Saying Goodbye to Fox & Friends

Another one of my favorite sets that is retiring is Fox & Friends. It's such a darling little set to create cards for babies & kids. I went to a baby shower for my niece over the weekend and the theme for her baby's room is monkeys, so it was the perfect opportunity to play with this set. The monkey just happens to be my favorite image in this set too.

Since they already announced the baby's name, I was able to make her a name frame for his room.

The Serif Essential Letters are also on the retiring list, which makes me sad. I have gotten a lot of use out of this set of dies...they are great because you can cut through all sorts of materials. Here, I cut the letters out of chip board for extra dimension. Here's a closer look...

I cut out the little monkey heads and mounted in place with a dimensional to look 3D. The little felt leaves are a retired item from a couple years ago called Sweet Pea Stitched Felt. The brads are the In Color Designer Printed Brads.

The DSP I used is also retired...the Pool Party & Chocolate prints are from the Spice Cake papers, the Kiwi Kiss print is from A Walk in the Park and the Pumpkin Pie print is from the Haiku pack.

Part of the gift was a canvas tote with a monkey printed on it. The name frame fit perfectly inside along with some other little things. I made a tag to hang from the gift basket using the Scallop Circle Die.

Here's a look at the completed gift basket.

For the big gift I made another card using the Scallop Square Die.

I bought the gift wrap and then used Stampin' Up! colors to match. I used retired DSP for this one as well. These prints are from the Delicate Dots pack...it was one of the free selections during SAB in 2009, as was the So Saffron Grosgrain Ribbon. Here it is on the wrapped package.

My niece received some beautiful gifts at her shower, and she really loved the name frame. Baby Wyatt is already a lucky little guy...I cannot wait to meet him! She is due on my birthday...wouldn't that be a wonderful gift!?

Vintage Garden

Don't ask me why I have not used this set in so long? Greenhouse Gardens is such a beautiful set, but I just haven't used it much. I'm glad I brought it out to play because I think it compliments the new Springtime Vintage papers nicely.

Stamps: Greenhouse Gardens, Because I Care (Level 1 Hostess set) & Botanical Blooms (2009 SAB set for leaves)
Card stock: Always Artichoke, River Rock, Very Vanilla & Springtime Vintage paper
Ink: Always Artichoke, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Always Artichoke Seam Binding Ribbon, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Nestabilities Dies

They are saying we are going to get blasted with another 4-6 inches of snow and perhaps freezing rain. Looks like another good day to stay home and be creative! Thanks for visiting me today. :-)

A Woodland Walk on the Green

Here's a card I made using the single stamp, On the Green. I paired it up with the Woodland Walk papers for this retirement themed card.

I inked the stamp in Garden Green and then used my Chocolate Chip marker to color in parts of it to add more interest.
Stamps: On the Green & Congrats
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Very Vanilla & Woodland Walk DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip & Garden Green
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain & Ticket Corner Punch

Thanks for stopping by!

Cute as a button

Here's a 2 page 12x12 layout I made a couple weeks ago, but just got around to photographing. Sorry about the dark edge...it's really hard for me to photograph a 2 page layout. Click on pic to see better detail or scroll down to see each individual page.I used the Delicate Dots SAB papers and added pink to make this more girly. The Always in Bloom wheel with the celery cartridge was used to create the background. Lots of Sizzix dies were used here: Serif Essentials Alphabet, Daisies #2, Top Note, Large Scallop Circle, and the Buttons Sizzlit. The Photo Corner and Eyelet border punches were used as well.

Here's a closer look at the left side...

and the right...
Other than the Always in Bloom Stampin' Around wheel the only stamp I used was the swirl from the Yummy set on the Top Note die journaling block.

Delicate Dots Hostess Gifts

We are getting new wood flooring installed today. I'm so glad this will finally be done as we have had our house torn apart for too long...over two weeks! It took longer than anticipated for the flooring to come in, and we had the old carpet torn up, furniture moved etc...It should be all done tomorrow! Today I'm kind of hanging in my computer room so I'm out of the way, but handy if the installer has any questions. So I thought I'd share a couple projects and then check out some of my fav blogs.

With the help of my Big Shot I decorated these clip boards as hostess gifts for my March hostesses. I used the Delicate Dots paper and the So Saffron grosgrain - both available as FREE selections during SAB, to decorate these clipboards. The Beautiful Butterfly is a Bigz die, so it allows you to cut through all sorts of material - including the cork board shown here. The base layer of the flower is cut from chipboard so that it will hold up better than just paper would on the clip. To make the pen holder more secure, I punched a hole right through the clip board and inserted a large brad from the Styled Silver HPH Kit. That will keep the ribbon from slipping.

See the tack in the center of the cork butterfly? That was a regular flat headed tack and I just attached one of the cute buttons from the Button Latte pack with a glue dot. I used another button for the center of the daisy.

I also demoed this matching card at all my March workshops. Stamps: Cute & Curly
Card stock: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue & Delicate Dots DSP
Ink: Certainly Celery
Accessories: Curly Label & 1/2" Circle punches, Rich Regal brads, Certainly Celery twill ribbon (SAB ribbon bundle), Top Note and Daisy Bigz Dies & the Big Shot

Enjoy your day!

Cheep Talk Trio

Here is another group of cards that everyone made at my all occasion card class this past weekend. As you can see, the Cheep Talk set is perfect to make a variety of cards just by changing up the images and sentiments a bit. I even dug out the sentiment, "happy bird-day to you" from the old SAB set Love Ya Bunches, and it worked perfect along the branch. (see the card on the left) Each card uses Sale~A~Bration paper and ribbon along with the coordinating colors - Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and So Saffron...perfect for spring! Speaking of spring...the past couple days have been absolutely gorgeous! It's been hard to stay indoors. But today it's supposed to rain, so I think I'll get some stamping projects finished. Have a good one!

Lucky Clover

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Here's a quick card using the heart stamp from the Darling Dots Level 1 Hostess set to make a four leaf clover. The Garden Green layer is dry embossed with the small polka dot texturz plate. I also used my Big Shot to cut out the lucky label - it's one of the Lots of Tags Sizzlets, backed with a 1-1/4" circle punched from Celery card stock. The Celery ribbon is part of the SAB ribbon bundle and the lucky stamp is from the Define Your Life set.

Here is another card made with the Delicate Dots set. I made this one a while back using this sketch from the Mojo Monday blog and forgot to post it...so I thought I'd add it to today's post.
This card features bright, cheery colors from the Bold Brights group - Gable Green, Pixie Pink, Only Orange and Tempting Turquoise. I cut the flower out using the Big Shot and the smallest flower from the Daisy #2 die.

Be happy and have a lucky day!

Hoppin' All Is Well

Last week my Aunt came over and stamped with me. She brought along her Hoppy For You set, so I made this card. I like the way the swirly embossed background compliments the swirls on the lilly pad. This is a cute set that was fun to play with.
Stamps: Hoppy For You
Card stock: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Certainly Celery & Delicate Dots DP (SAB)
Ink:Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery and Black Stazon (for sentiment on ribbon)
Accessories: Celery poly-twill ribbon (SAB), Texturz Plate, Stampin' Pastels - to color lilly pad & cat tails

Have a great weekend!

Botanical Congrats

Yesterday I took some time to play with a couple SAB sets that have not seen ink yet...Botanical Blooms and Congrats. Both of these are great sets, but after receiving so many new goodies at once, I haven't had time to use them all yet...so many stamps...so little time! I also used the Delicate Dots paper and the beautiful Saffron grosgrain that is part of the ribbon bundle. I inked the flowers with Saffron and then lightly rock 'n rolled them in Pumpkin ink. The flowers are a 2 step stamp, so for the second line image layer I used my Pumpkin and Celery markers to ink that stamp. Then I just filled in with leaves inked in Celery. For the crowning touch I added a butterfly cut out of Delicate Dots paper using the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die and my Big Shot.

When I logged in here this morning there was a comment from a friend telling me that my Cheep Talk card was featured on one of my favorite blogs, iStamp under Nancy's iPicks - which are some of her favorite projects she sees while blurfing each week. That's pretty cool, huh? Now I'm off to check out the rest of the projects on Nancy's list of iPicks. Have a good one!

Spring Flowers

I am super excited to show you the fun creation I made using my new Big Shot dies yesterday! Even better is that the Stamp Something Blog Challenge this week is to create something 3-D. That means I can play along this week and not wait til the last minute! I may not being seeing signs of spring outside...but at least it looks like spring indoors! The new Daisies #2 Bigz die cuts out 3 sizes of flowers. So I cut 2 sets out of each color card stock: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink & Almost Amethyst - the same colors that are in the Tea Party papers. I also cut the largest flower out of chipboard for the first layer and base of my flower. That's the great thing about the Bigz Dies...you can cut through all sorts of materials other than just paper and card stock.Then I curled the petals on each layer and attached it to the previous layer. I used Latte Buttons for the center of each flower. The stems are lolly pop sticks painted with Certainly Celery re-inker. The leaves of my flowers were cut from Certainly Celery card stock using the new Little Leaves Sizzlet.

I decorated the plain white ceramic vase in a snap using some of the beautiful 5/8" Saffron grosgrain ribbon available for free during SAB as part of the ribbon bundle. I also used the new Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die to cut out the butterfly that adorns the vase. The patterned paper I used was from the Tea Party pack. It's perfect for spring projects! That die is the coolest! It cuts out 4 different sized butterflies - perfect for layering. Two of the butterflies are cut on the folded edge of the card stock so when you open them they are 3-D.

I'm sure you'll be seeing lots more daisies and butterflies created with these dies on my blog in the future...they are a lot of fun and I already have so many ideas for projects I want to create using them. (one is already in the works) Too many ideas...not enough time! I need a clone to take care of the not-so-fun daily tasks...then I'll have more time to play with my Big Shot!

Edited to answer a few questions I've received: I used several different adhesives for this project. To attach each layer of the flowers together I used the Towbow Multipurpose Adhesive. (the flowers even smell good after using this!) To attach the buttons to the center I used glue dots. To attach the whole flower to the lolly pop sticks I used my hot glue gun. I found the lolly pop sticks in the baking section at the craft store. Thanks for all the nice comments about this project. :-)

Just Buzzin' By...

to show you these cards! Aren't these bees just the cutest?! I got together with my stampin' group on Sunday and got to play with this set.I thought this print from the Delicate Dots paper kind of looked like honeycomb, so I chose that for the background on both of my cards. I added some glitter to the wings of the bees so in real life they really shimmer. Here's another version of this card only this time I replaced the Riding Hood Red with Regal Rose and turned the design sideways. One of these cards is on it's way to a friend wishing her a happy "bee-lated" birthday! hehe This is such a fun set! It was fun to be able to play with something new. Thanks Bea! Talking about playing with new stuff...later on today I'll be on cloud nine. UPS is finally going to be delivering a BIG order here! WOO HOO! I ordered more stuff for my Big Shot so I'm excited to try those and I cannot wait to see (and feel!) the beautiful Parisian Breeze papers. I keep seeing gorgeous creations made with them and the added texture looks so luscious. Plus lots of new rubber!

Thanks for buzzin' on by my blog today! Like the other sentiment from the Just Buzzin' By set says... "have a honey of a day!"

Party Animals and Cupcakes

One of the best parts of being a Stampin' Up! demo has been meeting new people and sharing my love of paper crafting. I had a Sale-A-Bration Party here on the 8th and a couple of new stampin' friends that I've recently met asked if they could bring a few friends...of course I said, yes! One of the friends that they brought along was someone I recognized as a long lost friend of mine from middle school!

Her family had moved and we lost touch way back...(don't ask me what year, but trust me, it was a while ago!) Now she lives less than 10 miles away from me and she loves to stamp. How cool is that!? She came over yesterday morning for a little stamping and visiting. It is nice reconnecting with old friends...you can never have too many friends...or too many stamps! Anyways...she wanted to stamp some birthday cards for kids, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to play with these cute little Zoofari animals. (it's been a while)I remembered a super cute card using this set created by Nancy Riley a while back. I loved the way she punched out the circles and mounted them on squares, it has such a nice geometric design to it. So I used her card as my inspiration...thanks Nancy!

I pulled my color scheme from the Delicate Dots paper - Celery, Saffron and Bashful Blue, but wanted a brighter more festive feel to the card, so I also added Pacific Point and Rose Red anchored with Basic Black. Keeping with the geometric theme I also used the Harlequin Texturz Plate for the base of my card.

Since you had to listen to my long story, before getting to the first card, I'll also show you another card we did. This one also uses the Delicate Dots paper (FREE during SAB!) and Crazy for Cupcakes.Bling cherries? For some extra sparkle I added a red rhinestone to each of the cherries on the cupcakes. The Real Red looks good with these papers too, doesn't it? Don't limit yourself to using just the colors in this paper pack...these colors go well with a lot different colors.

Have a great day!

Hoppy Valentine's Day!

I was inspired to create a "love scene" after seeing this adorable creation on my friend Vicki's blog. "Stamp Something for your Valentine" was also the challenge on the Stamp Something blog...so I got busy and created this Valentine "love scene" for my hubby. Too bad I didn't get it posted here in time to enter the challenge, but I'm happy to see that Vicki ended up being the winner!I've never made a stair step card before...but I'm sure I'll make more now that I've tried one. I didn't find instructions anywhere, so I made it up as I went along. I knew I wanted the card to fit in a 5 1/2" square envelope, so I started with a piece of Basic Gray card stock measuring 5 1/4" x 11". I scored along the 5 1/4" side at: 1-1/4", 2-1/2", 4-1/4", 6" and 8-1/2"

Then I was ready to decorate. As you can see, I used a variety of different stamps! I started by embossing hearts from the SAB set Polka Dot Punches and the Always set, on Real Read, Rose Red and Elegant Eggplant card stock with White EP. I also used sentiment stamps from Wonderful Words, Make it Count and Holidays and Wishes. My favorite part of this card is the adorable froggie perched on top of the heart! He's from Whimsy Stamps. Doesn't he look like he's twitterpated? (those who have seen the movie Bambi a million times like I have will know what that means!;-) I think it's his eyes that make him so sweet and irresistible.

The little hearts coming up behind him are just punched card stock attached to coiled silver wire with some glue dots. Then I attached them to my love scene using some sticky strip, and covered the back with more hearts. I had fun making this card and I can't wait to give it to my Valentine!

Raspberry Tart Purse

I'm back! Two posts in one day...that doesn't happen too often! After posting the Plum Petal Pizazz Purse made with the scalloped envelopes yesterday I've gotten several emails asking to better explain how to put it together. Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words...and since I'm not that great at writing clear instructions...I made another purse and snapped some photos along the way.

First you will need to cut 2 scallop envelopes with your Big Shot. You will also need a strip of coordinating card stock for the handle. The handle also makes up the side of the purse. I cut two strips - Kiwi: 1" x 11" and Raspberry Tart: 3/4" x 11". Then I cut the bottom flaps of my two envelopes down to the same 1" width of my handle as shown below.Please note: You can skip this step if you don't mind a very wide handle - the size handle you would need if you do not trim is 1-1/2" x 11" Next you will want to adhere the two bottom flaps together with sticky strip as show here: Then add sticky strip to the side flaps as shown: Peel away the red liner on one side at a time and carefully attach to the handle as shown. Remove red liner from sticky strip and attach the other side. Now your purse is assembled and ready to embellish and fill with goodies!I used the flower die from the Birds and Blooms Sizzlits and Latte Buttons to embellish my purse. I also used some Raspberry Tart scraps along with the Polka Dot Punches and Yummy SAB sets to make the little 3x3 note card. The note card and chocolates will easily tuck inside this darling little purse and make a sweet Valentine treat.

A Little Yummy

I'm excited to show you more from my SAB~New Catalog party I had over the weekend! I had such a good time...and from the feed back I've received, so did everyone who came. I had door prizes, make & takes, goodie bags for everyone who placed an order and these cute little yummy bags for everyone who came.I decorated the canister and the candle jar with Decor Elements. I ended up using the canister to hold door prize tickets and I gave away a jar candle during each session after showing how to apply the Decor Elements. Can you believe I found the yummy white chocolate scented candles at my grocery store? The Latte Buttons matched perfectly and with a bit of Linen Thread added a sweet little accent to both the candle and my canister. I so want that beautiful new tree Decor Element for my wall.


These are the little goodie bags that each person got to pick after they placed an order. Each bag is filled with patterned papers and coordinating embellishments. I used the new Lots Of Tags, Sweetest Stem Embosslit and Buttons dies, along with some punches to make each pack. The Yummy set works just beautifully with the Top Note die, and it sure helped me create some cute give aways for my party! Almost everyone who got to choose a free SAB set choose Yummy...so I guess I'm not the only one who thinks it's too cute!

I had a few questions regarding the little Scalloped Envelope purse I showed you yesterday. I plan to make some more of these for little Valentine treats, so hopefully I'll get to it later and snap some photos as I'm making one to give you a better idea of how it goes together. Have a great day!

Crazy for Delicate Dots Cupcakes

I'm so happy that SU! added the dry embossing Texturz Plates to the Big Shot line! I've been having so much fun playing with them! (Plus the designs are way cuter than the ones I had purchased previously.) Today's card uses the tiny polka dot plate along with the SAB papers - Delicate Dots.I wanted to use pink in my card, but also wanted it to blend nicely with my patterned papers, so I used my Regal Rose marker to add pink pinstripes to the striped paper and colored the sprinkles on the cupcakes pink. The little happy birthday label was cut using the new Lots of Tags Sizzlets for the Big Shot. I added some detail around the edges with my white gel pen. The cute little flower button is from the Button Latte pack.

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, Cupcakes wheel
Card stock: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery & Delicate Dots DP
Ink: Black Stazon, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Bashful Blue & So Saffron
Accessories: Lots of Tags Sizzlets, Button Latte, Texturz Plates, white gel pen, 3/4" circle punch & celery polka dot ribbon (not sure of brand)

I'm gearing up for my SAB ~ New Catalog Kick off Party coming up this weekend...I'm looking forward to it! If I don't get a chance to post the rest of the week, it's because I'm down in my rubber room getting things ready. Have a great day...stay warm!

Sale-A-Bration Bear

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and the first day of Sale-A-Bration! One of my favorite items offered this year is the awesome pack of papers called Delicate Dots. It contains 16 sheets (4 each of 4 double sided papers) So you have 8 different patterns to use on all your paper crafting projects. My card below shows four of the patterns. I also got some new catalog goodies on Friday! Too bad I've hardly had a chance to play...but I did manage to sneak this card in. Doesn't this bear crack you up? My friend was over last week and she brought her Under the Stars set so I could stamp a few images to play with. (thanks Julie!) I thought he'd look cute holding a bunch of balloons paper pieced with the Delicate Dots paper. I just stamped the balloon image from Crazy for Cupcakes onto the patterned paper and cut them out to make the festive balloon bouquet.

The Bashful Blue background is embossed using the new SU! exclusive Texturz Plates and the Big Shot. The Certainly Celery layer of the tag was also created using the Big Shot and one of the new Lots of Tags Sizzlets. I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of both of these sets!

I'm heading off to a Super Bowl party this afternoon which should be fun, but it also means I'll be eating way too much, and again won't get to play with my new goodies...but there's always tomorrow! Have a SUPER day!

Plum Polka Dot Punches

I was checking out some of my favorite blogs yesterday and came across a link to a blog that offers weekly sketch challenges called Mojo Mondays. I really liked the sketch, and luckily I had time to play along this afternoon. I decided to use the upcoming SAB set Polka Dot Punches and the matching paper called Delicate Dots.

The flower image was stamped on Whisper White with Versamark ink and embossed in White EP. Then I watercolored it with Plum and Saffron inks, cut it out, and used pop dots to attach it to So Saffron & Perfect Plum squares matted on top of a scalloped square of Sahara Sand punched with the Scalloped Square punch. The Coluzzle was used to cut circles from Perfect Plum Designer Prints paper and So Saffron card stock. I used the Swirls Sizzlet to cut the 2 swirls from Sahara Sand card stock.

The sentiment, from the now retired Level 1 Hostess set Best Yet, is stamped in Plum. For extra detail I pierced the Plum layers and added White Taffeta ribbon.

Now, I'm going to head back downstairs to try another Mojo Monday sketch. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when they'll post a new sketch. Have a good night!

Delicate Dot Pizazz

It's so freezing cold here today they had to call off school! I don't ever remember that happening before...it's usually the snow or ice that makes them call off school, but my son sure wasn't complaining! At least today's card will have you thinking spring-like thoughts. Speaking of Spring...I got my pre-ordered Spring~Summer catalogs! It was nice curling up under a cozy blanket with a cup of hot tea flipping through all the pages. There's some great new stuff...including the set I used here.I used the new Petal Pizazz set (available next week) along with the SAB papers called Delicate Dots (available in Feb). The larger flower shown here works with the scallop punch, unfortunately I had to hand cut all the other pieces...other than that this was a fast and easy card to make.

Stamps: Petal Pizazz, Big Bold Birthday (happy birthday! stem) & Cute & Curly
Card stock: So Saffron, Regal Rose, Whisper White & Delicate Dots DP
Ink: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Regal Rose & Bashful Blue
Accessories: Certainly Celery grosgrain, Rich Regal brads, Curly Label & Scallop Circle punches

Stay warm and enjoy your day!