I Love These Three Amigas Challenges!

 My dear friends Sharon, Joanne, and I are having trouble coming up with a day for a stamping playdate, so we decided to go virtual again.  What does that mean?  We each set forth a challenge for each other and have a deadline to submit them by.  I'm barely making this one.  I have two minutes left to upload.  Let's see how fast I can type.  :-D 
This first card is for my challenge.  Something old is the rhinestone brads that we've had in the catty for awhile.  Something new is the DP and the Four Frames stamp set, which are the special for this month.  (They're gorgeous, BTW!)  Something borrowed is the layout.  It's from this week's sketch challenge on Splitcoast.  The something blue is quite obviously the DP.  :-)  Yes, I cheated and used the rhinestones from last year's Easter Egg kit.  Sorry!

 And this card is for Sharon's challenge.  She told us to make a quilted card, using this tutorial for instructions.  I, of course, had to go to see what other patterns I could find on the internet.  I found this awesome quilting site to find other patterns to try.  I also found a lot of images on google and found a diamonds pattern that I thought would translate well to paper.  I did use retired DP, just in case I didn't like my first attempt.  I also decided to use my retired brads to match.  After gluing down the DP, I ran the whole thing through the Big Shot with my Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  The tag punch and Tiny Tags stamp set attached with crochet thread finish it off.

And last, but definitely not least, Joanne challenged us to make an Easter treat holder.  (Mine must contain chocolate, because I don't get enough of that food group.  ;-D )  The background scallop is punched out of Naturals Ivory and then stamped with the Medallion center and Marina Mist ink.  (I was going for a different look than usual.)  The flowers were made with my Boho Blossoms punch and the Itty Bitty punch set.  The leaves are courtesy of the lattice die leftovers.  Yes, I have a problem with keeping all kinds of scraps!  Basic pearls finish off the flowers and the Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon was also a leftover!  Let's hear it for leftovers!  Whoo Hoooo!!!! 

Ok, now it's your turn!  Let's see what you can do with these challenges.  Upload your projects to an online gallery (splitcoaststampers.com or for Stampin' Up only stampinaddicts.com) and then come back here to leave us a link.  We'd love to see your creations!  I promise to leave you a comment, too.

Blessings,
Julie

Weddings and Wishes

 Happy New Year!  Sorry for the long absence.  We were enjoying Christmas and New Years, with some trips to downtown Seattle and the movie theaters as a family.  Good times!  And yesterday, we were blessed to be at a wedding.  I used this card for inspiration and sketch challenge 312 from splitcoaststampers.com.  The colors are from the wedding, except for the green.  I had to add that for the leaves. 

I textured the inside left and punched half of an oval out of the green piece to make a money holder.  I love the way the Tiny Tags stamp set finishes this card.  It's such a fun set!  The greeting inside is a retired stamp set.  The colors here are Basic Black, Concord Crush, Pear Pizazz and Whisper White.  The wide oval punch was also used for the vase.

Thanks for visiting the Stamping Station.

Blessings for the new year!
Julie

A Little of This...A Little of That...

Yes, this does look like a late Valentine's card, but it's going to be my husband's anniversary card. Do you think this will be ok for our anniversary? I just love the bird image and the pretty polka dots. The vellum heart was made with the Heart of Hearts Embosslit and the heart behind it was punched with the Full Heart punch. The Polka Dot Texture Folder and Rose Red Grosgrain finish off this simple project.
I love to play with my new supplies...this is my second try with the Tulipe Bigz Die. I put a little Dazzling Diamonds on some areas and stamped the corners with the flourish from Tiny Tags.







And after making that card, I thought I'd try it with the Tulipe stamped first with Bella Toile. Everything else is the same. Even though it's a bit of work to get all of the pieces glued on, I really love the end result.







Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

New Swaps....I Love It!

I've joined a new swap group that I'm SUPER excited about! First of all, I love to swap and get new ideas to show my stamping friends. Second, this is with some of my blogging buddies and some sidelines of mine. I have received a couple back so far. I promise to show you what I've received when I get them. In fact, I can hardly wait to show you!


This is the first card that I sent in for the swap. The theme was Spring. I don't usually use oranges (as I think I've shared with you before...) but adding the Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Dusty Durango, and Always Artichoke definitely helped me with the Pumpkin Pie. I just love that little frog on the A Flower For All Seasons stamp. Some of this was colored with and Aqua Painter and ink from the lids of the ink pads and some of the image is colored straight with my Stampin' Write Markers. The "hello" tag was made with my Tiny Tags stamp set from the Occasions Mini Catalog. All of the layers on the main image are lifted up with dimensionals. It's such a fun effect...I love the way it lifts up the image from the card.


I had a lot of fun with this card. I'm not much of a pink person either. Not unless the pink has some personality, that is. Well, I love this Sending Love Specialty DSP from the Occasions Mini Catalog. The sparkle really gets me every time! :-) The beautiful satin ribbon is also from the Occasions Mini. The layout is based on a card that I saw on my wonderful friend Joanne's website Sleepy In Seattle. Since we had a Spring theme, I used the gorgeous Greenhouse Garden stamp set. The flowers in the background are stamped off so that they look faded and provide an appropriate background look. The main flower was stamped in Pretty in Pink and the flower veins were stamped in Cameo Coral. I then used my Crystal Effects to draw the veins and sprinkled it with Dazzling Diamonds glitter for a 3-D glitter effect that matches the DSP. See those cute little rhinestones? They're from our Eggcellent Eggs decorating kit in the Occasions Mini. Love it!

Ok, that's enough blathering for today. Thanks again for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

All You Need Is Love...

Yup, that's what the Beatles sang. And I totally believe that if we truly loved those around us, this world would be a better place. Here's some beautiful new Designer Series Paper from the Occasions Mini Catalog. It's called Sending Love Specialty and it has glittery images all over it. Gorgeous! I made the fancy strip with the Scallop Trim Border punch from the Sale-A-Bration catalog. I used my handy dandy Tiny Tags stamp set (in the clear option) to stamp love and hearts across it. There's a bit of satin ribbon behind that strip of white to show the scallops better. The white heart layer is the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit. This heart is gorgeous!!!! Love it! I punched another heart with my handheld punch. The flower is from With All My Heart and the tag is punched with my new medium jewelry tag punch. I used a fine crochet thread to tie the tag on the brad of the flower.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie