Love Reading

Did you think we'd go the whole week and I wouldn't show you something done in MDS?  Probably not.  I can't say enough good things about MDS.  When I signed up as a demonstrator 9 years ago I knew my business would be 98% card and papercrafting with scrapbooking projects only when requested, since MDS came along I realized that I just might be a scrapbooker.  Can you believe that I didn't even get MDS when it first came out.  Since I was convinced that I wasn't a scrapbooker I didn't see a purpose of having it.  Well thank goodness I invested in it!!!!  This page was put together pretty quickly and it was inspired by none other than Heather Summers.  She's doing another online MDS class and I'm so excited about it.  I love her layouts and all the fun tips I'm learning through her!  The class just started so if you want some more info on her class click here.  You won't regret it!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Sparkling Pear!

I know this is day 3 of my glitter class, and for those that attended my glitter class and were hoping to see something new this week-sorry!  Tomorrow I promise!  This one was so fun to make and is possibly my favorite card--though I really do love them all! For this card we used the Dazzling Details (it was in the Holiday Mini but has been carried over so you can still buy it!!! Yippeee!!!)  Anyway, I put a little Dazzling Details on a paper plate then used 1 (just 1) drop of reinker. It will be too dark if you use more than 1.  If you're using a lighter color than you might want a little more. We used Garden Green and More Mustard for these colors 1 was enough.  Once your 'glitter paint' is mixed we used Aqua Painters to watercolor the pear.  It's that an awesome technique!!!!!!!?? 

This pictures shows the glitter a little better.  This is one of my favorite techniques and I may never use Dazzling Details the same ever again!  Just a couple of tips when doing this technique.  If you're doing it in a class or workshop just mix a little at a time, you can always mix more up.   A little goes a long way and it dries pretty quickly, you don't want it to dry out between uses.  Also make sure you wash your aqua painters right after you're done.  They wash very easily as long as you don't wait.  I've never had it dry up on my aqua painter-I've been good about cleaning them but I can only image that if it dries on your aqua painter what a mess that would be.  You can also use a regular paintbrush and water for this technique.  The great thing about using the aqua painters is that you can control how much water comes out, you want some to blend but not alot.  Hope that all makes sense :)  So let me know what you think of my cards from my class, do you have a favorite?

Glitter Day 2

I have a couple more samples from my All That Glitters class for you.  I'm saving my favorite for tomorrow.  I know I said yesterday that it was my favorite, I can't decide between yesterday's card and tomorrow card which one is my favorite.  Good grief I'm not sure if any of that makes sense so lets just get to today's cards (which I also love!)  :)  The first one is so pretty in person.  The problem with photographing glitter is that you loose alot of the sparkle and shine.  You can see some of the sparkle in the picture but in real life the sparkle is just crazy and you just want to stare at the flower all day!  The flower is made with the Big Shot Adhesive Sheets, we stuck that on a piece of Pacific Point, punched it out and then used the Fine Supernova glitter on it.  So pretty!  Everyone was so creative with their flowers too.  I just randomly sprinkled the glitter on mine but others were very detailed and wanted specific colors in specific places.  They all turned out so beautiful :)  I love this card and I loved seeing every ones card at the class.  I wish I had my camera with me to show you.  They were all different and beautiful!!! 

The next card was fun, it's simple but striking!  After the flowers were stamped we covered the cardstock in Versamark and used Heat and Stick Powder with Dazzling Diamonds!  This card is just so pretty in person!  Almost all of my customers at the class had never used or heard of Heat and Stick powder.  It's an amazing product and probably one of my favorites for adhering glitter.  It's fast and easy!  Use the powder just as you would embossing powder.  For this card we covered the cardstock in versamark then poured the heat and stick over the wet versamark.  Heat the powder until it clear and glossy-don't overheat it!  Once it's clear it's tacky and your glitter will stick forever!  Sprinkle your glitter on top and reheat for just a few seconds-just to set the glitter.  You're done!!!!  If you've never used Heat and Stick powder I encourage you to give it a try and if you'd like me to show you and your friends more about it, I'd love to do a workshop with you! 

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

Time To Say Goodbye!

It's that time of year again, time to say goodbye to some of our stamp sets.  The retiring stamp set list is out! You'll notice when you look at the list that it's longer than ever this year. Stampin' Up! is making a few changes to the new catalog.

• The first you already know, it's being released in June instead of July.
• Next, the new catalog will be smaller than the current one, not but much--don't worry it's still going to be packed with hundreds of samples and the best papercrafting products on the market!
• Finally, Stampin' Up! wants to focus on core products in their catalog, meaning that the products you see in the big catalog will be products you can use year round. While the seasonal products will be reserved for the mini catalogs-which will be bigger!

So lets get to the list! The retiring accessory list will be out April 25, this is just the stamps. The stamps will be available through the end of May.  See the list here. 

I'm sad to see some of the sets on there go.  Over the next month or so, I'll be showing some of my favorite sets that are retiring.  In all I have 59 stamp sets that are retiring.  Though if you know how many I have, 59 isn't putting huge dent in my supply, but I won't know that until I clean out my stamp cabinet and see what it looks like without these stamp sets. 

Back to cards and other great SU stuff.  Some of you may have noticed I didn't post on Friday.  Sorry about that, the week got away from me and I just never got around to taking pictures or getting to the computer to post.  So I took a long weekend :)  I also had a class on Saturday.  I was really excited about this class and it was so fun!  I'll show you the rest of the cards tomorrow but today I wanted to show one of my favorite cards from my class.  The class was called All That Glitters, it was so fun to show off SU's line of glitter, shimmer and sparkly products!  Today's card shows the Shimmer Paint.  I love that stuff!!!

For the card we colored the flower with Rich Razzleberry and Garden Green markers then sponged some Frost White Shimmer Paint over the ink, then stamped it.  The shimmer it gives off is hard to capture on camera but in person it's so shimmery and shinny!  So pretty!!!!  Make sure to take some time today and check out the retired list....if you haven't already done that :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Growing So Fast

I have a My Digital Studio page for you today.  Surprised? Didn't think you would be :)  We had some spring pictures taken of Logan and Megan and today's page shows some of our favorites that were taken that day.  Megan was a little unsure of the whole process in the beginning, but after we were there and she warmed up to the idea she did great.  We haven't had pictures of the kids professionally taken in a while (since Megan was born) so it was time.  I actually struggled a bit with this page.  I didn't want it to be too complicated or 'busy' so I had a real challenge keeping it simple.  I love the stitching and the flowers on the sides.  All the colors that I used were color matched to their clothes so that everything is tied together.  Logan looks so grown up and Megan is loosing her baby look and is starting to look like a little toddler.  They're growing so fast!

On another note, you might have noticed my new 'pin it' button on the bottom of my blogs the past few days, I'm not sure it's been working properly and I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to get it working properly.  So if you've been able to pin something using the pin it button or if you have a blog and know what I might need to do, please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know.  I've been working on it in my spare time (which is limited), it doesn't work for me-at least not like it's supposed to, so it might be up there as I work on it.  If you're on Pintrest feel free to try it and let me know.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

It's Scrapy!

As we near the end of the catalog year we'll have to say goodbye to the 2010-2012 In Colors.  I know I'm going to miss Poppy Parade and Concord Crush the most.  I haven't used them much recently but they sure grew on me and I ended up loving them.  We'll also get a glimpse of the retired stamp set list in less than a week!!!  I can't wait.  This time of year I always start running out of room in my stamp cabinet and it's about that time to clean out!!!  So in light of the retired list and saying good bye to the retiring In Colors I wanted to do a card that showed one of them.  I have lots of scraps of DSP, I'm sure you can't relate at all :)  This was a fun idea I saw to get rid of those scraps.  This card works so well because your scraps don't need to be the same size or even straight, the more funky looking they are the better! 

This DSP is from the Eat Cake pack, I love this DSP I think it's perfect for a school scrapbook, there's lots of patterns with numbers and letters and of course all the little dots that I love!!!  The flowers are done with one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Punch pack and I had to add a little pearl in the center of them :)  Then to finish it I just used my hole punch to add some holes to the DSP make it look like a tiny notebook!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

I Didn't Do It

I should explain my title a little more.  I wanted to show you this really cute bag that my Mom made for me.  I'm a HUGE fan of the SU fabric, I love the patterns I love crafting with it, I just love it!!!  At Leadership in January our bags were made from this fabric-I actually use mine as Megan's diaper bag :)  I love this fabric-it's probably my favorite (so far---lets see what the new catalog holds)  I was so pleased that we could order it before the release of the new catalog, it's part of the Summer Smooches sneak peak!  So for the bag, I recently got a new laptop and I don't have a great 'laptop bag' I wanted something to protect my laptop so it wouldn't get 'banged' around in my bags.  So I asked my Mom to make a 'laptop sleave'.  It's padded so it will protect my computer and it has a drawstring close. 

I didn't coordinate this, the Decor Element bird was on my laptop before we bought the fabric, but doesn't it coordinate so nicely!!!  There was no pattern for this bag, I took my laptop to my parents house, had my Mom measure it and told here what I wanted it to look like.  That's the difference between good sewing skills and my lack of them :) 

The inside is lined with the 3rd pattern in the fabric pack and there's also a little pocket inside to hold my flash drives.  Isn't it just so cute!!!  Now I don't have to worry about my laptop when I need to take it somewhere, I can just throw it in the little sleeve and put it in my bag and go!  Thanks Mom!!!!  One last disclaimer, it did take an entire box of fabric, plus extra from a second box for the pocket.  A smaller version of this would be so cute to make for a kindle or IPad. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Razzleberry Flower

On Friday I shared with you one of my favorite cards that I've done in a long time.  I have it hanging in my stamp room and I love it!  Just LOVE it!!!!  So while crafting a little on Saturday (waiting for the Easter dessert to set up) I thought I'd do a different take on the layers.  One of my favorite punches to layer is the lace border punch.  I love the look of it.  So for this card, I punched 3 of them and layered them on top of each other.  Warning, I used some retired ribbon on this card :(  I normally stay away from all retired projects but when they retired the Rich Razzleberry ribbon I was so sad and didn't get rid of it.  I break it out every once and a while on cards that I think it will add something too.  I'm so glad I added it on this card. 

The flower was done with the 1 3/4 inch circle punch.  I punched 4 of them.  To get the same look I did, fold each circle in half, then in half again in the other direction.  You should have an X, then you pinch in the two sides and you end up with the triangle.  I added a Rich Razzleberry button with some linen thread and it's done.  I embossed the greeting in white, I love embossing! 

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

 

Lovely Layers!

I can't even begin to tell you how much I just love this card!!!!!!  I saw this card posted on Pintrest.  I loved it immediately.  I pin a lot of cards, someday I'll make them all :) Very few do I make right away, but this one I loved so much that I had to make it as soon as possible.  So Tuesday, during Megan's nap---that was a very productive nap :) I made it.  I lightly sponged my punched layers just so that they'd stand out a little bit more.  I love the look of all the border punches layered.  It's so elegant!!!! 

I used the Summer Smooches DSP for the leaves, just like yesterday's card.  The flower is 4 Rich Razzleberry flowers stamped, embossed, punched out, sprayed with shimmer mist and crumpled up.  The flowers have been through a lot to look so good!  Finally to finish the flower an antique brad in the center!  So pretty!!!!  This card will be hung in my room, I love it so much!!!!  Have a great Easter weekend!!!!  There's lots of excitement around here!!! 

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

 

Sweet Ladybug!

When I saw this card Tuesday on Mary Fish's blog, I thought I'd explode from cuteness!!!  How stinkin' cute, fun and easy is this card????!!!!!  As soon as Megan, was down for her morning nap on Tuesday I got straight to work!!!  I couldn't wait to reproduce this sweet little card.  With the help of some of SU's fantastic Summer Smooches DSP this card came together in just minutes!!!! 

The ladybug is made with the 1 3/4 inch circle punch, just a little over half of it and the leaves are done with the 1 1/4 i inch circle punch.  This card just makes me so happy to look at!!!  I forgot to add the black dots on my ladybug, but with the spotted DSP it almost doesn't even need it!!!!  Perhaps I'll add them later, but I do love it the way it is :) 

Yesterday my stamping time was spent creating the cards for my upcoming class.  I'm so excited about this class and now that the cards are designed I can't wait!!!!  It's a class all on glitter and SU's sparkly items, Dazzling Details, Shimmer Paint, etc.  Here's all the details, make sure to RSVP soon before space runs out!!!  Join me for a fun filled stamping morning where we'll make 4 fantastic cards that all sparkle and shine! My All That Glitters class will focus on Stampin' Up!'s many glitter, embossing and shimmer products! This will be such a fun class!!! You'll get to use all those products while making 4 beautiful cards! PLUS everyone that orders at the class will get to choose a FREE glitter/shimmer product to add to their order (up to $5.95)! FUN!!! I can't wait I hope you can come too!!!!! This class is FREE with a $35 class order or $15 at the class. If you have questions please let me know!

When: Saturday April 14, 10AM

Where: St. John's Cathedral, 318 Silver SW

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Swaps!

Our meeting was last week.  With all the hustle and bustle of the 1000 post I forgot to post our swaps.  This month I'm not going to post them all.  They were all amazing and wonderful, but there were 15 or maybe a few more.  We had a great turn out and a ton of people participated in the swap.  So I thought I'd pick a few of my favorites.  The theme was embossing, either dry embossing or heat embossing. 

 This one is Erin's, she did an embossing resist card.  I love the colors so much on this card!!! 

This one is Corrina's.  You can't tell from the picture but the watermelon is embossed with the scented embossing powder-so so yummy!!!!

This is Angela's, she did embossing resist too, just a different take on it.  I love this stamp, I have it and never pull it out....

This is Michelle C's.  I love the embossed circles and all the blues on this card.  It's a great 'man' card :)

Finally, this is Amber's card.  You can't tell from the picture but she embossed white (or maybe clear) on the flower.  The tone on tone is so elegant.  I even copied this idea-you'll see it soon!!!!

Again, the swaps were just incredible this month, everyone did an excellent job!!!!  Some of the other's that I'm not showing, I have plans to CASE and use for classes and workshops, which is some of the reasons I'm not showing them today :)  I love our meetings I always leave with new ideas!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!



My Dresden Page

It's been a while since I've shared a My Digital Studio project, this is one of my all time favorite pages.  Heather Summers did a page similar to this in her online MDS class.  By the way if you're interested in learning more about MDS, Heather Summers is doing a second class you can read more about it on her blog.  I'm so excited about the class, I thought I knew alot about MDS but after her first class I realized I didn't know as much as I thought and I'm so glad I took it.  I am almost giddy about the next one!  I can't wait!!!!!  Ok back to this page, again I just love it.  I did the page before I had pictures to put in it.  Then one day after school we had to make a special trip to the park to take a few pictures to put on this page.  I wanted it done that badly :)  Again this page is a CASE of one that Heather did and she CASED the one out of the mini catalog.  I can't wait to see this page printed, I think I may need to send an order in soon!  I haven't stamped in over a week, I'm hoping to dust off some stamps and get something done today!

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

Back To Normal......PLEASE!

What a week last week was!  I have to admit, I had all the posts from last week done and ready to go up over a week ago :)  I knew last week would be crazy and I was right.  I'm hoping that things will get back to normal this week, though with Easter only a few days away I'm not sure that will happen.  I have one kid (Megan), who keeps walking around with the Easter basket on her head and the other kid asks everyday when it's time to dye the eggs!  But hopefully I'll be at least home this week so I can at the very least get some work done around here :)  Even though my posts were prescheduled I still read every comment that was left for all 5 days!  You are all so nice and I loved reading every single one of your comments.  We'll get to the winners in just a second.  I want to briefly show you some cute cards!  Last week was our demo meeting and I showed how to make these cute little guys in my 3 minute demo. 

As cute as they are I really can't take the credit for them.  I saw them on Dawn Griffith's blog.  She has so many super cute things on her blog.  Here's the video for the bears, and here's the video for the bunny.  I made my bunny into a card, on Dawn's blog she used it for a candy bar wrapper.  Both super cute and so fun!!!!

So are you excited to see who won?!!?  I know I am!!!!  If your name is a winner please email me your address and I'll get your card or other goodies in the mail to you.  If someone doesn't claim their prize by Thursday I'll draw another name and post it Friday.  The drawings were done by Logan, I put all the numbers of that days post, in order of when they were recieved in a bowl and Logan drew a number.  And the winners are.....

Winner of Monday's Owl Card: Melinda, who said:

"What a cute card. I love your tree with the adorable owl - that might need to on my gotta have list :) I am so happy for you to be on 1000!!! Fun. Thanks for the week of non-fatting candy :)"

Winner of Tuesday's Flower Card: No name was left but her blog is A French Accent, who said:

"Beautiful, I really love the mix of colors. TFS!"

Winner of Wednesday's Blue Pig Card: Meryn, who said:
"Logan has good taste, just like his mama! This is such an adorable card! Love the simplicity of it! My favorite DSP of all time so far is Spice Cake (from last fall's mini). If I had to pick a current favorite DSP, it would be any of the DSP packs that match the color collections! I love their versatility and that they can be made to look kid friendly, feminine, or masculine depending on how you use them!

Meryn"
Winner of Thursday's Tree Card: Nicole, who said:
"Ruth, the card is a great masculine card. I struggle too with finding masculine card themes. Dry embossing is my preference over heat-embossing, no mess. - Nicole"
Finally winner of Friday's Blog Candy (the bag, the stamp set, pearls, ribbon, and brads): CHERYL!!!!! Who said:
"Congrats on your 1000 post. Your blog is the best!!
-Cher"

Thanks again so much and a big congratulations to the winners!!!!!!  Remember to email me to claim your prize!!!
I hope you stick with me for another 1000 posts!!!!
Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!!