November 27, 2014

Merry & Bright

November 27, 2014/ Shannon Jaramillo

Hello friends and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

As we celebrate our blessings today, we can't help but think of what comes next...Christmas! And all the busyness that entails. I've been busily creating Christmas cards and using challenges as my inspiration. Today's card was inspired by this sketch over at The Paper Players:

I kept my card fairly simple and definitely monochromatic. All the red just makes me happy:)

I hope you have a wonderful holiday full of joy and memories.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

November 15, 2014

Many Merry Stars - Freshly Made Sketches 162

November 15, 2014/ Shannon Jaramillo

I just received this stamp set, Many Merry Stars, in the mail last week and have been itching to ink it up so I found an excuse! lol This sketch from Freshly Made Sketches was just the ticket!

The size of cardstock I had to work with, and stamp my images in, wasn't very large but no problem! I simply stamped off with the two largest star stamps and the filled them both in with the next sized stamp and then filled in with the smallest snowflake...ez peasy!! And since they're clear, placement of stamps was a breeze. They even gave us a curvy sentiment to work with....I L O V E this stamp set!!

There is no die to go along with the sentiment but it was really easy to cut out freehand. I popped it up on Stampin' Dimensionals to give it a bit more 'oomph'. I laid a thin layer of Soft Sky Seam Binding down and then placed a sparkly snowflake on top. The snowflake is from last year but it was the perfect accent. A few snowflake sequins add a bit to the design and accentuate the falling snow look I was going for. And all this from a girl who has been a Southern California girl for xx years! Let's leave it at that, it's been awhile!

I hope you have enjoyed today's card and that you are inspired to get inky!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

October 05, 2014

Country Christmas - CYCI39

October 05, 2014/ Shannon Jaramillo

Hello Stampers! I'm back today with the Can You Case It Design team and we have a fun sketch for you this week!

There are so many possibilities! My design is one that popped into my head a few days ago while running errands... I always have stamping on my mind!

The lovely embossing folder I used for the background is called On Point. It isn't actually trees, but the shape matched the new Tree Punch perfectly! So it works at Christmas and then throughout the year as well!

I embossed the folder and then trimmed it into four sections. I played with different patterns of the Trim the Tree Designer Series Paper Stack until I found a few patterns that worked well together. Along the way, my card turned a bit country with the patterns so I kept that theme up with all of my other decisions.

I stamped my tree in Garden Green...aren't all the details lovely? So easy to stamp and punch! I stamped the base in Early Expresso and the star in Cherry Cobbler and then fussy cut both out. I popped all of three pieces up with Stampin' Dimensionals and then decided to add the little Cardinal. He's also been fussy cut and popped up. I have used this set before but I only ever noticed the tree stamps, I didn't even see all of these fun little accent stamps!! LOVE them!!!

And isn't the sentiment so cute? There's a matching stamp for the inside of the card as well...

So darling!! I felt that the card needed just a bit "more" so I reached for Candy Dots in Early Expresso, Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green. They add the perfect finishing touch!

I hope you have time to pop on over to the Can You Case It challenge blog to see what the other designers have created with this fun sketch! I can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

September 13, 2014

Hello Fall! - PPA219 and FMS153

September 13, 2014/ Shannon Jaramillo

Hello there and Hello Fall!! Well, maybe Fall for y'all but not for us here in Southern California! It's supposed to get to 106 degrees this weekend! Yikes! We can pretend it's here though by decorating and tuning in to college football:)

Today's card was inspired by two challenges...the color challenge over at the Pals Paper Arts and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I'm quite pleased with how this card turned out as I have been fussing to myself about this color combination all week. Fall colors just don't come easily to me. I just tried a few new techniques and found a way to make it all work for me!

I started with a Cajun Craze base and built from there. I knew I wanted to die cut my leaf from the Fun Fall Framlits Dies set three times so I eyeballed their placement and tacked the die down with Post-It tape so it wouldn't move. Sometimes even with the magnetic base, smaller dies need a bit of extra help!

Once I had the dies all cut out, I laid a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock underneath the die cut openings and tacked everything down again so I could stamp right through the openings onto the cardstock below. EZ Peasy!

I wanted an aged look to my leaves from the Fall Fest Stamp Set (this stamp set coordinates with the Fun Fall Framelits Dies and you can purchase them together and save 15%!!) so I tried a technique I learned about over at Wild West Paper Arts...my Adhesive Remover!

I inked up my stamp, stamped it directly onto the uneven surface of the Adhesive Remover (calling 'kissing') and then stamped it onto my card. Clean the stamp and the adhesive remover off and repeat! That's it! So easy and fun! Isn't the distressed look awesome?

I added layers of cardstock to set off the Very Vanilla card front, added some Linen Twine to continue the distressed look, and finished it off with a button in Cajun Craze. The ca-yoot sentiment is from the For All Things Stamp Set. So fun!

I used Stampin' Dimensionals to pop my card front layer off the card base and add dimension. I like to work in threes, so I had to add Candy Dots to my card to both balance out my layout as well as complete my sets of threes.

I had fun adding decoration to the inside of the card as well and finished the card off by adding a coordinated pattern paper from the Color Me Autumn Designer Series Paper as an envelope liner! What do you think??

I had a lot of fun with these challenges and just missed the deadline for adding it to the Paper Players Challenge this week which was a Fall card! I've not ever participated in three challenges at once...darn! I was so close! Oh well...next time!

Have a wonderful day and I will be back tomorrow with a new challenge from the Can You Case It Challenge Blog :)