Wild Things from The Greeting Farm

Hello. I hope all is well with all of you! I have been suffering from headaches from the lovely weather changes here in Ohio. However, I am still stamping. I have a couple of cards that I made with stamps from The Greeting Farm stamp company. Click on their name for a link to their store. You will also see a link to their blog on my sidebar. They have the most adorable stamp images/sets. They are definitely one of my favorite stamp companies. Ok, on with the cards:




The first card above is the lion image from their "Wild Things" stamp set. I was playing along with a challenge to make a circus themed card, and I though the Lion would be perfect. So there he sits on the podium roaring to the crowd. The podium was made with my Stampin Up Round Tab punch cut in half. The balloon bundle was made with the bunny and balloon stamp from TGF Lucky bunnies stamp set. I simply inked only the balloon three times, colored them and cut them out. The rectangle that the lion is on was cut with a Spellbinder's Large Rectangles Nestibility. The little popcorn embellishment was from A Sandilion Sticker Circus set from my stash, and the little stars were punched with a small star punch from Michael's with foil card stock .

I had a blast making this card too. I was looking at the monkey image that I had previously water colored, and the sentiment "swing at it" from the same "Wild Things" stamp set, and thought to myself that this monkey just had to be hanging from something. The vine that he is hanging on was cut with my SU Little Leaves die, and the other vines were made with my Creative Memories 12" curvy trimmer. I was going for a Clean and Simple Card on this one, so swinging monkey and his jungle vines were as far as I decide to take this. The leaves on the other vines were cut off of the die that the monkey is hanging on. The circle and its scallop layer are once again Spellbinder's Nestibilities.

Have a great Monday and until next time............... Blessings, Lisa

Birthday in Blue for Lydia!

Hello crafters! I have a friend named Lydia Fiedler that I have mentioned many times before, her blog is called Understand Blue. She is a fabulous person, she helped me set up my blog when she barely knew me. How many people would do that? So without Lydia, InspiredbyPurple would not be in existence. Today is Lydia's birthday, so like many other of her friends, I am wishing her a happy birthday with a card, and probably at the end of my post, a white furball. I'll keep you wondering on that one. Here is the card:

I wanted to make the card with one of Lydia's favorite colors, Stampin Up Pacific Point Blue. I had a heck of a time getting a good photo of this. I finally put it on my window ledge and snapped it with nothing but natural light. Then, the little Gremlins in my Picasa photo editing software, kept messing up my watermark as you can see on the bottom. Sometimes you just have to give up and post the darn thing! So, Lydia, sorry about all of the quality control issues on my end, but I meant well. I decided that I was going to try a new crafting toy called Glimmer Mist. It looked so easy when they demonstrated it at Archivers! I used Gold here and for the first time. So, if there are gold blotches here and there, oops. I went all out, and sprayed the flower petals, and the card background. The flower petals are actually leftovers from cutting out Stampin Up's Lattice Dies for my previous post. Yep, that is me never wasting a good thing, especially paper crafting leftovers. The flower centers are faux gold pearls from Michael's, and the sentiment is from the Stampin Up set called Great Friend, and was heat embossed with SU Detail Gold embossing powder.

Happy Birthday Lydia!!!!!!

Ok, I promised a white furball earlier. Are you all wondering what the heck I am talking about? Well, here it is.

Please excuse the bad attitude on this furball, she hates to have her picture taken. Enjoy.

Until next time................................Blessings, Lisa

Forest Friends meets the Woodgrain Background

I had to make 20 card swaps for a Stampin Up meeting with my uplines, etc. I had just gotten the new Woodgrain background stamp from the new catalog, and was so anxious to use it. Plus, I had to come up with something that I could repeat 20 times quickly. So, this is what I came up with:

I stamped the Woodgrain stamp onto three different card stock colors with their coordinating inks: Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Crushed Curry. I covered the whole sheet for each color. Then I punched them out with various sized circle punches. Then I stamped the deer and the owl on some whisper white card stock with Soft Suede ink and punched the images out. Next I stamped my sentiment (from Pocket Silhouettes) with Crushed Curry ink on Whisper White card stock, and punched it out with the small oval punch, layered over top of crushed curry punched with the large oval punch. Then I assembled all of my circles in a random style, and voila.......all done! I hope you like it!

Until next time.............................Blessings, Lisa

A Scrapbook Page Layout?

Yes, you read that correctly, I am sharing a scrapbook page that I threw together the other day! This is the first time that I have ever posted a scrapbook page on my blog, so I want to know what you think! Should I post more scrapbook pages from time to time, or are you more interested in the cards and stuff? You will not hurt my feelings either way. Truth be told, I make way more cards than I do scrapbook pages these days. The reason for this is that 90% of my Stampin Up customers are card makers only. So, I spend more time card making to give them ideas and inspiration. I realize however, that not all of my blog visitors are my customers, so I need their opinion on this too. So, if you have a couple of minutes, leave me a comment. All comments are greatly appreciated every time.



OK, now onto the scrapbook page. I hold my breath as I upload this, because I want you to like it. Here it is:



I first placed three and a half Lattice Bigz die cut shapes (Stampin Up - Whisper White card stock) along the edge of the page. The page base is Stampin Up 12X12 Night of Navy card stock. Next, I laid out the Little Leaves Die-cut shapes (Stampin Up Garden Green card stock), then I placed the flowers with each of the leaves. The sunflowers were made up a while back, and I posted a card using them. You can click here to see that post and instructions on how the sunflowers were made. I left the rest of the page blank, because I don't know yet what pictures and title that I will put on it.

Until next time.................................Blessings, Lisa

Stampin Up Lattice Die & Stamp Convention Tutorial

I am combining several different things here today! First I wanted to show you something using my new SU/Sizzix Lattice BigShot die, an idea for card stock scraps, and also a technique that I saw at the stamp convention that I went to last weekend. I was looking around at a booth at the convention and the lady at the booth began a demonstration on how to add some dimension to flowers that we punch from card stock. She had stamps and punches and instructions put into kits that she was selling. But instead of buying them, I just watched her demonstration thinking that I could do it at home with what tools that I already owned. So, I decided to just dig right in and make a card using her technique. Here is what I came up with:

I first cut out a lattice die with my Cuttlebug and the new Lattice die-cut that Stampin Up introduced in their new catalog. Then I adhered it to my Kraft card stock base. I added my sentiment (from SU - Trendy Trees stamp set), and punched with the Stampin Up Word Window Punch. Then I went to work on the flowers. You will see in the photo below that I punched a bunch of Small flowers with my SU Trio Flower punch out of card stock scraps. This is me preaching that "save your scraps" thing again.

This is the pile of flowers that I ended up with after I punched all that I could with my small scraps of card stock. Aren't they pretty? I then store them in a plastic container until I need them. If you really want to get obsessive, Stampin Up sells an organizer and round /flat containers to store stuff in, you can store them by color group or however you like. There is a link to their catalog on my sidebar, the storage stuff is towards the back of the catalog.

Now, if you look closely at the finished card above you will see that the flowers have a 3-dimensional look instead of being flat like they are when you first punch them. The photo below shows how I achieved the dimensional look. I simply took my embossing stylus, and each flower and rubbed them on a soft surface (I used the sponge side of Bigz Daisies #2 die here) in a circular motion, until they have a sort of cup like look to them. I then adhered them to the card with a small drop of Stampin Up Crystal Effects. The final touch was to punch some 1/8" circles and add them to the flower centers with a very small dab of CE again. Crystal effects dries clear, so don't worry if you get a little too much on the center. Oh, and yes, I definitely used a pair of tweezers to work with these little pieces. Here is a list of card stock colors that I used for the flowers and their centers: Almost Amethyst, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Crushed Curry.

I hope that I explained it so that it is easy to understand, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Leave a comment, or go directly to my email (link on sidebar).

Until next time.......................................Blessings, Lisa

Snuggle with The Greeting Farm

Hello. I am working on some new things to show you with my Stampin Up Mini Catty stuff, but While I am finishing that, I have a card made with a stamp called "Snuggle"; from The Greeting Farm stamp company. Is she cute or what? This is actually my first card made with her. Of course I had to color her hair a medium brown to look like my daughter. Of course she also had to be dressed in Purple. Anyways.... I stamped her onto some watercolor paper with Versamark and black embossing powder. I then water colored her with some of my Stampin Up inks, watercolor wonder crayons, and my blender pens. Then I cut her out and set her aside for two weeks or so. I get in these coloring moods, so I color a bunch of images, and set them aside for later. Putting the card together was pretty simple. The DSP is Basic Grey, and the card stock base is unknown from my stash. I cut the quarter circles after I ran a Spellbinder's circle through my Cuttlebug, the image is mounted on some rectangles that I also cut with my Cuttlebug and some Spellbinder's dies. The ribbon is from American Crafts, the flowers are from Prima (what else?). Finally, the Faux Pearl accents are from Michael's. Oh, I have an enabler alert: If you like to use sticky faux pearls and gems on your projects, Michael's is expanding this section of their stock! Lots of new colors!

Until next time.......................... Blessings, Lisa

Chubby Owl

I found a cute chubby owl wood mounted stamp in a dollar bin at Michael's and could not resist. It is not very often that I find a cute stamp in the Michael's dollar bin. I decided to play around with a sketch on the clean and simple blog. Here is a picture of the sketch:

The rectangle is hand drawn, and is super easy, just find something with a very straight edge and go to it. Here is my version with my very reasonably priced chubby owl:

I traced over some parts of the owl with my Stampin Up Basic Black marker, and the owl and sentiment are stamped in Stampin Up's Close to Cocoa Classic ink. When I finished with the box, and owl, I decided that it needed some more color. Just brown and black seemed pretty dull to me, so I added some sticky blue gems from Michael's to the eyes and as accents near the box.

Clean and Simple, Easy Peasy. Now you try this sketch, a lot of different stamp images would work. A link to the Clean and Simple Blog is above and on the sidebar of my blog. They made several cards with this sketch and they are all adorable. Check them out and get stamping.

I went to a huge stamp convention Saturday and saw a lot of cool stuff and yes I purchased a few cool things. So, as soon as I organize my photos and thoughts, I will post about it.

Until next time........................Blessings, Lisa

Fall cards already?

Well, I have been a very busy lady, and haven't had time to make some new cards, so I thought I would share a card that I made last winter and was planning on saving to share with you once summer was over. Oh well, what does it matter what season we are in. I have already started making Christmas cards. Yes, you read that right, Christmas cards. This is the first time I am a few steps ahead on that yearly adventure! I even shocked myself.

Ok, this design was created with a brass template that I bought at Hobby Lobby several years ago. So, I dry embossed the pattern onto some Stampin Up Whisper White card stock, colored the raised areas with Stampin Up markers, then colored the raised areas again with my Versamarker and sprinkled some clear embossing powder on it and heat set. So I heat embossed my dry embossed design. It takes a bit of time, but if you like to color, and like to heat emboss, you would really like the finished product when you are finished. The sentiment is stamped with a stamp that I absolutely can't remember anything about. Sorry about that. The sticky gems are from Michael's, the leaf border at the bottom is a fiskers border punch. Last but not least all card stock is from Stampin Up. Feel free to double click on the picture to get a closer look at the embossing details. Until next time............ Blessings, Lisa

Card stock: More Mustard, Old Olive, and Whisper White.