Celebrate Today & Make a Wish

Hi everyone!  Hope your Sunday is a little brighter and sunnier than ours is.  

It's currently cloudy and on the verge of rain.  One good thing about the weather not being so enticing outside is that I get to play in my stamp room today...........yeah!

Last Tuesday when I was making cards with my bestie Sheri, we were working on a Colour Challenge put out by Just Add Ink.  The colour mix was Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party and Crumb Cake. Nice combination right? 

Well, as I sometimes do, I suckered myself into using Pear Pizzazz for the background on my card, even though my better judgement was screaming "go neutral" keep it "clean and simple".  

In the end because of my misguided decision followed by my indecision and dissatisfaction, I missed the post time for this challenge.  Urrrrrrrrgh!!! The final birthday card was finally finished a few days later after much creative angst and major revisions, but the good news is it did get finished and even though it was late for the challenge I decided to post it here.  


Here's the card I came up with: 

The card in MHO is overwhelmed by the Pear Pizzazz background which I tried to make more interesting by embossing with the Lovely Lace embossing folder.  I'm pretty sure that if I'd stuck to a Whisper White background for the card base and the stamped layer I think it would have worked better. Sometimes as the saying goes "less is more".

Along with the colour challenge we were eager to try out a new to us fancy fold technique called a "corner fold card".  This is a great card technique and takes very little time or effort to accomplish.

I'm not going to give you the dimensions and details for completing a corner fold card in this post as you can find several good examples on Youtube .  The one we chose to follow was done by Linda Bauwin.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Celebrate Today, Perfect Pennants
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Pool Party
Card Stock: Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake and Whisper White 
Accessories:  Balloon Framelit Dies, Lovely Lace Texturized Embossing Folder, Trimmer, Big Shot, Basic Rhinestones, Dazzling Details Glimmer Adhesive in Dazzling Diamonds, Note Tag and 1/2" Circle Punches, Snips, Crystal Effects, Adhesive, Dimensionals

Some Details:

Originally I stamped the birthday balloon from Celebrate Today in Pool Party ink on the whisper white layer, and coloured in the word happy with Calypso Coral blendabilities.  I also stamped the sprinkled stars image over top of the balloon and added some Dazzling Details glimmer adhesive to the stars.

One thing about the 17-piece Celebrate Today set is that you get so many creative options and can combine individual stamps to build the final image you want in the colors you want.  I decided to use some more of the images  to dress up this card.  I stamped 4 of the shaker images on Pool Party card stock with the matching ink.  I layered two of the shakers and then cut small strips below the tab part to make them look 3 dimensional.

The banner was stamped in Calypso Coral on Whisper White card stock and then cut out using the Balloon Framelits (love those).  To add a lacquered look to the banners I covered them with Crystal Effects and let them dry before adhering some small rhinestones. 

I fussy cut the balloon tail which was stamped in Calypso Coral on Crumb Cake cardstock and used dimensionals to adhere it to the card base.   I finished it off by adding basic rhinestones in every second tail.  

I stood back, looked at the card and I still wasn't satisfied.   By now I'm sweating because time is ticking on the challenge clock and I so wanted to enter my card.  "What's a girl supposed to do?"

Well, I'll tell you, in frustration I went back to the drawing board, removed all the added details from the card front, that's right stripped it right back down to just the balloon image, and then I stared at it.   I hummed, played on the computer, looked at other stamp sets, planned dinner, and still nothing.  

Then, failing inspiration and in desperation, I did what all good stampers do when they get stumped............. I went and ate a bunch of chocolate and pondered what to do.  And finally the "ah ha" light went off in my head as inspiration hit me!  

It was while I was "wishing" for an idea to hit me that I remembered the "Make a Wish" sentiment stamp in the Perfect Pennants stamp set.  

Bingo this would be the perfect sentiment to layer onto the balloon and I could use my Note Tag Punch to cut it out.  I stamped the image in all four of the colours from the challenge to see which one would work best on the card front and chose to use a Calypso Coral on Crumb Cake.  I punched out the "a" from one of the tags I'd stamped in Pool Party with a 1/2" circle punch and then  mounted it with a dimensional to the center of the tag.  

The rest was easy peasy.  I re-attached the shakers, banners and balloon tail, and stamped the inside of the card with another balloon image.  I missed the challenge but, I did finish the card and that was important to me, along with being satisfied with the second attempt. 

I hope you enjoyed this card and the journey I took to finish it.  How about you, have you experienced my "I'm not satisfied" feeling, and if so what did you do about it?  I'd love to hear your story.  Please share and links to your card if any.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens

May Hostess Code is in effect Until May 31st:   BD37E4S4

You Make Me Happy - PPA216

What a beautiful summer we've been so fortunate to have!  Our weather's held for the past few weeks in the mid-20's giving us just the perfect summer.  

Today I'm starting off the week with a bit of a twist.  I created a card using the Paper Pals Art CAS sketch designed by Margaret Moody.  

While choosing my card stock and designer series paper, I decided to go with a Mossey Meadow print from the paper stack and use the paper colour for a monochromatic scheme.  

I made my card and I really liked it but then, and here's the twist, I decided to remake the card using the colour challenge from Just Add Ink, and I did it not once, but twice!  

Here's the Sketch and Colour Challenge:

Here Are My Cards:

For my Monochromatic card, I used a Whisper White card base with a layer of Mossey Meadow and then a second layer of Whisper White card stock.  I used 31/2" tags made with the Scallop Tag Topper Punch instead of panels for my card.  

I also used the Scalloped Tag Topper punch to create a panel measuring 4 1/2" x 1 3/4".  I stamped this with leaves from the the Blooming with Hope stamp set, before adding the "You Make Me Happy" tag from the Perfect Pennants stamp set.  This was cut out with the Banner's Framelits. 

I stamped  9 floral images from the Petite Petals stamp set and cut them out with the co-ordinating Petals punch and adhered them to the front and inside of the card.  Some basic rhinestones finished off the card. 

My monochromatic card for the Paper Pals Challenge/218.

Here is my card for the Just Add Ink colour challenge.  It features Blackberry Bliss, Calypso Coral and Mossey Meadow.

This is the third card I made, also using the Just Add Ink colour combo challenge.   I switched out the banner and the flower colours and flipped the two tags to change this card up a bit.  Also did the inside panel a bit different. 

Each of the cards has a slightly different set up for the panel in terms of the positioning of the border stamps and the flowers.  

Inside the Blackberry Bliss card

Inside the Monochromatic card. 

Here are the three cards together. 

Hope you enjoyed this challenge and will visit both Paper Pals and Just Add Ink to see all the other great cards by the designers and participants.

Before I go just a reminder don't forget about the Short and Sweet Starter Kit promotions! Only four more days until this great promo ends on August 28th.  As a new demonstrator you'll receive $190 worth of products in your Starter Kit for just $125! Click Here for details!

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens