The Spot Challenge #101 - Card Sketch!

Hello and Happy Tuesday!  I hope your week got off to a fabulous start!  I had a super nice relaxing weekend of crafting!  I can tell you why I love sketch challenges... because they really do challenge me!  This week's sketch at The Spot really had me stumped for a while.  I made 4 cards and I'm sure any of them would have worked but it took me a while to have one that I was really happy with.  I'm pretty sure I'll be posted some of the other cards later this week because they all turned out beautiful.  Sketches really do jump start your creativity!  Here's this week's sketch ... what do you think?

I decided that I wanted to work with Timeless Tropical again and I did use it the dies and Coastal Weave Embossing folder along with a few other things.. lol

Here's what I came up with...

I really love the Coastal Weave Embossing Folder and thought that I could use three 1-1/2" x 4 1/4" strips for the stripes in the background.  I originally cut three strips from the Crumb Cake Cardstock but I felt like I needed a bit more contrast on the Crumb Cake card base so I added two strips of Soft Suede on the ends and then used the coordinating inks sponged on the sides to add some interest.  I really wanted it to feel really natural.  I used the round wreath die from the Painted Labels dies from Soft Suede Cardstock and then used a circle die to cut out some of the center.  I used the In The Tropics Dies to cut the flowers out of a scrap of Grapefruit Grove Cardstock and the leaves out of Old Olive Cardstock.  I then fought off the tendacy to run straight back to the Label Me Bold Stamp Set for my sentiment... I have been crazy in love with that set lately.  Since I was looking for something small I went with the Special Someone Stamp Set.. A Very Special Day for the outside stamped in Soft Suede onto my very last scrap of Gratefruit Grove!  

For the inside...

I used the coordinating sentiments from The Special Someone Stamp Set for the inside.  Both the For a Very Special Someone and Happy Birthday were stamped in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla Cardstock.  I added a few more of the flowers I had cut out in Grapefruit Grove and one little Old Olive Leaf.  I even added the three little flower centers that pop out to add just a touch more interest.

I hope you love my card as much as I do!  Thanks so much for stopping by and checking it out!  If you are interested in any of the products, they will be listed below.   Blessings,  Tina

Product List

151605

151495

151503

151643

120953

115318

146972

100702

147116

147115

144108

110755

141337

<!-------- TAMS End ---------

#TTTC054 Challenge Card with Stampin' Up! Postive Thoughts Stamp Set, Nature's Thoughts Dies and Label Me Bold Stamp Set

Hi There and Happy Sunday.  Today is the first day of the dreaded "lose an hour" time change.  Once more my body is tired and confused!  While mindlessly scrolling through facebook I did notice a new to me Challenge called Tic Tac Toe Challenges!  Yay for Challenge Blogs!  So here's their Challenge for this week, #TTTC054!

I decided to go diagonally with Insects, Flower, and Gingham/Check by using Stampin' Up! Postive Thoughts Stamp Set along with the Coordinating Nature's Thoughts Dies.  Once again.. I seem to be addicted to the Label Me Bold Stamp Set for my sentiment!

My Thick A2 Whisper White Cardbase has thin layer of Blackberry Bliss and a panel of the new Pleased as Punch DSP.  I added a two inch strip of Black Berry Bliss Cardstockon top of the Pleased as Punch Matted Layer and run a piece of the Whisper White Crinkled Seam Binding around it and tied it toward the top on the right side.  My stamped panel was Whisper White Cardstock that was run through the beautiful decorative rectangle die in the Nature's Thoughts Dies.  I stamped the fern onto that panel in Old Olive in both 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation stamping.  The sprigs and butterflies also from that die set were cut from scraps of Old Olive and Blackberry Bliss Cardstock.  I stamped the flower twice onto a scrap of Whisper White Cardstock in Petal Pink and then used the coordinating die to cut it out.  I adhered them to the stamped panel and topped with a flower center cut from the dies with another Blackberry Bliss Scrap.  I also cut the little decorative edge from the set with more Blackberry Bliss and adhered under the Label Me Bold Sentiment on the lower left side.  

Thanks a tone for stopping by!  Blessings, Tina

Stampin' Up! Postive Thoughts and New Coordinating Natures' Thoughts Dies

Hi There.  I finally had the opportunity to play with the gorgeous Stampin' Up! Positive Thoughts Stamp Set and the coordinating Nature's Thoughts Dies that just came out.  I thought I'd share the cards I made.  The first one used a sentiment from another stamp set since I wanted something that I could use with the classic label punch.

So my first card is a base of Pool Party Cardstock.  The background is some of the Golden Honey DSP (the black and white side) that I had sponged pool party into the top portion and Granny Apple Green onto the lower portion.  I used one of the Stitched Rectangle dies to cut it out and matted it in Pretty Peacock Cardstock.  I stamped the butterfly in Pretty Peacock Ink directly onto the background.  I also did some 1st and 2nd generation statmping of the greenery in Granny Apple Green directly onto the background.  I also stamped the greenery in Granny Apple Green onto Whisper White Cardstock and used the coordinating dies to cut it out.  I stamped the flower in Flirty Flamingo onto Whisper White and cut it out the dies as well.  I cut the feather out in Whisper White Cardstock and some of the small greenery were cut with scraps of Garden Green.  The sentiment from the Special Someone stamp set was stamped onto Whisper White in Pretty Peacock Ink.  I used the Classic Label Punch to punch it out and add it to the right side.  

This was such a simple card.  I used a Whisper White Thick Cardstock base.   The background is from the Pleased as Punch DSP and the sentiment from Positive Thoughts was stamped directly onto the DSP in Blackberry Bliss Ink.  I used the beautiful decorative rectangle from the Nature's Thoughts Dies to cut out my panel and matted it with Blackberry Bliss Cardstock.  The greenery was stamped onto Whisper White Cardstock in Granny Apple Green and the flower and butterfly were stamped in Blackberry Bliss and all cut out with the coordinating dies.  The die cut greenery was added with Multipurpose Adhesive directly onto the rectangle and the flower and butterfly were popped up with Dimensionals.  So simple and yet so pretty!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope if you already have this stamps and dies that you have taken the time to play with them.  They really are so pretty!  Blessings, Tina

/strong>

151490

153586

147095

150083

147052

152311

150880

122924

151643

100730

140272

151326

141491

153558

147092

133675

The Spot Challenge #100 Getting To Know You Designer's Choice Challenge

Hi There.  I hope you are having a great day so far!  I have some super exciting news for you!  I had the honor of joining an awesome Design Team for a fabulous new weekly card challenge blog called The Spot.  I hope you'll stop by check and it out and be sure to play along with us each week.  The new Challenges go live on Tuesday mornings at 7am Eastern time.

 This week's Challenge at The Spot is a Getting To Know You, Designer's Choice Challenge!   If you click on the Challenge Graphic below it will take you straight to the Challenge Post where you can check out inspiration from the super talented Design Team.  I really believe this will be "The Spot" for inspiration and card making challenges to check out each week!  I hope you agree!

Since this week is all our choice of products, I decided to pull out one of my favorites from the Mini Catalog... Poppy Moments Dies!  I also used the awesome Peaceful Poppies DSP, Painted Label Dies, Stitched So Sweetly Dies,  Label Me Bold Stamp Set, and Sending You Thoughts Stamp Set on this fun Gate Fold Card.  I know.. I know.. I was all over the place with stamps and dies on this one!  There are so many great current products out now... I just couldn't help myself! 

To make this beautiful Gate Fold Card Base, I started with an 11' x 4 1/4" piece of Basic Black Card Stock and scored it at 2 1/4" and 6 3/4".  For the DSP layers, the Peaceful Poppies DSP was cut into 4 panels of 1 7/8" x 5 1/4" and 1 panel cut at 4" x 5 1/4" (I used the reverse side of the DSP for this one.. such a pretty Red ).  

You'll notice I also used one of the Stitched Scallop Rectangles from the Stitched So Sweetly Dies  on the inside.  The sentiment on the Inside is from the Sending You Thoughts Stamp Set.

So let's get back to the outside of this beautiful card....

After I added the DSP panels to the outside of my Gate Fold Card, I added one of the large Label Dies from the Painted Label Dies, cut in Basic Black, by centering it but adding Dimensionals only onto the left side of the card front.  I used Basic Black Cardstock to cut out the outlines and the centers of the poppies and used more of the DSP reverse side (that looks like Watercolored Red Wash) for the large flowers.  I backed those with some Real Red Cardstock scraps to add a little more strength to them.  The leaves were cut from scraps of Old Olive and Mossy Meadow Cardstock.  I arranged everything and adhered it to the Black Label Die.  I stamped the Label Me Bold "Happy Birthday" sentiment in Old Olive and Fussy Cut it and then adhered it only to the right side of the card front.  I finished it off by added some Clear Wink of Stella to the Basic Black flower centers and adding 3 sequins from the Peaceful Poppies Sequins.  All products used are linked at the end of the post in case you are interested in adding any of these to your inventory.

If you haven't made a Gate Fold Card, I hope you'll try one.  They are an easy fun fold but really beautiful.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Blessings, Tina 

Product List

151594

151605

151690

151631

151324

151325

142965

121045

100730

147090

100702

133676

102482

141897