Doodle Buds – Fusion Card Challenge 2nd Anniversary!

by Shannon Jaramillo // January 7, 2016 // 15 Comments

Hello and Happy New Year, wherever you are! I have had quite a long break, well, from everything really, and I’m ready to take on some challenges!! Today’s challenge is from the Fusion Card Challenge and has some awesome inspiration!! In addition, it’s the Fusion Card Challenge‘s 2nd Anniversary so we have even MORE inspiration for you!

First, here’s the challenge graphic:

The bright colors really make me wish for summer!! I was inspired by the colors, the white space, the flowers, and by the bold chevron pattern:

It was tough, but I decided to use up the last of my favorite paper for this card. I used it here and have been hoarding this last piece ever since 🙂 I also used one of my Christmas presents, the Stitched Mini Scallop Oval Dies by My Favorite Things Stamps…they are brand new and fabulous!! And then I spent a bit of time coloring my flowers, I quite pleased with how they came out 🙂 Here’s a closer look:

And you can finally see the Wink of Stella! Gotta have some sparkles! I thought it needed a bit more of the vibrant pink so I added a few sequins for an extra pop of color.

Since it is the Fusion Card Challenge‘s 2nd Anniversary, we decided to each invite a guest designer to play along with us and provide even more inspiration for you! My guest designer is Sandy Mathis.

She is an amazing card maker, posting one fresh and innovative card after another. I am so inspired by her work! And today’s card is another beauty!!

I adore the splashes of green alongside the bright and cheerful flowers. The flowers have been die cut for added visual interest and the addition of the soft blue color in the background really makes everything pop. And the coloring? Too cute! I will have to use her technique on my next flower card! Please hop on over to Stamp with Sandy to see all the details and to leave her some love 🙂 A big thank you to Sandy for sharing your art with us this week at the Fusion Card Challenge!

The rest of the team and their guest designers have created beautiful cards for your inspiration, I have provided links to make visiting them super easy. We would love to see your creations over in the gallery!!

The Fusion Card Challenge Design Team:

Thank you so much for visiting me today!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Stamper’s Select White by Papertrey Ink; Basic Black by Stampin’ Up!

Pattern Paper: Everyday by Avery Elle

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Doodle Buds by Wplus9

Dies: Stitched Mini Scallop Oval Dies by MFT Stamps; Doodle Buds by Wplus9

Tools: ShinHan Touch Twin Brush Markers

Embellishments: Wink of Stella, various sequins

Bitty Bouquets – Warm Welcome Fusion Card Challenge

by Shannon Jaramillo // November 12, 2015 // 21 Comments

Welcome to another Fusion Card Challenge! This challenge is a fun one and leaves a ton of room for interpretation…

I was pretty liberal with my interpretation this week:

The sketch made me immediately think of this die set by MFT Stamps. Then I saw these beautiful papers and I was off to the races…

I have been a bit intimidated by the Bitty Bouquets stamp and die set by PTI…I shouldn’t have been, they came together in a snap! And the different sets of bouquets are so beautiful, this set is sure to become a go-to set! A simple sentiment by Wplus9 rounds the card off so prettily. I stamped the sentiment first in Soft Suede ink but it didn’t stand out well enough against the pattern paper so I switched it up to Early Expresso. Thank goodness for the MISTI, which made it so simple to re-stamp in the darker ink, no harm, no foul!

I used another of the patterns to add a bit of interest to the inside of the card, along with another pretty bouquet, stamped off once.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I love to hear your thoughts!

Please visit the other Fusion Card Challenge design team members, they have beautiful inspiration for you!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Stamper’s Select White by Papertrey Ink

Pattern Paper: Lost & Found – Breeze by My Mind’s Eye

Ink: Early Expresso, Old Olive, Pool Party by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Bitty Bouquets by Papertrey Ink; Strictly Sentiments 2 by Wplus9

Dies: Bitty Bouquets by Papertrey Ink; Ride the Wave by MFT Stamps; Stitched Mats: Rectangles by Lil ‘Inker;and Envelope Liner Die by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: MISTI (Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented)

Embellishments: None

Thanks for Teacher – The Card Concept 36

by Shannon Jaramillo // May 27, 2015 // 8 Comments

Happy Hump Day!! Do you have as much trouble as I do getting out of bed? Ugh. For me, this is the WORST day of the week for wanting to just pull the covers back over my head! But now…I have something to look forward to so who knows, it may become one of my favorite days of the week now! It could happen! lol

I’m excited to share that I have joined the design team over at The Card Concept. It’s a challenge blog with a fun twist! Each challenge showcases different design styles and provides examples of each style and then challenges you to make a card within the parameters of one of the styles! How fun! I rarely design that way, I just make whatever happens to float my boat that day! This is going to be a FUN challenge!

Here is the design concept photo this week:

Isn’t it yummy?? What about this photo inspires you most? I barely even noticed the fact that they were cupcakes and to go with a birthday theme, or to pull out the gray in the counter top. All I saw were the bright, graphic lines of the straws and cupcake liners. Which is probably not a coincidence, as I am a designer for the Clean and Graphic design! Please click on the link for a description of the styles.

I know I’ve blathered on quite a bit…so here’s the card I was inspired to create:

Isn’t this pattern stamp amazing?? And the MISTI makes it so easy to line it up and create a repeat. The stamp set also has lots of options to fill the design with, I chose a bold pattern, but used it only only the smaller sections of the pattern, I wanted to leave lots of white space.

I then accented it with an adorable little apple and fun sentiment. This card is a wonderful thank you to that teacher who always puts out that extra effort! And guess why I chose the ink color??? It’s a bit different than the inspiration photo, but I couldn’t resist it as it is called GREEN APPLE!!!! Hahahahahaha, I’m falling all over myself at how cute that is 🙂

So…did I fulfill the definition of Clean and Graphic? Let’s see…

clean lines (check)
simple treatment of text (check)
no frills (does this mean no Wink of Stella???)
bare boned (I think so?)
message is communicated quickly (check)

Please feel free to tell me how you think I did with the style guidelines…and I hope you think this is fun too and decide to play along! Please do hop over and see the lovely cards by the rest of The Card Concept‘s design team and let me know which style you think matches you the best! Or, trying stepping out of your box and try a different design style! It’s all up to you!! Have fun!

Wishing you joy and blessings!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Stamper’s Select White by Papertrey Ink

Pattern Paper: Joyous by Authentique (for envelope)

Ink: Green Apple by Simon Says Stamp and Tuxedo Black by Memento Ink

Stamps: An Apple A Day & Teacher’s Pet by Clearly Besotted Stamps; Quilt Prints by Wplus9

Dies: Apple Die by Clearly Besotted Stamps and Envelope Liner Die by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: MISTI by My Sweet Petunia

Embellishments: None

Sweet, Sweet Thank You – Freshly Made Sketches 186

by Shannon Jaramillo // May 14, 2015 // 8 Comments

Welcome back my friends and Happy Friday to you!! I’m happy that it’s Friday as well as happy that it is raining! We need it! I’ll just give myself extra time and an extra helping of patience to help me deal with the traffic, lol! We Southern Californian’s aren’t used to the wet and it sure causes havoc with the commute!

I was supposed to be working on a design team card but…this paper got in the way! I saw it and my mind instantly connected with this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

So I just went with it and love how the card turned out!

Aren’t the colors delightful?? I had fun playing with a fun tag die from Pretty Pink Posh, it was fairly simple to turn it into a shaker card…loaded with a bit of this and a bit of that…definitely some Pretty Pink Posh sequins in there!

I wanted to show a close up of the sentiment. It’s die cut using the Wplus9 Hand Lettered Thanks die cut, out of patterned paper. I layered it on top of an additional two layers of plain white cardstock for depth. I felt it needed a bit more pizzazz so I inked the sentiment up with clear embossing powder, twice. I love the sheen it has. I think you could probably get the same effect with Crystal Effects (or Glossy Accents) but I’m too impatient to wait for it to dry!

I often dress up the inside of the card but forget to take pictures of it to show you. I thought this combination was pretty but left the sentiment off for now until I know for sure who the recipient is.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I greatly appreciate your visits and your comments, each and every one!!

Wishing you joy and blessings!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Rustic White by Papertrey Ink

Pattern Paper: Now & Then: Milo by My Mind’s Eye

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: None

Dies: Hand Lettered Thanks by Wplus9; Stitched Duo 1 by Pretty Pink Posh; Ride the Wave by MFT Stamps; Femme Frames by Mama Elephant and Envelope Liner Die by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: Heat Gun

Embellishments: Various sequins; Cream Thread by Papertrey Ink

Mums for Mom

by Shannon Jaramillo // April 28, 2015 // 7 Comments

Hello, friends! It’s Wednesday!! It’s been a bit of a rough week for me with the weather changes here and I have been down with a migraine on and off since last Thursday, so not much stamping time for me!! BUT…I made this card last week before I got sick, so I thought I would finally share it with you.

Mother’s Day is almost here in the States so I thought it was a great time to get these new stamp sets, mums2stamp and moremums2love from The Stamps of Life, inky. I just picked them up at my class two weekends ago. I’m loving the way the two sets coordinate and build on each other. I tried my darndest to use on of the sentiments from the set as well, but it just wasn’t working for me. Back to my stamps I went and came up with this lovely sentiment from WPlus9, Strictly Sentiments 4.

I had to laugh at myself a bit as the gingham paper in this card and last Sunday’s card is almost exactly the same!! I guess I’ve just been feeling soft and dainty lately!! I used a pattern paper with a bit of orange in it as well as an additional thin strip of orange (well, Tangerine Tango to be completely honest) to balance out the strong color of the mum. A little bit of twine also adds weight to the left side of the card as well as tying in with the ink color of the sentiment.

Unfortunately, I neglected to photograph the inside of the card, which is very prettily stamped with the mum outline and a sweet sentiment as well.

I hope you all have a fabulous end of the week!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Vintage Cream by Papertrey Ink; Tangerine Tango by Stampin’ Up!

Pattern Paper: The Sweetest Thing – Tangerine by My Mind’s Eye

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Pistachio Pudding and Crumb Cake by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: mums2stamp and moremums2love by The Stamps of Life; Strictly Sentiments 4 by WPlus9

Dies: Stitched Mats: Rounded Rectangles by Lil ‘Inker and Envelope Liner Die by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: MISTI by My Sweet Petunia

Embellishments: Jute Thread by May Arts