Shabby Chic

I somehow lost track of the days! Is it really Wednesday already? 

I have a shabby chic card to share with you today. I wasn't really all that sure what exactly classified a card as shabby chic, but I googled it (trusty ol' Google) and I found out that it's usually to do with making something new look old. Fairly simple. I also read that mixing neutrals (like whites and creams together) is another way to make something shabby chic. I did a little of a lot of things on this card as you'll see.

I saw this card on Pinterest and loved it! I changed some things up, but not much. The paper doily and the flourish pattern in the designer series paper really struck me as being vintage and lending the "old" feel to the card. Some newer elements, like the soda pop top, bring a modern take to this card. I also like how the neutrals are mixed. It's not often that I use both Very Vanilla and Whisper White on a card, but here I did and I like it!

Are you tired of seeing projects from me featuring the Chevron TIEF? (waits for response) Good! I love it and I know you're planning to add it to your wishlist just because of how versatile it is.

Hope you've enjoyed your time visiting my Sweet Stampin' Spot today!

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:

Stamp Set: Collage Curios

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Gumball Green, Crumb Cake, Poetry Prints DSP stack

Ink: Gumball Green & Raspberry Ripple classic ink

Tools: Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Chevron TIEF, 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, 1" circle punch, paper snips

Accessories: Paper Doily, Basic Jewel Rhinestone

A Winter Escape

I'm back! What a great weekend at the Papercrafter's Paradise Retreat! I borrowed this photo from one of my downline members, Heather, over at Playing with Papercrafting. I haven't had a chance to upload my photos yet. If you've "liked" my Facebook page, you may have seen some sneak peeks of projects I was working on. (Haven't "liked" me yet? Head over here to do so!) 
 
Anyways, it was a BEAUTIFUL location at a lake not too close to home, but not too far either. What I loved the most was just the quiet. No roads or traffic, no kids, no cell service, just quiet. It's refreshing.

One of my goals for the weekend was to work on blog posts but that somehow didn't make the cut. I was having too much fun creating cards and other projects. I'll be sure to post some soon. I'll get my photos uploaded and edited tonight and hopefully have a new post in the morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tamara 

For the Girls!

I'm so excited to be heading out to my first papercrafting retreat tomorrow!! My upline, Desiree Spenst, along with some of my sidelines and downline, are hosting the Papercrafter's Paradise Retreat! I don't know what to pack so I'll probably just pack EVERYTHING! Good thing there are only 2 people in my vehicle. I'll have 100 pounds of SU! stuff to take.

My husband's cousin (so...my cousin-in-law?) asked me to make her some cards. She's getting married in August and wants to send a card to each of her ring bearers and flower girls, as well as one for her sister-in-law who will be doing the bridal party's make up.

Here's what I created for the little girls (5 & 3):

 I cut the letters out using the Big Shot and the Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies. I covered each letter in Versamark and then heat embossed Iridescent Ice on top to give it a really pretty shimmer and shine! I wish the photo could capture it better. It's beautiful in the light. I used the Scallop Oval Frame (retired.Boohoo) in Pretty In Pink. 

 
That cute flower is just the 1 3/4" scallop circle punch. I punched out two of them and then used my bone folder to break down the fibres and carefully peeled the two layers apart. The layers were brushed against a Melon Mambo ink pad to give some definition.  I then roughed them up a bit by crumpling. I secured all 4 layers together with a mini brad and spritzed the flower with Stampin' Mist (stamp cleaner) to make it crunchy.  There's a small soda pop top (flattened) hiding in the center with a butterfly from Collage Curios and basic rhinestone glamming it a bit.

 The letters here are done the same way, but I went for a different approach for the rest of the card. Because of having 5 letters to work with, this was the only arrangement I could come up with that would fit on a standard size card. I stamped the Sweet Floral background stamp in Pink Pirouette to add some interest to the whisper white panel. Otherwise it was just too stark. That cute ribbon flower was made a while back, but I wanted to use it for a 3D element and I liked how the yellow really popped! It's made using satin ribbon (retired) and a heat tool. It's finished off with an antique brad. 

Wow! A lot of words. Did you make it through all that, or just look at the photos? That's ok. I probably would've skipped the words too ;)

Enjoy and remember to check back to see the other boy card!!

Tamara

MOJO Monday 281 I Dig You take II

              

I know I already posted today, but I wanted to get this up for the Mojo Monday and the Dynamic Duos colour challenge!! I tried uploading from my iPod as I couldn't find my camera but it.wasn't.working.at.all!! So, I looked a little harder and found my camera! Yippee!

 

Mojo Monday 281

  

Dynamic Duos

Let's get on with the card!

I love this sketch! It didn't take me too long to come up with this card as I already had the sketch, thanks to Mojo Monday, and the colours, thanks to the Dynamic Duos. I did simplify it just a tad as I wanted to KISS (which I have renamed Keep It Simple Sweetie 'cuz no one likes being called stupid!).

Some fun texture makes this a textile card for a little boy! This card was designed for my cousin who is getting married in August. She's going to send it to her nephew to ask him to be her ringbearer. I think he'll say "YES!" but maybe only if he gets a digger or truck ;)

 To make the greeting pop up, I just scored two lines close together and mountain/valley folded them. The "stitched" border is just a marker. It's messy so don't look too close....StoP looking!! :)

Hope you've enjoyed today's double posts!

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:

Stamp Set: I Dig You

Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black and Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write Markers

Accessories:None

Tools: Big Shot, Chevron TIEF, Honeycomb TIEF, Simply Scored, 2.5" circle punch, paper snips, dimensionals

I Dig You!

If you're a parent, you've probably noticed that birthday's (and birthday parties) come in waves. Mason was invited to two birthday parties last weekend so this mom had some work cut out for her. Without further delay, here is the card we created for a special 4 year old:

 I've used this set a TON! It's such a wonderful set for little boys. It's also the only set that I let Mason stamp with and he's only allowed to use Tempting Turquoise with it as the blocks are completely covered with Tempting Turquoise ink from a previous "stamp with mommy" time. He loves to stamp though and doesn't care what colours we use. It's just fun.

For this card, I coloured the image with Stampin' Write markers. Have I ever said how much I LOVE the Stampin' Write markers? Yes? Well, I do. A lot. I've had them for almost a year as I bought them with my birthday money last March and I can't say how often I reach for them. Such a good investment. It's also saved me from purchasing those last few ink pads I don't own yet. (Bravo Burgandy and Cajun Craze. I'm not that into reds really.)

Mason was helping me with this card so we kept it pretty basic. We ran some Gumball Green card stock through the Big Shot with the Argyle TIEF and then the Early Espresso piece with the Chevron TIEF. Mason is fascinated by the Big Shot. Just like his momma. Sigh.

I love how the sentiment isn't straight. I did that on purpose! Honest! I wanted it to look like it was falling out of the bucket.

 We made our own wrapping paper too! Mason had fun with this for a while. Kept him busy while I packed up some of the other materials. I saw him eyeing my markers and didn't want to see what creativity would be unleashed if he possessed those! I've already witnessed his crayon abilities on our couch. Black crayon and tan microfibre = new work of art that mom doesn't appreciate. Memories.

Hope you've found some inspiration today! Birthday season is upon us!!

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamp Set: I Dig You
Card Stock: Tempting Turqoise, Early Espresso, Gumball Green, Whisper White
Ink: Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink, Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black Stampin' Write markers
Accessories: none
Tools: Big Shot die cutting machine, Chevron TIEF, Argyle TIEF, dimensionals
 

Punch Art Pirate

If you know me, then you know I love pirates. There's specifically one pirate whom I really like - Captain Jack Sparrow! I was having a hard time finding the right punches to create him though so I settled with this adorable owl pirate instead:

 I think I actually heard your "aww". I know. He's pretty cute, peg leg and all! My son, Mason (3.5), likes pirates so I thought this would go over so well on Valentine's Day. Ya, not so much. He looked at it, but when I asked if he liked it, he shrugged. SHRUGGED. Last year when my husband didn't like the Valentine's card I made him, I sent it to Stampin' Up! for a contest.  I made him a new one. I'm not that mean to just take it away and not replace it. He's not big on ribbon and I had used black satin ribbon hoping he might not notice (since it was black). I'm a little off topic....

You might be surprised how many punch art owl samples there are out there. I just googled "Stampin up punch art owl pirate" and up came about 500 images. Yup. They're out there.  But mine's pretty cute, is it not?

Here's the inside:

 I'm pretty sure Hallmark won't be calling me up to write for them anytime soon.  I had to get an "ARrr" in there somewhere and the "Savy" was just for a Jack Sparrow CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow reference.

I'll provide all the products used below :)

Let me know what you think! Would your kids be happy to receive a Valentine's card like this? 

Thanks for stopping in!

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamp Set: None!
Card Stock: Midnight Muse, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Summer Starfruit, Basic Black, Print Poetry DSP stack (Spring Mini)
Ink: Marina Mist & Crumb Cake Classic Ink, Summer Starfruit & Basic Black Stampin' Write Markers
Tools: Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Chevron TIEF, Woodgrain TIEF, Owl Punch, 3/4" scallop circle punch, Hearts Collection framelits

Kaleidoscope Blog Hop!

Thank you so much for joining us on our very first Kaleidoscope Stampers Blog Hop! We are very excited to share what we have been working on with you.

EEeeee! I'm so excited! It's my first ever BLOG HOP!! Our team, Kaleidoscope Stampers, is hosting our own. Why did we never think to do this before? I dunno. We just didn't. BUT then Danielle over at StampEnvy did and now this great thing is happening!

The theme of our hop is SPRING! As I'm writing this post, I can hear birds chirping outside and water dripping! Hopefully that means winter is on it's way out and spring is coming in!!

The card I'm sharing with you today was created for someone very special. My sister-in-law, Jessica, celebrated her 18th birthday recently. She's heading to France over March break and so I snuck in the Eiffel tower image from Collage Curios. Jessica loves anything vintage so that's the feel I was aiming for. I also wanted it to be complex and believe me, this card took me close to 2 hours! Mostly because I couldn't decide on colours, stamps, or ANYTHING. I am so happy with how it turned out though! I guess you kinda want to see it, huh?

I'm loving the ombre technique so I did that using water and Elegant Eggplant reinker. I forgot to write down how many drops I used for each dip but I think it was 2 drops, then add 4 or 5 more, then add 6 more. Something like that. I wanted it to be quite a dramatic spread of colour. I patiently let that dry held it up in front of my space heater and then used my heat tool to speed up the drying process. I may or may not have singed my fingers....

While my ink/water mixture was at it's deepest purple, I submerged 3 of the Vanilla Flower Trim flowers and then let them dry on a paper towel. They weren't as saturated with colour as I had wanted so I used my Elegant Eggplant marker and just lightly brushed it along the tops. The colour bled down as it was still a little wet and I was pleased with the result. I think I'll do that again sometime.

I flattened the bottle cap top in my Big Shot Die Cutting Machine using a piece of chipboard in between my cutting pads and on Tab 1 (same as how you use embossing folders). That squashed it. Then I punched out a circle with the 1" circle punch to fit inside. I stamped it first, then adhered it to the bottle cap using a couple glue dots.

I did some stamp-a-ma-jigging next (That's a real verb, ask Brian Pilling from SU! headquarters!). I love the images in Oh, Hello (Spring Mini) and thought it would be fun to have a chevron border along the bottom. I stamped off once before stamping on my page in Elegant Eggplant as I wanted to mute the colour a bit. The ombre canvas needed to be center stage.

I couldn't find a Happy Birthday sentiment that was the right size or style so I improvised. I really like it now though, as this card can be on display anytime and won't look odd. I would even frame it if someone gave it to me ;) (wink wink) In case you can't read it, the sentiment is, "Each one of us is God's special work of art.".

I hope you have enjoyed my portion of the hop today! If this is your first time here, don't worry, not all my posts are so wordy! I'm just excited...

Hope to see you again!

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamp Set: Collage Curios, 
Card Stock: Elegant Eggplant, Canvas Creations, Whisper White
Ink: Elegant Eggplant reinker and Classic Ink pad, Jet Black StazOn, Elegant Eggplant Stampin' Write Marker

Accessories: Vanilla Flower Trim, Large size Bottlecap, glue dots, Chipboard (for Big Shot)
Tools: Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Heat Tool, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Other: Tweezers, Water & container, paper towel
 

Hop on over to the next blog by the following the next link:

1. Desirée Spenst 

2. Danielle Calder 

3. HeatherCooper

4. AmandaTurner

5. TamaraCasorso(you are here)

6. KristinNoble

7. TaraAngus

Bi-cycle!

How many of you remember learning how to ride a 2 wheeler bicycle? I have some vague memories of my pink bike with tassels on the handlebars and those clickety-clack things from a cereal box on my spokes. Did anyone else jam a twig in their spokes to make you sound like a motorcycle when you were going REALLY fast?!? The more I think about it, the more memories come flooding back....

This is another great image from the Feeling Sentimental stamp set out of the Sale-a-Bration brochure! The vintage style bicycle is such a sweet image. I love the sketch look to it. This was my other card for Sarah Naber's technique swap at Leadership 2013. The technique used here is Faux Patina. I've shared this technique before here. It's a fun one that always gets a wow and a second (and sometimes third) look.  Dry embossing, sponging, and heat embossing make this a more complex card, but definitely not difficult. It's sort of like a 5k walk - take it one step at a time.  (That's a 9 on the cheese-o-meter)

Here's a close up of the ribbon slide embellishment. This is the first (and only as I used all of them for this set of swap cards) time I've used these. I like them. They tend to feel masculine so they are something I would definitely use again. Maybe with the Natural Ribbon (the new burlap inspired one from the Spring Mini).  That there Pool Party satin ribbon is a Sale-a-Bration freebie too! Comes with 3 spools - Pool Party, Island Indigo, and Tangerine Tango.  On this sample I gilded the edges of the Island Indigo panel using Pewter Embossing powder. I actually didn't end up doing that for my swaps as I felt it was a little too much.

 I also changed the card base for my swap and used Very Vanilla instead of Crumb Cake which is pictured above. I liked how the Very Vanilla kind of melted into the card rather than assaulted me. Don't get me wrong, I love Crumb Cake, but it's gotta be in the right place and I felt that it was hogging too much attention.  The embossed piece is Very Vanilla. I ran it through the Big Shot with the Lacy Brocade TIEF (textured impressions embossing folder) and then sponged it with Crumb Cake, Pool Party, and Island Indigo ink. I then ran my embossing buddy over it (or you could heat set the ink with your heat tool) and ran my versamark pad willy nilly all over the place. Then I sprinkled Pewter embossing powder on top, shook off excess.. <ahem> carefully tapped it all onto a piece of scrap paper and poured every.single.speck back into the container, and heat set. I added a little extra sponging afterwards for some added depth and definition.  Before I finish, I must add that I just LOVE the Window Frames framelits! Now whenever I have a circle image, I want to put it in the window frames!!

Here's one last look at the final product so you don't have to scroll back up:

Love. I hope you do too! If you haven't already placed a Sale-A-Bration order to get Feeling Sentimental for FREE, head over to my online store and have your products shipped right to your doorstep!

Thanks for lookin',

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamp Set: Feeling Sentimental
Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Island Indigo
Ink: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Jet Black StazOn
Accessories: Ribbon Slides, Pool Party Satin Ribbon (SAB), Pewter EP
Tools: Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Lacy Brocade TIEF, Window Frames Framelits, 2.5" circle punch, stampin' sponges, Heat Tool, dimensionals

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Stampin' Spot! I should say Happy Belated Birthday as I'm almost a month overdue! That's right, Sweet Stampin' Spot is 1 year old as of January 17th! Thank goodness this blog isn't a real baby as I have neglected it far too often!

Here's a fun fold pocket card I CASE'd from Wendy Wiexler. She has a lot of fun project ideas and I frequent her blog quite often for inspiration! Thanks, Wendy!

 You might notice that I did make it my own in the sense that I used different stamps and a few different embellishments, but the shapes and layout is definitely from Wendy's card. The colours are Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, and Rich Razzleberry. 

 The inside comes out and is has a sweet little teacup from Tea Shoppe stamped in Rich Razzleberry. I also made a male version of this card using some of the other stamps from You're Amazing (which is where the Happy Birthday is from).  I love the use of an Antique Brad at the top. Simple, but not too simple. 

One thing I love about the Chevron Embossing folder is that it's cool for a feminine card as chevron is all the rage right now, but it's also a great masculine texture. So versatile! Oh, and Don't.Forget.The.Pearls! They're such a nice finishing element. The tiny ones worked perfectly on this card. Do a little sponging to soften the edges and call it a day.

Feeling inspired? Not yet, huh? I know, it's Monday. Have a peak at some of my past posts to catch the crafting bug. I'm also on Pinterest. I've been pinning my cards onto a board called "Tamara Casorso Stampin' Up Demonstrator". Original. Yep.

Happy Family Day to my fellow BCer's and have a great week to all! See ya Wednesday with a new post :)

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamp Sets: You're Amazing, Tea Shoppe.
Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, International Bazaar DSP.
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede Classic Ink.
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Antique Brad.
Tools: Big Shot, Chevron TIEF, Paper Piercing Tool, Simply Scored, a round plate, pencil, Paper Snips.
 

Sassy Salutations

It's the weekend! And, if you're in BC, it's our first every Family Day long weekend!! Unfortunately for me, my husband works in agriculture and they don't get stats  so he'll be working on Monday which is the actual Family Day. We have plans to attend a special 4 year old's birthday though, so that will keep us from missing Daddy too much!

I have two fun cards to share today! I made 8 of these for my church's birthday card ministry.  This is the "boy" card.

And this is the "girl" card.

I just used 3 fun colours of embossing poweder to create a simple swiped background.  I found it easiest to use one corner of the Versamark pad and just smear it to the edge of the paper.  Do one swipe at a time and then pour your chosen colour of embossing powder on top. Shake off excess and heat set with your heat tool.  Repeat the steps with the other two colours.  Once you're pleased with your background, just stamp a sentiment and use black embossing powder and heat set. I used the set Sassy Salutations. I had seen this card demonstrated at the Regional Conference in Tacoma, WA last fall. I love the simple but WOW this technique offers. Lots of fun and easy to duplicate!

Hope you've enjoyed today's cards. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!!

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamp Set: Sassy Salutations
Card Stock: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo
Ink: Versamark watermark pad
Accessories: Wild Wasabi, Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Basic Black Embossing powder
Tools: Heat Tool, Snail Adhesive

December Thank You's

Just a cute 3x3 card today :) A 3x3 can be so satisfying. It's fairly quick and can be simple or extravagant on a smaller scale. I like the idea of creating tiles but thought it could be time consuming to make 10+ of these as a full size card SO, why not just do them 3x3?!?! I love the little "Thank You" down there at the bottom. It's from a Sale-a-Bration stamp set called Pretty Petites. There is also a coordinating punch so it's easy as 1.B.III. Ok, easier than that even!

The colours are Whisper White, Sahara Sand, and the Poetry Print (Print Poetry?) Designer Series Paper stack. I'm really liking the smaller paper stack. Sometimes I would feel guilty punching a tiny square from a 12x12 sheet of DSP, but with the li'l stack (it's 4x6), I don't need to feel guilty. There are FOUR of each design (double sided) and the thing I love, Love, LOVE about THIS particular set, is one side are masculine with the blues and greens, and the reverse side is more feminine with lots of pinks and yellows! Mmmm. Smart thinkin' Stampin' Up!

Oh yes, that little snippet of ribbon is the luxurious stitched satin in Midnight Muse.

 

Happy Wednesday to you! Thanks for stopping by.

OH! Before I forget, sneak news alert!! I'll be participating in my first BLOG HOP! EEK!! So excited! Stay tuned it's coming next week! Be sure to check back often :)

Tamara

Stampin' Supplies:

Stamp Set: Pretty Petites (SAB)

Card Stock: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Poetry Prints DSP (Spring Mini)

Ink: Midnight Muse

Accessories: Stitched Satin Ribbon in Midnight MuseTools: Small curly label punch, Postage Stamp punch, 1" square punch, dimensionals, glue dot.

 

Feeling Sentimental "Hello"

Aren't you loving the FREE products you can get through Sale-a-bration!?! There's a reason why it's Stampin' Up!'s most wonderful time of the year!! As soon as I saw all the amazing products, I KNEW I had to get Feeling Sentimental first!! I love the sketch images and the vintage feel they lend.

I participated in a Technique Swap at Leadership Conference in Orlando last month and this was one of the swaps I created. It's an original Tamara Creation. (I'm always just a little more proud of those kinds of cards!)

I chose to do the Faux Mosaic technique which I've shared about before here. Quick tutorial:

1. Create a mosaic stamp using left over rubber bits from your stamps. Cut a TON of little pices all with straight sides. Curvy is a no-no. Mount all of those itty bitty pieces onto a clear block (if using clear stamp rubber bits) or a wood block (if using wood block rubber bits).

2. Stamp your image in Black StazOn and colour with your choice of colouring tools. I used an aquapainter and a Real Red Classic Ink pad.

3. Stamp your newly created mosaic stamp in Versamark ink and stamp over your coloured image.

4. Heat Emboss with clear embossing powder.

5.  Take a neutral (I used Soft Suede here) and a Stampin' Sponge and rub ink all over the image. Really work it into the cracks. Pretend you're doing the grout process for tiling. It helps, but is much easier.

6. Wipe the surface with a dry paper towel. This'll just clean everything up and make the image really pop.

 

The next step was just embellishing.  I added a flattened bottle cap, some red taffetta ribbon and the sweet new embroidery textured impressions embossing.

I'd love to see what you create using this technique, so feel free to leave me a comment with a link to your blog or online galllery. 

Tamara 

Stampin' Supplies:
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Parker's Patterns DSP.
Stamps: Feeling Sentimental, Ciao Baby.
Ink: Real Red, Soft Suede, Not Quite Navy Classic Ink, Versamark.
Embellishments: Bottle Caps, Real Red Taffetta Ribbon.
Tools: Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Embroidery TIEF, Aquapainter, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Heat Tool, Clear Embossing Powder.