I actually made this card a couple of weeks ago but am just getting around to posting it.  This one is made using my favorite stamp set – Vintage Vogue!  The paper I used is from the Sweet Pea designer series paper stack which is only available for a couple more days as the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog is coming to an end.   So if you want it, you’d better get it quick! 

For those that have fallen in love with the Sweet Pea designer series paper, you can buy the digital version to use in My Digital Studio or any other graphics program and you can have it forever and ever!  Just print out what you need!

As my title mentions, this card is for the Stampin’ Up! Products only swap that’s already closed.  However, we have a new one of these every month.  Just check our Card Swaps Forum for the latest swaps available.  I hope to see some new faces signing up.  For the most part, you only have to create one card – and in return, you’ll get one card.  This is great for the beginner swapper since you don’t have to mass produce your cards.

Tomorrow I’ll be showing you another card that I’m using for a swap card.  You’re gonna love it as it uses a few of the new products coming out in the 2010 Summer Mini Catalog which will debut on May 1st.

Until tomorrow – Happy Stamping

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

• Stamps:  Vintage Vogue & Whimsical Words
• Paper:  Old Olive and Whisper White card stock, Sweet Pea designer series paper stack
• Ink:  Rose Red, Old Olive, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive Close to Cocoa and Basic Black
• Other:  Designer Label Punch, 1-3/8″ Circle Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Silver Brads, Dimensionals, Sponges, Polka Dots Impressions Folder, Glue Stick

I just wanted to create a quick post to let you know that Episode 3 of CARDScraps with Brenda Cook has now been posted on the site.  You can view it below or by going to our Resources -> TV Episodes section.  You can download project sheets for both projects in our Resources -> Project Sheets section.

Happy Stamping

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday afternoon.  Yesterday, the first issue of our newsletter went out.  I have received some great feedback about it so if you haven’t already, I invite you to sign up in the top left column of the blog under Newsletter Signup so you don’t miss out on any future issues.  As well as getting a first look at our spotlight technique examples, subscribers also received an exclusive printable download to use in their paper crafting.

I created a card that fits into two different weekly challenges.  First of all, the sketch I used was a Mojo Monday sketch.  Brenda shared a card earlier this week that she created for this week’s Mojo Monday sketch challenge which you can check out here.  For mine, I also decided to combine the sketch challenge with a weekly challenge from the Late Nite Stampers Yahoo Group which was to use butterflies and 100% current Stampin’ Up! product.

My color choices and some of my design elements were inspired by a card by Tessa Wise.  I still want to do a direct CASE of her card, but for this one, it was just inspired by hers.

I love how all of these colors work together.  The designer papers all come from the new Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack in the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  There are such a vast array of beautiful papers in that collection – perfect for card makers or scrapbookers.

I paired the Sweet Pea paper with a few other new items – the Old Olive Satin Ribbon (which is to die for) is so sleek and smooth and easy to tie into beautiful bows; the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt embellishments which are too cute and add instant charm to any card; the Scallop Trim Border Punch which you can get FREE right now during Sale-a-Bration; and of course, the Vintage Vogue stamp set which I seem to be reaching for quite often these days as it has become one of my favorites!

If you have any questions on how I did something, just let me know.  I didn’t do a tutorial on this one since it has so many details.

Happy Stamping

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

• Stamps:  Vintage Vogue (WM #117690 – CM# 118598)
• Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Kraft, Old Olive, Whisper White and So Saffron cardstock, Sweet Pea designer series paper
• Ink:  Chocolate Chip, VersaMark
• Accessories:  Sweet Pea Stitched Felt Flowers, White Embossing Powder, Curly Label and Scallop Trim Border Punches, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Perfect Details Texturz Plate, Big Shot, Mat Pack, Paper-Piercing Tool, Sponges, Glue Stick, SNAIL Adhesive

I knew that Vintage Vogue was going to be one of my favorites, so it was no surprise when I reached for it to create this card.  For this card, I was inspired by a card created by Tessa Wise.  I loved her color combination and had to play with it.  I had to change up a couple of things because I didn’t have the stamp set she used.  I plan on using this one for the upcoming All Occasion card swap here at CS!  There’s still time to sign up if you’d like to get involved.  Signups close on Feb. 1st!

It’s been a little bit since I shared instructions on how to make a card, so I figured there’s no time like the present!  I love the emboss resist technique – I bet you didn’t realize that the large print paper was actually Whisper White card stock!

1. Using the small flower image from the Vintage Vogue stamp set and VersaMark, stamp around the edges of a Dusty Durango standard card base (4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″). 
2. Cut a piece of Whisper White card stock to 3-1/2″ x 4-3/4″.  Sponge the edges using Soft Suede ink.  Lightly sponge in from the edges about 1/2″ to 1″ gradually getting lighter towards the center.
3. Lightly dust using the Embossing Buddy.  Using VersaMark, stamp the En Francais background stamp on the sponged card stock and emboss using Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder.
4. Sponge over the background again using Soft Suede, this time really working the color into the paper.  Make the edges darker than the center.  Your embossed text should be resisting the ink.  You may need to rub it with a clean dry cloth to clean more ink of of it to get it to really show.  Because I was using a relatively dry sponge, mine showed up just fine without having to use a clean cloth.
5. Glue your embossed card stock to a 3-3/4″ x 5″ piece of Bashful Blue card stock. 
6. Attach a piece of Dusty Durango Grosgrain Ribbon approximately 1-1/4″ from the bottom.  Attach to the card base using Glue Stick or SNAIL.
7. Glue a 1-1/2″ x 3-1/4″ piece of Soft Suede card stock to a 1-3/4″ x 3-1/2″ piece of Bashful Blue card stock.
8. Use the Scallop Trim Border Punch on one edge of a 1″ x 3-1/2″ piece of Dusty Durango card stock.  Use a White Signo Gel Pen to add little dots as shown.  Adhere to the back of the Bashful Blue card stock.
9. Use Dusty Durango and Old Olive markers directly on the border stamp and stamp it on the right edge of a 1-1/4″ x 3″ piece of Whisper White card stock.   Use Old Olive ink with the small leaf stamp and stamp off one time before adding two leaves.  This will create the darker center leaf and one of the lighter side leaves shown.  Re-ink your stamp and stamp of two times before adding the last of the lighter leaves.
10. On scrap Whisper White card stock, stamp the large flower using Dusty Durango ink.  Then stamp two of the smaller flowers, but stamp off onto scrap paper once before stamping so that the smaller flowers are a lighter shade.  Cut each of the flowers out leaving a thin white border. 
    Tip:  leaving a white border makes your handmade embellishment look like a store bought one!
11. Attach the large flower in the bottom right corner using one of the large decorated brads from the Hodgepodge Hardware set.  Attach a flower on either side as shown using a standard silver brad.  Curl each of the flower petals up by rolling them around a pencil or stylus.
12. Attach the matted flowers to the bottom right corner of the card base as shown using 4 Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I hope you enjoyed my card today.  More importantly, I hope you’ll join us in the All Occasion card swap.  You only have to create a single card for the swap so if you’re not comfortable creating multiples, then our swaps are for you!  We have several other card swaps going on right now – I’m sure you’ll find one that will fit your needs!  They really are a lot of fun!

Happy Stamping

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

• Stamps:  Vintage Vogue (WM#117690 – CM#118598), En Francais (#109521)
• Paper:  Dusty Durango, Bashful Blue, Soft Suede and Whisper White card stock
• Ink:  Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Old Olive, VersaMark
• Other:  Dusty Durango Grosgrain Ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware, Scallop Trim Border Punch, White Signo Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Write Markers, SNAIL Adhesive, Glue Stick, Paper Piercer

I have to say that I am truly IN LOVE with the new Vintage Vogue stamp set that came out yesterday in the new 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  This is going to be one of those stamp sets that you reach for time and time again.  I made this one for the Adult Birthday Card swap here at CARDScraps.

I CASEd this gorgeous card from Lori Rider.  I stepped this up a little bit from hers although I truly fell in love with the simplicity of her card.   There was no ribbon used, nothing popping up at you other than the brads used in the center of the flowers.  I’m not normally attracted to cards without sticky-up parts – lol – but this one was different.  It was beautiful; the colors, the layout, and of course the stamps. 

Once I got to working on mine, I had to change a few things.  First of all, I made the card base Rich Razzleberry.  Stampin’ Up!’s Whisper White card stock is awesome for stamping – however, I’ve gotten used to the thickness of their standard card stock and I prefer it for my card bases as the Whisper White is just a little bit thinner.  I also added a layer of cutout flowers.  This was mainly because when I stamped my small flowers, the color was too dark and a little too close to the big flower and I wanted a little more contrast.  So for the top layer flower, I stamped off twice before stamping on my Whisper White card stock.  Anyway, my card began to blossom and was no longer as simple as Lori’s – and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all because as I said, it was the simplicity of her card that I fell in love with.  In my case, I made an error and had to find a way to cover it up – hence, more layers!

1. Score a 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ piece of Rich Razzleberry card stock at 4-1/4″ and fold for the card base.
2. Cut a 5-3/8″ x 4-1/8″ piece of Whisper White and lightly sponge the edges with Soft Suede Classic Ink.  Glue to the card base leaving a 1/16″ border all the way around.
3. Cut a piece of Soft Suede card stock to 5-1/4″ x 4″ and stamp the border stamp the from Vintage Vogue stamp set in the center of each of the 4 edges using Soft Suede ink.  Fill in the corners on the long edges by just inking the ends of the stamp.  Sponge the edges using Soft Suede ink and then glue to the card front.
4. Cut a piece of Whisper White card stock to 4-1/8″ x 2-7/8″ for the stamped image.  Sponge the edges using Soft Suede ink.
5. Stamp the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Well Scripted stamp set in the bottom right corner.
6. With Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp the large flower near the top left corner (refer to the images for placement).  Load the small flower stamp with Rich Razzleberry ink but stamp on scrap paper two times and then stamp next to the previously stamped flower.  This technique is called Stamping Off and in this case, I stamped off twice before stamping on my image.  Repeat for the other small flower.
7. Load the leaf stamp with Soft Suede ink.  Randomly stamp leaves around the edges of the flowers.  Stamp them in clusters of two or three leaves before re-inking your stamp.
8. On scrap Whisper White paper, stamp the large flower with Rich Razzleberry and two small flowers with Rich Razzleberry that you’ve stamped off twice as in step 5.  Cut each of the flowers out.
9. Lay the cutout flowers on the main flower image and use a paper piercer to punch through both layers.  Insert brads to secure.  Curl the flower petals around the barrel of your paper piercer to get them some lift and dimension.
10. Glue to a 4-1/4″ x 3″ piece of Rich Razzleberry card stock and glue to the card front.
11. For the inside of the card, cut a 5-3/8″ x 1-1/2″ strip of Whisper White card stock and sponge around the edges with Soft Suede ink.  Load the small flower stamp with Rich Razzleberry ink and stamp off twice before stamping on the left side of your paper strip.  Add a couple of leaves using Soft Suede ink.  Glue to the inside of the card approximately 5/8″ from the bottom of the card.
12. Cut a 5-3/8″ x 1/2″ strip of Soft Suede and stamp the border stamp along one edge.  Sponge the edges and glue below the Whisper White strip as shown.  Cut another strip of Soft Suede to 5-3/8″ x 1/8″ and sponge.  Glue to the top of the Whisper White strip – I find it’s easier to glue these small strips using a 2-way Glue Pen.

I hope you enjoyed today’s card and tutorial.  If you have any questions, just let me know!

Happy Stamping

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

Stamps:  Vintage Vogue (WM#117690 – CM#118598), Well Scripted (WM#117072 – CM#118601)
Paper:  Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry and Whisper White card stock
Ink:  Soft Suede and Rich Razzleberry
Accessories:  sponges, 2-Way Glue Pen, Glue Stick, Hodgepodge Hardware Set Brads