The Stamp Review Crew - Love What You Do

Welcome a bonus edition of the Stamp Review Crew's blog hop! The "Crew" is made up of a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from around the world who pick a stamp set or bundle to highlight on the first and third Mondays of each month, with a bonus hop if there is a fifth Monday. This week the Crew is featuring Love What You Do, a thirteen piece photopolymer stamp set that is part of the beautiful Share What You Love Suite on page 177 of the annual catalog.

I have two cards to share with you today The first one uses the Love What You Do DSP (love that stuff!) and the Pearlized Doilies and Artisan Pearls.

After stamping the background with Crumb Cake, the flower sprig was stamped with Memento ink, and then stamped again on a scrap of Whisper White so I could fussy cut the flowers and pop them up on dimensionals for more depth.

The image panel and greeting were die cut with the Rectangle Stitched Framelits that will be available next week. And of course I had to use some DSP to dress up the envelope flap!

The second card is simply black and white to really let the embossed Lovely Floral image shine. And speaking of shine, the Black Foil Sheets used for the mat are carrying over, woohoo!

The checkered background is from the Sale-a-Bration Botanical Butterfly DSP. It's lovely, with one side of each design in color and the back side in a black and white pattern. So many possibilities!

I did dress up the envelope flap with the checkered pattern, but totally forgot to take a picture. Oops. You can see in this angled shot the subtle shine of the doily and the black foil. It's really gorgeous in real life.

That's all I have for today; thank you for stopping by! Up next is Sue Plote at This Pink Rooster. I can't wait to see what she did with this suite. Or you can click the Previous button to go back to Linda Calahan's blog, Stampin' Seasons.

Product List

Love What You Do Photopolymer Stamp Set

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper

Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper

Black Foil Sheets

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

Jet Black Stazon Ink Pad

Big Shot

Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies

Lovely Floral Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Pearlized Doilies

Share What You Love Artisan Pearls

Pearl Basic Jewels

My Inky Friends Design Challenge #13

When Stampin' Up! refreshed their brand and logo, I nearly swooned when I saw the new colors in the floral logo. So, so beautiful! My Inky Friends is celebrating their first year of existence and our founder, Sara Mattson-Blume, thought it would be fun to have a color challenge using these colors. Brilliant!

I actually got three designs done, but I'm sharing only one of them today, and saving the other two for another time. I'm such a tease!

Notice the tiny inlaid hearts?

Since there is a need for many thank you cards now that Christmas is over, my theme is Thanks! This card uses the Forever Lovely bundle that will be available in just six more days, woohoo! I used sponge daubers to ink the different areas of the stamp, because I wasn't having much luck with the Stampin' Write Markers. They were too juicy to get a good image!

If you'd like to play along with this color challenge, click the banner at the top of the page or follow the link below. The guidelines are simple!

1. For a sketch challenge, follow the general design of the sketch, although it can be flipped. For a color challenge, Stampin' Up! colors are listed. You can use compatible colors and add neutrals as needed.

2. Create something new that has not been posted before.
3. Post your creation on your blog or online gallery, and please provide a link back to our challenge. Provide a direct link to your project or post to the Linky on the challenge page. 
4. Feel free to combine up to three challenges, as long as you include a link to the Inky Friends post.
5. Most important of all - have fun!

Lasting Lily Sneak Peek

This was one of the Sale-a-Bration sets that I thought I wouldn't want or need, until I took a closer look at the sentiments. There are greetings that cover love, friendship, thanks, and sympathy....quite a spectrum. So, I went ahead and chose it for my free SAB item. It wasn't even in the house 24 hours when I needed to make a sympathy card. (Gosh, there have been a lot of those recently.)

I found that when using the DistINKtive stamps, I get a much better image if I ink the stamp using a sponge dauber, rather than pressing the stamp on the ink pad. Because they are so finely detailed, the ink tends to get in the grooves and mess up the details. A light inking with a sponge dauber works quite well for me! For good measure, I huff on the stamp before pressing it on the cardstock.

The soon-to-be-available Rectangle Stitched Framelits were used here, but I shortened both the image and the greeting panels. How, you ask? Easy! After cutting the image and the greeting (with both of them placed close to one side of the Framelit), I popped them out and then moved the Framelit over to cut off the part I didn't want. You can feel when the "teeth" fit into the previously cut stitches, so it lines up perfectly. Feed the cardstock through the Big Shot with the part you want cut off going in first. You only need the make sure the first part goes through (don't crank it all the way through!), then back it out.

Here's another tip: Cut a mask by stamping on a sticky note and trimming just inside the edges of the image. Make sure some of the masked image is showing when you stamp the next layer because the stamp won't reach right up to the mask, leaving a gap as shown between the two larger lilies. I did better when I stamped the smaller lily.

As pretty as this card turned out, I sure hope it's a long time before I need to make another one.

Product List

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Rich Razzleberry 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Rich Razzleberry Classic Stampin' Pad

Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad

Big Shot

Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies

Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Lace Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Tails Sneak Peek

This is another card I made with the soon to be available Happy Tails bundle. A friend of mine is a vet tech in Louisiana, and a five month old puppy was brought in with severe lacerations on his chest and rib cage from a harness that he had outgrown. I won't say bad words here, but you can imagine what I think of the owners.....how could they not notice?

Anyway, they were going to have him euthanized because they couldn't afford his care and my friend, who has a heart of gold, stepped in said she'd take him until he was well enough to be adopted to a good home. Needless to say, my respect and admiration for her grew even greater.

I know the veterinary care is going to cost a bundle, so I made this card so I could tell her I think she's awesome, and enclose a donation toward his care.

Product List

Happy Tails Photopolymer Bundle

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Gold Foil-Edged Cards & Envelopes

Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper

Gold Foil Sheets

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

Big Shot

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

Stitched Labels Framelits Dies

Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals