I hope everyone had a great weekend! 🙂

Today, I have a series of cards I made for my Stampin’ Up! team (the RemARKables; the ladies I blog hop with every month). Our leader, Janet Wakeland, asked for sample makers to make projects using an animal stamp set for our “Furry Friends”-themed monthly training. I volunteered to use the “It’s Wild” background stamp because I’d never played with it before! I had to wait until they were shared with the group before I could share them here 🙂

As you know, I like to mix things up a bit and try to find untraditional ways to use stamps and punches 🙂 So, here is my lineup of It’s Wild cards:

1. Traditional: I used the It’s Wild to create zebra stripes for the background of a bouquet of balloons using the Balloon Celebration bundle with the matching punch! I used some of the Go Wild DSP, the Brights Backgrounds DSP, and a scrap of Melon Mambo cardstock (with a Wink of Stella!) for my balloons.

2. Wild for Baby: I used the background stamp to create a jungle for the monkeys to play in! The monkeys are from the Zoo Babies stamp set.

3. Eye of the Tiger: This card was made using the Circle Card Thinlits! I had a lot of fun making this card. I thought it was perfect for someone who was working on a goal or who had just achieved a goal! They had the eye of the tiger 🙂

Just a few quick notes on this one:
–use a mask when stamping the sides
–stamp the It’s Wild on the #6 circle framelits (counting in)
— for the eye: 3/4″ Delightful Dijon (carefully sponged a Tip Top Taupe circle in middle), a black circle from the Owl Builder punch, black large petal from Festive Flower Builder, and I used a Basic Rhinestone in the center to catch the “gleam” 🙂

4. Shimmery Pool Party: I really started to branch out with the next few cards. This card stamped tone-on-tone Pool Party and stamped the starfish using the Picture Perfect stamp set. I used my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen to make the ripples in the water all nice and sparkly!

5. Camouflage: This next care uses the background stamp to create camouflage! Believe it or not, I got this one take 🙂 I first stamped with Crumb Cake, then inked up with Soft Suede and just made sure I didn’t lay my stamp down in the same place. I used Mossy Meadow and the For Your Country stamp set to create the bottom piece.

6. Wild About You: This card turned out as my favorite! 🙂 I turned the background stamp on its side and voila! It becomes seaweed or coral, depending on what color 🙂 The little fishies I made using the Friends & Flowers stamp set. These cuties met and their kiss created little heart bubbles (Dazzling Diamonds glitter paper)! 🙂

I hope you enjoyed these and maybe got some inspiration! 🙂

Have a great week!
~Heather

P.S. Notice I have a new lightbox!! 🙂

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! 🙂 I just wanted to drop in and share the card I made for my team’s monthly “Project Sheet” group!

I don’t know about you, but I find inspiration everywhere, sometimes odd places (one time, I drew inspiration from seeing 2 bags sitting next to each other and I saw “Bermuda Bay” and “Melon Mambo” and i needed to make a card with those LOL I finally got around to it, and you can see it here.)

Earlier this week, I was standing in front of my dresser mirror, and I could see my comforter behind me, and I was like, “ooooh! I can recreate that on a card!”

You could use the “What I Love” stamp set (one of the free Sale-a-Bration offerings this year!), but I don’t have that one, so I went with the Botanical Builder Framelits for my re-creation 🙂

A full list of the supplies and some instructions are in this PDF. FEB_HM_Botanical Blooms Blues

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope everyone is feeling extra loved today, and maybe get a bit of chocolate 🙂

I just wanted to drop in and share this banner I made during the blizzard the last weekend in January (and because I made it for my Project Sheets group, there’s even some instructions! 🙂 and of course a supplies list) Aren’t I lucky my walls match?? LOL

There’s also a link to an article explaining the design principle behind “odds” (for example, why I chose to use “amour” instead of “love”) Here’s the link for you without having to download the PDF.

 

Instructions and Supply List: HM-Jan16-Amour Banner

Hope you enjoy!!

Welcome to February’s edition of the RemARKables Blog Tour!! You probably hopped here from Anne Matasci‘s blog!

Because Stampin’ Up! just slap outdid themselves in the holiday catalog and now the Occasions catalog with all the bundles, we’ve been focusing our tour on those! 🙂

I’m not sure if it’s just because it is so cold or because it was my newest bundle, but I opted to showcase the Sunburst Sayings and the Sunburst Thinlit die! I have yet to make a traditional sunburst card with it (using strips of patterned DSP), but I had a good play with it yesterday and today! 🙂  I’m sure you’re probably seeing a lot of Valentine’s cards this hop, but I’m just not in a very “Valentine-y” place right now, so…. sunshine and rainbows, it is! 🙂

First up is a near-CASE from the Occasions catalog pg. 25.

The first thing I did was to pick out a piece from the Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack to use to for my sunburst. Then I picked out a piece of the Melon Mambo Perfectly Artistic DSP (GET IT BEFORE IT’S GONE!! LAST DAY FOR THIS IS 2/15). I cut out a balloon with the Balloon Framelits (at the same time, I cut out the bow with Silver Glimmer paper), then stamped “It’s Your Day” on the balloon. Then, I used Versamark and white embossing powder for the “Shine.” Very simple assembly onto the Bermuda Bay card base! 🙂

 

I wanted to do something a little different for my second card, but didn’t know what. So, I poked around Pinterest today to see what I could see. Nothing Stampin’ Up! popped out at me, but I saw a card that inspired me. So, not only is it a tall fold card, and with a window sheet front, BUT– I used the NEGATIVES for my sunburst! I cut out 6 sunbursts in the following colors: Watermelon Wonder, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, and Wisteria Wonder. I grabbed a large scrap of a window sheet and laid it down on top of the sunburst cut out, and used that to guide laying out my pieces! It was actually very easy! My card is 3-3/4″ x 5.5″ (bc that just happened to be the size of my window sheet LOL). I stamped my sentiment on some shimmery white cardstock and punched it out with a 1-3/4″ circle punch and popped it up with some dimensionals. After I already took a pic of it, I decided to give it a wink– a Wink of Stella, that is! I brushed every other ray with clear. If you’ve never played with Wink of Stella– you must!! I makes me feel like a fairy!!! Spreading sparkle on anything and everything! 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed what I have here for you today! 🙂 My lightbox came today, but I was too tired to put it together when I got home, so you’ll see pics next time! 🙂 Also, stay tuned for a craft corner tour! 🙂 It got reorganized and it is SOO much more efficient for me now! 🙂

Hop on over to Ann to see what she has for you tonight! 🙂

Nancy Amato
Melissa Bolinger
Tamra Davis
Arden Dougan
Tracie Langley
Anne Matasci
Heather Mathieson – YOU ARE HERE
Ann Monhollen
Audra Monk
Maria Pane
Michele Reynolds
Pam Staples

Happy Snowy Saturday!!

I am happy to be snowed in–at least it gives me a legit reason for not going anywhere on the weekend for a change LOL

I wanted to share with you a little project I put together for a few Christmas gifts (and made a few today in fact for some coworkers since I have no excuse of “I didn’t have time” HAHA).

Here are the ones I made today that used the Love Blossoms DSP stack:

And here’s another I made last weekend to give to a friend whose birthday was yesterday (you can’t see, but the Hello Honey butterfly has been given a glimmer bath with the new Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen).

I’m part of a group (within the RemARKables that I do the blog hop with every month) where the demonstrators come up with a project and provide project sheets for  all of us to share with our customers. This was my December project.

Here is the PDF with the dimensions and instructions on how to complete this! There are 2 more DSP/color combinations in the PDF as well

Stand Up Butterfly Calendar

The idea wasn’t original (I’ll give props to Kelly Kent for the inspiration), but as the OP lives in Australia, and their paper size is altogether different, I had to come up with the dimensions to use for our US cardstock size! (as you can see, we have a little less space to work with to show off the beautiful DSP 😥 but I made it work! 🙂 )

Enjoy!!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a great holiday season and are starting the new year full of hope and promise 🙂 Since my 2015 did NOT end as I’d hoped, 2016 can only be better and I’m trying to be optimistic! 🙂

Welcome to the first RemARKables Blog Tour of 2016! You probably hopped here from Anne‘s blog. If you get lost, all the links are at the bottom! 🙂

One of my favorite parts of the Stampin’ Up! year (next to the new annual catalog and the reveal of new In Colors) is the start of the Occasions catalog and Sale-A-Bration (SAB)! 🙂 They always just outdo themselves!!

This month, we’re featuring bundles in the new catalog. I didn’t think I was going to be able to participate this month, and one of the ladies graciously sent me a few items! 🙂 But, I wound up having a little extra to splurge on 2-Day shipping on my last order, so my new goodies arrived JUST in the nick of time!! 🙂

The first thing that drew my eye in the new catalog that I HAD to have right away is the Botanicals bundle. For the first time, SU! has bundled a stamp set, coordinating framelits, AND matching DSP all in one save-you-some-dough-cheese bundle! 🙂 How awesome is that?! 🙂  Most of the sneak peeks I’ve seen have used this set in the colors of the DSP, but I’ve always marched to the beat of my own drum a little bit and I had branch out.  I was cleaning my craft space (more like reorganzing! I’ll share pictures when it’s all done!) over the weekend, and I saw a scrap of some of the first DSP I ever fell in love with years ago– it was called Island Oasis.

I just LOVE tropical flowers, so I opted to sort of recreate this paper using the same colors! Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight (the original paper used So Saffron). I heat embossed the centers in white. I was so happy it worked just right! The sentiment is from Perfect Pairings (one of the SAB offerings this year). I’m not so good with masking, so I just stamped and cut them out individually and then layered– I guess I should practice my masking skills! 🙂 Oh… and looky-there– the Pool Party Glitter Ribbon!! It is GORGEOUS!! It just reminds me of a sparkling water on a sunny day! 🙂

Next up, I found this little frame (from IKEA) when I was cleaning over the weekend and decided to tear off what was on it and use my new stuff! It has a piece of paper from the retired Painted Blooms DSP, HOWEVER– SU! in their infinite wisdom, added the Brushstrokes stamp set to our collection, and you can easily create your own striped DSP that looks just like it! My color combination came about because I wanted to use the Watermelon Wonder Striped Satin Ribbon, so I chose colors around that, but I wound up being unable to work it in! So, I just used the Pool Party Glitter Ribbon again (well, actually the above project was using it “again”– I created the frame first 🙂 ). Colors are Watermelon Wonder, Pool Party, and Crushed Curry. And I used lots of Glue Dots!

Last up is a project made with SAB products– both available for a limited time only!! So get them while the gettin’s good! 🙂 This card is for a friend who just started his first real-world job post-military at the FAA. I wanted to congratulate him! 🙂 It uses the Sky is the Limit (SAB) stamp set and the Perfectly Artistic DSP (SAB). I put it on a Soft Sky card base. The sentiment was stamped really close to the edge of the paper, but never fear– I just snipped the top off of the piece to match (after running it through the Big Shot with the Deco Labels Framelits)

I hope you’ve enjoyed what I had for you today! Ann-without-an-e had to take a break this month, between holidays and feeling under the weather, but I’m sure she’ll be back next month! 🙂 So, you’ll be hopping along to Ms Audra today!

Nancy Amato
Melissa Bolinger
Tamra Davis
Arden Dougan
Tracie Langley
Anne Matasci
Heather Mathieson <- You Are Here
Audra Monk
Maria Pane
Michele Reynolds
Pam Staples
 Janet Wakeland

Okay, so this is NOT the typical kind of spoiler alert, but I just wanted to share a bit about a couple of pieces I made for Christmas for my nieces and nephews who I LOVE to SPOIL! 🙂 LOL see what I did there? 😉 I’m the spoiler HAHA

First, I have to be a proud Auntie and show pictures of the adorable little rugrats with my Peepaw (Left to Right: A is 14 mos., E is 12 mos., G is 2 yrs, and J is almost-4 yrs). Trying to get this picture made was a bit like herding cats, so we all just stood there clicking the camera button over and over–I only wish we’d had a video, though the 6 or 7 pics I have on my phone make for an entertaining flip book!  The little in the middle (aka my Mini Me) was having none of it…

The first project I did for the girlies was the most time-consuming, and nearly ZAPPED all my mojo for a lot of last year after it was complete (I actually made 5 of them!). I did all the cutting and piecing at my RemARKables team’s semi-annual retreat, but I did the planning at home, deciding what colors and how many pieces I needed… Amazing that somehow THIS:

Became THIS! (And yes, this configuration is the only way all 13 would go! LOL):

They are all the princesses produced by “The Mouse.” Can you name them all??? (Answer key at the bottom 😉 also individual thumbnails you can click to take a closer look) The frame above is pre-glitterblasting! I spray painted the frames with Krylon Glitter Blast in Diamond Dust as if there wasn’t enough sparkly inside the frame LOL Lots of Dazzling Details were used on this project!

On this kind of project, it’s just the added little details that really “make” it!  My cousin (the father of the middle little above) was actually the one most fascinated by the project, especially Pocahontas. When I was working on them, there were 70 or so other ladies in the room, and I don’t even remember who or why, but someone brought me a container of seashells, and I was able to add that to Pocahontas’s necklace for the perfect touch (a rhinestone just wasn’t quite right); it also fascinated him that I hand-snipped the fringe on her dress!

I was inspired by several different punch art pieces out there, but I didn’t CASE any one design/er or follow any tutorials. I often went to the actual cartoon images themselves for ideas! The base for all them of course comes from the retired Dress-Up Framelits (I can’t be Elsa and “Let It Go” HAHA)

The next little project (same 12″x 12″ frame, wholly different content!) was for the almost-4yr old who started PreK-3 this year! 🙂 This uses 2 current stamp sets, Layered Letters and No Bones About It. It is inspired by the frame featured on pg. 39 of the 2015-16 Annual Catalog, but as per usual, I had to “kick it up a notch!” BAM! (a la Chef Emeril LOL).

I used dimensionals to pop up the dinosaurs (these frames are shadow boxes, so why not?!), added fussy-cut leaves (one of which was to hide an ink “shadow” 😉 ), added footprints around the edges, and added the cute little palm tree at the bottom! Look closely:

I used the Perfect Pines Framelits to add a little extra dimension! 🙂

Thanks for letting me share! I hope you enjoyed it! 🙂

Princess “answer key”:: Top L to R: Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (Little Mermaid), Jasmine (Aladdin), Rapunzel; Middle L to R: Anna, Elsa (both from Frozen), Merida (Brave; all the curly red hair!), Mulan, Tiana (Princess and the Frog); Bottom L to R: Snow White, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Belle (Beauty and the Beast)

~Heather

Hello, Everyone!

Have you got all your Christmas shopping done?! I’m ready to roll home to SC to see relatives with a backseat full of gifts, mostly for nieces and nephews, but a couple for the ladies in my family as well 😉

One of the people I will get to see next week is my niece who turns 1-yr old TODAY!! I haven’t gotten to meet her yet 😦 She and her parents (my cousin and his wife) live in Alabama, so it’s a fer piece to for either of us to travel.

Anyway… so, she turns a year old today, so on her birthday which also falls on Throwback Thursday, I thought I’d share the little project I made for her parents’ gender reveal party! They had a “Prince or Princess” theme, and I’d just gone to get my nails done at a salon in Old Town Alexandria (yay, Groupon!) and their logo stuck in my head! So, I printed it out, put it behind a piece of our Designer Vellum, and adhered circles in the different sizes (including a few sizes SU! doesn’t carry that I was able to track down; I think I just needed a 3/8″, a 5/8″, and a 7/8″ circle that wasn’t scalloped to make this). These are 8-1/2″ x 11″ frames for reference.

And here is the baby announcement I made for them (isn’t she just precious?!):

 

Well, that’s all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

~Heather

Welcome welcome welcome to the LAST RemARKables Blog Tour of 2015!!! This has been a crazy year for me, and I just cannot believe how it has flown by!

You probably hopped here from Anne with an E (to give a nod to Anne of Green Gables and L.M. Montgomery who had a “birthday” late last month 🙂 ). But if you get lost or want to go back to somewhere on the tour, all the links are at the bottom.

This month we’re still focusing on bundles and are doing “last minute Christmas.” So I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of gorgeous Christmas cards! 🙂

The bundle I chose, Peaceful Pines, just arrived on Monday, so this is the first time I’ve used the stamp set and framelits. I wasn’t originally going to get this one because we have the Festival of Trees bundle, too, but I just saw too many great things made with it that I finally broke down and got it and am THRILLED it’s hanging around for awhile 🙂 Both of my cards are super easy and can be done at the last minute (ask me how I know 😉 )

First up is a traditional green and red Christmas card. Very quick and easy, too! 🙂 I embossed white on Mossy Meadow, then cut it out using the framelits. I wanted to use my new Merry Moments DSP stack. One of the things I love about Stampin’ Up!’s papers is that a) they’re double-sided and b) they usually put two coordinating sides together! 🙂 So I took advantage of someone else doing the thinking for me! I cut out an oval in the middle of the Cherry Cobbler DSP layer, and flipped the cut out over to make the plaid side peek through! Adhered my tree with some Dimensionals, and done…. orrrr not! I thought it needed just a little something else, so I grabbed some Always Artichoke Candy Dots (not a perfect match, but almost! 🙂 )

Next is a little fancier card. I wanted to use my new Winter Wonderland Designer Vellum stack that also came Monday, so I flipped through it until I found one that had gold on it and was a happy medium between busy and clean. I adhered it to some Whisper White cardstock and cut out a Gold Foil tree. And of course, that just couldn’t be it (though it would’ve worked)! I put the gold tree on a white oval to help it stand out just a little more  (note I used the oval that was just slightly narrower than my tree because I didn’t want too much blank white showing) and grabbed a piece of Gold Satin ribbon (the Gold Glitter Ribbon would’ve worked, too, but even though I know it’s gorgeous, somehow I keep finding other things to buy LOL).

I hope you enjoyed what I had for you tonight! I am cooking up a couple of other projects that I hope to share soon, so stay tuned 🙂

Hop on over to Ann without an E to see more Christmas gorgeousness!

Nancy Amato
Melissa Bolinger
Tamra Davis
Arden Dougan
Tracie Langley
Anne Matasci
Heather Mathieson <– You are Here
Ann Monhollen
Audra Monk
Maria Pane
Michele Reynolds
Pam Staples
Janet Wakeland

Welcome to another RemARKables Blog Tour!! You probably hopped here from the fabulous Anne Matasci!

This month, we’re still focusing on bundles– Stampin’ Up! has put together SO many wonderful bundles in the holiday catalog, that it’s hard to choose! 🙂

My favorite bundle from the catalog HAS to be the utterly adorable Acorny Thank you bundle that includes the Acorn Builder punch! If you don’t believe me, check out my Thanksgiving/Fall Pinterest board LOL

The first card came to me yesterday and was thrilled when it came together today like I envisioned! First, I created a Whisper White base using the Extra Thick cardstock! This helps give a heavy front like I have a sturdier base and it can stand up 🙂 To see which size from the Circles Collection Framelits I needed, I just punched out 2 acorns and laid them down, selected a circle that fit around them, then ran the card base through the Big Shot. Then, I punched out a bunch of Chocolate Chip acorns and started layering! I used my bone folder to curl up the edge. I kind of wanted to give the impression of a tree trunk with that bark you can kind of peel off. The acorns are the squirrel’s stash for the winter! 🙂  Okay, so perhaps the squirrel didn’t… well… squirrel away 😉 the gold ribbon HAHA The acorns are also inside the card along with the sentiment.

After I finished that card, I just sat and stared at the extra acorns I’d punched out. I REALLLY wanted to come up with something clever to do with them for a Christmas theme! I stared and stared and stared… and stared some more 😉 Then it came to me– flip them over and use them as bells! The song “Silver Bells” came to me, so I grabbed my Silver Foil cardstock, punched out 2 bells, turned them over, then just snipped the acorn tip off! Voila! Silver bells! The “hardest” part of this card was snipping the extras off the Spider Web doily to make a snowflake… I think I cut too much off, but it’s still okay. By the way! Check out Stampin’ Up!’s video on what to do with the leftover Spider Web doilies now that Halloween has passed! I went to Sassy Salutations for my greeting and embossed it in silver. And of COURSE, I had to use my Dazzling Details to add some sparkly frosting on the snowflake and bells 🙂

Well, I hope you have enjoyed what I have for you today!

Hop on over to the talented Audra Monk! (All links are below in case you get lost 🙂 )

Nancy Amato
Melissa Bolinger
Arden Dougan
Tracie Langley
Anne Matasci
Heather Mathieson <– You Are Here
Audra Monk
Maria Pane
Michele Reynolds
Pam Staples
Janet Wakeland