Swapping Christmas

Last night was our demonstrator meeting, this month we did a shoebox swap.  Where we each brought the supplies for everyone to make our card.  We made 15 cards last night!  We always start our shoebox swaps with a potluck dinner, so there was stamping, great food and the best company you could ask for.  All the demos in our group are so nice, funny, and just so much fun to hang out with and stamp!  I always have a great time!

The theme was Christmas.  This was my card for the swap.  It's simple, fun and fast!  When you're making 15 cards in one night you want them to be fast!   I'll have the rest of the swaps next week! 

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

Baby Shower Wrap Up!

It's the final day of my baby shower share.  First up is the party favors.  I was in a pinch and wanted to do something super cute and wanted something hand made.  I found these little 2x2 boxes at a craft store and covered the sides with cardstock and some die cut letters.  I added some scalloped ribbon on the lids for a finishing touch.  The boxes were filled with yummy chocolates and mints.  Cute!!!!

The mom to be didn't want any cheese games at her shower (you know the games, we've all attended those showers with the guessing games and other shower games).  Instead of games, we had a onesie making station set up.  I bought some of SU's fabric and put some iron on adhesive on the pieces of fabric.  I precut some shapes on the big shot for people who didn't feel they could hand draw anything.  We set up some irons and let people create, create, create!

The onesis were great!  Everyone did a great job and I love all the fabric, they all coordinate so well together and this little baby boy is going to be so well dressed!!!!   

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

Wishes For Baby!

At the shower, I made this swatchbook for Jamie and her little boy to be Denton.  I got this idea from one of Heather Summer's online classes.  One of the talented class participants posted an idea like this and I loved it and had to do it for the shower.  This is the cover of the swatchbook.  The bear and blocks are all done with punches -of course!!!

Inside the swatchbook are pages that the guests at the shower filled out for the Mom to be.  Lots of wishes, hopes and other advice.  I took the swatchbook apart and everyone filled a page out when they arrived.  After everyone had filled a page out I reassembled the swatchbook and it was given to Jamie at the end of the shower.   

Also in the swatchbook were a few pages to record the gifts she received.  Just a fun, easy way to remember the shower in the convenience of a swatchbook.  The swatchbooks are amazing and with the extra 31% they're about $10 each!!!!  Amazingly affordable!!!!

This is the back of the swatchbook.  Date and baby's name so that IF she has more she'll know this one was done especially for little Denton! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Cards Of Course!

Did you really think there would be anything but cards in the bag from yesterday??!  I made her a stack of cards, well I made one in MDS and then had a stack printed :)  I printed 20 of them for her.  Remember in August print products are 31% off!!!!  This is what the cards look like.  Of course SU did a great job printing them and of course I forgot to take a picture of the printed cards :)  This could easily be a hybrid card by adding a real button and some twine.  Super cute!!!! More from the shower tomorrow!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

What's In The Bag?

Good question!!!  I wonder what is in the bag.  Well to find out you'll have to come back tomorrow, today is all about the bag!!!  First let me give you some info on what I've been busy doing the past month.  One of my really good friends is expecting her first baby in just a few weeks.  So of course I had to throw her a baby shower!!!!  I had a lot of fun doing it.  As much as I wanted to show you all the stuff I made for the shower as I made it I wasn't sure if Jamie checked my blog so although it's been very difficult I had to keep it all a secret!  So this week you'll see tons more fun things from the shower!!!  So that brings us back to the bag.  I made her a fun gift that I'm sure she'll use.  Well I didn't actually make it.  I gave the material to my Mom and told her what I wanted I she made it.  So thanks Mom, you'll be making me one soon too :)

She's having a boy so the outside is blue naturally, but after she uses the gift inside she might want to reuse the bag for something else-perhaps not even baby related so the inside is pink and the bag is reversible!!!!  So she can choose which side goes on the outside!!!  Awesome right???!!!!  Like I said make sure to check back tomorrow to find out what's inside the bag?????  Any guesses????

Sailing By With A Congratulations

I bet you thought I'd have another MDS project for you today huh?  Well I do have lots more MDS pages and projects for you, but to prove that indeed I haven't forgotten how to stamp I thought I'd share a quick card with you :)  This card is for a good friend who I'm co hosting a baby shower for tomorrow-Jamie if you're reading this STOP or keep going you've already seen the pictures anyway :)  This is the card that I'm attaching with my gift--more on that next week :)  I love how this card came out!!!  It's a gate fold card so it opens to either side from the middle and the waves overlap to keep it closed.  Isn't that cute and cleaver?!!! 

 

Inside is says 'Congratulations'. I was going to put it outside but there wasn't a good place outside.  I love this little card and I'm not joking-it was a 5 minute card!!!!  Not that Jamie isn't worth more than 5 minutes but 5 minutes is all I had left!  I'm off to the rest of my baby shower prep today!  Make sure to tune in all next week for the rest of my baby shower goodies, this shower is pretty much sponsored by SU!!!!  :)  heee hee!!!  I have at least 5 posts ready with baby shower festivities!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Thank Whoo?

I'm sure if you're a parent you know that your children usually have pretty good birthdays where they gain far too many toys and other fun things.  Well as a card maker I try very hard to get my children to understand the value of sending 'thank you' cards.  Unfortunately with our busy schedules sometimes there's not always time with Logan to sit down with him and create a stack of thank you cards.  Not to mention he's usually done after 1.  So I whipped up (in minutes) these fun thank you cards.  I'm going to have a stack of them printed and then he'll have them when he needs them and hopefully we'll be able to get his birthday thank you cards out in a timely manner.  The owl is from the Storybook DVD in the main catalog.  He's pretty cute huh?

Inside is room for him to write and pretty much just fill in the blanks.  Easy peasy for a 6 year old.  I think Logan will love these cards and hopefully he'll want to use them!   

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Loving MDS 2!!!!!

There are so many new techniques on this page I'm not even sure where to start!!!!!  Let's start with one of the most cool things-check out my text that's a circle!! I love that you can attach text to punches and to the freeform lines, as I did here.  To attach the text, create a line (or circle) in the freeform section then type your text.  Click them both (hold your shift key to click them both at the same time), then right click on your mouse (on a pc-if you use a mac I'm sorry I'm not sure what your command is).  A little box will pop up and choose the "Attach To Shape" command.  Viola! It's done!!!!  Other new things on this page, the splatter, the stitching-well it's not new, but in MDS 2 I can recolor the embellishments, so I can have pink stitching now!!  WhooHooo!!!!! 

Happy Birthday Logan!

Today Logan turns 6 years old!  He gets to celebrate by going to school!!!!  He might not think that's a great birthday present but guess he better get used to going to school on his birthday.  I'll tell you a funny story about my birthday.  My birthday is at the beginning of September---yes it's coming up and I enjoy dark chocolate :) but when I was Logan's age my birthday that year fell on Labor Day so naturally we didn't have school.  Of course I assumed that no one had to go to school because it was my birthday, I guess I just assumed everyone was home celebrating MY birthday.  Imagine my HUGE disappointment the next year when I had to go to school on my birthday, and I realized the whole world did not celebrate my birthday :)

Anyway back to Logan's card.  It may look pretty simple and not much too it but I plan to have Dan, Megan and myself write a special note to Logan on each of the inside panels.  Megan's will probably just be a fun picture :)  So the front will be blank, Dan will write on the next panel, me on the one after that, the number 6 is on the next one and Megan will get the last one.  It will be a cute little way for us to share with Logan all the joy and excitement he's brought to our lives in just 6 short years.  The 6 is a chipboard number that is wrapped in bakers twine. 

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

Loving This Combo

I'm loving this color combo!  Isn't the color coach great!?!  This color combo is right out of the color coach!  It's Raspberry Ripple, Crumb Cake, Perfect Plum.  I have to admit, I don't use Perfect Plum, well hardly ever.  Aside from Rich Razzleberry, I'm not a huge purple fan.  However I do love this combo, expect to see more with this combo in the future :)  I think my favorite stamp set has got to be the new butterfly one.  I'm a sucker for all sets with butterflies so there no doubt that I would love this one. 

Of course if you get this set you MUST get the punch that goes with it!  I also added some extra accents with the Tasteful Trim die.  Of course if you wanted to bling this card up a bit, you could add rhinestones or pearls to the center of all the butterflies!  Maybe I'll go do that :)

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

Beautiful Flowers

Isn't this card so pretty!  It looks like I must have spent hours coloring all those flowers!  They almost look painted.  They're really super duper easy!  But isn't that what we want when we craft, HUGE results for minimal work?!  I know that's a huge plus for me!  Before we get to the flowers, isn't the rest of the card beautiful too???! I love the fancy fan folder, that's my second one by the way.  Never did find the one that was lost about a month ago :(  Well if I ever do I'll have 2!  I love the seam binding that matches so perfectly with the Pool Party cardstock!  SU has the BEST coordinating products!

So the flowers.  They're really simple and they were done in just a couple minutes.  I'm not sure what this technique is called. To do it you'll need your markers and you want a lighter and a darker color in the same shade.  I used Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple for my red flowers and Pool Party and Island Indigo for my blue flowers.  Color your flowers in the lighter color of the maker first, then with the darker color use the journaling side of your marker and trace over the lines of the stamped image.  SU makes it easy and even highlights with the stamp where the shadows are so you know to add some extra highlights there.  This is a great technique to show our markers and how fast and easy it is to make beautiful cards!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Dear Friend And Little Stamper

I just adore this card!!!!  I love LOVE the colors, I love the image I LOVE the layout.  YES this card is a keeper!!  I used my markers to color the bike image from the Ronald McDonald stamp set this year.  It's such a cute set it's called Moving Forward.  Remember when you buy this stamp set, Stampin' Up! will donate $3 to the Ronald McDonald house.  They've been donating for 10 years and to date they've donated approximately $1.3 million to the RMHC!!  Have I mentioned before what a great company this is to be a part of?! 

There's lots going on with this card but it all somehow works together.  I love all the little flagged banners on the bottom, I LOVE the greeting on the little flag with the brad!!!  I love the twine, the bird, the scallop border, the chevron embossing!!  It just all works!  This card turned out better then envisioned!  Don't you just love it when that happens!?!!  I hope you like it too!

Look who I caught playing with my big shot!!  It's little Megan!  After she emptied some shelves for me :/ she thought she'd play with the big shot.  Before you ask, no I do not keep my big shot on the floor, it was put down there for her so she wouldn't break her neck pulling it off the cabinet :)  Silly girl! 

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

More Chores

Remember this post from last week?  I added a few more chores to Logan's chore swatchbook.  If you missed the post make sure you go here to see it, so you know what I'm talking about :)  I added a "Make Bed"  This one is super cute.  I love the little teddy bear and the pillow!!  Thank goodness for that free form tool for the pillow too!!  The teddy bear is all done in punches. 

A "Do Homework" one.  I think my favorite thing about this one is the pencil.  It's actually a crayon stamp but thanks to the wonderful new stamp coloring tool in MDS 2 I was able to make it look like a pencil. Isn't that so cool!!!!!  The books are simple and done with square punches as is the table. 

The last one (for today anyway) is the "Put Clothes Away" card.  This one came to me Monday when I was folding all his laundry and wondered why on earth am I putting his clothes away, he can do it!  This card is going to be more of a once or twice a week card, depending on how often his laundry gets done but it will still be a helpful reminder at the end of the day.  This one is probably the easiest one I did.  The dresser is just square and circle punches.  I do have a card that says "Put On Pajamas" but when I uploaded it into a jpeg I found a couple errors so I need to correct it before I show it to you.  I have to admit too that I've done far more MDSing this month than traditional paper crafting----you're shocked I know :)  But I did warn you that you might get a bunch of MDS posts this month.  Remember if you haven't had a chance to try My Digital Studio you can test it free for 30 days, you have nothing to loose! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Sparkles and Peppermint

The first day of 1st grade seems to have gone well.  Logan had a great time and I really like his teacher.  I think it will be a good year!  These are the last 2 cards that my guests got to make at my class last Saturday.  The sparkling snowflake one I think was a HUGE hit with everyone.  It was the easiest one but defiantly the most talked about one. The sparkles on the Champagne and Silver Glimmer Paper really speaks for it self.  You really don't need much more!  I did add a sparkly brad to the center to finish it :)  There is serious sparkle on this card!!

The last card was also a big hit.  We used markers to color the stamp.  Then of course cut it out with the framelits.  How amazing are those and how great is it that you can save when you buy it in the bundle!  Yay!!!!!  We also used the VersaMarker to color over the stamped image then embossed it with some Peppermint Embossing powder!  I love the little banner on this card and I love the polka dots!  Sorry this picture isn't great, We're still working on our new schedule and pictures 'should' be taken in the morning when I have the natural light in my room, but you know sometimes that just doesn't happen :)  The good thing about this new schedule is that Megan will nap right after lunch now, which gives me some free time to craft without worrying about either child.  Though the afternoons, might get a little more crazy! 

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

Christmas Comes Early

What did you think of our first blog hop?  I know I was so excited for it!  Can't wait until our next one!  I love the wonderful back to school ideas that I got!  I hope you picked up a few too!!  Over the weekend, in between MDSing, I had a class celebrating the new release of the Holiday Catalog it was my Christmas Comes Early Class!!  These were two of the cards we made at my class.  I love them both!!  The first one is done with the ornaments and framelits.  I love all the coordinating framelits in the catalog, what about you??  Doesn't it just make life so much easier :)

The next one we used the Merry Mini set and punches.  Though this was the most time consuming card of the class, I think everyone was pleased with the result.  I know it's defiantly one of my favorites!!!  I just love all those tiny trees!!!!  But I did spend a giant part of the weekend MDSing.  I have a few projects just about ready to send to the printer.  I have so many projects in the work right now, lots of them I sadly can't show you (they're gifts).  I have them flagged to show you later.  Logan starts school today, and Megan starts a new nap schedule today.  Wish me lots of luck! :)

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

Ladybug INK. Blog Hop!

Yay!  I can't tell you how excited I am for this!  I tell you every month that the demonstrators in my group in Albuquerque are some of the most talented ever!  So now you get to see, we've set up a fun blog hop!  So excited!  Every month we'll pick a theme and send you from one blog to the next so you can check out all the amazing projects!  This month's theme is Back To School!  Logan goes back Monday-I'm pretty excited!  So to kick off the year I thought I'd give his teacher one of these delicious jars of my homemade Cherry Jam.  Last Saturday I spent, no joke about 5 hours making jam.  It was my first time-it was a little tedious might be my last but you never know.  Of course you can't just hand an undecorated jar of jelly to someone.  So I jazzed it up a bit with our Summer Smooches fabric.  And the Perfectly Preserved set coordinates wonderfully with this! 

I turned the little jar into a mini card or tag.  Cute huh!?!!  On the tag it says "I'm JAMpacked with excitement to be in your class!"  So cute right!?!  I know I'd love to have this as a gift.  Logan might be a little heartbroken we're giving away one of the jars of jam, he loves it.  It's been just under a week since I've made it and we've already gone through one jar!  It is really good though!  This is just one stop on this first edition of our blog hop!  Check below and keep hoping through our sites.  When you get back to my blog, you'll have hit them all!  Have fun and I'd love to know what you think!

Make sure to check out the rest of the bloggers too!

Kim Madrid Kim's Stamp Sancuary

Nichole Gonzales Jaramillo Nichole's Stampin' Craze

Kay Jantz KTMYLDY and Life

Liz Kay The Kraftastic Mrs. Kay

Carmelita Wasson Stampin' Cita

Cassie Rogers Lucy's Lovelies

Ruth Norton You Are Here!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Lightning Does Strike Once In A While

I know it doesn't happen often but once in a while I'll get that little light bulb above my head to turn on with an original idea.  This one I think is one of the best original ideas that I've had in a long time.  Yes, I do think it's a keeper!  I know I've said it, or at least I've meant to say it, but Logan starts school Monday-eeeek!  But if last year has taught us anything it's that the morning routine can be, well, boring especially when you're almost 6 and especially when you've been told to do the same things over and over again in just one morning.  So I thought I'd create these fun little cards for Logan.  We'll hang little hooks in the bathroom or his bedroom to hang them on to remind him what needs to be done every morning before we get in the car and head to school.  Get dressed, the school prefers it that way :)

Brush teeth. This one I'm actually really proud of :)  In MDS 2 there's a new Free form feature.  The smile on this page is created entirely from that feature.  With this feature you can add lines, curve them, move them, shape them, etc.  It's AWESOME!  So I made this little smile from that.  Didn't it come out great!?!!  All of these little cards are part of a swatchbook.  If you've never ordered a swatchbook they're so much fun!!!  They're the perfect size to put in your purse, they're a great size for little hands and let's face it even without the 31% off they're pretty affordable at only $13 for 13 pages printed front and back-that's 26 pages you can design!!!  They measure about 3 1/4  x 5 1/2.  I LOVE THEM!!! 

This one is super cute too!!!  I used the grass punch (it's an extra download) for his hair.  Isn't that just so cute!!!  I love the big eyes looking up.  Everything on this page is made from punches.  Yes even in MDS I love my punches!!!!  These are just 3 of the ones I have planned.  And really these 3 are the only ones that really need to get done before we head out the door.  Others that I have planned to make are 'Feed the dog', 'Set the table', and probably a couple more that I'll think of in the next few days.  Now since I just started this about 48 hours ago and am still working on it we won't have it in time for the first day of school but I'll defiantly get it printed this month for 31% off!!!! 

On the back of each card is his 'DONE' card.  After he accomplishes his 'chores'.  He can turn them around so he knows they're done, and more importantly so I know they're done and it will hopefully cut down on the morning nagging.  Of course I still anticipate reminding him daily of his 'Chore Cards' :)  The check mark was done again with the free form tool.  Do you see all the fun splatter, that's also new!  LOVE the splatter!  As you can see MDS is such a fun multi purpose program.  If you haven't had a chance to use it, get the free 30 day download.  You have nothing too loose!  It's a wonderful program and so much fun!!!!

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

Anyone Else Out There?

Anyone else out there who is completely obsessed with the Olympics?  We've had it on quite a bit, defiantly more than the TV is usually on.  Logan just loves to watch them and he's getting exposed to lots of new sports that he's never seen, water polo, rowing, equestrian, plus the usual Olympic favorites swimming, gymnastics, track and field.  But we sure are enjoying them!  Today's card is sweet and so pretty!  I just love the colors on this card, Raspberry Ripple, Pretty In Pink and Old Olive. 

There's no mind blowing technique or layout on this card just a fun card.  I have a class this weekend so I'm going to be busy today prepping for that.  I will say that the cards that I have planned for my class are some of my favorite cards ever!!! There's still time to sign up for my class or get a kit.  Ask me for more details on my class! 

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

Sweet Set

This is the last week before Logan returns to school.  Hard to believe but he goes back on Monday!  I have to admit, I'm pretty excited!  I think he is too, but I know I am.  While we enjoy this last week of summer vacation I don't think I'm going to get much stamping done, but I have had time to whip up a couple of cute things.  One of them being this super sweet set of QUICK 3x3 cards.  These cards are so much fun, they're cute and they could easily be given to either gender.  Don't you just love those kinds of cards.  I love having a stack of 3x3 cards around.  I always have a few.  They're the perfect size to stick in lunch boxes, hand out to co workers, or even keep a few in your purse to write a quick note to anyone who was especially helpful to you throughout your day. 

The stamp set is one of the sets I was most excited about in the Holiday Catalog.  It's the Mixed Medley Hostess set.  You can earn this set by hosting a private stamp a stack or technique class with your friends and family-ask me more about that if you're interested.  The little scallops in the set coordinate perfectly with the new scallop punch in the Holiday Catalog, and I just love the little spider web for Halloween!  I paired that stamp set with the Polka Dot DSP for a monochromatic card and this little set of 6 cards was done in under 10 minutes!  Now that's time well spent!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Hi My Name Is Ruth.....

....and I'm a My Digital Studio addict.  It's true, I've been MDSing all weekend!  MDS 2 is amazing!  Since all the print products are on sale this month I've been working like a mad woman getting as much done as I can!  I'm working on my Christmas cards---YES my CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!  I'm also working on a couple calendars for gifts, and of course my scrapbook (though that won't be printed this month).  This is a page from one of the desktop calendars that I'm working on.  There's lots of new fun MDS 2 'tricks' on this page.  First-check out the photos-don't you love the rounded corners on opposite ends.  I love this new feature, it's not a punch though now you have the option to fill punches with photos easier and faster.  To get the rounded corners, right click on your photo and you'll find an option that says 'round corners'.  A box will pop up and you choose which corners you want rounded 1, 2, 3 or all 4!  Pretty awesome right!?!!  That's not the only new amazing trick-truth be told, this post would be far too long if I went on and on about them all!!!  So I'll just go into one more awesome new feature.  Check out the 'March' stamp.  Yes that's a stamp-colored in 5 different colors!!!!  I love love love this new option.  It's so easy to do too!!!!  In MDS you can either double click the stamp set to pull up the coloring feature or click the 'coloring tool' icon in the Design Center under 'Stamps'.  I'm sure you'll see more pages and calendars with more wonderful techniques and tricks coming soon.  I'll have a stamping project for you tomorrow, in the meantime go play with MDS and enjoy your Monday!

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

You're A Star!

MDS 2 is so much fun!  I'm a little sad I'm already into June on my family 2012 album.  That means I don't have much left to scrapbook to be caught up, on the other hand I don't really have time :)  The first thing you'll probably notice about MDS 2 is that the background is now black and sleek and very modern and clean looking.  Everything is still laid out pretty much in the same way.  You still have all your features on the left, right and on the tool bar on top.  But what's really cool is that you can design in 2 page layouts!  That's pretty awesome!  I'm generally not a 2 page spread scrapbooker, but for pages that I have lots of pictures that I want to showcase then I will do a 2 page spread. 

Again, I haven't had the time to really go through and find out all the new fun tools that MDS has but the ones I've done have been so much fun!!!  I love that I can customize my book to pretty much any size I want!  That will be fun to work with.  There's also an option in the stamp section for a watermark image.  Can't wait to try that too!  I've always been a fan of MDS so I'm pretty happy with everything I've seen so far. 

Like anything else it's going to take some practice and time to learn all the fun tricks and techniques.  These two pages came together very quickly, especially in the two page spread.  These are pictures from Logan's graduation from kindergarten. Now my little boy will start first grade in just over a week!  I'm not sure who's more excited him or me :)  That's all from me today, have a wonderful weekend, I'm going to *hopefully* spend some more quality time with MDS and have more to show you soon!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/CategoryPage.aspx?categoryid=948