Summer Mini Sneak Peek

There's only three more days to order from the Ocassions Mini catalog! Don't miss some great stamp sets and accessories! That said...here is a sneak peek of what's coming up in the Summer Mini catalog. Both of these cards I made for swaps. I guess I was really into butterflies for some reason.

The first card uses the new Beyond the Garden Designer Series Paper and the words from the Fabulous Florets stamp set. The second card uses the new Flower Garden Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and Happy Greeting stamp set. All will be available May 1.

Bridal Shower Invitations and Favors

I love creating special cards and invitations for friends! When my friend, Risa asked if I would help her with her daughter's bridal shower invitations and favors- I was on it! Here we are having our shower invitation work day. Angie and Risa are busy taping and punching. While I worked on the dresses.

I gave the Very Vanilla cardstock to Risa before hand and she printed the inside of the invitations before I cut the card bases. The dresses are made from Very Vanilla cardstock cut out with the Scallop Circle die then embossed with the Elegant Lines embossing folder. They're dressed up with Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper (from the Occasions Mini Catalog), and Basic Pearls. The edge of the invitation is punched with the Scallop Edge Border punch and the word stamp is from the Sincere Salutations stamp set and stamped in Baja Breeze ink. We finished all 80 invitations in one afternoon!

I forgot to take pictures of the shower favor work day. We had a little more help and managed to put together 80 cute little favors. This is a little custom made box that fits a pack of gum. I used Daffodil Delight for the box. Angie choose Elegant Soiree Designer Series Paper for the front and we tied it in with the shower invitations with more Whisper White Organza Ribbon and a Pearl. The box is held together with Sticky Strip -love that stuff! - and the top is held closed with a glue dot.

Happy Stamping!



WatercolorWonders Ohio Group Gathering

I love being part of a wonderful group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators called Watercolor Wonders. My 5th upline, Jan McClurg, who is the head of the group, recently came to Ohio to visit her Ohio downline. Friday evening, April 15th several of us got together for a charity stamping event. Linda L. from our group is the contact person for the Akron Ronald McDonald House. She and Sue H. brought a stack of journals for us to cover and decorate. These will be donated to the Akron RMHC to give to the families who stay there. Families can make notes and jot down questions to take to their appointments in these journals. We all brought supplies and got quite a pile of journals covered and decorated.

Here we all are with the finished product.

Here are the two journals I did. I use a retired Simply Scrappin' kit.

Laura Milligan (top) shows off her journal while Judie Nill watercolors images to go on the fronts of some of the journals.

The night was topped off with a chocolate - strawberry dessert buffet. There were lots more goodies but these were a couple of the highlights. Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry picks make from Stampin' Up! punches made for me by my friend Julia and cream cheese filled chocolate covered strawberries made by Beth M. Yum!

Happy Stamping!



March Stamp Club

It's been quite awhile since I posted. I've missed a few stamp club posts but I hope to get caught up. I'll have to work backwards a little. Here is one of the projects from the March stamp club. A friend of mine, and fellow demonstrator, attended a birthday card class that our upline was having and this was one of the cards from her class. (Thanks, Judie!) I'm not sure if she designed it or case'd it from somewhere else. Either way...I totally copied it! Love the little purses made with the cupcake punch turned upside down. The purse handles are made with the two smaller oval punches.



The second stamp club card was case'd from a card I received as a swap at the Leadership conference in January. The original was made by Lisa Gray. Just can't get enough of that cupcake punch!

Each month my stamp club get a little extra treat. This month was a carrot filled with chocolate goodies. The carrot is made with the petal cone die from the Occasions Mini catalog. This carrot cone came courtesy of Kay Kalthoff. You can see her video of how to make the carrot top here.

Shelley brought these yummy snacks. Carmel Apple Fluff...the recipe is quick and easy. She served it in cupcake wrappers to stay with the theme. Isn't that creative!



Carmel Apple Fluff (source unknown)

1 bag of Snickers bite size candy bars finely chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)

2 large granny smith apples corded and finely chopped

1 - 8oz tub of whipped topping

Chocolate chips

Mix candy, apples and whipped topping together in a large bowl. Top with chocolate chips. Chill. Serve cold. Or, place in cupcake wrappers, top with chocolate chips, chill and serve. Enjoy!

Happy Stamping!



November Stamp Club Projects

My Stamp Club is taking a break in December but I wanted to share some of the past projects with you. Here is one of our November projects.  I love the shimmer of the Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder which covers the entire stamped portion of the front of this card. The picture just doesn't do it justice! I think this is one of my all time favorite stamp club projects.

We used the "Coffee Filter" technique on the front then stamped the Christmas Collage background stamp from the Holiday Mini catalog over top. That whole piece was then covered with VersaMark ink and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. That is layered on Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler with Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon for the bow. Inside we stamped images from the Bells & Boughs set  (also from the Holiday Mini).

Our other November project involved the "Shaving Cream" technique. (It was a rather messy day!) We did the shaving cream and ink refill technique for the background in Wild Wasabi and Real Red. We used the ornament from the Contempo Christmas set, punched it out with the ornament punch and dressed it up with the 1/8" Real Red ribbon and rhinestones. The inside is stamped with the other three images from the Contempo Christmas set.

Happy Stamping,



Convention Swaps

I wasn't able to make it to the Stampin' Up! Convention this year. But my upline, Laura was so nice and took about 100 swaps for me. I was only going to send 50 since I knew they'd take up some space in her suitcase but I got a little carried away and ended up with 100. Thank you, Laura!

Here's my cat card. I made a similar card for a friend's birthday and decided I just had to make more. Originally, I used some retired designer series paper that was black with white polka dots but since it was retired I had to re-create the look with 1/2" punched circles. I decided that punching and sticking over 500 circles would be a good thing to do in the car on vacation.

I also used the new Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper for the leaves. I punch them out with the 5-Petal punch. (this is a picture of my sample which still had the retired Certainly Celery leaves on it - but you get the picture) I love the new Basic Rhinestones! They just dress up everything  - even the cat!

That was going to be it for swaps but my 1- 1/4" black striped grosgrain ribbon arrive the day before we left on vacation...sometimes you just have to go make something! I came up with this quick and easy black and vanilla card. It uses the new Newsprint Designer Series Paper, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Perfect Punches stamp set, Scallop Oval punch, Very Vanilla and Basic Black card stock and or course, the ribbon. I tied the ribbon with a piece of thread to hold it together before I placed the punched piece over it. The scallop oval is held on with Dimensionals.

Happy Stamping!

July Stamp Club Projects

The July Stamp Club projects featured new products and stamps from the new 2010-11 Idea Book & Catalog. The first card was CASE'D from Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Karen Sylvester. I tweaked it bit. Love those new Paper Daises, Antique Brads and Dotted Scalloped Ribbon punch! Colors used where Not Quite Navy, River Rock, Very Vanilla and Early Espresso.

The second project was CASE'D from Stampin' Up! demonstrator Annette Stewart. We used the Presto Patterns Specialty Designer Series Paper and everything is stamped or inked in Soft Suede.

Happy Stamping!