You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2009.
To celebrate 10,000 hits to my blog (actually, now over 11,000!), you have the opportunity to win this fabulous prize package:
Included in the prize package is:
- A new, unmounted Stampin’ Up! set called Spring Fling (retired) – perfect for Easter!
- 6 – 6″x6″ pieces of Hawaii Papaya DSP
- 6 sheets of DSP from the retired Hostess Level 1 set (2008/09 Fall Catalog) – includes Real Red, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand
- 2 yds. Alpine felt ribbon in Chocolate Chip
- Paperbilities assorted Tag set (these already have eyelets on them!)
- Darice Star stick-on rhinestone accents in blue
- Darice Square 2 stick-on rhinestone accents (pastels)
Sorry for the delay posting a winner…life got in the way!
And the winner is: DARLENE PETERS
Darlene, please email me with your info within the next 48 hours and I will get this sent out to you!
Enjoy!!
This lovely Hostess set just inspires me…very pretty!
I wanted to do a sort of botanical print-inspired card with this one. The butterfly was stamped with black Staz-On onto Stampin’ Up! watercolor paper. I then used my Aquapainter with ink from the lid of both my Pumpkin Pie and So Saffron ink pads. I just love my Aquapainter with the SU! watercolor paper!! This was layered with Basic Black card stock, punched with the Ticket Corner punch, and dressed up with some pewter brads.
The sentiment was also stamped on watercolor paper with black Staz-On. Leaves were stamped in Old Olive (that was stamped off twice before stamping onto the paper). It was then distressed with the distressing tool from the Crafters Tool Kit, dressed with more pewter brads, and layered onto Basic Black cardstock. The base of the card is Old Olive, which was stamped with the leaves stamp from the set in Versamark. Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon is behind the sentiment.
Ingredients:
Stamps: God’s Beauty (current Hostess Set)
Paper: Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Paper, Old Olive, Basic Black
Ink: Black Staz-On, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive, Versamark (background)
Accessories: Ticket Corner punch, pewter brads (from Vintage assortment), Very Vanilla grosgrain, dimensionals
Enjoy!
Sweet Always DSP and Crazy for Cupcakes combine for this card:
This starts off with Regal Rose CS and is layered with the Sweet Always DSP. The cupcake layer is backed by Chocolate Chip and the cupcakes are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on Whisper White. The cupcakes were colored with So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, and Regal Rose. The stand was done using a blender pen and Going Gray ink. The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip, then punched out with the large oval punch. It was sponged with Regal Rose ink, then layered onto Regal Rose CS that was cut out with the Wide Oval punch. Chocolate Chip grosgrain and Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the cherries give this some punch.
Ingredients:
Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes
Card Stock: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Paper: Sweet Always
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Going Gray
Punches: Ticket Corner, Large Oval, Wide Oval
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Chocolate Chip grosgrain, dimensionals, sponge
Enjoy!
Here is the card I made for my sweetie:
The inside:
The front of the envelope:
The back of the envelope has the love birds from Love You Much.
I have to confess, this is NOT a Stampin’ Up only card! If you notice the heart texture on the card stock, that is from an old Fiskars texture place that I ran through my Big Shot. Believe it or not, these plates are meant to fit into pegs on a specially designed board. Then, you are supposed to use a special tool and run it over whatever you want to emboss, covering the entire surface, rubbing it by hand! No thanks – I’ll use my Big Shot instead! These hearts were too cute not to use. That said, if we had a heart Texturz plate, I would have used it! 
I didn’t want to make an overly frilly card for my hubby. So, I used Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, and Basic Black as my color scheme. The stamps are from A Happy Heart. The hearts (which are a little smaller in the red layer) were punched with my Hearts to Heart punch (they are a tad different shape than the stamp, but in person, since they are up on dimensionals, you can’t really tell). The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black onto Whisper White. It was then cut out with the curly label punch. I trimmed off the excess on the top and bottom and layered it over some Basic Black card stock that was cut with the same punch. I then stamped it again using Riding Hood Red and cut out the heart with my 1/2 inch circle punch (which fits perfectly!) I layered that on a dimensional. A dollop of red glitter makes it sparkle. On the inside, I stamped the large heart from the Love You Much set in Pink Pirouette, to make more of a watermarked look. The edges were sponged with Riding Hood Red.
P.S. I haven’t forgotten about the Blog Candy! It’s coming soon! I’m also in the process of scanning more retired sets to post on my For Sale page.
Ingredients:
Card Stock: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Pink Pirouette (inside), Going Grey (envelope)
Punches: 1/2 in. Circle, Curly Label, Ticket Corner
Accessories: Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, silver brads, dimensionals, red fine glitter, Fiskars embossing plate (non-SU!)
Enjoy!
After all the drama with my Big Shot yesterday, I just *had* to make a card using it!
This one uses the new set Thoughts and Prayers – I just love this set (and this tree!) Such versatile sentiments and lovely images. I stamped the tree onto Kraft, after cutting it out using my Top Note Bigz die (yay!) I sponged the edges heavily with Chocolate Chip and added two antique brass brads. The sentiment was stamped onto Very Vanilla, which was also stamped with the leaves from the tree (they were stamped off twice before stamping onto the Very Vanilla). This was punched using the Large Oval Punch and the sponged with Chocolate Chip. A piece of Bravo Burgundy was punched with the Wide Oval punch. I distressed the edges with the distressing tool (from the Cutter Kit, item 106958) – very handy little tool! I also distressed the edge of the card (which opens to the side).
Ingredients:
Card Stock: Bravo Burgundy, Kraft, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Brown Staz-On
Accessories: Big Shot Top Note Bigz die, antique brass brads (from Vintage Brads pack), distressing tool, Wide Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, dimensionals, sponges
Watch for some BLOG CANDY coming soon! Somewhere between Love Birds and Big Shot drama, I passed up 10,000 hits (since September)!
Enjoy!
Love, love, love my Big Shot! I demonstrate it any time I can and I find my customers love it, too. This was the case last night when I had a rather large Stamp Camp (mostly with new stampers). We made two projects using the Big Shot (see below for one of them). Needless today, after taking all the orders (including one for a Big Shot, of course) and gabbing with the hostess (we work together), it was really late by the time I left! So, her husband helped me out to the truck (I normally drive hubby’s Chevy Silverado 2500 extended cab). I had my hands full and her husband had my wheeled case and a huge bag. So, I set my bag down and set the Big Shot on the edge of the truck bed. He got me loaded up and away I went! Why am I telling you all this? Well, this morning, I discovered that I never took the Big Shot off the back of the truck! As you can guess, it didn’t fall into the bed…it was GONE!
So, bright and early (as soon as the sun was up), I called her and left a message, asking if she could check her street to see if it rolled off. She called me back about 45 minutes later, saying her husband went driving around and could not find it. Now mind you, they live about 30 minutes from me. I was SICK! I was putting away all my Bigz dies, the Sizzlets, the cutting platforms…and just so sad! I just couldn’t let it rest – I thought I’d drive back that way and see if maybe it was in the ditch of the exit ramp, where I get on the highway in their town…just because if I didn’t do so, I would never forgive myself for not trying. As I drove, I kept looking along the median of the highway (it’s all two lanes each way, with a grass center). I almost braked for lots of tire fragments, a shirt that someone lost, and a bag of trash. When I was about 12 miles outside the town I was heading to, I was telling myself how nuts I was. Not too long after that – what did I see across the median?? YES!!!!! My Big Shot! There was no mistaking that grey handle sticking out from the faded grass! Of course, the next exit was about 2 miles away! I couldn’t drive fast enough.
Now mind you, this is a two-lane (each way) highway, with a 70 MPH speed limit and very little shoulder. The next thought that occurred to me was how was I going to pull over to the left side of the road and walk through that grassy slope to get my machine? I just decided to be brave! I was driving about 50 in the left lane, looking out for it (I’m sure the other drivers just loved me at this point! lol) I spotted it! I hit the brakes (making sure no one was right behind me, of course) and pulled as far off the road as I could and turned on the flashers. I got a few looks as I walked the 25 feet or so, retrieved my machine and went back to the truck. The thing looked unscratched! Now, when I flipped it over, that was where I saw the damage. The little feet were gone/smashed. A couple of the plastic pieces were out of whack. However, those snapped together perfectly (well, except the couple of missing chunks!) The best news? It works perfectly!! I’m so excited!!!
Even better? Now when customers ask me how durable it is – I have quite the tale to tell! Not everyone can say their Big Shot survived flying off the back of a truck at 70 MPH! 
Pics:
The top (virtually unscratched!)
The bottom (not pretty – there’s even still grass under there…lol) :
Here is one of the projects we made last night:
This uses the Top Note die with Pretty in Pink, stamped in Basic Grey with a stamp from the Sale-a-Bration set “Yummy”. I used the slot punch for the hole up top. It was decorated with some Rose Red grosgrain. The bags are our 3×5 cello bags (great little size!)
Isn’t the candy corn cute? I’ve used the “PayDay candy bar” recipe (half candy corn/half peanuts) at my fall workshops before. So imagine my delight in finding Valentine’s candy corn! The gals went nuts for this project – and it was so easy for them. The one that bought the Big Shot is using this same design to make favors for her sister’s wedding shower (except she’s filling hers with custom M&M’s in her sister’s colors – white, black, and teal and using our new single stamp Forever (item 114494 for $5.95), stamped in Taken by Teal on Whisper White, with black grosgrain. I think they’ll be sharp!!
I’m about ready for a nap…getting home so late, getting up so early, and going through the emotional Big Shot rollercoaster has me wiped out!
Enjoy!
The Love Birds, that is!
This is a card we will be making at Sara’s Stamp Camp this weekend. It uses stamps from the Love You Much set. The base is Rose Red, the paper is from Candy Lane. Chocolate Chip mats the birds. They were stamped in Chocolate Chip and colored with a blender pen. The sentiment was stamped twice. The circle scallop is on Regal Rose and the heart layer is on Very Vanilla (punched with the 1 1/4 in circle punch. Pretty In Pink taffeta ribbon and a sprinkle of Dazzling Diamonds on a punched heart dress this up.
Enjoy!
This is a card we are making at Sara’s Stamp Camp this weekend!If you’ve think you’ve seen a similar version of this on my site, you are right! I previously posted one that used Bella Rose DSP. However, this one is updated with some of the new items from the 2009 Spring/Summer Catalog! The pocket features Pretty in Pink card stock, trimmed with the new Eyelet Border Punch. It was folded, stamped with a sentiment from “Heard from the Heart” in Regal Rose, then dressed up with some gold brads. The card was accented with the new Tea Party Designer Series Paper (a new favorite of mine!) The card insert is made from So Saffron and Very Vanilla. It was stamped with Sweet Stems in Chocolate Chip and colored using a blender pen. The “pull” on it ismade from Almost Amethyst card stock, punched with the Curly Label, which was folded in half! I think the gals are really going to enjoy it!
Ingredients:
Card Stock: Pretty In Pink, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Almost Amethyst
Stamps: Heard from the Heart, Sweet Stems
Ink: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss (stem/leaves)
Designer Series Paper: Tea Party
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Curly Label Punch, gold brads, blender pen
Enjoy!
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