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

Lego Man Punch Art

Tomorrow is my nephew's birthday party.  He's totally into Legos.  (What boy isn't, right?)  We bought him some Bionicles that were on his list.  I went to that wonderful Lego store at the mall to find them.  (Those stores are ZOOS, I tell you!  Kids everywhere!!!)  So, in honor of my nephew, I built a lego man for his card.  I used corner rounders on most things, the arms are word window punches, and the hands were made with the 1/2" circle and 3/4" circle punches.  The "feet" are popped up on dimensionals.  To finish off the gift, the box is wrapped in Lego people wrapping.  Yes, a coordinated gift.  That's truly one of the reasons that I love to make cards.  Another is for the kudos when your family or friends see what you've crafted. 
So, what do you think?  I'd love to see what you can do with your punches! 
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!  I hope to see you back again soon.
Blessings,
Julie

Golf Birthday

I'm so sad that continue this lovely cloud embossing folder, but for those of you who snagged the chance to buy it, you were smart!  Look at the fun background that the clouds make for this golf card.  The hills were just ripped and the trees and pin were made with the Pennant Parade set.  I realized later that I should have used a non-SU texture plate for grass on the green, but oh well.  You have to quit changing the card at some point and just finish it off.  I hope my BIL liked it. 

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station once again.  It's been fun sharing with you!

Blessings,
Julie

Baby Monkey Punch Art

 I'm so sorry that I haven't been taking photos of the cards I've been making recently!  I'll try to be better about it.  This is one that I quick snapped before putting in the envelope.  I was late for the shower, so didn't have time to set up a nice photo shoot.  Sorry about the quality of the photo.  As you can see, this was all made with SU punches.  I've posted a photo of the wall decor that the new mom picked out at Babies R Us.  That little monkey at the top of the door is what I was trying to mostly recapture.  To start with, I needed an idea of how to make a monkey with punches!  Yes, I did go to pinterest and found a great sample here.  I've pinned it to my punch art board so that you can easily find it if you'd like to go back to it.

As you can tell, it's close, but not perfect.  But do we really expect perfection?  Not really. As I tell my customers, if it's perfect, it doesn't look handmade for the receiver.  Ok, I'll try to list here the punches that I've used.
Circles:  large from owl punch, Itty Bitty Shapes, 3/4", 1", 1 3/4", 1 3/8"(belly)
Large Oval Punch
Word Window Punch
Flower from the Itty Bitty Shapes
The DP is retired.  The small Basic Pearls were colored with a yellow sharpie to match the yellow circle of the flowers on the photo.
That's the Ticket, which coordinates with the Ticket Punch was used for the awesome greeting.  Do you know what I like about this greeting?  The baby doesn't need to be born yet!  ;-)

So that's a look at what I've created this week.  I'm eagerly waiting to attack my UPS driver when he drops of my box of goodies from the NEW CATALOG!!!!!  Can't wait!  Until then, here's a link to the new catalog.  Just click on the "shop now" button.  I just KNOW you're going to love it!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie

Happy Easter Chocolate Bunny Style

I usually don't do Easter bunny cards, but I saw this little guy on Pinterest and had to try him.  The bottom is the ornament punch, the head is the 1 3/8" circle, and the ears are the large and small oval punches.  The clouds were made with Stampin' Up!'s cloud embossing folder, available in the Occasions Catalog, and the cute little tail is the fabric flowers in the same catalog.  So, what do you think?  Isn't he adorable?  And super easy.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.  I also hope that you have fun celebrating with family and friends.

Many blessings to you!

Julie

Ladybug Love

Blooming With Kindness, Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

 Another project we made on Saturday, this card features the Blooming With Kindness stamp set and some fun Punch Art.  I think this wonderful stamp set speaks for itself in it's loveliness and versatility.  It's really easy to make this into a juvenile card if you use a bolder, simpler flower.  The Ladybug was made with the 2 1/2" Circle Punch, the 1 1/4" Circle Punch, and the 1/2" Circle Punch.  The antennae were hand drawn using a Basic Black marker.  How much simpler can you get, right?  Super easy and fun.  If you want to step it up a bit, you can also add a layer of vellum that slightly shows under the inside of the wings.  Ladybugs actually have clear wings under the red shell. 

A Fitting Occasion, Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White

And this is how we decorated the inside.  Quick and simple, the Fitting Occasion stamp set was a no-brainer to finish this card off.  We stamped the Ladybug in StazOn Jet Black (the only black that I recommend to my customers since it's waterproof and dries almost instantly) and colored the wings with the Real Red marker. 

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

Beautiful Butterflies

Pool, Gumball, Red, Marina, Eggplant, Mustard, Razzleberry

Greetings!  Had to share this one with you.  I got this layout off of Pinterest and the guests at Saturday's workshop loved it.  Yes, I'm aware that the greeting (Petite pairs) is smudged a little ... I used it as a lesson in how to stamp before folding so that you get a clear image.  :-)  Only the Marina Mist and More Mustard butterflies are stamped with the Papillon Potpourri stamps.  I left the rest of them plain to save on some time with the option of the guests using embossing folders on the plain butterflies if they wanted to dress up the card.  Seemed like this was a favorite of the workshop because it was so simple and lovely.  Aren't those great colors?  This just goes to show that the Stampin' Up! Butterfly Punch and Papillon Potpourri stamp set are wonderfully versatile and easy to use. I didn't think I needed this set and now I use it at almost every workshop!  Go figure.  Anyway, let me know what you like to use your butterflies for.  Would love to see your projects.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie

A Couple of Workshop Projects

 Hey there!  Playing with some of my new toys from the Occasions Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration Catalog.  Oh my goodness, are they fun!  This card was inspired by a card posted on the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator site.  Yes, only SU demos are allowed to go there and get ideas.  This card is White on White with the top layer spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer.  The Petite Curly Label (SAB item) was punched out of the Whisper White layer first, then the hearts were embossed with the Adorning Accents Embossing Folder.  After that we spritzed.  Looking back, I think I would attach the different colors of hearts first before spritzing so that they could also be shimmery.  Then we stamped the Heart Label stamp (Pretty Petites stamp set SAB)n in Rose Red onto Pink Pirouette and punched it out with the Petite Curly Label punch and attached it off-center with a Dimensional.  The Love stamp is from Lovely Little Labels and is punched out with the Little Labels punch pack.  Since we wanted a larger rounded corner, we used the 1 3/8" circle punch to round them.  The hearts are punched out of Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Primrose Petals, and Rose Red.

This card made with the Just Believe stamp set was also inspired by a card posted on the SU! demo only site.  The original colors were Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip.  I didn't have any Baja Breeze DP, so I used the Floral District Melon Mambo piece.  We stamped with VersaMark on the DP and embossed with white EP.  The Vine Street Embossing Folder (SAB Item) was used on the strip of Melon Mambo.  The background colors are Raspberry Ripple and Early Espresso.  I don't think this photo really does the colors justice.  It's much better IRL.  Oh, and to save a little cardstock, we punched the Modern Label piece of Early Espresso out of the center of the background Early Espresso piece.  :-)  I always love ways to save cardstock!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!  I hope you come by again soon.

Blessings,
Julie

It's Almost Sale-A-Bration!

 Oh goodness, it's been a long time again!  I hope I can get back into this blogging thing.  This first pic is the first prize ribbons that I made from bamboo spoons (from a dollar store), the stamp sets Blue Ribbon and Hello Doily, and my Designer Rosette Bigs XL die.  Yes, the rosettes go a lot faster when your Big Shot does the cutting and scoring!  The color is Pacific Point.  The best part about these ribbons is that the hole at the top of the spoon allows the winners to display their ribbon on their wall by hanging it on a hook.  Cool, eh?

 This card was a lot of fun.  I made it with a little inspiration from Splitcoaststampers.com.  The grass is a decorative sizzlit and the question mark is embossed in white with the retired stamp set Whimsical Alpha.  The large oval was used for the top of the mushroom and the face is a shorter punch of the retired luggage tag.  On the inside it says "Hope you have a great 1-Up day!  Happy Birthday!"  Yes, that was written on the center block on the inside.  Colors are Basic Black, garden Green, Cajun Craze, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Blushing Bride.  The dots are the medium size of the eyes on the owl punch with 3 of them layered together to give it a brad look.

I just made this card this weekend for my nephew who is really into legos!  His present was legos, wrapped in lego wrapping paper and a lego card.  Can it get any better than that?  I love being able to coordinate the card to the present!  This card is 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", the squares are 1" and the circles are made with my mini circle punch.  The letters were stamped with the retired stamp set "Rough Edges Alpha."  By the way, he loved the card.  :-)  Oh, and the colors are Real Red, Pacific Point, and Daffodil Delight.
Ok, I'll try to get back on here later this week.  I have some babies to stamp for and a baby shower banner to make.
Happy stamping and thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!
Blessings,
Julie

Nate's Yoshi Card

Retired SAB DP, Slit Punch, Small & Wide Oval Punches, Word Window Punch, Boho Blossom Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Circle Punch, Build a Blossom Punch, Black Marker, White Gel Pen, sponges

I've had this one for awhile and forgot to show you!  My son's birthday was in August.  He loves all things related to Mario and Sonic video games, so I used this card for inspiration and the figured out which punches I had that would work.  The DP behind Yoshi is from SAB a couple of years back.  I used the Build a Blossom Punch to make the word bubble.  And although it's hard to see, the sponging around the pieces of his body really add to the card.  Ok.  What can YOU do with your punches?  ;-D  No fair using them on your family.  You have to use them for a project. 

Until later, (and hopefully not too much later!) thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

I Don't Like Scary Halloween Stuff....

...but I do like the fun and friendly images.  Yup, I'm one of those parents who refuses to buy the Grim Reaper and other gory costumes for my kids.  I figure there's enough horror in the world, we don't need to glorify it.  Just my take on it.
    This here cutie owl card is a project we'll be making at this month's events.  The card design is based on a swap from my wonderful upline Sharon.  She made a card similar to this with the bat punch.  Since I didn't have it, I decided to put the owl on the branch in front of the moon.  There's a bit of sponging on the edges of the ovals for the pumpkin.  "And where did I get that awesome stem for the pumpkin?" you ask.  Well, when I punched the branch out with the 2-Step Bird punch, the wing punched out, also.  So, I snipped half of it off and it became an instant stem!  I really, really love the versatility of the SU! punches.  When I punched the owl out, I didn't want to glue on the tiny dot eyes, so gave the brown a little love with my white gel pen.  Much easier!
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station! 
Blessings,
Julie
Recipe: 2-Step Owl Punch, 2-Step Bird Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 13/4" x 7/8" Oval Punch. Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie, Concord Crush, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake, and Whisper White cardstocks.

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby...

My wonderful "little" boy Nate turned 10 yesterday. My, oh my, how did those years fly by so quickly?! Anyway, he's a true electronics child. (He's been that way since he was 1 yr. old!) He loves video games, so I had to make a card of one of his favorite characters. I used this card for inspiration and then figured out how to make it. When you want a lesser curve, an example is the bottom of the hat, use a larger circle for the bottom. I used my Circle Scissors for the hat, visor, and face. Well, hope you enjoyed this one. I have a couple more cards to share this week... let's see if I can find time to get them posted while I'm preparing the kids to start school again.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie

Recipe: retired DSP, Circle Scissors, 2 3/8" Scallop Circle punch, 1 3/4" x 7/8" and 1 3/8" x 5/8" Oval punches, 1/2" and 3/4" Circle punches, Modern Label punch, blush cardstock with sponging on edges and cheeks.