Lots O'Swaps

Last week was our meeting and I'm happy to share all the wonderful swaps with you!  The theme was New Holiday Catalog.  Though we hope people follow the themes, we also understand that sometimes people don't preorder or have the right supplies so as card lovers we're not too strick with that rule :) 

This one was Mindy's.  Very pretty and I love the pleated DSP!

This is Kay's.  I love all the layers and texture on this card.

Amber did this one.  The leaves are cut out with the framelits that will be in the Holiday catalog.  And isn't that DSP just amazing!?

This is Michelle C's.  I love cards with glitter!  The little red garland on this tree is made with the red Dazzling Details!  So cute!

This is Stephanie's card and I just love that she stitched the card.  The vellum layer on the black is stitched on! 

This is Liz L's card.  So sweet and the rhinestones are an excellent addition!

This one is LaRee's.  The leaves are all embossed and cut out with the framelits.  Don't they look great! 

Cassie did this card.  So fun!  I really didn't think I needed the jar set but clearly I was wrong and I'm ordering it this week!

This is Liz K's card.  I love these little ornamanets and I love that she use the tree from Lovely as a Tree to hang it.  Always a fun use of the tree!

Finally one of  my favorite swaps done by Kim M.  I just love the jar and the pears and the colors!  So fun!!!!

Poinsettia On Steroids

Remember Friday's card? Well I took that same idea and used it with another stamp set from the upcoming Holiday Catalog. This set is a must have and it has coordinating framelits! How could you not love it!! I used the same shape of the ornament from Friday's card and did the same thing, stamped and cut 10 of them and layered them into a beautiful flower! I love the smaller poinsettia but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this larger one! Isn't that button fantastic too!? Also in the new catalog!!!!

 

I love the pattern on this stamp and it works so perfectly for this card. Over the next few days I'll show you the swaps from our meeting last week. This will be a BIG week on Wednesday MDS 2 is released!!!! CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT!!!!!!! Expect some MDS pages in the near future :) Plus the Holiday Catalog will go live! Whooo hoo!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

A Christmas Poinsettia

Yesterday I showed you my swap for our meeting last night, today I'll show you my 3 minute demo.  How pretty is that little flower?  would you believe me if I told you it was made with a stamp that supposed to be a light or an ornament???  Well it is!!!  I used the new stamp set (in the Holiday Catalog) Merry Mini's and stamped 10 of the ornament, punched them out, then layered them in a circle to look like a poinsettia!  Cute huh???!  I wish I could take the credit for this card, but again I copied from this card on Splitcoast.  I do have a goal this year to 'create more original projects' so I'm hoping to stick to that.  But it's so hard with soooo many wonderful projects inspiring you everywhere!

But back to the flower.  I added some leaves, a pearl and some ribbon to finish the card.  Isn't it just so pretty!?!  I think today it's back to the 'big summer clean' I think I'm almost done!  Goodness knows I probably should do this more often :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Sparkling Snowflakes!

I LOVE GLITTER!  I love all things that sparkle!  I love shiny things!  I can't even begin to start to share with you how much I love this card!!!!  This card was inspired (ok copied) from Mary Fish, she's fabulous by way!!!!  This new champagne glitter paper will be in the Holiday Catalog and I HAD to have it when I saw it the catalog.  I have packages of the red and silver but tend not to use them-they're so pretty just to look at!  But after I saw Mary's card I thought-ok I'm going to do it, I'm going to use my glitter paper!  Don't you just love it!!!!!??!  It's hard to tell in the picture but in real life you'll find yourself just staring at the sparkly wonderfulness that is the glitter paper!

Plus the snowflake is put together with dimensionals which makes it even more fun!  The layers and lift!  Yay for glitter and dimensionals!!!!  I'm pretty sure that the SU workers that pack the boxes so perfectly must think I'm crazy.  I order dimensionals with almost every order and I order TONS of them!!!  SU should sell them in bulk!  I have a whole drawer full of dimensionals.  I go through them regularly and I don't ever want to run out :)  Some people stock pile food, or other life saving things to use in an emergency I stock pile dimensionals!  :)  I can't wait to see the rest of the swaps from our meeting tonight and I'll make sure to share them with you next week!   

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Starfruit Zig Zags

Hello!  It's Wednesday!  Not sure why that makes me happy, maybe because we are half way through the week or maybe it because that means that tomorrow is our monthly demonstrator meeting!!!  I missed last months because I was in Colorado, so I'm extra excited for this months, PLUS I can't wait to see some of the fun stuff brought back from convention from those that went in our group!  Today I think I'm taking a break from the massive organizing going on in our house.  I tackled my stamp room closet yesterday and didn't have the courage to do the top shelf.  So it still needs finished, but I got 80% of the closet cleaned out and organized.  Found LOTS of SU stuff I had no idea I had :(  Plus a few bags I forgot I had, I'm debating whether or not to sell those.  Some of the things I found were tons of decor elements (I knew I had them just forgot), I found 3 of the build a house sets that SU sold a couple years ago (I had no idea I had those!), lots of half finished projects : / and a notebook full of patterns for boxes-who knew!  Somehow in between cleaning out the closet I found some time to stamp.  This card didn't photograph well.  I think it's because I waited too long to take the picture and lost the sunlight, sorry!

I saw this card on Pintrest and loved the use of the Tasteful Trim die.  So I thought I'd take my spin on it.  I like it but my favorite thing on this card is the flower!  It's so stinkin' cute in person!  I used the new scallop circle punch that's in the Holiday Catalog, available on August 1 to customers and punched 4 of them in Elegant Eggplant.  Then I crumpled them up, broke the fiber and separated them so that I had 8 scallop circles. Then I folded each one in quarters and stacked them up in a flower, some pearls to finish and you're done!  So pretty!

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

Mommy and Me

How much do I love this MDS page?!!! So much and it's really pretty simple, just laying down punches and filling them with some color really.  The flowers are from a beautiful download called Soft Blooms I think?  I added some leaves with the 5 petal flower punch.  If you haven't already heard MDS is getting a HUGE upgrade to MDS 2!!!  I can't wait I'm so stinkin' excited!!!  And it's happening NEXT WEEK!!  August 1 we can get the upgrade-I'm talking a major upgrade!  So many new features and details!  Look for more info on August 1 regarding the new MDS!  It's a quick post today, we're in the middle of a MAJOR summer clean and reorganizing things and getting rid of things and well you know how that goes. Off I go to get more done! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

My Christmas Penguin!

Isn't my Christmas Penguin cute!?!  I just love him!  This card is super fun isn't it!?  I love the torn layers to look like snow!  I love the polka dot background! And I love my unique and fun clouds!  I saw on Heather Summers blog last week some fun clouds and when I read how she did them I was blown away!  How simple!  Just use your circle punch to create your own fun designs!  Isn't it awesome!?! 

This stamp set is so fun and when I saw it in the catalog I had to have it!  It's the No Peeking set.  I see some really cute gift tags in my future.....  I added some Dazzling Details to the penguin and the snow.  Dan HATES glitter and said the card was better without it.  But as for me, the more sparkle the better so I love the glitter!!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

We'll Have To Use Our Imaginations

First off sorry for the slightly blurry picture.  It uploaded funny, but the second picture is a nice close up.  Now let's use our imagination and pretend that the blender pens are actually some sort of yummy treat!  I wanted to put a fun wrapped package of twizzlers in there, no twizzlers.  Then I thought well I'll just do m&m's, we only have the peanut m&m's in the house and they're too big for the skinny cello bags....hmmmmm.  Then I thought well I could go to the store which is just around the corner. BUT then I have to take 2 kids, into the candy aisle--do I really have the energy for that???? NOPE!  Plus I would have had to wake Megan from her nap.  So we're going to pretend instead :)  But you know a package of blender pens would be a perfect gift for a stamper :) 

I used the petite pocket die and embossed the distressed dots on it.  The purple (Elegant Eggplant) is embossed with the Chevron embossing folder.  I LOVE that folder, almost as much as I love my Polka Dot one....almost.  I used markers to color the stamp and black taffeta around the punched image.  Cute!!!  I almost never invest in a Halloween stamp set.  In 9 years I think the Tricky Treats set is only the 2nd Halloween set I've bought.  But I just loved all the cute little images in it so this year I had to have it.

Look what came for me this week....stacks of Stampin' Up! happiness!!!!  Lots of paper, the new embossing tool, the new alphabet dies and lots of fun stamp sets and lots of adhesives and new ink pads!  Mostly holiday themed.  I'm getting ready for some serious holiday crafting-YES in July!  We're less than 6 months away from Christmas people! 

Thanks for looking see you soon!!!!

Pretty As A Rose!

I LOVE this gift card holder and naturally it was the one at the class that took the most time.  But wouldn't you want to spend a few minutes on this.  Just look at those roses!  Gorgeous!!!!  Plus they're pretty easy to make too!  Use a scallop circle punch and cut it into a spiral, from the out side to the center.  Then starting at the center, roll your spiral into a nice tight rose.  Use a glue dot or tombow to hold it together and stick it on the card.  Isn't that easy!?!  It take a little practice but once you do one you'll do a million in no time!!

I also love the way this gift card hold opens and folds.  Isn't it fun!!!?!  Don't you just love that paper, it's the new Natural Composition Specialty DSP, I LOVE IT!!!  It's really sturdy so you can use it for 3-D projects and it will hold up.  Plus it comes embossed and is just so pretty!!!  I rarely go through an entire pack of DSP during the whole SU year and I'm already almost out of this paper! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Gift Card Holders times 2!

As promised I have 2 gift card holders to show you today.  I'm saving my favorite for tomorrow!  It's so pretty it deserves it's own post :)  But these two are pretty awesome too!!!!  I especially love this first one made with the Top Note Die.  The Top Note die is one of the dies that you really MUST HAVE!  I love the scalloped border on this one that highlight the greeting, isn't that cool!  I wish I could say it was my idea but it was not.  I'm pretty sure I saw it on Pintrest.

The inside of the card has a little pocket to hold the gift card and plenty of room for a greeting or personal note.  The butterfly is so pretty on this card too.  The new punch is just amazing and the details on the butterfly are so so so pretty!!!! 

The second card would work well for a man.  Masculine projects always seem to challenge me.  Anyone else out there challenged with masculine cards??  I think I'm getting better, perhaps it due to more products in my hands (that always helps).  Anyway this holder is fun and simple.  The outside is simple but thanks to the wonderful Polka Dot DSP it really pops! 

The inside has a sweet little pocket to hold the gift card.  This style of gift card holder isn't new.  There's probably a million of these out there.  But it's such a great design and it never fails to be a wonderful gift card holder!  Check back tomorrow for my favorite holder!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Pop Up Gift Card and Ribbon Control

I'm going to show you something really cool and something that perhaps might make your life just a little better, at least where ribbon is concerned.  Normally I don't promote products that SU doesn't sell but since SU doesn't sell a ribbon holder of ANY kind any more, I think it's ok to share this, especially since I'm so excited about it.  I know I've posted pictures before of my old ribbon storage with the dowel rod.  It's ok it works, but when I finish a roll or I have a new roll to put up it's a pain in the you know where....usually my ribbon ends up piling up on my desk.  Well those days are over thanks to my friend Trish!  She is the inventor of the Ribbon Roll Control Holders!  Make sure you check out the website, there's an awesome video on them there!  The best part is there's no dowel rod or any rod of any kind!

We all use ribbon, I think as stampers it's almost required.  I know we're all looking for a place to store that ribbon.  When I first heard of Trish's idea, I thought well that's great but unless they can be hung on my wall I can't use them I don't have much spare desk space, well they CAN be hung!  Isn't that great!  They're easy to put together and really secure when they're hung (or sitting on a desk or shelf).  So go check it out, if you're looking for ribbon storage this could solve your problem and make sure to tell Trish that Ruth sent you :)

I do have a project today, image that!  This is one of the gift card holders that my guests got to make at my gift card class on Saturday.  The card uses the new Reason To Smile set!  Remember this stamp set is ONLY available this month and you can get it for ONLY $5 with a $50 order!  That's an amazing deal!!!  This card is so pretty too, I love the colors.  But the fun part is when you open it up...

.....the gift card pops up at you!  Cute, right??!  And it's actually really simple.  To make the pop up section you just need a word window punch.  Punch on both sides of the inside liner of your card.  Then use your Simply Scoring Tool or a bone folder and score a line between the top of the two punched word windows and the bottom of the punched word windows.  Those score lines are valley folds, the rest are mountain folds.  Pretty simple! And it just pops out at you!  I'll show you the other 3 holders tomorrow and Thursday.   

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!  

Thinking Of You

What a busy weekend!  I had a great time at my Birthday Gift Card Holder class.  The gift card holders we made were so cute!  I'll show them later this week!  Today's card is a fun one that I made a while ago but never got around to taking pictures. It got put in my basket and kind of forgotten *gasp*!  It's so cute too!  How could I possibly forget it!  I saw a card similar to this layout on Pintrest (I'm pretty sure it was pintrest but I'm not positive).  There's lots of embossing on this card and YES if you haven't figured it out yet, the Polka Dot Embossing folder is my FAVORITE!!!!!

This card was really simple to make.  But just a quick tip and it's probably pretty obvious but I'm going to mention it anyway, make sure you punch the scallop first then cut the cardstock in half.  Seriously it will make your life sooooo much easier.  I think the first go round at this card I tried to punch it separately, until I finally had my Ah Ha moment :)  Finally a few pearls and a cute banner to finish the card!  Lots more to do today, but don't worry I have posts all week this week :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Ummmm I Got Nothin'

Hi There!  So the week got away from me, I feel WAY behind on my class prep for my class tomorrow so unfortunately I have nothing cute to show you today :(  I might be back this afternoon with a fun project, I have a few half completed things on my desk.  But between my class prep, catching up with a friend last night and promising Logan a ride on the Zoo train today, there's not much time left to stamp.  So sorry but thanks for checking in! 

All In A Row

I've been having lots of fun playing with the new Holiday Catalog items.  This lovely little (and I do mean little) set is so cute!  It has 3 coordinating punches that go with it, of course this was on my wishlist!  The tree is just one of the images.  I love this card too!  I love how they're lined up, I love the little tree patterns and I love the colors.  I used Gumball Green, Old Olive, and Garden Green for this card.  Though it looks like alot of work, all that punching and gluing of such tiny pieces can drive a person crazy right?  Wrong!  It really didn't take that long-and 2 way glue is  your best friend when dealing with such little pieces :)  But it's really such a cute set!

The greeting is also new, I embossed it with gold embossing powder.   I used the Tasteful Trim die for the scallops on the bottom and my Polka Dot Embossing Folder for the base of the card.  I hope you love this card too!!!  I'll take a break from Christmas for a few days, it is still a little early to think about Christmas, even though it's less than 6 months away!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Meet My Frosty Friends!

I spent a good portion of yesterday, pretty much all of Megan's nap playing with my new Holiday Catalog toys!  Logan was happily playing in his room, didn't want my interaction so I took advantage of the great opportunity to stamp my little heart out, especially since UPS had just delivered my new products on Monday.  One of the new stamp sets in the Holiday Catalog is this cute little snowman set.  The snowmans are a stamp set of 1, so it's really affordable!  This card is so much fun, the card opens a little differently than most cards--had I been thinking more clearly I would have taken a picture, sadly though I've lost the daylight:(  But instead of opening at the bottom it opens in the middle the top section from the Raspberry Ripple up folds up and the greeting section folds down.  Hope that all makes sense. 

I colored all my snow folk with markers.  Then I used my crystal effects to give them some shine and texture.  I can't even tell you how long it's been since I used crystal effects, all I can say is it's been tooooooo long :)  The greeting and button are also new in the upcoming Holiday Catalog.  How and when can you get these new products you ask?  Well, if you're a demonstrator you can get them now during the preorder!  If you're not a demonstrator, you might want to consider signing up.  It's only $99 and you can customize your kit to your needs.  If you don't have a demonstrator or if I'm your demonstrator :) contact me and I'd love to talk to you about joining.  But if you're not a demonstrator the Holiday Catalog will go live on August 1.  FUN!!!!  I'm sure you'll see many more Holiday Catalog sneak peeks coming up in the next few days :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

My Creativity Journal!!!

Remember this card from Friday? You guys seemed to love it just as much as I did and I thank you for that! I was actually kind of sad to mail it right after I made it, but I know the recipient of that card will appreciate it. But since I LOVED it so much and I wanted to have 'one of my own' I did my own but a different version of it. I apologize for using these little albums I know SU doesn't sell them anymore :( BUT I was given 2 of them and never did anything with it so after looking at them for MONTHS I sat down and finally made my Creativity Journal. At regionals last October, then at the Regionals in San Antonio in January attendees were given these journals and we were supposed to make them into our creativity journals. They even included a list of activities to spark your creativity, things like "List in your journal all the reasons why you are a legitimate artist and/or designer" or "Add a 'happy colored' accessory to your room or office. Take a picture of it, put it in your journal and describe why you picked that particular object to remind you of your heightened creative awareness." And many more! Truth be told I can't tell you for sure why I waited so long to do my journal, I think I wanted to make it perfect and I wasn't inspired enough to do it. Either that or just lack of time, yeah let's go with the lack of time excuse instead :)

I LOVE how the finished album looks! I used the International Bazaar DSP (you'll see that ALOT this year). I just love these three colors together! I painted the outside of my book with white paint before getting started, I didn't like the colors with the kraft color, but I love them with the white! I love the twine bows on each butterfly, I think that's my favorite! You'll notice the butterflies have 2 layers. The bottom layer I punched the butterfly out in the coordinating cardstock, then punched the stamped butterfly out for the top layer. LOVE LOVE LOVE this little journal. One of the Creative Challenges is "Ask several friends or family members to compliment you on how creative you are. Record their responses in your journal." So since I consider you all my friends I'm going to extend that question to you! If you feel up to it leave me a comment on this post or email me and let me know your thoughts on my creativity! This will be my first entry in my journal!!

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

Top Of The Mountain!

The last week in June we spent in Colorado Springs.  My husbands family was having a family reunion so we went.  Yes we went to Colorado Springs in the midst of the horrible Waldo Canyon Fire.  We saw plumes of smoke everyday.  We thought that we wouldn't be able to do most of our plans but thankfully for the most part our trip went off as planned.  We didn't get to do the Garden of the Gods, next time :)  But we were able to take the cog railway up to the top of Pikes Peak!  That's over 14,000 feet in altitude.  Thankfully when you get to the top you're only there for about half an hour, it's a little hard to breathe at that altitude!  The views were great and it even started to hail on us as we left the top.  The top two pictures on the first page show some of the smoke coming up from the canyons below. 

The train ride was about an hour up.  The views out the train are really beautiful.  Logan was hoping to see some big horn sheep but we didn't find any.  Our guides on the train said that the fire might have scared some of them away temporarily.  I'm sure that you`'ll get to see much more of Colorado Springs over the next few weeks as I scrapbook more of our trip :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Butterfly Wishes

I love, love, love this card!!!!  How fun and simple is this card?!  From start to finish we're talking just a few minutes.  I love those quick, beautiful cards!  There's not much to say with this card.  I went with some of the DSP from the International Bazaar pack.  From there my colors were decided, I just needed a stamp set (or two) and some accessories.

I used my markers to color my stamp and added some pearls to finish off the card.  I love the embossed polka dots, it just completes the card so beautifully!  That's really all there is to this card.  I told you easy!  Have a great weekend-get some stamping done and stay out of the heat! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Watercolor Magic!

Oh my goodness, I LOVE this card!!!!  I love the watercoloring, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stamp set and I love the ruffled border!  Where do I start with this card.  This stamp, Two by Two was a definate must have for me when I first went through the catalog!  I was so excited to play with it!!!  I decided to use watercolor paper, and I embossed the image in black on it.  I love watercoloring with embossed images, especially detailed ones like this.  The raised embossed areas keep the ink in that area with little or no bleeding into another area.  For the ruffled border around the edge I used the Finishing Touches Edgelits.  I cut a few of them and just ruffled as I went around.  I love the look!!!!! 

For the image itself.  I used my aqua painter and markers to watercolor.  I love using makers when I watercolor but I find that they work best when you use them on watercolor paper.  I used tons of colors on this card.  I'll try to remember them all and list them; Elephants-Baja Breeze, Butterflies-Raspberry Ripple, Birds-Pacific Point, Giraffes-Summer Starfruit and More Mustard, Lions-More Mustard and Crumb Cake, Ark-Soft Suede, Water-Tempting Turqouise.  I think I got them all :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Quilted Cards

I was fully prepared to put up a nice patriotic post today, since it is after all America's Birthday.  But time ran out and I didn't get a chance to create anything :( So instead today I'm going to show you a trio of cards, all created the same way, all super simple and all awesome!!!  I used the Comfort Cafe DSP on all of them, the first card is the reverse side of the DSP for the other two.  I love the first card the best but the other side works great for masculine cards :)

To create this fun pattern, I cut 3 pieces of DSP about 5x3 3/4 (just slightly larger).  Then I just ran them through my paper cutter and cut from one corner diagonally a few times.  Have another piece of paper cut the same size ready, (doesn't mater what color it is I used vanilla on mine).  Then it's just like a puzzle picking which pieces you want where and sticking them down. 

Once your pieces are all stuck together, trim off any edges that don't line up if needed then run it through the big shot.  I used the square lattice folder on mine.  When it comes out it looks quilted and the texture is just amazing.  Plus adding the texture like that hides all those edges where the DSP lines up and just makes it look seamless and like it's one piece of paper!  Pretty awesome right?!  That's all from me today.  For my USA friends have a great 4th and be safe out there!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!