A Manly Birthday

What a crazy weekend! It's amazing how the social life of a 5 year old can be more hectic than his parents. We spent all day Saturday
running around. My birthday is tommorow so my too guys took me out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants on Saturday (it was fabulous!) Thankfully we were able to rest a little on Sunday after one of my workshops. Since I've been make very floral cards recently I decided to work on something a little more manly for this weeks Stamping 411 challenge.

This weeks creation started with a piece of Bermuda Bay Textured Cardstock (I love that SU! offered textured cardstock in 8 1/2 x 11 size this year for the In Colors but I always seem to forget about it).

My strip is lots of layers, starting with Bermuda Bay Designer Paper, Whisper White, and Soft Suede Cardstock, and finally another piece of Whisper White that I ran through the scallop edge punch (I love this new punch!) I tied a piece of Soft Suede Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon around the layers but flipped it so the polka dots did not show.

I used the Birthday Bliss Stamp set and stamped the greeting twice, once in Soft Suede and again in Bermuda Bay Ink. Since I wanted the greeting cut close to the edge I used my Paper Snips and cut out the oval on the Soft Suede piece and the words from the Bermuda Bay. Finally I used the dimensionals to mount the greeting and make it POP.


Nice and simple, but I love the color combination. Hope you enjoy and have a great week!

One Layout, Three Different Cards

Like many demonstrators we sometimes end up with extra cardstock cut for classes and workshops. Normally I just use the extras to make up multiples of the card and add them to my card stash. For a recent workshop I had enough supplies cut to make a lot of cards so I decided to use the same layout and pieces but changed the stamp sets and occassions. The first card below is the card from the workshop and the next two are alternates.

Stamp Set(s): Good Neighbor, Whimsical Words

Stamp Set(s): Picinic Parade

Stamp Set(s): Beary Best Friends, Beary Best Wishes

This card is a favorite of Aidan's. It's a great card for a kids birthday, Aidan colors the bear for each recipient.

Enjoy!

A Flower for Mom

We're half way through another week. It's funny that as the weather gets nicer it's harder and harder to stay inside and work on projects when we can be outside soaking in the long awaiting warm weather. I definately decided to take inspiration from the spring flowers for this weeks Stamping 411 challenge.

I started with a piece of Sweet Pea DSP that was sitting on my desk and created this card around this great design. The card base is So Saffron and the the designer paper is matted on a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock. I used a piece of Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon along the right side of the card and tied a big, fat bow on top. I decided to use the Messages for Mom stamp set (I can't believe this was the first time I had inked it up). The letters are stamped with Chocolate Chip ink on So Saffron cardstock. I cut out each of the letters with Paper Snips so they could run down the side of the card and each was popped up with dimensionals. Then I used the flower stamp and stamped it with Chocolate Chip ink on Whisper White cardstock before mounting it on a piece of Old Olive cardstock. The flowers were colored in with Old Olive, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, and Regal Rose Stampin' Write markers.

I finished the inside of the card by stamping "Happy Mother's Day" in the center in Chocolate Chip and used the flower image in the top left and bottom right corners in Old Olive.



I love how this card turned out and think any mom would love to receive it (hopefully my mom isn't looking at this post). Enjoy the rest of the week and soak up all the nice weather.

Birthday Wishes

I’m so happy that spring has finally arrived…I’ve spotted the first daffodil blooming in our front yard (whoo hoo!) This weeks Stamping 411 challenge threw me off a little but then I loved the idea of using scraps so I decided to give it a try and with only 2 weeks left in the Sale-a-bration promotion I used three different items that you can earn for free (love the freebies!).

I started with Melon Mambo for the card base and then added a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock that I ran through the Big Shot with the SU! Perfect Details Texturz Plate. Then I picked to scraps of designer paper from the Welcome Neighbor SAB pack. I added a piece of Melon Mambo Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon between the layers of designer paper before tying in a knot. I stamped the present image from the Happy Moments SAB Stamp set with Basic Black ink on a piece of Whisper White cardstock that was layered on top of Rich Razzleberry. I used a mix of Stampin’ Write markers to color in the packages. I also stamped the packages on another scrap of designer paper and cut it out with my Paper Snips for the middle present.

The greeting is from the Whimsical Words SAB Set and is colored in with Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo Stampin’ Write markers and the whole thing is matted on a piece of Melon Mambo cardstock.

This is a really cute card that was fun to make and definitely matches the sunny mood we’re all feeling on this beautiful day.

Hope you enjoy.

A Sneak Peak at this Month's SAS Projects

As promised I wanted to share a sneak peak at some of the projects we'll be making at Sunday's Stamp-a-stack. This is 3 of the projects, I'm keeping the 4th as a suprise. I hope you can join us.

A Childhood Favorite

Happy start to the week, which means another Stamping 411 challenge. I was really good this weekend and worked to plan all my projects for next weekends stamp-a-stack and I almost ran out of time before I had to leave for a business trip on Sunday afternoon. I initially tried to use this weeks challenge for one of our project cards but it just wasn't working but I woke up Sunday morning and thought that the new Something Sweet stamp set would be perfect for this sketch.

This was the first time I used this stamp set and it just screamed BOLD Brights. I started with a piece of Real Red Cardstock and used the Corner Rounder Punch on just the top left and bottom right corners (this corner punching will be repeated on each piece of cardstock on the card). Then I took a piece of Gable Green Cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dot Textured Folder.

The main image is stamped with Real Red ink on Whisper White cardstock. The clear mounted Something Sweet stamp set is perfect for making sure all the pieces lined up (I actually mounted both pieces of the gumball machine to one block and just stamped once. Then I stamped the circle image on a seperate piece of cardstock before randomly stamping the gumballs with Real Red, Gable Green, Lovely Lilac, and Brilliant Blue ink (some were double stamped so they had different levels of color) and punched it out with the 1 3/4" Circle punch. Then I stamped some more gumballs on a scrap of paper and used the 1/2" Circle punch to punch them out before attaching them with SNAIL and dimensionals. This completed image was then mounted on a piece of Brilliant Blue cardstock. Before adhering the piece to the card I added a piece of yummy Real Red statin ribbon (love it!)

Finally the greating is stamped in Lovely Lilac and punched out with the Modern Label punch. I sponged the edges with Billiant Blue ink before using dimensionals to mount the greating to the card.



Cute and easy card, perfect for kids birthday (or the kid in all of us!).

Hope you have a great week and check back tomorrow for a preview of some of our upcoming stamp-a-stack projects (there's still time to RSVP).

Haitan Relief Efforts

I am so pleased to hear that worldwide a totoal of 13,587 I "Heart" Hearts stamp set were purchased through Stampin' Up demonstrators in the allotted timeframe and that more than $27,000 will be donated by Stampin' Up! to the American Red Cross as a result. Thanks so much to everyone who purchased the set, The people of Haiti are going to need continued aid and support and every little bit helps. Thanks!

Don't Throw Out Those Scraps!

My February Stamp-a-stack was on Valentine's day so I made each of the ladies a little candy box with the Bitty Box and Envelope Big Shot XL Die (a Stampin' Up exclusive!) I used Heart to Heart punch to punch windows in the top that I covered with a transparency sheet (too cute!) Anyway, I lots of little harts from the punches and instead of throwing away all the little pieces I saved them. As I was cleaning my desk I ran across them and knew I need to finish the card before I lost them.

For the card I just ran a piece of Real Red cardstock through the Big Shot with the Scallop Envelope Die and then ran the cut out through the Big Shot again, this time with the Perfect Polka Dot Texture Folder. Then I used Sticky Strip to seal the sides of the card and attach it to the card before filling it with all the hearts spilling out of the top. The greating is from the Well Scripted stamp set.

Pretty cute, and a great way to use all the little punched out pieces you hate to throw away!