Cork & Leaves for Fall

 Welcome!  Glad you could stop by today for my 100th blog post at this address.  And it only took just shy of a year to do this many.  Hopefully I can keep up the pace and do even more posts in the coming year.  Today I'm sharing one of my Thanksgiving cards that have gone out in the mail yesterday.  I've been working at them 15 minutes here, and another 15 minutes there.  You know, when you've got that stack of cards to make and you can only work on them in snatches of time.  But they're finally finished, and I'm very pleased with the finished card.  It's everything I expected it to be.

One big surprise about making this card - I totally love working with the Cork Paper!  I wasn't even planning on buying it, but I thought it would look great for the background on this card.  So I broke down and made the purchase, and I'm so glad I did.  Yes friends, I struggle with what to purchase too, just like you!  You know I can't just get everything, even though sometimes I'd like to!!  But the Cork Paper has been a lovely surprise and so easy to work with.  Now I need to see what else I can make with it!

The card starts out with Cajun Craze cardstock as it's base.  It's cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and folded in half.  Then comes the layer of Cork Paper.  This is cut at 5" x 3 3/4" and attached with MultiPurpose Liquid Glue.   Set this aside while doing all the die-cutting.

The wreath comes from the Seasonal Swirls Dies in the July-December Mini Catalog.  There are 3 different wreath dies, and they're all quite different - pine boughs, leaves, or stars, with little bits to coordinate with each wreath to cover all the end of year holidays.  So this is a very versatile set.  I die-cut the wreaths from Soft Suede cardstock.  Again I forgot the Adhesive Sheets on the back until I was almost done, then added it for the last four wreaths I cut.  I think I need to have those Adhesive Sheets setting out on my table at all times so I remember them!!  They do make life easier.

Then on to die-cutting all the leaves. I chose the leaf spray from the Forever Flourishing Dies set.  This gives you lots of leaves for very little effort.  I cut these in So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Cajun Craze cardstocks, one of each color for each card I was making, so there was a goodly stack of them when I was finished.  

Next it was die-cutting the little pumpkin from the Seasonal Swirls Dies.  These were cut from Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  Again, a cute little pile of pumpkins.

Now on to putting it all together.  The wreath went on first with either MultiPurpose Liquid Glue or the Adhesive Sheets where applicable.  I did use the MultiPurpose Liquid Glue to attach each of the leaf sprays, angling them as I stacked them up so all the colors would show.  I attached one pumpkin in the center of each leaf cluster using a Dimensional.  There, that part was finished.

The last thing needed was the sentiment.  It's from the Sparkle of the Season stamp set that coordinates with the dies used.   I chose to stamp it on Bumblebee cardstock using Cajun Craze ink.  Then just trimmed it up with Paper Snips to fit the card.  It was attached with the MultiPurpose Liquid Glue onto the card front. 

No bling on this card for me.  I thought it was perfect just the way it was.  Can you see all the wonderful texture of the Cork Paper?  It looks like little strips of cork with all the texture included.  And the feel of it is wonderful!  I'm so glad I stepped out and tried something new.  It's well worth it!!

And in case you haven't noticed, I've almost switched out entirely to using the MultiPurpose Liquid Glue.  It gives me a bit of wiggle room when attaching layers to get them just right.  And it's great for attaching things with lots of texture.  So if you haven't tried using that yet, give it a try.  Just remember that a little goes a very long way so keep a light touch when applying the glue.

Ok, that's it for another blog post.  Hope you learned something new and are inspired to try out some new products.  It keeps things fresh and exciting.  

If you're ordering soon, please use the Current Host Code shown at the top of the blog page.  I appreciate all of your business and all of you too!  Have fun stamping and creating.  If you have any questions about my projects or ordering, you can always contact me at sharoncarr50@gmail.com.  Or just leave a comment down below and I'll get back to you.  My heart is full to overflowing with thanks for all you wonderful people!  How blessed I am!

With thanks,

Sharon

Sparkling Trimmings Card

 Hi!  Hope you're all doing well on this gorgeous Monday.  It's so nice seeing the sun out after so many cloudy and rainy days last week.  For those of you ladies that are part of my Hostess Club, I'm sorry this post is so late concerning the card I mailed out to you.  I was just talking to Jean and explained that I kept looking at the finished card and wasn't completely happy.  So I finally ripped it partially apart and redid it.  Think it's better this way.  What do you think?  

This is the before picture.  As I kept looking at it, the greenery started looking like a tv antenna to me.  Yikes!

See what I mean?  Yes, I did a little necessary surgery on it.  Took that antenna right off and redid the card to make it this...

Now it makes me happy and I'm ready to share this simple card idea with all of you.

The card base is a half sheet of Basic White Thick cardstock, scored and folded in half.  There is a layer of Basic White cardstock next that is 5" x 3 3/4".  This has the Merry Christmas sentiment from the Sparkle of the Season stamp set stamped with Evening Evergreen ink near the bottom right.  For my card I used the Subtle 3D Embossing Folder (retired) to add texture to the layer.  It was then attached to the folded card base using MultiPurpose Liquid Glue.

Next up was the choice of Designer Paper that would be the focal point on the card.  The Tidings of Christmas 6" x 6" DSP has all these lovely small prints and I thought it would be perfect for this card.  I cut a piece 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" to fit nicely.  It needed a backing layer to make it stand out.  The Evening Evergreen cardstock was a wonderful contrast, so a piece 1 3/4" x 3 3/4" was cut.  They were layered together with adhesive, then attached to the card front with Dimensionals. 

On a scrap of Basic White cardstock, the holly branch was stamped with Evening Evergreen ink and the pine branch was stamped using Soft Succulent ink.  Both images are from the Sparkle of the Season stamp set.  They were cut using the coordinating die set, the Seasonal Swirls Dies.  Don't you just love having dies coordinating with the stamps so you don't have to do a lot of fussy cutting?  Oh yeah!

After looking at it for days and fussing with it,  I ended up adding both die-cut images to the front of the DSP using Mini Glue Dots.  Then added a knotted bit of the 3/8" Open Weave Ribbon in the Evening Evergreen color.   I think I'm finally happy with it.  Isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest card layouts give you the most trouble?  Or maybe you don't have that problem...   Yes, I think all of us struggle with things at different times and other times the ideas just flow.

Well, that's it for today.  Pretty short and sweet with a very simple card layout for when you need to make multiple cards in a very short amount of time - like a week or so before Christmas!  

If you're placing an order in August, please use the host code shown.  And don't forget to take advantage of Sale-a-bration which goes through September.  Remember, when the free Sale-a-bration items are sold out, they will not have any more available later.  It's like the early bird and that worm, you know?

Have fun with your creating.  The joys you get from creating your cards rival the joys you get from sharing your cards with others and brightening their day.  Make sure you keep mailing those cards out!  There's nothing like getting an unexpected card in the mail to make your day wonderful! 

Happy stamping and many hugs!

Sharon

Last Minute Sneak Peek

 Hi everyone!  So excited today.  Yeah, I know - today's the August 3rd so it's not a sneak peek anymore. Just got a little confused there for a minute as I'm getting this set up to post ahead of time.  By the time you're reading this, we'll be in Charleston doing a little sight-seeing for a couple of days.  This is someplace I always thought would be an interesting place to visit, so yes! I'm really excited to be going.  Oh but, that's not really what you're here for today, is it?  Ok, I do have some new goodies on cards to share with you today.  They use both a new stamp set and a Sale-a-bration freebie!  In case you haven't figured it out yet, I thoroughly love those little penguins and friends on the Penguin Playmates Designer Paper!  And it's even free!  Yes, I'm just a little bit excited here.  And talk about taking a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and then throwing everything together,  That is exactly what ended up happening with these cards.  

When I was planning this card, I couldn't decide on which of the two cardstock colors to use, so I just went ahead and made two.  You can never have too many Christmas cards, right?  These cards each used a strip of Designer Series Paper that is 5 1/4" x 2".  I switched back and forth between Fresh Freesia and Soft Succulent for the card base and the accent strips.  Both of those colors are listed as matches on the Penguin Playmates paper, so either should work just fine.

On the top one, I started with Soft Succulent cardstock, cut in half and folded in half.  Next a layer of Basic White cardstock to build the card on is cut at t 5 1/4" x 4".  Figuring out the placement of the sentiment, I stamped the HAPPY from the Biggest Wish stamp set using Fresh Freesia ink.  It worked out great using the Stamparatus for this in case the word didn't get quite enough ink (which is exactly what happened).   Then I lined up the Merry Christmas from the new Sparkle of the Season stamp onto the Stamparatus for stamping right over the happy.  I had to carefully ink up only the Christmas to get the look I wanted.

After getting the stamping out of the way, the strip of Penguin Playmates paper is attached at the bottom of the white cardstock layer.  A strip of Fresh Freesia cardstock cut 5 1/4" x 3/4" is attached right above the DSP layer.

For accents, I thought snowflakes would be perfect, so I dug out the So Many Snowflake dies that are a carry-over from last year.  I really liked the smaller detailed snowflake for this, so I die-cut three from both the Soft Succulent and the Fresh Freesia cardstocks deciding which ones to use.  Since I made two cards, I just decided to use the color that matched the card base.

Even though the cards are basically the same, because of the color switching they tend to look somewhat different.  The real difference between the two are the type of bling that was added.  On the first card, I used the retired Artistry Blooms sequins in a really light blue shade on the snowflakes.  For the Fresh Freesia one, I used Opal Rounds in the center of the snowflakes.  Again, a different look, but both are pretty.  It really is worth it to check in your stash of goodies every once in awhile to see what's hanging out there and could be used on that project you're in the middle of.  *grin*

Now I have three more cards to share with this same layout.  This one is actually the first one made.  I wanted to use the Biggest Wish set and play around with it a bit.  Loved how this one turned out, so kept on coming up with more cards.

This uses a Poppy Parade cardstock base, You're A Peach DSP, Old Olive cardstock strip, White Crinkled Seam Binding, and Poppy Parade and Petal Pink ink pads. 

This version uses a card base of Pool Party cardstock, with a 1 3/4" strip of Bird Ballad DSP (miss it so much!), a 1" strip of Old Olive cardstock, and the White Crinkle Seam Binding again.  The ink used are Pool Party and Old Olive.  Totally different look.

Lastly, this has a card base of Poppy Parade again with a 2" strip of the retired Peaceful Poppies DSP.  I also used the 3/4" strip of Old Olive on this card.  The ribbon in Mossy Meadow striped was used to give a darker definition between the layers.  The ink colors are Poppy Parade and Flirty Flamingo.

Whew!  That was a lot of sharing today.  Hope you see how you can take a simple card layout and do so many different things with it.  Just change out the colors, DSP, ribbons, wording, etc and you can use the layout over and over again - even for Christmas cards!

Ok, that's it for today.  I've probably got you on total overload right now.  But I just want to remind you, if you're placing an order this month, please use the Host Code shown here.  And yes, you can order from the new catalog today!  And don't forget to choose your free Sale-a-bration item(s) that you qualify for.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me  Even though I'll be in Charleston, I'll still have my phone with me.  *grins*

Happy shopping, creating, and stamping,,,,,

Hugs,

Sharon