Stamp-a-Stack Sneak Peek

It seems like birthday and thank you cards are the ones I reach for most of the time, so this year I've been offering stamp-a-stack classes around these 2 themes. I did all birthdays in January and now in April, all the cards will be thank you cards. Here's a sneak peek of what I have in store:



If you're interested in attending, here are the details:
Saturday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 27 at 1:30 p.m.
Cost is $12 for 10 cards (2 of 5 designs)


Stamps: Enjoy Every Moment
Cardstock: Basic Grey, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Grey
Accessories: small & large star punches, stampin' dimensionals

Spring Break

Sorry for my absence, but I took my son up to Chicago for Spring Break. I don't have any project pictures to share right at the moment so here are some shots from our trip downtown to Millenium Park to see Cloud Gate (aka "the Bean"). I absolutely love this sculpture! And on a beautiful sunny day, it's even more spectacular.

Woo Hoo!

For a demonstrator, it's a real thrill to have a card featured on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator website. They have a feature called "Stampers Showcase" and everyday they post 4-6 projects for inspiration (kind of a mini SCS gallery of sorts). At a recent meeting with my upline, we did a swap and I designed this card. She has us make an extra card and then sends them all in to Stampin' Up! for their monthly contests. Our local group has had a bunch of our cards featured on the Showcase, but I still get tickled pink when one of mine shows up there! I think that makes Number 3 for me! Woo hoo!!! :)

Mmmmm, orange

I've been wanting to try the scratch and sniff technique for a while now. When I saw the Tart & Tangy stamp set in the Occasions mini catalog, I knew it was the perfect time! This is a project I planned for my stamp clubs. I had a little trouble finding the right mix of embossing powder and koolaid, but finally struck the right balance. I didn't have any Only Orange craft ink, so I used a tip I picked up at Splitcoaststampers - use Versamark with classic ink and ~voila~ it's orange AND sticky and the embossing powder worked great. Just be sure to clean off your stamp between uses so you don't get ink in your Versamark pad.

Stamps: Tart & Tangy, One of a Kind

Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White

Ink: Only Orange, Wild Wasabi, Versamark

Accessories: 1-1/4" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, stampin dimensionals, Wild Wasabi striped grosgrain ribbon, key tag punch, horizontal slot punch, embossing powder, koolaid mix, heat tool

Starry Birthday

I have had Stampin' Up!'s two star punches on my wish list for a while now and *finally* ordered them. So to celebrate my new punches, I played around with a simple design and spent only about 5 minutes. I hope you like the result as much as I do! :)

Sorry for the short post - my son's Pinewood Derby is tomorrow morning and we all need a good night's sleep. Later!

Stamps: See You Around, Birthday Whimsy
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal
Ink: So Saffron, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Certainly Celery designer series paper, Bali Breeze designer series paper, large star punch, star punch, key tag punch, stampin' dimensionals

Ready for Spring?

Anyone else sick of winter?!?! I'm so ready for springtime that I thought I'd be productive and channel some of that longing into a springtime card! So I pulled out the Spring Solitude hostess set and got to work. I just love this Groovy Guava and Close to Cocoa combination! After embossing the main image with white embossing powder, I colored in the petals with a versamarker - great effect, huh? And being inspired by the super-uber-talented Beate, I used some silver brads on the corner punch. I am so pleased with how this turned out! :)

Now if Mother Nature would just listen to my whining and pleading and send Springtime my way, I'd be one happy camper!

Gift card packaging

While visiting Dawn Griffith's blog for the umpteeth time, I found her video tutorial of a new way to package a gift card. Seeing how simple it was, I just HAD to try it! I was so pleased with how quickly it was to whip one of these up. Here's the outside:

And here's the inside (please ignore my poorly manicured hands - I've just been too lazy to remove that chipped nail polish!):
From start to finish, it only took me about 5 minutes. Even if you're in a hurry, you can whip one of these up in no time. So the next time you're giving a gift card, give this a try!

Stamps: Spring Solitude, Solitude wheel (hostess level 2)

Cardstock: Apricot Appeal, Naturals White, Close to Cocoa

Ink: So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Garden Green, Creamy Caramel

Accessories: Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, stamp-a-ma-jig, white lunch bag

Winter Storm '08 (a.k.a. stay at home and stamp day)

Here in southwest Ohio, we got pummeled by a winter storm. About 13 inches total from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon. It's bizarre though because of the drifting, it's a foot high in some spots and you can see the grass poking through in other areas! Here's the view from my home office earlier today:

And here's the view from our back door:

So enough about the weather, on to the important stuff - stamping! I played with my new star punch and made this cute, simple card. I saw another card with the punched star rotated on top of the negative space and wanted to give it a try - love it!And I am totally lovin' the Absolutely Fabulous stamp set! A fellow demonstrator turned me onto it and now I find myself reaching for it all the time! Thanks for looking :)

Stamps: Absolutely Fabulous
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Certainly Celery designer series paper, star punch, 1-1/4" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, clear embossing powder, Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

Classic color combo

I participated in a local swap with my upline's group (which is an AWESOME group of demos) and as I was toying with a couple ideas, I came across this color combination. It's definitely a first for me - not my usual colors. I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It's a very simple card - would be perfect for a make-and-take project. And I think the colors create a very classic feel. What do you think?

Stamps: Baroque Motifs

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Soft Sky, Groovy Guava

Accessories: Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

One of a kind

Thanks for all the well wishes! I'm off the pain killers and hopefully have passed that mean 'ol kidney stone. I'm feeling a lot better and was actually able to eat two real meals today! No little snacks here and there to fend off the nausea. Things are looking up!

Here's a little something I pulled together while prepping for my stamp club meetings this month. I'm going to do the scratch 'n sniff technique with this new Tart & Tangy stamp set (new in the Occasions mini!), but apparently I bought the wrong supplies. So until I get to the store tomorrow, I thought I'd try some other cards with the same set. Hope you enjoy this bright and cheery card!

Stamps: Tart & Tangy, One of a Kind, See You Around jumbo wheel

Cardstock: Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White

Ink: Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: tool kit, 1-1/4" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, stampin' dimensionals

A No-Stamp-Day

I was hoping to fix my lack of posting this week, but that's just not going to happen. At 3:00 this morning, I found myself at the local ER with yet another kidney stone (my 4th!). I've been doped up all day on pain killers so no stamping for me today and possibly for the next couple of days. I hope to be back in full stamping mode later this week, so please check back!

Girlie Girl

Yikes, another dry spell in posting on my blog! I've got to get better about that. :) My husband's office is putting together a basket for a raffle and asked me to make some cards since it's an "All Wrapped Up" basket with gift wrapping supplies. I made mostly birthday cards but wanted to include some baby cards as well. I had so fun making this girlie girl baby card! Lots of pink and some sparklies too! How much cuter than that can you get?! I'm not sure how much you can see of the glitter on the moon, but it's super-sparkly IRL. So here's the end result:

Stamps: So Many Scallops, Solitude

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Whisper White

Ink: Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Pretty in Pink grosgrain ribbon, scallop circle punch, Hodge Podge Hardware, 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, stampin' dimensionals