No, I haven't disappeared!

Okay, so maybe I did disappear for a while, but I'm back!   I've been playing with my stamps today and I have a new card to share with you.  This one uses a stamp set that I preordered from the Occasions Mini Catalog.  It's called "You're My Type". 

I used the clear mount set (item # 125650) so that I could easily place the sayings on the paper coming out of the typewriter.  The other sayings in this set are "hello, thank you, you're my type, happy birthday, and from the desk of "

You might also notice the sneak peak of something else on this card-it's called a Framelit die.  This particular one is from the Labels Collection (it is the piece that the typewriter is stamped on).  These are awesome!  You can cut layers/frames  for accents and layering and comes in 6 sizes!

August Special

Can you believe it's August already?  I certainly can't!  Where oh where did my summer go?  Anyhow, hopefully you have had a chance to see the new Stampin' Up! catalog by now-it is amazing! Stampin' Up! has a great special I wanted to let you know about--

This is a great special, order 3 packages of Designer Series Paper and get one for free!  This is the best time to try a new design or stock up on one you love!  Contact me for any questions about ordering.

Ready for birthdays

Here's a card  I made with my neighbor yesterday.  We had a blast making cards with our daughters, I would love to make this a regular event!

We made the Sock Monkey birthday card from an earlier post and this one, after all you can never have enough birthday cards!  This one uses the stamp set Vintage Vogue and of course an embossing folder with the Big Shot.  If you would like to make cards with your daughters and/or friends send me an email!  I'd love to show you how easy it can be!
I have one more project to show you, but I'll save it until tomorrow!

Come on Spring!

I am so ready for Spring, it is dreary, cold, and rainy today.  I guess I am trying to make spring hurry up with this card.

I used the Fancy Flower extra large punch and the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die for this card.  I like the crisp color scheme of Wild Wasabi, Basic Black, Whisper White and Daffodil Delight.  The Tasteful Trim die is from the Holiday Mini Catalog but you can still order it using this item # 120893.  

Have a great weekend!

Playing around...

Here's a card I made last week when I was just playing around with my stamping stuff, actually just stamping for fun instead of trying to meet a deadline!

I used the Big Shot to make the scalloped circle and punches for the smaller circles.  The image in the center is from the Friends Never Fade stamp set.  The dsp comes from the Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack-Brights (item #117155).  The 5/8" Organza ribbon (item #114319) in the center helps to hide where the two patterned papers meet.  Hope you enjoy another easy-peasy yet elegant card! 

I was mugged today!

 Ok, not in the sense you're thinking of- It was actually a gift of a coffee mug filled with various hot drink mixes from the principals at the middle school where I work. 

Wouldn't this idea be great with our Morning Cup stamp set or Take a Sip wheel?  I can't wait to reuse this idea-Stampin' Up! style!

Framed craft poem for my secret sister

I mailed out my secret sister box Monday and thought I'd share the craft poem that I sent to her.  I found the poem online and decorated the photo mat and put it in a nice frame.  It was fairly quick and I love the blues and greens in the dsp.  Speaking of the designer series paper, can you guess which two I used?

I think the strip of dsp in the middle is pretty clear-it's the Springtime Vintage.  The paper that is Old Olive with polka dots is the tricky one, it's actually from the Jolly Holiday dsp.  I've also used the bird punch and the Friends Never Fade stamp set (item #118750 wood or 120618 clear).


I'm not sure if you can tell but the cardstock was embossed with different embossing folders and then the bird was punched out and a pearl used for the eye.

Here's the poem in case you want to make one for your craft room:

This Craft of Mine




All I need to pass the time

and lose my thoughts of

reason and rhyme

are brushes and ink and

blocks of wood

to color and press onto

paper so good.



Each cut true, my work of art

I place and glue and

savor each part.

This gift of mine is

more than a craft

it’s a memory, a moment,

a time that we laugh.



Now I share what I have made

at a time I was quiet

a time that I played.

May a smile cross your face

when this card you first see

it is sent with the hope

we are all we can be.





-- Pauline Whitchurch

Have a great weekend!

Antique Brads Bracelet

Today I have a non-stamping project for you.  Stampin' Up! demonstrators have access to a resource called Stampin' Connection.  This is an awesome resource where demonstrators from across the world can upload pictures of projects they have made.  Today I saw a picture from one project by a lady named Frenchie, and I have recreated it here for you!

It was so easy, all you need is our Antique Brads (20 in a package for $5.95 item #117273) and some jewelery making supplies from your local craft store.  I used part of a flat circular chain found near the beads in an antique gold finish. 

Here is a picture of the back so you can see all I did was open the prongs and use a pair of pliers to fold the prongs around the circular chain.  If I can make this so can you!

Sideways photos?

I'm not quite sure why, but when trying to upload my photos for some reason they are being rotated.  I haven't figured out what is going on but maybe my tech gurus (Ryan and Greg) can help me out later this week.  In the meantime check out this card, you could switch the greeting and the design would work either way I suppose.

Here's another version, actually made before the whole photo rotation mess, and after seeing the photo of the card I actually used my blender pens and ink pads to color in the flowers and leaves-it looked much better than this one. 

Birthday CASE

Today I have a birthday card we will be making at an upcoming class next month.  This cute card would be great for a child's birthday.  I don't usually go for the primary colors but this one really appealed to me.  I used Stampin' Up!'s great markers to color in the images.

 We have such great markers, I have been a demo since 1999 and I still have many of the original markers that I bought then.  The only new ones I have are due to changes in colors when SU has introduced new ones.  My old markers work just as well as the new ones!  The markers are just $3.50 each, a great deal when they last eleven years!

Original design!

Happy Sring break to me!  I had today off and all next week as well, so I've been playing with all my stampin' stuff-Woo Hoo!

Here's a card I made, that for once, I didn't copy.  All you have to do is punch out 8 white butterflys using the Butterfly extra large punch (item #119848) and one in Daffodil Delight.  Use your SNAIL adhesive to adhere them to the black cardstock and then run it through the Big Shot using the Square Lattice  embossing folder.  Use some coordinating Daffodil Delight 5/8 Grosgrain ribbon (item #119761) and it's that easy. 

For the inside of the card you could use pretty much any sentiment you want, but I always need birthday cards so I stamped the Happy Birthday from the Perfect Punches stamp set (item #117022) and used the Extra large Oval punch (item #119859) . 

Don't these colors make you feel like Spring?  Bring on the warmer weather!

Almost St. Patty's Day

Here's a card I made for my last secret sister box. 

The large shamrock is made from the heart punch and layered with a smaller one.  The glass glitter is much prettier in real life and makes the card extra special!

Build a Blossom, and Punch!

Here's a card I made with the Build a Blossom stamp set and the matching punch, Blossom Petals Punch.  I cased this card from Stampin' Connection (a website for SU demonstrators only) right after I  got it.

I need to play with this set some more, I have seen beautiful cards made with it!  I have a very busy weekend and need to make several cards, one baby and one sympathy in particular.  Stay tuned for more samples and ideas!

Growing Green

Here's a card I recently made for my secet sister.  It uses the Growing Green (wood 118758 or clear 120624) stamp set and a sentiment from the Friends 24-7 (wood 113218).  The cardstock is Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke and watercolor paper.  I stamped the large image with black Stazon ink and used a blender pen and markers to color in the image.  The ribbon at the bottom of the card is our Always Artichoke seam binding.

I have loved this Growing Green stamp set from the beginning but just recently bought it.  This was the first card I made with it, and I always start out simple.  One more item to note:  this stamp set coordinates with the Woodland Walk DSP (117389).  Hopefully I'll have more samples soon to show you with this set!

St. Patty's Day treat

Here's a nice treat you can give to coworkers and family to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  It is so fast!  All you need is Wild Wasabi ink and cardstock as well as Whisper White cardstock, the 1 3/4 inch circle extra large punch, the 2 3/8 inch Scallop circle extra large punch and some adhesive to go with your Lucky Shamrock stamp (item #121939) from the Occasions Mini Catalog. 

1.  Stamp the image in Wild Wasabi ink on white cardstock, punch out with circle punch.

2.  Punch out 2 Wild Wasabi extra large scallop circles.  Attach the stamped image to one of them.

3.  Use adhesive to attach scalloped circles to the front and back of a chocolate peppermint patty. 

Enjoy!

Trying to post a new way

Thought I'd try to post from my new iPhone. I will be posting some pictures of new projects this weekend.

Quick and easy Sale-a-bration card

Here is a super easy card to make-I used punches, the brights Designer Series Paper Stack (#117155) and coordinating cardstock.  You can make tons of these with the neutral cardstock base-in this case I used Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip.  I stamped a greeting from a Sale-a-bration stamp set called So Happy For You.  I made lots of variations of this card but have already used up a couple of the cards for several different occasions.  The trick is to make them up ahead of time and then stamp the greeting you need at that particular time.

Valentine's decoration

I didn't have to work today so I'm trying to clean up the house.  I started to take down the Valentine's decorations and decided to show you a project I made last year.  It's a banner using the Big Shot pennant die (item # 113483).  I cut the pennants out of pink and red felt and then glued wooden letters that I painted to the felt.  As always the projects I make have to be really quick and easy to do-and this definately fit the bill!

Cub Scouts banquet

Yesterday we went to a Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet where Drew crossed over from cub scouts to boy scouts.  It was an awesome day-Drew has participated in cub scouts from  the very beginning.  He started when we lived in Virginia as a first grader and even through our moves to three different states has kept on going! 

This is one of the few pictures we were able to take before the batteries died=(

Not just for cards

Today I'm sharing another picture of something my secret sister sent me.  Notice the ribbon threaded through the organdy bag?  How about those cuet little buttons that were sewn onto it?

These are MORE items you can earn for free during Stampin' Up!s Sale-a-bration sale!

Have fun Sale-a-brating today, call or email me to place your order while this promotion is going on!

Favorite card

This is one of my very favorite cards that came in my secret sister box! 

Once again she used the SAB DSP and in the picture below you can see how she made the cute bow using the oval punches and attached them to the back of the card.  I have also included a picture of the inside that holds a gift card.

This is so cute, I will be making some of these myself real soon!  When I make some I will try and remember to get a better picture of the gift card holder piece and post some dimensions.

Eat Chocolate-again...

Here's another project made with yep, you guessed it, "Eat Chocolate".  This cute little pouch made by Judy uses the SAB designer paper you can get for free with a qualifying purchase.

Chicago Blizzard-Burrr!

Yes, there's a blizzard going on here!  Although we live in the 'burbs it's bad enough that Chicago Public Schools closed today for the first time since 1999-about 12 years!  The amount of snow is not huge-but the blowing and drifting makes it really bad.  Yesterday when driving home from work (normally a 1/2 hour trip) it was nearly an hour and 45 minutes to get here.  It is still snowing and so far we have gotten about 12 inches in our neighborhood; they say it will be snowing all morning and throughout the day. 

Here's a picture of Drew as he and Greg have started to clear our sidewalk.  Big Thanks to my hubby for taking these pictures for me!

Hopefully I can spend some time stamping today-Woo Hooo!

I had to add this one too, Ryan took this from his room out the window.  Greg is snowblowing the driveway and the blob to his left behind the tree is our mailbox!

Eat Chocolate!

Yes, eating chocolate is a wonderful treat, but the real reason I posted that is because my not so secret sister sent me a package last week and she used the new Stampin' Up! stamp set called "Eat Chocolate" on a few of the projects.  This first one really was a treat for me because I rarely buy Ferraro Rocher chocolates but I really enjoy them- Thanks Judy!

Here's a picture from the side so you can see how she maide it.  FYI for you Weight Watchers folks it's about 2 points + for each piece, and yes they are all gone now!
Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday and even though this picture is several years old, I thought it would be appropriate since we were both at the Stampin' Up! convention together in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Now that we live soo far apart it is difficult to attend Stampin' Up! events together but hopefully we'll get to go to one again!

Here are some of the things I was working on last week for my not so secret sister gift.  She knows who I am now but I didn't want to post until after she had the box and could see everything.  Most of the cards were "CASED" which means Copy And Steal Everything.  I visit several other blogs occasionally and when I come accross something I like and I happen to have the supplies I try to copy it.  So what does this have to do with you?  It means, that like me, you don't have to be artistic to achieve great results, you just have to be able to duplicate it! 

Posting again

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted!  I have finally settled in at our newest location-a suburb of Chicago, IL.  I am now working at a local middle school and loving it!  The schedule is great and I plan to do lots of stamping.  Check back in a few days to see some of the projects I've been working on.  After my secret sis has had a chance to get her package I will post some pictures of what I have sent her.  In the meantime if you haven't received a Sale-A-Bration catalog contact me to get your very own mini catalog!

Michelle