Today I’m going to share the first of the cards I mailed this week.  I used the Lizzie Anne Designs Weekly Sketch Challenge #103 layout and one of my favorite LAD stamp sets, Party Animals. I paper pieced the bird’s party hat using a scrap of the designer paper, so he coordinates with the rest of the card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Party Animals (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Naturals Ivory (Stampin’ Up!); designer paper from “Blush” 6″ x 6″ pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: red grosgrain ribbon (Making Memories); Watercolor Wonder Crayons (Stampin’ Up!); Cutterbee scissors

I did make a card recently to send to a friend.  She’s a wonderfully unique person and I was hoping to represent her individuality with the red butterfly, standing out among the brown ones.  I hope she realizes that she is every bit as special as I think she is.

Supplies:
Stamps: Priceless, Spring Garden (Stampin’ Up!); Garden Inspirations (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Naturals Ivory (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Cutterbee scissors, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Today’s card shows the design I’m probably going to use for the resource teachers, aides, cafeteria workers, and other school workers who don’t have a homeroom class.  This particular card was meant to be masculine, but it would be super easy to change the patterned paper and color scheme to something more feminine.  The layout is cased from a card here; I just added a little more ribbon and changed the shape of the sentiment panel.  Thanks for the inspiration, Taylor!

Supplies:
Stamps: Birthday Wish (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: white Paper Basics (Papertrey Ink); Going Gray and Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up!); “Buckle” patterned paper from Boxer 6″ x 6″ pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: navy grosgrain ribbon, mini corner rounder (Stampin’ Up!); rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies (Nestabilities)

I have a little confession to make about today’s card. I actually made the focal point several years ago.  Like probably 5 years.  Really.  It’s been sitting around, and I came across it last month and decided I’d finally put it to use on my parents’ anniversary card.  I stamped the “congratulations” on it and trimmed it up and matted it and got it on a card base, and ta-da… card done.

So how did I create it?  It’s honestly not quite as difficult as it might look.  It’s a technique that I’ve heard described as “palette stamping.”  I used a large solid rectangle stamp for the base.  I applied pigment ink directly to the stamp in random fashion.  (Hint: the “cat’s eye” or petal-shaped ink pads work better for this than a full-sized ink pad.)  Next I inked the large and medium shell stamps with dye ink and stamped them directly onto the pigment inked-up rubber.  Then I stamped onto the white cardstock.  Lastly, I added the little shell images with dye ink.

Now that doesn’t sound too hard, does it?  Hey, if I can do it, so can you.  :)  If you decide to try this version of palette stamping, please add a comment including a link to your creation so I can see it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Stipple Shells (Stampin’ Up!); Large Straight-Edge Rectangle (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Really Rust dye ink (Stampin’ Up!); Dune, Harbor, and I’m not sure of the other color of pigment ink (ColorBox)

This is the birthday card my family sent my mother-in-law this week.  The layout was inspired by a card I’d seen in the gallery at Splitcoaststampers. I got the idea for the color scheme from my old Stampin’ Up! Fiesta spectrum pad.  I stamped off the blocks twice on a scrap piece of paper before stamping them on the cardstock. Cutting out the butterflies was a bit of a faff, but I really like the 3-D effect I achieved by slightly bending their wings.

I didn’t realize it until I was watermarking the photo, but this card does a good job of comparing two different brands of white cardstock.  I used Stampin’ Up’s Whisper White for the top layer of the card, and Papertrey Ink’s Paper Basics white cardstock for the card base.  There’s definitely a difference in the white-ness.  Can you see it too?

Supplies:
Stamps: Priceless, Sincere Salutations (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Summer Sun, Ballet Blue (Stampin’ Up!); white Paper Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Summer Sun, Real Red, Marvelous Magenta, Ballet Blue (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Stamp-a-ma-jig; Cutterbee scissors

I’ve mentioned before that I make cards for our elementary school’s PTA Board to send.  Most often I create cards for faculty members’ birthdays, but I’ve also sent cards to teachers who have had a death in their family.  I’ve also made cards for the retiring teachers.

This card was sent to the family of a student who died in an automobile accident earlier this month.  She was only 9 years old and would have been in fourth grade this coming school year.  I didn’t know this girl very well, but she seemed to be a good student and a well-behaved child, interested in learning and making those around her happy. 

The girl’s obituary stated that her favorite color was pink, so that’s how I arrived at my color scheme.  I colored the image stamp with markers to get the varied shades of pink and green. 

As much as I enjoy making cards, I hope I never again need to make one for this reason.

Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers, Linen (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Pretty in Pink (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Pretty in Pink, Positively Pink, and Mellow Moss markers, ticket corner punch (Stampin’ Up!); piercing tool (Making Memories)

A lot of times when I’m feeling that my creativity has left the building, I’ll turn to an older card that I made and make something based on it - the same layout, or the same colors, or the same stamp set.  I’m beginning to think that maybe it’s time to revisit the layout of the card in today’s post.

This was actually a double challenge card at Splitcoaststampers - Sketch Challenge #177 and Color Challenge #167.  I don’t often think to stamp on designer paper, but this time it worked really well.  I lucked out with the Primas matching so well. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything, Linen (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky Prints designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Blue Bayou (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: ticket corner punch (Stampin’ Up!); Prima flowers; crystal beads; sponge

Supplies:
Stamps: Party Animals, Sketched Sentiments (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Berry Bliss designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Purely Pomegranate (Stampin’ Up!); Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Wonderful Watercolor Crayons and Purely Pomegranate ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); Choc-o-lot Shimmerz; Windows & Frame Making dies for cutting the circles (Sizzlits); sponge

Here’s a quick birthday card I made for one of my friends who really loves cupcakes.   I used Opal Shimmerz on the cupcake icing.  The layout is my take on Lizzie Anne Designs Sketch Challenge #80.  I did a tiny bit of paper piecing for the cupcake wrapper. The sentiment is a rub on. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the package it came from. When I find it again, I’ll edit this post to include the manufacturer.

Supplies:
Stamps: Party Animals (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: White Paper Basics (PaperTrey Ink); Pretty in Pink cardstock, Berry Bliss and Tea Party designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Wonderful Watercolor Crayons (Stampin’ Up!); Opal Shimmerz; scalloped circle from Cuttlebug “Harmony” alphabet; circle punch (EK Success); Textured Trios ribbon (Michael’s)

First, this is the tin given to his homeroom teacher, who taught him Math, Reading, Word Study, and Social Studies.  It’s just a “normal” Provo Craft rectangular tin, covered with papers from Stampin’ Up’s retired Porcelain Prints designer series paper.  I used SU’s Blue Bayou ribbon and some Prima flowers to embellish it, and added some tiny crystals to the centers of the Primas.  Tucking the ends of the ribbon inside the silver hardware on the front was more of a faff than I’d anticipated it to be and the end result was a little messy looking, but I was crunched for time so it had to do.

My son gave the next two tins to his Science and Language Arts teachers.  Both tins are approximately 8″ x 6″ x 3″.

Once again, my son chose retired Stampin’ Up designer papers - Bali Breeze for the tin on the left, Petals & Paisleys for the tin on the right.  The shape of these made them super easy to cover.  I used a corner rounder on the pieces for the lids.  The hard part (because there’s always a difficult part, isn’t there?) was that the papers were 12″ long, and the tins were about 28″ around, so I had to do some additional piecing on the sides. 

These two tins were for two classroom aides.  These measured about 5″ x 3″ x 1″ and ended up really cute, if I say so myself.  :)  The one on the left was covered with paper from Basic Grey’s Oh Baby! Boy collection, and the one on the right shows off two designs from Stampin’ Up’s Tea Party designer papers.  My mini corner rounder was the perfect size to finish off the papers on the tops of these tins.

So, there they are… five tins for five teachers.  My son wrote a little note to thank each teacher, and I adhered the notes to the bottoms of the tins.  I don’t know if they’ll see this post, but I hope they know I appreciate all they did to make this a really good school year.