the Card Ladies

Hi again, stampin’ friends, and welcome to my stop on this month’s Best of tour.  This month is one of my favorite things… butterflies!

And I love that these Best Of sets include a never before seen image.  And I especially love it when the never before seen image matches one of our punches like this one does.  Have I mentioned I am a lazy stamper?

So here is my card front. 

I used the Pleasant Poppies background stamp and one of the phrases from one of the brand new stamps coming in the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! catalog.

OMG, I love being a SU demo and getting the cool stuff first!  But I digress.  Back to the card. 

So, since I wanted the butterfly to be the colorful focal point, I chose not to color in the poppies or the stems this time.

I stamped the monarch butterfly twice with Staz-On black ink, and colored in with Daffofil Delight, Tangerine Tango, and Real Red markers.

Then used one of my other fave products, Crystal Effects to cover the images and give them dimension and shine.  I cut them out after they were dry. You may be saying to yourself, why did you stamp 2 of those butterflies… and you CUT them OUT???  Yes, for these, I did cut them out because they are special.

But how can I leave my darling butterfly with the matching punch shape out?  I can’t, so on to a cool card middle to do the little butterflies justice!

First I changed up the base of the card.   This had to be cut from a full sheet of paper because I needed the extra width.  Cut a piece 5 1/2 wide x 11″ for this card.

I used the wonderful new stampin’ trimmer to score the cardstock at the 4 1/4, 4 3/4, 5 1/4, 5 3/4 and 6 1/4″ marks.  Fold the accordian fold up and press all together.

Trim the extra off the side, in mine that was almost 1/2 inch but not quite.  Easier to do that with the card folded so you can make sure it is even.

Then I got some of the window sheet, and snipped a few strips in it.  Seemed like have some space between them would work best, so I cut every other one off and put his piece of window sheet into the middle valley fold on the background piece and secured with redliner.

Turn the background piece over and use redliner to press all the fold flat.  Bend the window sheet pieces so they all are at different angles in the fold, they should stand out.

Then I took some of the vibrant Gumball Green and my snips and just randomly snipped some grass and attached to the insides of the card.

I used the little butterfly stamp with the matching punch and cut 2 each of 3 colors, then punched them out.  Attached together with a strip of the window sheet in between.

The last strip of window sheet gets the second special colored monach.  Add an appropriate saying and your card is full of fun floating butterflies that will surprise and delight the recipient!

I hope you like this and let me know if you make something cool(er) with this technique.

This card, the sayings and the special butterflies are dedicated to my TaDa team member and friend, Della.  She was first tempted into trying stamping because of a butterfly card Janet, another friend and TaDa team member, had given her when this punch was new.  So she asked to come meet me and try a stamping class, and signed up to be a TaDa herself soon after.  What a treasure she has been to me and all the recipients of her cards in this last year.

Della is recovering from a heart attack tonight, but this card is heading for her.  And I am reminded how precious all my stamping friends are.  Love you all!

Now on to the blog of Sherri Eddleblute at  http://www.sweetestdesigns.blogspot.com/  to see what she has for you guys.  Enjoy the tour!

Well, well, our blog tour just happens to fall on Mother’s Day in May and my Mom LOVES the seashore.  Sounds like a great way to combine 2 things I need to stamp for!

The set is By the Tide, and happily it made it into the new big catalog coming out soon.  Just want you to know if there is anything on the blog tour you love and you haven’t bought this stamp yet, don’t worry, go ahead and get it!  It is a keeper for sure!

OK, so on to my project.  I wanted to show a kind of technique and this is one I use a lot for sure – one form of a one-sheet wonder!  If you ever need to stamp multiple cards for holidays, parties, or just some to have on hand for various occasions, this technique is fantastic.  Stampin’ Up! sets are great for this because the stamps coordinate and are sized to work together.

So here is how I started.  I cut my sheet in half and then in half again to stamp.  I knew I wanted just the single images on one card, and this was the easiest way to have a piece for that.

Then I cut the 1/2 page into parts for the cards and the card holder.  I had very little waste on this project.  The empty spot on the bottom right piece I used to stamp and then punch the sentiments with the word window punch.

Here are the finished cards… I used 4 of the yummy new in-colors that will be available in the new catalog along with chocolate chip.

And of course I have to stamp on the envelopes, too!  Coordination is what makes hand-stamped cards so cool.  Ok, ONE of the things, and it’s pretty fun to do, too. 

This is going to my Mom for Mother’s Day so I needed to make a holder.  I took one sheet of chocolate chip card stock and scored at 5 1/4 and 5 3/4 on the long side.  Then at 6 and 6 1/4 on the short side.  Then I scored on each short side at 1/4 and 1/2 and cut down to the 6″  mark.  I snipped the middle out and folded up and in on the front sides (secure with a bit of redliner) into 2 little 1/4″ deep pockets to hold the cards and the envelopes.

And here is the font of the gift package.  I used the Teeny Tiny Wishes set for the cards, all phrases appropriate for Mama to send to her friends.  Makes a cute little gift package to be part of her gift.  But cards are meant to be sent after all, so I hope this project brings joy to her and her friends as she uses them to reach out to her friends just to say Hi.

And that set also has a stamp that says Happy Mother’s Day!

So here’s hoping you all have a wonderful day with family, and remember, if needed, stamping is great therapy for stress!  haha

Now on the the blog of Connie Diebler  at www.conniestamps.com to see what she has for you guys.

It’s sad to see them go, I know. In order to make room for all the new products
coming in June, hundreds of stamp sets, accessories, and scrapbooking supplies are
retiring! These last-chance items are only available until June 3rd or while
supplies last, so

SHOP ONLINE early for the best selection.  Join the mystery hostess party for your chance to win $25 worth of the freebies of your choice when you shop online and enter the hostess code 6GU9G7SK when you check out. You get your stuff right away and when I close out the mystery hostess when I return on 5/5, I will let you know if you are a winner! One entry for every $25 you spend.

If you prefer to download and/or print the retired stamp set list, I have PDF version
for you. The accessories go quickly so I recommend shopping online for the best
selection.

Happy Stampin’!