February 28, 2017

Open House Samples

Happy Tuesday!

Today you get to see the projects we made at my open house.


You may recognize this  card from page 4 in the Occasions catalog. We CASEd it - just to show, you don't have to design everything on your own. Stampin' Up! catalogs are FILLED with ideas and inspirations. Don't be afraid to use them!!


This dreamy dragonfly features a background using our Watercolor Pencils. With a base piece of Shimmery White cardstock, we scribbled, and I mean literally scribbled, Pacific Point and Bermuda Bay, then washed over the color with an aqua painter. To get a good blend of color, be sure to have your brush really wet. What a beautiful, easy and FUN background. We used Memento Black for the image and sentiment, layered the focal piece onto Bermuda Bay and heavy Whisper White, added a few rhinestones and tah dah!


Hey Chick is a free Sale A Bration stamp set and it is just doggone cute! We used So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie markers to color in this little cluck. The edge was done freehand. This will make a cute gift enclosure for your favorite chick!

A highlight of the day was having my older sister come and stamp. She is NOT crafty - just ask her! She has a running commentary going as she stamps, entertaining all of us. She was so proud of her creations! Too funny.

If you're local and would like to join the stamping fun, consider one of my March classes.


Contain Yourself!
March 4th at 9 am
For $15 make 3 beautiful boxes, enjoy a couple hours to yourself, meet some new friends, enjoy a cuppa jo and some giggles.
Contact me to reserve your spot by Wednesday March 1


Beautiful You!
March 25th at 9 am
$38 for Clear Mount   $49 for Wood Mount
Create 4 beautiful cards with my current most favorite stamp set!
You take the stamp set and lots of alternate ideas home with you!
LOTS of techniques using Water color pencils, aqua painter, blender pen, paper piecing
Payment for this class must be received by March 15th.
Join the fun! Contact me to reserve your spot!


February 24, 2017

Come Join Me!!


If you're local and would like to join the stamping fun, consider one of my March classes.


Contain Yourself!
March 4th at 9 am
For $15 make 3 beautiful boxes, enjoy a couple hours to yourself, meet some new friends, enjoy a cuppa jo and some giggles.
Contact me to reserve your spot by Wednesday March 1


Beautiful You!
March 25th at 9 am
$38 for Clear Mount   $49 for Wood Mount
Create 4 beautiful cards with my current most favorite stamp set!
You take the stamp set and lots of alternate ideas home with you!
LOTS of techniques using Water color pencils, aqua painter, blender pen, paper piecing
Payment for this class must be received by March 15th.
Join the fun! Contact me to reserve your spot!

February 23, 2017

Open House Celebration!

Hi all!

A couple weekends ago I hosted an open house, inviting friends to come and play with paper for a few hours. Thought I'd use the time I'm in San Antonio to share the event.


Each person who came received a goodie bag.


What was inside? A variety of treats, chocolates and a pen.


The first little bag held a mint. A small notebook is hidden behind the Rich Razzleberry cover and the flower packet holds mini post-it notes. I needed to use some of my vintage DSP!


I also created a quick and easy match book that held a packet of hot chocolate. I think everyone enjoyed the treats!


I know they enjoyed the stamping!!

Stop back on Tuesday to see the projects we made.

Until next time, take gentle care,
Sue




February 21, 2017

Birthday Creations

Greeting all!

I'm sharing more February birthday cards with you today. This is another big birthday month for me.


This card went out to my high school music director. He and I share a birthday and have been celebrating together for many decades! Music was the center of my high school universe and I spent a great deal of time with Carmen. He was a very positive influence in my life. I'm grateful we're still in touch!

I used the Kinda Eclectic stamp set with Soft Suede ink. I sponged the center of the image to soften it a bit. The greeting is vintage and the music paper is contraband (oh my!) I used linen thread to tie the balloons. I figured even a guy needs bling at times! Cardstock colors are Whisper White and Soft Suede. This was a quick and easy card to put together.


This Sahara Sand card base is topped with Falling in Love DSP and features the So Detailed Thinlits in Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla 1/4" Satin Ribbon and a Falling in Love embellishment. The greeting is from Balloon Celebration. I sent this card to 'my Nan'. Nan and I were in the hospital nursery together when we were born.Through our school years we became extremely close and remain so to this day. Nan is one of those friends who, no matter the amount of time between conversations, it is as though no time has passed. Her friendship is a blessing to me. 

I'm gearing up for a weekend trip to San Antonio. I'll post in advance, so you won't even know I'm gone!

Until next time, take gentle care,
Sue


February 16, 2017

Happy Birthday Jax!

Hi all,

Today I'm celebrating the 3rd birthday of my great nephew! I was at our northern Wisconsin cabin with no cell reception the weekend he was born. It wasn't until we were well on our way home that we found out our Jaxon had arrived. He is such a joy and is so much like his daddy was at that age.

So what might a little boy like for his 3rd birthday? I'm hoping he'll like 3 happy monsters!!


Do you recognize the owl punch? I punched an extra owl and trimmed the feet to make the arms for these little guys. The sentiment and buttons are vintage. I used my markers to color the sentiment, gave the stamp a 'huff' and put it to paper. These monsters make me smile!

The Balloon Pop-Up Thinlits make a perfect pop for the inside of the card.


The best thing is that my nephew and his family moved back to Wisconsin from Louisiana, so this year I won't have to travel as far to celebrate birthdays with the kids. Last year I was in Louisiana for a duo birthday party with the theme "Tutus and Trucks". My sisters, sister-in-law and I saw and purchased tutus while staying in the French Quarter. I cannot begin to tell you how impressed my nephew was with his family;) He expects these crazy things of his aunts, but when his mom joins in, that's another story!!


I'm off to create a few more cards for special upcoming birthdays. I'll be sure to share them with you.

I hope you're enjoying the huge Sale-A-Bration event. Next week there will be three new SAB offerings. You're going to love them!

Until next time, happy stamping!

Sue



February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi all!

A quick post to wish you a happy 'Love Day'! 

My card today is a CASE from my upline, Mary Fish. It's a beautiful card that could be used as an anniversary or 'just because' card.


The DSP is from the Playful Palette DSP stack. I used Very Vanilla cardstock for the base, Real Red and Very Vanilla for the layers. Sunshine Wishes Thinlits were used to create the heart and 'love'. A bit of Basic Black Baker's Twine and a vintage Very Vanilla button finished the look. Clean and simple, which is Mary's style.

Be sure to take a moment today to celebrate the loves in your life, loves from the present as well as loves from the past. Enjoy your memories!!

Take gentle care,
Sue

February 9, 2017

More DSP Scrap Ideas

Hello!

Are you ready for a few more ideas for your DSP scraps? Well, here goes!

For the swap card I I made, I trimmed the Sending Love Designer Series Paper (DSP) to 4" x 5 1/4". Because the paper stack measures 6" x 6", I had lots of extra DSP pieces that I didn't want to waste, hmm, how can I use them??  Check out these colorful hearts!  




I diecut the heart from the 4" x 5 1/4" inch cardstock using the Sweet and Sassy Framelits, then ran the cardstock through the Big Shot using the Happy Heart embossing folder. I don't know if you can clearly see from the photo, but one of the backgrounds has the hearts embossed and one has them debossed. I had flipped the cardstock over to add adhesive and thought, hey, I like how this looks!

I covered the die cut heart with Snail, added the center strip of paper and worked my way out to the edges. I trimmed the excess DSP, leaving 1/4" of DSP over hang the die cut heart, added Multi purpose glue around the edge of the dsp and centered the die cut opening over the strips. I used some baker's twine left over from the holiday catalog for the bow. 

You could use this technique with any shape, a star, circle, square or any other dies you may have in your collection. It's a great way to use up scraps and with Stampin' Up's color coordinated DSP, you don't even have to think about what patterns will match! I love that part!! This is the perfect card for the quilters in your circle of friends.

I was getting excited about my dwindling stack of DSP scraps, but I wasn't done yet. Here is yet another scrap sample. Again, the best part of the SU! DSP is that all the matching work is done for you. All you have to do is line up the patterns and you're good to go!


My base measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". The second layer is 4" x 5 1/4". Each panel measures 1 5/8" x 3 7/8". Either start by placing the center panel and then the two outer panels, or line up the two outer panels and add the center panel.

The heart is die cut from the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits. I trimmed a scrap piece of cardstock to 5/8" x 5 1/4" and used the Hugs and Kisses stamp from Sealed with Love. The tiny hearts come from the owl punch.

I now have only a few full pages of DSP in my Sending Love stack and am very happy with my scrap projects. What do you think? I love to read your comments and thank you for sharing a bit of your time with me today.

Until next time, take gentle care,



February 8, 2017

Case the Catalog Blog Hop


Welcome to the Pals Blog Hop for February 2017. We are thankful you stopped by to take a look at our 2017 Blog Hop monthly themes.  This month we are CASE’ing a project shown in a current Stampin’ Up! catalog. After all, with the Annual, Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogs available right now, there is much inspiration from which to choose. We hope you enjoy our creations.
You may just be starting the Blog Hop or may have come from the previous link from the Line-up on the Pals Blog Hop listing shown below.  The full lineup will help you move along from blog to blog so you may see all the projects.

Let's hear it for Balloon Celebrations from page 24 in the Annual Catalog! The Party Animal Designer Series Paper and complimentary colors give this layout a whole new look.



I cut the Crushed Curry panel at 4" x 5 1/4" and added a 1 1/4" x 5 1/4" piece of Party Animal DSP to the left edge. The background is stamped in Crushed Curry Classic Ink with several images from Balloon Celebrations. The balloon was a snap to create with the Balloon Punch. The sentiment is from Balloon Adventures found in the Occasions catalog.

Thanks for visiting. To continue with the hop, please refer to the Blog Hop Line-up below. We hope to see you on next month’s Pals Blog Hop! 





Blog Hop Line-up:  


February 7, 2017

What to do with DSP Scraps

Greetings all,

It's been a crazy week. My 89 year old mom fell twice in the past week, had two trips to the ED, a three night hospital stay and is now in rehab; I don't think she'll be able to go home again. Lots of decisions and emotions. I have firmly come to believe that aging is not for sissies. 

I did manage to get some RnR in my craft space and work on projects for my Saturday open house.

If you live in my corner of the world, contact me to reserve materials and pop in on Saturday between 10 & 1. I'd love to see you.

My January 5th post featured my Occasions catalog swap card. 

  
After making 32 cards, I had a pile of die cut hearts that I didn't know what to do with, but figured I'd find a use for them - and I did!!


The Sending Love Suite made creating these cards oh so easy. The card base measures 8 12/" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4". I trimmed 1 1/4" from the 'front' edge. The DSP panel on the front measure 2" x 5 1/4" and the DSP on the inside measures 1 1/4" x 5 1/4". I just layered the hearts on the edge of the cardstock.

The sweet little envelope and decorative note come from the Sealed With Love Bundle. I will be using that envelope framelit on lots of projects!

I like how these turned out and I used everyone one of the hearts in my stash! Do you own the balloon punch? Fill the edge of a birthday card with balloons or use stars for a celebratory card, multi-colored circles or squares would be equally as fun. Mix solid cardstock with DSP for a unique creation.

I challenge you to pull out your scraps and CASE (copy and share everything) this card adding your own touches.

Stop back tomorrow to see two additional samples using my scraps.

Until then, take gentle care,






February 3, 2017

For You

Hi All!

I found this unpublished post lurking in my files. Okay, so it was geared toward Christmas, but change the paper and you have a quick, easy and oh so cute gift bag for any occasion!

This is the last of my Secret Santa gifts. I made some sugared pecans and the Gusseted Cellophane Bags provided the perfect packaging!


We made these gift bags and the Stampin' Up! event I attended in Schaumburg, Illinois this summer. Didn't want anything this cute go to waste!


I have a strong feeling that my person will guess that I was her Secret Santa as most people at work know about my love of paper, stamps, ink and glue! My only hope is that she enjoyed her treats!

Take gentle care,
Sue


February 2, 2017

Season of Love

Hi all!

Earlier, I posted a Valentine card that I created for a swap organized by Lisa Pretto. I am much like other paper crafters in that I tend to hold on to my scraps. So I recently sat down and figured out ways to use up those scraps. I made a couple other Valentine cards as well. I'll be sharing the love with you over my next several posts.



With the exception of one, my cards feature the Sending Love suite. The stamp set does include a Happy Valentine's Day stamp, but the other 26 stamps in the set can be used for wedding, anniversary, birthday, encouragement or romantic cards throughout the year. Sealed With Love, it's not just for Valentine's Day!

The darling little envelope and insert are easily created using the Love Notes Framelits Dies. Remember, you save 10% on every bundle. Check out the heart border - you really do need that in your collection!


Ready to purchase? Click HERE to go to my 24/7 online store.

Stay tuned for more Valentine creations. Thanks for stopping!