Chic Boutique Birthday

Interior

Megan had used my stamp set Chic Boutique for a school project and left it on my work surface. I have had this set in my drawer for a while and hadn't looked at it in some time. As I went to put it away the image of the dressing mannequin caught my eye. This layout came to mind and I immediately reached this paper from BG Curio. I have a special person in mind for this card and know it will be quite "fitting".

Stamp - Chic Boutique
Ink - early espresso, wild wasabi
Paper - BG Curio, early espresso and very vanilla card stock
Accessories - label and oval die, SU chalks, very vanilla and victoria lace ribbon, pearl jewels, ribbon rosettes.

Mojo Three Ways

My son has much to be thankful for and needed some thank you cards for birthday gifts he received. I took this week's Mojo Monday sketch and created 3 different versions. None are feminine so I am sure he will feel comfortable using them. I have been wanting to work with this sketch all week and finally got a few moments to create cards this afternoon. Can't wait for the new sketch tomorrow.

Robot Card
Stamp - Best Bots Forever
Ink - basic black, basic gray, old olive
Paper - Marjolaine BG, whisper white, basic gray card stock
Accessories - corner rounder punch, scallop and circle die, silver brads

Star Card
Stamp - Engraved Greetings
Ink - chocolate chip
Paper - Max and Whiskers BG, tempting turquoise, tangerine tango, early espresso and very vanilla card stock
Accessoires - linen thread, Big Shot stars die, linen thread, dimensionals

Monochromatic Card
Stamp - Engraved Greetings
Ink - basic black
Paper - Newsprint DSP, basic black and very vanilla card stock
Accessories - circle dies, black brads, black button

I Was Nominated

Over the past two years I have had the opportunity to share my work and some family occasions via my blog. I started my blog in order to post projects for my Stampin' Up! customers and to hopefully attract new ones. Over time, a beautiful thing I never anticipated happened. My blog brought other talented paper crafter's work and on-line friendships to me through comments and email. I love finding new blogs and crafters this way. It's like following a little trail of mouse clicks to discover a new treasure.  It has been such a blessing of blogging to find this wonderful crafting community. I have been nominated for the Liebster Award from one of these very talented ladies.

I was nominated for the Liebster Blog award by the lovely Denise Willerton. You can check out her beautiful work at Chez Moi Creations

As a recipient of this award I must share the love and pay it forward by:

1-Creating a post where I blog about the Liebster award & reveal my 3-5 blog picks

2-Let the honorees know that I selected them

3-Copy & paste the blog award on my blog

Here are my picks to share the love - Visit their blogs and view their beautiful work.

Danita Cinkovick - The Ruff Life

Colleen Dietrich - Dietrich Designs

Cindy Beach - Stamps Paper and Ink

Quilled Flowers Pictures

So I have gotten feedback from many of you who requested and liked the video that I made for quilled flowers. My request is that you send me pictures of your quilled flowers. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to post all of them here. So give it a try and send me a picture of just your flowers or your flowers on a completed project. Quill away ......

Tara

PPA Vintage - HSS Challenges

This week's PPA challenge is a vintage theme challenge and Hand Stamped Sentiments have a ribbon and lace challenge. I just LOVE the dresses from the 50's and went with that era for a vintage theme. I just started watching Mad Men  and it is such a treat to see all the costumes from the 1950's in color on the show. Just delicious! One of my first "dress up" dresses was one my mom wore in the 50s when she was younger. It was cherry red with a taffeta skirt and mounds and mounds of tulle underneath. Just yummy. Unfortunately, I grew out of the dress by the time I reached Jr. High ( the ladies were so small back then!) I do wish the 1950s fashion trends would come around again. They are so fun!

Anywhoo, When I think of the dresses from the 50s, I think of the full gathered skirts with cinched waists.  I wanted to have a bit of that image represented in my card. The pleated paper with the satin ribbon gives perhaps a hint of that idea. I added a little bit of lace to the bottom of the pleats for a little more detail and.. Hey! a card for 2 challenges.

Paper - Modern Homemaker - October Afternoon, basic black and very vanilla card stock

Stamp - Just Believe

Accessories - black satin ribbon, big designer button, chantilly crochet trim, word window and modern label punch, black floss, dimensionals

Sweet Sunday Sketch 103

This is my card for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. Aren't these two dogs just too sweet? Again, I am always amazed how much I deviate from my original plans when making cards. I had intended to use soft, light colors for this card, but it took on a life of it's own as soon as I started pulling paper out. Ahhh maybe some day my final project will be exactly as planned - yeah right!

Paper - Max and Whiskers (BasicGrey) , Poppy Parade DSP, so saffron and poppy parade card stock, watercolor paper

Stamp - Scotties In Love (Taylored Expressions)

Ink - chocolate chip, close to cocoa, old olive, marina mist, poppy parade, black Stazon

Accessories - Poppy Parade stitched poly ribbon, dimensionals, button, circle die, scallop die, label die, dimensionals

Quilled Flower Demonstration - My First Video!

OK the camera angle needs to be improved but it's my first shot. You can purchase the quilling tool at a large crafting store. If you make some quilled flowers, send me a picture!

Stamp Club Card

This is the card we made for our stamp club this evening. It was my original idea that I changed up for Valentine card in the last post. It turned out quite different than what I had imagined, but I am still waiting for my Nestabilites order. Everyone loved learning how to make the quilled flowers and as always is was fabulous to get together with stamping friends.

Stamps - Friends 24-7, Bring on the Cake, Music Notes Wheel

Ink - pretty in pink, so saffron, basic gray

Paper - whisper white, so saffron, pretty in pink card stock

Accessories - 1 3/8", 1/3/4" circle punches, pretty in pink satin ribbon, decorative label punch, dimensionals, glue dots, Perfect polka dots embossing folder, scallop border punch

Stampin' Celebration #38 and Paper Players

For our stamping club tomorrow we will be making a card similar to this, but in very soft feminine colors. When I was putting the card together I started thinking about how it would look in bold colors and came up with this version. They also happen to be in inspiration colors for this week's Stampin' Celebration Challenge.   I am in a flowery mood these days so I created some more quilled rosettes and stamped some musical notes for a very romantic Valentine card. MMM - flowers, music, all we need is some wine and perhaps a bit of chocolate. Romance is the theme at the  Paper Players challenge this week so I thought this would be appropriate for that challenge as well.   I was in a hurry to complete this card before the Superbowl, so unfortunately, there is red glitter everywhere in my craft closet. Now I'm off to clean up the glittery mess:)

Stamps - Friends 24-7, Holiday Best(retired)
Ink - Basic Black Real red
Paper - whisper white, real red and basic black card stock
Accessoires - real red satin ribbon, scallop border punch, circle and scallop dies, Perfect Polka-dot embossing folder, real red glitter, glue dots

ColorQ 70

This is the card I created for this week's Color Q challenge. Even though the apron gives a sense of clean, bright and modern, I decided to go with darker colors and a bit of distressing.  I am in a flower mood these days so I tried some new flowers to adorn the greeting. The Full of Life stamp set is one of those that I continually reach for. The greeting shown on the card also makes the perfect interior stamp for a birthday card.


Paper - DSP Basic Grey Curio, early espresso and very vanilla cardstock
Ink - Early espresso
Stamps - Full of Life
Accessories - Flower punches, Victoria crochet trim, dimensionals

Just a Note from the Closet

You may have noticed ( or not) that my last 2 postings contain projects that use other papers and products other than Stampin' Up!.  I must say that I have gone over to the dark side lately ( not really just returning to my roots) . After careful consideration, I have decided to go back to making projects from a variety of sources. 

I have been a SU demonstrator for a year and a half but I have been a consistent Paper Crafter for over 12 years. My first project was actually over 17 years ago. I made embossed invitations for my sister's baby shower. There were no heat guns at that time and I had to heat the embossing powder by placing the card on top of my toaster oven:) I think I am giving away my age here.

 I love SU products and believe in the the quality of the products and designs. I have been using SU products for the majority of my paper crafting years because of my love for the high quality products. I will continue to use Stampin' Up! products in conjunction with others as I have for 12-13 years.  I believe most of the crafting world uses a variety of products from various companies and after some consideration, have decided to go back to this method. I will also continue to post SU only projects in addition to projects created with multiple product lines. I do not believe this will conflict with my Stampin' Up! IDA.

I hope my subscribers will continue to check out my work and find a little somthin' to take away from my projects regardless of the products they are made with. I love paper crafting and stamping and want to continue to share that with others. 

Happy Stamping!

Tara

Mojo Monday - Two Ways

Mojo Monday's sketch this week was quite fun and definitely timely. I needed a birthday card for a friend and wanted to make something ultra feminine and special. I started with the Birthday Wishes card above and thought the paper, feeling and design was perfect for her. As I was working on it, I kept thinking about the new Sweet Button embosslit and how cute the buttons would look across this same design. I then had to create the Happy Botday card at the top of this post. I just love those little buttons and I also think the Best Bots set is so fun to stamp with. I used a bit of Crystal effects to give the little buttons some shine and look just like real buttons. With the Button embosslit you can create endless buttons to match any paper.

Birthday Wishes Card

Stamps - Bring on the cake
Ink - chocolate chip, baja breeze
Paper - Happy Together Poetry, baja breeze, very vanilla card stock
Accessories - paper daisies, basic pearls jewels, extra large decorative label punch, glue dots, dimensionals.

Happy Botday Card

Stamps - Best Bots Forever
Ink - poppy parade, so saffron, basic black, tempting turquoise
Paper - Build-a-Bear Positively Prints II DSP, poppy parade, so saffron, whisper white card stock
Accessories - Sweet Button embosslit, circle dies, white thread, glue dots, Crystal effects