Basket Bunch Chocolate Bunny

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Basket Bunch.2.0317What is Easter without chocolate and chocolate bunnies?  When I saw this adorable little chocolate bunny in the Basket Bunch stamp set I knew I had to use him on a card and naturally he had to be the center of attention.  I also knew that I had to use this sentiment on the card.

What do you think of my creation?  I think it turned out pretty cute.  I guess I could have gone with a pink like Flirty Flamingo to make it more spring-like but I think I designed it around Valentines Day and was thinking red.  Ha!

If you’ve been looking at my blog lately you will have noticed that this is the third card I’ve made with the Basket Bunch stamp set.  I love it and it will be staying on my shelf for a long time to come.  There are so many things you can do with this one stamp set.  You can check out the other two cards here and here.

I am really loving the Stitched Shape Framelits!  They add so much to a card by highlighting what’s inside of the shape.  I’m so glad that Stampin’ Up! didn’t wait until the new catalog to release them!

I hope you have a fabulous day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Hey, Chick Barn

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Is this not one of the cutest things you’ve ever seen?!!!  If you don’t have the Sale-a-bration stamp set Hey, Chick you are going to want it now!  The Hey, Chick stamp set was definitely the first Sale-a-bration item I had to have.  I love those chicks and am going to be very sad to see them go!

Wouldn’t it be fun to make something clever like this?  You can find all of the details here.  It looks like this project was a collaboration.  Very talented souls.  That’s for sure!  I have seen a lot of sampler type projects around on the internet.  I’m going to have to put my thinking cap on sometime and create one….maybe even offer a class!  🙂

Don’t miss out on Sale-a-bration!  It’s over on March 31st.  That will be the last day you can get the adorable Hey, Chick stamp set and other fun items.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

New Sale-a-bration Items!

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SAB7.1Sale-a-bration 2017 is quickly coming to a close and there are already 2 Sale-a-bration items sold out.  The Card Tin and the 6″ x 6″ Glimmer Paper Pack are gone.  Don’t fret though!  Stampin’ Up! has added more items to Sale-a-bration for you to choose from and I think you’re going to like them.

These 7 new items are current Occasion or Annual Catalog items!  Woo Hoo!  Get them for FREE while you can!  Check out what these fun and exciting items are.  The first item and the last two can be found in the Annual Catalog while the rest are from the Occasions Catalog.

If you’re looking for another excuse to shop I’m hosting a Mystery Hostess Workshop from now through 8 pm on  March 29th.  Place your order of $50 or more in my online store using Hostess Code ZMNBEWPP on the checkout page and you may be chosen as the Mystery Hostess to receive all of the hostess benefits for the workshop!

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Make it Mine Monday: Oh, So Succulent

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Oh, So Succulent.0317Make it Mine Monday!  Today’s card is CASEd from the very talented Kimberly Van Diepen.  As you can see by comparing the two cards I didn’t change much at all.  I basically just left off the sentiment and switched up the linen thread for gold metallic thread (which is hard to see on the picture of my card).

Even though the cards look similar I used a different technique on the colored flowers.  Kimberly used the Rock ‘n Roll technique.  She first stamped the solid flower in So Saffron ink and then gently rolled the edges of the stamp in Mint Macaron ink.

IMG_5179I had a bit of trouble with that technique….I couldn’t get the soft look on the flowers that Kimberly had so I came up with a different plan.  I first inked up my solid flower stamp in So Saffron ink and then I took my sponge dauber, inked it up in Bermuda Bay ink and ever so lightly dabbed a bit of color on the ends of the solid flower stamp before stamping on the paper.  I really liked the way my flowers turned out and will definitely be trying this technique again.

So, I did survive Pastor DJ’s last Sunday with us at our church yesterday.  There were plenty of 17362864_10210400151153438_781859241223334724_ntears shed but he put a light spin on things so there were a few chuckles too.  He didn’t wear the cowboy hat during the entire service but he did wear the vest the whole time.  Gotta love him!  🙂  God speed DJ and Happy Trails!

Have a great day everyone!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

 

A Country Livin’ Goodbye

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Country Livin.0317As I mentioned a few weeks ago my very favorite pastor is moving to a church in Houston.  It’s a great opportunity for him and his family but he is going to be greatly missed.  Not only is he a fun and charismatic guy but he gives great sermons.  Your mind doesn’t wander and the message really sticks with you.

Today is his last Sunday with us so this evening we’re having a little party for him and his family. (His wife is just as great as he is!)  The party is going to have a western feel since they’re heading to Texas so I wanted to do the same with my card for them.

20170305_074926 (2)I borrowed the fun Country Livin’ stamp set from my downline Janet so I could make the card.  It’s one of the few stamps that I don’t own myself.  Ha!

I cheated a little with my layering ovals.  I wanted a narrow border between the scalloped Soft Suede oval and the oval I die cut from Water Color Paper.  In order to achieve that look I die cut the Water Color Paper layer using the largest Stitched Shape oval and then trimmed away the border outside the “stitching”.  If you look closely at the card you can see that the edges of that oval are a little rough.  It worked though and it looks exactly like I wanted it to!

I got a little creative with the sentiment too.  I used a sentiment from the Greatest Greetings stamp set that says “goodbye & good luck”.  Well, I couldn’t fit all of that in my oval so for the front I masked the last part of the sentiment and on the inside I masked the “goodbye”!  How clever was that?!  Ha!

Happy Trails Pastor DJ and family!  You will be missed.

Simple Saturday: In the Meadow

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In the Meadow.0217Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day yesterday?  I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in me but I did wear a green t-shirt and my shamrock earrings.  We did have a few friends over for Rueben sandwiches and some green food items.  We had some March Madness basketball on but weren’t really watching it.

Did you fill out a bracket?  I like to fill one out even though I don’t really follow college basketball.  I just guess.  I’ll choose a team from a state where I lived or choose it from the sound of the name.  I chose Gonzaga to take it all just because it’s a fun word to say!  Ha!  I’m sure basketball fanatics everywhere are cringing when I say that!  Oh, well.  We’ll see how well I do.  After 36 games I only have 5 wrong picks to I’d say I’m doing pretty well!  I must be a good guesser!  🙂

It’s another installment of Simple Saturday today!  This week’s card is made using Stampin’ Up!’s In the Meadow stamp set.  Simple and perfect for a guy.  Those masculine cards are hard to come by, aren’t they?

I just stamped the tree and the grass stamp multiple times.  That was it.  I did add an extra layer of Basic Black along with some Basic Black Solid Baker’s Twine to finish it off.

Have a great day and good luck on your March Madness Bracket!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Paper Pumpkin!

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ASaraThingI’m patiently waiting for my March Paper Pumpkin Kit.  It’s all about Easter and contains some really cute bunny projects.

However….I can hardly wait for the April Paper Pumpkin Kit!  Stampin’ Up! CEO Sara Douglass has designed it and like the picture says it will be Bold, Vibrant and Artistic with a little bit of Sass!  How perfect for a Sassy Stamper!  🙂

You are definitely going to want to check out the April Paper Pumpkin Kit!  To receive this kit sign up by April 10th.

Did you know that there are two different ways to sign up for Paper Pumpkin?  You can purchase a monthly subscription where you securely enter your credit card and it is charged monthly when the kit is shipped.  This is the best way to make sure you don’t ever miss a month.  With a monthly subscription you can put a hold on your subscription or cancel easily.  To sign up for a monthly subscription just click here!

You can also purchase a prepaid subscription for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.  This option makes a great gift!  Check out the details here.  Did you know that right now during Sale-a-bration the 3 month subscription is on sale?  Only until the end of March.  Not only will you save $4 but you also will qualify to choose a FREE Sale-a-bration item!  Woo Hoo!

Give Paper Pumpkin a try!  Sign up for the April Kit by April 10th!

Basket Bunch: Easter’s On It’s Way

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Basket Bunch.3.0317Yikes!  Easter is one month from today!  I guess it really is time to start sharing my Easter cards!

Have you played with Stampin’ Up!’s Basket Bunch stamp set and the COORDINATING Basket Builder Framelits?  You should!  There are SO many things you can do with these two COORDINATING items!  I really love this bundle of products and will definitely be keeping it in my stash.

Today’s card is a fun and simple one that I came up with while playing around with these products.  These eggs are all on the same stamp but cut out separately with the die.  I stamped them, colored them with various colors of markers, and then die cut them before adhering them to my card.

The fun saying is from the Greatest Greetings stamp set.  I’ve been waiting for a chance to use this fun sentiment and finally came up with the perfect card for it.  There’s a similar sentiment in the Basket Bunch stamp set which says “you’re egg-stra special”.  Too fun!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Think Spring! Basket Bunch Daffodil

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Basket Bunch.1.0317Spring is fast approaching (although it feels like it’s already here!) and so is Easter.  It’s time to make Easter cards and that’s what we’re doing in classes this week.

This bright and cheerful card is one of my favorites from the class.  How can you not love a yellow daffodil?!

There’s nothing tricky about making this card.  I stamped the flower, stem and leaves on Shimmery White card stock and colored them with ink pads and an Aqua Painter.

Doesn’t the Stitched Shape Oval add to the card.  It would have been nice with a plain die cut oval but the “stitching” around the edge just takes things to the next level.

I’m starting to use the Petal Burst Embossing Folder more and more lately.  It fills in the blank space on the background yet is still a little subtle.  Cucumber Crush was the perfect shade of green for this card.  It’s a shame it will be going away with this current Annual Catalog.  Be sure to get all of your supplies in this color while you can!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!  Think Spring!

Make it Mine Monday: Dragonfly Dreams Bee

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Dragonfly Dreams.0217Welcome to Make It Mine Monday!  What do you think of my bee?  I actually got the idea for this card way back in November at an On Stage event.  Stampin’ Up! Cofounder Shelli Gardner showed simple card made using the Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and the bee from the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set.

IMG_8959 (2)I decided to step my card up a little bit.  The second card shown here is the one I copied.  The picture isn’t very good because I took a picture of the big screen we were watching.  Shellie simply embossed the front of her card and added the label with the stamped bee.

Naturally I had to add a few more layers to my card.  My motto is: you can never have too many layers.  OK…that’s not quite true.  I do have a hard time though when there aren’t enough layers.  🙂

Check out my bee.  Did you notice that I colored the stripes?  Nope….I didn’t use ink.  I used my Gold Wink of Stella Glimmer Pen!  Pretty clever of me isn’t it?!  I also used the Clear Wink of Stella Glimmer Pen on the wings.  You can never have too much sparkle!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Still Winter?

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purple flower.0317Seriously….I’m pretty sure it’s technically still winter here in Colorado but you’d never know it by the weather.  We have been having high temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s and there are low 80’s on the horizon!  Sheesh!

I’m not really complaining because who doesn’t like those temperatures…..but in March?  yellow flower.0317We’re suppose to be getting walloped with snow during March but we’ve hardly had any moisture at all.  It’s going to make for a long summer!

These poor little flowers from my front yard haven’t quite realized that it’s still the first part of March and that they really shouldn’t show their pretty little selves until April!

Since there’s nothing I can do about the weather or the fact that my flowers are blooming a tad early I guess I’ll just sit back, enjoy the warm temperatures and relax.

I hope you have a lovely, relaxing day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Simple Saturday: Love & Affection

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Love & Affection.0217Welcome to Simple Saturday!  It doesn’t get a whole lot simpler than this card.  All you need to do for this easy layout is start with your favorite piece of designer series paper.

I chose this pretty piece of paper from the Affectionately Yours package of designer paper.  The Night of Navy and Crumb Cake is such a striking color combination.

Once I chose my designer paper I simply layered it on a piece of Night of Navy card stock and put it on the front of the card.  Then I stamped my sentiment on a piece of Crumb Cake card stock, layered that on Night of Navy, put it on the front of my card and my card was done!  Easy Peasy!

You could even skip the sentiment and just make your designer paper a bit larger on the card front and you’d still have a great card.

Here are the dimensions that I used:

Crumb Cake:  5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, 3 3/8″ x 1 1/8″

Night of Navy:  3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″, 3 1/2″ x 1 1/4″

Designer Paper:  3 3/8″ x 3 3/8″

Have fun making this SIMPLE card!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Balloon Adventures Shaker Card

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Balloon Adventures.0317Check out this FUN birthday card that I made for my niece Abbey’s 16th birthday!  Didn’t it turn out cute?  🙂

This was one of those cards that makes you smile when you are finished with it.  I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It really wasn’t difficult to make either.  The first step I had to figure out was my color palette.  If you’ve read my blog much or been around me you know that many times I determine my color palette by what ribbon I want to use on the card.  In this case I don’t even have ribbon on the card (What?!) so I started with stuff I wanted to put in my shaker card!  How crazy is that?  I knew I wanted fun shakery (?) stuff in my card so I went with the Sprinkles Embellishments from the Cool Treats Suite in the Occasions Catalog.  All sorts of pretty colors:  Peekaboo Peach, Pool Party and Watermelon Wonder….and that’s where my color palette for the card came from!

Seeing as I had used the embellishments from the Cool Treats Suite I knew I had to the COORDINATING designer series paper!  Now all of the hard work was done!

I used just a portion of the balloon pop-up die to make the focal point of my card.  I cut my card stock the exact size of the die.  I did have to trim the top and the bottom a bit to fit on my card front.

I punched out my balloons from the Tasty Treats Specialty Designer Series Paper, added my sentiment from the  Balloon Adventures stamp set and the front of my card was done!  I just needed to make the shaker portion.

Making a shaker card is pretty easy.  I cut a piece of Window Sheet the same size as I used for my balloon focal point and adhered it to the back of the focal point with Tear & Tape Adhesive.   On the back of the focal point I then added my foam adhesive strips around the edges.  When you do this step you want to make sure you have no gaps at all between the strips because you don’t want your “shakery stuff” to be able to escape!  Now you want to add all of your “shakery stuff” to the area enclosed by the foam strips.  Once you have added as much “shakery stuff” as you want to your card you will then remove the backing of your foam strips and adhere a piece of card stock which is the same size as your balloon focal point.  Now you have the shaker portion of the card done!  Add it to the front of the card and ta-da….you have a beautiful shaker card.

I did add a couple of extra items to the Sprinkles Embellishments to make my “shakery stuff”.  I added a few silver sequins from my roll of Silver Sequin Trim and I also picked out a few white stars from my container of Metallics Sequin Assortments.  All in all a VERY fun card.  Let me know if you have any questions on how I made it.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

3 x 3 Thursday: Avant Garden

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AvantGarden.0317I think I’ve mentioned at least once or twice that I really, really like this flower and stamp set.  🙂

The Avant Garden stamp set is gorgeous and you can get it for FREE during Sale-a-bration!  It doesn’t get much better than that!

It’s 3 x 3 Thursday.  I haven’t had one of these for awhile.  I like to put little 3 x 3 thank you notes in with the orders for my customers.

Yes, this is basically the same layout that I used on the Avant Garden card that I showed you last week but it’s such a great and versatile layout that I had to use it on these little notes!

I think I’ve found a new favorite color combination:  Rich Razzleberry and Sweet Sugarplum.  Yum!  They work so well together!  Do you have a favorite Stampin’ Up! color combination?  Leave me a comment and let me know what it is!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

SASsy Stampers & Friends

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20170225_090541 (2)This is part of my SASsy Stampers and Friends group.  This picture was taken at our recent Stamp Camp which was held at the end of February.  We are all wearing our Mardi Gras crowns and beads since it was held just before Mardi Gras.  You can’t say that we don’t have fun!  🙂

You may be wondering why I’ve capitalized only the first three letters of SASsy?  That’s because those letters stand for Seriously Addicted to Stamping or as we say amongst ourselves:  Smart Ass Stampers.  Since I am very sassy and the others can be too we usually just go by Sassy Stampers & Friends.

Only four of the gals are actual members of team.  The other four constitute the “friends” part of the title.  These are gals who don’t have uplines at all or have uplines who aren’t very active.

We do get along well and have a lot of fun together.  I try to get the gang together a number of times during the year for a quick meeting and some stamping.  A number of us like to travel to Stampin’ Up! events too.  Janet, Jan and I are heading to Minneapolis next month and we’re probably heading to Salt Lake City in November to kick off Stampin’ Up!’s 30th Anniversary?  Would you like to join us in November?  (The April event is already full).  We’d love to bring you along and share in the fun.

Do you love Stampin’ Up! products?  Would you love to be able to purchase them at a 20% discount?  You should think about becoming a member of my team of Sassy Stampers!  Now is the perfect time to become a demonstrator!  When you purchase your starter kit for only $99 you not only get to choose $125 of merchandise for the $99 but during Sale-a-bration (ends March 31st) you can also choose ANY 2 additional stamp set for FREE!!!

The new Annual Catalog is coming out June 1st but as a demonstrator you would be able to check it out at the beginning of May.  You’d be one of the first people to see all of the new and exciting products coming!

I really love being a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and I would love to have you become one too!  Please contact me with any questions you may have on being a demonstrator or on how to sign up.  Become SASSY!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!