Casing the new Stampin' Up Catalog Day 1

     A blogger, I'm not, but I am a stamper who has loads of supplies.  Being a demo for about 10 years, I have accumulated scads of stamps, paper, ink and tools from Stampin' Up.  That doesn't include the contraband I collected as well.  So, with that in mind, at the start of the new Stampin' Up catalog year, I have decided to CASE cards from the catalog using stamps I own that are either similar to retired Stampin' Up images, or current ones. In a few cases, I found images from other companies I could use.  Also, I used some retired inks, tools etc.  At this point I have made 35 cards and for the next month or so I hope to post a card a day that I have attempted to recreate with my existing stash.  Does this mean that I don't need anything from the new catalog?  Of course not, but do I really need it all, no.  Please help me along and leave a comment.  So let's get started with day one.

The cover.  This card is made using Work of Art, which is still current and  Summer Solstice (R) for the flower.  I love you is from a dollar stamp from Michael's by Studio G I only used the I love you part of that stamp.  The colors I chose were Lucky Limeade (R) and Melon Mambo.

Happy Stampin'
Heather

Love is in the Air!

The color challenge this week over at Splitcoaststampers is Very Vanilla, Basic Grey and Rose Red.  Through me off at first, I thought it was white.  So, I made two.  One white, then I went back an made another with the Very Vanilla.

Now, if you look at them, the one on the top looks like white, haha, it's not boy can the camera and lighting fool you.  The stamp set I used was Bella & Friends, I omitted the parrot.  The sentiment is computer generated and the love  die is from impression obsession.

Hope you get to craft today.

Heather

Dance

Beautiful You has got to my favorite stamp set that Stampin' Up has come out with in ages.  So fun to color, great sentiments and a wonderful font.  For this card I colored her with color pencils and gamsol then omitted part of the sentiment on the dance and live, laugh, love stamps.  I the image out with Cottage Cutz stitched dies and also the layer from Brushed Silver Metallic.  I then layered them on the card base which was stamped with Gorgeous Grunge using the same Smoky Slate ink I used to stamp both the girl and and sentiments.

Have a happy Stampin' Day.
Heather

Watercolor Feather

Finally getting to spend some time in my happy place after a whirl wind trip to upstate NY for the holidays.  Amazing what driving back and forth from Florida to New York will do to your energy level.  Today's challenge over at Splitcoaststampers is to take inspiration from the Design Seeds website.  I picked Flamingo Hues the image gave me an idea to use the Stampin' Up retired set Four Feathers and it's matching die, Feathers Framelits.  As with many of us our first attempt is never works the way we expect it to, this is what I finally came up with after watercoloring quite a few feathers.

So, what I did was pulled out my Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Watermelon Wonder, Cherry Cobbler and Chocolate Chip markers.  I graduated the colors down from light to dark and then spritzed my watercolor paper with  water.  Then I stamped the feather on it.  I wasn't happy, either there was too much water or not enough, or the blending wasn't satisfactory.   They all sat on my desk while I played with other projects.  Then it clicked, use the framelits and cut them out.  I glued them on to Whisper White heavy weight cardstock and added a Hero Arts sentiment in Chocolate Chip.  Yay, the feathers didn't end up in the trash like I thought they would.

Happy Stamping

Heather

IC575 Beautiful You Inspiration

The inspiration challenge over at Splitcoaststampers today was to pick a somethings from the Anthropologie catalogue for your inspiration.  Tons of idea's came to me but when I saw this one I right away thought of my brand new set  from the yet to be released Stampin' Up set called Beautiful You.  I used Archival Black on Whisper White thick cardstock and layered it on Gold Foil cardstock.  I cut the card into a square 4.5 size.

Hope you have a happy stampin' day.
Heather

FMS266 Let it snow!

Always look forward to seeing the challenge every week over at Freshly Made Sketches This week the sketch showed two different punch or die cut shapes.  I chose to use my Dave's Dies from last year’s SU set Winter Wishes.  The sleigh was colored with Real Red and a blender pen.  The runners and the skate blades were colored in with a silver uni- ball pen.  Both the sleigh and the skates were stamped with Sahara sand.  Let it snow sentiment is from SU's retired Cold Play, a set that I seem to be gravitating to this year, maybe because I'm now living in South Florida.  The square piece is a watercolor piece I had from experimenting with Ranger Distress Salty Ocean ink.  I had spritzed it with shimmer mist so it sparkles.  I mounted it on Tempting Turquoise and Whisper white base.  The embellishments are squints and white string.  Skates and sleigh are popped up with dimensionals.

Happy stamping

Heather

Christmas Sparkle CC611

I made this card for Splitcoaststampers Color challenge Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi and Real Red.  Dessert for this challenge was sparkle.  I added glitter embossing powder to the layer under the red layer and used glitter paper word work merry from SU Christmas Greetings thinlits.  The wreath is made of pine boughs from a Martha Stewart punch and it has gold sequin stars, gold glitter glue and gold thread on it.  The bow is from Michaels ribbon.  For the sentiment I played with a sentiment from SU's retired Wishing You set.

Happy Stamping

Heather

FMS264 Cold Play Wreath

My goal this year is to use more of what I have and not go out and try to buy every new fun stamp or die.  My card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge uses the body of the snowman from the retired Cold Play set from Stampin' UP.  I stamped it in Tip Top Taupe a few times in the same area to get the look of the die from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits from SU.  The background is the woodgrain paper from  Adventure Bound paper stack.  The greeting is from the retired  SU set Christmas Greetings.  I finished it off with the Lawn Fawn faux stitching die and few sequences, pearls and some burlap twine.

Challenging you to use what you have.

Heather

Christmas Kitty

Love this face, so I needed to dress him up for Christmas.  Although we are dog people, I have many friends who are crazy cat people.  What do you think, will they like it?

 Stamps:Cat is PSX and it looks like it was made in 1991
              Hat and scarf, from Stampin' Up's retired Cold Play
              Sentiment is Stampin Up's retired Cozy Christmas
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red and Garden Green
Cardstock: Garden Green, Whisper White, Real Red
Other stuff: Greenery EK, bow and pompom my stash!

Hope you have an inky day.

Heather

Welcome Christmas

Making Christmas cards, for me at least is really fun.  There are just so many possibilities.  A few years back I fell in love with the Memory Box window die and flower box.  On this card I used it to frame the Stampin Up Welcome Christmas image.  I added a piece of thin vellum over the image and then filled the box with greenery and a bow from the Pines and Holly die from Newtons Nook.  The brick embossing folder is from Tim Holtz.

Have a great day!
Heather

Dear Friend

This is my card for Freshly Made Sketches #262.  I choose the deer image from Stampin' Ups, In the Meadow, and the sentiment from the Birthday Blooms set.  I colored it with Crayola colored pencils and Gamsol.  Although the Crayola pencils work fine, Prisma's are on my Christmas wish list.  Haven't used them in years but I also pulled out chalk pastels for the background.  The sentiment was stamped heat embossed.  I used a piece of scrap ribbon behind the deer.