Friday, May 31, 2019

Stampin' Up Thinking of You

Freaky Friday is here! What do I mean by that? Well, over at 2 Sisters on the blog, they had a post disappear and had to create a new link for the last day of their denim challenge. I only know that because I went to enter this card for their challenge.

Don't you just love denim? I do for sure! I have denim shorts on at the moment, but I digress. Here's my card for today...

My card base is Crumb Cake, with a mat of Basic Gray, another of Very Vanilla and one of Night of Navy. We made this card at Barb's last night and she had all the squares cut out for us. All we had to do was to adhere them to the Night of Navy mat and then the mats to each other, them to the card front. The sentiment is from the retired Thoughts and Prayers. It is adhered with dimensionals. Because of the squares, I am entering my card at Try it on Tuesday: Make a Mark Challenge

Do you think this could serve as a masculine card? 

It was amazing that we were able to create cards at all. Her husband, Mike, grilled shish kabobs for our dinner and they were delicious! She also had sides of white rice, brown rice, salad and grilled veggies. As if that wasn't enough, she topped it off with homemade key lime pie.

I'll be back with three more cards that we made. It was such a fun evening. Thanks, Barb, if you are reading this!

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Stampin' Up! Tropical Chic for the Happy Inkin' Thursday Blog Hop

Welcome to another episode of the Happy Inkin' Thursday Blog Hop. Today we have a color challenge and it's one that I absolutely love.

Image may contain: text

I brought out my Tropical Chic stamp set because these colors scream "tropical", don't you agree?



My card base is Very Vanilla. I used the Beautiful Day stamp set for the sentiment. That set is carrying over to the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog. I used my Stamparatus to stamp the sentiment in the challenge colors.

On a strip of Very Vanilla, I stamped the flowers and tip of the frond using my Stamparatus with the challenge color inks. I had a strip of Granny Apple Green card stock from another project so I adhered that at the edge of the sentiment. Then I adhered my flower strip so that it lined up with the edge of the card. If you don't have a Stamparatus, you need one! I can help you with that!!

The Tropical Thinlits Dies came into play once I had stamped the flower and fronds (ferns? leaves?). The stamping was tone on tone. They are so easy to cut out when you have matching dies. 

For the inside, I used a sentiment from Picture Perfect Birthday, which is retiring in a few days.



The mat measurements are listed below. I rounded them off with my Detailed Trio punch, which is carrying over to the new annual catalog.

I thought pearls might look good in the center of the flowers so I added them. Thank you, Janet Wakeland, for your inspiration.

I'm playing at Seize the Birthday today.


and at Time Out #136.
.
I hope you enjoy the hop! Clicking on the "next" button will take you to Eva Dobilas. Clicking on the blue links below will take you directly to that team member.


Karen Finkle - you are here!
Eva Dobilas

Measurements:

Thick Very Vanilla Card Base - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored and folded at 4 1/4"
Granny Apple Green Strip - 5 1/2" x 1/2"
Very Vanilla Strip - 5 1/2" x 1/2"
Scraps of Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana and Daffodil Delight for stamping die cut images

Inside Mats are 3" x 4 1/4"; 3 1/2" x 4 5/8" and 3 7/8" x 5"

Partial Product List:

Stamparatus
[146276]
$49.00

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty Greetings and Animal Expedition DSP Birthday Card

Welcome to Wild Wednesday! I have a bunch of frames for you today so that I can play at Double D Challenges. Sharon Armstrong provided the idea of Triple Time Stamping using Designer Series Paper instead of ink. It's different, wouldn't you say? and clever too!




I brought out my Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper that is retiring June 3 in order to achieve her technique. She did a video on You Tube and I must go back again to see if she matched up her layers. Probably not as she was using flowery scraps of paper.

I used a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings and stamped it on a scrap of Whisper White. I sponged it with Shaded Spruce. I cut it out with the next to smallest Stitched Nesting Labels Dies. I snipped it to fit onto the same sized die cut in Shaded Spruce. Measurements for the panels are listed below. The DSP is adhered to the solid mats with Dimensionals.

Watercooler Wednesday has an anything goes challenge. Check them out!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you'll be back tomorrow for the Happy Inkin' Blog Hop.

Measurements:

Shaded Spruce Card Base: 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored and folded at 4 1/4"

Shade Spruce Mats: 3 1/4" x 4 1/2", 2 1/4" x 3 1/2"

DSP Panels: 4" x 5 1/4", 3" x 4", 2" x 3 1/4"

Whisper White Inner Liner: 4" x 5 1/4"

Scraps for sentiment and mat.





Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Stampin' Up! By the Tide, From Land to Sea and Well Scripted Birthday Card

Does the title of my post sound vaguely familiar? Good, then you are paying attention! I posted a similar card Saturday.

Today's card uses different colors and a fix for a mistake! First I'll show you the fixed card...


and here's the mistake, do you see it?



Yep, I wasn't able to line up the sentiment perfectly so it is a double image. Usually, I'm okay with that but not this time.

I used the Pretty Label punch to cover up my boo boo BUT I had to trim it because it hung off the bottom. I really didn't want to put the card in the circular file. And guess what? It's been sold already!

I used the new Seaside Spray 2019-2020 In Color, which will be available in the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog June 4, to stamp the images. I sponged with Pool Party and stamped the sentiment in Pool Party...the first time! It didn't show up too well on the Calypso Coral coral so I tried to re-stamp with Night of Navy! I do love the way the seahorse appears to be floating!

The retiform technique is undoubtedly my favorite way of creating, but enough is enough! Time to move on...but before I do, let's enter this card at A Place to Start!

Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific Tuesday.


Monday, May 27, 2019

Stampin' Up! Beach Happy, Waterfront and Picture Perfect Birthday Card

This is my second post today...the first one was for Memorial Day remembrance...hope you saw that one.

So, it's also another Monday Morning May Makeover Madness (I love M & M's)! This is the last Makeover Madness post for the year. I've exhausted the two months that begin with "M". If anyone will miss these Mondays, let me know in a comment because you might change my mind AND Monday will always start with M 52 times in a year (53 in a leap year) There are 32 more Mondays left in 2019. I'm beginning to sound like Cliff Clavin!


I just had to makeover my Mary's beach card. It went swimmingly well (I know she'll see what I did there!). By watching her video AND looking at the measurements on her blog post, I think it's a successful makeover. Mine ...



Mary's ...

 

For my patterned paper I used a 6 1/2" pack of Coastal Escape from KaiserCraft. That's is where the words at the top came from as well.



and for the side view of mine ...


Don't you just love the sand dollars, deep water and sea foam? I thought it makes the card beachy keen? (I'm keepin' ya on your toes, aren't I!)

The inside is basically the same as Mary's except I used a different sentiment from the Picture Perfect Birthday stamp set. The sun is from the Waterfront stamp set.



The Beach Happy stamp set, Picture Perfect Birthday stamp set and the Tranquil Tide color are all retiring June 3. The Waterfront set is current and will carry over.


Hope you have a Magical Monday. I have over 20 M & M's in this post and they are all calorie free...help yourself! 

Thank you for stopping by today and, as always, I appreciate your comments immensely. 



Partial Product List

Memorial Day

Good morning my peeps. I hope you are enjoying your three-day weekend in remembrance of those who gave their lives to keep our freedom. Although my husband and my father-in-law did not lose their lives in battle, they still remained loyal to our country and continued to serve people in other areas such as the fire company, ambulance squad, church, Elks, VFW and American Legion.

The community where Perry and I lived most of our married life always has a parade. Along the route, banners have been hung  in memory of those who served in the military. We had two made and I wanted to share with you one of Perry and one of his father. Two great men whom I miss immensely.



Have a beautiful day wherever you are, even if the weather is not bright and sunny like in these pics and remember to remember! My friend and teammate, Julie, has a wonderful post about today and it's worth your clicking on the link here.

I'll be back later with my card for today. Hope you'll join me. 


Sunday, May 26, 2019

Stampin' Up! Good Morning Magnolia Birthday Card

It's Simple Stamping Sunday! Remember the brown and yellow card that was cut up into squares using the Good Morning Magnolia stamp set? Here's a refresher.

Well, I decided that was too much work and created this one!
There's just something about black and white that appeals to me. Perhaps it's because of the 9 years of weekly piano lessons. Over at Crafty Catz, there's a monochrome challenge and at Creative Friday #231 there's an "everything in bloom" challenge.

My card base is 4 1/4" x 11", scored and folded at 5 1/2".

The Whisper White mat is 4 1/8" x 5 3/8". On top of that is a Basic Black mat 4" x 4". I did a dry fit to see where I should place my sentiment and filigree. Everything is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.


I stamped the magnolia on a piece of Whisper White 3 3/4" x 3 3/4". Then I cut it into 3 strips measuring 1 1/4" each. I adhered those to the black mat. Done! Hands up! Walk away! It'll only make sense if you watch "Chopped" on the Food Network.  

Tomorrow we remember all the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free. To all of them, their families and friends, we pay homage. Thank you to all who maintain that freedom.

I hope you enjoyed the simple stamping today and thanks for stopping by. I hope I brought a smile to your face.


Saturday, May 25, 2019

Stampin' Up! From Land to Sea, By the Tide and Well Scripted Birthday Card

Thanks for joining me this Saturday morning. Do you have your cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate with you? It's supposed to be record high temps here in southwest Florida. Iced coffee should be on the menu for me! So, to get cooled off and refreshed, I took a dive into the sea and look what I came up with...

To create this technique, I took a long piece of cardstock and placed it many ways, each time sponging heavily on the edges with Tranquil Tide ink. I drew my sponge into that piece of cardstock rather than the usual method of sponging. I sponged more lightly in the open space with Pool Party ink. Then I placed Post It Notes to block off each section and stamped the jelly fish and turtle images from the From Land to Sea; the shell, seahorse and coral images from By the Tide and the sentiment from Well Scripted (all retired) using Tranquil Tide ink (retiring June 3). I had done a dry fit so I had a general idea of what images I would use.The masking sheets had Rich Razzleberry ink on them from a card I made last year and the color bled into some of the sections. I love the way this retiform technique came out! The Soft Sea Foam and Tranquil Tide sea grass at the bottom is current and carrying over to the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog. It's called High Tide stamp set. 

I'm playing for the second time this month at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies. I'm the 166th entry! Wow are they going to have a tough time deciding on winners.

Allsorts is celebrating their 10th birthday and I'm wishing them a happy birthday for the second time this month! What a coincidence that this entry is the 166th on their site!


Our community has placed flags all along the medians to commemorate Memorial Day. My thanks go out to all of those who died in service to our country and to the families and friends who keep their memories alive.




Friday, May 24, 2019

Stampin' Up! Dandelion Wishes

TGIF and a long weekend for you, I hope!

Today I am CASEing a card I posted last Friday.

I still had the Dandelion Wishes stamp set on my desk, along with the masking sheets so I decided to go with Balmy Blue, Lemon Lime Twist and Very Vanilla for my color scheme.



I stamped the Dandelion and sentiment with Versa Mark ink and heat embossed it with White Emboss Powder. 

Again, quick and easy. Because it was "quick", I'm going to enter it at Just Add Ink #458.
And, because the dandelion is in full bloom, I'm playing at Creative Friday #231.

Last, but not least, I'm entering this in The Flower Challenge #32 for the heat embossing.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Stampin' Up! Magnolia Lane Designer Series Paper for Happy Inkin' Thursday


Welcome to our weekly Happy Inkin' Thursday Blog Hop. If you are a regular follower, you know already that you are in for a treat and that at the bottom of my post you will find the hoppers listed. If you are not a regular follower, you ARE in for a treat and I hope you will become a follower! Plus I hope you will keep on reading to get to the hoppers.

For my card today I have chosen to use the Magnolia Lane DSP (available June 4) for our sketch challenge, along with the Well Written Dies. This challenge was not easy for me. Oh, that's right, it's a challenge! Once I decided what paper I wanted to use, the card quickly came together.


I absolutely love this paper and I have chopped quite a bit of it. I adhered a 4" x 4" piece on a Whisper White card base that measures 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored and folded at 4 1/4".

I cut a piece of Mossy Meadow 4 1/2" x 1 1/2" and adhered that. Then I cut another piece of the DSP 4 1/2" x 1/2" and adhered that...all with liquid glue.

Using the Layering Circle Framelits Dies, I cut a scalloped one from Petal Pink and a Whisper White circle. I sponged the edges so that it would run into the white. I adhered them together and then to the card front.

Next I cut "happy" twice with the Well Written Dies...one in Petal Pink and one in Mossy Meadow. I adhered them together by sponging liquid glue on them (just put some glue on a silicone mat and dab your sponge in it). I offset the words a little so it would give added dimension. Then I adhered them to the strip and circle.

I didn't like how plain it looked so I colored three small Pearl Basic Jewels with my Dark Mossy Meadow Stampin' Blend and adhered them. It was still too plain so I used the tiny "for you" stamp from the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set. I am so glad that set is not retiring!

Don't you just love magnolias. Hopefully the Design Team at Creative Inspiration May Flowers & Showers does! I'm also playing at Through the Craft Room Door and Brown Sugar Challenge Blog May Flowers.

The inside is unfinished as I haven't decided whether to use it for graduation, a wedding, retirement or new baby. It'll be for whatever occasion comes first in my circle of life!

Speaking of circles, if you click on the "Next" button and continue to do that on each blog, you will return full circle to me! However, if you don't want to get dizzy, you can click on each individual name to go to that blog. No matter how you choose to do it, you will not be disappointed by what you find.
https://ilovetostamp.com/?p=6419

Karen Finkle - you are here!
Partial Product List

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Stampin' Up! Sail Away Stamp Set

Welcome to Wednesday! Today I brought out my Stampin' Up! Sail Away stamp set (I really hadn't put it away!) and my Beautiful Promenade stamp set (available now and carrying over, thank goodness!). 

Along with that I used the Come Sail Away DSP and more stamps from the Sail Away set. These products will be available June 4, 2019, in the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog.


This could be for a man, but there are lots of women who love to sail so I may use it for one who is really going through a difficult time in her life at the moment. But for now, it remains masculine for the challenge at Creative Friday #230 For a Man/Boy

This was so easy to put together. The DSP and card stock did most of the work. In Balmy Blue, I stamped the smaller boat on a scrap of Whisper White. I stamped the sentiment from Beautiful Promenade in Night of Navy. I used the Story Label punch (available June 4) to cut it out and adhered it with dimensionals.

I'll let you in on a little secret...the inside was supposed to be the outside! Thanks to one of my teammates, Karen Ksenzakovic, for the layout of the pieces! I will try to make it according to her instructions again. For some reason, I had a gap in the middle of my card, but she didn't. I must have measured incorrectly. It's a good excuse to make another card! This is quickly becoming my favorite stamp set.


BUT my pieces were a little too big and the mat would have covered most of that handsome DSP! I am happy to send you the measurements if you leave a comment with your email address. OR you can look at my profile and find my email address there to send a request.

I found a new challenge site. Thank goodness for Google Translate. 2 Sisters on the blog #27 has a beautiful denim mood board.

I hope you enjoyed my card and please do come back tomorrow for our Happy Inkin' Thursday Blog Hop.


Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Stampin' Up!Dandelion Wishes Get Well Card

Welcome to Taraxacum Tuesday! Do you know what Taraxacum stands for? "dandelion flower head composed of numerous small florets (top). ... Taraxacum (/təˈræksÉ™kÊŠm/) is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions." That's according to Wikipedia. I did not know that and the only reason I looked it up was so I could play at The Paper Players PP442 and follow the CAS and plant themes! Thank you, Laurie, for the great challenge.


I masked off the two sides and sponged the bottom middle section lightly with Granny Apple Green. I sponged the top part heavier with Balmy Blue. I love this technique. I removed the masks and stamped the dandelion from Stampin' Up! Dandelion Wishes in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Unfortunately, but maybe fortunately, I had some ink smudges on the base of the card (it's a one layer card). I could have redone the front on a mat and adhered it but I chose to use my Rhinestone Basic Jewels and I colored them with a Black Sharpie! Two covered the smudges and one served as the center of the plant flower :-)

Bingo, the card front was done. Thank you Connie Stewart for the masking idea.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Stampin' Up! Good Morning Magnolia Birthday Card

Welcome, my peeps, to my May Makeover Madness Monday! Do you realize there is only one more Monday left in May after today? Scarey, that's what it is and you know what June means, right? ... half way through the year...yikes! Am I Rip Van Finkle and fell asleep? Enough silliness...on with the card!

My teammate, Linda Richenberg, created a card with the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set that will be available June 4 in the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog. I decided hers would be the one I would CASE and make over. Here is my card...


and here is Linda's card...




Addicted to Stamps Challenge #174 Flowers is where I'm playing today. I'm competing against more than 100 other beautiful entries!

Just to refresh my memory so I don't get confused with the photo of Linda's card ...


After stamping the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I used my Dark/Light Daffodil and Dark/Light Mossy Meadow Blends to color my magnolia. The sentiment and filigree from that set are stamped in Early Espresso. The card stock is Early Espresso and So Saffron. 

Here's the inside...



The sentiment is from Picture Perfect Birthday Stamp Set, which will be retiring June 3. The corners are punched with the flowery looking part of the Detailed Trio Punch, which is current and carrying over. I am so grateful for that!

Here's an image of this set that will be available June 4 as a bundle. When you order a bundle, you receive a 10% discount. You might want to start your "wish list"!


Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll be back tomorrow.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin Alternative Thinking of You Card

Good morning! I'm so glad you are stopping by to see my creation today.

I used one of the note cards from the October 2018 Paper Pumpkin kit to make my card today.



I stamped a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of Purple Posy card stock (available June 4 in the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog) with the feather stamp from the kit. I used Highland Heather ink. I adhered the note card to it with liquid glue. I didn't think the post office liked these note cards due to the size but I have now learned that I was wrong! I can now save on my cad stock. I don't have enough, you know...lol.

I stamped the sentiment from the Paper Pumpkin kit on a scrap of Very Vanilla and cut it out with one of the Stitched Nesting Dies (available June 4). I adhered it to another die cut from the same set. That was cut from a scrap of Fresh Fig (retiring June 3).

Here are pics of when it is opened.


Perfect for writing a personal note or adding a stamped sentiment later.

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a restful Sunday. See you tomorrow for my May Makeover Madness Monday.


Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2411

Welcome to another PIP Challenge . Here is what I created for it... I just love the background digital from our   awesome sponsor ... This w...