Digital Brainstorming!

As promised, here is the first of many digital cards coming your way!  These are for a client that just got married in September.  She needs to get her thank you cards out and asked that I help.  After giving her the Color Coach and our MK Brainstorm Sheet, she knew the colors she wanted to use but was still undecided with the design.  I knew she wanted something simple with "fuschia" (aka melon mambo), whisper white and a heart if possible.

MDS to the rescueeeee!  Sorry, I sang it out loud as I typed it.  This is where MDS is great.  I can simply upload these four card fronts as jpeg files and email them to her.  I can even send these in to be printed and minimize the amount of cutting and punching I'm actually doing.  Instant [almost] cards!

I'll keep you posted as to which one she chooses so be sure to stay tuned as I'm sure that project will make it to the blog.  =)

Colors: melon mambo, whisper white
Extras: MDS

Happy (virtual) Stamping!
~Kiran

PS-the next holiday bingo piece is the penguin!

Flowers in Sunshine

Why hello there!  I had no idea I'd be away for so long.  The big news is that Kiran is married, and her special day was absolutely wonderful.  The sunshine was bright and warm, the guests were excited and happy, and love was evident.  All those little details that Kiran and G had been working on for so long came together to create a beautiful setting for the celebrating, and celebrate we did!  (Kiran promises to share some of those details here soon)  Add in a little travel and some visiting family for me, and you can see where our blogging silence originates!

But we're back, and I'm very excited to share some brand new things with you, since I received my first order from the new IBC, as well as some preorder items from the Holiday Mini.  So exciting!  And to make up for our long absence, today's post is a double header, with two ways you could make the same card.  I love it!

At the top of this post, you see a clean and simple card that features the new background stamp Sweet Floral.  TIP:  For even inking on a background stamp, use your brayer!  I brayered this stamp with Concord Crush, and stamped it onto Wisteria Wonder, which I'm pretty sure is my new go-to shade of purple.  I love it!  Once I had my main attraction ready, I used my Color Coach for this great set of colors: Wisteria Wonder, Cherry Cobbler, and Pink Pirouette.  The sentiment, a great quote from Emerson, is from the new stamp set, Pursuit of Happiness, and it's one that I plan to use often.

Version two of this card is a little rougher around the edges, since I wanted more texture.  I used my brayer to ink my favorite background stamp, En Francais, in Wisteria Wonder and layered that over the Simple Floral.  Then I tore away an edge, to do a little reveal of the sentiment below.  The texture of the Cherry Cobbler layer is an old but favorite technique of mine, crumpling the paper into a ball, and then smoothing it out again.  With all our great embossing folders, I'd almost forgotten this quick and easy way to add some dimension!  I sponged the crumpled paper with Concord Crush, to "age" it a big, and then used Thank You Kindly for the sentiment.  To complete the rougher look, I strayed from a geometric placement of layers, and I just love the result.

Which card do you prefer?
Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Sweet Floral, Pursuit of Happiness, En Francais, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Cherry Cobbler, Pink Pirouette

Weekend Wrap-up

Thanks to everyone who came out to my open house yesterday--it was so much fun to stamp with you!  For those of you who couldn't make it, this is the card that everyone made and took home, a variation on last week's theme that uses a different stamp from Delicate Doilies, and the ever useful Thank You Kindly.

Everyone who came also got to take home a little present from one of these cute boxes, which I made with the Petal Cone die and my trusty Big Shot.  A little extra scoring and cutting, and you have a lovely take out box instead of a cone that is just the right size for a gift.  Directions and a video how-to for this box are on Dawn Olchefske's blog here.

Do you recognize any of these pieces?  I decorated a number of these boxes with left-overs from earlier projects.  Always save your scraps!  The buttons on the purple box are from this card, and that turtle on the third box is from my Fox and Friends faze of February 2010!  You never know when your bits and pieces will come in handy--since I had so many of these things already on hand, decorating the boxes was a snap, and there was a design for every style.

More excitement coming this week.  Stay tuned!
Cheers!
~Melanie

Card ingredients:
Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo
Extras: Lace Ribbon punch

Simple Fall Thank You

Both yesterday's card and today's are designs for the fall wedding I've been working on--this is my last project, which means I have room to take on new things.  Are you planning a special event that you'd like invitations, favors, or stationery for?  Contact me now; I'd be happy to design something just for you!

I suspected that the couple would choose this card, since it has the monograms and die cut leaves that also were on their invitations and will be on their favors...and I was right!  Though I must admit, I'm still partial to yesterday's Trendy Trees thank you.

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Monogram Sweet, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cajun Craze
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip, Cajun Craze
Extras: Big Shot, Leaves #2 die, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder

Fine Floral Flourish

I finished A&V's wedding invitations, and after embossing all of those Marina Mist cards, I started looking at the main image from Wedding Sweet in a different way.  It's a flower, and I really wanted to make it stand out as a flower for a thank you card to include with the invitations.

I started with a base of Very Vanilla, and inked up the flower with Wild Wasabi.  Then I wiped off the ink from the flowers, and replaced it with Rich Razzleberry, using one of SU's markers.  [Sidenote: I LOVE how everything coordinates!]  Once I had the stamp all inked, I huffed on it to make sure all the ink was moist, then stamped onto the card base.  Instead of using the thank you from Wedding Sweet, which looked a little small to me, I grabbed my trusty Thank You Kindly and chose "thanks" because its flourishes mirror the flower.  I used Marina Mist, to match the original invitations, and I'm going to tuck this card in the package with the invitations.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll be making lots of these in the future.

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Wedding Sweet, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Rich Razzleberry, Marina Mist
Paper: Very Vanilla

Weekend Wrapup

It was a busy weekend, stamping-wise.  Not only did I make this lovely card, but I got to share it with others because my good friend Kathy hosted a small, private class for some of her friends to learn the stamping basics.  Kathy was there at the very beginning, and took part in an entertaining session of Valentine making with Kiran and myself way back when--lots of laughter involved!  I'm glad that we still had lots of laughs on Sunday...and that our cards turned out a little bit nicer than those Valentines.  

I got the initial inspiration for this card from LeeAnn Greff's great double medallion card.  I thought layering the medallions is a brilliant idea!  But I wanted a bold palette for my card, so I decided to use the combination of Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant and Baja Breeze that I found in the Stampin' Up! Color Coach.  I love how these vibrant colors look together, so I'm sure I'll be using them again.

Though there's lots on this card, it took minimal stamping, thanks to background stamps.  While I love the medallion on medallion look, I was afraid that there was too much open Rose Red space, so I added En Francais in Elegant Eggplant over the Rose Red Medallion.  Perfect!  Next, I stamped the Day of Gratitude medallion in Versamark on the Elegant Eggplant, then heat embossed in gold.  PAUSE: If you've never heat embossed, you've got to try it!  I still ooh and aah when I see the transformation from dusty powder to a polished finish.  Everyone at Kathy's party loved this!

I needed a sentiment, and Thank You Kindly came to the rescue yet again.  The sentiment fits perfectly in the new Decorative Label punch from the Holiday Mini.  My final touch was just a few of the pearls.  I don't know if the card needed them, but I definitely needed to use them.  Fun, fun.

I was also making out a new wishlist this weekend, because the Occasions Mini catalog appeared on the demonstrator website last Friday.  Customers can't see the catalog until January, but a great demonstrator perk is getting both a sneak peek and the chance to order a month earlier than everyone else.  Plus a discount!  If you've ever thought about being a demonstrator, you should do it--send me an email and I'd be happy to answer all your questions.

Cheers!

~Melanie

Stamps: Medallion, En Francais, Day of Gratitude, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Versamark

Paper: Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze

Extras: Paper Snips, Embossing Buddy, Gold Embossing Powder, Embossing Trays, Heat Tool, pearls

Leftover Project

As it turns out, I have quite a few leaves left over from yesterday's wreath project...so I decided to use them to make some quick and simple fall thank you cards.  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, its the perfect time to let people know that I'm thankful for them and their help throughout the year.

This card features leaves die cut using my trusty Big Shot and Leaves #2 die, then embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  The bottom three leaves are in Summer Sun, Really Rust and Ruby Red--all retired shades--but the top leaf is the ever popular Chocolate Chip.  My sentiment comes from one of my most used sets, Thank You Kindly, and is inked up in Old Olive.  The base is Very Vanilla and this whole project was very easy.

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Thank You Kindly
Ink: Old Olive
Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Really Rust, Ruby Red
Extras: Big Shot, Leaves #2 die, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Mini Glue Dots, Dimmensionals

Go Ahead, Challenge Me

As you may recall, I started the year with some blogging goals, and one of those was to play in online challenges.  Well, now that it's August, I'm finally getting around to that--it's about time!  Today's card is for the challenge over at Pals Paper Arts, to make a masculine KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetie) card.  Since I'm keeping it simple, I hopped on over to Clean & Simple Stamping for a nice layout, and found it in this week's offering, FTL102.  I follow both of these blogs and their challenges regularly, but this is the first time I've been able to create a suitable card in the week it's due.  What do you think?

In keeping both with the KISS challenge and with the clean and simple layout, this is a one-layer card that was quick and easy to put together, and hopefully is a gender neutral way to express my thanks.  I went with the brown and blue combination (in Early Espresso and Marina Mist) both because I love these new colors, and because I think this combo is appropriate for anyone.  In fact, it's one of the main color schemes in my apartment, so clearly I'm a fan.

I did use the Stamp-a-majig in my attempt to keep everything balanced, but even with help that can be hard.  My advice?  Just keep trying!  It really is true that practice makes perfect.  The finishing touch on this card is that line of paper piercing to tie together the circles and the sentiment that otherwise was floating at the bottom.

What do you think?  Is this challenge worthy?

Cheers!

~Melanie

Stamps: Circle Circus, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Marina Mist, Early Espresso

Paper: Whisper White

Extras: Stamp-a-majig, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

Thank You from the Bride

Ah, summer.  The season of sun, beaches, and WEDDINGS!  So far, I'm dodging the wedding bullet this summer, but next summer is a very different story.  Three of my best friends got engaged IN THE SAME WEEK (um, what were they drinking?) and so I know I've got quite a few celebrations in store for me.

I got to visit one of these brides-to-be a few weeks ago, and we found the dress.  You know the one--it's perfect in every way, makes all your friends gasp, and even inspires a woman walking into the room to spontaneous tears.  I kid you not; it is that one.  Too bad you only get to wear it once; a little everyday glamor of that sort could be nice.

On the other hand, the dress on this card can be used over and over again.  How perfect!  The bride asked me to make some cards for her to send to her bridesmaids, thanking them for joining her in all the planning and festivities, and this is what I came up with.  Her wedding colors are cornflower and sunflower, which I converted to Marina Mist and Daffodil Delight.  I'll wait until I hear back from her to know for sure, but I think these colors are PERFECT for what she has in mind. 

It's also a very simple card.  I borrowed For the Bride from Kiran, who keeps this set in her perfect paisley stash.  You can't find it in the current catalog, but it is still available!  Get in touch if you'd like to have one of your very own.  The sentiment, in my favorite script, is from Thank You Kindly, and I used the Stamp-a-majig for perfect placement.  The final touches came from the Scallop Edge punch and the Corner Rounder.  I hope these cards will bring a smile and some excitement both to the bride and her wedding party.

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: For the Bride, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Marina Mist, Basic Black
Paper: Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Extras: Scallop Edge Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Stamp-a-majig

Baby Thank You

'Tis the season of babies!  This is a simple thank you card that I designed for a customer who ordered baby shower invitations from us.  (I'll share the invites--and party favors!--soon)  These cards are sweet, simple and really cute.  I hope the mom-to-be will get lots of use out of them!

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Fox and Friends, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Brilliant Blue, Certainly Celery, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Whisper White
Extras: Stamp-a-majig

Crazy Circle Circus

Ok, so maybe it isn't crazy, but I have a serious love-hate relationship with this stamp set.  I really liked it when I first got it, and had so many ideas for those different circles and whimsical cards.  But then I never quite liked how the cards turned out.

I've come back around to liking this set, and I think the right color combination makes all the difference.  Give it up once again for Summer Sun and Basic Grey!  (Note: apparently this color combo is HOT right now.  I don't think I could ever wear it, so it's strictly card colors for me.)  The beauty of a card like this is that you really can't go wrong, just stamp away and overlap the images and have fun.

To get a lighter shade of grey for the sentiment, I stamped it on scrap paper once before putting it on the card stock.  The little dots of solid grey and yellow are left over daisy centers from yesterday's card.  It's that easy!

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Circle Circus, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Basic Grey, Summer Sun
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Grey, Summer Sun

Turtle Thank You

In keeping with the spirit of the last post, here is another thank you note. It follows the same clean and simple design of the lion card, and features a long-time favorite of mine: turtles! When I was younger, I collected turtle figurines. I gave that up a while ago, but still do wear a pair of capri pants with turtles embroidered all over them in the summer. :) So it is absolutely perfect for me that the little turtle from Fox and Friends expresses my thanks to friends and family.

Stamps: Fox and Friends, Thank You Kindly
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Green Galore, Brilliant Blue