Barbara's Stampin' Studio

Only 3 weeks left to Sail Away ~ Summer Mini coming to an end

Summer is ending soon and so is the Summer Mini catalog and in it, one of my recent favs, the Sail Away single stamp. 

I made the background for this card with the Color Wash technique (tutorial coming soon) using Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze inks.

To make the white sails, simply stamp the image on the Baja card stock and then again on white card stock. Cut out and mount the white sails over the prestamped image, putting Dimensionals under the sails to give them more depth.

The Congratulations stamp is from the set Perfect Punches and I, of course, punched it out using the Modern Label punch.

Great stamp to have for the guy cards you always seem to need. Be sure and order yours before the end of August as it will be gone on September 1st!

Popsicles ~ YUM!

Don't you ever want to Thank someone for something they did that they didn't have to do? I think this is the perfect set to do it with for the summertime. It's called Sunny Fun and has not only there fun popsicles, but Flip Flops and Kids playing too. What a great set for anything summer, birthdays, invitations, and more.

Here is one of the cards I created with the popsicle image. Hope you like it!

To make this card, I used Daffodil Delight Patterned paper and Marker, Tangerine Tango card stock and Marker, Melon Mambo card stock and marker, Whisper White card stock and Soft Suede Marker, for the chocolate popsicles.

I also used my Scallop Trim Border punch, my Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dot Impressions Embossing Folder.

Don't have this fun set yet? Order it today and start stamping!

Blushing with Hope & Strength

Did you know that my purchasing this pretty stamp set you will automatically be doing something for breast cancer research? It's true!

For every sale of this special stamp set, Stampin' Up is donating $2.00 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

It's such a pretty and versatile set and I've made many cards with it. You can see the others by clicking on the category Specials & Promotions on the left of this screen.

Here is another idea that I made recently using primarily the In Color, Blushing Bride.

To start, I used my Big Shot with the Flower Garden Impressions Embossing folder with Blushing Bride card stock for the background.

I added to it by stamping the word image, also in Blushing Bride, all along the edges of the impressed flower image, on both sides.

I stamped the butterfly image in So Saffron, cut it out and mounted it with Dimensionals. Of course I had to add Bling, so I added Pearls down the center.

I also stamped the wording in So Saffron and punched it out with the Decorative Label punch, and mount it on another punch piece of So Saffron (I cut it in half and added it to the top and bottom for more Oomph)

To finish, I put a piece of Blushing Bride ribbon along the left side.

 

Sailing Away into the Sun ~

Here is yet another card that I made for my husband's friends who are retiring this summer. I used the Sail Away stamp and the Nautical Expedition Designer paper for the background. 

~ Check out how to do it below ~

Here's how I did it ~

First I made the sun using my 2 1/2" Circle punch and a piece of Whisper White card stock, which I sponged with Daffodil Delight & Tangerine Tango. Then I mounted the sun on another piece of White card stock and stamp the sailboat image with Not Quite Navy on top of it, making sure the sailboat was down in the right corner, not on the sun.

Next, I stamped another sailboat, and cut out just the sails and the boat bottom and mounted them over the first one. Make sure that you put a Dimensional under the sail on the left to make it looks as though it flying in the wind.

Next I mounted a piece of the Nautical Expedition paper onto my card base, mounted the sailboat piece onto Not Quite Navy, distressed the edges and mount the entire piece onto the Nautical paper.

To finish the card, I stamped Happy Retirement from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and punched it out with the Modern Label punch. I used another Modern Label piece in Daffodil Delight, cut it in half and mounted it on either end. I added Night of Navy brads and mounted it to the card with Dimensionals.

Team Summer Mini cards to share

I wanted to share just a couple of the cards my team made this month for our monthly swap.

This month we all used stamps and products from the Summer Mini catalog and everyone did a great job. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us.

This first one was made by Cindy Villa and is so cute!

Cindy used the Summer Splash stamp set and embossed the sea animals in white, a Square Scallop punch, the Modern Label punch and for the background, she used her Big Shot with the Square Lattice Impressions Folder.

This card was created by Sandy Holleman and is oh, so pretty!

Sandy used the Flower Fest stamp set that she embossed with the new embossing powders, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango and Wild Wasabi.

She used a strip of Beyond the Garden Designer paper, the Scallop Edge Border punch and made the background with her Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dots Impressions Folder too!

Great cards ladies! Thanks for sharing!

Impressive Flower Garden

I love using Vellum paper with the Impressions Folders, but this one takes to it so well!

This is the new Flower Garden Impressions Folder that's in the Summer Mini and all I did was run it through my Big Shot, turn it upside down, and colored it in using Daubers and ink pads.

Yes! It's that simple!

For this card, I used Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait card stock and backed the vellum piece with some of the In Colors Designer Paper, this one in Peach Parfait.

I did the rushing technique with the Old Olive Satin ribbon for extra punch.

Pretty card, and pretty easy too! Try it!

Sunny Fun Kids at Play

Flip Flops, Kids, and Popsicles ~ What says more about summer?

Sunny Fun is the set that has all three & it's available in the Summer Mini catalog thru the end of August.

Here is a card I made when I had some down time a few weeks ago. I used Stampin' Pastels for the sun and water and used a Scallop Circle punch as a template for the clouds. The kids are colored using my watercolor pencils and a Blender Pen.

 

I wanted a bright background so I decided to use my Square Lattice Impressions Folder and my Big Shot with Daffodil Delight card stock.

For the word piece backing I used one of the shapes from the new Doily Triple Layer Punch. This punches 3 different shapes all in one punch! Ya gotta love it!

Although it's tough to see here, I added Crystal Effects for drops of water and also for the sunglasses on the kid on the left.

 

Sailing Away for Retirement ~

My husband needed a few cards for some guys who are retiring this month and this is one of the cards that I made using the Sail Away stamp.

You can find this single stamp in the Summer Mini catalog and order it 24/7.

Just click on the shopping cart, what a great way to shop, don't you think?

 

To start with, I used a piece of the Nautical Expedition Designer paper with a lighthouse and part of a map on it and stamped the sailboat in Early Espresso.

I stamped the sailboat again onto Whisper White card stock, and cut out the sails and mounted them over the stamped image. I stamped, cut and mounted the boat too, this time on Soft Suede card stock.

To make it look as though the wind is in the sails, I used a Dimensional under the sail on the left side to make it pop out a bit.

The word image is from the stamp set Teeny Tiny Wishes and I punched it out with my Word Window punch, layering it on an Early Espresso Large Oval punch piece.

To add more texture, I wrapped some Baker's Twine around the card a few times and tied it in a knot. 

Help Fight Breast Cancer in a Beautiful Way!

This card was made with the pretty Hope & Strength stamp set.

Every time this set is ordered, Stampin' Up donates $2.00 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Please do your part and order this stamp set today so we can go farther in the fight against Breast Cancer. Thanks!

To make this card I used my Beyond the Garden Designer Paper and embossed it with my Big Shot using the Vintage Wallpaper Impressions Folder.

The butterfly is stamped with Perfect Plum ink and I've added a few Ice Circle Rhinestones to add a little Bling!

The ribbon is Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding and I used a Paper Daisy, with another Rhinestone, to finish it off.

Hope you like it!

Flip Flops, a bit out of the box ~

Okay, so I wanted to create a few new cards using the Sunny Fun stamp set from the Summer Mini and when it came to the Flip Flop image, I knew I wanted to do something that wasn't as summery as you'd expect.

So . . . . .

I used a very flowery background using the Paisley Petals Designer Paper, some perhaps unusual colors and added a partial image from the Happy Greetings Summer Mini stamp set too!

Hope you like it!

The word piece actually says 3 things, Way to Go, Congrats, and Well Done, and I felt like the Way to Go would work here so I colored it with my Elegant Eggplant marker directly onto the stamp and pressed it onto a piece of Whisper White card stock.

I then used just half of the Decorative Label punch to punch it out and layered it on another half punched out of More Mustard card stock.

Ya just gotta love that punch!

My colors?!?   

I used Wild Wasabi, Baja Breeze, Elegant Eggplant and More Mustard

Sail Away to your Dreams!

I love using this single stamp, Sail Away, that's in the Summer Mini. It's more versatile that I originally thought and I sat down yesterday and made 3 cards. Here's the first one ~

I used my Sail Away stamp and stamped directly onto a piece of the Nautical Expedition Designer Paper. I then stamped it onto another print of the paper, with Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso stripes, and cut out the sails. When I adhered it over the stamped image I used Stampin' Dimensionals on the right sail to give it more depth and it looks like it flying in the wind. Doesn't it?

I stamped the bottom boat image again with Early Espresso, cut it out and mounted it too.

For the word piece, I used my Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler markers and colored directly onto the stamp and then pressed it onto a piece of Whisper White card stock. Add a few Crumb Cake brads and a punched steering wheel piece and that's it!

 

Hope & Strength ~ Helping fight breast cancer

 

Have you seen the new Hope & Strength set?

It's fabulous in many ways, but the best is that $2.00 from each set sold is going towards the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!

Here's just one idea to CASE

(that's Copy And Share Everything!)

I used two of my favorite colors, Rich Razzleberry & Pacific Point, for this card.

I also used 3 punches and some Organdy ribbon for this pretty Q&E card.

What's a Q&E card? Quick & Easy! Start to finish in about 5 minutes.

 

~ See more new ideas below ~

Fabulous Florets look Fabulous Embossed!

If you haven't tried the Colored Embossing Powders that came out in the Summer Mini yet, you are in for a fun surprise!

These powders come in Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi and Tangerine Tango and bring such vibrancy to your projects, you'll soon be embossing everything!

Just don't try it on the kids or the dog, you need to use your Heat Tool and that wouldn't be so fun!

Here is one of the cards I made recently using the Fabulous Florets set. I used Wild Wasabi for the stem and leaves image and used Melon Mambo for the floret and for the words. I hand cut out the floret and mounted it with Dimensionals to make it pop.

I love how the word image embossed and then to be able to just punch it out? FABULOUS again!

You can find the word image in the Perfect Punches stamp set in the catalog.

The paper on the left is one of the FAB designs in the Beyond the Garden pack.

Double Embossing with Flower Fest

Here is something that's fun to do that I showed my ladies at my Technique class last week.

It's double embossing ~ you emboss your image and then emboss it again!

Way fun!

Here's what I did ~

I used the large image from the Flower Fest set from the Summer Mini and embossed it with Tangerine Tango emboss powder.

After letting the piece cool, I punched it out with my Scallop Circle punch ~ so glad that I didn't have to hand cut it!  

I then pressed it into my Versamark pad, poured on Iridescent Ice Embossing powder and embossed it again.

Doily Triple Punch Idea

The Doily Triple Layer Punches in the Summer Mini are way fun to use!

There are 3 different levels in the punch and they punch out different pieces depending on where you put the tab.

Here I used Pacific Point and Vellum card stock to punch out my Doilies and added a Rhinestone Brad to the centers for a little Bling.

The paper is from the Beyond the Garden pack that's in the Summer Mini and I paired it with Pacific Point and Wild Wasabi card stock.

I trimmed both edges of the Pacific piece that's backing the paper by using my Eyelet Border Punch.

Flower Garden in Plum with Pearls

Last week I had my monthly Technique class and decided to show two very different types of embossing ~ Heat Embossing and Dry Embossing.

I showed 2 ways with the new Flower Garden Impressions Embossing Folder and 2 ways with the new Colored Emboss Powders.

This technique is super simple and can be done with Designer Paper or Card Stock, here I used the Perfect Plum Designer paper.

To do this technique, put the Plum paper into your Flower Garden Impressions Embossing Folder and put it through your Big Shot.

Lay it flat on the table and use your Sanding Block to sand off the color on the embossed image. I added Pearls to my flowers and used the Scallop Trim Border Punch with some Organdy Ribbon to finish it off.

Try it! It's easy and quick too!

Impressive Sail Away Idea

I wanted to create an Impressive Embossing card for my class that could be used for a guy. Most of the time, I end up using flowers with this technique and I knew that wouldn't do.

Here I chose to use several sizes of Circle punches in Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Night of Navy, Always Artichoke and More Mustard, you know, the "guy" colors.

I put a strip of Very Vanilla card stock onto my quarter piece of Night of Navy that I wanted to use for the base and started punching out circles. I layered the circles randomly and placed them onto the background and then ran everything through my Big Shot using the Square Lattice Impressions Folder.

You can use a variety of stamp images to suit the fella you're sending it to.

Here are just two suggestions:

This is the Sail Away stamp from the Summer Mini done vertically

and this is the Totally Tool set done in a horizontal fashion

Impressive Embossed Flower Fest

Ever since I started doing this technique, I've called it Impressive Embossing, but I know most of you know it as Embedded Embossing. Why Impressive Embossing? Because you use your Impressions folder and Emboss it, and I like the sound of it too.

Here is my Flower Fest card that I created using the Vintage Wallpaper Impressions Folder. I stamped my flowers and punched some of them out, taped them to the background piece and sent it through my Big Shot with the Impressions folder.

I used the words from Happy Greetings in the Summer Mini and punched it out with the Scallop Oval, mounting it onto a Melon Mambo Wide Oval Punch piece.

I stamped the butterfly from the Flower Fest set in Pacific Point, punched the wings using the Butterfly Punch, but had to hand cut the body, and did not embed it so that it would stand out. Add some Old Olive Satin ribbon and it was done!

Whaddayathink?

Ties for the Best Dad Ever!

My guy wears ties a couple of times a week and my daughters are always picking out the "wild" ones in his opinion. They like the bright colors and fun prints, but something tells me he'd rather have some ties that are a little more conservative. NOT!

Anyway, when I saw the stamps in the Summer Mini, I just knew I had to have the Best Dad Ever set with these fun ties!~

I used a piece of the Nautical Expedition Designer paper for the background, looks kinda like a shirt ~ doesn't it? There's another print you can use too!

I colored my, or his, ties with my Stampin' Write Markers in Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy and Crumb Cake, coloring directly onto the ties.

Fun card for Father's Day, his Birthday. . .  or just to say Thanks!

Fabulous Florets Embossed

Here is a card I designed using the new Colored Embossing powders in Tangerine Tango and Wild Wasabi with the Fabulous Florets stamp set.

To make this card, I chose some of the Beyond the Garden Designer paper and layered a strip down the left side of the card. I also used a small piece of it and stamped the floret with my Versamark pad and poured Tangerine Tango powder on it and embossed it.

I like embossing "open" stamp images on Desinger paper, don't you?