Jason's Birthday

I always have a hard time trying to create a masculine card.  So, this time, I basically made the card on page 138 of the Stampin' Up! catalog.  I substitiuted Browns and Blues for the pinks and switched the Framed Tulips embossing folder for the Square Lattice.  The DSP is Comfort Cafe.

Madison's 10th Birthday

Happy Birthday, Madison. 

The card stock is Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry and Cherry Cobbler.  The ink is SU Raspberry Ripple.  The stamp sets are Stampin' Up! Lovely Letters Alphabet, Perfectly Penned and the little cupcake is from Itty Bitty Bits.

The punches are SU Large Tag and 1" Square.

The letters do hang over the edge of the card, but the card does fit in a clear cellophane envelope.

Summer Sunshine - Pals July Blog Hop

It's time for some fun in the sun with the Pals!  Glad you could join us for the Pals Summer Sunshine Blog Hop! You've probably hopped over from Angie Blake at AngiesMusings ,  I'm stop number 4 on the Pals Hop and I'm glad you hopped in!  I'll help you "hop along" from blog to blog where you'll find great ideas for summer themed projects from the Stampin' Pretty Pals!  Should you hop off course, simply click on any of the links in the Pals Hop Line-up below and you'll be back on track

When I started thinking about a card for this Summer Sunshine Blog Hop, I thought I should have a design that used a great deal of yellow coloring (summer sunshine).  This post will describe the process of thinking about the project, creating the project and then posting the final version of the project.  For me, the original idea is usually not the final product.

The first card was created using Stampin’ Up!’s new Hostess set called “Summer Afternoon”.  Both the image and the sentiment are from this set.  Here it is:

Now this card was made using the yellow DSP from SU Polka Dot Parade, going along with my plan.  I “painted” the design with my Aqua Painter and used SU Old Olive for the blades of grass and the leaves in the flower pot.  The flower pot was colored with SU Cajun Craze.  The swing was colored with SU Soft Suede.  I was not happy with this card because instead of a blue bird, I decided the bird should have been yellow.  So I started over.

Old Olive is my favorite color so I ended up with a similar card, only in green.  I went a little heavier on the grass color this time and used a sponge dauber to color the grass.  Same colors on everything else this time, INCLUDING THE BIRD!   I totally forgot to change the bird to yellow!  Now my card had no yellow at all!  I did, however, have fun threading the button with a sliver of old olive card stock.

One more try.  This time, I decided that if I consistently colored the bird blue, maybe yellow was not the color I wanted to emphasize after all.  Maybe that color should be blue.  So I switched to SU Pool Party card stock, used a sheet from SU Comfort Café DSP and colored the bicycle blue, still using an image and sentiment from the Summer Afternoon Hostess stamp set.   I used a few strands of SU linen thread and I did color the daisies and the wicker basket yellow!  I was finally happy with this card.

The final design for this blog was not at all what I started out with, as often happens with me.  The fun in this whole process is allowing the colors and images take you on an exciting journey to the final product, which, for me, is usually a mystery until the very end.

Now hop along for more inspiring ideas from Marian Kay at All Aboard the Crafting Train, stop number 5 on the Pals Summer Sunshine Blog Hop!  Thanks for "hopping" by!

1. Dawn Tidd at Tiddbits from Dawn
2. Barb Furlong at The Love of Stamping
3. Angie Blake at AngiesMusings
4. Diane Roberts at Score at Four and a Quarter
5. Marian Kay at All Aboard the Crafting Train
6. Susan Lankford at Stamp and Scrap With Susan
7. Shannon Jaramillo at ezpeasycards
8. Rae Harper at Wild West Paper Arts
9. Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty
10. Maggie Mata at Maggie Made Cards
11. Angela Curry at Kindred Stampers
12. Jen Takacs at Stamped in Full
13. Kimberly Deacon at Delightful Stampin
14. Nicole Watt at Impressions By Nicole
15. Mikki Sarkisyan at Mikki's Creative Corner
16. Nicole Picadura at Scraps & Stamps
17. Nina Dee at Deesigns by Nina Dee
18. Kim Luithle at Kims Stampin Stuff
19. Lori Martin at The Rejoicing PaperCrafter
20. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
21. Maxine Conrad at Stamp to the Max
22. Beth Beard at My Little Craft Blog
23. Kim Czenszak at Live Love Stamp

PPA 138 Color Challenge

Here is the color challenge

I used the Stampin' Up!'s  Kindness Matters and Papillion Potpourri stamp sets.  The card stock is Daffodil Delight and Cherry Cobbler.  The DSP, I'm almost positive is Early Espresso.  I had a hard time distinguishing between that and the Chocolate Chip in myNeutrals Collection Paper Stack.  I used the Scallop Edge Border punch  and the new Elegant Butterfly punch.  The sentiment and the butterflies are stamped in Cherry Cobbler.

Non Convention Swap Card

Stampin' Up! holds it's annual convention in July each year. Many of the PALS are attending and preparing cards for swapping at the convention. Brian King, one of the PALS, has organized a Non Convention Card Swap.

Brian is providing those of us who are not attending convention, the opportunity to do a swap.

This is my first swap ever!

I sent my card to Brian last night.

I used SU Soft Suede CS and the Petals a Plenty embossing folder. The sentiment is SU Perfectly Penned stamped SU Raspberry Ripple. The scalloped border was punched with SU Naturals Ivory using the SU Scallop Trim Border punch and then I added pearls.

Now I am off to create two more cards today; one for the PPA Color Challenge and one for Tuesday's July Blog Hop.