Fourteen Years!

As we wrap up March I just want to say that this month I celebrated 14 years with Stampin' Up! I signed up in March of 2003 and I've never looked back!  In honor of this celebration I asked my downline and fellow demonstrators to send me pictures of cards that celebrate something.  They could celebrate anything.  They're all pretty amazing cards, some people posted more than one which I love!!!  I have a pretty talented team :)  

By Carol

By Nikki

By Anne

By Cindi

By Karin

By Kim

By Michelle

By Nikki

By Vicki

By Kristin

Spring Acorns?

Who says acorns are only for fall???  When you pair them with these amazing colors you can use them year round.  But if you really don't want to use acorns, though I can't imagine why....they're stinkin' cute!  You could substitute the acorns for flowers or even Easter Eggs!  For the background for this card I used the window sheet smooshing technique.  I added some ink straight to a window sheet then gave it a little spray with water and smooshed it onto my cardstock.  

This is literally the easiest way to get a watercolored look without actually watercoloring.  I used my heat tool to dry the colors between so that I didn't get a muddy mess.  My acorns are all super cute stamped in these three colors (Flirty Flamingo, Peekaboo Peach and Tempting Turquoise).  I'm going to try to branch out this week and use other colors....it's gonna be hard! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Celebrate With Flowers

Remember yesterday when I shared that I can't get enough of these three colors (Peekaboo Peach, Flirty Flamingo and Tempting Turquoise).  Well here's the second of three examples I have with these colors.  This one is so soft and elegant I love it!!!!  I used the Touches of Texture stamp set for the flowers.  I love these flowers, they're a little sketchy and I love that the solid image of the flower is stamped off.

For the greeting I used my Happy Celebrations stamp set and I embossed it in Copper---swoon!!!!!  I need to pull out my copper more.  I love the look of it!!!!  It's the perfect metallic blend for these colors.  So pretty!!  I finished with a white embossed greeting and a doily (or piece of one!) and some copper thread to tie it all together. 

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

One Card Three Colors

I've been reaching for these three colors a lot lately.  I love them together, I love them individually, I just can't get enough of them! The three colors are Peekaboo Peach, Flirty Flamingo and Tempting Turquoise.  Last week was our spring break and what little stamping time I did get, these are the only three colors I used.  

 I made this sweet set of cards with minimal supplies.  I used the white notecards, black cardstock as well as cardstock from the three colors mentioned above, white embossing powder and a wink of stella pen.  THAT'S IT!!!  Well of course dimensionals too. Always dimensionals. 

The cards are so super simple I just embossed the flower on each of the colors and the greeting and added them to the note cards.  That's essentially it, it's so beautiful. You could make a stack of these for gifts.....hmmmmmm teacher appreciation idea!!!!  Add any greeting to customize it for any occasion! 

After the cards were assembled I thought they needed a little bit of sparkle.  Everything does! so I colored only the flowers with my wink of stella pen.  This changed the card so much and was such a quick and easy embellishment!  The flower is sparkly and just slightly darker then the rest of the cardstock with really makes the flowers pop!  So pretty!!!  Remember when I said I made a few cards using only these colors, well I have 2 more to share with you so check back tomorrow and Thursday!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!

Last of Sale-a-Bration!

There are only a few days left to get your free Sale-a-Bration products!!  This will be my last Sale-a-Bration card that I make.  I love this set so much!!!!  The greeting is nice and big and so elegant!  I love how pretty this card is, I paired Elegant Eggplant and Flirty Flamingo and who knew?!  Those colors are gorgeous together!!!  If you still need to place your Sale-a-Bration order don't wait!!!!  Time is running out!  Shop here now!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Swaps

I participated in a swap last week.  I think you'll agree the cards I got are pretty amazing! 

by Karin

 by Nikki

 by Anne

 by Carol

 by Kim S

 by Pam

 by Michelle

 by Michelle (she did 2 because she had a brand new downline attending!)

by Kim M

Final Days News

 We are down to our final days of Sale-a-Bration!!!  Stampin' Up! has announced even more FREE items you can earn free with a qualifying order. 

While you're shopping don't forget to add these colors and coordinating stamps to your order!  These color retire this year, they'll be gone soon!!!!  Don't wait order them today!!  Shop today!!!

April Stamp Set of the Month

Every month I feature a different stamp set of the month, In April I'll be featuring the Builder Birdcage set!  I'll be honest this set wasn't even on my radar until my dowline pointed it out to me.  But I LOVE IT!!!!  It's so much fun!  

When you purchase this set in April you get supplies and instructions to make these 3 cards.  If you preorder the kit by April 1st I also throw in a free gift!  

This one is my favorite, but it's a tough call because they're all so cute!!!  I love them all!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Punch Art Day 2

I have the last of the punch art cards.  How stinkin' cute is this bunny!!??  He would be so adorable on a tag for an Easter gift too!  He's mostly made of framelits, don't be afraid to treat your framelit shapes like your punch shapes.  His ears are oval framelits and his head is a circle framelit.  The only punches are his eyes and nose and those are 1/2" and 3/4" circles. 

Finally the cute fishy card!  He's so cute!!  I'm thinking a whole rainbow of fish would be cute!!  Punches used on him are Sweetheart (body), Bow Builder (tail), 1" circle (fin), 1/2" circle (eye), Owl Builder (I used some of the smaller circles for the black of the eye).  That's it!  I hope you enjoy all these punch art ideas! 

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

Punch Art Class Day 1

Last week I shared some punch art cards that didn't make it to my class.  This week I share the ones that did make it.  Can we just take a minute to just admire how flippin' cute this cow is?!?!?!?!?!  So cute!  I can barely stand it!!!!  His body, and nose are done with large oval framelits, his head is a large circle framelit.  His ears and legs are the same small heart framelit.  As for punches I used: 1/2" circle (nostrils and eyes), 3/4" circle (eyes and spots), 1" circle (spots), Petite Petals (horns)

Not to be out done by the cow, this penguin is pretty cute too!!!  His body and wings are all oval framelits, the heart is also a framelit.  Punches used on him: 1/2" cicle (eyes), 3/4" circle (eyes and feet), Blossom Builder (beak).  I have the last two to share tomorrow!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Curvy Butterfly Boxes

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I don't have a green project but I have a rainbow project and we all know the pot at the end of the rainbow is the most important part of St. Patrick's Day ;) Aren't these boxes so pretty!!?!?!  I love the colors! I love how simple but elegant they are! This butterfly box made from the Curvy Keepsake Framlit was inspired by Erica here.  Erica has a video on her blog so I'm not going to go into too many details about how I made mine, if you're interested defiantly check out her video.

While I'm not going to talk much about how I made these boxes I am going to talk about the Curvy Keepsake box. If you don't own this framelit, YOU MUST!!!  There are about a trillion million brilliant ideas to do with this box.  I challenge you to search 'stampin up curvy keepsake box' on Pintrest and not be blown away by ideas! 

I love this simplicity of this box!  And it's so easy to put together.  Probably this is my favorite box framelit ever!  Maybe.......for now it defiantly is!  Have a great weekend, a safe St. Patty's Day and I will see you back here on Monday with the cards from my class!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Belle

With the release of the new Beauty and Beast movie tomorrow (disclaimer: the animated one will still be my fav) I thought I'd pull out my Disney roots and make a Belle themed card.  I really love this card!!!  So pretty!!!!  I want her dress!  Again I pulled out lots of circles for this card. 

I know you want to know, so let's just get down to what punches were used.  Circles: 1" (bun and all the layers of her dress), 1 1/2" (head and arms).  Her body and belt is made with the bow punch.  And that is it! Three punches!  Now I did use a large oval framelit to have a base to glue all those circles onto for the bottom of her dress, but it's still only 3 punches!  Her dress is also covered in some Wink of Stella to add more shimmer cause, obviously she needed it.  

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Alligator In The Water

 

Nearly 3 years ago I created this amazing giraffe card.   In all the many years that I've had my blog that giraffe card has been by far the one I get the most questions and comments on.  I love that giraffe card and I've seen so many variation on it.  Including my own, I made this wiener dog one after the giraffe.  Looking back on that card, I thought what else can I do in punch art with the same layout.  And so the alligator was born....or crocodile.  Depending on where you live I guess he could be a gator or croc.     

Like the others when you open the card you see him in his....her?...entirety.  I just love it, I love these interactive ones.   They're so much fun!  This card did not make it to my class, really only because I felt that this card needed to be taught in a more intimate setting where I could offer the one on one help that I would need to.  My larger class this weekend just isn't the right venue for it.    

So, how is it made.  I started with a standard card base that was 4 1/4"x 11, score on the 11" side at 2 3/4" and 5 1/2".  That will make your zig zag fold.  For the water I had a a piece of cardstock that was about 2x11 score the same way and tear it in half for a couple layers of water.  The alligator is a piece of cardstock that is 8 1/2" x 1 1/2" I rounded the top corners with a corner rounder.  I didn't score him.  It really works better if you just fold it and you glue it down and assemble the card. 

As for punches, I didn't use many at all 2" tail, 1 3/4" (head), 3/4" (eyes, bumpy back, 1/2" (eyes), Fox Builder (I used the tiny piece that would normally be the tip of the foxes tail, this is the alligators teeth).  Such a fun and cute card!  I love it!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Beary Cute Bear

I have a punch art class this weekend and I'm so excited!  I adore punch art.  I love making it, I love all the tiny little pieces that make everyone else crazy!  I love it all!!!  But one of the great things about a punch art class is I get to make a BUNCH of punch art cards and pick and choose my favorites for the class!  I have few punch art cards to share over the next couple of days.  These card DID NOT make the cut for my class.  I will share my class punch art cards next week.  This sweet little bear is so stinkin' cute!!!! I do love him!  

Aside from his body, which is an oval, he is made all from circle punches and framelits!  Just circles!!!  If you're a fan of punch art or want to do more of it, get circles and ovals.  Circles and ovals are by far the shapes I use the most in my punch art. You can create almost anything with circles and ovals.  Punches I used are circles 1/2" (nose, eyes, pads on paws), 3/4" (eyes, pads on paws) 1" (cheeks, ears, hands) 1 1/2" (ears, feet).  I used the largest oval for the body, and a larger circle for the head.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Amazing Gold Butterfly

My posting has been a little sporadic lately.  Let's just say last week was crazy busy and well I lost track of a lot of time.  I'm working on establishing a new routine and setting aside specific hours to work and stamp everyday.  Hoping a little more structure will bring some much needed organization to my every crazy life.  Here's hoping right!?!  But I do have a card to share.  I'll be honest, I wasn't loving this card when I first made it.  There's a gold glitter butterfly and doilies what's not to love.  I'm not sure, but I just wasn't digging it.  But after some time, I started to really like it.  

It's strange the way things work out like that.  First, the Hexagons Embossing folder is beyond incredible.  If you don't own this folder.  GET ONE!  GET IT NOW!!!  It's so incredible and stunning in person!  They look like little jewels, it's amazing!!!  GET IT!! Then of course there's the doily and the gold butterfly and the gold thread which I love, all of it!  I don't reach for my Regal colors very often so I think it was the Rose Red that was throwing me off, but I'm learning to appreciate these rich deep colors more and more.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!