Hey hey!! Two posts in one day!

I started out with such high hopes for this card! Now don't get me wrong...I like it! I just don't love it! I have seen so many pretty black and pink cards lately and so I thought I would try my hand at that color combo! Here is an example of a gorgeous pink and black card made by Sherry Cheever. So I figured how could I go wrong?! I used my Fiskars corner punch embosser on the edges of the pink and black and it gave it the optical illusion of being sort of oval! It isn't! LOL I used my awesome new Scalloped edge punch along the bottom and added little accents all over the place with my white gel pen. I used stamps from SU! Dreams Du Jour and cut out, layered and glitter glued those lovely butterflies in place! I used my new Very Vanilla ribbon to tie that ginormous bow and I stamped pink piroutte butterflies with pink piroutte ink on my base color of...you guess it pink piroutte! I really love that color! It is one of Stampin Ups! new In Colors! Anyhow this is my attempt at pink and black! I plan to send it to my Grandma because she would love it if I made it with my left hand and my eyes closed! LOL Have a wonderful day!

Recipe:
Stamps: SU! Dreams Du Jour
Paper: SU! Pink Piroutte, Basic Black and Whisper White
Ink: Pink Piroutte, Almost Amethyst and Miscellaneous markers
Extras: Very Vanilla ribbon, Glitter Glue, Scalloped edge punch, Fiskars punch/embosser and white gel pen

Thanks so much!

My son's adorable girlfriend recently asked me if I would help her to make several thank you cards. I was happy to help, but was stumped as to where we should start. They needed to be impersonal but be dripping with personal as they would be going to the folks in charge of handing out the many scholarships she received! She likes blue, so that is where I started! I kept it semi mono chromatic using several shades of blue and tried to keep it simple with a touch of elegance. I feel like she wanted them to have a little bit of that handmade feel so I added a few little ribbons to try to do just that. I used Sincerely Salutations from SU! for the sentiment and paper pierced and faux stitched around the edges of the whole card and corners of the sentiment. I used my Marvy punches for the two squares. I used a swirl from a great set made by Autumn Leaves for the accent. I stamped it twice, once with Cool Caribbean and then again with Blue Bayou to give it a rich 3d look.I layered blue on blue on blue! They should be pretty quick and simple to recreate! She will be coming over tomorrow so we can mass produce several of them! She is such a sweetie and I am happy to be able to help her out!

The second photo is of a beautiful long stemmed rose that my very sweet hubby brought me on Friday! He had been out of town all week and when he came home he brought this to me! He is a real keeper! Love you, Cory!

Recipe:
Stamps: Autumn Leaves and SU! Sincere Salutations
Paper: SU! Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, DP in Bashful Blue and Whisper White
Ink: Blue Bayou, Cool Caribbean and Not Quite Navy Marker
Extras: Vanilla Ribbon, Paper piercer tool and Marvy punches

Just a card!

I made this simple card with some of my new goodies! I had no plan in mind when I started! I had a huge pile of stuff in front of me at my work space and just kind of went with the flow! This card opens up instead of out like my usual creations. I used Stampin Ups! new in color Kiwi Kiss for the base. I was not crazy about this color when I first saw it, but I fully anticipate it growing on me! : ) I distressed a Very Vanilla layer and stamped a sentiment from Sincere Salutations on the bottom. I made a sunflower using the round spiral punch and by cutting all of the petals inward and layering a chocolate circle on top. I gave it some color with a SU! Only Orange marker. I added corrugated leaves using Patty's idea, but then added some detail. I first saw the idea to make a flower from the punch at one of my demonstrator meetings! I just love this sunflower look though! I layered the top layer on a generic yellow piece stamped with the Weathered background stamp and then layered that on a piece of distressed Chocolate paper! I added the flutterby's from the SU! set called Dreams Du Jour . They really made the card! I added some sparkle bling, cause well that's what I do! : ) I will be sending this card to someone very special! This person always manages to brighten my day with her perky attitude! Hope she likes it!

Since I was so descriptive here I will refrain from listing the recipe, but will be happy to answer any questions!

We are off to a cook out now! Hope that you all have a wonderful Sunday!

Stella Stamper!

I was sooooo excited to stumble upon someone selling their Stampin Up! Stella Stamper stamp set (say that 3 times real fast!!) LOL recently! I bought it right away and was unbelievably tickled that when it arrived because it was in pristine condition!! It looked brand new!! This set is from an old, old Stampin Up! catalog that was waaaaay before my time as a demonstrator, but was very popular! I was bouncing when I bought it! Anyhow, I wanted to use it to make some thing stamp related! So I thought I would recycle an empty peanut container and use it to store some of my tall stand-y up-y supplies! Since it was for me I used some of my favorite things! The color combo is one of my favorites! You just can not beat pink, brown and green! I used SU! new Pink Pirouette which is one of their new in colors and Kiwi which is another. The brown I used was from a generic paper pack. I also used the new scalloped edge punch from SU! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! It punches beautifully and is so easy to use! I added white polka dots to each scallop and stamped that adorable Stella (notice those cool bunny slippers!!) front and center! I colored her in lightly with chalks and gave her a gray shadow with a blender pen. I added some pink and white flowers and then some sparkle bling! Super fun project!!

Have a great night!

Stamps: SU! Stella Stamper
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Choclolate Brown
Ink: Blue Bayou, Going Gray and Chalks
Extras: Scallop Edge Punch, Flowers, White Gel Pen, Blender Pen, Sparkle Bling, and Ribbon Scraps

Soooo blue! : (

I am soooo sorry that I did not post yesterday, but it was one of those days. First we were without computer access all day....grrrrr! Then something terrible happened. Not someone was hurt kind of terrible, but the kind of terrible that makes you want to just sit down and cry. We live in the country. Right smack in the middle of the woods...literally! We are surrounded by woods and have an amazing view of the Blue Ridge Mountains! I love our woody perimeter!! It feels so safe and cozy to me! Well I found out the other day that our neighbor has decided to sell his timber. What does that mean to me?! Well his property butts up to ours. Sniffles! : ( That means that I have no say in what was about to happen. So the bulldozer showed up (on our land because that was the only way they could get to his timber) and just started dropping trees. They tore up the ground and cleared a giant path where the tress used to be. I know they are just trees and they will grow back, but it totally dinked with the aesthetics of our view. More sniffles. The worst part is that the person that said neighbor hired to cut down all of these trees is family (one of our favorite people in the whole world.) Sigh! I cannot even be upset with him because he was just doing his job. Anyhow the road crew people showed up right before the bulldozer and they posted this sign (picture #1) in my driveway?!!! We are at the top of an almost mile long driveway and it wasn't like there was going to be any traffic?! How assanign is that?! Picture #2 shows the newly created gap of no tress where there used to be a wall of trees and picture #3 is of the mess they made getting to the timber. Anyhow, it bummed me out and I never made it to my stamp table. I suppose tomorrow is another day. Thanks for listening to me whine. I will be back soon with something creative to post.

Have a nice night.

Baby cards!

I made a card to go with yesterdays baby gift, but then saw this adorable pattern for a onesie card and just couldn't resist! I found the pattern here on Lauren Meader's blog! She is super talented! How cute is that!?! And I just love that bunny from the SU! set New Little Someone! I only wound up sending one card though and tucked the second one away for another happy event! : )

I am off now to play with some new stamps that I received recently and am anxious to put to ink! I will be back in the morning with some new things to see!

Have a wonderful night!

Stamps: SU! New Little Someone and BoHo Backgrounds
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Whisper White and Almost Amythest
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Old Olive and Rose Red
Extras: Spiral Punch, 1 3/8" Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Sparkle bling, Pretty in Pink Ribbon, Gold Brads, flower and Marvy Circle Giga punch

It's a Girl!! Paper Bag Baby Book

My sweet upline's daughter is having a baby girl and so I wanted to make her a little something! This is her third child though so I wanted it to be a unique gift! I racked my brain and finally came back to my good old stand by paper bag album! I used white paper bags and pink and cream ribbons to assemble the whole thing! I used one of my Cuttlebug embossing folders for the cover and my 5 petal flower punch form SU!. I added a tag and stamped it with a sentiment from SU!'s New Little Someone. The first spread has a pocket for the baby's hospital id bracelet and a place to record all of the baby's info! The next spread also uses the same stamp set! I used my corner rounder to make the scallopped edges. The next spread uses the Jumbo Wheel Wash day from SU! I added a real little clothes line up in the corner with baby clothes hanging on it! The last spread uses one of my favorite giraffe stamps! It just screams baby! I added extra pull out pages in all of the paper bag pockets for additional photos and notes! I sure hope she likes it! I am really, super short on time right now! I have to get my kiddo's to soccer, but if you have any questions at all please ask and I will get back to you! : ) I also made two cards to go with the gift that I will post tomorrow!

Have a great day!

Gift Card Holder!

This is the final project from our stamping weekend! This is such a cool project! It was very time consuming because there are a lot of details, but oh so cute! It opens like a book but the center 'page' holds a gift card. It took 7 punches to make this card! We added lots of polka dots with a white gel pen! I personally love polka dots though, so this was right up my alley! Thanks for sharing, Connie!! Hope you like it! : )

Stamps: SU! Baroque Motifs, One of a Kind and Sincere Salutations
Card Stock: SU! So Saffron, Very Vanilla and Old Olive
Extras: 1 3/8 Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Scallop Punch, Large Oval, Small Oval, Tag Punch and Corner Rounder, White Gel Pen

So Summer Card!

This is project #3 from our stamping event this weekend! It looks so Summer-y to me! Makes me want to set up an umbrella and throw down a beach towel and soak up some summer beach-i-ness! This was a simple, but fun card to make! The neat thing about this project is the background of the card. You may not be able to see it from the photo but the background design is made by sponging a piece of plastic canvas and smooshing it against the card stock! It leaves a faint grid like pattern! Really cool! The bottom edges of the card stock are both torn and sponged and the sunshine circle was cut out using a coluzze. I cut out the rays free style using a blade! (Thanks for sharing, Karen!) Fun project!

Stamps: None
Paper: SU! Barely Banana and Soft Sky
Ink: Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana and Brilliant Blue

Fold Out Coaster book!

How cute is this?! This is another fun project we made at our weekend stamping event! It is made from 2 coasters, some designer paper and lots of fun little pieces and adhesive! : ) It folds open on both sides and creates a mirror image! You could use this little book for photo's or recipes or as a tiny scrapbook! I am a sucker for mini books and this one was a blast to make! (Thanks for sharing Jane!) It uses the SU! set Sweet Serendipity and ties together in three places! LOVE that!

Stamps: SU! Sweet Serendipity
Paper: Brilliant Blue and Brilliant Blue DP
Extras: 5 petal punch, button and Very Vanilla Ribbon

Fresh cut fun!

This is project #1 from our weekend stamp event! We used Stampin Ups! new stamp set called Fresh Cut Flowers for this project. I was on the fence about this set until I stamped with it this weekend and guess what...I LOVE IT!!! The main image from this set is soooo cool! It is a collage of several other stamp sets! I normally like clutter free clean lines, but this crazy stuffed with wonderfulness stamp appealed to me right away! It stamped beautifully and had tons of little details in it! We used it to stamp the cards, which are also from Stampin Up! The image on them is pre- punched and the petals pull away to leave a flower! We used different colors and embellishments on the same blank white card creating really different looks! After we stamped the cards we made these adorable boxes to hold them complete with flower adourned belly band! Wonderful project! (Thanks for sharing, Kavi!)

I will show some more of our projects tomorrow! Now I am off to bed. It has been a looong day! Hope that you day is wonderful!

Stamps: Fresh Cut Flowers and One of a Kind
Paper: Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise DP, Fresh Cut Note cards
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Basic Black, Real Red and Tempting Turquoise
Extras: Fresh Cuts Note Cards, Twine, Black, white and red ribbon, Half pearl and flower made from circle scallop punch, One of a kind stamp and jewel brad, chunky glitter and button

Rooms with a view!

So sorry about my lack of postings! We had a surprise visit from the stomach bug last week and things are just now getting back to semi normal!

I wanted to share my room with a view with you guys! I have seen these all over and couldn't wait to make one! I followed a couple of links looking for a tutorial and was only able to find the directions for sale. I was really tempted to invest in them, but thought I would give it a go and try to reinvent the wheel on my own! It took some playing around, but I was able to come up with what looked pretty close to me like the original project! I was so excited! :)

I went to a stamp event this weekend where everyone brought a project to share and this is what I brought! I made these two samples. All of the supplies are Stampin Up! We had a great time and made some really awesome projects. I will share those with you tomorrow!

Have a great night!

Paper: Blush Blossom, Orchid Opulence, Very Vanilla, Sage Shadow and Lovely Lilac DP
Stamps: BoHo Backgrounds
Punches: Scallop, 5 Petal, Flower, Photo Corner and 1 3/8"
Extras: Brads and Rose Red Ribbon

Box in a Bag!

Good Monday morning! Hope that everyone had a great weekend! We had a quiet, but nice weekend! : )

I stumbled on the cutest project while blurfing (blog-surfing!) the other day and immediately wanted to try it! It is soooo simple to put together and is absolutely adorable! You can find the tutorial here. It uses very minimal supplies, goes together in a jiffy and leaves you with a very cute little gift bag! Now I am thinking you could fill it with chocolate (like that is a big surprise!) or any other candy or trinkets for a quick gift! Just add a matching card and you are set! You could adjust the measurements to make it taller for a larger gift.

I used a hodge podge of supplies for mine! You can use any combo of pretty designer paper, ribbons and embellishments! I used my SU! slit punch to make the scalloped edge, but will soon be able to use the new scalloped edge punch they are coming out with in the new cattie! I also used the round tag punch from SU! to make the tags on top of the bag! If you have any questions about these, please ask away! Fun, fun, fun!!

My calendar is mostly free this week, so I am hoping to get some things done in the house! De-junking, de-cluttering and some cleaning and scrubbing! Wish me luck...I am going to need it! : )

Have a wonderful day!

More ATC's!

I finished up the last of my 7 ATC swaps commitment! I had such a good time making these! Sorry about the poor lighting in the pictures. It has been raining all day here and I took advantage of a break in the clouds to get these photographed! Still not enough light, but I wanted to get these posted! : )

The first one is a Planes and Trains Boy theme. I used my Cuttlebug to cut out the trains and thought the background colors blue, green, beige and gray were perfect for this theme. I had another train car, but the card was too short to hold all three pieces! I really like the polka dot background paper!

The second one is a Sugar and Spice Girls theme. I stamped the image of the cute little ballerina right on the polka dotted vellum! She is from Lizzie Anne Designs. I added the flowers in the corner to hide my adhesive under the vellum! I paper pieced her tu-tu to give the card a little bit of a dimensional look.

The third card is a Sweet Treats theme! I looked through EVERY stamp I had and was not happy with anything I had for this category. Everything I had was a birthday cake! The only cupcake I had was the tiny one I used in the background here. ( ***NOTE TO SELF!!! MUST INVEST IN SOME SWEET YUMMY TREAT STAMPS!!) It was not big enough or impressive enough to be the main image so I decided to try to think outside of the box! If I couldn't stamp a yummy, gooey chocolate treat I would stamp something that some people might feel was an equivalent sweet treat!! I went for the bling! LOL I used the gigantic engagement ring from the Fiskars Wedding set! I stamped the cupcake in the background multiple times and then colored it with chalk. Then I stamped the ring and polished the diamond with Stickles! I added some additional sparkle-y bling and then sponged the edges with Temtping Turquise from SU!

I had such a blast making these ATC's! Tried one yet?! You should!!! Here is the link to a template for getting 10 cards from one 8.5 X 11 piece of paper! Have fun!