Masculine Thank You / NAC #67

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Hey y'all. Happy Tuesday! I hope you're having a good day and an Awesome week. We've spent the last few days with snow and ice and are expecting another 2-6 inches today. YUCK!!! Today's card reminds me of Fall which seems like just last week since we were in the upper 60's. WOW! What a difference a few days can make.

This week the Nacho's have a sketch challenge for you. I needed a card for our Resident's going away  (I get to make all the clinic cards) and wanted to do something a little different. Here's what I came up with-

I'm so excited with how this card turned out and happily our Resident really liked it too! I've really been loving the emboss resist and I thought it made for a surprising "Pop" of color and a beautiful Masculine card. I don't know about you, but I find them so hard to do! Believe it or not this was a really simple technique. Sponge on different colors, Stamp in VersaMark and Heat emboss, Brayer your top color,  rub the color off the embossed areas and Surprise! you have a beautiful image. Let me know if you have any questions.

This week's sketch is super versatile & I can't wait to see what you come up with-

Here's a closer look at the embossed portion. I just love the colors peeking through. So pretty. Ah, I mean so Masculine. :)

I added a little embossed leaf to the inside for my little something extra and my card was done-

Don't you just love the font on the sentiment. It's from our Photopolymer set. L.O.V.E. it!. Know what else I love and am thankful for? This little beauty-

Nacho's getting so big! She's crawling all over the place and is even pulling herself up to stand like a Big Girl! 

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked my card and I hope it inspires you to play along with us this week and to maybe try something new. If you have any questions about today's card or the technique, make sure you leave me a message below.

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storm to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe-

Shan

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Gently Falling & Inspiration

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Hey y'all. I hope you're having a great weekend. I had a few minutes earlier so I went into my craft room and made a card I'd been wanting to make for a while. I hope you like it. :)

Where do you find inspiration? Sometimes I find it in the most unlikely places. A few weeks ago I posted a card that was inspired by the evening sky as seen from my bathroom window. Today I have a card that was inspired by a print at my friend's (and team-mate) house. The print is in her powder room on the main level and even though I had seen it many times, for some reason it suddenly just hit me that I could make something similar and so I did. Here's what I came up with-

Here's my inspiration- (sorry about the poor lighting, the flash kept bouncing of the glass)

There's a funny story that goes with this. I took the picture and then showed it to my friend Brenda. I told her it was my new inspiration piece. She said "Wow! That's really pretty." We had a pretty good laugh when I told her I hoped she liked it since it was hers. LOL!

Here's a close-up. I used Gently Falling which is still one of my favorite sets-

I started with a base of Always Artichoke. Next I stamped a piece of Naturals White with the French Script background stamp in Crumb Cake. I used a post-it note to mask a 2 x 2 area and sponged Soft Suede around that. My leaf was stamped in Soft Suede on a 2 x 2 piece of Naturals White c/s and then the edges were heavily sponged. This pieces was adhered with Dimensionals to give a little additional dimension to the card.

Here's the inside-

I left it simple to go with the overall theme of the card. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I hope you like it and that it encourages you to find inspiration in the things that bring you joy in your everyday life. Sometimes I forget that it really is the small things that can bring a lot of joy. I was really happy that this turned out like I envisioned it.

I love hearing from you and read all of your comments If you liked today's card or have any questions about it, I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a comment below. If you'd like to +1 or Pin it, I've put those buttons on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It;snot about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

End of the Week Technique (EWT) #8 Versamark Marker - Embossed Gently Falling Card

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Hey y'all! I hope this post finds you well and if not sunny and warm, at least dry. Here in the DMV we have rain with 100% chance of more rain throughout the day. Seriously?!? You couldn't even give us 1% chance of sunshine. SMH... Oh well at least it's not my 2 least favorite 4-Letter words Cold and SNOW!

On the upside as I walked in to work this morning, the sidewalks were strewn with beautiful multicolored leaves. I do have to say that's one thing we never got much of back home. There's even this big tree across the street from my office and every once in a while when the wind is just right, you'll see a little swirling and fluttering of the golden leaves as they fall. So pretty!

It seemed kind of appropriate for today's card since it uses the Gently Falling stamp set. I'm a little early this week with the EWT but I put this card in as a challenge entry and wanted to be able to link it up here so, I'll try and do an extra post tomorrow or Friday with the other challenge I entered.

Have you been to Try Stampin on Tuesday? Not sure how I stumbled upon CherylAnn's regular site, but I'm so glad I did! Check her sites out....but after you finish here. :-)

Here's the sketch from Try Stampin on Tuesday-

Pretty simple, not a lot of fuss. I had an idea for the sketch as soon as I saw it. Too bad it had the same centerpiece as the idea I had for the Stampin 411 challenge. What to do....What to do? You know my inner Pooh-Bear came out- Think, think, think, think....come-on you know you just said it with me in your inner Pooh-Bear voice as you read that. :-)

Well, I have to say my upline Robin Merriman is such a creative inspiration for me. I missed her Firehouse camp last week, but saw the cards and wish I hadn't because they were SOOOOO Amazing! She posted one yesterday, here, that became the inspiration for my challenge card.

Here's my card-

As you can see, I only deviated from the sketch by changing the circle to a square. I have to say though, I only did that because I didn't have anything to make a large circle with, however I really like how it turned out. I hope the Try Stampin on Tuesday people aren't super sticklers for not deviating from the sketch.  I used a cardbase of Soft Suede and layered that with Very Vanilla. The next layers have DSP from the Spice Cake collection. So pretty! The more I use this collection, the more I like it. The final layer has Pool Party added for a pop of color and a bit of the unexpected. I sponged all the layers gently around the edges with Soft Suede and used Tombow to adhere them all.

For the Spice Cake sections, I ran them through my Big Shot with my Lattice Embossing Folder and then lightly sponged the top with Soft Suede to help define the embossing just a little.

Tip- When you use an Embossing Folder that has a lot of impressions or makes really deep or intricate impressions, Cut your cardstock larger than you need to (you can always cut it down to size). It will shrink up! Ask me how I know. In fact for this card I embossed a 5 1/4 x 4 piece of DSP and didn't have much waste at all.

For my center piece I used my Gently Falling stamp set and this single leaf fit like it was made for my card. Thank-you very much Stampin' Up! I was soooo excited to finally get to use this set as a 2-step set. I used Pool Party, More Mustard, and Old Olive. I don't have the In-Color markers yet so I inked up my stamp with my Pool Party Classic Ink Pad and then using a q-tip randomly (UGH, Random-U know it stressed me out, too!) swabbed off some of the ink. I then used my Stampin Write Markers to color in the bare areas. I stamped onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla and then inked up the outline stamp in Soft Suede (it's becoming a favorite color of mine) and stamped.

For those of you that know me, or have been here before, you know how OCD I am about stamp placement. I know that one of the nice things about the 2-step sets are they don't have to be perfect, but can I just say I still had fits when I saw the placement wasn't perfect. I took a breath though and decided the Very Vanilla showing through was a nice color addition and left it like it was. Boy, it was hard though to not flip that scrap over and stamp again!

So, are you wondering about today's EWT yet? Well, I think the leaf would have been pretty enough as it was, but I wanted to make it a little more special. (As if a Blue leaf isn't special enough, Shan?)

Well, I recently got a Versamark Marker and have been dying to try it out. I wanted to edge my pretty leaf in Gold and I knew just how I was going to do it! (Or at least I hoped I knew just how I was going to do it)

I grabbed my Versamark pen which, by the way, is dual ended (so nice) and used the Brush-Tip to outline my leaf. (It's just like using the brush end of your Stampin' Write Markers). I went just outside of both images, whether it was the solid line or the colored image. I then coated it with my Stampin' Up Gold Embossing Powder and fired up my Heat tool and watched as my leaf went from pretty to OOOOHHHHH! (And Yes, I did my Happy Girl Dance, yes I did).

But, as pretty as it was, this Scaredy Cat wanted MORE! I wanted the whole leaf to be Extra Pretty and Shiny, so throwing caution to the wind (who knew how this was going to work out...was I going to have to scrap everything and start over with a fresh stamp....oh stress, oh worry...) I took my Versamark Marker back out and ....wait for it.... Colored in my Whole Leaf! I was so excited the colors didn't blur or anything. So I held my breath (figuratively not literally, because that would have been really hard *tee-hee*) and using my Clear Embossing Powder and Heat tool waited for the magic to happen. I was not disappointed! I watched it go from OOOOHHHH! to WOW! (And Yes, I did my Happy Girl Dance a second time!)You can't really see it in the first picture so here's another one-

Ooooohhhhh..... Aaaahhhhhhh! Right! So Shiny and Pretty! Not bad for my first try, huh? This is definitely a technique I will be trying again! How about you? It's so quick and easy and gives almost Instant Gratification (always nice!) and such amazing results.

I cut it out with my Paper Snips as close to the embossing as possible and the positioned it with 4 Stampin Dimensionals, one at the N, E, and W points of the leaf and one a little low middle and then used some of the side Dimensional to put behind the stem.

I did do the inside of the card, but it was getting late and I forgot to snap a picture of it. Sorry. It uses the sentiment "Magnificent!- The perfect word for you" in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla. The sentiment is from our Hostess Collection "Perfect Words"

Well, that's it for today. I hope you like my card for the sketch challenge and today's EWT. I hope you try it! I think you'll be very happy with the results. If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Card Recipe-
Cardstock- Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Spice Cake DSP
Ink-Soft Suede and Pool Party Classic Ink Pads and More Mustard and Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers
Stamps- Perfect Words
Embossing Powders- Gold and Clear
Big Shot- Lattice Embossing Folder
Others- Versamark Pen, Heat tool and Powder Trays, Tombow, Stampin' Dimensionals

If you need supplies to make this card or others you can shop in my Online Store, 24/7.

Come back soon and see what else I have for you. I have a Stampin 411 Challenge to post probably tomorrow.

Till then,

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

Gently Falling for Fall....Ha! Not Bloody Likely, but it sure does make for a Beautiful Birthday Card! :-)

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Hey y'all! How're you doing today? It's a beautiful day here in the DMV! Am I the only one who heard Mister Rodgers just then singing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, would you be my, could you be my, won't you be my neighbor?" No? Me neither then!

Did you get the title of today's blog? For those of you that know me, you know if it's below 72 it's too cold, so I'm not likely to be "Falling for Fall", be it "Gently" or any other way! LOL!

I had the morning off, got to sleep in an extra hour, had an interview for a part-time position at a Med-Spa (Botox has made me happy Very Happy, so why shouldn't I want to share some of that happiness with others? Do you know they are doing clinical trials for depression with Botox? I kid you not! Anyways, then I got to go have lunch with one of my Besties with DEA who I get to see way tooo little of, (Shout out here to Jessica if she's checking in on my little blog here), and got to spend a little time with some of my All-Time Favorite Heroes, some Very Special Agents with the U.S.'s Finest Law Enforcement Division, the D.E.A., Drug Enforcement Administration (not Agency we're very particular about that distinction, it's a sticking point actually). These men and women put their lives on the line everyday and this special group I met with today holds a very special place in my heart, and Jessica, well she's like the mother hen that keeps them all in line, God Bless her! After seeing some of my favorite guys, Jess and I got to have lunch together (score!) So....the morning was amazing and now here I am with time to blog and then do a little schoolwork before chillaxing and finishing up preparations for this weekends "Just Christmas Cards StampCamp", try saying that 3 times real fast. WOW! I really hope your day is going half as good!

Today's card is one that we did at last weekend's StampCamp. It was a Fall themed camp so I wanted to use my new Gently Falling set. I loved all the cards I've been seeing with it. Well, I finally had to break down and get it. One thing I like about it is, it's a Two-Step Stamp set but I've seen and done projects now with  each of the stamps sets individually and together so I feel like I have 3 sets for the price of 1. Hard to beat that! One of the girls that was coming to my camp said she had a friend with a birthday coming up, so I told her we could make a card for that, and here's what I came up with. I got the idea for this from France Martin. I just changed a few things to make it mine.

I have to say, I wasn't sure about the Spice Cake DSP when I first saw it, it just didn't scream "Fall" to me, but I am really loving it now. I used a base of Pool Party (who would have thought of this as a Fall color , but it makes such a pretty combination), and randomly stamped ( yeah, yeah, random) just the outline portion of the leave in Soft Suede. I then made a banner by using my Scalloped Border Punch on the edge of a strip of More Mustard and then layered another strip of Spice Cake DSP on top of that. I Tombowed them together. (You could SNAIL it if you wanted to) I cut the "V" in the bottom of the banner freehand although if you're good with using the edge of your square punch, you could use that too. I just knew that I, personally, could get a truer point freehanded. I then used some Soft Suede and lightly sponged the edges to give some depth. I Tombowed this to my cardfront just a little off-center.

I used the Petite Pairs Sentiments and chose the Happy Birthday one for this card. I like Love that set! So many options. Someone could make a Birthday card, a Thank-You card, even a Sympathy card or more from this one card and that sentiment set. So versatile, So fabulous, So easy on my pocket! (YEA!!!!!!) So I stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla cardstock and used my Designer Label Punch to Punch it out. A little sponging around the edges, a few dimensionals to pop it up off the banner and we're almost done.

Next I stamped the same leaf image from the card base on Very Vanilla Cardstock and then using my Aqua-Painters and my Pool Party Classic Ink Pad water colored in the leaves. Quick and Easy but So Striking! I then stamped the little acorn and colored it in with Soft Suede. I know it looks like I used two different colors on it, but it's just a matter of how concentrated the ink was when I picked it up from the tray and laid it down on the paper. I tell you what, my first-time stampers this weekend did this technique and did a Fabulous job!

Tip- #1-When watercoloring on regular cardstock it's best to use Staz-on ink whenever possible, because it won't bleed and the color won't muddy.
#2 - When using regular cardstock use as little water as possible, to preserve the integrity of your paper and your image.

The cutting out of the leaves and the acorn was the hardest part of this whole card. (Well you know, me & bow-tying are not the best of friends but this was still, if not the hardest at least the most time consuming.) We adhered the leaves with dimensionals and used the little side pieces around the edge of the pack, to pop up the little acorn. It's hard to see, but there's a little bow made from linen thread adhered at the top of the acorn. I stuck it on with a little Mini Glue Dot.

Tip- When you're using Mini-Glue Dots for something really tiny like this little bow, take it off the paper and roll it into a little ball and then stick your item onto it and then adhere it to your project. If you just stick your little tiny bow to the dot, there's still going to be glue dot showing on both sides that can then stick to other things, like your envelope or other cards..... Ask me how I know.

For the inside of this card, I kept it pretty simple. I just stamped the second half of my birthday sentiment and another leaf from the set and I was done.

Did you notice anything missing today? That's right! Tink did not make an appearance for this card. Not even a stray glimmer, or shimmer. And, you know what? For this card, I'm ok with that. I'm so happy with how it turned out and my girls were too. I really hope this set ends up in the full catalog next year, it's just so beautiful.

Well, that's it for now...gotta go study and then stamping time :-) I hope you enjoyed today's card and I hope you are enjoying your day. If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

If you need supplies to make this card or other like it, you can shop in my online store 24/7, HERE.

Don't forget, Stampin' Up has extended their FREE Big Shot giveaway until Nov 11. You can get a FREE Big Shot or $100.00 in Free merchandise just for signing up. No strings attached. Contact me for more information.

Also don't forget this weekends Just Christmas Cards StampCamp. Saturday 10-2. Make 5 cards for $15.00. Choose one of those or one from last week's class to be your Christmas card for this year and place your order from me and I will cut all your cardstock for you. All you will have to do is assemble them. We can even get together and have an assembly party one evening. It doesn't get any easier than this.

If you get a chance and you see a Law enforcement officer, Fire Fighter, EMT, or Military Member, think about taking just a moment to tell them "Thanks". They are truly Every Day Heroes and they rarely get the thanks they deserve.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you'll come back later this week for the End of the Week Technique. I've got something cute that's quick and easy, from last weekend's camp to show you.
Till then....

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It