Cups Of Cheer

I love to make Christmas cards with non traditional colors.  You'll get plenty of Christmas cards in red and green and even blue is making a big appearance on the Christmas scene.  So when I get a chance to pull out pinks, purples, and other colors of the rainbow I do!  I just love this little tiny mug in the Twinkle Trees set.  I stamped it in rainbow order across the card.  I did use a post-it note mask so that I could overlap the mugs.  I added some glitter ribbon, doilies and some silver thread to add some more sparkle.  

I wasn't sure what greeting I would use then after a Pintrest search for 'coffee puns' I came across 'sending cups of cheer' obviously that was the one I needed to use!  It's perfect!!!!!!  I pulled out my Labeler Alphabet and stamped it.  It's so cute!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Project Life Card

I'll be the first to tell you I don't scrapbook, I like the idea of it.  But scrapbooking just isn't my thing.  I like the idea of Project Life, especially the simplicity of it. But I still can't bring myself to do it.  However, I do have a Stampin' Up! addiction.  And when something is on sale, I tend to buy it regardless, someday I just might use it!  Well a few weeks ago some of the project life stuff was on sale so I got a set of the project life cards.  I do use the cards in my planner so that's how I justified this purchase.  When I was going through the cards in the Hello Lovely set, I had no idea they were so pretty and they look hand painted!  They're like little pieces of DSP.  I loved it and so I pulled a couple cards out to make some quick notecards with.  For this card all I did was stamp the heart border from the Birthday Blooms stamp set on the base of the card and I heat embossed the greeting in copper.  This card is so pretty and so simple! I just love it!!  Look through your Project Life cards, they work great for simple cards too!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Glitter Trees

So I've been a little MIA for the past few days.  I wish I had some grand excuse for my absence but I don't.  Truly it was just laziness.  I was enjoying a couple days of not doing anything, which isn't really true at all, I was doing plenty just not stamping related.  So when I did finally get breaks, I did nothing, should have stamped but I didn't.  That's over now though, there's plenty to do!  Especially stamp!  Yesterday I spent most of the morning stamping and planning some classes.  That was nice.  This weekend I'm going away with some girlfriends for a wonderful weekend getaway.  We will be crafting, but mostly probably chatting and having a good time.  I need to start prepping for that.  Since it's a smaller venue I will be packing much lighter than my other craft weekends.....if that's even possible!  Stay tuned!   

My card today is really fun and though it looks like there's amazing complicated techniques there's not!  I used my sponge daubers to create the background.  I love the way it came out!!  For the trees I die cut them with the tree from the Santa's Sleigh framelits and covered them in versa mark and then in Emerald Envy Glitter Embossing Powder.  I love the sparkle to them!  The snowflakes were clear embossed before the color was added to the background and I used the snow from the Christmas Pines set.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!   

Rainbow Thank You

You guys know that I love rainbow cards.  Really I just love cards with lots of color, this one I can't even tell you how much I love it!  The best part.  I only used 3 ink pads (not counting Versamark).  Three ink pads!!!  You'll have to go back to kindergarten and recall your lesson on primary colors, but really to create a rainbow you only need a red, a yellow and a blue.  In my case I used Watermelon Wonder, Daffodil Delight and Tempting Turquoise.  

Before I added the color to the base I stamped the flower from Touches of Texture and clear embossed it.  Then I started with Watermelon Wonder and a sponge dauber and covered about a third of the cardstock.  Then I added my Daffodil delight, making sure to over lap the Watermelon Wonder, there's my orange, Finally I brought in my Tempting Turquoise, over lapping the Daffodil Delight to get green, isn't that the pretties green too!!!!!  I did add the tiniest bit of Watermelon Wonder to the very tip of the Turquoise to get a pretty purple.  There's not a lot of it, the rainbow is pretty complete without it.  I really wanted a gold doily for this card but didn't have one on hand so I just pressed my Versa Mark pad onto half of a white paper doily and covered it in some gold embossing powder.  I may never use the white doilies again!  Some gold thread and a gold embossed greeting to finish the card!  I love it!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Cards and Coffee

I'm happy to add a new class to my schedule.  If you're in the area please stop by!  My first Coffee and Cards class is tomorrow!  These are the two cards that you can make when you stop by to see me.  I'll also have catalogs to look at too!  
Coffee and Cards!
Thursday, September 22, 9am-10:30am
Panera Bread Albuquerque Locataion (Jefferson and I-25 location)
This will be a really fun, simple, stress free class.  I'm parking myself at Panara Bread with a cherry pastry and something yummy to drink once a month with supplies for anyone who stops by to make 2 cards.  These cards are going to be simple but OH SO CUTE! The cost is only $5 for 2 cards!  Cash or check only please.  Feel free to stop by on your way to work, after you drop off the kids or just if you're in the area and make a couple quick cards and grab some coffee!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Penned And Painted Birthday

I recently got the Penned and Painted set and I love it!!  I had it on my wishlist, but thought "I have enough flower stamp sets" well unless you have this one you don't!  There's so many reasons why I love this one specifically.  First it has the line image stamps of the flowers so if you're feeling particularly adventurous you can color them yourself.  Which leads to all kinds of techniques-you can watercolor them with a blender pen or aqua painter, you can color them with markers you can emboss them and paint over them, lots and lots of fun options there.  But if you don't like to color or maybe just don't have the time, this stamp set also comes with images that fit inside the flowers that make it look like they're watercolored, I mean come on, I LOVE THAT!!!!

This card came together really quickly I used the stamps to give it the watercolored look.  Can I just take a minute to say how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Peekaboo Peach.  I'm not an orange fan, but this Peekaboo Peach color I literally cannot stop using! It's my current favorite!!!!!!  I stamped the flower image with the Peekaboo Peach, first stamped off on some scratch paper for a lighter look, then I went in with the center or detail of the flower and stamped that in full strength Peekaboo Peach, and finished with the line image of the flower over.  Another great thing about this set, you don't have to kill yourself to line it up perfectly, it will always look good no matter what!  I finished the card with a gold embossed greeting and some sequins (I used the ones that came in the July Paper Pumpkin---seriously people, that was the best assortment ever!).

Thanks for looking, see you soon!  

Birthday Card Stamp A Stack

My birthday is in September, it was a couple weeks ago.  But because my birthday is in September it's become a tradition that my September class is a Birthday Card Stamp a Stack.  My guests get to make 12 cards, 3 each of these four designs.  It's a popular class and I love hosting it, plus we always have cake so there's that to draw people in :)  The cards are pretty quick and simple, because they're making 12 I don't make them too complicated.  

Any one of these cards can be modified with different colors to suit whomever your making the card for.  This Melon Mambo Balloon card is adorable, but the balloon would look great in any color and can easily be made into a masculine card.  I know we all need those!  

I love this kite balloon with the Swirly Bird set but again, these kites can be any color!  I especially love them in Elegant Eggplant though :)

This is my favorite card!  I'm not a big orange fan but boy oh boy Peekaboo Peach is sure becoming a go to color for me!  I love it!!!!

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

Birthday Pineapple

Sometimes a card comes out really cute, but halfway through you're like 'What was I thinking! Am I crazy!?!'  Yes, yes I am crazy and I'll tell you why in just a minute.  This card was inspired by this card that I saw on Pintrest. Ah Pintrest.....the ultimate time sucker!  I loved that in the card that inspired me there were parts of the pineapple popped up and cut out.  So pretty! 

So because I'm me, I had to make it 400 times more complicated.  I stamped it in 3 colors (Rose Red, Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride) then cut out nearly every little pineapple triangle-ly?, segment?, outside?, pokey thing a ma bob.  You know what I mean right??? Now when you get a little crazy like me, it will happen if you're lucky, there's one simple tool to keep on hand that will make your life sooooo much easier........Press and Seal Wrap.....Yep the stuff in your kitchen bring it to your craft room! 

So I took a piece of press and seal, sticky side up and laid it over a stamped image of the pineapple I was piecing together with the outside, pokey bits of pineapples (ps I don't even like pineapple, though I will drink pineapple juice in the peach sangria from Outback, but there's enough other liquor in there you can't even tell there's pineapple juice.....but I'm getting off topic).  I started with my darkest color, Rose Red in this case, as I cut them out I placed them on the press and seal. I could have just placed them over the image on the stamp case or the stamp block but just image the heartbreak if you have it all cut out and something blows, pushes, knocks over all those little pineapple pieces.  Those are real tears you'll cry, trust me the press and seal will work wonders in your life and when you're making this crazy card you'll pat yourself on the back for a least having one moment of genius.

Now once you get all your pieces cut out, if you're like me you'll probably need to feed the small children that hang around your house.  If they're not feed regularly they really complain.  Not to worry!  If you have to step away before or during the gluing process simple place another piece (or fold over if your first piece is big enough) and your pineapple pokey bits will stay nice and safe and in order.  When you're ready to glue carefully peel back that first layer, have a pair of tweezers on hand to grab any pieces that want to stick with the top layer instead of the bottom layer.  To glue them on I used Tombow and some tweezers and did each piece one by one, I popped some up on dimensionals.  This card was a labor of love for about 2 days working here and there, you know between feeding the kids.  I love the final result.  

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

Fresh Fruit Birthday

 I love the watercolored look to the images from the Fresh Fruit set but I wanted them to be a little more watercolor-y, yep I'm making that a word.  I stamped all the images and I used an aqua painter to blend colors and give it more of a watercolor painted look. 

If you're interested in learning more about watercoloring I'm starting an advanced technique class and watercoloring will be our first lesson.  Advanced Stampers Technique Class, Theme: Watercoloring
Tuesday, October 4, 6pm  St. John's Cathedral (corner of 3rd and Silver)
This class is specifically designed for stampers who want to learn new skills and techniques.  Our first class we'll focus on watercoloring: we'll learn the basics of watercolor washes, some fun techniques, how to achieve effortless looks, what's the best tools to use and more!  The class size will be kept small so that I can focus more one on one attention to you, no more than 12 people, sign up early to grab a spot! This class is $22, at the class you'll receive a set of Aqua Painters and a Clear Wink of Stella Pen to use during the class, a $25 value!  Payment is due by September 24 either via cash, check or paypal.  The last day to sign up for this class is September 24 (unless it sells out before then).  If you're interested in attending contact me for more info!

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

To Shaker? Or Not To Shaker?

Of course I'm a fan of all shaker cards, seriously I actually have a notebook of shaker cards I want to make with all kinds of different shaker bits ("shaker bits" is a technical term I invented to mean the stuff you put inside to shake around your shaker card......wonder how many times I'll say shake or shaker........).  This one I fill with mica flakes.  You guys the mica flakes are really pretty, but if you're like my husband and don't like glitter everywhere.........you probably won't like the mica flakes.  While I loved them, I could see my husband having tiny breakdowns in the corner with the mess I was making LOL!!!

I do love that it looks like snow and is shiny, sparkly and when it shakes around it's so much fun!!!  But.....as my son pointed out, "it covers too much of the train"  Here's the thing with 10 year old boys, they're really good at pointing out problems with everything.  So lucky for him though I was prepared with another card, do you think he liked this one better........

You can defiantly see more of the train, but in his words......'the greeting is in the way' {facepalm} Seriously? From now on I'm going to my 5 year old for all my opinions on my cards, PS she liked the shaker one better!  Your turn!  I want to know which you think is the better one, is there a better one?  They're both lovely in their own way.  

Just comment below do you like the shaker train card or just the watercolored one?  I love them both! There's no wrong answer here! In case anyone was wondering, I didn't ask my husbands thoughts on the cards, I could tell by his aversion to the mica flakes he wasn't going to pick the shaker card, even though they're nicely contained.  LOL!

PS I said shake or shaker 12 times, if you keeping track ;)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Jar Of Haunts Pumpkin

This sweet pumpkin is so cute!!!  I'm pretty excited about the pumpkin in the Jar of Haunts set.  This sweet simple card is so quick to put together.  It would be great to make a bunch of them and box them up for gifts for this Thanksgiving.  The pumpkin is stamped on the Whisper White piece and on a scrap of Peekaboo Peach.  I cut out just the pumpkin part of the peach and color the leaf and stem on the white with my Stampin' Write Markers.  

The greeting is on a small scrap of vellum, it's from the Acorny Thanks set.  Another great fall set!  There's a little Pumpkin Pie glimmer paper peeking out, which you know I love cards that sparkle!!!   I'm gonna go make a bunch more of these right now!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Thank You Beary Much

Do you have the Baby Bear stamp set?  It's not just for baby cards you know.  There's about 14 million other ways to use this set....ok.....maybe not that many but it's a pretty useful set to have, especially if you love cute, cuddly bears!  The bears for these cards were actually stamped weeks ago and have just been sitting on my desk.  Truth is, I was just playing with colors.  I knew I'd eventually make them cards I just never really got around to it.  Then finally cleaned my desk and finished them.  They're pretty cute!

Of course changing the greeting would be easy and you could use it for a baby card, but if you're holding out on this set because it's a 'baby set' you're missing out! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Christmas Card Stamp A Stack

For the last couple of weeks most of my spare time (ha!) has been consumed with planning my Christmas Card Stamp A Stack.  This is the single biggest class I do, this year I'm preparing it to be my biggest ever and I'm so excited!  Of course that also means more prep.  This class prep started this week and will continue for the next 5 weeks or so until the class in October!  I better get to work!!  These are 2 of the cards that didn't make the cut for this years class.  

So how do you attend this years class.  All the details are here.  Sign up must be done online.  At my stamp a stack you'll make 20 Christmas cards, 5 each of 4 designs.  Supplies will begin arriving today!!!  Gotta get to work!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Birthday Cards

Monday was my birthday and I wanted to share some of the wonderful cards that were given to me to celebrate.  These three are from my mom and my two kids.  Megan will always reach for an animal set, Logan apparently found the Number of Years set and took the opportunity to remind me of my new age, which of course Megan did too.   

These two cards were sent to me and arrived last week before my birthday.  The one on the left is from Shannon West from Stampin' Up!'s home office.  She is the one behind the '#imbringingbirthdaysback' movement.  It's pretty cool to get a card from her.  The other is from my friend Betty, she's the mom of my friend Nikki, and she's just the sweetest person you'll ever meet!  

Finally these amazing cards are from my amazing friends Nikki, Kim and Anne! Nikki made the coach using the Thoughtful Branches Thinlits, so cute!!!!  Kim sent me the card from the Oh Happy Day kit and by the way-it's an amazing kit!  The cards are all pretty amazing!  The Mickey card is from my friend Anne, she's my Disney soul mate and the only one who truly gets my Disney obsession, probably because she has the same obsession :)  While Dan and I share a different kind of Disney obsession he has yet to get excited about things like Disney purses, Anne however gets me :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!! 

Pop Of Paradise Smiles

Do you mail your cards?  I've been really good this year and have mailed more cards this year than any other year, which is great!  I've even gone so far as to get cute stamps from the post office for the envelopes to try to coordinate with my cards.  I've been ordering them online because let's be honest, going to the post office isn't a lot of fun, and it's just easier to do it online!  But here's my issue, why do I have to pay postage on stamps from the post office..........it's not much but still..........it bothers me a little....just thought I'd share :)  For the cards though, I used the Pop Of Paradise stamp set for both of these cards.  These pineapples are just the cutest!!!!!!  I love love love them.  They may or may not be the reason I bought the stamp set....

Both cards are quick and simple but oh so cute!!!!  The pineapples are pretty cute but so is this flamingo!  I stamped it in Flirty Flamingo, I think it might be illegal not to use an ink that has the name 'flamingo' in it when stamping a flamingo.  To get a little darker pink on top I used a sponge dauber and daubed on some Melon Mambo ink to the stamp over the Flirty Flamingo ink before stamping it.  Was that just uber confusing or what!?!  Super cute and a great way to get multiple colors with little effort.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Parade Of Mice

Did you ever make a card that took forever, but turned out perfectly?  That's this card. Now from the front it doesn't look like much, sure there's lots of gold sparkle and a cute little mouse but there's got to more right.....

Oh there is! Lots more.  This card is actually 2 cards glued back to back, so when you first open it there's another panel in there to open, but there's mice parading across the bottom of every page on this card.  

 It's so long I can barely get it in the picture.  This is essentially a one layer card.  There' not too many embellishments on the front and the inside is just stamps and ink. 

The stamping and coloring took the longest for this card.  I wanted the mice all lined up perfectly, I wanted them all colored beautifully, so to get it all done right took a while.  I used my stamp a ma jig to line it all up and I colored with my aqua painter and ink pads.  The card base it on shimmer white cardstock so it can handle a little bit of water, not a ton, but these are pretty small mice so it worked well.  It's such a cute card!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Shaker Pumpkin

The pumpkin in the Jar of Haunts set is so cute!  It can be used almost year round, not just at Halloween.  I decided to make a shaker card with it.  I started by stamping my pumpkin on the white cardstock, then with my scissors I fussy cut the inside out.  I added a window sheet behind the stamped image and created my shaker border with our Foam Adhesive Strips. These are the best when you're making a shaker card!  

I used the sequins from the June Paper Pumpkin.  I love these colors and they worked so well with the rest of the card.  It's a really cute simple shaker card!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Cookie Cutter Bundle

The Cookie Cutter Bundle is going to be so popular.  There are such cute images in it and they're so much fun to use!  I created a quick, I mean quick set of 5 notecards.  These are 4x4 notecards that you could make a bunch of and give them to neighbors, coworkers, friends, teachers, strangers on the street, I mean anyone really!  They would love a set of these cards!  There's something for everyone in them too!  I stamped in black and colored them all with my markers.  You don't even have to color them, could you image how cute this set of cards would be to a kid with a few crayons.  They could color their own images on the cards----SOOOOOO CUTE!!!  I'm gonna do that! 

The cards are all laid out the same and use the same supplies (with the exception of the Real Red Cardstock and the Marina Mist Cardstock). I used Playful Backgrounds to add a little extra color behind all the punched images.  So that the backgrounds were so distracting I placed a small piece of vellum over the top.  This tones down the backgrounds a bit but you don't loose any of the cut images behind the vellum!  I can't decided which is cuter that bear or that Eskimo!  

Remember too, we also have the Cookie Cutter Halloween set that could easily be interchanged for any of these images.  So cute!  So much fun!  You could get a few friends together and make a whole day of cookie cutter cards! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Holiday Catalog Goes Live TODAY!!!!

Whoohoo!!!  Today's the day!!!  This catalog is amazing!  Seriously settle in, call in sick to work, get comfy.  You're just going to want to let this catalog sink in! You can see it here, if you're in the USA and want a catalog and DON'T already have a demonstrator you're working with let me know.  I'd love to get you one.  If you have a demonstrator check with them, I'm sure they'd love to get you one too.  Before you dive into the catalog and all productivity stops I promised 3 cards today, and 3 cards you shall get!  

All of these cards feature the Jolly Friends stamp set and coordinating hat punch, yes, it's an adorable Santa hat punch, soooo cute!!!  The cards are all very similar but use different colors.  I used the Labeler Alphabet from our annual catalog to custom make all the greetings.  They're all stinkin' cute!  First, this adorable Santa!!  I went traditional with him with a red had.  Though, I think he'd look pretty cool in a blue one too!  I love the sunglasses!  

'Have a cool yule' is that not the cutest.  That was inspired directly from the Holiday Catalog, page 29 if you have your catalog open.  There's tons of samples in all of our publications.  They're there to inspire you. Feel free to copy them!  

Moving onto our 'Christmoose', he's adorable!  Now I'm under the impression if a stamp set gives you glasses in the set you put them on everything in that set! This moose seriously just wouldn't look as cute without the glasses.  

I did have to modify the glasses a little to fit the moose, his eyes were a little to close together.  But it's not a problem, I just inked up one side of the glasses stamped and inked up the other side and stamped.  Easy peasy!  On all three cards all the characters are stamped on shimmer white cardstock (it's my favorite!) and watercolored.  The scarfs are fussy cut and the hats are all punched using the punch of course!  

This fox is my favorite.  I just love him!!!!!!  I made him a birthday card instead of a Christmas card because I wanted to show that you can use your Christmas sets for other occasions too!  This is an adorable birthday card and no one will ever know it came from a Christmas set!  

I'm in love with everything about this card, but especially his little glasses!  EEEEEEKKK!!!!  So cute!!!!  For all the characters I covered their glasses with the Fine Tip Glue.  I love this glue (I started out not liking it, boy have I had a change of heart!)! The glue dries clear and not sticky so you can use it for adding details like the glass on the glasses.  So cute!!!!  It makes them smooth and shinny and just even more adorable!  I just can't get over the cuteness of these three guys!  Ok I won't keep you any longer I know you're anxious to see that catalog!  Happy Holiday Catalog Day to you!

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