ICS July Blog Hop Let's Get Punchy

 
Welcome to the ICS July Blog Hop as we showcase punches with our theme "Let's Get Punchy". Our wonderful Design Team will be sharing their ideas and projects to help you get creative with your punches. There are so many options to explore to help you create your own beautiful creations. 

For my card, I chose to create a pretty Christmas card design for Christmas in July, focusing on the 2" & 2 3/8" Circle Punches to show how versatile they are for creating sentiments. In addition, I chose to use the Bough Punch to add some foliage to the sentiment to step it up. I paired these punches with the new Online Exclusive products, Greetings of the Season stamp set and coordinating Season of Green & Gold Specialty Designer Series Paper to create a stepped up clean and simple design. I love how the Gold accents and Gold embossing take this design to the next level.

Products Used:

Greetings of the Season stamp set (item #164325)

2" Circle Punch (item #133782)

2 3/8" Circle Punch (item #16354)

Bough Punch (item #157711)

Season of Green & Gold Specialty Designer Series Paper 

(item #164324)

Mossy Meadow Cardstock (item #133676)

Garden Green Cardstock (item #102584)

Old Olive Cardstock (item #100702)

Gold Foil Sheets (item #132622)

Versamark Pad (item #102283)

Metallics Wow Embossing Powders (item #165678)

Pecan Pie 3/8" Center Stripe Ribbon (item #162744)

Stampin' Dimensionals (item #104430)

Mini Glue Dots (item #103683)

Measurements:

Mossy Meadow Cardstock

Card Base - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (Scored at 4 1/4")

Sentiment Circle punched out with the 2" Circle Punch

Garden Green Cardstock

2 Large Leaves punched out with the Bough Punch

Old Olive Cardstock

3 Small Sprigs punched out with the Bough Punch

Gold Foil Sheets

Medium Circle punched out with the 2 3/8" Circle Punch

Season of Green & Gold Specialty Designer Series Paper

Card Front - 5 1/4" x 4"

I love making Christmas cards in July because there is no pressure or stress like there is around the holidays. With the new products just added to the Online Exclusives this month, it was a perfect opportunity to showcase a couple of them while showing how punches can help to create fun clean and simple card designs. The card front was created using one of the designs from the Season of Green & Gold Specialty Designer Series Paper and I just love how there are hints of Gold that give the card an elegant feel. I used the 2" Circle Punch for the sentiment and heat embossed the image from the new Greetings of the Season stamp set with Gold embossing powder onto the Mossy Meadow cardstock to make it pop. I layered it onto a larger circle of Gold Foil punched out using the 2 3/8" Circle Punch and I love how this creates a beautiful frame for the sentiment. I added two pieces of the Pecan Pie Center Striped Ribbon to the center of the card front using Mini Glue Dots and added the focal circles to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals. I arranged the Old Olive and Garden Green foliage pieces that I punched out using the Bough Punch, tucking them underneath the circles to hide the stem. I love how this beautiful Christmas card turned out and I can't wait to try some of the other designs and sentiments to create a stack ready for the holidays. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I hope that my card design will help inspire you to explore using punches to create your own wonderful projects. One of my favorite things about punches is how quick and easy it is to create projects using them. As you can see from my card design, it is a great way to mix and match to create your own beautiful designs. 

Now it's time to visit Janey's blog and see what she has to share with us. Just click on the Next button to visit her blog. We would appreciate it if you would leave us a comment and let us know what you like about our projects. I hope you enjoy the rest of our blog hop. 

If you live in the U.S. and do not have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, please contact me and I would be happy to help you with your creative projects. You may also visit my Online Store to place your order and have it shipped to you. 

Until Next Time

Happy Stamping,

Tricia Butts
Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

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New 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog Now Available

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all well and that the weather is warmer where you are. It is freezing here in Denver and the snow has made the roads icy and not fun to drive on. When the weather is like this, I prefer to be toasty warm inside and it is the perfect opportunity to play with my new products from the new 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog from Stampin' Up!
There are so many fantastic new products it is hard to know where to start. My favorites so far are the brand new Blossoms Petal XL Punch and the coordinating Build a Blossom stamp set (both on page 12 of the Occasions Mini catalog), followed closely by the Build a Cupcake XL Punch and coordinating stamp set, Create a Cupcake (both can be found on page 22 of the Ocasions Mini catalog).
I am the first to admit, I don't have time to cut out individual pieces to create projects, which makes both of these new punches a welcome addition to my stamping studio. Not only can you punch out your stamped images with these punches, but you can also just use the punches by themselves to create cute cupcakes and beautiful flowers to embellish your cards, scrapbook pages and crafting projects.
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, you will be inspired by the amazing new stamp sets, designer series paper and embellishments to help you create beautiful projects to share with loved ones. The Love Impressions Rub-ons are a great way to create quick and easy cards and projects and the new Red Glimmer paper is to die for.
Spring will seem even closer with the beautiful designer series papers and once again, Stampin' Up is offering gorgeous Designer Fabrics that coordinate with the Springtime Vintage and Sweet Stitches Designer Series papers.
There really is something for everyone in this amazing new mini catalog. Download your own free digital copy of the 2011 Occasions Mini catalog here or click on the icon located on my sidebar.
You can contact me to place your order or visit my Online Store here to place your order 24/7.
Until Next Time.
Warm Stampin' Thoughts,
Tricia Butts
http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net/

ABC's of the Perfect Handmade Holiday

Hi Everyone,

One of the things I love best about the Holiday Season is the chance to create my own handmade cards and gifts for my family and friends. Whether it is something vintage and classic in style or more of modern and whimsical theme, I know that I can find what I am looking for from Stampin' Up! to meet my Holiday needs.
Plus, Stampin' Up! has this amazing special called the ABC Holiday Bundle Special Offer to help us save 20% on select Stampin' Up! products, available now through to December 16th. 
These bundles include wonderful Holiday Stamp Sets (in either traditional wood mount or the new Clear mount option), Holiday theme Designer Series Paper (Perfect for Cards, Scrap Book pages and Gift ideas), Coordinating Punches (for quick and easy cards and tags), Simply Adorned jewelry (great for a personalized gift) and Definitely Decorative Home Decor products.
To view the great Holiday Promotion Bundles Click Here to download the Flyer.
Please note: the Tags Til Christmas 2 Bundle is currently unavailable to order due to the Ornament Punch currently being unavailable.
You can place your order through my Stampin' Up! Online Store here  from the comfort of your home or feel free to contact me to place your order. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to help you.
I will be sharing some of my Holiday Cards and Gifts to help get you in the Holiday Spirit over the next few weeks, so please feel free to subscribe to my blog to receive the latest updates.
Until Next Time.
Happy Stampin',
Tricia Butts
http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net/

Fun with Black & White Tags

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have been absent for so long. My kids are all back in school and we are slowly getting into a regular routine. With my husband away on business, I have been taking care of everything which has meant very little time for stamping and creating.
So today I thought I would share with you some tags that I created for a swap that I participated in recently. I belong to a wonderful group called Art of the Creative Mind, where we explore creating art using mixed media. It is a lot of fun and really has given me the opportunity to think outside the box.
Anyway, this particular swap was to create two Black & White Tags. Now, I have never really played with this combination before as I tend to gravitate towards color, so this was a fun challenge for me.

I decided to have one tag be black and the other white to explore the different contrasts. I also decided to use two different embossing techniques - heat embossing and dry embossing using my Sizzix Big Shot.

For the Black Tag I used the Stampin' Up Background stamp, En Francais, and stamped it with Whisper White Craft ink. Using white embossing powder and my heat gun, I heat embossed the tag and loved the texture and look of the bold white script on the black cardstock.

To embellish this tag, I used my Scallop Circle punch to punch out my flower shape and then cut between every second scallop towards the center to create the petals. I stamped the pattern using a stamp from the Elements of Style stamp set from Stampin' Up, using Basic Black Classic ink. The small black center flower was punched from black cardstock using the Boho Blossoms punch and I used a clear rhinestone jewel to accent the center of the flower.

The small white tag was dry embossed using my Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing folder that is exclusive to Stampin' Up. Then I created my sentiment using the For You stamp, also from the Elements of Style stamp set with Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossed it using black embossing powder to add some dimension. I matted it onto a slightly larger circle of black cardstock. The ribbons were some scraps I had left over from another project and just seemed to finish it off.

For the white tag, I decided to again use my Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing folder to emboss the background to add texture. I created the border across the top using the new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch from Stampin' Up.  The flowers were punched from white and black cardstock using the Boho Blossoms punch and I accented the centers of each of the flowers with Dazzling Diamonds for a little sparkle.

The letter F and friends were stamped in Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossed using black embossing powder. The stamped images were created with the Vintage Vogue stamp set from Stampin' Up. I carefully cut out the letter F to help it stand out against the white embossed cardstock. I again used a scrap of black ribbon to create the tie for the tag.

These tags can be used for many different projects. You can use them as gift tags, bookmarks, or as an element for your card or scrapbook page. I had so much fun creating these tags and they really are a wonderful way to explore new techniques and color combinations.

I hope you have enjoyed today's creative stamping project and I hope that it will inspire you to try experimenting with tags. Have a wonderful day.

Until Next Time.

Stampin' Hugs,

Tricia Butts

http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net/