Live Like You Mean It

by Shannon Jaramillo // March 17, 2018 // 2 Comments

Sharing a bit of stamping I did this morning! When I got up this Saturday morning, I had a mile long mental list of things to do and was full of ambition to get started on my tasks…and then I walked by my stamping space, which has the most gorgeous light in the morning…and I veered in there instead and got lost in paper and ink! Does that happen to you?

I love how cheerful this little card turned out and I know exactly who I’m going to give it to – she is indeed one of the loveliest people I know!

The DSP (Designer Series Paper) I used is called ‘Gingham Garden’ and is probably 5 years old now. But there is no expiration date on cuteness and this paper has that in spades. And the stamp? I have no idea how old it is (perhaps you can enlighten me), but it showed up in my mailbox this week and I couldn’t WAIT to ink it up!

The color combination is Melon Mambo and Cucumber Crush (retired), the flower is from the very retired ‘Live Like You Mean It’ stamp set, and the darling sentiment is from the ‘Hanging Garden’ stamp set. I used a few pierced dies from MFT Stamps to bring definition to all the white space.

And in the picture below you can see one of my most favorite new products, the ‘Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes‘. They are the teeniest little gems I have seen on the market and I am definitely going to be stocking up on them! You can find them on page 33 of the 2018 Occasions Catalog, on the lower left hand side. Because they are clear, they are hard to see, but are SO worth the investment!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today and I hope your weekend is fabulous!

Blessings,

Sending a Hanging Garden-ful of Good Wishes!

by Shannon Jaramillo // February 27, 2018 // 2 Comments

Hello Friends! I have a quick post tonight as I am sneaking it in between work and chores! Every catalog has a few stamp sets that I fall instantly in love with, and this was one of them. It has the prettiest collection of hanging baskets…appropriate for just about every occasion!

Measurements:

Card Base 4 1/2″ x 11″, scored at 5 1/2″
1st Layer 4″ x 5 1/4″
DSP Layer 3 1/4″ x 5 1/4″

Details:

The mechanics of today’s card are pretty simple. I stamped the hanging basket image onto white card stock with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored it in with a combination of Stampin’ Blends and Stampin’ Markers.
The bars that form the basket are colored with the light Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends and the basket filler are colored with the light Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blends. I filled the color in with dabs of Old Olive Stampin’ Marker to add a mixture of color.

The different flowers are colored with Daffodil Delight and Crushed Curry; Pool Party and Bermuda Bay; Blushing Bide and Flirty Flamingo while the leaves are colored with a combination of Lemon Lime Twist and Pear Pizzazz.
I used my stamp positioning tool to add this super sweet sentiment and finished the design off with those uber-yummy Glitter Enamel Dots. They just brighten everything up!
What about the ribbon you say? Well, it’s a darling, sparkly bit of Bermuda Bay ribbon, one of a three color ribbon pack that you get for FREE when you place a $50 order with me. Isn’t Sale-A-Bration wonderful??
And the DSP?? Yep, you guessed it! Another item you can get for FREE with a $50 order!

Contact me if you would like more information on how you can earn free goodies!

The Paper Players inspired my card today with their fun sketch challenge this week:

Thank you for stopping by!

Supplies:

Card Stock: Stamper’s Select White by Papertrey Ink

Pattern Paper: Bubbles & Fizz Designer Series Paper Stack by Stampin’ Up! (free with $50 purchase!)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Stampin’ Blends and Stampin’ Markers by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Hanging Garden by Stampin’ Up!

Dies: Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle STAX by MFT Stamps

Tools: Big Shot and Stampin’ Trimmer by Stampin’ Up!

Embellishments: Shimmer Ribbon Pack (free with $50 purchase1) and Glitter Enamel Dots by Stampin’ Up!

Other: Medium Whisper White Envelope by Stampin’ Up!

It’s A Beautiful Day – Pals February 2018 Blog Hop

by Shannon Jaramillo // February 14, 2018 // 10 Comments

Welcome to the Pals Feburary 2018 Blog Hop! Our theme this month is “Case the Catty”. The Stampin’ Pretty Pals will copy or remake projects from any of the current Stampin’ Up! catalogs and brochures. After all, who doesn’t CASE (Copy and Share Everything) once in a while. You may be just starting or hopped over from another Pal. In either case you’ll find the line-up toward the end of my post to help you move along.

There are so many pretty projects in the Stampin’ Up! Catalogs that the hardest part of this challenge was trying to narrow it down to just one! I finally decided on this project because a. it’s gorgeous and b. the colors are ones I would never think to pair up!

Measurements:

Card Base 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, scored at 4 1/4″
1st Layer 4 1/2″ x 3 1/2″
2nd Layer 4″ x 3″

Details:

The first step for me was to figure out the measurements of the layers, which I’ve included so you don’t have to!
Then I jumped right in and stamped the butterfly image from Stampin’ Up!’s Beautiful Day stamp set in Pool Party. The coloring with the Stampin’ Blends took a few tries (okay, more than a few) to work out. There are four colors of blue used, Light and Dark Pool Party and Light and Dark Coastal Cabana. I followed the example one the cover of the Occasions Catalog closely and discovered a few tips:
- They didn’t really blend the layers, they just laid them down one on top of the other, lightest to darkest.
- Let each layer of color dry before applying the next layer to keep that definition between the shades.
- I was hesitant to really put the ink down at first as it seemed so dark and contrasted so much…it doesn’t look that way when the ink dries and it looks much better if you are liberal with the ink. So really lay those colors down!

Once the butterfly was colored, I moved on to stamp all the little flowers in Berry Burst. I’ve never thought to stamp around the edges of my card base before but WOW! I love the effect! One teeny tiny stamp sure can pack a punch!
I had a discussion recently with a stamping friend who didn’t own either a Stamparatus or any other type of stamp positioning tool and the merits of both the Stamparatus and the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I believe that both tools are valuable to have. The Stamparatus is perfect for making sure you get a great stamped image and perfect placement but it doesn’t work well in applications like stamping this border of flowers around the edges of the card stock. The reason? You can’t turn the stamp to mix up the placement. With the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, you can. You can turn the plastic sheet that the image is stamped on all different ways to come up with a fun pattern and still get perfect placement.

A tiny hand cut banner topped off with a Whisper White Baker’s Twine bow and a stamped and snipped sentiment banner layered with a pretty piece of Lemon Lime Twist 3/8″ Mini Striped Ribbon finish off this project beautifully.
Today I left the inside blank for a personalized message, just added some color and a few flowers.

Thank you so much for hopping with the Stampin’ Pretty Pals today. Please take a minute to mark your calendar for our next hop on March 14, 2018. Now hop along using the Blog Hop Line-up below. Don’t forget to leave us a comment. We really like that.

Blog Hop Line-up:

Blessings!

Supplies:

Card Stock: Berry Burst, Night of Navy and Whisper White by Stampin’ Up!

Pattern Paper: Tutti Fruitti 6 x 6 Designer Series Paper by Stampin’ Up!

Ink: Pool Party and Berry Burst by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Beautiful Day by Stampin’ Up!

Dies: None

Tools: Stamp-A-Ma-Jig and Stampin’ Trimmer by Stampin’ Up!

Embellishments: Lemon Lime Twist 3/8″ Mini Striped Ribbon and Whisper White Baker’s Twine by Stampin’ Up!

Other: Medium Whisper White Envelope by Stampin’ Up!

Friendship’s Sweetest Thoughts – Freshly Made Sketches 322

by Shannon Jaramillo // February 3, 2018 // 6 Comments

Oh my gosh, isn’t this flower cart image from Stampin’ Up!’s new set ‘Friendship’s Sweetest Thoughts’ the cutest thing EVER??? This was my absolute number-one-can’t-live-without-it stamp in Stampin’ Up’s Occasions Catalog! Mr. Brown just brought me my order this week (with this darling in it) and as soon as I saw the latest Freshly Made Sketches layout by Cecile, I knew it was meant to be 🙂

Measurements:

Card Base 4 1/2″ x 11″, scored at 5 1/2″
DSP Layer 4″ x 5 1/4″
Basic Grey Layer 3 1/4″ x 4 1/4″
White Layer 3″ x 4″

Details:

With the sketch layout in mind, and knowing that I was going to color the flower cart, I thumbed through my DSP collections and tried a few, but this pattern in the Naturally Eclectic DSP paper pack was the landslide winner…I really love the color combination!
Now how to color the image? Lemon Lime Twist is the green in the DSP so I colored the leaves with my Stampin’ Marker. I added the detail to the leaves after they had dried to give it more depth.

Next were the flowers and I chose another color from the DSP, Soft Sky. I also used a Stampin’ Marker for this one as well, coloring one layer and waiting for it to dry before adding another layer. It actually has three layers of Soft Sky and a small layer in the center of Pool Party.
The flower cart itself and the awning are colored with the Light Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends alcohol marker. I added a second layer randomly to give it depth as well.
The little birdie up top is Soft Sky and Pool Party, and the sweet heart he’s holding was colored with the Dark Pirouette Pink Stampin’ Blends alcohol marker.

I saw a card made with this ribbon just a few days ago and was reminded that I owned it! It is the most delicate ombre ribbon, soft and pliable and so so sweet in Lemon Lime Twist. I tried the ribbon a few ways and then decided to wrap it like I used to wrap ribbon around Christmas gifts as a little girl. It feels so fresh!
And the darling bow. I love how it lines up with the angle of the ribbon. I must say, creating this bow was a bit of a challenge as the loops are smaller than my fingers…I ended up using small paint brushes to insert in the loops so I could tie the bow tight!

I’m so disappointed that the camera didn’t pick up the sparkle on the flowers and the heart from using Wink of Stella, they are so sparkly and perfectly topped off with itty bitty Pearl Basic Jewels. Oh, and I added a pearl to the center of the wheel too 🙂
I didn’t mention the sentiment before, but it is from the same stamp set. As are the images I stamped and colored on the inside of the card:

Seriously, this is the cutest set ever and you can anticipate more creations from me using it!

The Freshly Made Sketches design team knocks it out of the park every week with their sketches, pop on over and see what they have created and maybe play along!

Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate you!

Blessings!

Supplies:

Card Stock: Stamper’s Select White by Papertrey Ink; Basic Grey and Lemon Lime Twist by Stampin’ Up!

Pattern Paper: Naturally Eclectic Designer Series Paper by Stampin’ Up!

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Dark Pink Pirouette and Light Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends Alcohol Markers; Soft Sky, Pool Party, Lemon Lime Twist Stampin’ Write Markers

Stamps: Friendship’s Sweetest Thoughts by Stampin’ Up!

Dies: None

Tools: Stampin’ Trimmer by Stampin’ Up!

Embellishments: Lemon Lime Twist 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon and Pearl Basic Jewels by Stampin’ Up!

Other: Medium Whisper White Envelope by Stampin’ Up!

Dragonfly Dreams Friendship Card – Tic Tac Toe Challenge #19

by Shannon Jaramillo // October 12, 2017 // 4 Comments

Welcome to a brand new Tic Tac Toe challenge! This week’s board comes to us courtesy of Felicita and is sure to provide inspiration!

This week I decided to choose the middle row across; friendship, gold, layers. What will you choose?

Details:

This dreamy paper is from the Year of Cheer Specialty Designer Series Paper pack. I love when paper can be multi-functional. This DSP is actually holiday paper but this gorgeous plaid can be used all year round! I layered a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of DSP over the card base and used Stampin’ Dimensionals to add depth and give me a little extra space to attach a piece of Gold 3/8″ Metallic-Edge Ribbon.
I ran a piece of Vellum Cardstock through the Big Shot and the largest circle from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. I then stamped the circle with a background splatter stamp from the Touches of Texture stamp set using Versamark Ink. I heat set it carefully with Gold Embossing Powder, using tweezers to hold the vellum for me so as to not burn fingers!
The dragonfly from the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set was stamped in Versamark Ink and heat set with Gold Embossing Powder and then run through the Big Shot with the coordinating Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies.

A second dragonfly was die cut using a different die from the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies and Gold Foil Sheets. Can you see it peeking out from underneath? Just another layer of gold…it’s so amazingly pretty in person!
I glued the two dragonfly dies together with the Fine-Tip Glue Pen and then popped them up off the circle of vellum using the edges of a sheet of Stampin’ Dimensionals. By using the edges I was able to snip some long thin lines of adhesive along the body and wings of the dragonfly and keep them hidden. I popped the vellum circle up off the DSP using stripes of Stampin’ Dimensionals as well.
I had a wrinkle in the dragonfly’s body from not gluing the layers together properly but a single Glitter Enamel Dot in the very palest shade of Crushed Curry covered that easily and adds more sparkle!

The frame for the sentiment and the sentiment can be found in the Awesomely Artistic stamp set. I stamped both in Versamark Ink and heat set with Gold Embossing Powder. I then quickly snipped the framed sentiment with Paper Snips and attached it to my card with Stampin’ Dimensionals (a stampin’ girl’s best friend!)
I adhered a 2 1/4″ x 6″ strip of matching DSP to my envelope by running SNAIL adhesive along the outside edges of the envelope flap, gently pressing the DSP to adhere it, and snipping off the extra with my Paper Snips, using the edge of the envelope flap as my guide. An easy way to dress up an envelope!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, please pop over and see more inspiration from the rest of the Tic Tac Toe design team and I hope you have a chance to play along with us this week!

Blessings!

Supplies:

Card Stock: Stamper’s Select White by Papertrey Ink

Pattern Paper: Year of Cheer Specialty Designer Series Paper by Stampin’ Up!

Specialty Paper: Gold Foil Sheets and Vellum Cardstock by Stampin’ Up!

Ink: Versamark Ink

Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Dragonfly Dreams and Touches of Texture by Stampin’ Up!

Dies: Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies, Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies and Envelope Liner Die (retired) by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool and Gold Embossing Powder by Stampin’ Up!; MISTI by My Sweet Petunia (for the sentiment)

Embellishments: Gold 3/8″ Metallic-Edge Ribbon and Glitter Enamel Dots by Stampin’ Up!

Other: Medium Whisper White Envelope by Stampin’ Up!