Sailboat Sunset

I created this card for an older man who's just gone through heart surgery...he lives by the sea along a beautiful harbour here in Northern Ireland and I know he'll find this sentiment very encouraging.

We just took my parents and sister on a sightseeing trip along the north coast of Northern Ireland and we stood on the stone formation of the Giants Causeway for a few hours, just taking in the vastness of the ocean and being amazed by it's Creator!

Today's Featured Stamper at Splitcoaststampers is Sophie LaFontaine, a very talented and friendly stamper and artist.  I was inspired by a card in her gallery with a sail boat theme found HERE.

I used the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps The Sea, and sponged the sky using a Papertrey Ink cloud die and a Nesties circle to mask the sun.  I then added the sentiment on a cloud die cut and some black and white twine to finish.

Supplies include:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps The Sea

Papertrey Ink cloud dies

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

SU Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, Baja Breeze, Yoyo Yellow, Barely Banana ink

Twine

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Christmas in July Blog Hop

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is celebrating Christmas in July!   I'm so glad you could join us for some inspiration and for a jump start on your 2012 holiday cards!  I'm going to showcase a fun set called Cozy Friends.

This cute little polar is all bundled up in a hat and scarf so I thought the card needed some die-cut snowflakes and an  icicle border!  This is one of my favorite color combinations and I tried to leave a bit of white space for the look of a an artic background!

Supplies include:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Cozy Friends

Marianne Design Snowflake dies

MFT Icicle border Die-namic

SU Baja Blue seam binding

SU Real Red ink

Lilybee Designs Double Dutch, Handmade dp

SU Real Red cardstock

Brads

Bells

Twine

Copics

Both of the animal images in this set are easy to color and cut out - 

here's one I made using the sweet penguin.

The color combo is a bit retro so I used copics and distress inks to soften the stark white on the image and disress inks to sponge the edges of the dp.  I made a tag for the sentiment and attached it using twine. 

Supplies include:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Cozy Friends

Cosmo Cricket Baby Jane dp

SU Taken with Teal cardstock

Brads

Twine 

Copics

Sewing machine

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Ranger Distress Scattered Straw

Lots of great things are happening at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps during these pre-holiday festivities!  ALL Christmas clear stamps are 20% off through Wednesday, July 25.  Three new holiday sets are in stock early, for a fun pre-release, and they you can get them before they are released in September and October... if you buy them now, you can take advantage of the sale price!

Every order of $25 in Christmas clear stamps will receive Gingerbread Man, a darling new 2" x 2" mini clear set.  And as always, all clear stamp orders of $50 or more get this month's free w/ stamp set, Christmas Candle (while supplies last).

Here's a full list of the Design Diva's and friends of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps taking part today so you won't miss out on any of the fabulous inspiration.  If you're hopping along, your next stop is with Jennifer at Just Jingle, and you don't want to miss out on her cute card!
Take a look and be sure to read on, for information about how you can join in on this hop  and win some prizes:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog

Kim Singdahlsen

Bridget Finlay

Jennifer Ingle

Taylor Usry

Monika Davis

Cathy McCauley

Mary Faus

Ceal Pritchett

Giovana Smith

Lee Murphy

Jennie Harper

Kim Schofield

Julie Ranae
Jessica Fick

Korin Sutherland 

And what's the best part about Christmas in July?  We want YOU to play along with us!  Just link up your Christmas project using Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps below and join in our Customer blog hop.  You have until Sunday, July 22 at 11:59 PM EST to play along.  One randomly selected participant will receive their choice of one Christmas clear stamp set!

He Knows and Cares

I've got a card to share with you using what's become one of my favorite sets, 

New Beginnings.  I just can't get enough of those butterflies, especially with the matching dies! 

 I've used the layout from the Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers today, Taylor gave us such a fantastic one to play with this week!

I used this sentiment from the set Elegant Blessings because these two facts have been 

especially meaningful to me over the past few months -

God knows what I'm going through, and He cares about every detail of my life.

  Though I don't have anyone in particular in mind right now to send this card to, I know that there will be someone who will need God's gentle and loving reminder as much as I have recently.

Supplies include:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps New Beginnings

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Elegant Blessings

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps New Beginnings Butterfly dies

Papertry Ink Fancy Flourishes

Cheery Lynn Designs English Tea Party doily die

Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles 

Sewing machine

SU ribbon

Button

Brads

Lace

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

The Heavens Declare

I love this beautiful verse from the Psalms and wanted to stamp it over a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds.  I used a Papertrey Ink cloud die-cut and SU's Cool Caribbean to create the sky.  I added some tiny punched flowers and butterflies to a Memory Box Summer Border die-cut to create a little meadow scene.

The CAS challenge at Splitcoaststampers is to use twine...hoping this counts as clean and simple as I sponged clouds over most of the "white space"!

Ever since I made this card the words of this song have been ringing through my head:

All heaven declares,

The glory of the risen Lord.

Who can compare,

With the beauty of the Lord.

Forever He will be,

The Lamb upon the Throne,

I gladly bow the knee,

And worship Him alone.

Pink Magnolias

Today's Featured Stamper at Splitcoaststampers is Cynthia, aka StampinAK - I chose her beautiful card found here to CASE.

I kept the pink and green color scheme since it's a favorite of mine and went with magnolias from Flourishes, another lovely birthday gift from my Mom.

I kept Cynthia's layout, but added a wide strip of lace with pearls for accents.

The magnolias are colored with copics and popped up on a white doily.

The sun is peaking out today here in Northern Ireland - we've had rain nearly every day for weeks, and about ten days ago we had flooding in our street.  We sandbagged the door and managed to keep the water out of our house, and in the end we only lost the use of our boiler for heating.  

Wish I could send some of this rain to areas where some of you are experiencing severe water shortages due to the heat!

Supplies include:

Flourishes Magnolias

Cheery Lynn Designs French Pastry die

Lace

Pearls

Copics

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Sewing machine.

Wreath of Love

Today's Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoaststampers takes us to Sugar Chic Baby and I chose the flower hair clips found here and here as my inspiration for this card.  My parents are visiting us from Alaska for the month of July and my Mom brought me some stamps as a gift...I had to try out a new Flourishes set here.

I sponged around the wreath with SU's Blushing Bride and added some pearl accents, otherwise this card was just a case of coloring flowers.  We've been visiting some beautiful flower gardens as we take my parents around Northern Ireland to do some sightseeing.  It really does inspire me to come home and start coloring flowers!

Supplies include:

Flourishes Mothers Words of Wisdom

Lifestyle Crafts Inverted Squares nesting dies

SU Blushing Bride ink

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Pearls

Copics

SU Lucky Limeade, Purely Pomegranate cardstock

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps July Release Blog Hop

Hello and welcome the Sweet 'n Sassy July Release Blog Hop - with summer in full swing, we've got some fantastic stamps and dies to showcase for you today!  To add to the fun we've got a Virtual Stamp Day going on at Splitcoaststampers in the SNSS members forum with some great challenges to inspire you.

The full release is immediately available in the SNSS store and you can also get a free stamp set with a $50 purchase!

One very lucky hopper will win the entire July release - the winner will be picked at random from comments left on DT blogs and you have until Friday, July 13th at midnight EST to comment.

Here's my first card:

I love silhouettes so the minute I laid eyes on the set The Sea I couldn't wait to start sponging (and have been practicing some brayering too.)
I then used some of the beautiful accents from a set called Decorative  Frame Toppers along the middle panel to highlight both the oval image panel and the sentiment.  I masked a circle so that I could add a pink sun to create a sunset scene.

Supplies include:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps The Sea

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Decorative Frame Toppers

Spellbinders Nestabilities Ovals

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

SU Cool Caribbean, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Blushing Bride ink

Sizzix plaid embossing folder

Sewing Machine

For my second card I've used the fantastic new set, Decorative Frame Toppers, which has matching dies called Decorative Plaques.  There are four beautiful label shapes in the die set and a whole variety of ways to add highlight sentiments and images with the accents included in the Decorative Frame Toppers set.
I sponged around the plaque die cut and then used an encouraging Bible verse from a previously released set called Under His Wings.  The pearls have been colored with copics to match the color scheme.
Supplies include:
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Decorative Plaques dies
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Decorative Frame Toppers
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Under His Wings
Lily Bee Designs Double Dutch dp
Marianne Designs bird and branch die
MFT Pinking Edge Die-namic
Twine
Pearls
Copics
Ranger Distress Shabby Shutters ink
Memento Tuxedo Black ink

I couldn't resist making another card with the Decorative Plaques dies and Decorative Frame Toppers stamps, this time using a verse from the newly released The Sea set.  I added some popped up seashells colored with copics from the set Beauty by the Sea.  The pearls were colored with copics.
Supplies include:
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Decorative Plaques dies
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Decorative Frame Toppers
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps The Sea
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Beauty by the Sea
Lily Bee Designs Handmade dp
SU Poppy Parade cardstock
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Ranger Distress Scattered Straw ink
Copics
Sewing machine

If you're hopping with us, your next stop is with the very talented
Taylor
and watch out for an opportunity to win a prize on her post!
Here's a full list of everyone participating today,
so you won't miss out on anything.
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Bridget Finlay

Taylor Usry

Jennie Harper

Kim Singdahlsen

Cathy McCauley

Jessica Fick

Giovana Smith

Mary Faus

Kim Schofield

Dina Kowal

Monika Davis

Korin Sutherland 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful day - hope to see you over at Splitcoaststampers for the
Release Day Celebration!

You're Amazing

Here's a card I made honoring the Featured Stamper today at Splitcoaststampers, Loll Thompson, who has a gallery full of wonderful CAS designs and THIS is the card I chose to CASE.
I used Marianne Creatables flower dies to layer up some red felt (MFT Wild Cherry).  

My parents are staying visiting us right now from Alaska and my Mom brought me some craft goodies from the U.S.   She's doing a bit of craft shopping over here and picked up some Papermania dp yesterday - she handed me a piece of white and gray dp and told me she wanted to see what I'd make with it...hence my red, white and gray color scheme.  I added  little snippets of flourishes from die-cuts using Cheery Lynn Designs and some gray pearls to finish.  

Supplies include:

MFT Complimentary Greetings

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Papermania dp

SU Basic Gray card stock

MFT Wild Cherry felt

Cheery Lynn Designs Fanciful Flourish die

Marianne Design flower dies

Pearls