"NEW" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon from Stampin' Up

Look at this beautiful ribbon! If you know me, then you know that I LOVE ribbon...all widths, all colors, prints, solids and now STRIPES! Stampin' Up! introduced these 4 new Striped Grosgrain ribbons in the 2008 Spring-Summer Collection catalog that was just released on January 2nd! I couldn't wait to get them, they are available in Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, & Pumpkin Pie. Each spool has approx. 10 yards of 1/2" wide ribbon and sells for $7.95.
If you would like to order some for yourself, please contact me to place your order today! I am going to be sharing some creative projects using this ribbon, so check back to see.

SCS Combined Challenges

I created this card using today's color challenge from SCS and yesterday's challenge to use the Pocket Heart Template. I love this set, Time Well Spent, that I received for FREE from Stampin' Up! right before Christmas. One of the many perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is getting FREE, unexpected gifts in the mail.

My card is created using only this set. The flowers are stamped in Basic Black, and then I watercolored the images using the ink colors and the aqua painter. Then cut each one out and used dimensional adhesive to adhere them to the front of the card. I hope you like it!
RECIPE:
Stamp Set: Time Well Spent
Paper: Rose Red, Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow, Whisper White
Ink: Rose Red, Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow
Accessories: Gold Brads, 1/16" Hole Punch, Dimensional Adhesive



Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Creative Anniversary

Today is my 9 year anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I have met so many wonderful people during these past 9 years and cherish all the memories from stampin' events, like convention and regionals. My downline & sideline gals are so awesome and I love being their "leader", but mainly cherish their friendships. So here is a card I designed for the Limited Supplies Challenge on SCS today, the challenge was to create a card without using Whisper White or Very Vanilla cardstock. When it came to adding a sentiment, I thought it was perfectly fitting to use "Creative Anniversary" in honor of today.

I used the basic black marker to ink the words "Anniversary" from the stamp in Hugs & Wishes, and then hand printed the word "Creative". The flowers are from the Office Accoutrement set and are stamped on soft sky, cut out and mounted using dimensional adhesive.
Finished size is 4" x 6". All supplies from Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Office Accoutrement, Hugs & Wishes
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Taken with Teal, Soft Sky, Tempting Turquoise Designer Series Prints
Ink: Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Black brads, 1/16" hole punch, dimensionals, Basic Black marker, paper piercing tool and template, soft sky ribbon, 1" circle punch, 1-1/4" circle punch


Thanks for stopping by. Leave a comment if you please.
Have a creative day!!

Sketchin' Flowers

I started working on this card for the Sketch Challenge on SCS and was sidetracked onto other things and then went back to complete the card and then added the Ways to Use It Challenge to complete the card. I usually don't like to combine challenges but this one just worked out that way. I love these colors together and the DSP is perfect. The center panel is popped up using dimensional adhesive. The paper flowers are from Making Memories, otherwise all the supplies are from Stampin' Up! I hope you like it.

RECIPE:
Stamps: Just Like You, Embrace Life
Paper: Perfect Plum, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Whisper White, Flowers for You Designer Series Paper
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Basic Black, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Brads, Dimensionals, Paper Flowers

Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment if you please!

Have a great creative day!

Embracing the Challenge

Here is the card I designed for today's color challenge on SCS. The challenge colors are Taken with Teal, Real Red, Certainly Celery. I used the slit punch to create the scalloped edge and the 1/8" hole punch for the center of each scallop. The image is stamped in Basic Black and colored in using the blender pen and the Real Red re-inker. The scalloped edge panel is popped up with dimensionals and the ribbon is threaded underneath and tied.

Stamp Set: Embrace Life
Paper: Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Certainly Celery, Basic Black
Accessories: Slit Punch, 1/8" hole punch, silver brads, 5/8" red grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, blender pen, real red re-inker


Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Happy New Year

I wish you all a peaceful, healthy, happy 2008!

SU! Spring-Summer Designer Series Papers & Coordinating Colors

Here is the new updated list of Designer Series Papers from the SU! 2008 Spring-Summer Collection catalog. I think it is very helpful to know which colors coordinate when planning a project.

SU! Spring-Summer Designer Series Papers & Coordinating Colors

Azure: Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla

Bali Breeze: Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie

Berry Bliss: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa

Cutie Pie: Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, So Saffron

East Coast Prep: Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard

Flowers for You: Certainly Celery, Lovely Lilac, Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise

Fall Flowers: Old Olive, Really Rust, Soft Sky, Sahara Sand

Ginger Blossom: Ruby Red, River Rock, Cameo Coral, Groovy Guava

Jersey Shore: Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue

Le Jardin: River Rock, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Bashful Blue

Notebook: Soft Sky, Kraft, Vanilla

Olive Press: Old Olive, Very Vanilla

Porcelain Prints: Blue Bayou, River Rock, Wild Wasabi

Spring Break: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky

Spring Fling: Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron

Spring Silhouettes: Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla

Western Sky: Ruby Red, River Rock, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky

Thanks for stopping by and have a safe New Year's Eve!

SCS - Inspiration Challenge

It is so great to be in my stampin' studio doing challenges again from SCS.

Today is the Inspiration Challenge - a cocktail dress from Nicole Miller. I designed this card using the colors in the dress and the design on the skirt of the dress looked just like Baroque Motifs.
Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs, Celebrate Everything
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Gold Encore
Accessories: Gold Brads, 3/4" Circle Punch, Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!

SCS Limited Supplies Challenge

I designed this card for the challenge on SCS. I couldn't wait to use one of my new sets from the new SU! Spring-Summer Collection catalog. The challenge was to use the items from this list to create a card. The items I used are in ( ).
Stamps
one stamped image that can be colored - (Happy Heart Day)
optional: sentiment
optional: an image to ground the main image like an oval, grass, etc. (White cardstock sponged in certainly celery and snipped to look like grass)
Paper
any shade of white - (Whisper White)
2-3 patterns of designer paper - (Flowers For You)
NO other colored cardstock
Tools
NO specialty tools - No punches, No CB, No Piercer, etc.
any coloring tools - (SU! Markers - Going Grey, Regal Rose, Lovely Lilac)
sponges OK
Embellishments
one piece of ribbon - (5/8" Celery grosgrain)

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!

Stampin' Up! New Catalog Release

I received my new Stampin' Up! catalog on Saturday, Dec. 15th. One perk of being a demonstrator is getting the catalog early. I also received my cases of catalogs on Dec. 20th. The cover features the color Groovy Guava. Although the first day to place an order isn't until, Wed. Jan. 2nd - I have been making my wish list.
One of the first things that I do when I get a new catalog is take it to my local Office Max and have it coil bound. This process is simple to do, and can be done while you wait. They cut the spine off, punch holes in the side and place a plastic coated wire coil through the holes to hold it all together. The front and back covers are laminated.

I printed off the dormant list from the SU! website and the pages showing all the sets, laminated these at home and took them with me to be bound in the back of my catalog.
I love having the ability to fold back the pages onto the other, keeping my place in the catalog.




If you would like to purchase a NEW Stampin' Up! Spring-Summer Collection 2008 catalog or if you would like to earn one for FREE please contact me for more details.






It's a great day to be creative.
Barbara

SCS - Sketch Challenge 156 - Cameo Wishes

Here is the card I designed for the sketch challenge on SCS today. I was so excited to be able to get in my stampin' studio and stamp. I have been so busy over the past few days, this was a fun challenge to get me started.
I used a ribbon spool to trace the outline of the circle image, cut that out of the DSP and then layered it onto the Cameo Coral. The flowers were punched from the Ruby Red & Cameo Coral and then sponged the edges with chocolate chip ink. It is mounted on the circle image with a pop-up glue dot for added dimension. The finished size is 4-1/4" x 5-1/2".

Stamp Set: Short & Sweet
Paper: Linen Prints DSP, Chocolate hip, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Old Olive
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Word Window Punch, 5 Petal Flower Punch, Gold Brads,
Pop-up glue dot, 3/4" Circle Punch
I hope you like it. Leave a comment if you please!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

The Twelveth Day of Christmas

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Thank you for reading my blog and please keep stopping by to take a look and see what is coming up for the new year!

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

Each year as a Christmas tradition, we spend the whole day baking cookies and making yummy treats for Christmas. This year we made M&M bark with white chocolate, rice krispy treats with peppermint sugar, snickerdoodles, and dozens
of Cut-out Sugar cookies.

I make the dough, then Bryan & Kelsey, along with Bryan's girlfriend Allison,
rolled them out, cut the shapes and decorated them. As usual, that is the most
fun and then the reward is eating all the delicious goodies.








Cut-out sugar cookies, a recipe from my sister that we have made for
many years.






Here's to having a SWEET Christmas!

The Tenth Day of Christmas

I went to my friend Jean's home for an evening of great food, fun with friends and gift giving for Christmas. It was so hard to find an evening that we were all available. Chat, Jean, Vicki and I had a wonderful time. We had a great dish, Fiesta Chicken, that Jean fixed and also Salsa and Guacamole that I made and brought along with some sweet treats of brownies with mint icing and white chocolate covered pretzels. We ate, exchanged gifts, made a cute little peek-a-boo box and then spent some time looking through our new Stampin' Up! catalogs. Here are the cards I received from my friends.




This is a cute little giftable I received from Jean. She
made this instead of a card.










This is the card Chat gave me.











This is the card I received from Vicki.







I love Christmas!! Don't you?

The Ninth Day of Christmas

Our Family Christmas Card

I fell in love with this set, Season of Joy, when I first saw it in the SU! Holiday Mini Catalog. I had to have it, ordered it as soon as I could and began creating our card for this year. I also wanted to use a different color scheme than I have in the past. Here is the final design, I hope you like it.


Stamp Sets: Season of Joy, Many Merry Messages (inside message)
Paper: Soft Sky, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Certainly Celery, Rose Red
Accessories: Ticket Punch, Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals,
Silver Star Brads, 1/8" Circle Punch

Finished size: 6-1/4" x 4-1/2".

The tree image is stamped on the whisper white and then I stamped an additional image, cut it out and popped it up over the first image using dimensionals.
**All supplies are Stampin' Up! with the exception of the Silver Star Brads.



This is the inside of our card. The photo is taken in front of our main Christmas Tree.
Bryan - 20 years old - attends Arizona State Univ.
Kelsey - 16 years old - Junior in high school
Logan - 4 year old Dachshund





Stay tuned for more posts!!

The Eighth Day of Christmas

Thursday, Dec. 20, was the last day of school for our daughter and finally Winter Break is here. I made her favorite dish for dinner in hopes to get her to clean her room tonight. What is this dish she likes so much you are asking: Easy Elegant Chicken. I got this recipe from my friend Tammy. Here is the recipe:

Easy Elegant Chicken

6 Boneless Chicken Breasts
Salt & Pepper
6 slices Swiss Cheese
1/2 c. white wine
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 stick melted butter
1 Box Stove Top Chicken Stuffing Mix

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Place chicken breasts in a 9" x 13" x 2" baking dish. Season with salt & pepper. Place swiss cheese slices on top of chicken. Mix wine and soup together, pour over chicken. Mix melted butter and stuffing together until well coated. Sprinkle over top. Cover with foil.

Bake for 1-1/2 hours. Uncover for the last 15 minutes of baking time. ENJOY!!



Have a great day!
Barbara

The Seventh Day of Christmas

I love making cards of all kinds, but my favorite are Christmas cards.
I not only made my family's Christmas cards this year (to be revealed in the next few days), but designed and made cards for other friends, & customers. I wanted to share the designs with you. Please note all items are from Stampin' Up! except for Stickles.

This is the card I designed for my friend, Nancy Baker & her family.
She wanted to incorporate many elements into a snow scene. She was
very pleased with the end result.

Stamps: Flaky Friends, Loads of Love, Wanted, Season of Joy
Paper: Sahara Sand, Ruby Red, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, Basic Black
Other: Blender Pens, Black Gingham Ribbon, Dimensionals, Stickles,
So Saffron, Bordering Blue, Ruby Red, Only Orange Markers




My friend, Bernice, wanted me to design a card for her and her family in the shape of a mitten. So I accepted that challenge and came up with two choices for her. She loved them both and couldn't decide on just one, so she asked me to do some of each design. I think they came out very nice.





Stamps: Season of Joy, Merry & Bright, Little
Pieces, Rough Texture Jumbo Wheel
Paper: Ruby Red, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: Ruby Red, Basic Black
Other: Snow Blossom Punch, Circle Punches,
Tag Punches, Black Gingham Ribbon




I designed this card for my customer, Linda and her family. She didn't think she was going to have time to do handmade cards this year and asked me if I would do them for her. She chose the colors and gave me a few ideas. I got the creative juices flowing and this is what I came up with. She was very happy with the design I came up with and this is her card.Stamps: Snow Jumbo Wheel, Cold Play, Supersize Snowflake
Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Whisper White
Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Real Red, Basic Black, Only Orange
Other: Dimensionals, Circle Punches

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to leave a comment.
See you tomorrow!

The Sixth Day of Christmas

I love putting baskets together to give to friends and neighbors. The baskets are round, oval and rectangle in shape. I love finding the perfect things to fill them. These are filled with a Santa or snowman tealight candle holder, tealight candles, guest soap, small paper napkins to match, ornaments, chocolates, various chocolate covered pretzels & rice treats, candy canes, and the magic reindeer food packet. I add our hand-stamped Christmas card to each basket as I delivered them to everyone.


The Magic Reindeer Food is a legend from long ago. It is told that if you take this "magic" food and sprinkle it in the lawn or driveway of your home on Christmas Eve, it will help the reindeer find your home by the smell of oats and the sugar sparkling in the moonlight. When you awake on Christmas morning, there will be gifts from Santa. Here is the one I made to be included in my baskets this year.

Recipe:
Place the following each medium cello bag
1/2 c. dry oats
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup red sugar (like you used for decorating cookies)
Gently mix together. Fold top down and staple closed.

The poem for the topper reads:
Magic Reindeer Food
On Christmas Eve, take this magic food and sprinkle on your lawn,
You will be sleeping as Santa's reindeer travel miles before the dawn.
The smell of oatsand the glittery path will guide them on their way,
And you'll wake up to Santa's gifts on Christmas Day!

Stamp Set: Merry & Bright
Paper: Real Red - 5" x 4-1/4"; Whisper White for printing poem from computer;
Creamy Caramel for Scalloped Circle Punch
Ink: Soft Sky (snowflakes); Basic Black (reindeer)
Other: Medium Cello Bags, Stapler

All supplies Stampin' Up! except for stapler and magic reindeer food mix.

Thanks for looking and I hope you liked these projects.

The Fifth Day of Christmas

All the presents are wrapped and shipped out to family and friends across the miles.
I also finished making some beaded pins (about 40). I attached them to a small stamped card.

RECIPE for cards - finished size 4-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Stamps: Year After Year, All Holidays
Papers: Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Real Red
Other: 1/8" Hole Punch

I had to do some stamping!!

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Our family attended a Christmas ballet production in which our daughter performed. Here are some pictures of her in her costumes. Angel (upper left); one of the main characters, school teacher (upper right and lower middle); Summer Dance (lower left), and Townsfolk (lower right). The ballet was titled "The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree". It is based on the children's book by Gloria Houston. They performed twice at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix.









After the show, we were all in the
Christmas Spirit, so much that I came
home and baked cookies & made fudge.