A Rose for Mom

Welcome friends!  It's Saturday again and time for the fourth and final week of birthday celebration at The Sweet Stop!  I have had so much fun revisiting sketches from the past this month and hope you have, too. You'll have one more chance to choose your own sketch and the opportunity to win a $15 gift certificate to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps store.  So let's get started!

Creative Nugget:  I needed one more Mother's Day card, so I chose a sketch that would show off the beautiful Rose Collage stamp set.  The rose and butterflies were colored with copic markers and a little Antique Linen Distress ink was sponged around the edges  to soften and distress the panel to match the pretty Cosmo Cricket patterned papers.  Some paper piercing was done around the border before each layer was matted with black, my favorite, and mounted to a Sweet Blush card base.  A border punch and some Baker's twine separated the two patterns and the main panel was popped on top.  I colored and cut out two butterflies to replace the little side panels on the sketch.  It's hard to see in the photo, but some Star Dust Stickles was painted on the rose and the butterflies' wings, and a little Glossy Accents was added to the tips of each wing, making the whole card sparkle!  I like how this one turned out and hope my mom likes it, too!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is getting ready for another fabulous release so I don't have a Christmas version again this week, but hope to resume the Christmas card version next week...thanks for being patient with me in this regard!

Be sure to stop by the blogs of the other Sugar Babies as each one has chosen a different sketch to highlight this week.  When you play along, be sure to add a link to the sketch you used and add SSS156 to the key words if you upload to an online gallery.

Sugar Babies

Monika Davis

Shelby Goolsby

Wendy Ramlakhan

Janice Melton

Shannon White

           Chrissy Dickinson


Thanks for stopping by!  Have fun stamping this week and be sure to stop back again on Thursday to enjoy the May Release Blog Hop!


Hugs,
Cathymac


Card Recipe
Stamps: Rose Collage (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Antique Linen (Ranger)
Paper: Select White, Sweet Blush, and True Black (PTI),  Neenah Solar White (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps), Tea for Two Paper Pad (Cosmo Cricket)
Accessories:  Border Punch (Fiskars), Square Nestie (Spellbinders), Baker's Twine, Star Dust Stickles and Glossy Accents (Ranger), Piercing Tool (SU!), Copic Markers R01, R81, R83, R85, R89, G41, G43, G46, YR23, YR30, YR31, T3, T5

Rose Collage

Hello stamping friends...happy Friday!  I have a very quick post to share with you today.


Do you find yourself reaching for the same colors when making your cards?  I know I do...especially those pinks and greens.  That's why I love color challenges...they stretch me out of my comfort zone. 

I discovered a new color challenge site that I will be visiting again for inspiration... CR84FN.  The colors this week were Kraft, Yellow, and Gray...a combination I would have never put together on my own.  

Here is my CR84FN49 sample card.

Creative Nugget:  Sweet 'n Sassy's beautiful Rose Collage clear stamp set was used for the focal image...LOVE!  The image was colored with copic markers and die cut with a square nestie.  A Labels Twenty die was cut from Kraft and Black.  These were cut in half and layered so that they framed the top and bottom of the main panel.  The striped DP was cut into fourths and layered on Black, Lemon Tart, and a Kraft card base.  Stitching, pearls, and some yellow striped ribbon from my stash were added to complete the card.


Look around the blogosphere for colors that will stretch you and give those combinations a try...you might just love the results!


Have a grand day!  Thanks for stopping by!


Hugs,
Cathymac


Card Recipe
Stamps: Rose Collage (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Victorian Velvet Distress Ink (Ranger)
Paper: Kraft, Lemon Tart, True Black (PTI), Madison Avenue Patterned Paper Pad (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Square Nesties, Labels Twenty Dies (Spellbinders), Sew Mini (Janome), Kaiser Pearls, Ribbon, Copic Markers

Butterfly Flight

Where did this week go...it just flew by!  Here it is, Saturday already, and time for another sketch at The Sweet Stop.  This one had me stumped for a while, but butterflies seemed perfect for the sketch, so out they came again this week!

Creative Nugget:  The spots on the sketch became spots of color made with various polka dot stamps and distress inks, Peeled Paint, Broken China, and Victorian Velvet. The spots were then overstamped with butterflies from two Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps clear stamp sets, Rose Collage and Serene Silhouettes.  The corners were torn from another piece of Select White card stock and sent through the Big Shot with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  The sentiment from the Prayerful Thoughts stamp set seemed just right for these butterflies so it was layered on a Spellbinders ribbon slide die cut along with some seam binding dyed with the Victorian Velvet stamp pad. Everything was layered onto my favorite True Black card stock and an Autumn Rose card base.  Easy-Peasy...and no patterned paper or copic markers!

For the Christmas version, the spots became stars:

I'm so excited that my Christmas stash is growing!  For more inspiration for this sketch, check out the amazing samples made by the Sugar Babies!  Hope you'll give this one a try and play along at The Sweet Stop...I'd love to see how you use the spots!

Sugar Babies

Monika Davis

Shelby Goolsby

Wendy Ramlakhan

Janice Melton

Shannon White

Kim O'Connell

Chrissy Dickinson

Before I leave I want to invite you to two exciting events happening on March 1st...  

You don't want to miss this one. The new sets being released are amazing!  Just to whet your appetite, here are peeks at two of the new clear stamp sets being released:

This set was designed by Dina Kowal.  It includes 17 stamps and will sell for $15.

This next set was designed by Korin Sutherland.  It includes 25 stamps and will sell for only $11.

See what I mean...just amazing!  Hope you'll plan to join us next Thursday for a day of fun! Thanks for stopping by today...have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Cathymac

Card Recipe

Stamps: Rose Collage, Serene Silhouettes, Prayerful Thoughts (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), Victorian Velvet, Broken China, and Peeled Paint Distress inks (Ranger)

Paper: Select White, True Black, Autumn Rose (PTI)

Accessories: Floral Doily Motifs (Spellbinders), Kaiser Pearls, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provocraft), Seam Binding (Really Reasonable Ribbon) 

Rose Collage

Hello friends!  Hope you all had a marvelous Super Bowl weekend! Congratulations to all you Giants fans!

It's my day to post on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog, so I thought I would share my sample here as well!   Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps has done it again...the February release was fabulous!  The collage images and silhouettes are perfect stamp sets to be used with many wonderful background techniques.  So I grabbed my distress inks and started playing around!

Creative Nugget:  The inspiration for my card came from Sunday's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoaststampers, Darsie Bruno.  You can see Darsie's fabulous gallery here.  I used the same two new Sweet 'n Sassy clear stamp sets, "Rose Collage" and "You,"  as Darsie did to make her fabulous Rose Collage card.  To make the background for the beautiful Rose Collage stamp, I started with a piece of white card stock and crumpled it up...just bunch it up into a little ball...the more creases, the better! Flatten it out and rub a distress ink pad over the creases.  I used Spun Sugar on my sample.  Then spritz it with water so the ink begins to spread and run. Use an old iron or a craft iron to help dry the card stock and flatten the paper even more.  You can leave it as is, or sponge on more color.  I decided to add some Scattered Straw and Antique Linen. When you are happy with the results, stamp your image.  The ribbon was distressed as well.  I just dragged the ribbon across the Spun Sugar and Scattered Straw ink pads to lightly stain it.  A few torn edges, paper piercing, and pearls finish the card. What do you think?

I hope this makes sense to you, but if not, visit Tim Holtz's blog to see a video tutorial on this and other background techniques.  To see a sample of another fabulous background technique using alcohol inks, see my last post.

I hope you'll grab your Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and try some beautiful backgrounds.  We'd love to see what you create!   Happy stamping!


As always...thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Cathymac

Card Recipe
Stamps: Rose Collage, You (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, StazOn Jet Black (Tsukineko),  Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw, and Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)
Paper: Select White, True Black (PTI), Neenah Solar White (SNSS), Yours Truly Paper Pad (Echo Park), Vellum (SU!)
Accessories: Felt Applicator Tool (Tim Holtz), Kaiser Pearls, Silk Ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon)