Christmas cards made easy

Looking for an easy way to mass-produce holiday cards this year? Look no further than the "Christmas Jingle" Simply Scrappin' Kit (#115696, $19.95, pg. 165 of the Idea Book & Catalog)! I'm teaching a class this month using one half of this kit and some Very Vanilla cardstock to create 18 cards with envelopes for only $25! There are 7 card designs - making multiples of each - including these 2 layouts:



So if you live in northern Cincinnati, I'd love to have you join us for this fun class!

Say hello to my little friend

Yes, I know it feels like Christmas is so far off, but I'm in holiday-mode because I'm working on some possible designs for a group stamp camp in October. Some customers requested snowman cards this year so I tried my hand at creating a simple snowman made from punches. What do you think? I think he's adorable and looks so friendly! Obviously my drawing skills are lacking - I can't even make good looking stick arms/hands! :-)

Enjoy!

Stamps: none
Cardstock: Garden Green, Real Red, Kraft, Only Orange, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Basic Black
Accessories: word window punch, 1-1/4" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, 1-3/4" circle punch, sponges, eyelet border punch, silver brads, stampin' dimensionals

Rockin' birthday

I made another rocker card, this time for a birthday party tomorrow night. My son liked the last card I made with the Extreme Guitar and Extreme Elements stamp sets, so I changed things up just a bit - new colors, slightly different layout. Sorry for the bad photo - it's hard to take a good photo at night! My son wanted me to surprise him with the color combo, and he liked what I picked out.

And to brag just a bit, here's my little man heading off to fifth grade this morning! This is his new favorite shirt - it says "chicks dig pink"! And we paired it with his camo shorts because his classroom theme is army.


Stamps: Extreme Guitar, Extreme Elements
Cardstock: Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Versamark
Accessories: black embossing powder, heat tool, stampin' dimensionals

A big hit!

Just a quick follow-up to yesterday's post regarding the birthday party I did. Those 10 year old girls were the best audience I've EVER had! It feels great to get that kind of reaction for my projects that these girls blessed me with! Lots of oohs and aahs. Every project was a hit, and I left feeling good! The girls were excited to pose with their purses full of goodies!

Tonight was my son's school open house, so no projects from me today...sorry! Check back tomorrow!

Marilyn

First of many??

I have stampin' first tonight - I'm doing a birthday party for my friend's daughter. I planned five projects for the girls including a lunch bag purse that will hold the rest of their goodies - a photo clip, an altered comp book, a tic-tac holder and some mini cards with envelopes. I used retired designer series paper on all the projects - I figured the girls won't care if it's retired or not! And I LOVE that Good Morning Sunshine paper! The colors are so fun without being too girly.

Wish me luck! :-)

Rock star

Oh, this card was fun! As I was unpacking my latest box of goodies, I happened to pull out some Perfect Plum and Not Quite Navy cardstock together and thought it would make a great masculine card. I added some More Mustard and Basic Black and came up with a rockin' color combination!!

After stamping some images from the Extreme Elements stamp set, I wanted the rocker to really stand out so I embossed him in black. It's so much more fabulous IRL - trust me! There are several dimensional layers (I'm addicted to those stampin' dimensionals if you hadn't noticed!) to make it even more rockin'!

And to top it all off, my 10 year old son LOVES it, so it passes the "guy test!"

Have a GREAT day!

Stamps: Extreme Elements, Extreme Guitar, Starring You
Cardstock: Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Not Quite Navy, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Perfect Plum, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, Versamark
Accessories: spiral punch, black embossing powder, heat tool, stampin' dimensionals

Pumpkin preview

I don't typically make a lot of Halloween cards, so I only have one Halloween stamp set - Batty for You (which I LOVE). I thought the naked tree from Season of Friendship would lend itself well to a Halloween card, so I stamped it along with a pumpkin from the center of a Batty for You stamp. I sponged most of the cardstock on this one with the exception of the Whisper White panel. To complete the card, I reached once again for my trusty Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

Cute, huh?? (yes, I'm begging for validation!)


Stamps: Season of Friendship, Batty for You, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Accessories: Cast-a-spell designer series paper, modern label punch, black brads, sponges, stampin' dimensionals

Shoebox swap goodies!

My fabulous upline, Sherrie Thomas, hosted a downline event this afternoon featuring a shoebox swap using stamps from the new Idea Book & Catalog or the Holiday Mini Catalog (available September 1st). As usual with our group events, I came home with fabulous new card samples! Here are just a few of the beauties I acquired...




Are you jealous now?? :-) Well, if you become a demonstrator under me, you, too, can attend these events and enjoy amazing projects like this. Our group truly is FABULOUS!! And if you sign up before August 31st, you can take advantage of the mini starter kit promotion for only $85! Just visit my Stampin' Up! website and click on "start your own business." To sign up online, you'll need my password (dimensionals) and a credit card. That's it - easy peasy! So, what are you waiting for??

I'm back

Sorry for my disappearance this week! This summer has been absolutely crazy. I had planned to take a week off with my son so we could visit my mom and step-dad in Chicago and it came at the perfect time. It was nice to get away and enjoy time with family. The highlight of our trip was the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry - wow! If you can get there before it ends in late-September, I'd highly recommend it.

Anyway, that explains where I've been and why I haven't posted in more than a week. But I'm back and I have another clean and simple design.


So, I saw a neat little trick using the Fancy Favor die to create a decorative edge. Cut your cardstock or designer series paper to 3" wide and place it along the box edge on the die. A beautiful decorative edge in a few cranks of the Big Shot handle!

Using Stazon ink makes watercoloring so easy. I used an aquapainter and picked up some Rich Razzleberry ink to color in the flowers, going back over to create some darker shading of the blooms.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm off for an afternoon of stamping with some friends - FUN FUN! :-)

Stamps: Embrace Life, Garden Greetings (dormant)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White
Ink: Stazon Black, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Razzleberry Lemonade designer series paper, Big Shot, Bigz XL Fancy Favor die, word window punch, modern label punch, aquapainter, stampin' dimensionals

Brag Book

This project was from my stamp club this month - a brag book made from Stampin' Up!'s clear envelopes. The best part of this kind of album is that you can make the exact number of pages perfect for your project. If you're making a brag book for a grandmother of 7, you can do that! If you're making a brag book for your child to collect 19 school friend photos, you can do that! Here's a link for a great tutorial on creating this project.

Have fun!

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Fifth Avenue Floral
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Old Olive
Accessories: crop-a-dile, Melon Mambo polka dot grosgrain ribbon, clear envelopes, corner rounder, stampin' dimensionals

On Dasher!

If you haven't checked out page 208 of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog, you're missing out on a great opportunity. This page features 11 products - all under $10! "Dasher" here is a super cute reindeer, perfect for your Christmas cards and scrapbook pages and is only 8.95! Keeping with my clean and simple trend of late, I chose to emboss him, along with a sentiment from "Four the Holidays" - a new stamp set available September 1st in the Holiday Mini Catalog.

Posts will continue to be sporadic - had a death in the family so things are still on the crazy end of the spectrum. But I hope to be back to some sense of normalcy soon. Thanks for your patience!

Stamps: Dasher, Four the Holidays, Jolly
Cardstock: Kraft, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Real Red
Accessories: white embossing powder, heat tool, standard wheel handle, stampin' dimensionals

Christmas jump start

It seems like Christmas is still so far off, but in reality, it will be here sooner than I think and I'll be in the same predicament as past years - caught unprepared for the ton of hand-stamped holiday cards that I send out! So I'm trying to get a head start on designing some cards that will be easy to mass produce.
This first one is VERY simple, but the heat embossing really makes it pop, especially on that Kraft cardstock!

And again, another very simple card that will be easy to mass produce.

Thanks for stopping by!

[[peace and happiness]]
Stamps: A Wish for Peace
Cardstock: Kraft, Garden Green, Whisper White
Ink: Garden Green, Creamy Caramel, Versamark
Accessories: white embossing powder, heat tool, stampin' dimensionals

[[merry little christmas]]
Stamps: Snow Swirled, Christmas Punch
Cardstock: Soft Suede, textured Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red
Accessories: large oval punch, Soft Suede polka dot grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

Stamp-a-stack preview

Created a fab card today for my upcoming All Occasion Stamp-a-Stack classes next week and wanted to give a little preview of its fabulous-ness! :-)