WWC #168 - Helen's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Who's up for another card challenge?   If you answered yes, I hope you will join us this week at Watercooler Wednesday and play along. It's fun and it's easy and we'd love to have you join us.  Between the Design Artists and all our participants, there's always a ton of inspiration going on. 

Our host for this week's "Feminine - Anything Goes" challenge is Helen Finlay.  Helen has started us off with a beautiful card inspiration.  This challenge will remain open from today through 5:00pm Mountain Time on Monday May 7th, 2018, and the details are posted on the main page of the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.  See you there!

Here's My Card:
From the time they arrived on the scene Stampin' Ups! Butterflies Thinlets were one of the most ultra feminine embellishments I could  incorporate into my card designs. They brought me pure joy!  I've chosen to CASE one of my own favourite card designs using these thinlets.  I hope you'll enjoy this project.

Here's My Original Card: 

This is such a great card design.  I've used it many times and changed it up by using different pieces of designer papers and embossing folder backgrounds.  This is also a great card for using up paper scraps.  Not much is required.  Changing the sentiment and embellishment also gives this card a different look. All in all a great design layout to have in your arsenal of 5-10 minute card design sketches.

And here's my updated version:  

Supplies: 
Stamp Sets: Stylized Birthday
Card Stock: Whisper White, Tranquil Tide and Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper
Ink: Tranquil Tide
Accessories: Big Shot, Paper Trimmer, Petal Burst Embossing FolderButterfly Thinlet Dies, Tom Bow Glue, Basic Rhinestones - small, 

Details:

1.  The card base is an 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece of Whisper White scored at 4 1/4".

2.  The Whisper White layer measures 5 1/4" x 4" and was embossed with the Petal Burst Embossing Folder. Note: If you don't recognize this Embossing Folder design it's probably because I reversed the panel and I'm showing the "de-bossed" side.   

Debossed side of the Petal Burst Embossing Folder

3.  I cut a strip of the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper (DSP) that measures 1 1/2" x 5 1/4" and adhered it to a 1 3/4" x 5 1/4" piece of Tranquil Tide card stock.  This piece was adhered 1/4" to the right of the edge of the white panel.  The Fresh Florals DSP will be retiring at the end of this month or while stocks last. 

4.  The Happy Birthday sentiment from the Stylized Birthday stamp set was stamped in Tranquil Tide on a 2 1/4" x 3" piece of Whisper White card stock.  It was mounted on a 3 1/4" x 2 1/2" piece of Tranquil Tide card stock and then mounted with Dimensionals a 1/4" from the bottom of the DSP panel.  

5.  The beautiful butterfly was cut with the medium sized die from the Butterflies Thinlets.  A row of small Basic Rhinestones was adhered to the spine of the butterfly and this die cut was attached on an angle above the Happy Birthday sentiment with Dimensionals.  I fluffed the butterfly wings up to make it look like it was in flight.

6.  I kept the inside of the card fairly simple by adding a 4" x 5 14" panel of Whisper White card stock to which I'd adhered a 1/2 x 5 1/4" strip of the DSP.  

Voila that's it for today's card.  I have to be honest, I'm terribly sad to see these delicate thinlet dies retire, at the end of May, but I probably will continue using them.  How about you will you be sad to see them go?  Have you used these dies and are they one of your favourites too?  I'd love to hear from you

If you haven't visited the Watercooler Wednesday main page, click here.   You don't want to miss all the beautiful cards created by our Design Team.  Until next time............... 
Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot! 

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #139 - Kath's Feminine "Anything Goes"

Our weather shifted this week leaving us with three days of Fall wind, cloud and rain.  What's good about the shift is it doesn't make it difficult to stay in doors and stamp, and that's what I did without any guilty remorse. 

This week I had two wedding cads to make.  One of them was for our friend's son and his fiance who were having a small country wedding. I wanted to make them a special wedding and gift card holder, so the timing of Kath Rick's Feminine "Anything Goes Challenge worked out perfectly.   

Here's My Card:

 

I'm very much about tradition when it comes to Wedding cards.  This wedding was an outdoor country affair so I wanted to make something with a vintage, feminine appeal as well as some WOW factor, and I'm happy to say that's how this card turned out.    

I also wanted to incorporate a gift card holder into the card, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to do that.  My dilemma was solved when I watched a YouTube video by Dawn Griffith featuring a great gift card holder built right into a card.  I knew this design would be the perfect layout for my project and so I CASED Dawns.   All the instructions and measurements are on her blog  "Dawn's Stamping Thoughts" and on her video, so make sure you leave her a comment when you visit those sites.  

Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Floral Phrases#141767, For the New Two (R), Calm Christmas (R) and Colourful Seasons #143726
Card Stock:  Champagne Foil Sheets #144748, Whisper White, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
DSP:  Non-Stamping Up - Elegant Holiday Paper DCWB
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Thinlet Dies, Lots of Labels Thinlet Dies, Seasonal Layers Thinlet Dies, Dimensionals, Big Shot, Paper Trimmer, Basic Pearls 

Wow my old cake topper which dates back to 1969 sure looks "vanilla" in comparison to the Whisper White in the card and envelope.  Oh well that was 48 years ago, so it's bound to have faded.

Details:
I would have loved to have made my card using the beautiful Year of Cheer Suite, that's featured on pages 36 and 37 of the Holiday catalogue, but unfortunately, the only paper I had from that suite was the Champagne Foil Sheets and some Whisper White card stock. I was really excited about the combo of White, Gold and Crumb Cake in that paper pack. Oh well there was no time to order it in, so I just had to search my paper stack for something else. I struck pay dirt when I found a pack of DCWB paper called Elegant Holiday.
I chose a single-sided sheet of white and crumb cake paper with a pattern of doves and snowflakes on it.  Although it was Christmas paper I figured that the doves were close enough to the wedding theme to make it work.  It also enabled me to use a retired stamp set called Calm Christmas which features a beautiful floral dove, which I stamped on the inside of the card.

The back view of the gift card holder

Here's a view of the inside left panel where I stamped the "Calm Christmas" dove in Soft Suede ink.  The sentiment from Floral Phrases is stamped in Early Espresso.The Whisper White panel is mounted on a layer of Champagne Foil and Soft Suede card stock. which really added a beautiful touch.

To make this card/gift card holder you need to start with a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of dsp.  For the front of the card I cut banners from Whisper White, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede card stock and attached them on the left side. The Soft Suede and Whisper White banners measured 1 1/2" x 4" and the Crumb Cake one measured 1" x 4".  

The sentiment is from the retired "Colourful Seasons" stamp set.  I super love the font which is stamped in Early Espresso Ink.  The flowers are from the Colourful Seasons Stamp set set and were cut out with the coordinating Seasonal Layers Thinlet Dies.  I stamped them in Soft Suede and Crumb Cake Ink and added medium sized basic pearls to their centers.  I also added medium pearls to the Soft Suede banner.  The ovals for the sentiment were cut from Soft Suede, Champagne Foil and Whisper White card stocks with the Stitched Shapes Ovals.

In this view of the inside of the card you can see the fold that holds the gift card.  Before gluing down the fold, I added a piece of Soft Suede card stock.  The sentiment is from the Floral Phrases stamp set.  I used the Stitched Shapes dies to cut out a 3" circle from the DSP and a 2 3/4" circle from Whisper White and they were mounted on the pocket with Dimensionals.  Before Stamping Wedding Wishes on the Whisper White layer I stamped the floral image from The For the New Two stamp set in Crumb Cake.  I stamped off before applying the image so I would just get a hint of flowers behind the sentiment.  The Wedding Wishes sentiment is from Floral Phrases.  Five pearls were centered below the sentiment and a small Crumb Cake flower was added with a Mini Dimensional.

In this view you can see the insert I created from a small scrap of DSP and Whisper White Card Stock.

  

The sentiment is from the "For The New Two" stamp set.  I cut a piece of the DSP with a Lots of Label Thinlet die and added it to the back of the Whisper White card stock to create a tab for pulling the card out.  I forgot to take a picture of the back of this tag, but I incorporated a slot for the gift card to fit in to.

The card was hand delivered, so I thought it would be a nice touch to stamp "congratulations" to the bride and groom  on the front of the envelope.

I hope you have enjoyed my Wedding Gift Card Holder and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.  This card comes together super quickly, so it's a great pattern to have on hand.   If you haven't already checked out the other WWC Design Team members cards here's a direct link to the Watercooler Home Page.  Until next time.............

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #135 - Judy's Feminine "Anything Goes"

Hi everyone welcome to our first Watercooler Wednesday Challenge in September.  It already looks like this month is chalking up to be super busy, at least for me and my family that is.  How about you?   

Judy is hosting our challenge this week and it's a Feminine "Anything Goes".  What fun!  The design team came up with some pretty amazing feminine projects so I hope you'll check them out. 

Here's My Card: 
I still haven't finished all my "Hello" cards yet, so I decided to create another one for a friend of mine who is really into cats. She has two precious fur baby's and they are the light of her life, so I thought it appropriate to say hello with this card which features the "Pretty Kitty" stamp set.

Isn't this just "purrfect"?  I know this card will be well received. 

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Pretty Kitty #141864, Cat Sayings SSC1222 Stampendus
Card Stock:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Berry Burst
DSP:  Colour Theory Designer Series Paper Pack #144193
Ink: Berry Burst, Momento Tuxedo Black, Basic Gray, Smokey Slate
Accessories: Big Shot, Paper Trimmer, Aqua Painter, Pinpoint Layers 30065 Memory Box dies, Tom Bow Glue, Dimensionals. 

Details:
1.  The card base is an 11" x 5 1/2" piece of Berry Burst scored at 5 1/2".
2.  The first layer is a 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" piece of Basic Black card stock.  
3.  The second layer is a 5" x 5" piece of Berry Burst Color Theory Paper.There are different designs on the paper but I chose the plain one with just a slight gradation of the colour for this layer.

4.  Cut the following for the cat images from Whisper White card stock:

• 2 pieces that measure 1 3/8" x 2 3/8" - stamp kitten with wool and kitten with tail on floor
• 1 piece that measures 2 3/4" x 1 3/4" - stamp kitten looking at butterfly
• 1 piece that measures 1 1/2" x 1 3/4" - stamp kitten in flower pot 
• 1 piece that measures 1 3/8" x 1 3/8" - stamp kitten walking
• 1 piece that measures    7/8" x 1 7/8" - stamp the sentiment "Just peeking.."

5.  Mount those images on Basic Black card stock cut as follows:

• 2 pieces that measure -  1 1/2" x 2 1/2"- kitten with wool & kitten with tail on floor
• 1 piece that measures -   2 7/8" x 1 7/8" - kitten looking at butterfly
• 1 piece that measures -  1 7/8" x 1 5/8" - kitten kitten in flower pot
• 1 piece that measures - 1 5/8" x 1 5/8" - kitten walking
• 1 piece that measures - 1" x 2"  - sentiment

Because the sentiment was just a tad to long to nestle in between the squares and rectangles, I mounted it with Dimensionals.  so that it's touching the other blocks. 

6.  To finish the inside of the card I cut a 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" layer of Basic Black card stock.  I topped this with a 5 x 5" piece of Whisper White.  I stamped the Stampendous sentiment and one of the little kittens in Tuxedo Black Ink. 

7.  Once the images were stamped, I coloured them with an aqua painter in Basic Gray and Smokey Slate inks.  Details such as the bows and the ball of wool were added in Berry Burst ink.

I hope you enjoyed this card.  I'm pretty pleased with it and plan to do several more in different colours.  What do you think?  If you like it I'd love to hear from you.  Your comments totally make my day.

If you haven't already checked out the other Watercooler Wednesday design team blogs, simply click here and the link will take you to the main page.  Just click on the name  below each card.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot