Blog Hop: April Showers..!

That's right- another month has come and gone and it is once again time for our fun blog hop! This time we're celebrating April Showers!

First, I went with baby showers! I made this sweet card, in shades of blue, using the current Retro Sketch.

Supplies:
Stamps: Boys Will Be Boys, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Memento Black, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White craft, Markers: Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Lost Lagoon
Paper: Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon & Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Subtles Candy Dots, Lucky Stars Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Paper Piercing Pack Essentials

Next up, as I was looking thru my stash I noticed that the Paper Pumpkin kit from August of 2014 has this fun 'congrats' piece, AND the kit, and the refill is still available to order if you (or already are!) become a Paper Pumpkin subscriber! (check it out HERE) I couldn't pass the opportunity to share that fact!!
So I used the heart piece, flipped over to sponge gray hearts all over it, added some Strawberry Slush sequins, and I think it's perfect for a bridal shower card!

Supplies:
Ink: Smoky Slate
Paper: Strawberry Slush card stock
Accessories: Aug 2014 Paper Pumpkin Kit

That's just two ideas I had for your spring weddings and baby showers...Go check out what everyone else came up with and leave your thoughts too! We love hearing (reading?) what you think!

Man Birthday!

Happy Monday to you! Are you ready for another week? This is our first full week of school and I can tell you we have not adjusted to the new wake-up time...!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday, and this is the card I sent him! I used the Freshly Made Sketch, and I'm getting this in under the wire, but I had to wait to post it til he got it!
His favorite color is yellow, and the camera and globe images suit him for sure!

Supplies:
Stamps: Traveler, World Map, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Hello Honey
Paper: Hello Honey, Crumb Cake & Baked Brown Sugar card stocks, Park Lane DP
Accessories: Neutral Buttons, Linen Thread, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

Yes, the inks and card stocks are different...the listed color of brown in the Park Lane DP is Soft Suede. I wanted to use two shades of ink for the images, to make the camera stand out more. I also wanted the map more subtle, hence the tone on tone. I noticed how nicely the Crumb Cake card stock went with the DP so I used that. Annnd the Baked Brown Sugar was simply the wrong package of brown- I thought I was using Soft Suede til I went to put the scrap back- whoops! haha...but I think it worked out just fine!

Happy Butterflies!

Tomorrow is my New Catalog workshop! Don't forget to RSVP so that I can have your supplies prepped! In the meantime, I am still getting everything ready!

Today I have another card from my display board. For this one, I used the current Clean & Simple sketch, and another color combo from MDS. It is definitely clean and simple!

Supplies:
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive
Paper: Old Olive, Sahara Sand, Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Bitty Butterfly Punch

Butterfly Congrats!

Last year my mom taught a class of young children at church, and a girl invited my mom to her baptism next week. My mom asked me to make a card for the girl, because she is in the process of moving and all her stamp stuff is packed!
I looove the long retired Presto Patterns DP for baptism cards and had some of this flower print already sized for a card front! Then I just made the latest Clean & Simple sketch work with the butterfly punch and stamps! I like how the punched butterflies show the marbled pink and purple. I thought the Congrats banner by itself was too short so I added another one, and I like that look, so here she goes!

Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners, Papillion Potpourri
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Pretty in Pink (retired)
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White card stocks, Presto Patterns DP (retired)
Accessories: Bitty Butterfly Punch, Hexagon Punch, Dimensionals

World Card Making Day 2

Here's my "summery" card, using a recent Retro Sketch. I mixed White and Iridescant Ice embossing powders to make a sparkly white butterfly!
Be sure to scroll thru and see what else I've shared today! *grin

Supplies:
Stamps: Swallowtail, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Versamark
Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe & Coastal Cabana
Accessories: Neutral Buttons, Glue Dots, White Embossing Powder, Iridescant Ice Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

A Coach-Thank-You gift with MDS!

There are other things you can do with MDS besides scrapbook pages, you know. I've shown before that you can make prints to frame for your house. Cards are, of course, part of the program. I've even shown that you can make a video! Today I'm going to show off a gift set I put together for my daughter's soccer coach.

Most coaches around here have one practice before the season begins, and call it good. The "season" means two games a week and since coaches are parents who volunteer, most don't want to give more of their time than that. I can absolutely understand that, but it has made a world of difference having a coach who held three practices before the season started, and continues to hold practice throughout the entire season!! This is the first time my daughter has played soccer, and this coach has worked with the kids on an individual level, helping them run-and-kick, helping them drop-kick, and tossing the ball at their heads, haha, to teach them to use their heads instead of their hands. My daughter has improved sooo much and she's not the only one!!

I really, really appreciate how much time and effort this coach has put into this team so I really wanted to put something together for him. I asked his wife what kind of snack or treat he might like, so that's what he's getting. My daughter wanted to pick out something for the assistant coach too, and I thought the coach's wife deserved some chocolate, haha!

Now for the "stamping" part of this post...! Who remembers One-Sheet-Wonders? That was a super trendy concept when I started with Stampin' Up! The idea was to take a single sheet of DP (or stamped sheet) and cut it into all sorts of sizes to be used on tons of different projects. That's the basis of my project today.

In MDS I downloaded the Great Sport stamp brush set to get a soccer ball image. I made a collage 8x11 page, using different colors and two sizes of soccer balls. (I resized most of the images) The whole sheet looked like this, and I printed it onto Whisper White card stock:

Then, I used another page and printed off two soccer balls. I sized them first to 1 3/8 because that's the size of circle punch I have, but then changed it to 1.35 to make them fit just a hair better. I printed those onto card stock also. After punching them out, I stuck them on the cards! The card colors are not my very favorite, but they're based on the kids' uniforms.

Here's the coach's gift and the Retro sketch 81 for the card...

And the assistant coach's gift, I used the Monday Mojo sketch 310 for this card:

Supplies:
MDS: Great Sport: Soccer Ball, resized
Fundamental Phrases: Thanks (comes with MDS), resized
Sporting: everything else (comes with MDS), resized
Colors: Basic Black, Going Gray, Crushed Curry, Raspberry Ripple, Island Indigo, Only Orange, Pacific Point
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Basic Black & Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: 1 3/8 inch circle punch, Hexagon Punch, Dimensionals

Blog Hop: Summer Celebration!

Welcome to our July Blog Hop!

Anna has picked the theme of Summer Celebration and I can't think of anything more fun! I hope you're as excited as I am to see all the fun ideas everyone has, and that you'll hop all the way through with us! I got a box of new goodies just as I finally had a chance to work on these projects so you'll see a lot of new stuff shown off here today! *grin I didn't realize til I went to post that I use the same DP pack on all three projects, haha!

This particular summer itself is quite a celebration for my family, haha...my long time readers will know that most of my summers are usually spent away from home running a scout camp with my husband- but he had the opportunity to change jobs in the past year and we are spending this summer home, as a whole family! Whoohoo for that! We've got to do some fun things as a family, and we're only a month into our summer!

So first up is a random day Summer Celebration kind of scrapbook page! Seems like playing in the water is always a celebration, especially for kids, so here's a trip to a really fun splash pad!

Supplies:

Stamps: Swallowtail

Ink: Basic Gray

Paper: I Am Me DP, So Saffron card stock

July in my house includes a birthday, and every birthday must be Celebrated! Thanks Anna for encouraging me to get this card done in plenty of time! I wanted to use THIS Retro Sketch, and after I made it I had a better idea for it, so here are two very similar cards, haha...

Supplies:
Stamps: Make a Cake, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Pool Party, Gumball Green Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight
Paper: I Am Me DP, Calypso Coral & Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Brights Candy Dots, Epic Day Washi Tape, White Bakers Twine

Independence Day is another fun Summer Celebration all across the country, so I had to include this layout as well, with pictures from two years ago. The other exciting thing about this page is the stamps I used are from the newest photopolymer stamp set!! Check it out HERE. I love that the postcard made for a perfect journaling spot!

Supplies:
Stamps: Wanderlust
Ink: Real Red
Paper: I Am Me DP, Pool Party, Real Red & Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Brights Candy Dots

Now go see everyone else's ideas for a Summer Celebration and let us know what you think! *grin

Blog Hop: May Day!

Welcome to our Blog Hop!! This month's theme is May Day projects, because, after all, today is May Day! Be sure and hop all the way through and see everyone's fabulous May Day creations!

I think flowers are what comes to mind for me when I think of May. I didn't find a sketch that worked for the flower stamps I have, but when I found THIS sketch I thought this fun, flowery DP would work nicely. And since I need a birthday card very soon, that's the greeting I chose!

Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Midnight Muse
Paper: Patio Party DP, Baja Breeze & Midnight Muse card stock
Accessories: Bitty Buttons, 1 3/8 inch square punch, Glue Dots


Next, I had the idea for this page and thought it suited a May Day theme well, so I saved it to share with you today! The sunshine is finally here (hopefully to stay!) and the flowers are blooming! I stamped the "raining flowers" in Tempting Turquoise onto the Tempting Turquoise card stock for a bit of happy fun. I traced a buttons container to make the Daffodil Delight sun and sponged it a bit with Daffodil Delight ink. Then I dragged the Daffodil Delight 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon across the page as sunburst lines. Finally I added the sweet Paper Daisies and the Brights Buttons!
This page is my daughter's spring picture, just like THIS one of my son. My daughter got two pictures because she forgot to take off her jacket and asked for a quick retake, haha!

Supplies:
Stamps: Million Dollar Moments
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight
Paper: Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight card stocks
Accessories: Daffodil Taffeta Ribbon, Paper Daisies, Brights Buttons, Glue Dots
(everything marked in italics are all retiring at the end of May, or while supplies last! Grab them fast!)

Now go see what everyone else has created for May Day!

A sparkly birthday!

This is a busy card. Sometimes its just a challenge to make it all work, lol. I think my issue is the Regal Rose background, which 'coordinates' with the softer pink in the rainbow paper, rather than matches...or maybe its just too much pink. Not sure.. But this card is for my daughter. She looooved the Swallowtail when she saw it (here) and she has a bright, sparkly personality, so she needed the fabulous rainbow strip and the yellow chevron and the glitter paper! The butterfly is actually embossed with silver embossing powder because that's what I grabbed and poured on, instead of black, haha. I also filled in the banner outline (on the greeting) with the Lucky Limeade marker, trying to pick up the green in the rainbow. ...maybe that's the problem-too many colors?
Oh well, she'll be thrilled and THAT is, as always, the point!
This card mostly uses the Retro Sketch.

Supplies:
Stamps: Swallowtail, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Versamark, Basic Gray, Lucky Limeade Marker
Paper: Whisper White & Regal Rose card stock, Sunshine and Sprinkles DP, Silver Glitter DP
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Silver Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

Christmas Thank You's!

It was high time these were made and mailed!! My son made his thank you cards two weeks ago and my daughter wrote most of her thank you letters then too- what's with mom?! My parents gave me this stamp set for Christmas so what better set to use for Chrsitmas thank yous? And since the stamp set is now retired (rude!) I used card "kits" from past years that include retired items, haha. Oh well. Back to current things another time!

First up, THIS sketch from Retro Sketches.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Memories
Ink: Early Espresso, Gumball Green marker, Real Red marker
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Gumball Green, First Edition DP
Accessories: Gumball Green stitched ribbon, Brights Buttons, White Bakers Twine, Mini Glue Dots

This card uses a sketch I was directed to that is HERE, on Craft Project Central.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Memories, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Pool Party marker, Lucky Limeade marker, Wisteria Wonder marker, Island Indigo marker, Soft Suede marker, Early Espresso marker
Paper: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, Whisper White, First Edition DP
Accessories: White Bakers Twine, Mat Pack, retired corduroy Baja Breeze button

And the third card uses a sketch I've seen a few bloggers use in the past week or so, so I added the site to my list over ---> and yeay- more card challenges for me! LOL!

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Memories
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Pear Pizazz (retired), Soft Suede, Very Vanilla card stocks
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens, retired soft suede ribbon

Wonderfall!

I think autumn is over at my house, lol, but I got this new stamp set, paper, and a new ink pad, and I need a card for some upcoming events so I played around til I created this! And then you know what I did? I stuck it in the mail!! That's an important step that I know I forget sometimes, and wonder how many of you don't mail or give the cards you make. hmm.... LOL!
Aside from that, I love this Orchard Harvest DP from the holiday mini. I really do! ...and I noticed that I have bought an autumny or leafy DP every year for the last three years... I need to start using it up! haha!
And incase there are questions, the acorn is cut out and popped up on a Dimensional, and the oak leaf was masked and the other leaf was stamped over it. Not a technique I use often, but a simple one!

Supplies:
Stamps: Wonderfall, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Island Indigo marker
Paper: More Mustard & Sahara Sand card stocks, Orchard Harvest DP
Accessories: Linen Thread, Dimensionals

Mini Stamp Class for a Mini Stamper!

Last week my daughter needed stitches...

Consequently, she needed to give some thank you cards to sweet and thoughtful friends! I asked if she wanted me to make the cards and she could just write in them, or did she want to stamp the cards herself? Her typical style can be found HERE. But this time she asked if I would create the cards and teach her to make them, just like I do in my classes. awww!

So, I pulled out some retired DP and ribbons and went to work designing! She did a really good job trying new things! Here you can see my card's next to her's.
I used Susan's Sketch for this first card...but since the tree image took up so much space, I'm hoping to use the sketch again later!

Supplies:
Stamps: Forever Young
Ink: Soft Suede
Paper: Very Vanilla & Soft Suede card stock, Everyday Enchantment DP (retired)
Accessories: Lucky Limade organdy ribbon (retired)

I used last week's Mojo Monday sketch for this card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Petite Pairs
Ink: Melon Mambo
Paper: Melon Mambo & Whisper White card stocks, Spring Fever Simply Scrappin DP (retired)
Accessories: 1 3/8 inch square punch, Whisper White grosgrain ribbon (retired)

And finally I used the latest sketch from Stamping 411 for this card. I thought I would like this card, and I know my daughter enjoyed all the colors, but the bingo piece with the polka dot dp makes the card waaay too busy for my taste. Oh well- she likes it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Button Button, Bingo Card, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Basic Gray, So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Peach Parfait, Early Espresso
Paper: Whisper White & Peach Parfait (retired) card stocks, Just Add Cake DP (retired)
Accessories: Peach Parfait twill Ribbon (retired)

Love Card

Just a quick post today- It feels like I have about a thousand things to do and only a few hours left to do it all in! gulp!
This card uses the current Mojo Monday sketch. My favorite part is the heart tabs on the side! I designed the whole card without choosing a focal image, which is really unusual for me! This image worked pretty well, lol! At least it continues the heart theme!

Supplies:
Stamps: Greeting Card Kids, Itty Bitty Banners, Make a Cake
Ink: Midnight Muse, Baja Breeze, Basic Black
Paper: Whisper White, Midnight Muse & Baja Breeze card stocks, Patio Party DP
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens, White Stitched ribbon, Dimensionals

Rainbow birthday!

In the last 24 hours I've made a bunch more cards for my display board! :) I even created the make n take for my workshop on Saturday! I'm really excited about this!
Lately I've seen some fun card ideas (well, and all sorts of crafts really) using a rainbow of colors and thought the Pennant Punch would be perfect for that design! Its a super simple card but makes a fun birthday card for anyone!

Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point card stocks
Accessories: Dimensionals

Fun Birthday Card

Yes I am still working on filling up my display board!
Today's card uses two stamp sets and a smattering of new In Colors for a fun, summery look. I used the current Clean & Simple sketch.
I thought the pinwheels were a fun little thing to line up like that. I popped the pinwheels and the banner greeting up on dimensionals to make the card a little more interesting. And its also a handy way of dealing with the pinwheel sticks! *grin

Supplies:
Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade
Paper: Pool Party, Raspberry Ripple & Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Dimensionals

Happy Birthday!

This one will definitely be used for an upcoming birthdays, LOL! And I think with the yellowy green color (Summer Starfruit) and the blue (Midnight Muse), its good enough for a guy! Plus, it uses entirely brand new product!
You wanna hear something else that might encourage you to sign up? These two stamp sets and this DP were free to me, simply because I had a friend who wanted to become a demonstrator! Who doesn't love free stuff?? Let me know when you too are ready to join Stampin' Up!
I used a sketch I found HERE, which was posted more than a year ago, so I think its okay that I used the sketch but not the rest of the challenge, which was to distress the card. *smile

Supplies:
Stamps: Make a Cake, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit, Chocolate Chip, Raspberry Ripple makers
Paper: Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Whisper White card stocks, Patio Party DP