Monday, August 31, 2015

WWYS #27: Zoo Babies

Hi Everybody and welcome back to another fun week of What Will You Stamp! This week our featured stamp is Zoo Babies! It's a pretty popular stamp set so I am hoping that we will have quite a few challengers this week. I love this entire stamp set but for today's challenge I was really feeling like I wanted to use this paper from the Go Wild DSP paper stack and I love the rhino paired with it. FYI I'm not really an animal print kind of girl so I overlooked this amazing paper for way too long. The back side of every sheet has a fun black and white print and I have to admit that even I like some of the animal prints (way to go SU!). I haven't made a flip card in quite a while so I decided I would bust out my Circle Card Thinlits Dies and make an extended flip card. So, here's my card!


I embossed the rhino in Smoky Slate and used Kraft Ink and my Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to create the background behind the rhino. I added some silver thread and some neutrals candy dots and there you have it folks-a fancy flip card! 
Do you recognize where that sentiment came from? It's from the Tin of Cards stamp set and I thought the big, bold font was just right for this card. Of course I used my Triple Banner Punch to get those flags just right. I feel like I use that punch for almost every project these days. 


This card was fun and super easy to make partly because I love this stamp set so much. Zoo Babies was one of the first sets I purchased when I discovered Stampin' Up! just about a year and a half ago. I feel like this set is kind of an SU classic (not that I've been around long enough to declare it a classic but you know what I mean-It's been around for a couple of catalogs and is still popular). Do you have this set? Is it one of your go-to sets? Just in case you don't have it here's a look at what the whole set looks like. I'm really wondering which stamps the rest of the design team chose to use this week because they are all super cute!

I hope you liked my card for this week's WWYS challenge. I can't wait to see what beautiful creations you all will submit for us this week over at What Will You Stamp?

Catch you all soon and until then have a terrific day!
-Maria

Monday, August 24, 2015

WWYS # 26: Hot Diggity Dog

Hey everybody and welcome back to What Will You Stamp?! This week we've got a Hot Diggity Dog challenge for you and I sure hope you will play along! If this is your first time visiting my blog on a Monday then you might be wondering what WWYS is all about-so, let me tell you. It's a challenge blog that focuses on one Stampin' Up! stamp set every week. Have you ever purchased a stamp set and then had no idea what to do with it? Well, at long last, here is your answer! Go check out the WWYS blog and see if we have featured whatever stamp set might be stumping you. Not only do we have a great design team to give you some inspiration but we've got some pretty talented challengers as well. Check out all of the ideas we've posted and hopefully they'll help get your creativity flowing. And now to my card for this week... I made it "just fur you." Sorry! That was cheesy but I couldn't help it!

I used a combo of Basic Black, Real Red and the Everyday Chic DSP from Stampin' Up to create this fun card. I also used a new framelit that will be coming out on September 1st in the new Holiday Catalog. The frame lit actually looks like a window but it was covering up my little dog's eye so I cut the window frames out of the middle. I also used my favorite new punch the Banner Triple Punch to get perfect flags on my banners. It just makes it so easy to get it perfect every time!

I love the little dog that I used on this card but I also love the pug. He is so cute! I suppose I will have to use him next time. Here's what the whole stamp set looks like. Lots of cute pups and great sentiments.

If you have this set I sure hope you will join us this week by adding your contribution to our blog at What Will You Stamp? Did you know that we pick a winner each week and that winner gets to be a guest designer in a future challenge-pretty cool!

Thanks for stopping by again this week. Please let me know what you think of my card I always love to hear your feedback. Also, let me know if you're planning to play along with us this week-Why or why not?

Adios folks! Have a great week!
-Maria

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Honeycomb Hello...Just a little late!

Hey all! Well, if you saw my WWYS post from Monday you know I wasn't able to get my card done this week because I was on vacation. But, I promised to try to get it done and here it is. It's simple but I like how it turned out. The lighting in my house is terrible in the evenings so I apologize for the bad picture. The colors are Lost Lagoon, Whisper White and Gold.


See you guys all soon!
-Maria

Monday, August 17, 2015

WWYS #25: Honeycomb Hello

Hey Everybody! 
We are back with another Monday and another amazing week of What Will You Stamp? Sadly, I'm on vacation this week (well... Not sad for me because I'm in the Caribbean) and wasn't able to get my card done before I left the country. Bummer because I had an idea for a clean and simple card with this stamp set. If I get a chance to make my card I will update this post ASAP! 

UPDATE! Here's my card! It's night time and the lighting in my house is terrible! So please forgive the bad pic!


Luckily we have an amazing design team who aren't all on vacation this week so go check out their terrific projects on the WWYS blog: http://whatwillyoustamp.blogspot.com/2015/08/wwys-challenge-25-honeycomb-hello.html

The featured stamp set for the week is Honeycomb Hello and here's what the complete stamp set looks like.


I hope some of you will get a chance to join us this week by submitting your fabulous card and project ideas to What Will You Stamp? 

So sorry I don't have a card or project for you today. I just placed a big order from the new Stampin' Up Holiday catalog though and I even got a few new sets from the main catalog so hopefully I can make it up to you when I'm back from vacation and my new goodies arrive. Let me tell you-normally I don't order a lot of accessories but this time I just couldn't help myself! There are so many awesome accessories, ribbons, embellishments (reindeer paper lips!)....OMG THE VELLUM! I am a total sucker for vellum so Stampin' Up! has catered to me once again with two new vellum offerings (a stack and a DSP pack). Anyways! I can't wait to show you all of the good stuff! Of course WWYS will be featuring many of the new sets after they come out as well so stay tuned! 

See you all soon and I'll be back with some really fun stuff to share!

Have an awesome day!
Maria

Monday, August 10, 2015

WWYS #24: Watercolor Wings

Happy Monday everyone! It's What Will You Stamp day today and this week's challenge is Watercolor Wings! I love this set and really had fun getting creative. I made two cards this week. They're the same layout but using different colors. 

To make my butterflies I heat embossed my butterfly stamps onto vellum. The base color is Whisper White, then I used both Tempting Turquoise, Calypso Coral and Smokey Slate embossing powders as well. I love the way the colors really pop off of the vellum. I also feel like the colors are very crisp since the embossing powders don't bleed like ink does. I have a little bit of a confession to make... I think that the stamp that gives color to the inside of the wings and the dots on the outer edges (here I stamped it using Calypso Coral) looks quite a bit like one of those Rorschach Ink Blot tests. Whenever I see this set used and that particular stamp is stamped really darkly in contrast to the other colors used all I can think of is INK BLOT TEST! I think that's another reason I appreciate being able to heat emboss with this set-I was able to use bright, bold colors but the butterfly still has a soft look to it. Lining up the layers was easy to do since this set comes in photopolymer. The butterfly was also easy to cut out perfectly since all I had to do was to run it through my Big Shot with my Bold Butterfly thinlits.

I also used the new Greetings Thinlits Dies which are terrific! I love the font of the letters and that you can choose to use either the positive or the negative of the sentiment. Here I decided to fill the negative space with a pop of Tempting Turquoise paper to contrast with the Smokey Slate paper strip. I wanted to add a little texture so I added a couple lengths of the new thick Smokey Slate baker's twine. My Basic Black background was dry embossed with a retired folder to add a little more texture to the card.


Here's my second card. I used the same layout and almost exactly the same color scheme. This card was made with Tempting Turquoise, Calypso Coral and Smokey Slate. I also used a punch to round the corners on this card. It was fun to make the same card but just switch it up a little.

I hope you like what I've come up with for this week's challenge. I only used three of the stamps from this great set. Check out the whole set and see everything you get. There are also stamps to build a smaller butterfly, antennae, a background stamp and some sweet sentiments.
If you have this stamp set I hope you'll join in the fun over at What Will You Stamp? Submit your own Watercolor Wings project and earn a chance to be our guest designer! No matter what, don't forget to check out what the WWYS design team has come up with this week. They are all talented stampers and I can't wait to check out their projects myself!

Until next time! Have a terrific day!
-Maria

Monday, August 3, 2015

WWYS #23: Sea Street

BLOG UPDATE: MARCH 10th, 2016

Hey Everybody! I've got something really fun to share with you today! I'm taking part in Kylie Bertucci's International Stampin' Up! Blog Highlight! What is that you may ask? Kylie has gathered together an incredibly talented group of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from all over the world and given us the opportunity to participate in a "Thank You" themed Blog Highlight together! She has also taken it one step further and made the Blog Highlight into a contest! If you want to see all of the the amazing cards that these demonstrators have contributed please click here to go to Kylie's blog. If you visit Kylie's blog, you will also be able to vote for your five favorite cards! I hope you will vote so that some deserving demonstrator will have the honor of winning this contest.

If this is your first time here visiting my blog then WELCOME! I'm so glad to have you stop by. My name is Maria Willis and I live in a small mountain town in California, USA. I have been stamping and paper crafting for about two years now and I absolutely love it! I'm married and have an almost 14 year old son. My husband is a professional off-road dirt bike racer and my son and I both train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It may seem strange that I love to sit alone quietly stamping the day away... then I like to head to the gym for a combat sport! Hahaha! It works for me! Oh, yeah, I'm also a massage therapist. I own/run a massage, acupuncture and chiropractic business. What about you? Aside from stamping and paper crafting what do you love to do? I would love to have you leave me a comment so that I can learn a little bit about you.

And now, on to my project... I am submitting a fun watercolor Thank You card that I made for the What Will You Stamp Challenge blog where I am a design team member. I hope you'll like it because I sure had a blast making it! Please let me know what you think!...


ORIGINAL POST:
Hello everybody! Here we are again-another Monday and another What Will You Stamp Challenge! This week's challenge is to use the Stampin' Up! set called Sea Street. It's a really fun set and I really enjoyed creating this ocean scene thank you card.


I used a technique I have not ever used before to create my background. I used one of my large acrylic stamping blocks and inked it up with lots of colors using my ink pads (I just applied them directly to the block starting with the lightest color first so that I wouldn't muddy up the colors). Then I used a spritzer filled with rubbing alcohol to spritz the inked up block and then I pressed it onto my paper. Note that I used Whisper White card stock instead of watercolor paper. Part of this experiment was because I had wanted to see if I could create a nice watercolor look on regular cardstock. I think it turned out well. I did have to apply color 2-3 times in some spots because I didn't want a lot of white to show through. The good news is that because I used alcohol instead of water it was relatively quick drying and my paper didn't warp the way I thought it might (even when I hit it with my heat tool).

After I did the background I stamped the little fish from Sea Street and embossed them in silver. I embossed the sentiment in silver on vellum and added some silver thread (I love the new silver thread!!) and one of the new pearl embellishments. Of course I used the new Banner Triple Punch to get the perfect flag on my banner-so easy!



Here's what the whole Sea Street stamp set looks like. It's got quite a few fun options. You can get creative and make something more serious or elegant like I did (Ok, I know mine isn't really elegant but it isn't really a kid's card either, right?), or, you can make an amazing card for kids or sea life lovers. Next time I use this set I think I'll be all about those cute little sea stars!

I hope you liked my WWYS card this week. Thanks so much for stopping by and don't forget to check out what the rest of the design team has made over at the What Will You Stamp? challenge blog. If you have this set please share your own designs with us. We would love to see your ideas too!

Have an amazing week everybody!
-Maria
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