IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you already know that practically anything can be considered a prospective art supply for me. Even things that people have no second thoughts about tossing in the garbage. I've been know to rescue all kinds of "garbage" to use in a project.

Used paper towels are one of my favorite mediums to use. Yup. Once those paper towels are all inky, wet and yukky, most normal people would simply toss them and move on to pristine brand new dry ones.

Not this girl. See below:

After one of my workshop attendees reacted in a horrified way when I snatched the paper towel she had just "finished" out of the garbage, I warned her that she would be using just this art supply in an upcoming workshop. This is my sample of the card the girls got to work from.

Look at all the lovely texture! Doesn't it just make you quiver with excitement??

The sentiment is from a darling Hostess Set that retires in less than a month. It is called Make A Splash and can be found on page 73 of the Mini Catalog. The set also features a fish bowl, fish and all the fixins'. And four wonderful sentiments. If this appeals to you, you only have a matter of weeks to get one for yourself!

For the workshop, since no two "finished" paper towels are ever the same, the girls had to make some choices.

Following is the tutorial I provided for my Stamp-In girls to make their own version of this card.

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Scrap white cardstock

Basic Black cardstock

Scrap cardstock that complements the colors in your chosen paper towel

Pigment Sprinkles on a paper towel -- one ply only

Make A Splash hostess set (page 73 of the Mini Catalog)

Black ink

Ornate Frames (they are in the Annual Catalog coming up!!)

Stitched Rectangles dies (page 196, Annual Catalog)

Big Shot 

Glue Stick

Stampin' Dimensionals

Sequins that complement the colors in the paper towel

Mini Glue Dots

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this card base, adhere a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of black cardstock.

Choose a piece of the color saturated paper towel. (You are only using a single ply. Gently separate the plies.) Once you have your piece of colorful stuff, crush it in your hand, then sort of flatten it. Do this several times. YOU DON'T WANT TO ELIMINATE ANY OF THE CREASES, HOWEVER.

Use a glue stick to completely cover a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of white cardstock. Completely cover it with glue, especially the edges and corners. Gently lay your paper towel over the glued paper and pat it in place. Do not pull to flatten it out. You want those wrinkles! Otherwise, your card will be wrinkle free. That's where the character comes in. Once the paper towel is completely patted into place and touching the glue everywhere, you can add adhesive to the edges of the backside of this piece and start gently wrapping the colorful piece to the back side. The paper towel will probably be too large, so you can simply trim off some of the excess so it is easier to work with. Be especially careful on the corners, that you make them neatly pointed.

Adhere the colorful piece over the black cardstock on the card base.

On a scrap of Whisper White cardstock, stamp the sentiment in black ink. Use the proper die to cut out the sentiment.

From scraps of colored cardstock, choose one that complements your background well. Using the Stitched Rectangles Die that measures 7/8" x 2 7/8", cut a rectangle. Center your white sentiment piece over this and adhere it in place. With a couple Stampin' Dimensionals, attach it over the colorful piece as desired. I tried to choose an area that was maybe a little muddy.

Choose sequins that coordinate well with your card, and add them. To add the sequins, place a Mini Glue Dot in the spots where you want your sequins to be, then just pop the sequins over the dot.

Because all the pieces of paper towel the girls had to choose from differed, I made the rest of the card in black and white, then just had them choose a coordinating scrap for the base of the sentiment, as well as sequins, to personalize it.

Wasted

Smiles.

WHO SAYS?

The card in this post is made with the single daisy stamp from the Ornate Garden Suite, available through the end of May as an Early Release. To be included in the new upcoming Annual Catalog, you can access the flyer for the Suite HERE. There are some truly lovely components to this Suite. I use the Ornate Style stamp set in my card.

Who says that labels need to be varying sizes of the same shape? Such as squares layered upon squares, ovals upon ovals? The dies in the Stitched So Sweetly set -- and, yay!, it's in the new catalog!! -- are several stitched rectangles, but also four assorted lovely shapes besides.

For my sentiment display, I did use one of the rectangles that nestled nicely amongst these two other-shaped dies that also come in the set. Put together in this way, they actually look like they belong together, highlighting the best of each of the shapes.

And, popping up the actual sentiment layer against the other two gives the most importance to what I'm trying to say in my card.

I also popped up the yellow layer onto the Whisper White card base. I love the simplicity of this card.

In my card, I used a pretty pretty yellow, Pineapple Punch, that is one of the In Colors that will be retiring in a month! Oh no! I used it not only in my cardstock, but also in Stampin' Blends to color in the centers of my simple daisies.

A really easy card to whip up, it screams "We want spring!" 

And the sentiment can be used for any number of occasions. Don't you agree?

Daisy

Smiles.

TOUCAN BIRTHDAY TOO

A few days ago, Stampin' Up! released their annual Retiring List. I was quite horrified, to be honest, to find a few of my favorite sets/bundles on the list. But, none on the list horrified me more than the adorable Bonanza Buddies Bundle. Both the stamp set and the dies are RETIRING! 

I don't care. It is the perfect combo to use for so many celebratory celebrations. I will carry on. I will keep on using it! 

After all, if I've invested in something, I don't plan on discontinuing use of it. I've purchased it because I love it and see a lot of possibilities. My Stamp-In girls don't mind if I use retired product.

This is a card that my Stamp-In girls made at the February workshop. I had had so much fun with the set for my grandson, Enzo's, birthday card that I wanted my girls to enjoy the experience of working with this cute set too. I'd spent an entire afternoon creating Enzo's card, and realized that the girls would not be up to that at a workshop. So I simplified it somewhat, making it much less time consuming.

For the card at the workshop, the girls got to make a few choices. I had my entire stash of 6X6 Designer Series Papers available for them to go through to find a paper that would go well with their vision using the cute toucan guy. 

After choosing their DSP, they went through scraps of retired cardstock in search of a couple colors for the banners that would complement their DSP.

Don't you love how you can build most of the card onto the darling tag 

made from the die that comes with the set?

Following are the supplies and directions for making a card similar to this one. But hurry, if you don't have the bundle, you can find it on page 34 of the Mini Catalog. And it's only $38.50!! How many times have you had so much fun for less than 40 bucks?!? 

Please keep in mind that several of the products used in this project are retiring in just a few weeks! I've noted in the Supplies list if they are retiring. Get 'em while they last!

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Granny Apple Green cardstock

Choice of Designer Series Paper

Scraps of cardstock to complement the DSP chosen

Bonanza Buddies Bundle (page 34 of the Mini Catalog -- HURRY! It's retiring!!)

Smoky Slate ink

Granny Apple Green ink

Grapefruit Grove ink (retiring!)

Pineapple Punch (retiring!)

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blend

Grapefruit Grove Stampin' Blend

Pineapple Punch Stampin' Blend

Big Shot

Stampin' Dimensionals

Green/White ribbon

Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (retiring!)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Add to this card base a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Granny Apple Green cardstock.

Choose a piece of Designer Series Paper that will work well with the colors used in the project, Granny Apple Green, Pineapple Punch and Grapefruit Grove. Trim this piece to 3 3/4" x 5". Add it to the card front.

Choose two pieces of scrap cardstock that would work well with the DSP you've chosen to use. Cut one of each of the banners for your card. You can run both through the Big Shot at the same time. Adhere the banners at a criss cross angle behind where you will be placing the tag.

On a scrap of Whisper White cardstock, stamp the toucan in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Use the matching die to cut out the bird. Use Stampin' Blends to color in the toucan as you desire.

From Whisper White cardstock, die cut a tag with the tag die.

In Smoky Slate ink, stamp the balloon strings about 3/4" from the bottom of the tag and about 1/4" from the left edge.

Stamp the balloons at the top of the strings, cleaning the stamp with each color change.

In black ink, stamp Happy Birthday at an angle near the balloons.

Use two Stampin' Dimensionals to add the toucan to the tag so it looks like his beak is holding the cluster of balloons.

Loop a 4" piece of green/white ribbon through the hole in the top of the tag. Tie a bow of white baker's twine to finish off the ribbon. Trim the ribbon ends to angles.

With Stampin' Dimensionals, add the tag to the card front.

Bonanza

Smiles.

ORNATE GARDEN

Stampin' Up! has a beautiful new suite out, called Ornate Garden. Although the entire suite is gorgeous, and I would love to have everything, I was particularly taken with the stamp set. Why? Because the flower images were screaming out to me to color them!

I just got this lovely set in my hands a few days ago, so yesterday I was anxious to get to work on the largest image of assorted flowers and leaves.

Once I'd finished coloring the image with Stampin' Blends, I decided to fussy cut the image. While I loved it as it was, I decided it would be even better if I added a few more flowers to give it a more realistic look. So I chose three of the flowers, stamped them on scraps of Whisper White, and colored them in with the same Stampin' Blends.

Of course, once those flowers were stamped, they needed to be fussy cut:

After carefully putting the flowers in place over their counterparts 

with Stampin' Dimensionals, this is how it looked:

I was pleased with it so far, but wasn't confident on how to proceed to use it on a card. 

Below is what I finally decided upon. Somehow a bouquet of flowers such as this almost insists that it be placed within an oval setting. Do you agree?

With the popped up flowers and a few of the Noble Peacock Rhinestones (which are on the Retiring List at only $4.40!), as well as the white panel against the white card base, the card has a modest, but pleasing, amount of dimension.

Following is a list of the Stampin' Blends I used in my bouquet: Light and Dark Pineapple Punch, Light and Dark Balmy Blue, Light and Dark Rococo Rose, Light and Dark Granny Apple Green, Light Mango Melody and Light Pumpkin Pie.

The following photo spotlights the background upon which the oval rests. I wanted something simple, not overpowering, so decided upon the Subtle embossing folder page 199 of the Annual Catalog, and NOT retiring! Yay!)

It was such a pleasure to create this card, and makes me smile when I look at the cheery spring bouquet. I wish spring would arrive around here!

Flowering

Smiles.

A LITTLE MASKING

I know the calendar tells us that it is spring. Unfortunately we haven't seen just too much spring weather. Wait! Let's try that again. Unfortunately, we haven't seen ANY spring weather. Around here, there is still snow lurking here and there.

So, if we can't have it in reality, how about I bring us a little spring-like card? Will that help?

The March Paper Pumpkin was especially wonderful in that, to commemorate the anniversary of Paper Pumpkin, Stampin' Up! included not just one stamp set, but TWO stamp sets. While the first set was meant to go with the kit itself, I fell more in love with the second free set.

On my card, the rain boots, the flower design for the boots, the grassy border and the adorable bunny were four of the stamps in this free set.

I wanted it to look like the bunny was standing in front of the boots. Do you remember how to accomplish that? Yes, you got it! MASKING! 

To do the masking on this card, stamp the bunny on a piece of Whisper White cardstock about where you want him to be located. Then stamp the bunny once more onto a piece of sticky note, being sure that part of the stamping falls onto the sticky section. Fussy cut this bunny, keeping your cutting a smidge inside the stamped line. 

To stamp the boots to look like they are behind the bunny, adhere your cut out bunny over the first one you stamped. Then stamp the boots where you want them. If you want to add the flowers to the boots, do them also at this time.

Then, carefully peel off the sticky note, and voila!, your bunny is in front of the boots! Yay!

Since I'd done my stamping with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, I was able to color my bunny in a Light Smoky Slate Stampin' Blend.

Even though I added a butterfly colored with Stampin' Blends and both the panel that holds the focal images, as well as the sentiment label, with Stampin' Dimensionals, the card is almost completely flat. I love it when that happens!

The butterfly and sentiment come from the Butterfly Gala stamp set, found on page 46 of the Annual Catalog. The butterfly was punched out with the Butterfly Duet punch on page 188, also in the Annual Catalog. The cute little green flowers are some of the Gingham Gala Adhesive Backed Sequins on page 178 of the Annual Catalog.

The circle that encompasses the boots and the bunny is from the Stitched Shapes dies, while the sentiment is done with the Stitched Rectangles dies, both on page 196 in the Annual Catalog.

There! Do you feel a little bit spring-y? Hope so! 

The sentiment goes out to all of us in the world during this weird coronavirus time. I hope you and yours are staying safe and well.

Masked 

Smiles.