NEW Idea Book & Catalog

The new catalog is available now. If you would like your own copy of this wonderful book, please contact me. You can earn one for FREE by booking your own hands-on workshop! I have several dates available.

Tote Bag for Convention

It is so good to be back home. I had a great time at convention and wanted to share with you some of the gifts I made to give to my group & downline.

I made 8 of these tote bags for my group & downline. They were a hit!! So many people stopped us and asked where we got them.....I made them from placemats! And of course added some embellishments to them, and a name tag. Inside the tote bag were a few goodies to help get through convention, including gum & tissues.














Placemats (2), Belting for handles, Computer generated Convention logo printed on Whisper White Cardstock, Buttons, Swarovski Crystals,

If you would like to have some totes made for a group event, please contact me for colors & pricing.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day.

Convention Gifts

I made these frames for my group & downline to give at Convention. I also made one to donate for a door prize at the SCS Dinner. Here is the finished frame from the sneak peek photos below:














Wood Frames, Acrylic Paints, Computer generated logo from SU! website printed on Whisper White cardstock, Ginormous Flowers & One of a Kind Stamp Sets, Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Apricot Appeal Ink and Cardstock, 5 Petal Flower Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, Glue Dots

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day.

Convention Bound

I am sooooo excited to be going to Salt Lake City for Convention 2008. I will be leaving today (Tuesday) and returning on Sunday evening. I am so happy that some of my downline and sideline
will be attending. I will not be posting much while I am away as I am not taking my laptop. If I get a chance to post, I will definitely keep you updated.

But as soon as I return, I look forward to sharing with you many things from convention, including the swaps I made and the roommate gifts.

Have a great week.
Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Sneak Peek....

...at what I did this past weekend. I have all my organized swaps ready for convention and some swaps for general swapping too. Now with only 8 days before I leave, I am working on gifts. I make a gift for my roommates and some online friends that I will see at convention.














I stamped, punched and cut out all the elements



















Check back to see the finished projects.

Have a creative day and thanks for stopping by!

Soooo Busy......

I am so sorry for not posting anything here for the past month, but I have been extremely busy. I was helping my son move to his new apartment, and getting settled in. The next week I helped my best friend Vicki move from her house to an apartment. She asked me to do some major organizing of her stuff...mainly the craft room. I will have to show you the end result when I am done. The temperatures here have been between 105 and 110 degrees every day, so needless to say I am exhausted by the end of the day.

Yes, I have been stamping but nothing I can show you just yet. I have been working on my convention swaps, gifts for my roommates, downline/sideline gifts, etc. I will show these as time gets closer. 13 days from today I leave for Salt Lake City. I am getting soooooooooooo excited!!

Thanks for stopping by and Have a creative day.

Color Challenge

It's Tuesday and Color Challenge day over at SCS. Today's colors to use are Soft Sky, Basic Black and Kraft. I used the Time Well Spent hostess set and a fun ribbon embellishment that I made from sraps of ribbon. It is hard to see in the photo, but I stamped small flowers as a background with White Craft ink on the basic black.














RECIPE:
Stamps: Time Well Spent
Paper: Basic Black, Soft Sky, Kraft, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Black, White Craft, Soft Sky
Access: Aqua Painter, Ribbon Scraps, Paper Piercing Tool

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Challenge for N.M.B.S. Group

Challenge 01 - Bloom
I designed this card for the N.M.B.S. group's first challenge. Every Sunday a new challenge will be posted and this week it was a limited supplies challenge using flower stamps, black, white and one other color and bling for embellishment.














RECIPE:
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pink Passion
Ink: Basic Black, Pink Passion
Access: Black Gingham Ribbon, Pink Rhinestone Circle Brads, Stickles

You can go here to check out the group blog.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Stampin' Up! Retiring Stamp Sets List

Retiring Stampin' Up! Sets List
The list of the retiring stamp sets was released today from Stampin' Up!. Please check out the list here for alphabetical list OR here for catalog page number list. Remember that you only have a short time to get these before they are gone forever. So mark your calendars and plan now to attend my Summer Clearance Event on Saturday, June 21 at my home. Email me for directions and contact info. Come by anytime between noon and 5 pm to preview the new retiring stamp sets list, place orders, buy my previous years retired stamp sets (hundreds of sets available), and enjoy a free make & take project while sipping some cool lemonade. There will be prizes and lots of samples on display as well. I look forward to seeing you!

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

From Messy to...Clean!

Happy Sunday!
Today starts 7 days of dance recital week for me & my family. My daughter has been dancing since she was 4 and she is now 16! The one week in June when I am completely focused on the dance recital has now arrived. I am one of the many staff members at the dance studio which has about 1000 dancers. There are 3 casts, each with a technical rehearsal, dress rehearsal and 2 performances. My daughter also teaches 5 classes and has her own dances in tap, jazz and ballet on pointe that she will perform as well. I run the backstage area where all the dancers are pulled from their dressing rooms and lined up prior to going on stage.

Yesterday, in preparation for the busy week ahead, I cleared my stamping desk in my craft room from all the creative mess I had made while designing and stamping convention swaps. Here is the messy desk photo (I can't believe I am showing you this):














And here it is after I cleared and put away the ink pads, put the stamps back in the cases, punches in the bins and markers in the drawer:














Now that it is clean, I want to STAMP...oh yeah, I have to go work the dance recital.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Anniversary Sketch

Today I designed this card for my DH and for the Sketch Challenge over at SCS. I will give this card to him tonight when we go out to celebrate being married for 25 years. Today he surprised me with a day at the spa, manicure and pedicure and then tonight we will go out to dinner and a movie.
Okay, back to the card......I used my new set, Fresh Cuts to stamp the background and then the Together Forever set to stamp the details that are punched using various circle punches.



















RECIPE:
Stamps: Fresh Cuts, Together Forever, Hugs & Wishes
Paper: River Rock, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, River Rock, Blush Blossom
Access: River Rock Ribbon, Linen Thread, Antique Brass Brads
Tools: Circle Punches

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Blooming with Love

Happy Tuesday, and it is the color combination challenge over at SCS. I love the colors for today's challenge: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Real Red.
I designed this card for a convention swap that I have been working on. Since I had all the supplies out for stamping this design, all I had to do was to change the colors for today's challenge. The technique is paper piecing and it is perfect for the flower pots in this stamp set. If you are attending the SU! Convention, please do not use this card design.














RECIPE:
Stamps: Blooming with Love
Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Access: SU! Markers, Silver Brads, Blue Bayou Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Ticket Corner Punch, 1/16" Hole Punch

Leave a comment and let me know what you think, I love to read the comments from you.
Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Enchanted Inspiration

Happy Saturday!! That means Inspiration Challenge day on SCS. The challenge today is to use a dress from a movie as inspiration for your card. I chose this dress Amy Adams wore in the movie Enchanted. The card I created uses the Bali Breeze DSP which I absolutely love. I cut out the larger of the flowers and popped it up with dimensional adhesive. The sentiment is also popped up over the ribbon.



















RECIPE:
Stamps: Together Forever
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Groovy Guava, Bali Breeze DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Groovy Guava
Access: Gold Brads, Dimensional Adhesive, Groovy Guava Ribbon
Tools: Scalloped Circle Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Horizontal Slot Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Summer Picnic Sketch

It's Wednesday, that means Sketch Challenge day at SCS. Here is the card I created for the challenge using a set from the Occasions Mini. The strawberry panel is popped up with dimensional adhesive.



















RECIPE:
Stamps: Tart & Tangy, Short & Sweet
Paper: Real Red, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Summer Picnic DSP
Ink: Real Red
Access: Real Red Eyelets, 5/8" Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Crop-A-Dile

This stamp set and the DSP is from the current Occasions Mini Catalog, sale date extended thru June 30th, If you would like a copy of this mini catalog, email me and I will send you one.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

One of a Kind....with Chocolate

Color Challenge - Using Very Vanilla, Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip
Here is the card I created for the color challenge today on SCS, see my gallery here.
The bottom panel is actually a pocket and the two small panels are tucked in the pocket and can be pulled out to reveal your message. The sentiment is popped up with dimensional adhesive.














RECIPE:
Stamps: One of A Kind, Boho Backgrounds
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla
Ink: Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip
Access: Sage Shaoe Marker, Aqua Painter, Gold Brads, 5/8" Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: 1/2" Circle Punch, 1/16" Hole Punch

Thanks for stopping by an have a creative day!

No More Bad Swaps Group Swap

I am happy to be a member of the NMBS (No More Bad Swaps) Group. This is a group of ladies that are excellent stampers and were tired of getting swaps that were just so-so. They wanted an upper level of swaps in return and thus this group was formed. I received an invitation from Beth, the swap coordinator to join and I graciously accepted. This was the first swap that I participated in and it was for full card specialty cards. I signed up for 2 groups. The cards I got in return were absolutely gorgeous and perfect in every way.

My first card is a Criss-Cross Card that I created using one of my favorite color combos - Soft Sky and Blue Bayou.














RECIPE:
Stamps: One of a Kind, Boho Backgrounds
Paper: Blue Bayou, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Blue Bayou DSP
Ink: Blue Bayou, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky
Access: Silver Brads, Blue Bayou Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive, Glue Dots
Tools: Scalloped Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Rounded Tab Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch

**********************************************************************************
My second card is a Surprise Pop-Up Card. I chose the color combo based on the Flower Fusion colors as I knew I wanted to use these felt flowers as an embellishment for the front on the card.
Here is the card closed



















Here is the card open


















RECIPE:
Stamps: Polka Dot Background, Fun & Fast Notes, Curvy Verses
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Rose Red, Whisper White, Rose Red DSP Prints
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Access: SU! Markers, Flower Fusion, Brads, Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Staples, Glue Dots, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Trimmer/Scorer, Photo Corners Punch, Stapler, 3/4" Circle Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day.

No Hardware Challenge

Limited Supplies Challenge
Today's challenge on SCS was to use stamps instead of hardware (brads, eyelets, buttons, etc.) on your card. Here is the card I created for the challenge. I used the small star from In The Stars set, stamped it with Bashful Blue onto Whisper White and used the 1/2" Circle Punch and punched each one out. I then flat mounted them along the bottom of my card instead of putting three brads or buttons there. The saying is also from In the Stars set.













RECIPE:
Stamps: Pun Fun, In The Stars
Paper: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, Jersey Shore DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Basic Black
Access: SU! Markers: Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue; Wild Wasabi Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: 1/2" Circle Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Masculine Card Challenge

Ways to Use It Challenge
For today's challenge on SCS, I made this masculine card using a set from the mini catalog. I am truly challenged when it comes to making manly cards.

















RECIPE:

Stamps: For Father
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Basic Brown
Access: Antique Brass Brads, Markers, Wild Wasabi Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Ticket Corner Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Another Challenge to Share

Sketch Challenge
Here is the card I created for the sketch challenge today on SCS. When I saw the sketch I knew this was the perfect set for it. I used the Double Hole Punch to create "faux brads" on the sides. I used the Pretty in Pink classic ink pad for the direct to paper technique to make the background.

















RECIPE:

Stamps: Live Your Dream
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi
Access: Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Double Hole Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

I'm Back....Color Challenge to Share

Color Challenge - Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou
Here is the card I created for the color challenge this week on SCS. I absolutely love these colors together. I used the paper piecing technique on the wheelbarrow.













RECIPE:
Stamps: Blooming with Love
Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Blue Bayou DSP Prints
Ink: Basic Gray, Markers: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Access: Jumbo Eyelet, Celery 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Crop-A-Dile, Scalloped Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!