Hopping Around the World - Sketch

I was excited for this month's blog hop since it featured a sketch. I LOVE a good sketch challenge! When you are looking for a good jumping off point for a project, I suggest doing a sketch or color challenge. They always get my creative juices flowing!

Given this sketch, I decided to whip out my Cuckoo For You stamp set and coordinating dies and create a card for a sweet friend of mine. 

With a card base of Real Red cardstock, I punched out flowers using the Medium Daisy punch in the same color and adhered them on. I wanted to add some visual interest and I thought the flowers mimiced those on the clock. I then added a strip of Crumb Cake to coordinate with the Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends I used to give the bulk of the clock it's color. Then instead of adding a piece of Granny Apple Green card stock to coordinate with the Granny Apple Stampin' Blends on the clock, I used Soft Seafoam instead. I really like the more subtle green tone behind the clock instead of the bolder one. I used the little leaf from the Love What You Do stamp set and randomly stamped that in Soft Seafoam ink on the card stock as well. Everything else was stamped on Whisper White card stock, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. I am sad to see this cute set retire with the release of the catalog. For more wonderful ideas using the sketch, please check out the other fabulous designers below. Happy Stamping!

Hopping Around the World Design Team

Claudia Christensen

Rebecca-Jo Unwin

Rackel Macleod

Jennifer Downey - that's me!

Mo Rootes

Sandra Herzog

Margriet Siekman

Melanie Igelbrink

Mai Chapelain

Tanja Klingler-Selinger

Susan Simpson

Maureen Rauchfuss

Sheila Turner

Pamela Poli

Creation Station Blog Hop - It's What's On The Inside That Counts

Welcome my stamping friends! Today's blog hop is a fun one if I do say so myself. It's all about the inside of a card and the 'wow' factor it can have. With the weather feeling like spring, and I did mow for the first time of the season this week, I was in the mood for flowers. I inked up the Floral Essence stamp set and went for it!

I kept the front of my card fairly simple in design. I stamped the Buffalo Check background on a piece of 4"x 3 1/2" piece of Whisper White card stock and adhered that onto my Crushed Curry card base. I stamped LOTS of flowers in two different sizes in Real Red ink and fussy cut each one out. The leaves were inked with Call Me Clover and luckily I punched them out with the coordinating Leaf Punch. The words are from the Daisy Delight set and stamped on a die cut Stitched Oval. I added a few rhinestones and the front is complete. Now, onto the inside....drum roll please....

Voila! I decided to have a pop out with even more the beautiful flowers. To achieve the pop out I took a 5 1/4" x 10" piece of Whisper White card stock. I scored it at 2 1/2", 5, and 7 1/2". This gives you basically four rectangles. In the center of the two middle ones, I took a Stitched Rectangle die and die cut the opening. 

Here's a closer look. I adhered flowers on top and leaves from behind the pop up. I stamped strips of Crushed Curry Buffalo Check on each end to tie that in from the front and to help 'ground' the card.

The words are from the Enjoy Life set and found to be just what this card needed. This card does close shut like a regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card and fits in a standard envelope. It is a little thicker, so additional postage might be necessary. But I think you would agree that it would be worth it!  Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will continue along to see what creativity the wonderful Julie whipped up. Happy Stamping!