March Madness with the Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop!

We’re not as mad a March hares, but we’re certainly here to have fun!  

Welcome to the March Madness Blog Hop with the Wacky Watercooler Women 🙂

This month, we’ve decided to add a little bit of ‘zany’ to our blog hop – but in a good way!  We’re all featuring our distinctive stamping styles with fancy folds – paper folds, that is – to create special cards & projects.

Everything else is the same; our blogs are linked in a circle, so as long as you keep going one direction, you’ll be taken through all the blogs, and see all the fabulous we have created just for you!

We have a couple of new members joining us for this Hop – please join me in extending a big welcome to Linda Wicks and Anna Smith!  If you started near the beginning, you’ve already seen their blogs – but you can take the tour again, just to refresh your memory 😉

You’ve probably arrived here from the amazing Christine Giuda’s blog – have you had time to put your socks back on yet?!  If not, then you’ve traveled backwards, and just seen the projects of the incomparable Buffy Cooper!  I’m in quite a cozy spot, between these two wonderful ladies.

So, let’s start with my first project – I wanted to showcase some of the new Sale-a-bration product, called Sheer Perfection Vellum.

This vellum paper stack has some great patterns, and you can either leave them as-is, like I did here, or you can colour them (on the front or the back) with markers, blendabilities, sponges – and they look great!

I started with a card base of Pacific Point card stock; it seems to be my new favourite blue!  I then layered the scallop patterned vellum paper over it, and attached with Glue Dots.  I cut a strip of Chalkboard Paper, and stamped 2 of the small flowers from the Flower Patch stamp set in Rose Coral Chalk Ink.  I stamped the sentiment onto another piece of Chalkboard Paper, using the same chalk ink, and cut a banner tail in one end.  I stamped the 2 flowers using the same Rose Coral Chalk Ink, but this time I stamped onto Whisper White card stock – it looks much brighter, doesn’t it?  I layered the flowers using Stampin’ Dimensionals, added a Basic Pearl embellishment to the center, and this quick & easy card was finished!

I was having such fun with the Sheer Perfection Vellum Paper that I decided to make another card using a different pattern.   I had the Watercooler Challenge  on my mind while I was working on this, so I decided that this card would do double-duty – for this blog hop, as well as the Challenge!  I love it when a card can multi-task, just like me 🙂

This was the challenge thrown down from Bev – a photo challenge.  Amazing inspiration, but a challenge to come up with my own interpretation!

The vases and the colours made me think of stained glass – so this is what I came up with:

I used sponge daubers to add the inks to the back of the vellum; this gives it a bit more of a subtle look.  I used what I thought were the Stampin’ Up! equivalent colours to those in the vases; Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Old Olive, Perfect Plum, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry.   The card base is Bermuda Bay cardstock; I used the Labels Framelits Dies to cut the opening in the front of the card, and layered the vellum on the inside, with a backing of Whisper White cardstock, so the colours would ‘pop’ more.  I cut the frame from Basic Black cardstock, using the same dies.  I stamped the flower image from the new Sale-a-bration stamp set called Nature’s Perfection; I stamped in Memento Black ink, and used my Blender Pen and Perfect Plum ink, then hand cut and layered 2 of them, and cut the center only and placed it at the top left.  The sentiment, from the Sheltering Tree stamp set, is stamped in Bermuda Bay onto Whisper White.  After cutting out the shape for the card front, I had some of the coloured vellum paper left over, so I punched out a butterfly using the Elegant Butterfly Punch, and added it to the inside of the card 🙂

 

My final card is my special ‘fancy fold’.  I have to admit, knowing the creative ladies in this hop, I knew I had to find something unusual – after all, they’re not only talented, but the theme is ‘March Madness’, right?  So, I went to one of my favourite sites for inspiration – Splitcoaststampers!  They have an incredible wealth of visual inspiration and a bounty of tutorials – so I chose to try out making my very first Bendi-Fold Card.

Here is a straight-on front view:

I used Crumb Cake cardstock for a neutral card base, and did my stamping onto Whisper White cardstock.  I stamped the images from Sheltering Tree, hand cut them and attached them to the base using Stampin’ Dimensionals.  The butterflies are from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set, as is the sun image, which I stamped directly onto the card base.  The colours I used were Melon Mambo, Crisp Cantaloupe, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake and Daffodil Delight.

Here is a view angled from the top, so you can see the bendi-folds:

Because the panels open up, you can see that  you need to add details to the inside of the panels, as well.  I can see a lot of different scenes being made with this kind of card – the wheels are just spinning in my head! 🙂

Here are views with the folds open, to see the inside:

This is a fun fold to play with; I think I’ll make more of these cards; I can use the practice! LOL

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my projects for this edition of the Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop; if you have a minute, I’d appreciate it if you would leave a comment; I love reading what you have to say.

Now, head on over to see the incredible projects that Buffy has waiting for you – just click the ‘Next’ button.  If you’d like to go back & revisit Christine’s blog (and no-one would blame you!) just click the ‘Previous’ button.  If you want to start at the very beginning again, click the ‘Home’ button.  I have also listed all of the participating blogs, in order, at the bottom of this post, for your convenience.

Until next time – happy stamping!

 

Participating Blogs:

Marsha Reed – http://coffeepotstampingcafe.com

Anna Smith – http://www.scrappingstampingandstuff.com/

Heidi Weaver –  http://heidistampinalong.blogspot.com/

Linda Wicks – http://nutty4stampin.blogspot.com/

Kath R. – http://kath-allthatscrap.blogspot.com/

Jackie Susnik – http://jackotterstamp.blogspot.com/

Stefanie Pletscher – http://www.craftymedic.blogspot.ca/

Gail Allen – http://stampingandotherstuff.blogspot.ca/

Marie Green – http://mytanglewoodcottage.com/

Christine Giuda – http://www.dancinstamps.blogspot.ca

Deborah Smart – www.stampandcreate.net – YOU ARE HERE!

Buffy Cooper – http://buffycooper.com/