I have to admit that when Betsy first arrived at my door, I was completely stumped. Having no idea how to use it, I browsed through the Stampin Up! gallery at Splitcoast Stampers and found this card by Sandi MacIver. She always puts a fun and creative twist on any stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Betsy Tags

This set of tags was made to showcase this year's In Colors together. I used a combination of Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals and Summer Starfruit on these, along with my paper snips and the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch (#119275), the small flower from the Boho Blossoms Punch (#119858) and the circle from the Itty Bitty Shapes Pack (#118309). This is one of many ways you can use the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border - I also like to layer it from behind to create a teeny tiny scallop edge peeking out.

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Monday!

Another from Betsy

On this card I kept to one of my favorite current color combinations once again, Gumball Green, Pool Party, So Saffron and Calypso Coral! This time I only used the branch image in combination with the Boho Blossom (#119858) and Blossom (#125603) Punches. I used my ink pad and a Whisper White scrap to get the So Saffron blossom. I made some of these Betsy cards at a family picnic while the kids went for a bike ride and had only packed a small container of supplies to take with me that day. Not bad, huh? We can always make do in a pinch with those scraps of paper!!

Making Betsy Beautiful

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I'll admit that this is my other favorite "Betsy". However, it was not my original idea. Lots of my Betsy inspirations came from other people I admire, such as this card designed by Paula Wright, that I recently - or maybe not so recently - received in a card swap.

I took Paula's card design, along with a recently released Finishing Touches Edgelit Die ( I love these surprise finds when the new catalogs come out!) and a color combination I hadn't seen yet - Early Espresso & Raspberry Ripple, think of it like a yummy Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cone! Isn't it Yummy?

Haha Paula! Betcha didn't see Betsy coming this time!

Betsy's Blossoms

I have a Love-Hate relationship going with Betsy. I really don't care for her very much, but everyone else seems to love her! I decided last week that I was going to work on making myself a better person, and try to find some beauty in Betsy. So I sat down one day and tried to see how many fabulous things I could create with a little inspiration... from none other than Betsy. I will be sharing some of those inspirations in the days to come, but here's one that I kinda like:



I began by stamping the dahlias in Calypso Coral in just a few spots on the front of the card. I have really come to love this color, and will be sad to see it retire next year, so I'm just warning you that it'll probably get a lot of use in the coming months!

Next I stamped the branch in Gumball Green. Since I was going for more of a muted look here, I off-stamped the image on scrap paper first. I stamped the little bird in Pool Party (another of my favs!)

Then using some scraps of white (I seem to be a scrap hoarder - anyone else out there? tee-hee) I stamped the little blossoms in So Saffron and cut them out to layer on top of the dahlias.

Lastly I took another scrap-this time in Pool Party- and used my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border to add a teeny bit of dimension to the bottom of my card. And since I really dislike throwing away anything that is the littlest bit usable, I even added the teeny leftover piece from the punch!

I just noticed that photo looks a little crooked and askew. Guess it kinda matches the lopsided ribbon at the bottom, hehe. Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to visit again this week to see other ways I've been able to put Betsy to use!

Summer Camp Flyer

Today I used My Digital Studio and created a Sample Flyer for a Summer Camp that a friend of mine runs. MDS comes with so many stamp sets, papers, and accessories that I haven't even begun to use it. I think this summer I will be using it a ton to design scrapbook pages and other projects when we go away on vacations or weekends. It's just too easy to bring my Stamping Studio with me now!

...and as far as Summer Camps go, I think this could be a fun summer, don't you?

A Thank You In Color

I've been interviewing for jobs lately, and like to send thank you's to follow up - and keep me in mind! This is the card I sent out last week to a couple of schools I recently visited. It was inspired by another Demonstrator, Christena Bagne. You can see her original card here.

I really liked her combinations on Marina Mist and Pool Party. I wanted to update my card with some of the new In Colors, so I used a combination of Marina Mist, Pool Party, Gumball Green, and Midnight Muse. I think those little hills are really stinkin' cute!

Wedding Invites

I am planning to work on some wedding invitations next week, so I thought I would share a couple of samples here. This is a beach themed wedding, and I'm waiting for my new stamp set to come in, so these are pro to-types until the real things get here. This first sample uses the stamp inked in Crumb Cake with the images behind the poem:
This second example shows the main image stamped in Marina Mist in the bottom corner:



This last picture shows the inside of the folder, with the invitation on the right side, and the response card and envelope on the left:



Thanks for stopping by, hope you are inspired today!