Such Sweet Gifts!

Tomorrow is the Stampin' Up! Regional Conference.  I'm so stinkin' excited and also a little nervous.  I'll be presenting some punch art at the conference.  While I'm super excited,  you can understand why I'd be a little nervous.  But I've been practicing and I hope it all goes well.  But if you see me tomorrow at the conference make sure to stop by and say HI to me!  I'd love to meet you!  Just let me know that you follow my blog and I'll have a special gift for you!  If you are attending don't worry too much about taking notes during my presentation on stage, next week I'll have lots of posts detailing everything I show, and a couple of things I won't show :)

If you won't be at the conference, I hope you'll still check out my blog next week for highlights of Saturday.  This has been such a huge month with my small paragraph in Stampin' Success and now presenting tomorrow.  I am so honored to be asked and I hope I do a great job.  If I haven't said it before I LOVE being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  I truly feel that SU treats it's demonstrators like family and I've made some of the best friends through Stampin' Up!  I would LOVE to have you join Stampin' Up! to experience all that SU has to offer.  Remember if you sign up this month you can get a FREE Big Shot or FREE $100 bonus!  I can't stress enough what a fantastic deal this is!!!  If you don't already have a demonstrator and you're interested in joining please contact me, I'd love to share SU with you!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

I'm a Domestic Goddess!

Well, not in this lifetime anyway :)  I am not a domestic goddess, there's too much stamping to do, no time to clean or cook (that and I'm not great at either chore)!  But I do LOVE the Domestic Goddess DSP.  I think it's slowly becoming my favorite!  Especially after this card.  I love it, and it's so simple and there's really noting for me to explain to you.  I've seen this layout done on dozens of cards all over the blog land and I just love it!  So here's my take on it.  It's so easy to do too.  The circle at the bottom are just half of the 1 1/4 inch circle punch that was glued on under the coordinating DSP.  The ribbon hides that seam so that you'd never know :)  I made a stack of these yesterday for those that were so generous for Megan's birthday. 

So that's it, short and sweet today!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Birthday Owls

You may have saw on my blog that yesterday was Megan's 1st birthday.  We began the day with her 1 year well check and 6 shots-OUCH! Plus a flu shot for Dan and myself.  I do want to mention that I didn't purposefully schedule her well check up ON her birthday.  I had it scheduled for this Friday but the office called and said the Dr would be gone and it had to be rescheduled, well this was the only day that worked.  So I did try not to have all those shots given to her on her actual birthday.  We did finish the day with some cake so it all works out, right?  But anyway this is the card I made for Megan for her birthday.  So cute! 

I saw this card, weeks ago, on Darlene's blog and I thought it was too cute not to make!  Mine not as complex as hers.  My tree is lacking the leaves and my eyes are just googlie eyes instead of the eyes that come with the punch.  But it's still cute!  I really *NEED* that wood grain background stamp too.  I used my color spritzer to add some depth to my tree but that wood grain stamp would have been perfect!!  Make sure you check out Darlene's blog, her card is just amazing!   

I do still love this card, it's still so cute!  When I make window cards like this I like to add a smaller 'card' in the card.  This way if you have a long message to write it doesn't show through the front.  This is also a good tip when you have multiple people signing a card, like at an office or school.  It just gives more room to write. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Sweet Pouch

Today is Megan's 1st birthday.  If you were following my blog last year, you know what a horrible pregnancy I had and now it's hard to believe it's already been a year since I had her.  Happy Birthday Megan!!!  But you came to see something stamped right?  This pouch is so sweet, (especially when you fill it with candy)!  I love sharing great ideas and this great idea came from Catherine Pooler.  I'm not going to go into the details too much on this card, she lists everything on her blog, plus she has a great video if you need further instruction.  Or if you're like me and could watch stamping videos all day :)  Someday I hope to do videos on my blog....someday.  But anyway, this is so easy and we made a version of this at my workshop on Sunday.  I had some candy left so I thought I'd make one for me too :)  So cute!!!  I love it!!!

These are great for co workers, kids, neighbors, strangers, ANYONE!  I used the Stocking Accents die from the mini for my holly leaves.  Though if you don't have that die you can make holly leaves from an oval punch and a small circle punch.  Just punch the tip of the circle all around the oval.  I'm really addicted to adding banner greetings on my card and projects.  Everything lately seems to have a greeting like that.  It makes me happy!  I added Crystal Effects to the berries to make them glossy.  I can't wait to make more of these!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Fun Tip!

I had a great weekend, on Saturday Dan and I took the kids to get 'lost' in the Dino corn maze here.  Fortunately we found our way out :) Sunday I had a workshop that went great!  My hostess got lots of free stuff!!!  Host your own workshop to earn free products too!!!  I don't have a project for you today, but wait don't leave!  I have a super fun tip to show you.  If you're anything like me you like to sponge, a lot!  Well my last sponging method wasn't going well.  I had a little box of sponges and just tried to find the closest color and use that sponge.  I'd wash them every now and then, but it was a bad system and I don't recommend it.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time but just never did it.  So last Friday I was determined to do it!  I assigned each sponge a color.  If you follow my blog you know I did that a couple years ago, BUT the problem was, those sponges were stored in a drawer in the closet, that never got opened.  It was just more convenient for me to look through my 'box of sponges', then dig through the drawer.  So this time, I stored each color next to it's coordinating ink pad.  Now it's convenient AND I won't be mixing colors or ruining ink pads which was always a fear.  Doesn't it look good? 

For each sponge I punched a Designer Label Punch and wrote the color on it and stapled it to my sponge.  This way if I have 4 greens sitting out, there's no guessing on which one is Certainly Celery and Which one is Pear Pizazz.  This was not my original idea, I've seen this done, I'm not sure who had this fantastic idea, but I LOVE it and it's going to make my stamping, sponging and life just a little easier :) I promise I will have new projects this week, I'm gearing up for a fantastic week on my blog next week, you'll want to check every single day!!!  As for me this week, Megan's 1st birthday is tomorrow, I have a workshop on Thursday (YAY) AND Albuquerque regionals is this weekend on Saturday, I couldn't be more excited!  But there's so much to do, so I'm going to go, but I'll be back tomorrow! :)

Megan

As we get ready to celebrate Megan's 1st birthday next week, yes she's already 1 year old!!!!  I thought I'd do an MDS page on her.  So I went to my 2012 calendar, which is in major progress, and made up this page for one of the months.  These pictures were all take a couple weeks ago at the Balloon Fiesta.  They're so cute.  Megan was overwhelmed by everything that day and was asleep before it was even over.  So cute!  I love this page, there's really not much to it.  The scallop punch was used for all the borders and I color matched all the colors to her jacket.  You'll notice there's a lot of empty space  on the bottom and some on the top, that's there on purpose.  When your creating in MDS, make sure to check all your bleed areas, or the areas that might get cut off during printing.  For the calendar, you loose some of the page on the bottom or top for the spiral to go.  So I always create with my guides on, that way there's no surprises when it gets printed and nothing gets cut off.  Other than that there's really not much too it, the pictures really say it all. 

Have a fantastic weekend.  I have so much to get done, I'll see you Monday!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Finally!!!!!

Finally!!!  I can share with you some amazing exciting news that I've know for over a month now.  As demonstrators we get a magazine, Stampin' Success, it's a fantastic magazine and probably the only magazine I read cover to cover when I receive it.  Every month they hold monthly art contests.  I entered one of them and I won!!!  I couldn't believe it when I got the email!  I was sooo excited and really surprised I never thought I'd win.  In addition to being published in the magazine I also got to pick 3 free stamp sets, so that was just icing on the cake.  But today is all about the card I won with.  I love it!  I had to send it in a padded envelope so it wouldn't get smooshed. 

The flowers are just made with circles.  I was working on a different project and meant to cut the circles out of Crumb Cake, I'm not sure how or why I thought I needed Not Quite Navy, but there I was with 9 circles I couldn't use (I didn't use them all on this card).  I had to use them, no sense in wasting perfectly good circles.  So this card was made.  I do love it and wish I had made 2 to keep on for myself, but I'll always have the magazine to remember it :)

Here's the actual article from the magazine.  I'm so honored to be in it!  I'm always in awe of some of the projects that win so to be one of them myself is a little surreal for me :)  But just another reason why I LOVE what I do soooo much.  YOU can do what I do too, sign up this month and get a Free Big Shot!!!!!  You really won't find a better deal than that!!!!  If there was one tool I couldn't live without in my stamp room it's my big shot, if you own one, you know what I'm talking about :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Leafy

I'm back, I still have sooooo much to get done.  It occurred to me that I don't have a free weekend until the second week in December.  WOW!!!  I'm a busy bee!!!  I think I need to get organized make a plan and stick to it!  But in the mean time I've created a little card today.  It's very simple and the colors didn't photograph well but in real life it looks so cool.  I used the baby wipe technique for the leaves.  If you've never done the baby wipe technique it's so super easy.  Take a small stack of baby wipes and drop a few drops of reinker on them, I just used small dots all over the baby wipe, then you have your own custom, temporary, ink pad.  Stamp as you normally would.  I love this technique for the Gently Falling set, the leaves are sooo pretty!!!

For my leaves the reinker colors that I used were, Baja Breeze, More Mustard and Old Olive.  An unusual color combo but it works!  For the rest of the card, I sponged the outside with Soft Suede and used my color spritzer tool with Soft Suede too.  So pretty!!!  This would be a great make and take or class card, it's simple but pretty, and you could do a ton in a short amount of time, which the way the rest of my year looks is a good thing!!! 

What a Week It's Been...

...Wait it's only Tuesday!!!  I don't have a project to show you.  My stamp time yesterday was interupted when I had to take Megan to Urgent Care.  She's ok, she developed a cough and it seemed to get really bad yesterday, so I took her to get checked out, just in case.  But she's doing good now, and the cough is nothing too serious, hopefully it stays that way.  Hopefully I'll be back later with a project.  This week is going to be busy!!!!!  I'm already behind and it's only Tuesday.  Stay with me this week, what I am working on is AMAZING!!!!  I'll be back soon :)

Photo Ornaments

I'm pretty excited about these ornaments.  They're soooo cute!  They're not hard either, which is always good!  We'll start with the one on the left.  This one I made one of the lolli medallions like I did here.  On top of that is my picture.  I did embellish my picture a little.  I used the decorative label punch to use on the top and bottom and added a brad on the top and bottom as well.  Then I ruffled Black Satin ribbon all around it.  It's so pretty in person.  I printed black and white pictures for both of these.  I just think they look so elegant a pretty.  For the second ornament I used the sweet treat cups.  I put Megan's picture on one side and Logan's picture on the other side.   

After they were glued together I ruffled Soft Suede Taffeta ribbon and stuck that on the side of the treat cups, then used some of the spice cake fabric and ruffled it around the edges of the cups.  It's so cute!!!  It's pretty durable too, so it will last for years.  When it's hanging on the tree it you'll be able to see both kiddos.  This was pretty easy, and a great class or workshop project.  Just make sure your pictures are printed small enough.  I used the 1 3/8 circle punch for these. 

We have just under 2 weeks until the Albuquerque regionals.  I have sooooooooooo much to do!!!!!  But I'm excited and can't wait.  I better get to work!!!

Floral Birthday

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! CAN I TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS CARD!?!!!!!?  Ok I'll stop scream typing at you.  I just can't get over how much I love this card.  It's soooo beautiful!  I almost didn't part with it, but in the end it was for someone special so I did part with it :)  I don't even know where to start with this card.  I LOVE every part of it.  We'll start with the flowers. The only set used on this card is the Creative Elements set-my new favorite set!  I stamped the flowers 6 times, twice in each color, Regal Rose, Blushing Bride and Perfect Plum.  Then once again in Pear Pizazz, after it was rocked and rolled in Old Olive, that would be the leaves.   I cut out each flower, it's hard to see but the 2nd one in each of the colors I cut out a 2nd layer on them, so that it gives the flowers some dimension.  The butterfly was stamped in Blushing Bride and rocked and rolled in Regal Rose. 

The rest of the card is pretty straight forward.  I used LOTS of pearls on this card, but without them I don't think the card would be as pretty.  For the leaves I just cut out a few petals, and hid them under the flowers to act as leaves.  It works great and it makes such a difference.  That little pop of green really makes the flowers stand out.  I hope you like this card as much as I like it.  I may have to make myself another one just to display in my room, hmmmm speaking of that I really need to rearrange all my displays-maybe that's a project for next week :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Big Shot Highlights

Last Saturday I had my Cuttin' Up! with the Big Shot Class.  It was such a blast.  I love doing class, I love what I do.  The class was all about using the Big Shot, in all we used the big shot 7 times for 4 different projects.  It was so much fun.  Remember this month only you can get a big shot for FREE!!!!!  Join the Stampin' Up! family and you can get a big shot FREE!!!!  It's such a phenomenal deal!  I use my big shot ALL THE TIME, if I could have gotten it for free I would have jumped on that chance!  But I got it at a discount so that ok too :)  If you want to learn more about getting the big shot for free check out this post.  Here's the projects we did.  This little bat is sooooo cute!!!  We used the Petal Cone die and the Spider Web Embossing folder for him.  He's so cute!!!!  I just love him!!

The second project was this little matchbox die, with chocolates.  I love this die, it's probably one of my favorite boxes.  It's soooooo easy to put together and it's the perfect size for the little Hershey nugget candies (see next photo).  This box was kept simple, but it's still elegant.  We embossed the lid with the Vintage Wallpaper Folder and made a little belly band with the Beau Chateau DSP (which is sooo pretty!!!!) 

We used the It's a Wrap Holiday's for the chocolates in the box.  They fit perfectly and these little boxes are the perfect gift for baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays, weddings, etc.  You could make them for anything!!!! 

We also made 2 cards, here's the first card.  We used the Peek a Boo die from the mini catalog with the Cupcake Builder punch.  This makes such a cute birthday card.  The Domestic Goddess DSP is perfect for this card too.  I really love that DSP, I've actually been hoarding it because I love it so much, so I need to work on that :)

Our birthday greeting is inside the Peek a Boo frame.  So cute!  So stinkin' simple too!!!!  You can also use this die for advent calendars, or any kind of countdown.  It's so cute!!! 

Finally the last card was a Thanksgiving card.  I think this is my favorite project.  It's so pretty, and you could use it for almost any occasion not just Thanksgiving.  We used the oval die to make the pumpkin.  Both sides of the card were embossed with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  It's such a quick and easy card.  So cute!! I LOVE IT!!!!!

 Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

January 2012

Have you had a chance to check out the new updates for My Digital Studio?  They're awesome!  If you haven't downloaded your FREE update GO!  WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!  I am so stinkin' excited about them!!!!!  The calendar option is phenomenal!  Plus there's bulk buy options now as well as new print products-a board book!  Ya!!!  I have HUGE ideas for that one, more on that another time though.  But back to the calendars.  With the new calendar option, you can make calendars through 2021, talk about being organized!  But for now I think I'll just focus on 2012.  The calendars make awesome Christmas gifts, so I thought I'd get started on that right away.  This is my January 2012 calendar.  I still have to add some special occasions on the calendar part, but it's a good start.

The new calendar feature is just amazing, I can make the calendar smaller or larger, I can add the month, year and days at the top or choose to leave them off.  Like I said though this is really just a start to the calendar.  I still need to add the month on there and some holidays.  If you don't have MDS or if you haven't tried it out yet, you really need to!  I love this program so much!  The possibilities to what you can do are endless!!!!  If you're still on the fence about MDS, please contact me so I can convince you!  I'll be stamping up a storm today and when I'm not stamping I'll be MDSing :)   

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