2012 Artisan Finalist Blog Tour - Day 7

Hi stampers!  And welcome to day 7 of the Artisan finalist blog hop!  You should have come from Tara's blog and her ca-yoot project!  Don't worry if you didn't start at the beginning though, we make a big ol' circle.

I've got another card today and it's another vintage-y one.  I wanted to do this one to pull out all the little tricks.  And what's funny is that it's purple.  I rarely use purple in my cards for some reason even though I really like purple in general!  But, concord crush and wisteria wonder went together so well didn't they?

So, onto the "tricks" on this card.  First, most everything is distressed and sponged.  The vanilla panel and the first edition paper were all distressed with the tea stain distressing ink.  Next, the butterfly was cut from textured card stock and then I clear embossed the floral image from elements of style over it.  I then took concord crush and wisteria wonder ink and an aqua painter and colored in the flowers.  The outer edges are also rimmed in the silver smooch accent ink...or wait...maybe it was gold, heck it's been so long I can't remember!!!  Oh...maybe it was just the regular iridescent one, ha!  Anyway, I then added a vintage brad and pearls and then FINALLY topped it off with those little concord crush flowers with rhinestone centers.  Oh but there's even more.....I also added a piece of the crochet trim which I rubbed the tea stain distress ink over first to dirty it up a bit.  Whew!   I think that's it:-)

I don't often do this many fancy little tricks to cards but I wanted this one to be pimped out so to speak and I think it worked without looking over busy or too fussy!

The inside was pretty simple...

And there you have it.  Make sure to come back for the remaining three projects!  I've saved a couple of my favorites for the end!  But before you go, head on over to Connie's blog if you haven't already done so and check out her fab project!  And here's our whole list if you get lost!

1:  Connie Collins 
2:  Holly VanDyne
3:  Melissa Stout
4:  Amy O'Neill
5:  Sandie Conner
6:  Amy Rogers
7:  Mercedes Weber
8:  Tara (Murphy) Bougroin
9:  Mindy Bingamon (You are here)

Happy stamping!

Seeing a pattern?

Hi stampers!  I think a pattern is emerging....that I really like Betsy's blossoms....one of the new sneak peek sets, ha!  I just love the solid and bold images of this set and I can't stop using it!  I'm going to have to stop tomorrow though, I have GOT to work on my AA contest entries!!!  I wish we could use the sneak peek items and new in colors but alas I can't.  Oh well...I have plenty of fabulous other stuff I suppose:-)

The card I have today is based of a Sweet Sunday sketch from a few weeks ago that I never got to play around with.

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps:  Betsy's blossoms, loving thoughts
Paper:  Whisper white, pool party, in colors 2011-2013 DSP stack
Ink:  Pool party,  summer starfruit, raspberry ripple
Accessories:  Oval accents clear die, bitty banners and apothecary accents framelits, gumball green satin stitched ribbon, large pearls, dazzling details
I really wanted to use my new sneak peek die on this card!  See the fun shape?  It's called the oval accents bigz clear die and it's wicked cool!  In face, I used THREE new dies here!  I used both of the new framelits and the big die!  The clear die is pretty big!  This card is 5x5 square if that gives you some reference and I cut about 1/4 of it off.  It was actually backordered for one day, haha!  I'm guessing either it didn't come in on time or it just didn't make it to the pick line on time.  So, it gave me something to look forward to the day after my order!  I love that SU ships out backorders in the same manner that you got the rest of your shipment!  My lonely die went next day air!!!!

The new in colors are so bold and go so well with our other colors.  I paired them here with pool party and it was perfection!!!!  That gumball green ribbon is pretty fun too!  And it's hard to see but I dotted the birds wings with dazzling details!

Off to work on my AA entries....wish me luck!!!  And I get to see the catalog tonight I hope too...well tomorrow if they post it at midnight....and I can either stay up or GET up at 1 am my time;-)  Wish me luck on that too, lol!

Happy stamping!

Popping in

Hi stampers!  I've hoped to have more to share with you but it's just not happened:-)  While some of my time has gone missing (hehe, funny how that happens,no), my mojo has taken a hike as well.  I sit down at my desk but just can't get much to come about...even with sketches and challenges and what not!  So frustrating.  I HATE when what is supposed be my fun hobby and a stress RELIEF becomes a source of stress and frustration, ha!  Good thing I was able to channel my frustration with stamping and some other things into a hard 4 mile run Wednesday night and a tough turbokick class yesterday (oh my poor students, lol)!  I've been slacking in my workouts for the past few months too so it felt good to hit it hard two days in a row...now can I keep it up?:-) 

I did find a new challenge website the other day called Try Stampin On Tuesday and I really liked the sketch but I couldn't really get anything going with it.  But, even though the challenge was well over, I came back to it the other night and inspiration struck!  It totally sneaks up on me now and then:-)  I've also been having a lot of guilt over not using the majority of my DSP so I was determined to pull out my twitterpatted DSP!  We have less than a month left with all the fabulous papers from the occasions mini....I need to get my stamps in gear!!!!!  In fact, I've started a LIST of DSP that I must use, haha!  So, here's the card I came up with:

Stamps:  Raining flowers, loving thoughts
Paper:  Whisper white, crumb cake, blushing bride, pool party, island indigo, 2011-2013 in color DSP stack
Ink:  Crumb cake, blushing bride, pool party, island indigo
Accessories:  Blossom punch, itty bitty punch pack, triple blossom punch, edgelits and embossing folders, basic pearls, large pearls, in color printed brads
I'm really happy about how it turned out...which was surprising because I really didn't think I liked it all that much in the process!  I think it's a fun sketch and a happy little card!

Now, lets talk about the future a little.  Remember that the new catalog is coming out a month early this year!  So, for customers that's June 1.  For demos it's May 1 which means I'll have my hot little hands on new goodies on May 2:-D  I'm sad that one of my very favorite colors which I've used on this card is retiring.  Blushing bride will be no more after May:-(  However, I'm excited to see the five new colors!  I'm also hoping for more printed brads like the one used above!  I hope that blossom punch shows up too!  I bought it late in the season because I thought it would look cute with the summer smooches stuff!  Don't forget you can get that suite EARLY in the month of April!  The promo button is up and to the right!

I hope the large pearls come back as well.  Lots of things to be excited about!  What do YOU want to see or are scared of loosing?  Let me know in the comments!  It's fun to see people's thoughts and predictions!  I'm getting excited!!!!!

Happy stamping!

Caseing....myself

Hi stampers!  I really liked my card from last week's Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge.  So, when I was stuck for ideas the other night I figured I'd give that card another go and case myself.  That's a great way to get out of a mojo funk!  Take something you made that you like and go in another direction with it!  You're almost guaranteed to make something you'll like since you already loved the inspiration, hehe!

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps:  Apothecary art, loving words, creative elements, elementary elegance (SAB)
Paper:  Very vanilla, crumb cake, pool party, calypso coral smooth & textured
Ink:  Staz on, calypso coral, pool party, peach parfait, lucky limeade
Accessories:  Labels collection framelits, crumb cake seam binding, basic pearls

This card is much softer than the inspiration and I love it so much!  It's very springy I think!  For my main image I did a lot of stamping off with the flower from creative elements and the butterfly and bird from elementary elegance.  Now I'm going to tell on myself.  The sentiment was a happy accident....I didn't like what I had stamped/how I had stamped the sentiment on the label....so I covered it up....and decided that it looked really good!  Ha!  Always remember there are no mistakes, only opportunities to embellish, right? ;-)

I have really been neglecting my seam binding lately but I pulled it out for this card and I like the soft look it gives.  I need to remember to use it more often!  I sure say that about a lot of things:-)

So the next time you're stuck just take a look through your most recent projects and re-work one and see what happens!!!

Happy stamping!

HSS 108

Hi stampers!  Happy Tuesday...time for a new challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Now, I have to start out with a disclaimer....I goofed!  For some strange reason I totally had it in my head that this week's color challenge used poppy parade when in fact it used real red...oops!  The colors are really fun and bright though!

I don't know if maybe I had seen this color combo with poppy somewhere else or I got confused when I looked at my attic boutique DSP because all of the colors minus the real red are in there.  I absolutely LOVED the card that I came up with though so I'm going to share it anyway....and I didn't have the time to re-do it....and really I'm not sure that you can really tell it's not real red unless you look closely:-)  So, I hope you forgive me! I swear I turned 31 and my brain stopped functioning, lol!

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps:  Apothecary art, creative elements, loving thoughts
Paper:  Very vanilla, crumb cake, soft suede, daffodil delight, attic boutique DSP
Ink:  Black staz-on, crumb cake, soft suede, poppy parade, daffodil delight
Accessories:  basic pearls, large basic pearls, daffodil delight striped grosgrain ribbon, itty bitty punch pack, labels collection framelits

There's a lot of sponging going on here to make it nice and vintage!  I used the big flower from creative elements to make the label a little less sparse.  I stamped it off once to make it softer.  I chose the word memories because I thought it fit the vintage theme of the card.  And lastly, I pulled apart some of the ribbon to make it a bit more shabby!

I'll have to make sure I check the next challenge a little more carefully before I start stamping, ha!

Happy stamping!