Summer vacation

Why does summer seem to be so much busier than the rest of the year? I have not been to yoga class for five weeks but I made up for it this week doing construction work or rather demolition work.  The old 80's parquet tile in the kitchen and hall is gone. It took the better part of three days and some very sore muscles on my part but it is finally gone. Now I just have to level the floor and install my new laminate. That will be a snap right?.....we'll see.

Demolition doesn't leave much time for crafting. Fortunately for my creative needs I was lucky enough to be invited to a get together with my upline this weekend. That motivated me to design one card for a swap. The swap was to feature new products or colors and this is the result.

Colors are from 2012-2014 In Color collection

Primrose Petals and Midnight Muse

Stamp sets are

Best of Butterflies

Best of Birthdays

Featured new product is the Modern Mosaic embossing folder

Swarm of Butterflies

I knew this was going to be a great stamp set. This week I went butterfly crazy again with the Best of  25 years butterfly set available here
When you stamp on vellum and color from the reverse side the result is a beautiful, life-like image. After creating this card I have a surprise up my sleeve for a home decor project using the same technique. Check back in a few weeks for that one.

Stamped on Vellum and colored using Stampin' Up! ink and Blender pens

Here is a simple yet sophisticated card suitable for sending to anyone but particularly a father or husband or son who doesn't like all the frills. A butterfly card for a man. Yep I just did that. If i were sending this to my sister I would just change up the colors for something more pastel and add a little bling to each of the butterflies.

Use Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up stamps perfectly

Next up is another masculine example with butterflies. This one is for a young man who is graduating  high school this weekend. It's such a great feeling to be able to give a card you made with care rather than just something you bought. Both the butterflies and the word "congrats" are stamped using ink that matches the card stock color. I love the tone on tone look. One of the best bargains for beginning stampers is to buy a set of card stock and stamp pads together. I recommend the In-Color collection as a good place to start. The colors in these collections are changed every two years so you know they won't look outdated.

2012-2014 In-color collection
Two colors from the collection are featured below, Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit.

Multiple embossed elements add depth to the image

Finally this is the most simple but perhaps the most elegant card of the week.  Done completely in Whisper white and Basic black card stock with Basic black ink for the stamps; this card is also for a specific event. My brother is getting married and nothing says wedding like black and white. 

Best of Butterflies

I am seriously loving working with this set of butterfly stamps. Rather than stick to just cards this week, I branched out and decorated a few candles. These are amazingly easy and make great teacher gifts. you can use any smooth pillar candles. scented, unscented wax or soy. you simply stamp on tissue paper then transfer the image using a wax paper overlay and your Stampin' Up! heat tool. (available here) As you can see on the top candle using more than one color is no problem and fine details show up very well.  If you are in the Knoxville, Tennessee area and want to learn this technique for free, Just call or email to schedule a date for your own workshop.