For a swap - Sympathy card fronts

Another example of bad pictures....

I saw this card on Mary Fish's blog, and I loved it. So simple and still means so much! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's "Word Play". I stamped it in Basic Black craft ink and then embossed it in black embossing powder. I matted that on another piece of white cardstock, then added 3 brads, 1 black, 2 silver, which I lined up using my mat pack from Stampin' Up. I embossed the back piece with Stampin' Up's "Vintage Wallpaper" embossing folder. Then I added the ribbon. I couldn't decide if I liked it with the bow, so I made some with and some without. The bow can easily be removed if the swapper who receives it doesn't like it added on.

August Promotion - Buy 3 Get 1 Free

From now until August 31st, Stampin Up is offering Buy 1 Get free on select packs of their Designer Paper. There is no limit on this special, the items just have to be listed on the flyer. Click on the Photo above to see the list of items which are included!
Hurry, offer only good until August 31st!!!

June's Card Club

One of the great things about card club, besides getting together with a great group of ladies, is that you get to see different people's creativeness. Tonight was Card Club and my usual group of ladies, along with a couple new ladies, came over to make cards. The first picture is my original sample. It features Pretty in Pink and Whisper White Cardstock with Concord Crush Designer Paper (DSP). I colored the image from the soon to be retired (retires June 30th) "Pun Fun" with my Stampin' Write markers. The polka dots on the latte mug were done with the white gel pen by Signo. The sentiment we stamped and then punched with the Word Window punch and then layered it onto Concord Crush which was punched with the Modern Label punch. At Card Club I also offered Fun and Fast Notes so everyone could choose an image/sentiment that best worked for her.

The second picture, I made at card club to show what it would look like without the Concord Crush strip. Some ladies liked it with, while others liked it without! Either way it looks great!

Are you interested in joining us for Card Club?? Why not check my website to see when the next Card Club meets:
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/gina_thornton/Can't make it here? Have a card club with you and your friends, you provide the location.

Country Flowers

I thought I would share the finished card that I made to show the simple knots below. This is for my card front swap on my Favorite MB, the theme is ribbons. I used a now retired Stampin' Up set called "Country Morning". I stamped the image on watercolor paper and used my Stampin' p markers as well as Classic Ink pads and a blender pen to color the image. The cardstock, paper and ribbon are all stuff I had on hand.

Valentine's for the kids

Inside: "And lots of Valentine Fish kisses!"


Inside: "Valentine I think you are out of this world!"



Can you believe it??? I actually am ahead and made the kids Valentines this year! And they are done before Valentine's Day!! Aren't you proud of me?? Well, I am proud of me!
The first Valentine is for my daughter. I saw some fish cards on the internet by various people, and thought this would make a cute Valentine! Cheyenne is on this fish kick. She's always asking me to cut out some fish out of paper, so that she can decorate them and then hang them on her walls. So I thought she would appreciate the fish on this one. Although now that I think about it, she will probably be asking me to make some of these for her next. I used the Ornament Punch by Stampin' Up, and the fins are using the 5-Petal flower punch. The eyes I cheated a little and used the eyes from Owl punch. The hearts are punched using the Heart-to-heart punch. The paper is from my stash, but since it was a water print, I thought it went well with the card! The sentiment I typed on the computer.
The second card is for my son. When I thought about a card for him, this is the set that came to mind. The aliens are from "Greetings, Earthling" set by Stampin' Up. The hearts in between the aliens are punched using the Heart-to-heart punch. The hearts in the background are stamped with some old heart stamps I have in my stash, and are stamped using VersaMark. I colored the images using my Stampin' Write Markers.
The last picture is Valentines that I made for the kids that go to my school. I was inspired by the ones that Cheyenne made for her class. I made pink ones for the girls, and the white ones for the boys. Inside there are cherry flavored lollipops.

Bright and Happy Thoughts - Card Front

I am still playing with taking pictures in my light box. I did get a bigger box, but I need a brighter light I think. Or maybe less tissue paper? I have the poster board in there now at least.
Anyway I made these card fronts for my Card Front swap on my Fav MB. The theme was shapes. You had to incorporate some sort of Geometric shape in the background of your cards. I have a stack of paper that has a bunch of this square papers in that I never know what to do with, so it worked out perfect for this! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's now retired set "Think Happy Thoughts". I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the flower in the center of the sentiment. The flower is embossed with white embossing powder. The speckles are done in VersaMark's Dazzle ink.
As usual lately, I couldn't decide where to put the sentiment, so I didn't attach it. I originally used this sketch for the card, but I'm not sure I like the sentiment where they have it, I like it more on the bottom, off to the side.

This is from PageMaps by BeckyFleck, and can be found in the March Card Maps 2008 Archives.

Winter Card

How many of us have a ton of fibers and ribbons that you just HAD TO HAVE and when you got them homw wondered "Now what am I going to do with that?" LOL me too! I bought a bunch of Fun Fur yarn, at least I think that's what it was called, because they had it on clearance at a local craft store for dirt cheap! I think it was like $1.00 a skein. Normally it is quite a bit more! So I of course had to have every color! That was at least 2 years ago!
So when I needed to make a winter card for a recent card front swap, I dug out this one. It kind of looks like cold wintery colors don't you think? The blue is Stampin' Up's retired Ballet Blue. The white piece is embossed with a snow flake embossing folder. The snowflake stamp is from Stampin' Up's "Serene Snowflakes" and the sentiments are from "Sincere Salutations". Lately I haven't been able to decide on a sentiment, so I stamped two different ones and included them both along with a scallop oval so that whomever recieves it can decide which occassion they would like to use it for.

This special is AMAZING!!!!

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If you'd like more information, please check the link http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/gina_thornton/startyourownbusiness. You can also contact me through that link.
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Second Annual Card Swap - Get Well Soon

I like how these turned out. I did these for another theme for TexasTam's swap on my favorite MB. I love these girl stamps without the heads! They always have the best sentiments come with them! The sentiment I reserved for inside and it says "A hug to ease your Cough and sneeze" and since they are clear stamps I was also able to line up ""feel Better Soon" directly under that so it looks as though it was one stamp! LOVE IT! (said in a Wheezie-from Dragon Tails-voice.) The background I did with Stampin' Up's Texture plates, then I sanded them down a bit. A little note about the texture plates. If you want a more defined image, spritz the cardstock with rubbing alcohol before embossing it! I then used my handy piercing tool that slides into my new scoring tool. The images was stamped on watercolor paper, and I used my watercolor crayons from Stampin' Up to color it along with my blending pens.

Card Front Swap-September

Can you believe it? I'm ahead and I'm posting early! WOW!
These are the fronts I made for the monthly swap on my fav MB. The theme for September is "Apples, Pumpkins, or Leaves". I went with an old set from Stampin' Up which I was sad to see retire. It's called "Give Thanks". I then used my Stampin' Up Classic ink pads and my blending pen to color the images once I stamped them on watercolor paper. The pattern on the grey pieces is from Stampin' Up's background stamp called "sanded". It is a nice addition to masculine cards too!

Monthly Card Front Swap - July

These are cards I created for the Monthly Card Front swap that I host on my Favorite MB. The theme for July was NonTraditional Colors. I really like this theme. It's nice to step out of the box when making Christmas Cards (as long as you don't step too far out of it!)The reindeer is the FABULOUS Dasher Stamp from Stampin' Up. Then I did a lot of embossing, with lines and snowflakes.A simple and fun card, what could be better?

Christmas in July - Christmas tree

NOTE: Looks like I made a mistake when posting this earlier this week, so here it is again with the CORRECT picture! Sorry friends!
Here's another for the Christmas in July swap. The theme here was wreaths, trees, etc. I used my Stampin' Up Photo Corner punch to punch out the "branches" of the tree from paper that I have had...forever. Then I used these cute little buttons to make ornaments. Then a little star punch on top, and a trunk for the tree. EASY Peasy! The background was done using a music background punch (which you have probably seen before-see Vintage Christmas). I love how the punch makes trees so easy!

Christmas In July - Angel

NOTE another incorrect picture, fixed it, sorry!
You guessed it, another Christmas In July swaps, this time the theme is Heavenly Hosts. It's no secret that I love Angels. And I knew I had to include an Angel theme in the swap this year. Although it wasn't as popular as some of the other themes, we did get a number of participants. I love this angel stamp! I stamped her in Versamark and then embossed with white embossing powder. The back ground stamp used was Stampin' Up's En Francois. Another of my favorites.

Christmas in July Swap - NonTraditional Colors

Another card for the Christmas In July swap, this theme is Non-Traditional Colors.
I CASED this card from a Fellow PhillyInker Julianna. She had made them for a make and take last year. I used Stampin' Up's Ornament punch to punch the ornaments, and then stamps from a couple of sets to emboss the designs on them. I do believe I used "Priceless" and "Snow Swirled" although I could be wrong about the flourish one. I stamped the image in Versamark and then embossed them with white embossing powder. The scallop edge is done with Stampin' Up's Scalloped edge punch. The cardstock and Patterened paper is all stuff I had on hand. The faux stitching is nice and straight due to my new favorite scoring tool and a handy little piercing tool that fits right into it's grooves.

Double Embossed Butterfly

This front is for the June card front swap on my favorite MB. The theme, is you guessed it, Butterflies. I actually took this layout and design from a fellow PhillyInker Melissa. She showed us how to double emboss on a butterfly cut out. The butterfly is cut using Stampin' Up Beautiful Butterflies die. The images are from "Elements of Style". I then sponged yellow all over the image. The speckles on the yellow piece is from the "Itty Bitty Backgrounds" set from SU. I then cut the sentiment out with my circle punches.
All cardstock, ribbon, etc is from stuff I had on hand.

Inside Out

August's theme for my Card Front Swap on my Fav MB is "Inside Out". We were to create a card front with a matching insert. Here is mine. I used the new Stampin' Up set called "Elements of Style". I stamped it first in Versamark, then used a sparkly embossing powder, then heated it with my SU heat tool. Afterwards I cut the piece into 3 panels. Then I matted it and matted it again. I added some ribbon, then the sentiment (also from Elements of Style) punched out with the oval punch and matted with the scallop oval.

The inside I used the same Elements Of Style stamped in Versamark. It give it a nice subtle print, not too over powering.

Card Front- Pink and Brown

So you may be thinking "hey I have seen this card before" and you probably are right! I get the "Cards" magazine delivered to my home (thanks to my lovely hubby) each month. And there right on the page of the February 2010 issue, it was! I needed a pink and brown card for the swap on my favorite MB, and so this one worked out perfectly!
This is the "Fresh Cuts" stamp set by Stampin Up. It's the first time I used it! The stitching is all faux, I used my trusty Mat Stack from Stampin Up to line up the holes nice and straight. (and at 8+ cards it took a little while!) I then used my marker to draw in the stitching. Then I dyed the little bead things which on my favorite MB we fondly nicknamed "skittles" using my alcohol inks. The ribbon and cardstock are all stuff I had on hand!

Ok you are probably wondering...yes that IS snow in the background! I needed some light to get pictures of my cards and thought to myself "self, why not take advantage of the natural light hitting the snow" So I did. and the pictures came out pretty good. Now I am NOT saying that I want more snow, but at least I got something good out of all that snow we got over the past week and a half!!!!! (and don't worry if you like the snowy background...there are more to come!)

Green With Envy - Addicted to Cardmaking

I made this card for the theme Green with Envy for my Addicted to Cardmaking swap on my favorite MB. I have to say though that I TOTALLY CASEd this card from my fabulous Upline Claire Lawrence. I just couldn't come up with my own design, and saw the awesome card she made and had to make one myself!!!
I used the new clear mount Vintage Vogue from Stampin' Up (which by the way Claire ENABLED me into getting!). And the background (on the light green) is the rolling stamp So Swirly (retired). I used the Wide Oval Punch and the Coluzzle cutting system. The border was done with Stampin' Up's new Scallop border. The ribbon, and cardstock are all using stuff I had on hand. The inks I used were Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Garden Green and Certain Celery (I think).

An altered bottle

I am in a swap on my Favorite MB. We each get a partner, who we learn about and then create some goodies for. This round I am paired up with Sheila, aka Mopster67. have to say this swap is by far the easiest Partner swap I have ever done! Sheila is great! And the themes are awesome! Not too hard, which is what my brain needs right now! LOL. The theme for this one is "flowers".

Anyway, I got the bottle of flowers from a craft store, removed all of the labels, including the one that held the lid on. then I used my sticky strip to hold all of the pieces on. I used my circle punches and Scallop circle punch from SU. The images are from the "Circle of Friendship" and the "Petal Pizzazz" sets. The patterned paper and ribbon are from stuff I had on hand.

Stamping on candles

These are also for the Valentine's swap. The theme for this one is "Love". I used a white candle I had on hand. Then used Stampin' Up's new FABULOUS "I {heart} Hearts" set stamped in various shades of pink and red. I love how this one turned out!