So Special to Me – NBUS Challenge #11

by Shannon Jaramillo // April 5, 2017 // 5 Comments

Today’s card is so special to me! Pun intended 🙂 Seriously though, it’s so rewarding to disappear into my craft room after the day’s work is done and pour myself into making something pretty. Can you relate?

I was inspired by a card I saw (somewhere) using a big banner and a large die cut sentiment and it rolled around in my head and then this popped out 🙂

Almost all of the product used here came from a Stamps of Life Card Kit. The pattern paper is from an older kit. When I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my banner card! I ran into a bit of a problem though when I discovered that although this paper was in a card kit, this deep blue-purple color is not offered as a card stock or ink in The Stamps of Life product line. What? Luckily for me there was a solid piece of pattern paper in the pad that I was able to use in place of card stock. And the ribbon? I found the PERFECT shade (Royal Velvet) in my Papertrey Ink stash! Can you believe it? A month or so ago, they had all of their ribbon on clearance so I was able to get one roll of almost every color for about $30 total. Wow, right? And it worked out perfectly!! 🙂

The die came in a card kit…isn’t it sweet? I did puzzle over how I would use it. “So Special” doesn’t really seem like a stand alone sentiment to me so I went hunting and found two different options of “You Are” in my TSOL stamp sets. I inked one of them up and then die cut it with a stitched circle die. But once I had it in place everything seemed off balance for me (and I had Lionel Richie crooning “You are so beautiful…to Meeee” in my head) so I went hunting again and found another sentiment that actually reads “To You, From Me”. A bit of creative stamping and voilà! I think it turned out very charming 🙂

The stitched banner is courtesy of a die from Sunny Studios. I HAD to have it about two years ago and I’m sorry to say, this is the first time it’s been used. But there are four options for the fishtail and this is a fun layout so I think we’ll see a variation on this card in the future…

Now, today I am playing along with the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge. And the challenge is not only to use something not used before, but also to share a boo-boo or two. GASP!! What?!? Imperfection? Never!! Well…okay, if you insist…

Yes, on my first attempt, I die cut the fish tail upside down. And then sat there staring at the half with the stitching thinking “How can this be?”. Yep, a great way to ruin a perfectly good piece of pretty paper 🙂

And since I’m owning up to my mistakes, when I put this card together, I adhered everything flat. Then I decided that the banner needed to be popped up from the other pattern paper so I lifted the whole thing and re-adhered everything. It wasn’t until I went to open the card that I realized that I had ADHERED THE WHOLE THING UPSIDE DOWN!!!! Lucky me, after scrapbooking for many years, lifting (very carefully) and re-adhering is something I am familiar with and though while never preferable, something I can manage to do. Whew! Especially since I didn’t have any more of this pretty blue-purple paper!

One last thing…the inside…

It occurred to me when I started to work on the inside of the card…what on earth do you finish with when you start with “You are so special to me” without coming across as creepy and stalker-ish? Well, I’ll tell you, I had to look through every stamp set I own to decide that this sentiment would be appropriate, lol. Now it can be an “I’m thinking of you” or “I’ve got your back” or “It’ll be okay” kind of card and won’t be creepy…;)

Well, there you have it, my nightly therapy all wrapped up and tidy with it’s pretty envelope!

Thanks for stopping by! I truly appreciate you!

Products Used:

Card Stock: Pixie, Kiwi & Powdered Sugar by The Stamps of Life

Pattern Paper: Friend Collection by The Stamps of Life

Ink: Royal Velvet by Papertrey Ink; Memento Ink Tuxedo Black

Stamps: flowerpower2fill & patterns4happymail by The Stamps of Life; Inside & Out: Healing Touch by Papertrey Ink

Dies: Stitched Ovals & Rectangles Dies by The Stamps of Life; Fishtail Banners by Sunny Studios

Tools: Big Shot; MISTI; Paper Trimmer

Embellishments: Flower Jewels by The Stamps of Life; Royal Velvet Ribbon by Papertrey Ink

Other – Envelope – The Stamps of Life

Blow Out the Candles!

by Shannon Jaramillo // April 3, 2017 // 4 Comments

What inspires your card making? Do you search Pinterest for inspiration? Or perhaps start with a challenge? Or do you just sit down and have a card come to you? I find challenges a great place to start. And Pinterest is definitely my friend! Today’s card though was inspired by paper. I happened to be thumbing through a pad of paper and saw this birthday paper next to the green and white polka dots and it was all over. It got even better when I looked in my ribbon stash and saw I had both Kiwi AND Candy colored ribbons! Which one should I use? How about BOTH?!? Go big or go home, right?

I trimmed two pieces of pattern paper to 3 3/4″ x 4 7/8″ and then ran one of them through the Big Shot with the Notebook Edge Die from The Stamps of Life.
I adhered the two layers together at a tilt. I love how the green and white polka dots just peek out around the edges 🙂

These bold and beautiful candles are stamped and die cut using the candles4birthday stamps and dies from The Stamps of Life in Candy and Kiwi inks. The colors are so bright and cheery, and the coverage from the ink is perfect…no blotchy images here!
The sentiment is from the same stamp set, stamped in Memento’s Tuxedo Black ink and die cut using the Stitched Oval Dies from The Stamps of Life (TSOL).
The pretty ribbons? Yep, from The Stamps of Life card kits.
Those darling little flowers used to decorate the candles? The Stamps of Life card kits. I like these little jewels, they go well on everything. I think they are meant to be used for shaker cards, but I like using them like sequins 🙂
And how about Banana for the candle flames? It’s the PERFECT shade! Also, in my world candle flames sparkle, so these are coated liberally in Wink of Stella!

I love adding detail to the inside of the card. Here I carried the pattern paper over to tie everything together nicely. I die cut white card stock using the Stitched Rectangle Dies and added a sweet sentiment from the morecandles2stamp stamp set.

Please know that I am sharing these products simply because I love them and hope that you might love them as well 🙂

Thank you for stopping by!!

Products Used:

Card Stock: Powdered Sugar & Candy by The Stamps of Life

Pattern Paper: Celebrate Collection by The Stamps of Life

Ink: Kiwi, Candy & Banana by The Stamps of Life; Memento Ink Tuxedo Black

Stamps: candles4birthday and morecandles2stamp by The Stamps of Life

Dies: Notebook Edge and Stitched Ovals & Rectangles Dies by The Stamps of Life

Tools: Big Shot; MISTI; Paper Trimmer

Embellishments: Flower Jewels and Kiwi & Candy ribbons by The Stamps of Life

Other – Envelope – The Stamps of Life

Sunshine Birthday

by Shannon Jaramillo // March 31, 2017 // 4 Comments

This Sizzix Happy Birthday Card Drop Ins Die die is just F.U.N. I want to use it all the time! Today I played at mixing up Pixie, Candy and Grape. Just the names sound yummy, don’t they!! Ha!!

I started with a base in Pixie. Then I die cut the sentiment in both Powdered Sugar and Candy. I added adhesive to the front of the Candy colored sentiment when I die cut it so when I peeled the adhesive backing off, the front of the die was sticky. I used Stephanie’s white glitter to add all this delightful sparkle. Yum. Then I adhered the Candy sentiment with the Powdered Sugar sentiment, just slightly offset to give it a bit more dimension. The purple flowers and the Grape twine? They are from Card Kits. If you don’t subscribe, you might want to consider doing so. Lots of fun goodies in the kits every month!

I’m in love with the Sizzix Dotted Rectangle Dies. I think they are such a fun detail! And of course, calories DON’T count on your birthday!! (from the greetings4birthday stamp set).

And there you have it, the die does all the work…easy peasy birthday card going in the mail tomorrow!!

I am playing along with the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge today!

Products Used:

Card Stock: Powdered Sugar, Candy & Pixie by The Stamps of Life

Pattern Paper: Awesome & Sunshine Collections by The Stamps of Life

Ink: Pixie by The Stamps of Life

Stamps: greetings4birthday by The Stamps of Life

Dies: Happy Birthday Card Drop Ins & Dotted Rectangles Dies by Sizzix

Tools: Big Shot; MISTI; Paper Trimmer

Embellishments: Glitter, Flower Jewels & Grape Baker’s Twine by The Stamps of Life

Other – Envelope – The Stamps of Life

I Miss Ewe – The Paper Players 334

by Shannon Jaramillo // March 8, 2017 // 6 Comments

Seriously, how cute are these sheep? They crack me up! And the card base die? So FUN!!!

You may have noticed that I have been branching out and stretching myself creatively. As I recover from my trauma last fall and work to find my new normal I find myself confronted many times a day with things that give me pause, frighten me a little or sometimes stop me dead in my tracks to overcome to move or speak. Every day gets better. I am very fortunate to be surrounded with caring supportive people who strive to make me feel safe and appreciated. But I still have to pump gas, go to the store, and get in and out of my car and by the end of the day I find myself overwhelmed by it all. That’s when it’s most important to do something that makes me happy. And not a ho-hum kind of happy…I’m talking a truly joyful kind of happy. And I am finding that kind of happy with whimsical stamps and bright colors!

Now, the card…there’s SO much going on here! But the colors are fabulous together and the black and white balances all of that color out nicely. Isn’t the ribbon awesome? I’ve been practicing my bow making abilities lately!

I’m skipping the card dimensions today as this card is created using a set of dies so we don’t need to know the dimensions…we just need our Big Shot!

The die is the Sizzix Scallop Card with Banners and Greetings Drop-Ins. I know, a mouthful! It has three main pieces. The first is the card base which created a nice scallop edge on the front and rounded corners on the back. BUT…I ran the die through my Big Shot to create the card base and then flipped the die around and created the scallop on the back side as well.
The next piece in the die set is the pierced scallop layering piece. It fits perfectly over the card base, leaving a nice edge visible all around.
The third piece cuts out the interior of the pierced scallop layer. It’s also the piece where you would add in a “drop-in” sentiment. It’s hard to explain, I’ll post another card using it later, I didn’t use a drop in here. The only reason I bring it up is that this die does not cut a complete rectangle so I simply used my paper trimmer to finish cutting the rectangle out.

These sweet sheep are from the sheep2stamp stamp set by The Stamps of Life. They have coordinating dies and TWO additional coordinating stamps sets! (which are currently in the mail to me as we speak!)
The set includes little stamps to add tufts of wool to the body of the sheep! I was hesitant to add the tufts but love how they turned out!!
It’s hard to tell here but there is a die included that die cuts the sheep heads out so they can be popped up on their bodies. I had them popped up but having them popped up bothered me…their eyes seemed to follow me so I just layered them flat instead, lol. I love the idea, perhaps a different ink choice would help!
What the rhinestone??? Once I discovered that a rhinestone fit perfectly in the holes in the scallop layer, there was no stopping me!

I used the pierced scallop layering piece on the inside of the card too and just added a layer of white card stock to give me a nice place for my message…and you can really see the holes that I so nicely filled with rhinestones on the front 🙂

Sandy Mathis, one of my favorite card makers and member of The Paper Players Design Team, was the inspiration for today’s card:

I think I met her challenge!!

I would love to hear what you think! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Products Used:

Card Stock: Powdered Sugar & Ocean by The Stamps of Life

Pattern Paper: Thank You Collection by The Stamps of Life

Ink: Tuxedo Black by Memento Ink

Stamps: sheep2stamp by The Stamps of Life

Dies: Scallop Card Drop Ins by Sizzix; Stitched Circles Dies and sheep2stamp Die Set by The Stamps of Life; Envelope Line Die (Retired) by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: MISTI; Paper Trimmer

Embellishments: Basic Rhinestone Jewels by Stampin’ Up!; Black & White Checked Ribbon by The Stamps of Life

Other – Envelope – Stampin’ Up!

Hippo Bird Day! – CAS(E) this Sketch #221

by Shannon Jaramillo // March 2, 2017 // 4 Comments

True Story: Awhile back (during a period of time when I was not an active Stampin’ Up! demonstrator) I had the AWESOME opportunity to work at The Stamps of Life booth at a scrapbooking/stamping expo. It was SUCH a fun day chatting with fellow stampers and enabling them to take Stephanie Barnard’s designs home with them! At the beginning of the show Stephanie had taken me aside and asked me to remember if customers asked for a design she didn’t have and let her know at the end of the show. So…I made sure to tell her that there was a lady looking for a hippo stamp. She gave me a look like “Really?”, I nodded yes, that the lady’s young daughter was set on a hippo birthday party and the lady was DESPERATE to find a hippo stamp! (Parents, we’ve ALL been there, right?!?)

Fast forward six or eight months and I was so surprised and delighted to see the darling stamp sets hippo2stamp and solids4hippo and their coordinating dies come out!! Of course they had to come live with me! I am delighted and in love with how cute my little girlie hippopotamus is!!

And she painted her nails special for this card 🙂 Are you dying with me?? Cuteness overload!!

And now, forever more, just in case someone asks me if I happen to own a hippopotamus stamp set, I will be able to say “Why Yes…Yes, I DO!!”

Get it?? BIG TIME?? HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa I’m killing’ myself here!

No details today, this card is so clean and simple that they just aren’t necessary!!

I’m playing along with the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge today. Not sure what “CAS(E)” means? Hop on over to their blog to find out!!

I can’t wait to hear if you love this girlie as much as I do!!

Products Used:

Card Stock: Powdered Sugar by The Stamps of Life

Pattern Paper: Thank You Collection by The Stamps of Life

Ink: Tuxedo Black by Memento Ink; Ocean, Guava, and Banana by The Stamps of Life

Stamps: hippo2stamp and solids4hippo by The Stamps of Life

Dies: Envelope Line Die (Retired) by Stampin’ Up!

Tools: MISTI; Shin-Han Twin Touch Marker CG0.5 (for face)

Embellishments: Random Sequins

Other – Envelope – Stampin’ Up!