Valentine Balloon

I'm back from my 'blog break'.  It was a much needed short break.  While sadly I didn't get much stamping done, I was able to get done what needed to get done around the house and with the family without the worry of a daily post, which is what threw me off last week.  I'm going to let you in on a little secret, 95% of my blog posts are pre-done and scheduled to post, days and sometimes weeks in advance.  When I was sick I fell behind, way behind on my blogging and stamping, last week was all about playing catch up and it wasn't going so well.  I was more worried about a daily post then other things, it was time for a quick priority check.  After 4 days off and getting things back on track I'm happy to say I think I'm back :)  PS don't get the flu, it stinks and pretty much ruined my entire January.

Today's card is kind of a unique one.  I have a circle cut through the entire card and in that cut out is a CUTE Valentine balloon.  I started with only the hole cut in the front of the card but once the front was complete the card wouldn't close.....there's a balloon there.....so I cut a hole in the back too.  This won't go in your standard envelope but I think this is one of those cards that need to be hand delivered anyway.   

I cut out 6 balloons in the Stacked With Love DSP.  I folded them all in half and attached them together.  I strung a piece of bakers twine through the center (before closing up my last side of the balloon).  The bakers twine is sandwiched between the Whisper White Cardstock and the Real Red Cardstock on the front of the card.  So it just kind of hangs in the circle. 

I was going to add the little basket from the set, but anyway that I did it just didn't look right.  Finally I just decided on a bow with some bakers twine to finish the bottom.  To complete the card I added my greeting and some sequins.  I love this card and what a sweet little Valentine!!!  See you on Monday!!!!

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

Love Paper Pumpkin

This month's Paper Pumpkin is toooooooo cute!!!!  I love these little bags, tags and clips.  You get supplies to make 24 bags and the stamp set is super cute!!!!!  The tags all have gold elements that match the gold clips so so so so fun!!!  I whipped up 5 treats for friends in no time with this kit. 

I pick up some chocolate hearts from See's Chocolate (which in my opinion is one of the best chocolates!) early this week and I was able fit 6 perfectly in each bag.  The clips keep the bag shut.  This time of year is always really busy and this kit will come in handy for those last minute Valentine treats that I always forget about :)

Finally, my stamp desk........ugh........It's a disaster zone, sadly most of my house looks like this!!  UGH!  The first week of January Dan and I were crazy sick with the flu, last week the kids were sick.  I've spent this week trying to catch up on things that I've missed and fallen behind on since the beginning of the year.  Well it's not going well I still have so much to do, so because of that I'll be taking a little 'blog break'.  I really need to spend a couple of days catching up, cleaning and getting everything and everyone back on track.  I'm hoping I'll just be gone for a couple of days and be back by the middle of next week.  Thank you so much for understanding.  I'll be back soon :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

My Digital Studio Thanks

I have an MDS card for you today.  I love MDS to make bulk cards.  I especially love that I can customize the front, both pages inside and the back.  Some of you know that in my free time (ha! what's that?) I'm the director of the art gallery at my church.  We change the show quarterly, so about a month before the show changes I send Thank You cards to every artist who is showing in the current show.  Because I can customize the inside I'm able to print all the info they need about pick up dates, upcoming shows, etc.  Plus I think a nice thank you card is so much nicer and personal than a business letter.  These cards should be arriving any day, I can't wait to see them in person.  I've always been super impressed with all of my print products from Stampin' Up!.  I used the Sale-A-Bration download from last year, but I love these flowers and I love these colors all together!  I love the extra sequins too.  So fun and bright!!!

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

Amazing Painted Petals

I'm not a fan of Crisp Canteloupe or Calypso Coral.  Both have never been a favorite of mine.  For some reason I was drawn to these colors the other day when I sat down to stamp.  This card is the result.  Can I just say, this card is so beautiful and makes me so happy, I'm totally digging the Canteloupe and Coral colors, they're perfect on this card!!!!!  There's a lot of little details on this card which when they're all together just make an amazing card.  The doilies add just the right amount of femine touch to it, while the embossed border on the left of the flowers adds more interest to the card.  The entire front of the card is mounted on a cut and ready card base (this one is white).  I haven't been a fan of the cut and ready card bases but a couple weeks ago I made a lot of cards with white bases and went through my stash of white cardstock so fast!  I was worried I would run out of white cardstock!!!!  AAAHHHH! Could you image a worse tragedy!!!?!!  Running out of dimensionals is the only thing I can think of that's worse!  So with my last order, in addition to a major order of white cardstock I got some cut and ready bases.....I'm a believer!!  I LOVE them so much, they're soooooo convient.  I'm sold! 

The flowers on this card are so sweet, I {heart} them!  I adore the texture on them.  To get the two-toned look that they have I inked them with the lighter color then used a sponge dauber to apply some of the darker ink to the stamp.  For the flowers I just applied the darker ink to the bottom of the flowers.  For the stem I applied the darker ink around the leaves.  Soooo sooo pretty!!!  Finally to finish the card I used a little of my glitter brush pen from Amazon (SU PLEASE CARRY THIS PRODUCT!!!!).  I went over my flowers and stems, it adds the perfect amount of shine.  I hope you love this card as much as I do.

Really quick, if you haven't liked my Facebook Page make sure you do.  I've reached 130 likes so I'm doing a HUGE give away on my Facebook Page later this week.  Don't miss it!!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Sheltering Tree

I'll be the first to admit that this set wasn't my favorite in the Occasions Catalog. I thought it was just another 'tree set'. Then I saw a few samples with it and it grew on me. I decided to break down and get it, boy am I happy I did! This card is so pretty I'm totally in love with it! The leaves on the tree are stamped in three colors for more dimension. I used Pink Pirouette, Crisp Cantaloupe and Calpso Coral. The pink is so light I probably could have done without it but I love the multiple colors and the detail it adds. 

Adding a greeting was easy. I knew I wanted the greeting on vellum, but the white vellum looked a little harsh. I took my Calpso Coral Blendabilities and colored the back. I LOVE LOVE LOVE L.O.V.E this look!!!! It coordinates so perfectly with the card and draws your eye right to it. It's such a fun technique.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Birthday Balloons

I'm loving this new stamp set, Celebrate Today, in the Occasions catalog.  These balloons are soooo much fun!!!  I love that there's coordinating framelits!  For this card I stamped my balloon image 4 times in 4 different colors, Blackberry Bliss, Rose Red, Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow.  Then I cut them out with my framelit.  Easy peasy!  Then I used the string image from the stamp set and stamped strings for all of them.  The greeting was stamped and then attached to the card with staples for a fun look. 

To add some detail to the balloons I used my white gel pen and created different patterns on them.  This would have been much easier to do if I have thought to do it prior to attaching the balloons to the card.  But I still love them even though the designs are straight or perfect.  A white gel pen is such a fun way to add quick easy details.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Watercolor Congrats

What happens when you leave a piece of watercolor paper on your desk then drop a Daffodil Delight ink pad open on top of it??  You get this card!  Yes it's true, I had a stack of watercolor paper on my desk and yes I dropped a Daffodil Delight pad on top leaving a fun Daffodil Delight mark....so what to do......I grabbed some Tangerine Tango and Bermuda Bay ink and turned it into a card!!  To get this really fun background I got my paper really wet, then I just added some color, make sure to overlap your colors so they blend nicely together.  Once I got the desired look I was going for I let it dry, you can speed this process up with a heat tool.  I just left it for a while and came back to it.

Once it was dry I trimmed it down and added a greeting.  I thought it still needed something so I grabbed by white Craft reinker and I diluted it with some water, not a lot just enough to thin it out a little.  Then I used a paintbrush and just 'splattered' it with the craft reinker/water mixture.  I love this look!  So overall, I turned a mistake into a fun watercolored card, remember there's no mistakes in stamping, just creative opportunities!

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

Thankful Butterfly

I'm pretty sure that I cannot make a card with a butterfly on it without adding glitter.  It just cannot be done.  This card is one of my favorites that I've done so far!!!  I had a few (4) Pacific Point Butterflies cut out on my desk so I decided to glue them together, this makes your butterfly cutouts more sturdy and thicker and easier to appy to a finished card.  I wanted some color to the butterfly's wings so I attached it to a piece of Daffodil Delight, then carefully cut around the edges.  So now it just looks like a yellow and blue butterfly! So pretty!!!!!

Well I couldn't top there, so I mixed some Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds and painted in every hole on the butterfly's wings.  The glitter is painted on the Daffoodil Delight piece.  Well I couldn't stop there, the Daffodil Delight looked great but now the Pacific Point needed some shine, so I covered the butterfly in Crystal Effects to give it a shiny look to match the shiny glittery wings.  So pretty!!  I {heart} glitter!!!!  The rest of the card is really simple, I have a strip of DSP from the Stacked With Love Pack, and a simple gretting from the Sheltering Tree set.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Irresistibly Yours

There are 2 Sale a Bration DSP choices in the catalog, one is The Best Year ever and it's super cute and exactly what you think about when you think DSP.  The other is Irresistibly Yours.  It's a white DSP with white glossy patterns on it.  The point of this DSP is that when you add ink the glossy parts resit you're left with your own custom DSP.  AND IT'S AWESOME!!!!!  You can add ink in many different ways. For this card I used an ink pad and a sponge and just rubbed it on.  You could use markers, ink spritzers, Blendabilitites, really anything to get the ink on the paper. 

I wanted to try every paper in the pack, so I went with a rainbow of colors.  I've made a card with this same layout before but I thought it was so fun and simple that I wanted to do it again this time with my custom made DSP.  After I colored all my DSP I cut it into 1/2 inch strips and made my borders.  With 2 strips, each 12x1/2 I was able to make 5 of these cards.  They didn't take long and were really quick to put together.

I'm so excited to try many more techniques with this paper!!  Really the possibilites are endless and you'll never be stuck without DSP to use on any project because now you can makit it your own and coordinate with anything!!! 

I don't mind getting a little inky when I stamp.  I know some people don't like ink on their fingers though.  Just a heads up, it could get a little messy.  Remember after you get your color on your paper, no matter which method you use, make sure you have dry cloths or tissues nearby to wipe off the glossy areas of your paper.  That's where it will resist the ink.  By the way this is what my hands look like almost everytime I stamp ;)  I'm a messy stamper, but I don't mind the ink.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Lots Of Cards and Updates

So apparently I feel off the face of the earth last week.  I missed 3 days of posting, last Thursday and Friday and yesterday.  Well, the flu hit our house, hard.  Dan was sick right after the new year, the first weekend in January (our anniversary weekend----it was a bad way to celebrate!).  I did what I do when anyone in the house is sick, I quarentine them.  Dan was locked (not really) in our bedroom, meanwhile no one goes in and I'm spraying and cleaning everything with Lysol.  Everything that Dan potentially touched, breathed on or even looked at wierd.....in case  you haven't guessed it I have serious germ issues.  So he was sick for the entire weekend, it wasn't until the middle of last week that he started feeling better.  Then there's me, Monday afternoon it hit me, I started feeling icky and I knew it got me despite my Lysol efforts.  Dan was doing ok at this point so he took over, my parents helped too.  It wasn't until Thursday afternoon that I started to feel a little better.  Now I'm not a fan a germs, not even my own.  I pretty much lived in a bubble of Lysol for 3 days, even a few days later.  I didn't want this spreading to the kids.  Everything I touched got sprayed as soon as I was done touching it.  Every time I got up I sprayed, I think you get the idea.  I was washing my hands constantly.  This was all last week, the week of the 5th....our big stamp camp that I do with my upline Amber was that Saturday.  I pretty much had no option but to get better by the weekend.  Luckily for me I had the good sense to prep for my class over Christmas break so all I had to do was pack everything up on Friday morning.  Whew!!!!  I did have to enlist the kids help in stuffing catalogs in bags for stamp camp, but with a little promise of ice cream they were happy to help.   Aside from a scratch voice on Saturday Stamp Camp went great, now on Monday I think I'm finally 90% back to normal.  Megan has a bad cold now, but Dan and I are pretty sure that it's not what we had, thank goodness.  Just your standard cold, hopefully she'll be better in a couple days.  So there you have it, why I've been MIA the last couple days.  But I'm making it up today with 6 cards!!!

These are the 6 cards that our stamp camp guest got to make.  Amber and I do this class together, twice a year, we choose 3 stamp sets and then we each design 3 cards using the sets.  So our guests get to make 6 cards.  Obviously we wanted to use Sale A Bration sets, it was our Sale a Bration stamp camp after all.  The first set we choose was Simply Wonderful.  I love the greetings in this set.  There's something for everyone.  This is the card I did.  I love cards with rainbows.  I love this card so much!  If you have scraps this is what you want to do with them. I was able to use up lots of my scraps with this card.  So pretty, I love it!!!

Here's Amber's card using the Simply Wonderful set.  It's so pretty and elegant.  I love the use of the washi tape along the bottom too.  What a cleaver idea!

Next up is the Lotus Blossom set.  I think Amber and I both loved this set from the beginning.  I know at stamp camp some people had a little trouble with it, but like anything else it just takes a little practice.  I think once you get it down and how it works, it's gorgeous!  This flower is stamped just using Melon Mambo.  This is the card I designed and I love how elegant it looks!

I wanted to show the flower close up because this is such an amazing set, that with only one ink pad you can achieve such a dramatic flower with so much detail and dimension.  So pretty!!!

This is Amber's card with the Lotus Blossom set.  I almost did my flower in Blackberry Bliss too, I'm glad I changed it to Melon Mambo.  But isn't the Blackberry Bliss flower stunning too.  Again just one ink pad!!!  So pretty!!!!

Finally the last set we choose was A Happy Thing.  This is my card.  I'm totally in love with that little lemon from the set.  I do love the bird as well, but the lemon is so cute!!!  We used makers to color the stamp then add some splatter with the Gorgeous Grunge set (of course!).  Finally I added some gold sequins just to finish it off.  I love the look with the sequins!!!

Amber used the lemon too, this card is so pretty.  The lemon is stamped on vellum and colored on the back with markers.  The vellum is wrapped around an embossed notecard.  Very elegant and beautiful.  I have lots to share, so make sure to check back all week, I have no plans to go missing again! 

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

Lotus Blossom

This stamp set should be number one on your Sale a Bration wishlist.  It's an amazing set.  Not only is it gorgeous!!!  But it's essentially a 3 step stamp that you can do with 1 ink pad!!!  You read that right, you only need ONE INK PAD!!!!!  OH. MY. GOODNESS. this is life changing!!!!!  The flower comes in 3 parts, a solid image and two more detailed images.  The idea of the 3 colors in this image is that as you continue stamping with the 3 stamps you stamp on scratch paper once for the second image and then twice for the third image.  So while you're using the same ink your getting lighter and lighter shades as you stamp.  I hope that all makes sense. 

If you're attending stamp camp this weekend, don't worry you'll get to use this set and see how amazing it is in person!!!  The rest of the card is pretty simple.  I cut a frame with my circle framelits and covered it in Dazzling Details to add some glitter :)  The rest of the card is pretty straight forward I really wanted the flower to be the star of this show :)  If you have more questions about this stamp set please let me know, it's beautiful and a 'must have' for any stamper! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Valentine Treasure

Today both kids are back in school!  Logan returned yesterday, Megan goes back today!  If I didn't have a million and three things to do I'd be at home, in a quiet, empty house stamping to my hearts content :)  I can't complain though, Dan had lots of time off over Christmas break so I was able to get lots of stamping done.  More than usual when the kids are home.  Plus I got to stamp with the kids a few times while they worked on 'Thank You' notes.  Here's one of the sweet cards I made.  Valentine's Day is right around the corner, it's time to start planning your Valentine's projects :)  This entire stamp set, Hey Valentine is so stinkin' cute!!! 

This card took a long time though, I used my Blendabilities to color, always super fun!!! But that wasn't the time consuming part, I think I may have gone insane for a little while (who can blame me though-kids are crazy over the holidays), I decided that this little image needed to be cut out, by hand.  The parts that were too small to do with my snips I cut with an Xacto knife......what was I thinking!?!  As you can image, that took a while.  But I think it was worth it.  This cute card is proof!  After coloring, and cutting out this image I decided that some of the elements needed some more shine, I used my glitter pen (from Amazon) to add some sparkle to the coins and his belt buckle (hard to see in the picture).  I also added the glitter to the Coastal Cabana heart in the background.  You can really see it shine!  This card is so super sweet!!  I just love it!!!!   

 

The new 2015 Occasions Catalog starts today!  Yippeee!!!  It's full of amazing new products.  You'll be adding tons of them to your wishlist!  I did!!!  You can view the Occasions Catalog here.  If you don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to send you a copy just send an email and let me know.  You can also see and shop for the products at my website. Use this hostess code and you could win free stuff!!!  EACNVXV6

Speaking of free stuff, while shopping don't forget that it's the first day of Sale A Bration too!!!  That means that with every $50 (US) before tax and shipping, that you spend you get to choose a FREE Sale A Bration item!!!!  Whoooohooo!!!  There's amazing sets, paper and more!!!  See the Sale A Bration catalog here or shop anytime here. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Shaker Butterfly

I told you I'm on a shaker card trend, well today I have a technique to do shaker cards that will shake up your world haahaa!!!!  I've seen this technique done by a few people, the first was here, and so I thought I would give it a try.  I'll get into how I did the shaker card in a second.  First, this set is gorgeous!  I didn't go into too much detail on the card, I was really more focused on seeing if this new technique for shaker cards worked.  But I think it's lovely.  This butterfly set is so pretty, I love all the stamps in this set.  They're all great for layering or stamping by themselves.  The best part the new Occasions catalog goes live tomorrow!  You can get this set tomorrow!  Yay!!!!!   

So let's talk shaker frames.  Up until now all my shaker cards have been done with dimensionals.  Well I have a serious love addiction with dimensionals so I'm good with dimensionals, but the problem that I found with dimensionals is the the edges stay a little sticky, so often your shaker material gets stuck to the sides.  Not ideal.  So I did lots of research and I came across this method, which I love and will forever use now!  Instead of dimensionals or any foam tape it uses a piece of fun foam.  You can get these foam sheets in 8.5 x 11 at almost any big box store, for sure any craft store, it's a brilliant idea!  To start I cut the butterfly in my cardstock, then I cut a piece of foam slightly smaller than the cardstock.  I traced onto the foam where my butterfly needed to be and used the framelit to cut it out.  I wasn't sure if the framelit would cut the foam, but it did with no problems!  Now you're all set to assemble your shaker card as you normally would.  Adhere your window sheet down then with lots of glue (I used Tombow) stick your foam down, fill your shaker card then attach another piece of cardstock (or to your cardbase) to make the back of your shaker card.  

I filled my shaker card with some chunky glitter and lots of sequins.  So pretty!!  I just love it and I love this new technique!!!  If you give it a try let me know I'd love to see your shaker cards!!!

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

Happy Bird

I really like this bird, I think he's super cute.  This bird is in one of the new Sale A Bration stamp sets, called A Happy Thing.  I loved this bird but the greetings in the stamp set are really fun too, and there's another image, a lemon or lime maybe.  So super cute!!!  The card is really pretty simple.  I wanted to bird to really be the focus of the card.  The background on the Soft Suede piece is stamped with another new set from the Occasions Catalog called Sheltering Tree.  The stamp is the leaves for the tree.  Love when a stamp set can do double duty!!

For the bird I colored him with markers then stamped it on Whisper White Cardstock.  I wanted the colors to blend a little so I pulled out my Glitter Pen (Wink of Stella) that I got on Amazon--Please please SU sell this pen!!!!!  I used that to 'watercolor' the image.  I went over it and pulled the color from the markers.  I love the final result.  There's an amazing shimmer to it (tough to capture in the pictures) and while it pulled the colors from the image it didn't mess up the stamped image, you can still see every detail of the stamped image.  I love that! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Sale-A-Bration Brightens My Day

Happy New Year!!  Welcome to 2015!  Wait where did 2014 go???!  Here we are in January, which in the Stampin' Up! world means Sale-a-Bration!!!  My favorite time of year for sure!  Everyone can earn fun new stamps, accessories, and so much more.  This years Sale-a-Bration catalog is packed with 6 new stamps, DSP, ribbons, buttons, Project Life by Stampin' Up!, and this year you can get Blendabilities free!!!  WOOOO HOOO!!! This will be a Sale-a-Bration that worth celebrating ;) 

This adorable little light bulb and greeting are in one of the new Sale-a-Bration sets.  It's called You Brighten My Day. This card was really quick to make, the longest part was waiting for the Crystal Effects to dry, even that didn't take long :)  I stamped my light bulbs over and over then colored them with So Saffron and Crushed Curry markers.  Then I finished assembling my card and for a final touch I added some Crystal Effects to all the light bulbs.  It makes them shine and gives them more dimension.  If you want to check out even more samples and use some of the new amazing Sale a Bration products make sure you sign up for Sale-a-Bration Celebration Stamp Camp.  I'm doing this class with my upline Amber and it will be so much fun, with AMAZING projects.  All the details on the class are at the link, make sure you register quickly!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!