Sweeter With You Second Eight and AHSC #640

It's been a busy time with two back- to-back garage sales held on the past weekend.  Our complex held a community garage sale on Saturday July 26th and I really worked hard getting ready for this event.  I was hoping for a good turnout, but although we had beautiful weather hardly any buyers showed up.  Thankfully I sold my sewing machine and a few odds and sods.  

The next day however was awesome!  I was a vendor at my favourite garage sale held in Cloverdale.  The RRR Craft parking lot sale is held every June and July and I was very fortunate to have a table at both events this year.  A big shout to Maggie owner of Country Lane Crafts for hosting and organizing this event.  To the hundreds of great folks who showed up thanks so much, you made my day!  

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge: 

Moving on to card making, here's this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts which was very timely and inspiring as I was still using scraps from the July Paper Pumpkin kit.  This sketch checked all the boxes for me.   

Here is My Card:  

I really enjoyed making this card using paper strips from the retired Berry Delightful designer series.  The Dotted Circles embossing on the Pool Party matte really added some great texture to the card front.  

Supplies: 

Stamps and Dies: 

• Sweeter With You Stamps Paper Pumpkin July 2025
• Scalloped Circle Punch (R) Stampin' Up

Card Stock and DSP: 

• Whisper White 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"  scored at 4 1/4"
• Matte for inside 3 3/4" x 5"
• Pool Party 3 3/4" x 5" embossed with Dotted Circles 
• Granny Apple Green cardstock 4" x 5 1/4" 
• Garden Green cardstock strip  1/4" x 5 1/4" (insided)
• DSP from Berry Delightful (R) 1 1/4" x 5 1/4" strips x 3 
• Strawberry from Sweeter With You Paper Pumpkin kit

Ink: 

• Strawberry Slush
• Garden Green

Accessories: 

• Dotted Circles 3D Embossing Folder 
• Opaque Faceted Gems Pool Party 
• Dimensionals

"Sweeter With You" Additional Alternate  Paper Pumpkin kit cards"

I made an additional eight alternate cards with the "Sweeter With You" July 2025 Paper Pumpkin kit since my last post including my card for the Atlantic Hearts sketch challenge.  Enjoy!

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Card  Nine: 

There were only three strawberry baskets included in the PP kit, so I made extras by tracing the original image and then colouring them with a Pool Party Pencil crayon around the edges.  I think it turned out pretty good.  

Card Ten:

I added some real red grosgrain ribbon that's been kicking around in my ribbon bin for some time to this card front.  The mattes are Poppy Parade and Garden Green and I matted the saying from the Paper Pumpkin kit on to a scrap of Garden Green and then cut around the image.  I really like how that popped out the sentiment.  

For the inside of the card I once again used some leftover strips of Garden Green and a 1" x 5 1/4" piece of DSP from the Berry Delightful paper pack. 

Card Eleven:

I loved the way this card came together.  I layered two of the Contour Dies (R) nesting rectangles to make the focal point along with some strawberries and flower ephemera from the kit and a sweet little sentiment strip.  The background dsp from the Berry Delightful papers is simply stunning and really brings this card to life. 

Tip:  Before gluing your mattes to your card base, punch or die cut shapes from the cardstock centers. By cutting away card material from the matte before it's adhered to the card you reduce the density and the weight and you wind up with lots of shapes to use for future mattes or focals.

Card Twelve:

This card again features layered Contour Die rectangles that were cut from other mattes.  Having a selection of these on hand really cuts down on the guesswork when you're making cards. 

Card Thirteen:

 

I used scraps of the Berry Delightful DSP to make the layered patchwork for the center focal on this card.  I also added some Poppy Parade designer paper that was in my stash for a layer.  

Card Fourteen:

Card Fifteen:

Don't underestimate the power of a strip of designer paper.  By adding three paper strips to the garden green matte I was able to add some additional interest.  I've also used a strip of grosgrain ribbon across the center of the card.  

Don't forget the inside of our cards.  I love how these stamped strawberries pop off the white matte. 

 

Card Sixteen:  

And the final card is the one I made for the AHSC.  Thanks for dropping by and visiting my blog.  As always, I hope you enjoyed this post and if so will leave me some words of encouragement.  Until next time......

HAPPY STAMPING!

PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Click here to visit my 24/7 Online Shop 

Berry Festival Time - AHSC #638

Abbotsford where I live, is well known for it's large number of berry farms.  While the crops include include strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, it's probably best known for raspberries as you can see from this huge traffic circle statue on Clearbrook Road. 

This past weekend was the 42nd annual Berry Festival held in historic downtown Abbotsford.  This is such a family-friendly event with a huge summer street party that has lots of fresh local berries, carnival rides, pie baking contests, live entertainment and all kinds of tasty treats and activities.  

With berries on my mind, when I saw this week's sketch#638 on the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge site, I thought of the Berry Delightful paper pack  I've been holding on to in my stash.  So, I was very excited to make some cards with this sketch.  

Here Are My Cards:

Did I mention I was excited?  I loved everything about this sketch and because it was so easy to work with, I wound up making not one but five cards using it as my template and inspiration.  What fun! Here's what I made:  

Card #1 - cover and inside view

Card #2 - cover and inside is similar to Card #1

Card #3 - cover and inside view

Card #4 - cover and inside view is the same as card #3

Card #5 - cover and inside view 

Here are some of the reasons why I was able to make five cards within an hour: 

1.  Pre-cut mattes and Designer Paper:  I already had an assortment of mattes and dsp on hand so only had to make some minor cutting adjustments and I was ready to lay them down.  

2.  Pre-cut bases and inside mattes.  

3.  Pre-made sentiment focals.  If you have all your stamps and inks out when you're playing with a card design it's really easy to make some extra focals and have them on hand.  In this case I had about fourteen different focal images already made from the last time I played with these stamps and papers.  

Supplies:

Stamps & Dies:

• Sweet Strawberry (R)
• Berry Blessings (R) 
• Variety of stitched circles, squares and ovals for sentiments

Cardstock and DSP:

• Real Red
• Blueberry Bushel
• Shaded Spruce
• Old Olive
• Garden Green 

• Card Bases - Whisper White cardstock was used for all card bases and inside panels.  Measurements:
• 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" for card base
• 3 3/4" x  5" for inside mats
• variety of scraps for sentiments
• Mattes:
• All cards had a front base matte that measures 5 1/4" x 4" followed by a DSP matte that measures 5" x 3 3/4"
• I varied height of the DSP used for the center matte from 2" to 1 1/4" but the width was always the same as the DSP width - 5".
• The card stock matte under the DSP was based on the size of the DSP and in a couple of the cards I just used 3/8" x 5" strips and glued the DSP to these
• The gold highlight strips are a non-SU product and are self-adhesive gold metallic lines that vary in width.  See accessories. 

Ink and Blends:

• Real Red
• Blueberry Bushel
• Shaded Spruce
• Old Olive
• Garden Green 

Accessories:

• DSP
• Dimensionals 
• Rhinestones and a variety of retired Stampin' Up! gems 
• Lines - 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this week's cards.  I hope you liked my rendition and that I was able to make a variety of cards using the same theme and sketch.  Let me know if you have a favourite out of the five cards.  I'd love to hear from you.  

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT!

 Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Click here to visit my 24/7 online shop

Sweet Birthday Wishes - Storybook Moments Ephemera and #626 AHSC

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #626 is a throwback to 2013 when the sketch challenge first started.  Here is the current sketch and below it the original one.  

Here's My Card: 

I made a feminine birthday card using a combination of beige, blue and red cardstock (see below), a piece of neutral designer paper and several ephemera images from Stampin' Up!s Storybook Moments 12 x 12 designer paper.  

I'm quite happy with the way this card came together.  It took a bit to figure out what I was going to use for the background paper to keep this card in the Clean and Simple format.  Because the focal point is so busy along with the banners the decision to go with the neutral striped DSP worked well.

Here's a view of the inside of the card.  Although I love stamping images on the inside of my card along with the sentiment, I have to admit it's easy to just add an ephemera image because there's no colouring involved and the pictures pair up pretty well.  

I purposely changed the direction of the banners on my card front so they are facing the opposite way to those in the sketch.  For some reason, the focal just sat better going in this direction.  Also, I was able to move my sentiment a little higher on the card.  Sometimes you just have to try a different approach to make it work, so don't worry about changing up the sketch and trying something different, that's always an option you can choose.   

I like to mixup old and new products from Stampin' Up! so that I continue to use up my stash.  As you can see in this card, I used three old products starting with the retired dsp, then the cross hatch design embossing folder from the Basic D embossing folder collection and the bright red dots. The new products are the sentiment which is from the most recent Paper Pumpkin kit and the ephemera from the Storybook Moments paper collection.  Old or new all these materials compliment each other and really helped to bring this card together. 

Supplies: 

Stamps and Dies: 

• Daisy Daydream stamps from March 25 Paper Pumpkin - Sentiment "Sweetest Birthday Wishes"
• "Wishing you the Happiest birthday yet" sentiment stamp Stampin' Up! 2006

Cardstock and DSP: 

• Crumb Cake cardbase 8 1/2 x 5 1/2" scored at 4 1/4"
• Boho Blue cut two 4 x 5 1/4" mattes for front and inside 
• Banner 1" x 3 1/2" 
• Real Red Banner 1" x 3 1/2" 
• Scrap for sentiment backer
• 2 1/2" circle for focal base
• Basic Beige
• Scrap for sentiment 
• 3 3/4" x 5" matte for inside 
• Neutrals DSP 6 x 6 #163773 - striped Crumb Cake design 3 3/4" x 5" matte for card front 

Ink: 

• Real Red for sentiments 

Accessories: 

• Brights Candy Dots #130931(R) - Real Red x 3 
• Ephemera gardening images for focal point
• Dimensionals
• Basic D hatched image embossing folder for red banner 

Thanks for dropping by and checking out my version of the AHSC#626.  Come back again and leave me a comment if you like this card.  

HAPPY STAMPING!

PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN SPOT!

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Click here to visit my 24/7 Online Store 

Valentine Wishes - AHSC#613

It's hard to believe we are almost into the last week of January already.  It's been a month since Christmas and Valentine's Day is just two weeks and a bit away. Time's flying! Here's this week's sketch challenge by Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #613.

I decided this sketch might work well with the January Hearts To You Paper Pumpkin kit that's been languishing on my desk since it arrived. Although it's a great kit I haven't been motivated to make Valentine Day cards. Being a procrastinator to the fourth degree, I sometimes need a push or an idea to get my creativity going and this sketch with its clean and simple lines was just what I needed.  

Here's My Card: 

Supplies: 

Card Stock:

• Red striped card base from Paper Pumpkin January 2025 kit
• Gold Glitter cardstock 5 1/4 x 4" for mat on front.  Punched the hearts out from the center before adhering to card base 
• White Heart Strip from  the kit 
• Scrap of Basic Black for the sentiment 

Ink:

• Real Red for inside sentiment 
• Momento Black 
• Versa Mark Embossing Ink for sentiment 
• Gold Embossing Powder 

Accessories: 

• Dimensionals
• Stampin' Up! Heart Punch (R)
• Paper Pumpkin Kit - January 2025 
• Basic D cross hatched Embossing Folder for White Hearts
• Pink Sequins on alternate cards from kit  

This is the Hearts to You January Paper Pumpkin Kit Refill 

I found the strip of white hearts that was included in the kit to be just too white, so I dry embossed this one with the Cross Hatched Basic 3-D Embossing folder (R) to give it some texture and make it stand out a bit more.  The strip isn't quite wide enough to fit across the 5 1/8" x 4" piece of red cardstock so I cut it and centered the cut part under the two gold hearts.  It worked perfectly and later on you'll see one of these strips that I coloured with Real Red and a blending brush.  It worked perfectly to take the plainness away.  The striped red piece is cut from one of the card fronts.

Once I finished this card, I was inspired to continuing making alternate cards for the Hearts to You Paper Pumpkin kit.  So here are some of the ones I've finished so far.  I think I have enough supplies to make another 7 or 8 cards.  

Cheers and thanks for stopping by and checking out my card for this sketch challenge.  

HAPPY STAMPING!

PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT 

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

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