In-Colors Sneak Peek for Fab Friday 87

Wow, is it a gorgeous day here in Minnesota!  I wanted to blog this card this morning but we had plans to hike a new spot.  We just got back from Quarry Park and Nature Preserve.  I'm thinking we will be back often.  There are quarries everywhere throughout the park - some for diving and fishing and some for swimming (cliff jumping!) :)  Eh.. I'm a mom now - my days of jumping off rocks is over!

Anyway, here's the card I made yesterday for my niece before I remembered she doesn't like pink or purple.  Back to the drawing board I guess!

I used the fun sketch over at Fab Friday for inspiration. Click the image below to go to the Fab Friday site and see the design team's creations.

I'm also not a huge pink fan and one of my customers messaged me on Monday letting me know she was anxious to see what I did with the new in-colors because she isn't sure she likes them.  

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I combined Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum (I love, btw!) and Rich Razzleberry.  I also used the pretty rushed ribbon and Copper washi tape.

Using my Aqua Painter, I colored all three inks on some Watercolor Paper.  A little flick of the brush to add some Rich Razzleberry splatter at the end.

And do you see that gorgeous DSP that the '15' is cut out of??  That is the new Affectionately Yours DSP that has 2 pieces with Copper Embossed designs.  So pretty!

When I saw the preorder I knew I wanted this new ribbon.  It ties beautifully - it just doesn't look awesome with the tombow glue marks :(

So what do you think?  Do you like the new in-colors?

I hope to be sharing some more ideas soon!

-Holly 

__________________________________________________________________

If you place and order with me by May 31st of $20 or more, I will mail you a brand new catalog from Stampin' Up!  Please use hostess code: UPAUWSXK

Stamp Review Crew - Guy Greetings

Hey everyone!  I'm back today with another fun hop with the Stamp Review Crew!  We are featuring the awesome set Guy Greetings!

If you're like me, making guy cards can be kind of challenging.  This set has it all covered and we hope that you make it all the way around the hop to find some inspiration.
Make sure you click the image below to take you to the list of us participating this week.  If you came from Bruno Bertucci's blog - thanks for checking my blog out!

All of these cards feature paper from the Going Places DSP Stack.  I will certainly miss this paper.   

For this card, I chose to use one of the new In-Colors: Emerald Envy.  It's a beautiful color!  And the ruched ribbon is awesome! 

This card I kept pretty simple.  Sahara Sand and Delightful Dijon - nice color combo I think. :) 

I fussy cut the tools and gave the wrench a little dimension. 

I must admit - Cucumber Crush is growing on me.  I don't quite have a "crush" on it yet - but I really like the new thick baker's twine in the color.

The Basic Black layer is embossed with the Softly Falling Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. 

This last one is my favorite.  I made this for a friend that just passed his bar exam.  Think it's worthy of a card like this! 

Notice another new blue?  That's Dapper Denim and it's beautiful too! 

Well that's it for me!  If you want to make your way backwards, head on over to one of the coolest stampin' guys: Bruno Bertucci or you can continue on to the next team member - my fellow Minnesota stamper - the talented Tanya Boser!

    

Again, if you get lost along the way you can click on the SRC image at the top of this post and you'll be directed to the homepage where all of the blogs are listed!  Have a great week!

-Holly

A Sweet Inspiration for PP294 and TGIFC55

Happy Friday everyone!  I've been anxious to share pictures of the cake I made this past weekend for Mother's Day, but I first wanted to make a card inspired by the colors.  I am a huge fan of i am baker and recently saw her similar cake on Instagram account and knew that was the cake I wanted to make.

Since I'm a mom of three little boys, I don't get to make pretty cakes too often.  This one was a lot of fun to make and I must say - I was pretty dang proud.  

So how about the card to match?  Well, while I was scrolling through some challenge sites, I came across this one at The Paper Players - pretty awesome right!?  I didn't even NEED to pick the colors, they did it for me! :)

I still think I will make a card with the blue added in... I'm thinking Pool Party?

I'm also showcasing our new sketch over at TGIF Challenges.  It's my week off so I thought I'd just make a card with the sketch anyway.   And please forgive me - I did not use just Stampin' Up! products.  I'm about 99.9% SU, but every once in awhile I find something I love that isn't SU.  This die from Concordand9th was too awesome to pass up!

First up is my card for The Paper Players:

I love this framelit and the sentiment :) So cute!  I wanted it to stand out with a solid background so I stamped the images from Choose Happiness on the white cardstock.

For the TGIF card, I wanted to use the same colors and same stamp set.  I took the letters that came out of the previous card and used them instead of tossing them.

To line the sentiment up just right, I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig.  Really pleased with how both turned out!

I will say though, my cake was better than my cards! :) Make sure you head to both sites and play along!  The Paper Players one ends TODAY but you have until next Thursday for TGIFC55.  

Have a great weekend!

-Holly 

A Graduation Card for Jacquie!

Yesterday we went to a graduation party for my husband's cousin Jacquie.  She just graduated Saturday from Iowa State.  I wanted to incorporate the school colors of Red and Gold.

I also used two of my favorite papers that are retiring - Typeset DSP and Fancy Foil Designer Vellum.  I layered them onto the Very Vanilla and Real Red cardstock.  I cut the numbers using the Big Shot and the Large Numbers Framelits.  The graduation cap I cut by hand and attached with a dimensional.  The candy dots were on the clearance rack last week but are gone now - sorry!

She loved the card and I'm so happy she did!  We are proud of Jacquie and we're anxious for her to start her new job in Iowa.

I missed last week's challenge over at SU Only challenges (congrats theme!) but this week's challenge is using our favorite background papers.  If I had to pick one, it'd be the Typeset DSP.  I even ordered an extra pack just because I love it!

Hope you head on over to SU-Only Challenges and see all of the other great creations.

Have a great Tuesday!

-Holly 

Mother's Day - You Are Made of Wonderful for GDP035

What a beautiful Mother's Day!  It was warm, sunny and filled with so much joy and love.  And sick kids... 

At 5am this morning our middle son woke up crying.  He had thrown up in his bed.  By 9am he was on his second bath of the morning and our youngest wasn't feeling the greatest either.  Lots of clean up and cuddles before church.  But the kids are feeling much better and I wouldn't trade the yucky parts of the best job in the world for anything!

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday too!  We spent the day with my husbands parents, grandparents and his aunt and uncle and cousin. Good food, cake (more on that later this week), fun at the park and a campfire.  God is good and I'm grateful for His many blessings.

I wanted to share with you the card I made for my sweet Mother-in-law.  I absolutely love this new technique I discovered last week.  You can stretch and smash the Honeycombs and make a very cool embellishment.

The calligraphy "mom" is not Stampin' Up! but I love it too much not to use it! :)

For the cards background and the heart around "mom", I used the Project Life stamp set called Memories in the Making.  I love the little cluster of swirls - it makes such a fun background!  You don't have to use the PLxSU sets just for your scrapbook pages...

I am entering this card in this week's "Project Life" theme challenge over at the Global Design Project.

Hopefully by mid-week I can start a page for the challenge too!  I took lots of cute pictures of the boys yesterday.  Sure is great being their momma! :)

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day! 

Blessings to you!

-Holly 

Endless Birthday Wishes for TGIFC54

Hello everyone!  Happy Friday to you!  It is going to be a gorgeous day here in Minnesota.  Forecast is mid-80s... Yes, 80s in MN! I didn't even know that happened.  :)  Since it's Friday, that means there's a new challenge over at TGIF.  Here is our summer-ish color combo that had me a little stumped at first!

When I first saw this color combo, I was a little worried.  I do love the two blues together (they are my blog colors) but the yellow was throwing me off!  The first thing I thought was that the colors would make a fun kid or guy card.  I do have a few guy birthdays this month in our family so I wanted to make some birthday cards.  This also is the set I'm leaning towards for my Stamps in the Mail class, so I wanted to try a few cards out with Endless Birthday Wishes.

I love this Pool Party Glitter Ribbon.  

I added some of my favorite accessory at the moment - the It's My Party Enamel Dots.  I also added some Crushed Curry ink around the cake using the ink pad and Aqua Painter.  

For this card, I pulled the ribbon apart so that I would have some strands to tuck behind the cake.  I originally had more white space but thought the card needed something.  I added the Happy Birthday sentiment and some Island Indigo splatter. 

For the swirls and dots I used the Memories in the Making (swirl) and Wondrous Wreath (dots).  Shannon Lane used the dots a few weeks ago on this card and I loved the idea!

So there you have it! I hope that you join us this week for this fun color combo!  Can't wait to see what you come up with!  I also am entering my white card in Just Add Ink's sketch challenge this week!  (Maybe you could combine both challenges too!)

-Holly 

The Creation Station Blog Hop - Masculine Birthdays!

Wow! Can you believe it is officially May?? Welcome to our monthly hop with the Creation Station!  If you came from the lovely Kimberly Van Diepen's blog, thank you so much for continuing on to me!  She's a tough act to follow!  Make sure you make your way around the entire hop - you won't be disappointed!

This month we are highlighting In the Meadow and Going Global for our masculine birthday theme.  I chose the In the Meadow set because, 1- it's awesome! and 2 - it's carrying over to the new catalog!  Going Global is also another awesome set and you can still order it off the retiring list.

I'm also featuring one of the hostess sets called Happy Birthday, Everyone!  I wanted to make a few cards because I have a few guys in my family that have birthdays this month.

The DSP that I used here is the It's My Party Stack - This is definitely worth the big price.  Some of the best DSP ever - AND there's some great neutral colors mixed in with the bright cheerful stuff!

I chose the mountain scene - think it's pretty manly and it makes a great focal piece.

One with Basic Black Baker's Twine... 

and the other with Linen Thread.

I also wanted to make a gift box.  I stamped the tree image all around the Tag a Bag Gift Box.  These are such great boxes and I'm sad to see them retiring.  It's a good thing I have about 20 saved up!

I lightly stamped the trees on the tag and added the same DSP from the card.  I added some It's My Party Enamel Dots too.  

I cannot wait to give the box away!  I really do love those trees wrapped all the way around!

Thank you so much for joining me today!  You can go back to Kimberly's page, or on to the next - which is the talented Jennifer Downey!

Have a wonderful week!  I will be placing my preorder on Tuesday! YAY!  Can't wait to share some of the great stuff that's coming out in a month!

Blessings!

-Holly