Hoppy Easter!

We've had a very productive weekend. We have a huge christmas village that we put up on the plant ledge in our foyer and since I'm afraid of hights I'm at my husbands mercy to take it down. So this weekend we packed up the the village as well as the valentine's decorations. At the same time I put out the easter decorations so I'm definately embracing the easter season as the snow slowly is melting away. When I saw this weeks Stamping 411 challenge, I thought "What a great challenge!"



One of my favorite stamp sets from the mini catalog is Chocolate Bunny, maybe because it reminds me of my favorite food group, chocolate! I started with a piece of Orchid Opulence for the cardbase. I used the Shades of Spring DSP (the green strip kind of reminds me of grass) and matted it on a piece of So Saffron cardstock. A piece of Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon was wrapped around the DSP and tied in a knot before adhering it to the cardbase. Then I stamped the Chocolate Bunny on Close to Cocoa cardstock with Chocolate Chip ink before cutting it out with Paper Snips. The easter eggs wer cut out of the same DSP pack with the small oval punch. The bunny is mounted with dimensionals so it pops.

Finally, the greating is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and stamped with Chocolate Chip ink.


Nice and simple and sure to get you ready for spring. Have a great week!

Country Living Cards à la Carte

Once again, Stampin' Up! has partnered with Country Living magazine to bring you the Country Living Cards a la Carte stationery kit (Item number 119113). This beautiful French country kit contains:



* Dinner Party Stamp Set (set of 3)

* Ballet Blue Classic Stampin' Spot

* Preprinted stationery (24 - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" sheets: 4 each of 6 designs)

* Very Vanilla Medium Envelopes (12)



Use this kit for letters, invitations, or a special dinner menu - there are so many possibilities!

In addition, Country Living is offering Stampin' Up! customers a special deal: get 10 issues of Country Living magazine for just $10! For just $1 an issue, you'll receive great craft projects, articles on collecting, makeover features, receipes, and entertaining ideas -- all delivered to your home each month. Click here to learn more and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Stamp-a-Stack Cards

What a crazy week! After a great stamp-a-stack on Sunday we celebrated Aidan's 5th Birthday on Monday by going bowling. We've been none stop since then and I'm getting ready for a workshop this weekend along with Aidan's birthday party for his friends (can you say 23 kids in a bounce room)! I wanted to post the cards we made at this months class since they were a big hit.

Stamp Set: Whimsical Words (SAB)
Other: 2 Step Bird Punch

Stamp Set: Vintage Vogue

Stamp Set: Things I Love

Stamp Set: Happy Moments (SAB)

Other: Finial Press Embossing Folder

I'm going to try to start posting our class projects the week before class to give everyone an idea of what fun we'll be having so stay tuned.

Have a great weekend!

A Valentine for my Valentine!

So I've had a running joke leading up to valentines. I've made lots of valentines this year, for family, Aidan, Aidan's class, and general workshops but I had not made a valentine for my sweetheart yet. I think it's because a lot of valentine's are pink and pretty and I was getting stuck trying to think of a manly, romatic card. Well I love Gretchen Barron's designs and the Takin' it to the Top projects she does every week. I had seen this post on her blog last month and loved it so I decided to CASE it and put my own manly spin on it.

I used the Sending Love DSP, the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit Die, I {Heart} Hearts, and Well Scripted stamp sets, along with the fabulous new 5/8" Real Red Satin Ribbon.

What do you think?? I think he'll love it!

Hope you have a very special valentine's day and if you're looking for something to do there's still time to sign up for Stamp-a-stack this Sunday!

Blizzard 2010

Like most of the Mid-Atlantic region we have had an unusual amount of snow this year and this weekend was a whopper. We spent the whole day Saturday shoveling to try to keep up with the snow, we ended up with over 2 feet. It's hard to picture that much snow, pictures really tell the story.


Aidan of course had a blast playing in the snow and helped shovel with his dust pan.

Anyway, with all the snow it did leave me plenty of time to participate in this weeks Stamping 411 challenge.


For this weeks challenge I decided to make a pretty simple card use the new Butterflies Embosslits that just been sitting on my desk crying to be used and got the colors directly from the Sweet Pea Designer Paper pack (how great is it to have so many different patterns of paper in one set). I also used the Perfect Polka Dot Texture folder and the Silver Hodgepodge hardware.

To top it off, do you notice the butterfly bling? I used the rhinstones from the new Easter Egg decorating kit to properly decorate these beauties.


So cheery and happy. Have a safe week as we all try to get back to our normal routines (but more snow is forcast for Tuesday).

A Special Bird Valentine

Good morning!

So I mentioned in my last post about the valentine's Aidan and I worked on this weekend and I wanted to make sure I showed them. Aidan loves the Big Shot and really wanted to try out the new Bird Punch from the mini catalog so we ended up making these valentine's for Aidan's Jr. Kindergarten teachers. He picked out all the colors and helped make all the pieces.

We had a great time, you have to try out the new punches!