Last Ones....

I promise.
At least for a while ;)

I went on a kick and made a bunch of those Step Panel Cards.
I also dusted off the Greeting Farm's "Magical Bean" s kit (and thus putting my Hatters away for a little while). I added this to the Mini Faries available through the greeting farm and created these whimsical cards:

 I got to do the background sponging which is such an effective technique. I sponged in Soft Sky and Pool Party. Instead of die cutting a cloud shape I just winged it.
Then I went to my Tried and True Stampin' Up! Stamp sets and used my Thoughts and Prayers set for the hanging vines, Petite Petals for the watercolor-esque petals and then a fun Birthday banner sentiment from an old Sale a Bration set.

 The tiny buds are brought to you by a retired set Itty Bitty Buds and the coordinating punch set.

I am enamoured with the color combo here of Crumb Cake, Sweet Sugarplum and Blushing Bride. (please please please bring Sweet Sugarplum back when you re-vamp the color families Stampin' Up!!!)

 I used the exact template for this Fairy Birthday Card, but switched up the colors a bit. I love Pink and Green so
I paired Pink Pirouette with Pear Pizzazz.
Shhh but there is an even BETTER  BRIGHTER AND BOLDER green coming down the pipes ;) Can't wait to play with that!
The Smokey Slate I paired these colors with gives a good base to make this a wee bit more sparkley with some Fairy Glitter (or- good old fashioned Stickles or Dazzling Details). I also used some Silver embossing powder for the sentiment on the back. I tried it with the Banner on the front, but it didn't read well so I just used Smokey Slate ink for that. The buds on this card is brought to you by Forget Me Not by Papertrey Ink.

Well I hope you enjoyed! Next time I'll be showcasing a different technique, promise!

Have a great day,
~Brandie~

After The Break

Wow! I had wanted to blog so much more and make some fun Easter things and be all springy on here.
Then I got sick.
Then it snowed and was dank and dark. Very depressing.
Then my husband was sick and I was taking up the lion's share.
Now over a week later and much chaos I have been able to have some free time to get back into the social media aspect of my business. Not to say I haven't been creating ;)
Well. Not as much as I would have liked...
I don't know if you've noticed, but I am a bit of a girly girl. That trancends into my clothing, my likes and even into my hobbies. I don't even have very many 'boy' items. And 'manly' things? forget about it! Though I am working towards more boy stuff :) Dragons and superheroes and dinosaurs and astronauts- oh yessss. I have found items that I MUST have! Soon enough ;) Mother's day is close at hand :D
Until then, I have a few tools in my collection to create some less pink-frilly-glittery greeting cards (not that they have to be just for boys!) If you remember my love for Dawn's Step Panel card-  I went a little bit.... gung ho.

 These Mini Remix Boys from The Greeting Farm are little and cute and perfect for simple masculine cards.
To augment the boys I used a variety of stamp sets from Stampin' Up! including, Banner Blast (with coordinating Bitty Banner punch), Water Color Words, Gorgeous Grunge and Hardwood background stamp.
I used the Brick Wall embossing folder on some Smokey Slate, brushed with more Smokey Slate ink and then AFTER it was embossed, I stamped the Star and Birthday sentiment from the Watercolor Words to make it look like spray paint. Adding that to the Gorgeous Grunge splatters made it look like a Graffit Wall.

I grabbed a stack of gift stamp from one of my other sets and used various banners to give it a birthday party feel.
My color pallet was Daper Denim, Old Olive, Smokey Slate and Crumb Cake.

Being as the cards don't open, I like using the back of the card to carry on and have more space to not only decorate but, in theory, have a place to write a sentiment (though on this card, I think that's not going to happen :) oops!

This showcases the Graffit art a lot more prominently. I added bits of washi tape for dimension, then another one of our fun Boy Remix Boys and his pal puppy on a skateboard.

I'll be honest, it was hard to get started as I am so used to floral and glitter and swirls, but as it came together I was really happy with the outcome.

I hope it inspired you to think outside your own personal creative boxes.

~Brandie~

Party Shakers

Happy Sunday!
So as I mentioned in my last post, I have a customer who really likes the Hatters from The Greeting Farm and put in an order for a few different cards using various hatters characters. You've seen the Step Panel card that I made last time (link to Dawn's Stamping Thoughts and the tutorial on my previous post). This time I wanted to do something different than the step panel and easle cards that I've been really enjoying and so easy to do.
Time to step out of the box :)
I tried my hand at a couple of shaker cards- they can be a bit time consuming and really hard (for me anyways) to think of a concept for a card that wasn't too busy or lame. Everyone else I saw that made them seemed to have no problem with creative block. I just couldn't figure it out.
I guess it was only a matter (Hatter!) of time.

 This is Stephie. I made a window card with Stampin' Up!'s Window Sheets, Crumb Cake, Old Olive and Marina Mist card stock. I layered an Old Olive Scalloped square with some Marina Mist and cut right through the front of the card so it peeked to the sentiment on the inside.

 It creates a really neat dimmensional feel. I used the banner stamp and die from the Celebrate Today stamp set from SU! I layered them over the window, as well as stamped and embossed a set on the sentiment underneath, giving it a 3D effect. I used the Foam Adhesive strips from SU! as well sandwiched between 2 sets of window sheets to complete the window. I grabbed some silver stars that I had lying around for the shaker inserts.

 Here's the card layed flat and closed so you can see the fun silver stars dancing in the window.
I added layered petals from various mini bud punches and colored rhinestones with a blue copic that worked well with the Marina Mist color.
I used the Layered labels from SU! and the Endless Birthday Wishes set from SU! as well for the sentiment.

This here is Amy from the Hatters Collection. Using the same type of idea to create a 'through' window to the inside of the card. I honestly like the idea and think it can be a lot of fun :)

The color pallet for this card is Smokey Slate, Rich Razzleberry and Bermuda Bay.  I used the Endless Thanks from SU! for the sentiments (retired- sadly enough). To finish it off, I was able to use some the glitter paper I received from this past Sale-A-Bration. I really hope they bring it back because, hello-GLITTER :)

That's it for me- enjoy the rest of  your Sunday.

~Brandie~

Standing Hatters

Hello!
Ever since I made those little bitty Leprechauns for my friend, she went and told HER friend who has become enamoured with the Hatter Collection from the Greeting Farm. Needless to say, that has spurned me into creating cards for this new customer featuring said Hatter cuties.

 This is Rosemary from the Hatters collection. I used Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, and Sweet Sugarplum as my color pallet. This was so much fun and I loved how it worked out. The flower dies and stamps are from Papertrey Ink's Forget-me-Not set and they layered wonderfully with Stampin' Up!'s Thoughts and Prayers stamp set. I added some glitter tape to finish it all off :)

 Here's the back all layered. You don't necessarily need to do a back side, but being as this type of card doesn't open up, you don't have an inside to work with. Besides, I myself love how it looks.

 This here is Carisa from the Hatter's set. The was Pink and Yellow so I used Melon Mambo, So Saffron and Pink Pirouette. I used Stampin' Up!'s Flower Patch stamps and dies- love how they layer with either the dies or using the 2 step stamping technique. I finished it off with SU!s Wonderful Mother and First Sight stamps.

And the backside of this one. I love the whole Pink Lemonade feel. The bright pink glitter tape and the copic colored pearl centers are great finishing pieces.

The card design is CASED from Dawn's Stampin' Thoughts blog. She calls it a Step Panel Card and I am seriously obsessed. I enjoy making these SO much. I have done this layout twice in my Stampers Groups.
The tutorial to the card can be found at Dawn's blog here:

https://dawnsstampingthoughts.net/2015/04/stampin-up-grand-vacation-2015-hawaii-blog-hop.html

So many options and ideas for this type of card. LOVE IT! Thanks for creating it Dawn :)

And thank YOU for stopping by!

~Brandie~