LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE :-)

Hi all!!! I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that I am leaving to visit my mom and sister in Southern California tomorrow and will not be back until Wednesday night of next week BUT I will be posting while I am gone AND I have a special post coming up so stay tuned *wink*  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend - I know I will!!!!  It is my sister's birthday on Saturday so we are going to party like it's 1999 - LOL!!!!  I will share her birthday card on Saturday AFTER she has seen it - she DOES read my blog ya know, LOL!!!  Be back with you all soon - until then, Happy Craftin'!!!

STAMPIN' UP! HOLIDAY BUNDLES - SAVE 20%, WHOOOHOOOO!!!!

Announcing the ABC's of the Perfect Handmade Holiday. Starting TODAY, Stampin' Up! is offering an opportunity to purchase select products--perfect for Amazing cards, Beautiful packaging, and Cherished gifts--at a 20 percent discount! 

If you would like to open and print the holiday bundle list, click this link and it will take you to a page that is printer friendly.  Both French and Spanish options are included.

Things to Remember:

• Additional products from current catalogs may be purchased on the same order.
• There is no minimum purchase required to participate in this promotion.
• You must use the bundle item codes provided otherwise the 20% discount will not be applied.   

•Order at my online store by Thursday, December 16, 2010; 11:50 PM (MT)

This is a fabulous deal so get yours today :-)

PUT YOUR PINK ON!

Happy Friday all! I don't know about you but I am sure glad this week is OVER!! I am ready to start fresh on Monday, LOL! Meanwhile, this weekend I will be working both days at Hodges Nursery at the First Annual Fall Festival in support of Breast Cancer!  I am a member of the Durham Blossoms Relay for Life team and they will also have a booth where they are cooking up food to raise money in the fight against this awful disease! I am doing my part as well:  I have made several pink items that will be sold and all monies made given to the Blossoms as part of the fundraising effort this weekend! If you are local, you REALLY need to come on out - there will be TONS of vendors there as well as fun demonstrations and lots to see and buy :-)  This cute little luminaria is just one of the items I will have for sale at my booth! Each one has a battery operated tealight in it and they look soooo purdy all lit up!  I have made several of these in all different shades of pink.  Luminarias are a wonderful way to remember those that are going through treatments or have lost their battle to this awful disease.  I am hoping that these will help those in remembering their loved ones. 
Here is a side view so you can get a better idea of how they look.  They really are easy to make - there are samples all over the web so I just took a look at some of those and then  made this one my own by tweaking some measurements to fit what I was trying to do!  I am not going to leave a recipe for these but if you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have! Have a wonderful weekend and I sure hope to see lots of you out at Hodges Nursery this weekend!

A LITTLE BIT OF CHRISTMAS

Happy Wednesday all!!! I got to play my first game of Bunco last night - what a fun night out that was!!! And, I got to meet lots of new people, and they were all really nice and fun to be around! I did not get home until after 2am - too much talking, lol!!!  But, worth it, I really enjoyed myself!!!  And, as you can see by the picture, I actually got to wear the crown because I got BUNCO, lol!!!! 

Really fun!!! Today I want to share a card with you that I made for my downline meeting shoebox swap - love doing these, I have a very talented group of ladies in my downline so there are always some beautiful cards I get to make! I chose a Christmas card since our theme was holidays.  I used one of my all-time favorite stamp sets called Welcome Christmas because it reminds me of all the things I love during the holidays - family time, decorating the tree, hanging the stocking, and playing in the snow!  And, the sentiment is just beautiful! I stamped it on Very Vanilla card stock, trimmed around it, and popped it up on dimensionals - one of my customers asked me during a workshop (I took it as a sample) if we had the punch, lol!! It WOULD make a great punch, wouldn't it??!  I paired the set with the Jolly Holiday designer series paper - sooooo pretty!!! The bottom of the DSP is punched with the Scalloped Edge Border Punch.....looooove it!   And, if you look really close, you can see that the tree shimmers - that is because I added some Iridescent Ice to give it some sheen and it looks great IRL! Very simple card, but I think it turned out pretty and my gals really liked it.  This is definitely a card that could be mass produced for everyone on your Christmas card list because it is simple enough to to do a lot of them and pretty enough to bring a smile to their face!! I will leave you with the recipe and if you would like any of  the products used on this card, you can go to my online store right now and order them

:-)  And, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me, I am always willing to answer any questions you may have!  Now, I am off to work on projects for the weekend Harvest Festival at Hodges Nursery - we are holding this wonderful event to raise money for the Durham Blossoms Relay for Life Team of which I am honored to be a part.  Come on out and support us in stamping out cancer! There will be lots of vendors, prizes, make 'n takes, demonstrations, and the Blossoms are going to have a booth serving fabulous Tritip sandwiches of which all proceeds go to the Team.  I hope to see you all there!!!

Card Recipe:

Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla card stock, Jolly Holiday designer series paper

Inks - Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler classic inks

Stamps - Welcome Christmas

Tools - Scalloped Edge Border Punch

Accessories - Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

WENT CLUBBLIN' THIS WEEKEND!

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Mine was super busy as I had three events this weekend, but it was fun - filled with stamping :-)  It was Club day on Sunday so all my Scrap Club gals were at the house - they decided when Club first started that they wanted to Potluck every month so there is always a TON of food when they come! It's a great group, I just love them to pieces - they make me laugh so hard, half the time I forget what I am talking about, LOL! 

Here are some pics of them from yesterday. We did two two-page layouts so it was a very busy afternoon but I think they really liked the layouts.  I try to keep them general enough where several different occasions would work for any one layouts since they don't add pics until later! I was excited that one of the gals actually brought hers back from last month and they had pics on them - and I am kicking myself that I did not take pictures because they were stinkin; CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!  Here they all are raising their glasses in a toast to our group - we DO have some fun together!! 

One of our group was celebrating a birthday so I made a cake to celebrate - what's a birthday without cake??!! She is such a beautiful person inside and out - I feel very blessed that she is part of my life! And yes, there are only four candles on the cake - once you reach a certain age that's all you need since they represent youth, beauty, friendship, and love!  At least in my world they do *wink*  And, I certainly hope that whatever she wished for comes true because she deserves it!!  It was a fun way to spend Sunday - lots of laughing, great food, fun projects to complete, and most of all, GREAT company!!!  So, after all that, would you like to see one of the layouts they completed during Club yesterday?? They actually DO get to create amongst everything else, LOL! 

Here is one of the double layouts they completed yesterday.  I always add pictures to them because they told me they like to see how it looks once it is completed.  And, it helps me get some of my own scrapbooking done, which is great because I am really far behind, LOL!  The title of this one is Best Friendsstamped with the Broadsheet Alphabet set, and as you can see, that will fit just about anything someone wants to use these pages for.  I chose my husband because he IS my best friend and these pictures make me smile :-)  There are lots of products on these pages, so I will highlight the main ones so that you get the idea of what was used.  The designer series paper is Blueberry Crisp, probably one of my absolute favorites out of the catalog.  Fun patterns, and really rich colors that are very versatile! There were a couple of stamp sets used on this layout - Friends 24-7 and For All You Do, both of which are wonderful sets with lots of possibilities.  The sentiment on the journaling pocket as well as all the bordering stamps are from these two sets.  The buttons are from the Deck the Halls buttons in the Holiday mini - just goes to show that you can use them for lots of different occasions, not just Christmas. 

 I wanted to share a couple of closeups on this layout.  This first one is the journaling pocket.  We made this using one of the mini lunch sacks in the holiday mini - isn't it cute??!! We actually cut it down shorter and then rescalloped the top of the bag.  Inside is a piece of DSP from the Newsprint collection - there is actually a whole sheet in there of lined paper that is perfect for journaling! We just punched along the edge with the Spiral Border punch to make it look like notebook paper, added a tab punched with the Extra-large round tab punch, and then decorated the front of it with some Marina Mist and Pacific Point card stock that has been punched with the Scallop Edge border punch, then run through the Big Shot with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  The sentiment on the bag is from the For All You Do stamp set stamped on Very Vanilla, punched out with the 2 1/2 Circle punch and then mounted on a piece of Real Red card stock that has been punched with the 2 3/8 inch Scallop Circle punch.  It fits my journaling perfectly! (and no, I am not sharing - it's private *wink*)  I love how this turned out - what a great way to use those little bags and just sooo perfect for this layout!

This next close up is the stamped image of the bird from the Friends 24-7 stamp set.  We stamped it in Early Espresso classic ink on Very Vanilla card stock, then trimmed around the whole image.  Then, using the 2-way glue pen, we added some Champagne glass glitter to give the bird some beautiful gold feathers. Then, we attached him to the page  using dimensionals on a length of Very Vanilla satin ribbon. The glitter is from the holiday mini and is really fun to play with! And, for some added fun, we used some of the filigree brads - aren't they purdy??!!!  There are lots of punches, embossing, and such on this layout so if there are any particular questions you have regarding this layout, please email me as I am happy to answer any questions! And, if you see something you have to have right now, head on over to my online store where you can order it right now :-)  Thanks so much for stopping by, and if you are still reading this, you get extra kudos for sticking with me through this long post, LOL! I will be back tomorrow with some cards from my weekend workshop - until then, Happy Stamping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FALL WORKSHOP CARDS

Happy Friday everyone!! WOW! This week flew by, I still have sooo much to do, lol!!! I guess that is just the nature of the beast, never enough hours in the day!!! The weather here is so beautiful - 70s, sunny, and a light breeze - I just want to be outside!!! But, I just open up the windows and enjoy the sunshine from my craft room :-)  Today I want to share with you two cards we made in one my recent workshops.  With fall in the air, I wanted to create something for the season and the stamp sets Days of Gratitude and  Autumn Days really seems to fit this for me.  I just love the pheasant and the leaves in Gratitude are so purdy!  It's hard to see in the picture but on the Early Espresso base we stamped the small leaf from the Autumn Days set in the same color.  The More Mustard card stock was run through the Big Shot and embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder, which I love because it looks sooooo good!  We punched both sides of the Autumn Spice Specialty paper using the Scalloped Edge Border punch, a favorite of mine since it came out during Sale-A-Bration!  I love using this DSP because the colors are so rich and warm - perfect for the season!! The main image was fun to stamp - we created a little fall scene using several different stamps from the Autumn Days set.  And of course, the card had to be topped off with some Early Espresso thin ribbon - just perfect! Fun, fun card to make!  Here is the recipe for this one.
Card Recipe:
Paper - Early Espresso, More Mustard, Very Vanilla card stock, Autumn Spice Designer Series Paper
Inks - Early Espresso, More Mustard classic inks, Cherry Cobbler stampin' write marker
Stamps - Autumn Days
Tools - Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, Scalloped Edge Border punch, Scallop border punch
Accessories - Early Espresso thin ribbon

This second card also uses the Autumn Days stamp set but the background uses one of the leavs from the Days of Gratitude stamp set - love it! Notice how different the card looks when using different colors.  This one seems a little more carefree than the first one because of the brighter colors used.  The base card is Cajun Craze and is stamped with the leaf in the same color.  We used the same Autumn Spice Specialty paper, but this piece has lots more colors and really brings out the main image, again stamped using Autumn Days.  The sentiment is from the Grateful Greetings stamp set which has a fabulous selection of sentiments.  It is stamped in Early Espresso classic ink on Very Vanilla card stock, punched out using the Large Oval punch, and mounted on a piece of Old Olive card stock that has been punched out using the Scalloped Oval Punch.  Another fun card and even though a lot of the same products were used, the cards look totally different.  We enjoyed making these cards, lots of laughter all around!! If you are interested in making some cards with your friends, contact me now and we can set up a workshop for YOU!  Then you can earn your own Hostess benefits and get some FREE stuff - who doesn't like FREE?!!  See something you like and you want it right now? Check out my online store where all of these products can be purchased with a click of the button! Have questions? Feel free to contact me, I am always available to help out! Thanks soooo much for stopping by, I will leave you the recipe for the second card and then I am off to finish my workshop projects for tomorrow! Busy weekend but lots of fun involved - have a great weekend and Happy Stampin'!!!!
Card Recipe:
Paper - Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Very Vanilla card stock, Autumn Spice Specialty Designer Series Paper
Inks - Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Old Olive, More Mustard classic inks
Stamps - Autumn Days, Days of Gratitude (background stamp), Grateful Greetings (sentiment)
Tools - Large Oval punch, Scallop Oval Punch
Accessories - Old Olive and Early Espresso thin ribbon

VINTAGE CANVAS

Good morning all!!! I hope you are having a fabulous day!! The weather her is gorgeous - 70 and sunny with a slight breeze - I just love fall!!!! I wish I could be outside today but nope, lots of work to be done :-)  Maybe a walk later!!  Today I want to share with you the canvas we made in our Vintage Canvas class a couple weeks back.  I used pictures of Tony and I when we went to the Western Mystery Dinner which is why we are all dressed up :-) Everyone brought their black and white pictures and went home with a gorgeous canvas to hang up or use as a gift!  I offer this class once per month and it is one of my most popular classes!  I have several of these canvases hanging throughout my house and my whole family just loves them!  This one is one of my favorites, I just love the vintage look and feel it has and the pictures make me smile :-)  Lots of grays, silvers, and blacks with the accent color of Cherry Cobbler which really makes this canvas pop! We used lots of techniques and fun embellishments on this canvas.  The Cherry Cobbler card stock is punched along the edges using the Scalloped Edge Border punch while the Eyelet border punch is used along the edges of the Nite Owl designer series paper - just goes to show, you can use this beautiful paper for any project, not just Halloween! All the letters are cut out using the Big Shot and the Simple Alphabet set of dies - love them!!! The hearts are from the Hostess stamp set Punch Potpouri - they were stamped in versamark, covered with black embossing powder and heat embossed with my heat tool...... sooooooo pretty!! Of course we did add some pretties as well with the Basic black satin ribbon and our new pearl accents.  The scalloped circle die and the Big Shot made all the frames for our pictures and they turned out fabulous! I do want to show you some closeups as I want you to be able to see the embossing done on the die cut pieces. 

This close up shows the daisies that were cut using the Big Shot Daisies #2 die and then embossed with the Finial Press embossing folder. See how beautiful it looks??  I love this look, really adds to the whole flower - and of course, the vintage brad in the middle just adds to the vintage look.  We actually cut out four of each size of the daisy so it is very layered and makes the flower look very full - love this!!!  

This next picture shows the letters and the Scallop Circles - they are also embossed using the same finial press embossing folder and they really stand out on the canvas.  Not to mention, my handsome husband you see in this picture - he totally makes the canvas *wink*  Lots going on here with this project but the end result is a beautiful piece for your home, office, or to give to that special someone as a gift!  I will leave you with the recipe for this canvas below and if you have the urge to rush off and get some of these fab products, head on over to my online store and you can order them right now :-)  Have a question? Contact me, I am happy to help! Now, I am off to finish up some projects for my classes and workshops this weekend - lots of stamping and paper cutting in my future, LOL! Have a wonderful day and until tomorrow, Happy Stampin'!!

Canvas Recipe: (products only)

Paper - Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Going Gray card stock, Nite Owl Designer Series Paper

Inks - Versamark

Stamps - Punch Potpouri

Tools - Eyelet Border punch, Scalloped Edge border punch, Big Shot, Scalloped Circle Die, Simple Letters Dies, Daisies #2 Die, Finial Press embossing folder

Accessories - Basic Black satin ribbon, Basic Pearls, Vintage brads