More birthdays!

Here is another one of the birthday cards I made the other day. The recipients have received them in the mail now so it is safe to post the picture! I made 2 of these for my cousin-in-laws, Tabby & Donna. They are the ones that got me into stamping - thanks girls!!

Card details (if I can remember):
stamps: Eat Cake
CS: pretty in pink, whisper white, designer series paper, choc chip
Ink: pretty in pink, choc chip
Other: tag from tag sheet, glitter around the candle flames, silver cord, ticket corner punch

Adorable Lunchbox Tin

I bought this lunchbox at Michael's months ago and for some reason could not get the motivation to decorate it. I had one of the free Sellabration Scrappin kits laying out on my table and decided to use it. OMG!! It was so easy. It literally only took about 10 or 15 minutes. The most time consuming part was tying the ribbons on the handle. The tin costs about $6 and you can purchase other SU kits that are just as cute. The kits are $12.95 and you get a ton of supplies in it for the money. I still have enough stuff left over from mine to do several cards and a couple of scrapbook pages. Wouldn't this make a cute teacher's gift or secret pal gift! Sigh....I love this stamping stuff. :)

Rain, rain go away!!

I tried to get out and about today but it was just too messy and I came home. My youngest, Jarren was also being a terror! He fell out of the shopping cart at Michael's - how embarrassing. He is okay though, can't hurt that hard headed kid. So, needless to say, I didn't make any purchases at Michael's today. His screaming seemed to get me out of the mood to shop! I was hoping that they would have some more accessories for my cuttlebug but I didn't see anything that striked my fancy.

Anyway, I came back home and made some birthday cards. I had several to make this weekend. I will post one picture today and the other later next week (after the receivers get them in the mail - I don't want to ruin the surprise).

Card Details:
Stamps: Tag Time & It's your Birthday; Cardstock: Pink Passion, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Green Galore, misc from "slab"; Ink: Black, pixie pink; Other: Cuttlebug (smile), ribbon (non SU), 1 1/4" punch, tag from tag sheet, silver cord, sponge

Sketch Challenge

I want to thank Jennifer Stinnett, one of my faithful stamp campers for participating in the sketch challenge. She did a beautiful page using pretty in pink and certainly celery with pictures of her cutie pie, Keegan. Thanks for the picture Jennifer!

Spring Fever

I am really getting spring fever with that sun out bright today. I am home sick today and can't get out so I decided to do a little stamping to brighten my day. I wanted to get a head start on some Easter cards and I came up with this one that uses the bleaching technique. Those of you that will be attending my stamp camp on Friday will learn this cool technique that is soooo easy. If you are unable to attend camp, check out the resources section on www.splitcoaststampers.com and look for the bleaching tutorial.

I also found a free Easter font from provocraft. I downloaded it and printed off "Happy Easter" for the inside of the card. This will have to do until I get an Easter stamp! Here's the link for the free font: http://scrapbooking.about.com/library/weekly/bleastereggfont.htm

Card details:
Stamps: A New Little Someone, Tag Time
CS: pretty in pink, perfect plum, confetti white, so saffron, misc from slab pack
Ink: versamark
Markers: perfect plum, pretty in pink
Other: tag from tag sheet, 1 3/8" punch, 1 1/4" punch, hemp twine, cuttle bug, black embossing powder, bleach, pink ribbon

Today is Sarah's Birthday!

Today is my step-daughter, Sarah's 18th birthday. Man, time as flown. It seems like just yesterday that my hubby, Gary, was bringing this little red-headed baby over to my house for me to meet her. She was 17 months old when we started dating so we have spent a lot of time together over the years.

Anyway, to the reason I blogged! I made a birthday card for her today. She is out with friends at a movie right now and they will be coming back here after for snacks and cake. I thought this card would be perfect for her. I must confess though that I CASE'd this layout from Maria at www.stampinupinspritations.blogspot.com. Check out her blog sometime, she does a really good job.

Card Details:
Stamps: eat cake
Inks: regal rose, old olive, so saffron markers and regal rose ink spot
Paper: regal rose, old olive, w white, misc from a slab pack
other: silver cord, tag from tag sheet, sponge for edges, cuttlebug

I hope you all are having a great weekend.
Laurie

Cute Valentine Layout

I found this on www.pencillines.com - it is an adorable layout for a valentine's page. Okay, okay, I will quit posting the sketches!! Have a great weekend.

Laurie

New sketch challenge

I tried to work on the February sketch challenge today. After about 45 minutes of work, I still had nothin'. I just didn't like the layout. I got on Pagemaps.com today and found one that I think will work for me. So, I am scratching the first sketch challenge and making this the official one for the month. Have fun with it!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I don't have much to report today, just wanted to wish you all a happy valentine's day!! I just have one card to share today. I've been dreaming of Spring and how I can't wait for it to get here. This card's colors remind me of warm weather.

Card details: Stamps - Seeing Spots; Cardstock and Inks - cool carribean, real red, marigold morning; other - vintage brads

Card Tote

I was trying to come up with something different for my next stamp camp. I swore that I saw this idea on the Internet but when I tried to go back and find it, I couldn't find it anywhere, so, maybe I just dreamed it. Anyway, this is a little card tote that is made out of a gift bag. You could always add dividers to it for some organization. Give me a shout if you want to do this at camp this month.

Valentines, Valentines, Valentines

I made about 14 Valentine cards tonight. Some for my family and some to sell at work for my coworkers to give their honeys. I used my Cuttlebug on all of them, I just love playing with that little thing. I used the same layout for each card to speed things up. I hope you enjoy.

New toy..I mean, business necessity

I took Gary to Michael's today so he could shop for my Valentine's present. I made it really easy on him this year, I picked my gift out myself to save him the hassle of buying something and then having to take it back!! I have been wanting the Cuttlebug for about a month or so. They even let me use the 40% off coupon, this gave me $32 off!! This little machine does embossing and die cutting, kinda like the sizzix machine. The alphabets are quite a bit cheaper for this one though. I mostly wanted it for the embossing. The alpha's are $79 but they let you use the coupons for those too. I got a Cricut for Mother's day last year but really haven't used it much. I just can't seem to get the hang of it, so far, I hate it. It ticks me off that you can't use coupons for the Cricut products. This should add a nice touch to some of my cards that I sell at work. I will be posting some of my cards I made tonight shortly. Have a good weekend!

Valentine Nugget Boxes

Sorry I haven't posted much lately ladies but I have been very busy making and selling nugget boxes for Valentine's Day. I had these for one of the projects at a stamp camp I did several months ago. I did not expect to get the response that I received from my coworkers! I sold 45 of the boxes and just completed the rest of them tonight....finally!! These little slider boxes hold 3 Hershey Nuggets. I stamped the outside part and address labels to go around each little candy. The Avery 8160 labels work perfectly for this. Here is the link to the pattern if you would like to try to make one for yourself or do a search for "nugget boxes": http://stampmycard.com/images/ideas/nugget_box/Nugget_Box.pdf
There are also some patterns floating around on the web for bigger boxes that hold 6 and 9 nuggets in them. Very cute for teacher's gifts, secret pals, birthdays, etc. Print out the pattern and give it a try. The first one is the hardest but after that you will get the hang of it!

February Sketch Challenge

I have been really procrastinating on my scrapbooking for the last 8 - 10 months. I just want to play with my cards and stuff because I feel like I can get so much more accomplished in such a short time. Well, things are going to change around here! I am going to force myself to get back into scrapbooking my family pics. I am going to start putting scrapbooking challenges on here not only for you but for me! If you complete the challenge, please be sure to email a picture of it to me. Good luck with this one.

Directions for Photo Explosion Box

This past Friday night, I hosted a stamp camp at my home. A few of the participants wanted the "recipe" for the Photo Box project. Well, your wish is my command! It is sometimes hard for me to put my thoughts into words but I will give it a try. If the directions are unclear, please feel free to call or email me and I will do my best to get you thru it!

Box:
piece 1 (outside) - 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" scored at 2 1/2" & 5" in both directions
piece 2 (middle) - 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" scored at 2 1/4" & 4 1/2" in both directions
piece 3 (inside) - 6" X 6" scored at 2" & 4" in both directions

cut out all 4 corners on each piece - this will make it look like a plus sign (+) and keep your scraps to mat the other colors. When you stamp the outside piece, keep in mind that you will be folding the sides up and don't stamp it upside down (way to go, Angela!).

Lid:
3 1/2" x 3 1/2" scored at 1/2" on all 4 sides.
Make slits on one side of each corner to make a tab to fold in and punch for a brad. Decorate the lid as you would like.

You can fill the box with little cut out pictures of family and friends. It would be cute sitting on your desk at work! It would also make a nice teacher's gift or secret pal gift. Have fun with this one and don't forget to call me if you get stuck!!

Something for me

I wanted to show you all what my good friend, Neal Ann, made for me! Isn't it cute! She knows how much I love ribbon and made this cute, girly ribbon jar for me. I just love it because it makes my stamp area look pretty as well as being functional! Thank you Neal Ann - you rock!!

Love Candle

My project for today was a valentine candle. I thought it would make an adorable teacher's gift! Here is a quick refresher course on how to stamp candles:
1) Stamp images on tissue paper
2) trim images closely
3) lay images where you want them on candle (affix one at a time)
4) wrap wax paper around candle
5) heat the image with a heat gun until you can see that it has melted into the candle just slightly, it will look shiny. **don't heat too much or you will melt the candle***
6) remove wax paper and use a new wax paper sheet for each image that you want on the candle. If you can still see the tissue paper when you remove the wax paper just lay the wax paper back down on it and heat a little longer.

Note**a hair dryer will not work for this project, you will have to use a heat gun, preferably a stampin up gun!!

SU! updates

As a demonstrator, I get a magazine each month from stampin up. I am going to start posting each month when I get a magazine on the updates. That way, my readers will know about upcoming events and products as well as tips and tricks almost as soon as I do.

For February:
-Have you ever considered purchasing a "Simply Scrappin" kit? Each kit contains 12 sheets of 12x12 card stock (8 solid, 4 patterned) and 6 sheets of 6 x 12 self adhesive die cuts. All of these pieces are color coordinated and contains enough materials to make at least 20 cards or plenty of scrapbook pages. There are also coordinating stamp sets that can be purchased separately.

- Sell-a-bration is still going on thru the end of Feb. Get a free stamp set or simply scrappin kit from the sell-a-bration catalog with a $50 purchase.

-For those of you interested in becoming a demonstrator, even if just for the discount, SU is now offering a mini kit for $99. This kit has been mostly designed for those who have already purchased a lot of stampin up product in the past but is available to anyone. You only have a $300 (retail) quarterly minimum to stay active.

-SU! will now be offering semiannual catalogs instead of annual. the Fall/Winter collection will be available in July '07 with the Spring/Summer becoming available in January '08. The catalogs will be 208 pages. Sets that are out of season during the sales period will be removed but still available for purchase unless the set has been retired. They will also reduce the mini-catalog program from 4 per year to only 2. I know what you're thinking..."Now I have to buy 2 catalogs a year", while this is a true statement, just think of all the fresh ideas you will get every 6 months! I think it is very exciting.

That's it for updates in the current issue of Stampin Success. Please contact me if you have any questions or are interested in any of the offers.

Ah-choo!!

I made some really cute get well cards today to take to work to sell to my coworkers. I received a card similar to this in St. Louis at our SU! conference and I just changed the colors/patterns up a bit. I want to send a big thank you out to the original creator. This card uses the Under the weather set and the word window punch and that is it (besides the tissue!). What a simple card that is sure to get a WOW!!

Simple Valentines

I have started working on some Valentine's Day cards the past few days and I have struggled with them. I think I have an idea in my head but I just can't get it to come out on the paper! I am not real happy with these but thought I would share what I have. So far, the faux postage Valentine that I posted a week or so ago is my favorite.