FREE SHIPPING!!!!!! **Starts Today!! April 21 - 25, 2014 ONLY!

The SU retirement list came out this morning...here is a link to the pdf of retiring stamps and retiring accessories:
Retiring stamps
Retiring accessories

Items are only available while quantities last!!

Also, from April 21 - 25, 2014 SU is offering FREE shipping on ALL orders.  Here is a link to my online store for you to place your order from the retiring list (just click 'SHOP' in the upper right corner of the link and away you go!).  You can shop from clearance products, from the occasions catalog, from MDS, from anything you wish - no matter how small!! 

Burlap & Blooms - My Way!

So this is my version of the Burlap & Blooms wreath in the spring occasions catalog.  I made the flowers using the Fun Flowers die and the new spiral flower die.  Cardstock colours I used on this project were Raspberry Ripple and Primrose Petals (which are both about to retire) and Pool Party.  I know it looks completely different than the one in the occasions catalog, but those colours were just now me, still the Burlap & Blooms kit was a great value to me  and I love working with the Burlap so much!  Also, the letters I used for the banner were stamped with the Morning Post stamp set and the banner pieces were cutout with the banner framelits.

Card Set & Box - Trust God

This is a set of 8 cards and coordinating envelopes & box I recently made for a friend in Ministry.  I used a real combination of stamp sets including:  the dove from Calm Christmas, the swirls from Creative Elements and the greetings from Trust God. 

April Club Projects! - KISS Cards & Envelope Punchboard Cardbox

 For my April club, I wanted to show my stampin ladies how to make a card box with the Envelope punchboard, if you make a cardbox, you know you've got to fill it with cards, so I decided we'd make a set to fill our boxes.  Normally at club we make one 3D item and one card, but if I made this card set to be as complicated as the individual cards we normally make, I knew we'd never get done in an evening, so I decided to introduce club to KISS cards...Keep It Simple Stamper.

 

Above is the cardbox we made with the Envelope Punchboard.  We used the Afternoon Picnic DSP that is going to retire at the end of May.  We also used the Papillon Potpourri stampset and coordinating punch as well as several other punches (blossom, 2 1/2 circle and 1' circle) and the Lovely Little Labels stampset and coordinating punch.

 

Instructions for making the box:

Base - 9 1/4 x 9 1/4

First score 3 5/8

Second score 4 5/8

Then line up score lines as you turn the box and score & punch the other 3 sides

 

Rule of Thumb for making these boxes ** You can make them for any envelope size on punch board just increase the size of the paper by 1 1/4" (both height & width) & increase first score by 1/8" and do second score an inch from there

Above is the KISS card I came up with for the card set and coordinating envelopes for this project.  We used the Layered Labels, Notable Notions, Papillon Potpourri and Sweet Essentials stamp sets to create this cards with inks in:  wisteria wonder, coastal cabana, basic grey & smokey slate.

The idea behind a KISS card is to keep to a few layers.  Right now a tone on tone matting is on trend.  Also, do each step for all cards at once before going on to the next step.  Here are the dimensions for this particular set:

Base 5 1/2 x 8 1/2; score at 4 1/4

Insert 4 x 5 1/4...you'll get 4 out of one sheet of cardstock along with 2 pieces that are 1/2 x 4 and one long 1/2 x 4 for your sentiments...cut all at once

Do every step for all 4 then move on...saves time

Shadow Box

Ok, I confess that I did not use all SU supplies for today's project.  I had this 6x6 pad of designer paper from My Mind's Eye called Lost & Found Two and it's just so me & soooo pretty...and here it had been sitting unused for quite sometime, so when I sat down to make today's shadow box, I couldn't resist using this beautiful sheet with the Eiffel Tower on it as the recessed piece in this project.  All other supplies are SU including the coastal cabana base, the baked brown sugar gathered trim & the real red and primrose petals coordinations cardstock I used together wit the rosette bigz die to get that lovely rose.  Inspiration for this project came from Sam at Pootles, such a clever girl!  Sam is in the UK and so if you are in the UK and looking for a SU demonstrator, please look Sam up...she is a doll!

Storage Solutions...storing Markers & Re-inkers!

I came across some great ideas for storage of markers & re-inkers this week.  If you click on the words 'markers' and 'reinkers' you will find the youtube videos, thanks to Sam Donald (clever, clever girl!:)  I adapted my marker one (below) to fit my space and purposes by basically making 3 triangle boxes and affixing them.  Each is made out of a piece of 7 1/4 x 7 1/4" paper. By having a 3 triangle configuration I think I'll be able to have of them on either end o the shelf I'll use them on.   I made mine in raspberry ripple cardstock and embellished with some soho subway dsp (and some retired striped grosgrain).

And below you will see that I made some caddies to store my rinkers (previously I kept them in a basket, but I liked this idea...improvised out of a lipstick storage box).  The base for these was made with Early Espresso cardstock and, once again, I used soho subway dsp to embellish..and this time a little summer starfruit stitched satin ribbon.



Business Card Holder

 

I needed a new business card holder, well 2 really...one for my desk at work and one for my volunteer position, at which I'm working an event this weekend and wanted to have my cards on my feature table, so a holder was in order to keep them in place!

I kept making a fairly wobbly version until I stumbled upon Sam's tutorial here.  Sam is in the UK and is so clever at these things & she thought to add feet to the box - brilliant!!  I adapted her box slightly as my tools work in imperial (rather than metric), so here are the dimensions that I used in mine:
Cardstock base 6 x 7.5″
Score at 1.5, 2.25, 4.75 and 5.5″ (on long side)
Score at 1 and 5″ (on short side)
And here's a link to Sam's video where she makes her metric version.

For my box, I used basic black cardstock & modern medley dsp.  I also used the rosettle bigz die from the Occasions catalog and 2 pieces of coordinations cardstock, one in primrose petals & one in real red, to make my flower embellishment.  I *luv* making these flowers/roses...must be the 'roses in my heart' I guess;)

6 Sided, Votive Holder Box

Many thanks to Sam Donald, a lovely UK demonstrator, for this clever idea!  This adorable little box fits 4 votive candles!!  I made it out of the darling SAB designer series paper you can earn for free through March 31 (contact me if you don't want to miss it!)...and I also embellished with the lovely twine that you can also earn for free...The stamped images come from the Lovely Little Labels stamp set (and the coordinating punch pack).

Good as Gold - SAB Card Kit...or is it a treat bag kit?!

Just thought I'd show you what I did with one of the notecards in the Good as Gold card kit you can earn for free during SAB (which ends on March 31st!  Oh no...coming so soon!!!).  I love this little kit & especially the gold accents!

Club Projects & Sale-a-bration

I know I've been blog-absent a lot lately...busy at the day-job...been doing a fair bit of creating though, just not finding the time to photograph it and blog about it....  I thought I better catch you up on some of my March club projects.  We used as many SAB products as possible and I wanted to remind you that SAB is almost over.  It ends on March 31st!  So hurry and contact me with your order if you don't want to miss out on the FREE goodies like the DSP used on today's projects!

Below are the file folder cards we made at my SAB club in March.  The design utilizes the envelope punchboard and the Film Framelits which are darling!  Stamped images come from Perfect Pennats (below) and  a previous Paper Pumpkin (for 'the good life' stamp on the tab...sorry you can't see it well in the pic!)

March Paper Pumpkin

I spent some time creating with March's Paper Pumpkin today...and I did it MY way! 

I didn't care for the colour scheme nor the natural wood finish on the wooden accents so I changed it up!  I used coastal cabana, raspberry ripple & gold for my inks & I pressed each of those natural wood finish pieces into an inkpad to create the colours I wanted!  The only caution I'd give you with this is that your fingers get inking and it takes a while to dry, but I loved the result...It even worked well in the gold pad! 

I also cut apparent some of the envelope liners to create different accents on the cards as I was having trouble with the polymer stamps included in this month's kit...they weren't stamping well or even...so glad I stamped on scrap a bunch first...you'll see I used them a bit, but I abandoned them completely when it came time to do up the envelopes and pulled out a banner rubber set from SAB.  One thing I'd really like to highlight for you is that SU doubled the quantity of cards in this month's kit...there were 8 card bases and 8 envelopes...which, to me, is a much better value that in previous kits!!  I also liked the 3 trends I got to play with in this month's kit:
- watercolor backgrounds (see the coastal cabana watercolor stripes on the card basis
- gold...using gold in décor, clothing, crafting, it's all the rage these days
- glitter...love the little dots, don't you?!

If you haven't subscribed to Paper Pumpkin just yet but would like to try it, contact me and I'll help you out!!

Oh and for the traditionalists, here's a video from SU of what this month's Paper Pumpkin projects were supposed to look like:

MY Heartfelt Banner

As I mentioned a couple of posts below, the Heartfelt banner is my favourite SAB item that you can earn for FREE this year.  This weekend I sat down with mine and challenged myself in 2 ways:
1 - use only the goodies included in the SAB kit!
and
2 - convey LOVE without using words. 
My banners always use words and my banners are usually over the top with embellishments.  I love what I came up with.  I used some pictures of my hubby and I from our recent mountain getaway.  The sun was streaming in our front window so bright that the camera doesn't totally pick up all the texture and layers, but it's all there for the eye:)

I also love that I can easily remake this banner anytime I want (ie...clothespin clips = reusable:).  Also, I used only about half of the pieces that came in the Heartfelt banner kit to make this banner...meaning:  I can make at least 2 banners out of this kit!!!!  Yeah!:)  You know I luv banners:)

Club Project #2 - Blessing Jar

...or candy jar...or, well it could be so many things:)  Although it is hard to see in this picture, we decorated these jars with a piece of dsp from the Fresh Prints stack that is just a hair narrower than 2" and then we punched BOTH ends with the angled tag topper punch and that is how we tyed it around the jar...we then attached the greeting (stamped with the Perfect Pennants stamp and cut out with the banners framelit dies) with a metallic mini clothes pin...all of these supplies are available in the new Occasions catalog.

The star of this project is the rose on top!:)  We took 2 pieces of coordinations cardstock (I chose primrose petals and real red) and cut out 2 spiral flower bases with the Spiral Flower Originals die...we then sanded the edges with SU's sanding system and then rolled them together tightly...after rolling them into a tight flower bud, we let them spring open a bit and then pressed the petals a bit flat with our palms...then when we were happy with the look we glued the flower in place with some hot glue.  I am loving making these flowers! ...and the club ladies seemed to like it too:)

Club Project #1 - Double Pocket Card & Bookmarks

This was the first project we made at last night's club.  It is a twist on the double pocket card that I posted here.  The original double pocket card uses a piece of dsp/patterned paper and involves various folds (see this video for general guidance...thanks to Patty B as she came up with the original idea over a year ago I believe).   I came up with this version because I wanted two different patterns of paper visible and I wanted the cover of the card to not be as bulky as it ends up being in the original, so what did we do?
- cut a piece of cardstock 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and score it at 4 1/4...that's right just a standard card base
- cut two pieces of dsp at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 (I used the Fresh Prints dsp stack in the Occasions Catalog)
- pull out your simply scored with the diagonal board and score the piece of dsp you want to be in front at 0 (that's right, 0, on the diagonal)....fold from your score line back to create the pocket (I trimmed this one with some ruffled trim in baked brown sugar)
- repeat this sep on your second piece of dsp, but this time score it at 1" on the diagonal...and folk in as well
- the 2 pieces of dsp get attached to the card by gluing around the edges (that is, each edge except for the diagonal one or else you will not have a pocket;)
- the bookmarks that sit in the pockets are just a hair under 2" wide and are 5" long...and then I used the new scalloped angle punch to create the topper...they are then embossed (one with argyle and the other with dots) and decorated.

The stamp set used to decorate the card and bookmarks is the Perfect Pennants set...love the sentiments!  We also used the coordinating banner framelits on the bookmarks.  The little friend flag attached to the you & I on the front comes from the banner stamp set and punch in the SAB flyer (each is free with a $60 purchase).

Love Love Love the *new* HEARTFELT Banner Kit!

You can earn it for FREE during SAB!!  I'm SO excited to make mine!:))

SALE-A-BRATION Starts TODAY!!!!!

 

 

Customers ~ Earn a FREE limited time product 

from our Sale-a-bration catalogue with every $60 product purchase

Hostesses ~ Earn an extra $40 hostess spending credits 

by having your own qualifying private party during Sale-a-bration 

Join ~ Get an extra $35 free with your starter kit!

 

...AND what, you may ask, is my favourite sale-a-bration FREE product, well it's a tie between the KIT that you can make that adorable banner above with it AND the new banner punch AND the coordinating stamp set!  Contact me to earn your FREE goodies!!!

 

Here's a link to this year's SALE-A-Bration catalog!

Follow My Heart - Double Pocket Card

I like the idea of a double pocket card now that we have the fabulous scalloped tag topper punches...pockets are perfect for bookmarks!  The first person I ever saw do a double pocket card was Patty Bennett.  If you google her name & double pocket card, you'll find 2 videos to help you create one of your own.  I've come up with a third version that I won't show here until my next stampin club as I want to share it with the stamp ladies first:)

This card & the bookmars use the Follow My Heart stampset which is only available until Jan 27th.  I've also used the Modern Medley dsp.

Sweetheart Treat Bags - Another Idea!

 This time I folded the Sweetheart treat bag and created a pocket for a gift card as well as a pull out note card.  I used the Tags 4 You stampset for the image on the front of the project and the pull out note card used images from A Fitting Occasion and Follow My Heart.

These treat bags & the Follow My Heart stampset are only available until January 27th, so hurry & get yours!!

Sweetheart Treat Bags!

Above, I paired the sweetheart treat bags with the Follow My Heart stamp set and a paper doily to come up with this sweet design.  The bakers twine & striped banners come with the treatbags and make the pack an incredible value at only $6.95!  But as with the card set and the Follow My Heart stamp set, they are only available through January 27th.

 

Below, here's another treat bag I did with the sweetheart treat bags, a paper doily and this time the stamped image comes from the Perfect Pennants stamp set in the new Occasions catalog.

Follow My Heart - Desk Calendar

I *luv* the Follow My Heart stamp set.  It is only available until January 27th which makes me sad because there are so many things I'd like to do with it with my stampin ladies!

Today I used it to make this desk calendar.  I needed a new one for my desk at work, and so I pulled out my square framelits and made this little frame, then added a printout monthly calendar.  Although the picture doesn't show it well, I used the chalkboard technique with the stamping and I used the new rosette bigz die with the roses.  I also used the new Banner Blast stamp set that you can earn for free once sale-a-bration starts.  The Eiffel tower, though, and the key banner both come from the Follow My Heart stampset:)