Sending a Little Sunshine

We're already a week into March and so far we've had an arctic front, snow, heavy frost,hail, wind, rain and more rain. After a weekend of gray skies, heavy rain and winds I'm trying to stay optimistic and hoping for some sunshine and dryer weather in the days to come. 

With the weather focus on mind I decided to use this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #FMS626 for my inspiration. Here's the sketch:

FMS#626

HERE'S MY CARD:

I chose to design a positive card with a "rain and sun theme" that could be used for a variety of occasions.  

Remembering that the sketch challenge rules say it's okay to replace the circles with another image, I went ahead and changed the half circles with clouds. My basic white stitched clouds were die cut using the medium cloud die in the Stampin' Up! Bright Skies bundle featured on page 51 of the Annual Catalogue.  

There's also a cheerful little sun that's part of the coordinating stamp set and it has dies that make it easy to cut out and add dimension.  I stamped the sun in Daffodil Delight and used the small stitched circle die to cut a center for the sun from Daffodil Delight card stock.

I chose the "Sunshine to Brighten Your Day" sentiment from the "Sending Smiles" (#158701) stamp set on page 26 of the Annual Catalogue, and embossed it on a strip of basic black cardstock with Versamark ink and White Embossing Powder. I cut out the sentiment strip with the larger of the two label dies in the coordinating "Sending" (#159271) die set. What fun!  I love all nine of the sentiments in this stamp set, and any one of them would have worked perfectly with this theme. 

The Smokey Slate card base for this card measures 4 1/4" x 11" and is scored at the 5 1/2"  center line. I added a layer of Basic White 5 3/8" x 4 1/8", a layer of Balmy Blue 5 1/4" x 4" and a layer of Rain or Shine designer series paper that measured 3 7/8" x 51/8".  This piece of DSP has a myriad of glossing raised raindrops that capture the light when the card is turned. 

For the inside of the card I cut a 5 1/4" X 4" basic white panel and adhered another die cut sun to the bottom right hand corner.  I left the rest blank for a personal message. 

So that's my card for today.  I appreciate your dropping by to visit, and hope if my card inspired you in any way that you'll leave me a comment.  I super enjoy doing card challenges as it's a way of stimulating my creativeness and this weeks FMS#626 was perfect for that.  

Why not try out this challenge yourself, there's still a bit of time to do it.  Cheers and have a good week!

HAPPY STAMPING
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin Up Demo since 2006
Click here to visit my 24/7 Online Webstore

Jungle Pals TSOT#641

The mid-month sketch challenge from Try Stamping on Tuesday (TSOT) #641 runs to March 3rd, 2024.  I decided to give it a try.  Here is the sketch: 

Click here to see the TSOT design  team cards. 

Here is My Card:

This card is for one of my stamping friends who's currently going through some pretty rough health issues and needs something to lift her spirits. I decided I would use one of my Sale-a-bration stamp sets called Jungle Pals and the coordinating dies and try and create a fun card. 

Stamping Products Used:

Stamp Set & Dies: Jungle Pals (Sale-a-bration now retired)
Cardstock: Granny Apple Green, Lemon Lolly and Whisper White

Ink: Momento Black Ink, Granny Apple Green, Lost Lagoon, Lemon Lolly, Wheat, Sweet Sorbet

Blends: L&D Crumb Cake, L&D Gray Granite, L&D Black

Accessories:  White and Pink Pearlized L&S adhesive sequins, Dimensionals, Mini Cut and Emboss Machine, Tom Bow Adhesive, Acrylic Blocks, Regular and Mini blender brushes.  

• The card base measures 8 1/2 x 5 1/2" and is scored at 4 1/4"
• Mat Layer 5 1/4 x 4" piece of Lemon Lolly cardstock, adhered to the base
• 51/8 x 3 7/8" layer of Whisper White for top layer.  I used this piece of card stock beneath my die cut images when I was colouring them with blends to colour the background and make it more interesting. 
• All the leaves, tree trunk and flowers were cut from scraps of Whisper White card stock and then coloured with blending brushes (see Products). 
• The Sloth and the cat were stamped in Momento Black ink on Whisper White cardstock and then coloured with blends and cut out with the coordinating dies.  The Sloth was mounted with Dimensionals to the tree branch.  

For my version of the TSOT #651 sketch, I used the tree for the long vertical  layer.  The leaves at the bottom actually cross over and behind the tree so they represent the strip that runs horizontal on the card, and, the Sloth and flowers and additional leaves are the focal .  

I love the images of the leaves on the background layer I created just by colouring the leaves and flowers with the various layers of ink on top of this whisper white layer.  I moved the images around as I coloured so that the ink would cover the whole area of the layer.  It really looks like the jungle.  

I enhanced the size of the tree trunk by leaving a margin on the right hand side of the tree when I made the first cut.  Then I ran it through the mini cut n' emboss again, moving the die so it cut to the left on the margin which left little stubs of the branches on the side.  You can see them in the photo below.  

Well that's it for this sketch challenge and my Jungle Pals get well card.  I had a lot of fun playing with the dies and stamps in this set and have already started a couple of other cards that I'll post later this week.  What fun!  

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Independent Stampin' Up Demo 

Click here to visit my 24/7 Online Store: 

NOTE:  I wasn't paying attention to the TSOT deadline, thinking I had all day, unfortunately it closed at 1pm MT today, so I missed entering my card.  Oh well the sketch still inspired me to make a card and there's lots of great samples on the web link for TSOT.!  

WWC#164 - Marsha's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

Welcome Stampers!  Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend.  We were invited to a small family gathering on Sunday for dinner, and it was just perfect. The food was terrific, conversation was great and we got to break bread with one another again.  Although the day started on the cloudy and windy side it finished with a glorious blaze of sun in the West.  Pretty fitting for the Easter weekend!  

The only problem with a long weekend, and especially a four day one, is getting back to the grind and into the routine of things. Monday was a day of mishaps and time delays which was quite fitting, as my horoscope said Mercury Retrograde in my birth sign was going to wreak havoc.  Right on point!  

We have a Feminine Anything Goes Challenge this week being hosted by Marsha.  She's challenging you to design a feminine card or project and post it with links to our site by 5:00pm Mountain time on Monday April 9th.  I hope you'll join us.  Our design team seems to have been synched in our thinking because many of the designs this week have a floral focus.  Mine fit right in the groove.  

Here's My Card:
I've been working on some ultra feminine "Thank You" cards for my customers who placed March orders.  I love how they turned out.  I used a Sale-A-Bration stamp set I hadn't gotten around to using called "Heartfelt Blooms".  Oh my gosh I wish I'd used this set sooner, because I totally fell in love with it!   

How do you like the combination of floral stamp with the Designer Series Paper. I think it really works well together, and the basic gray panel really helps to show case the floral design and add just the right touch of femininity.  

The inside of the card is pretty basic.  The Whisper White panel measures 5 1/4 x 4.  I stamped a small portion of the floral image in the bottom right hand corner, leaving plenty of white space for writing a message of thanks.  

Stampin' Ups! Whisper White Envelopes have a super deluxe shiny finish that accepts ink so well.  I used a standard envelope and stamped the image across the back flap.  I think this really added to the feminine look of the card.  Alternatives to stamping the flap would be to create a liner or use the DSP to cover the outside of the flap.  

These cards were quick and easy to make using my Mini Misti positioning tool.  Stampin' Up!  has a new platform tool that will be coming out with the new catalogue called a Stamperatus.  

Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Heartflet Blooms (Sale-A-Bration 2018 - Retired)
Ink: Basic Gray, Flirty Flamingo
Card Stock: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Flirty Flamingo
Accessories:  Paper Trimmer, 8" Coordinating Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals, Whisper White Envelopes, Tom Bow Glue.

How It's Made:  
1.  Cut Flirty Flamingo to 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and score at 4 1/4" for the base.
2.  Cut a piece of Designer DSP to 5 1/4" x 4" and adhere to the base.
3.  Cut a piece of Whisper White to 4 1/4" x 3 1/4" - once the layering on this panel is finished attach to the card face with Dimensionals or score tape depending on the thickness you want. 
4.  Cut a piece of Basic Gray to 4" x 3" adhere to Whisper White panel.
5.  Cut a piece of Whisper White to 2 3/4" x 3 3/4" and stamp sentiment and image on it.  Tie ribbon around this piece before adhering to Basic Gray panel. 
6.  For the inside cut a 5 1/4" x 4" panel of Whisper White card stock.  Stamp a portion of the floral image in the bottom right hand corner.
7.  Stamp the image on the flap of the envelope.  

Here are some additional samples using this design:

This sample is in Island Indigo and Whisper White.  The ribbon is 1/4" White Cotton.  

Island Indigo

For this card I used Lemon Lime and switched the contrast card stock to Basic Black to give it some additional pizzazz.  I forgot to put ribbon on the stamped panel before adhering it to the black one, so just addd some black rhinestones 

I decided to keep things simple on the inside of the card, and just added a strip of designer paper on the right hand side of the card.  The black mat adds some drama.

This card is made with Berry Burst DSP, inks and card stock.  The contrasting card stock and ribbon are Crumb Cake.

I love the captions in the Heartfelt Blooms set.  There are three different ones:  "Thinking of You", Sending Heartfelt Thoughts" and "Thank You".  The fonts in these sentiment are simply beautiful.

I loved all the variations I made and the versatility of the double sided designer papers gives you even more choices.  This is a terrific way to use up some of those paper stashes, we all have.  

Well that's it for today.  I hope you've enjoyed my floral feminine cards this week and that you'll use this design template for your own cards.  You can create the same effect using any larger floral stamp so don't be intimidated if you don't have the Heartfelt Blooms.  Cards in this style can be used for any occasion and it's an economical way to get your card supplies loaded up.  

If you haven't already checked out the WWC164 Challenge on the main Watercooler Wednesday site, take some time and check it out.  The other DT members have created some beautiful cards to share with you and would be delighted if you visited them too.  Until next time............

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin Spot 

PPCCS #100 Challenge and Blog Candy

I had big intentions of participating in the Paper Craft Crew's 100th card sketch challenge today, but missed the close off time by a few hours because of the time change.  

Regardless, I loved the sketch so went ahead and finished my card and want to share it with you.  

Here's the sketch:

Here's my card: 

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to do a card using the Decorative Dots Embossing folder as a background for the layers in this sketch and the Stippled Blossom stamp set for my image. 

I think my concept worked really well.  I flipped the layout so the tag and ribbon were on the left hand side of the card and the small flower was on the lower right hand side.  This allowed me more room to work with my stamped image. 

Supplies: 

Ink:  Crumb Cake and Early Espresso Classic Inks

Card Stock:  Early Espresso, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake

Stamp Sets:  Stippled Blossoms #126747 and Blooming With Kindness #126422

Accessories:  Big Shot Machine, Trimmer, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Basic Pearls, 3/8" Crumb Cake Taffeta Ribbon (retired), Scalloped Tag Topper Punch (#133324), Large Delicate Doilies Die Cut (retired), Decorative Dots Embossing Folder (#133520), Corner Rounder, Scissors, Adhesive, Dimensionals.

Using the Stamp-a-ma-jig allowed me to line up the flower images cleanly when using a two-step stamp set like Stippled Blossoms.  Here you can see I was able to accurately layer the rose image from the tag with the image stamped on the Very Vanilla layer.

I added the smallest of the basic pearls to the centers of the two large rose images and a medium sized pearl to the smaller flower image.  Even though the taffeta ribbon is retired I'm still in love with the texture and the way you can tie the small bow so beautifully.  I also love the sentiment "I'm here for you" from the Blooming With Kindness Stamp set. Because this is such a caring sentiment this card could be used for either a friendship or a sympathy card. 

The Blooming With Kindness Stamp set a detailed flower image and five greetings that will carry you through lots of card-giving situations. 

The inside of the card has a Very Vanilla layer that measures 5 x 3 3/4" and is simply stamped with the rose image. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this latest post.  I'd love to hear your comments on my interpretation of the PPC Sketch.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny

Love That Petal Pizzazz

I needed some "birthday" and "thinking of you" cards today so decided to use up some of my old supplies. While I was going through my stash and looking for stamps to use I came across the Petal Pizzazz stamp set and decided to try it with some of the outgoing "In Colours" Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red. Here's what I came up.

A view of the inside and outside of one of the cards............ I made a set of six cards - two of each design. And here is the final view. I loved using the new eyelet border punch with the DSP.

Deets:

Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Non Stampin' Up Sentiment Stamps

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip

Designer Paper: Unknown from my stash

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi and Riding Hood Red (although you can't see the details clearly from my pictures, I stamped randomly on the DSP with the smaller flower and petal stamps).
Accessories: Green Tafetta Ribbon not Stampin Up, Eyelet Border Punch, Bright Delight Rub-Ons Stampin Up.