It's a Wonderful Life

Pardon the fabulous shadows... I only say fabulous because when you haven't seen the sun in three months you appreciate the shadows even when they mess up the pictures a bit for your blog. I will take any sunshine I can get.

I really love how this card turned out. I dug out a old In Color, Concord Crush, and used it as my card base. Yes, it is okay to dig out those retired colors and use them. I was actually quite surprised it did not make it into the color renovation and return. But, I hung onto mine so I am using it. I used the Papillon Potpourri butterflies and stamped 2 of each of the larger butterflies. I used Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasibi, Pacific Point, Concord Crush, and Daffodil Delight. I stamped them useing VersaMark and then punched them out with the coordinating punch. I was going for a happy kind of rainbow theme. For the Daffodil Delight butterfly you might notice some sparkle. I stamped it with VersaMark, then added Heat and Stick Powder, heated it again, and then added the Dazzling Diamonds glitter. It is so pretty!!

For my sentiment I used the Perfect Pennants set. I used my Stampin' Write markers becasue I wanted the sentiment to be in three different colors. I stamped it onto Whisper White card stock and punched it out with my Decorative Label punch. I punched a second Decorative Label punch out in Pumpkin Pie, cut it lengthwise and added it to either side. I popped it up along with my butterfly. To give your butterfly some added dimension, fold up his wings a little.

This card will be off to a friend of mine!

Ask my how you can get a free Sale-A-Bration item for every $50 that you spend before tax and shipping!!

Sending Good Thoughts Your Way

Well, I took the plunge and finally did it! Did what you ask? I have always sorted my paper by color family and have seen many blogs where they shared that they sort it by color. I just didn't know if I could undo the way I sort after so many years. So, after putting some thought into it I figured it has to be much easier to put back away if it is just done my color so I switched it all up. So far, so good...

Now, onto my card. LeAnne, over at The Paper Players is celebrating her daughter's birthday this week and turned that into a challenge... to create a card with stars. You can see her post here. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to. Stampin' Up! retired their star stamp set, Seeing Stars, a few years ago and I have not purchased the new one they came out with last summer. I got my retired (or at least I think it is retired but any star punch would do) star punch out and still didn't know what to do. I decided to start with colors and choose Night of Navy and Daffodil Delight. Okay, now what? I still had Perfect Pennants on my desk that I used for the card I am going to share with you on Friday so I grabbed the 'sending good thoughts your way" sentiment since this card wasn't for a particualr occasion and I just decided I wanted a card I could send out just because. The sentiment seemed to fit. Then I got to looking at the striped pennant stamp and it all kind of came together from there. I stamped the sentiment in Night of Navy of to one side and then the striped pennant on the other side in Daffodil Delight. Then I added a punched out star out of Night of Navy. Even though I was trying to keep it clean and simple I still felt like it needed something. I decided to use one of the small stars from Seeing Stars, but you could easily use a star from the current set, and stamped it in Daffodil Delight. The thought of fussy cutting that star out almost made me pass out so I thought hey, just punch it out with a circle punch!! SO, my 3/4 inch circle punch might have just saved my life. I popped it on with a Stampin' Dimensional and then I had a cute, simple, all occasion card.

Make a Wish with Perfect Pennants

I played along with the girls over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week's sketch challenge. I really love how the card turned out. This card is for one of my daughter's best friends. They met in preschool and have stayed friends. Even though they didn't go to the same elementary after preschool, they are soccer teammates so they still get to see each other on a fairly regular basis. I asked my daughter, Emily, what color she wanted me to make the card and she said pink... so I went to my Color Coach and looked at Melon Mambo. It suggested Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant so I went with it. It is kinf of funny because I upgraded all my ink pads to the new firm foam pads right when they came out and I had never even opened Elegant Eggplant! It is so pretty so I don't know why. That is what is great about the Color Coach- it helps you break out some colors you don't go to alot.

I stamped the cupcake from Itty Bitty in each color a few times and then punched them out with the 1/2 inch circle punch. I then punched out the scalloped circles with the 7/8 inch scallop circle and mounted the cupcakes. I had my Old Olive ribbon from last years Occasions mini and it was the only Old Olive ribbon I could find! I guess I need to put some on my order list... or figure out where my other is! I stamped the make a wish from the new stamp set Perfect Pennants. This was my must have item from this year's Occasions catalog. I knew right away that I had to have it (and the matching framelits but I didn't use them on this card). My card base is Melon Mambo.

Ask me how you can get a FREE Sale-A-Bration item for every $50 you spend before tax and shipping!!

Shelly

Because Nice Matters

The Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge was a bit hard for me because I had never used Ricer Rock before nor do I use a neutral palette when making cards very often if ever. I am not sure why because I do love the look of it. It is just so clean and elegant.

I guess that is what inspired me to use the SU! Elegant Lines Embossing Folder. I used Early Expresso Cardstock for my card base. After embossing the River Rock Cardstock I adhered it to the front. The Perfect Pennants Die was a must have for me as soon as I saw it, and I used the scalloped circle one to cut out my Soft Suede Cardstock. Really, the Perfect Pennants is a great buy because you get 5 shapes on a single die. I spritzed the scalloped circle with some shimmer paint and then adhered it to the front. I used one of the leafs from the set Falling Leaves and stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock. I used a 1 3/4 circle punch to punch it out and then popped it up with dimensionals on the scalloped circle after I inked the edges by dragging the cardstock across the inkpad.. I didn't want my card to be Thanksgiving-y so I pulled out a way old stamp set called Sweet Little Sentiments because I felt like it just has the message I wanted to send with this card... 'because nice matters.'