I Think I've Found My Mojo

...but I'll let you know sooner if I lose it again - maybe someone out there will be able to help!?! Seriously fellow stampers, things have been a little busy - as always with the start of a new school year! I have finally been able to spend 3 evenings in the past week working in my studio to come up with some fresh new ideas and projects for my upcoming classes. The card I'm sharing today is one that I made for my daughter's coworker who is getting married this weekend. I don't know about you, but I find it hard to say "no" to a request for a handmade card when it's accompanied by the words "we could just buy one, but your are so much prettier than anything at the store". I think we did a pretty good job raising a daughter who is so smart - I'll share more about her in a post in the very near future! But until then, here is the card I created for her:

Mono-chromatic cards for a wedding are so elegant, don't you think? This card was made with all Stampin' Up! products, including: ~Very Vanilla Card Stock ~ Vintage Brads ~ Fashionable Hearts Embosslit ~ Delicate Designs Embossing Folder ~ 1" Square Punch (this punch makes perfect banner bottoms!) ~ Basic Pearls ~ 1/8" Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon ~ Mini Glue Dots & Stampin' Dimensionals - because Wedding Cards should hold up for many years! Thanks for stopping by today. I promise another post soon!

Fine Feathered Case

This card has been cased from the card that can be found on page 79 of Stampin' Up!'s current catalog. I recently broke open a new container of Vintage Faceted Buttons to really dress this card up - I think these are my very favorite embellishment in this year's catalog. They can be dressed up with adhesive pearls and gems as well, and though I haven't tried this yet, I am fairly confident that they could be colored with a sharpie or alcohol marker too.

Well, we are getting ready for a beachy wedding this weekend, so I am off to Newport Beach - a little sad that I won't be making the S'U! Regional in Providence this weekend, so I hope all my stampin' sisters from Love at First Stamp enjoy their weekend there!!

Stampin' Addicts Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts Holiday Blog Hop! You are sure to see some projects following these links that will delight and amaze you. If you have been following along you just arrived from Yapha's Rubber Stamping & Card Making where she featured the Jewish Celebrations Stamp Set in a series of cards. The glimmer paper she used sure packs a wallop - secret note to self - order some of that Champagne Glimmer Paper for my own fall and holiday cards! If you didn't arrive from Yapha's blog there are no worries, just follow the links on the hop and you'll arrive back there soon!

I am rolling the calendar back - or would that be ahead?? - a couple of months for some fun Halloween projects using the incredibly spooky Toxic Treats Stamp Set. The possibilities with the set are endless, and as I was working on these projects my head was swimming with tons of ideas, so be sure to come back now and then to see what else I made as ladies at Stampin' Addicts are limiting me to only a few projects on this post! Let's start with the sign:
I began by distressing my painted sign with some More Mustard and Early Espresso Classic Ink - I was going for Toxic Fog here! Next I used the Elegant Bird Die in an attempt to create a black crow - not sure if I succeeded, but with a snips to his wings and tail feathers, I think he looks a little less like and Elegant Bird and more like a crow. The Perfect Pennants Die creates coordinated pennant pieces for the sign, along with a 1 3/4" Circle Punch and the Decorative Label Punch, both also coordinating with this super stamp set.
Next up is my personal favorite. I spent hours last fall trying to find boxes such as this one to embellish last year and it never occurred to me that I could make my own! I created a Halloween Keepsake, or "Toxic Treat" box. This is going to be a fun addition to the top of my desk real soon. I can almost smell the chocolate inside of it. Does it look vaguely familiar? It was modeled after the Keepsake Box that S'U! was giving away last year to new Demonstrators. I used the Labels Collection Framelits and updated this treat box with some banners and a pinwheel that are found on so many projects everywhere right now. Emma was amazed that I knew how to make my own pinwheel, so I took a little break to create the individual one of the stick with her. We are planning to make a whole slew of these together over the coming weekend!And lastly, I am sharing a Totally Toxic Trick or Treat Card, just in case one of these 3D items happens to turn into a gift. Once again I used the Trick or Treat Stamp with Tangerine Tango, and the Crow on the Gate in StayzOn Jet Black. I punched out the image using the 2 1/2" Circle Punch and layered it on top of one of the doilies from the Perfect Pennants Die. I think they made a nice layered focus together, I can't believe I never thought of putting these two pieces together before this! All of my projects above used the Howlstooth and Scaringbone DSP that is also found in the Holiday Mini Catalog.

Thank you for stopping by today to take a peek. Your next stop on the hop is to Cindy's Heart's Delight Cards. Cindy has some more Halloween goodies for you to see, using the Monster Munchies Stamp Set. The projects on this hop are truly delightful, so I hope you are able to take the weekend to visit all the stops on the tour, which can also be found on the Stampin' Addicts website here. Happy Friday everyone!

It's Blog Hop!

I can't wait to see what all these fabulous ladies have created!!

Fine Feathers

When I saw the new catalog, I knew right away that Fine Feathers was at the top of my wish list and going on my first order. I just can't believe it took me so long to break it out to play with! But here is one of my favorites from this set:



I inked this stamp with some Lucky Limeade and thumped the edges with my Gumball Green Stampin Write Marker for the outside, and on the inside of the feather I used my Midnight Muse and Island Indigo Markers. I cut the image out with one of my Framelit dies, and matted it on a Wysteria Wonder cut out and I embellished with my new Gumball Green Stitched Satin Ribbon, and one of the embossing folders from the Delicate Designs set.

Have a happy weekend!

The Invites Are In The Mail & I'm Back!

So sorry I've been away for so long! I recently started a new job and all the necessary lesson planning, along with a huge learning curve has been taking up a lot of my time lately - not to mention making all these wedding invites, and preparing for the shower we just held last weekend - I'll post pictures of that later this week. Even if it's a bit out of order, I thought I would share photographs of the actual wedding invites!




It was so much fun making these ~ I used my new set By The Seashore #126532 $16.95 in Crumb Cake and Marina Mist. The folder was made with Marina Mist Card Stock and natural twine (non-SU). I used My Digital Studio to print the actual invitations, and boy did that make it easy since I don't own a copy of the full version of word. I am really appreciating how easy MDS is making everything lately!

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Bit of Summer Fun!

We recently had Family Fun Night in the back yard. There were probably grilled hot dogs involved, and definitely sticky messy S'mores and roasted marshmallows over a fire. Later we captured some fireflies, though we released them back into the woods soon after - in the words of 4 year old Zoey "we put them back where they belong" kids can be so smart sometimes, don't you think? I just love our back yard campfires!



Owl always love owl of you...and here's a little something fun I cooked up this morning in honor of the elusive owls who live in the woods behind our house:
one day I just know we'll get a photo of the real thing!

July's Club Cards

Here they are - the cards we'll be making for July's Stamp A Stack Card Club. This Thursday at 6:30. Let me know if you would like me to reserve a spot for you!

I have to admit that when Betsy first arrived at my door, I was completely stumped. Having no idea how to use it, I browsed through the Stampin Up! gallery at Splitcoast Stampers and found this card by Sandi MacIver. She always puts a fun and creative twist on any stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Betsy Tags

This set of tags was made to showcase this year's In Colors together. I used a combination of Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals and Summer Starfruit on these, along with my paper snips and the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch (#119275), the small flower from the Boho Blossoms Punch (#119858) and the circle from the Itty Bitty Shapes Pack (#118309). This is one of many ways you can use the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border - I also like to layer it from behind to create a teeny tiny scallop edge peeking out.

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Monday!

Another from Betsy

On this card I kept to one of my favorite current color combinations once again, Gumball Green, Pool Party, So Saffron and Calypso Coral! This time I only used the branch image in combination with the Boho Blossom (#119858) and Blossom (#125603) Punches. I used my ink pad and a Whisper White scrap to get the So Saffron blossom. I made some of these Betsy cards at a family picnic while the kids went for a bike ride and had only packed a small container of supplies to take with me that day. Not bad, huh? We can always make do in a pinch with those scraps of paper!!

Making Betsy Beautiful

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I'll admit that this is my other favorite "Betsy". However, it was not my original idea. Lots of my Betsy inspirations came from other people I admire, such as this card designed by Paula Wright, that I recently - or maybe not so recently - received in a card swap.

I took Paula's card design, along with a recently released Finishing Touches Edgelit Die ( I love these surprise finds when the new catalogs come out!) and a color combination I hadn't seen yet - Early Espresso & Raspberry Ripple, think of it like a yummy Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cone! Isn't it Yummy?

Haha Paula! Betcha didn't see Betsy coming this time!

Betsy's Blossoms

I have a Love-Hate relationship going with Betsy. I really don't care for her very much, but everyone else seems to love her! I decided last week that I was going to work on making myself a better person, and try to find some beauty in Betsy. So I sat down one day and tried to see how many fabulous things I could create with a little inspiration... from none other than Betsy. I will be sharing some of those inspirations in the days to come, but here's one that I kinda like:



I began by stamping the dahlias in Calypso Coral in just a few spots on the front of the card. I have really come to love this color, and will be sad to see it retire next year, so I'm just warning you that it'll probably get a lot of use in the coming months!

Next I stamped the branch in Gumball Green. Since I was going for more of a muted look here, I off-stamped the image on scrap paper first. I stamped the little bird in Pool Party (another of my favs!)

Then using some scraps of white (I seem to be a scrap hoarder - anyone else out there? tee-hee) I stamped the little blossoms in So Saffron and cut them out to layer on top of the dahlias.

Lastly I took another scrap-this time in Pool Party- and used my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border to add a teeny bit of dimension to the bottom of my card. And since I really dislike throwing away anything that is the littlest bit usable, I even added the teeny leftover piece from the punch!

I just noticed that photo looks a little crooked and askew. Guess it kinda matches the lopsided ribbon at the bottom, hehe. Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to visit again this week to see other ways I've been able to put Betsy to use!

Summer Camp Flyer

Today I used My Digital Studio and created a Sample Flyer for a Summer Camp that a friend of mine runs. MDS comes with so many stamp sets, papers, and accessories that I haven't even begun to use it. I think this summer I will be using it a ton to design scrapbook pages and other projects when we go away on vacations or weekends. It's just too easy to bring my Stamping Studio with me now!

...and as far as Summer Camps go, I think this could be a fun summer, don't you?

A Thank You In Color

I've been interviewing for jobs lately, and like to send thank you's to follow up - and keep me in mind! This is the card I sent out last week to a couple of schools I recently visited. It was inspired by another Demonstrator, Christena Bagne. You can see her original card here.

I really liked her combinations on Marina Mist and Pool Party. I wanted to update my card with some of the new In Colors, so I used a combination of Marina Mist, Pool Party, Gumball Green, and Midnight Muse. I think those little hills are really stinkin' cute!

Wedding Invites

I am planning to work on some wedding invitations next week, so I thought I would share a couple of samples here. This is a beach themed wedding, and I'm waiting for my new stamp set to come in, so these are pro to-types until the real things get here. This first sample uses the stamp inked in Crumb Cake with the images behind the poem:
This second example shows the main image stamped in Marina Mist in the bottom corner:



This last picture shows the inside of the folder, with the invitation on the right side, and the response card and envelope on the left:



Thanks for stopping by, hope you are inspired today!