A Little Banner Fun

 Oh yes, banners are so fun and so in!  The smaller banners were made with Stampin' Up!'s Banner Blast and the Banner Punch from the Sale-A-Bration catalog.  (You only have 13 more days to order and be able to get these babies for FREE!)  I colored the Made a Wish stamp in with my Pacific Point and Pumpkin Pie markers before stamping them on Whisper White cardstock.  The banner behind it was embossed with the Decorative Dots embossing folder.  These banners were cut out with the Banners framelits and the Big Shot.  The lighthouse and sailboat are from the Settin' Sail photopolymer stamp set that I love so much.  Oh, see that background?  Well, you know that bubblewrap that the Envelope Punch Board comes in?  Well, ink that puppy up with some So Saffron ink and a brayer, then lay your cardstock over the top of it.  So much fun and super easy.  I'd forgotten about that technique until I came across the saved bubblewrap in my craft room.  It's always fun to bring back an oldie-but-goodie.

And this card ... well it was made with leftovers from a swap that I did.  See that cool image on the two smaller banners?  It's the Embossing Folder Resist technique.  Here are the directions:
1.  put a piece of wax paper in a detailed embossing folder and run through the Big Shot.
2.  build a sandwich on your ironing board:
     one piece of copy paper
     one piece of glossy cardstock, glossy side up
     wax paper with the embossed pattern
     one piece of glossy cardstock, glossy side down
     one piece of copy paper
3.  turn your iron onto the cotton setting and iron just for about 5 seconds
4.  ink up a brayer and spread the ink onto the glossy side of one of the glossy pieces of cardstock, rolling until it's even
5.  repeat with the second piece of glossy cardstock
6.  wipe away the extra ink with a tissue or paper towel. 
TADA!  You have a really cool looking piece of cardstock!  I used the arrows embossing folder from the Occasions Catalog.  I do love that folder. 
So, what do you think?  Ready to try it?  Let me know what you come up with.
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!
Blessings,
Julie

Any Occasion Love You Card

Seasonal Sayings, Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder

 This is a card that we made at a workshop before Valentine's Day.  I love it because it doesn't have to be for Valentine's Day!  Love You says a lot and can be used for so many occasions.  One of the fun elements in this card is the printed window sheet from the Quatrefancy Specialty Designer Series Paper.  It's a bit hard to see here, but looks great in person.  The workshop guests were a little perplexed, trying to figure out where the adhesive is on the window sheet.  Well, it's behind the stamps!  They had a choice of Mini Glue Dots or Tombow to use on the back side and hid the adhesive behind the stamp images.  The hearts that were punched out were used in the middle of the Love and on the inside.  (We crafters can't waste any cardstock, right?) 
Here's a challenge I'll throw out...tell someone who isn't expecting it that you love them and appreciate them.  Doesn't have to be a spouse or family member.  Maybe a friend needs to hear the words of encouragement.  Perhaps a favorite teacher from the past would be blessed by hearing from you.  Use your imagination and let me know who and why you've chosen your person.  Good luck! 
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!
Blessings,
Julie

Wood Grain Owl Thank You

Seems like we're always needing thank you's around here.  And, oh yes!  I love the new Woodgrain background stamp.  It's gorgeous!  I used Early Espresso and stamped the Woodgrain background onto Chocolate Chip cardstock.  After punching out a 1 3/8" circle, I stamped the Woo-Hoo! in Always Artichoke onto Very Vanilla cardstock and cut it out with the coordinating Word Bubbles framelit.  Isn't it cute?

And you have to dress up the inside, right?  The Woodgrain was stamped in Crumb Cake onto Very Vanilla here.  The owl is Cajun Craze and Crumb Cake.  I hate trying to glue on those tiny dots for eyes, so always go with the white gel pen instead.  Makes my stamping life a ton easier.  The greeting is from Sassy Salutations.  I just used that at the last workshop and everyone was talking about how cute the greeting was.  It is cute.  Definitely cute. 

Have you used your owl punch recently?  If not, here's a challenge to you to get it out and see what you feel like making with it.  So much fun in one little punch!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

Duck Dynasty Birthday Card

Basic Black, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Early Espresso

Have you ever had to come up with a card with a theme that you don't have any stamps or backgrounds for?  Yup!  My son was invited to a Duck Dynasty birthday party.  Oiy!  Don't have any camo or realistic duck stamps.  Punt!  I made my own camo background with the frosting portion of the Cupcake Punch.  Yay!  The duck was masked before stamping because the original stamp is a duck pull toy.  If you cover the area that you don't want on your image with tape, ink, then pull the tape off, you will only have the portion of the image that you want when you stamp.  Another way, of course, is to use a marker.  Since I only wanted the duck to be one color, it was easier to mask.  I sponged a bit of Soft Sky around the duck and used my Old Olive marker to ground the duck.  I stamped the greeting in Early Espresso on Summer Starfruit and cut it out with the matching framelit from the Word Bubbles Framelits.  (Have I mentioned yet how much I love these framelits?!  They are da bomb!)  The duck was cut out with the Apothecary Framelits.  The background dots is a free embossing folder with any $50 purchase through the end of this month.  Yay for fun cards!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station! 

Blessings,
Julie