Flower Shop is here!!!

Good Morning to each of you! Before I get sucked into the day, I'll share a little treasure with you.  The new "Flower Shop bundle" is BEAUTIFUL!  -- a lovely flower stamp set, with whimsical, modern, as well as realistic flower images, AND a punch to match it, so you can stamp and punch.  Yep!  Love it, gotta have it, can't live without it!  And nor can you! :)

Here are a couple of cards I've made with it.  This first card uses two new In Colors -- Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush, as well as the Quatrefancy DSP.  I made a vellum window in the front of this one, which I embossed with the Mosaic embossing folder, and you can see the inside sentiment through the window.

Now for an elegant twist on this same set.  I paired it with the Everything Eleanor fourish stamp, and the colors used here are two new In Colors -- Baked Brown Sugar (a really nice brown) and Crisp Cantelope as well as Early Esspresso and Very Vanilla.  We made this card at my New Catalog Open House this past Sunday. 

Of course, you know me, gotta have a little sparkle, so I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the flower centers with my two way glue pen. 
My next "in my head creation" with this stamp set, is a black and white with a pop of red, card.  I can just "see" it in my head, but alas, other stuff to do today, so my creation will have to wait for some time to play.

On a different note, there is a new SU special for the month of July -- buy three packs of designer paper and get the fourth pack FREE!  Don't think you need 4 new packs of paper (gasp!)? buddy up with a friend and split the savings -- it's like getting it for 25% off.  Whoo Hoo!!!  May I suggest the Modern Medley DSP -- it's black and vanilla and GORGEOUS!  LOVE this paper!!!

Anyhoo... On with the day!

Happy Summer, and Happy crafting, and visit my online store to see what's new and great and what YOU can't live without. :)

Regarding Dahlias = Happy!

On my first browse through the new SU catalog, the "Regarding Dahlias" stamp set was at the very tip top of my (huge) list...  Love the simplicity and simple beauty of this set. But,... of course, I DO love flowers -- I always have ever since I was a little girl...

I decided I wanted to try it first in Black and white and yellow.  This is a card we will be making at my upcoming New Catalog Open House.  The designer paper used here is from a new DSP pack -- Quatrefancy Specialty DSP.  To color the dahlia, I first stamped it in black ink on whisper white card stock, then used a sponge dauber and added Daffodil Delight ink to the center and fading out to the outside petals with a sponge dauber.  I then did a little fussy cutting and plopped it on my card.  Other products used on this card, are the new Artisan Label punch and the not-so-new Hexagon folder.  Of course, a girl has to add just a little sparkle, so I used my faithful two way glue pen and added some dazzling diamonds glitter as well as some basic rhinestones colored black with my Sharpie. :)

For this next card, I tried playing with a new In Color -- Strawberry Slush.  It is a beautiful, non-offensive pink, if you know what I mean. :)  Not Pepto Bismol ish, too be exact....  I used the new Deco Label Framelits.  I love the shape of these new framelits.  I know they will see many a project in my home!  Also, the new magnetic platform is worth all of it's $39.95 price!!!!!  It holds your framelits perfectly still so they don't move when you put that baby through your Big Shot!  No more sticky notes to hold your framelits in place needed!  Love, Love, LOVE this new product.  Ok, on with the card. :)  Used the Quatrefancy DSP again on this card, as well as the fancy fan embossing folder.  This card is a little less work than the yellow one in that there is no fussy cutting -- simply stamped my dahlia on the deco label die cut.

Happy Friday and Happy first day of summer to each of you, and may you get your stamping mojo on -- if you're not out camping this weekend, that is. :)

Wilted Ribbon Flower wine tag

Good Morning, Friends!  The kids are still in bed, and I am posting to my neglected blog.  Yippeeee!:) 

At my last stampers' club, we made this wilted ribbon flower on a wine tag.  This technique works amazingly with satin ribbon, which SU no longer carries, so I used our white organdy ribbon, and showed the gals how to dye the ribbon Rich Razzleberrry to match the tag, simply by pressing the white ribbon into the Razzleberry ink pad, and giving a few drags across the pad until the desired purple was achieved.  For this flower, I used 25" of ribbon, and for the base of the flower, I applied some sticky sheets to whisper white card stock, and then cut circles with my Circles #2 die -- using the second largest circle.  Of course, SU now has jumbo sticky rounds -- which would make this even easier.  Pull off a sticky round, apply it to card stock, trim it down to the size you need and you're set.  I saw how to make these flowers on this video tutorial. 

Without further ado, here is what we made!

Isn't that flower just gorgeous?  You could use it for so many applications -- scrap booking, hair bows, lovely gift wrapping, etc.  The colors used here, are Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, and Pretty in Pink (a now retired color).  That beautiful stamp that serves as the "stem" for the flower, is from the "Everything Eleanor" stamp set -- LOVE that flourish!  It is so elegant and a tad bit vintage.  I don't generally do vintage well, but I admire those who do!

Happy Friday, Everyone!  and be sure to check out the new amazing SU catalog!  More hot-off-the-press projects coming soon.

Beth

Mr Personality!

Life has been crazy busy around our home with end of school things going on, a parking lot garage sale/fund raiser at Bryn's school, and a certain big boy's 8th birthday party this past Saturday. Thirteen 7 and 8 year olds racing around our back yard for 2 hours!  Wow!..... There has been NO time for this mama to play... Well, yesterday, I told the kids that I needed some time to myself -- that they needed to find some things to do, as Mama was going to STAMP!!!  and, they mostly entertained themselves, only interrupting me for important things like food and potty help for the almost three year old.

SOOO, this is what I made.  It is a scrap layout for my scrapping class this coming Friday night, and it features some beautiful, unique, hot-off-the-press new SU treasures, such as: the Modern Medley Designer series paper, the mosaic punch, the matching Mosaic Madness stamp set, the Modern Mosaic embossing folder, the new, awesome! candy dots, and the Deco Label framelits (used for the journaling).  These are photos that a photographer friend, Celeste Wyrick of Wyrick Photography, took when she did a photo shoot for our family shortly after we moved into our new (to us) house 2 years ago.  I have never made a black and white layout before, and whenever I teach a scrap booking class, I always try to do something I haven't done before, to try and keep it interesting and fresh.

The inspiration for this layout, came from a super cute hexagon layout I saw in the CTMH catalog.  There are so many places to find inspiration, and when I saw what they had done with the hexagons, I was thinking, "Hey! I am going to do this idea with a black and white layout with my new mosaic punch and stamp set".  I have to say, I really do like the way it came out.  If you live near me, come to my class this Friday at 6:30 and make it for yourself! :)

Oh, and if you haven't checked out the brand new catalog, click on the link in the upper right corner, OR if you're one of my customers and haven't gotten your very own, gorgeous copy, email me for your free copy today! :)

Happy Monday to each of you!

One card, Three ways

At my last club classes, I wanted to show the double embossed frame technique -- see this link for step by step how to do this. It is such a cool technique that is really not that hard to do.  The only thing I did differently, is that I made the opening in the chipboard for the back of the first folder, slightly larger than the size of designer frame, so that a larger rectangular non-embossed section was created.  Hope that makes sense...

Here are the cards they could choose from:

This first one uses the "Happy Hour" stamp set

 For this second one, I used the "World Spectacular" stamp set -- pretty much a CASE of the idea Dawn had in the video link above.

 And this one uses the "Just Believe" stamp set -- which is soon to retire.  Boo hoo!

We used Crystal Effects on the leaves to make them shiny, as well as on the tips of the peacock feathers in the above sample. 

The colors used here, are Lucky Limeade (soon to retire), Midnight Muse, and Whisper white -- along with several strips of designer paper from various packs.

If you haven't gotten all the retiring products you are longing for, be sure to get them before they're gone!  Hope on my website in the link below and check out all the treasures that are 40% off!  My favorite accessory that's retiring, is the Blossom Petals Builder punch.  You can search my blog for amazing things I've made with this punch -- including dogwood flowers.  In my book, you simply can't live without this punch! :)

Happy Sunday to each of you!!!

55 and counting!

For any of you who DIDN'T know, this is Teacher Appreciation week! :) and how I do appreciate Bryn's teachers VERY much.  I am involved in the PTO for his school, and this year we decided to make gifts to give all the teachers and staff at West Valley School during Teacher appreciation week.  In the PTO meeting, guess who they all turned and looked at for heading up the gift creating campaign? :)  Yep!  You guessed it.  Me!  And, I was gladly up for the job, provided I had a little help putting them together.

The volunteers to help with the project, were a little on the sparse side, and I was feeling a teeny bit overwhelmed before I had even started.  Then low and behold, my wonderful, super crafty friend, Leah, (whose children don't even go to West Valley!), came over and spent the entire afternoon cutting out purses and gluing them together. When she left, the purses were all cut out an mostly assembled and I was feeling like I really could pull it together.  What a great friend!!!

There are 55+ teachers/staff at the school, so it was a bit of craftiness to put them all together.  We are giving out little gifties on Monday, Wed, and Friday of this week.  Here are the Monday ones: Decorated water bottles with a little hand stamped tag and a pouch to hold a Crystal Light packet.

The tag measures 2 1/8" by 11 and scored at 2 1/4" and 8".  Then, simply fold the bottom scored part up and adhere with brads on either side, and use the 1 1/4" circle punch to punch the hole in the top flap to go over the water bottle.  I cut strips of designer paper 1 1/2" x 12" to put around the bottles and adhered with sticky strip.  Easy embellishments using the large and small butterfly punches layered together.  Simple gift, but definitely brought a smile to every recipient!

 Today's gift, was a little purse (using the SU purse die) with a chapstick inside that was donated by my generous boss, Connie Small, DDS.  I used Pretty in Pink card stock here -- a color that is soon to retire, and embellished the fronts of the purses with a little rossette -- from the rossette trim in the spring mini catalog -- simply snip off a rossette, dab its petals on an ink pad, and you have an instant classy embellishment.

 For the guy teachers, we made this "manly version".  Simple tri-fold with a section of designer paper on the front and back, and a star embellishment.  Sorry the photo isn't better...

I somehow missed taking a photo of the Friday giftie -- it is a pint jar filled with mulit colored salt water taffy (courtesy of Costco).  I punched out a circle of designer paper (using my 2 3/8" circle punch -- which fits perfectly on a narrow mouth jar lid, just FYI) and adhered that to the top of the lid, then tied a cute stamped tag around the top with colorful ribbon.  Another PTO person is delivering those, as I am working on Friday, so she came and hauled them all away -- thus no photos -- sorry!  I feel glad to have them finished, but is sure was rewarding to see the smiles on their faces as we went from class room to class room delivering our gifts.

To all you teachers out there, THANK YOU!!! for all you do for our children!!!

If you haven't checked out the retiring stamps and accessories, take a look!  There are some fabulous goodies on sale while supplies last.

Happy stamping and crafting to each of you!

Going, Going, Gone! Card Buffet!

Tis' the season where Stampin' Up! retires a bunch of stamps and accessories to make room for new treasures soon to be released in the new catalog -- June 1st.  I always feel compelled to give my favorite sets a final debut!  I am having my "Going, going, gone! card buffet" on Saturday, May 18th at 10 am, and here are the treasures there will be to choose from.  These are easy cards to create -- 10 min or less kind of cards.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to check out the stamp sets and accessories (some marked down to 40% off!) that are retiring, and get them before they're gone!

This first card features the single stamp -- Quint-Essential Flower -- for $8.95.  It coordinates with the 2 3/8" and 1 3/4" scallop circle punches and 1" circle punch. Simply stamp in three colors -- here Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, and Old Olive -- and punch out with the punches.  Layer together using stampin' dimensionals, and you have a great, easy card.  Other retiring products used here, are the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, the Tiny Tags stamp set and Jewelry tag punch, and the polka dotted scalloped ribbon. 

 This cute little trendy vase with the flowers, is from the all occasion set -- "Button Buddies".  I simply colored the vase with a red marker, the flower stems with an Olive marker and punched out little flowers with the Itty Bitty punch pack.  Added some rhinestones and what a cute little card!  Other retiring products used here: Bashful Blue card stock and ink, and the sentiment -- from the Made for You stamp set.

 A topiary card made with the retiring "Circle Circus" stamp set -- and a variety of circle punches.  Super easy card, but a really fun effect.  For the flower pot, I used the decorative label punch.  Other retiring products used here: Certainly Celery card stock and ink, the "Friendly Phrases" stamp set.

 "Just Believe" stamp set is one of my very favorites!  So sorry to see it go...  Here I did a simple color blocking technique -- use your clear block, ink it up, and "stamp" it onto your white card stock panel.  Then stamp your image on top in a darker ink.  The background inks used here are Certainly Celery and Baja Breeze -- both of which are retiring.

 A simple sympathy card featuring "French Foliage" stamp set.  A lovely set for fall, of course, but also great for summer cards, too.  The lacy brocade embossing folder used on the little strip of Lucky Limeade card stock, is also retiring.  Boo!!!

 I put Crystal Effects on the little blue leaf to give the card some dimension.

 "Sweet Floral" is a lovely background stamp.  Here I simply inked the stamp in Riding Hood Red ink (a retiring color) and stamped it on the same color card stock -- added pearls to the flower centers, and a sentiment from the also retiring "Punch Pals" stamp set.  Added a butterfly punched from designer paper, and some ribbon.  Easy peasy, but lovely just the same.

 "Elements of Style" stamp set takes Vintage to a new level.  Here I stamped the floral branch image on a Labels framelits die cut, used a sponge dauber to add some Marina Mist ink to the flowers, layered it on a strip of dsp from the poetry print pack, added some crochet trim, and some Crystal Effects to the flowers -- and punched out the sentiment.  Done!

This final card features the retiring Build a Blossom stamp set and the matching Blossom Petals builder punch.  Of all the things retiring this year, this punch makes me the saddest.  I use this punch ALL the time -- for leaves, fancy flowers, you name it.  So versatile!  Sob!  Anyways, I simply stamped the petals on Baja Breeze card stock, punched them out, and created the focal flower by adhering the petals to a punched circle using Tombow multi glue. 

Hope this inspires you to do some crafting, too!  Hop on my website and see what retiring treasures YOU can't live without.

Happy Sunday!