Shocked and Amazed!!

This afternoon at work I did a quick check of my emails and to my shock and amazement there was a message from Linda Aarhus informing me she had awarded me the...

I sat and read the email several times before it actually sank in and I am still in disbelief that my little blog would ever be worthy.  Knowing all the hundreds, thousands even, of amazing blogs out there in cyberspace I never imagined I would be considered among them.  So a HUGE thank you to Linda!!  Please check out her blog Polka Dots and  Paper...you'll be glad you did!


Now, as a recipient of this award, I have some business to take care of.  The first is to pass it on to eight other blogs I have recently discovered.  So, here is a list of eight great blogs well worth checking out:

Jen Arkfeld 

Sharon Field

Debbi Rippentrop

Lena Paiva

Jeanne Kupsh

Jackie Barfield

Nancy Riley

Lyssa Griffin Zwolanek

I'm also supposed to list eight tidbits of personal info about  myself...here goes!

1)  I've been stamping for just a little less than 2 years but have LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!
2) I just became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator this past July but have also LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!
3) I am a full-time high school music department head which seriously interferes with my stamping time...except during summer break (only 4 more months to go!)
4) I am married to a super guy whom I met online before Internet dating was the "in" thing to do.  Interestingly, my brother also  met his wife online about 4 years later!
5) I am mom to the smartest 3 1/2 year-old-ever (ok, I might be a bit biased!).  He is the  light of  my life and is my best stampin' buddy!
6) Although I am a musician I rarely listen to music myself!  After listening to teenagers wail on band instruments all day long the last thing I want to do is  listen to more music.  In fact, all I want is peace and quiet, which is why I LOVE my stampin' corner...all I hear there is the click-click-click of my SNAIL...music to any stamper's ears!
7)  I am addicted to the Young and the Restless and have been for the last 25 years!  (pathetic, I  know!)  Oddly enough, the storyline hasn't changed!
8) I love to cook and entertain.  I've been told many times I should be running my own restaurant...my answer..."Can't...too busy stamping!"

Now, on to more pressing matters...today's card!!  Actually it is a card and gift bag ensemble I did this week.  I am currently working on designs for my April classes and really like the bright, spring-like colours in this set.  See what you think...

Gift ensemble using Summer Garden DP, So Swirly (retired) wheel and Punch Bunch and Pocket Silhouettes stamp sets.

Just the bag...I made matching tissue with my So Swirly wheel

Cloe-up of focal image on bag.

Cute little gift tag from the Punch Bunch SAB set

Matching card and envelope using So Swirly wheel and Pocket Silhouettes set (on of my fav's)

I carried the butterfly theme from the bag inside the card with the Flight of the Butterfly set.

When I envisioned this set I had thought I would use a brighter ink colour for my wheeled images; however, much to my dismay, the only reinker I had in the colours from the Summer Garden DSP was old olive!  I was a bit worried it would be too dark, but I actually like the darker wheeled image to off-set the brightness of the DSP.  I also love the velllum butterflies...so simple to make with my Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die and my Big Shot!  Add a little colour with some ink and sponges and viola...a pretty accent!  I don't know yet if this set will make my April line-up, but I most certainly will find someone to gift it to!

A Really BIG Thank You!

Mr. UPS came to my door today with a VERY large order for a new customer of mine.  She is a colleague at work who has been attending my monthly card classes that I hold in our staffroom after school.  She  had never stamped prior to coming to these classes, but she has certainly caught the bug!  She has placed two large orders within a couple of weeks of eachother, so to thank her I sat down tonight to make a special card.  Here it is...

Thank you card for a special customer using the Bliss SAB set

Close-up of collage detail

Inside of card

Now, this doesn't  actually say thank you...I'm going to write that myself; but it does express some of the "bliss" we all experience when we get a big new  box of goodies.  I thought the sentiment was absolutely perfect, as was the "Enjoy" inside the card.  This card came together really easily because it is a collage of various shapes, images and embellishments.  I just started with the Lap of Luxury DSP and then chose embellishments I liked that worked with the paper.  Really easy and fun to do....I think I'll try  more of this  style of card!
I hope my customer likes her card  and knows how much I appreciate not only her business, but also the thrill of introducing someone to the world of stamping.  That, for me more than anything, is why I LOVE being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!

For a Friend...

Last Friday I got word that a customer of mine had a biopsy to check for breast cancer.  She went in for an ultrasound because she'd been having some pain under her arm for several weeks and ended up staying for the biopsy.  This isn't good news because her mother is a breast cancer survivor and we all know, it often runs in families.  She has to wait until the end of this week to get the results and so I made her a card to let her know I'm thinking of her and praying for the best possible outcome:  a clean bill of health!  Here is the card I made:

For this card I used the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder and the Because I Card hostess set.

I added colour to the embossed image by inking it with my Versamarker and then adding chalk from my pastels.  The Versamarker helps the chalk stick to the image and makes the colour more vibrant.

Close up of pierced edges and sentiment from Because I Care set.

Inside of card stamped with floral image from Thought and Prayers set and sentiment from Thanks for Caring set.

To me, this card looks like spring.  I wanted it to be a hopeful card filled with the promise of new life.  I hope my customer feels that when she opens it.  Here is what I did to create it...

I started with a piece of very vanilla cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot with the Elegant Bouquet EF.  I then took my Versarmarker and inked the raised portions and then dabbed colour from my pastels onto the flowers, vines and leaves.  The colours I used were pink pirouette and rose red for the flowers and certainly celery and garden green for the leaves and vine.  I then adhere the embossed piece to a slightly larger piece of blushing bride cardstock.  I cut a smaller strip of blushing bride, punched the edge with my scalloped edge punch and adhered it along the left side of the embossed piece.  I then pierced a double line along the top and right edges using my mat pack and piercing tool.  Then I adhered a piece of pear pizzazz seam binding ribbon to the left side of the cardfront and layered a piece of chantilly crochet trim over top of the seam binding.  I took separate pieces of seam binding and lace, looped them into a bow and secured it with an antique brad.  I then adhered the bow to the cardfront using tombow.  The entire cardfront was then secured to a pear pizzazz card base.  The sentiment, from the Because I Care level one hostess set, was inked with pear pizzazz and blushing bride markers, stamped on a piece of very vanilla scrap and then punched out with my large oval punch.  I layered the sentiment on a scalloped oval in pear pizzazz and adhered it to the card using dimensionals.  The final touch on the front of the card is the tiny pearls I added to the centres of the flowers.

For the inside of the card, I started with another piece of very vanilla cardstock (the same size as the one on the front) and stamped the floral image from the Thoughts and Prayers set which I inked using my pear pizzazz and blushing bride markers.  I then stamped the sentiment from the Thanks for Caring set (Occasions Mini) in pear pizzazz and layered the vanilla piece on a a slightly larger blushing bride piece of cardstock.  I had some scrap bits of seam binding laying around so I added a wee bit to the lower left corner, securing it with glue dots.  I then adhered the whole thing inside the card using SNAIL.

I really love how soft and spring-y this card is...I hope the recipient does too!

Club Projects

Yesterday I posted a "Wheely" easy card that I did with one of my monthly clubs last week.  Today I'm going to show the other projects we did.  Most of the ladies in this club are brand new stampers, so I try to work in some basic techniques with our projects each month.  Two of the ladies had been asking about our Stampin' Around wheels, so I thought I would create things using those great little tools!  Here is what I came up with...

Gift bag made using the Time to Celebrate wheel and Celebrations DSP.  We also made matching tissue with the same wheel!

Matching birthday card using both the Party Hearty and Bring on the Cake sets.

Close up of focal image from the Party Hearty set.

Close up of sentiment from Bring on the Cake set

Inside of card using images from Bring on the Cake set

This set was so much fun to design and even more fun to teach my club ladies to make!  For the bag, we started with a full-sized 8 1/2 x 11" piece of pacific point cardstock and wheeled the "Time to celebrate" in pacific point along the top and bottom edges.  We then took an 8 1/2" x 8" piece of whisper white cardstock and adhered 8 1/2" x 2" strips of the DSP, covering the entire piece of whisper white.  On a separate scrap of whisper white we wheeled the "Time to Celebrate" again and trimmed it to about 1" x 8 1/2".  We adhered that to the piece with the DSP.  We then punched dotted scallop ribbons in pacific point and real red and adhered them along the seams in the DSP.  We added some retired corduroy buttons to the "o"'s in TO for some fun (and because I wanted to use up those buttons!)  We then adhered the DSP layer to the pacific point base using sticky strip and  then adhered the whole thing to the bag in the  same manner.
We used our wheel again on some plain white tissue paper to create matching filler for the bag and made a cute little tag with the Bring on the Cake  set.  Here's a close up of the tag...

The little library clip is from the Clearance Rack...I used up LOTS of retired product with this project!

For the card, we started by adhering the patterned paper to the pacific point cardstock mat.  We then stamped the "b is for birthday" image from the Party Hearty set, inking the stamp with pacific point and real red markers.  I wanted to show my ladies how versatile markers are...we didn't use a single ink pad the entire evening!  We layered the "b is for birthday" image on a piece of pacific point cardstock and added a  corduroy button threaded with old olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon using glue dots.  We adhered some retired pacific point striped grosgrain ribbon to the cardfront and then adhered the focal image using dimensionals.  For the sentiment, we again inked our stamp with markers, stamped on a scrap of whisper white CS and punched it out using the modern label punch.  We layered that on a wide oval in pacific point, added some non-SU candle brads (no idea where they came from...I've had them forever!) and adhered it to the cardfront using dimensionals.  We then adhered the entire thing to a textured whisper white card base.
On the inside of the card, we stamped the other half of the "so many candles" sentiment with markers and followed the same process as we did for the cardfront.  We also coloured and stamped the birthday cake in the lower right corner.
These projects used lots of current and retired product...my ladies loved it and I got rid of lots of retired product to make room for NEW stuff!  It was a win-win!!

Wheely Easy Card!

Ok...sorry about the bad pun, but this card was easy thanks to my Friendly Words wheel and some embossing powder.  Check it out...

Fast and easy card using Friendly Words wheel.

Close up of embossed wheel image.

Inside of card

Close up of sentiment

I designed this card for one of my monthly clubs.  This month we were doing a birthday ensemble that was fairly involved, so I wanted a quick and easy card to end the evening with.  Since we were using wheels on the gift bag and tissue for the birthday set, I figured we may as well keep things "rolling" along and use another wheel here.  Here are the details...
Starting with a 6 x 2 1/2" piece of rich razzleberry cardstock, rub the entire surface with an emboossing buddy and then wheel the Friendly words wheel across the length of the card using a cartridge inked with Versamark.  Sprinkle silver EP over the entire image and then heat with heat tool.  Tie a piece of 5/8" satin ribbon in basic gray (retired...you could also use basic black) around the top of the embossed piece.  Layer  this piece on a 6" x 2 3/4" piece of brushed silver cardstock, then adhere the whole thing to a 6" x 3" basic black card  base. 
For the inside, adhere a 6"x2 3/4" piece of going gray (retired, you could also use brushed silver) cardstock.  Ink the sentiment from the You're A Gem set using rich razzleberry and basic black markers and stamp on a scrap of whisper white cardstock.  Punch it out using the curly label punch.  Trim the sentiment and adhere to another curly label in rich razzleberry.  Add rhinestone and adhere to card using dimensionals. 
It doesn't get any easier than this!

Fun Folding Card

In last month's issue of Stampin' Success, our monthly demonstrator magazine, there was a feature on an interactive card that just kept folding and folding until it ended up back where it started.  I though it was kinda neat so I knew I had to try one myself.  Here is what I came up with...

Forever Folding card using the Morning Cup stamp set and Play Date DSP.  This is the front of the card (I did it backwards to what the instructions said because I liked that the first fold was a gate fold)

Second fold (the clip at the top is not part of the design...it is holding the card open so I could take a picture!)

Third fold (same goes for the clips in this pic!)

Fourth fold.  After this you end up back at the front again.

I had such fun with this card!  First of all, figuring out how to put it together from the photos in the magazine was impossible!  Thankfully my upline figured it out for us and had us make a sample at our monthly team meeting!  The second challenge in making this card was the design.  One must be very careful when placing embellishments etc. because there really is no "back" of the card.  Every side of the card is visible at some point.  The final challenge was finding a sentiment that would make one want to keep folding the card to get to the punchline.  I think this one is great and so I broke it up into four parts; one for each view.

For those of you fellow demonstrators who want to try one of these cards for yourself, here is a link to a video from the SU demo site that explains how to do so as well as a cutting template that explains how to cut and score your cardstock.  For non-demos, Julie Buhler has done a tutorial on her blog here.

I hope you have as much fun with this as I did!

A long, busy week!

Why, oh why is my life so hectic?  What I would give for a nice quiet couple of weeks where nobody expects anything from me and I could just do what ever I feel like, when ever I feel like it.  Guess I should have thought of that before I got married and had a kid, huh? 
Here, finally is a new post...far later than I had expected.  A while back I mentioned I held a Sale-A-Bration Open House to kick off this great promotion and give my customers a chance to win some goodies and book their Sale-A-Bration workshops.  At that time I promised to post the two make-n-takes we did...well...FINALLY here they are:

Cheery Birthday card made using the Ice Cream Parlor DSP and embellishments and the So Happy For You set...all of which were FREE!!

Vintage-y card using the Bliss set...and two of my fav colours!

Close-up of focal image

I was really happy with both of these cards and so were my customers!  The birthday card is so bright and cheerful...perfect to wish someone a happy day.  It is based on a sketch from last month's issue of Stampin' Success, our demonstrator magazine.  I've done a couple of other cards using this sketch...check them out here.  I really like this layout because it is so versatile and is a great way to use up scraps and odd embellishments.

The Bliss card features my favourite SAB set.  It is the only one I pre-ordered, even though I knew I would earn it once SAB started...I just couldn't wait for it!  This card is very simple, yet elegant and has a touch of vintage flair.  I used two of my favourite colours:  crumb cake and baja breeze.  I also used my new favourite embellishment:  seam binding ribbon, and another fav, antique brads.  I love how the vintage wallpaper embossing folder works so well with the flourish stamp image.  So easy to coordinate...that's one of the many things I love about Stampin' Up!