My friend and fellow stamper, Sonia, demonstrated these pastel techniques at a recent hostess club. We all have our box of chalk and we're always looking for new ways to use it. These cards were so easy and fun to make and the results were so pretty. Thanks, Sonia!

Punched Posies

Here's a retired SU set that I will keep forever. I love sets that coordinate with our punches, especially the 5-petal flower. You can see that one flower is stamped on the Whisper White cardstock, while another was stamped and punched out. It was attached with a brad, so the flower petals actually spin like a pinwheel. That is such a cute look. The card base is Riding Hood Red, layered with So Saffron and Wild Wasabi. I used a Sizzix folder to emboss the little squiggle line near the bottom. You'll find embossing somewhere on almost all of my cards.

Just Believe

"Just Believe" is another one of my favorite stamp sets from the newest catalog. I paired it with our new in-colors to make this pretty card. The card base is Concord Crush, followed by Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz. The concord strip is embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder and the green strip is our new 1/2" stitched poly ribbon. You get 15 yards of this for $8.95...what a bargain! I'll have many more cards coming soon using this set.

Life is a matter of moments.

This elegant card uses the "Elements of Style" stamp set. The flower image is stamped on Whisper White cardstock in black Staz-On and colored with Bashful Blue and Old Olive markers. The pretty swirls on the left are stamped in Bashful Blue and it's finished with a Night of Navy satin ribbon. I've seen this card on so many blogs I don't know who the original artist was, but she did a great job!

Pinwheel Card

I had seen samples of pinwheel cards, but didn't know how to make them. My friends Kimberly and Dana had seen them too, and they took the initative to figure out how to do this! Dana made this card for me, taught me how to make it, and now I'm hooked! It's my favorite design to make and I can't wait to show my hostess club gals how to make this card this week. Dana used the Sizzlets Button #5 die for the center embellishment. So of course, I had to buy that! A tutorial follows this post and I hope you give this technique a try. Thank you Kimberly and Dana for sharing this card!

Pinwheel Tutorial

This was my swap card for the recent SU Regional Convention here in Columbia, SC. Once I learned how to make this pinwheel, it quickly became my favorite type of card to make. Plus, it's a good use for all of your designer paper scraps. I had a lot of questions regarding how I made the pinwheel, so here is my attempt at a tutorial. Hope it is helpful!

Begin with 8 squares of dsp at 1 5/16". Then cut two squares of vanilla or white (whatever color coordinates with your dsp) at 2 7/8".

Glue the two large squares together to form this pattern. I've found it helps keep everything lined correctly if you use the bold lines in the center of your grid paper as I have shown. Match your points on the bold lines and you'll have the perfect pattern.

Begin by gluing your first square on one of the corners. Be sure to put adhesive only in one corner, because you will need to put your last square underneath this one, as you'll see later.

Glue your second piece on the next corner. This piece should have adhesive all over the back. Continue sticking your squares in each corner of your pattern until you have gone all the way around.

Your last square will have to be partially placed underneath your first piece. This is why you don't glue the entire first piece. (Sorry for the blurry photo. Someone's had a lot of coffee this morning!)

Add embellishments to your finished pinwheel. I love the antique brads, or the two larger buttons from the Buttons #5 Sizzlits Die, actual buttons, or almost any of the flowers from sizzlits would work. I'll make lots of Christmas cards with the pattern with snowflakes in the center. Hope you have fun making pinwheel cards!

Artistic Etchings

When I first saw this new stamp set I thought, "what am I going to do with that?" Well, this is what I did, and it turned out to be one of my favorite cards. We made this at a recent stamp-a-stack, and it received many compliments. I used Perfect Plum, Crumb Cake and Basic Black cardstock, and the same ink colors plus Old Olive. The stripes across the middle are made with the new 1/8" taffeta ribbon which I absolutely love.