Celebrate

Open Me Already!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

These two guys do nothing but make me grin!  I haven’t used them together before, but here they are in all their glory.  Also, I changed up the big monster by turning his closed eyes into eyebrows and giving him some google eyes as well.  Thought that was cute.

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This kit was a birthday card and I think this one could work for that as well.  But any type of celebration could enjoy a project like this.  The hexagon dynamic texture embossing folder got to work in a different way.  I used the debossed side, the normal version has the hexagons raised up instead of recessed.  To bring in a little color I lightly sponged over the top of the embossed paper and look what happened!  What a great effect.  Also, I couldn’t wait to get my chicken stamps back out and use this background like it was chicken wire.  What a fun find.

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The confetti image from the balloon adventures stamp set really got some work.  It was used on the sentiment tag, the card front as well as the inside.  Pretty darn fun if you ask me.  I have another one of these kits left, I think I will get that put together pretty quick.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Sweet Happy Birthday

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This recycled kit was originally a valentines card with all kinds of little die cuts and stamping.  Real big difference and I am totally in love with it.  It is so sweet, and I came across a stamping technique that it going to be used again and again.  It isn’t new I am sure, but new to me, so it counts.

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I love this particular balloon stamp set.  The outline images and then the fill stamp to give it a little interest and fun.  My first thought for the card front involved several free floating balloons with hand drawn strings.  Those strings just didn’t do it for me, they were distracting from the pretty balloons.  So I tried again using the bouquet of strings for the balloons.  That worked much better for me.  I then adhered punched out balloons over the top of the stamping using a glue dot at the base of each balloon.  It was enough to hold it in place and I don’t even mind that you can see the adhesive, totally worth it.

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I had to add some on the inside as well.  Giving the interest I love without a lot of bulk. Don’t get me wrong, when it is time to pile it on I go for it, but sometimes it is nice to not worry about putting something through the mail.

The tag was fun to add.  The stitched framelits are adorable.  They give a lovely finished edge so easily.  I wanted to use the ribbon from the kit but I didn’t want to interrupt the lines of the balloons, so I kept the ribbon to the tag.  I thought that worked out nicely.

While I love the look of a clean and simple card, the tag had a burst of color and it left the balloons out of balance.  So I went back to the stamp set looking for some help. There are these two little dandelion flower guys that I thought could work.  I placed them on the same block and stamped them across the bottom of the card in a bit of an upward angle.  I thought it looked like the breeze was blowing them gently up into the air.  The tag looked a bit bleak, so I gave it the same treatment.  For me, the new technique was to carry the look of motion, or the flowers blowing, across the front of the tag.  So fun!

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Taking these old kits and putting them to work in a different way has been so much fun. Only two more days of sharing this little series, but I think it will change how I work. I always want to have kits on hand to play with.

Have a creative day!

Moana

You Deserve a Happy Birthday!

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Here we go with day two of this little seven day adventure.  Use up my extra kits and make them look different.  Some parts I like better than others, but here it is just the same.

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The background cardstock had some floral stamping from the flower shop stamp set and then was run through the big shot with the lovely lace embossing folder.  The patterns might not have gone the best, but I stuck with it.  When I continued the stamping on the sentiment layer I wasn’t sure again.  I thought black wording would look too similar to the night of navy so I went with flirty flamingo.  Wouldn’t you know it that one of the words got hidden in a flower. So I stamped the sentiment again offset with versamark and then sprinkled on copper embossing powder.  It coordinates nicely with the foiled pattern on the designer series paper.

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It did give it a bit of a 3-D look, but you could read it easier.  I still wasn’t sure about all of the patterns going on here.  It seems like they are fighting for attention.  I don’t think I could tell you who won, but I kept on with it anyway.  I tilted the card a bit for this photo trying to show the foiled paper and matching embossing, you get the idea I think.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Out of Limitations Come Creativity

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When a couple of friends get together to explore a few techniques, really cool things can happen.  The sentiment reads, Out of Limitations Comes Creativity.  Sometimes the limitations are our own minds, not finding new things to try, or new ways to try the things we already have.  Great example below if I do say so myself.

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We wanted to try a technique Jennifer McGuire recently shared using versamark ink and perfect pearls.  That was a lot of fun.  My beginning samples are fun to look at, and might turn into a project, but might not.  I still have them at my desk, but they led me to this project.  The sentiment was created with this technique.  It was neat though, how the perfect pearls clung to areas of the water color paper that weren’t all the way dry.  A neat accident that really adds to the look.  I also gave distress crayons a go.  Those are pretty darn cool.  I bought a set that came with the stamps I used here as well as a basic technique booklet.  Those techniques were put together and actually turned into this project.

Literally, we sat down with several products, a technique idea, and some great conversation. That was so much fun!  So, maybe I should have a sentiment stamp that says something like, Good Company Sets Free Creativity, or something much more poetic, but you get the idea.  Can’t wait til our next time together. Creative friends are so much fun!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Don’t Quit Your Day Dream

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Glimmer paper makes everything look better.  How fun!  These projects were part of this last weekends workshop and the ladies really enjoyed making one.  Good thing we worked with the glimmer paper from this years sale-a-bration because it ran out and they would have missed out completely.  So glad I could share a little at least.

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Pretty straightforward cards here.  A few layers, some stamping and a delicate little bow. I helped out the ladies by pre-diecutting their leaves.  Folks get a bit frustrated waiting to die cut or emboss their work, so I try to make it a bit easier.  Maybe one day I will add a second Big Shot, maybe.

The sweet sugarplum glimmer paper may be gone, but the blushing bride is part of the annual catalog, so I can make more of these.  I am thinking about a thank you card gift set and this might just be the thing, with a different sentiment of course.  I think yes.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Make a Wish

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This last weekend was my card workshop and this was one of the projects we made.  Some of my ladies get intimidated easily, so I do try to keep it fun and simple.  This one fit the bill quite nicely.

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The card base and ink are bermuda bay, even the glimmer paper that is hi-lighting the candles.  That glimmer paper has been super fun to work with, I will be sad to see it go away at the end of sale-a-bration this month. I will probably get one more pack with my order this month.  Maybe it will be put into the new catalog this summer?  One can only hope.

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I die cut the candle framelit three times along the strip of very vanilla and adhered a strip of glimmer paper and daffodil delight paper underneath.  Such a nice accent.  That little set was then added to another strip of bermuda bay for the top layer.  The sentiment was direct enough, stamp and punch, my favorite.

The background piece is from a great paper stack.  I must have used half of it so far.  That is unusual for me, I don’t always love so many of the patterns.  Yes for sure this time around. I gave the ladies several choices for their cards and they all looked so different depending on the background piece.  Fun stuff there!  The inside earned a stamping of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the coordinating stamp set, window shopping, because I didn’t like it on the front.  It was a distraction. Can’t have that!

Have a creative day!

Moana

Dream

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Blending colors can be just too much fun.  What a great set of vibrant colors here, right? I started with four and ended up with eight.  I literally had to tell myself to stop, before the colors went too far, leaving me with a brown mud card.  This project is so alive, I love it!

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The ink was applied to a lightly wet surface.  I wanted the color to flow, but not all over the place.  I left intentional gaps in between colors to allow for blending, trying not to make too specific a pattern.  My projects often lean toward stripes, and why not, they are great!

The vision for the die cut was different to begin with, but it did not work out as planned.  No problem, I love it in black as well.  It makes the card look a bit more elegant.  My original thought was to die cut a wide section of adhesive tape and brush it with black glitter. The release paper cut fine, but the adhesive did not want to work with all the detail pieces.  I ended up having to totally clean the die of sticky adhesive before I could use it again.  Live and learn I guess.  But I still want to to make that happen somehow.  Maybe just glitter paper next time?

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I wanted a bit of interest on the colors, so I opted to add a light flower stamp.  The color is a light neutral, sahara sand.  I thought that would not distract too much from the colors and keep the tone well.  It worked nicely.  I added some droplets of water to distress the background somewhat and called it done.  Such a fun card.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Celebrate

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A simple card can look quite complicated at the same time.  That is definitely the case with this project.  It is all about color, and only a few for the front.  That is the beauty of color blending, you always get more than you started with.

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I grabbed a few distress markers from my stash that I liked together, a purple and two pinks.  I just scribbled them on a pallet and used an aqua painter to start painting wet on wet.  The purple was at the left, a bright pink in the middle with the lightest at the right.  I kept adding layers to each colors until they were vibrant enough and then began to blend. It was so fun to watch the pretty colors come together.

I had planned this card to be a shaker card with the candle border punch as a focus.  The inside color needed to contrast, so I chose green.  I tried to measure my coloring to have green candles with a yellow flame.  At certain angles you can see it, but not very easily. The acetate sheet distracts it, especially in the photos. I used liquid metal green and gold to give them a little extra sparkle.  Since the gold looked so nice I decided to do a quick overlay to give a lot of sparkle.  It worked wonderfully.

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The shaker frame went just around the candle punch area and was filled with a small amount of sequins.  I think it turned out great.  I ended up stamping a birthday sentiment on the inside of the card because I couldn’t bring myself to add anything that would distract from the front.  With the candles there, it could be any kind of celebration card, I happened to make it a birthday card.

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Nailed It!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

How about a tiny tool kit for a gift bag?  These tool framelits are so fantastic, they really just make me giggle. This set is a little more elegant than others, but I still found myself playing with them before I put them in place.  I realized this photo makes it look like it could be a card, but it is a gift bag made from half a sheet of cardstock.  The tools were die cut from a piece of water color paper that had been painted with several ink colors and some liquid metal colors as well.  Love that look!

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I tried to keep the whole hexagon theme going on here and it turned out nice. The paper is so great it speaks for itself.  What a great set of paper, really.  This piece is foiled and heavier than the others.  After I die cut the large hexagon piece, using a die from the same set, I embossed it for another layer of dimension.  The sentiment background was cut from another piece from the same set.  The classic label punch worked pretty great for the actual sentiment and kind of nestled as well.

A bit of ribbon for the handle was all it took.  I was trying to give it the look of a bucket handle.  Not sure if that happened, but it looked pretty good. The large hexagon was placed before the tools, raised up on a couple of dimensionals.  Then I just started wedging the tools in place and squished some tombo glue underneath to keep them in place.  Fun!

Have a creative day!

Moana

Flourish Wishes

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Such a perfect combination here. Nearly all of my favorite things combined into one project. The only thing missing would be some water coloring, but with paper this beautiful I don’t feel like there is anything lacking here. Even better, this took almost no time at all.

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I just received an order that had this glimmer paper in it, one of the new free items during Sale-a-bration right now, and I couldn’t wait to enjoy it.  It comes in three colors, but the bermuda bay tone was on top so it was literally that simple. I knew there was the same color included in the cupcakes and carousel dsp stack and that became step two, pick a pattern. I probably spent the longest just deciding which one to choose.

The die cut was not as easy to decide because there are so many wonderful ones to choose from.  I kept it simple though and went for a favorite. The glimmer paper was cut to size and then I did the die cutting from the center, knowing it wouldn’t show, and I could make that paper last longer.  Glimmer paper is such a weakness for me, especially in colors like this. The flourish was glued down with tombo and then the designer paper adhered to the glimmer paper with fast fuse.  Regular adhesive and glimmer paper aren’t friends, it needs something stronger.

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The sentiment was stamped in the same ink color, die cut, layered zippity quick and raised up on dimensionals.  How easy is that? I had a bit of room for another little die cut before I adhered it down, so that had to happen, hence the need for a matching gift box to use that piece. No problem, just get another piece of the same paper and happiness was achieved. What a great way to launch National Craft Month!

Have a creative day!

Moana

You’ve Got This

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

A simple floral card really speaks to me.  Like so often happens, I had started in a different direction with this project, but it took its own way.  I love how it turned out, but I don’t know if I can make it happen like this again.

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The background stamp came from the same set as the flower and sentiment, You’ve Got This. It is supposed to look a little more water colored, or even just painted.  Well, I believe my water color paper acted a bit more like a resist than intended.  I thought about spritzing it to have the color spread more, but decided to leave it until it was time to color the flower.

The flower and sentiment were both stamped with versamark ink and embossed with copper embossing powder.  With the flower I forgot to use a static resist tool and it was very obvious.  I cleaned it up as well as I could without destroying the image, but it still showed my mess.  The sentiment, I remembered and it is super clean.  I did water color the background of the sentiment, but very lightly.

I painted the flower with sweet sugarplum, blushing bride and old olive.  It turned out really lovely.  The odd messy dots of extra embossing really add to it.  That is what I meant by trying to re-create it somehow.  Accidents aren’t always easy to control a second time.

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Either way, it turned out quite lovely.  A sweet inspirational card is wonderful to make, but even better to give away.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Balloon Adventures

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

This is how things look when I am feeling creative, but not sure just which direction to go. No sentiment, hardly a stamp in sight, just pretty flowing color.  That is really so satisfying. This could be for a birthday, but really any celebration would be a good fit.  Balloons are so happy after all.

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The project began with water color paper being masked to a board and spritzed with water lightly.  The rich razzleberry went down first in the bottom corner pretty heavy.  Pacific point was the blue I chose for the opposite corner.  The center section got crushed curry, but I didn’t blend just yet.  I wanted it to kind of mix with the help of water, not my brush so much.  It was nice, but I did push some of the color around to make the green show up more. I would have like a bit more orange to have mixed, but the green kind of took over and I didn’t want the infamous brown to appear.

The balloon bouquet punch and the balloons inside the balloon pop-up thinlits set match perfectly.  I painted a couple of swatches, punched them out and layered them under the thinlit cut balloons.  A bit of layered fun there.  I wanted to go with velum cardstock, but didn’t feel up to the adhesive hiding game.  The glimmer paper is always pretty though.

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I used the metallic thread for the balloon strings and loved it!  It was a bit tricky since it isn’t the easiest stuff to work with.  But how it looked wrapped around the bottom of the balloons was too great to not.  There it is!

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Enjoy Your Special Day

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

With all of the crazy flood problems and evacuation orders in our area (Northern California), writing this blog almost seemed silly.  But, instead of constantly worrying, I thought I would try to do something a bit more productive.  This project was actually for Saturday, but I never seem to be able to get a blog in on workshop day.  Just a bit much for a Saturday morning I think.  So here you go!

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The ladies sure did love making these.  I was kind and did the die cutting for them, but that was just so the big shot would be available for the hot air balloon birthday card.  That was blogged the other day, and they loved it too!  I know how to challenge them, make them a bit crazy, and help them have a wonderful creative time.

This project idea came from another Stampin’Up! demonstrator, who got it from one of her friends.  Either way, Dawn’s Stamping Thoughts is the inspiration behind this project.  She used different colors and the white wink of stella covering the entire dragonfly, so only a tiny touch different. I added a bit of inside stamping.

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It looks so much more complicated than in really is.  The back piece of the dragonfly was die cut from whisper white and the detailed overlay from basic black.  They were glued together and the sections were colored in with the brush end of the marker.  I then went over all of the sections with gold wink of stella.  How easy is that!  It is so beautiful in person. I tried to get an angled photo just right to show off the shimmer, but it is so hard to capture those tiny little glimmers.  You really have to try it out.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Cloud Nine Birthday

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Birthday gift sets really make me smile.  I love everything have a theme and coordinating, very satisfying.  Another workshop project all ready to go.  Should be a large group and this will be the detailed project for sure, not a hard one, but a bit time consuming.

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I have found myself staying away from peekaboo peach because it is so bright.  Almost too bright for my taste.  So, I thought I would take it head on and go for it.  Also, this main pattern of designer paper overwhelmed me like crazy.  Keeping the view controlled really made a difference and I love how it turned out!  Of course it helps to have such a wonderful die cut to focus on.  These balloons are so great.

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The matching gift bag used a whole sheet of paper.  I do try to use and not horde fun paper and this is one of the ways to do that.  Just use it!  It is a bit of therapy for my card group too, they aren’t the best about using up their paper either.  We all need a nudge now and again.  The gift bag is simple, letting the balloon accents take front stage.  The ribbon is a nice accent, but really just a closure.  No bow or focus up there, letting it all fall around the balloons and clouds.

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While this card requires some patience, I think it is worth it.  I love how the die cuts let me decorate the balloon as I would like.  I simply used portions of the same designer series paper that was more solid to fill those spaces.  That way it really coordinates well. I used tiny dots of tombo glue on the back of the balloon to adhere my pieces.  That way I had some wiggle room to put them just where I wanted.  I also used foam adhesive strips to layer it up.  That way there was an extra bit of adhesive to keep those pieces in place and the balloon got extra lift, more height than dimensions alone offer.  I thought that to be appropriate.  I didn’t plan on using basic rhinestones, but I had a tiny dot of ink in a spot I couldn’t get past, so I covered it up.  Job well done!

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Fiesta Like There’s No Manana

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I haven’t made a card and bag set for a while, but today called for it.  A special birthday for a special someone.  When a birthday isn’t looked forward to what do you do?  Find an adorable llama stamp set and put it to work.  Mission accomplished.

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This bag was made in a particular size for a special gift.  It only needed one piece of cardstock, but I fiddled with the measurements until it was just the right size.  There are two bars of home made soap inside and they fit perfectly.  It also had to be made from card stock instead of designer series paper, which might have been a bit more festive, but I needed it to be stronger for the weight of the soap.

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I mixed my coloring a bit here to put color to the llama image. He was stamped on the heavy weight whisper white card stock so I could have a smooth stamp and water color a bit too.  The stamping was done in black stazon, accented in emerald envy with the rope and blanket.  I colored some with the water color pencils and brushed the color around.

Where did that little hat come from?  I dug into the No Bones About It set, the ones with the dinosaurs and so funny sentiments, and there it was.  The perfect size for the perfect llama. And now he is ready to party, as much as a llama can.  How adorable, right?

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Have a creative day!

Moana

You Are a Fabulous Work of Art

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This project is actually an invitation, but could easily be a lovely card to share.  In a moment of forgetfulness we found ourselves needing to pump out 25 invitations in an hour.  It took a bit longer than that, but it was managed.  That is how easy this card it.

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I used wisteria wonder stamped four times at an angle, slightly tilting it as I went.  That gave me the simple background I needed for the sentiment.  That was then stamped in elegant eggplant and I loved the look.  I was in a great hurry, but wanted a bit more diversity, so I brought in this variegated crochet thread with colors that would coordinate. This gave me a green to go with, so in came the old olive.  I stamped three hearts and called the front finished.

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My husband and daughter worked to get the inside information card while I did the fronts. I wanted to connect them a bit, so I added one more stamp there.  I used the long stripe to stamp under the title of the event.  It was super quick, but worked out wonderfully.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Crazy Cake with Balloon Adventures

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Birthday cards are just the best!  This totally adorable stamp set builds one great cake, don’t you think?  And this card only shows about half of the stamps.  I love, love, love it!

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The three bottom layers were done with two stamps.  Good thing they are photopolymer, or totally clear, for super easy placement.  There is no way I would be this patient or exact without great stamps like that.  And yes, the top stamp is a set of three candles that I stamped a little flame for each one.  Normally I don’t go for all the extra work, but I loved it and it was so easy!  Easy enough that I included this project in the lineup for this weekends workshop.

The embossing folder is another new product from the spring catalog.  It is shown with a bunch of manly stuff, and it is manly of course, but I loved it here too.  My daughter thought I should be stamping bees because it reminded her of a honeycomb.  Cute idea!

The sentiment is from another great birthday stamp set called Balloon Adventures.  Also from the spring catalog, but it has a great trick of its own.  That will be for another blog project for sure.  I stamped on a strip of cardstock and put the triple banner punch to work. Of course I had to layer it as well.  What is with me and layers these days?  Oh well!

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I couldn’t resist.  I had to stamp all along the inside with those darn candles again.  And I didn’t even mind stamping all of the little flames.  I am telling you, it really was fun!

Have a creative day!

Moana

It’s Your Birthday!

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Shaker cards are so much fun, and they really are quite trendy in card making.  I finally broke down and had my card ladies make one for one of our workshop projects this last weekend.  They did great!

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Of course it helps when you have a great stamp set to work with.  This set has a few fun combinations that fit perfectly with this style.  Cutting out the window was made super easy with the layering squares framelits.  I don’t mind fussy cutting things out, but I would rather not.  It also kept the edges nice an clean.  Now we have a card that is neutral enough for anyone, yet fun for most ages.  Great project!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

We Age Not by Years, but by Stories

~ moanaj ~ 1 Comment

Well, I survived the first couple of days back to school.  Time to get other things back into place as well.  Seems like there isn’t enough time for the fun things.  I will just have to sneak it in when I can.  Like this little project.

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I opened a new dsp stack and found a bunch of great paper.  One side is a variety of printed photo images and the other is designer paper.  I intended on using a distressed wood pattern, but looked on the other side and found this one.  It reminded me of a stamp in my new Fresh Fruit set and the project was on its way.

I created a coordinating piece of white card stock double stamping the swirly circles in pool party.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Then I stamped two sentiment parts and layered the lot of them.  A simple arrangement stuck together and then raised up all together on dimensionals.  With a little bit of stamping inside as well, of course.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Oh Happy Day

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

There is a certain someone getting close to having a baby girl and this just about sums it up. It is truly a happy day and I can’t wait.  And with the heat we have been having I am sure she is more than excited.

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The very fun and exciting playful palette designer series paper stack almost overwhelmed me. The colors and patterns are so busy, almost too busy for me.  I started out with the most subtle one in the stack.  I can’t imagine some of these patterns in a 12 x 12, good thing this is contained to a 6 x 6 stack.  There will be a lot of fun card and gift bag sets I think. Smaller than my regular by far, which makes it much more manageable.

I punched several balloons from plain card stock, but wanted a different look too.  With my aqua painter I covered a section of water color paper with wide light swipes of coordinating ink.  I did sponge all of them as well. The stamp set, Thoughtful Banners, has tons of sayings that fit inside the banner stamp.  There is a coordinating punch for the banners, so that makes me very happy.  I did my stamping, but trimmed it right to the stamp so I could punch another one from card stock and have a tiny border all the way around.

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The solid bakers twine really makes me happy.  I had longer strings attached to each balloon and trimmed them after they were squished into place with glue dots.  With the extra hanging off the card I tied one simple knot and used it as the embellishment for the gift card sized gift bag.  I do hate wasting product.  It turned out great!

Have a creative day!

Moana