Sweet Baby!

Something for Baby, Bordering Blue, Pretty in Pink

I think I love this new stamp set from Stampin' Up!  I love how there are matching framelits.  Wishing a also had a photo of the pennant banner that my SIL and I made with the carriage and a onesie cut out with the framelits.  This card incorporates some retired product and new product.  It's fun to bring out some of those "oldies" that you haven't seen for awhile.  I used Pretty in Pink and Bordering Blue for this card, both retired colors, along with the vintage safety pin, taffeta ribbon and flower brads, all retired.  Current product is the banner punch, the flower punch, the Something for Baby stamp set and framelits.  Stay tuned for more from this wonderful set!
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!
Blessings,
Julie

A Few Recent Workshop Projects

Simply Sketched Hostess Set, Watercolor Wander DSP

 Just in case you haven't picked it up yet, pretty much all of my workshops are Totally Hands On, which means that there is a very minimal amount of demonstrating and then the guests make 3-5 cards/projects.  This seems to be what the guests want and like and it's also a great way to get the tools into their hands to try out.  Would you buy a dress without trying it on to see if you liked it?  Nope!  Same thing with stamping and crafting supplies.  The more we can try things out, the better decision we can make on what we like to use and what we probably wouldn't use.  This card was inspired by a card on Pinterest.  I've changed the blue and green colors to be closer to the Designer Papers.  We used Marina Mist and Wild Wasabi.  Oh, and check out the background.  You'll find that we embossed it with a flowery embossing folder.  The subtle look is so fun and elegant, too.  I can't find the original (after searching for 10 minutes!) so my apologies to the original artist.  We added some pearls underneath the greeting as a nice accent to finish off the card.  I really love this Designer Paper Set!  It's going to be so hard to say goodbye to it after June 1st. 

 The next two cards here are a two-in-one set.  If you put the Yay word inside the word bubble before you cut the two out with your framelits and Big Shot, you can get two cards out of your supplies!  We used the Silver Foil sheets for our greeting, the clear window sheet from the Quatrefancy Specialty Designer Series Paper, and the background is Wild Wasabi.  A few random holes were punched with our Paper Piercing Tool to put in a few random Mini Silver Brads.  We hid the glue for the window sheet behind the bubble frame so that it wouldn't show.  Quite a simple project and yet it looks very nice.  This one was a hit!

And here is the accompanying card, using the other part of the bubble.  Instead of trying to keep track of the tiny little piece of foil from the inside of the "a", we used a rhinestone.  Much prettier and easier!!!  The silver vellum cardstock looks so pretty against the Soft Sky cardstock and the silver ribbon really ties it off nicely.  (hahaha)  We hid the glue dots behind the polka dots so that you couldn't see any adhesive behind the vellum.  On both of these cards, we left the inside blank.  This allows you to use the card for many, many occasions.  Always handy in the world of "must have it right now" that we seem to be living in. 

Thanks so much for stopping by the Stamping Station.  I hope your week starts off with sunshine and stamping.

Blessings,
Julie

Swapping With my Upline

 The last time we swap- ped, we decided to do a card candy and two cards.  This is the first time that I've actually made card candy! Can't believe it took me this long to make some.  I need to start doing this for some hostess gifts.  (Leave me a comment if you would like this to be your next hostess gift.)  I really wanted a lot of layers for my card candy so that it would be easy to just plop onto a piece of folded cardstock to make a super quick card.  I also had a color theme of Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding and Whisper White.  So, what do you think?

 And this card was inspired by Try Stampin' On Tuesday's Challenge #158.  I loved the layout and needed an excuse to get my new IKAT photopolymer stamp set out.  Isn't this fun???? I used Always Artichoke for the cardstock layers and for the darker zigs on the middle layer.  The other colors are Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, and Pumpkin Pie, finished off with a taste of Very Vanilla.  The mini postage punch from Stampin' Up! looked like it was totally supposed to be coordinated with this stamp set, so I had to use it.  The postage square and small circles were finished off with the vintage button brads. 

And to finish off the swap, I threw in this card, which I also made into a project for a workshop.  There are so many fun layers on this card and my workshop guests were surprised that this card was actually quite simple to make.  We popped up the chevrons with Dimensionals that were cut in half so that you can't see them.  I really like how the Washi Tape finished off the card.  And yes, I do love it when I don't have to come up with the color combo.  The Designer Series Paper did that nicely for me.  I didn't buy the Starburst Sayings at first because I couldn't quite get a grasp on how to use them.  However, after cruising Pinterest, looking at possibilities, the set has really grown on me!  I love it that this easy set is so versatile and makes a mean masculine card.  Those masculine cards seem to be what a lot of my customers struggle with.
Well, thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.  It's been a fun day and we've seen gorgeous sunshine, too!
Many blessings,
Julie

Best Buds All the Way!

Making a Point, Soft Sky, Pacific Point, Whisper White

My upline is a wonderful woman whom I love to swap with.  Our swaps keep me stamping and reaching for more techniques, layouts, and color combos.  I made this card for our February swaps.  I really wanted to use the Best Buds stamp from Making a Point, one of the hostess stamp sets in the Occasions Catalog.  I haven't been very good about using my fancy paper clips from Stampin' Up! so this card gave me a good excuse to use one.  3 Mini Brads reflect the silver of the fancy paper clip.  The Designer Paper is High Tide from the Occasions Catalog.  (What a fun set of DP!)  The buds were cut out with a framelit from the Apothecary Accents set and the Big Shot.  Best Buds was restamped onto a piece of Soft Sky and cut out with a framelit from the Banners set and the Big Shot.  I used the Soft Sky, Pacific Point, and Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Markers to color in the image. 
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.  Hope to see you again soon.
Blessings,
Julie

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

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

You're Peachy Keen!

You really are, you know.  Peachy keen, I mean.  :-D  This was the first chance I had to play with this Peachy Keen stamp set and On Film Framelits.  Isn't it fun?  Have you seen the sets yet?  They're great!  To start off with, I used my reinkers and Aquapainters to make the watercolor background on watercolor paper.  Next, punch the film frame out of Coastal Cabana with the framelit and the Big Shot.  Stamped the arrows and punched them out with a framelit.  Cut out the camera with the camera diecut.  The arrows were made with the new Arrows embossing folder.  I handcut the greeting after stamping in Calypso Coral.  The film frame and the greeting are popped up with dimensionals so that the film looks like it has space behind it.  So, what do you think?  Have you bought this set?  Were you tempted?  This is a great set for both cardmaking and scrapbooking!  Just wait til you see what I did with it for my husband's Valentine card.
Well, thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station once again. 
Blessings,
Julie

Washi Valentine

Yes!  Playing with my toys, ahem, tools(!) again.  Thought this might be a fun way to show off my Gingham Garden Washi Tape and the hearts framelits from Stampin' Up!. For the saying, I covered the image of Vivid Vases with tape, inked up the saying, removed the tape and stamped it in Raspberry Ripple.  On the back side of the Whisper White cardstock, I drew a grid so that I would have more accurate placement of the hearts framelit.  Finished off with the washi tape and a rhinestone, it's a quick and simple card and easy to make multiples of.  Just one of the ideas that I'll be showing my customers at upcoming events.  Ooooooh, I just can't wait for Sale-A-Bration!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station once again.  Have a super weekend!

Blessings,
Julie

Happy 50th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Memorable Moments

Yes, my parents just celebrated their 50th anniversary!  Well, you have to make a pretty special card when that happens!  I got out my gold and found true love with my Memorable Moments stamp set.  I bought that set earlier last summer to help make the table centerpieces for her daughter's wedding and here they are, coming in handy again.  Sorry about the color on this one.  It was a bright day and the picture turned out a little off.  In the background of the birds you'll notice that I used my brushed gold cardstock.  So pretty!  The frame is made from Cherry Cobbler and an Apothecary Framelit.  The birds are punched out of some retired Riding Hood Red and the wings are from a flocked piece of retired Christmas DP.  I used one block to place all of the words and letters onto, then stamped it down once on a scrap paper to make sure they were all lined up, then inked in VersaMark and heat embossed with my gold embossing powder.  Yes, I do only use the Stampin' Up! embossing powder because I want to make sure it's fine enough to get all of the details.  So, what do you think of this one?  I'd love to hear.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.  Now, let's bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Blessings,
Julie

Sketched Birthday Love

Sketched Birthday, Bitty Banners

Here's something a little different.  I used the new Sketched Birthday set with the wonderful new In-Color Crisp Cantaloupe.  Isn't that a pretty color?  Oh, and who can resist that ruffled ribbon?!  The cake is stamped on watercolor paper with StazOn Jet Black and then colored in with Chocolate Chip, Crisp Cantaloupe and So Saffron.  The plate has a touch of Smoky Slate.  So, what new stamping toys have you been playing with lately?  :-D

Thanks for stopping by.  Would love to hear from you.  :-)

Blessings,
Julie

Ouch! Get Well Soon....

Delightful Dozen, Raspberry Ripple, Blushing Bride

Yes, these bandaid cards are all over, but I thought it was completely appropriate for my friend's 17 year old daughter who had to have her hip rebuilt.  Yes, ouch!  I'm hoping that she'll have no problem putting on her dancing shoes once again after she's healed up from the surgery.  I also had fun using my new framelits for this card.  And added benefit for needing to make cards, right?  Love these new shapes!  The Get Well layers are made with the Chalk Talk set and the layers behind the bandaid are made with the Deco Labels Colletion.  Aren't they fun?! 

Thanks for once again stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie

Eggplant Sympathy

Secret Garden, Loving Thoughts, Elegant Eggplant, Pistachio Pudding

Snagged this idea of of Pinterest, too!  The Secret Garden flowers were stamped with white StazOn and cut out with the Big Shot and matching Secret Garden Framelits.  The back sides of the vellum flowers were sponged with Elegant Eggplant.  After cutting out the oval with my framelits, I used the Mosaic embossing folder on the Elegant Eggplant cardstock.  The leaves were cut out of Pistachio Pudding (a fabulous new In Color!) and attached with mini glue dots.  I love how this one came out.  This was sent to a friend who lost her dad unexpectedly.  So sad! 

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie

Layered Labels and Many Layers...

This is quite different than what I usually make.  Still am not sure how I feel about the red flower, but needed something else on it.  I made this for a friend of mine who just found out that she has MS.  She's a dear, dear friend and I'm heartbroken for her, although she has a wonderful attitude about not worrying over it.  I made this card using some retired stuff.  The embossing powder used for the Layered Label is Handsome Hunter from the Rich Regals Embossing Powder set.  Remember that one?  The DP is Twitterpated.  After gluing the DP on, I ran it through the Big Shot with the embossing folder.  Two types of ribbon were folded and the glitter brad is holding it all together.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,

Julie

So Sorry for the Letters at the Bottom!

You won't believe how much spam comments my blog is getting! I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to add the "type in the letters you see" box at the bottom of the comment page.  I really didn't want to have to do that.  I hope you won't mind the inconvenience. 

Bundle of Love, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Wisteria Wonder)

In the meantime, here's a card that I made with my Bundle of Love set.  A customer and friend of mine is having a baby and I wanted to celebrate with her.  This is the card that I sent to her.  The bottom of the So Saffron DP was stamped with VersaMark and the onesie stamp.  The pennant punch helps to decorate the upper left corner.  The congratulations stamps was cut out with my Apothecary Accents Framelit.  Very fun and pretty easy to do.  Oh, and don't forget the popped up greeting in a different color.  Totally adds to the dimension of the card and unfortunately doesn't show much on the photo.  Oh, and sorry about the colors.  They didn't come out very true on this photo.

I hope you have a wonderful day.  I'm going to be some things together for a fundraiser for a boy who is dealing with leukemia for the 3rd time.  His insurance refused to cover the bone marrow transplant since this was the 3rd try, so we're doing all we can.  Here's a link to his website so that you can read about him and donate if you feel led to.  Colton's Army.  As Eric on Eric's Little Heroes said, sometimes it really does take an army to raise a child!

Blessings,
Julie

Feeling Sentimental?

 I am!  Yes, I'm feeling sentimental about this wonderful Sale-A-Bration stamp set called Feeling Sentimental.  I love it!  The stamp set also includes a British style phone booth, a large front wheeled bicycle and the word "celebrate".  Gorgeous images and so easy to use for both masculine and feminine cards.  Oh, and don't you think this would also work for a juvenile card?  The pennant was made with Hearts a Flutter stamp set and the Hearts a Flutter Framelits.  The circle was cut from our new Delicate Details Lace Tape.  All of these items are featured in the Spring Catalog.  The colors on this card are Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango, Pool Party, and Whisper White. 

Hearts a Flutter stamp set

Hearts a Flutter Framelits

Delicate Details Lace Tape

Aren't these great products?  I'm going to be whipping up a few more things with this stuff.  I'm really loving those pennants!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.  I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Blessings,
Julie

Happy Birthday with a Valentine Set

This is a card that we made at a workshop in November.  Yes, the stamp set was in the Holiday catalog, so I don't believe it's available right now, but I wanted to show you that you can make fun birthday cards with Valentine sets.  Framelits cut out the two label shapes, we used the Piercing Mats to punch around the inside of the Very Vanilla frame.  The colors are Island Indigo, Raspberry Ripple, and Summer Starfruit.  The gate card is easiest to make when you use the Simply Scored and score on the 2 3/4" and 8 1/4" lines.  (I hope I got that right!)  What fun things have you made with your Big Shot and new stamp sets lately? 

And Sale-A-Bration is here!  It starts today.  Click on this link to the details of the sale.  It's a wonderful time to be a hostess and to purchase.  I'm planning on updated a lot of my ink pads and get the extra credit from that sale.  How are you planning on Sale-A-Brating?

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station again. 

Blessings!
Julie

CASE'd Beauty of a Card!

 Here's a close up of a card that I CASE'd.  The original was lovely, but had to duplicate 6 times so I simplified it a bit.  This is the detail view.  See the flocked Designer Paper?  I love that paper!  It's from the Mocha Morning collection.   

And the shapes used to cut out the sentiment and layering are from the new Labels Framelits in the Occasions Mini Catalog.  Isn't that beautiful????  And so easy!  You're going to see a lot more of these, I promise! 

Ok, it's snowing heavily now, so I need to take a break and go pick the kids up from school.  Seattle is supposed to get dumped on today and tomorrow.  Woo Hoo!!!!!  Let the snow play and sledding begin!  We have a serious hill and a water pipeline behind our house, so it's a clear shot down the hill and the local kids LOVE it.  A great place to sled!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie