5/31/2008

Club Cards

We all braved the horrendous Nebraska weather Thursday night and held club. I'm so glad we all made it home OK!! Next time though, I will reschedule!!!

Here are two of the cards we did. I will post the 3rd item later as it's going to need some explanation!

First, we did this Criss Cross Card. Find a Tutorial HERE on Splitcoast by the wonderfully talented Beate Johns. I'm so glad she does all those wonderful tutorials-makes my life SOOO much easier!!



We used the Afternoon Tea DP from the current Occasions Mini catalog (still available!!!). The "flaps" are covered with reverse sides of a sheet of the paper. Colors are Soft Sky and Chocolate chip. The card base is Soft Sky. The insert is Chocolate Chip with Whisper White. We stamped Sky flowers across and added a Sky tab. The brad is only for accent! We punched a Whisper White scallop and layered on a Chocolate Chip circle, stamped with the same flower in Chocolate Chip with "Thanks" stamped across it in Craft Whisper White ink. We tied a Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain ribbon around it all. The stamp set used is the Live Your Dream set from the Mini. The paper coordinates with that!

Our last card of the evening, one we probably should have skipped and headed home instead! But, we didn't. The card base is Blue Bayou. The DP we used for this one is from the Western Sky set. The card base is a striped one, and the star is covered with another that has a star print on it. The star is chipboard, BTW, as are the hearts. For the hearts, since we don't have In Color Craft pads, we took a dauber and colored the star with Blue Bayou ink. We then covered the entire heart with Versamark and embossed with Irridescent Ice EP. They do sparkle IRL! We tied a Soft Sky ribbon around, and layered all together. The "Wonderful" and "father" are from the Wonderful Favorites set and are stamped on the DP with Blue Bayou. Lots of possibilities with that set!

Remember these "In Colors" are going away with this catalog. If you don't have sufficient supply of them, call me today!!! Many of the Designer Papers will change too as they have those colors in them.

Off to pick up a boy at the pool, and see about getting some landscape shrubs replaced that didn't make it through the winter. Later!

5/26/2008

Ruby Peony

Two in one day-WOW!!! I finished the 2nd card, and figured I'd share now. It's back to work tomorrow, with an on the road baseball game after, so there won't be time to share!

I made this for someone who's getting married in a few weeks. I got this set, Pretty Peony as one of my FREE SAB sets, and hadn't used it yet. The wedding invitation was done in similar colors, with a flower resembling this Peony. I love it when I can match to things using my stash!!!


Card base is Ruby Red with the Tres Chic background on about 1/3 in Ruby. This is basically a case out of the catalog, btw, I didn't have time for brain power! I tore the Old Olive layer. The Peony is a two-step stamp and I dug out my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up correctly. Lighter on the first layer. I achieved that by stamping off that image, then stamping the second full strength. The flower is stamped on Naturals Ivory CS and the edges are sponged with Ruby, along with the base. I sponged with Olive on just the torn edge.

Thanks for looking-I'm off to figure out club projects for later in the week!

A card!!

I stamped today!!! Only one card to show for it yet, but another is close to done. Here is the one I successfully completed, for a cousin who's graduating this week.

I used the In the Stars set from the Occasions Mini Catalog. Don't forget-the sales from the Mini now extend through June!!! The card base is Brushed Silver CS, with a Real Red Accent layer. The base is Whisper White stamped with large Real Red stars, and small stars stamped with Silver Encore ink and embossed with Iridiscent Ice EP. I stamped the center star with Real Red Craft ink and embossed it too with II EP. I cut out the star and layered on Brushed Silver and cut out again. The saying was also embossed. I used some (retired) Red star eyelets for accent. The saying and center star are attached with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by! We were on vacation last week to the Black Hills of SD, and came home to some not so lovely weather. We had storms roll thru early Sat am with very high winds, and again last night. No damage the first night, but last night we lost the boys' jungle gym/swing set. I'm very thankful to have a house still standing!! There are many large trees down in the area!


ETA: I had tried to add a picture, but it won't enlarge for some reason. I've deleted it for now because I've tried changing it several times with no luck. Maybe tomorrow I'll give it another whirl.

5/12/2008

You know you don't post often enough when...

you can't type your blog address right! LOL! That hyphen in there gets me EVERY time!

Here is a recent swap creation, our 'theme' was birds or butterflies. I knew time would be limited, so I tried not to get too complex. I mounted this set, A Little Birdie Told Me that's been hanging around my room neglected for FAR too long! It's an adorable set, and I knew it would be perfect for the paper-piecing technique with Prints Designer Series Paper. I chose the Saffron color as it had a nice springy feel.


This particular card used the stripe paper, but I did several different ones and they were all cute! The card base is Whisper White and a little difficult to see in the photo. The background layer is the Saffron Prints. I added two Black Vintage Brads using my Mat Pack near the bottom corner, with the "you're the best" verse. The white layer was first stamped with the bird image using Staz On. I then layered on a bird that was cut out of the same print paper. I added two of the smaller corners from the Photo Corner punch behind the white, over the Black Gingham ribbon. I added just a touch of Saffron around the birds feet to ground him.

I'm trying hard not to whine about not having time to stamp, so let me just say posting will continue to be sparse as we head into summer around here. With baseball (4 nights a week), vacations, family, work, yard, garden, ..... you get the picture!! I know others out there are probably much busier, but it just all gets to me! I have cut, or will be, my hours at work a tad so hopefully I can keep my head above water!

Hope Spring has been good to you all! It's very pretty here in Nebraska right now-VERY green! We've been blessed with plenty of rain so far, maybe too much if you ask the farmers who are trying to get corn in. Ours got finished last Tuesday-Yeah! Take Care!!

5/06/2008

Club Samples

I made it back-amazing!!! My days never go as planned, but I did get my outside flowers mostly finished. Course now its POURING rain outside!! Could be worse though-Spring in Nebraska can be volatile!!! They have to get broken in sooner or later!!

Here are the cards from Club in April:



This one used a wheel & set from the special that was going on-Enjoy Every Moment & Daisy Dash. I like this set and see GREAT possibilities!! I chose to use our new product, Flower Fusion (felt flowers-p. 177 in catty) for the 'o' in enjoy. Think of all your options for that 'o'!!! We used a strip of the Bali Breeze paper, which gives us the colors Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie & Rose Red. Not colors I would chose on my own to put together-but they do work!!! We used the brush tip of our markers to color the letters on 'enjoy'. The Teal layer is wheeled using Versamark for tone on tone effect. We used a Rhinestone Brad-Ice Circle to anchor the flowers on. The wide grosgrain ribbon in Old Olive was tied around the layers. Very cool! I cased this btw, from someone on SCS. Thanks to you for the GREAT idea!!


This card was next, created in response to a request for Vellum. Back to basics for me-I don't remember the last time I had vellum out! This is a very simple card too, and they liked that! This set & wheel were also part of last months special-Wonderful You & Stems & Silhouettes. First, we stamped the outline flower image with White Stazon on the Vellum. We let that dry briefly while we wheeled the background Lavender Lace with Lavender Lace. Next, we flipped the vellum over (gently so as not to smudge!), and colored the back with markers. We did the flower Lavender Lace with a Barely Banana center. We added the 'wonderful you' near the bottom with either Lavender Lace or White Stazon. We used our Double Rectangle punch (p. 181, item 28) to punch thru both the vellum & Lavender Lace top fold. This give us the holes to thread thru our "cheater bow". Make sure you line up the vellum and Lavender before punching!!

BTW, these sets & wheels are still available, they just aren't on special anymore-sorry! They are keepers though-very worth the investment!


Lastly, we did this card using the Chalkboard Technique just because it looked fun. I don't think I had ever actually done it before, and the ladies loved it!! Click the link above to see a wonderful tutorial by Beate on SCS. I didn't deliberately copy her set idea either. I had looked at the technique earlier in the day, then chose this set that night to play with. When I went back to look at the tutorial, I realized it was the same set!! The technique is simple-you just stamp your image with White (or Vanilla) Craft Ink and dab on Pastels! Use a Swiffer to wipe off excess Pastels. The card base here is Chocolate Chip for a slightly softer look than using Black.

LMK if you have any questions on these. It feels good to be back posting, I'll see if I can be back again fairly soon. I do have a swap that needs to hit the mail soon, and a stamping evening Friday with Friends. HOPE!!

OH--One more piece of news. SU! has announced that the current Mini Catalog WILL NOT end with May, it will continue thru June. YEAHHHH!! More time to get those great sets!

Back again...

Sorry once again for the lack of posts. This is a very busy time of year in Nebraska!! School is almost out so the calender has tons of awards ceremonies, programs, etc. And baseball season is approaching and practices have begun. And Spring appears to have finally sprung to stay! I got some annuals planted outside yesterday and have a few more to finish today.

I'm up early this morning to register for Stampin' Up! Convention!! I got in-YEAH!!!! I was very glad they started it early so I didn't have to try and do it from work. System was a little slow, but I got thru.

Let me run thru the SU!! specials for May, and then if I have time I have my Club cards from last month that I still haven't shared. If I don't get those on this morning, I'll do it later today!


First, the biggest news, is a recruiting promotion, Expand your Toolbox!!!

Join SU! during May for only $159-that's over $350 of supplies and stamping tools!!! AND you get a FREE set of the Hodgepodge Hardware from the current catalog (NOT the set in the mini). The HH is valued at $27.95. Now, they did say those are retiring with the current catalog, but it's still FREE and you can demo them thru July!! And, if you sign up, you can go to convention in Salt Lake City too!!! Contact me today if you'd like to become a member of my team. It's a quick and easy process thru my demo site, you just need a password from me!!

Next, is the Get on Board with Chipboard Special!! If you spend $35 on SU! products, you get 25% off any of the Chipboard products!! See pages 178-179 in the current catalog for all the great products available. What a great time to try something new if you haven't used Chipboard much, or to stock up if you have!!

Lastly is the Cutting Combo Pack special offer. If you buy the SU! Cutting Mat, you get a free Hobby Blade with 5 refill blades!! Both are great tools for working with Chipboard!
Contact me if you need more info on any of these specials! I'm going to log off now, but I will be back later with the cards from club. Thanks all!!