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Showing posts from 2011

pocket full of faces

I like to send Christmas cards that have a family picture each year. I also like to make super cute Christmas cards using Stampin' Up! products. This is an idea th at has been around but is always cute. Make a simple pouch using cardstock. I scored my cardstock (using the simply scored) at 3 and 7-1/4 on the long side, and 5-1/2 on the short side. I cut off the extra at the bottom sides and folded the sides in to make the pouch. Clear as mud? Basically, fold your cardstock around the photo or inside that you want to have slide out. I stamped my pouch with the big Christmas Collage stamp. Old olive on Old olive. I positioned the stamp so that the circle with 25 in it was on the lower left. I used the Joy stamp from the Perfect Punches set and embossed it in gold on both Burgundy and Vanilla paper. I punched out the center of the vanilla and the scallop of the burgundy and layered it up on the front, right over the 25. The ribbon on here is what I like to call "wed weave wibbon

perky tree

This is one of the cards I did at my workshops last week. I totally cased it from Araceli...in fact, this is her card! I used white seam binding instead of twine, current DSP from the mini catalog, and just stamped Merry at the bottom right on the card. The cuteness factor is in how she did the tree. This is the small pennant punch. Punch three scallop triangles and three straight ones. (i also used a stamp from the pennant set instead of the embossed paper). layer your triangles and fold them all in half. This is much easier if you use the simply scored tool to make a crease in the triangle. Then you simple snail the triangles together, leaving the back open so you can stick it to the card. It is a super cute 3-D tree when you are done. Clever girl...thanks for the idea Araceli!

bearly scored

I have been having a ball with my new Simply scored tool. I love how easy it is to use! I made quite a few little fan flowers using it but decided I wanted to try something bigger. I used 3 pieces of 12 x 4 DSP for this fan flower. Instead of scoring every 1/4 inch like I did for the smaller fans, I scored every 1/2 inch for this one. It is super cute and looks like fabric! I ended up spraying it with the smooch spray and sponging the edges to add to the rustic feel. I added a string of punched hearts that I had sewn together on the sewing machine. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but....it's cute!

Super Saturday!!

I am hosting a Super Craft Saturday on November 19th, from 10-2pm. Each item is sold individually. We decided to do bigger projects than I normally offer at a stamp camp. These are great gift ideas for others and for YOU! You can make as many as you wish of each project. Registrations are DUE by November 16th. Space is limited so do not delay! I am not requiring payment in advance, but if you sign up you are telling me you will buy the project! Be a dear and don't back out or I will have to have advance payment from now on. Thanks! Prices: 12 x 12 Advent calendar in Frame $25 Star mini album: $15 Double swing out photo card: $6 Joy wall hanging: $8 Fabric ornament: $3 3 different gift card holders: $10 I don't know how to list the price under the picture it goes with so hopefully it is obvious. The card with the Brown ribbon and tree on the front is one of the gift holders. It pops up in the middle...super cute! There are two other designs not shown. Please email me at ladystam

sacks of spirits

Stampin' Up! has so many fun dies...it makes it so easy to make packages quick and easy! I used the petal cone die to make this little hanging pounch hoohaw....what would YOU call it? I cut it out twice and just built it up. Super duper easy! I added one of the fan flowers to the front but it was a bit big so I freehand cut it down, purposely wiggly, so it would fit. The tag on the front and the handle are from the Pick your Poison Quick Accents kit. The accents are self adhesive cardstock die cuts, so I just used a strip of spiders and a strip of stripes stuck together to make the handle. I stuck it all together with dimensionals to make it really pop. When I was done, I sprayed the whole thing with black and yellow shimmer spray. The shimmer spray is a great way to get a uniform look when using lots of different elements. It kind of ties it all together. You should make one of these! It is perfect to give to friends, coworkers, neighbors, kids,....etc. just stick a treat in ther

glitter and ghouls

halloween has not, typically, been one of my favorite holidays. But, as I have mentioned for at least the last two years, I have fallen in love with the super fun Halloween designer paper and stamps that Stampin' up! has been offering. I have even been stamping spiders! It is truly amazing. I am hosting a class at my house tomorrow night for anyone that wants to come and make this super cute Halloween banner, or one close to it. I always encourage personalizing and going beyond my designs. I do make a point to tell my students that if they make something WAY cuter than what I made as the sample...I may keep their project and pass it off as my own at the next class, but...so far I have restrained. I love the ideas people come up with tho and have learned a lot from my students over the years. The class is $10 and includes everything you need to make a Halloween banner. I have to made the disclaimer here that I don't actually have any more black rhinestones, but I do have loads o

classy halloween

This has to be one of my all time favorite cards fr om convention this year. It really POPS in person! The background is embossed...both dry and heat! I will be demoing this card at an upcoming technique class in September.....wanna come? This card and more can be yours.......:)

Hello case

When I saw this set in the catalog, I was not impressed. It just didn't do anything for me. That being said,...after seeing all the samples at convention I had to buy it! I really like this card by Sharon Skelton. I love Blue and Brown together! Add a little bling and..what's not to love! The white square is embossed with the polka dot embossing folder. I was going to case it and post my version but....her card is just perfect! (I may case it anyway! ) Thanks for sharing Sharon.

Blue memories

When I make a card I like, I like to make more than one. I really liked the card I showed yesterday, but a couple of the elements were retired Stampin' Up! items. I made this one using all current ingredients. Again, the same butterfly with the tree and 'swinger', but this time no rosette. I also left the tag off since that is not a Stampin' Up! item. Instead of sponging with espresso and blush, this card has suede and bashful blue. I think it turned out pretty cute. Enjoy!

Remember when....with pearls

I was in a nostalgic mood the other day. I was looking through my stamps and came across this Forever Young set. I love the tree and the feeling of days gone by it gives me. I really like how this card turned out. It makes me remember days of carefree youth swinging on my grandmothers swing out back. I used vanilla cardstock for my butterfly and word base. The tag in the background is an actual premade tag from the local craft store. ( I have hundreds...don't ask...) I sponged it with espresso ink and stamped the brocade image from the Daring Adventure set. It turned out a bit bold and smeared so I put my Aqua painter to the task and really smeared it around. Hey, if you can't beat it, join it, right? My favorite DSP is in the background of course, heavily sponged as well. I added some vanilla seam binding through the hole in the tag and then tied the original tag string around that. Pearls and a fabric rosette finish it all off. Does it give you the same feeling? Let'

Grow Green

Does this stamped image look familiar? yes, it is the same as yesterday. I really like it. But, again, I am missing the razzleberry ribbon. Did you send in your request yet to Stampin' Up! I absolutely love this DSP! It is from the Spice Cake collection....coming out in September. It is SUPER yummy and has fabric to coordinate! Schedule a workshop and I will bring it to entice you!

grow through life....

This stamp is one they gave us at convention. Exclusive! Gotta love that! I think it is cute and I love the saying, "don't go through life, grow through life." Words of wisdom for sure. I stamped the image with Old Olive and then used an aqua painter to add some color to the flowers, leaves, and butterflies. Not to bold....I just wanted a bit of interest on there. The card base is Soft Suede with a strip of old olive at the bottom and a matte of Rich Razzleberry under the image. Did you know Stampin' Up! doesn't have any Razzleberry polka dot ribbon? I was very upset frankly. I think we should all request that TODAY! lol I used some vanilla seam binding instead and it works for me. The background image is the large Good Works stamp stamped with Soft Suede. My downline may be seeing some of these cards.....its prize week!

fall life

I always dream of the fall. Dream the the leaves will chan ge color and fall and the air will get crisp and cool and that I suddenly live in Vermont. lol Arizona autumns leave a bit to be desired. Here we are, almost at the end of August and we are still waking up to 80 degree mornings and 100 degree lunches. sigh... I can, however, live out my fall fantasies with stamps. See? Stamping makes all your dreams come true! I love this Gently Falling stamp set. It is beautiful with both the layers, or just one or the other. For this card I used pumpkin pie, more mustard and soft suede stamp pads. The ribbon is actually chocolate chip but, we won't tell, will we? Can you see that I even sneaked a bit of my newsprint DSP on here? I told you it went with everything....

Easy does it

I had a big sale at my house this weekend. I have SO much retired paper and stamps and wheels and....well, you get the idea. The people that came got a screaming deal on some wonderful crafting supplies. I still have more so, I may be doing it again this weekend. As was expected, I had a easy little make and take at the sale. This is the card my guests were able to make. Have I said how much I love this DSP? It goes with everything! The package is huge! It just lasts and lasts! I think I may actually need to order more....but it has lasted a long time and I've used it on almost everything lately. The card base is Soft Suede. The stamp is from the Button Buddies set. Instead of buttons for flowers I used the retired Rosettes. I actually like these quite a bit. I miss them already! My office is almost done! I only have one more wall to do. yay! Here is a little sneak peek of some amazing organization tools I found. These little shelf units are from organizemore.com. They hand

Bloggers sketch

My internet has been giving me a hard time. On and off....is it me or is it Qwest....? We don't know. I blame them, they blame me. Either way, it has kept me from being consistent on some web items like the bloggers challenge. This week our challenge is in the form of a sketch. I love sketches. It gives me a base to go from. I can just add my own touch to it then. As soon as I saw this one, I knew I wanted to use the new stocking set and punch from Stampin' Up! I love it! Of course, it is not available til Sept 1st.....but you can book a workshop with me and I will bring it and let you use it! Sept is right around the corner! I also decided I wanted to use my snowflake die instead of a circle in the background. I don't know if this card turned out 'exactly' how I wanted....but it does have some sparkle and I do love that! The edges of the stocking as well as the red strip along the bottom are from the Red Glitter paper. I LOVE it! I stamped JOY with Real Red a

Key 'fob'

For convention this year I joined Amy's 3-d business WOW swap. I love doing Amy's swaps because you know you are going to get some amazing things back. For my swap I made Key Fobs. They are basically a bracelet key chain. They were super easy and fun to make. I made this short video for my downline to show them how to make them. They would be a great camp project or even a hostess gift. All the supplies are from Stampin' Up! except for the metal ring and the thread. I'd love to see what you come up with. Be sure and share! Enjoy! Tutorial (let me know if this link isn't working...like I said....no pro....) I am certainly no pro with the video camera so....viewer discretion is advised. And if you are wondering, I am wearing my Dave Robbins Shirt. I'm such a slacker...

Sunday is sweet

I admit it...I broke down and used my new craft table before I shellaced it. I couldn't help it! It is THE place to stamp in my room and I needed a baby card stat! Karen has her awesome challenge every Sunday so I used her sketch for my card. It isn't always a good idea to put your entire card together before you have a focal point image....but I tend to do it alot. I absolutely love DSP so that tends to be where I start. Then I have to hunt for a stamp to top it all off. This may be my only 'official' baby stamp. I will have to look through all my stuff....but it works! It is from the new all occasions set Easy Events. I love stamp sets that have lots of images for all different occasions. This little ducky is adorable and so are the rest of the images. Its also a great starter set if you are just getting into card making. I used retired DSP (sorry) from the Cottage Wall collection. I love the Rich Razzleberry color paired with all the greens. Purple and green! My favo

Bloggers Summertime

This week our Bloggers Challenge was "summertime." I did this card for a shoebox swap at convention and figured it fit the theme pretty good. I used the scallop circle die as well as the large circle die to cut my paper. I love this new set, Best of Everything. It was number one on my wish list for the new Stampin' Up! catalog. It is so darn cute and easy to use! The branch can also be stamped as a little tree. I saw some real cute ideas at convention I plan to CASE soon. In Studio news, my big craft table has it's first coat of black on it. I have some shellac to put on the top and then it will be ready to use. I can't wait! I will be painting my ceiling in the next week or so....school starts Wednesday for SOME of my kids so....I'll be scheduling around that. Then all that is left is a bit of decorating and shifting and I will be ready to share some pictures. I am excited for it to be done! Enjoy your day!

Cherish for a friend

As I was surfing around on Facebook the other day, I came across this amazing picture of my friend Nanci and her husband. I fell in love with it! She admitted she had not scrapbooked it yet...I don't know why....I think she has about 16 kids under the age of 4 now..... I asked her if I could scrapbook it and she said yes. I was so excited, I started right then! I have to admit, good pictures make scrapbooking SO much more enjoyable! (and easy!) I started out by putting the photo on a piece of textured Blushing Bride cardstock. I used my blender pen and a Pretty in Pink stamp pad to add some pink to the roses around her neckline. I used a piece of torn newsprint DSP that I had stamped flowers and clocks on with pretty in pink and sahara sand ink (Flower Fancy and Sense of Time sets) along the left side. I had some die cut butterflies left over from a Convention swap so I pulled them out and stamped the damask image from the Friends 24-7 set with sahara sand ink. After stamping them,

Keeping Cards

One of the Make and Take projects at convention this year was this card keeper box. The box will be available in the Holiday mini catalog that goes into effect on Sept 1. It is a really sturdy little box! It comes flat and has templates for covering the top included. We covered it with some of the YUMMY fabric Stampin' Up! carries. I LOVE this fabric! It is just to beautiful!! The flower on top is made using dies and punches. Lots of layers in there! Wanna make one? Come over and I'll show you how!!

Long overdue....

My best friend has been complaining that I never make HIM anything when I craft. So, I decided to make a modified version of a scrapbook page I saw on a blog this week. I used a piece of ChipBoard that is approx 7-5. I covered it with black cardstock and then added a smaller layer of the Text DSP. I drew a heart on the DSP and tore it out by hand. After gluing it down, I smeared Liquid Tombow on the exposed black cardstock and then filled it in with tiny punched hearts. The hearts are from the Love Letter Collection, which I LOVE! One side is red and the other is white with black polka dots. I used both sides randomly to add interest. After I put all the hearts on I sprayed the whole thing with Shimmer spray in clear and brown. I also used a Stipple brush (remember those? I miss them!) to add some shading around the edges. I still felt like the heart needed to stand out more, so I took my black Marker and made some faint squiggly lines around the edge of the heart. The picture is mount

Home and inspired

The annual Stampin' Up! convention was last week in Salt Lake City. I love love love getting together with hundreds of other crazy stampers and sharing ideas! It is fun to see old friends and to make new ones. We had loads of fun! I came home feeling rested and ready to create!! Thank goodness for my friends that took tons of pictures and that shared them with me. As I was looking through them today, I decided to try my hand at some of the projects I saw. This cute memo board is one that I saw at the Stampin' Up! distribution center in Riverton. It is super easy! Just take a frame (I have tons, kind of a sicknes...) and put some DSP in it. I added some stamped images and small layer of text DSP .... just cuz I wanted to! I also added the flower to the outside of the glass for more detail. The cool thing is that you can write right on the glass with a dry erase marker and it wipes right off! Very cool idea! now....if I could just find some space on my desk to set this...... Enjo

Vacation ready....

Karen has another cute sketch on her blog today. I love her card....she is so amazing! I tried to do something creative.....it turned out 'ok.' I don't like the umbrella but I think my straw is pretty cool. I used a q-tip with the fluffy ends cut off. I drew the lines on with an orange marker. lol I think it turned out....looking a lot like a straw! Makes me want to go make some lemonade when I look at it! Check out what the other creative people came up with on the blog hop! Enjoy! sweet Sunday sketch

Betty boop

Betty Shultz is so darn creative! She is usually doing awesome things with punches for swaps. I was therefore excited to see a non punch card done by her this month. Until I realized....we have a cupcake punch! Yes, this is also a punch card. I just love how she did the lace punch peeking out from above the yummy black and white striped ribbon. And yes, there is glitter on the sprinkles on the cupcake. yum yum!

Bloggers pet challenge

Better late than never? lol I actually had this done earlier today but I've been 'mom-behind-the-wheel" all day. whew! Our challenge today was "pets". I have a super cute dog stamp set, Friends Furever, but... darn it....there isn't anything cuter than my puppy! (kids excluded) Fantine is the best dog we have ever had. She was my late husband's 40th birthday present and has been great for us! For this card, I used the Simply Scrappin Playful Polkadots kit and black cardstock. I added pop dots under the 'self adhesive die cut frame' and a bow with a glue dot. Quick and easy card that made me want to scrapbook!! No, you can't have my dog Shari......

oh Julie....

Julie is another awesome stamper....that I love to copy! This is her swap for May. So simple but so beautiful! She stamped the flowers onto glossy white paper and colored them in with markers. The extra shimmer is that Champagne shimmer mist. Gotta love that stuff! The butterfly is a die for the Big Shot. I may copying this one for convention swaps....in purple of course....lol Enjoy!

Sneak peek of the Studio

As many of you know, I recently added on a Stampin'Studio to my house. I absolutely love it! I had all my stampin/craftin supplies in my bedroom before this. Needless to say....it was not the most workable situation. I decided to bite the bullet and pay the big bucks to enclose my smallest garage. I still have a lot of 'tweeking' to do to make it my own little piece of creative heaven, but here are a few pics for now. I have a painter coming later this summer to help me do some funky stuff.....just you wait and see!

Jeannie scissor hands

You may remember cards from Jeannie from days gone by. This is the card she submitted for our May swap. She 'loves' to cut out things. It is obvious in her work. I love how detailed and beautiful it is! She has a great eye for composition as well. You might not be able to see it, but the background is the damask embossing folder sprayed with the shimmer mist. It is truly a beautiful card.

Purple daisies

The summer has truly begun at my house. The traveling is going to be non stop all summer! I've never had a summer quite like this one and I'm excited! I wanted to share some of the awesome swaps I've been getting. This card is done by Jimi Felder. She is a stamper I greatly admire. Everything she does is just wonderful! She used the Flower, Daisies #2 Die, and the scallop squares duo die for the Big shot....with purple dsp! The polka dots are made with the embossing folder, also using the big shot. It's a real touchy feely card. I love it! Enjoy!

Sweet Sunday....already?

My 'sister from another mother' Karen is an amazing stamper. She hosts a challenge every Sunday on her blog. I decided to play along this week, just for fun....I'm sure my card is nowhere near as fantastic as the others that link to her blog, but it is fun to have a template or 'sketch' to work with. Gives you a nice jumping point for your creativity. I knew I wanted to use this DSP and the butterfly embosslet, so...here it is! I pretty much hated it til I added the words. NO! Don't look too close, cuz ...(they are crooked)....but once that touch of black was on there to anchor everything, I decided it wasn't too bad. I did have a moment of panic when I couldn't find my pearls....what the heck! I order those and the rhinestones by the case! Well, not really, but golly I have a lot....Come stamp with me! I'll share!!