Thinking of You card

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I hadn't heard from her in a little bit and just wanted to let her know I was thinking of her, so I came up with this card to send her. I really liked the simplicity in how it turned out.

Supplies:
Ever After and Thoughts & Prayers stamp sets
Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip card stock
Pink Pirouette textured card stock
Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad
Pewter Build a Brad
Hidden Garden Rub Ons
Pewter Hodge Podge Hardware (retired - can substitute the new Styled Silver or Very Vanilla Hodge Podge Hardware)
Mat Pack & Paper Piercer
SNAIL, Tombrow Liquid Glue

So Shelli Father's Day Challenge

I have to day off today for the Memorial Day Weekend, and I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my day. I decided that one of the things I would work on is some things to enter in different challenges and contests hosted by Stampin' Up! and folks in my upline/sideline. I realized it had been a little while since I had participated in one of Shelli's challenges on her web site (Shelli is the co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up! - the link to her blog is on the left). So, this month's theme is Father's Day, and I had a perfect card that I had created for my upline's monthly meeting a couple of weeks ago. The layout may look familiar to you - it is the same layout from the card on pg. 81 of our current catalog, and the one I used for my friend's baby shower invites in yesterday's blog post. Similar to the shower invites, I used Whisper White Craft ink on Close to Cocoa for the background look on the bottom portion of the card. I've also included the inside of the card for two reasons. 1) I've started decorating the inside on some of my cards, especially if my base is a dark color card stock. I figure this both adds some interest to the inside of the card as well, but also allows you to be able to write your message easier without using a white gel pen, or silver marker, etc. 2) I wanted to show you a great technique for tying your ribbon around a card front when you want to put the ribbon in the direction that would take it over the card fold (you may have to take a second to see what I mean on the card... it is along the left side of the photo below). I found this on another demo's blog (I'm really sorry -it has been a while and I don't remember who's blog I found it on), but it is so simple. All you do is take your Horizontal Slot punch and punch a hole in the part of the card fold where you want the ribbon. The thickness of the ribbon hides the "dent" in the card fold when you are just looking from the front. I thought that was a great idea!

Supplies:
All Holidays, Full of Life and Sanded stamp sets
Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pads
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
Close to Cocoa, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White card stock
Close to Cocoa textured card stock
Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware (star brad)
Silver Brads
Kiwi Kiss 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
Horizontal Slot and Photo Corners punches
SNAIL, Sticky Strip and Stampin' Dimensionals

Baby Shower Invite for my college friend

A good friend of mine from college (and my sorority big sister) asked me to help her design a baby shower invitation for her sister. They know that her sister is having a little boy, but Lainey was interested in having the invitation be more of a tea party theme than overwhelming "baby" theme. Since she lives about 2 hours away from me, I sent her some images from the current catalog as some basic formatting ideas. We ended up settling on using the card on pg. 81 of the current catalog as our basic layout (and some of the color palette too). She came to visit me last Saturday and we had a blast making the invitations. I've included photos of both the original layout I had ready for her when she arrived and then the final layout we ended up going with for the invitation. The original card was made using the Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper (which we both loved) but I wanted to come up with a way to use a similar design but not have to buy a bunch of packs of the Designer Series Paper for just one design. So, what I ended up doing was using the Bella Toile background stamp, and stamping it in Whisper White Craft ink on textured Baja Breeze card stock. The effect is pretty darn close to the one pattern in the Parisian Breeze paper (if I do say so myself) - and I think it turned out perfectly. As you can see in the original, I had planned on also using the Bella Toile stamp in Blush Blossom as a background on the main image, but we thought that was a little too busy - so Lainey suggested making the main image smaller and just having the bunny on the Whisper White card stock. (Yes, I accidentally messed up the stamped image on my example - I promise that double stamp was not anywhere on the final versions though!) We had a great time stamping all day (with a break for a great lunch) and it was a wonderful reason to get together and catch up on all that was going on in our lives.

Card Supplies (for the final version - the card on the right):
Bella Toile and Cute & Cuddly stamp sets
Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White card stock
Baja Breeze textured card stock
Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
Baja Breeze 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

My little boy's birthday scrapbook page

If you look down (or remember) my previous post about Sale-a-Bration, you might recognize the smaller 6x6 portion of this scrapbook page. I created this page for my February club meeting. In the club we only created the 6x6 portion of the page. I then had this set up to show them how you can take a 6x6 scrapbook page and easily turn it in to an 8-1/2x11 or 12x12 page. Just to point out exactly what I'm talking about - and since I know you can't take a tape measure to the computer screen - the Baja Breeze (blue) square portion with the main larger picture is the 6x6 layout. Then the Certainly Celery (green) portion is the 8-1/2x11 layout. This is just one way to easily start small if you are unsure about scrapbooking, and as you get more comfortable with scrapbooking, you can always go back to your inital 6x6 pages and just add a few elements to make it one of the larger sizes.

Oh - and yes, the designer series paper on this is from Sale-a-Bration this year, so unfortunately it is no longer available; and the jumbo wheel I used is retired (I actually did not do that on purpose, I realized after I made the page that the wheel was retired), but since it is National Scrapbooking Month, I wanted to put more scrapbook pages out there. You can easily use other great designer series papers and wheels with this layout.

Supplies:
Define Your Life & It's a Loop Thing Stamp Sets
Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, and Close to Cocoa Classic Stampin' Pad
Certainly Celery and Brocade Blue Craft Stampin' Pad
Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, and Whisper White card stock
Baja Breeze and Basic Gray Textured card stock
Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper ('09 SAB - no longer available)
Certainly Celery Poly-twill Ribbon ('09 SAB - no longer available)
Linen Thread
Silver Brads
Clear Buttons
Ice Square Rhinestone Brads
On Board Timeless Type
Leaves a la Carte Jumbo Wheel (retired)
Jumbo Wheel handle
Wide Oval Punch
Key Tag Punch
Ticket Corner Punch
Heat Tool
Mat Pack & Paper Piercer
Stampin' Sponges
SNAIL
Sticky Strip
Stampin' Dimensionals
Mini Glue Dots

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! I hope you had as wonderful a day as I did - my husband and kids spoiled me all day!

I know it has been way too long since I posted. I finally got everything done with my grad school class and my May stamp club. I'll be working this week on getting updated posts to my blog. And I'll try to make sure I am better about keeping this up to date more regularly than I have been!

So, I thought it only fitting that I post the Mother's Day card that I made for my Mom and Mother-in-Law. I had seen a number of other Stampin' Up! demos use this quilt technique with the Top Note Bigz Die for the Big Shot and thought it was finally time I try it. I love the Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper; I'll be sorry to see it go with the new catalog, along with the Baja Breeze in-color. I'm excited to see the new in-colors - I always think I won't like them as much as I did the previous ones; but then I'll find I love one or two (or more) of the new in-colors just as much!

Here are the supplies:
All Holidays Stamp Set
Baja Breeze, Whisper White card stock
Baja Breeze Classic Stampin' Pad
Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper
Pretties Kit
Whisper White Organza Ribbon
Big Shot
Top Note Bigz Die
1-1/4" Square Punch
SNAIL
Dimensionals

To all the Hokies out there...

When I first saw the Smarty Pants stamp set in the catalog last year - I knew it was one of the ones I had to have for personal reasons. My husband is a graduate of Virginia Tech, and anyone who has heard of them knows that they are called the "Hokies". If you have ever been to a football game (and probably other Virginia Tech sports games as well, but I've only ever been to football games), you might know that the "Hokey Pokey" (or maybe "HOKIE Pokey") is usually played and danced to at least once. So, I love the stamp that reads: What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's ALL about?

I was having so much fun doing the last challenge by my 2nd level upline (see post below), that I decided it was time to finally make a Hokie card with that stamp. I thought the bear from the Under the Stars set was a great dancing bear - (sorry no turkeys) - so I added him in. I'm still working on my watercoloring, but I'm having fun doing it! :-)

Oh... and by the way, Pumpkin Pie and Bravo Burgundy were the closest I could get to Orange and Maroon. But I also think the Sahara Sand looks a lot like Hokie stone!

Supplies:
Under the Stars and Smarty Pants stamp sets
Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie, Bravo Burgundy (textured) card stock
Watercoloring paper
Basic Brown, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, and Bravo Burgundy Classic ink pads
Pumpkin Pie and Bravo Burgundy 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon
Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon
Linen Thread
Gold Brads
Sticky Strip
Stampin' Dimensionals
SNAIL

Lisa's Group Challenge

Happy March! I know it has been forever since I posted... I was getting ready for an awesome vendor fair that I had yesterday. I will tell you all about it in another post - I just wanted to share this card really quick. Then I need to get ready for tomorrow and head to bed - although I'm hoping the weather is nasty enough that tomorrow will either be delayed or no work at all! Then I can stamp some more! (and update this blog more)

My 2nd level upline, Lisa (her blog is on my favorites list to the left), is in a weekly challenge group called the Diva Coffee Break Designs. She has given her group of downline demonstrators some of the challenges that she has been participating in. I haven't participated every week, but I wanted to just do some fun stamping and decided to try out this week's design. Some weeks it is a color challenge, some weeks a design challenge... this week was a design challenge.

As soon as I saw the Classic Sketches stamp set in the new catalog, I knew I had to get it. My undergraduate degree is in Architecture, and even though I'm not an architect now that stamp set gave me a way to have fun with the memories. So, I thought it would be fun to see how I could incorporate that set into a card. Let me know what you think!

P.s. - It is always easier for me to scan in my cards than take photos, because the scanner is right here beside me. However, whenever I have a knot or other 3-d element in my card, it causes focus issues. I'm still trying to work on how to fix this - if I even can; but luckily this card didn't turn out so bad.

Supplies:
Classic Sketches and Define Your Life stamp sets
Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Kraft, and Very Vanilla card stock
Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel Classic ink pads
1" Double-stitched Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon
1/4" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon
Vintage brads
Sponges
Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Birthday to my Upline!

February 12th was my upline's birthday. In case you don't know the term, an upline is the Stampin' Up! demonstrator that you sign up to become a demonstrator with. For example, if you were to join the Stampin' up! team using my web site, or through a demonstrator agreement with me, I would be your upline.

In honor of her birthday, I thought I would show you the card I made for her. I was really happy with it - unfortunately the scan does not do the card justice. For one thing, it is blurry. Any time I have a card with a lot of things that "pop out", the scanner always focuses on those things and makes the rest of the card blurry. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet, and it is so much easier for me to scan my cards than take pictures! Luckily, with this card, the blurriness doesn't matter as much since it is a watercolored image and it looks good a little blurry. Yes, I did use some retired Stampin' Up! items... but you can definitely substitute current products for the items that are retired.

Supply list:
Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set (I LOVE this set)
Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue, and So Saffron card stock
Watercolor Paper
Le Jardin DSP (sorry, this is retired)
Basic Black, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Always Artichoke and Rose Red Classic Ink
Ivory 5/8" Organza ribbon (also retired)
Filigree Brads
Ice Circles Rhinestone Brads
Clear Rhinestone Brads
Aqua Painter

It's Sale-A-Bration time!

I love this time of year! Sale-A-Bration give you an easy way to get even more free stamp sets and accessories! All you need to do is order $50 and you get a FREE Sale-a-Bration, limited offer, stamp set or accessory bundle. If you order $100, you get two; $150 and you get three; do you start seeing the trend? Plus, there are other great benefits if you host a workshop or join the Stampin' Up! team during Sale-A-Bration. Hostesses: host a workshop with $350 in total sales and get a FREE Sale-A-Bration set or bundle - that is in addition to any you earn with your personal order in the workshop. Join my team: get 15% off the starter kit, plus a free stamp set from the current Idea Book & Catalog (a $47.95 value). See below post for more details on joining my team.

To give you a peek at the fabulous products offered only during Sale-A-Bration, here is one of the projects I am doing for my February club meeting. I used both the Sale-A-Bration designer series paper bundle (Delicate Dots) and the Sale-A-Bration ribbon bundle for this 6x6 scrapbook page. I picked this size, because for my club members who are not scrapbookers, they can easily turn all the exact same supplies in to an adorable 3x6 card.

Supplies:
Define Your Life stamp set
Chocolate Chip Classic Ink
Baja Breeze textured, Whisper White and Pink Pirouette card stock
Delicate Dots DSP (Sale-A-Bration)
Certainly Celery ribbon (Sale-A-Bration Ribbon Bundle)
Key Tag punch
Wide Oval punch
Linen Thread
Silver Brads
Clear Buttons
Stampin' Sponge
Stampin' Dimensionals

Shelli's Valentine's Day Challenge

It's been a couple of months since I entered something in Shelli's challenge on her blog. Of course, due to procrastination and our computer issues - I'm entering this on the last day possible! :-) This month's challenge is for Valentine's day, so I thought I would get in on this challenge because I love Valentine's Day - even if my husband isn't that big on the holiday! ;-) For those who don't remember or know, Shelli is the co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up! She has a blog (link is on the left) and will every month or so post a challenge for demonstrators and customers - note: you don't have to be a demo to enter!

I did both of these cards a couple of months ago for a swap for the Holiday Mini. I was very happy to see that the stamp set I used is in the new catalog since I thought it is adorable. The set is A Happy Heart. I had fun using it for both a more masculine-flavored card (the 3x3 I"Heart"U card) and the regular sized card. A note about the Designer Series Paper (DSP) that is one of the layers - I used the Kraft Patterns paper that was part of the Fall/Winter Hostess Level 1 pack. The colors have been changed for the Spring/Summer Hostess Level 1 pack... but the Basic Gray that is in the new pack would be a great substitute. Or, you can use the Manchester DSP since that has a Kraft background color in some of its designs.

For the second card, I also used the Wonderful You set as both a background and used Stampin' Write markers to create the saying I wanted out of the word stamps from the Wonderful You set. I will admit, I need to work on getting those lined up better! Perhaps I should have used the Stamp-a-ma-jig. :-) By the way, the Wonderful You set is not in the catalog, but you can still order it. It just made its way over to the dormant list. It is kind of hard to see, but for the background, I embossed the outline of the leaves in clear embossing powder. Also, the three hearts that form the diagonal "win" are popped out with dimensionals.

Supplies:
3x3 card -
A Happy Heart stamp set
Always Artichoke, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla card stock
Riding Hood Red Classic Ink Pad
Patterns Level 1 DSP or Manchester DSP (see note above)
Designer Label punch
Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware
Cutter Kit (distresser tool)

"won heart" card -
A Happy Heart and Wonderful You stamp sets
Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, and Very Vanilla card stock
Riding Hood Red and Regal Rose Classic Ink Pads; VersaMark Ink
1/2" circle punch
Ticket corner punch
Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware
Cutter Kit (distresser tool)
Blender Pen
Clear Embossing Powder
Embossing Buddy & Heat Tool
Stampin' Dimensionals

A second Sneak Peek...

**NOTE: if you had visited my site earlier this month, I accidentally posted these images prior to the catalog release date, which is against Stampin' Up! policy. I apologize!**

Here's is a sneak peek of one of the awesome hostess sets that are going to be in the Spring/Summer '09 Idea Book and Catalog. I needed to make a masculine birthday card for a good friend of ours and was looking through my stamp sets to see what I could come up with. I saw the birthday greeting in the "Goody Goody Gumdrops" Level 3 Hostess set in the new catalog and thought it would be fun to use the sundae and cherry with a window card. (Is that the correct term? I'm not really sure). So, I used the large oval punch to cut a window in the front of the card and then lined up the sundae and cherry so that you can't see the cherry on the front. I used Stampin' Write markers to have half of the greeting on the front and half on the inside. Oh - and I added the extra dimension with a "h" from one of the on-board chipboard letter sets and the Not Quite Navy patterns pack paper (a level 1 hostess item from the Fall/Winter IBC). (and yes, I need to work on my ability to stamp straight as you can see on the bottom picture which is the inside of the card!)

Supplies:
Goody Goody Gumdrops stamp set (Level 3 Hostess set available 19 January)
Party Hearty stamp set
Kraft and Night of Navy card stock
Patterns Pack (Level 1 Hostess set in F/W IBC)
VersaMark and Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red and Going Gray Classic Ink
Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker
Large Oval Punch
Blender Pens
On Board Loads of Letters
Whisper White Note Cards
SNAIL, Sticky Strip and Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive

In Celebration of the Retired Stamp List...

In honor of the retiring stamp list being announced (see link to the left) I thought I'd show you this card I made as a mock-up for some good friends of ours. They had an adorable baby boy at the beginning of September and asked me to make their baby announcements. I used the scrapbook page that is on page 68 of the 2008 Spring/Summer catalog as inspiration. This set uses the Bundled in Joy set that will retire on January 18, 2009. By the way, the picture I used in this mock up is my own little boy who will be TWO next month! Time flies!!

Supplies:
Bundled in Joy stamp set
Whisper White and Bashful Blue card stock
Barely Banana textured card stock
Certainly Celery Prints DSP
Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana and Basic Black Stampin' Write Markers
Dotted Lines Stampin' Around jumbo wheel
Tag and 3/16" Corner Rounder punches
Bashful Blue Stampin' Around jumbo cartridge
Metallic Eyelets
Light Blue Gingham Ribbon
Linen Thread
Crop-a-dial
Paper Snips
Paper Piercer
Stampin' Dimensionals

November Club Meeting & the BIG SHOT

For my November club meeting, we played around with the awesome new Big Shot by Stampin' Up! and Sizzix. I take no credit at all for the portfolio design that held the cards - that design came from another great demonstrator named Andrea Wolford (a link to her blog is on the left). I did design the 4 cards that went in the portfolio, however. The beginning of my card designs came from the "Join in the Cheer" Decorative Strip Die. I thought it would be neat to separate the 4 words and create four different cards with those words. Then I also used the Scallop Envelope and Top Note Bigz Dies. The new Big Shot is so much fun to use! If you are interested in finding out more about the Big Shot or ordering the supplies for the Big Shot or these cards, just contact me. You can also order on-line through my Stampin' Up! web site. The link to this site is on the left of this page.

Supplies for each card:
Cheer card - Scandinavian Season stamp set; Kraft, Textured Chocolate Chip, and Textured Riding Hood Red card stock; Baja Breeze and Old Olive Classic Ink Pad; Little Felt Flurries; Silver Elastic Cord, Baja Breeze 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon; Earth Elements & Neutrals Buttons; Paper Piercer; Top Note Bigz Die and Join in the Cheer Decorative Strip Die.
Joy card - Scandinavian Season stamp set; Whisper White, Chocolate Chip & Textured Riding Hood Red card stock; Autumn Vine DSP; Old Olive and Riding Hood Red Classic Ink Pad; Season of Cheer Rub-Ons; Silver Elastic Cord; Pewter Build-a-Brad; Little Felt Flurries; Earth Elements Buttons; sponges; Top Note Bigz Die and Join in the Cheer Decorative Strip Die
Love card - Scandinavian Season stamp set; Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, and Textured Riding Hood Red card stock; Baja Breeze Classic Ink Pad; Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker; Season of Cheer Rub-ons; Baja Breeze 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon; Pewter Jumbo Eyelets; Vintage Brads; Little Felt Flurries; Scallop Edge punch; Paper Piercer; Crop-a-dial; Scallop Envelope Bigz Die and Join in the Cheer Decorative Strip Die
Peace card - Scandinavian Season stamp set; Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Textured Chocolate Chip, and Textured Riding Hood Red card stock; Autumn Vine DSP; Baja Breeze Classic Ink Pad; Season of Cheer Rub-ons; Silver Elastic Cord, Whisper White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon; Pewter Build-a-Brad; Silver Brads; Library Clips; Little Felt Flurries; Top Note Bigz Die and Join in the Cheer Decorative Strip Die; Paper Snips; Stampin' Dimensionals

October Club Meeting

I have a great club that meets once a month. We get together, have some fun, do a few projects and best of all, rotate who is the hostess each month! For this month's club meeting I designed two cards and one 3-D project. There was one Halloween card and one Thanksgiving card. The 3-D project was a glass jar decorated with Decor Elements. I don't have a photo of the jar right now but I'll add it to this post once I get a chance to take a picture.

The first card is a suspension card using one of my favorite Halloween sets: Batty for You. It also uses the new Halloween set in the Holiday Mini called Halloween Frights. I got the directions and general layout for the card from Beate Jones' tutorial on splitcoaststampers.com. I also used the Ghostly Greetings DSP for this card - a DSP which is growing on me. I wasn't sure about it at first - I had loved last year's Halloween DSP; but the more I use it, the more I love it! It is a little hard to tell that it is a suspension card, but if you look closely at the cat on the circle, you can see the dental floss used to make it a suspension. The one thing you can't see from the picture is the other side of the suspension piece. I used a Pumpkin Pie textured larger circle, Basic Black medium sized circle, and a Whisper White smaller circle with the pumpkin from Halloween Frights in Pumpkin Pie ink.

Supplies (Halloween card):
Batty for You set
Halloween Frights set
Basic Gray, Kiwi Kiss, Pumpkin Pie textured, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock
Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, and Summer Sun Classic Ink
Ghostly Greetings DSP
Pumpkin Pie 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon
1-3/8", 1-1/4", 1", and 3/4" Circle Punches
Dental Floss

The second card used the Autumn Harvest stamp set that is in the new catalog. This stamp set was originally in last year's Holiday Mini catalog, and I was so happy to see it was kept and transferred into the new catalog. I created this layout when I was working on some swap cards from this year's Holiday Mini catalog. I really like it and I am considering using this layout for my Christmas/Holiday cards this year. I always wind up making my Holiday cards more difficult than I should considering the number of cards I make. I think this layout is pretty straight forward and could work well. I'll have to play around with it more! Anyway, back to this card... I used blender pens and the Stampin' Pastels to shade in the pumpkins. The DSP is the set that is exclusively in the Hispanic Catalog: celebrando creatividad. The DSP is called Juntos and I love the fall colors in it.

Supplies (Thanksgiving card)
Autumn Harvest set
Cute & Curly set
Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Really Rust textured, and Very Vanilla card stock
Chocolate Chip, More Mustard and Really Rust Classic Ink
Juntos DSP
Curly Label Punch
Chocolate Chip 1" Double-stitched Ribbon
Cutter Kit

Keila's Third Birthday

At the end of September was my daughter's third birthday. We had a little party for her at home for family and friends. I think her favorite part of the party was the bouncy house we rented for the back yard! She had a blast jumping around - it was difficult to get her to come out of there for her cake! I came up with the theme of butterflies for her birthday thanks to an awesome cake pan I found at Target. It was a butterfly, but was molded so that it came apart easily in cupcake form. So here you see the birthday invitation that I made for her party. I used the new Flight of the Butterfly set that I received for free at Convention 08. I used the brayer technique by stamping the butterfly outline in the black Staz On ink on glossy white paper. Once that dried (about 30 seconds), I stamped the butterfly solid stamp in VersaMark ink and covered it with clear embossing powder. After embossing the butterfly, I used a brayer for the color. I put two ink pads side by side (I think I used Pretty in Pink and Rose Red) and ran the brayer over them to soak up some ink. I then inked the glossy white paper moving the brayer slightly side to side in order to make the colors fade in to each other. Finally, I used a paper towl to wipe the color off of the embossed butterfly so that it would show up white. With a finishing touch of paper piercing the butterfly's flight path, I was done with that image. Also, for the ribbon, I used a technique that Shelli (the co-founder of Stampin' Up!) showed us at Convention 08. You take some of the taffetta ribbon (in this case I used the new Riding Hood Red) and get the thread that is along the side of the ribbon. Once you are able to pick that out, you just "scrunch" the ribbon up along that thread. I know that is really hard to understand using just words, but hopefully you will be able to figure it out with the help of the picture.

Supplies (Birthday Card):
Flight of the Butterfly set
Upsy Daisy set
Glossy White, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip card stock
Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip Classic Ink
Black Staz On Ink
Very Vanilla 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon
Riding Hood Red Taffetta Ribbon

Next for you to see is the Thank You card I did for her gifts. When I saw this stamp in the new catalog, I fell in love with it - I think it is adorable! I knew I wanted to use it for the kids' birthday cards. Now that I've used it once though, I really don't know how else I would use this set! I know I can make the icing different "flavors" and I suppose I can use markers to not ink the words... but let me know if any of you have other great ideas! For this card I inked the cupcake on three different colors... Creamy Caramel card stock in Chocolate Chip ink, Rose Red textured card stock in Rose Red ink, and Whisper White card stock in Chocolate Chip ink. I layered cut out the cupcake in the Creamy Caramel and that was my base. I cut out just the "icing" in the Rose Red and layered that. Finally for the cherry, I used Crystal Effects and glitter. I used the brads for the extra on the icing. (Got that idea from the catalog.) Enjoy!

Supplies (Birthday Thank You)
Simple Birthday Thanks set
Confetti White, Creamy Caramel, Rose Red textured, and Whisper White card stock
Chocolate Chip and Rose Red Classic Ink
Soft Subtles Brads
Crystal Effects
Fine Cosmo Glitter
Stampin' Dimensionals

Shelli's Halloween Challenge

Shelli (the co-founder of Stampin' Up!) has a challenge each month on her blog (the link is in my list of blogs at the left). This month is a Halloween challenge! At first I wasn't so sure about the new Halloween Designer Series Paper when I saw the new catalog... but now I love it! I decided to take a break tonight from the other stuff I was doing to play with the new Halloween Frights stamp set in the Holiday Mini Catalog, the Ghostly Greetings DSP and the adorable Chills & Thrills rub-ons. I'm really happy with what I have come up with so far - and decided to enter them into Shelli's challenge. The card that is oriented up and down rather than across (does that make sense) is a card I modified from a picture. I have no idea where the picture came from (I found it in some old sheets of mine) but wanted to say that the layout came from another wonderful Stampin' Up! demonstrator. The other two cards are designed by me. (Shameless patting on the back.) Let me know what you think!

Supplies (combined for all 3 cards):
Halloween Frights stamp set (Holiday Mini)
Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock
Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, and Summer Sun Classic Stampin' Pad
Ghostly Greetings DSP
Chills & Thrills Rub-ons
Ticket Corner, 1-1/4" Square, and Scallop Circle punch
Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Pumpkin Pie 1/4" Grosgrain ribbon
Silver Elastic Cord
Clear Buttons

Ronald McDonald House Charities Stamp Set

One of the great things about Stampin' Up! is the fact that they are also committed to making a difference in people's lives. Stampin' Up! has partnered with the Ronald McDonald House Charities and not only do many demonstrators donate their time, but there is also a stamp set that is part of making the difference. For every purchase of the Say It with Scallops stamp set on pg. 125 of the Fall-Winter Idea Book & Catalog, Stampin' Up! will donate $2.00 to the RMHC.

I made the card shown here as a thank you for one of my customers. I used the Say It with Scallops set, the awesome new 1" Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, and the new Filigree Designer Brads. I was really happy with how it turned out.

Supplies:
Say It with Scallops stamp set
Not Quite Navy and Whisper White card stock
Old Olive Classic Ink
Scallop Square and Scallop Edge Punch
Filigree Designer Brads
Bashful Blue 1" Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon
Flower Fusion Accents & Elements
On Board Something Seasonal
Maine Blueberry Designer Series Paper

Free and the Brave Card

This is a card that was one of my swaps for Convention 2008. I love this set and was really happy with how this card turned out. I used the Stampin' Write markers to color the soldier stamp. First I colored the flag and stamped it on a scratch sheet of paper. Next I colored the soldier and stamped it on my cardstock. Most of the time that worked so that the flag was lighter than the soldier.

Supplies:
Free and the Brave Stamp set (currently on the dormant list)
Take Three Stamp set (for the "Thinking of You")
Always Artichoke, Real Red, Brilliant Blue and Whisper White card stock
Always Artichoke, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, and Basic Black Stampin' Write markers
Word Window Punch
Basic Eyelets (unfortunately these are retired, but I've also done this card just using silver eyelets and it looks great too!)
Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon