Make it Monday #276

Hi everyone! Just a quick post for a challenge...

Happy Monday... if that's possible! :) One of things that I do look forward to at the start of each week is PTI's Make it Monday. This week's was fun and introduced me to a technique that I never would have dreamed up: colored pencils on kraft paper. At first when I watched the MIM #276 video from Melissa, I thought, "Aren't the pencils going to fade out on the paper?" But they don't - yay! It's actually a really nice way to make the colors pop against the brown tones of the paper.

So here's my take on this week's challenge:

I really LOVE the "What the Doodle" series from PTI and thought the feather would be a good way to incorporate a Papertrey product into the card. The details on this feather image are so beautifully designed, and it's great for coloring! Hope you like the final design, and have a great week!

Freshly Made Sketches #274

Hi all! Hope you had a good weekend. I'm back today, participating in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #274. I've had to take a break from cardmaking for some life things going on lately, but I'm thrilled to be back at the craft table and joining in today!

You know how some sketches come easy and some take FOREVER to create? Something about this design just "clicked" with me. I'm meeting some friends next weekend to make birthday cards together, so I knew this sketch would be perfect!

After a trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday, the card come together for me pretty quickly today!

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I was a little indecisive with a few decisions about this card, so I made two designs to see which I liked better - and I don't have a clear favorite! The orange and mint blue card bases play off the cupcake paper really well. Just got lucky with finding coordinating colors at Hobby Lobby this weekend! I also wanted to experiment with having the small flags line up and be different sizes. I like them both! I'll show my fellow cardmaking friends both designs next weekend to see what they think. Do you have a favorite? I'd love to hear your take on it!

Have a great week, and thanks for dropping by! :)

SIP Challenge 52

Hi all! I'm back today and participating in the SIP Challenge for the first time. They're celebrating their one-year anniversary, so I encourage you go over and check them out! I love seeing their themes, sketches, and inspiration, and their team is AMAZINGLY talented! I usually see at least one card each week that I want to try out.

This week, with their one-year anniversary celebration, their theme is "card makers choice," encouraging fellow crafters to use make a card using your favorite stamp set, ink colors, and paper. This worked out just right as I just found some new favorite stamps during a recent trip to Hobby Lobby. So I started out with the stamps and took it from there! Here's what I came up with...

I really love how those soft colors blended well in the background, and that pop of black and white really makes the sentiment stand out. But I have to say that my favorite part of this card is a little hard to see... there's a light heat embossed pattern in the background. See it now? :) When you have the card in your hand, it's a little easier to notice, and I think it'll make you want to actually touch the card and feel the heat embossed pattern. I will definitely be trying this out again!

That sentiment is going to be great for so many uses. I think it's a great reminder, especially if you're like me and tend to get a little caught up in details, that the organized chaos of life is a beautiful thing! (Even if maaaaaybe we don't appreciate it at the time - been there!)

Excited to see the other cards over at the SIP 52 challenge this week. Congrats again, SIP team! Look forward to many more years of cards and inspiration! :)

April Favorites

Hi all! Hope you had a great weekend.

Just wanted to share a few of my favorite creations from the month of April... if you follow me on Instagram (@elle_stamping), some might look familiar!

A quick disclaimer before we jump in... I do not work for any of these companies, and they have not asked me to try out or talk about their products (oh, but I would be THRILLED if that day ever came!). I just like to talk about things that I have found to work really well and share with others. That's how I have found so many of the products that I love, and I hope this is helpful for you fellow card-makers out there...

In April, I continued meeting monthly with a fellow card-making friend. I really enjoy our time together, and it's so fun to see how she uses stamps, ink, paper, etc. I always come away inspired and with new ideas! For our April meeting, I used the Simon Says Stamp April card kit for this card. I wanted to try something different with the black background and white text to make it look a little a chalkboard. And WOW, those flowers just POP against that black. You all might know by know that I REALLY love scripted sentiments, so that "Hello Friend" is going to get a lot of use!!

This was another one of my favorites from last month. I entered in the Freshly Made Sketches weekly challenge, and though it didn't win, it's one that I really love! It was so clean and simple, and there's a scripted sentiment again (told ya, they're my favorite!). The umbrella and raindrops can be used with so many sentiments and sayings, so I'm excited to keep using those stamps! This was a bit unusual for me because there's A LOT of white space in this card, but I think it works! (P.S. If you're interested, the set is Sun Showers from Hero Arts!)

I made my first Altenew purchase this month, and this set is GORGEOUS! It's my first laying stamp set, and I will definitely be going back for more! (Check out the Peony Bouquet set here.) I cannot say enough good things about this set. It was easy to use, stamped well, and turned out beautiful. There are so many possibilities and color combinations with a great layering stamp set like this, so don't be surprised if you see more peonies on my blog. :) Definitely check out Altenew and their gorgeous products!

I've already started a few cards for the month of May, so stick around... there might just be lots of blooms and flowers. It just seems right for this time of year. :)

Freshly Made Sketches #221

Happy Saturday! Are you having a good weekend? I spent some time with a friend today making cards and having lunch. It's so fun to share cardmaking ideas, tips, and techniques with a fellow cardmaker. Hope you're enjoying your time off.

I also took some time this weekend to create a new card for Freshly Made Sketches sketch #221. Here was the design to follow:

And here's what I came up with:

A little masking in the middle of the card really makes the sentiment the focus of the card, even more than so than the sketch inspiration. I think masking is such an effective and easy way to add some technique and creativity to a card.

The green, blue, and purple combination is one of my go-to ink sets, and the Ranger inks just work so well together. I used two different shades of blue for the "hello" die cut. The masking was just a simple circle. This was a pretty easy card to make and is another one of those that could be reproduced with a variety of sentiments and colors.

I hope the recipient enjoys this card and has a wonderful birthday! Join me again next week for another Freshly Made Sketches post!

Materials

Paper - white card and envelope (Hobby Lobby), true blue paper (Michael's), light blue paper (Simon Says Stamp card kit)

Stamps - Make It Market Mini Kit: Garden Gild (Papertrey Ink)

Inks - Ranger dye inks (Carribbean Coast, Blue Ribbon, Lily Pad), Tim Holtz distress inks (Dusty Concord)

Embellishments - Blue gems (Simon Says Stamp card kit)

Lasting Hearts Card Drive

Have you heard about the Lasting Hearts Card Drive? Many cardmaking bloggers have highlighted it on their blogs and social media sites. Read more here at Jennifer McGuire's blog.

The loss of a child must bring so much devastation and shock. The future that you envisioned will never been as you once imagined it to be, and a little source of tremendous joy is gone. These families surely could use some love, kindness, support, and hugs.

So I'm joining in this challenge with some cards. It's a small effort, and I'll never know the families who receive them. But I hope that these notes give those suffering a little comfort, and also reassure them that they are not alone. There are people praying and thinking of them, and their lives will once again know joy.

Here are just a few of the cards I'm sending off this week...

If you'd like to participate, donate, purchase a special "prayers" stamp set (with a portion of the profits being donated), or learn more about this card drive, check out this post over at Jennifer McGuire's lovely blog.

Freshly Made Sketches #220

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm playing along today with Freshly Made Sketches, sketch #220. A friend introduced me to this blog, and it's quickly become one of my go-to sites for inspiration. I think coming up with a layout and design is one of the hardest parts of cardmaking, so I love that this site provides different ideas. Here's this week's sketch:

I thought about this for a few days before diving in. I thought about snowflakes, balloons, and flowers for the top left corner. And then I remembered some new craft goodies (paper, die cuts, stamps, and inks) I received as a gift, and I wanted to incorporate those into this project. Here's the final card - more details below.

It's a little bit different than the sketch, but I think it still works with the focus in the top left corner and sentiment to the right.

I really LOVED that leaf paper (one of my new goodies!), so that was my starting point for this design. It's so clean and simple, and gives a few different colors to use with green, yellow, and red. I decided to use them all with the flower die-cuts and leaves.

The flower dies are unique because they help add some dimension to the card. Part of the petals actually lift up, giving some added interest. I think it's really neat that the flower isn't completely flat on the card, but comes up off the card. Here's a better view where you can see the petals lifted up off the card a bit...

I think anyone who receives a card with these flowers just couldn't help but touch the petals! The flowers are the focus point, and then it comes with a little more fun with petals coming off the card. So fun!

I really wanted the focus to be the leaf paper and the die cuts, so I left the rest of the card simple with the black paper, white ink, and sentiment that isn't too big or distracting. The small pearls and sequins are also good, subtle embellishments.

This was a fun sketch to try, and there will be more Freshly Made Sketches posts to come!

Materials

Paper - white card, black card stock, green paper (Hobby Lobby); yellow envelope (Paper Source); leaf background paper, red paper, yellow paper (Stampin' Up)

Dies - Botanical Builder framelits dies (Stampin' Up)

Stamps - Beautiful Butterflies (Papertrey Ink)

Embellishments - clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), small pearls (Hobby Lobby)

Simon Says: Ombre #ssswchallenge

Hi all! Hope you enjoyed the long weekend! With Monday off, I was able to spend some time on this week's entry for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. This week's theme was ombre, a design showing up all over the place... so why not cards, too? :)

I went a little girly with the design for this week, using pinks and purples and polka dots, along with one little heart. I also thought it would be fun to include additional ways other than stamping to incorporate the ombre - hence, the washi tape and baker's twine.

This was a pretty simple card to put together. I used just two stamp sets - one for the ombre polka dot look (stamped three times from top to bottom) and another for the sentiment, envelope, and heart. This could easily be mass-produced with the sentiment changed for different occasions with any number of sentiments on the front.

I really lucked out with having different shades of purples and pinks in inks, tape, and twine. I liked having the solid pink stripe across the middle to "ground" the sentiment. That pink polka dot washi tape was a perfect way to incorporate another row of color without stamping - it might look like it's stamped, buuuut it's not! :)

Thanks to SSS for another fun week of inspiration, and many thanks to you for dropping by!

Materials

White card & envelope (Hobby Lobby)
Washi tape (Hobby Lobby)
Baker's twine (Hobby Lobby)
Stamps - Sending Happy Thoughts (Simon Says Stamp), Good Times (Papertrey Ink)
Inks - Ranger die inks (grape soda, wild orchid, pink gumball, black tie)

Simon Says: Something New #ssswchallenge

Hi everyone! I'm playing along again today with the weekly Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. This week's theme is "Something New" to go along with the New Year. I received some new craft goodies over the holiday season, but I decided to take a different spin on things and use a new sentiment...

I am LOVING the Hero Arts Acts of Kindness stamp set. So many card markers were using this set during the fall, thanks in part to Jennifer McGuire's "Share Handmade Kindness" campaign. I bought the set, and it's quickly become one of my favorites. So many uplifting, positive sentiments are included in this set, and I just think it's a great go-to set for one of those "just because" notes. Here's a picture of the set so you can see the different sentiments included:

Over the holidays, I made some card sets as gifts using this set, but I hadn't yet used that "a bit of kindness to brighten your day" statement. So, it was new to me! The design of that sentiment is so great to fit in so many different spots on a card, and I love that script font - it's my favorite among all the text styles in the set. This card was pretty simple to make...

First, I used a green card base with a small white rectangle cut out of card stock. I started out by pulling out the very ornate star stamp and stamping it different colors along the left side. No rhyme or reason here; I just randomly stamped along the edge. To finish the stamping, I placed the kindness sentiment in the lower right-hand corner.

Now comes the fun part - embellishments. :) I actually went back to the stamp set one last time to use the hearts. I used a larger and smaller heart to highlight around the sentiment. One of the best ways to enforce the kindness theme was with the hearts, so they were a perfect choice. I also pulled out some light pink sequins. I really love the preppy pink/green color combination, so I thought adding a bit more pink here would be a complement to the green card base. Lastly, I added some more pink with the baker's twine along the side of the card. One of the first basic design tips I learned about card design was to repeat a color combination three times, so this twine also made a third time that pink was used on the card.

To finish things off, I adhered the white base to the card. I left the inside blank for someone to use the card as they need it. I've also included a green envelope with the card (not shown in photo). I think one of my signature styles is going to be colored envelopes. They just catch your eye when you get the mail and have a way of standing out! :)

This is one of my new personal favorite cards, and I think I'll be mass-producing it for some future notes! 

Materials 

Stamps: Ornate star on wood stamp (Hobby Lobby), Hero Arts Acts of Kindness stamp set
Clear blocks (Michael's craft stores)
Paper: green cards and envelopes, white card stock (Hobby Lobby)
Baker's twine (Michael's craft stores)
Pink sequins (Studio Calico monthly card subscription - no longer offered)
Ink: Ranger Die Inks (blue tie, lemon twist, blue ribbon, caribbean coast, grape soda, lily pad, pink gumball, wild orchid)