Making My Own Edgelit

Hi everyone, just a quick post to share some new colors and new stamps with you!  I was totally inspired by this fabulous card my Mom made:

At first, I thought she used an edgelit to cut around the beautiful butterflies but no...she fussy-cut the edge!  How cool is that?!  The original idea came from Simply Stamped here (4th card down).  Awesome idea!!  So...I wanted to try it out with all Stampin' Up and here's what I made:

I am so happy with the results!  I used all the flowers from Betsy's Blossoms and a bunch of new In Colors.

All the color combinations are straight from the Color Coach.  This first one is so much fun: Gumball Green, Melon Mambo and So Saffron.  I stamped all the flowers onto Naturals White cardstock (sturdier than Whisper White), hand cut around the edge, sprinkled some Basic Rhinestones and added a strip of coordinating designer paper to the inside edge. 

To pull in a little color behind the sentiment, I adhered two pieces of coordinating ribbon behind the banner and added another rhinestone to the end.

I think this color combination is my least favorite but I was determined to test out the Color Coach suggestions!  Midnight Muse, Rich Razzleberry and More Mustard.  I think it might look brighter with Summer Starfruit instead of More Mustard...but that's for another day!

I'm disappointed that I didn't get a better picture before I sent this one off to my Mom because this color combination is definitely my favorite!  Straight from the Color Coach: Summer Starfruit, Baja Breeze and Elegant Eggplant.  Gorgeous together! 

So what do you think?  What other stamp set can you see using with this technique?  I'd love to your ideas!  Be sure to pop over to my mom's original post to leave her some comment love.  Thanks Mom, for the inspiration--it's even prettier in real life!  {wink!}

Supplies 

Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms; A Word for You

Ink: Gumball Green, Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Midnight Muse, Rich Razzleberry, More Mustard, Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit and Elegant Eggplant

Paper: Naturals White CS; Designer Series Patterns Stack (Regals & Brights); Be of Good Cheer DSP

Extras: Basic Rhinestones; So Saffron grosgrain ribbon (ret.); More Mustard Scalloped Dots Ribbon; Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon

Rita's Baby Blog Hop! {FMS37}

Surprise!!  Hi everyone and welcome to a special Baby Blog Hop where the design teams of Freshly Made Sketches and The Paper Players teamed up to celebrate...and surprise...Rita Wright!  If you're following the hop, you've arrived here from the fabulous Linda Callahan's blog where I am sure she had an adorable project for Rita!  This week Rita is the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches and all of us secretly made a baby themed card with Rita's sketch!  What a great idea, Lesley! 

Didn't Rita design a great sketch?  Love it!  So, aside from the sketch, I knew two things I wanted to incorporate for my friend.  One of her favorite stamp sets, Fox & Friends and one of her favorite color palettes of Basic Gray, So Saffron and Crumb Cake. So here is what I made for you, Rita!

Oh, I had fun stamping these little guys!  I think my favorite is the So Saffron owl peeking out from the corners:

And that little jumping monkey is so cute isn't she?  I know it's a girl because for one, Rita's baby is a girl (!) and two, she has a little bow in her hair:

I fell in love with the flower Rita added to the girl fox in this post and just had to CASE the idea for her special card!

And it is my opinion that Rita and her husband are going to be the best parents little baby Laila could ever hope for!  My heartfelt wishes to you both for a healthy, beautiful baby girl and many joys in the years ahead.  Come on Baby Laila, we can't wait to meet you!!

To continue on the hop, you're headed "down under" for a visit with the terrifically talented Tui Nathan!  Thanks for hopping by and be sure to hop on over to Rita's Creations and leave her some baby love and to play along with her sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!

Rita's Baby Blog Hop

Anne Marie Hile
Ann Schach 
Cindy Hall
Erna Logtenberg 
Jen Mitchell
Jennifer Timko 
Kathy Tanner 
LeAnne Pugliese
Lesley Croghan 
Linda Callahan

>>>Nance Leedy (you're here)<<<

NEXT: Tui Nathan

Tara Murphy Bourgoin

 

Supplies 

Stamps: Fox & Friends; A Word for You; Occasional Quotes (retired)

Ink: So Saffron, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Black

Paper: So Saffron, Basic Gray, Whisper White CS; Designer Series Paper--Patterns Stack (Subtles)

Xtras: Crumb Cake Taffeta Ribbon; Glimmer Brads (Neutrals); Scallop Ribbon Border Punch; Basic Rhinestones; Itty Bitty Punch Pack; 2 1/2" Circle Punch; Perfect Pennants Bigx L die  

Happy Pursuits {CCMC168}

Hiya friends! Happy Thursday...the weekend is almost here! Thursday also means another challenge week begins over at Create with Connie & Mary!  This week Connie & Mary have a sketch for us and boy....it's a doozy...at least I thought so, lol!  Here's the sketch:

and here is my flipped version of the sketch:

What do you think?  You can still see the sketch, right?  Mr. Brown just brought a pack of Well Worn designer paper and this sketch seemed like a good way to feature the colors and patterns from this paper.  I've used Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, River Rock and Not Quite Navy. 

I pulled out my two favorite fall leaf sets: French Foliage (water spots) and Autumn Splendor (oak & maple leaves) combined with Pursuit of Happiness to make the main sentiment panel.

The leaf was stamped in Soft Suede on Natural Ivory and fussy-cut.  I also sponged on some River Rock and added a few French Foliage water spots for a weathered look.

I repeated part of the sketch on the inside just to feature more of this wonderful designer paper!  My BIL & SIL will celebrate their 20th anniversary in a couple weeks--wow!  They were married outdoors in a nature preserve among the beautiful colors of a midwestern autumn.  The Pursuit of Happiness sentiment and the autumn theme of this card seemed like the perfect match for their anniversary.  (Noah, if you're reading this, don't tell!)  I hope they like it!

And I hope you do too!  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop on over to Create with Connie & Mary to check out the rest of the design team's inspiration--I'm sure it's gorgeous!  If you would like to tackle our sketch this week, please link up your creation to Create with Connie & Mary by Wednesday, September 28th at 12 noon (EST).  We can't wait to see what you create!

supplies:

stamps: autumn splendor, french foliage, pursuit of happiness, a word for you

ink: not quite navy, river rock, soft suede, cajun craze

paper: early espresso, cajun craze, river rock, naturals ivory, very vanilla CS; well worn DSP

xtras: square lattice embossing folder; linen thread; designer buttons (neutrals); corner rounder punch

Worth the Wait: {PP56}

Happy Paper Players Sunday everyone!  What a great way to start off the week--with a sketch from The Paper Players!  This week the fun and fabulous Anne-Marie is our hostess and she has designed this awesome clean-and-simple sketch for you to try:

Now, the sketch is a square but I know Anne Marie won't mind if you make a traditional A2 card like I did.  I noticed a few other design team members snuck in a standard size too!  :-)  I love the circle elements in the sketch and couldn't get my mind off of buttons for this one.  So I built the card around some [retired] large designer buttons to make a welcome baby card for some friends of ours who recently welcomed a baby boy!

In addition to the buttons, I wanted to use the new Not Quite Navy 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon I had left over from my ribbon share.  This ribbon is gorgeous and I love it in NQN!  I'm totally hooked on flagged ends too and my craft scissors made a quick flag on one end of the ribbon.  The other end I just looped around and adhered with snail adhesive then applied the whole piece of ribbon to my card base with sticky strip.

With the buttons and the ribbon selected, I had three colors for the sweet little turtle from Fox & Friends: Daffodil Delight, Not Quite Navy and Tangerine Tango.  The sentiment from Word Play, inked in Early Espresso, was the perfect companion to the slow and steady trio of turtles!

The buttons each received a treatment with Early Espresso Baker's Twine to dress them up nicely!  And here's a peek at the inside:

 Be sure to check out the rest of the Design Team inspiration:

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

Lauri Ingram

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

Sandra Azzopardi

Tui Nathan (GD)

We hope you'll play along with us this week--we enjoy peeking at your creations and sharing the fun with you!  You have until Friday, July 29th at midnight (PST) to link up your creation over at The Paper Players--we hope to see you there!

supplies:

stamps: fox & friends; word play, a word for you

ink: early espresso, not quite navy, tangerine tango, daffodil delight

paper: very vanilla, crumb cake, early espresso CS

xtras: scallop squares duo die; early espresso bakers twine; polka dot impressions folder; not quite navy 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon.

Love for Eastern Blooms {CCMC157}

Welcome to the Thursday Challenge at Create with Connie & Mary!  It's a sketch challenge this week and my card went in a completely different direction than what I had in mind...but I like the end result, I think!  Here is our sketch:

It's a great one for featuring horizontal stamps and I just had to use one of my favorite retiring SU sets:

I sure am going to miss Eastern Blooms with its lovely stylized cherry blossom branch.  I had an anniversary card in mind with these colors and thought that a gold embossed branch would be lovely:

First, I stamped a piece of Baja Breeze in the same color ink with the En Francais background stamp.  The cherry blossom branch was stamped in Versamark ink, sprinkled with gold stampin' emboss powder and heat set.  Of course it needed a boatload of..ahem....just a few pearls.  :-)

I added some scrunchy Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon to the bottom edge with some sticky strip tape.  The Tiny Tag was stamped in Baja Breeze and Soft Suede and pinned to the ribbon with a tiny Vintage Trinket safety pin.  You can also see that I did a little bit of background stamping with some Soft Suede cherry blossoms directly onto the Elegant Soiree designer paper. 

You can probably see the background stamping better here behind the trio of sweet little flowers.  The flowers were punched from Brushed Gold cardstock with the Itty Bitty Punch Pack and topped with a big fat pearl on each!

With a dark card base, of course the inside needs to be finished.  Cherry blossoms were inked in Baja Breeze and stamped off once before stamping onto Very Vanilla cardstock.  A scrap piece of Elegant Soiree designer paper and a Soft Suede sentiment from A Word for You were the finishing touch!  In case you are wondering, the Very Vanilla insert measures: 3 3/4" x 4 3/4". 

I hope you've enjoyed my card today...I'd love to hear what you think or answer any questions you might have.  Be sure to pop on over to Create with Connie & Mary to see what the rest of the design team has in store for you!

supplies:

stamps: eastern blooms, a word for you, en francais, tiny tags

ink: baja breeze, soft suede

paper: soft suede, very vanilla, baja breeze CS; elegant soiree DSP

xtras: basic pearls; gold stampin' emboss powder; itty bitty punch pack; very vanilla seam binding ribbon; vintage trinkets; jewelry punch

It's Curtain Call Baby! {68}

Hiya friends!  Just a quick post tonight to share a card I made with the scrump-dilly-icious colors from Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge {68}:

 

Aren't they gorgeous?  I think I say that about all the colors Stacey picks!   I'm not sure I'm in love with this card but it's growing on me...I think.

I was itching to use the Fun Flowers die that I've had since December but not yet used once!  Ack!  The flowers are cut from Pink Pirouette CS and then stamped in Melon Mambo with the En Francais background stamp.  I also sponged more Melon Mambo on the edges to define each layer.

The center is one of the Sweet Stitches fabric brads from the mini catalog.  Just love these!  I also embossed the card base with the Perfect Details texture plate.  I like how it gives a garden lattice look to the background.

And here's the inside...combined two sentiments here, Occasional Quotes & Short and Sweet, and I thought they worked well together.  I've only ever used the "Love begins in a moment..." sentiment for wedding or anniversary cards but when I gave it some thought, it really works for the birth of a baby too! Sorry for such a short post tonight...it's been a long work week but I'm off tomorrow and looking forward to a bit of quality time at my craft table.  Have a great Friday, friends!

supplies:

stamps: en francais, a word for you, charming, occasional quotes, short and sweet

ink: melon mambo, wild wasabi, pink pirouette

paper: whisper white, melon mambo, pink pirouette, wild wasabi CS

xtras: two tags die, fun flowers die, scallop border punch, polka dot impression folder, sweet stitches fabric brads, perfect details texture plate, wild wasabi striped grosgrain ribbon

Love is in the Air {PP33} & candy winner!

Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to another week at The Paper Players.  What a time we had last week with our first-ever Blog Hop.  I am so grateful for all those who stopped by during the Hop and became one of my followers.  I just love to see all your little smiling faces on my blog each day--it warms my heart to know you're out there! 

So first order of business is to announce the winner of the Blog Hop candy!!  I used Random.org to generate the winning comment and it selected #65...Michelle!!! 

Congratulations Michelle!  Please email your snail mail address to nleedy@cox.net and I will put your Polka Dot impressions folder AND my blog hop card in the mail to you right away!

Alright, now onto this week's challenge..it's February and that means Valentine's Day and all things LOVE-ly!   Please join us for our "Love is in the Air" challenge to create a romantic card of any style.

I like to try and find other uses for holiday stamps and so it was with that approach that I used Valentine Defined to make an anniversary card.

I started with a card base of Basic Gray and a piece of Bashful Blue run through the Elegant Lines impressions folder and matted with Rich Razzleberry.   To make the focal medallion I stamped the heart grass from Valentine Defined in Bashful Blue and overstamped the lovin' flamingos in Rich Razzleberry.

I punched the flamingos with a 1 3/4" circle punch, backed it with a 2" Brushed Silver circle and a 2 1/2" scalloped circle in Rich Razzleberry.  I punched a bitty heart with the two-step owl punch (really, this time!) and added some Crystal Effects.  It makes a sweet little puffy heart!

I needed a place for the sentiment but didn't want to interfere with the embossed background.  So I stamped a piece of cardstock Vellum with a Basic Gray sentiment from A Word for You, punched a scallop border and added some pearls.  Some Basic Gray taffeta ribbon hid the adhesive perfectly!

On the inside I added a strip of more embossed Bashful Blue cardstock, a scalloped border of Rich Razzleberry and a sentiment from Occasional Quotes in Basic Gray.


Be sure to check out all the inspiration from the rest of The Paper Players design team and then link up your love-inspired creation on the Paper Players blog by midnight (MST) on Friday February 11th.  The design team will each choose A Cut Above and a Headliner.  Have fun all my lovely friends!

supplies:

stamps: valentine defined, a word for you, occasional quotes

ink: basic gray, rich razzleberry, bashful blue

paper: basic gray, rich razzleberry, bashful blue, brushed silver, whisper white, vellum CS

xtras: basic gray taffeta ribbon; basic pearls; 1 3/4" circle and 2" circle punches; 2 1/2" scalloped circle punch; scalloped border punch; crystal effects; elegant lines impressions folder