Sassy Birthday

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I just can't wait to get my hands on these fantastic products!  As a demonstrator I get to pre-order starting this coming Monday...woohoo!!  Want in on the action?  Join my team and you'll be able to place your order on Monday AND get a 30% discount!  Click Join My Team above to learn more!

Today I have another project for my upcoming Card Buffet...this time it is a simple birthday card for the women in your life...

Feminine Birthday card featuring the Sassy Salutations and Betsy's Blossoms stamp sets.

This is another one you can throw together in no time!  Here are some tips for you:

• The background is embossed using the (retired) Pretty Print TIEF (but just about any TIEF would do!)
• The DSP is leftover from the Sweet Sorbet Sale-a-bration DSP pack.
• The flower is from the Betsy's Blossoms set, is stamped in Pool Party in and then die cut using the smallest of the Starburst Framelits.
• The sparkly little flowers are punched with the Itty Bitty Punch pack.  The centres are some long-retired black rhinestones, but you can get the same look by colouring regular rhinestones with a black sharpie!

 On the inside I used some of the same DSP and a black card stock mat to echo what I had done on the front.  The inside sentiment is from the Another Great Year set.

The cool thing about this design is that you can easily switch up the DSP and the coordinating card base to use up those pesky scraps you have laying around!  Gotta love it!

Pumpkin In the Bag

Happy Friday!  I know I've not been around much the past couple of weeks.  Please bear with me, as our family is going through some challenging changes of late.  My stamping time has been very limited, not to mention the fact that my stamping space still hasn't completely recovered from our flood.  I am doing my best to stay on top of things but when challenges arise, it's the fun stuff that tends to get pushed aside.  I have a couple more weeks of craziness to get through and then (hopefully!) things will settle down again.

I am so loving the latest Paper Pumpkin kits!  The March kit was so much fun.  As usual I made one sample just as shown in the instructions and then I played a little...check it out:

February Paper Pumpkin project.  The kit contatined FIVE gift bags and tons of accessories to decorate them.

I made this bag and three others like it to give to my monthly Techniques Group ladies.  I thought it would be a cute way for them to take their projects and technique cards home with them and I knew they would appreciate the little surprise :)  (I was right!!)  The March kit included five generously-sized, heavy-weight gift bags, pre-printed letters, sheets of self-adhesive die cuts, twine and clothespins, as well as two background stamps and an ink spot.  A great value!
Then I decided to use a few pieces from the Heartfelt Banner Sale-a-bration kit...

I added the little canvas hearts on either end of the little banner.  Not much, but it adds a little something extra. 
Then I stepped it up even further.  I found some plain Kraft gift bags in my stash and added more pieces from the Heartfelt Banner Kit...

Fun, huh?  I love those little pom-poms!  They add whimsical pops of colour against the plain background.

I really have been very impressed with the latest Paper Pumpkin kits.  They offer great value and tons of fun project ideas.  If you haven't tried Paper Pumpkin yet, now is the time!  Until the end of March you'll receive a bonus pack of In-Colour markers when you subscribe...that's a $19.95 value, which is almost the equivalent of your first month's subscription for FREE.  It is such fun to receive the kits each month in the mail...it's like getting a little birthday surprise every month.  The best part is there is no obligation...if you aren't satisfied you can unsubscribe any time...but I know you'll love the fun projects you'll recieve each month.  To subscribe visit mypaperpumpkin.com and be sure to do so before March 31st to claim your free set of markers!

Bubble Background Birthday

This month my techniques group is learning how to do the Bubble Background technique.  I showcased it a while back as one of the challenges over at The Technique Twist, but never got to show it to my monthly group.  I decided it was time!  Here is the card we'll be making at tonight's class:

Birthday card featuring the Bubble Background technique with the Petal Parade and Sassy Salutations stamp sets.

Can you tell I'm ready for spring??  Two days ago it was a beautifully mild, sunny day...warm enough for shirt sleeves.  Yesterday we received 20 cm of snow and today it's a high of -10 C!!  I am SO sick of winter, so I decided to make this card as spring-like as possible. 

My colour scheme is Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight and Crumb Cake.  I went a little hog-wild with the embellishments on this one, but I love the texture the layers of ribbon add and the sparkle from the little rhinestones.  Check out my how-to HERE for creating the bubble backgound.  It's a fun technique that can be a wee bit addictive!! 

Inside view with sentiment from Bring on the Cake and images from Petal Parade and Banner Blast Sale-a-bration stamp sets.

 I hope my class participants like this one...I know I would love to receive a card like this in the mail on this cold and snowy day!!  I sure hope the weather is nicer wherever you are today!

Cool Kid

Happy Monday...and happy March Break!  I am so happy to have a week off work to spend at home with my boy.  We have lots of fun activities planned (plus a little stamping time for Mommy too!).  Here is a card I put together that I plan to tuck into my son's lunchbox when he heads back to school next week to remind him how much I love him and how much fun I had being home with him this week:

Any-occasion card featuring the Cool Kid stamp set and Fresh Prints DSP

When I first saw the Cool Kid stamp set in the Occasions Catalogue I knew I had to own it.  I have so very few fun stamp sets for kids and this one is so versatile!

Here are some quick tips for putting this one together:

• I stamped the cat in Crumb Cake ink and die cut the banner using the Banners Framelits.  The bow tie is stamped in Coastal Cabana and adhered with a dimensional.
• The background is embossed using the Decorative Dots TIEF.  The red banner is embossed using the Arrows TIEF.
• Both pieces of DSP are from the Fresh Prints stack.
• The airplaine is stamped, fussy cut and then adhered with a dimensional.
• The Linen Thread was originally tied in a bow...I accidentally snipped one of the loops of the bow, liked the look and snipped the second loop.
• I die cut the right edge of the chevron patterned DSP using the Finishing Touches Edgelits.

 On the inside I stamped the sentiment using Real Red ink, the loop and the airplane using black Staz On.  Simple, easy and fun...just what I'm hoping this March Break will be!!

It's about time...for a Card-in-a-box

Well, I figure it's about time I jumped on the bandwagon.  These cards-in-a-box are everywhere these days, so I decided it was about time I gave one a go.  I'm reasonably happy with my first attempt...see what you think:

Birthday Card-in-a-box featuring the Secret Garden, Petite Petals, Label Love and Flower Shop stamp sets.

I decided to try one that is sized to fit in a standard Whisper White envelope.  It made for a slightly smaller canvas to work with, given this was my first try.  I made the box from Sahara Sand card stock and covered the panels using Sweet Sorbet DSP.  The flowers came from a variety of sets, all with coordinating punches or Framelits to eliminate the need to fussy cut.  I wanted to go for quick and easy, since I will likely do this one in a class at some point. 

The Summer Starfruit and large Pool Party flowers came from the Secret Garden set and were die cut using the matching Framelits.  The Crisp Cantaloupe flowers came from the Flower Shop set and were punched with the Pansy punch.  The small Pool Party flowers came from the new Petite Petals set and were punched with the matching punch.  I die cut the leaves from Pistachio Pudding card stock using the Secret Garden Framelits and then ran them through the Perfect Polka Dots TIEF to add a bit of texture.

I used strips of window sheets to attach the flowers to the box and then adhered other flowers with glue dots or dimensionals to complete my bouquet.  It really was like arranging real flowers putting this together!  Lots of fun!  The sentiment is from the Label Love stamp set and is punched using the Artisan Label punch.

I left room on the back of the box to write a personal greeting to the recipient, decorating it with a few stamped flowers.
Ok, so now I see why this syle of card is so popular!  They offer a real WOW and are such fun to create!  I plan to try a few more in different sizes...stay tuned!

Paper-pieced Birthday

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  Mine was good...lots of stamping time for me...yippee!  I have lots of new projects to show you this week, starting with this one that I made using the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Check out this week's sketch:

...and here is my take on it:

Birthday card for FMS125 featuring the Another Great Year Stamp set and Sweet Sorbet DSP.

Now, I didn't do anything dramatic with this sketch.  In fact, when I first saw it this card immediately came to mind!  That doesn't happen very often...usually there is a whole lot of trial and error involved.  To get the coloured banners, I paper-pieced them by stamping the image a second time on some Sweet Sorbet DSP, fussy cutting them and then adhering them to the stamped image.

I did the same thing with the icing on the little cupcake, as well as the banner on the inside of the card.

I also stamped the sentiment from the Another Great Year set  and coloured the candles using my Pool Party, Pistachio Pudding, Summer Starfruit and Crisp Cantaloupe markers.
There really is nothing like a sketch to get your creative juices flowing!  I really needed a little kick-start and this was the perfect way to get it!  Give it a go...you'll be amazed at what you'll come up with.  Have a great week!

What's on your Desk??

This weekend I found a bit of time to clean up my stamping desk after the frenzied flurry of making all of the decorations for the baby shower I recently hosted.  It was a big mess, so rather than put everything away I decided to try to create a few projects using the items that were sitting out.  Here is the first card I made...

Thank you card featuring the Happy Watercolour  stamp set.

This one features some leftover practice bits from the Bubble Background challenge over at the Technique Twist a while back!  Yep, that's how deep my pile was!   I stamped the dot image from the Happy Watercolour  stamp set over top of the bubbles using Silver Metallic Encore ink.  I found a bit of Wisteria Wonder baker's twine leftover from an event ages ago, as well as a small Vintage Faceted button that was buried under a stack of scraps.

The focal image was one that I stamped at some point after receiving my Occasions Catalogue pre-order and trying out some of the new products.  The colour scheme is Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder and Pear Pizzazz, with all stamped off once before stamping the background colour blocks.  The flower is stampe in Basic Gray.  The embossed background layer is Smokey Slate card stock that I ran through the Decorative Dots TIEF.  I had the corner rounder punch sitting out so I rounded the opposite corners on all of the layers.  The sentiment was stamped in Basic Gray and then die cut using the Bitty Banners Framelits.  I had a few odd rhinestones laying around so I added them for some sparkle.
It's really amazing what you find when you finally clean up!  If your work area is looking less-than-tidy, try using the stuff instead of trying to find places to store it...you might be surprised with the result!

Card for Baby

Today I have the card I made to go with my gift at the shower last Friday.  It was pretty last-minute, as I was so busy making all of the decor stuff I kind of forgot about a card!  I threw this together the night before the shower...not my best work, but it's ok...

Baby card featuring the Banner Blast, Sweet Essentials and Itty Bitties (retired) stamp sets.

I'm not exactly thrilled with this card, but I was under a time crunch, which always tends to stifle my creativity.  I started with a piece of DSP from the Fresh Prints pack and then layered half of a doily, some pennants stamped with the Banner Blast set and punched with the coordinating punch and some stitched grosgrain ribbon.  The teeny little feet are from the Itty Bitties stamp set, which was in last year's Occasions catalogue.  Sadly it is no longer available, but I kept it just for this one image...aren't they adorable??

The sentiment is from the Sweet Essentials set and is die cut using the Bitty Banners framelits.  I added a small Vintage Faceted button and a bit of twine from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory pack.  Like I said, not my best work, but not bad for last minute ;)

Now, here are this week's Weekly Deals...some great items here!  I'm ordering a  few myself!

We hope you enjoy this week's Weekly Deals!

	Backyard Basics Framelits Dies Item # 129380 Regular Price: 30.95  Discounted Price: 23.21
	Gold Metallic Encore Pad Item # 132141 Regular Price: 12.95 Discounted Price: 9.71
	Basics Glimmer Brads Item # 121003 Regular Price: 6.95 Discounted Price: 4.88
	Paper Doily Sizzlits Die Item # 125592 Regular Price: 26.95 Discounted Price: 20.21
	Primrose Petals 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon Item # 126844 Regular Price: 12.25 Discounted Price: 9.19
	Summer Starfruit 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon Item # 126846 Regular Price: 12.25  Discounted Price:  /9.19
	Season By Season Kit - Digital Download Item # 130060 Regular Price:  10.95  Discounted Price:  6.57

Baby Shower Success!

Well Operation Baby Shower was a huge success.  The Mommy-to-be had a wonderful time and received some lovely gifts.  I know I said I would post photos of the decor items last Friday, but honestly, I was just too busy getting ready for the actual event (and then cleaning up afterwards) to sneak in a post.  My apologies for keeping you waiting...here they are!

Baby shower Banner and garland.

 I made the banner using the largest of the Banners Framelits, cutting a folded piece of  textured Smokey Slate card stock so that the fold was just below the cutting edge.  This created tent-fold pennants that I could then just drape over the Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon, allowing me to reuse the almost-8-foot-long piece of ribbon!  The white circles were cut using the Starburst Framelits and embossed with the Argyle TIEF.  The Summer Starfruit letters were die cut using the retired Serif Essentials Alphabet dies.  I love these because they cut big 2" letters which are perfect for projects like this.  I added a bit of bling to the banner with some small hearts punched from silver glimmer paper.

The garland in each of the above photos was made by punching (a lot!) of hexagons from Smokey Slate, Summer Starfruit, Crisp Cantaloupe and Silver Glimmer paper using the Hexagon punch.  It was then just a matter of sewing them all together.  I did them in strands of 100 hexagons each, which made the length quite manageable.  The one on the chandelier was shorter, made from the leftovers.  Those garlands were a huge hit with everyone...in fact, the Mommy-to-be asked if she could keep them for baby's first birthday party!  Of course I said yes!

Heart confetti

Instead of throwing out the scraps when I was finished punching all of those hexagons, I punched as many small hearts as I could from what was left and used them as confetti on the tables.  It was a great way to carry the colour scheme to the tables and use up scraps at the same time!

Cupcake toppers

I made little toppers for the yummy cupcakes using the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set and Bitty Banners Framelits. 

 

Favour wrapper made using the Scalloped Tag Topper punch...so loving that thing!

 For the favours I packaged up pairs of yummy-smelling votive candles in some small cello bags and then created a wrapper using the Scalloped Tag Topper punch.  I simply cut a 10" x 2" strip of Smokey Slate card stock and punched both ends.  I scored each strip at 4-1/4 and 5-3/4" and folded along the score lines.  I embossed each strip with the Perfect Polka Dots TIEF.  I added a strip of Sticky Strip between the score lines to hold the bag of candles in place and then tied the wrapper closed with some Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon.  The label is cut using the Chalk Talk Framelits from Summer Starfruit Core'dinations card stock, embossed with the Argyle TIEF and then lightly sanded.  The sentiment is from the A Fitting Occasion stamp set.  It is punched with the 1" circle and layered on a 1-1/4" scalloped circle.  The tiny heart is from the Owl Builder Punch.

Thank you card featuring the Cuddles and Kisses stamp set.

As part of my gift for the Mommy-to-be I made a set of 20 of these thank you cards.  I kept many of the same elements I used on the invitations, but made these much simpler.  It didn't take long to whip them up!

I have to say that this colour scheme was a huge hit!  Everyone commented on how nicely the colours (Smokey Slate, Summer Starfruit, Crisp Cantaloupe and Whisper White) work together for a gender-neutral shower.  The bling is a bit girlie, but it was more for Mommy-to-be than for baby...she is a real girlie girl!  Here is a shot of the guest of honour:

I can't wait to meet her little one!!

Wishing it was still the weekend...

We had a long weekend here, in Ontario, in honour of Family Day.  It is a time to spend quality time with those you love and we had a fantastic Family Day!  It was a technology-free day, which meant no cell phones, computers, iPads, or video games!  Both my son and my DH were a wee bit stressed, at first, to think that they had to find other ways to entertain themselves for the day, but it turned out to be a great day of family togetherness.  We read books, played games, went bowling and had a family dinner out at one of our favourite restaurants.  Now can you see why I'm wishing it was still the weekend?  I didn't want our wonderful day to end!  To kick off the shortened workweek, I have a quick and easy card for you.  It sums up how I'm feeling today:

Any-occasion card featuring the Perfect Pennants and Petite Petals stamp sets.

Life really doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful...yesterday proved that!  This card is really quick and easy to put together thanks to some fabulous new products.  Here is a quick how-to:

• I stamped the sentiment using Pool Party ink on Whisper White card stock and then die cut it using the Banners Framelits.  I also die cut two additional banners from Sweet Sorbet DSP.
• I stamped a couple of flowers on the die cut banner using Crisp Cantaloupe ink.
• I stamped two more flowers and punched them using the Petite Petals punch.  They are adhered using dimensionals.
• The DSP at the top of the card is from the Sweet Sorbet DSP pack.
• The little scalloped border is punched from Crisp Cantaloupe card stock using the Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch.
• The background is embossed using the Decorative Dots TIEF.
• The twine is from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory pack.
• I added a wee bit of bling with a rhinestone in the centre of each flower.

Havea great day and a week filled with unexpected blessings! :)

Perfect Life

Happy Valentine's day!  I hope you get a chance to let those who matter to you know just how much you love them today.  My sweetie and I have no special plans for today, opting for a date night on Sunday, when the restaurants are a little less crowded!  Can't wait!  Tonight it will be heart-shaped pizza with our boy.
In the meantime, I have a cute project for you that could work for today or just about any day...

Any-occasion card featuring the Perfect Pennants and Betsy's Blossoms stamp sets.

I just love this sentiment from the Perfect Pennants stamp set!  It is so absolutely true.  So many people spend their lives trying to make their lives "perfect" and miss out on so many wonderful things along the way.  To accent the sentiment I stamped it in Basic Black ink over top of the flower from Betsy's Blossoms, stamped in Pool Party ink.  I die cut the flower using the new Starburst Framelits.  I added one of the cork accents from the Sweet Sorbet Accessories SAB pack and added an In-Colour Dahlia to the centre of the cork flower.  The DSP is from the Sweet Sorbet SAB pack.  The twine is also from the Sweet Sorbet Accessories pack.  I embossed the background using the Decorative Dots TIEF, which is also an SAB freebie! 

I added some sparkle with a Vintage Faceted button, a little silver glimmer heart and a few randomly scattered rhinestones.  The scalloped border is die cut from Crisp Cantaloupe card stock, using the Tasteful Trim die (on sale this week for 25% off!!).  Somehow I neglected to take a photo of the inside of this one...sorry 'bout that! 
Have a wonderful Heart Day and a super weekend!  It is a long one for us...wahoo!!

A Valentine Quickie

If you're anything like me, you haven't really started planning what you're doing for that special someone tomorrow.  Here's a quick and easy Valentine you can whip up tonight...

Quick and easy Valentine featuring the Banner Blast stamp set.

Just one little bit of stamping on this one:  the little love banner from the Banner Blast SAB set, punched with the SAB banner punch.  The background is Watercolour Wonder Washi tape that I stuck to Whisper White card stock and then ran through the Big Shot using the Decorative Dots SAB TIEF.  The focal image is a scalloped heart die cut from Gold Foil card stock using the Hearts A-flutter Framelits.  The red DSP heart is punched from the Fresh Prints DSP stack, using the Full Heart punch.

 I added a small heart punched from champagne Glimmer Paper, as well as some Gold Baker's Twine and a few gold sequins. I'm not going to show you what I did on the inside 'cuz its for my honey's eyes only ;)
Now, didn't I tell you it was an easy project??  Go make one.  Now.  Your significant other deserves a handmade Valentine, dontcha think??  Who knows...he/she may just surprise you with something extra special too!

Hump Day!

Half-way to the weekend!  Yippee!!  Here is another one of the make-n-takes from my Sale-a-bration open house last weekend:

Birthday card featuring the Perfect Pennants and Starburst Sayings stamp sets.

Now, clearly this one doesn't use any Sale-a-bration products, but it does use two fabulous new stamp sets from the Occasions catalogue.  I used the Perfect Pennants set with coordinating Banners framelits to create the focal image and then two images from the Starburst Sayings set for the background.

The colour scheme for this one is Real Red, Pool Party and Basic Gray...perfect for masculine cards, though this one is fairly generic.  I did add a little bling with some stars punched using the Merry Minis punch.

On the inside I simply repeated the background images from the front, leaving the Celebrate image as the focal point, and added a few more sparkly stars.  Who doesn't like to sparkle on their big day??

Have a great day...thanks for checking in!