Cards

Shine!

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IMG_7611What a perfect card for Colorado!  You can count on sunshine here almost any day of the year.  It’s great!  Sure we can get snow into May but most days you can count on sunshine.  🙂

Doesn’t this card just make you smile?  With the bright yellow and the sunburst how can you not at least have a little grin on your face?

If you’re wondering how I made a perfect sun like this let me share my secret….the Sunburst Thinlit!  Yep!  I just die cut the sunburst design and then I center my Circle Framelit around the solid part of the Sunburst Thinlit to make my sun.  Pretty tricky, eh?  (I’m showing 140617 (2)my Minnesota roots with that comment!)

As you can see I’m using my favorite new accessory…the Candy Dots again.  They’re just so fun!  The only problem I have with them is when I want to use them in a class.  You only get 10 of each color in a package so if I have 10 people at class I need 4 packages of Candy Dots and then I have all of the other colors left over.  Maybe I need to plan a class around a package of Candy Dots so each person gets their own package….hmmm……

I’m all prepped for my classes next week and have got a good start on my swaps.  Hopefully I can get a lot more done today.  Wish me luck!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Apple of My Eye

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IMG_7624Happy April Fool’s Day!  No pranks from this girl.  It’s just too much work to come up with something creative.  Ha!

I’d rather use my creativity designing a card or in the case of today’s card, copying someone else’s creativity!  I think on this card I only added a layer or two and the candy dots in the corners.

Yes, I’m liking the candy dots.  They work really well for filling in white space which you know I have a problem with.  I always use a little tiny drop of liquid glue under my candy dots to make sure they stick.  They have adhesive on the back of them but they don’t always stick.

You can’t tell from the picture but I used my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush to add a little sparkle to the lemons.  It really made a difference on the card.  Have you used the Wink of Stella brushes yet?  They’re great and fun to use.

I have a busy stamping weekend ahead of me.  I need to finish prepping for next week’s Stamp-a-Stack classes as well as work on my swaps for convention in a few weeks.  I also need to start thinking about the stamp camp my team is putting on right after convention.  Yikes!  I better get busy!  What’s on your schedule?  Anything fun?

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

3″ x 3″ Thursday: Endless Thanks

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IMG_7683Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!  We never say this enough do we?  I am blessed and have so much to be thankful for including all of you!

This little 3″ x 3″ note is one that I recently enclosed with my customer’s orders.  I try to enclose a note whenever they place an order.

This little note includes a few of by new favorite things.  Ok…they “things” aren’t that new but they’re new as my favorites.  🙂

I’m in love with the font in the Endless Thanks stamp set.  There’s just something about it.  I’m also in love with the Watermelon Wonder color.  I don’t think it will actually take over Melon Mambo as my absolute favorite Stampin’ Up! color but it comes close.  What is your favorite Stampin’ Up! color?

Speaking of colors….don’t forget that the 2014-2016 In-Colors will be leaving us at the end of May.  Now is the time to stock up on these colors (especially the ink refills!) before the Retired List comes out.  Don’t miss out!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Sale-a-bration: Metallics Glitter Tape

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Fabulous Four.0316Have you checked out Sale-a-bration’s  Metallics Glitter Tape yet?  If not, you better hurry….it’s only available for a few more day!

The Metallics Glitter Tape comes in Gold, Silver and White and you get a roll of each when you choose it for your FREE Sale-a-bration item.  The fun thing about the white glitter tape is that you can actually color it!  Check out the video below to see how easy it is to do!

I used the Silver Glitter Tape on my card.  I used it for the silver strips on the either side of the Real Red card stock and I used it for the silver balloons.  For the balloons I first adhered a strip of tape to a piece of Whisper White card stock and then punched out the balloon with the Party Punch Pack balloon punch.

Let’s celebrate!  Sale-a-bration is almost over.  Don’t miss out!

Sale-a-bration: Botanicals for You

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IMG_7654It’s almost over!  Oh no!!!  There’s only a few days left of Sale-a-bration!  Have you placed your order yet?  Don’t miss out!

Today’s card is made using one of the Sale-a-bration stamp sets Botanicals for You.    I love the font on this stamp.  Isn’t it nice?   This stamp set is great because not only does it coordinate with the Sale-a-bration item Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack but it also coordinates with the entire Botanical Gardens Suite in the Occasions Catalog.

The Botanical Gardens Suite in the Occasions Catalog has to be one of my favorite suites in the entire catalog.  The suite contains the stamp set, framelits, designer paper, jewels and washi tape.  Everything COORDINATES!  Woo Hoo!  You know how much I love that word!  🙂

The designer paper is GORGEOUS and you can make so many different types of flowers with the framelits.  You can see the entire suite on pages 26-27 of the Occasions Catalog.

Don’t forget to place that Sale-a-bration order!  You don’t want to miss out.  Shop now!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Put Your Party Pants On!

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IMG_7544There’s nothing like a spring blizzard!  We had over 12″ of heavy wet snow yesterday along with wind and white-out conditions.  The airport was closed and the highways into and out of Denver were closed.  I’m really glad I had no where to go but my warm and cozy craft room!

I didn’t actually do much crafting but that’s where I hung out.  I did a little computer work along with some reading.  I had to start rereading Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon.  I need to get ready for the second season of Outlander!  If you haven’t read Diana’s Outlander Series you really need to.  They’re fantastic!  The series on Starz is great too.

Luckily I was actually on top of things this week and got birthday cards out prior to Wednesday.  I don’t think I would have wanted to walk to the mailbox yesterday.  My son’s birthday was on Tuesday and yesterday there were three birthdays that I sent cards for.  A niece, a nephew and a friend.  Then my daughter-in-law’s birthday is on Saturday.  That’s a lot of birthdays in one week!  Oh…I even remembered to mail out a few Easter cards!  🙂

If you have as many birthdays as this to celebrate the Sale-a-bration stamp set Party Pants is perfect for you.  Cute balloons and fun sayings.  Don’t wait though.  March 31st is the last day of Sale-a-bration.  After that these fun items will not be available.  Don’t miss out!  Place that order today!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Barnyard Babies Easter Cards

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Barnyard Babies.0316I was looking for something on my shelf of stamps and my eyes stopped on the Barnyard Babies stamp set.  The little light bulb went off and I knew I had to make some cute little Easter notes with the stamps.

Didn’t they turn out cute?  I just love the little critters in this stamp set and they’re the perfect size for a little 3″ x 3″ note.  Won’t these be perfect for a little Easter gift?

I can’t believe that Easter is almost here.  I realize that it’s pretty early this year but still…..those 6 weeks of Lent went by pretty darn fast!  I should probably start thinking about getting all those Easter cards I made in the mail!  Concept…right?  🙂

What type of foods do you make for Easter?  We gather with the neighbors and everyone brings something.  My job is the “Easter Potatoes”.  They’re the hash brown casserole with corn flakes on top….everyone’s favorite.  Ham and Easter Potatoes.  What else could you want for a meal?

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Gorgeous ‘What I Love’

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IMG_7637If you don’t have the ‘What I Love’ Sale-a-bration stamp set you still have a few weeks to get it.  I LOVE this stamp set and this flower.  It’s gorgeous!

I wanted to use this stamp set in a class again before the end of Sale-a-bration but I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  As I was perusing Pinterest I came across a card in Basic Black, Crumb Cake and Whisper White.  I was in love.  I thought it was gorgeous and knew I had to do my own thing with it.

The Whisper White piece of my card is pretty much as the same as the card I saw on Pinterest but then I added more layers and the ribbon to make it a “Cindy” card.  You know me.  It’s hard for me to have a card with out those two items!  🙂

One of the best things about this card is that you can use it for most any occasion.  My customers have been asking for sympathy cards and I knew this would be perfect for that.

Now don’t forget!  Sale-a-bration ends on March 31st!  Put together that order and get your FREE stuff!  One free Sale-a-bration item with every $50 you spend!  Shop NOW!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Shimmery Flowering Fields

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Flowering Fields.0316A simple and lovely card.  That pretty much describes this one.  This card was one of the favorites in class this week along with the Wink of Stella vellum card I showed you yesterday.

You can’t tell from the picture but there’s a lot of shimmer going on with this card.  The card is made using Shimmery White card stock (my new favorite!) and the flowers are colored with the clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush.

I know that you’re thinking “Wisteria Wonder”?  She never uses that color….well, this was one of those times where I sat looking at my collections of ribbon trying to figure out what ribbon I could use to figure out the colors for my card.  It’s crazy, but that’s how I work.  If I know I want to use ribbon on my card I start with ribbon and go from there.

How do you decide on the color combination for your cards?  I’d love to know!  Leave me a comment!

Have a great day.  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Wink of Stella Meets Vellum

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IMG_7644It’s a sparkly day….at least according to this card!  Shimmery and sparkly.  It doesn’t get any better than that!  🙂

There’s only two weeks left of Sale-a-bration so I wanted to use Sale-a-bration items in my classes this week.  On this card I used TWO items!  Can you spot them?

The first Sale-a-bration item that I used was the new gold Metallic Glitter Tape.  So fun!  It comes in a package of three with gold, silver and white.  The white is pretty fun because you can color it any color you’d like!

The second Sale-a-bration item I used was the Botanical Gardens Vellum.  It’s so fun because the designs in the vellum match the designs of the Botanical Gardens Designer Series Paper.  For my note card I chose to just mount the vellum on Basic Black card stock.  Then, to jazz it up a little bit I used my Wink of stella Glitter Brushes.  I used the gold one on the little flowers and the clear one on the slightly larger flowers.  The clear glitter flowers don’t show up too well in my photo but they look real sparkly in person.

One more thing I did to add a little sparkle to my card was to use the gold Wink of Stella Glitter Brush on the wooden “congrats”.  Again, it’s hard to tell from the photo but it really adds a lot to the card.

Sparkle, shimmer and shine.  I just can’t get enough!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Pedal Pusher!

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Pedal Pushers.0316There’s just something about a tandem bike.  It definitely makes cycling look like more fun than exercise.  I don’t think I’ve ever been on a tandem bike but I have a friend from church who rides them all the time.  Her and her husband actually go on trips all over the world with their bike.  It fold up and fits in two suitcases!  They’ve been to France, Vietnam and all over the U.S..  Soon they will be leaving for the Netherlands to see the tulips!  How fun is that?

This card just makes me smile.  A fun tandem bike and a basket full of flowers.  What more do you need to brighten your day?

I was going to color this image with my ink pads and blender pens.  Then I though…why go to all that work when I have a gazillion perfectly good markers.  I usually don’t grab my markers to color just because the area to color is large and the blender pen/ink pad combo covers a little better but the areas to be colored are pretty small so the markers worked perfectly!  I did have my Aqua Painter on hand to add a little dirt under the bike to ground it so my bike wouldn’t be floating in space.  I hate floating images…Ha!

This stamp set is one of the new Sale-a-bration stamp sets that came out in February.  It’s pretty fun.  Don’t forget that Sale-a-bration ends in just a few short weeks!  Don’t miss out on getting your FREE Sale-a-bration item just by placing a $50 order.  Shop now!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Easter Lamb

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Easter Lamb.0316I LOVE this little lamb!  Isn’t he adorable?  When I first saw him in the Occasions Catalog back in November I couldn’t wait until Easter!

With the combination of the Easter Lamb and the Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper how can you go wrong?  The paper is absolutely gorgeous!

I made sure to cut a few extras of this card when I was cutting for class.  I made a few Easter cards but then on a few I left off the “Happy Easter” banner so I could use them as baby cards!  Pretty clever of me don’t you think?  🙂

I’ve been trying to stamp up a storm this week.  I want to plan my next few classes well in advance so I don’t get that last minute panic the week before.  I have my next two classes planned so I’m doing pretty good.  Of course I keep changing my mind on what cards to do in which class but it all works out.  🙂

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Playful Pals Bunny Card

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IMG_7606It’s another bunny card! I guess you can never have too many.  Ha!

This little gal is made with the Playful Pals stamp set.  This stamp set has all sorts of pieces and parts that coordinate perfectly with the Pyramid Pals Thinlits to make all types of adorable creatures but wouldn’t have thought to use the stamps and thinlits to make a little critter on a card.  Just goes to show who’s lacking in imagination! 😉

You may have guessed that this stamp set and the framelits weren’t on my top ten list of things to purchase from the Occasions Catalog…I don’t have a lot of little kiddos around at this point in my life.  But then I received the cards from a swap I participated in and the rest is history….someone had made a little bunny face with the stamp set and the framelits and I knew I had to do the same for my Easter class.

TSC!  Too Stinkin’ Cute!  What more its there to say?  I can hardly wait to make some more fun little critters!  I wonder what I should attempt next…..

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Technique Tuesday: Friends & Flowers Bunny

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IMG_7600You can never have enough bunnies….did I really say that?  OK…you can never have enough bunnies on cards, or stuffed bunnies for little kids but the real ones….yes, you can have enough.    In the spring and summer we can have way too many in our yard and they’re not afraid of us.  They just sit there and look at you with those cute little faces eating our grass.  Good thing I don’t have a garden!

I like bunnies on cards.  How about this adorable little fellow peeking out at you?  He’s from the Friends & Flowers stamp set.  I actually cased the tag portion of this card right from the Occasions Catalog.  I love it when someone else does the work for me!  Ha!

If you’re wondering how to stamp the ears behind the head it’s a simple technique called masking.  I first stamped the little bunny face on my card stock.  Then I punched a 1 1/4″ circle from a sticky note and placed it right over the bunny face.  The next step is to stamp your ears.  The bottom portion of the ear stamps on to the sticky note so when you remove the sticky note you only see the top portion of the ears.  Ta da!  It’s magic and one of the easiest techniques you’ll find in stamping.  It works great when you want to stamp leaves peeking out from behind a flower and things like that.  Give it a try!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Circle of Spring

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Circle of Spring.0316I LOVE it when a plan comes together!  This card turned out beautifully!  If you like the picture, it’s even better in person!  🙂

I saw a similar card and just had to try it.  I love the way the center of the wreath is cut out on both the background piece and the wreath itself.  It’s really striking when you pop up the wreath with dimensionals.

Another thing I love….my new favorite punch….the Curvey Corner Trio Punch!  It just adds so much to a card.  It’s the perfect finish to a card.

This Circle of Spring stamp set has 6 different sentiments which makes it perfect for any occasion.  Guess what?  I’m going to use my favorite stamping word….COORDINATION!  Yep…The Circle of Spring stamp set coordinates with the Wonderful Wreath Framelits.  Woo Hoo!  Coordination!

I have a great tip for you when you use the Wonderful Wreath Framelits.  Instead of stamping your image first you want to die cut the middle of the wreath.  There’s a little “arrow” on the framelit.  Note which direction it’s pointing when you die cut the center.  Now you want to line up the stamp with the “arrow” on the stamp pointing in the same direction the framelit “arrow” pointed.  This should make it easy-peasy to line up the stamp around the die cut center!  If you stamp first and then try to line up the center framelit you can’t really see where things go.  The first time I tried this I was amazed at how much easier it went.  Give it a try!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!