Dog Days Are Over Inking Royalty Blog Hop

Welcome to InKing Royalty's August Blog Hop! This year's Blog Hop themes are inspired by popular songs - this month's song is "Dog Days Are Over." While we still feel the heat from a long, hot summer, August is a perfect time of year to start planning our Fall-themed cards. The projects in our hop will showcase Autumn, back-to-school and warm colors - you might even see a dog or two! We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.

I wanted my card to show the transition from summer to autumn. Stampin' Up has gorgeous colors for leaves! Fall colors are so warm and rich.

Thank goodness for the Stamparatus! With a little bit of practice I was able to evenly space the leaves. Aren't the colors perfection? The background paper I used as a backdrop is from the Nature's Poem DSP. Such a pretty paper collection!

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Rooted In Nature, Tropical Chic (sentiment)
Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red
Cardstock: Crushed Curry

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Robbye Hamilton at Miss Hammie's Crafts. There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group. You won't want to miss any of it! If you get lost, you can refer to the list below.

Always love your visits, thank you for stopping by.

Brian King at Stamp with Brian
Nina King at InkPaperSequins
Lynn Kolcun at Avery's Owlery
Rachael Shedeed at Bluebonnet Stampin'
Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
Shawn de Oliveira at Shawn Stamps
Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
Linda Krueger at The Stamp Coach
Sheryl Sharp at Sharp Notes by Sheryl  <<< you are here
Robbye Hamilton at Miss Hammie's Crafts
Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
Robin Myren at Songbird Designs by Robin
Denise Hoepfner at The Mountain



Also participating in the Shopping Our Stash challenge, in honor of Leslie. ♥

Detailed Floral Thinlits Wedding, and Stamparatus / MISTI tip

One of the nicest things to happen to a crafter is when someone sees your work and requests a copy for a very special occasion. Of course you want everything to be perfectly lined up, and it's wonderful to have the tools we have today. More about that in a bit. First, the wedding card:

The first card I made like this was for a 50th Anniversary, another special occasion. Stampin' Up Floral Phrases & Detailed Floral thinlits were used.

Sharing something I just started doing that helps me line up sentiments. I have loved using the Dritz Gridded Plastic Template Sheets for quite some time, thanks to MISTI videos. It took me until now to think of cutting up HARD plastic packaging to put over it. With that in place you can stamp and wipe off many times until you are happy with the placement. I used to stamp directly on the gridded template, but some inks don't wipe off very well. I have rubbed the lines off with cleaner before, oops! Then I used clear packaging from stamps, but it would cling to the stamp when I lifted the lid, and the plastic piece would move. The first time I used the piece of hard plastic I almost heard music. It stamps crisp and wipes up easily! It also doesn't stick to the stamp like the gridded template does. What a life-changer, lol!

Okay, so I got a bit carried away explaining my little stamp press tip. I blame Lydia Fiedler. I enjoy how she tells a story on her blog, feels like you're right there. Follow her at Understand Blue. She's amazing and full of surprises.

So nice of you to stop by today!

Cupcake Birthday with Sprinkles Turnabout

Our neighbor will be celebrating her 87th birthday tomorrow! She likes the nickname "cupcake", so this was the perfect time to break out my new Concord & 9th Sprinkles Turnabout stamp set. So many fun and innovative products out there, and I love the Concord & 9th product line!

I used 3 colors of sprinkles for the background. Love that you don't have to be precise with this turnabout! Enjoyed using the All About You dies for the first time to cut "celebrate" and "you". The "you" die is awesome, with the shadow outline so you can use a contrasting color. The circle is cut from the Everyday Circle die set. Love the optional stitched starburst! The cupcake is paper pieced (stamped the tiny dots from Background Blocks on white cardstock) and fussy cut, then popped up. Added a sprinkle of 3mm sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for some bling that I know she will like. Colors are Stampin' Up! Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, and Lemon Lime Twist.

Running over with this card and some bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes tomorrow.

Sweet of you to visit today!

Amazing You for the Inking Royalty Blog Hop

Welcome to InKing Royalty's June Blog Hop! This year's Blog Hop themes are inspired by popular songs - this month's song is "Here Comes the Sun." As you can guess, our Blog Hop today is filled with projects that are inspired by the joy of the summer sun. We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.

Here's a positive, sunny card for a friend who was recently diagnosed with Glioblastoma. She is strong and always positive. It is always hard to make cards for these occasions, but this is when we need to make them the most. She happens to also love my cards, always has such high praise for each one she sees. I wanted to make a special card for her.

This is the first time I've had the chance to play with Beautiful You. I sure love the images from this set! Grounded her with the Celebrate You thinlits (layered the Crushed Curry with slightly offset black cardstock), and made sure to include a pretty sun in Pineapple Punch and Crushed Curry using a framelit from Thrill Ride. Color is a bit wonky on my screen, but that outfit is paper pieced Melon Mambo. I added a few polka dots with a white pen for fun. Colored her limbs with Ivory Stampin' Blends. Topped the sun and words with clear Wink of Stella. 

I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping.

Thank you for hopping along with us. There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group - and you don't want to miss it!  If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:

Brian King at Stamp with Brian
Shawn de Oliveira at Shawn Stamps
Nina King at InkPaperSequins
Imogene Thomas at MomoMakes.com
Denise Hoepfner at The Mountain Magpie
Robin Myren at Songbird Designs by Robin
Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
Jennifer Spiller at Westside Paper Creations
Lynn Kolcun at Avery's Owlery
Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
Sandra Cornejo at Madly Crafting
Sheryl Sharp at Sharp Notes by Sheryl  ←  You are here
Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping
Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
Rachael Shedeed at Bluebonnet Stampin'
Robbye Hamilton at Miss Hammie's Crafts
Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping

Happy you stopped by!

You Rock

Don't know what took me so long to get around to casing this card. I have been wanting to do this since I saw Brian King's cool card here.

I love the critters from Stampin' Up!'s Cheerful Critters! So versatile, and they are the cutest messengers for any sign. I made this for a family friend (78 this year), who is one of the funnest (if this is a word?) guy with the best laugh. He promptly sent an email to say thank you for the REAL COOL CARD, and he's saving it! I actually fussy cut it, the hardest part was between the arms. I just love it, and wish I had reams of this DSP.

Perfect card to share in our Inking Royalty group, since I just read Brian has hit a milestone in sales so far this SU fiscal year. Whooo-hoooo!!! Brian really does ROCK! Not surprising, the best in customer service and everyone loves him!

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Cheerful Critters, Stamps of Life tinytitles2stamp (you rock)

Paper: Adventure Bound designer series paper stack

After I get over the redeye jet lag I'll be excited to get back into the craft room. Thanks for the visit!

90 and Amazing

Happy 90th, Dad!!! We ate crab and many favorite food dishes. Dad had a wonderful evening. Lots of laughs and love around the table.

Very hard to photograph a shiny card, so here it is at an angle. The mirrored cardstock is gold, background is silver cardstock. Black number and sentiment was cut three times and stacked for strength. All dies on this card! The large numbers pair so well with the sunburst die.

Stampin' Up! Sunburst thinlit

Stampin' Up! Large Numbers thinlits (90)

Stampin' Up! Celebrate You thinlits (amazing)

MFT Little Numbers dies (ampersand)

Thanks for joining my today, always love when you stop by!

Anniversary card for CAS(E) this Sketch #253

Playing along with CAS(E) this sketch this week in honor of Brian King! He just joined the design team, woo-hoooo!

Here's the sketch:

I was pretty true to the sketch, as Brian does so brilliantly.

In honor of this retro sketch, I selected retro Stampin' Up! retired but loved supplies.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Teeny Tiny Wishes (current)

Paper: Stampin' Up! Stacked With Love 4x6 pad (retired)

Misc: Stampin' Up! Classic Label punch (current), Stampin' Up! Happy Heart embossing folder (retired), Stampin' Up! Fashionable Hearts embosslits (retired)

Happy 39th Anniversary to my wonderful husband!