Believe You Are Wonderful Card and Tag / 2 Challenges in 1 / My Challenge #39

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday! I hope you're having a great week so far. I have the day off but it'll be busy none-the-less. I'm going to see some of my most favorite people ever. True Heroes. Then I have to go see the orthopedist to see if we can get my feet feeling better. For those of you that don't know I started running almost 4 months ago and was doing really good, running 2 hours/day, 5 days/week (in non-running shoes) & doing pretty good. Then I switched to expensive "running" shoes and messed my arches up. Yep, arches, as in both of them. They have been painful for a month now and just walking is uncomfortable. Even a round of oral steroids has not fixed it. I'm expecting steroid shots in both arches and right now they hurt so bad the thought of the shots is the lesser evil of the two. :(

Know what makes me smile? When a card comes together like you visualized (or at least pretty close). Know what else? Getting my card for the Nacho Average Challenge done early, even though it's a dreaded "color challenge". Top that off with being able to combine it with another challenge makes it even better. Here's what I came up with-

Encouragement Card featuring
Snowflake Soiree Stamp Set, Northern Flurries Embossing Folder,
Delicate Designs Embossing Folder &
Large Scallop Edgelet

I was able to use this for Nacho Average Challenge's Color Challenge #12-

I was actually pretty excited about this color combo. It didn't totally terrify me, always a good thing! I don't usually look at the DT's cards before I do my own, because I don't want to be influenced by them. For some reason I did this time and I'm really glad I did, because Tammy loves her some snowflakes and had posted a card very similar to what I had in mind. I wonder if she would be offended if I were to say "Great minds & all that?" Have you seen her cards? Fab-u-lous! I would love to have someone think my cards were on her level. :) So anyways, I knew I had to change my game-plan just a little and went in search for a new sketch to use.

Lucky for me I have Try Stamping on Tuesday on my RSS feed and this was just waiting for me. It's been a while since I was able to play with them so it's nice to get to join up with them again. :) Here's their great sketch-

I'm pretty excited with what I came up with, how bout you? The only thing I'm missing is the 3 brads at the bottom of the tag. I do however have 3 pearls on my card. Do you think the fine D.T. over at TST will think that's sufficient? I sure hope so. :)

I decided to make the tag a functional part of the card and I think it still looks pretty good even once the tag's been removed-

I started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. Such a nice color, I'm not sure why I don't use it more. I ran my Island Indigo layer through the Big Shot with my Northern Flurries Embossing folder and then lightly sponged the raised embossed areas with my Whisper White Craft Classic Ink and a sponge dauber. Initially I tried coloring a Whisper White piece of c/s by inking up the E.F. with the Island Indigo ink and then embossing it. It came out ok, but it just wasn't even coverage everywhere and well, you know how I am so I had to formulate a new plan. I'm really happy with how Plan B turned out. My Lucky Limeade layer was run through the Big Shot with my Delicate Designs Embossing Folder and then used my Large Scallop Edgelet to cut it out. A little L.L. sponging helped define the embossed areas a little more. This layer was adhered with Dimensionals so the tag could be removed a little easier. I needed something to keep the tag from falling off the card so I added a pearl to my bottom snowflake as a stop. Since I didn't want it to be lonely I added a few more, cuz I'm just nice like that. :)

Here's a picture of the tag with the card-

I used my Two-Tags Die and cut the bookmark out of some scrap Very Vanilla c/s. The smallest snowflake in the Snowflake Soiree set was stamped in Crumb Cake and Lucky Limeade. The sentiment was stamped in Island Indigo. Don't you just love that font? So pretty! A little sponging in L.L. and I.I. and some I.I. Bakers twine finishes the tag. I did  stamp the snowflakes on both sides so it's pretty either way.

Here's the inside-

The sentiment is from Fabulous Phrases and I thought it went really well with the sentiment I used on the front. I went a little crazy with the snowflakes on the inside, but I couldn't help myself. There's still plenty of room for a hand-written note so I wasn't too worried. You know what I didn't add? Not a bit of glitter. I know you're reading that twice to see if you read that right. You did. Not a bit of glitz or glimmer on this card. And guess what, I still think it's pretty. :) I don't have enough cards that I could give to a guy, so I left it off this one. However, I think this is one I'll make multiples of for an upcoming craft show and some of those will have a little shimmer.

Well, that's all I have for you today. What do you think? I hope you like it and I hope those fabulous ladies over at NAC and TST like it too. I love hearing what you think, so if you liked today's card or have questions about it I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a message below. I read them all and they really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons on here 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! I hope you'll stop back by tomorrow for this week's End of the Week Technique. I think you're going to like it. 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 storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the Rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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A Fun, Quick and Easy Celebrate-ion Card - TST Challenge 54 /My Challenge #9

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday. Just one more day till the weekend begins. :) I hope you're all having an Amazing week. I'm still sick but at least I feel like I'm slowly getting over this pneumonia. At least I have had the energy to design and stamp.

I've already done my "challenge" for the week, but I saw this sketch challenge over at Try Stamping on Tuesday, and knew I wanted to do it too. It was another one of those sketches that I just looked at and knew exactly what I wanted to do. Love when that happens, especially since it happens so rarely, for me at any rate.

Here's my take on the sketch-

And here's the TST sketch-

What do you think? I sketched it at work and went home and was able to recreate my plan so quickly and easily. Apparently though I sketched it too quickly, because I realized later that I missed the extra border under the lower strip and that the lower strip was supposed to go all the way across. Hopefully the design team over at TST won't mind too much.

I started with a base of Peach Parfait, the same as yesterday. Hard to believe I haven't used that color much and then made two very different cards with it, for two different challenges, in one day. Next I layered a Whisper White panel that I ran through my Big Shot with my Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder. Two strips of DSP from Just Add Cake (love that pack!), add some bright color to the front. 

For my flower I punched out pieces of Peach Parfait and So Saffron with my Large Scalloped Circle Punch. I tried something new with these pieces and, using my paper snips, made cuts in between each of the scallops and then raised every other one to make it look like individual petals. I layered the two colors on top of each other, so that you could see both colors and secured them with a brad from the Sale-A-Bration Ribbon and Brad pack. The flower was adhered with two dimensionals, for a little more elevation.

The sentiment is from Sprinkled Expressions, another Sale-A-Bration set and I used my Word Window Punch and Modern Label Punch  and some more dimensionals to make it stand out.

Here's the inside-

The sentiment is from the same Sprinkled Expressions set. I colored it in with my Stampin Write Markers in Peach Parfait, Baja Breeze, So Saffron, and Wild Wasabi. A strip of DSP carries on the design theme from the front. It's hard to tell from my picture (sorry about that) but the DSP is up from the bottom a little so that there is still some Whisper White c/s showing.

Like I said, Quick and Easy but I think it's so fun too! 

I hope you liked today's card and I hope it inspires you to create something today, maybe for a challenge, maybe a new technique... Remember the goal of this blog is to Just Try.

I hope to see yo back here tomorrow for my End of the Week Technique. It's one I've been wanting to try for a while now.

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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A Fresh Vintage Challenge- Try Stamping On Tuesday # 51 /My Challenge #5

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday. Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but this sinus infection has been kicking my rear-end. I went to the Minute-Clinic straight from the car-pool line Tuesday, got some Antibiotics and other meds, went home, took a shower and fell into bed wet hair and all (thank God, for curly hair) at 7:30 and didn't get back out till the next morning.

I am happy to report however, that I went home yesterday and made a card for Try Stamping on Tuesday's Challenge that I absolutely fell in love with!

Here it is-

And here's the challenge sketch-

What do you think? I think it's pretty close!

You always hope when you make a card that you're going to be happy with it. I mean no-one wants to make a card and say "I just don't know....." Although, we all have those cards, that we're just not sure of...maybe we needed to have done something else, what's it missing, it's just not right....

Not this one. As soon as I finished each step, I got more and more excited and when it was all done and I went in to take the picture, I was actually upset that the only people I had around to show it to was my two studio assistants, Duece and Bitty Kitty. ):

I  used a Base of Concord Crush. Such a lovely color, it'll be gone soon, enjoy it now and stock up if it's one you love. I layered it with a piece of Whisper White c/s. I used a mixture of Frost White paint and Rubbing Alcohol in a pump spray bottle to make my own Shimmer Paint and spritzed all 3 pieces of Whisper White c/s and allowed them to dry prior to stamping on them. It gives them almost the same shimmery sheen as the ones in our catalog.

I took the floral spray stamp from Sale-A-Bration's Fresh Vintage stamp set and inked it up in Wisteria Wonder and randomly (yeah, yeah, I know I hate that word, but it actually came out ok on this project) stamped all over my cardstock, turning my stamp and making sure to stamp off the cardstock and to mostly fill in the white space. I think the overall effect is lovely. It reminds me of French Toile (which by the way blogger spell check hates). I popped this layer up with dimensionals, and started on the next one. The focal layer is stamped in Concord Crush on the Shimmer White and I wish you could see how beautiful it really is. I Tombowed it onto a small frame of Concord Crush as well.

In between these two layers is my little surprise.

Isn't this Wisteria Wonder Organza Ribbon Scrumptious? What you don't remember seeing seeing it in the catalog? You didn't. I made it. I took one of my sponge wedges and inked it up and then rubbed it over our beautiful White Organza Ribbon and turned it into Wisteria Wonder Ribbon. You can do that with any color. How versatile is that? For the bow, I simply made sure to ink up both sides of the ribbon. I secured the single piece of ribbon over the strip of Concord Crush c/s across the middle of my card and tucked the ends underneath with snail. I simply secured the bow with a Mini-Glue Dot.

I mounted my focal point over the ribbon with dimensionals and the front of my card was done. On to the inside-

I kept it real simple here. I know that's hard to believe. The shimmery paper makes a real statement on it's own. Trust me. A simple sentiment from P.S. I Love You, and 3 little flowers from the Fresh Vintage set complete the card. I of course adhered the liner with Tombow to make sure it would stay with the card always, and then I did my happy dance.

What do you think? I hope it brings you as much joy as it brought me when I finished it. I am also happy to report that I am still on track with my goal of at least one challenge a week and would like to say Thanks to Try Stamping on Tuesday for such an Amazing sketch for inspiration. I will be using this card in an upcoming class for sure! 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. :)

I  hope you'll check back in tomorrow for my End of the Week Technique. It's a Valentine's Day card we did last week at Stamp Camp that the girls all did a great job with.

Card Recipe-
Cardstock-Concord Crush, Whisper White
Ink-Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder
Stamp Sets- Fresh Vintage, P.S. I Love You
White Oraganza Ribbon
Accesories- Frost White Shimmer Paint, Dimensionals, Clear Block C, SNAIL, TOMBOW

If you liked this card, You can get the set for FREE with a $50.00 purchase. You can shop my ONLINE STORE 24/7  



Till next time-

Remember- It's not about Waiting for the storm to pass, It's about 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