Creative Circle Design Team January Blog Hop - Love Is In the Air

Hi stampers and welcome to the first Creative Circle Design Team blog hop for 2018.  Our hops are held on the first Thursday of each month, and there's always a new and creative theme. 

Here is My Project:
This month's theme is Love Is In The Air and it since I have a February wedding coming up, the timing was perfect for creating a wedding/gift card holder.

Here is the front view of my wedding card.  I've decorated it with images from the Lift Me Up stamp set.  

This is the back view of the card.  When you pull the tab at the top a gift card holder slides out.  The pocket is made with Stampin' Ups! Mini Treat Bag die cut.

The inside of the card is unique because it has an acetate divider page which separates the back and front of the card. 

Supplies:
Stamp Set: Beautiful Bouquet and Lift Me Up
Ink: Smokey Slate, Momento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Whisper White, Smokey Slate and Basic Gray
Other Papers:  Silver Glimmer paper, DCWV Elegant Holiday Paper
Accessories: Big Shot, Paper Trimmer, Dimensionals, Tom Bow Glue, Mini Glue Dots, Basic Pearls, Lots of Labels Thinlets, Up and Away Thinlets, Mini Treat Bag Thinlets, Stitched Shapes Framelit Dies.

Details:
I have not included the details in this post  for the front of the card.  You can find them by clicking here, to see an earlier post I did for the Watercooler Wednesday Blog Hop.

I did however add a gift card holder to this card using the Mini Treat Bag  and Lots of Labels Thinlet Dies.  The gift bag was cut from Whisper White card stock, assembled and glued to the back of the card with sticky strip adhesive.  I added a 3 3/8" x 4 3/4" piece of Silver Glimmer Paper, topped with a 3 1/4" x 4 5/8" piece of Designer Series Paper to the front of the bag.  

I inked up the medium sized hot air balloon from Lift Me Up in Smokey Slate and then stamped off twice on a scrap of paper before stamping the image on a piece of Whisper White card stock. Next I stamped over top of the balloon with the sentiment "Wishing You a Day of Love and Happy Memories" from the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set in Tuxedo Black ink. I cut out the sentiment with the largest circle in the Stitched Shapes thinlet die set. I stamped the heart from the Lift Me Up stamp set in Smokey Slate and cut it out with the matching die and added it to the bottom left side of the heart. I also added some small clouds and a hot air balloon cut from silver glimmer paper to finish off the detail on the gift card bag.

Lift Me Up Stamp set coordinates with the Up and Away Thinlet Dies.  Order #142896

 

Stitched Bouquet Stamp Set #143666

For the gift card holder I cut out the largest label from the Lots of Labels Thinlet set in Whisper White.  I cut a 3 1/4" x 4 1/2" piece of Whisper White and a piece of the Designer Series of paper and attached them over top of the label only leaving the tap part showing.  I cut a 2" x 3 1/4" piece of designer paper and glued it to the bottom of the designer paper side to hold the gift card.  As an after thought I also cut the top of the label again in Silver Glimmer Paper and glued it to the back of the label top.  

Thanks again for dropping by and I hope my card inspired you to try this acetate peak a boo card.  It's a really fun technique and is unbelievably quick and easy to assemble.  Make sure you check out the other blog designers at the CCDT home page or click on the links below.  Lots of inspiration is in store for you. 

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Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot 

 

Favourites from 2016

Happy New Year Everyone! 
And, what a great year 2016 has been for me!  I've had a lot of stamping fun this year, reached some personal goals I set for my stamping hobby/business and had some great stamping achievements:

• Was a guest attendee at a Stampin' Up Event in January in Duarte California and my card won in it's category
• Reorganized my stamp room early in March and it works!  
• I was invited to join the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Blog as a member of the Design Team in April
• Joined the Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop as a regular contributor in April
• In May I was picked as a Display Artist for the November On Stage Vancouver and got to make projects with the Urban Collection stamp sets and dies - what fun and an honour!
• Reached my goal of Silver Elite in December
• Grew my Stampin' Up! Team by 2 new members in December
• Participated in a Stampin' Up Virtual Survey during December
• Finished and mailed out all my Christmas cards on time this year! 
•  

So  the following is really a trip down memory lane for me and includes some of my favourite posts. I hope you're inspired and will leave some comments. 

April 2016:

Kath's WWC63 Colour Challenge Click Here:

May 2016:

Wacky Water Cooler Mashup Blog Hop Click Here:

June 2016:

Dreaming of November ......Click Here:

July 2016:

WWC78 Jean's Theme Challenge - Anything With a "B"Click Here:

August 2016:  

WW83 Penny's Z-Fold Birthday Wishes  Click Here:

September 2016:

WWC85 Jean's Colour Challenge  Click Here

October 2016:

WWC91 Marsha's Masculine Challenge   Click Here

November 2016: 

November 2016 Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop Click Here:

Check out all three projects in this blog hop.  From gift card holders to box card they are all fun!
December 2016:  

WWC99-Marsha's Clean and Simple (CAS) 

Make It With Hearts Challenge

Click Here:

Well that's it for this year.  I hope you've enjoyed this little tour and will come back and see me in 2017.  I love it when people visit my site and it absolutely makes my day when you let me know if you like the projects I'm working on.  I'd also like to here if there are particular cards you'd like me to make.    Happy New Year Everyone and Happy Stamping! 

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Dreaming of November ......

You're probably thinking right about now, "hey it's only June, why is she "Dreaming of November"?  Well, I've got a couple of reasons.  
The first is that on June 6th I'm going to be celebrating my 10th Anniversary as a demonstrator with Stampin' Up! 

And the second, is that I get to celebrate that anniversary with all my stamping friends when I attend Stampin' Up!s OnStage Event in Vancouver 5th of November.   I can hardly contain myself I'm so excited.  These very special events don't happen often in Vancouver so every demonstrator I know locally, will be wanting to attend, and that includes anyone who joins now.

Today I want to share some special projects that I put together for Stampin' Up! in hopes of getting an opportunity to stamp projects for the OnStage Display Boards.  I'm not sure how many boards they will have but each board represents the work of a local demonstrator and it's a very big honour to be chosen  to participate.  

I didn't see the invite until yesterday, but we were asked to put together a sample of our work including the following hand stamped items for consideration:

• Three card fronts
• One scrapbook page
• Two 3D items
• And a blog post or some other medium to display the pictures of our projects.  

Yikes!!!  I've been in a panic all day because I had lots of stamping and assembly to do.  Here's what I made:

Three Card Fronts:

Card Front One:  Features stamps from Swirly Bird and Picture Perfect Stamp Sets.  Stamping is done with Emerald Envy one of the new InColours for 2016-2018.

Card Front Two:  This card also features the Swirly Bird stampset and the sentiment is from a set called Birthday Blooms.  I love the new Flirty Flamingo InColour which I've paired with Watermelon Wonder inks and cards stock. 

Card Front Three:  This card is stamped with the Painter's Palette Stamp set and the sentiment is from the Balloon Celebration Stamp Set. The Emerald Envy cardstock sets a bold statement on this card and mixes well with the other InColours -Dapper Denim,Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum and Peekaboo Peach. 

Scrapbook Page:
 

I don't often make scrapbook pages, so it was fun trying to decide how to showcase this awesome photo of my sister. I wanted to bring in the blues in her shirt and keep the feel of the garden in my page. 

The Dapper Denim Incolour was mixed with Blushing Bride For this page I used the new Swirly Bird Photopolymer stamp set for all the background stamping. The sentiment "you are just the nicest" is from the Picture Perfect stamp set. And finally, I stamped the Blushing Bride circle with the Birthday Blooms stamp set to capture the flower garden look. The swirl flowers are made with the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits Dies and are cut from Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper. The butterfly was cut from Dapper Denim card stock with the Butterfly Thinlets.

Two 3-D Items:  
My First 3-D Project is a picture frame featuring the Butterflies Thinlits, The Swirl in Silver Glimmer Paper from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlit Dies and the verse from the Butterfly Basics stamp set which was cut out and layered with the Layering Squares Framelits Dies.  There's lots of Basic Rhinestones to add some dazzle.  I used Rich Razzleberry cardstock for the background and dry embossed it with the Fluttering Embossing Folder before the other elements were added.  

My second 3-d Project is a Diorama Father's Day card.  It is made with Dapper Denim and Whisper White card stocks.  The Guy Greetings stamp set was used for the sentiment on the inside of the diorama "Worlds Greatest Day" and he Happy Father's Day on the front panel.  I also used Timeless Textures to add some background interest to this card. 

Because I'm worried my Diorama card won't be viewed as a 3-D Project I decided to include another 3-D project for consideration.  This next project is a Note Card Gift Folder.  This is the only project I didn't make today.   It was originally made for the Watercooler Wednesday WWC63 challenge  in April and was the winner. 
 

This is the lid for the Note Card Gift Folder.  The folder contains six Whisper White 3 x 5 Stampin Up Note Cards that are stamped with the Birthday Blooms Stamp set.  The folder and layers are in Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz and So Saffron card stocks.  

The cards and note box are stamped with the Birthday Blooms Stamp set which was originally in the Occasions Catalogue that just retired. Fortunately this set was carried over to the new catalogue.  I'm so happy, as this is one of my all time favourite stamp sets.

 

 

Well, that's it for this post. I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've made and will leave me a comment.  If you're at all interested in becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, this is the time to do it, because you'll be eligible to come to the November OnStage event too!  If you'd like more information please contact me, I'd be happy to let you know more about the event and becoming a demo. 


Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stamping Spot

WACKY WATERCOOLER MAY MASHUP BLOG HOP

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: 
   

Marie Green

Heidi Weaver

Wacky Watercooler May Blog Hop

 


Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot