Fresh Cuts - Bayou and Guava

This is my first card made with the new Fresh Cuts stamp set and Fresh Cuts note cards. This was being sold during the month of June as a preview to the new Fall/Winter Stampin' Up! catalog, and my best friend who is also my Stampin' Up! demonstrator, gave them to me! This is going to be the thank you card that I send to her because she's so busy I'm not sure when she'll get to using her OWN stamps and note cards.

This has got to be one of my favorite color combinations! It's part of the In Color series that will retire when the new catalog comes out. I'll be sorry to see these colors go, but I'm told the new colors coming out in the new catalog are all must haves too.

This card is pretty self explanatory. I don't have the 5 petal flower punch (yet, that will on my next order!), so made a template using my demo's punch, and traced the Groovy Guava flower that goes behind the punched out portion of the note card. The small flower is stamped with Groovy Guava, cut out and attached to the front with a blue brad. The punched out flower piece is backed with a square of Blue Bayou to add some color and then the whole thing is matted on to Groovy Guava. That piece is then attached to a side folded Blue Bayou card. Three brads on the top and the sentiment made using the two oval punches, with a sprig stamped in Blue Bayou ink, and the card is done! Pretty easy.

I only used the front of the note card for this particular version. The other part will be used on some other card when a piece of white is called for.

Thanks for looking!

God Bless America

Just in time for the 4th of July!

This is another easy patriotic card which uses only one stamp. It was a special edition stamp that came out in 2001. I know a lot of people bought it because I’ve found several cards online using this stamp. It’s too bad that it was a one time deal.

This card was very easy to make. I made up several of them to send to soldiers deployed overseas. I colored the flag with Night of Navy and Real Red markers and stamped it on to Whisper White card stock. The bottom was torn and it was layered on to a Brilliant Blue piece of card stock and that bottom was also torn. The card base is Brilliant Blue onto which was layered Whisper White and then Real Red. Before the red was applied, two rectangle holes are punched to accommodate the red, white and blue grosgrain ribbon.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: God Bless America
Paper: Brilliant Blue, Whisper White and Real Red card stock.
Ink: Real Red and Night of Navy markers.
Accessories: Two hole Rectangle Punch, striped grosgrain ribbon from Jo-Ann Fabrics

HOLY COW!!

Friends, I'm so sorry for not posting anything in over a week! Things have been CRAZY around here. We've been dealing with car AND truck problems and have spent a LOT of money getting everything fixed. Our car had been in the shop for three days and when we went to pick it up, our truck developed problems. So, we picked up the car and left the truck. UGH. I hope this is IT for a while.

I'll go find a card and be back later to post. I'm running out of cards but it's so nice outside for once, that it's hard to find the time to sit and concentrate on being creative. Thanks for being patient.

Embrace Life - Sympathy

THIS beautiful card came straight from Laura here. It was so beautiful that I copied it almost exactly as she stamped it. I had the card dimensions a bit off so I couldn't use all the elements that she did, but I was SO pleased with the result!

It’s made with the Embrace Life set which has SO many different uses and that I had used for other things but not for something somber like this. I had to wait on an order of the Basic Grey satin ribbon before I could do this card. There were a lot of elements to this card which were a bit hard to keep track of but I was pleased with how this turned out. As Laura did in her post, I used Crystal Effects to make the flowers stand out a bit. Thanks for the inspiration, Laura!

Recipe:
Embrace Life, Warmest Regards (ret.)
Paper: Whisper White, YoYo Yellow, Basic Grey, Going Grey
Accessories: Basic Grey taffeta ribbon, Crystal Effects, yellow non-SU! ribbon, paper piercing template and piercer

We're Back

Dear Friends,

I'm back from vacation but haven't had a chance to post anything new yet. We had car trouble on the way home and are now lighter in the wallet, but we're home safe and sound. Thank goodness for AAA! Anyway, I'll try to get something posted in the next day or so. Coming home from an 8 day vacation and then my husband getting sick, makes for little time to stamp. He should be feeling better by tomorrow, I hope. Not sure what hit him, but he's been an unhappy camper. Usually I'm the one needing the extra help, not him. Poor guy......

DANG!!

Hello All, sorry it's been a few days since I've posted something but it's been busy here plus it's been so HOT. My stamping room and computer room are one and the same and we've had warm weather the past couple days and it's been uncomfortable being upstairs for any length of time. When I get hot my creativity goes right out the window and I sort of forget that I have this blog going that people actually do check out once in a while.

I'll try to get something posted in the next day or so. Today we were dealing with terrific thunderstorms that rolled through here and dropped about 3" of water in about 3 hours. My husband and I were at Walmart and we were in the back of the store when a big clap of thunder sounded like it was right on top of us, the lights sizzled and then went out for a couple of seconds. We should have taken that as our cue to go HOME but noooooooo, we had to hit the grocery store first and got stuck there when more lightening hit close enough to set off someone's car alarm. And I WAS THE ONE DRIVING!! We drove home in the rain and sat out in our parking lot waiting for it to let up enough so we could get in without getting soaked. It was so warm today that it actually felt good however, to be somewhat wet. We've got flood warnings out and water everywhere. Manhole covers were popping out of the streets there was so much water pressure! Since our storm sewers and sewer sewers are one in the same, I'm sure there was some dumping into Lake Michigan today. Yuck. The weather maps have been brightly colored all afternoon and evening. It's raining again as I'm writing this.

Anyway, after going to church tomorrow morning we're staying HOME the rest of the day (the storms are to continue into MONDAY) so hopefully I'll be able to post something then. Hope all is well wherever you are. Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Whimsy in Pink

Sorry that I've been out of touch recently. I was out of town over this past weekend visiting my family. All of us were together for the first time in over 10 years and a great time was had by all.

Anyway, I found this card on Diane’s website but it was designed by Glenda Travelstead. Check Diane’s card out "here" I thought this was a GREAT card, looked good enough to eat with the chocolate "frosting" and "sprinkles." The manager at my new job ordered one of these for her grandmother’s 80th birthday. I just redid the "happy birthday" on the tag to put it closer to the outside edge and inserted by hand the number 80. Put some Crystal Effects on the frosting and sprinkled on some beads and YUM! I'm told that the grandmother really liked the card and my manager has bragging rights for the rest of the year.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Birthday Whimsy
Paper: Pixie Pink, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Pixie Pink, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Key Tag Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Crystal Effects, Beadifuls "Sonic Blooms" beads by Queen&Co., yellow Stickles glitter glue, 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals