Last week, I showed you a party invitation I made for Lori.  Here's the birthday card I made for her:

I knew I wanted to use a lot of glittery goodness, so I started by painting Multipurpose Glue on the Celebrate from Expressions Natural Elements (AC p. 160) and then coated it with gold Stampin' Glitter (AC p. 162).

I used the little balloon punch from the Party Punch Pack (OC p. 4) to cut a bouquet of balloons.  I used gold and red Glimmer Paper (AC p. 149),  and paired it up with gold foil-accented DSP from Winter Wonderland & Winter Wonderland Vellum Stack (both retired from the Holiday Catalog).  The stripes and hearts are from the January 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit.

I cut a piece of Real Red card stock to 3.5" x 5" to fit on the front of a Whisper White Note Card (AC p. 149).  I used one of the Lots of Labels Framelits (AC p. 173) to cut a shaped window in the Real Red, then glued it to the front of the note card.  

To make the balloon strings I ran 2 lines of Fast Fuse adhesive at the top and bottom of the window, then zig-zagged Gold Metallic Thread (retired), pressing it onto the adhesive.  When I had enough I glued the Celebrate over the bottom ends, and started layering the balloons over the top.  Some of the balloons are adhered with Mini Glue Dots, others with Stampin' Dimensionals (AC p. 156).

Then I used the leftover balloons to decorate an envelope I made on my Envelope Punch Board (AC p. 150) with Red Envelope Paper (retired).  I wanted the envelope to be slightly larger than the ones that are sent with the Note Cards so that it would be easy to get the bulky embellishment in and out.  Sure enough, as soon as I gave it to her, Lori was taking it out and showing it off!

This week I'm featuring cards made with the Sky Is The Limit set from Sale-A-Bration (p. 16).  You can get this fantastic set for FREE with any order of $50, but only until February 15!  You can see other cards I've made with this set here and here.

I CASE'd this card from Heidi Baks.  As with this card, the biplane image is stamped twice, once on Whisper White and once on Lost Lagoon, with the wires of the plane visible on the Lost Lagoon layer.  This really works best when the plane is adhered flat, not popped up on Dimensionals.

The background layer is embossed with the World Traveler Textured Embossing Folder (OC p, 39).  Before embossing, I stamped the heart-shaped exhaust in VersaMark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I used a brayer to put a coat of VersaMark on one side of the folder so that the seas would be just slightly darker than the continents and grid lines.  I double-checked that there wasn't ink on the continents and wiped them briefly with a paper towel to be sure.

If you're not sure that step is necessary, you're not alone!  I tried the embossing without VersaMark first, and decided that the continents really do pop when the VersaMark is added.  See for yourself:

The Lost Lagoon panel is adhered to the lower and right edges of a Basic Black card base.  The final touches are a couple of strips from the Going Places Designer Series Paper Stack (OC p. 39) and a thinner, flagged strip of Delightful Dijon card stock.  The sentiment is from Going Global (OC p. 39), stamped in Mossy Meadow and punched out with the Sweetheart Punch (AC p. 166).  I also punched out a few hearts in Red Glimmer Paper and adhered the smallest one to the stamped heart on the sentiment.  One could just as easily use a sentiment from the Sky Is The Limit set as well.

Does this mean you need to purchase these listed items to receive the Sky Is The Limit set?  No!  You can purchase any combination of products that add up to $50 and include the Sky Is The Limit or any other FREE item in your order.

However, if you're just getting started and would like to make cards like the one pictured, this is a nice group of products to own, so feel free to place this order on my online store!

This month's Paper Pumpkin kit is called Cute Conversations, and it features large hearts that are reminiscent of the candy conversation hearts.  The equally large, block-letter sentiments are also similar to what you'd see on those evocative, chalky candies.

The projects outlined in the directions use the hearts to make a large banner, and also pairing them up to make treat pockets.  I've chosen to make a few smaller banners, and plan to use the rest of the hearts on cards and a few treat pockets.​

In addition to the sentiments, the stamp set includes hearts and chevrons, some of which I stamped on the clothespins of the vertical banner.  The trick of this is to stamp off once before stamping on the wood, or else the ink will bleed.

I CASE'd some of the ideas for these projects from posts on the Paper Pumpkin Fan Club group on Facebook, including those of Lisa Salkeld, Karen Gibson, and Oksana Semenska.

This week I'm featuring cards made with the Sky Is The Limit set from Sale-A-Bration (p. 16).  You can get this fantastic set for FREE with any order of $50, but only until February 15!

One of the most frequent requests I have is for masculine cards.  While there are plenty of guys who enjoy gardening, we don't tend to think that they'd like to receive a card with a bunch of flowers and butterflies on it, LOL!  This set is one of the best "masculine" sets I've seen from Stampin' Up!, and I've had a blast playing around with it.

I made this card with a piece of the Going Places Designer Series Paper Stack.  I thought that it looked a bit like land and water formations from a height.  I layered it on a piece of Lost Lagoon card stock, and then on a Mossy Meadow card base.

The biplane was stamped twice - once on Very Vanilla and once on Delightful Dijon.  I cut both out, snipping away the wires on the Very Vanilla image, and keeping them on the Delightful Dijon one.  When layered, the Delightful Dijon blends into the background.

I stamped the sentiment on Very Vanilla.  I really wanted it to be on a cloud shape, and instead of totally free handing it, I punched a cloud shape on scrap card stock using the Tree Builder Punch.  I then laid it over the sentiment and traced a section in pencil, moving it around so it didn't go over the words.  Once I cut it out I erased all pencil marks and outlined it with a Project Life Journaling Pen.  I stamped the clouds from the set on Very Vanilla and snipped them out.  All pieces were then adhered flat on the DSP panel.

​I'm not sure this card was 100% successful....but I had fun playing.  What did you play with in your craft room this weekend?

Here's an easy way to get a FREE Sale-A-Bration item:  purchase a 3 month Paper Pumpkin subscription for $55 (reg. $59.85).  Just add item #137859 to your order and pick your free product!  Look forward to 3 months of crafting goodness sent right to your mailbox.    Did you know that I have a Pinterest board full of alternative projects for each month's kit?  You can do so many fun things with them...quit missing out!

Last weekend I was inspired to play along with Connie Stewart's Stampin' Gals Gone Wild Weekend Challenge.  Here's the sketch she posted:

I decided I wanted to use images from the new set, Friends & Flowers (OC p. 46).  To accommodate the size of the images I decided to rotate the sketch 90°, to make a horizontal card.  Remember, these sketches are inspiration and one can interpret them however one wants.

Then it was just a matter of playing around with colors and placement.  I had thought to use the fish image from this set, but in the end it was just too large, and, more importantly, did not have the same line art quality that the other 2 images had, so I substituted the fish from Bear Hugs (OC p. 40).  The colors I settled on are Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, So Saffron and Pink Pirouette.  I also discovered on playing around that the pieces I thought were going to make a cute bunny worked well as a cat, keeping the image more in scale.

The three embossing folders I used are (L-R): Elegant Dots, Stylish Stripes  (AC p, 174), and Softly Falling (OC p. 9).

The sentiment is from A Dozen Thoughts (AC p. 107).

My friend and personal trainer, Lori, asked me to make invitations for her upcoming 50th birthday party.  After numerous prototypes, we settled on this design, and I (literally) cranked out 20 of them in one morning.  Gotta love my Big Shot!

This is a postcard-style invitation with no folds.  The back of the invitation has a Whisper White panel with all the details of the party.

Lori chose a great mix of new, current and retired products:  The numbers are made with the Large Numbers Framelits Dies (Occasions Catalog p. 10).  The card stocks are Whisper White, Basic Black and Gold Glimmer (Annual Catalog p, 141, 149).  And the shape is the retired Labels Collection Framelits Dies.  

The numbers were cut twice, in both Basic Black and Gold Glimmer, and glued together offset, so that the Basic Black peeks out on the right side.  This allowed the numbers to be placed over the edge of Gold Glimmer, popped up on Dimensionals, and still be visible.  

I love to make custom projects that my clients are excited about!  Come back next week and see the birthday card I made for Lori...

This card is CASE'd from Lyssa Zwolaneck.  She's got a great video tutorial on her website, so I'm not going to go into detail on how to make the folded heart.

You will need two matching sheets from the Love is Blooming Designer Series Paper Stack.  One will be folded into your heart, and one will be cut for your background.  (I suggest doing one or more practice hearts with a 6"x6" piece of scrap printer paper).  Cut your background sheet into a 4" x 5.25" rectangle, paying attention to the patterns so that you get it oriented the correct way.  Then cut the rectangle at 2.75" so you have 2 pieces.  You can decide which one you want to be larger, on top, etc.

Choose a color for your card base.  Cut a contrasting 4.25" x 1.25" strip of card stock to hide the seam in your DSP.  Adhere all the background pieces to the card base, then glue on a Tea Lace Doily.  Use Fast Fuse, Tear & Tape, or other strong adhesive to adhere your folded heart to the doily.

Is your wishlist from the Occasions Catalog bigger than your budget?  I've got 2 solutions for you:

1. Nancy's Rewards:  for every $50 you spend you earn 1 token.  Earn 10 tokens and choose a stamp set from any current catalog and I'll send it to you for free.  Get all the details here.
2. Join my team for the ultimate bonanza of free and discounted product.  Join before March 31, for $99 and get $150 of your choice of products with free shipping.  Every order thereafter you'll get at least a 20% discount.  If you don't spend enough to meet your quarterly minimum requirement at any point, you'll be dropped as a demonstrator with no further obligation to me or Stampin' Up!  Plus, you'll get all kinds of benefits from being a part of my team...contact me for more details if you're interested in learning more!  By the way, you don't have to be in the Phoenix area to be part of my team, either.

I CASE'd this card from Robin Feicht for my January class, tweaking a few details.

First we covered a piece of Whisper White card stock with a large Post-It Note with a circle cut in it with a Circle Framelit.  Then we sponged Sahara Sand and Soft Sky inks inside the circle.  I found making splotches of Sahara Sand and then filling in with Soft Sky achieved the look I wanted.  If the two colors swirled together too much the whole circle became too green.

After removing the mask we used Archival Basic Black ink to stamp the plane and clouds from the Sky is the Limit stamp set, one of the FREE items available through Sale-A-Bration...but only until February 15!!  The same ink was used to stamp the sentiment, also from that set.  Some opted to use the Happy Birthday sentiment instead.  The sentiment was cut out using the Tags & Labels Framelits.

To assemble, position the Sahara Sand and Whisper White panels at angles on top of the Soft Sky base, keeping all corners on top of the card base.  Carefully lift up one end of the Whisper White panel and add adhesive in the center of the Sahara Sand panel, pressing the Whisper White back down into place.  You're just trying to tack the two top panels together in the correct angles.

Then wrap Basic Black Baker's Twine around the bottom of the panels 3 times, tying in a bow.  Trim the ends of the twine.  Adhere the two panels to the card base, being sure all corners are still on top of the Soft Sky.  Add the sentiment with Dimensionals.

Is your wishlist from the Occasions Catalog bigger than your budget?  I've got 2 solutions for you:

1. Nancy's Rewards:  for every $50 you spend you earn 1 token.  Earn 10 tokens and choose a stamp set from any current catalog and I'll send it to you for free.  Get all the details here.
2. Join my team for the ultimate bonanza of free and discounted product.  Join before March 31, for $99 and get $150 of your choice of products with free shipping.  Every order thereafter you'll get at least a 20% discount.  If you don't spend enough to meet your quarterly minimum requirement at any point, you'll be dropped as a demonstrator with no further obligation to me or Stampin' Up!  Plus, you'll get all kinds of benefits from being a part of my team...contact me for more details if you're interested in learning more!  By the way, you don't have to be in the Phoenix area to be part of my team, either.

This valentine was another card we made in my January class.  It features the wonderfully intricate Bloomin' Heart Thinlits and Bloomin' Love stamp set, which are available in a bundle that saves you 15% (Occasions Catalog p. 16).  The banner in this stamp set coordinates with the banner in the Large Numbers Framelits Dies (OC p. 10) or one can cut it by hand.  The variety of sentiments lets you customize your valentine for everyone on your list!

The Bloomin' Heart is cut out of the new Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper, which is so shimmery and luscious.  I found that it's best to place it face-down with the Thinlit on top of the backside of the paper.  When I cut one face-up, the glitter was coming off the backing paper.  Once it's cut out, use the fabulous new Big Shot Die Brush (OC p, 19) to get all the little bits out of the die and diecut.

The flowers are stamped in Blushing Bride on Whisper White card stock and cut out with the Thinlits that come with the Bloomin' Heart.  The stamps and dies have tabs to indicate directions, which helps to line them up.  I put a dab of Fast Fuse on the back of each one and pressed them firmly on the glimmer paper.  Basic Jewels Pearls finishes off all the flowers, both the stamped ones and the ones in the glimmer heart.

A piece of the Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack is layered on Whisper White card stock and placed on a Blushing Bride card base.  A length of Blush Blossom Baker's Twine (or Whisper White) tied around the fold finishes this classic valentine.  

To purchase anything used to make this card, click on an item below to go to my online store.

Is your wishlist from the Occasions Catalog bigger than your budget?  I've got 2 solutions for you:

1. Nancy's Rewards:  for every $50 you spend you earn 1 token.  Earn 10 tokens and choose a stamp set from any current catalog and I'll send it to you for free.  Get all the details here.
2. Join my team for the ultimate bonanza of free and discounted product.  Join before March 31, for $99 and get $150 of your choice of products with free shipping.  Every order thereafter you'll get at least a 20% discount.  If you don't spend enough to meet your quarterly minimum requirement at any point, you'll be dropped as a demonstrator with no further obligation to me or Stampin' Up!  Plus, you'll get all kinds of benefits from being a part of my team...contact me for more details if you're interested in learning more!  By the way, you don't have to be in the Phoenix area to be part of my team, either.

This card was CASE'd from page 10 of the Sale-A-Bration brochure.  This cute chick and balloon are from the FREE Honeycomb Happiness set (SAB p. 15), and the sentiment is from the FREE Perfect Pairings set (SAB p. 11).  You can get one of these when you place a $50 order, or both for a $100 order.

The chick and balloon were stamped in StazOn Black on Watercolor Paper, then colored with AquaPainters and ink (balloon and chick's body only).  They were stamped again on Whisper White and the chick's feet were colored with a Crumb Cake marker, and the bow on the balloon was colored with a Bermuda Bay marker.  The watercolored images were cut out and adhered over the images on the Whisper White panel.

The sentiment is stamped in Melon Mambo and StazOn Black.  The hearts are punched in Melon Mambo card stock with the Confetti Hearts Border Punch and adhered with the Fine Tip Glue.

The picture in the brochure seems like the Bermuda Bay base has stamping at the top and bottom edges, but I couldn't tell exactly what had been used, so I decided to use the rows of hearts from the Chalk Lines set.