Holiday RAK

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was very nice and relaxing.

Pictured above is a RAK from a friend of mine named Claire. Claire became a regular Stampin' Up! customer of mine which grew into a virtual friendship. She sent me the beautiful Christmas card pictured in the front and a gift bag full of handmade cards she made for me to use. A sampling of what she sent me surrounds the Christmas card. One is prettier than the next. I am so thankful for all my blog readers and customers. I've made some great friends!

New year, new stamps! Check out the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini on my sidebar as well as the Sale-A-Bration and Decor Elements. Clear stamps have arrived. I'm so excited! You are going to LOVE them! You can begin ordering any items from these brochures on January 5th.

Love those Stampin' Up! treat cups? Well, Stampin' Up! is releasing heart shaped treat cups January 5th! You'll want to get your order in quickly because with Valentines Day just upon the horizon, these are going to sell quick.

I have so much to share with you with all the new Stampin' Up! products coming out, so please be sure to subscribe to my blog in the upper left sidebar.

Have a wonderful day and happy stamping!!!


TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP! PRODUCTS ON-LINE 24/7, CLICK HERE!

Hello Yellow! Stampin Up Sale-A-Bration Ends Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the final day to take advantage of the current Stampin’ Up! promotion sale-a-bration! For every $50 in merchandise you spend, you get a free set from sale-a-bration mini catalog! This is one of my favorite promotions of the year. Don’t miss out!!!!

I like to play with different card sizes to keep things interesting. This card is a 4.25 square that fits comfortably in Stampin Up! Medium Square Envelopes (item #107289).

I started off with my Delicate Dots (sale-a-bration #114674) Designer Series paper. I felt like yellow for my main color. Spring is here, right? I think so. There was snow on the ground this morning. Anyway, I cut and attached to the entire front of the card a piece of yellow patterned paper from this collection (4.25 x 4.25).

Next, I took the striped paper from the set and ran it through my Big Shot using the Scallop Circle Die. I cut the die cut in half and attached it to the top portion of my card.

Whisper White cardstock and a Martha Stewart border punch finished off the bottom portion of my card.

The center of the card utilizes two stamp sets – Polka Dot Punches (sale-a-bration #113788) for the flowers and Hostess Set (level 1) Darling Dots for the leaves. They go well together, don’t you think? I love it when it works out that way!

I stamped my flowers in Bashful Blue ink on Whisper White cardstock and punched them out using the 5 Petal Flower Punch. I layered behind it the same flower in Bashful Blue cardstock. The leaves were stamped in Old Olive and cut out by yours truly. Sorry, no Stampin’ Up! leaf punches yet. Hmmm. Maybe I should send them the idea!

The flowers needed a little something, so I dug into my button stash and found the perfect buttons from the Button Bouquet collection.

Lastly, a sentiment. Love and Happiness Rub-Ons (retired - see possible alternatives under recipe at the bottom of this post) had just the right sentiment in the right color for this card. I love rub-ons. Super easy to add to any creation. Love them!!!

I hope you took advantage of the promotion and if not, you have until midnight Tuesday.

Happy Monday and thank you for visiting my blog today!

Recipe - all supplies from SU! unless otherwise noted:
Stamps: Polka Dot Punches (sale-a-bration), Darling Dots (hostess level 1 set)
Designer Series Paper: Delicate Dots (sale-a-bration)
Cardstock: Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Old Olive
Punches: 5 Petal Flower, Martha Stewart Border
Bigz Dies: Scallop Circle
Accessories: Button Bouquet, Love & Happiness rub-ons (retired - very similar to A Perfect Day item #111277 or Chit Chat #111804 is a great alternative)

Wedding Invitations

Hello friends! I have a cute story to share about my son and then I'll write about my creation today.

Last night we had Chinese for dinner. He grabbed the fortune cookie right away and I told him he could eat it after dinner. As I'm cleaning up the table after dinner, he breaks open the cookie. I ask him, "what does your fortune say?", thinking he either won't reply or ask what a fortune is (he's only 3). He responds, "it says I should eat this cookie!" How he came up with that is beyond me! He has such a personality. Too cute!

I am currently working on wedding invitations for a customer. This was the first draft. I used Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla for the base color and Ruby Red for the accent color. The embossing was created using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but I aged the embossed cardstock with Creamy Caramel and stamped the heart in that color too. The heart is from the Sale-a-bration catalog, Polka Dot Punches, expiring the end of this month. The "You're Invited" is from the Sincere Salutations collection. She indicated her dress has quite a bit of lace, so I thought the lace ribbon would be the perfect touch.

I'll be back later with a baby card! It appears to be wedding and baby time - not for me though! :)

Have a wonderful day!

Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser?

Is that how the saying goes? We only get better with age, correct? That is what I keep telling myself at least. I feel I'm getting smarter. Could it be? I do have days though where I feel like I'm losing my mind! Since having a child, I need to make lists and write things down. It angers me I have to do this because I never had to before! Is it because we are so busy and have 10 things going on at once, or do those babies really suck the brains out of you? I can't control it, so I guess I just have to deal with it.

I have a birthday coming up next month. I don't get overly excited about them. I truly enjoy being the gift giver but not the receiver. Even as a kid, I loved handing out cookies and goodie bags on my birthday to my friends.

So since I am tired of making Valentines at this point, it was a breath of fresh air to take out some different stamps from my stash! This one, Crazy for Cupcakes, will never go out of style!

I hope my cupcake photographed ok. I used Liquid Applique to make it look like it was really frosted. This was my first attempt with it, so if you have any tips or advice, let me know! The rest of the supplies I used are listed at the bottom of this post.

My son is still checking his Valentines Day mailbox daily. He is so cute. This morning he told me there will be something in there when he gets home tonight. Oh boy! Luckily I had a little bag of Jelly Belly's to stick in there. Whew!

Enjoy your day! God bless.


All supplies from Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise:
Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, Fundamental Phrases
Designer Series Paper: Delicate Dots (free from Sale-A-Bration catalog and $50 order)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Black, Summer Sun, Close to Cocoa
Punches: Eyelet Border, Word Window
White brads
Liquid Applique (Marvy)
White and blue ribbon

Sale-A-Brate the Beauty

The weekend is here again. Time sure does fly by! My little one has been sleeping in lately (knock on wood). Let's hope he is out of that little 6am phase. Oh please! :)

Today's creation I am sharing with you is a card for one of my online friends who creates such beautiful work. It's always nice to send cards out of the blue for out of the ordinary type occasions. Any excuse to create a card, right?

The beautiful, delicate looking patterned paper is a sneak peek from the upcoming Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration promotion effective 2/1/09. It's called Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper. Check out the details on my sidebar on how you can get this paper and several different stamp sets free during this promotion! I also used a Martha Stewart border punch for the center trim, SU! 5-Petal Flower punch, SU! 3/4 circle punch, and Colorbok adhesive metal words (from Michaels $1 bin).

I hope your weekend is fantastic! God bless.