PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN SPOT: Dawn Griffiths

Welcome to my blog and my contribution to the Wacky Watercooler May Mashup Blog Hop. Although our hop this time around is smaller than usual, only six participant's, I'm sure you'll agree that everyone has given it their all for this mashup.

What is a "mashup"? Well for this month's hop we're presenting projects using products that are retiring, products that are soon to arrive and a masculine project. This hop will run from this evening through Saturday May 21st, so I hope you'll hop on board and join the fun.

If you're joining us for the first time, this is a circular blog hop, so no matter where you joined if you keep going through you'll eventually wind up where you started from. If you've coming from the previous blog, you'll have been checking out Heidi Weaver's blog, and her incredible projects. After you finish seeing my projects just click on the next button at the bottom of this post and you'll arrive at Marie Green's blog. But for now.......

My First Project - Something Old:
Who doesn't like butterflies? No one I know, at least none of my stamping friends. They're all gaga every time a butterfly stamp comes into their world. That's why I chose the soon to retire Swallowtail stamp for my "sad to see it go" segment of this blog hop. I know every one of my stamping friends will be as sad as I am to see it gone. Here is my final hurrah for the Swallowtail stamp:

My inspiration for this card came from Dawn Griffith's demonstration of a technique she calls "out of the box". I've been wanting to try this technique for sometime and I'm delighted with the results. I wont go into the details of how I made it, you can check out Dawns video of the technique on this link.

In this view you can see the embossing on the Whisper White layer. Although you may not be able to see it clearly, I also embossed the Whisper White oval that the butterfly is part of. The 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" card base was cut from the new Sweet Sugarplum card stock, and the next layer is Rich Razzleberry.

Here's a view of the inside of the card. The base is layered with Rich Razzleberry card stock and Whisper White. The sentiment and small butterflies are from the Basic Butterfly stamp set which will still be available in the 2016-17 catalogue.

I used a blender pen Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss inks and the Sweet Sugarplum marker to colour this large swallowtail. I only coloured the one side of it as once I positioned the oval framelit the rest was cut away.

I always like to change up at least three things when I CASE a card and so here are the things I changed from the original:

1. I changed the direction the butterfly sits on the ovals.
2. I changed the colour of my card stock and inks so I could try out the new "Sweet Sugarplum" Incolour that will be released June 1s, added an extra layer to my card face and a sentiment. Luv, luv, luv how the Sweet Sugarplum and Rich Razzleberry compliment each other.
3. My final change was to embossed the Whisper White layer with the "Fluttering" Embossing Folder and Silver Glimmer Paper instead of Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Swallowtail #129216 and Butterfly Basics # 137154
Ink: Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Bliss
Cardstock: Whisper White, Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories: Trimmer, Big Shot, Fluttering Embossing Folder, Ovals Collection Framelit Dies, Note Tag Punch, Dimensionals, Tom Bow Glue, Basic Rhinestones, Dazzling Details,

My Second Project - Something New:One of the great things about being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is getting our hands on new stamp sets and products before Stampin' Up! releases them in the new catalogues.

That's how I managed to get this fabulous new stamp set called "Swirly Bird" as well as the new Incolours and card stocks you'll see in this project.

I've totally fallen in love with this stamp set and the coordinating die cuts called Swirly Scribbles Thinlets. They are so much fun to play with that I can guarantee they're going to be on everyone's wishlist come June 1st.

Here's My Project:

Just look at all those swirls! For this Happy Birthday card I chose a combination of Watermelon Wonder and the new Flirty Flamingo inks and card stocks. I didn't use the Swirly Scribbles thinlets for this card, although I was tempted. This stamp set is such fun to play with you can create all kinds of images and different looks. I'm working on some other samples which I'll post in the coming weeks.

This is the inside of the card and the envelope to match. I layered the Whisper White onto a piece of Emerald Envy card stock............such a beautiful new Incolour!

Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Swirly Bird #141749 and Birthday Blooms #140658
Card Stock: Flirty Flamingo, Emerald Envy, Watermelon Wonder, and Whisper White
Ink: Watermelon Wonder, Flirty Flamingo, Emerald Envy
Accessories: Scissors, Trimmer, Dimensionals, Basic Rhinestones, Tom Bow Glue

My Final Project - Masculine Birthday Card:I'm dedicating this next card which is indeed masculine to my nephew who turns "21" next week. As a child he always played with Lego - almost obsessively, so I thought it would be kind of fun to create a jazzed up kid card for him using one of my all time favourite stamp sets Boys Will be Boys.

It was very difficult to take pictures of this card. The silver on the surface of the Shine On DSP and the silver foil really caught the light. The base piece of this card which you can barely see is a 5 3/4 x 4 1/2" piece of Basic Black Cardstock followed by a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock.

Isn't this little robot just the cutest! I added some small and medium size silver beads that I had in my stash to really give him that futuristic look. He's coloured with the Smokey Slate marker.

The design on this Shine On DSP really suited the card and was part of my inspiration for making it. The pattern looks like widgets and bits that would be found in a tool box. Love it! This DSP is still available for purchase until May 31st in the Occasions Spring Catalogue.

The card design comes from a post and video by Linda Bauwin and is called a Fancy Fold Pullout card. I love this fancy fold card design and find I'm going back to it more and more. It's got just enough of that WOW factor that it makes the card special and yet it can be dressed up simply, and because it doesn't have too many layers mails easily.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Boys Will Be Boys and Big Day (SAB 2015)
Card Stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Silver Foil, and Shine on Specialty DSP
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black and a Smokey Slate Marker
Accessories: Trimmer, Scissors for fussy cutting, Dimensionals, Silver Beads (non SU), Word Window Punch.

I hope you've enjoyed these three projects and will try out some of these techniques. I'd love to see what you make, and I'd like to hear your comments on whether you liked these designs. Have fun and enjoy the rest of the hop. Your next stop is the beautiful Tanglewood Cottage blog, by Marie Green: