Stamping Simply with Inspiration

Hello everyone!!

I hope your holiday weekend is going well and you are enjoying the time. We had another beautiful day here in Michigan and tomorrow is no different, except maybe a little warmer. Not sure how much I'll be able to stamp tomorrow as I HAVE to clean out my gutters!!! I have a forest growing on one side! Oh the joys of home ownership and being a single woman!! But I have all my supplies and I'm not afraid to do it! Until then I have 2 cards to share with you today.

My first card is for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply challenge she hosts every Friday on her blog, No Time to Stamp. This Friday the challenge was to "Make it Girly"#42! Well, when I think of girly I think of flowers, pinks and fancy ribbons to name a few things! Almost immediately I thought of the soon to be retired SU! set, Blossoms Abound. I haven't used it much, and I'm not sure why. I love lilacs and I love the look of the stamped images.

Part of Sharon's challenge is to stamp simply, which can be difficult for me!! I just don't seem to know when to stop! But I think I adhered pretty well to the stamp simply idea on this card. I stamped my lilacs three times, twice on the cardfront and once on a separate piece and then cut them out. I used Pretty in Pink and Purely Pomegranate ink, but I stamped off once on my Purely Pom. so it wouldn't overwhelm the Pretty in Pink.

My thought with the strip of cardstock at the top of the card is give the illusion of the lilacs hanging from a beam, so to speak. The middle lilac is up on thick foam squares, and yes I cut out the branch and leaves!!! Not sure what I was thinking, but I really do like the effect it provides. I then coated my lilac with crystal effects. Some sheer white ribbon edged in silver and piece of pink taffeta finishes it off.

I used PTI white cardstock here as I like how much sturdier it is than SU!'s white.

My second card is for today's IC135 on SCS. Steph inspired us to create based on enameled products from Macintosh Enamels. You can see the piece I was inspired by in the IC135 forum.

When I saw the plate I knew I wanted to use one of my carousel notes to provide the circular feel. Then I cut the largest circle from my Coluzzle, ran it through my Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers folder, after I sponged Wild Wasabi & River Rock ink onto the negative part of the folder. This I learned from Technique Junkies and it's called Cuttlebug Smoosh. I sponged the edges heavily with more Wild Wasabi to help achieve the darker green look from the plate.

The dragonflies were stamped in Choc. Chip, cut out and adhered with thick foam squares. More sponging around the sentiment and I layered this with Brushed Gold and Choc. Chip cardstock. A clip from the Aged Copper HPH set was used to hold the ribbons on. The sentiment panel is on using SU! dimensionals. As an added touch I used my 1/8" punch for the holes on each scallop section and mounted all of this on a 5" x 5" square card of River Rock textured.

Well, that's all I have for now! Off to make, and photo, a project for the July newsletter for Treehouse Stamps!!

Happy Stamping!!

~~~Ann~~~