April Fools at the Watercooler

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Welcome to another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop! If you started at the beginning, you have arrived from visiting the inspirational Buffy. She always does the most amazing projects!

April Fools Day has passed. But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun with it. For this month's Blog Hop we are each presenting a project that isn't what it seems. Now, just what does that mean? Well, that's what I wondered as I tried to come up with an idea.

Then, one day as I was browsing on Pinterest - or "doing research" as I like to call it - I came across a card tutorial done by Katie at Created by Katie. It was her take on a pop-up card and I thought it would be perfect for this month's theme.

At first look, it is just like any other card, although not that exciting on the front, is it? Just your basic, masculine-type design stamped on Naturals White cardstock mounted on Mossy Meadow. The stamp set is a new one for me - Guy Greetings. For inks I used Smoky Slate, Basic Gray and Mossy Meadow.

But ... all the excitement is on the inside:

This card could also qualify for a theme of How Many Stamp Sets Can I Use on One Card? The answer for this one would be FOUR! Besides Guy Greetings, I also used Kinda Eclectic, Dotty Angles and Just Sayin'. Inks used are So Saffron, Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow and Memento Tuxedo Black. The stars are cut using the Stars Framelits set.

My next project also uses a new stamp set that arrived just in time for this Blog Hop. It's a set that makes me ask myself "How many flower stamps do I need?" A lot, apparently. But two of the stamps in this Build A Bouqet set made me think of fireworks. So I pulled out some colours I don't use a lot: Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry and Tempting Turquoise.

Each of the small bursts has a sequin from the In-Colour Sequins. For the big Melon Mambo burst I used the Build A Bouquet BigzL Die to cut the flower centre out of Crushed Curry cardstock. It was a bit too big so I cut out two of the stems and put a Basic Rhinestone in the middle. I just love the font of the sentiment as well as the words. This could work for any celebratory occasion.

For this card, I matted the image panel onto a piece of Basic Black. I used to use black a lot but have not done that for a while. Black just seemed the right colour to set off the bright colours of the images and the Melon Mambo card base.

To continue with the Hop, just click  on the "Next" button and it will take you to see the fabulous creations Priscilla will wow you with.

WCC21 - Susan's Colour Challenge

 Aren't these just the most perfect spring colours? I thought so, and they inspired me to get it together and take part in this latest Wacky Watercooler Challenge. Visit the Challenge page by clicking here.

It helped motivate me that I also wanted to make a thank you card to put in a customer order. So I combined the two tasks and CASED a fun sample on page 18 of the Occasions Catalogue. It showcases a stamp from my much-loved Painted Petals set - the one that has 3 stripes. Perfect to show off the colours in the challenge! 

And here it is:

This was so quick and easy to make! The stripes are stamped with Sahara Sand, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight and Pool Party. The sentiment was done with Memento Tuxedo Black. The stripe panel is mounted on a piece of Bermuda Bay cardstock and the card base is Pool Party.

I thought it needed a little something in the lower right hand corner, so went with a Vintage Faceted Designer Button for a little sparkle. The white coil behind the button is actually a strand pulled from the White Jute Ribbon, also found in the Occasions Catalogue.

I think I'll be making a few more of these, using different colours - it was fun to do. Hope you give it a try!

Free shipping week!

Starting today and running all week to Friday, all orders will be free shipping. There is no minimum order required. (Excludes expedited orders). Now is a good time to stock up on things like ribbon, buttons, brads - all those fun embellishments. And don't forget cardstock or ink refills you are needing. All right - it's a good time to order anything!

Just click on the above image, then click on Shop to go to my on-line store.

A Tisket A Tasket ...

... I made some Easter baskets! OK, that's not quite how the song goes - for those who remember that old classic.

For Easter dinner with my Mom and my sisters and brother-in-law, I made some little baskets and filled them with candy-coated chocolate Easter eggs. Thanks to a video by Brenda Quintana, who came up with the design, they went together very quickly. I picked bright, spring-y colours for a colourful array.

Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Pistachio Pudding.
Embossing Folders: Decorative Dots, Honeycomb. Fancy Fan, Modern Mosaic, Lacy Brocade

The handles are Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon (retired). I used Candy Dots brad bases to attach the handle and finished them with matching Candy Dots - where I had the matching colour, or Basic Pearls for those I didn't.

I thought I had some Tea Lace Paper Doilies to put inside, but I can't find them. Or maybe I just thought I had some. I did have some parchment cupcake liners and thought they would work. They were a bit to big so I trimmed them to fit.

Now, having been brought up with the philosophy of not throwing anything away and finding other uses, I looked at the trimmed off part and the lightbulb went off! It would make perfect filling. So I split each trimmed off part into smaller strips and had enough to fill 4 of the baskets!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and the opportunity to spend time with family and friends.

March Madness

Welcome to our Madness! March Madness that is. If you are following the Hop in a circular fashion, you have arrived here from Stefanie's blog. I know you were amazed by her talent!

This month has gone way too fast for me. Maybe it's because I've had a lot going on. A visit from family from Alberta was a highlight. Also I've been trying to get more organized after my move - was somewhat successful, but still have a long way to go.

But, I did find time to do some stamping! That's one thing I like about doing these blog hops - it makes me focus. And there are always such great projects from the other participants to inspire me. One of our projects this month is to do a fancy fold card. What is a fancy fold card? Well, I would define it as a card that has multiple folds.

I chose to do a Tri-Fold Shutter Card. While it looks complicated, it is actually quite easy to do and is a lot of fun to decorate all the sections. I found a great tutorial by Brenda Quintana. In addition to doing this fancy fold, I also challenged myself - as part of the March Madness theme - to try to use most of the stamps in the Painted Petals stamp set. I'm loving that set and finding lots of uses for all the elements.

Here is a view of it all opened up:

And further to the Madness, I dug out some Designer Series Paper - Sweet Taffy and Tempting Turquoise cardstock. These are both items that I loved when I ordered them, but haven't used a lot. This was the perfect occasion to use them. For inks I went with Blackberry Bliss, Strawberry Slush, Mossy Meadow, Wild Wasabi, Hello Honey and Tempting Turquoise.

The sentiment is from Butterfly Basics, stamped with Tempting Turquoise on Whisper White then cut out with the Labels Framelits.

The beauty of this design is that it folds right up and fits into an envelope. Like this:

  I've also been experimenting lately with one-layer cards. For my next project I used more of the stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set. As with Painted Petals, this set also has so many elements that can be used in so many different ways. A good value! I used Naturals White cardstock and thought I had inked the flower image with Staz-On ink. But, after I stamped it I realized I had used the Memento Tuxedo Black instead. Which meant I had to be careful as I planned on watercolouring with the Aquapainter and the Tuxedo Black ink is water soluble. But, it worked!

The flower is coloured with Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow. Everything else is stamped with Pool Party. All images are from Butterfly Basics. I especially love the little honeycomb image!

And now, if you click on the 'Next' button, it will take you to Marie who will share her version of March Madness. Enjoy!

Spring Fever

  
Are you dreaming of Spring? In some parts of the world, people must be thinking they will never see spring again as winter just keeps on keeping on. I hope our projects will warm things up for you and give you hope that Spring is just around the corner.

And didn't Priscilla WOW you with her talent? She's a tough act to follow!

For my first project I chose to do a one-layer card. The photopolymer set Painted Petals seems to lend itself well to this application. With all the different bits of stems, leaves and blossoms, the combinations are endless. This is also an attempt for me to do a CAS - Clean and Simple - card. So, this is not only a one-layer card but also a one stamp-set-card and I only used two colours of ink: Tangelo Twist and Mossy Meadow stamped on Whisper White cardstock.

Easter is also just around the corner. I saw a tutorial posted on our Stampin' Up demonstrator-only website for a cute little basket made with the Envelope Punch Board. Many thanks to Linda Parker for generously sharing her creation.

It is made with a 6" X 6" piece of cardstock - I used Bermuda Bay. The cheerful piece of Designer Series Paper is from the Sweet Taffy collection. I used the scallop circle from the Circle Framelits collection to cut out the accent on the side. Some Daffodil Delight cardstock, cut with the fabulous Fringe Scissors and scrunched up, make a nest for the yummy Lindt chocolate Easter Eggs.

And for my final project, we drew names and each participant was given a fellow participant from whom to CASE (Copy And Share Everything) a project. This was such a fun assignment! For starters, it's a great way to learn about the people I only know through the virtual world. I was assigned to CASE a spring/Easter-themed project from Stefanie.

She has been blogging for a while and posts way more consistently than I do, so I had a lot of "research" to do. Some interesting things I learned about Stefanie include the fact that she used to be a photographer - love your photobox setup Stefanie! - and her family has a Christmas morning tradition of singing along to Queen. What fun! (My own Christmas morning music preference is Jimmy Buffett's Christmas CD. Also good for a sing-along.)

While checking out all her fabulous projects - any one of which gave me lots of inspiration - it was her Butterfly Showcase that had me reaching for my new Butterfly Thinlets. I had a shadow box frame just like the one Stefanie used. The lovely lacey Butterfly Thinlets were used with sheets from the Moonlight Paper Stack DSP and I also used the Beautiful Wings Embosslits to cut some smaller specimens. The Painted Petals stamp set was perfect to create a flower bed for the butterflies to float across. Mossy Meadow and Strawberry Slush are the colours, which I stamped off once before stamping onto the Whisper White cardstock. The sentiment is stamped in Lost Lagoon.

A few pearls, some sequins with a rhinestone in the middle and this actually came together pretty quickly.

And now, it's time to Hop off to see the inspiring creations that Kath R has in store for you. Just click on the Next button.