Wedding and Anniversary Cards

Hello fellow stampers,

Wow! What a crazy beginning to our summer.  So far three weddings and three big anniversaries.  I have to admit - I love make wedding and anniversary cards!  It's just another excuse for me to use my Big Shot and fancy dies.

For this wedding card, I cut out a large shape - any die will do, I used Spellbinders Label 20.  The negative space is nice to show some really pretty designer paper.

This next card was made for a special couple's 50th wedding anniversary.  This card uses several different dies - from Spellbinders - Fancy Framed Tags 2 and Oval Ironwork. From Stampin' Up, the oval nesting dies and from Creative Expressions, Gemini Pavo die.  The paper is vanilla or ivory colored cardstock with gold shimmer paper.  The "50" is heat embossed in gold.

This next card is made with the Eastern Palace suite - die and stamp set bundle from Stampin' Up.  The papers are also from the same collection - just beautiful designer papers.  The stamps are from several sets.  I couldn't find my Happy Anniversary stamp so I improvised and I think it makes the card very unique.  The medallion dies are layered with dimensionals to give it some life.  I am really enjoying this set - hope to post more samples soon.

I hope you get a chance to experiment with your dies.  Mixing and matching is really a lot of fun and you get something totally unique and stunning.

Happy stamping!

Sunsets by the ocean

Hello fellow crafters!

When my husband and I are able to take a vacation, we love going somewhere warm by the ocean. Since we live in the mid-west, this is something that we don't get to do very often. So in between vacations, I recreate those memories through stamping.

Here are my current favorites.  I love doing the sponging technique to create the blue/green hues of the ocean, and the yellow and purple sky of a setting sun. Thanks to all of you that post your great creations as they definitely inspire my creativity. The thing that I like most is that every card turns out a little different.

The cards below were made for a couple of my friends that needed a little pick me up.  I also think these designs would be great for sympathy cards and for the guys in your life.  The version with the lighthouse was made for my brother's birthday.

Both cards were made with the Stampin' Up High Tide stamp set.  Here are few tips when making these cards:

• Before stamping or sponging, make sure your card stock is cut to the finished size.  When I made these cards I trimmed after and lost the really cool edging the sponging makes.
• For the masking, I found post-it notes that have a large sticky area.  This made masking so much easier. They are made by Post-it and called full adhesive notes.
• When stamping the lighthouse, be aware of the shadow that is created by layering the two stamps together.  Just make sure you place the light source on left.

I am still amazed how these turned out!  Both cards started out completely white,  Give this a try.  I hope you have as much fun as I do making these cards.

Happy crafting!