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Happy Stampin!
Penny Tokens 

Try Stampin' On Tuesday #181

Try Stampin' On Tuesday posted another great sketch yesterday with the theme "Whatever Makes You Happy". 

I decided to combine this sketch with the Paper Player's  CAS challenge #209 to make a clean and simple child's birthday card. 

Clean and simple means limiting the layers and embellishments, and not having anything overly fussy.  This presents a real challenge for me, because I usually like having lots of layers.  

Here's My Card:   
I don't have many stamps that are geared towards children, so this presented a problem for me, but in the end I decided to go with a circus theme and chose the elephant from the "You're Amazing" stamp set to take center stage on my card.

I chose primary colours for my card and tried to keep as much white space as possible to keep it "clean". 

This is the inside of the card. 

I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the words "it's your day" in rows on the Whisper White card stock.  Once I had six rows stamped, I ran the piece through the Big Shot with the Scallops Embossing Folder.  A banner with some retired DSP is mounted on Daffodil Delight card stock.

The elephant is stamped in Basic Gray on Whisper White card stock.  The only colour I've applied is a red marker and three pearls that have been coloured with markers.  Did you know that you can colour rhinestones and pearls with Stampin' Ups! new Blendability markers?  They do an awesome job and because they're alcohol based, the colour holds.

Supplies: 
Stamp Sets:  You're Amazing (retired), Happiest Birthday Wishes (Retired Hostess set)
Card Stock:  Whisper White, Real Red, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight
Ink:  Basic Gray, Real Red, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight
Accessories:  Big Shot, Trimmer, Circle Collection Framelits, 2" circle punch, Basic Pearls, Sharpie Markers

Well that's it for today, hope you'll come back and visit again soon! 

Happy Stampin'!
Penny Tokens

Retro Sketch # 128

"I can't believe it's Tuesday" seems to be a common phrase in our house this summer. The week's have been flying by, and summer sadly, is on the wane.  

Tuesday is my one day that I set aside each week for stamping and having fun.  My husband's  golfing with his buddies, the house is quiet and it's my day, and my day only (although I do share with my stamping bestie).  Selfish I know, but that's the only way I work in a little leisure time for myself amidst all the other demands of one's life.  

So, Tuesday it is and today Sheri and I've been working on a sketch challenge prepared by Erica Rose for the Retro Sketches site.  Here's the sketch:

Here's My Card:   
Wow this sketch has a lot of detail.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to fit it all in on my card, but I rolled up my sleeves and gave it the college try and made this Anniversary card.  

What do you think?  I'd been dying to do a black and white card for a while now and use some of the Back to Black Designer Series Paper I've been salivating over.  I also got to use a couple of new stamp sets, Bloom With Hope, one of the awesome new Hostess sets and Good Greetings which will be available at the end of August.  
 

The Bloom With Hope Stamp Set is an 11 piece hostess set and can be earned for FREE when you host a party or as a hostess gift when you order $200 or more of Stampin' Up! products. 

I've used several layers of black and white card stock that decrease in size by 1/8".  I embossed the top Whisper White layer with the Houndstooth Embossing Folder, and originally planned to layer it on to a Whisper White card base.  It really didn't look good with just White on White layers, so I added a basic black layer. 

The card was almost finished and looking pretty good and then I made a huge mistake.  When I was adding the basic black layer beneath the card front, I  discovered I'd put it on upside down.  To remedy this I had to do some cutting and add a layer with a basic black card stock base.   This error just proves to me just how relaxed I get when I'm stamping, and, that I can't stamp and talk at the same time.  LOL! 

Supplies: Stamp Sets:  Good Greetings, Bloom With Hope
Card Stock:  Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink:  Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
DSP:  Back to Black DSP and Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Modern Label Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch (R), Delicate Doilies Sizzlets (R), Houndstooth Embossing Folder, Large Basic Rhinestone, Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon (R), Trimmer and Big Shot Machine.  

Here's a view of the inside of the card. The card base is Basic Black, so it needs a liner.  This one measures 5 x 3 3/4".   I added a small strip of the DSP along the bottom of the card, stamped a sentiment from one of my retired stamp sets and a small flower in the top corner. 

The rectangles on the card front measure 3 x 3 1/2".  The bottom one which you can barely see is from Basic Black cardstock and the top layer is from the Back to Black Designer Series Paper.  The other details include a 4 /14" x 1/2" strip of Basic Black that was cut out with the Scalloped Edge Border Trim Punch (Retired), and a 1/8" strip of Silver Glimmer Paper.  The banner on the bottom is a strip of DSP in a black and white floral print that measures 1 x 3 1/2".  I added a sentiment "hugs and kisses" from Good Greetings that was stamped on Whisper White and cut out with the Modern Label Punch. The final touch was a small bow made from Whisper White 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon (retired). 

 

I wanted to add some dimension to the small flower from the Bloom With Hope stamp set that resembles an Aster, so I stamped it twice in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on Whisper White card stock and cut out the flowers.  

To bring the dimension to the flower I fussy cut each of the petals on both flower images, and used a bone folder to shape the petals upwards.  Before gluing the two flowers together, I punched out the center of one of them and adhered it to the center of the top flower image with a dimensional.  I also sponged around the edges of all the layers. To finish off the flower I added a large basic rhinestone to the center.   

The flower on it's own looked okay, but it needed a little more detail to give it a WOW look.  I cut out the medium sized doily with the Delicate Doilies Sizzlet Die (retired) and poked out all the little holes around the center.  By adding a 1/38" circle of Silver Glimmer paper behind the doily, I got the look I wanted........subtle glam.  You can just see the silver glimmering through the holes in the doily and around the base of the flower.  Perfect!  

Tip:  If you've never worked with Glimmer Paper before there are two things you need to know.  First, when cutting the glimmer paper in your trimmer it works better if you flip the glimmer paper over and cut on the paper backing side.  And second, Glimmer Paper doesn't stick well to other card stocks or surfaces with normal glue or sticky strip.  It adheres better when you use glue dots.

 

Well that's it for today's post.  I hope you liked it and found the instructions easy to follow.  I'd love to hear if you've every made a blunder when making a card or project and how you remedied it.  Leave me a comment if you can, it really makes my day!

Happy Stampin'
Penny Tokens

Try Stampin' On Tuesdays Top Three Pick #179

Yippee Skippee!!!  I just found out my card for the Try Stampin' on Tuesday Challenge #179 was one of the Top Three Picks.  

This simply got my day off to a great start!  A big thanks to the Design Team at Try Stampin' on Tuesday and congrats to Diana and  Jan who were also in the Top Three Pick.  

Here's my card: 

Girl's Basketball Birthday Card...........Game On!

A lot of our friend's teenagers are involved in basketball, baseball, golf and soccer, so it's not unusual to get requests for birthday cards with an "athletic" theme.  

A few weeks ago on request, I made a birthday card for a Claudia a fifteen year old who's really into basketball and has great aspirations to earn a basketball scholarship when she goes to university.

Her mom gave me some helpful insight into what Claudia likes and doesn't like, which really helped when designing this card.  For instance it was really helpful knowing her school colours, bright blue and orange, and that she's not into frilly "girly girl" type cards. So knowing that ahead of time helped me to focus instead on the basketball and banners to capture a real sports style for her card.  I hope you like it.  I hear Claudia she was thrilled. 

Here's My Card:  

Here's my card and matching envelope.  I generally try to do something with the envelope that reflects the card inside.  I absolutely love this winged, swirly stamp from the Great Sport stamp set, so it was appropriate to showcase it again on the envelope. 

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Great Sport (R), Afterthoughts Hostess (R)

Card Stock:   Pacific Point, Whisper White and Tangerine Tango
Ink:  Tangerine Tango and Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.

Accessories:  Banner Punch, Itty Bitty Accents Punch (larger star), Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Calypso Coral Baker's Twine, Circles Collection Framelit dies, 2 1/2", 1 1/4"  and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Basic Rhinestones.

The Tangerine Tango card base measures 41/4 x 11 and is folded at 51/2 for a top fold card.  A layer of Whisper White measuring 4 x 5 1/4" was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder and then adhered with Tom Bow glue.  Before Embossing this piece I stamped the flourish stamp in Tangerine Tango in the upper portion of this layer. 

This center piece started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and a repeat stamping of the Tangerine Tango flourish stamp.   This piece was punched out with the 2 1/2" circle punch. This piece was then mounted on a piece of Pacific Point cardstock that was cut out with the 2 5/8" Circle Framelit.  Because the extended wings and flourishes were important to the balance of the card front, I was very careful to line up everything before mounting this layer with dimensionals. The Pacific Point layer was punched out with a 1 3/8" circle punch and then the basketball image was added with dimensionals.  The basketball was stamped on Tangerine Tango with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then run through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder before it was mounted.   Two small rhinestones were added to the outter stars on the image and then the larger star was punched from  Pacific Point with the wonderful Itty Bitty Accents star punch. The large star was finished off with a medium sized rhinestone and then adhered with a dimensional.  

 

Aren't these banners just the cutest?  They were punched out in Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango card stock with the Banner punch (my new fave punch).  I used a very small dollar store star punch for the small star centers.  I mounted the banners on a piece of Calypso Coral Baker's Twine with glue dots.  The bows were tied and then added separately  with glue dots.   

I had to turn the flourish image on an angle to fit it to the 5 x 3 3/4 Whisper White card liner for the inside of the card, but it worked okay.  I added the basketball with Tom Bow ink so it would lie flat.  The sentiment is from the Afterthoughts Hostess stamp set, which is retired. 

So I hope you enjoyed this card.  Earlier in the spring I made these other sports themed cards using the Great Sport stamp set and a similar style of card.  The details are in this post, just click here to take a look.  

A "girly girl" soccer card in Melon Mambo and Basic Black

A masculine soccer card that could be used for a teen or adult in Marina Mist, Gumball Green and Black

And finally I couldn't resist showing off this one which I entered in the Connie and Mary Sketch Challenge  CCMC213, where I earned a badge for being one of their top 3 picks.  This was one of my favourite card challenges this season, and I'm not sure why, but I think it was the DSP and colour mix.  At any rate I'm taking the liberty of re-sharing it with you today.  Details on this card are on this link. 

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens

It's A Boy

Fab Friday's design team took over the challenge this week from their awesome leader, Mindy Backes. Why? Well it came about because Mindy delivered a son, Ian Lee, on Tuesday, August 5th.  To honor Mindy and Ian, the design team came up with a little surprise for her by switching out the weekly challenge with a baby card theme challenge and inviting everyone to play along.  Mindy was super surprised when she found out.

Because I really like Mindy's challenges and her Badabing Crafting Blog, I obviously had to play along and contribute a sketch for her and her new little guy.  Congrats Mindy and welcome to your little one!

For this challenge I combined the need to make the "baby" card with a sketch from Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.  This is a rather interesting site where they hold blog hops and have three challenges a month.  On the first Monday of each month they hold a colour challenge.  On the second Monday it's a sketch challenge, and on the third Monday it's a scrapbook challenge.  They draw winners on the fourth monday of the month.  The August sketch challenge is what I opted to play along with and here is their great sketch outline -#SSINKCS12.

Here Is My Card:

I used a straight Whisper White A2 base measuring 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and scored at 4 1/4"  The first layer of Soft Sky measures 4 1/8"  x 5 3/8".  A third layer in Whisper White and measuring 5 1/4 x 4" was embossed with the Delicate Dots Embossing folder before being adhered to the Soft Sky layer.

I used the Squares Collection Framlit Dies to cut out my Soft Sky and Whisper White Squares for the design element of the sketch.  The three Soft Sky squares measure 2 " x 2" and were embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.  

The Square Collection Framelits die is a great new addition to my tool chest. It includes 8 layering dies with the largest scalloped square measuring 4 3/8" x 4 3/8".  Great value for only $32.95  #130921, pg 231 of the IB&C. 

I wanted just a slight tough of glam on this card so I added a 1 5/8" x 1 5/8" square of silver glimmer paper.  Remember that normal adhesive doesn't adhere to the glimmer paper so I had to use large glue dots to stick the next layer on.

Because I don't own any current baby theme stamp sets, I chose to use the rattles from the retired Button Buddies stamp set stamped in Soft Sky ink on the 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" Whisper White layers.  The edges of these squares were sponged with Soft Sky ink.  These rattles have a little dotted pattern on them so they fit in perfectly with my other dotted layers. 

Stampin' Up! has a great "baby and kids section" in their current catalogue and there are many great sets that would also work well with this card sketch, such as the little duck from Something for Baby, or the little monkey from Zoo Babies.  

The sentiment "congratulations" from the Sweet Essentials stamp set (r) was stamped in Smokey Slate ink on Whisper White cardstock measuring 2 6/8" by 5/8".  This piece was layered onto a piece of Soft Skye and mounted below the blocks with dimensionals.  I think this was the perfect sentiment for this card. 

I chose to keep the inside of the card fairly plain by not adding layers.  I simply stamped the sentiment "A baby is God's opinion that the WORLD should go on (Carl Sandberg) in Basic Gray ink.  I also stamped another rattle in Soft sky beneath the sentiment.  

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Button Buddies (R), Sweet Essentials(R), Occasional Quotes (R)
Ink:  Soft Sky, Smokey Slate
Card Stock:  Soft Sky, Whisper White, Silber Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Squares Collection Framelit Dies, Decorative Dots and Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folders, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing, Trimmer, Sponge Dauber, Big Shot Machine, dimensionals, adhesive, glue dots.  

I hope you like this card and will let me know if you like the design.  I also hope you'll drop by the two challenge sites to see the other submissions by the designers and participants, and may you're inspired to enter your own take on the sketch or theme.  Until next time..........

Happy Stampin!
Penny Tokens 

Paper Players Colour Challenge #208

This week I've played along with Colour Challenge #208 over at the Paper Players blog (PP208).  

This was such a hard challenge for me because I had a hard time with the colour mix, but I did eventually come up with a card.  

The challenge colours are Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride, Hello Honey and Basic Gray.  Alone, I like each of these colours, but together they just didn't work well for me, so it was a real stretch to get my mojo going. 

Another issue I had with this card was picking a sketch to work with.  I know, I know, there are so many great ones out there, what could be the holdup.  But holdup it was and sadly after I chose the wonderful sketch from the Paper Craft Crew PCCCS104, I wasn't able to finish my card in time to enter their challenge.  Even though I missed their linkup date, I did complete the card.

Here is My Card:
My card began with a standard A2 Basic Gray card base topped by a layer of Hello Honey card stock measuring 5 1/4" x 4".  I added a layer of Blushing Bride designer series paper from the All Abloom Designer Series Paper pack.  I stamped make splotches in Basic Gray and in Hello Honey ink with the spotted stamp from Gorgeous Grunch (retired). 

Instead of adding an actual banner such as the one in the sketch, I simply added a string of flowers. The three smallest flowers were made with the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and punched from Basic Gray card stock. Basic Rhinestones are mounted in the centers.

The larger flowers were stamped with images from the Petite Petals stamp set in Basic Gray ink onto Hello Honey and Calypso Coral card stocks. These images were then punched out with the Petite Petals Punch. I used sponge daubers around the edges to add a little softness to the petals. I actually stamped two additional flowers and punched out their centers with the 1/4" circle punch and placed the Calypso Coral center on the Hello Honey flower and the reverse for the Calypso Coral flower. The flowers were adhered with large glue dots.
For the rest of the embellishments on the front of the card, I layered squares cut from Hello Honey, Basic Gray and Whisper White that were cut out using the Squares Collection framelit dies.

I wanted the bottom two layers to have a bit of texture so embossed the Hello Honey layer with the Fancy Fan embossing folder and the Basic Gray one with the Stripes embossing folder. The sentiment " You Can Never Have too Much Happy" is from the Yippee Skippee Stamp set, and is stamped in Calypso Coral.

The final two elements on the front of the card are the Calypso Coral flower perched on the edge of the squares. It has a basic rhinestone mounted in the center for some fun, and a Basic Gray circle that was punched out with a 1 1/4" circle punch and then distressed with a sponge dauber and Basic Gray ink and the spotted stamp from Gorgeous Grunge.

The "new" Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack gives you 3 great little punches for only $$22.95

I used a masking technique for the inside layer of the card.  I cut a piece of post it note paper to measure 3 1/4" x 4 1/2" and centered it over the Whisper White liner piece which measured 3 3/4" x 5".  If you're using Post-It-Note paper for your mask, make sure to leave on the sticky part.  It will help secure the mask to the liner during the stamping process.

Once the mask was in place, I stamped three different floral images from the Petite Petals stamp set in Basic Gray, Hello Honey and Calypso Coral inks around the rim of the card liner. 

Before removing the mask I inked up a sponge dauber with Basic Gray ink and worked the dauber around the edge of the Post-It-Note paper.  Always start this process working in small circles from the inside of the Post-It-Note towards the edge.  When you remove the Post-it-Note you will have a smooth edge frame around your floral images. 

  

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Petite Petals, Remembering Your Birthday, Gorgeous Grunge (R)
Card Stock:  Hello Honey, Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride
Designer Series Paper: All AbloomDesigner Series Paper Stack pg 185 IB&C
Accessories:  Paper Trimmer, Petite Petal Punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack Two, Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals, Square Collection Framelit dies, 1/4" circle punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Sponge Dauber Fancy Fan and Stripes Embossing Folders,Big Shot Machine, Post-it-Note 4 x 6 pad.

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens