SSInk: December Card Sketch

Hi!

Happy Monday!  Are Monday's happy in your house?  I actually like them.  The quiet of my house after a crazy busy weekend are a blessing.  I love all the craziness, but I also enjoy the quiet.  ;-)

Today on SSInk, we have today's December Card Sketch.  It is such a fun and versatile sketch...

Everyone took this sketch in a different direction.  For mine, I used the Sweetheart Punch from Stampin' Up, punched 5 times, stacked and stapled together.  It is layered over a 2" circle punch from Stampin' Up's gold heart vellum paper.  Now I have one card all ready for Valentine's Day.  Yay!

If this sketch inspires you, please link up your project on the SSInk post for lots of love and credit.

Cheers!
Kristy

SSI: Folded Banner Cards

Hi! I'm up today at Stylin' Stampin' Inkspiration.

Is everyone enjoying Stampin' Up's Sale-a-Bration?  Have you picked out your favorite freebie?  If you aren't familiar with Sale-a-Bration...this is the time of year where you can earn free products for every $50 you spend.  I have to say, one of my favorite "freebie" from this year's Sale-a-Bration is the Banner Punch (Item #133519).  Today, I wanted to show you how you can use this punch to make some cute little folded over banners.  You can use them to make flags or hang them on twine to make a banner. Here is an example of a card I made using my folded banners as flags.

Here is how I did it:

I started with scrap of paper from the Sweet Sorbet DSP (Item #133521), folded in half.  When you put the paper into the bunch, be careful to leave a small gap between the very edge of the punch and the folded edge of the paper.  This will leave the folded in tact and create your folded banner.  From there, I snipped the top off a toothpick and placed it in the fold of the banner to create a flag.

I used the holes in the doiley to hold the flags.  Everything, except the flags, are from the Everyday Occasions Cardmaking Kit (Item #134797). To give a little extra depth to the flags, I added a Stampin' Dimensional behind the front flag.

Another way to use these cute little folded over flags is to create a banner.  I started our February card sketch.  I used scraps from the Fresh Prints Designer Paper Stack (Item #132996) to create the banner.  The other elements were also from the Everyday Occasions Cardmaking Kit.  

  

If you haven't ordered this punch yet, think about it adding it to your next order.  I hope I've INKspired you to try it in a new way.  And don't forget, you can use this same technique with many of Stampin' Up's punches!

PS -

Do you like the little feather on this card?  I couldn't just leave it flat, so to give it a little depth, I used my Simply Scored Stylus (Item #125624) to add little creases to help bring the feather "to life".

SSI: Layered Punches

I'm up today on Stylin' Stampin' Inkspiration with a quick technique that adds a lot of punch (no pun intended) to a card - layering punched elements. 

 

I love using punches.  In fact, I have a wall full of them.  While dies are great, with punches, I don't have pull out my Big Shot and hope I line everything up correctly.  I can sit down, stamp and punch to quickly create the image I want.

 

Here are 3 cards that I used at least 3 punches layered on top of each other to create a focal point.  Each card includes the 1-3/4" Circle, Decorative Label Punch, and the Extra Large Oval.

 

For my first card, I used my Versamark ink pad to stamp the leaf stamp from the Best of Autumn stamp set on my card base.  The sentiment is also from the same set, but I colored "Give" first and stamped it and followed with the "Thanks", to create a stacked sentiment that would fit in the Extra Large Oval.

On this card, I punched 2 Word Window strips.  They are layered on top of each other behind the Extra Large Oval to create a longer strip and help anchor probably my favorite sentiment from Yippee-Skippee.

For my last card, I wanted to create a more masculine card.  I used Gorgeous Grunge to create the background.  I actually hand cut "You're The Best" from a larger stamp on Hello, Lovely stamp set.  Using Stampin' Dimensionals helps add an extra pop to the card.

Don't forget, all the stamps from this post (except Best of Autumn) are 25% off on the Stampin' Up site today.

Stylin' Stampin' Squad: September Blog Hop

 

Thank you so much for joining us for the September Stylin’  Stampin’ Squad Blog Hop! This month we are focusing on the tools of the stampin’ trade. Specifically, each of our favorite stamping tools. It’s amazing the kinds of tools that have been created to help us along in our paper-crafting addictions.  This month’s blog hop will showcase many of the Stampin’ Up! tools that are now available to us in the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Holiday Catalog and even a couple of products that are so new they aren’t in either catalog. We hope you enjoy seeing how we use the old and new tools and are inspired to come up with some great projects of your own.

You should have just left stop number 14 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – Jamie H of Unique Ink. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup
2. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
3. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
4. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
5. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
6. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
7. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
8. Justin K. of JK Cards
9. Heidi B of Stuck on Stampin'
10. Jennifer B. of NW Stamper
11. Bree R. of Craft-somnia
12. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
13. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
14. Jamie H. of Unique Ink
15. Kristina M. of Mama's Sanity

Without further ado, here is my project.  My favorite tools in my arsenal has to be my punches!  I love how fast you can make cards with punches.  I was able to make 12 copies of this card pretty quickly because all of the major elements on this cards are punches!

Recipe:
Stamps: Six-Sided Sampler (# 130956)

Paper: Venetian Romance DSP (#130144), Subtles Collection (#119704), Whisper White (#100730)

Ink: Basic Black (#126980), Smoky Slate (#131179)

Punch: Modern Label (#119849), Word Window (#119857), Blossom (#125603), Pansy (#130698)

Embossing Folder: Fancy Fan (#127751)

Etc.: Stampin' Dimensionals (#104430),  Naturals Designer Buttons (#127554), Linen Thread (#104199)

 

Layering punched elements gives you a lot of depth on a card.  For added depth, I used Stampin' Dimensionals under the flowers, then tucked in the "my friend" under the flower.

 

If you are interested in purchasing any of these supplies, click the Shop Now button here!

I hope you have enjoyed our hop.  If you missed any stops along the way, make sure you head back to the list an start from the beginning.

Cheers!
Kristy