September!

Hey all! I hope everyone is getting used to the new school schedule by now.......I'm still having trouble, but we're getting it figured out!

Our theme this month is Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love projects with these themes! I just love all the colors that go with them.

My first project is a card using one of my fave sets called "Seasons of Friendship". It has this great tree image, with several little images that you can put with the tree - a little birdie, a flower, leaves and a snowflake. It also has the great saying with it that you see on my card.

My base is Brocade Blue, layered with More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, and then Very Vanilla on top. On the Vanilla piece I brayered More Mustard on the top half and Brocade Blue on the bottom - but first putting a circle that I punched out of printer paper and sticking it on using removable adhesive. I used printer paper because the thinner paper works best so you get a clear shape because the brayer can get the ink right up to the template edge. I stamped the tree image using Chocolate Chip ink and stamping it three times without reinking. That gives you the shadowy images. Then I stamped the leaves using Crushed Curry, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip (I stamped off first when using the chocolate chip so it wouldn't be too dark) I stamped the verse in Chocolate Chip and used 3 of our Antique Brass Vintage brads.

On the Mustard layer, I added a little faux stitching down the side. and finished it off using some of our awesome Chocolate Taffeta ribbon.

For my next project, I made a cute little name place card/treat cup for a Halloween party or just to give to friends! I'm addicted to these little Sweet Treat Cups that are in the new Holiday Mini Catalog. And you get 12 of them for $2.95!! That's a bargain and they are so darn cute and easy to do! You can fill them with just about anything! Okay, probably not liquid! But my project gets pretty darn close to toeing that line!

This is the top of it. I used Pumpkin Pie and I freehanded the web using the white gel pen. The little circle is punched out using our scalloped circle punch. That circle is actually what was punched out of the middle of the image that's on the bottom part that you'll see in the next picture. I used our large oval punch and Elegant Eggplant layered with Pumpkin Pie punched with the small oval punch. I popped up the circle and the ovals with dimensionals and wrote my son's name using the white gel pen again! I love that pen!

Now you can kind of see where that circe came from! I stamped the same image from the Sweet Centers set using the Pumpkin Pie ink and used the 3/4" and 1/2" circe punches to punch out some of the orange images to layer on top of the Eggplant piece. I also used a smaller hole punch to punch out the eyes of the orange image so the purple showed through on them. For some reason, I did not like the orange eyes, nose and mouths!! I'm weird like that! AND, the best part.....I filled the little cup with Oobleck! (Easy! Just mix 1/2 cup corn starch with 1/4 cup water and add food coloring!) That's why I made this one to sit on the cup part, so the oobleck would not be touching the cardstock and make it soggy. The flash made it hard to see the color, so I took another picture to capture that a little better! So cute!

My last project is another Sweet Treat Project! It's a cute card using the sets Animal Crackers and Sweet Centers again. My base is More Mustard layered with the Top Note Die shapes in Really Rust and Very Vanilla. I punched out a scalloped circle punch to use for a template and sponged Bashful Blue while moving it around in different positions. I paper pieced the balloon basket using the Rust and Mustard papers and popped it up with dimensionals. I stamped the squirrel in Chocolate Chip and sponged it using chocolate and mustard inks, cut it out and stuck him in the basket. I had to freehand some little whiskers so you could distinguish the nose/eye! For some reason, it just didn't look right when you couldn't see the whole squirrel - it just looked like little dots! I filled the cup with almonds! It's finished off with the 1/2 twill tape. I really like that stuff, but just don't think to use it very often. It's very easy to work with.

Well.....I hope you enjoyed my projects today! Please come back again to visit!

New Projects

My first project is a little card holder that holds 3 little note cards and 3 envelopes. Perfect for gifts and easy enough to make several at a time! I used our Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Paper and the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set. I also used our Wide Oval Punch, our Large Oval Punch, our eyelet border punch and the Swirly die with our Big Shot. This project features our new In Colors for this catalog! Aren't they fabulous!

On the front of my project, I used Melon Mambo, Crused Curry, and Rich Razzleberry. I also used the Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grograin Ribbon. I layered the Curry oval on the Melon oval, layered a couple of butterly images and put them together. The sentiment is from the Fresh Cuts stamp set - I just love that font!

This is the note holder open with the cards on the right and envelopes on the left.

One this note card, the base is Crushed Curry. I added a little of the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Paper (just a one inch strip) on the bottom of the inside so you could see it underneath the eyelet border.


This one I used Soft Suede.

And this one is Bermuda Bay - arent' these great names! By the way, don't you just love my papertowels behind the cards?? It's quilted!! ha ha!
My next project also uses the In Colors sponged on using a template that I made by punching out circles and laying it on top of the card. I just inked up the small flower on the Inspired by Nature set to stamp on the front. The ribbon is a great technique just using glue dots to gather the ribbon to make it ruffly! You should be able to click on the picture to enlarge it to see the detail of it a little better. It adds a really fun touch!

The base of this card is Basic Black, then layered with Crushed Curry, and then Whisper White on top. I used the Rich Razzleberry ink for the middle circle and Crushed Curry for the other two. The one on the right, I just added a little more ink to make it darker in color. The ribbon is the Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grograin Ribbon again. The sentiment is from the Trendy Trees set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blogger's Challenge - Sketch

This week was a fun sketch! That simply means that you are given a "sketch" of a layout of a card and you create it according the sketch. I personally love these challenges because it kind of gives you a starting place, especially if you're lacking in your mojo! LOL! Here's the sketch:

And here's my card that I made:

I used my new favorite product from our new catalog - the Sunny Day Simply Scrappin' Kit. I absolutely love the colors, the images and the papers in this kit. You simply HAVE to have it!! I started out with a white base, and added the top background layer, which is a paper from the kit. Then I decided to add the Big Shot Die "Swirly" in a couple of different colors. After I cut them out in the Pumpkin and the Pink Passion, I decided to try to piece the different colors together for the next layer! It turned out really cute, I thought! Then I added another little piece of the Pink Swirly and trimmed it off at both ends after finding the perfect place for it on the card. The flower images and the cute little birdie tag on the top are some of the cardstock stickers from the kit. The sentiment is from the Best Wishes and More set. I sponged a little of the turquoise chalk around the tag to add a little shading. I was pretty darn pleased with how it turned out!

Can't believe that summer is coming to an end already. Time for school shopping, school open houses, locker check outs, schedule pick ups, and more. Oh my.......here we go again!

Some fun gift ideas!

My projects are using the fabulous set called "Wings of Friendship". I love this set with the new Designer Series Paper "Razzleberry Lemonade". I made a little gift set that features several different projects. Take a look:

Isn't it cute?! Here's a closer look at the individual projects (with a little better lighting!). The first one is a Post It Note holder. I used the Razzleberry Lemonade papers and the sentiment stamp that reads "Your friendship means the world to me". I also used a little of the Razzleberry Polka Dot ribbon. I used a hair band for the closure. I put it underneath the ribbon, so when you open it, the band stays attached to the cover so it won't get lost! In the picture, you can really see my dimensionals I used to attach the sentiment (which is on vellum, by the way!), but it's really not that noticeable in real life. Just the lighting of the camera, I guess.

Here's a picture of it open:

Next is the matching pen! I used some of our Sticky Strip red line tape, which is the bomb for sticking paper, glitter, beads, ribbon, kids up on the walls.......just kidding about that last one! But it's pretty sticky, it would probably work if you wanted to try it! ha ha! I just wrapped the Sticky Strip around the pen and cut a piece of the DSP to fit and rolled it around. And there is some of that awesome Razzleberry Ribbon again!

This is a mini magazine holder shaped box to hold some little 3 x 3 gift cards. I used the Crushed Curry cardstock, stamped some of the other images with the Curry ink to give it a tone on tone look. To jazz it up a little, I stamped the bird and the flower images on vellum with the Razzleberry ink, cut them out and adhered them using dimensionals. I used a strip of the DSP and ribbon around the bottom. Here's a 360 of the box: (just ignore the little back pieces of the dimensionals that are static stuck to the bottome! I don't know how I didn't notice that while taking the pics!)

Here are the cute little 3 x 3 cards that are inside the box. I used most of the patterns of the Razzleberry Lemonade DSP on them with the sentiment again. Our Wide Oval punch and Large Oval Punch work so great with many of our sets! These are all of the new In Colors! Minus the Rich Razzleberry - it's the color of the ribbon I've used on it. The colors are - Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, and Crushed Curry. Don't they sound as yummy as they look?!

Well, that's all my projects! I hope you enjoyed them!

Blogger's Challenge - CASE

This week, the challenge was to CASE ("Copy And Steal Everything") a fellow Blogger's Challenge member. EVERYONE is so talented, it's hard to choose one! But I kept coming back to this card, made by none other than my BFF Lisa Martz:


I love the layers and the different shapes....it's just a fun card! Here's my CASE:


My CASE was the sketch, or the layout of the card. I obviously changed the colors and the images to make it my own. I used some of the new In Colors that I absolutely love this time! My base is Rich Razzleberry, and the next layer is a piece of the textured Melon Mambo and a piece of the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper (LOVE THIS!). The next layer up is another piece of the Razzleberry Lemonade paper in a different color/pattern. I used images from the stamp set Blooming With Love. I replaced Lisa's beautiful coloring on her card with paper piecing on mine! I'm not a very good colorer! I'm working on it though! The pot is another one of the new In Colors called Dusty Durango - it makes a great terra cotta pot! The flowers are cut out and layered on also, that's how I got them to overlap the pot. I JUST got the eyelet border punch -- can you believe that?! I've survived this long without it! It's very fun and I'll be using it a lot now that I have it! I stamped the watering can on the Melon Mambo piece with the VersaMark pad. That part was an after-thought -- it may have made the card a little bottom heavy.......now that I think about it, there's nothing wrong with bottom-heavy! ha ha! Bottom heavy is beautiful! I think this may have opened a new door for me -- I think this is the first project I've done with NO ribbon in a long time!

Well, that's it for today. Gotta go clean some more and cut paper for my open house tomorrow. (Anyone that is local is welcome to come! Email me if you need info.)

Thanks for stopping by!

SNR Card Universe 4th of July Blog Hop!

I'm so glad that you could join the SNR Card Universe Blog Hop! If you came from Janice Webb's blog, you're on the right track! If you didn't, you may want to hop to SNR Card Universe to start at the beginning. So grab a cup of coffee, sit down and enjoy!

Our assignment was to do a red, white and blue project. Here's my card:

I started out with a white base and just added the cut out stars. I cut a few of them out of patterned paper and a few I stamped. I didn't have a large enough star punch, so I found a large star stamp in one of my sets and stamped it on the back of the patterned paper and then cut it out. Worked perfect! I also popped them up using some dimensionals. The USA is made from some fun chipboard stickers that I got at the craft store. I just pounced them upside down in my blue ink pad to color them. Then tied the ribbon on......that's it! Really easy! To make the ribbon fray like that, just cut the edges off and pull it apart. (this only works on grosgrain ribbon) This is the second patriotic card that I've done using this technique -- it reminds me of fireworks! That's it for me! You can click on my blog title to see the rest of my blog and projects. I hope you come back and visit soon!

Your next stop on the blog hop will be Thena Smith! I know she'll have something great for you to see! Enjoy the rest of the tour!

Blogger's Challenge - Patriotic!

I love the spirit of 4th of July, all the family get-togethers, cook outs, summertime, etc, etc, etc. BUT......I hate fireworks! I love looking at them from afar.......very afar! I don't like the idea of being around them or the thought of my kids being around them even more. Of course, they hate that! My brother is really good about putting on a "show" for us and picking one's that are safe for them to "do" themselves. Just another area that, as a mom, I'm "no fun"!! That's from my kids - I happen to think I'm very fun! Ha ha!

Anyways, here is my project. It's not very often that I do a clean simple design that I don't end up with the feeling that something is missing! But I like this one!

I know what you're thinking......"uh, have you ever heard of a stamp-a-ma-jig"??? Funny thing is, I used one! Ha ha! If you don't know, a stamp-a-ma-jig is this cool little tool to help you stamp an image straight and exactly where you want it EVERY TIME -- in this case, it was operator error! I added the stamped image AFTER I put the ribbon on, so it was hard to position without the ribbon getting in the way, therefore making it hard for me to see if it was really straight. Oh well, you get the idea! To fray the ribbon like that, you just cut the edge off each side and just pull it apart. This technique works with the grosgrain ribbon - I don't think it would work with silk or other kinds. I love the look of stamping the inside of the cards a little, but hardly ever think to do it! (my picture was a little blurry for some reason - those are little stars that I stamped with versamark and then with white)

Supplies used for this project were: brillian blue cs, real red cs, whisper white cs, real red 5/8" wide grosgrain ribbon, white 1/4" wide grosgrain ribbon, Celebrate This stamp set, star punch and white craft ink. The stars on the inside were from the retired Sporting Goods stamp set.

Have a wonderful and SAFE holiday weekend! I get to go to the Larry the Cable Guy show! They are filming it for the Comedy Central channel, so watch for me!!

Blogger's Challenge - Alter it!

I got these cute little shaped chipboard albums at Michael's in the $1 aisle a while back. They had lots of different fun shapes. Today, I altered the car shape in honor of my daughter that turned 16 years old last week! I had some fun pictures from her birthday that I thought would work perfect for this. Here's what it looked like before:

Here's a few pictures of different angles so you can see all the details. I did it all in black cause that's what color her car is. I covered it in black paper and used my Versamark pad all over it with clear embossing powder. I free-handed the window shapes with vellum and cut out shapes for the headlights and tail lights. I used my 2" circle puch for the wheels and embossed a background stamp to make the "treads". I used the 3/4" circle punch and silver paper for the inside of the wheels. That's an image from the Wanted set in the center! I just used black sparkly sticker letters to put her name on. I thought it turned out pretty cute!

I took so much time doing the cover that I didn't get any of the other pages done yet! Here are the pictures that I will add to it - I'll try to remember to post the pages as I get them done too!

This is her on the morning of her birthday sitting in the car waiting to go in and get her license! She is holding her certificate saying that she passed her driver's ed class and got her written and driving tests waived. She just had to go in and fill out the paperwork and do the eye test!

She absolutely forbid me to take my camera in to the DMV to take pics of her getting her license!! Teenagers!

The next few pictures were very emotional for me! She was laughing at me because I was crying! She is getting in her car and driving off all by herself for the very first time! It was both a very proud moment, but a very terrifying moment all at once!

This was a very fun challenge to do! I love altering things and if you're like me, you have things stashed that you've saved from the trash to "do something with"! My 16 year old (that still sounds weird!) told me one day that I needed to go on one of those talk shows about people that hoard things! LOL!! I laughed at her and she said, "No, seriously, mom.....you have a problem!"

Thanks for stopping by!

New Catalog Sneak Peeks!

As a demo, one of the perks is that we have a chance to pre-order some selected sets from the new catalog so we can have some fabulous samples ready to show our customers. The new catalog is really really great - I say that every time, but they outdo themselves with every catalog in my opinion! The set that I pre-ordered is a level 2 hostess set called Wings of Friendship. I just love the style of this set, it's a style that you'll see mimicked in several sets in the catalog. It's that great scrolly elegant look that lends itself to many different styles - elegant, whimsical, classical, and I've even see some great masculine cards with this style. Here are my cards -

I used a couple of different colors on my samples. Here's a closer look at the one using one of the new In Colors, Rich Razzleberry as the base of the card

Here's the one using Melon Mambo as the base

They both have the second layer of the new Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper. This paper has some really fun patterns on it. Using the DSP also gives you some really cool color combinations without any work at all! Often combos that you may not think to use on your own and any project will get pulled together nicely with a little of the DSP on it! I used to never buy the DSP because I don't do a lot of scrapbooking, but then I got a taste of how much using it simplifies making cards too!

Here are the directions:

The base of the card is 4x4.

The DSP layer is 3 3/4 x 3 3/4.

Adhere those layers together.

Wrap a ribbon around and tie either in a knot or bow. (I used the new Razzleberry Polka Dot)

The white layer is the glossy white, but just the whisper white would work also, it's 3 1/8 x 3 1/8. Of course stamped with your choice of image.

Punch out a scallop circle (I used the new Crushed Curry color).

Stamp your greeting and punch out using the wide oval punch. Attach it on the scallop circle.

Punch out a scallop square and cut it in half diagonally. Attach each half on each end of the oval.

It's that easy!! Very quick card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

It's been a great week!

My first project is a card featuring one of my favorite sets, Stitched Exotics. I love this technique using the Big Shot Top Note die. It's a faux quilting technique. I used the retiring "Candy Lane" designer series paper.



The base is Close to Cocoa cardstock and I used vanilla cardstock on some of the squares that I stamped partial images from the Stitched Exotics set on using Close to Cocoa ink and Riding Hood Red ink. On some of the flowers, I layered the Trio Flower punch to give it some dimension. I love those vintage brads!! I used my Chocolate marker to make the "stitch" marks on all the squares -- and you thought I could sew!! ha ha!!

My next project is another set that I'm sad to see go. Zoofari! The name of it even sounds fun! This set is great for lots and lots of different projects. For my project today, I'm doing a little treat bag that would be great for preschool classmates (or older!) or birthday treat bags or whatever your heart desires!



Again, I used the Big Shot Top Note die - love that thing!! I'm not sure I can do any projects without it anymore! The base is our lovely Basic Black cardstock - I cut two of them. On one of them I cut it in half. I used our Wide Oval punch on the Real Red cardstock and threaded the black gingham ribbon through. I stamped the cute little zebra image in Basic Black ink and then used my Gray marker to color in the stripes. TIP - use a shade slightly darker when coloring monochromatic images. That way you can still see the original lines of the image. It looks a lot cleaner. I used the Stampin' Dimensionals on the zebra to make him pop out! And of course, I filled the bag with Animal Crackers!
Well that's it for me! Please just post in the comment section or email me with any questions! Thanks for popping by, hope to "see" you again!

Blogger's Challenge - Summer!

I have a few projects to share that I've been working on the past week. It was the last week of school, so I was working on gifts for Hope's teachers and her classmates.

The first one is the gift that I made for her classmates. It's a little box (about 3 x 3) with a acetate window in the top so you can see the lemonade cup inside. I buy these tubes of powdered drink mixes, there are 6 containers in each tube and each container makes 2 quarts. Perfect for summer!

This is the top view

This is a better view of the lemonade cup.

The next project is the gift for the teachers. I bought these little "Grow Kits" in the Dollar Spot at Super Target - LOVE that store! I used the same box template as I did for the lemonade project. I just made the bottom of the box, but the grow kit in and made a sleeve for it out of a transparency sheet.

The top view

This is the Grow Kit as it looked when I first bought it.

This is the before and after shot! Aren't they adorable!

That's all for today! I hope everyone has a great start to their summer! Don't forget to check back on the 20th for the "Tour de Freaks" blog hop. Details in the post below!

Blogger's Challenge - FINALLY!

This is getting posted really late!! I actually had it done on time, but didn't get it photographed until today to post it. My mom and dad were here from Arkansas last week for a visit and time just gets away from you when you're visiting and having fun! My mom loves to stamp and craft, so we did some of these projects together, but I didn't take the time to photograph and post. My mom also fell and broke her knee cap while they were here! That added to the chaos! Since she couldn't go up and down stairs, they ended up staying at our house the whole time they were in town, instead of rotating to stay with all her kids like usual. So guess what? EVERYONE was at our house most of the days!! It was so fun and I love having everyone at our house, but that sure does add chaos when you have 10 adults and 13 kids - not to mention the neighbor kids that are always here too!! It was great!

Anyway, our challenge was to "CASE" yourself - which means "Copy" something that you've done before, but change 2 things about it. I made one of these for my father-in-law for his birthday last month and it was so fun and easy! As you can see, I had several little flowers and leaves cut out to embellish it, but haven't gotten that far yet! It's called an "Album in a Box". It looks like a box when the lid is on, but once you take the lid off, the sides fall down. You put pictures or journaling, or whatever you want on the flaps - both sides if you want! It's a great gift for grandparents, as I found out! My mother-in-law wants one now!

I will try to put together a little tutorial with directions on how to do this in a day or so. You will be so surprised at how easy and fast these are to put together. Mom and dad left yesterday, so the house is a lot quieter, but now I have tons of cleaning and laundry to catch up on! Hope you're having a great week so far!