14 in 1 Card Template

I had a few people ask me for the 14 in 1 card template that I dabbled with in this post. I actually got it from a demos only forum on SCS, but I researched it a little more and here is the blog from the person that created it and there's a template there similiar to what I followed. Hope you enjoy and I would like to see any samples you make with it!

Three Little Words

Well I didn't get much else done last night but working on the wedding thank yous and catching up with friends. But I do still have something to share with you. A couple of weeks ago, I took a class from one of my friends and fellow SU! demonstrator Tracy, using the Three Little Words stamp set. She had designed the inside of the card, but then really left the cover design to us. She suggested using the 'Three Little Words' stamp with the Top Note on the cover and the rest was up to us. Here are a couple of the cards that I made using Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, and Whisper White cardstock. Now, I have more stamping to be done today!

More Samples as Promised

First of all, I would like to say thank you to all those that stop by on a regular basis and I will try harder to keep my post more up to date. I guess I didn't realize that I actually had followers! Thanks to all of you!!

Here are a couple more cards that I made for some SCS swaps. Lately, I've been signing up for all the swaps I think I can do, it's been fun and really getting me to stamp on a more regular basis.



The materials used here were Whisper White, Certainly Celery, and Regal Rose cardstock, Print Patterns II (hostess set), Manhattan Flower Texture plate, Fifth Ave Floral stamp set, Organza ribbon and punches.


This one was for a dormant list spot and I used Seasons of Joy stamp set to make a non-Christmas card. I did a Stamps in the Mail club with this set and this is a CASE of one of the cards that I created for that. Maybe I will get around to posting the other projects from that. The other supplies were Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Cameo Coral, Rose Red and Basic Black cardstock, Rose Red and Old Olive ink, brads, and punches.

Finally, here is a small project that I made using a template from SplitCoast and the Circle Sissors Plus. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet, but I included a picture when it's closed and another of it opened.



I'm off now to have lunch with my sister and then spend the rest of the day stamping and scrapbooking. I will be spending most of the time working on the Thank You notes that are posted here (I have 350 to make in about 20 days now), but do hope to get some stamping done too, because I have a few more swaps to fulfill yet. I will try to post more tomorrow.

Blog Candy Winner

Once again I've been a deliquent blogger. But I do have a few cards to share with you this weekend, once I have time to upload the pictures from my camera and post here. But I do want to announce my blog candy winner from last weekend. The winner was Jean Fitch and a Cheers to You stamp set has already been mailed to her. Please join me in congratulating her. I also see that I've surpassed the 2000 hits mark, so it must be time for more blog candy. Stay tuned next week to see what that will be.

LNS Color Challenge

As promised, I've been busy today making cards. Mainly working on the LNS Weekly Challenge and a swap. The challenge this week was a color challenge and was to use, Ruby Red, Kraft, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive. All these cards use all these colors, (or are supposed to). The first few were from a 14 in 1 pattern, where you take a 12 x 12 piece of paper stamp on it and then cut it into pieces to make 14 cards. The stamp I chose wasn't ideal and I only liked the first few, so I gave up on the rest. The stamp set was Flower Fancy. The third card also used Flower Fancy, but was not part of the pattern.



Then I tried to come up with a boy birthday card that I could use in a swap that I'm participating in on SCS. I decided the first attempt was too complicated with the paper piecing to make 20 of them. So the second one is what I used and made 20 copies. Stay tuned tomorrow for more samples and the blog candy winner!

Quick Sample

I haven't been very good at updating my blog this week. Partially this is because I wanted to keep the blog candy on top and I'm not very good at this and don't know how to make it a "sticky" entry. The other part is because this week has just flown by and I have no idea where the time went. Here is a quick sample that I made for a swap that I participated in on SCS. It uses Pocket Sillouettes, Pink Piroquette, Whisper White, Basic Black, Lavendar Lace, sizzix texturz plates, and whisper white grosgrain. AND there is still time to enter for blog candy, the drawing will be done something tomorrow. Finally, I plan to do a lot of stamping this week so be on the look out for lots of new things next week. Have a safe Memorial Day!

Blog Candy and Baby Shower Card

**Edited: Blog Tour info is no longer needed, but your favorite card from tour is. If you've already entered with the Blog Tour info, you're still eligible. AND if I hit 2000 hits, another blog candy will be available next week!

It's time for blog candy! First of all, I want to thank all of you for stopping by on the Blog Tour. I had over 800 hits! In honor of the stamp set that I featured, the blog candy is going to be the stamp set, Cheers to You. I will try to get a picture up later, but you can get a good idea of what the set is by looking at my samples here. This will run until the end of this week and I will use the random number generator to pick the winner. Please leave a comment on your favorite card and a way for me to contact you if you're the winner. And sorry, this is only available to US residence. BUT for those of you not in the US, I will offer you the chance to win a set of cards that I made for the tour. Please note that you are out of the country in your comment.

Also, I finally updated the picture using the Fifth Avenue Floral and watercolor technique here to include the picture using glossy paper.

Finally, a quick sample that I made in 10 minutes for leaving for work. This is a baby shower card for my supervisor that is having a second girl. The stamp sets are Nursery Necessities and Goody Goody Gumdrops. Paper: Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Designer Sampler II, Whisper White, and Basic Black. It's not exactly what I had in mind and I'm not sure I like it that much, but it serves it's purpose.

Tour is over...on to the next thing

Thanks to all those that stopped by during the blog tour and after. Hope you enjoyed your tour and have lots of new ideas to implement. Don't forget tomorrow there will be blog candy on my blog for those that participated. To tie you guys over, here is a card using Party Hearty. The layout is actually from a SU! flyer advertising their birthday special last fall. Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, and Whisper White. Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, and Only Orange. Accessories: Circles Sissors Plus and Small Tag Punch.

May 15th & 16th Blog Tour

****ALL LINKS HAVE BEEN REMOVED, BUT FEEL FREE TO BROWSE MY SAMPLES.
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This stop features the Cheers to You stamp set. At first I didn't see what the big deal of this stamp set was, but once I got to using it, I was amazed at the versitility of it!


The first sample is with the Daiquiri stamp, along with Pretty in Pink, Real Red, and Whisper White cardstock, Raspberry Tart DSP, Basic Black ink, Pretty In Pink and Real Red Stamp 'N Write markers, and the keynote punch and 1/4" grosgrain white ribbon.


The next uses the Margarita glass stamp. The paper includes Pink Piroquette, and Whisper White and Bella Rose DSP. The accessories used were the circle punches, designer label from the hodge podge hardware and striped Riding Hood Red Ribbon.


Next up is the Martini glass and the square scalloped punched pieced to frame the 1 1/4" square punch. Paper: Very Vanilla, Real Red, and Old Olive; Punches: Squared Scallop, 1 1/4" square punch, and scalloped border; Accessories: Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.


And last but not least, my favorite card, a card with the beer mug. And not because I like beer, because actually I hate beer. Anyways, this card used More Mustard, Basic Black, Going Gray, and Whisper White cardstock. Accessories included the circle punches, white gel pen, and gingham ribbon.



Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to bookmark this blog or become a follower for some blog candy I will be offering on Monday. To be eligible you will need to know what the tour number and stop number my blog was.

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****LINKS HAVE NOW BEEN REMOVED, STAY TUNED FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEXT BLOG TOUR. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

Circles, Circles, Circles and a Sneak Peak

Sorry, it's been a couple days since I've posted, it was a rough weekend for me. First, I lost my wallet and then I had to put Oliver, my cat, to sleep. Yesterday I brought him to the vet and his tempature was 106.4 (the highest the vet has ever seen) and they put him on pain medication and anitbodics. This morning I woke up and he was doing no better, and was actually worse. So I brought him back in and now his temp was 108 degrees. They had no idea what was wrong with him and the next step was to put him into intensive care. I couldn't afford this and had to make the hard decision to put him out of a misery and put him down. It was a sad day.


Anyways, to keep my mind off of this, I spent the afternoon stamping. I made some cards for this weeks challenge on the LNS group, prepared for the blog tour that is the end of this week, and worked on a shoe box swap I have with my upline this week. The challenge for this week was cirles. The requirement is that the project must have at least three circles. I made three different cards and will show one tonight. This uses On a Pedestal, which is a new stamp set that will be in the new 2009/2010 catalog. Paper: Riding Hood Red, Tango Tangerine, Kiwi Kiss, window sheet, Whisper White, Pacific Point. Accessories: Reding Hood Red ribbon, circle sissors plus. Ink: Black Stazon, Tango Tangerine.

Glass Etching

So after I attended Minneapolis Regionals and saw the glass etching using the raw vinyl and Big Shot, I got to thinking and wondered if the raw vinyl was really neccessary. Could I just use paper and run it through a xyron to stick it to the glass? So I tried it. The first time instead of using the negative, I used the actual cut-out and then I was wondering how one controls where to stop putting the etching cream on. A few days later, it dawned on me that I was supposed to use the negative space so there would be no confusion where to end the etching cream. I didn't think to use transfer tape or anything of the sort to get the middle pieces of the flower, but all in all my experiment worked. You don't need raw vinyl to make your own designs, paper and the xyron work just fine. The jar is from Ikea and I used the flower from the Blooms and Basket die. For the picture, I just placed the jar over some cardstock so it was easier to see the etching part.

Watercolor Flowers

***UPDATED WITH SECOND PICTURE***
For some reason I can't get the post to save with the picture anywhere else but at the very top. So I guess that's where it's going.

After seeing so many beautiful watercolor flowers, I just had to give it a try myself. There are many different blogs with this idea and I'm not sure who I first learned it from, but here is a good place for a tutorial (this is just one spot I remembered off the top of my head and I'm sorry if you also have a tutorial and I didn't mention it, but you can always leave it in a comment). Anyways, of course I don't have the exact supplies needed to I did a little experimenting. I tried glossy white cardstock and the watercolor paper. I'm not sure what I like better...you can see for yourself. I did a couple of things wrong that resulted in cards that I'm not too trilled about but lessons learned and I will have to give it another try. Thanks for looking. The first one is with the watercolor paper and the second is with the glossy paper

LNS Challenge #17

I'm finally participating in a challenge. That was the original reason for starting a blog. Late Night Stampers run a weekly challenge and this week's challenge is to CASE something from Sherrill's website (our group mom) , changing a couple of things.

For the first card I used Very Versatile from the Occassions Mini. The original card can be found here and is by Charlene. Paper: Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Summer Sun, Real Red. Ink: Chocolate Chip. Accessories: Circle Sissors Plus, White Satin Ribbon, Button



And as I was searching Sherrill's website for the cards the I CASED, I found another card the I CASED a while ago for a shoe box swap. I don't think I've posted it yet, so I'll post it now. The original is found here , third one down. My card used Eastern Blooms. Paper: Lavendar Lace, Raspberry Tart DSP, Whisper White. Ink: Lavendar Lace



The last card I made for this challenge is actually part of the same post as above and is the eighth one down. Stamp: Petal Pizzaz. Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Raspberry Tart DSP. Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink. I also used the satin ribbon from the Occassions Mini and dyed it with the Kiwi Kiss ink.

Late Night Stampers Blog Stars

Late Night Stampers is an awesome Yahoo group, filled with TONS of inspiration and caring people. The group is made up of Stampin’ Up! (both current and soon to be) Demonstrators.

Starting today, there are several groups of “Blog Stars”. We’ll be traveling around to each other’s blogs to get inspiration and “cheer” on our fellow demos.

Below is the group I’m in, be sure to check out their cards, and leave a comment as well - they are here to inspire you too!

Sandi MacIver http://www.sandimaciver.com/
Chris Austin http://www.luv2cre8withu.blogspot.com/
Heidi Michel http://www.heartfeltblessings.blogspot.com/
Kelli Waters http://kellistamps4u.blogspot.com/
Nancy Legate http://www.stampnnuggets.com
Dianne Shiozaki http://www.stmprdee.blogspot.com/
Holly Brown www.glitterstampsandink.blogspot.com
Virginia Killmore http://virginias-website.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Brown http://imstampinsilly.blogspot.com/

Stampin' Up! Blog Tour May 15th and 16th

Pack your bags 'cause you're going on a trip! Take a tour of 20 beautiful blogs, and you will see creations that will amaze and delight you. But it's only a two-day trip! It begins at 7:00 a.m. CDT on May 15th and ends May 16th at midnight! So how does it work? On May 15th you will come back to my blog and see some projects featuring one set in the current catalog. Then a link will be provided for you to make the next stop on the blog tour and so on, you will visit 20 blogs in total, all with wonderful stamping ideas. Hope to see you then!

Where have I been?

It's been almost a month since my last post, so where have I gone? Let me fill you in, with some pictures too. That being said, this may get lengthy, but please stay with me :o).

As you recall, I had to make 350 wedding invitations for my mom's cousin's daughter. They are done and have been put into the mail as of April 17, yeah!! Prior to that I had some other projects that I needed to take care of, including swaps for Minneapolis Regionals, swaps for a local scrapbook group I belong to, swaps for a SCS swap I signed up for, swaps for my SU! meeting and then design and prepare for a SAS for 5 people.

For the scrapbook group I belong to, we have monthly challenges and then meet once a monthly to share our designs. For Christmas, our challenge was to create a 6 x 6 page of ourselves to swap with the other members, so we would each have a page of everyone in the group that participated (I think 11 people did). Well, being behind as usual, I didn't get my done as and a matter of fact didn't get them done until the night before our last meeting in March. Most of is it non-SU! and is actually from Close to my Heart (gasp!). I did use the SU designer label punch and hardware though.



And then I had to finish up (and start) my monthly challenge page. March's challenge was to reduce, reuse, recycle anything onto a scrapbook page. Since this was also last minute, I used the packaging from the wedding invitations that I was making to make a 12 x 12 layout of a before and after picture. The background was created by using the stickers on the packaging for the paper and the letters and matting were from the packaging from the sticky strip used to add the pocket to the invites.



I have already posted my SAS samples here, and they were a hit, mostly. At the last minute I decided that everyone might now want 5 of the same wedding card so I made it optional to use other stamps as the focal point, which created some chaos. Also, I have a question for you guys. When I prep for my SAS I always cut the minimum size piece of paper needed to use the punches, but not everyone has the same idea as I do when it come to placing the images for punching and I always end up giving more paper when they run out. How do you handle this situation? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I previously posted some examples for my SCS swap (March 17 and March 29), but they ended up being my Minneapolis Regionals swap because I just didn't have time to create for that, so I had to create new swaps for the SCS swap. I combined one of my swaps for the SCS swap with my SU! meeting swap by using the same design, but different paper, so I had enough for both. Below are the combined swap for SCS and my SU! meeting and then the other swap for the SCS swap (I had to make 50of each design).





Finally, with everything done, I went on vacation. TC was stationed at Fort Bliss as he prepared to deploy to Iraq (left April 30 for Kuwait and to Iraq) and he had a four day leave April 21 through the 25th, so I flew down to El Paso for the week to spend it with him. I won't go in the details of the trip, but we had nice weather and had a good time. We also spent a couple days in New Mexico, including seeing the White Sand Dunes that we got to sled down. Here are a couple of pictures from that excursion.



Whew! That about sums everything up. I do have a few last catch up things to work on, including my COTM exchange which I am about 15 days late on now and then a WOW swap for convention that I'm participating in remotely. No convention for me this year, but hopefully next. I would also like to get some things together for some more classes, since no one signed up for my last class. And let's not forget the make over of my dinning room to a craft space...

I didn't post recipes, to try to save some time, but if you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will get back to you. More will be posted later today!