A Guy’s Work of Art

Posted on May 18, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I needed to send a card to a teenage boy in our youth group at church, and I don’t know about you, but I think those are the hardest of all to make. Guy cards are just hard. And teenage guy cards…well they’re even harder.

I pulled out a brand new set that will be available in just a couple of short weeks, called Work of Art. It has all of these great splatters and brush strokes, which would be about the only kind of work of art that I would be able to paint.

I used three of the new In-Colors that will be available with the new catalog in just two short weeks — Hello, Honey (yellow); Blackberry Bliss (purple); and Tangelo Twist (orange).

This set makes quick cards, and you don’t have to worry much about exactly where you place the images. It makes a Work of Art all by itself.

Enjoy your Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly Thanks

Posted on May 15, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I’m still in mourning over the retirement of the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die. I decided I’d better get another card or two made with it before the end of the month. Don’t worry — I’m sure my mourning period will be cut short once the new catalog is released. 🙂

I paired the die with the Watercolor Wonder dsp and the Another Thank You photopolymer stamp set.

I colored the rhinestones with the new Daffodil Delight Blendabilities markers. Because these markers are alcohol-based markers, the ink doesn’t come off of the rhinestones. Pretty cool, huh!

Enjoy your Thursday! Thanks for stopping by!

Big Day Birthday — FMS136

Posted on May 14, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Whew! It’s another Wednesday already! I think the month of May is always a whirlwind, even more so than December. With all of the end of school activities, it just seems like there is always something going on.

I get the pleasure of being this week’s hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches. Here’s the sketch:

I needed a birthday card, so I pulled out the Birthday Basics dsp that I have left. I also used the Chalk Talk stamp set and coordinating framelits.

I also pulled out my sewing machine and added some crazy stitching around the main panel. Some extra thread was looped under the focal image for fun.

We hope you’ll be able to play along and post your creation in the Freshly Made Sketches gallery. I’d love to see what you do with the sketch. Meanwhile, you should go check out what the rest of the design team made. They always inspire me!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Peaceful Blendabilities

Posted on May 11, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Happy Mother’s Day! We have another Monday Montage blog hop for you this evening. There are ten of us participating, so just click on the tabs at the bottom of each post to navigate your way through all of the blogs.

I decided to play with the new Blendabilities markers that Stampin’ Up! will soon be selling (demonstrators were able to order them a month early). Blendabilities are alcohol-based markers that come in sets of three shades (light, medium, and dark) of the same Stampin’ Up! color. Now, I am definitely still quite a novice at using these, but I thought I’d share my first card using them.

I started by cutting a card base of Daffodil Delight card stock. I then cut a piece of Modern Medley dsp and stamped some splatters using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. Then I cut a piece of Very Vanilla card stock and stamped the Positively Chevron background stamp with Daffodil Delight ink. I brushed some Gesso over it with a paint brush just to tone that down a bit and add some texture.

Then I had some fun with the markers. I love how easily the colors blend! I stamped the flowers and leaves from the Peaceful Petals stamp set using Memento Black ink. Then I used the Cherry Cobbler package and the Daffodil Delight package for the flowers, and the Old Olive package for the leaves. I also used a Cherry Cobbler marker to color the rhinestones.

Well, you’re ready to hop on over to Breelin Renwick’s blog to check out her amazing post. If you prefer to work your way backwards, you can go visit Wendy Weixler’s awesome blog. Either way, be sure to work your way through all ten posts.

Enjoy your Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

Farewell Fancy Flower

Posted on May 10, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Of all of the dsp packs that are retiring at the end of this month, I think I will miss the Epic Day This and That package the most. I think I have loved every single sheet in this set.

To make the flower, I used three different flower punches — the bottom layer is the Blossom punch, the two middle layers are made with the Fancy Flower punch (retiring), and the top layer uses the Pansy punch. I crumpled up all of the layers and then smoothed them back out. I added a 3/4″ circle of Daffodil Delight card stock and one of the In Color Dahlias (retiring) on top.

Do you have big plans for Mother’s Day weekend? We don’t, and that’s just the way I like it. It should be a nice relaxing weekend at our house. Enjoy your Saturday! Thanks for stopping by!

Hip Hip Hooray — It’s a Birthday Card

Posted on May 8, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I love the Hip Hip Hooray Card Kit! I love how it comes with so many fun elements that you can use to make 20 pre-designed cards, or you can add other things in your own stash of products and come up with something entirely your own.

I also love this stamp that comes with the kit. Very fun! There are two other stamps that come with the kit as well.

Enjoy your Thursday! Thanks for stopping by!

Chalk Talk For You — FMS135

Posted on May 7, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Another Wednesday already! And we have another sketch challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches. This week the fabulous Narelle Farrugia is our hostess, and she has a great sketch for us.

I haven’t used the Chalk Talk set in a while, so I pulled it out. I paired it with the Etcetera dsp and used a few different ribbons, most of which are retiring.

I used Midnight Muse, Old Olive, Calypso Coral and Crumb Cake for my color combination. I’ll miss Midnight Muse when it retires next month.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own card for this challenge. You can see what the rest of the design team made at the Freshly Made Sketches site.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Mother’s Day Card

Posted on May 5, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s time to get those Mother’s Day cards in the mail. I had to make one more yesterday and I decided to use the new sketch over at Retro Sketches.

I went through my stamps and couldn’t find but one small stamp for Mother’s Day. I completely forgot about the stamp that was included in the last My Paper Pumpkin Kit, and it would have been perfect! When I can’t find exactly what I’m looking for, I go to MDS and use the search function. I found a great stamp there from the All Holidays download. I colored it the colors I wanted and printed it out on Whisper White card stock. Easy Peasy!

I started by stamping the Dictionary background stamp on Smoky Slate card stock with Versamark ink. Then I stamped the pretty flourish from Everything Eleanor with Crushed Curry ink over it.

I stamped three flowers with the Petite Petals stamp set and punched them out with their coordinating punch, and then punched out three little flowers using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack and layered them on top. I added some ribbon and Gold Sequin Trim on top, and layered a Regals button on that.

Have a great Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life Easter Page

Posted on May 4, 2014 by amyoneillblog

So, have you heard that Stampin’ Up! has partnered up with Project Life? A match made in heaven, I tell you! Project Life is a scrapbooking system that provides a quick and easy way to document your life with pictures and journaling.

In honor of National Scrapbooking Day yesterday, I decided that I needed to get started with my Project Life album and I made two pages in less than an hour. Normally, when I scrapbook it takes me a couple of hours (at least) to make one page. I think I’ll get even faster with making my Project Life pages once I get better with printing and taking my pictures. That tells you how often I actually take them off my phone and camera and print them out. 🙂

Here’s a helpful tip for you if you choose to use Project Life. When I take pictures, I don’t worry about whether I’m taking them with a portrait orientation or a landscape orientation. But with the Project Life photo sleeves, it helps to be consistent. There are pages for both orientations, so you can choose either way.

Here’s a page I made to document our Easter weekend.

What makes Project Life so easy and quick is that you just slide your photos in the photo sleeves. Then you can add some of the cards. Some cards have lines or room for journaling and some are just for decoration.

On this card I also used some alphabet stickers which are included in the accessory pack to spell out “Easter.” The date stamp at the bottom of the card is from the Day to Day photopolymer stamp set.

On this card, I stamped the Strawberry Slush border on Whisper White card stock with the new Point and Click photopolymer stamp set. The Pear Pizzazz arrow is from the same set. I then used one of the new Cards & Labels Project Life framelits dies to cut it out.

Here’s a look at the new products available now.

Enjoy your Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

Flower Shop Flower

Posted on May 3, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Sorry for the terrible picture! Not sure what I did wrong, but I really should check my pictures before I mail the cards and it’s too late to get a better picture. Oh, well!

The card base on this one is Pool Party. I added some of the Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum, and then some ribbon and trim. The flower is stamped with the Flower Shop set and punched with the Pansy punch. The smaller flower is punched with the Petite Petals punch.

Enjoy your Saturday! Thanks for stopping by!