April Club Card

Here is one of the cards the gals made at club this month. It uses a stamp from the new Summer Mini catalog that will start on May 1st. As a demonstrator, I was able to preorder some things. I love this little "hello" stamp! I used markers to color the image before stamping it. I ran the baja breeze cardstock through the Big Shot machine with the lattice embossing folder. It adds some fun texure to the card. Of course, I added a button to complete the card!

If you would like a copy of the summer mini catalog for yourself, please let me know! There are lots of fun, new products inside. There are several summer stamp sets that would be great for scrapbooking all your events coming up in the warm weather months. On May 1st, these items will be added to the online store. You can access that by clicking on my demonstrator website link on the right side of the blog. Happy Monday!

Cards From Birthday Stamp-a-Stack

A few weeks ago, I hosted a Birthday Stamp-a-Stack at my house. We made 2 cards each of 5 designs. I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of what we created. The first one uses the create a cupcake stamp set.

We added some crystal effects to the heart to make it shine and give it some dimension. The next card is meant for a little boy. It uses the Bugs and Kisses stamp set.

On this next card we pleated a strip of card stock . I really like this technique. We used crumb cake and rose red for this card-a pretty combo I think!

On this more masculine card, we used the party hearty stamp set. The little pennants are actually from a stamp that is birthday hats. We just didn't use the little pom-pom tops and turned them upside down. They look cute hanging off the hemp twine.

The final card we made used some patterned DSP. The square pattern is clean and simple but still very cute!

Stay tuned for dates for stamp-a-stacks! Let me know if you would be interested in attending and I will be sure and let you know when I schedule the next event! If you would like to purchase any product, I added my demonstrator link to the side of the blog. You can shop from the link and have it shipped right to you! Let me know if you have any questions.

March Club Scrapbook Pages

This month we did a fun layout using the PlayDate DSP. I love the colors and patterns in this pack! For the background we used tempting turquoise-such a bright fun color! The other accents are in old olive, chocolate chip, and real red.

We used the two step owl punch to make this cute little guy. A little paper piercing and a ribbon bow added some additional details. The other details were a lot of circles! This made a fun page for these zoo pictures that I had from Spring break week.

I have definitely been developing a love for scrapbooking over the past few months! I started out thinking I would be making cards only but making these layouts is so much fun!!

March Club Cards

We did 2 cute cards in club this month. The first is an Easter card. I saw the idea of using the Create A Cupcake stamp set to make a basket. I tweaked it a bit and added the hemp twine as the handle.

Here is a closer look at the basket. The "eggs" are actually heart punches from the Springtime Vintage designer series paper set. The second card we did is a fun birthday one using the Two-Step Owl punch. The idea was inspired by another card I saw on our Stampin Up! demo website. There are so many great ideas out there!! It would be fun for a child's birthday but could definitely be sent to an adult as well! This one used the PlayDate DSP set. I love the colors in this set!!

Here is a closer look at the balloons. They are made using the circle punch-easy! The bottom part is the owl's foot from the owl punch-clever huh? (Too bad I didn't come up with that one myself!) I used the linen thread to make the balloon strings. I knotted the tops and stuck them on with mini glue dots.

I attatched the ends to the owl with another glue dot and added another piece of linen thread to look like it was holding them all together. So cute!

Let me know if you need one of these little owl guys for your own craft creations!

Anniversary Give-Away!!!

I realized that my one year anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is coming up in just another week or so! Although I have not been blogging that long or had my stamp club going the entire year, I wanted to do something fun to celebrate and to thank those of you that have shared in this last year with me either by attending an event, placing an order, joining my club, or reading my blog! I will be giving away a set of the 5 birthday card designs that we will be making at the stamp-a-stack at my house on Monday night (there is still time to RSVP if you would like to attend) along with a sale-a-bration stamp set of your choice!

To enter, look through the sale-a-bration flyer here and then leave in a comment below which set you would like for free and if you would like clear or wood mount.

For an additional entry, become a follower of my blog or subscribe on a google reader, etc and leave a comment saying you did. If you already are a follower, please leave a comment saying that too! :)

For a third and final entry, place an order with me before March 28th.

I will select a winner at random, on Monday March 28th!!! While you are here check out the current mini catalog here. Through the end of March, you earn a free set from the sale-a-bration brochure for every $50 you spend! So, if you don't win the set you want, you have a few more days to make your order! Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks again for making the last year so much fun!!!

Couple of Cards To Share

Last weekend, I got to attend a 12 hour crop! It was so wonderful to get so much time to scrapbook and create some cards. I will share some of the layouts I put together in another post, but today I have a couple of cards to share. The first one is a birthday card. I used a new technique I learned at the crop to create the paper "ruffle" that runs across the middle of this card. I love the basic gray paper with the yellow. Such a great combo! I added a few rhinestones for some sparkle. We will be doing a version of this card at the Birthday card stamp-a-stack at my house on Monday March 21st 6:30-9:00. Let me know if you would like to join me in making 10 birthday cards for $15!

Here is another card I completed at the crop. Kim, the crop hostess, usually has some challenges for us to complete. This one was to use the Define Your Life and Alphabet sets. I chose to use the Yy which corresponds with the You definition. I also used up some of the Valentine dsp from the current Stampin' Up mini catalog. I pleated the ribbon a bit and added some of the pearl embellishments.
Thanks for checking in! Check back for some more cards and layouts coming in the next few days!

February Club Layout

Here is the layout we did in club for February. It was a spring theme. I had a lot of fun putting this together. I used several products I had never used before as well as a new technique or two. I don't have any journaling on the pages yet because I am not keeping these pictures on the page. I plan to use it for Easter pictures but wanted to post it before then. I used the Springtime Vintage DSP from the current mini catalog. I love the colors in this pack! It has several neutral colors but also incorporates baja breeze (a blue), always artichoke (a green), and rose red along with several other colors so it is very versatile.

I chose to focus on the very vanilla, crumb cake,and rose red.

This crumb cake seam binding ribbon is one new product I had never worked with. It is so light weight and easy to work with. It made the ruffle technique very easy to do. I used another new product (new to me that is) called sticky strip to adhere the ribbon to the cardstock. It is a double sided tape that comes on a roll. It is great for things like ribbon but you could use it on anything you want to stay put. I tied the ribbon back with some hemp twine.

Here is a closer look at the flower embellishment we made. It is made from 2 scallop circles punched from a different sheet of dsp. You score the paper inbetween each scallop then cut between two scallops from the edge to the center. After this, you accordian fold the rest of the flower making a fan shape when you are finished. Repeat entire process with the other scallop. Then adhere the two together to form the flower. I used sticky strip because I am now addicted but you could use snail, a glue dot, or even glue stick. We then added a bitty button to the middle of the flower.
Thanks for making it to the end of my long winded post! Let me know if you are interested in any of these products for yourself!

February Club Cards

This month the theme in club was "spring". I wish the weather was cooperating!! The card gals made two "spring" cards. The first one featured a flower that we made from 2 scallops we punched out of the Springtime Vintage dsp from the Stampin' Up! mini catalog. The stem stamp is from the Sweetheart set. We added some of the seam binding ribbon and a pearl.

Here is a closer look at the flower we made. For the center we used a bitty button with a bit of linen thread knotted in the middle. The button kind of gets lost in the picture, but believe me, it is cute!

The other card featured the 2 step bird punch. We used it twice; once to punch the bird out of the dsp and again to punch out the branch and the wing. I love the color combo of old olive, very vanilla, and chocolate chip. The two stamps are from the Vintage Vogue set.

Here is a closer look at the cute bird.

I'll be back soon to show you the "spring" layout!

More Valentines

I made a few more "matchbook" Valentines using the Valentine rub-ons from Stampin' Up! I had never used rub-ons before, but I really liked them! You just transfer the image to the cardstock by rubbing it with a mini popsicle stick. It is so easy!

Here is a little bit closer view of one of the rub-ons. This set is available in the mini catalog. Although it is a Valentine theme, you could use the images for lots of other occasions.
I also made another Valentine using the heart shaped treat cup. It is simply two 3x3 inch pieces of cardstock glued together on three sides. I used the heart punch to punch the heart shape in each sheet. Then I cut a strip from the red cardstock to fit down in between the two vanilla sheets.

When you pull up on the red sheet, the candy is inside. These were super easy and another way to use up some of the smaller scraps of cardstock you may have laying around.

Thanks for checking out these Valentine's! I will be back in the next couple of days with the club projects we are doing this month. They are a spring theme and ended up being some of my favorites so far! Happy Monday!!

Valentine Exchange

Owen has a Valentine's Day Party next week, so today I started working on making his Valentines to exchange. A friend showed me a cute idea of making a little "matchbook" card. They are easy to put together and are a great way to use of scraps you may have leftover from other projects. I used more of the Valentine DSP that I used on the other VDay cards I posted.

Here is a little bit closer view of one of the cards.

Inside, I stapled a small ziploc bag filled with candy. The little bags can be found at the craft store in the bead department. All other supplies I used are from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for checking out my latest project! Let me know if you would like to make some of your own!

January Club Projects

A few nights ago, my stamp club had our meeting for January. We focused on Valenine's Day projects. Three of the ladies made a cute card and then a little treat box. Below is a picture of the card. We used the sweet treats treat cup in the heart shape and filled it with m&ms. The stamp around the treat cup says, "be mine". I love the Valenine's Day designer series paper that is in the Stampin' Up! mini catalog.

Inside the card, we made a little "trap door" so that the recipient can easily get to their candy without tearing up the card.

Here is the little treat box. We printed a template onto the cardstock and then cut it out and folded into the box shape after decorating it. We used the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set on three sides and then punched out a heart from a different sheet of DSP. We added a pearl onto the O in the word Love. It is all ready to add a little bag of candy to it and deliver it to your valentine!

Two of the ladies made the layout this month. It also used the Valentine DSP. The hearts on the top left page are punched out of the new glitter paper. It is so pretty!

The layout also used a bit of real red ribbon and silver brads. Simple and easy to put together!

Thanks for checking out the projects for this month's club! A new club will be forming in a couple months so let me know if you are interested in knowing more details about it!

Valentine's Day Card!!

I should be working on Christmas thank you notes, but a Valentine's Day card seemed like more fun today! I just got some new designer series paper from the new Stampin Up mini catalog and was excited to put it to use! I also used some of the sweet treats heart shaped cups. I put some fun mini erasers I found at Target (gotta love the $1 spot!). They could also be filled with m&ms for a really sweet treat. I think my card turned out cute. This may be the one my club members end up making this month! Let me know if you are interested in making your own cute Valentines this year!!

New Recipe Night

One of my goals for 2011 is to try out a new recipe at least one time a week. Menu planning isn't always my favorite task so I thought this would help me to add some variety to our meals. Last night I tried out a new soup recipe. I found it on the Betty Crocker website. It is called Easy Vegetable Italian Soup. I added some smoked turkey sausage. It was pretty good but not super exciting. If I do make it again, I may use chicken stock instead of water or add some other spices. It did have a lot of veggies in it though which was good, and it looked pretty yummy!

My favorite part of the meal was the homemade cheese biscuits I made. The photo does not do them justice. :)
I am pretty proud of myself so far this year with keeping up with my goals. Yes, I know it has only been a couple of days, but you have to start somewhere right? I have blogged, tried a new recipe, and am working on my Monday cleaning and laundry routine. Which reminds me, I need to go switch the laundry over and put in a new load!!