Build a Bear Card Kits for Craft Fair

Coming up in the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini (active 9/1/09 - 1/4/10), there are LOTS of great new stamps being released. One of my new favs are these adorable Build a Bear stamps. There are also a bunch of Build a Bear bigz dies!

Here are 2 kits that I will be offering at an upcoming Craft fair. They will include envelopes and crayons so the kids can color as they choose and send off. Aren't they the cutest!

Sock Monkey Stationery Set

Here's a peek at a stationery set that I made after demonstrating how to cut and score the box and top at my class on Saturday. We were using the Oval All stamp set at class and one of the attendees (Arlene) noted that it would be cute done with Sock Monkey, which I just got 'cause Tyler REALLY wanted it.

The matchbox holds all of Sock Monkey's accessories. All the receipent has to do is color the mokey and choose the accessory and then add it to the card to customize for the occasion! Cool, huh? ETA: Here's a link to Jackie Topa's excellet tutorial that I used as a starting point.

U Rock birthday card and wish

I can't believe my oldest is almost a teen-ager! Only 1 more year:( Happy Birthday Bubby! I made him a card using the new extreme guitar image from Stampin' Up. The brick wall background is made using a stamp my friend Linda gave to me. She made this faux brick using left over rubber from her SU stamps! Cool, huh? As I posted the card, I realized that the brick probably would have looked nicer if I had stamped with a couple of shades of brown and red onto creamy caramel. That way the "grout" would have been darker. I also used my spritzer tool to give the brick some texture. We took the boys out to Applebees's last night as I have to work tonight. Cullen wanted to go there 'cuz he knew all the girls would sing to him:) If you see my boy on some sports field near you wish him a happy 12th!!

Happy Birthday to Linda!

It was my friend Linda's birthday over the weekend. Her daughter arranged a nice brunch for some stamping ladies and we all brought some of our "well loved" stamps to garage sale to others. This is the little gift that I made for Linda. I purchased the note cube at Michael's. The clip was loose, so after I covered the wooden block with pretty paper, I put in a dab of crystal effects and then re-set the giant paper clip.

Thanks for a nice day Renee and Happy Birthday Linda!

S'more Beer Thank you...

LOL, this is a card I made for a co-worker who asked for a card that she could send to some friends that hosted her at their camp last weekend. I'd been wanting to try the S'more texture that I saw here. I used my Stampin Up! Small dots texture plate and then scored with my scorepal to make the "crackers". Can you see them? Since they did quiet a bit of drinking at camp, I also thought it would be cute to have the bear holding a big frosty mug! Quick and simple, but cute and to the point!

SU Sets: Under the Stars and Cheers to you

Simple Birthday Wishes - Cupcake stamp from Stampin' Up!

In my post yesterday I mentioned that I'd be sharing a tip with you today on how to mount your simple birthday wishes stamp. This is a large background sized stamp that is designed for quick and easy birhtday kids thank you notes - and adapts to lots other uses! It's the "ice cream" in the card a post down and was the stamp I featured in a card front swap I did a while back. The frosting on my swap card was done using the shaving cream technique - how fun! I made a stencil out of acetate so the sharving cream would stay only on the frosting.

Anyway, when I got this stamp, I knew I wouldn't always want the words appearing on the "wrapper" part of my stamped image. I like to paper piece alot and this wrapper just begs to be pieced. Knowing it woudn't see too much love if I had to use the marker to ink around the wrapper, I decided on a specialty mount. Before I took the protective paper off the sticky foam, I used my kraft knife to carefully cut around the inside of the wrapper to remove the words. Then I put this piece aside and peeled off the backing from ONLY the cupcake piece to mount on the wood block. By leaving the protective paper on the sticky foam, you can easily put it in or take it out to stamp! Cool huh?

Summer Cookout Kit 40% off and other August specials

This was just posted on my Stampin' Up! Demo website:


We are excited to announce that beginning today, August 1, the Country Living Summer Cookout Kit is being offered at a 40 percent discount--making it just $14.95! And with plenty of summer left to celebrate, it's a great time to take advantage of this huge discount. The Summer Cookout Refill is also still available at its regular price of $9.95. This special offer only goes through August 31, or while supplies last, so contact your customers today--and make summer an occasion to celebrate! Click the picture below for details



$14.95 is a great deal - especially when you factor in that cute stamp set you get! Let me know if you want me to add it on to an order this month:)

Other August Specials:
Spend $35 on stamp sets from the Growing Up section of the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog (pages 74-90) and receive a FREE package of Designer buttons--a $7.95 value! Eligible buttons are Playground Designer buttons, Sherbet Designer buttons or Button Latte Designer buttons!

Purchase the brand-new Décor Elements Growth Chart, only available August 1-September 30, and as an added bonus, receive a free applicator tool with your purchase (a $1.95 value).

Ice Cream anyone?

It's Fat Free! How cute is this ice cream cone? I must tell you that this is not my original idea - it's so hard to have an original idea with so many great resources out there, lol! This one came to me via an email update from Gretchen Barron. You can see her version here. Can you see the texture on the "cone". I wish the picture was better - I used my new stampin up texture plate - called pattern 2 to make it look just like a cone! The ice cream on the top of the cone is made by cutting off the "frosting" from the huge cupcake background stamp called simple birthday thanks. I have a tip for mounting that stamp too that I will share tomorrow.

Have a great day.... I think I might take the boys for ice cream tonight!

Country Morning - Stampin Up Level 1 Hostess Set

Today's cards feature the Country Morning set. This is a level 1 hostess set from the 2009-2010 Stampin' Up! Catalog. I volunteered to make the index card for this set for the SCS gallery, so I had these images all colored and thought I might as well turn them into cards. I don't know why this first picture is so bright - it's really not this bright IRL. The colors used are crushed curry and dusty durango (ribbon), and bashful blue. This next card is one that was inspired by one that's already in the SCS gallery. I used some paper from the hostess patterns pack and my chicken wire background (from rubbernecker). THe sentiment along the bottom is a rub-on from the Chit Chat collection. Thanks for stopping by.

A wedding card using Baroque Motifs

I have a small basket of cards for sale on my desk at work. I don't sell many, but they are mainly class samples and extras anyway. As I work with mostly men, as you can imagine, there is not alot of action at the card basket.... guess I need to make more "I'm sorry I did that" or "wanna fool around" cards, lol! The best thing that happens from having this box there is that it will promote the "how do you do this" converatoion or "do you have any ____ cards". This happened the other day when one of the guys was looking for a wedding card and asked if I could make him a really big card. He wanted bigger, but I told him it would be tough to find an envelope for as large as he wanted. This is a full 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper that opens in the middle. I think it's called a gate fold card with a belly band made from vellum to hold it closed. The 2nd picture shows the inside of the card. I made another one in different colors that I'll post after I send it out. Thanks for stopping in today!

Mix and Match Oval All Class

How fun does this look?!? This is a "rough draft" of my next class. This class will consist of the stationary holder that houses 6 A2 sized cards and lots of options for sentiments that will go on the card depending on the ocassion. One picture shows an example of each of the cards and some of the mix and match options. The other picture shows how this set is stored all neat and tidy - adorable, huh? I think this would make a great gift for someone. Note: The final version will have either a rose red or bashful blue fold up box (the bottom part that is now pictured white with the blue polka dots on the inside).

This Class will be offered on 2 dates: Saturday, August 15th at 10 am and again on Monday, August 17th at 6 pm. Cost is $15 (take $1 off if you bring your own punches!) and pre-payment is due for both classses by 8/10/09 in order to insure your seat. Seating is limited to 8 people per class. Hope to see you there!

If you are not local and would like the materials and instructions to make this project the cost is $18 (includes shipping). Email me to arrange for delivery.

If you are on my email list, watch your inbox for a flyer detailing this class. If you're not on my email list and would like to be added, just click on the link at left to email me. Happy Stamping!

christmas in July

Sneak peak! For those coming to my Christmas in July Stamp Camp, these are the projects we'll be doing. Are you all excited now. I plan to make my cards early, so this year I can spend some time relaxing before the holidays! Have a great day :)

Happy Birthday to my Honey!

Today is my hubby's birthday. Poor Chris... always seems to get put on the "bottom of the list". I came home from work last night a bit frantic that I hadn't even made him a card yet :(

I knew it had to be fairly quick and simple as he and the boys were due home soon and then it would be time to spend some time with them before heading to bed. I have recently been surfing for ideas on DIVA techniques for next week and decided on simple - we will be doing Spotlighting and Distressing. This card features spotlighting and it was quick and simple - perfect! Chris, if you are reading - (which I'm pretty sure ain't happenin').... Have a great day, Love Ya!

And here is one I made for my dad last week:

Have a great one!

Deal of the Week for July 13 - 19

Deal of the Week: Square Fire Rhinestone Brads

Add sparkle to your projects with our Square Fire Rhinestone brads. From July 13–19, they're just $6.99—over 30% off the regular price of $10.95!

Throughout July, be sure to check my web site every Monday at 10 AM (MT) for the week's new deal.

Check out my Stampin' Up web site here for more details or to place an order.

Thanks for helping me Score!

Today's project were some thank you tokens for my oldest son's hockey camp counselors. He's been at camp for over a week now and will be coming home in 3 days (yeah!) Inside these little wrappers are candy bars... can you guess what kind?

Baseball Party Birthday Favors

Remember last month, when I took my son and 3 of his friends to a minor league baseball game for his birthday? These are the favors I made for his party. I am usually really good about at least THINKING of these things early, but it was the day of his birthday and I realized that I didn't have any favors for the boys, so I ran to the store and bought some real baseballs, came home and went to town personalizing them and then making a cooridnating pen for them to get autograps with before the game. They LOVED 'em! That's the 4 of them (the little ones) getting the pitcher's autograph. What a fun time :)

2009-2010 Stampin' Up! Catalog is LIVE!

FINALLY, It's here! Click on the picture below to see the PDF catalog file or visit my Stampin' Up! website by clicking HERE to shop online.