DogGone Delightful Stampin'

Simply Simple Saturdays - A Birthday, A Baby, and a Graduation!

 

Hello Fellow Stampers -

Happy Saturday!  Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  Yes, I made it through surgery, and the oral surgeon told me everything went extraordinarily well.  I am very relieved.  And although I'm somewhat "puffy" and sore, I'm not in a great deal of pain, and am not feeling too bad actually.  For which I am very relieved.  I'm not eating a whole lot; but hey, maybe I can lose some of this weight I wanted to lose -- LOL.

 

So, I haven't done a Simply Simple Saturdays post in quite awhile; since I basically skipped yesterday, I thought I'd pop in, give you all an update, and share some fun today.  I'm sharing a picture from garden this week with you today.  I have been so excited!!  I planted some Iris several years ago; but it takes a couple years before they actually bloom for you!  I have my very first Iris this year, and I'm just so excited!!  And they are just bursting out in full bloom as this week has gone.  The Peonies are going to pop any day now too.  They're a little late this year because we had such a cool Spring; but they're going to be beautiful when they do open.  And I have Lilac blooms this year too -- the first time for those too!  The Columbine are even peeking out at you a little over on the right-hand side!  It's a lavender garden this year -- LOL!

 

My sweet friend Kathy, came over to spend the afternoon with me today and kind of "baby" me a little.  She brought wonderful soup, some even more wonderful little cakes that were nice and soft and moist -- perfect for sore mouths.  And we sat and spent the afternoon in the Studio just chatting and making cards.  She had 3 events coming up on her very quickly and she asked if I would be willing to help her design 3 cards, 1 for each event.  I told her I'd be very happy to.  I'm sure it doesn't help that her entire craft room is totally packed in boxes right now while they undergo a remodel; so what fun to sit in my cozy Studio and play all afternoon.  I'm glad I felt well enough today to do this with her!!  Want to see what we made??  ;-)

 

A Birthday, A Baby, and A Graduation -- yes, it is that time of year for everyone I think!!  Fun! Exciting! and Hectic!  Whenever someone asks me to help design a card for them, I always ask some pertinent questions about the person to whom the card will be presented.  Let's start backwards . . . with the Graduation :-)

 

I asked about the college the young lady who will be receiving this attended; in particular I wanted to know about the school colors.  Kathy didn't know the school colors, but knew she had attended New York University.  So I went online to check it all out!

 

So NYU's colors are basically purple.  And the minute I saw this "insignia" I thought, huh, we can replicate that.  So we did.  I used the wing from the Bird Builder punch (retiring next week) to create the little flames, and we basically hand cut the torch handle part.  I put the card together with Elegant Eggplant, and accented with Silver Foil, for the "2016" and the matting.  Those Large Number framelits are pretty wonderful!  You must have a set!!

 

And pulled out the B.Y.O.P. and Suite Sayings stamp sets to put together the sentiments for the inside of the card, also stamped and matted in Elegant Eggplant.

 

What do you think of that??  :-)  I thought it was pretty ingenious myself!

 

Then we tackled the baby card next.  I pulled out the sweet Made With Love set, and with a little inspiration from Pinterest, created this card.

Kathy had not seen the new In Colors yet, and was so excited when I laid them out for her, that she immediately, said -- these!  I want these two for this card.

So we used Flirty Flamingo and Sweet Sugarplum, and made a sweet little baby card.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

There are a couple soon retiring items on this card, like the Heart Border Punch, and the Scallop circle punch.  If you don't have these yet, get them purchased before next Tuesday night.  After that -- they will be gone forever!

 

Here is the inside of this sweet card, stamped and matted in Flirty Flamingo; and a little bird in Daffodil Delight ;-)

 

Lastly we tackled a birthday card for her sister-in-law.  I pulled out the Birthday Blooms and the Botanical Builder thinlits set for this card.

Her sister-in-law loves yellow, so I used Daffodil Delight here with an accent of Peek-a-boo Peach and just a touch of Crumb Cake.  This card really turned out beautiful and I know her sister-in-law will love it.  We lined all the envelopes using the Envelope Liners thinlits.  Don't miss out on these -- they are retiring sadly, and these really are a "must have" for your inventory!!

 

So, there you go -- a little relaxed Saturday fun!  We had such a good time; and I'm grateful she was here to spend some time with me and "nurse" me a little.  It makes this healing time go a little more easily to have such good friends!

 

I'm hoping to still have a Mojo Monday design for you by tomorrow; so cross your fingers.  Miss Sadie and I have had a little walk on this absolutely gorgeous Spring afternoon; and now I really must take a nap as I finally am feeling pretty worn out.  A wonderful Saturday to all of you!!

Until Next Time . . .

 

 

 

 

Congrats Grad! ~ A Late Mojo Monday Challenge Design . . .

 

Hello Fellow Stampers -

How is everyone this fine Sunday?  We're trying to recover here from a hectic trip to Salt Lake City for OnStage Live with Stampin' Up!; and an even more stressful return trip done in a "panic" as we discovered Friday evening during dinner that airlines were cancelling flights into Denver International Airport the next day due to our April Spring Snowstorm extraordinaire here in Denver and the Front Range.  We made a quick call to Frontier, changed our flight to a very early morning flight back in yesterday morning, didn't sleep much overnight Friday, got up at 2 am, finished packing and prepping, and getting ourselves to the SLC airport, and then the stressful flight back into Denver, and the even more stressful drive (for both of us, as she had to drive back to Nebraska), back home!  I went back to bed once I got home yesterday ~~  I was exhausted!!

 

It's taken me some time to get re-organized today; I've been studying the soon retiring items from our current annual catalog, making the "clean sweep" of the Studio and starting to gather all of that together in preparation for the Annual Catalog Retirement gathering, and my Annual Clean Out Sale (oh my!!).  I am so excited about the new Annual Catalog, I'm just bursting at the seams!!  You are all going to just absolutely ADORE this catalog!

 

 

So here we are a little later than I planned today with the Mojo Monday challenge design that I promised you last Friday.  I hope you enjoy!!

 

Doggone Delightful Stampin' Design Tips:

• Layerothology. This card is cut from Crumb Cake cardstock, 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  The background layers are Hello Honey cut 5 3/8" x 4 1/8", and Cucumber Crush cut 5 1/4" x 4", and embossed with the Lucky Stars textured impressions embossing folder.  My intent with this fun card was to pick some colors that would be a graduates "school colors."  A high school in the local area here has green and gold as its colors, so I thought this would be a great combination! 
  

 

• Be the Star!  The wonderful Be the Star stamp set coordinates with our Stars framelits, so what a fabulous and easy way to create a fun card for your soon to be graduate!!  I used Gold foil for a "backdrop" measuring 3" x 2 1/2", and popped with dimensionals after attaching the fun ribbon banner created from Hello Honey 5/8" striped cotton ribbon (remember, this In Color ribbon goes on the retiring list this week!!).  I stamped the largest star image from the stamp set in Hello Honey ink on Hello Honey cardstock, and then very carefully overlaid the sentiment from the B.Y.O.P. stamp set (Buy Your Own Present, by the way, is what that stands for -- LOL) in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  If you line it up just right you can just squeeze it on the star with only the smallest loss of the "G" on the left side and the lower dot of the exclamation point on the right.   I then went over the letters on the "GRAD" with Clear Wink of Stella so that the words just sparkle in the light.  This star is popped with dimensionals on the Gold foil backdrop.  I used the Star Punch, the star punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch pack, and one of the star framelits to cut my 3 stars for the front of the card.  Easy Peasy ~~  with the just right amount of "pop" for your recipient!

 

 

• Turn to the Inside.  The inside of this card, matted with Hello Honey and Very Vanilla, again makes use of the fabulous images and sentiments from the Be the Star stamp set.  I used Hello Honey ink for this easy design.  Perfect to encourage and send your grad off into the next chapter of their life!!

 

I hope you have enjoyed today's design.  I simplified things a little bit in hopes this would be a useful card for others to CASE and use.  Change it up with the colors of your graduates school, and wah la!!!  It would be perfect!  I'll give you a hint, hint . . . there are some soon retiring products on this card, and some products carrying forward into the new Annual ~~  but I'm not going to tell you which is which -- heehee.

 

Have a great Sunday evening everyone!

 

Until Next Time . . .