CUT FLOWERS

I just added another item to my Etsy shop, an all-occasion card that is suitable for either a man or a woman.

You can see the handcut edges of the flowers in this photo, but this one showcases the unique look of the card better:

If you are interested in looking at additional views of the card, you can see them in my shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/123524350/handcut-woodland-flower-all-occasion#variations-section

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I also want to remind you that Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration is in full swing. For every $50 

you spend (before shipping and taxes) you choose one free item from the special Sale-A-

Bration flyer. There are 19 selections in this flyer for you to choose from!

Access the flyer by clicking on the photo to the right on my blog. You can shop the current Stampin' Up! catalogs by clicking on the My Stampin' Up! Website icon or any of the catalogs shown.

Sale-A-Bration only comes once a year and will end on March 22, 2013.

Smiles.

MALE/FEMALE

My husband's and my niece's birthdays are two days apart (every year!), and since it is usually
an excessively busy time of the year, I often end up making the two of them the same or similar cards.

This year was one of the busy years, so I went into my trusty My Digital Studio to begin the process of creating a unisex card.

Everybody loves cupcakes, right? The cupcake from the Sale-A-Bration set, Patterned Occasions, is adorable and suited my purpose admirably.

In the digital version of the stamp set, you are at liberty to make this darling little cupcake in
any size you like. I enlarged it and cropped the words "happy birthday cupcake" from the bottom. By changing up the colors a bit for each of the male and female versions, I was able to come up with a card that works well for both my husband and my niece, Megan.

The only change I did digitally was to turn the color of the cupcake frosting from pink to turquoise. Both of the cupcakes were framed with a punch matted in Poppy Parade. 

Downstairs to create two hybrid cards, I cut them to size, rounded the corners, and set to 

work making them more female or more male. I did this by adding a perky ribbon and pink 

flower button to the upper right corner of Megan's card. On Pat's, in lieu of the button and 

ribbon, I adhered a bit of turquoise to each of the corners of the mat. On his I also used a 

snippet of some of the Tangerine Tango ribbon you can get for free through Sale-A-Bration. 

See how easy My Digital Studio makes life?

Smiles.

PEAR AND SCRIPT

OK. You are familiar with Stampin' Up!'s Clear-Mount Blocks, aren't you? They are the nifty
acrylic blocks, in nine varying sizes, that you mount the Clear-Mount Stamps to in lieu of
using wood-mounted stamps.

Well, besides using the block to hold your stamps, you can use them to create backgrounds
on their own!

In my card, Pear and Script, I used Block D. By simply inking up your block of choice in a color lighter than your focal point image, you can stamp it directly to the paper. Then, stamp your main image atop that.

As so often happens in paper crafting, no two backgrounds will ever look exactly alike. 

If you sparsely add the ink to the block, of course, your background won't be quite as dark 

or as ink-covered. However, if you are very particular about getting every spot of the block 

covered with a thick coat of ink, your background color will be more solid and darker. You 

will never get a completely inked background. To me, that's the beauty of this technique.

Once you're happy with the look of your background, you are all set to add your focal image. 

Have fun!

Supplies:

Whimsical Words stamp set (retired)

Faith in Nature stamp set (retired)

Basic Black card stock

So Saffron card stock

Cajun Craze card stock

Naturals White card stock

Cajun Craze ink

So Saffron ink

Black StazOn ink

Acrylic Block D

Stampin' Dimensionals

Big Shot

Lots of Tags Dies

Extra-Large Oval Punch 

Choice of distressing tool

Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch

Instructions:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of So Saffron card stock in half, creasing well with a bone folder.

Adhere a 3 1/2" x 5 1/4" piece of Basic Black card stock to card front.

With So Saffron, ink up the clear block well, and stamp it directly onto a 2 3/4" x 2 7/8" piece 

of Naturals White card stock. Stamp the pear image (or your choice of image) in Cajun Craze 

ink atop this background.

Distress the edges of a 3 1/8" x 3 1/4" piece of Cajun Craze card stock as desired. Adhere the finished pear piece to this. With a Stampin' Dimensional in each corner and one in the center, attach the image to the card front, leaving an even edge of black around the top and sides.

On a scrap of Naturals White card stock, stamp the sentiment in Black StazOn. Punch it out 

with the Extra-Large Oval Punch. Use the Big Shot with the Lots of Tags Dies to create a frame from Cajun Craze card stock. Adhere sentiment to this.

Use the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch to create a ribbon trim from So Saffron card stock, and adhere this to the lower portion of the card front. With two Stampin' Dimensionals, attach the sentiment tag over the ribbon trim.

This technique can easily be used with any stamps you choose, as well as in any color combination. Grab your Color Coach to come up with an alternate color palette!

Smiles.

OWL BE YOUR FRIEND

Have I mentioned yet that I absolutely LOVE My Digital Studio?? Quick. Easy. Non-messy.

I decided yesterday that I needed to make some Valentines. You know, CUTE Valentines?
Looking through my MDS stash, I didn't find anything quite cutesy enough. So I checked
out the most recent of the My Digital Studio downloads. Lo and behold, even though I had
seen them previously when they were originally released, I discovered My Cute Valentine
and Officially Awesome Valentines-- both just right for what I was thinking.

The cool thing about ordering MDS Downloads is that you get them IMMEDIATELY and you
don't pay any shipping! And, they are inexpensive. These two were $2.95 and $3.95. Cheap instant gratification.

I ordered and downloaded them right away, and within minutes I was playing! I fell in love
with the darling owl in My Cute Valentine, and decided I would work with a card starring him
first. This was such an easy and fun Valentine to create!

Isn't he just the cutest ever?? The whole white portion is what I did in MDS. After printing 

it off, I proceeded to my workshop and finished my hybrid greeting. I finished off his eyes 

with black brads, added a bow made from some of the Tangerine Tango ribbon you can get 

for FREE through Sale-A-Bration, and rounded the corners. I adhered it to some red card 

stock, then to a Whisper White card front. 

And, the best part is that I have this card front all saved in My Digital Studio, and can go 

back and print out as many as I want, without any further ado. Crazy, huh?

Smiles.

GOING TO PIECES

In my last blog post, In Pieces, I showed you a finished card utilizing a base of Serendipity Paper 

I had made. I had asked if you, my readers, would be interested in having a step-by-step tutorial on how I created this particular piece of Serendipity Paper. A few of you expressed a wish to know how to do it, so here goes:

First and foremost is to choose your color palette. Not quite sure of the colors I wanted to incorporate, I took out one of my most trusty tools, my Color Coach.

The Color Coach is an indispensable part of my Stampin' Up! arsenal, which I reach for frequently -- especially when my mind is in a confused muddle. Every page of this precious little tool features color combinations for each of the colors in Stampin' Up!'s color families. The various combinations are called Dynamic Duos, Creative Combinations and Sweet Set. 

I had actually decided beforehand that I wanted to have Sahara Sand as my base. So, naturally 

I went to the page that featured Sahara Sand combinations. By flipping through the Color Coach, you will find Sahara Sand among several color combinations, but my first stop was the Sahara Sand page itself. Without any further perusal, I determined that the Sweet Set was the one I wanted to use in my sheet of Serendipity Paper. The colors in the Sweet Set are Sahara Sand, Pacific Point and Cajun Craze. 

I started with a half sheet ( 8 1/2" x 5 1/2") of Sahara Sand card stock, and began very subtly 

by stamping dotted circles from Circle Circus in Sahara Sand ink.

I then added the fern from the Papaya Collage set in Cajun Craze. To add a bit of interest, 

I stamped the ferns in a varied pattern of lights and darks.

I next added my final color from the Sweet Set, Pacific Point, in a smaller design from Circle Circus. Usually a very bright blue, stamped upon Sahara Sand, it becomes somewhat more muted, but still a vibrant color. At this point, keep in mind that, if I had planned to make my squares for my finished project in smaller sizes, such as 1/2" x 1/2", I would have placed the blue circles closer together so they would show up more frequently in such small squares. 

In order to link the blue circles a little more, I added spontaneous swirls and squiggles made 

with the brush end of the Pacific Point Stampin' Write Marker.

The next step, which was adding a touch of class and some glitz to the piece, involved stamping the spiky stem from Summer Silhouettes in VersaMark. I was careless in my stamping of these stems, in that I rocked them somewhat. This was to ensure that I had double stems in most of the places -- you know, just to add a little more interest. I then covered these stems with my very favorite of the Stampin' Up! embossing powders, Pewter. Ah, what a luscious look that pewter has! 

After embossing the stems with the Heat Tool, I was left with a shimmery gorgeous organic pattern throughout. I wish the photo would better show the richness of the stems, but . . . 

I also added randomly in VersaMark several of the fluffy little flowers from the Summer Silhouettes set and embossed them in Clear Embossing Powder. I did this in order to somewhat unify the blue circle shapes, and, in making the flowers tone on tone by using clear embossing, 

I was adding a bit more of the Sahara Sand look to the piece.

I still needed a little more of the glitz, so I added VersaMark ink randomly over the surface of 

the piece by flicking the pad against the paper. I then sprinkled more of the Pewter Embossing Powder over the sticky ink. Unfortunately, when you add ink in such a way, it leaves fairly hard undesirable edges. So I ran my fingers through the unembossed powder to delineate and soften some of these edges.

I then heated the powder to emboss it. What resulted was a myriad of little sparkly dots of pewter embossing. The lines from the embossed flower stems and heads remained prominent, which was the effect I had desired.

Not a terribly attractive sheet of paper, I admit. But it is perfect Serendipity Paper for my purpose.

My next step was to cut off two strips, each 1 1/4" wide. From these strips, I cut them down 

to 1 1/4" squares. Can you see that each of these eight squares feature all the elements from 

the master piece of Serendipity Paper? But they are varied enough to make them each an individual unique piece of art.

I chose four of the squares that seemed to mesh well, mounting each of them onto a 1 3/8" square of Pacific Point paper. I then mounted each of these squares, using Stampin' Dimensionals to pop them, onto a 3 1/4" square of black card stock, then onto a 3 1/2" square of Cajun Craze. I used Dimensionals to raise this entire piece from the card front (4 1/4" square) for a finished card. 

A classy, beautiful card. When taking the photo, I tried to angle it so the embossing would be caught by the light. But, even so, it does not look as good in the picture as in real life.

Feeling a little serendipitous? (willing to find something agreeable or valuable not sought after) Try your hand at a little Serendipity Paper, and take your chances on the whims of serendipity!

Once again

Serendipitous

Smiles.