Clean and Simple Saturday - Just Sayin'

Saturday is here again and today I have a little bit different style of card for you! This one has very clean lines...well literally! lol

Isn't the Designer Series Paper wonderful? It's from the I Am Me Designer Series Paper set. The bright cheerful lines just seem to work well with the clean graphic lines of the new Just Sayin' stamp set.

And even better, this stamp set coordinates with the Word Bubbles Framelits Dies! Bundle them and save by purchasing the Just Sayin' Clear Mount Bundle! Love it!!!

And yes, candy dots are the PERFECT accessory! You may notice that I always add three. Odd numbers are just more visually appealing and I prefer three. Five looks too cluttered for me. 

I love the added pop of color that the simple strip of red ribbon adds.

This one definitely has clean lines! I hope you've enjoyed this card today and all the new product choices Stampin' Up! is offering with the Occasions Catalog! Now I'm off to enjoy a three day weekend...there will be lots of relaxing and football watching going on around this household!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Just Sayin' (133203)

Paper: Whisper White (100730) I am Me (130138) Designer Series Paper

Ink: Real Red (126949) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools:  Big Shot (113439); Word Bubbles Framelits Dies (132968) Envelope Punch Board (133774); Stampin' Trimmer (126889); Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Embellishments: 1/8" Real Red (119251) Taffeta Ribbon; Brights (130931), Subtles (130933) Candy Dots

Thanks for stopping by! 

Oh Happy Day! - Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge #188

This card was inspired by this week's Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge:

All of Stampin' Up!'s coordinating products make creating cards so much fun! The images on today's card are from the Starburst Sayings stamp set and coordinate perfectly with the Starburst Framelits Dies. You can even purchase the two products bundled together and save!

How about these cleanly stamped images! Stampin' Up!'s firm foam ink pads make make it so easy to achieve these results. And I'm wondering how I ever got by without framelits! One of the things I love about framelits is that worrying about placement is a thing of the past. Just place your stamped image on your magnetic platform, line the framelit die up on top, and run it through the Big Shot. EZ Peasy! The framelits don't move because of the magnetic base. It's worth every penny invested in it, in my opinion!

I found this sentiment in the Really Good Greetings stamp set and think it pairs perfectly with "Oh Happy Day". At first glance you might think birthday but really, this card is perfect for lots of occasions. Do you know someone who got a new job? How about a promotion or a great score on their SAT? Made the drill team? Passed the driver's license exam? Found out they are pregnant or approved for adoption? Truly, the choices are endless. Keep the layout and just change up the colors!

If you've followed my blog at all, I don't need to tell you how I feel about Candy Dots. If you haven't purchased them, please give them a try! They are the perfect accent! If you have purchased them, do you love them as much as I do? Have a funny story to share about how you've used them? Please leave me a comment and share, I would love to hear your thoughts!

I hope you've enjoyed today's post. Please take a moment to pop over to the Pals Paper Arts Challenge and see all the wonderful projects the design team has come up with for this challenge. They work very hard to give us fun and challenging projects every week!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Starburst Sayings (133185), Really Good Greetings (130333)

Paper: Whisper White (100730), Gumball Green (126840) Cardstock; Watercolor Wonder (132994) Designer Series Paper, 2012-2014 In Color (130137) Designer Series Paper Stacks (for envelope)

Ink: Gumball Green (126861), Summer Starfruit (126991), Pacific Point (126951) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools:  Big Shot (113439); Envelope Liners Framelits Dies (132172); Starburst Framelits Dies (132967); Stampin' Trimmer (126889); Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Embellishments: Brights (130931), Regals (130932) Candy Dots

Thanks for stopping by!

Clean and Simple Saturday #3

Inspiration can strike in the most interesting places...like the grocery store...really?

Yes really! I ran in to grab a few things for dinner, turned around and there these were, staring me in the face! I was immediately inspired to use these colors together in a clean and simple card:

I'm not sure I would have ever put these colors together on my own but I think they are very striking! And very masculine!

Please let me know what you think of this color combination and please enjoy your weekend!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Six-Sided Sampler (130956), Banner Greetings (129714), Gorgeous Grunge (130514)

Paper: Whisper White (100730), Pacific Point (111350), Gumball Green (1126840), Early Expresso Cardstock 

Ink: Pacific Point (126951), Gumball Green (126861), Early Expresso (126974) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools: Stampin' Trimmer (126889), Hexagon Punch (130919), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Embellishments: None

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Jacob Mockbee!

Today a fellow Pal shared a link on Facebook to a wonderful story about a local (to her) Tucson young man, Jacob Mockbee, who will be celebrating a sixteenth birthday that some doctors said he would never see. His family has started a campaign to collect 1600 birthday cards for Jacob for his birthday this Sunday. See the complete story here.

I was inspired to create a special card just for Jacob and used the Mojo Monday 297 sketch as my jumping off point:

The funny thing is, I tried VERY HARD to create a card using this sketch last night and my efforts ended up in the trash. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and now I know the reason I failed to create a card last night...I was meant to make THIS card, I just didn't know it yet! What a super feeling when you realize you are on the path that was meant to be in the moment!

Back to the card...I found this patterned paper in the Subway Soho Designer Series Paper pack and built the card around it. I pulled the color combination from My Digital Studio (MDS). It has a wonderful feature in the color palette that allows you to pick a color and request a color combination! How cool is that! I chose Island Indigo and the program suggested Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, and Summer Starfruit to compliment Island Indigo and I thought those colors would be "okay" for a sixteen year old young man!

How do you like the candles? I am very pleased with how they turned out! I used the wonderful new jumbo Stampin' Around Wheel, Birthday Candles. I knew I just HAD to have those candles...the possibilities are endless! So...I unmounted the stamp from the wheel and then, using our Clear-Mount Cling Foam, re-mounted the stamp onto the cling foam, essentially turning the wheel into a flat stamp. Why ever would I do that? I personally have a great deal of trouble rolling the Stampn' Wheel straight and I seem to rock it which results in poor image quality. I get much better results from a flat stamp and for this card I inked up just three candles using Basic Gray and Summer Starfruit Stampin' Markers. Isn't that just too fun? I sure thought so!

I used Stampin' Up!'s Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die to create the numbers for his big day and a cute little banner from one of our hostess sets, appropriately named Banner Greetings, to round this card off. Of course for this special card, I added a bit to the inside (which I don't normally do):

I am off to put this card in the mail to this remarkable young man...if you are so inclined, please drop one in the mail yourself, the address is here and I'm sure both Jacob and his family would appreciate the love!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Birthday Candles Stampin' Wheel (130111), Banner Greetings (Hostess), Remembering Your Birthday (131350)

Paper: Sahara Sand (121043), Basic Grey (121044), Summer Starfruit (126839), Very Vanilla (101650) Cardstock; Soho Subway Designer Series Paper (130140)

Ink: Summer Starfruit (126991) Classic Stampin' Pad; Basic Gray and Summer Starfruit Stampn' Writers (not sold individually)

Tools: Big Shot (113439), Finishing Touch Edgelits (127010), Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies (127553), Chevron Embossing Folder (127749), Stampin' Trimmer (126889), 1-3/8" Circle Punch (119860), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Embellishments:  None

Thanks for stopping by!

Soho Subway Birthday - Freshly Made Sketches #83

An awesome sketch by Allisa posted today over at Freshly Made Sketches, I couldn't wait to get home and create something!

Isn't it just fab? Lots of clean lines and lots of room for interpretation. I knew I wanted to use another line of new Designer Series Paper to create a masculine birthday card...how did I do?

Isn't this new Designer Series Papeer just absolutely amazing? It's called "Soho Subway" and I think Stampin' Up! knocked it OUT OF THE PARK with this one!! I have used three of the patterns here on this project, I couldn't fit anymore on the card but check back because this one will appear again in another project soon! We ALWAYS need masculine cards, right? 

Here's a closer look at the paper:

The coordinating colors for this paper series are Crisp Cataloupe, Early Expresso, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit, and Very Vanilla. At first I layered all of the pieces of DSP onto an Early Expresso Base but they seemed to be lost on top of that dark color so I tried layering each piece on Island Indigo. That just made everything look very busy so I stepped back and contemplated things. I tried Soft Suede as a base...still too dark. Very Vanilla was just too light. But Sahara Sand was just...yeah, you know where I'm going with that!

Sahara Sand it is...now how to add a bit of jazz without detracting from my "masculine" card?

• I sponged all of the edges with Early Expresso Ink
• I added subtle paper piercing to the right hand corners to visually balance out the weight of the busy pattern on the left
• I chose a 'scruffy' image to keep with the masculine theme
• I heat embossed the sentiment with Early Expresso embossing powder

Have you noticed the awesome new punch? It's called the "Artisan Label" punch and has a coordinating stamp set called "Label Love". Love, Love, Love! But on it's own on my card the punched sentiment seemed to get lost so I trimmed snippets of the Designer Series Paper into banners and attached them to my sentiment and popped the sentiment off the card with my trusty Stampin' Dimensionals!

Let's see...No ribbon? check. No buttons? check. I think my husband would approve! I would love to hear your thoughts on the new products or the card in general, so please if you have a moment won't you leave me a comment? 

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Label Love (coming soon)

Paper: Sahara Sand (121043) Cardstock; Soho Subway Designer Series Paper (coming soon)

Ink: Early Expresso (12974) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools: Artisan Label Punch (coming soon), Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack (126187), Stampin' Pierce Mat (126199), Paper-Piercing Tool (126189), Stampin' Trimmer (126889), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Snail Adhesive (104332), Stampin' Sponges (101610)

Embellishments: None

Thanks for stopping by!