Manly Birthday

Another Birthday Card Class Card. I desperately wanted some of the cards to be suitable for the men in our lives. I finally gave up trying to design two manly cards ( I did come up with one, but more on that later) and decided instead to CASE this card.
The original card created by MadelinesMom03 on SCS has been in my favorites for along time. I loved it right away. I especially love the faux stitching that she did in her version. I would have added it to mine but I was trying to keep the projects as simple as possible since I had several new stampers attending the class.

Stamps: All Year Cheer& Simple Shapes Paper: Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Bashful Blue and Very Vanilla Inks: Real Red, Creamy Caramel and Bashful Blue Accessories: Taupe & Real Red grosgrain

Birthday Card Class

Here is another one of the cards that I did at my Birthday Card Class this past weekend. This card was a favorite because of how simple it was to make. I love it because of the colors. (I absolutely LOVE Ruby Red) and because of the distressing.

Stamps: Petal Prints, Warm Regards and Canvas
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Ruby Red and ChocolateChocolate grosgrain Chip Ink: Chocolate Chip and Ruby Red Accessories:

Debbie's Blogger Swap Card

This card was created by Debbie Seyer over at A Peek Into My Stamping Room. You really should visit her blog. She has some great stuff over there. I especially love the Domino Ornament Tutorial that she featured in October.
I love this card! I love pinks and browns together. Everything on this card works together. It balances so nicely. I especially love the pink eyelets in each corner and the Canvas background she added for texture onto the Chocolate Chip layer. I also love that this is a card using only SU! products. I can use this card at workshops.

Stamps: Loving Hearts, Everyday flexible Phrases and Canvas Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Whisper White and Loves Me Designer Paper Ink Regal Rose, Creamy Caramel, Cool Caribbean Accessories: Pink Eyelets and Rose Grosgrain

Bloggers Only Valentine Swap

Recently I participated in a Bloggers Only Valentine Swap hosted by Sarah Moore. It was so much fun to receive such awesome cards from such awesome ladies. I also enjoyed reading all of their blogs. This is the card that I submitted to the swap. I had originally done another card, but decided that it was too traditional and opted for this card instead. I especially love the distressing on this card. Be sure to keep checking back so that you can see all the wonderful cards that I received.

Stamps: Happy Hearts and Tiny Talk Paper: Basic Black, Creamy Caramel, Real Red and Whisper White Inks: Basic Black, Creamy Caramel, Real Red Classic inks & Whisper White Craft ink Accessories: Ticket Corner punch, Red Eyelets, Square Punches, Caramel Gingham Ribbon, Red Grosgrain and red dotted organdy from Wal-mart

Where I've Been

Someone asked me where I have been. The answer: in my basement! That is where my stamp area is. I have two classes scheduled for this weekend. A Birthday Card Class on Friday and then a Card Tin Class on Saturday. You can see the card tin here.



I have 10 ladies attending my Birthday Card Class. They will each be making 12 cards. 2 each of 6 different designs. So I have been cutting paper for 120 cards! Some of the cards are variations of recent designs and some are new. I will save the new ones for a later post so I can give more details.






But I will show you the two that are variations of my recent cards. On these I basically just changed the colors so that I could use card stock that I was sure I had enough of. You can see the original cards here and here. And one card I did not change at all you can see the details of the Roses in Winter card here.

Alora Tagged Me!

A - Available or Taken:
Happily Married

B - Best Friend:
Bobby

C -Cake or Pie:
this is hard.... but if I am forced to chose, I am gonna have to say Pie ( my MIL's pecan pie, yum)

D - Drink of Choice:
Lemonade

E - Essential item you use everyday:
Computer

F - Favorite Color:
Red

G - Gummy Bears or Worms:
Sour Worms

H - Hometown:
Highlands, Texas

I - Indulgence:
Blue Bell Ice Cream (Homemade Vanilla Flavor)

J - January or February
February

K - Kids & Names:
DD Hannah (5 ), DS Nicholas (3), DS Gabriel (10 months)

L - Life is incomplete without?:
Jesus & my family

M - Marriage Date:
January 15, 1999

N - Number of Siblings:
2 brothers

O - Oranges or Apples:
Oranges

P - Phobias or Fears:
heights

Q - Fave Quote:
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. -C.S. Lewis

R - Reason to Smile:
My kids laughter

S - Season:
Autumn!

T - Tag 3 or 4 People
Sarah M, Sarah V, Debbie

U - Unknown fact about me:
I Like Reality TV

V - Vegetable you don't like:
Okra... YUCK

W - Worst Habit:
Interrupting people!! I'm sooo bad at waiting my turn! ( This was Alora's answer,but I do this too... really bad)

X - X-rays:
teeth

Y - Your Fave Food:
Mexican

Z - Zodiac Sign:
Ummm, I don't really do the zodiac thing..so I don't know?? But, I'll tell you my favorite ZOO animal (since that's a "Z" word) Elephants

Simply Difficult

It has become difficult for me to do really simple cards. I have a workshop tonight. I rarely do workshops and mainly do Stamp Camps and a Stamp Club. Most of the women at my classes are seasoned stampers so I teach them more advanced techniques. There will be some new stampers at my workshop so I needed to keep my projects fairly simple. I am going to do my Rejected Valentine Card and this one. I didn't even use any ribbon. I love the final product, but it was really difficult not to add lots of extras. I had overwhelming urges to add ribbon, brads, glitter and punch every corner with my Ticket Corner Punch. But I fought off my urges, deciding that I really want the new stampers to know how easy it is to make a great card.
I love this stamp set. I just recently bought it and now cannot believe I waited so long. It make beautiful projects so simply.

Stamps Sets: Roses in Winter and Sincere Salutations Papers: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Naturals White Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss

Card Tin

It's been a few days since I have posted anything. I have been working on this card tin. It really did not take a lot of time but actually finding the time to work on it was another story.

I am doing a class for these next weekend and this is my example. We will also do 4 cards to go with the tin but I have not finished my examples yet.




I used the Sarah Designer Papers to decorate it. I also created dividers on the inside as well as a matching pen and pocket to hold stamps and that sort of thing. I modge podged eveything on to make it more durable. You can find a tutorial for these cute tins here.

TLC98

We all have those stamp sets that we bought and later thought... "what was I thinking?"

This week's Technique Lover's Challenge is to dust off your least favorite set and do something with it!
I try quite often to use stamp sets that I have that I rarely use. It helps to keep me (sometimes) from buying more stamps. When I see a card online that uses a set I never use in a cute way I always save it. I have had this card by WAXYO in my faves for a long time. I just loved the whole look of this card. I also needed something else to show my stamp club this Friday. I wanted to do a donut card, preferably square. So I went online and the first card that popped up was this one done by Beate. So I married the two cards together and this is what I came up with.
I sponged both the Ruby Red and More Mustard panels with their coordinating colors to give each panel a little dimension. I also sponged More Mustard onto the Caramel gingham ribbon so that it would not be so stark.
Now I just have to go cut all the paper for the cards I have planned. That should keep me busy for a while.

Stamp Set: Mini Mates Inks: More Mustard, Ruby Red and Basic Black Paper: Whisper White, More Mustard, Ruby Red and Basic Black Accessories: Circle Punches, Sponge Black and Ruby Markers, Black Grosgrain and Caramel gingham ribbon

Scallop Edges

Everyone keeps asking, "How did you do that?" So I took a few photos, because a picture speaks louder than a thousand words. I did not come up with this idea. I simply read about it in the SCS forums. I am posting picture in hopes that it will help all of you who had questions. I did my scallops on a thin strip of paper. This technique will not work for larger pieces of paper. I did find a tutorial, by Natasha aka tashers on SCS, that shows how to do this technique using a corner rounder. I haven't personally tried it but it looks like it would work for larger pieces of paper.


All you need is a slip of paper and a slit punch.







Punch out your first slit. Be sure that your slit will not hit the edge of your paper.









On the next punch overlap onto the previous punch just a little. It is kinda hard to see here, but I tried.











When you have all the scallops you need, you can pull away excess paper.






I hope this has helped you get a visual on how to make your own scallop edges. If this has helped you please post a comment and let me know.

Stamp Club Project

Valentines Day is almost here. I just finished doing a Valentine swap so I guess that got me in the mood. Every other card I do seems to have a heart theme. So, I decided to do a Valentine card for my stamp club this Friday.
I have wanted to teach the ladies in my monthly stamp club the Diamond Dust technique. I have also been seeing a lot of cards with the scallops made from a slit punch and wanted to show them that as well. (You can see the tutorial for Diamond Dust here.) So I went to the gallery on SCS and looked up the only Valentine set I own and immediately found this great card created by Vitality. So I altered a few things like adding the Diamond Dust and this is what I ended up with. I thought about adding more to this card, but I needed to limit myself so that we have time to make another project. In fact I put some detail on the scallops here but I think I will leave it out for my class.

Stamp Sets: Tiny Talk & Happy Hearts Inks: VersaMark, Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose Papers: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Whisper White & Basic Black Accessories: Rose, Pink and Black Grosgrain; slit punch, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder & Stampin' Dimensionals^®

For Lynnda

I made this card for my friend, Lynnda. She moved a few towns away. Not far, but I miss her just the same. Of course, she used to live 10 minutes away and I hardly ever saw her, but at least she was close KWIM?

The photo is not the best because I did not take it in natural light. It was dark outside and I wanted to get this in the mail today so she will get it on Monday (everyone needs happy mail on Monday) so I went ahead and took it in my stamp room. This card was inspired by Julia S. She made this card a while ago but it has been in my favorites for a long time and I finally found the perfect reason to case it.

I stamped the flowers in Versamark and the embossed them with Iridescent Ice Embossing Power. Then I cut out a rectangle to use as a mask (the hardest part of this card) and then sponged on all the color. The ink resists the embossed area, making the image pop out. You can see a tutorial on this technique here.

Stamp Set: Petal Prints & Rough Edges Alpha Inks: Vintage Violet, Pixie Pink and VersaMark Paper: Whisper White and Vintage Violet Accessories: Hot pink polka dot organdy ribbon, Iridescent Ice EP, Heat tool

Rejected Valentine

Here is a card I was trying to do for a Valentine Swap for Bloggers. I like it but felt it was to traditional and wanted somthing a little different. I would love to share the one I created but Sarah aka Staramaze would hurt me :) ! So for now you will have to settle for the rejected version which I think is quite cute.

Stamps: Sweet Shapes

Paper:Real Red, Pretty in Pink and Basic Black

Ink: Red and Pink

Accessories: Pink Brads, Red andPink grosgrain and Word Window Punch

My Cuttlebug Finally Arrived!

And I LOVE it. And who knew this thing would amaze my husband and children as well.
Anyway, I have played around with it a little and made a few cards last night. A few were for my Secret Sister so I can't post those (yet) she may see them and find me out. But I did make this one for a friend that I never see enough. This card was inspired by many like it in the SCS Gallery.
I think the first one I saw like this was one done by JulieHRR.
And I recently saw this card done by Mytime. I was going to add ribbon to my version, but I kept felling like it was taking away from the embossing. So I decided to let the Cuttlebug shine. Especially since part of the reason I made the card was to show my friend how cool this thing is! Can you say enabler?

Stamp Set: All Year Cheer; Card stock: Elegant Eggplant and Naturals Ivory; Ink: Elegant Eggplant; Accessories: Cuttlebug, A2 Embossing Folder Stylized Flowers, SU! Pastels: Eggplant, Celery and Pale Plum

Color Challenge 95

As you may know I LOVE the Color Challenges on SCS! This weeks challenge colors are Basic Black, Cool Caribbean and Whisper White. I ended up doing two cards with these colors. I love the way the colors pop off of each other.


My first card was CASEd from a card uploaded by Vicky. NurseT made the card for her. This card has been in my favorites for a few months and these colors seemed to be the perfect match. I used my Aqua Painter to color in the birds and I used my Cool Caribbean Ink pad to dye some grosgrain ribbon to match. I also painted a floor under the little birds so that they weren't floating in mid air.

Stamp Set: Love Ya Bunches; Card Stock: Basic Black, Cool Caribbean and Whisper White; Ink: Jet Black Staz On & Cool Caribbean: Accessories: Aqua Painter, Black and White Grosgrain.


My second card was inspired by a card created by Chantel. I am always looking for a way to use my Year Round Fun II Set. I changed things a little but stayed with her basic layout. I wanted to do a larger black square, but my punch would not reach to the center. I ended up with a 3 inch square and used the 1 3/8 SU! Square Punch. To get it centered ( I can never eyeball it) I turned my square panel over and drew lines from each corner, creating an X in the center. Then I centered my punch over the X and made sure that the lines I had drawn lined up with the corners of my punch. Voila! Perfectly centered! Again I used my Aqua Painter to color in everything and create the "table" that the cupcake sits on.

Stamp Set: Year Round Fun II & Mini Mates; Card Stock: Basic Black, Cool Caribbean and Whisper White; Ink: Jet Black Staz On & Cool Caribbean: Accessorise: Aqua Painter, Black gingham ribbon and Square punch

Secret Sister Reveal Gift

I love being a Secret Sister! So much that I am a part of two groups on SCS! This month is reveal month for DDSS (Dabblin' Demo Secret Sisters). This is part of the gift my sis will be receiving. I am also including a stamp set she is wanting, some ribbon, another mailbox that is white for her to decorate, some stickers and Accents & Elements from the Winter Mini Catalog from Stampin' Up! I can't wait until she gets this! I hope she loves it.

In the spirit of giving, I am going to do a little drawing. You will get your name in the drawing for:
1) making a comment to this post and
2)Referring someone to my site. Be sure to have them mention your name!

I will be drawing a name on Thursday, Jan 4, 2oo7 at Noon CST. The winner will receive a 6x6 SU By Design Album and a few surprise goodies.

Stamps: Mini Mates, Sweet Shapes, Nice &easy Notes; Cardstock: Pixie Pink, Whisper White and Real Red Target Dollar Spot Printed Paper; Ink: Real Red, Basic Black and Pixie Pink; Accesories: Circle Punch Cuttlebug scallop die, assorted ribbon, Aqua Painter and Sticky Strip


ETA: The winner is mnhyrkas at SCS
Please email me with you address so I can get your stuff in the mail. Stay tuned the 15th is my annivesary and I may have to celebrate by doing another drawing.