Five Ornaments in a Row for Freshly Made Sketches #458

Kim designed this week's sketch #458  at Freshly Made Sketches and it had me really thinking this week what I would create.  Keeping in mind the FMS clean and simple themes, I wanted to make a Christmas card with clean lines.  Here's their sketch:

Here's My Card:

I wanted to fill out the five rectangles in my design with either a small Christmas stamp image or use coordinating papers.  As luck would have it I found a 6 x 6 piece of retired Stampin' Up! Designer series paper in my stash that would meet my needs.  I really liked the very delicate holly and bauble patterns on this paper and the red and green colour mix was just what I was looking for.  Perfect!   

I was able to cut out five baubles from  the design that were small enough to work as my focal point for the center panel.  I decided to match up the green and red in t he paper design with Real Red and Garden Green card stocks and threw in a layer of gold foil between the two to add some elegance to the card.    

I really liked the sprigs of mistletoe in the background of the paper, but not having a mistletoe stamp, I pulled out my retired SU Holly Embossing Folder (one of my all time faves) and I think it worked perfectly in adding some interest to the green layer.  

Supplies:

Card Base:  I used 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Whisper White card stock for the base and scored it at 4 1/4".

Layers:  There are three layers on the card front.  The first is a 4 1/4" x 3 1/4" piece of Real Red card stock, followed by a 4 1/8" x 3 1/8" piece of gold foil and a 4" x 3" piece of embossed Garden Green card stock.

Ornaments:  I used my trusty 1" square punch to cut out the baubles and then added a 1 1/8" x 1 1/8" layers in Real Red or Garden Green.  The layering just brings these little baubles into a clearer focus and makes them stand out on the card.   

Stamps:  The sentiment "Merry Christmas" is from the Christmas Gleaming cling stamp set #150464.  I used my stamperatus to hold my scrap of Whisper White in place while I was stamping the sentiment in Real Red ink.  I find that this type of solid stamp looks best if it's stamped a few times to enhance the colour.  I fussy cut out the sentiment leaving a very narrow strip of white around it and then mounted it just below the baubles adding four mini dimensionals to the back.  I'm so happy that this set, coordinating ornament punches and designer papers made it into the Annual Catalogue this year.  This was one of my all time favourite Christmas bundles last year and I know I'll be hard pressed to part with it.  

Inside of Card:  For the inside of the card I cut a 4" x 5 1/4" panel of Real Red card stock and layered it with a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of Whisper White card stock.  The sentiment "May your days be merry and bright" is from a soon to be released stamp set called "Curvy Christmas".  Oh my is this a fun set and I can't wait to share some more samples using the dies and stamps from this bundle.  To finish the inside layer I stamped a small bauble in Real Red from the Christmas Gleaming set in the bottom right corner.  

So what do you think?  This was a super simple card to create and I hope you like it as much as I do.  What are your favourite stamp sets this holiday season?  Please leave me your comments, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator 

October Hostess Code:  MM72ZPM

This hostess code will end at noon on October 30th, so don't miss out.  If you have an order under $200 CDN apply the Hostess Code and I will send you a free gift.  If your order is over $200 before shipping and tax, don't apply the code you will receive your own stamping  rewards.  

NOTE:  My post was not included in the FMS #458 post today because I keep forgetting it closed at 3pm EDT.  I was thinking it closed on MT.  Hopefully the next time I do one of their sketches I can do it earlier in the week.  

Nature's Beauty Masculine Thank You Card

After several days of rain and being forced to stay in doors, I enjoyed a round of golf last Wednesday at the Surrey Golf Course. It wasn't overly warm but the sun was out periodically and the winds were mild. As the day progressed it got a little cloudy, but nothing could take away from being outdoors with great friends and having fun.   

After spending a day in the great outdoors, I managed to fit in some stamping time, and it was a no-brainer when it came to selecting a stamp for today's card. I chose Nature's Beauty a nine image cling rubber stamp by Stampin' Up! and I'm following along with Linda Callahan's great sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #457. *

Note:  As sometimes happens, life gets in the way and sadly my card was not linked to the FMS #457 challenge this week.  Regardless I hope you'll use the link and visit their site to look at all the great cards by the Design Team as well as the participants.  Awesome - some real inspiration.   

Here's My Card:

The card I made is a masculine thank you card for a neighbor who gave me a hand with some work the other day.   I chose the deer as the main focal image and scattered some trees and grasses in the background.  It was stamped in Momento Black ink on a 3" x 5" piece of Whisper White card stock.  Very plain and simple.  I layered this on a 3 1/8" x 5 1/8" piece of gold foil.

The card base is a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Whisper White card stock, scored at 4 1/4".  I added a 5 1/4" x 4" layer of Basic Black. For the next layer I decided to stamp the  large tree image from Rooted in Nature in Momento Black Ink to create a background. This is not a large layer it measures 3 3/4' x 3 3/4", and so you don't really see a lot, but it seemed to tie everything together.

The sentiment "To Thank You For All You Do" is also from Rooted in Nature and I embossed it with gold Embossing Powder on a 1/2" strip of Basic Black card stock.  I fancied up the edges with the new Lovely Labels Pick a Punch.  

Lovely Labels Pick a Punch #152883

The inside of the card is finished with a layer of Basic Black card stock that measures 5 1/4 x 3 3/4" and I added a strip of gold and black on the right hand side.  I wanted to write a thank you note on the inside panel so left it plain and didn't add a sentiment.

I hope you enjoyed today's card and take the time to leave me a comment.  I love to hearing from my viewers and getting your impressions of the cards and projects I make.   

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot!

Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator 

Hostess Code for October  MM72ZKPM

Thanksgiving .... Count Your Blessings

The year slid by and it's hard to believe but here we are celebrating Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada.  We along with so many others have experienced many sorrows, disappointments and changes in our lives in 2020.   But we still have hope and many blessings to count.    

Every day when I wake up I'm thankful for another day with my wonderful husband and family.  I'm thankful that even though I can't get together with my whole family today that we're able to share it with them by phone and face time.  I'm grateful for the food that will grace out table tonight, and most grateful that I managed to stuff a turkey and get it in the oven before 11:00am.  Quite a feat!  

I'm playing along with Jen Timko's lovely sketch #456 at Freshly Made Sketches blog, and of course my theme has to be about blessings and thanks.  Here's the sketch.

Here's My Card:

If you've followed me in the past you know that I really like monochromatic cards after browsing through magazines and on-line at fall decor, I decided to incorporate some of the neutral colours into my card today.  

My card base is an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 sheet of Sahara Sand (SS)  card stock and it's scored at 4 1/4".  I followed this with a 5 3/8 x 4 1/8" layer of Whisper White (WW).  

Before adhering the WW to the base, I stamped the huge sunflower from the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set in Sahara Sand ink and then cut it out with the co-ordinating die.  

Next I adhered a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of SS designer series paper, that's featured in a new promo coming out November 3rd.  This gorgeous paper is called Classic Christmas.  I fell in love with the designs in this paper pack as soon as I saw it and I know you will too.  

The promo is called Curvy Celebrations and it's available to Stampin' Up! demos on a pre-order so we can make all kinds of samples before it goes on sale.  I'll be giving you an update on that in another post so stay tuned.  

I featured two of the designer papers in the layers.  One is SS with delicate white leaves and the other is SS with tiny WW speckles.  Love them both.  

Classic Christmas DSP available in November 2020 as part of the Curvy Celebrations Promo

 

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This promo begins on November 3rd through January 3, 2021

  

I'm not sure if you can see the texture in the 4" x 3" piece of WW but I embossed this piece with the Subtles Embossing Folder. The rough texture just brings this layer to life.

The stamped image was so clean and beautiful, I almost didn't add the flower layer, but in the end I did. I sponged the SS die cut and center seed pod with SS ink add some texture and additional colour to it. It gives it more of a vintage look.

Tip:  Before adding adhesive to the back of the die cut flower layer I spent some time twisting and turning it until I found the perfect match up of the flower and layer.  Wow that was time consuming and frustrating.  So, my tip to you is to be prepared as this is a tricky flower to match up.  Trust me, before I use this stamp and die again, I will mark them with a marker so they line up perfectly.

I also cut out some SS leaves from the same die set and tucked them behind the flower before mounting it with Dimensionals below the sentiment tag. 

The sentiment on the card front,  "I am thankful for you",  is from a retired Stampin' Up! set called "Painted Harvest".  I love the script and use the sentiments from that set a lot.  I stamped it in SS ink on a scrap of WW and accidentally flecked some SS across the base of it. It was too small a mistake to start over, so I just left things the way they were and mounted the layer. 

I finished the card front by adding basic pearls jewels.  I love, love, love these pearls by Stampin' Up!.  For one thing you get 140 pears in three different sizes in a package.  The value is good, and the look of these pearls is very high end.  They give a classic feminine finish to any card.  A bonus is they can be coloured with alcohol markers to match any project.  

For the inside of the card I cut a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of WW card stock and 1" by 5 1/4" strip of the designer paper along the bottom of the panel.  I stamped the sentiment "Blessed" which is from the retired To a Wild Rose stamp set in Sahara Sand ink.  Beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed this simple design and card and that for those of you who live in Canada and celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend, you are blessed and have a great one.  

Happy Thanksgiving and Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot 

Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up! Demo 

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Virtual Get Together and a New Technique - Bubble Blowing

Do you ever wonder how Stampin' Up! Demonstrators create and share ideas?  There are many ways, and last week I was invited to participate in a Virtual Gathering with other Canadian demonstrators who like me, report directly to Stampin' Up.

Dale Hampshire our Canadian DM hosted the hour long Zoom Meeting along with members of the Admin team. What a fun and engaging meeting.  Not only did we get to meet other demos from our home Provinces and across Canada, but we received great tips and business information from Anne Granger, participated in a virtual card making session, had a demonstration by Lisa Henderson called the Bubble Blowing Technique and a prize patrol, all from the comfort of our own homes.    

Here's the sketch we were given a few days before the meeting. There weren't a lot of instructions or any dimensions, but we were given free reign to create what we wanted to and to pre-cut all our pieces before the virtual meeting. 

During the meeting we were broken into small groups in different virtual break out rooms where we chatted and assembled our cards.  After about 20 minutes we did a show and tell and then went back to the main meeting.  What a great group of gals I was placed with.  Here's the card I made:

My card features the large Sunflower from the Celebrate Sunflowers Bundle in the Annual Catalogue.  I've used Cinnamon Cider card stock for the card base, a layer of  Whisper White followed by a dry embossed layer of Cinnamon Cider.  

The beautiful sunflower paper is from the Flowers for Every Season Memories and More pack.  The sunflower image and leaves were stamped with Bumble Bee ink on Whisper White card stock and cut out with the coordinating dies Sunflower dies. 

The overlay flower was cut from Cinnamon Cider and Bumble Bee card stocks. To finish the card I added a white cotton ribbon, some rhinestones and I stamped the sentiment "Thanks a Bunch" on Whisper White with Cinnamon Cider ink.  

Bubble Blowing Background Technique:  

After the meeting I simply couldn't wait to try out Lisa's technique for creating backgrounds.  I decided I wanted to do create a winter sky background and create a scene using my new Freezin' Fun Bundle.  

Here's my finished card.  I've incorporated the background layer behind the snow hills and trees.  I used Bermuda Bay and Pool Party inks to create the sky.  The sky looks so realistic, and the clouds actually look puffy. What fun!  This technique can be quite messy but gets results that are so creative in next to no time.

Supplies For Bubble Blowing Technique:

  

• Water colour paper cut in 4 x 5 1/4 inch pieces
• Styrofoam coffee or Dixie cup(s)
• Re-inkers in various colours
• Dish Soap or Bubble Blowing Liquid (I used Dawn because that's all I had on hand),
• Straw(s)
• Paper towels

Create Bubble Mix 

• 1/4 cup of water
• a tsp of liquid soap or bubble mix from dollar store
• 3-5 drops of re-inker (depending on how dark the re-inker is)
• quickly stir up the mixture making sure all the re-inker is pulled up from the bottom of the cup and colour is even

I used 5 drops Coastal Cabanna and 3 drops Bermuda Bay Re-inkers.  

Stir it up so the drops are mixed together.

Have fun, blow some bubbles.  Remember which end of the straw you had in your mouth and which was in the bubble mixture..... quite important.  

Here's what your watercolor paper looks like after the first swipe across the bubbles.  Keep blowing bubbles and swiping until you've got the coverage and look you're going for.

Okay this was just the right amount.  It's soaking wet so needs to dry.  I used the hair dryer and then covered the piece of water colour paper with my largest acryllic block to make it lay flat while it was drying.  

I love how my finished card turned out.  The card base is Pool Party card stock followed by a Real Red layer.  The bubble background piece was adhered to the Real Red layer.  I cut two rolling snow banks with the curved edge from the Freezin' Friends Die set.

I stamped and coloured three trees from the Freezin' Fun stamp set and popped them up with Dimensionals.  I coloured and cut out the little Penguin.  He's simply adorable.  The sentiment "Dashing Through the Snow" was cut from the sentiment line paper in the Trimming the Town Designer Series pack.  

Here's a peek at the inside of the card.

You can see that sky background a little better in this picture. The Bermuda Bay ink really shows up.

I really hope you enjoyed my post today both the meeting information and the instructions for the Bubble Technique and the Sketch.  Hope you'll give one or the other a try - maybe both.  I'd love to see what you create, so email me a copy and I'll post it on my blog.  

Breaking News:

Before I end this post I have to let you know that I received an email from Dale Hampshire letting me know  my card was drawn in a random draw today and I won $40.00 to put towards Stampin' Up! products.  How wonderful is that?  I was yelling "Wheeeeeeeee" just like the little penquin and doing a happy dance over that news.  

 Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator