An Oldie but New to You

This is a card that I made some time ago and sent in for a contest. I didn't post it because I was waiting on the results of the contest. I was looking through my files today to see what I could share and came across this one. I realized that I never shared it when I found out I didn't win. So here it is now. I have another card posted on my blog that is similar, but used retired DSP. For this one I didn't have any coordinating DSP, so I went with some texture instead. I punched two Basic Black Squares with my 1 1/4" punch. I stamped them with Polka Dot in VersaMark and embossed them with Basic Black EP. I then punched a 1 1/4" Real Red square and inked the edges VersaMark and embossed them with Basic Black EP. I added a Pewter Jumbo eyelet and threaded some Basic Black 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through it. I then stamped my sentiment from Tagger's Dozen in Basic Black and punched it out with my 1 3/8" circle punch. I then took a piece of Real Red and punched a 1 1/4" circle in it. I then took my Scallop Circle punch and lined it up around the circle I already punched. I then mounted my Scallop Circle border with Stampin' Dimensionals over my sentiment. I was very pleased with the results. I think it would make a great card for a bridal shower or wedding. hmmm.....I may have to CASE myself for an upcoming bridal shower.

Milk Carton Box

I was feeling adventurous today. I decided to go through the resources on SCS and pick a project I've never done before. I opted for the Milk Carton Box. I started with my piece of Taken with Teal cardstock, which was cut and scored according to these directions. I stamped the leaf image from Always with Taken with Teal on my Taken with Teal box. After assembly I took a strip of Whisper White which I stamped with flower images from Always in Ruby Red and Taken with Teal and wrapped it around my box. I also tied a piece of 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain ribbon around the box. I inked up a piece of Whisper White cardstock with Versamark and embossed 3 coats of silver and stamped it with another stamp from Always. This is called the Faux Metal technique. I punched it out with my 1 1/4" Circle Punch and layered it on a Ruby Red Scallop. I used my Crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the scallop and adhered it to my ribbon with a piece of silver cord. Now, to find some treats to put in it........................

Anyone need a Birthday Giraffe?

I hadn't used my cute animals from Wild About You in a while, so I broke out the giraffe for this one. I stamped my giraffe in Pumpkin Pie on Very Vanilla and stapled a piece of 1/4" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. I then added a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock on my Very Vanilla card base. I added a strip of Chocolate Chip and 3 circles that were punched with my 3/4" circle and added a brad in the middle of each. I stamped my sentiment from Hugs & Wishes in Chocolate Chip. Easy peasy. I hope you like it.

Flap Fold Card

Yesterday's technique challenge was to do a Flap Fold Card. I thought I'd give it a try. I started with my 3 1/2" x 11" piece of Ruby Red cardstock and used my Fiskars Shape Cutter to round the top. I then trimmed the bottom until it was 10 3/8" from the bottom to the tip of the rounded part. I scored at 4 1/4" and 8 1/2" and folded. I stamped the circles from Enjoy Every Moment on the flap in Ruby Red and enjoy in Chocolate Chip on the bottom. I punched a 1 1/4" circle in Very Vanilla and scallop circle from Chocolate Chip cardstock and layered them on each other. I stamped the little flower in Ruby Red on Very Vanilla and punched it with my 3/4" circle punch and added it to a Build-a-brad. I attached this to the front of my card to hold my flap down. I also added a piece of Chocolate Chip PolyTwill ribbon (which gets in the way if you push it all the way to the top). I then cut a piece of Very Vanilla to fit the inside of my card. I stamped the rest of my sentiment in Chocolate Chip and the flower in Ruby Red and attached it to my card. I don't remember when the last time I participated in a technique challenge was, so this was a fun one for getting back in the game.

A Glittery Thank You!

This card turned out so cute, in my opinion. I made this for last week's sketch challenge on SCS. I started with my 3 strips of Prints Designer Paper. I lined those up on the middle of my Certainly Celery card base, then added my two strips of Rose Red. I stamped the flower from Enjoy Every Moment in So Saffron and my sentiment underneath in Certainly Celery. I also stamped a circle in the middle with Rose Red. I then used my 3/4" circle punch to punch out a piece of red sticky tape from in between some of my Sticky Cuts Letters. I added my sticky circle to the center of my flower, over the Rose Red circle I had stamped and sprinkled on some Rose Pink Fine Cosmo Glitter. I tied a piece of Whisper White 1/4" grosgrain ribbon across the card and popped up my flower image using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Spring Scrapbook Pages

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful day and got plenty of goodies in their Easter baskets.

Friday was my monthly scrapbook class. Our theme this month was Spring. These pages are pretty simple, but I just love them. We started with Perfect Plum pages and added a strip of Whisper White across the top. We stamped our title in Perfect Plum using Big Deal Alphabet and added a flower from Big Flowers on the opposite page in Rose Red. Under our title strip we added a Rose Red strip. On that strip we added a silver brad with some hemp twine to attach our photo mat. The photo mat is a piece of Pale Plum. We punched holes in the top two corners to attach our hemp twine. We added another flower in the bottom corner of our first page, which was punched out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. We punched out two more flowers from Big Flowers to make our flowers for the next page. On my example I stamped on in Perfect Plum and attached it to a Pale Plum Scallop circle. The other was stamped with Pale Plum and attached to a Rose Red circle. The middle flower consists of a Rose Red flower from Flower Fusion and Old Olive "leaves" punched out with the 5-petal flower punch. These two pieces were attached with a silver brad. The flower stems are Old Olive Polytwill ribbon. The leaves on the center flower is a knot of the Old Olive Polytwill ribbon. For the leaves on the outer two flowers we punched some Old Olive with the small oval punch, folded them in half, ran them through the crimper and unfolded them. I'm so happy with these pages and I can't wait to put some pictures on them.

Catty CASE

If this card look familiar it's because it was inspired by the card on p. 142 of the Spring/Summer Collection. I was just browsing through the catalog looking for something I could CASE and I found a great card featuring Hi & Hello. I did change it up a bit using Always. I started with a Taken with Teal base. I stamped my two flower images on a scrap of Taken with Teal and punched them out. I adhered them to my card. I also added a strip of Rose Red along the bottom of the card. I then stamped my sentiment in Taken with Teal on Whisper White. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get it straight. I then added a strip of Old Olive and a Ribbon Slide from the Styled Silver HPH in the Occasions Mini. I then stamped "always in Rose Red on Whisper White and punhed it out with my 1 3/8" circle punch and stamped the leaves in Old Olive on Whisper White and punhed it out with my 1 1/4" circle punch and layered it on a 1 3/8" Old Olive circle. Both of these circles were then adhered to my card base.

Last night was my monthly scrapbook class, so I will share our pages in my next post. Have a good day!

Enjoy.....this card

I bought this stamp set, Enjoy Every Moment, as I thought it would be a great set for scrapbooking, but I also find that it's a great set for card making, too. I stamped "enjoy" in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla, then using my Stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped the flower in Rose Red over the "e" as well as "every moment" under enjoy. I pierced the corner of my Very Vanilla piece and mounted it to a piece of Chocolate Chip. I then wheeled on my Rose Red cardbase with Rose Red ink using a wheel....I think it's Hot to Dot - retired. I hardly every use wheels, so I don't remember. Anywho, I don't own the coordinating wheel, Daisy Dash (which you can get for free when you purchase Enjoy Every Moment now through Apr. 30). But, back to the card. I wheeled my card base, cut a little slit in the fold of the card and slipped in a piece of my beloved, retired 1/4" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. I adhered my stamped layers and it's done! I hope you enjoy it!!!! (Cheesy, I know)

Free Wheels and Hostess Benefits!!!!!

Who doesn't love free stuff? I know I sure do. And starting today through April 30th you can get a free jumbo wheel with the purchase of select coordinating stamp sets. The select stamp sets and free wheels are:

Wonderful You & Stems and Silhouettes wheel
Life's a Breeze & Something Fishy wheel
Pun Fun & Sweet Stars wheel
Year after Year & See You Around wheel
Stitched Exotics & It's Beautiful wheel
Enjoy Every Moment & Daisy Dash wheel




During this time you can also earn an extra $25 in hostess benefits when you hostess a $350 workshop. Contact me today to select your preferred date to hold your workshop.


For more information on both of these promotions click on the fliers to the right.

Say Goodbye!!!

Well, today is the last day of Sale-a-bration. I figured it was a good day to use some of those Sale-a-bration sets that I earned. I've been using So Many Scallops and Birthday Whimsy a lot, but Friendship Blooms didn't get as much love. So, today I made not one, but two cards with Friendship Blooms.

For the first one I started with a Basic Gray base. I stamped the side of it with Polka Dot using Versamark then embossed with Whisper White. I then added a strip of Pretty in Pink and stamped the swirly image in Basic Gray on my cardbase. I stamped the big flower in Pretty in Pink on Whisper White and mounted it on a piece of Basic Gray. I added a pewter brad in the center of the flower and a little piece of 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain ribbon to the back. This was then added to my card with Stampin' Dimensionals.




For the second card I again started with a Basic Gray base. I cut a piece of Ruby Red a quarter inch smaller than my card base. I punched the corners with my Ticket Corner Punch. I stamped the swirl from Friendship Blooms on the bottom 2/3rds of the Ruby Red layer. I then stamped the 3 flower image in Ruby Red on Whisper White and added a Pewter brad to the middle of the middle flower. I added my layers and called it done.


I hope you got all the Sale-a-bration sets you wanted! If not I can put in a last minute order for you. Just shoot me an email and I'll get it taken care of.

Promos

This is your last call to take advantage of Sale-a-bration. Orders for SAB must be placed tomorrow. If you want to get your hands on one (or more) of the limited edition SAB sets I must place your order tomorrow. To view these limited edition sets click on the catalog to the right.

Also going on is the Wild Wasabi cardstock promotion. You can purchase a pack of 16 pieces of precut prescored textured cardstock. These pieces make great card bases. The packs are available for $3.95. For more information click on the Wasabi ribbon to the right.

Big Red Flower

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today is going much better than yesterday. Oscar is feeling much better. His hives are gone, but he's still on the Benadryl so he's a sleepy pup. He can barely keep his eyes open.

So here's another card from yesterday. It's my big red flower. I stamped the flower from Time Well Spent in Real Red with Whisper White craft ink and embossed with Whisper White embossing powder. I painstakingly cut it out with my craft knife. I colored in some of the areas with my Versamarker to add some dimension. I stamped my sentiment with Whisper White craft inked and again embossed it with Whisper White embossing powder. I added some Turquoise Fine Cosmo Glitter to the flowers with Crystal Effects. I attached some Old Olive Polytwill ribbon and put my big red flower up top with some Stampin' Dimensionals. Clean and simple, just like I like it!

A Dog and a Bird

Well I was able to make some time to stamp today since my poor baby, Oscar spent most of the day at the vet. As you can see he's got hives. He had a vaccination this morning and had an allergic reaction. This has happened before, but this time was much worse. This one was also unexpected because he's had this vaccination a few times before with no problems. It's usually just his Rabies vaccination that he reacts to. He's been very itchy and rubbing his whole body on the floor. I gave him some Benedryl and a cold bath and he's resting in his teepee, now.

Anyway he had to stay at the vet on an IV and steroids for a few hours so I had the house to myself to get some stamping done. I made 4 cards today, this was the last one. I forgot that I had this stamp set, Always, so had to get one quick card in before I went to pick Oscar up from the vet. I did this one a little backwards and started with the bird. I stamped it in Versamark on Bashful Blue and embossed with clear embossing powder. I painstakingly cut it out. I inked the heart in Versamark then Chocolate Chip and stamped it on So Saffron. I actually intended to cut the heart out, but decided not to. I repeatedly stamped the leaf image in Chocolate Chip on my Chocolate Chip base. I thought it needed a little something else, so I punch a hole in my piece of So Saffron and tied some of my beloved (retired) Chocolate Chip 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through it. I then stamped the small flower image in Chocolate Chip on So Saffron and punched it would with my 1/2" circle punch and adhered it to a Pewter Build-a-brad and put it through the hole in my So Saffron piece. I then adhered my So Saffron piece to my card base and adhered my bird with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Slacker

I know, I know....I've been slacking lately. I've been working on some submissions for Stampin' Up!'s monthly contest, so I haven't gotten around to stamping for sharing lately. Today, though I was doing something very important and slightly stamping related. I went to the grand opening of IKEA - West Chester. How is this stamping related you ask? Organization, of course. I bought some storage items for my stamping space. I started to set it up, but I'm not done, yet. I bought some new rails to replace the cafe rods that my punches are on. I also bought some accessory buckets and hooks for the rods. I got some magazine files to organize my cardstock in (already did that and it was fun!), and I got some magnetic tins to put embellishments in an put on my magnetic board (which I bought at IKEA several years ago and hadn't hung). I also bought some storage for the kitchen, but I won't bore you with that. My mom came down to go to the grand opening with me. We had a lot of fun. Now we're just exhausted and relaxing. I'll try to get some stamping done here in the next two days.

Updated the Store

I added a Birthday card pack to my store. Head on over there and take a look. I'm going to be adding more card packs in the next few days (OK, probably weeks). So, if you're not a stamper, but enjoy hand stamped cards (or even if you are a stamper) head on over and purchase a card pack.

Rejected!

Well, I applied to be a display stamper for Stampin' Up!'s convention this year, but was rejected. Oh, well. At least I tried, right? Anywho, here's one of my cards that was rejected. I was happy with it and I guess that's what is important. I love the layout of this one and I really like the eyelet and twill tape. I used my markers to color the flowers and frayed the ends of the twill tape. I hope you like it!

Recipe
Stamps: Polka Dots & Paisley
Ink: Pale Plum, Old Olive
Paper: Pale Plum, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Twill Tape, Pewter Jumbo Eyelet

Occasions Mini

The Occasions mini is now up! If you don't have a hard copy of the Occasions mini catalog you can view it online (by clicking on the picture of the catalog). I'm sure you'll like what you see. Cute stamp sets, beautiful accessories, and lots of project ideas.

Don't forget orders over $50 still qualify for Sale-a-bration benefits through March 17th. Make sure you get your order to me in time to take advantage of both offers.