You Are Loved Heart Easel Card

Yesterday I promised I'd have a more feminine Valentine card to share with you. So here ya go...

This was created using the Big Shot along with the Heart Framelits Dies and my favorite stamp set from the Holiday Mini catalog...You Are Loved. (I'm hoping this one will show up in the next Idea Book & Catalog!) I was inspired to make a heart shaped easel card when I saw this cute card on SCS.

You cannot really tell from my photo, but I added Dazzling Details to both the heart & the love images for a little sparkle. The little button in the center of my bow is one of the new Twitterpated Buttons...they are so cute! Here's a peek at the inside of the card...

Happy Valentine's Day!

You Are Loved Duo

Today is the last chance to order products from the Holiday Mini. If there is anything you've had your eye on, this could be your last chance to purchase it, as many of the products won't be available again. I'm sure glad I added the pretty set You Are Loved to my collection. I've found it to be a very versatile set, and it pairs up nicely with the Designer Frames Embossing Folders.

I used the rose image to stamp my background and my focal image. I cut along the edge of the embossed frame with my hobby blade so that I could add the lace behind it.

Here's a closer look at the other card as well...

During the same stamping session I also created a third card which I shared on this previous post. Have a wonderful day!

Embossed Heart For the Newlyweds

My niece got married over the weekend. I made this card for her and her new hubby using the You Are Loved set from the Holiday Mini.

The heart is embossed on Whisper White in Silver EP and then I cut it out. Makes me wonder if the new Heart Framelits that will soon be available in the upcoming Occasions Mini will work with this set? I cannot wait to get the framelits! Here's a closer look at the embossed heart.

The Very Vanilla layers are dry embossed using the Perfect Details Texturz Plate and the Big Shot. To create the scalloped square I used both the Scallop Trim Border & Scallop Trim Corner punches. I started with a piece of Whisper White cut into a 3-13/16" square, punched the corners first and with that measurement, it lines up perfectly. (most of the time! ;-)

The "For the Newlyweds" is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. It's also embossed and punched with Word Window & layered onto a Modern Label punched out of Brushed Silver card stock. Some White Organza Ribbon and Basic Rhinestones added the finishing details.

A Wheelbarrow Full of Wishes

My wish to you is that you can spend the day with those you love, enjoy a delicious dinner together and maybe even find some time to enjoy a little stamping!

Stamps: Always Thankful
Card stock: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla & Well Worn DSP
Ink: Black Stazon, Not Quite Navy & various Classic Ink to watercolor
Accessories: Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Word Window Punch, Linen Thread, Top Note Die, Perfect Details Texturz Plate,

On this day of giving thanks, I am thankful for you stopping by to visit my blog...and especially thankful to those who leave me a comment. Happy Thanksgiving!

Triple Treat Spice Cake

When I first saw the Holiday Mini catalog, I knew I'd love the Spice Cake DSP because it coordinated with the Triple Treat Flower stamp. Combining the two, makes it easy to create a quick, yet super cute card for any occasion.

Stamps: Triple Treat Flower & Tiny Tags
Card stock: Pool Party, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla & Spice Cake DSP
Ink: More Mustard, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party & Early Espresso
Accessories: Pear Pizzazz Seam binding Ribbon, Linen Thread, Perfect Pennants Bigz Die (scalloped circle shape) Basic Rhinestones, Fancy Flower, Five Petal Flower, Jewelry Tag & Scallop Trim Border Punches

Again this year, Stampin' Up! is offering some great deals during the Online Extravaganza!

You won't want to miss out on these exciting deals...just in time for holiday shopping for that crafter on your list, or maybe a gift for yourself! Happy shopping!

Rose Tiles

The You Are Loved set from the Holiday Mini is much more versatile than just for Valentine's Day. I love the beautiful floral designs and the sentiments included. I used the pretty rose image to create this faux tile focal point on this card.

The Simply Scored Scoring Tool makes it easy to score the 3" square into a 1" grid to do the faux tile. Then stamp and highlight the edge of each "tile" with some sponged on color. In this case I used Crumb Cake. The background is rolled on with the Love Blossoms wheel.

I recently got the Ovals Sizzix Die, so now using the oval Embossed Designer Frame is so much easier. No more cutting out the oval shape by hand! The medium sized oval is the perfect size for the outside and the smallest one fits inside the frame. (as does the Wide Oval Punch)

The butterfly was cut using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit and then I sponged it and spritzed with Vanilla Smooch for some shimmer. A few Basic Pearls and some Chocolate Scallop Dots Ribbon and you have the finished card.

Enjoy your weekend!

Spicey Cupcake

Mmmm...I just made myself hungry with that title! I've been craving apple spice cake like my Grandma used to make. This card using the Spice Cake DSP and the Cupcake Builder Punch might not taste as good, but it's definitely fat free and looks way cuter than any cake I could make. (Unfortunately I did not inherit my Grandma's cake decorating skills.)

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes (Hostess Set)
Card stock: Peach Parfait, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla & Spice Cake DSP
Ink: Peach Parfait, Soft Suede & Pool Party
Accessories: Top Note Die, Perfect Polka Dots EF,  Cupcake Builder & Boho Blossoms Punches, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon & Basic Pearls

Thanks for stopping by today!

Grateful

There's always something for which to be thankful. ~Charles Dickens
Today, on Veteran's Day, I am thankful for all those who have served our beautiful country, and for those who still do.

Stamps: Always Thankful
Card stock: More Mustard, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla & Spice Cake DSP
Ink: Black Stazon, Early Espresso & various other Classic Ink for watercoloring
Accessories: Two Tags Bigz Die, 1 3/4" Circle punch, Aqua Painter & Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon

Have a wonderful weekend!

Always Thankful

I've had the Always Thankful set and the fun Spice Cake papers for quite some time now and I've been dying to find some time to play with them. A couple days ago I went down to my rubber room to stamp and it was such a chaotic mess that I had to spend my "stampin' time" cleaning & organizing...that was quite a bummer! However, it sure was nice yesterday to spend the day in my clean space coloring the beautiful images in this set.

Not only are the images great in the Always Thankful set, but I couldn't agree more with the quote included..."There's always something for which to be thankful". At the moment I am thankful for the nice, hot cup of coffee I'm sipping while writing this post and my warm, cuddly kitten purring on my lap. Life is good, but it's cold this morning!

Stamps: Always Thankful, Teeny Tiny Wishes & Fall Harvest Wheel
Card stock: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla & Spice Cake DSP
Ink: Black Stazon, Early Espresso, More Mustard & various Classic Ink for watercoloring
Accessories: Aqua Painter, Word Window & Decorative Label punches, Antique Brad, Linen Thread & Chocolate Chip Scallop Dots Ribbon

Have a wonderful day!

From the Kitchen of

Since my post last week sharing my Sweet Pressed Pumpkin Cookies, I've had several requests for my Mom's Shortbread Cookie recipe. So here it is...

I used the From the Kitchen Of set to make the recipe card and decided to make a cute little recipe holder out of a binder clip, some scraps of Well Worn DSP and the cupcake punch. While I was at it I thought one of the sweet pressed cookies in a cello bag decorated for Halloween would be fun too.

I used Cajun Craze for the topper, along with a strip of Well Worn DSP. The Dark & Dreary set has the spider and Halloween greeting which were stamped in Basic Black and punched out using Wide Oval & 1/4 circle punches. The spiders were glammed up with a Basic Rhinestone each and you have an adorable way to give a tasty treat. Here's a closer look at just the recipe card in case you want to try these cookies with your Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps.

I also added a approx 3 drops of red food coloring (the liquid kind, because that's what I had on hand) and around 8 drops of yellow to the butter & sugar mixture to make my pumpkins orange. I rolled my dough about 1/4 inches thick and chilled over night. I pressed them with the stamp, and then cut them out with a glass the same size as the stamp, rather than rolling into balls and pressing. I sprinkled orange sugar on them before popping into the oven. I had a real easy time with my cookies and they tasted good too. I hope you like them.

Have a sweet day!

Sweet Pressed Pumpkins

I got busy yesterday and baked some cookies so I could try out the new Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered these, but was pleasantly surprised by how cute and easy to use these are. The quality is really top notch as well.

The stamps come with a few recipes to try, but I chose to use my Mom's shortbread recipe because I know we all love them. Any recipe that does not contain baking soda or baking powder is said to work well, as it won't rise and distort the stamped image. I rolled my dough out, refrigerated it, and then pressed the pumpkin design into the chilled dough and then I used a glass the size of the stamp to cut it out. (I don't have a circle cookie cutter so this worked for me) You could also roll into balls and press with the cookie stamps. I added a little yellow & red food coloring to the dough so my pumpkins would be orange and also sprinkled them with some orange sugar before baking. The results were so cute and oh so yummy!

These cookie stamps would be a lot of fun for kids to use...makes me wish for my boys to be little again and want to help me bake like they used to. They would have loved these! Now they just enjoy eating them!

Along with the pumpkin there is also a snowflake & heart design included in this set. To get yours, please visit my Stampin' Up! website and order yours today.

Edited to add: I created another post to share my Mom's Shortbread Cookie Recipe since I had several requests for it.

Spooky Luminary

Here's a fun Halloween luminary I created using the Haunted Forest stamp. I used coasters so the sides are heavy and it will hold up for years of holiday decorating. Use a battery operated votive inside and the full moon glows.

I'm offering this as part of a class on October 26th, so if you live local sign up today.

Haunted Forest Invitations

We will be having our annual Halloween Party at the end of the month, so I'm relieved to have completed my stack of invites and got them in the mail. I used the Haunted Forest ala carte stamp from the Holiday Mini.

The image is inked in VersaMark and embossed in black. I masked off the center circle and sponged on colors for the background: Not Quite Navy, Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie & Old Olive. Then I removed the circle mask and sponged on Daffodil Delight & Pumpkin Pie. Lastly, I colored the trees with Early Espresso and the pumpkin with my Pumpkin Pie markers.

The Perfect Plum patterned paper was easily created using the Web Wheel inked in Perfect Plum. The bottom patterned paper is a piece from the retired Cast A Spell DSP pack. If you missed out on this paper, it is still available on My Digital Studio. I separated the two patterns using ric rac border from the Tasteful Trims Die. I printed up "creep on over" using my computer onto Pear Pizzazz and punched out with the Window Word punch and matted it on a Modern Label punched out of Basic Black and embellished with Basic Rhinestones.

TIP: I thought this stamp would be more versatile if I cut off the "Happy Halloween" sentiment along the bottom and mounted it separately from the image. Now I have 2 stamps for the price of one plus it really helped save time when mass producing my invite.

For the inside I used some images from the Dark & Dreary set and the pumpkin design from the retired Graveyard Gala set. Here's what that looks like...

Thanks for creeping on in today!

Fifth Avenue Fairy

I needed to make my little niece a card for her birthday and I was in the mood to watercolor so I pulled out one of my cute retired sets...Fairy Nice and paired it up with one of the flower images from Fifth Avenue Floral.

The fairy and the center of the flowers are nice and sparkly because I painted them with Dazzling Details after I finished watercoloring them. The Wisteria Wonder background design is from the new Love Blossoms wheel which is in the Holiday Mini Catalog...it's such a cute wheel! (The matching stamp set is super cute too!)

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Fairy Nice, Pennant Parade & Love Blossoms wheel
Card stock: Bashful Blue, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush & Whisper White
Ink: Black Stazon, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush & various to watercolor
Accessories: Dazzling Details Aqua painter & Jewelry Tag punch

I also made her a name frame to hang in her room.

I used various patterns of retired DSP, and again used the Love Blossoms wheel on the Concord Crush background to make the letters pop. I used the Serif Essential Alphabet & Tasteful Trim dies along with the Beautiful Wings Embosslit and Boho Blossoms punch and of course some Basic Rhinestones to add some bling.. The ribbon is just something I had in my stash. Her favorite color is purple, so I'm sure she'll like this.

Have a great weekend!