Clear Cardstock

I rarely use clear cardstock. No real reason, just don't think of it often. But I had the idea for this card a week or two ago and thought I'd try it out. Now, this finished card is not exactly what I had envisioned. In my mind, there were going to be white polka dots stamped on the clear base to make it stand out. In theory, this was a great idea. In reality, I made a HUGE mess!! The stamp kept slipping on the acetate so that it looked more like raindrops than polka dots. And the ink would NOT dry, even after being hit with a heat gun AND being left to sit overnight. One touch of my finger and white ink smeared everywhere. Needless to say, that was not the look I was going for, so that first base went in the trash and I was forced to keep it plain.

Other than that mishap, I like how this turned out, and it's pretty close to what I first pictured. I used PTI's new set Cupcake Collection to build the cupcake image and for the sentiment as well. I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder for the background (which would have looked nice against the white polka dots *sigh*) and adhered that to the clear base. I then stuck a plain piece of white cardstock cut to the same size to the inside of the card, so that the adhesive on the yellow didn't show through. The gemstones on the sentiment strip are from that crystal wheel I keep turning to. I used my Marvy punches to create a frame for the main image and poked holes in each scallop with a paper piercer. The star on the candle and the frosting on the cupcake are coated with yellow Stickles. To adhere the oval piece to the card, I used foam dimensionals to pop it up off the card base a bit.

Supplies
Stamps: PTI Cupcake Collection
Ink: PTI Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart
Paper: PTI Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, white, clear cardstock
Other: Swiss Dots cb folder, Crystal wheel, Yellow Stickles, paper piercing tool, Marvy mega oval and giga scalloped oval punched

HSE Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #13

Welcome to another Hope Stamps Eternal Cupcake Inspiration Challenge! Aren't these cupcakes gorgeous?? I just love those butterflies and the colors are so bright and happy.

Speaking of happy, after having cloudy, rainy weather for 22 out of the last 27 days, we finally had beautiful weather this weekend! I've been in such a good mood! Because I spent much of the last 2 days soaking in the sun, my card for this week's CIC is a quick clean & simple one, which suits me just fine anyway! I used the Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly Punch to punch 4 large butterflies out of Chocolate Chip cardstock and 4 smaller butterflies out of cardstock colors that coordinate with the butterflies on the cupcakes. I then adhered the smaller ones to the larger ones, dotted the edges with a white gel pen to mimic the non pereils on the candy butterflies, and then coated the smaller punchouts with Stardust Stickles.

It's a little tough to see in the photo, but I used the PTI set Background Basics: Text Style on the strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock before adhering the white squares and the butterflies on top of that. I used mini glue dots to adhere the butterflies, using one dot just in the middle of each butterfly, so that their wings are free and slightly lifted for some dimension.

If you want to play along, be sure to link your creation to Rachel's post for inclusion in next week's collage!

Supplies
Stamps: PTI Background Basics: Text Style, Verve Stamps Petals & Stems (for sentiment)
Ink: PTI Hibiscus Burst, Dark Chocolate
Paper: PTI white, Spring Rain, Hibiscus Burst, Melon Berry, and New Leaf, SU Chocolate Chip
Other: 3/4" square punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly Punch, white gel pen, Stardust Stickles, mini glue dots

Exciting News!!!

I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to join the Hope Stamps Eternal Design Team!! I'm so proud to be representing the HSE store. You'll find a fabulous variety of products there and the customer service couldn't be better. And I'm not just saying that as a DT member - I've been a customer since the store first opened!

Rachel, the owner of Hope Stamps Eternal, has assembled a very talented team of ladies who I am very humbled to be working with! Be sure to visit all of their blogs below:

Bonnie Sharp
Carolina Buchting
Colleen Wold
Kelli Caslow
Michelle Woerner - DT Coordinator
Natalie Dever
Tammy Hershberger

Thank you for joining me for this exciting news! I look forward to showcasing all that HSE has to offer!

PTI June Blog Hop

It's time for another Papertrey Ink blog hop! The theme this month is summer - we were to draw inspiration from something that reminded us of summer - food, clothing patterns, photographs, etc. I chose to use this picture that I took a few weeks ago when I was visiting my parents in the town where I grew up. These beautiful dunes line the parking lot and the walkway to the beach and I just love the colors of those flowers (click the photo for a closer look). The day I took this photo, my mom and I went to the beach for a breakfast picnic, so I used two images from the new PTI set Vintage Picnic - the picnic basket, and one of the sets of flowers.


I had a terrible time trying to get a photo of this card, but just know that in real life, the color of the flowers, the polka dot paper, and the felt flower all match beautifully! The flowers and basket were colored with Copics and I cut out the basket and mounted it over the flowers for a little dimension. The entire scalloped circle was then popped up on foam adhesive dots for even more pop. For the flower embellishment, I thread some embroidery floss through a vintage button and the felt flower to tie in all the main colors.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies
Stamps: PTI Vintage Picnic (images and sentiment)
Ink: Palette Noir, PTI Raspberry Fizz, G14, G28, RV17, RV19, E55, and E57 Copic markers
Paper: PTI white and Aqua Mist cardstock, PTI Raspberry Fizz Bitty Dot Basics
Other: Marvy mega circle punch, giga scallop circle punch, Martha Stewart Scallop Dot Edge Punch, PTI Aqua Mist Swiss Dot ribbon, clear gemstones from crystal wheel, PTI vintage button (white & cream collection), DMC embroidery floss #964, felt floral embellishment

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #12

Aren't the cupcakes for this week's Hope Stamps Eternal Cupcake Inspiration Challenge just beautiful?! I love the fancy wrappers!

As soon as I saw this week's inspiration photo, I immediately knew I wanted to use some of the bridal flowers from Michael's. I guess great minds think alike, because then I saw that Rachel had the same idea! I used Copics - Y11, R02, and RV93 - to color a few flowers and then left one white for the middle. I added white pearls to the center of the flowers because for some reason, I can't ever leave the centers of flowers alone! Plus I thought they went well since the flowers on the cupcakes had white centers too.

The cupcake wrappers immediately reminded me of the textile Cuttlebug folder, so I used that for the background and then used a scallop circle Nestabilities die to punch out a circle and create a frame for the flowers.

When I started off making the card, I didn't know what kind of card it would turn into, but I thought the pretty elegance might work nicely for a sympathy card and that's one type of card I never have enough of on hand. I don't know why, but to me butterflies seem to go so nicely on a sympathy card, so I added a tiny butterfly made with the Martha Stewart 3-in-1 butterfly punch and covered it with Stardust Stickles for some nice sparkle.

If you want to play along, make sure you add a link to your creation to Rachel's post to be included in next Sunday's collage. And there are still a few more days left to apply for the new Hope Stamps Eternal Design Team, so check out all the information on that here!

Got Margaritas?

This is just a quick little card I made yesterday to help get me stamping again. I LOVE margaritas, so I was extremely excited when PTI came out with their Day at the Beach stamp set last month. It has the margarita outline with a separate stamp for the inside so you can customize your margaritas to be any flavor you want!

Not much to note here, just that I covered the rims with Dazzling Diamonds Stickles to give a sparkly salted look. Otherwise I kept it clean and simple because that's the style that seems to work best for me.

Supplies
Stamps: PTI's A Day at the Beach, sentiment from Impression Obsession
Ink: Palette Noir, SU Certainly Celery, PTI Melon Berry and Hibiscus Burst
Paper: PTI white and Hibiscus Burst
Other: Dazzling Diamonds Stickles, Melon Berry Bitty Dot Ribbon, foam dimensionals

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #11

I have finally gotten somewhat out of my slump and actually made two cards today! One was for the Hope Stamps Eternal Cupcake Inspiration Challenge.

This is a different sort of cupcake from the soft, springy ones that Rachel often selects, so it took me a little bit of thinking to pull something together, but that's the purpose of a 'challenge' I guess!

As you can see, I actually did very little stamping on my card. I pulled out my crimper, which has not been used in years, to crimp some PTI Pure Poppy paper to mimic the cupcake liner. Then I used some of the gemstones from the Zva Creative crystal wheel from the Hope Stamps Eternal store to create a row of red, black, and clear bling. A strip of PTI Bitty Dot paper and a Greeting Farm sentiment from Hope Stamps Eternal finished off the card.

If you want to play along, make sure you link your card to Rachel's post to be included in her participant collage next Sunday.

Also, Rachel has put out a design team call for the HSE store. For more information, visit her post here, and visit here for a chance at an adorable cupcake set from Elzybells. The deadline is tomorrow night, so go enter now!

Flourished Birthday

I spent a bunch of time today trying to slim down my stamping collection and pull things together to sell on ebay. You might have noticed that my blogging has been nonexistent, and that's because my stamping time has been nonexistent. I've been going through quite a creative slump, and I think it might be because I have too much stuff and get overwhelmed. So, while I was taking pictures of all the items to sell, I found this card that I have not yet shared sitting on my camera's memory card.

This was a quick and easy birthday card for a friend (though the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is tough to see here). It's pretty self-explanatory, though I wanted to mention that the flourish and the flower are traced with a clear spica glitter pen, which never shows up in photos. Also, I stamped the flower image twice and cut out the center of one of them so I could layer it with a dimensional to give a bit of a 3D look to the flower.

Supplies
Stamps: PTI's Fancy Flourishes, Everyday Classics, Birthday Basics
Ink: PTI's Dark Chocolate, Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist
Paper: PTI white, Aqua Mist
Other: foam dimensionals, clear spica glitter pen, clear gemstones from Hope Stamps Eternal, Martha Stewart Scallop Dot border punch, also from Hope Stamps Eternal