Butterflies to Inspire Your Heart

Happy Inspire Your Heart with Art Day!  Today is the day to celebrate art and its positive impact on your heart  There are lots of different types of art you can choose from that will make you relax, smile, add joy to your life, really whatever positive emotion you desire.  How great is it that there is a whole day dedicated to the inspiration of art.

I will be choosing to continue my inspiration with paper crafting, rubber stamping, and card making.  My desire is that by inspiring my heart through this art, I will be creating something I can give to others that will also inspire their hearts..  In fact, I hope to be spending at least part of this day celebrating by both creating cards for others and getting them in the mail to pass on my inspiration and joy.

With this card, I hope I am showing how you can inspire your heart with art even by making something fairly simple.  As I created this butterfly card in the midst of the polar blast, I couldn't help but feel warmth, happiness, and joy.  I hope whomever receives this card will feel the same when they open the envelope;

The only stamping done on this card is the sentiment label.  The rest of the card features the Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper.  The paper is not only the card front layer, but it also works perfectly with the Butterfly Duet Punch.  I love how they work together and I was able to punch out butterflies of both sizes from the Designer Series Paper and then layer on the card front and put some on the card interior to add my own special touch.

Make sure you head over to #tgifc196 and FabFri155 to see the inspiration cards by the design team and other creative entries

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You are Amazing!

This year, lots of my Valentine cards are featuring different cute animals   Today's card features adorable giraffes.  I was so excited to use the mirror technique with the Stamparatus  I'm here to tell you that the mirror technique is much easier when you are only using a single stamp instead of a two step stamp.  I also found it is much easier to line your images up exactly where you want them when you place the mirror image first and then position the stamp with the Stamparatus to plaee the image facing the original direction exactly where you want.  

Make sure you head over to #GDP174 to see the inspiration cards by the design team and other creative entries

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Paper Doll Happy Birthday

I was transported back to childhood while creating this card today.  I was suddenly reminiscing about the hours I would spend as a child going through catalogs and magazines and cutting out clothes for my paper dolls.  I felt like I was reliving my childhood as I colored in the stamped image and picked out a DSP pattern to cut out for her dress   I had always wanted to try using DSP as a pattern for part of my image.  To do that, stamp your image on the DSP of your choice and then cut out the part you want to add to your stamped image and just adhere it to the image for your card front.

 Coloring with Stampin' Blends always provides a moment of relaxation for me  I colored the balloons on the card front with both the dark and light blend of each color and the balloons on the inside of the card were colored with one Stampin' Blend color and the the color lifter used around the highlight area on each balloon..  Which coloring method do you prefer?

Make sure you head over to Just Add Ink 441 and SCOC215 to see the inspiration cards by the design team and other creative entries.

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Happy Birthday Kansas!

Tomorrow we celebrate Kansas Day!  Not many people will be celebrating this around the world.  In fact, I don't know that many people will be celebrating here in Kansas  But tomorrow Kansas will be celebrating 158 years of statehood.  So, I thought I would take the opportunity to create a birthday card to celebrate Kansas day.

The representation of wheat in the Designer Series Paper was a no brainer for me, as was using the sunflower (Kansas state flower).  I love the images and colors from the retired Country Lane paper.

I have to admit I did pause for a moment when choosing the card base color for this card  Purple is my favorite color and Blackberry Bliss is my favorite Stampin' Up! color at this moment.  However, this was a card inspired by Kansas Day..  And, in Kansas, purple, red, and yellow have deeper meaning.  Those colors represent the major universities and sports team and the colors mean loyalty to your team.  Kansas State University is purple and gray; the University of Kansas is red and blue; and Wichita State University is yellow and black.   Team (and color) loyalty is a big thing here in Kansas  In fact, I've even heard K-State supporters say the "bleed purple"  Even though purple is my favorite color and my wheelchair is even purple, I "bleed red." and maybe a little yellow.  GO JAYHAWKS and SHOCKERS!!!  To ensure no one would question my loyalty with my Kansas Day card, here is a cupcake to celebrate!!!  :)

Make sure you head over to WWC205 and CAS Colorus & Sketches #305 to see the inspiration cards by the design team and other amazing.  And make sure you come back later this week when I talk about two more holidays.

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Also Used; Country Lane DSP (Retired)

Gearing Up For Love

 When I first saw the colors for the Global Design Project this week, my mind did not naturally lean toward a Valentine card.  But, somehow that is where I ended up.  I think these colors made an appropriate Valentine  The addition of the Silver Foil gears add just the right touch.  It seems like this family is drawn to anything steam punk.  I'm finding that style has always intrigued me.  My favorite watch as a teenager was one with a clear face so you could see the gears working inside   When our family attends Cosplay events, I find myself always admiring the steam punk costumes  It seemed natural to add gears to the heart.  It makes me think of the heart the tin man received in the Wizard of Oz.  I'm certain it had gear inside.  :)

I am loving playing with the Be Mine Stitched Framelit Dies  I'm still trying to figure out exactly which just out stitches, which cut out completely, and which do both.  You can figure it out before you use them in the Big Shot by examining the cutting side of the die, but I am having fun just seeing what happens first..

Using the Multipurpse Adhesive Sheets on the cardstock before running it through the Big Shot makes putting this card together so simple when the gears are cut out.  There is no messy glue to deal with to adhere them to the card.  The Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets basically turns them into stickers you just place wherever you choose on your card front and in the inside as well if you choose

Make sure you head over to Stamp Ink Paper Challenge #183 and #GDP173 to see the inspiration cards by the design team and other creative entries

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Video: January Online Class Featuring Sheltering Tree Stamp Set--Week 4

 As of today, my blog silence is officially over.  I have been racing against the clock to get my taxes organized and mailed to my accountant before the US Postage rate increase on Sunday.  Added to that, our local post office is not open on Saturday so my clock was racing toward 4:30pm today.  I am happy to say I met my goal and my paperwork is on it's way to my accountant (the one we've used for almost 20 years--she still lives in the state we lived in years ago) and I can now resume card making and creating.

I don't know about you, but when I begin creating, sometimes it takes over my brain space and things like tax papers get pushed to the back.    This week we are doing a fall themed card using the Sheltering Tree stamp set.  The tree scene is stamped on a piece of Whisper White cardstock that is the back of a shaker box.  Not only are the leaves stamped in different colors falling off the tree, the sequins also represent falling leaves.  They are leftover sequins from a previous Paper Pumpkin kit.  I love how there are generally extra elements in the Paper Pumpkin kits that can be used to embellish even more cards in the future

his card also uses elements from the Rooted in Nature suite  Nature's Poem DSP is used for layers on the front of the card.  There are also leaves both embossed and cut out with the BigShot and the Nature's Roots Framelits Dies.  I was so excited to use my favorite new product from the Occasions catalog (Rectangle Stitched Framelits dies) to make a fun frame for the shaker window.  Check out the video to see how I used washi tape to help keep the rectangles equidistant to make a frame.



Check out the video below:

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Hearts and Rainbows

Hearts and rainbows  Those were two of the things that inspired this card today   This was one of the cards that designed itself while it's creation was happening

I knew that one of it's larger hearts would be created using the Lovely Lipstick foil  Then, I just started playing around  I was inspired by the Global Design Project 172 project by Shawn Oliveira  I decided to CASE his sketch and use the colors from the Inspire.Create Challenge  I cut out the multiple hearts die from the Be Mine Stitched Thinlits in all the colors from the challenge and then decided which I would use at the bottom of the card, which colors I would use to stamp the hearts on one side of the card and which of the small heart dies I would adhere to the front of the card..  I also used the Lovely Lace Embossing Folder to add more lace to the card on the Calypso Coral Heart  This meant, the final design made two tic tac toes for this week's Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge.
--both diagonals (hearts, stitched dies, lace and foil, stitched dies, and coral)
Finally, I decided to enter this card in the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge this week  It is a theme challenge: Anything Winter  And while hearts and rainbows don't automatically make me think winter, Valentine's Day is a holiday that does take place in winter.  So, maybe this counts?

Make sure you head over to the challenges and check out the inspiration cards by the design teams and other creative entries.
SUOC214
Inspire.Create #034
#GDP172
SIP Challenge 182

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