By the Sea, by the Sea

 Hello Everyone:  I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!  I have a treat to share with you, another fabulous card by Jan Francis!

We absolutely love the use of creative embellishments with our stamps!  Jan began by created a beautiful sky with a cloud template.  She then added a piece of torn tan cardstock along the bottom of the card panel to represent sand.  Then she stamped and embossed Creative Impressions' Starfish from our Stamp Set Y493 By the Sea.  

Jan also added some white embossing along the edge of the sand to look like waves.

"By the Sea, by the Sea" from the same set was stamped in black in the sky.  To finish this panel, Jan created a fabulous embellishment using Creative Impressions Antique Triangles in Silver (84452) with a Blue Glimmer Round (90904) and our light blue and white Baker's Twine (80710) which was wrapped around the back of the panel after adhering the metal piece to the right side of the card.

All that was left to do was adhere this panel to a white panel and finally a black card.  We hope you have enjoyed this card as much as we have!  Hope you all can make it to the beach this Summer!

Now it's your turn!

Susan

Spring has Sprung!

Hello Everyone!  Time to shake off the Winter Blues and celebrate Spring!  Here is an easy Spring card suitable for any occasion:

To create this card I stamped The darling bird, brand and leaves using our set Y576 Nature Speaks onto a piece of white cardstock.  I colored in the leaves, bird and branch with colored pencils.  I wanted to add some "flowers to the scene, so I stamped flowers from our set YCC203 Floral Sympathy Cards randomly around the card panel and colored them in with pencils.  "Thinking of You" from the same Sympathy set was also stamped in the lower right corner of the panel.  Always think outside the box to use different stamp sets interchangeably.  That way you get more use out of the images!  To finish,  I used a cloud stencil with blue chalk to add clouds in the background.  That way I would erase any of the chalk that was visible on my stamped images.  The panel was then set aside.

A lovely patterned paper was adhered to a black cardstock mat.  Before adhering the piece to a white card, I wrapped our 1/2" Seafoam with Brown Dot Ribbon (70411) around the panel.  I love to double up different sized ribbons, so I added our Brown/White Bakers Twine (80714) over the top and wrapped both pieces to the back of the patterned paper panel.  

I stamped "One Touch of Nature" from Y576 Nature Speaks onto a white cardstock scrap, inked the edges with blue ink and mounted it onto a piece of black scrap.  This piece was then mounted with foam tape over the top of the ribbons.

To finish, I adhered the panel previously set aside to the top of the patterned paper panel and then adhered the entire panel to a white card.  

Here are the stamp sets used to make this card:

Happy Spring and Happy Crafting,

Susan

Lilacs in Full Bloom!

 Hello Everyone:  I have another treat for you this week - a beautiful card by Jan Francis!  The timing is perfect as we have had a lot of rain here in Colorado lately and the lilacs are in full glorious bloom!

I love the way Jan uses scraps in such a clever way!  She began by using Creative Impressions stamp set Y402 Floral Anniversary Cards and stamping the lilac on a scrap piece of white cardstock.  She then colored in the flower and cut it out, setting it aside while she created the rest of the card.

Now Jan took pink, purple and green cardstock scraps and cut the edges out using various dies.  These were arranged on a white card in a pleasing manner and then a white die cut rectangular piece was added using the sentiment "You're the Only one for me in this Whole Wide World" stamped towards the bottom of the piece.  This was then added over the various colored scrap pieces.

To finish, Jan added the previously stamped and cut out lilac to the card towards the left side using foam dots.  The final touch was a lilac bow using Creative Impressions 1/4" Lilac Glimmer Ribbon 70264 added to the base of the flower.  Love it!

Hope your lilacs are blooming as well!

Susan

An Apple for the Teacher

 Hello Everyone!  School is wrapping up in so many places, so I thought I would post a cute apple card for the teacher.  So easy to make and sure to impress!

I began by stamping Creative Impressions Silhouette Apple stamp  YY216 onto a piece of scrap white cardstock.  To create this look, I "smooshed "three different shades of red ink directly onto the red rubber of the stamp along with some green on the leaf.   Then I took a blender brush and gently blended the colors together.  Before stamping I very lightly spritzed the stamp with water and stamped the apple onto the white panel.  Once trimmed to a size I liked, I use a ruler to create some "stitches" with a black Micron pen.  I also stamped CI Rubber stamp Teacher L122  directly onto the apple.  Then the panel was adhered to a slightly larger black cardstock panel and an apple brad (90620) was added to the top right corner of the panel.  Set aside.

To create the alphabet background, I used Creative Impressions Alphabet stamp set Y530 Multi Script.                             The beauty of these stamps is that the letters can be used separately to create words, but have you ever thought of creating a background with them?  All you have to do is flip the set upside down, ink the letters and place a piece of cardstock on top.  Light press the cardstock down, lift up and "voila", a lovely background!

I trimmed down the cardstock, added some red to the edges and matted the piece with black cardstock and set aside.

I adhered a patterned paper panel to a white card and then adhered my alphabet background piece on top slightly over to the left side of the card.  Now here is a fun technique inspired by our fearless leader, Janet!  Using our Red Jumbo Rick Rack 70835 and 1/8" Apple Green Grosgrain Ribbon 70525, wrap the green ribbon around the Rick Rack.  Doesn't that make a beautiful new "ribbon"?  I adhered this down to the left side of the alphabet background on the card and cut off the excess.

Now all that was left was to adhere the apple panel to the card using foam tape.  Easy!  I'm sure any teacher would be thrilled to receive this card!

I will be taking a week's break from blogging so I can rest in Florida!  See you all in 2 weeks!

Enjoy!

Susan