Faux Tile Technique

Today's cards feature a new technique called "Faux Tile". This is one of the techniques I will be teaching at my new upcoming Tuesday Technique classes. These classes will be held every other Tuesday morning starting March 4th at 10:00am-noon. More information on these classs can be found on my Stampin' Up! website Events page.

Here is a closer look at the first card we will be making. If you look closely you can see how the background has been made to look like a tile floor. This technique is very easy to do and provides you with absolutely stunning results! The colors of this card are River Rock and Chocolate Chip.

This is the second card we will be making featuring this technique. It features the color combination of Always Artichoke, River Rock and Chocolate Chip. I also added one of the new Rhinestone brads to complete the elegant look and feel to this card.

The last card we will be making features one of my favorite color combinations. I love pink and brown together and so I came up with this card using Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip. I know you probably won't find many pink tiled floors, but a girl can dream right?

Happy Stamping~

Stamp set: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Pretty in Pink

Card stock: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Always Artichoke, Pretty in Pink

Other: Paper Cutter with scoring blade, sponges, Earth Element buttons, Rhinestone brads, Dimensionals, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grograin ribbon, corner rounder punch

Embrace Life

Good Morning everyone! Today's card is one of the make-and-take cards we did at my workshops this past week. It features the Embrace Life set. When I first saw this set I wasn't impressed at all. It was definitely NOT one of my must haves for this year. Of course, that has changed! *lol* I started to see so many beautiful cards in the gallery at SCS. This card was cased from a card I saw on the Stampin' Up! demo website. It's just another great reason to become a demo. The support and inspiration available to you as a demo is FANTASTIC! (Remember that now until March 17th the demo starter kit is only $159- 20% off!!!!)

Anyway- back to the card. The card base is done in chocolate chip. The accent colors on this are mellow moss and apricot appeal. I stamped the flower image onto apricot appeal in basic brown. Then I outlined the flower with my apricot appeal marker and added some additonal accents with my white gel pen before cutting it out. It is mounted with a dimensional to make to "pop" more.

Happy Stamping~

Stamp set: Embrace Life
Ink: Whisper white craft, Basic brown, Apricot Appeal marker, Mellow Moss marker
Card stock: Whisper White, Apricot Appeal, Chocolate Chip
Other: Mellow Moss grograin ribbon, dimensionals, white gel pen

Sticky Letters- How fun!!!!

This is one of the cards I demonstrated this week at my workshops. It features Stampin' Up!'s new sticky cut letters and the new chunky glitter. The card is much better looking in person. The glitter is so pretty and really adds a lot to the card. My workshop attendees LOVED these and everyone wanted them. The glitter I used here is not availabel until March 1st so you're getting a preview of it. *wink* It is featured in the All Occasions Mini Catalog. Those of you who were already on my mailing list or are a club member should be receiveing your copy in the mail soon. Those of you who are not on my mailing list or not part of my clubs please email me and I will happily mail you out one!! This new glitter comes in the most yummy colors- Celery (featured here), Crystal Iris (white), Light Blue, and Light Pink. The designer paper used on the background is the Cutie Pie DSP. This is becoming one of my favorite papers. I love the bright colors and as always it coordinates so well with all of the stamp sets in the catalog. Oh- and yes- I did stamp the Happy Birthday sentiment directly onto the DSP. Don't be afraid to stamp and add to the beautiful papers. Be creative! You won't be disappointed.


Happy Stamping~


Stamp set: A Little Birthday Cheer
Ink: Basic Black
Card stock: Bashful Blue, Certain Celery, Whisper White, Cutie Pie DSP
Other: Sticky Cut Letters, powder pal, Chunky Sprinkles glitter

Inexpensive Storage Ideas

I know! I know! I have been so busy lately that I have been neglecting you here in blog-land. I'm sorry. I think that today's post and ideas will make up for it though! *grin* I have a wonderful and inexpensive storage solution for you all. Unfortunately I can not take credit or the original design- but I can take credit for ther modified one. *wink* Who would have thought that you could create a storage solution to hold all your Stampin' Up! ink pads? Believe it or not, these storage solutions are made out of foam board!!!! How awsome is that? The first picture is the original design which I found directions on Rebel Inker's blog HERE.

Can you believe that she created the entire pattern on her own? I admit, I had to have my hubby help me with the assembly of it, but once I saw it together and understood how it all fit together I was determined to make another one for some of my other items. The next picture is the design I came up with.

Isn't it cute??? I created 2 shelves to help organize my brads, eyelets, microbeads, reinkers and embossing powders / glitter that I use frequently use. I also have an area to keep my bottles of prima flowers and the far right side has my pencil holder which houses some of my tall scissors and other tall tools. I left the top off this area so anything could be stuck there and I didn't have to worry about it not fitting. These 2 creations have really helped keep my items organized and my stamping area a little bit cleaner. (I said a little!!!!!)

I'd love to hear what you use to help keep yourself organized. One of my resolutions this year is to get myself more organized. I can use all the help I can get!!!!!

Hope you're all finding time to stamp and create. Happy Stamping~

So Punny

I had a chance over the past week to play with some of my Sale-a-Brations sets from last year. I still love the Very Punny set. I think it is one of my all time favorites. These cards were inspied by so many talented designs found at Splitcoaststampers. I appologize that I do not know who exactly these were cased after. The first picture features the Piggy from the set. I think he is so cute. Of course the card's main color had to be pretty in pink. :0) The accenting color on this card was basic gray. I used my Cuttlebug and embossing template to create the white background. The ribbon is a velvet ribbon I picked up at Michales awhile ago.
This next card features the little ladybug from the set. Again the background was made using my Cuttlebug and embossing folder. I love how the embossed circles are accented by the circles of ladybugs.

This last card uses the frog in the set. Isn't he just the cutest? I swear it looks like he is waving at you. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the lillies are colored in using a gold Sakura gellyroll pen. It adds such a nice touch to the card. The lilypads were made using the Lily Pad wheel with chocolate chip ink.

These were all fairly easy cards to make. They can be used for just about any occasion. I left the inside blank on them all so I can stamp/add a sentiment as the occasion occurs.

Happy Stamping~

Stamp set: Very Punny, Lily Pad Wheel

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Pretty in Pink

Card stock: Mellow Moss, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Baic Gray

Other: Sakura Jellyroll pen, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon,scallop punch, 1-3/8" & 1-1/4" circle punchs, large & small oval punches, Cuttlebug & embossing folders, various markers, velvet ribbon from Michaels

Florida Kids

Isn't this an adorable card? I love the way the entire thing turned out. I had so much fun creating this. I feel as though I am now an expert at using the Stampa-a-ma-jig! This set requires you to use it on each part of the people. Without it -life would be very hard trying to line everything up. After I stamped the kids, I masked them and added in the Palm trees. Afterall, this is Florida and I wanted them to be Floridians! :0)

This card gave me a chance to use some of my new flowers form the Flower Fusion kit found in the new catalog. I wasn't sure how I would like them, but once I started playing with them I couldn't stop. They add such nice accents to a project. I decided to add the Rhinestone brads to the center of each flower (I tend to hoard them and am seriously trying to use all my supplies instead of coveting them!!!). The designer paper in the background is the Rose Red Designer Series Paper. This is yet another thing I have been hoarding. I promise to try and use more of my designer paper and accessories than I have in the past!

Hope you've been finding time to get some stamping done this week. I am off to finish preparing for 2 workshops coming up this weekend. Both of them should be great fun. I will post the make-and-take projects later this weekend.

Happy Stamping~

Stamp set: All in the Family, A Little Birthday Cheer, Do the Hula
Ink: Basic Black
Card stock: Tempting Turquoise, Appricot Appeal, Whisper White, Rose Red DSP
Other: Rhinestone brads, Flower Fusion, Various Markers, Stamp-a-ma-jig, ticket corner punch, dimensionals

PG-13 post

Okay stampers, if you have young children in the room now would be a good time to send them outside to play! *wink* What I am about to show you isn't for everyone *wink, wink* I stumbled across a thread over at SCS for a challenge that was to make a card with the theme of "Put on Your Big Girl Panties". It of course peeked my interest so I had to check it out. Now normally this is not my kind of card, but some of the cards that had been done for the challenge were so cute I had to give it a try. I visted with my friend Barbara yesterday and knew she was the kind of stamper who would also give this challenge a whirl...so away we went. This was the first card I made. I used some retired Stampin' Up! designer paper I had been hoarding forever. The little beads were from Michaels. They added just enough "bling" to the card.
Now of course everything in life has an opposite, so my card had to have an appropriate "backside" to it as well. If only my body parts were proportioned so equally!!!! Here is what the back of the card looks like if you flip it over. Cute huh???? I think I will be making one of these with a little Valentine's twist to give to hubby. *evil grin*

Stamp set: none

Ink: none

Card stock: blush blossom, retired DSP

Other: white grograin ribbon, bead accents from Michaels

Family Frame

Toady's project is one I have been working on all week. One of my upcoming hostesses asked me to create some samples and to demonstrate how to use the set All in the Family. This is a great set which can be used for so many different things and projects. I knew what kind of project I wanted to do, but actually getting the whole thing to come together was a bit of a chore for me. Once I started getting the image stamped and colored it came togetehr much better. The plam tree was added to the background to represent the sunny state of Florida in which we live. I think it added a little bit of fun to the frame. es, this is the Johnson family as we know it. The boys thought it was so great that I remembered to even add Bonzi into the picture. (Bonzi is our Pekingese puppy) The buttons were added as an afterthought becuase in my opinion it just looked too blah. Maybe if the mat was a brighter color it would have popped more. In real life this is absolutely adorable though. I can't wait to show my hostess and put it on my wall. I also made one of the cutest cards using this set, but for some reason I am having a difficlut time getting a good picture of it. (even this picture isn't the best but I wanted to have something fun to show you.) I will try to upload a picture of the card once I get a better picture of it. I also have some other *fun* cards to show, but I may have to place a rating on the post. *wink*
Happy Stamping~


Stamp set: All in the Family, Letterpress Alphabet
Ink: Stazon Black, Night of Navy, various markers in wide range of colors
Card stock: Whisper white, night of navy
Other: colored buttons, navy grograin ribbon. red grograin ribbon, stamp-a-ma-jig

Swirly Hearts

Hi! I appologize for not posting yesterday. Things here were crazy!!! I didn't get a free moment to sit down until... um........Hmmmmmm...it had to be after 10:00pm. I had several appointments throughout the day, tons of errands to run, bills to drop off and pay, massage therapy (ok this one really was fun!), carting the kids to where they has to be and a ton of other things. As the day went on my luck seemed to go from bad to worse. Anywho...today is a new day and I am trying to have a positive outlook on it! *big smile*

Today's card features a wonderful set out of the catalog called Priceless. It is another one of those versatile sets which can be used for just about anything. I wanted to show my club members that they don't need to specifically buy sets for a certain holiday and that a lot of the sets in the Stampin' Up! catalog can be used for a wide range of things. The main swirl image was stamped in basic gray on whisper white card stock. The hearts were stamped in real red and cut out and attached using dimensionals. The ticket corner punch was used on all corners of the white card stock and silver brads were used to accent. The ribbon is the gray taffeta ribbon. I love this ribbon so much! I think it is so soft and elegant looking. It adds a nice touch to any project you may be working on.

On another note I have finished Nathan's 3x3 Valentine's for his class. He designed them and I just assembled & colored them. They are pretty basic, but it's what he wanted. And yes...the girl ones are done all in purple. If time permits I will try to uplaod a quick picture of them later.

Happy Stamping~

Stamp set: Priceless

Ink: Real Red, Basic Gray

Card stock: Real Red, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Other: ticket corner punch, dimensionals, Gray taffteta ribbon, silver brads

Cherished Hearts

Today's card is one of the cards that was made at my Valentine's Day Stamp-a-Stack earlier in the month. I love how elegant the card turned out and how easy it was to assemble. This card features one of my favorite stamp sets - Baroque Motifs. I have to admit that when I first saw the set in the catalog I didn't think much of it. In fact, I really didn't care for it. Then I started seeing some really great cards at SCS and it made me change my mind. I broke down and added this set to my next order. Now I find myself reaching for it more and more. It can be used for just about any type of card- birthday, anniversary, get well, sympathy, and even Valentine's Day!

I started out by stamping the large swirl in close to cocoa onto very vanilla card stock in the bottom left corner and the upper right corner. I stamped the word Cherish from the set in purely pomegranate ink in the lower right corner. Then I adhered that layer to a layer of purely pomegranate. This was then attached to the close to cocoa card base. The hearts are actually from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Happy Hearts. I think it is about the only heart stamp set I own and they worked beautifully for this card. The hearts were stamped in purely pomegranate onto very vanilla card stock. They were then cut out leaving a slight vanilla border around them and attached the to card using dimensionals to make them stand out more. I plan on giving this card to my hubby this year. I hope he likes it!

Happy Stamping~

Stamp set: Baroque Motifs, Happy Hearts
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Purely Pomegranate
Card stock: Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Purely Pomegranate
Other: Stampin' dimensionals

Adorable Elephant

Good morning! Today's card once agin features one of my favorite stamp sets out of the catalog. I just love the elephant from the Happy Heart Day set. The image is so fun to stamp and color in. It can be used for just about any occasion - not just for Valentine's day. I chose to leave the inside of this card blank for now and will add whatever kind of sentiment when I need it. It would be great for a birthday card, thank you or just a happy hello card to a good friend. The image was stamped onto whisper white card stock and colored in using my Stampin' Up! markers. I used the ticket corner punch on the corners of the whisper white image base, adhered it to the real red card stock and punched the corners on that as well. The base of the card was stamped in real red onto basic gray card stock and then the small hearts were colored in using my white gel pen. I then took my real red marker and added some small dots randomly to add texture to the background, added some grosgrain ribbon and attached my image. It was as easy as that! Hope your week is off to a great start!

Happy Stamping~

Stamp Set: Happy Heart Day

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red classic ink, Basic Gray marker, Real Red marker, Certain Celery marker

Card stock: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Real Red

Other: Ticket corner punch, Real Red grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen

Valentine Sucker

This is a fun little gift that I made for all my Stampers 10 Club members last month as a way of saying thank you. These were so easy to make and so cute too. My club members loved them. I can not take credit for the design though. I CASED the idea and design from Dawn Griffith's blog. You can see her original design and also a video tutorial on how to make one Here. Thanks Dawn for the great idea and inspiration!

This is what they look like once you have opened them. The slit punch is how the card stock is held together. So easy! I will be making up some of these as well as some 3x3 Valentine's for Nathan's class this year. We will sit down and design them tonight. So far all Nathan has decided is that he wants the girl ones to be in purple and the boy ones to be in blue. This shouldn't be too difficult! Hope you're all finding time to stamp and create!

Happy Stamping~

Stamp Set: Happy Heart Day

Ink: Basic Black, Perfect Plum

Card Stock: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum

Other: Pale Plum Marker, Perfect Plum Marker, Close to Cocoa Marker, Slit Punch, 1/8" Circle punch

So Many Scallops

As promised, today's card features one of the new Sale-a-bration sets called "So Many Scallops". This is one of my favorite sets this year. I love how the stamps from this set fit so nicely inside the scallop punch. It makes card making a breeze! I have seen several cards made using this set and making the scallops into a flowrr. I decided to try my hand at it as well. The card kind of reminds me of the Cingular commercial, but that was NOT the look I was going for! *lol* Once I decided on my color combination the card came together very quickly. As an afterthought I added dazzling diamonds to the centers of each scalloped flower center since they looked a little bare. This made all the difference and once I stood back and re-evaluated the card I decided it was done. The sentimate on the card is also from one of the Sale-a-bration sets called "Lots of Thoughts". Remember these sets can be your too with a $50 purchase now until March 17th, 2008.
Stamp Set: So Many Scallops, Lots of Thoughts
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava
Card Stock: Whisper White, Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava
Other: Scallop Punch, dazzling diamonds, dimensionals, Wild Wasabi Double Stitched Ribbon, 2 way glue, Spring Flower Bouquet Punch (retired)

Sale-a-bration Time!!!!

It's Sale-a-bration time! What on earth is Sale-a-bration you might ask? It is a wonderful time to buy Stampin' Up! products, host an in-home workshop or become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Here is how Sale-a-bration works:

Customers~When you spend $50 on Stampin' Up! merchandise, you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration reward. There's no limit-for every $50 you spend, you can select another free Sale-A-Bration reward!

Hostesses~When you host a workshop of at least $300 (before tax and shipping), you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration reward in addition to all of the regular hostess benefits!

New Demonstrators~During Sale-A-Bration, anyone who joins as a demonstrator can choose any stamp set--a value of up to $47.95--from the Spring-Summer 2008 Collection! Plus, new demonstrator recruits get 20 percent off the Demonstrator Starter Kit--over $350 of Stampin' Up! products and business supplies for only $159!

Sale-a-bration starts February 1st, 2008 and runs through March 17th. To view the great stamp sets which will only be available for this limited time please go to my Stampin' Up! webiste ( the link can be found on the right hand side of this page) to view the brochure on-line or email me and I'll be happy to send one out to you.

Vintage Car Birthday

Good morning everyone. Today's card is one that I needed to whip up in a hurry. My boys were invited to a birthday sleepover last night and of course, I procrastinated making the card to go along with the gift. The birthday boy is completely into cars and models. He is even helping his father restore a Studebaker pickup truck. How cool is that? Not too shabby for a 12 year old! Anyway, the boys also love the hotwheel flames and so I tried to incorporate that into the card as well. I am hoping they had a blast last night and the birthday boy enjoyed his gifts & card.

The image was stamped with basic black ink onto whisper white card stock. It was then colored in using pumpkin pie and summer sun markers. Summer sun ink was distressed on the edges before adhereing the image to the punpkin pie card piece. That layer was attached to a layer of real red which also has the new Rhinestone brads from Stampin' Up!. I love these brads in both the fire and ice colors. They add such a nice addition to just about any card you're making. That layer was attached to the base of the card using dimensionals which already had a piece of Harley Davidson scrapbook paper ahered to it. I think I got that paper at Michael's awhile ago. It seemed to fit perfectly with the look I was going for. All in all I think the entire card took me 15 minutes to make. I think it took the boys longer to pick out the actual gift than it took me to make the accompanying card! *lol* I have more samples I will be uploading over the weekend. I have some Sale-a-bration cards I plan to post to get everyone in the mood. Don't forget Sale-a-bration started yesterday and ends March 17th. You too can receive a FREE stamp set with every $50 purchase (before tax & shipping).

Happy Stamping~

Stamp Set: Classic Convertibles
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie marker, Summer Sun marker
Card Stock: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, DP from Michael's
Other: Rhinestone brads, dimensionals, sponge dauber