No Time To Stamp?

…clear cardstock, gray ink, new paper (yes!), fun in the forum, and some helpful hints.

As I am getting ready to go to CHA, time just ran out to prepare my usual May I Suggest… for today, so I’m relying on our FABULOUS Design Team to show you some super projects and to give you some great tips to make your cardmaking a bit easier.  But before I send you over to them, let me offer just a few suggestions (with no pictures, I’m so sorry!):

Clear Cardstock:  Have you tried making clear cards before?  Well, I’m guessing you may have used a thinner transparency type of material?  If so, then you’ll be surprisingly pleased when you see, feel and touch the Clear Cardstock in good supply at Flourishes.  It is much heavier and so easy to work with.  I know you’ll love it. Be sure to check out all our Design Team links below for some great samples.

Palette Hybrid Charcoal ink:  Just wanted to share with you my new found love for gray ink.  I’ve always been one to like my whites VERY white and my blacks VERY black.  Well, I recently have fallen in love with the softness of a beautiful gray ink.  I’ve been using it a lot of recent, but many cards are not yet uploaded for you to see.  These cards all used the Charcoal ink.  My Friday’s Stamp Simply Challenge card coming up on Friday also uses it.  I am just loving the softness it lends, especially when working with pastel type colors.  Just wanted to share that — oh, well, OK — I just went and got you a sneak peek of the card coming up for the Friday Challenge so you can see some gray ink:

Isn’t it so soft and pretty?  I’ve sure been loving it!!!

Latest Flourishes Releases:  I am also recommending our newest releases, just in case you missed them last week:  Stamp Simply Thank You, Poppy Patch, Butterfly Moments.  All 3 wonderful sets to work with!!!

Fun in the Forum:  I also suggest that you browse thorugh the Flourishes Forum at Splitcoast.  There’s a lot of fun and games going on over there all the time — not to mention some informative posts, interviews, and good old fashioned chit chat.  Check it out!!!

Please check out all of our Blogs to see some great cards made using our newest sets and as a bonus this week, they’ll each have a little suggestion of their own for you — how fun!!!  I can’t wait to see all their suggestions myself — off I go!!!

Leslie Miller,  Julie Koerber, Faith Hofrichter, Susan Roberts, Linda Duke, and Sharon Doolittle.

 Store News:

Clear Boxes are back in stock!

Coffee with Friends is TEMPORARILY out of stock.  If you’d like to be notified when it comes back in — please leave an email or SCS PM address in this link.  It won’t be too long!

New Paper — Dare I even say this, because I sure hope there is some left for me when I get home — LOL!!! Haven’t seen this DP IRL, only pictures, but they look FABULOUS!!!!  There is also a great assortment of rich colors in the metallic cardstocks!!!  Check them out!!!  I’ve been stocking up on these for Chrismas cards!!!

Thanks for stopping in everyone!!! The Friday Stamp Simply  Challenge will run as usual!!!  Hope you can stop in then!

…three new releases by Flourishes!!!  Yes, we are so pleased to have three sets to release this month and I’m so excited to finally be able to show them to you!!!  Here they are:

I am so pleased to show you  the Stamp Simply set this month called Thank You.  The beautiful tulips were drawn by Marcella Hawleyand the scripted background and two sentiments were done by calligrapher, Joan Machinchick.  What a beautiful pairing of two very talented women!!!  Thank you so much, ladies!!! I can not express to you all how pleased I am with this set!!!  In keeping with the Stamp Simply concept to have all you need to produce a gorgeous project in one small set — the small scripted background stamp was included.  It measures 2.5″ x 3.5″ and is just the perfect size for quick inking, while still lending that vintage/romantic feel to your project. It is a true dream to work with, and I know you will all love using it, too!!!  The simple sentiments of *Thank You* and *With Gratitude* just say it all, with classic and timeless beauty.  And the tulips — well, they speak for themselves — absolutely beautiful and a dream to color!!!

The cards I made to show you today using Thank You are very simple cards, in keeping with the Stamp Simply style, which is to start with a simple design, use lovely images, a few pretty embellishments, and you’re done.  And this is just what I did on all three of these coordinating cards.  I am trying to build up a nice supply of  Thank You cards to have on hand at home, and this sets makes it so easy — here are my first three:

A beautiful single stem tulip, a very simple layout, a little piercing, hardware and sheer ribbon added as embellishments.  All images are colored with Copics, and supplies for the entire set will be listed below.  All cards are standard A-2 size, 5 1/2 x 4 1/4″.

The same beautiful tulip, stamped 3 times.  Another very simple layout with minimal embellishments.  I so love that *With Gratitude* sentiment.  Such elegance!!!

This card uses the larger, fancier parrot tulip in the set.  Isn’t it so beautiful!!!!  Again, a very simple design using a larger image, framed in an oval with a simple ribbon as the only embellishment.

• Stamps:  Thank You by Flourishes
• Paper:  White, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink
• Ink:  Palette Hybrid Charcoal and Noir Black.  Copics to Color - RV11, RV17, RV34, G40, YG03, YG17, YG95, C-1,0.
• Accessories:  Pink Sheer Ribbon, Pink Scalloped Satin Ribbon, Gray Taffeta Ribbon (SU), Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware (SU), Piercer and Mat Pack, Ticket Corner Punch (SU), Self-adhesive Pewter Pearls  and Petite Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders.

The next two sets being released are wonderful, and the really great thing is that all 3 of the sets being released this month work together just beautifully, as you will be able to see in my sample for tomorrow and in some of our Design Team uploads that I’ll link below.

This is another set drawn by Marcella Hawley called Poppy Patch!!!  How fun is this!! Love the fun sentiments included in this set referencing summer, and OH, the options!!!  All of the various stems are separate so you can create whatever  size poppy cluster you desire!!! Fun!!!

This fun set is called Butterfly Momentsand was designed to have butterflies that can be used as stand alone images as well as smaller butterflies that work well as accents on any number of your creations!!!  What a fabuluos idea!!!  This is one of those sets that works well in so many applications.  Again, be sure to check out all of our Design Team samples to see what I mean!!! 

You can access the Flourishes Design Team Blogs here:  Leslie Miller, Linda Duke, Faith Hofrichter, Susan Roberts, Julie Koerber, Sharon Doolittle, Nancy Kirk.

And remember, today the winner will be drawn for the Blog Candy offered at Rainy Day Creations — did you sign up — maybe there’s still time!!!!

And you have until 6:00 p.m. EST Thursday, 7/10, to enter a card or project using Coffee with Friends in our Coffee Time Challenge.  You can’t hope to win unless you enter — check out the link for the challenge rules and a photo of the prize.

Thank you so much for stopping in today.  Hope you have time to check out all of our Design Team Creations, and hope you can pop in again tomorrow to see what else we all have in store for you!!! Thank you so much!!!!

… euphoria.  An utter and complete state of euphoria!!!  For your cards, that is!!!  I am just in love the the new Euphoria pad by Basic Grey and all the goodies that Flourishes has to go with them!!! I have SO MUCH to show you today, so let’s just get started.

Here’s my newest favorite pad by Basic  Grey.  It’s called Euphoria and these are 6 of the 18 designs in the pad.  There are 2 of each design for a total of 36 sheets per pad.  Aren’t those prints and colors just scrumptious!!!  I’ve paired them up with some of our fun and pretty May Arts ribbons.  Starting at the left we have Dotted Sheer Apple Green, 1″ Sheers in Apple Green and Pink, Dotted Lavender, 1″ Lavender Sheer, 3/8″ Lavender, Lavender/Purple Reversible Satin, Green Edged Purple, 3/8″ Bright Pink Satin, and 1″ Sheers in Steel Blue, Seafoam, and Dark Red.

Here we have 6 more of the prints in the Euphoria pad along with some more of our May Arts Ribbons.  And I’d like you all to see the pretty buttons and brads we have in stock, made by Basic Grey to coordinate perfectly with their paper.  It just doesn’t get any easier!  From the left our ribbons are Dark Red 1″ Sheer, 3/8″ Bright Pink Satin, 1″ Blue Satin, Blue Dotted Sheer, 1″ Apple Green Satin, 1″ Pink Sheer, Dotted Apple Green Sheer, 1″ Apple Green Sheer, and lastly a double sided Pink/Blue Satin.

And here we have the last 6 sheets in the Euphoria pad — love these rich reds!!!  And did you notice all the Glazed Brads in the back — so fun!!!  They coordinate with the Basic Grey papers, and we have brads to match Two Scoops, Sugared, Euphoria, Sultry and Boxer.  From left the ribbons are 1″ Sheers in Pink and Apple Green, Dotted Apple Green Sheer, 1″ Dark Red Sheer,  3/8″ Bright Pink Satin, Blue Dotted Sheer, 1″ Sheer in Steel Blue  and 1″ Satins in Blue, Apple Green and Burgundy.

And I also wanted to show you all these pretty new sticky back Pearls we have in the store — oh my — aren’t they lovely in all these colors!!!  OH, how these will dress up our cards!!!

And I wanted to also mention our H20’s by LuminArte.  They are amazing little pots of watercolors with lots of sparkle built right in.  Leslie Miller did a totally awesome tutorial earlier this week on watercoloring with these H20’s.  She makes it look SO easy and her results are totally spectacular!!! Check it out here, you won’t be sorry!!!

And for my project today, I’m going to show you what I call a *Cheater Box* — LOL!!! I love to make gift sets and boxes to present them in, but you know, we don’t always have time to make a box, as much as we might like to, so here’s a really quick idea for a gift box for cards.

OK, on the back right — I have my set of 3 cards and envelopes in a purchased plastic box — gotta love these.  I get mine from ClearBags.  Their site is not very user friendly, so I’ll tell you this box is item no. FB 17 and it is sized for A-2 cards and envelopes.  My cards usually have some thickness to them and I don’t like to squeeze them too tight, so I have 3 cards and envelopes in here, but it’ll hold quite a bit more if they are flatter cards.

OK, then I have a sheet of Textured Soft Sky (same as my cards are made of) cut to fit perfectly inside the box.  When my cards and envelopes are in my box, then I slip this cardstock sheet in front of them.  Then comes the fun part — I make a band to slip around the box, and once on, with the cardstock sheet inside the box - it actually looks like a box I made — thus, my *Cheater Box* - LOL!!!  Here’ a picture of it all put together.

How’s that for a quickie box?  I made the band pretty much the same as the card described in this post (using the sewing machine) or also in this post (using tape),  if you’d like more detailed instructions.  The only difference here is that  I added the *Friend* tag and button. The tiny button is from the Basic Grey button box shown above, and the Friend sentiment is from Flourished Words — a great sentiment set of 27 gorgeous, scripted words you can combine to form your own phrases.  It was cut and embossed with the Tag Trios by Spellbinders.  Just love these for making quick little tags to hang on a card — fun!!!

Here’s a side view of the box and a close up of the detail work.  Again, you can refer here for more instructions.  To make the band, cut a piece of paper 12 x 2.5 (or however wide you want it, and score it at 2.5, 3.5, 8 and 9.  It’ll then fold to fit this box perfectly with about an inch in the back for overlap where you can adhere it together.

And I think that about wraps it up for tonight — but to recap — what DID I suggest:

• Euphoria Designer Paper by Basic Grey
• Basic Grey Buttons,  Brads and fancy Glazed Brads
• Sticky back Pearls
• Luscious May Arts Ribbons
• Watercoloring with H20’s (see Leslie’s tutorial linked here)
• Making *Cheater Boxes* as above described
• Flourished Words for beautifully scripted small Sentiments
• Tag Trios for creating the perfect little hang tags for your cards
• And, of course, the JustRite Monogram Stampers to create these gorgeous Monograms

But before you leave, I’d like to recommend stopping in at these fun Blogs to see more creations using the fun products I’ve suggested for you today:

Julie Koerber - check out this absolutely darling little bird card — too cute for words!!!

Faith Hofrichter - check out her use of Pearls and her tutorial on how to change the color of your DP - yes, she did!!!!  Amazing!!!

Leslie Miller  - watercoloring with H20’s tutorial - she makes it so easy!!! A MUST READ!!!

Susan Roberts - check out this AMAZING 4th of July card made with Euphoria paper!!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in - I truly do appreciate it!!!  Hope you are all having a wonderful week!!!

…some simple and effective storage solutions.  We all know the problems that are inherent with this hobby — so much *stuff* — such a big *mess* — well, that’s how it is for me, anyway!  And I am making headway in my never-ending quest for organization, one baby step at a time.  I’ll share just a bit here today, and I’ll start with stamp storage.

When clear stamps are purchased, they typically come on acetate type sheets in a plastic sleeve.  We really do need a better way to store them on a permanent basis.  The buyers at Flourishes have found a wonderful solution — Clear Boxes that easily house two small (4 x 6) sets, or one large (8 x 6) set.  The boxes measure 4 x 6 and are a full 1/2″ thick.  The hinge opens in the middle, they lay flat when opened, giving you two sides for storage.  Here’s what they look like:

As you can see, the two standing have stamp sets in them.  You do have to trim the acetate that the stamp sets come on just a bit to fit in the box, but not much and that just takes a minute.  I like to just lay my acetate sheet with stamps on it in the box, the acetate (pictured) side out (stamps facing in), so I can easily see on the outside all that is contained in the set.  I cut a sheet of white cardstock to 4 x 6 and keep it between the sets so when the box is closed, I have a white background and can easily see each set, rather than seeing through one set to the other.  Makes for a cleaner display of my sets.  Here’s a pic of the box opened, with two sets in it:

This makes it very easy to take off the stamp you want and return it when you are finished.  I have found I spend a LOT less time *looking* for those tiny clear stamps since I have put all my stamps into these clear boxes.  Since there is a place to put them, I do put them back, rather than setting them on the table, loosing them, and then spending precious time frantically looking for them (have you been there? — LOL!!!).  These boxes come in sets of 6 (enough for 12 small sets or 6 large sets) and are very reasonably priced.  They can be seen here.

Also, I did some shopping and just got some new Spellbinder dies in the mail today, so thought I’d show them to you.  These are the Tag Trios on the left and the Double Ended Tags on the right:

I love adding tags to cards — a great way to get a sentiment on your project while adding interest and fun — and I love dangling tags from a string — the Tag Trios on the left are PERFECT for that!!! Can’t wait to use them.  And the Double Ended Tags on the right will look great attached with brads for a more permanent look and feel!!!

And I’ll be pefectly honest with you — I was planning to have a card or two here today to show you using these fun tags, but life just did not cooperate with me — I’m sure you know what I mean — interruptions galore coupled with a busy schedule just didn’t allow me to get cards made last night — and once I could see the writing on the wall, I figured that rather than fight to do a card, I would just settle for something less, something do-able under the circumstances.  So what I did is make up a few of the tags, ready to go for the next time I can sit and make some cards.  Having a few things pre-made and ready to go helps out a lot if you need to make a card quickly.  I often make things ahead and I’m always so glad to just be able to grab them when needed.  Here’s a few tags in the works:

See my roll of Scotch Removable Tape?  That has a permanent place right next to my Cuttlebug.  I use a ton of this tape.  I use it to tape my Spellbinder dies onto my paper, as shown above. If you’ve used these before, you know how they would move around if not taped.  One little piece of removable tape does the trick.  I also use the Scotch Removable Tape to temporarily hold my card pieces together as I am planning layouts.  When I make my cards, I figure things out as I go.  I may think a certain color matting will work, but in the end use another color.  I have learned to NEVER permanently adhere anything together until I have the entire card made up, laid out in front of me, and I’m happy with it.  And I use the Scotch Removable Tape a lot as I play around with my pieces, matting, framing, layouts, etc.  And you can use one piece of tape over and over again. 

Anyway, back to my tags.  Here they are all run through the Cuttlebug, cut and ready to be embossed:

It is a bit of a time saver when you make multiple tags rather than just one.  As you can see, I can now run these all through my Cuttlebug at one time to emboss them, rather than individually.  Anything to save time!!!  And here they are, done:

Sorry for all the flecks of dirt on this photo — I didn’t even see that IRL!!!  Oh well — Also, the embossing isn’t showing up the best either, but it is there, and it is the embossing on these tags that sets them apart from tags punched with a regular punch.  The embossing adds so much richness, I think!  The Coffee sentiments are from Coffee with Friends,  Just Because is from Siberian Iris, Peony is from Peony, Happy Birthday is from Many Sentiments.

And now it’s time to put our tag dies away — here’s a GREAT solution.  My idea — NOT!!! Wish it was — LOL!!!  I’ve seen this on many Blogs, the first being on Debbie Olson’s Blog, and I sure was quick to make use of this great idea!!!  All of my Nestabilities are stored in CD cases, and here’s the case for my tag dies:

You can purchase these sticky back magnet strips in the children’s craft section of Wal-Mart — they are so easy to use.  I just cut them to fit the CD case.  They are cut a bit differently for these tags than for the larger Nestabilities, but all the same idea.  There are four sets of tag dies in this one CD case — now how convenient is that!!!  The 2 sets I showed you today are on the left, and the Ribbon Slides and Label Trios are on the right.  But I would like to add, all of my Nesties would also work in the Clear Boxes shown above.  I just didn’t have my Clear Boxes when I started my storage for my Nesties.  Using the Clear Boxes would actually avoid the issue of the hump in the middle of the CD case!

(Editing:  OK, I’ve learned from several readers that you can pull that plastic center from the CD case — DUH!!!! Thank you so much — LOL!!! Glad I learned that — LOL!!!)

(Editing again:  Oh gosh, you people are so waaaayyyy ahead of me — LOL!!! I ‘m getting so many emails — you are all using these Clear Boxes for your Nesties and telling me how much better they work than the CD cases — you are all shaming me into changing them all over to Clear Boxes — LOL!!! — THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!)

And once you’re here to look, just wanted to share about this Stamp Cleaner specially formulated for clear stamps:

It does a wonderful job cleaning your clear stamps, makes them feel silky smooth, which is so nice, but this cleaner’s claim to fame in my book is its smell — it has the MOST declicious scent of citrus!!! It makes me WANT to clean my stamps!!!!  Gotta love it!!!  The pad and cleaner can be seen here.

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  My next post will contain a card, I promise!!! Hope you are all having a wonderful week!!!  OH, and if you like simple, you will LOVE this week’s Stamp Simply Challenge on Friday — be sure to come back and check it out — whether you plan to play or just check out everyone’s entries!!!

Hi everyone!!! Today’s May I Suggest… is going to be a little different than it has been the past few weeks, but change is good — right?   What I am going to suggest today is a technique — masking.  Probably one of the first techniques you learned as a beginning stamper, and if you don’t know how to mask, well, we’ve got a video tutorial for you to watch, so you’ll be ready to go in no time at all.  Here’s the card I made:

• Stamps:  Coffee with Friends by Flourishes
• Paper:  White, Black, Boxer and Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey***
• Ink:  Palette Noir Black
• Accessories:  Black Sheer Ribbon, SU Brads, Petite Oval Nestabilities, Eclipse Masking Tape, Dimensionals 
• Size:  5.5″ square

***Please note:  A few lines of our Basic Grey paper are either sold out or dangerously low.  If the pad you are looking for does not appear in the store, please just check back in a day or two.  The shipment is due to arrive any day!

This uses Coffee with Friends, one of Flourishes latest releases, and the first set in the Stamp Simply line.  We all knew from day one that this set was a dream to paper piece.  Well, it is also a super simple set to mask. It took hardly no time at all to create this main image with the 2 mugs on it.  And they are not only masked, but paper pieced as well.   How fun!!! And such impact for very little effort –

I first stamped my mug in the forefront on the white cardstock, then stamped again on a piece of Eclipse Masking Tape to make my mask.  I cut out my mask, layed it onto the mug, then I stamped the mug again where I wanted it.  The mask totally protected the first mug.  I then stamped my mug again twice on designer paper for the piecing, then I stamped on a flourish from the set (right over the printed paper),  cut out and adhered onto the card.  Fun!!!

And if you have never tried the Eclipse Masking Tape, you really MUST.  This is a low tack tape made for masking.  No more trying to find the sticky spot on the sticky note — the entire mask is a low tack self-stick tape when made with the Eclipse Tape.   How wonderful!!!  OK, now check out this little glimpse at a card:

As my sample was really quick and simple,  I’d like to direct you over to the Blog of my good friend, Susan Roberts, who created such a gorgeous card using the beautiful, newly released Peony.  She took her masking a few steps further than I did and, WOW!!! Wait until you see the result with that stunning Peony.  You can see it here.  Susan also includes some great instructions for you.

And speaking of instructions, here’s a few places you can check out to see tutorials on masking.

• Nancy Kirk has prepared a nice video on both masking and reverse masking and she is using Flourishes first stamp set, Cake Decorating 101.  When you watch this video, you not only get a good overview on how to mask, but you can actually see the cake and pedestal come together — fun!!!  See Nancy’s tutorial here.
• Beate Johns over at SCS has a basic masking tutorial in the Resources section there.  You can check out Beate’s tutorial here.

I apologize for this abbreviated version of May I Suggest… , but time constraints prohibited me from doing much more this week.  And I am so thankful to Susan for her beautifully done Peony masked card and instructions, and also to Nancy and Beate for their great tutorials on masking.  Hope you check them all out. But to recap, what I am suggesting today is:

• Masking — it’s so easy and fun and brings so much depth to your images – check out the tutorials linked above to get you going
• Coffee with Friends and Peony — Flourishes latest releases — 2 completely different sets, but both adapt so well to the masking technique
• Eclipse Masking Tape — a fabulous replacement for the sticky note — LOL!!! Truly, it is!!!  Makes masking a breeze!!!

While enjoying my morning coffee, I made the rounds to see what all of our DT was up to last night and MY OH MY!!!! I MUST share these with you — take a look — you will NOT be disappointed:

Leslie Miller — Coffee Gift Card Holder with tutorial — and check out what she did with the saucer — brilliant!!!

Julie Koerber — Coffee Gift Card Holder with altered Take Out Cup and tutorial — what a wonderful, wonderful gift!!!

Faith Hofrichter — Fabulous card featuring Fantasy Floral Garden, a la Markie’s Mom style!!!  You must check this out — with a little birdie, too!!!

Linda Duke — A delicate and beautiful Siberian Iris card done in Linda’s signature Paper Tole style.  She offers instruction and a close up view.  Be sure to click on the smaller floral image to get a nice, large closeup showing all the Paper Tole detail.

Thank you all so much for stopping in — I truly do appreciate it!!! Hope you are all having a great week!!!

Since today’s May I Suggest… is being combined with yesterday’s 10 Minute Tuesday, what I would like to suggest is that you… Stamp Simply.  Yes, of course!!!  And I’d like to suggest paper piecing as well.  It gives your card a lot of punch for very little effort.  And here are two simple cards that fit this Stamp Simply concept well:

These two cards are made pretty much the same, using Coffee with Friends, and a very simple plan of attack!  We start with

• A simple design.
• Use of  designer paper for interest.
• A large main image panel with a simple image, paper pieced, and elevated for dimension.
• The addition of  ribbon or an embellishment.
• In this case, the omission of a sentiment, though we would often add one.

I rely on this simple layout a lot.  I love playing with designer papers, putting them together in coordinated pairs.  And sometimes it’s just fun to make your card base, even if you don’t have time to stamp.  To make these card bases, in line with the Stamp Simply concept, I adhere the designer paper right to the card base to avoid any extra layers.  And I really like the look of minimal layers at times. These are the card bases with only the designer paper adhered.

If you have time to make bases like this and just keep them on hand, it’s a real time saver when you’re in a rush.  To make these I cut my bottom strip 2.25″ inches high.  I just like that measurement — it works for me!!! The card on the left only has a bottom piece, topped with a scallop made with the Long Rectangle Nestabilities, as shown on this post.  The card on the right has the bottom piece topped with a strip of solid paper.  On this card, I cut the top piece 3.5 inches high and I adhered it to the card first.  Then I overlap the bottom piece when I adhere it.  All the designer paper above is from Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey.

OK, with your bases made, now you need your focal image, and for both of these cards the white panel was cut 2.75″ x 4.5″ and the framing was cut 1/8″ larger, giving you a very narrow frame.  I used the simple tall coffee mug image from Coffee with Friends to paper piece both of these images. I love the look of paper piecing.  For very little effort it adds a whole lot of punch to your card!  Let’s take the card on the left first. 

The Lily of the Valley from Peony were first stamped onto the panel, making sure you stamp high enough to allow room for the vase.  I colored the flowers with the Inkksentials Opaque White Pen and it sure does a wonderful job on these — the white just pops, even off of this white base.  The leaves were colored with 2 green Copics and then I outlined the entire image with the Cool Gray Copic.

Next you have to make your vase.  Stamp the tall coffee mug from Coffee with Friends onto your designer paper, then cut out ONLY the portion that would be the vase — not the handle or the saucer.  Then, as you can see, I turned it upside down for this vase — the narrow part is on top.  I did a card yesterday making a vase with the narrow part on the bottom — it is versatile.  Then for the stripe on the vase — I just picked up a scrap strip of paper from by my paper cutter, cut it to width, and adhered it.  I run all these small pieces through my Xyron X — really handy!  Attach your vase to the panel, frame the panel with black, tie a little bow with the Black Dotted Sheer Ribbon and attach it with a little glue dot. 

All that’s left is to attach your newly created main image panel to the card.  I do this with either mounting tape on a roll or mounting squares.  It adds just a bit of elevation to the card and it just gives an air of elegance, I think, when that main image just kind of floats above the card — love that look.  (I get these products at Wal-mart, it’s my only shopping source here.)  But it may be enough to pop you up into the extra postage category, so that is a consideration!  Here’s another view of the same picture from above, just so you don’t have to scroll:

Now for the card on the right with the coffee mug from Coffee with Friends – this, too, is paper pieced, using 2 colors.  You’ll have to stamp it twice on designer paper, stamping the mug on brown and stamping the saucer on the greenish/goldish color.  Then you can stamp a flourish from Coffee with Friends onto your mug.  In this instance, you have to stamp the coffee mug onto the main image panel, and you can also stamp on some steam.  Now, take your mug and saucer pieces cut from the designer paper and adhere them over your image stamped on the white panel.  Instant appeal — isn’t it great?  I added brads on the handle and a photo hanger to tie on a piece of Chocolate Velvet Ribbon.  These colors and the visual weight of the mug just demanded a heavier weight ribbon up there.  Ok, attach this main image panel onto the card base with mounting tape, as above, and you are done!!!

And you’ll notice there are NO sentiments on these cards.  I like to have cards made up ahead that I can grab when needed, no matter what the occasion, so I often make my cards in this generic fashion.  When you decide you need to use one of these cards, you will have room to add on a small circle or oval die cut sentiment, or you can just use the inside for your message/sentiment. 

About the Basic Grey 6 x 6 pads — they often work together very well for mixing and matching — though each pad has it’s own design line, the sheets of solid color often transfer well to another pad.  My pink vase is from Sultry, while the black/white bottom is from Scarlet’s Letter.

About ribbons — two of my stand-by must have ribbons that I’d like to suggest to you today are the Dotted Sheers and the Velvet Ribbons.  They both come in a wide range of colors and are so easy to work into your projects.  I LOVE the bit of fun and whimsy that the Dotted Sheers add, and nothing can beat the elegance of velvet. And even on the coffee card above, I used the velvet not because I necessarily needed elegance, but because it was the weight I was after — and I needed such a little piece, but it was perfect!!!

About Coffee with Friends — I’ve had so much fun working with this set this week.  It is a paper piecers dream!!!  Perfect for piecing — fun and easy!!!  These images also can easily be colored in by any means you prefer.  And I love the versatility of the tall coffee mug — as you’ve seen I’ve made it into a couple different vases — and I have one more idea up my sleeve with this mug that I’ll save for another day!!!  (Unless someone out there beats me to the punch — LOL!!!)  I also need to move on and play with the small cups some more — I have ideas for those as well!!!  Just LOVE the simplicity and ease of working with this all-purpose set!!!

Gosh, I feel like I’ve rambled on, so what DID I recommend today?  Let me see –

• A simple card design, using Coffee with Friends (and Lily of the Valley from Peony)
• Paper Piecing using Basic Grey designer paper
• A large main image panel with a simple, pleasing image, elevated for prominence
• Using ribbons as embellishments
• Making your cards sentiment-free, allowing for versatile uses when needed

Yes, I guess that would wrap it up.  Hope those of you in need of some quick and simple designs will give this a try!!!  It can’t get much easier!!! Oh, and enjoy a cup of coffee while you’re at it — LOL!!!

Thank you all so much for stopping in today — I truly appreciate it!!!

Hi everyone!  It’s time for Wednesday’s May I Suggest…  and this week I have a lot of pretty suggestions up my sleeve.  Here’s a sampling of 2 cards made with this weeks suggestions in mind:

Is anyone getting the idea that I am totally IN LOVE with this bleeding heart image from Spring Ephemerals, which is Flourishes newest release.  LOL!!! Yes, I AM in love with this beautiful image, especially since my own bleeding heart is just starting to get some blooms on it!!!  And the fact that these 2 cards are the same, but different, is by no mistake.  I wanted to show you how these solid image stamps in Spring Ephemerals look stamped as a black silhouette and as a white silhouette (the white is embossed) .  Both equally as beautiful, just different. 

The paper I want you to get a good look at this week is Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey — again, in the 6 x 6 pad that I so love to work with — great, manageable size!  Both cards are made with papers from Scarlet’s Letter.  The prints in this pad are GORGEOUS — rich, luxurious, fairly large-scaled patterns — and they all seem to just be MADE to go with our new Spring Ephemerals stamp set — or maybe it was vice versa — LOL!!!  Whatever the case, they are a fabulous pairing!!!!

These 6 sheets are in the black/white/red/gray color scheme — very classic!!!  The ribbons, from left to right are:  Silver/Grey Velvet, Red Dotted Sheer, Black Sheer, Black Scallop Edge Satin, Dark Red Sheer, Black Velvet and  Black Dotted Sheer.

Here are a few more of the fun patterns and colors — all very rich — just love this look!  From the left the ribbons are Red Sheer, Chocolate Sheer, Brown Dotted Sheer, Champagne Wide Satin, Chocolate Velvet, Chocolate Wide Satin, Chocolate Scallop Edge satin.

And here are some more patterns with green in them.  Yes, these are still all in the same Scarlet’s Letter pad — and there are a few sheets I haven’t even shown you!!!  From the left the ribbons are Red Wide Satin, Olive Green Scallop Edge Satin, Reversible Satin, Dark Red Sheer, Chocolate Sheer.

Ok, I’ve suggested a stamp set — Spring Ephemerals; paper — Scarlet’s Letter; and ribbons galore!  The one last thing I want to touch on today is the scallops that I have used on both cards — aren’t they delicate and pretty!!!   And the really great thing — they were NO FUSS whatsoever to make!  First of all, both main images were cut and embossed with the Long Rectangle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, as was the scalloped framing.  But check out the tiny scalloped edge above the designer paper.  (Same picture as above, just put it here so you don’t have to scroll so much)

Look at the black and white card first.  See how tiny that scallop is?  You know how quick and easy it was to put that there?  Quicker than you’d ever think!  Since I had my Long Rectangle Nesties out, I just cut and embossed one more black scalloped rectangle and then cut it in half, as shown below.

Now I have two pieces to work with, enough for two cards of this size.  Just place the scallop behind your DP piece, adhere them together, then trim the ends to fit and attach to your card front — takes only moments!!!

Now for the green card — see that tiny scallop as well?  That is merely a piece of the Olive Green Scallop Satin Ribbon placed behind the DP panel — another delicate scallop that is so easy to do!!!

• Stamps:  Spring Ephemerals by Flourishes (Sympathy is from Flourished Words)
• Paper:  White, Black, Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey
• Ink:  Versa Mark, Basic Brown, Palette Noir Black
• Accessories:  White Embossing Powder, Ribbons, Long Rectangle and Petite Oval Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Glue Dots, Mounting Tape, Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware.

That wraps up today’s May I Suggest — and after all this, does anyone remember what I suggested — LOL!!!

1. Spring Ephemerals Stamp Set by Flourishes
2. Scarlet’s Letter Designer Paper by Basic Grey
3. Long Rectangle Nestabilities by Spellbinders
4. Ribbons Galore

Thank you so much for stopping in!!! Truly appreciate it!!!  Hope you are all having a wonderful week!!!

Hi everyone!  Today I’m starting a new Wednesday feature called May I  Suggest…  I’ll be showing you a card and then giving you a better view of the things I’ve used to make the card, with some additional suggestions as to things that would work well with the selection of product used.  I needed a feminine sympathy card for today, so here it is:

The paper I am showcasing on this card is one of my very favorite Basic Grey 6 x 6 pads, called Lily Kate.   It has such lovely prints and colors so suitable for spring.  I’ve also used one of Flourishes latest releases, Lilac, and my sentiment is from Flourished Words.  I used Nestability Dies by Spellbinders to cut and emboss my main image as well as sentiment.  My lilacs were colored with Copics, and here are the colors:

As I said above, Lily Kate has been one of my very favorite of the Basic Grey pads, and that’s what I’d like to give you a better look at today.  I spread the sheets out so you can see them better and I’ve paired them up with some of the fabulous May Arts ribbons that Flourishes carries.  Here’s the 1st photo:

Aren’t these just the most gorgeous prints and colors!!!  The ribbons I’ve selected that work well with the Lily Kate colors are the Olive Green Scalloped Edge Satin hanging on top, the White and Ivory Wide Satin, and the Dotted Sheers in Light Blue, Apple Green, Maize and Lavender.  Just looking at these makes me want to go and do something with them!!!

And these gorgeous prints and colors finish off the pad.  There are 2 sheets of each in the pad, for a total of 36 sheets per pad.  Hanging from the top are again, the Olive Green Scalloped Edge Satin, Chocolate Velvet and the Pink Scalloped Edge Satin.  The Wide Satins are shown in Pink, Chocolate, Ivory and White.  The 1″ wide Sheers are shown in Pink and Chocolate, and the Dotted Sheers are shown again in Light Blue and Maize.

And I can not, in all clear conscience, make ribbon recommendations without showing you my all time favorite ribbons.  Yes, black ribbons are a staple in my stamp room — I just could NOT design without them.  My theory is simple — when all else fails — add black!!!  Or if you’re in a hurry, just add black!!!  You can never go wrong with black accents and black ribbon — a fool proof winner, every time!!!  The ribbons shown here are the Wide Sheer, Dotted Sheer, Scalloped Edge Satin and Velvet. 

I also wanted to recommend these soft and pretty colors in the LuminArte Twinkling H20’s, which are beautiful, shimmery little pots of watercolors.  They are sold in 12 packs, and this pack is number 1256.  Although I have not used the H20’s on the project shown in this post, this magnolia card shows how just a bit of H20’s added on as an accent after coloring can spruce up an image.  Fun little pots of color and they are so easy to use — just like watercoloring with a wet brush when you were a child, only our paints are so much prettier, plus they shimmer!!!  The H20’s are hard cakes in these little jars.  You need to wet them to paint.  You can take a waterbrush (which is a brush filled with water) and dip it into your pot of H20’s, or you can take a little spray bottle and spritz some water into your pot and use a regular paint brush if your prefer.  Whatever works for you — just get the hard cake dampened and paint.  And you can control the intensity of the color by how much water you have on your brush.  Once you load your brush with color, just dab it on a scrap paper first to get off that first “blob” of water so it doesn’t mess up your project, and then paint away. They are SO FUN to play with — GUARANTEED FUN — no matter what your age!!!  You can use them to entirely paint your image or you can color it first and then just use the H20’s as a shimmery accent — pretty much anything goes!!!  They are new to me and I am still experimenting.  The instructions say you can also apply this paint directly to your rubber stamp — which I will be trying later this week — so stayed tuned to see how that turns out - LOL!!!  Can’t wait to try!!!  Oh, also, it was recommended to me by the manufacturer that once you get your cakes of color wet, that you DO NOT recap the jars, just keep them open so the cake can dry up again.

Now, there is just one more item I’d like to recommend today, and that is the sentiment set called Flourished Words.  This is a set of 27 individual words that can be used alone or together to form phrases, all done in a small, elegantly scripted font.  It is what I used on the card above.  As an example of how versatile this set is, by combining the words, here are some of the options you have for a sympathy sentiment:  Sympathy, Our Sympathy, All Our Sympathy, With All Our Sympathy, My Sympathy, All My Sympathy, With All My Sympathy — so you get the idea.  And realize, these are only sympathy options — there are TONS of other words in the set so you can create endless sentiments.  This is just one of those timeless and classic sets you will use forever and ever once you have it!!!

And this wraps up today’s May I Suggest…

Thank you so much for stopping in and I hope you are all having a wondeful week and are enjoying some warm spring temps — something we are still waiting for!!!