Starburst Sun with Free Tutorial

This Starburst Sun is a combination of several sources of inspiration.  Ray of Sunshine was one of the first stamp sets I bought from the new Stampin' Up! catalog.  I loved how sponging gave the sun more dimension.  And finally, I wanted to make a variation of the starburst technique that minimized the number of scraps left over from the traditional starburst technique.

This Starburst Sun is a variation of my Starburst Patriotic card.  I used the idea of having the cardstock show between the rays to make them pop.  

Then I borrowed a technique that I learned many years ago from a quilting class.  You stack layers of fabric (or in this case, paper) and cut them all at the same time.  Then you pick different papers from each stack to make backgrounds that are similar, but not the same.  

You can see how I used 4 layers of 3 x 4" Crushed Curry designer series paper for my starburst variation in this video.  You can make your own starburst template with the instructions in my video or from the picture below.  You are also welcome to email me if you would like a copy of my template.

This is how I sponged on the color to make the sun. 

Stampin' Supplies

Item	Description	Price
134210	Ray of Sunshine	$19.95
130658	Magnetic Platform	$39.95
130911	Circles Collection Framelits	$26.95
119850	1 3/4" Circle Punch	$16.95
130139	Regals 12 x 12 Designer Series Paper	$21.95
133773	Sponge Daubers	$4.95

Enjoy making your starburst card.  Visit my online store to get what you want for your next project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Red, White and Blue OWH Bloghop

Welcome to the Operation Write Home Bloghop and thank you for stopping by to see my red, white and blue patriotic cards!  I couldn't decide what to make this year and ended up with three cards to share.

This AnyHero card uses a variation of the starburst technique. You can get more details and the tutorial here.

This Thank You card is quick and easy to make.  This is one of my go-to designs when I need a card in a hurry.

This Missing You Poppies card gave me a chance to repeat the poppy theme I did last year.  You can find out more about why I was inspired to make this card and the tutorial here.

Which of these three cards is your favorite?

Thank you again for stopping by.  Enjoy the rest of the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop!

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Starburst Patriotic Card with Tutorial

This Starburst Patriotic card is a variation of the starburst technique and was made using red, white and blue to fit the Operation Write Home Memorial Day 2014 Bloghop theme.  The twist in the technique is that I left a little space between each triangle to let the background show.  The Night of Navy cardstock really made the designer series paper pop!

The patriotic card was inspired by this Live in Sunshine card that I made over a year ago.  You can see how the starburst technique looks when the triangles are put together with no background showing between them.  Which version do you like the best?

This is an easy technique as you can see in my video tutorial.

Here is the picture tutorial. The starburst technique is easy to do and makes cards that have that wow factor.  You'll enjoy trying this technique whether it's the original version or the one with a twist.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Visit my online store to get what you want for your next project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Tape It Thank You Card

With Stampin' Up!'s Tape It stamp set, you can make this quick and easy card to fit any occasion.

To be completely honest, when I first saw this stamp set in the catalog, I didn't get it.  Why would you stamp faux washi tape when it was just as easy to use washi tape?  Then my friend, Christi Beck, showed a card similar to the one above and I just had to have this stamp set.  You can change the colors to fit your heart's desire without buying a whole roll of washi tape. 

Stampin' Supplies

Item	Description	Price
130715	Tape It Stamp Set	$18.95
133185	Starburst Sayings Stamp Set	$18.95
132967	Starburst Framelits Dies	$26.95
123125	Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine	$2.95

Visit my online store to get what you want for your next project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Sale-A-Bration Swaps

Here are the swaps I got for Sale-A-Bration, Stampin' Up!'s biggest promotion of the year, which goes from January 28th through March 31st.  For every $50 you spend, you get to pick a free Sale-A-Bration item.  Christi Beck made this mini espresso cup using Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper.  The Crisp Cantaloupe Ruffle Stretch Trim (130021  $8.95) is perfect for this project. 

I made the envelope favor (again).  I like how you can change the embellishments to fit different occasions.  This was my first time to use the Spiral Flower Die (129379  $17.95).  With the die, and a little practice, these flowers are quick and easy. You will need a hot glue gun.

Cindy Peterson made this cute 3D treat holder using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch (133324  $22.95).  Notice the little flags on Cindy's and my projects?  We made them using the Sale-A-Bration Banner Punch.

Everyone made two swaps.  My second swap was this card using the Banner Blast stamp set and Banner Punch.  You can get the details and a mini tutorial from my earlier post. 

This was Christi Beck's second swap.  It is a photo album using the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper and the See Ya Later stamp set.  I love how she used the Starburst Framelits Dies (132967  $26.95) and our Silver Glimmer Paper (124005  $4.95) to make the sentiment pop.

Here is an altered notebook that I made using the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper for a Leadership gift.  Stampin' Up! always has a nice designer series paper for Sale-A-Bration.  Sweet Sorbet coordinates with Basic Black, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Summer Starfruit and Whisper White.

Well, that is half of the Sale-A-Bration swaps I received tonight.  I'll share the others later this week.

Sale-A-Bration starts Tuesday, January 28th.  When you are placing your order, you can use the Weekly Deals, Clearance Rack and anything else in my online store to put together a $50 order so you can choose a Sale-A-Bration item for free!  Order $100 and select two free Sale-A-Bration items. 

Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Valentine's Day Favors and Cards

Valentine's Day Favors and cards, Stampin' Up! style, are a great way to let your family and friends know how much you appreciate them.  At our demonstrator meetings, we swap cards and projects.  And we have show and tell.  I wanted to share with you some of the ideas our group has for Valentine's Day.  This Envelope Favor is a quick way to share a treat and note for your special someone.  Check out my free tutorial for making this envelope favor using a piece of 5 x 5 designer series paper.

The mini espresso cups are another quick way to give someone a treat.  I get my cups from webstaurant.com.  Please email me if you would like a free template.

Melody Smith made this treat bag with a card that also fits in the bag using Stampin' Up!'s exclusive Valentine products which are only available through January 27th. 

Janet Holmes made these projects using Stampin' Up!'s Monster Girl and Monster Boy kits.  The monsters are designed to hold a little treat.  Sorry about the bad photography which makes it look like the boy monster has a cataract. LOL.

Marilyn Young made this card using the Language of Love stamp set which is available in the Occasions catalog.  

Cindy Peterson made this card using the starburst technique.

I hope you enjoyed these Valentine ideas.  Follow my Valentine Pinterest board  for more ideas.

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Top 13 Cards from 2013

Operation Write Home is hosting a Top 13 of 2013 Bloghop. This is a wonderful way to see great cards made by many different people as you join the bloghop. Thank you for stopping by my blog.

My Live in Sunshine card was by far the most popular card on my blog  in 2013 with over 4000 views. I got the starburst technique from OWH.

This Poppy card was also inspired by Operation Write Home.  I used OWH sketch #68 and included a free tutorial for this faux verdigris technique.

This Summer Silhouettes card was one of my personal favorites from 2013 and the first time I used Washi tape! 

This card using Stampin' Up!'s Dress Up Framelit was inspired by a card that I received in a demonstrator swap.

I designed this Quick and Easy card with the Glitter Bitty Butterfly to swap at Stampin' Up!'s convention.  This card uses multiple techniques to make it easy to make a lot of them quickly.

 This Best of Flowers Hydrangea card is a great example of an ugly duckling turning into a swan card.

I loved figuring out how to adapt the stamp to make this Ears to You Easter card.  While it may not be the most visually stunning card, it was lots of fun to make.

I remember putting these Banner Christmas cards together on the flight to Salt Lake City for Stampin' Up!'s Convention!

We made hundreds of these Sealed with a Kiss card kits for the Scrapbook Expo in Grapevine and for a service project for the Girl Scouts.

This Beautifully Baroque card was inspired by one that Shelli Gardner made.  While it's not my usual color combination, I loved how it looked when it was done.

 

This Modern Mosaic card was easy to make with Stampin' Up!'s coordinating designer series paper and mosaic punch.
 

I used the white craft ink technique to make this Pleasant Poppies card.

This For the Birds card was one of my personal favorites to make.  I like how outlining the birds seem to give them more depths.

And those are my Top 13 of 2013.  Thank you for visiting my blog and enjoy the rest of the Operation Write Home Bloghop.

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.
 
Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Live In Sunshine Happy Days Card

I got the inspiration for this Sunshine and Happy Days card from a post on Operation Write Home.  There is a tutorial for making this style of card called a starburst.

Because this card ended up being fairly quick and easy to make, I used it for a swap card at Stampin' Up!'s Leadership 2013 Conference in Orlando, Florida.  While it looks complicated, using the Big Shot and circle punch made the sun go very quickly.  Following the instructions on the OWH tutorial made the rest of the card much easier than I had thought it would be.

For this card, the starburst is built on a piece of paper that is 5 x 3 3/4".  The mat is 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 in.  If you've been following me for a while, you know that I like thin mats!  It's a style that I picked up from a folk art painting instructor.  She likes to add a thin mat to pull your eye toward the design.

For the grass, I cut a piece of Lucky Limeade card stock 2 x 5 and free hand cut the top edge. The top edge is lightly sponged. 

I have a close friend who has been ill and I wanted to make her a special card.  While I wanted her to know I was thinking of her, I did not want the usual get well sentiment.  I decided on this card because it reminds me of a quilt.  She likes quilting and papercrafting.

The Summer Smooches Designer Series paper is so bright and colorful that it helped make a cheerful card.  I have used this for other projects including a just for you card and birthday card.

Stampin' Supplies

Item	Description	Price
122887	Lacy and Lovely Clear-Mount Stamp Set	$17.95
121970	Pursuit Of Happiness Clear-Mount Stamp	$13.95
125409	Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper	$10.95
120906	2 1/2 in Circle Punch	$16.95
123126	Perfect Pennants Bigz L	$32.95

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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