Tag: Clean and Simple Sketches

Two-for-One Challenge: Feeling Autumnal

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Serendipity! I made this card yesterday for the Create with Connie and Mary color challenge and woke up to discover that it kind of fits the Clean & Simple sketch #216 scallop challenge too 🙂 Since I haven’t made nearly enough fall/autumn cards, I was very pleased with how it turned out and the champagne glimmer paper makes me so very warm inside:

I adore the Autumn Accents Die for the Big Shot to make my own leaves and I used the Simply Scored to give the leaves veins. The DSP is from the Comfort Cafe package.  

It was so fun to create last night, but here is what my desk looks like this morning:

And my kids think there should be food in the fridge, so I guess I’ll be cleaning and shopping today instead of crafting 😦 As my Father-in-Law is fond of saying, “Just when you teach ’em to eat dirt, they up and die on you.” No bueno!

2-for-1 Challenge and Cut a Perfect Flag Tutorial

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I love it when you can combine TWO challenges and get one simply sensational card! Today I combined the color challenge over at Create with Connie & Mary with the Fall-To-Layout 210 sketch at the Clean & Simple blog and came up with this holiday card:

I debated whether to add something to it, but I *really* like it just the way it is…and with the silver glimmer paper, it’s even prettier in person! Of course, I tend to gravitate toward simple and elegant cards with a touch of sparkle, but I hope you like it too. It used  a-little-bit-of-this and a-little-bit-of-that Designer Series Paper…why not pull out your stash and try your hand at this sketch too? The stamp is from the “Greetings of the Season” set on page 8 of the Holiday Catalog (which you can download from my sidebar).

Let me share the EASIEST way to make a perfect “flag”…taught to me by one of my Stampin’ Family, Kelly H. WARNING: This may change your life! Start by cutting a slit straight into your paper from the side center where you want the flag to be:

Then cut from the corners into the point of your slit. I KNOW!!! It’s so simple! I haven’t used a square punch since she showed me this! Thanks again, Kelly 🙂

Don’t forget to leave your comment because I am still giving away all the cards I share here in September to celebrate my 20th Anniversary with Stampin’ Up!

Update: Connie will be getting this card in the mail…thanks for visiting, Connie! I admire your work and am happy to share this card with you 🙂

Perfectly Preserved Gratitude

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Traditionally at this time of year, you would find me bottling fruit. It is a chore I both love and abhor: I love eating the fruit in the middle of the winter and it brings me great satisfaction to see the beautiful rows of the preserved harvest, but I don’t love the work of gathering fruit, peeling and cutting out bruises and bugs or sweltering in the kitchen for hours with a hot water bath.  Because we sold our house with the orchard a few months ago and have moved to a new house with only a few fruit trees (most of which our neighbors have kindly divested the fruit thereof), you can find me bottling a different kind of joy with the Perfectly Preserved stamp set from the Holiday catalog:

I know you can’t see it very well, but the bottle is stamped on a window sheet with StazOn ink and cut out with the coordinating Big Shot framelit so it looks like a glass jar! This kind of “Bottling” could become addicting 🙂 My card is a flipped version of the Clean & Simple sketch #206:

I’ll be sending my card to someone who leaves a comment! Thanks for visiting and helping me get my 20th Anniversary celebration started!

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http://p.datastomp.com/9/3/39.jsUPDATE 9/20/12: Congrats Patrice! Send your snail mail addy to loni@sfcn.org and I’ll send you this card! Thanks for your kind comments.
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Take it and Run With it

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Sometimes I find I need a springboard to get my creative Mojo running…and it happened this morning when I checked out the Clean & Simple Sketch 141:

So I took the sketch and ran with it! I immediately thought of a new Hostess Set in the Summer Mini catalog (Love & Care) and combined it with the fabulous new Flower Garden Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (also from the Summer Mini). In an effort to bring a little spring color to our VERY WET and overcast spring here in Utah, I used the brightest colors I could think of: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise.

Have you ever tried the “Rock & Roll” technique? I stamped the flower in Daffodil Delight classic ink and rolled the stamp edges around in Melon Mambo ink, like this:

While you are here, let me invite you to join my Stampin’ Up! Birthday/Wedding Card Swap! I’d love to see YOUR creativity!

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

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This “box” of chocolate is fat and calorie free 🙂 Playing along with Clean & Simple Sketch 134 today…and I used the Eat Chocolate Stamp set (in Occasions Mini Catalog), Curly Cute stamp set (for greeting), an Early Espresso Ink Pad & Stampin’ Write Marker and the Subtles Patterns Designer Series Paper pack punched with the Scallop Square punch. To make it look good enough to eat, I added Crystal Effects to each piece of chocolate…yummy!

TIP: If you can’t eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can’t eat all your chocolate, what’s wrong with you?

Keepin’ it simple…

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Another Friday and time for another Clean & Simple Sketch!

And here’s my version:

All supplies from Stampin’ Up! (of course!). Colors: Pacific Point, Pear Pizazz, Real Red and Whisper White. Balloons from the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set and greeting from the Full of Life stamp set. Designer Series Paper: Celebrations. Have a great weekend!

Lucky You

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“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, 
the more I have of it.” ~Thomas Jefferson



One of my favorite quotes from my sister (almost as profound as the honorable Mr. Jefferson) is, “I don’t speak Whine-ese!” Of course, she was addressing her young daughter, but I think it would be an appropriate response for the current fad of “entitlement mentality” across the nation. And that’s my soapbox for today, followed by a wee bit of creative luck (based on the Clean & Simple sketch 131):

My model today is Bernadette, the Stampin’ Up! bear that I got at convention two years ago, and in case you can’t read the small print on the tag, it says, “LUCKY YOU…and lucky me for knowing you.” It’s from the Afterthoughts stamp set (one you can choose free if you host a qualifying workshop!) and the shamrocks are from the Got Treats stamp set. The colors are Wild Wasabi and Certainly Celery, in fashion this week as we are about to celebrate St. Patty’s Day!

I’m off to cut more card stock for my Stamp-a-Stack class tomorrow…may you make time to be creative over the weekend!

Betcha can’t stop with just one…

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I couldn’t! This card sketch was so simple and fun that I couldn’t just make ONE, so I created one for everyone who orders from my website in March 🙂 Here is Clean & Simple Sketch #130:

And here are my cards
(love using the Sale-a-Bration Designer Series Paper, Ribbon and Buttons again!):

Don’t forget that is the last month to earn Sale-a-Bration products free (like this paper or the ribbons and buttons…) with every $50 order you make!

Ice Cream Parlor…a fun "Sale-a-Bration"

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I’m combining lots of delightfully delicious things today: The Clean & Simple sketch #129, the Ice Cream Parlor Sale-a-Bration packs (that you can earn FREE!) and throwing in a little birthday scrapbook page, just for fun!

Let’s jump dig right in with my take on today’s C&S sketch:

When I saw this sketch, I immediately thought of the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper & Quick Accents and Ice Cream Parlor Ribbon & Button Packs sitting on my stamp desk! There was even a self-adhesive scallop in the Accents to make it really super simple. I added a sentiment from the On a Pedestal stamp set and ta-da…it’s done!

I also created this page for one of my daughter’s birthday celebrations from the same Ribbon & Button pack. The Pacific Point Top Note shape (cut from the Big Shot) peeks out from under the pictures with the title for this page to say, “May all your wishes come true!”. It’s very bright and gives it a “Celebration” feel…which was perfect since I used the “Sale-a-Bration” offerings!

Want to know how you can get the paper, accents, ribbon and buttons FREE? You can choose them free when you order $50 from my website! I just love using free supplies…