Missionary cards

So, many of you know I have a son serving a Mission for our church.  He is in Mozambique and all of his roommates from BYU last year are also serving.  I try to send them cards every couple of months.  This card is the one I sent them.

It uses my favorite masculine stamp set - The Open Sea. I will be so very sad to see it go after the Stampin' UP! Summer Mini catalog is finished August 31.  Perhaps Stampin' Up!  will carry it over... hint, hint....  I saw a card on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator blog by Claudia Perry and loved it!  I changed it up a bit, changed colors and VOILA! 

The colors are Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke and Island Indigo. I used a sentiment from the set Best Dad Ever! =Punches make this card super easy - 2 1/2" circle, 1 1/4" circle, and the Decorative Label punch.

August Scrapbook class

I always love to create some fun scrapbook pages for the monthly class.  The pages were fun and mostly easy.  The first one is a generic one using the new Hello, Doily background stamp. The colors I used were Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Pear Pizzaz and Orchid Opulence.  The Designer Series Paper was retired from last spring.

The second page was a good one too- but a bit more complicated.  I am glad that I waited to make this one for the scrapbook group since the new single stamp School Lines.  The other stamp set is Greeting Card Kids - they remind me of the old Campbells Soup Kids.  The colors are Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive with a little Cherry Cobbler.

Workshop "kick it up" card

For my workshop this month I featured a 'kick it up" card.  The ladies made the simple version -

As they were passing their supplies I showed them 2 simple ways to 'kick it up'.  The first is a few simple punches and coloring - 

Then the second 'kicked up' card I added the Beautiful Wings embosslet die, a Rhinestone Jewel and a small piece of Daffodil Delight 1/8" taffeta ribbon.  

Christmas Card Stamp a Stack - part 2!

There were 4 lovely cards made at the 1st Christmas Card Stamp A Stack.  I tried to keep them easy thinking that any one could be mass produced.  Here are the last 2 cards -

The first one uses Baroque Motifs and Delightful Decorations.  The colors were Elegant Eggplant and Garden Green.  I also added some gold embossed 'twinkly lights'. The punched strip is the new Lacey Border Punch - LOVE IT!

 

This second card may be my favorite!  It was a simply elegant color combination of black and white.  The snowflakes are embossed with the Northern Flurry impressions folder and topped off with a sentiment from a retired stamp set.  The corners were punched with the Scalloped Trim corner punch then I added the bling with the Rhinestone Jewels.

Christmas Card Stamp a Stack

This past week was the first of 5 stamp a stacks designed to get your cards done for holiday giving.  The ladies made 8 total cards; 2 each of 4 different designs.  I will share two of the cards today.

I simply love this little reindeer!  He is so festive - little DASHER.  Stampin' Up! has some great single stamps and he is one of them.  Pair him up with some snowflakes from Snow Swirled and some calming colors and it is striking!  The colors were Cherry Cobbler and Baja Breeze, Dasher sported a little Soft Suede to top the card off.

This card was super simple!  The hardest parts were getting full ink on the Medallion Stamp and punching out 9 little circles with the Owl Builder punch.  I added a little sentiment from the set Punch Potpourri in Real Red to accent the Garden Green 'wreath' and tied up a quick bow to finish it off.

Cupcake gift holder

Michelle had a friend who works at the mall she works at who was celebrating a birthday.  She made him a cupcake and when I saw how cute her cupcakes were, i thought immediately of the cupcake box I had seen on Sarah Willis' blog.  You can see her original here.

Grunge swap card

I made this card for a swap and loved the design!  It was really simple and came together very quickly.
The stamp sets I used were Extreme Elements and Grunge Rock – they are great sets for masculine or teen cards. The colors were Wild Wasabi and Marina Mist – accented with Early Espresso.  I used the new Postal Stamp punch and backed the punches pieces with coordinating squares.  The 3/8” grosgrain ribbon added a great finishing touch to the card.

Sharing my Creative Cave

So, last summer when my son married his amazing wife, Dawnmaire, I not only got a fantastic daughter I got a stamp space!  So, I realized I have never shared photos of my little heaven on earth.  Here they are! 
This is the room standing in the doorway looking in.  Going in a clockwise direction -

• color coordinated bookcase.  All the files are 12 x 12 scrapbook paper housed by color in RAINBOW order (red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet) On top of the shelf are drawers with color coordinated embellishments (brads, buttons, etc.)
• my workspace desk.  It houses by stamp pads, ink refills, Stampin’ Up! embellishments, wheels, stamp blocks, markers, Big Shot die cutting machine
• under the desk are 3 13 x 13 file drawers – they have various supplies for scrapbooking or stamping like vellum, stickers, punches, refills for adhesive or trimmers.
• hanging on the wall above the desk is my Stampin’ Up! ribbon storage.  This is actually made from rain gutter that my DH hung on the wall for me. 
• DVD bookcase holding current Stampin’ Up! stamp sets. 
• On the right what you can’t see is a twin sized bed for when my missionary son, Nathan, returns home next summer. 

Here are some close up photos -

right side of my desk – usually my laptop sits in the open space.

Stamp set storage – many of these have moved to the other side of the room to the RETIRED stamp set storage for those sets I can’t bare to let go of yet!

The ribbon has had an overhaul and is more full now – Stampin’ UP! retired a lot of my fav ribbon, but I can’t get rid of it, so I keep it and add to it!  I’ll post a new photo in a few days.
I will share the OTHER side of the room tomorrow!  STAY TUNED!

July club cards– Pennant Parade

It is always a favorite when Stampin’ Up! creates a stamp set/punch that coordinates.  This is my favorite one right now – Pennant Parade stamp set and Pennant punch.  This was a fast, easy card with just three simple colors – Island Indigo, Pool Party (both new In colors) and Daffodil Delight.  Add an embossed Perfect Polka dots impression folder Top Note Die and a quick punched border with the Scalloped Ribbon border punch – and you have a great, simple card.

August Stamp Happenings

I simply had to create this month's calendar using a SNEAK PEAK item - NEW DSP!  Starting in September, the Holiday Mini catalog will be available and the background paper on the calendar is from a new Designer Series Paper pack. The Holiday Mini Catalog is set to ship to those of you in my Hostess Club around August 15; please let me know when your mini catalog arrives.  If you are not in my Hostess club and want a copy, just contact me.  I'll be happy to get one out to you!  I always have room for one more in my hostess clubs, so if you want to join - shoot me an email!  The purchase requirement is low - $20 per month - and the benefits are HIGH! including half-price items!
I have a number of fun events planned for August.  I know I always am rushing around come Mid November (reality is Mid December) and find I don't have Christmas and Holiday cards done. So to help you out of this predicament, I am offering a series of Christmas/Holiday cards beginning in August.  If you take the entire series which will be once a month from August to December, you will have completed 40 cards by mid December. Each month I will be adding an ADDITIONAL stamp-a-stack to the calendar.  This one is JUST for Christmas/Holiday cards and will still be 8 cards for $10.  However, I have an incentive for you if you want to attend all  of them.  If you commit to all five, and PREPAY for the entire series, you will get a Christmas/Holiday bonus from me!  What might it be, you may ask?  Well, since you will be making all those cards to give away, you certainly will need some for yourself in the new year to say Thank You for all the wonderful gifts you receive, so in January I will have an EXCLUSIVE Thank You card stamp a stack that you may attend FOR FREE.  Not ready to commit to the entire series by the August class - that's ok, you can still attend any and all, if you end up attending all 5 anyway, I'll have a different Thank You for you!

Another exciting this for August - Stampin' Up is having a terrific sale on their wonderful Designer Series Paper. When you buy 3 packages, you get a 4th for FREE!
Please let me know as soon as possible what Stampin' Events you would like to attend this month - I would LOVE to create with all of you!  Thank you for making my business be fun.  My calendar is filling up fast with workshops, so if you would like to have a group of your friends join us to decorate their lives with stamps, give me a call or an email.