many of the projects, you'll be able to create in 2 hours or less…making them perfect for classes and camps! And we have lots of gift giving and home decor items, too! Join us…for only $24.95 US, you get 24 FABULOUS step-by-step PHOTO tutorials! That's just a little over $1 each! And, these projects use items from the main catalog…so they will be available to use for an ENTIRE YEAR!!! Check out Create with Connie and Mary now! Relax and let us design your classes this summer!

It's time again for the Create with Connie and Mary Summer Collection 2013 Saturday challenge…this week it is a FUN sketch for you to try!

Here's my take on it…I let the I Am Me Designer Paper do most of the work on this card with a greeting for the focal image! I love this luggage print and the wonderful color combination! I figured the greeting was very apt for the travel theme! lol!

Here are the details:

The base is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, folded in half to make the card.
I cut a 3 x 5 1/2 piece of I Am Me Designer Paper and added 1/2 x 5 1/2 strips of Real Red at the top and bottom of it (good way to save on cardstock, and I used up some of my scraps!) then adhered it to the front of the card.
I inked up the greeting from Really Good Greetings with my Real Red, Basic Gray and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Write Markers, then stamped on Whisper White. I punched it out with the Extra Large Oval punch.
That was adhered to a small Decor Label Framelit of Real Red with Stampin' Dimensionals.
I adhered that element to a 1 1/2 x 3 piece of Basic Gray cardstock, embossed with the Square Lattice folder for some texture, cut with flag ends, then placed on front.
For little bling, I tied some White Bakers Twine into a bow on my Daffodil Delight button and placed it on front with a Mini Glue Dot.

Love how fun this card is…too bad my husband doesn't travel…I could give it to him. Hmmm, maybe he should give it to ME when I go to Convention! lol!

Make sure to check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this sketch challenge over on Create with Connie and Mary! Grab your stamps and play along…anyone can…and you might just win the drawing for some FREE subscriptions to our Fall Collection 2013!