a Maple leaf thank u

I needed a few thank you cards and were playing with the maple stamp but wanted to use the Expression Thinlit dies.  I need them to make "happy" "you" "&" "congrats"- if Stampin' Up is reading this-
I am thankful for all my friends but I wanted it to say thank you.  Then I thought there is a U in thankFUL - so I just cut the f and the l out to make the little thank u.  U get the idea.

Base card is Cajun Craze with a layer of Artichoke to Accent.  The maple is stamped using versamark onto glossy CS - retired SU- then sponged cajun and artichoke using a dauber.  Once the colors are all saturated, wipe with a tissue and the white just pops.  The expression is diecut using a whisper white CS.  Took a little doing to get the little nits out but not too hard.   Enjoy!

Flowershop in Primrose Petals

A pretty simple card that has a lot of drama.  Yah, yah yah, I heard all those arguments about why you can't  need another stampset and another flower punch.  I just bought Secret Garden- do I really want another punch? Heck, Yeah!
Is this not the cutest easiest card?  Stamped the flowers using Raspberry Ripple onto Primrose Petal CS.  There is directionality to the stamp so I put a little mark using a Sharpie on the bottom of the stamp that coordinates with the punch so I could easily punch it out. Something about punching is so satisfying to me. It goes so quick that for something you think you will use a LOT like this flower, it makes more sense to use the punch than a diecut.  I used the Pretty Print textured impressions folder for the square panel but you could just as well use a  3x3 piece of DSP.   Hello from Four You stampset.  Used the stayput technique for the ribbon and easy peasy done.

Setting Sail Photopolymer variation

I told someone that I thought this stampset was very Naval- to be corrected that it should have  been Nautical-  naval is talking about belly buttons...Silly of me.  Anyway this is a vertical variation on the card we made at my stamping party. 
Base of soft suede and stripe embossed night of navy.  stamped the flags in same, Navy, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, and crumbcake. 

I have been playing with the watermark for my pictures and I think I finally figured out how to do it.  Font is still too small but it's still readable.
Now that we are living in a smaller footprint of our house during the renovation, there appears to be less house to clean and more time to stamp and read.   Didn't expect that.......

My favorite new product- Undefined - with Dylan's Doggy

 Dylan has had a little doggie blanket (stuffed head with body that is flat like a rug) that he got as a baby that he LOVES.  I mean he will wait outside the washer until he gets it back sort of love.  He draws these cute little picture of his Doggy and I had to use it to make a stamp using the new Undefined stamp making kit. 

It reminded me of how I used to carve erasers to make stamps years before all the new beautiful professional images came to being.  There are 2 tools included a narrow v shape cutting tool for details and a U shape for larger areas.  They are

 really well designed with comfort grips to minimize stress on my hands which I love.  It comes with one large rubber piece with wood mounting adhesive foam pad and 4 pieces of wood to mount after finish.

This is a picture of Doggy I had Dylan draw on a piece of paper with pencil.  I then took that image, put it on the rubber penciled side down and rubbed it to transfer the image.  It will be a mirror image but that is ok because when you stamp it will be a mirror image again.

After I carved it out, I stamped the image I carved using Staz-On onto the little wooden block that fit it.  and then mounted it on the wood. I did stamp it a couple of times on paper to make sure I got the image I liked.  I did have to shave a little here and there to get a better image.

Now I am thinking angrybirds, R2D2, my mind is going wonky over all the possibilities......

Stamping by Camp Lanterns with Setting Sail Photopolymer stamps.

My family room, living room and master has been totally gutted so my husband, me and the three boys have been relegated to living in the bedrooms and the kitchen dining room for the last 2 weeks.  People thought I was nuts for wanting to keep having my monthly stamping parties during the renovation but I would not hear of it. 

Well, I got home last night to set up the party to see the big electrician van sitting in my driveway. They were in the midst of relocating my electrical panels and they were not done -

They thought they would be done by sundown but alas no.  Thankfully, Margery again to the rescue, she brought over bunch of battery powered camp lanterns and little task lights from Sheryl and Bonnie saved the day- sort of.  It was  still awfully dim - the poor ladies had a heck of a time scoring and figuring out where they had to fold.  Thank God that I had no heat embossing  on any of the cards that required electricity....

 This was one of the cards we made- a variation on a card I swapped with Julie Beltramo using the Settin' Sail photopolymer stampset.  I used Soft suede base card with Night of Navy, embossed with the Stylish Stripes embossing folder. Stamped the line and the flags using Night of navy, Cherry cobbler, and soft suede as shown.  because you can see through the stamps it was really easy to line up the flags to the line.  A strip of Burlap ribbon adds such great masculine texture. This uses all my circle punches.

 The steering wheel stamped with soft suede onto crumbcake (1" circle punch).  Then the next in 1 1/4" circle punch.  The boat was punched with 1 3/8" circle punch. Navy in 1 3/4" circle punch. and the last crumbcake with the large 2 1/2" circle punch.  I used the markers for the boat.   Only 12 more weeks to go!

 

Settin' Sail Photopolymer set  #133453   $13.95

   

Margery's convention bag tag

Margery made one in different colors for each of us. I think she made ones in Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush and mine in  Daffodil delight.  The base of the tag is made using the Oval Accent Bigz Clear die and sandwiching a diecut chipboard between 2 sheets of Daffodil Delight CS here.  Then Quatrefancy DSP cut with Apothecary Accents framelit.  Sentiments from Loving Thoughts stampset and that and layer underneath diecut using the same Apothecary Accents.  Flower stamped with Flower shop stampset and punched with Pansy Punch. She had ribbons, pearls added for decoration.  A real standout!  Thanks Margery!