Monday, February 28, 2011

My Design Studio

Funny story about this card which is this week's card for the family newsletter. . .

I started out wanting to  use the Sweet Summer stamp set some more.  Found this clean and simple card pattern on a blog.  But as I was getting ready to stamp it, I realized I was going to have to use the computer for the sentiment I wanted. 

I thought. . ."well let me use my new Stampin' Up "My Design Studio" (MDS) so I can match the font color exactly to the SU ink color."  Then I remembered that one of my Sale-A-Bration freebies was the CD that had the entire contents of the SAB catalog on it - which included the images from Sweet Summer.  So I thought . . ."well let's load it up and see if I can do the entire card using MDS. 

Except for the struggles I had figuring out on to print 6 copies of it most efficiently, it was really easy.  I wanted it to look a little more homemade so I matted the image on matching Green Galore cardstock and then mounted that to the printed letter/card and added some sparkle sticker dots which I got at Memory Lande to the centers of the flowers.

How cool to have all the stamps digitally and have options for colors when you don't have all the ink pads yet.  May have to explore some more of these sets/downloads.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Lots of possibilities

You may have to double-click these pictures to make them a little larger.  Pulled them down from the SU demonstrator gallery.  Thought  it was yet another good idea for the owl punch.  Wow! Just tons of possibilities for that punch and stamp.  I'm going to breakdown and order it this weekend. 

Mona, I'm not sure if Brighton's reading or not but I thought it would make a cute bookmark for him.  May have to make one for my mother too, who is a big reader.  And now that I think about it, may just have to make her several for her kids at school in her reading class.

Will try to have more original posts next week.   Kind of cheated this week with pulling things from other sites since I hit my creative slump last weekend.  Hope you didn't mind. 

Have a good weekend. 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bright & Cheery

I can hear the wind howling outside as I write this - at least I think it's the wind as it's dark and I can't see out yet.  Something's happening out there as the house is making all sorts of creaky noises.  Anyway - if the weatherman is right, we're going to have a windy, cold day.  So I wanted to put up something bright and cheery.

Have been thinking about using some of my new punches to make another version of this card.  It's the one I made at the shop a few weeks ago from the little kit they were giving away at Michaels.  Now that I've got a few more flower punches I should be able to do something similar.  Maybe it will be the inspiration I need to get over this creative hump this week.

Only 2 more days to the weekend.  WooHoo !!!  Stay Warm!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Val - this one's for you! :-)

Val - I know you're working on getting things organized at your house this week in preparation for the arrival of your new furniture and TV.  So this blog post is for you.  This is what your craft room should look like when you're all done!  Just teasin' :-)

I stumbled on this lady's blog and this post a couple of days ago and was just fascinated by her craft room and some of her storage solutions.  I've been wanting to do something like the open shelves for my miscellaneous wood mount stamps from the beginning.  I really like hers.  She got most of it from Ikea but she noted in the comments after everyone was asking about the stamp pad holder that she got it at organizemore.com

Sadly I have to report that I didn't get as much crafting done as I wanted over the long weekend.  I've decided I have too much stuff and it's clogging up my creativity.  Seeing this craft room confirms it for me.  Even though she's got a lot of stuff, it doesn't look like a lot of "different" stuff - rather lots of tools.  I know I've said this before but I really need a good purge / Spring Cleaning.  Where is Spring anyway!!

See ya' tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Chicks from Owls


Check out this really cute chick that was made from the owl punch.  Found it blog surfing last week and thought you 2 needed to see it.  Now what perfect timing for discovering this given that Easter (and hopefully Spring!) is approaching.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Sunshine in Arizona


By the time you are reading this blog entry I'll be in flight and on my way to Phoeniz for a little fun in the sun.

The colors in this card make me SO HAPPY! With the February blues I've had lately, can't wait to be somewhere warmer and sunnier.  This is a card front Marcia gave us during our SU team meeting.  Thought it was really cute.  Didn't think much of the stamp set when  I saw it in the catalog but the more I look at this card the more I like it.  May have to put it on the wish list for a future order.  Really good use too of the In Colors.


Here's the details:

RECIPE CARD

Stamps: Bold Blossom
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait, Whisper White
Ink: Peach Parfait, Possy Parade, Pear Pizzazz
Tools/Techniques: Framed Tulips embossing folder

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Creative Owls


Am hoping that you're well on your way to playing with all your new toys.  I know you've already seen this card but I wanted to post this card that Marcia gave me - first because it's SO darn cute - and second because I just can't wait to see what the 2 of you might create with your new owl punches.  Please be sure to bring them for Show & Tell ! :-)

Here's a couple of more links to help inspire:

RECIPE CARD

Paper: Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper (DSP), Real Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: misc. ribbon
Tools/Techniques: Two-step Owl punch, Snowflake punch, Scallop Edge border punch, computer sentiment

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Clean & Simple Thank You


This is a card that was sent with my new demonstrator kit.  Just love how clean and simple it is.  Will probably be making a few more of these to keep in my stash.  The stamp was in a set called For All You Do that was also a part of the demonstrator kit. And now that I have the In Color papers and markers, it will be fun to do some variations on this one.  I'll let you know how they turn out.

RECIPE CARD

Stamps:     For All You Do
Paper:     Old Olive DSP, Old Olive, Marina Mist, Whisper White
Ink:  Old Olive, Marina Mist
Accessories:     Satin ribbon

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

My Sweetie


Wanted to share the Valentines card I made for Allan this year.  Wanted to do something that was totally Stampin' Up to get more practice on using the supplies. Dug into some old Designer Series Papers (Western Sky)  I bought at the workshop we had a Mona's house.  Boy! That's a few years ago I think.  CASE'd this card from Splitcoaststampers which used the same papers.  Cut the circle shapes, hearts and stars on the Cricut.

Thought it turned out pretty cute.  Kind of masculine but still managed to squeeze in the hearts.  Nice to spend some time thinking about what a good guy he truly is. 

RECIPE CARD
Stamps:     For All You Do
Paper:     Western Sky DSP, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink:     Blue Bayou
Tools/Techniques:     George Basic Shapes & Accent Essentials Cricut cartridges

Monday, February 14, 2011

LOVE is in the air


Happy Valentines Day!

Hope you had a good weekend.  I spent my Saturday cozied up in the craft room working on organizing my Stampin Up supplies and getting ready for all the new stuff that's on the way. Also spent some time on my SU blog.  Just in case I do decide to give this demonstrator stuff a try for longer than the initial start up period.  So I'm going to practice on you guys if it's OK :-)


Starting off by posting the cards I showed you last week along with the "recipes" for them. 
As I was looking up all the names of the stamp sets, paper & ink colors, etc. I realized this stamp set (which I've decided I really LOVE) is from the 2010 Holiday Mini. I didn't get a chance to order it but hopefully SU will see fit to include it in the next big catalog. If not, I guess I'll just improvise with what I have.

RECIPE CARD
Stamps: Filled With Love
Paper: Blushing Bride
Ink: Melon Mambo, Old Olive
Accessories: Bitty Buttons, Organza Ribbon
Tools/Techniques: Scallop Edge border punch

Friday, February 11, 2011

Sweet Summer - Can't Wait

Not much time this morning so I'm cheating and posting someone else's creations.

Found this lady's wonderful cards through the SU demonstrator site.  They're all made with the Sale-a-bratioon Sweet Summer stamp set which I think we all got. 
http://connietumm1.typepad.com/blog/2011/01/im-back-1.html

Can't wait for the new toys to get here and also can't wait for summer to get here.  I'm starting to get the February crabbies again.

Checked our order and they got all but 3 items shipped yesterday so it's looking good that we'll have our delivery early next week.

In case I don't run into you today, have a good weekend.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Queens of Everything

I think we've done it Gal Pals.  Between the 3 of us I think we own everything in the Stampin' Up catalog!!!


I got the order keyed in last night and with any luck it will be delivered Mon or Tues afternoon.  I'm really hoping I can bring you your stuff on Tuesday night.  What fun that would be.  Keep your fingeres crossed for good shipping & handling service.  It outta be the best in the world for what they charge!!! 

One fun piece of news. . . .we have 2 extra Sale-a-Bration stamp sets for our shared collection that we weren't counting on.  Remember how I said that if the "workshop" went over $300 that the "hostess" got an extra SAB selection.  Well the system kept telling me I needed to pick 2 more free SAB sets.  I double-checked our individual orders and they were OK so the only thing Marcia and I could figure out is that you get a free one for every $300 inncrement.  So I hope you don't mind that I picked for us.  In addittion to Tart & Tangy, I picked Engraved Greetiings (Click here to see the SCS Gallery) and Three Little Words (Link).

Now that we own every stamp in the world, I thought it was only appropriate to post a birthday card that did not use one single stamp :-)  This one Mona did must have been before she made out her SU Wish List! With all the new toys on the way, I'm guessing we won't see another like this in a very long time.


Have a great day.

P.S.  THANKS to both of you for getting your stamp sets up on the blog.  Val - looks like you had a busy night on the laptop last night :-)  Glad the instructions worked.  I'll worked on gettiing our new shared sets updated.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Just for Mona (& all the quilters in our lives)


I was SO THRILLED this morning when I opened up my Splitcoaststampers weekly newsletter and saw this was the featured project.  I've been wanting to make some notecard sets for some friends and family members who are quilters but hadn't found much inspiration. . . .until today.  I love, love, love this! 

Check out the others in the gallery:  Click Here

Happy Browsing!  We'll be back to Birthday Cards tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

For the Men in Our Lives


Here's another birthday card from Mona that has a bit of a masculine appeal to it.  Love the clean, simple lines of the card and the touch of metal really balances it out.  Also love the use of the patterned paper as part of the focal point of the card.  I plan to keep this in mind for those pretty papers that I have that just need to shine on their own and not be covered up by layers or a stamped image. 

See you tonight.  And hopefully the weather during the drive home won't be as bad as last night.  Eeesh! was that ever an adventure!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Birthday Easel Card

Happy Monday My Gal Pals,

Hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was pretty good.  Spent 3 hours on Saturday morning putting together my Stampin' Up order.  Tried my best to control myself and set a firm budget but just like congress I kept raising the budget ceiling! 

But I'm pretty happy with the collection of tools and supplies I ordered and was really excited to see how much I was saving with this one-time 30% discount.  Guess I can justify it if I don't spend another dime on craft stuff this year! :-)

Continuing on with the Birthday theme I started last week, here's my first attempt at an easel card.  I made this for my Dad's birthday in December.


Love this color combination for a masculine card.  I intended for the big brads to be the way to hold up the easel part of the card but I guess my measurements must have been off because it made the card front lay too low.  Thank goodness the sticker border had some thickness to it.  Learned lots about what to do and not do for the next one I make.

And here's the sentiment I put inside.  It's also a wish I'm sending to you today. 

Have a good Monday! See you tomorrow night.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Sunny & Bright


Another birthday card from Mona's stash.   Love this one for a couple of reasons. . . Yes - most obviously for the ric-rac! :-) . . . but also because of how sunny & bright it is.  I think I might have mentioned the other day that I've been finding myself drawn to yellow and wildly bright colors lately.  I think it's because it's February in Missoula and I need a way to balance out the gray in our lives.  One last reason this card is so cool is that it could be called a Quick & Easy "Scrap" card.  A scrap of paper, some scraps of ribbon perfectly placed with a simple sentiment and embellishment.  This one's a keeper for sure!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Birthday's Galore

I don't know about you but the month of February is packed with birthdays of friends, family and  co-workers.  So as I was looking through inspiration cards, I found Mona's stash of cards we took pictures of many months ago.  There are some really cute ones in there so I thought I'd post a few to get me in the mood for all that I need to make in the next few weeks.

This one is one my favorites:


Mona - hope you had a wonderful and romantic birthday dinner with Doug at the Pearl last night.  We'll look forward to hearing about it Tuesday.  And can I ask a special favor?  Can you please bring the card Val made you for your birthday?  I'd like to take a picture of it for the blog. 

Have a great day today!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Dear Gal Pal. . . .

. . . . Happy Birthday to YOU!!!


Gal Pals had a wonderful time at dinner last night being the 1st to celebrate Mona's special day today.  As Mona shared with us when asked about her birthday resolution. . ."She's continuning to focus on health and activity because she's going to fight this "getting old" stuff with everything she has!"  You Go Girl!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Obsessed with Hearts


I'm not sure where this is coming from but I've been crazy for hearts this year.  I swear I haven't been watching television and the sappy Hallmark commercials too much and haven't even been in the stores lately to fall victim to all the Valentines advertising.  But just like I go through color phases - FYI - right now I'm drawn to yellows and golds - I guess I'm going through some sort of image phase and right now that's hearts.

So many beautiful hearts to choose from.  This one is from a Stampin' Up set called I {Heart} Hearts.  I used it for a clean and simple card to the family this week.  Kind of like this one I did in the Fall. . .



Really looking forward to dinner and conversation with my Gal Pals tonight.  See ya' soon.