Over The Rainbow!

It's a bonus post!!!!  We get an extra day of the year for leap day so I thought in honor of that I'd post an extra card!!!  I'm loving this card.  I was a little unsure about it while I was making it but once I saw the finished card I knew right away it was a keeper and that I loved it!!!  I saw a card similar to this on Pintrest, that inspired me.  It's very simple, but very pretty.  The buttons just pop off the card with that burst of color!  I used the cupcake punch for the clouds, I trimmed a couple of them so that they wouldn't all be the same size.  I sponged them, and the bottom layer lightly in Saraha Sand. 

For the buttons, I put a skinny piece of coordinating cardstock in each of them.  I thought about using bakers twine but in the end I decided that I didn't want white nor did I want bows or knots on them.  I love the look of the colored cardstock.  I used glue dots to stick them down.  I used my markers to color the greeting from Elementary Elegance.  This is a Sale a Bration set and oh by the way you can get the buttons FREE as your Sale a Bration choice too!!!!  So fun!!!!  One last thing if you're in the area of the Taylor Ranch Library tomorrow at 2pm make sure to stop by, I'll be teaching an intro to cardmaking there! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Yep, It's a Keeper!

I'm going to be completely honest with you.  When I saw the Elegant Bird die in the Mini catalog, I think my exact thoughts were "Really?  What on earth will I EVER do with that? I defiantly don't need that die!"  Well lucky for my my Mom must have had the exact opposite thought, she did buy it and I borrowed it.  I had seen some fun things done with it and my mind was slowly starting to change to '...hmmm perhaps I DO need that bird after all..."  But it wasn't until Leadership when Shelli made a card similar to this card on stage and that's it I was sold!!!!  There are a few differences in the card Shelli did and the one I did, but I love them both and I can say with confidence that I now LOVE the bird die!!

There is lots of stuff going on with this card so lets start from the bottom and work our way up.  Do you like that diagonal background.  I did that on my new Simply Scored Diagonal Plate, I scored every 1/4 inch.  The ribbon is attached behind the bird, if I made it again, I think I'd attach the ribbon on top of the bird under the Medallion.  The bird is sponged in Basic Gray and then sprayed, no make that drenched in shimmer spray!  The rosette is made with the new Designer Rosette die in the mini.  Remember that with this die you can make rosettes up to 10 inches in diameter, but you can also make them as small as you want.  For this one I used DSP that was about 1 inch in width.  Finally the button, I wanted the bakers twine to match the card perfectly so I used my ink pads and sponges and dyed 2 pieces to match the Riding Hood Red and Basic Gray.  If you're changing the color of your twine or ribbon, no matter which dying method you use, make sure you heat set it so the color doesn't bleed on your hands while working with it.  So I think that's it.  I just love this card!!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

So Many Rhinestones!

Wow!  Check out this card!  Don't you just love the sparkles!!!?  So pretty!!!!  I have a fun new product to tell you about too.  We were told about this at Leadership and last week demonstrators were allowed to order it!!!  It will be available to everyone in just a couple of days on March 1!!!  It's the new Simply Scored Diagonal Plate!  It's so cool, it fits right on top of your Simply Scored tool and you get all the same benefits with the diagonal plate that you do with the regular Simply Scored.  The diagonals correspond with the ruler on your simply scored and can sore every 1/8 inch!  So fun!!!!  I'm really excited about this!!!  I've had this card in mind ever since I saw the diagonal score plate at Leadership.  So pretty!!!

For this card I scored every 1 inch one way, turned it and scored it again at every 1 inch to get the diamond pattern.  This would be a really sweet card for a weeding, bridal or baby shower.  I went back and forth on what greeting to put on here.  In the end the 'daughter' saying from Loved Ones was chosen for pretty selfish reasons-that being even IF I ever decide to use this card, it will go to Megan and still be 'in the family' and then I don't ever have to part with it :)  To finish the card I added some more sparkle with Dazzling Details on the crown.  I hope you enjoy my super sparkly card!!  I have another beautiful card to show you tomorrow that I also used the diagonal score plate with!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Meeting Swaps

Last week was our meeting.  We had a great time and it was full of great ideas!  This months card swap theme was anything spring related.  The swaps as usual were great!

 This is Michelle C's swap.  It's a great example of how our SAB products go together so well!

 This one is Liz L's.  I love the dimension all the flowers, there's lots of layers textures and patterns.  I also love the pop of color from the turquoise!

 This one is Emily's.  I love a card with butterflies and this one is no exception.  I love all butterflies!!!

 This one is Kim M's.  I love the color combo and the budding tree.  So fun!

 This one is Erin's.  More butterflies!!!  Do butterflies scream Spring?  I love the coloring on this card and the scalloped border. 

 This is Amber's.  She used the Blossom Punch for the flowers and leaves.  Isn't it cute!!!?  So creative!

  This is Angela's card.  I just love the texture and vintage look to this card.  I love the saying and the flowers on the bottom!!!  Love this card!

Last but not least is Carmelita's.  This card is so cute!  I love how she used the label framelits to make a window!

Great job ladies!!!  Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Fun Flower!

This flower just might knock your socks off!  Seriously, it's so cool and sooooo fun!!!  The possibilities are endless with this fun punch tip.  Ok have I teased you enough, no ok a little more then :) Today is post number 975.  I can't believe that in only 25 more posts I'll be at 1000 posts!!!!!  That's so crazy!!!!  I'm sure I'll have to do some fun celebration and possibly give away a bunch of free stuff!!!!!  How cool would that be?!  Ok ready for this super fun tip?!!!  See the flower, that's the Blossom Punch from the mini catalog.  See that DSP on the inside of the flower, that's the Modern Label Punch matching up perfectly with the Blossom punch.   

I so wish that I could take full credit for this fantastic technique, but I can't.  I saw it on Dawn's blog.  I think my chin hit the floor when I saw this!  It's so easy and your final flower looks like you spent hours on it, when in reality it's only 3 modern label punches!!!  This was the technique that I demoed at our meeting last night.  Monday I'll have our swaps.  

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Just Hatched

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday which means that Easter is just around the corner.  I took Logan to a kid friendly church service yesterday and he had a good time and had good questions on the way home.  Then after bedtime it was time to finish my swaps for our meeting tonight.  This week it seems I'm running a little behind, normally my swaps are done by Tuesday but this month I was working late into Wednesday night.  I blame Dan though :) he took the last 2 days off of work and that always throws my week off. 

The card is pretty simple, I did some stamping and embossing and some coloring.  I used the Everybunny set, so cute!!!  I used my markers to color in the chick: So Saffron, More Mustard, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip.  I used my Label Framelits to cut them all out and tied some Pool Party ribbon on them.  Over all I'm so pleased with how they came out.  I just love that little chick!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Guest Blogger!

You might remember this page from this post.  It's so cute though, why not show it twice!  Well just because it's cute isn't the reason I'm showing it again.  I'm so excited to share with you that today I'm a guest blogger at the My Digital Studio site with this page!!!  I couldn't be more thrilled and excited!!!!  I won't bore you with the details here, head over to the MDS site and check out my special post there!!!!!  I'm not sure what time it will post, so if you've checked and it's not up check back a little later :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Razzleberry Butterflies!

I'm so glad that I got the Label Framelits.  They're just wonderful!  If you haven't had a chance to use them yet I highly recommend that you do.  I've been having fun playing with them lately and I think I figured out some fun techniques that you can do with them.  Did you know that you can use the framelits to emboss too??  This is not my original idea, and I've seen it done a couple of different ways, so I'm going to share how I did it and you can experiment and see if it works for you too.  It's a little difficult to tell from the picture but if you look at the 2nd picture you can kind of see where it's been embossed, I used the next smallest framelit and embossed a 'frame' around the butterflies. 

To emboss here's what I used with my Big Shot: Platform, 2 cutting pads, Framelit, Silicone Rubber, and a couple of shims.  Build your sandwich is this order: Platform open to tab 1, cutting pad, silicone rubber, cardstock, framelit (CUTTING SIDE UP!), cutting pad, shims if you need them.  This was successful for me, again I've seen it done a couple of different ways so you might need to experiment and find out what works best for you.   

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Seriously.....I Love This Card!

I've been having some good stampin' mojo lately.  You know how you go through stages where what you make is ok, then you have stages where what you make is so awesome and you just love it to pieces!!!!  That's how I've felt recently!  Now unfortunately for me I didn't make 2 of the last few cards I've posted and I've mailed them all so I don't have samples of them to keep for me---ugggghhh!!!  But I have the pictures.  This card is one for the boards though!  I may recreate this card and hang it in my room, I just love this one so much!!!!  It uses lots of our Sale a Bration products too!!!  The DSP-I LOVE THAT DSP!!!  You MUST get it!!!!  The brads are also used!!  I sometimes find it hard to use 'decorated' brads on my projects but the SAB brads are perfect.  They match, they're cute and I just love them! 

This card is pretty simple there's lots of layers to this card and they're all put on with dimensionals, because if you know me you know I wouldn't use anything else!  I took a piece of the Sale a Bration DSP, I think it was 3.25x3.25, punched the Blossom punch out of it-save the flower you can use it on another project!  Then I layered it on a piece of Pool Party that I embossed with the Polka Dots folder.  If you only own one embossing folder it MUST be this one!  I LOVE IT, and it's perfect for EVERYTHING!  I put a brad in the center with some Riding Hood Red and Peach Parfait cardstock.  I just love this card!!!!!  I hope you love it and share in my enthusiasm for it :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Scalloped Birthday

If I haven't said it before (but I know I have) I love Pintrest!  I have so many cards on my Cards I Love board, probably far more than I'll ever make but who cares I love them!  One of the cards is similar to this card.  Lots of textured scallops, I just love it!!!!  I decided to go for lots of browns on this card.  I had a customer ask me a couple weeks ago how to use the neutral colors.  I understand that, sometimes, especially the less popular ones, it's hard to incorporate them.  That's one of the reasons why I love this card. So I only used colors that you'll get in a neutrals assortments: Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. 

I debated for a long time about how to layer the scallops, 2 layers of one color-lightest to darkest or darkest to lightest, alternating colors, etc.  This is what I finally stopped on and I love the way it turned out.  I used 4 different embossing folders and the Tasteful Trim die for the scallops.  To finish it off I added a button and a greeting.  So cute right?!  I can't wait to make more cards like this.  This is one of those classic card layouts that you can use for any occasion!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Soaring!

Somehow I forgot to show you the Valentine's card that I gave to Dan this year.  It's not really a Valentine's card but I loved it and thought it would work well.  I have to admit too, that aside from assembling this card I had NOTHING to do with creating it.  This is actually one of the make and takes from the San Antonio Regionals from last month :)  When we were making it though I love it and thought it would be perfect for Dan for Valentines!  What makes it so fun is that there's 4 different kite designs.  Just turn the arrow on the right side and you get multiple kites flying!  Isn't that CUTE!!!?! 

I just love this card.  I don't own this set, yet.  Logan loves it.  He asks frequently when I'm going to get the kite set for him :)  So cute!  Unfortunately for him, there's lots more stuff on Mommy's wishlist before the kite set.  But back to the card.  The card itself is pretty easy, to make the kites rotate you just need a large circle, either with one of the bigger punches or with a die.  Use a brad to adhere it to the base of your card and adhere your top layer with dimensionals NOT touching the circle.  Then your kites will rotate.  We stamped the kites AFTER we assembled the card.  It make it easier for perfect placement. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Sale-a-Brating Anniversaries!

I'm loving this years Sale a Bration sets!!!  It's so funny, every year I see the sets and think "oh they're nice, not sure if they're 'me' though" Then EVERY year I see fantastic samples done with the sets and I fall in love with every, single one of them!  It happens every year!  You'd think I'd learn!  Fresh Vintage is one of my favorites this year but I've had a tendency to use it with the colors in the coordinating DSP.  Which is fine, but I wanted to branch out a little and try something new.  I LOVE this color combo--LOVE IT!!!!!!! It's one of my all time favorites.  Crumb Cake (love that any day!), Pretty in Pink (my favorite pink), and Bravo Burgundy (ummmmm I never use this color).  But don't they look fantastic when combined, so pretty!!!!

I love this card.  I used my markers to color in the stamp and stamped it over and over on the cardstock. Then for a fun look I crumpled up some scraps of cardstock and separated the cardstock for a faux suede look, and I ripped it for a different look too.  Just a tip, Stampin' Up! cardstock is not only the BEST cardstock out there, but it's the only cardstock that you can literally separate like this.  It's such a high quality of cardstok and the color goes through and through which is so important when doing a technique like this!  The bow is tied with Crumb Cake Seam Binding then I crumpled that too.  Finally I got out my color spritzer and spritzed everything!  It's a fun card but most of all I love the colors!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day!  We are probably the most boring people in the world.  Our Valentine's will consist of school for Logan, possibly story time at the library for Megan, and work for Dan and I.  Dan said he will stop and pick up dinner on the way home.  We live super exciting lives don't we :)  We did get Logan and Megan little gifts but that's pretty much all we're doing.  Valentine's Day is a strange holiday.  I'm all for celebrating those that you love, but why just one day a year?  So the theory that goes around our house is that it's just like any other day and we'll celebrate, possibly not today but any and everyday!  BUT since it is Valentine's we do want to show others our love and appreciation.  These are the boxes I made for Dan's office.  I love them but I think the owl boxes from the other day are so cute! I got a few comments from it and I appreciate and read every single comment :)

You might have noticed a color theme from the last 3 posts.  I didn't mean to use the same colors everyday but I had excess cardstock and DSP in these colors and wanted to use them.  I do love these boxes.  They're so cute and easy.  You really only need the big shot, fancy favor die and a heart punch!  Seriously it's that easy!!!  With a little layering of cardstock and DSP you can get fantastic looking boxes, and how cute would this layout be on a card too!!!  The boxes are filled with an assortment of chocolate.  So even though Valentine's won't be super exciting here, I hope you have a fantastic day and spend it with your loved ones!!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Quick and Easy!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, if you're still looking for Valentines to make for your loved ones, this is a perfect one for you!  It's so quick so fun and so easy!  This would be a great project for a make and take too!  I used the largest of the Labels Framelits cut out my cardstock then folded it in half.  I cut out the next largest layer and layered that on it as well.  Believe it or not that's pretty much it!  I embellished the front with some hearts from punches and tied the top with some ribbon, after sticking my candy in of course!  That's it though.  Easy fun and so cute!!!! 

Owl Boxes

Yesterday I showed you the Valentine's that I made for Logan's class mates.  Today I'll show you the teacher gifts.  When the teacher sent home the Valentine list I had no idea that Logan had so many teachers.  I guess if I thought about it I knew but until it was written for me to see it never clicked.  There's the PE teacher, art teacher, computer teacher, librarian, and more! Logan talks about these people, but I guess since he never calls them by name it never clicked in my brain.  So I made tons of these little owl boxes.  They are adorable though!!!

Monday I showed you the little owl that I made after I saw it in Heather Summers blog.  This time I stepped them upa bit.  I added wings, used silver glimmer paper for the beak and feet and added a little heart. For the box I used a retired die, Bag with Scallops. I'm sorry, I generally try not to use retired stuff, but for this project it was just so perfect!  I'm not entirely sure why SU retired that die anyway, it's a great die and I love it!  You could make a similar box with the two tags die.  Or just stick these guys to any big shot box. 

I had some incolor DSP so that's where my color choice came from.  I added a little banner tag on the side and filled the boxes with some chocolate.  I hope the teachers like it and enjoy the chocolate :)  Of course it wasn't until after I made them that Dan pointed out that he would like some Valentine treats for his office.  I'm not sure if I'll make more owls, though they're cute, but I might go for something a little different for his co workers :)  Maybe I'll whip up some for family and friends too :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

A Wild Time!

I've spent most of the week creating little Valentine's for Logan's class mates and teachers.  I'll show you the teacher Valentine's tomorrow, today I'm going to show you the kid ones.  I wanted to do something this year that was fun, kids would enjoy, simple, Logan could help with and most important didn't have candy for the kids.  I'm not a huge non candy Mom but when it comes to things like this I usually try to stay away from candy.  I know in our house it generally just sits there until I throw it away.  So I try not to give candy to kids for Valentine's. 

So in a magazine last month I saw this idea with little toy animals.  CUTE!!! That was perfect.  So after an extensive search for the little animals and enough of them for his class, (we finally found them at a craft store), I could get started.  The cards are super simple, it's Lucky Limeade cardstock and the Sweet Shop DSP in the Occasions Mini.  I printed out appropriate sayings for each of the animals and punched them with the XL Oval punch.  I tied each animal on the cards with yarn. 

So here's what it says for each animal: Cats (there are tigers, panthers and lions): "You're Purrrfect Valentine!"  Rhinos, (not pictured Zebras, Gorillas, Giraffes):  "I'm wild about you Valentine" Camels (my mom came up with this one-the camel was the hardest one to come up with): "I camel long way to wish you a happy day!" Alligator: "You've got a great smile!" Elephant: "You're unforgettable Valentine!" Bear: "Have a beary Happy Valentine's" and finally the Hippo: "Hippo Valentine's Day!"

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

5 Minute Card

Ever have one of those days where you really just want to stamp something but you're running short on time?  Well that was me.  I just had a couple minutes but I really wanted to complete a card.  This card is so pretty and so easy.  The hardest part, and the longest part was cutting out the flowers, but even that only took a couple minutes.  After that it was just a matter of pulling out the dimensionals and sticking them down.  I used my Simply Scored tool to add some subtle score lines along the edges.  And of course I pulled out my spritzer to add just a little more to the white cardstock. 

This is one of those cards that you could show to a brand new stamper.  It doesn't have a lot of accessories-unless you count dimensionals, it has none!  But it shows that you don't need alot of accessories to make a stunning, quick and thoughtful card.  Remember next time your stamping to 'KISS' Keep It Simple Stamper!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Are YOU Sale a Brating?

I wanted to show you a couple of the cards we made at the Step Up To Sale a Bration class last weekend.  I did this class with my upline, and she designed these cards.  I just love them, but I love everything she does!  They're both so classy and fun and I would love to have these in my card stash!  The first one is so striking, I always love black and white together or in this case Vanilla.  She added a little splash of gold but other than that it's just black and Very Vanilla.  Simple and beautiful!!!

The next one uses one of my favorite Sale a Bration sets, Kindness Matters.  It's also one that in the catalog but you can earn it free during Sale a Bration.  It's funny, I've loved this set for soooo long but never bought it.  Now it's on its way to me FREE, funny how things work out. I love the colors on this card, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake.  They look so good together.  My favorite part about this card is the ruffled ribbon!  Love the look of that!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Quick Owls!

What a weekend, how is it possibly over already?  It went by so fast!  It began on Saturday with our Step Up to Sale a Bration Class.  We had a great time and it was so much fun!  I hope all our guests enjoyed it too!  Then Sunday was church and the ever important Super Bowl.  Between all the activities and festivities going on I lost track of time, never got my pictures taken and well you know the rest.  But here I am, better late than never.  And I think you'll enjoy what I have.  I got the inspiration for these adorable little owls from Heather Summers.  She's fantastic!  I changed mine a little, this was just a test one :) and I think mine is a little smaller, I used smaller circle punches. But still so cute and if I were to do it again-of course I will.  I think I'll use the glimmer paper for the beak and feet like Heather did I love the sparkle it provides! 

My little owl and his chest is made with the 1 3/4 inch circle punch.  I used the 3/4 inch circle punch on the top of his head.  His eye's are also the 3/4 inch circle punch and the little circle from the itty bitty punch pack.  His beak is hand cut and his feet are 2 scallops from the scallop circle punch.  These are pretty basic punches and you can modify it larger or smaller with whatever punches you have. Since he was just made for fun I attached him to a 3x3 card and stuck a little chocolate inside, with a hand written note "OWL always love you!" SO CUTE!!!  I love it!!!  I may be making a bunch more of these!  

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Wonderful You!

Have you been to Pintrest?  That site is addicting, soooooo many wonderful ideas, soooo many yummy recipes, sooo many fun tips, more than I'll ever get around to.  But it's a fun site!  I saw a card similar to today's card on pinterest.  I just loved the basic layout and the simplicity of it.  I had to make it.  I have tons of cards 'pined' on my board, guess I'll never be short on inspiration.  So many I want to do, just need to find the time :)  But back to the card.  I love the color combo on it.  If you're ever unsure of what colors go with what-get a color coach :) but if that's not handy just stick with the color group and you'll be ok, these colors are all from the 2011-2013 In Colors.  

I used some Lucky Limeade bakers twine for my bow.  I added some ruffled ribbon along the bottom of the white to add a little fun touch to it.  Finally to finish it off I embossed some hearts along the bottom.  You'll find that embossing folder along with a couple other fun ones in the Occassions Mini catalog.  Tomorrow is my 'Step Up to Sale a Bration' class with my upline Amber.  I'm excited it's going to be a fun class.  I'll have highlights from that next week.  Until then have a great weekend!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Try It FREE!

If you follow my blog you already know what a huge fan I am of My Digital Studio, but did you know that you can now try My Digital Studio for FREE!!!!  Stampin' Up! is amazing and is offering everyone a FREE 30 day trial of My Digital Studio!  How stinkin' amazing is that!!!!  If after the 30 days you decide you don't think it's for you, no worries, you're not out any money and your 30 day trial just expires.  So if you're a little hesitant this is the perfect opportunity for you!  Don't want to decide now, that's ok, this is an ongoing offer change you mind at any time! 

As for this page, I LOVE IT!!!  I took these pictures of Megan after bath a couple nights ago.  She loves to climb up on the stool any chance she gets, I'm not sure if she can even see herself in the mirror but she loves to look :)  I love the bottom picture with her on her little tip toes.  So cute!!!  The rest of this page was made with lots of downloads.  I downloaded the Twitterpated kit, which is awesome and comes with the pleated ribbon, buttons, DSP and more!  The Loving Thoughts set is also a new download.  I LOVE THAT SET!!!!  Please SU if you can hear me, don't retire this one!  So that's it, a fun, adorable page and a free trial-what could be better!?  If you want more info on the free MDS trial please let me know, I'd be thrilled to talk to you about it!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Blushing Birthday

I love this card so much! It was a birthday card for one of Logan's classmates last weekend.  We went to multiple birthday parties last weekend.  I had some kids cards on hand but none for a girl so I whipped this one up in no time.  With the help of the Blossom Builder Printed Kit in the Mini it was really easy to put together.  Who knew those kits were so cool!!!  I would have never bought it myself but they gave it to us at Leadership and they're so fun!!!  They are so many colors, they'll go with any project, plus they're textured, more fun, and they come with pink rhinestones!!!!  So FUN!!!

For the card I layered lots of scallop edgelits after I sponged them, it gives them more texture.  To finish the card I used a Rich Razzleberry button and some bakers twine.  So cute and literally couldn't be easier!!!!!  I hope I've inspired you to get your own Blossom Builder kit!  They really are too much fun and so easy!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!