First Cards of 2011

I have been spending a lot of time over at the Split Coast Stampers blog lately. I find it to be a great source of inspiration for me. If you are a paper crafter you most definitely should check it out.

My stamping goal for 2011 is to get some serious paper crafting done this year! I have so many awesome stamps, paper and supplies and I really want to make the effort to use them. I have a great friend LH who is also an avid paper crafter and we have been encouraging each other to create. Here are some of the cards I made yesterday.

For the past few summers I have been getting together with a few stamping friends at the lake for a few days of stamping. We bring our supplies and share with each other and generally have a blast. These images were embossed using my cuttlebug machine. I embossed so many images my elbow was aching!

The flowers on this card were embellished with some diamond dots. They are a little hard to see in the photograph as the cardstock is metallic but they add some nice pop to the card. I used a peel off sticker to add the sentiment.

This card was made using the stampin up Manhattan Rose embossing folder. Love this folder. So beautiful, simple but yet elegant! I gave this card to my mom for her birthday today. The sentiment was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink and I used my two new Stampin Up punches to punch out the white oval and the red scalloped oval. The sentiment is mounted with pop dots to make it stick out from the card. Added a little red rhinestone bling and mounted the card on some Real Red cardstock. A cute card I think!

Variation on the theme. Grey and red with some Real Red grosgrain ribbon and silver "pearls" to embellish.

I was on a roll and found this purple shiny ribbon while looking for the red ribbon and whipped this card together as well. It is not quite done - needs a sentiment or further embellishement - but I think it has the "bones" of a cute card! I used my new scallop border punch to add some pizazz.