Happy Birthday Coach

Here's a card for Cullen's head baseball coach. The team is surprising him with a cake, so I made a card that the whole team could sign for him. His name is embossed on the back. I was blurfing (blog surfing) and was inspired by my friend, Renee's card. I remembered... "Hey, I have that stamp!" The t-shirt is a stamp that I got at the Expo last year and his made by too much fun rubber stamps. They have so many really fun things! I colored in the "trim" with my SU gel pen, and hit the highlight areas with a red marker to give the shirt some dimension. Coach is embossed with white. The baseball glove and ball are from a retired SU set called sporting goods, which I don't think I will EVER part with - it sure does come in handy, lol!

2009 Stampin' Up! In-Colors

Well, probably most everyone has seen these by now (sorry, I'm a little behind on my blogging). These will be the 6 new In-Colors in the Stampin' Up! Catalog that goes live on July 1st. I have placed my pre-order, but opted out of the $50 overnight shipping charge and therefore, got put in the back of the line so to speak for shipping. I just got notice yesterday that part of my order has shipped and should be here on monday (the 15th). Once I get some of these new papers, I can make some cards and show off the colors on my blog. Until then, Dawn has allowed us to use this picture from her blog to show the new colors (she musta shelled out the 50 beans!). If you'd like to see some comparison photos of how the new in colors fit in with the current 48 colors, she has them posted on her blog here.

Thanks to Dawn and other demo's who have gotten some of their pre-order stuff, we can all have a little sneak peak of what's to come! For the first time ever, we will also be getting MARKERS to coordinate with the new in-colors!! From what I've seen of the new hostess sets, I will be busy with parties this year too!

graduation card and some paper shares

This is a graduation card I did for our intern at work. She says she's not a "girly-girl", so I didn't want to go to frilly with this card. I've had this starving artist animal since last year's stamp expo and I don't think I've used him yet. The grad cap is a clear stamp from a MSE set that I found on clearance. I just masked the little cap and stamped the monkey underneath. I also used coal shimmerz on the cap for something special. See that chalkboard background on the orange paper? I love, love, love this stamp.... another I've had in my collection for a while, but never used. It's from River City Rubber Works. I just stamped in white craft ink, then embossed ... cool, huh? Her school colors are orange and blue. Congrats Nikki!

Now - to swith gears.... Those of you on my mailing list now that I put together some paper shares to take advantage of the current Stampin' Up! Special of buy 3 packs of designer paper or 12 x 12 textured cardstock and get 1 free. The first round of shares filled very quickly and the order arrived yesterday (except for one pack of paper which is why there are only 3 papers shown in the rockabilly share. Anyway, here they are all packaged up and ready to go when the backordered pack gets here. If you ordred the Bella Share or the Combo Pack, they are all ready! The deets... get a 6 x 12 piece of each double sided paper included in the 4 selected paper packs - that's 24 pieces per share for only $10!! ($12 for the speciality paper share). email me if you'd like the flyer with all the details to sign up for a spot or two. It's a great way to get a taste of lots of paper without breaking the bank.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all you mom's out there have a great day doing whatever makes you happiest. My kids are especially wound up today, so I am relaxing in my rubber room cleaning up after a full day of crafting for others yesterday. I made some really cool mother's day and teacher projects, but didn't get any pics before they went out the door as I can't find the cord to charge my camera. Guess I need to keep cleaning, lol! Have a great day all!!

Hambo Stamps - Cool Cat Digi Download

While blurfing (blog surfing) today, I hit the jackpot with this free digi download from Hambo Stamps. There was a challenge on the Hambo blog to make a card using the downloaded image, so I printed it out and got to work. After printing out the image on a piece of white cardstock, I then printed it again on some designer paper from Stampin' Up! I cut out the inner tube from the designer paper and after I colored in the cool cat, I popped the inner tube back on using dimensionals. (SU dimensionals are the BEST for this as they are nice and thin). I then added some fishies and the sun from the SU set Just Beachy. Not sure if you can tell by the picture, but Cool Cat's glasses are covered in coal shimmerz (from www.allthatscraps.com), completing his too cool for school look! Thanks for stoppin' in - hope you enjoy!

WNY Spring Fest pictures - Recipe Swaps

So for the first time at a swap, I signed up to do the Recipe Swaps. Those who know me, know that I don't particularly like to cook. Therefore, I decided if I ever did sign up for a recipe swap, I would use this recipe that I received in an email from a friend a long time ago.... A swap was born! The outside of the card features an oven door complete with a digital clock that I printed using my computer. The oven mits were clip art that I printed onto dsp and cut out. When you open the card, the chicken from Best of Cluck pops out at you. I did this by using some lightweight wire that came on a spool. I poked the end through the recipe paper and taped over the front with clear tape. I had to do 28 of these! Also pictured are just some of the swaps that I received in return. Thanks for stopping by today and sharing some of my swap experience!

WNY Spring Fest pictures - ATC Swaps

Recently, I attended a HUGE swap in Buffalo, NY. For the first time, I signed up for the ATC and the RECIPE swaps. The It's all good ATC shown above was my contributiont to the ATC swap. I used the Gina K set called You are my Sunshine. The surfboard is DeNami. I made the sand dues by tearing creamy carmel paper (didn't photo true to color) and then sponged the edges and stamped on some grains of sands using my itty bitty backgrounds. The other picture is some of the ATC's I received as a part of this swap. I'm so excited to start my ATC collection and can't wait to add to it. FYI... An ATC is an Artist Trading Card and measures 2.5 x 3.5. The object is to showcase as much art as you can using your personal style on to the baseball card sized paper. Don't you love them?

WNY Spring Fest pictures

Here is my van all loaded up and headed for Buffalo (actually this is on the way home). We went to the 2nd WNY Spring Fest held in Buffalo, NY on April 25, 2009. If you look closely, you can see my 3 partners in crime for the weekend. Can anyone guess who they are and how much I had to pay one of them to pose for a picture?!?
What a great time I had stamping, swaping, chatting, learning new techniques and even stamping in our jammies at the hotel! Below is a picture of the stamping action as we were completing our "shoebox" or table projects. There were 75 women attending this event. When we first arrived, we drew our table assignment and set up our projects for our table mates. I was at Table F and made some really cool projects that the other girls brought to share. I aslo participated in the recipe and ATC swaps. I'll post a picture of my projects tomorrow. Thanks everyone who made this event another great one!

A Video Tour of the Rubber Room

Well, I can't figure out how to get the icon of the video where you push play, so if you'd like to see a video tour of my rubber room click on the picture above or click here.

Sizzlets Little Leaves Die Card

I finally opened up my Sizzlets Little Leaves Die I got last month from SU. I wanted to cut some leaves out to see what they looked like. When I saw the negative that the die cut made, I immediately dropped the leaves themselves and went to work with the negative. This is the end result. I love when I have absolutely no plan and something comes together quickly. This card took about 5 minutes to finish! The little kiwi kiss "faux brads" on the corners are done with a galaxy marker I had in my turnabout. I inked up the end and used it to dot them on. Cool, heh? Thanks for stopping in - hope you're having a good weekend

DIVA Project - 2-step, 3d Stamping with Soft Summer

Hi there! We have DIVA club this friday. For those of you who don't know about DIVA club, you can see more info here. If you have some friends and want to form a club, like this - let's talk!This is the full card project we'll be doing once we learn about 2-step, 3d stamping (a technique the hostess chose). I'm not sure if this is the official interpretation of the technique, but it's mine, so as thier fearless leader, I guess they'll have to love it:) The choc chip piece has been run through the cuttlebug using the small dots texturz plate. The new scallop oval punch was used to punch out a window from the front of the card and the celebrate oval is attached using dimensionals inside the card. Can't believe that break is almost over - hope you're enjoying yours!

RAK - punched Easter bunny basket

How cute is this little Easter Basket? My friend and DIVA Stacey surprised me with this over the weekend. Thanks Stacey - you rock! It's a little basket made out of scallop envelopes and adorned with a litle bunny made of punches. I can't tell you much more than that as I've never made one. I did just receive my own scallop envelope die tonight though - yipee! Thanks for stoppin by!

Happy Easter and remember....

another soft summer

Here is another soft summer card using kraft, perfect plum and old olive... one of my fav combos! No time for yada yada today - gotta go to work. Hope your holiday weekend is a good and safe one with loved ones!

Soft Summer in bashful blue

Happy Tuesday Girls! Only 1 more day of school and then the kids are on break - I'm happy for them as I remember how fun breaks were when I was a kid, but I'm sad for me as I still have to work. We rarely go away on break as it's the start of baseball season and no one wants to miss the early practices. I'll just have to do some extra stampin' to stay happy I guess! Anyhoo... I wanted to do up some samples using a new MINI set called soft summer. This card uses both the solid image and the outline image of the dogwood flower as well as one of the sentiments from the set. The colors on this card are bashful blue, Night of Navy, and Old Olive. Thanks for peeking in today - hope your tuesday is good!

Very Versatile from Stampin' Up - Occasions Mini

Here is a card using a set from the Occasions Mini called Very Versatile. It has this flower image and 4 sets of double greetings (one for the inside and one for the outside). It really is very versatile. The flower was imbossed using versamark and clear EP. Can you see the embossed lines on the white piece? The were dry embossed using my scor-pal, then the piece was punched with my eyelet border punch. Inspiration for this card was from someone on SCS. I apologize as I can't find it now, but if it's yours, please let me know and I'll gladly add a link! Thanks for stopping by today - hope your weekend was a good one.

Another Big Shot top note scallop circle purse

Last night a friend came over to make some of the top note purses I showed you a couple of posts ago. She is not an independent crafter, but really likes to see my show-n-tell projects and enjoys one on one instruction. I gave her step by step instructions and she completed these 3 boxes (plus one other) in about 2 hours. Either she's a natural or I'm a really good teacher.... or both! Don't you agree? She picked out the colors and as I look at the picture, I should have moved the top one down, so that a yellow and a blue were next to each other, but oh well, they've moved on to their new home and I'm sure they will be happy there:) Thanks for stopping in today! Here is the link again to the directions for this purse. I'd love to see it if you make one of your own!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Today is my lil' sis' Birthday. How weird is this... it's also her husbands birthday! I was thinking this morning that it must have been fun while they were dating to find out that they shared a birthday and maybe went something like this:

Her: So I'm an Aries - what's your sign?

Him: I dunno

Her: Well, when is your birthday

Him: April, I think

Her: Cool, mine too! What day?

Him: "the 3rd - let me call my mom to che...."

Her: No Way - MY birthday is the 3rd too.

Him: Really?

Her: YES! We must be meant to be together!

Him: So... ya think we should make out now?

Happy Birthday Shannon (and Shane!) I Don't have a picture of the 2 of them on this computer, so I'll post this picture from last weekend when my mom and I went to visit her. (Shannon is the skinny sister on the left)

Last year to celebrate her birthday, I went and bought myself the making memories embellishment center. I can't wait to get out of work and see what surprise I get this year for her birthday:) P.S. Those tags a couple of posts down were for her

Get Connected Promotion from Stampin' Up!

Have you checked out Page 210 of the Current Catalog? I have to tell you that I hadn't really paid it much attention till a week or so ago. A customer order the cutest little note card set. It comes with stamps, an ink spot and 4 gift notes and envelopes for only $9.95! Where had THAT been hiding! Also on Page 210 are some SINGLE stamps that can be purchased. Perfect for a little gift for the stamper in your life or if you need just the right sentiment, but don't want to buy a whole set. Guess what?!? This month you can get these stamps for FREE! Remember I told you a little bit about this promotion yesterday, but mentioned that there were technical difficulties with it, so SU put it on hold? It's fixed and running as planned. Here's the scoop....

Promotion Dates: April 1 - 30, 2009
Customers Spend $40 on Occasions Mini Catalog products and choose any one item from the "Under $10" page in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog for free.

Hostesses Hold a workshop of $150 or more and choose any one item from the "Under $10" page in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog for free.

Here is a link to a flyer with more info. You will get this special offer if you order on your own through my website or by calling or emailing me to place your order.

2009 Occasions Mini is Here!

The NEW Occasions Mini from Stampin' Up! is here. Starting today, April 1st you can get these great new items. As a demo, I could order from this mini catalog starting last month. Let me tell ya a secret.... I usually don't order too many Mini items as if they don't make it into the big catalog, I can't demo them for very long, but after a look at this Mini and I ordered almost everything! It's a good one. If you see something you like and would like to order, give me a call or contact me via email! SU has announced a promo that if you order $40 from the Mini, you may pick one of the new single stamps from the back of the big catty, but there are some technical difficulties with the promo, so stay tuned for more info on that.

Also, I am holding a Oval Scallop Punch class on April 22nd. Cost is $20 and you get to take your punch home with you! Pre-registration due by April 3rd.

Hint: If you click on the catalog it will take you to a PDF version.