What's The Big Deal?

August is Here!
How about kicking off the month with a really Big Deal?  Stampin' Up! is doing just that!  

They've come up with a really Big Deal for the whole month of August and I know you're going to be as excited as I am about it.  

Here's the Big Deal:

With every purchase of a "Big Shot" during the month of August you qualify for one of the five FREE stamp and framelit bundles offered below ........ your choice!  Now that's a deal!  

And, for those of you who already own a Big Shot, don't feel left out because Stampin' Up! has a "Big Deal" for you too.  You can purchase any of the bundles below at an amazing 15% discount.    
 

 Check out the Flyer for all the details:
 
The Fine Print:

• All sets are available in either wood or clear mount stamp sets. 
• The Bright and Beautiful stamp set is part of the brand new Holiday catalogue going live August 28th, 2014.
• You can't purchase The Big Shot and bundles with 
• hostess credits
• the 50% off hostess discount or,
• as part of a starter kits.

•  There are no limits to how many bundles you can purchase. 

Happy Stampin!Penny Tokens 

 

Two Card Challenges in One

Today I'm combining two fun challenges for my project.  I chose the first  because of it's awesome sketch and the second challenge because of  it's fun and motivating theme. The end result is a very colourful Birthday Card that I think you'll like.

Banners are always an easy way to add interest and charm to a card face. I think that's what attracted me to The Paper Players #206 challenge. This wonderful sketch has three banners and an oval for the focal point.

Over at the SU Only blog they're holding a "theme" challenge called "Favourite New Toys"  102 All you have to do to participate is make a card or 3D project using something that's new to you in relation to stamping.  That's right, it's all about bringing out the unused toys ....you know, the stash of new stamping stuff that's gathering dust on your work table. What a great motivator!


Here's My Card: 
In my last order I'd purchased the Blended Bloom single wood mount stamp, some Stampin Blendabilities and the All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack and they've barely been touched, so I think they qualify for the "new toys" category.

How I Put This Card Together:
Unless I've got something specific in mind or I'm creating with a colour challenge sketch I often let the designer paper I pick help me decide what the rest of the colours in the project will be. 

For this card I could have used almost any one of the awesome patterns in the All Abloom DSP pack, but when I saw this small bold print my decision was made. This particular print reminded me of old fashioned wall paper with it's big flowers and tiny background print.  I also really liked the blend of Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight and Mossey Meadow. 

With the All Abloom Paper Stack you get 24 sheets: 4 ea. of 6 double-sided designs. 4 1/2" x 6 1/2". Acid free, lignin free. These coordinate beautifully with Blushing Bride, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, card stocks and inks.

Creating the card front was easy.  I made a standard A2 card base in Island Indigo, and embossed the front of it with the Fancy Fan embossing folder.  For the next three layers, I pieced together Daffodil Delight measuring 3 1/2" x 4 3/4", Mossey Meadow measuring 3 3/8"x 4 5/8" followed by the DSP which measures 3 1/4" x 4 1/2".

Originally I was thinking of colouring the Blended Bloom image with Blendabilities, but I'd only purchased the Old Olive and the Cherry Cobbler sets and they didn't work with my designer paper choice. So I had to put on my thinking cap at this point...... what to do? what to do?

The "aha" moment came when I remembered I had Island Indigo, Mossey Meadow and Daffodil Delight re-inkers and could use them with a colouring technique that works really well with line stamps.  Big grin here! 

The process is simple.  I began by stamping the Blended Bloom image in Versa Mark ink on Whisper White card stock and then heat embossed it with White Embossing Powder.  

Next I sprayed water all over the image until it pooled and then using my aqua painters added ink to the wet surface.  Like magic the ink flows around the embossed edges of the petals and the colours mix to give a vivid image.  I touched up around the edges with the lightest of the Old Olive Blendability markers and I also added some Pistachio Pudding ink on a few of the petals for a softer green look.  

This almost looks like an eye, but trust me it's just the flower center. To give the flower some added colour and dimension I stamped off two additional flower images in Daffodil Delight and Mossey Meadow inks. The Daffodil Delight flower center was cut out with a 11/4" circle punch.  I sponged around the edges with  Island Indigo ink.  I punched out the Mossey Meadow image with  a 1" circle punch, and then coloured in the circle with the three Old Olive Blendability pens.  I finished this image off with a large rhinestone and attached it to the Daffodil Delight circle with a dimensional. 

Before attaching the flower to the card face, I cut three banners from scraps of Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight and Mossey Meadow cardstock, and embossed them with the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder.  A couple of Rhinestones were added to the two outside banners to bring attention to the sentiment "A Birthday wish that's just for you".  This wonderful sentiment and the one on the inside of the card are from the Remembering Your Birthday Stamp set.

I stamped the Blended Bloom in Island Indigo ink on the inside of the card and added the sentiment "friends and fun and presents too! Happy Birthday".

 

 Blended Bloom line drawing stamp is only available in Wood Mount. 

Remembering Your Birthday is a fun sentiment based stamp set that comes in Clear and Wood Mounts and is also available in French and Spanish.

I hope you enjoyed both of these challenges today and will leave me a comment to let me know what your "new toys" you haven't played with yet.  Perhaps you could do one or both of these challenges too.  There's still time.

HAPPY STAMPING 
PENNY TOKENS 

 August 2nd, 2014  Just a Note:

Thanks to Mike Funk at the Paper Players, my card was one of ten cards chosen for the "Cut Above".  Congratulations to the challenge winner, Paula Sievers, from Austrailia,  and all the other noteables!

Connie and Marie Challenge CCMC213 Top 3 Pick

Time to toot my horn!  I just started off my morning with  some exciting news.  My card for the Connie and Mary Sketch Challenge CCMC313 was one of the Top 3 Picks this week.  

The other two cards were posted by Pam Strobel and Laura Laures.   There were a lot of great submissions and from the Design Team so stop by and give them all some love.  Lots of inspiration.  

HAPPY STAMPING 
PENNY TOKENS

Designer Series Paper Promo ends tomorrow

BUY 3 GET 1 FREE PROMO...
Time is running out! It's getting down to the wire, so if you're thinking about picking up a great deal on Stampin' Up!s Designer Series Paper Promo don't delay, it ends tomorrow, July 31st. 

Today and tomorrow you can still purchase three packages of Designer Series Paper and receive a fourth one of your choice for FREE! That's like getting $13.50 off your purchase and receiving an extra DSP for - ABSOLUTELY FREE! There's no limit to the number of free DSP packs you can receive. 

Here are the Designer Series Papers that are available for purchase with this promo:

Connie and Mary Thursday Card Sketch Challenge CCMC313

My stampin' buddy Debby came over this afternoon and we made some awesome cards. What a great time we had.   It's nice having some sketches available when other stampers visit, because it gives us something to work on and we all like doing the challenges. 

One of the cards we made today was based on the "Create with Connie and Mary" Thursday challenge.  

Here's the Challenge Sketch.

Here's My Card:
I really liked this sketch from the moment I saw it and I quickly had a vision of the card I wanted to make.  The sketch design really made me think of sports for some reason and since I only have one sports related stamp set, Good Sport, my decision was final.

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Good Sport (retired), Remembering Your Birthday
Designer Series Paper:  Moonlight Paper Stack, Silver Glimmer Paper
Card Stock:  Whisper White, Smokey Slate,  
Ink:  Basic Gray, Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey
Accessories:  Trimmer, Circle Framelits, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Star from Itty Bitty Accents Punches, Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals, Adhesive, Glue Dots. 

I decided to turn the design on its side and have the patterned paper pieces at the top of my card.  I used paper from the Moonlight DSP paper stack.  I can't say enough about this little paper pack, it makes it so easy to mix and match colours. For example the three paper designs I chose made me think of a playing field, balls and penalty flags.  

I cut a piece of Smokey Slate card stock to measure 1 7/8 by 5 1/2 and used this for a base for the patterned paper.  I cut pieces of the patterned paper to measure 1 6/8 by 2"  and then cut them again on angles to match the sketch pattern.  When I attached them to the smokey slate base I left small gaps in between the pattern pieces and then adhered small strips of Silver Glimmer paper along these seams.

I chose a soccer theme for my birthday card and I think with the bling I added it's clearly a feminine card. Before I attached the designer paper panel, I stamped the flourish once on the card base in Lost Lagoon ink and then again on a scrap of Whisper White card stock, then adhered the panel over the top half.  

I cut out the circle with my Circle Framelits and then mounted it with dimensionals, matching the bottom swirls to the swirls stamped on the card base.  I punched a glimmer paper circle with the 1 3/8" circle punch and adhered it to the center of the flourish with dimensionals.  The soccer ball was stamped in Hello Honey and adhered to the glimmer piece with glue dots. 

Three basic rhinestones were attached to the stars.I stamped Happy Birthday in the bottom right hand corner of the card front with the Basic Gray ink.   The stamp is from the Remembering Your Birthday stamp set and it was just perfect for this card.. 

I stamped another great sentiment from the Remembering Your Birthday to the inside of the card and added a small silver glimmer star punched out with the Itty Bitty Accents Punch pack.  To finish the inside I cut a piece of the DSP to measure 3/4" x 5 and adhered it to the top of the inside panel. 

Remembering Your Birthday is an 8 piece stamp set that comes in Clear or Wood Mount and is available in French.

If you like my card I hope you'll leave me a comment, and I hope you will check out the submissions by the Connie and Marie Design team as well as other folks who've accepted the challenge.  And how about you? There's still lots of time to make your own card with this fun sketch and play along.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens 

Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge PPA213

I totally missed this Pals Paper Arts Challenge (PPA213) this week, so this is going to be an uber quick post.  There's something about the timing on their challenges, that I keep missing.  It must be the East Coast time slot.  Oh well, I'll get it right next time.

Here's the sketch that got my interest up:

Here's My Card:

This is another Masculine Birthday card made with Maritime Designer Series Paper and the Open Sea stamp set.  If you like this Maritime DSP there's still time to get in on the Designer Series Paper Buy 3 Get The Fourth for Free - this special promo ends on July 31st. 

I'm so sad that the Perfectly Penned stamp set was retired this year.  It's one of my faves for masculine cards.  An alternative to this set is Sassy Salutations

The Happy Birthday sentiment in the Sassy Salutations stamp set isn't as large in this stamp set, however it's still got a heavy masculine quality to it.  The other bonus is the additional great sentiment stamps in this set, such as Feel Better and Congratulations. 

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  The Open Sea, Perfectly Penned (retired)
Ink:  Night of Navy, Real Red, Coastal Cabana
Designer Series Paper:  Maritime
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Night of Navy, Read Red
Accessories:   2 1/2" Circle Punch, 3" Circle Framelit, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Square Punches, Adhesive and Dimensionals.

Happy Stampin!
Penny Tokens

Bon Voyage Bicycle Trip

The Tour De France is wrapping up today and reminded me of my friend who's an avid bicyclist and fan.  I know she's going on an end-of-the-summer bicycle rally to the Interior of the Province, so I thought it would be nice to make a Bon Voyage card  for her.

In keeping with the real competition, I wanted my card to have a vintage European flair, so I chose rich dark colours for the layers and I needed just the right stamp set to achieve the old world look.  And, after searching through my stamp sets I chose Postage Due because of the French Script in the background and the beautiful bicycle image.  It seemed fitting.

Here's My Card: 

Supplies: 
Ink:  Mossey Meadow and Hello Honey
Card Stock:  Crumb Cake, Mossey Meadow and Hello Honey
Stamps:  Postage Due and World Tour
Accessories:  Big Shot, Trimmer, Designer Frames Embossing Folder,  Beautifully Baroque, 3/4" circle punch, 1" and 1 1/4" square punches, Crumb Cake 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals and Adhesive.

Postage Due is a 4 piece stamp set that comes in Clear Mount (126397), Wood Mount (132064) and A Brush Stroke set for My Digital Studio.  It coordinates with the Postage Stamp Punch on page 222.

 How It Came Together:

The card base is a standard A2 size in Crumb Cake.  This was topped with a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of Mossey Meadow cardstock.  I double embossed a 5 x 4" piece of Hello Honey cardstock with the Beautiful Baroque and Rectangular Designer Frames* Embossing folders and cut this piece down to 3 1/2" x 4".  From the remaining Hello Honey cardstock I  punched out three 1 1/4" square pieces and mounted three of the bicycle images with dimensionals on top of them.

** Although the Designer Frames Embossing folders have been retired, they've been replaced by some really cute ones called "Fun Frames".  Check them out on page 227 of the catalogue. 

These three portions of the bicycle were stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock and punched out with a 1" square punch.  The edges were sponged with Hello Honey ink and then they were mounted with dimensionals on a 1 1/4" piece of the embossed Hello Honey cardstock. 

The inside of the card was lined with a piece of 5" x 3 3/4" Crumb Cake cardstock that was stamped with the Bon Voyage stamp from the World Tour stamp set (retired.) I stamped the image again on Hello Honey and cut the  "Bon Voyage" from this piece and glued it onto the center of the stamped image, for some focal interest.  I also added a 1/4" piece of Mossey Meadow cardstock on the right hand side of the card.

I used two stamps from the World Tour and the Postage Due stamp for the Envelope details.  On the bottom left hand side of the card you can see the 3/4" circle - it was stamped on Crumb Cake and then punched out with the 3/4" circle punch and added with dimensions to the card front.  The complete image of that stamp is also featured on the bottom left hand corner of the envelope.

So what do you think?  Do you like this card?  If so leave me a comment and let me know what you like most about it.  Thanks for dropping by.

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens