Quick Open Sea

   
     Hello!  Today's card was inspired - eh hem - CASE'd from Bonnie Klass' blog, Stamping with Klass (here).  I mean really, what's not to love about her card?  It uses The Open Sea (my favorite set) it's incredibly quick and simple to make and there are no tools or accessories needed!  Bonus: it's a great masculine card!
  

Stamps: The Open Sea, Woodgrain
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso

Lovely As a Tree

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by Stampin' Up's own Shelli Gardner (here)!  For those of you who may not know, Shelli is the co-founder of Stampin' Up! and when I found her card via Pintrest I couldn't resist CASEing her.  I absolutely {loved} everything about her card and since I'm always in need of a masculine birthday card I thought this would be perfect (there are a ton of men in my family!).
     If you haven't purchased the Lovely As a Tree stamp set I highly recommend doing so!  It makes a wonderful Christmas stamp set AND it's the perfect masculine set. 

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree, Woodgrain
Ink: Crumb Cake, StazOn Black
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Black, First Edition DSP
Tools & Accessories: Naturals Designer buttons, linen thread, Word Window punch

I Saw This Where?!

     Hello!  Today's card is one that I originally saw online somewhere but for the life of me I can't remember where!  I'm very good at bookmarking cards that I'd like to CASE but for some reason I didn't do that for this card.  If it looks familiar to you or you know who the original creator is please let me know!

Stamps: The Open Sea
Paper: Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Nautical Expedition DSP (retired)
Ink: Night of Navy
Tools & Accessories: Brads, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine, dimensionals

Nautical Birthday Wishes

     Hello!  I was sooo excited to see The Open Sea stamp set in the new SU! catalog - it's one of my favorites!  And it's perfect for masculine cards, which is what I made today.
    The inspiration for this card came from another card that's been sitting in my "favorites" folder for quite a while.  Check out Fran Sabad's "It's Called The Open Sea" card over at her blog (here).  Loved her layout, especially the torn card stock with the ship peeking out.

Stamps: The Open Sea, Occasional Quotes (retired)
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand, More Mustard, Early Espresso
Tools & Accessories: Circle brad (retired) baker's twine, dimensionals

Birthday Leaves

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by Julie Gearinger's Manly Fall Birthday card over at SCS (here).  Her layout is great and I love the idea of incorporating leaves into the card, something I never do.
     I decided rather than stamp leaves I'd dig out and dust off my Leaves #2 die.  Before I cut out the leaves I ran the paper through my Big Shot with the Lattice embossing folder, just to give them a bit of texture.
     The background is one stamp so to give it the illusion of several pieces I used Stampin' Write markers to color directly on the stamp.

Stamps: Nature Silhouettes
Ink: Soft Suede, Old Olive
Paper: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Whisper White
Tools & Accessories: Big Shot, Leaves #2 die, Lattice embossing folder, button, hemp twine

Wishing You a Wonderful Day

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by lisaadd's gorgeous card, They Say It's Your Birthday, over at SCS (here).   I love Lisa's layout and decided to make the card as similar to hers as I could, using what I have in my supplies.

     The background is First Edition DSP (love that stuff!) and from what I can tell it's explaining the history of the type writer... interesting.   I ran Marina Mist CS through the Big Shot with the Lattice embossing folder before using the Stars #2 die to cut out the stars.  This gives them a bit of texture.
     I was going to use a different sentiment but after looking through my stamp sets I realized that this particular sentiment matched the "typewriter font" feel in the DSP.

Stamps: Bring on the Cake
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, First Edition DSP, Marina Mist
Tools & Accessories: Big Shot, Lattice embossing folder, Stars #2 die, button, linen thread, Stampin' dimensionals

Blue Birthday

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired, or rather CASE'd, from serelewis's card The Clear Block Sea over at SCS (here).  I loved everything about her card so I changed very little, only the sentiment at the bottom.  I should mention that The Open Sea stamp set was originally featured in the Summer Mini catalog and normally I would have changed the image to reflect a current set.  However, I absolutely love this stamp set and I have my fingers crossed that it will make it into the 2012-13 Idea Book & Catalog (please, please, please!?)
   The technique used to create the blue background is very simple: use the clear block as a stamp!  Ink it up and stamp on paper just as you would with a traditional stamp. 

     This card was super simple to make and could easily be mass produced... hmmm.  Maybe I've found my masculine birthday card for the year!

Stamps: The Open Sea, Occasional Quotes (retired)
Ink: Marina Mist, StazOn Black
Paper: Whisper White, Marina Mist, Basic Black
Tools & Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals

Suede Birthday

     Hello!  I am in constant need for masculine birthday cards and as soon as I saw Nancy Littrell's Field Flowers card over at SCS (here) I was inspired.  I loved her layout (SC341) but changed the colors theme and used the Nature Silhouette stamp set.  The background is one stamp so to make it multiple colors I used Stampin' Write markers to color directly on the stamp.  A little time consuming but well worth it in the end.

Stamps: Nature Silhouettes
Ink: Old Olive, Soft Suede
Paper: Soft Suede CS and DSP, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Tools & Accessories: Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

Oh, Deer!

     Hello!  Nothing is more masculine than a deer!  Today's card was inspired by TrishG's card (here) over at SplitCoast and is the perfect card for quite a few men in my family.  I loved how Trish used color rather than just black ink when stamping the image.  Trish also used the "misting with markers" technique that I've never tried before but now that I've had the chance to experiment with it I love it! 

To learn how to mist with markers check out this video tutorial by Beate or view the printable tutorial here at SCS.  Of course, if you'd like me to personally teach you how to mist with markers you could always host a workshop. 
    Since the jumbo eyelets retired on July 1st (bummer, I loved those little guys!) I decided to skip the hardware and go for the hemp twine instead.  I also opted to stamp the image on Very Vanilla rather than vellum.

Stamps: Nature Silhouettes
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi
Tools & Accessories: Hemp twine, spray bottle

    

    

Simple Sailboat

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by Mary Brown's Sail Away card over at her blog StamperCamper's Corner.  To make her card more of my own I changed the card base to the traditional 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 and placed the image on the left rather than right side.  Because I decreased the card size I didn't have room for a button, which was a bummer because I had a cute red button all picked out that would have looked perfect :(
    To give the background behind the sailboat a little texture I used the Lattice Embossing folder and the Big Shot. 

Stamps: Sail Away, Occasional Quotes (hostess)
Ink: Night of Navy
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy
Tools & Accessories: Grosgrain ribbon, lattice embossing folder, Big Shot, dimensionals

Birthday on the Open Sea

   Hello!  As of 8:20am there are only 10 1/2  more hours of school left... but who's counting, right?!  You know I absolutely {love} my job but for some reason I am just itching for summer vacation to begin.  My big plans? Sitting out on our balcony with a margarita (or two or three) reading as many books as I can (I've recently rediscovered our local library).  Aaron and I do have tickets for a Red Sox game and plan to spend the night in Boston but that's in August.  So until then it's the balcony or the family beach house if the weather's nice!

     Enough about me, on to the card!  Today's project is a quick and simple birthday card.  I stamped the globe image from The Open Sea stamp set in Sahara Sand on Sahara Sand and then stamped the other images in Early Espresso.  The images were punched out and layered.  The blue strip of DSP you see is Nautical Expedition, I just cut the strip diagonally.

Stamps: The Open Sea, Sincere Salutations

Ink: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso

Paper: Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand, Nautical Expedition DSP

Tools & Accessories: Square punches, brads

Sailing Away

      Hello!  I think I've found two new favorite stamp sets - The Open Sea and Sail Away.  I can't put them down!  There are quite a few male birthdays this month and both sets are perfect for a masculine cards, especially when most of my family still lives near the coast.
     The layout for this card came from the SCS Sketch Challenge 327.  I didn't follow the sketch exactly but it was definitely the inspiration for the card.

  To make the main image pop I stamped the image twice; once on white and once on Sahara Sand.  I then cut out the sails from the white and adhered them to the Sahara Sand with dimensionals.  I can't take credit for this idea; I CASE'd it from Mary Fish's Sail Away card on her blog.
     It is difficult to see in the photo but the ledger image from The Open Sea was stamped in Sahara Sand on the left side of the card as well as behind the boat image.  This gives the image a bit more dimension.

Stamps: Sail Away, The Open Sea, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Tools & Accessories: Large oval punch, Stampin' dimensionals

On the Open Sea

      Hello!  I don't know about you but I am loving the new Summer Mini!  The instant I saw The Open Sea stamp set I knew I had to have it (as well as several others!).  I grew up near the ocean and this reminded me of summers at the beach.  The nautical images are elegant and coordinate perfectly with the Nautical Expedition DSP (I love the colors!).  Since I was in need of more masculine birthday cards and most of my family still lives near the coast this was the perfect set to grab!

   When creating cards my weakness is always the layout.  To help me with this I headed over to SCS and perused past card sketch challanges.  I loved SC317 and decided this would be perfect for a masculine birthday card.

     It may be hard to see in the photo but I stamped the globe image in Sahara Sand and then stamped the ship in Espresso on top of it.  This gives the image a little more dimension.

  

Stamps: The Open Sea, Sincere Saluations

Ink: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso

Paper: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Not Quite Navy

Tools & Accessories: Baker's twine, jumbo eyelets, Stampin' dimensionals

A New Technique: Pressed Circles (or flowers, hearts, stars...)

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by the faux pressed flower technique (here) shown over at SplitCoastStampers.  I have also seen other stampers use circles for this technique so I decided to give that a try.  The technique is super easy to do and gives any card unique look.  This can be done with any shape punch: hearts, stars, flowers, squares - you name it!

      The card itself was difficult to photograph and is a bit hard to see in the photo because I used a window sheet as the card base (lots of reflection from the flash).  The sentiment is stamped on the bottom of the inside panel.  I could have stamped it on the window sheet but I did not have brown StazOn ink.

Stamps: Bring on the Cake

Ink: Basic Brown

Paper: Window sheet, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip

Tools & Accessories: Circle punches, Lattice embossing folder, Big Shot

Wish Big!

     Hello!  So far my New Year's resolution of sending birthday cards on time to everyone in my family hasn't been broken.  But we do have men in our family and as much as I love flowers and pearls I need to appeal to the masculine crowd.  In my Occasions Mini pre-order several months ago (one of the many perks of being a demo) I ordered the Bring On the Cake stamp set and First Edition Designer Series Paper and knew the image and paper would work perfectly together.
     The DSP is bit lighter than traditional DSP and reminds me of an old encyclopedia. While I've only used one sheet from the pack of 24 I think I may have to order another before April 30th - this will be a staple in my collection!    

Stamps: Bring On the Cake
Ink: StazOn black
Paper: Very Vanilla, First Edition DSP, Basic Black
Tools & Accessories: Grosgrain ribbon, circle brad (retired), dimensionals