Branching Out

I hope you had a great Easter. I had a very quiet restful Easter. It was just Dan, Logan and I. We went to church and then came home hunted Easter eggs and had a nice low key dinner. Just the way I like the holidays, pressure free. I hope yours was just as nice.
Today's card is from a fun stamp set called Branch Out. This is actually my Mom's set, she's out of town visiting my sister and I thought as long as I'm over at her house checking on her cats I should borrow a stamp set or two. I really like this set and can see many possibilities with it. On this card the base is 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4. The tree on top is mounted low enough that it will fit in a standard envelope. When you make this kind of card you want to make sure to check that before you glue everything. For the tree I stamped on vellum cardstock. I stamped the tree first then turned it over and stamped the leaves on the other side. I used my crop a dial and a jumbo eyelet for the tire swing and to hold the vellum down.

Supplies
Stamp Sets: Trendy Trees, Branch Out
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, White, Vellum, Old Olive, DSP from the level 1 hostess bundle
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Old Olive
Accessories: Corduroy Brads, jumbo eyelet, crop a dial, dimensionals, word window punch

Thanks for looking, I'll see you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Easter Wishes

Well we finally made it to Saturday, this has been one busy week. I know I've mentioned that earlier this week a couple of times. I've been going non stop since Monday on some pretty important things. I'll share with you another day. Anyway, Easter is tomorrow. We'll be spending the day dying Easter eggs and getting ready for the big event! But I thought I would show you this cute Easter card. I'm using a set from the mini called Forest Friends. It's such a cute set with a bunny, owl, deer and tree. So cute. The animals are very Disney-like which might be why I like it so much!

For this card I just used the bunny. I layer some DSP from the level 3 hostess bundle on to some old olive and then on a vanilla card base. The bunny is actually stamped inside the card and I put a piece of a window sheet over the hole. I tried it without the window sheet but I think it looks so much better with the window sheet. Hard to tell from the pictures but it makes the bunny look glossy.

Here's the inside. Super cute and easy!

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Forest Friends, All Holidays

Cardstock: Vanilla, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Hand Drawn DSP

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: 1 1/4, 1 3,8 and scallop circle punches, window sheets, vanilla ribbon, paper piercer and pad

Thanks for looking, have a great Easter, see you Monday!

Monkey Muffins-and Punch class kits!

On Wednesday I had some bananas that were a little too ripe so what do you do with ripe bananas you make bread (or muffins in this case). So Wednesday Logan and I made banana nut muffins. Thursday morning at 6 AM, I thought I should make some super cute boxes and take some muffins to the staff at my church (where I go every Thursday for my Mothers Group). So I was designing these boxes at 6AM. Then Logan got up, fed him breakfast, got him dressed, got myself ready and by that time it's 7:10AM, I have to leave by 8, and I only had one box done. So I called my mom and asked her to come over on her way to work and help me assemble boxes. So with her help I got all 4 done and finished making the monkeys in the car on the way there. I wasn't driving of course. The monkey is missing feet and a tail as my mom pointed out. Oh well, there's next time.
The monkey is done with punches. I learned how to make him a long time ago. He's really cute! The box is really easy too, the bottom is 9x9 score 3 inches on all sides, cut and assemble. The lid is 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 score 3/4 inch on all sides, cut and assemble. Now had I planned this more than 2 hours in advance, I would have made a little bunch of bananas with punches too. Oh well next time.





So what's this about Punch Class kits? Well I've had some emails from people asking if I'm doing a kit for the class, I've decided that I will. Here's how it will work, the kits are only going to be offered to people who don't live in Albuquerque. (US residents only, sorry) You can buy each class kit seperatly or you can buy all 3 and save. Postage IS included in the cost. So here's what you'll get with each kit. You'll get color copies of the projects with instructions, all supplies for each project-pre cut and pre punched, and postage is included.

At each class we'll make 4 projects. So if you get the class bundle you'll get supplies for all 12 projects. Each class kit is $20, that's supplies and instructions for 4 projects plus postage. Or buy the class bundle, get all 12 projects for $45. I'm only offering the April Class right now, unless you get the bundle. You'll be able to purchase the May and June classes the month they're held. Remember this offer is only for those living out of town. If you're in town I'd love for you to come to my class! Please email me if you're interested, (my email is in the upper right corner of the page)


Supplies:

Cardstock: Natural White, Glorious Green, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Black, White, window sheets

Accessories: 1 3/4, 1 3/8, 1/2, 1/4 inch circle, small and large oval, boho blossom, word window punches, 2 way glue, tombow glue, chocolate chip marker

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Note of Thanks

Wow, after a super busy week, I finally had time to sit down and stamp for more then 10 minutes. Though I did stamp yesterday and the day before. I'm talking 108 cards in 48 hours. Whew, I'm exhasted. But I finally got to sit down and stamp something for me. I got a new box of goodies yesterday. Well most of it's for my punch classes coming up, which there's still time to sign up for by the way! But I did get a few goodies of my own that I can play with.

The 2 stamps that I'm using I got for free with the Get Connected promotion. When you order $40 of products from the mini catalog you get to choose a product on page 208 for free. The two I'm using are Flowers in Silhouette and the Note of Thanks kit. The kit is great you get 4 mini cards with envelopes and 2 stamps that are double mounted and a chocolate chip stampin spot. I made 4 cards, each a different color but the same design. I stamped each envelop to match as well.

Here's a close up of the cards.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Flowers in Silhouette adn Note of Thanks

Cardstock: Regal Rose, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, and White

Ink: Regal Rose, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Regal Rose, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, Old Olive ribbon, horizontal slot punch, dimensionals

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Simple Birthday

Super quick post today, I'm super busy this week! Need a simple birthday card? Well I may have just the perfect one and you can make it for a man or women. For a girl, just add a couple of butterfies, it would be so pretty. I saw a card similar to this one on split coast stampers. This is one of the designs that I'm making for my church birthday cards this month. I think they're so adorable and super quick and easy! Love it!

Stamp Sets: Inspired by Nature, It's Your Birthday
Cardstock: Glorious Green, Confetti White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Glorious Green, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Horizontal Slot Punch

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Tutorial Tuesday-pull out train

Happy Tuesday. Today I have a really quick tutorial for you. I almost didn't get one up at all but didn't want to miss a Tutorial Tuesday! I showed you this card last week and a few people asked for a tutorial so I'd thought I'd show that to you really fast.
For the card you need 2 pieces of white, one is 5 x 3 3/4 (top) the other is 5 x 3 1/4 (bottom).

This is your bottome piece, you're going to cut about 1/2 inch off the top and bottom leaving a 1 inch tab on the right hand side of your paper. The picture explains it much better then me. At this step your images wouldn't be stamped, so ignore my train.

Now line up the pieces together with the 1 inch tab hidden behind the top piece. This is where you would stamp your images if you haven't already done that.

Flip both pieces over and attach dimensionals. I drew blue lines on them where they should go. I used the outside edges of the dimensionals for the top and bottom, and one dimensional in each corner. When you put them on make sure that the tab on your bottom piece catches on them. The dimensionals on the left are going to stop your bottom piece from slidding out when you pull it and the dimensionals on the right are going to stop your bottom piece when you slide it back in. Hope that makes sense.

Then attach it to your card.

And it should slide open and closed easily.

I've opened an etsy shop. I currently only have 1 item listed, I'm hoping to get more up soon. I'm selling my cards in packages of 4. Feel free to take a look!

Thanks for looking see you tomorrow!

First Monday of the Month Card Challenge

It's time for another card challenge with Logan, my 2 year old. Lately Logan has been fascinated with crab or crabbies as we call them. I don't know if fascinated is the right word, he likes to pretend they're eating our shirts. Not really sure where that came from, we don't have any crabby toys-well one bath toy, but to my knowledge he's never eaten a shirt. Oh well. So I thought what better then a crabby card made with punches! And he agreed. If you like this crabby card you won't want to miss my punch classes coming up. There's still time to sign up!
For our cards we used Creamy Caramel, Brocade Blue and Real Red Cardstock. The Itty Bitty Background stamp set and greeting is from the Smarty Pants set, and some white craft ink and black classic ink. Now normally I do my card first then hide it and Logan does his, but this time we made ours together at the same time.

There goes Logan off to show Daddy his crabby card.

Here's Logan's. I punched everything. His hands aren't quite big enough to punch yet. I helped with the black part of his eyes, his eye brows and the legs, all the tiny parts. For the rest of the parts I put the glue on and Logan glued it where he wanted it.

Here's mine. We used the Itty Bitty background stamp set in white to stamp on the sand and the water to add more dimension.

Supplies

Stamp Sets: Smarty Pants, Itty Bitty Background

Cardstock: Real Red, White, Black, Creamy Caramel, Brocade Blue

Ink: Black classic and white craft

Accessories: Photo Corners, Wide Oval, Small Oval, 1/2 inch Circle, 1/4 inch circle, and slit punches, dimensionals, 2 way glue.

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!!

Paper Piecing Paradise

Say that title 3 times fast I dare you! I can't even do it once. Thank goodness you just read my blog and not listen to me ramble on with my mixed up words. Sometimes when I really excited about a project or when I'm stamping and I'm having a lot of fun I get super excited and start talking so fast that no one can understand me. It's actually a problem when I'm doing a workshop. I start talking about how great our products are and I'm going so fast that I'm loosing everyone. Oh well, see how easily I get off track.
Today's card is with more stamp set from the mini. Don't you just love that mini. I love everything in it, and normally that's not the case. And with the great Get Connected promotion you can get free stuff while shopping from the mini. How great! Anyway, I got distracted again. I used the super fun Tea Party DSP for this card. This is one of my favorite DSP. I just love the colors. I stamped the image 3 times. Once on white, then twice on 2 different patterens of the DSP. I cut her dress out of one and her chair out of the other. The I glued it to the white and thought, hummm, looks a little off. So then I cut that out and put it on another piece of white with dimensionals. Now it looks right. This card is a unique fold as you can probably tell from the photo. The top opens up then the bottom folds down. Really cool in person. The greeting on it says "My mind not only wonders sometimes it leaves me completely" Like I felt yesterday with my 3 posts. Well I think I've talked enough. It's going to be an ugly windy day here in NM, not looking forward to that. But think of all the stamping I'll get done, hahaha.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Golden Oldies

Cardstock: Apricot Appeal, Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, White, Tea Party DSP

Ink: Staz-on, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Almost Amethyst, Blush Blossom, Going Grey, Bashful Blue markers

Accessories: Celery ribbon, scallop border punch, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, white gel pen, dimensionals, blender pen, 2 way glue

Thanks for looking, see you Monday for the First Monday of the Month challenge. It's a great one. Logan's best card yet-you won't want to miss it!

Customer Appreciation Winner and New Stamp Set

Third post of the day...gosh wouldn't it have been smart for me to be more organized and post all my news in on post. Nope not for me!

Ok, so we're on to April which means time for Customer Appreciation Winner for for March. This is only month 2 of this so I'm still figuring out how to do this. I decided this month to just put all the names in a basket and let Logan pick. So that's what we did....

Here's my camera shy 2 1/2 year old with the basket. Then we shook it up and Logan drew......

Kim!!! So Kim I'll be contacting you about your free set. Kim won the Sweet Little Sentiments level one stamp set.

So what's the stamp set for April, well...it's Echos of Kindness, a level 2 hostess set!

You can win this set for free. Everyone who places an order with me in April will be entered to win this stamp set.

Get Connected Promotion

Second Post of the day, scroll down for the project for today.

I'm excited to announce SU's promotion for this month. When you spend $40 on anything in the new Occasions Mini Catalog you get to pick something from page 208 in the Spring/Summer Collection.

So what's page 208? It's our under $10 page. All the product on this page are under $10 and a really affordable way to start stamping or add to your collection!

So here's the details on the promotion.

Customers: Spend $40 on Occasions Mini Catalog products and choose any one item from the "Under $10" page in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog for free.

Hostesses: Hold a workshop of $150 or more and choose any one item from the "Under $10" page in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog for free. For every $150 spent at the workshop, the hostess will receive another "Under $10" item.

Isn't that great! You can order directly from my website or call or email me your order!

Sparkling Cupcake

My post is a little late today. All week, well really for the past 2 months I've been working on this huge project. But unfortunately I can't show you what it is. But that project has been taking up most of my free time especially this week. So that's why this post is a little late and why the pictures aren't great, they were taken early in the morning before the sun, so I had to use the flash, which I really don't like. Anyway here's the card.

I do really like this card. The cupcake is made with the bigshot and the SU cupcake dies. I covered the top with 2 way glue and dazzling diamonds-so sparkly!

The inside is a gift card holder, or in this photo an Isotopes schedule (they're our local baseball team), it was the only thing gift card size that was handy at photo time).
Supplies:

Stamp Sets: On Your Birthday, A Good Egg (almost impossible to see in the picture but I stamped the circles from that set with versamark on the bottom of the cupcake)

Cardstock: Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green, White, YoYo Yellow, Rainbow Sherbet DSP

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Versamark

Accessories: Dimensionals, Big Shot, Big Bold Birthday dies, Turquoise Brads, 2 way glue, dazzling diamonds glitter

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow---with an on time post!

Gift from the Dollar Tree

Ok so a recent trip to the Dollar Tree I found this cute cup. Logan and I love going to that store, I try to go 2-3 times a month. They get new stuff weekly and often sell out and don't get anymore so we go see what they have. Logan likes to get static cling stickers for the windows. And he gets to play with them and it's often a good distraction while I work. But anyway, I get distracted easily. While we were there I found these travel mugs that you can decorate however you want. I made mine really simple, just used some of our wonderful DSP and slipped it in and made a simple card to go with it. I put a couple pack of hot cocoa and some marshmallows in it. isn't that a cute simple gift!

Super simple note card to go with it.

Great gift for only $1!

Supplies

Stamp Sets: Short and Sweet

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Raspberry Tart DSP

Ink: Rose Red

Accessories: Kiwi Kiss ribbon, small cello bag

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Choo Choo!!

Well it's April 1st can you believe it! The mini catalog starts today! Isn't that great! I just love this mini catalog! If you didn't get one in the mail you can view it here, or call me and I'll get you one.

Ok so also new today, we have new pop up dies for the bigshot! I know that I've showed you the cake die. I'm really excited about these pop up dies. They're great and surprisingly easy to use!

So new mini catalog, new dies, oh yeah my card for the day. For this card I wanted to use some new mini catalog stuff. So both stamp sets used in this card are from the mini. I just love that train set and so does my son.

I particularly like this card because it has a hidden pull out and when you pull it out the train expands. Isn't that just super cool. Love it! If you're interested in how to do this let me know and I'll do a tutorial.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Choo Choo, Oval All, Right on Track wheel

Cardstock: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, White

Ink: Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, Only Orange, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Going Grey, Bashful Blue, Garden Green classic pads, Real Red craft pad

Accessories: clear embossing powder, sponge daubers, scallop oval and large oval punch, real red striped ribbon, dimensionals, heat tool

PS-I'll make this quick. I have a friend who's son entered an animation contest to win a $10K scholarship. The number of votes he receives determines whether or not he wins. Would you please vote (everyday is allowed!) vote here

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!