More is More

I haven’t made a collagey/vintagey/shabby card in forever!  I had some Soft Sky and River Rock cardstock out on my stamp table and felt inspired to try something really soft and kind of old fashioned looking.

It didn’t turn out nearly as shabby or detailed as I originally planned, but I like the soft collage look.  I used several SU sets including Fresh Cuts, Always, Frames with a Flourish, and Boho Backgrounds.  I’m not sure if you can really see it, but there is a Friends sentiment stamped on the River Rock scallop circle (Marvy punch) – it’s from Inque Boutique and I purchased it on our trip to Santa Barbara.  Cardstock is River Rock, Soft Sky amd Very Vanilla with just Soft Sky and River Rock ink and ribbon.  Pearls are Kaiser Crafts from eclectic Paperie.  I like this card, but I just might have to make it again and give it the More is More treatment.  *wink*

Curt has been asked to drive the Model T as the getaway car for a wedding at church on Saturday.  I bought yards and yards of white tulle and ribbon to decorate the car to surprise the couple.  I plan to work on that tomorrow after work.  Then I need to make a Just Married sign.  I’ve decided to forego the tin cans.  Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to share next week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Father’s Day!  I have time for a quick post before we start getting things ready for our little family BBQ this afternoon.  We’re having my favorite meal of steak, baked potatoes and corn on the cob.  I realize it’s not about me, but I’m pretty sure all the men in the family will be happy with steak too.  LOL!

I have two similar Father’s Day cards to share – another example of More is More.

The card on the left is the one we did in my class Friday night.  It uses the Sanded background stamp and of course both cards use Thinking of Father from the current SU catty.  When I made the sample a week or so ago I was thinking I would give that card to my Uncle Bernie for Father’s Day, but then I realized I wanted to mail the card and that would need to be done before class.  So I decided to make another one and jazz it up just a bit.

I added more layers, did more distressing, changed the background to Flannel Plaid (can you believe that Flannel Plaid is retiring???) and changed the sentiment allowing me to add a page pebble.

Colors are More Mustard, Ruby Red, Garden Green and Confetti White.  The image is colored with watercolor crayons. Sometimes the addition of just one more layer can really make a big difference I think.  More is More!  *wink*

The big Stampin’ Up! News today is that the Retired Stamp Sets List is out.  You can download a copy by clicking here.  These sets are only available until August 10th – so if you see any from your wish list get them now (you NEED Flannel Plaid – just sayin’)!  I plan to put in a workshop order on July 12th so let me know if you want anything.  Of course I can always place indivdual orders as well – any time.  At that link you can also download a copy of the new Dormant List – that is sets that will be available for purchase, but not displayed in the new catalog in August.  It’s a good idea to print one out and keep it with your catty when you get it.

I hope you are enjoying your day.  Thanks for stopping by to spend a few minutes with me.

Last night was my monthly Stampin’ Up! Class and the last meeting of the current round of my SU Hostess Club.  My next round starts in August with the new catalog and it’s almost FULL already!  I have the best customers ever and I have so much FUN holding a class for them every month.  One of our three projects last night focused on the Sneak Peek deal for June – the Fresh Cuts stamp set and laser cut notecards.  I only had one package (15) of the notecards and I knew I needed to save 12 for class, so I didn’t have many to play with.  I decided I better just head over to the SCS Gallery for inspiration and to find some cute samples I could work with (CASE).  After looking at tons of cute stuff for ideas I went to my stamp room and made these two samples (very similar to ones I had seen in the gallery):

The little flower in the center is a felt flower flower from Flower Fusion.  I didn’t have enough of any one color so I put together packets with

• Old Olive flower, yellow square rhinestone brad, Certainly Celery cardstock square

• Rose Red flower, pink square rhinestone brad, Regal Rose cardstock square

• Pumpkin Pie flower, orange square rhinestone brad, So Saffron cardstock square

And then everyone could choose which of the two designs they wanted to follow.  We decorated the insides of the cards as well as the envleopes.  We mounted the colored cardstock square on the inside of the front panel  with foam tape to allow a little depth.

Once I got started on these samples I found I was in love with the both the stamp set and the notecards!  I wanted to be able to show my girls some other options so I made this super quick little 3×3 card with the petals I had punched out of the Olive card above.  Once they saw this, my girls became very protective of their punched out petals!  LOL!

I added a little piercing and some Kaiser Crafts bling.  The Regal Rose panel was stamped with the Paisley background stamp in Regal Rose ink.  Easy Peasy!  Next I wanted them to see how the 4″x4″ notecards could be mounted on a quarter sheet of cardstock to be mailed in a standard sized envelope so I put together this little 5 minute card using Real Red and Bashful Blue – love that color combo! (Keep in mind that the 4×4 envies cannot be mailed.)

If you decide to make your notecards mailable like the one above, you’ll have lots of cute square envelopes left over.  Check out what my very talented friend Dianne Shiozaki did with these envleopes over at her blog Catchin’ the Stampin’ Wave.  Dang I’ve resisted getting a Bind It All for so long, but that little book might just push me over the edge!

I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t have any more note cards  – I think I could I could have played with them all day and I’m ordering more immediately!  Now I’m just trying to decide if I really need to order the 5 petal flower punch too – so many of the gallery samples used that punch.  Hmmmm…

 BTW – I am taking pre-orders for the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog due out in August.  If you are interested in purchasing a catalog at the discounted pre-order price please contact me by June 25th.  I want to be sure I order enough boxes. 🙂

Tomorrow afternoon we’re having family over for a little Father’s Day BBQ, so I guess I better get crackin’.  Need to put away all my class stuff (my least favorite thing about teaching classes) and get the groceries and stuff (wish I knew of a place to get really good steaks).  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Remember you can still play Taylor’s challenge.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Taylor!!!

The Cupcake Girls have put together a little Virtual Surprise Birthday Party for our awesome friend Taylor (her birthday was actually yesterday, but we figured it would be even more of a surprise one day late – LOL!).  And EVERYONE is invited to attend.

My job was to bring the cake.    Of course being the reality tv junkie that I am, I headed right over to the Charm City Cakes website and spared no expense in bringing this rich chocolately gorgeous cake to baked and decorated by the Ace of Cakes, Duff, himself!  (Hey, my imaginary cake can be any flavor I want it to be!  *wink*)  And there’s enough for everyone – calorie free!!!

If you’d like to come to the party simply go to your own blog and post a birthday greeting to Taylor there (make a card fitting today’s challenge or just post a nice message – whatever works for you)  along with a link to her blog.  Then head on over to Taylor’s blog to post a Happy Birthday comment and a link for her to hop over to your blog.

And now my birthday card and TECC20 sample – I wanted to stay within the cake and yummies realm:

Taylor  is incredibly talented and I get so exicted for her with each new accomplishment in the stamping world.  Keep your eye on her as I really think we’ll just continue to see bigger and bigger things from her in the future!  But beyond that she is genuinely wonderful – a truly sweet sweet soul.  I have been truly blessed to call her my friend. 

Card details: 

The Stampendous Tier of Treats image was colored with Copic Markers and then highlighted with several colors of Sakura stardust gelly roll pens.  I chose the colors based on the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie paper strip – which then ended up being mostly covered – LOL.  For the strip on the right hand side I stamped the tiny cupcake from the SU set Short and Sweet, colored them with Copics and trimmed with scallop scissors.  The flower element down the left side is a Doodlebug Designs Paper Frills strip.  It was white until I colored it with pink and brown Copic markers for a two tone effect.  The pearl centers are Kaiser Crafts self adhesive pearls.  The pink twill is from Taylored Expressions and then I added just a little bit of SU red gingham.  Card base is Pretty Pink layered with Chocolate Chip.  The focal image is popped up on foam tape and the sentiment is popped up on double thick foam tape.

I hope you’ll play the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge (cupcakes not required) along with us this week.  The Featured Stamper this week is Laurie Schmidlin at Just Give Me Stamps.  (I’m such a huge fan of Laurie’s!!! ) And next week it could be you!  Check out Taylor’s blog for this week’s sketch and all the details on how to enter.

So now…are you ready to party?     Let’s go blog/party hopping!

Stephanie Hargis: Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Mary Jo Albright: Beauty Lies Within

Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity

Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp

Just a quick post to enable you….head on over to Taylored Expressions (click here) to see the fun new products she’s just added to the store (including my favorite teeny tiny rhinestones see this post for an example of them) as well as a special *26* sale she has going on.

And be sure to join me tomorrow morning after 8:00 for some very special FUN!  I can hardly wait!

Today was my early morning for stamp room exile and I managed to get two cards finished.  I just realized last night that Father’s Day is this weekend!  Yikes!  I had been a week off in my thinking – I guess vacation will do that to you.  I was hoping the Sketch Challenge on SCS today would inspire a Father’s Day card and sure enough it did!  (Mom – don’t let Dad look!)

This sailboat image is from a retired Stampin’ Up! set.  I never owned the set and I don’t remember it’s name.  I had this in my folder of stamped images from one of the many times my SoCal stampin’ buddies have gotten together and swapped images (hey girls – we need to get together again soon).  I had stamped this image on white glossy cardstock with Stazon ink.  I know because I had two and I tested my Copics on the first only to see the ink smear like crazy.  So I colored this with SU markers – they work great on glossy cardstock and have no problem with Stazon ink.  I used Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Creamy Caramel and Close to Cocoa.  Then I simply matted the image on coordinating cardstock according to the sketch layout.  The large Caramel panel was stamped with the retired Cheesecloth background.  The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I liked the *wave* effect it has.  The card was jazzed up with some piercing up the sides and some knotted hemp across the top – wow I hadn’t used hemp in a long time!

Masculine cards are not my forte’, but I’m quite pleased with this one.  I’m wishing now that I had purchased this set…and wondering what the other images were.  I might need to go back and look it up.  I’m pretty sure it was in a Mini a couple of years ago.  The current Winds of Grace has a very similar look and has been on my *list* for awhile now.  If it doesn’t retire maybe I’ll get it.

Speaking of retiring…the Stampin’ Up! Retirement list will be out in just a few more days…are you worried or excited?  I’m just excited that we’ll be that much closer to the new catty!  WooHoo!

And speaking of new and exciting….did you know that the creator of Elzybells has a new blog?  Click here to check it out!  I can hardly wait for her next release!

I need to finish prepping for my SU Class coming up on Friday.  Thanks for stopping by!

I wanted to send a thank you card to the Inn Keepers of the Cheshire Cat Bed & Breakfast where we spent our vacation last week (scroll down for details) and I knew I had the perfect image.  In fact I had it on the trip with me along with my Copics, but I never got around to coloring while we were gone.

This adorable Anna Wight Whipper Snapper image was sent to me by my friend Diane (CookieStamper).  We traded some images awhile back and I’ve had this one sitting out to color for the past two weeks at least.  I colored it with the Copic markers pictured above (click the thumbnail to see them larger).  I chose colors based on this piece of background designer paper from the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie 8×8 pad (from eP).  I *heart* that line of paper!  The sentiment *happy place* from the retired SU set Cute Converse was just perfect!  I stamped it on white shimmer cardstock and punched it out with a 3/4″ circle punch and layered onto Close to Cocoa, Rose Red and Barely Banana and then covered it with an acrylic sticker.  The nice soft olive twill is from…hmmm…I thought it was from TayloredExpressions, but I just checked and she doesn’t seem to have olive so I have no idea where I got it.  LOL! .  Some banana brads and clear generic dew drops are the finishing touches.  I stamped a thank you sentiment on the inside of the card and I’m excited to get it in the mail today.

 Besides Ice Road Trckers starting Sunday night, HGTV Design Star also premiered…at the exact same time!  Thank goodness for the DVR!!!  Am I the only reality tv junkie?  I especially like the shows that focus on talents and abilites (Design Star, Apprentice, Dancing With the Stars, Top Chef, Project Runway).  Curt thinks it’s hysterical that I love Ice Road Truckers…and honestly it is kind of weird I think…but I’m hooked.  Did you see it Sunday night?  Isn’t Drew a total dweeb???  Sheesh!

I need to get ready for work.  Thanks for stopping by!