Mixing Old with New

Today I took out the old stamp set, Time with You.  It has cute vintage images on it from 2006.  And check out the saying, "On the open road of life, may happiness be your destination."  Sweet, right?

 Although I made this card a couple of months ago, I loved the vintage look of the girl mixed with the look of the Regency Park papers, and wanted to make more.  :)

For the cards, I used some various sayings and on this card, I chose another color of the designer papers.  I added some Wink of Stella to the girl to give her some shine.  You can't see it in the photo, but she sparkles as she's riding her bike!

I have a lot, a really lot, of the Regency Park papers left over from the spring catalog, so you may see more things made with it!  Stampin Up is running the mini catalogs for only 4 months now instead of 6 months and I just don't get time to use up all of the products.  I hope they go back to 6 months next year!

These girls look like they are riding their bikes on the road to happiness.  :)

 

Cup of Tea

Last week I finally had the chance to play around with the Cup of Tea set from last year's catalog.  I bought the set of cards and envelopes to match it as well as the Tea Boutique papers.  I made all 5 colored cards and matched the front of them to the envelopes.

I designed all of the cards myself and had so much fun playing around with this set!  I wish that I had used it sooner because now all of the pieces are retired.

For the first card, I used a the circle cut out for the background from Encircled in Beauty die set.  The sprig is one of my favorites and is one of the dies from Forever Flourishing.  

The red card has some stamped leaves that I cut out and added to the card.  I tried using the dies to cut the little flower but had better luck just using my scissors.  By the time I made all 5 cards and then 8 of each design, I was pretty much "done" with cutting out all of those flowers!  

My third card uses a diagonal piece of the designer papers with a Stitched Shapes circle for the focal point.  For this card, I stamped the greenery right onto the circle and then added the tea cup with dimensionals.

For the purple card base I added a strip of the designer paper to the top and a rectangle from Stitched So Sweetly dies.  I added a small piece of string to the tea bag and tucked it into the tea cup.  

The purple card is the only horizontal card of the set.  

Lastly, the green base features 3 cut-out tea cups from the pretty papers.  I added a banner in Petal Pink and embossed it to give it some texture.  

It took me a couple of days to finish all of the cards, but I loved playing around with this set.  I've made lots of cards to give out to my friends and family to be mailed out in the next couple of weeks for some different occasions.

Here is a pic of the entire set with their matching envelopes.  I enjoyed making these cards as much as I love a good cup of tea!

 

Framed Florets Cards

For my last stamping class, we took out the stamp set called Framed Florets.  I've had it for a while, but finally got a chance to use it.  Honestly, it's so versatile that it's definitely something that just have to have if you like to make cards.

We started with this pretty side-fold card that uses the heart frame in the die set.  I saw the idea for this card from Jenny Hayward on Pinterest.  I used the papers that originally came with the suite for this birthday card.  We first cut out the hearts on a narrow piece of paper and then added the designer paper to finish the front of the card.  

Then we added ribbon, some cut-outs from the paper and a sprig that is also part of the set.  I used an oval stitched frame for the saying.  I love the font for each of the sayings, too.  This card can be made over and over again, each time using a different paper and different saying.  The only thing that is stamped is the saying.

For the second card, I started with black cardstock and added a Petal Pink layer and then some black checked paper.  I added a scalloped edge to the side of the layers to make it look more feminine.  Then cut out the pretty frame (I call it the Sleeping Beauty mirror frame) and added it to the card.  The flowers are all cut from the designer papers.  

I added a couple of sprigs and cut-out leaves, a bow and some rhinestones.  I used Wink of Stella to highlight the flowers and make them shine.  I saw the idea online from Mo Roots, another demonstrator.  

For the final card, I chose to go white-on-white.  I don't usually go for the all-white look, but this time I thought it lent to the beauty of the card.  I embossed a white background using the Timeworn Type emboss folder.  Then I added the "Sleeping Beauty" die with dimensionals.  I cut out another oval and taped them all together on the back so that the card wouldn't fall apart or lose its shape.  

The sprigs and leaves are cut out in gold and the flowers are dies from the Cherry Blossoms die set.  I added gold embellishments to the flowers.  The sayings are heat embossed using gold powders.  JoAnn Hewins made the original card.  

These cards all came out so different from each other, and yet so beautiful.  I plan on using the gold card to give to my niece, who is getting married soon.

Have you used this stamp set and dies?  What did you think of it?  I can't wait to make more cards with it.