Happy Halloween

Halloween is not my favorite holiday but I love all of the great decorations and ideas that have come from fellow stampers. My friend RP sent me this great wicked frame and I loved it and decided that my house doesn't have enough Halloween decorations so I needed to make one for my own.

I love pairing Black, Rich Razzleberry, and Old Olive together for Halloween. For me it creates the best gothic, spooky look and it is a little different than your standard orange and black that we see so much of this time of year. I loved making this frame and the finished project so much that I'm going to start working on a Thanksgiving one tomorrow :)

I hope everyone has a wicked Halloween!!!

Stamps: Wicked Cool
Paper: Brushed Silver, Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Frightful Sight DSP, Night and Day DSP (r), Wicked Fun DSP (r), Ghostly Greetings DSP (r), Bride Specialty DSP (r) - colored with Rich Razzleberry
Ink: Versamark, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: 2 way glue, sticky strip, SU dimensionals, heat and stick powder, white embossing powder, black glitter, white thread, pop up glue dots (r), snail adhesive, on board alphabet letters (r), silver smooch spritz, owl builder punch, scallop oval punch, 1" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1 1/4" square punch, 5 petal flower punch, scallop trim border punch, spider web embossing folder, 3/8" taffeta ribbon - basic gray (r), 1/2" trim lace - raven (r), 5/8" satin ribbon - rich razzleberry (r), 8 1/2 x 11 document frame (I had to trim my project ever so slightly on the sides to get it to fit so you may wish to get a slightly larger frame)

A Flower for All Seasons - Fall

Last but not least is my Fall Flower for All Seasons card. Fall is my favorite season and sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers. Jeremy and I even threw some sunflower seeds out in our "flower patch" and one of them has been blooming for about two weeks!!! Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed my cards as much as I have.

Supplies: A Flower for All Seasons; 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 2 1/2" Circle Punch; More Mustard, Garden Green, Whisper White cardstock; More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Chocolate Chip ink.

A Flower for All Seasons - Summer

Here's the third card in my installment of A Flower for All Seasons. I used the retired Island Oasis DSP that is probably my all time favorite DSP. Some of you may also noticed that I've used a color that I wouldn't normally use -- that's right, Tangerine Tango has made it into one of my cards. I even used it willingly ;)


Supplies: A Flower for All Seasons; 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 2 1/2" Circle Punch; Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White cardstock; Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight ink.

A Flower for All Seasons - Spring

Here is the second card in my Flower for All Seasons set. This is my personal favorite of the four. I used the DSP from a retired Build a Bear set and when I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for this card.


Supplies: A Flower for All Seasons; 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 2 1/2" Circle Punch; Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Whisper White cardstock; Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip ink.

A Flower for All Seasons - Winter

Several months ago I came across a card created by the lovely and talented Julie Davison. Julie makes all the make and takes at Spring into Stampin' and they are always so beautiful. Anyway, I found this card on her blog and CASED it to use one of my favorite retired sets, A Flower for All Seasons. I've made four cards, one for each season and here is the first one. I know we're into the heart of summer but James Taylor has conditioned me to always start the seasons with winter so we're going to start with that and work our way around. Enjoy!

Supplies: A Flower for All Seasons; 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 2 1/2" Circle Punch; Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Whisper White cardstock; Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip ink.

and many mower, part 3

Here is the third card that I made using "and many mower." This could be a card that I would use for my mom, or Jeremy's mom/grandma. I really liked how this card turned out more feminine so I can get more use out of the set instead of just man cards.

Supplies: and many mower; scallop oval punch; scallop trim border punch; 5/8" rich razzleberry satin ribbon; cottage wall dsp; crumb cake, whisper white, rich razzleberry, chocolate chip card stock; rich razzleberry, old olive ink

and many mower, part 2

Here is the second card that I made using and many mower. When I was making these cards this weekend, I went to splitcoast to find inspiration and the inspiration for thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifis card came from Creations by Corie, another SU demo. I didn't CASE (copy and share everything) her card entirely, mainly because I didn't have all the supplies, so I CASED as much as I could with what I had. See Corie's original card here.

Supplies: and many mower; 3/4" circle punch; 3/8" taffeta ribbon - crumb cake; polka dot impressions folder; whisper white, pacific point, cajun craze, early espresso cardstock; pacific point, cajun craze, early espresso ink

and many mower, part 1

My husband is awesome at many a thing but he sometimes has a hard time picking cards that will be good for his dad. I also have a hard time making cards that he will like so since father's day is next week I decided to get a jump start on making a variety of cards for him to choose from. I don't own many manly sets so I borrowed the retired "and many mower" set from Becky and Rae Anne to make some birthday and father's day cards.

When I went to make cards last week while Jeremy was at a concert, I decided to make a tri-fold card. The template said it was super easy to make but I wanted to try it with a retired paper, just in case it took me 400 times to make it right. I didn't need to worry about it though, because it was a super easy card to make. 4 scores, and three cuts later, I had it done and thought that it would be perfect for the golfer out of the "and many mower" set.

I also would like to say how much I LOVE Stampin UP! colors and DSPs. The tri-fold card needed a piece of 12x12 so I picked a retired sheet of bordering blue. For the DSP, I chose the, also retired, Washington Apple which has Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, and So Saffron. Although bordering blue wasn't one of the colors in the DSP, it coordinated beautifully with all the other colors. I love being able to pick a color, no matter what, and make it work.

ANYWAY, long story short, SU is awesome and I really like how these cards turned out. Stayed tuned throughout the week for not one, but 4 other cards all made with "and many mower"

Have a good week everybody!

Tisdale Name Frame

While I was making one scrapbook page my mom was creating this really beautiful name frame. I really like the colors that she ended up using and I wish that Williamson was not such a long name so I could make a name frame for myself.

Stamping with Friends

A few weeks ago I had some of my stamping friends over to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month. We all had projects to work on and some were more ambitious than others. Becky and Rae Anne made a spectacular July 4th card that I can't wait to get, Rachel worked on making her old swap fronts into cards, and my mom made a really spectacular name frame (stay tuned later this week to see it). I didn't really have anything planned to make but I knew that I wanted to make a scrapbook page. I chose graduation pictures that have been sitting waiting to be scrapped for four years.

For my page I wanted to use UIS' colors but our colors are complicated ;) Our main colors are Blue and White and the blue is more of a Brilliant Blue. I don't have any Brilliant Blue card stock left since it retired so finding the right blue is sometimes a struggle. I think Pacific Point usually does the trick but I didn't have enough 12x12 to make a double page layout so I decided to use Night of Navy with Pacific Point and white as my accent colors.

My coworkers and I also have been joking about UIS' colors because they have added "Las Vegas Gold" to the colors. It's funny though because the gold doesn't really translate well to uniforms and the boy's basketball team's home uniforms almost look like a khaki color instead. Well, when I was making this page, I discovered that against the Night of Navy, River Rock, almost perfectly mimics the basketball team's uniforms. For any schools who have a gold color but you don't want to use your special gold cardstock, try using River Rock instead. I've been calling it the "poor man's gold" but I think the colors did turn out really well together for a pairing that you might not always think of.

Supplies: Night of Navy, Pacific Point, River Rock cardstock; Pacific Point ink

Bold Blossoms

Last night I went to Rachel's monthly stamp a stack. We made three really pretty cards but I wasn't feeling up to coloring on the Rose Red card so I used the flower stem from Bold Blossom's instead. This morning I finished the card using the new Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch and some flowers that I had saved from a previous project. You may notice that several of my flowers didn't punch correctly but I think it turned out to be a very happy accident :)

Check out Rachel's card here and those brownies that she made were AWESOME and I wish I had an entire pan of them.

Supplies: Bold Blossom, Swirls and Curls Verses (hostess); Triple Layer Flower Punch; whisper white, rose red, pumpkin pie, daffodil delight, real red, rich razzleberry cardstock; rose red, wild wasabi ink

Spring Birthday

My good friend RP celebrated a birthday last week and I created this card for her. This card was inspired by a card I received in the Summer Mini Swap. I embossed the flower stems and used glitter brads for the flower centers. I also tied that bow all by myself!

I hope everyone is enjoying their mother's day weekend!

Supplies: Bold Blossom; Melon Mambo 1/2" Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon; Pear Pizzazz, Concord Crush, Melon Mambo cardstock; glimmer brads.

Summer 2011 Mini Swap

Last week I participated in my first demonstrator swap. This swap highlights sets and supplies from the new summer mini catalog. The summer mini is typically my favorite mini catalog of the year and this year's catalog did not disappoint!

For my swap that I made, I selected the set On the Grow. There are so many great sets to choose from in the mini and I had a hard time deciding which one I was going to use. My style typically leans towards bold, modern colors and sets but I really wanted to make a pretty, somewhat feminine card and On the Grow is the perfect fit. The card features the faux mother of pearl technique in pink pirouette. I also wanted to go a little rustic with this set so I added some edging to the very vanilla with the early espresso ink and then crumpled the piece of cardstock.

You'll notice a ribbon, which normally I don't use because I am a horrible bow tier but I was being ambitious and it was too pretty not to use. I can't take credit for how the bows turned out though because when my friend RP came to help me put my swap together, she tied all but around 2 of the bows. They all turned out great and I am really appreciative to have great stamping friends to help out :)

I hope everyone is enjoying this BEAUTIFUL spring day and as always, please let me know if I can help you with any of your stamping needs!

Supplies: On the Grow; 5/8" Early Espresso Satin Ribbon; Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Glossy White cardstock; Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Peach Parfait, Wild Wasabi ink.

Spring into Stampin' 2011

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying this warm, albeit, windy afternoon. This has been such a busy week for me what with a conference in Peoria for my full-time job, and an AMAZING seminar for my stamping job. Yesterday, was the annual Spring into Stampin' which is a full day of sessions, demos, make and takes, and inspirational ideas on how to grow a Stampin' UP! business. This was the second event that I have had the pleasure of attending and I could not wait to get home to put some of those good ideas to use.

Today's card shows one of the techniques we learned yesterday and it was SO simple to make. It may be a bit hard to see in the picture, but the top layer of cardstock uses a faux mother of pearl technique that is so easy and uses one of my favorite supplies, glossy cardstock. To create the mother of pearl look, you will need a sheet of glossy white cardstock, white shimmer paint, clear plastic wrap, and an empty brad/button container. Add a few drops of the shimmer paint into the brad container, crumple up the plastic wrap and use it like a sponge to dab the shimmer paint all over the glossy white cardstock. Once the cardstock has dried, use a brayer to add some color and then use a tissue to remove some of the color. For this card, I used Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake and the stamp set Elements of Style.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's the card that I made for my valentine. It's a bit hard to see in the picture but I ran the whisper white cardstock through the big shot to get it some texture. It also took me about twenty minutes to tie a decent bow but you could very easily make a faux bow and it would look just as good. I hope everyone is enjoying their valentine's day; I'm off to have a lovely valentine's dinner and do my taxes! Romantic, huh?

Merry Christmas to Me!!!

Okay, so I am a terrible blogger and haven't posted anything since November, but I also haven't really had a chance to stamp anything since then either. In December, I went to a conference at Disney World in Orlando, FL. We left the day after Black Friday and let me tell you, I never realized how important the weekend after Thanksgiving is for my holiday preparations. With the trip, and Christmas, and just life in general getting in the way, I was still exchanging presents last week! My friend, and upline, RaeAnne just had a beautiful baby boy and brought him to Rachel's (RaeAnne's upline) house for her round of scrapbook club this month. In addition to meeting Cole, we also exchanged gifts. Rachel made me an awesome plate (I got the little dotted plate) and some cool stuff that only could be purchased at convention!! RaeAnne got me the Sweet and Sour specialty paper and the Love Birds simply scrappin' kit. She also got me the supplies to make the coolest notepad/holder. All it takes is a DVD cover, a little legal pad, and some designer series paper. The original gifts that RaeAnne made can be found here.

I was going to use the new Sweet and Sour specialty paper but it is textured and you don't really get the effect while it's in the DVD case. I also wanted to save it for my wedding scrapbook, so I used my next favorite paper, Play Date. My mom has my awesome red glitter from Stampin' Up! so I had to use some cheap glitter that I found lying around the house. I wanted to finish my book so I used what I had but when I place my order from the Occassion's Mini, I am buying some of the new glitter sheets that they have and running it through the Big Shot to create my 'd.' I only hope that Stampin' UP! continues to put out the glitter sheets in different colors because I have the desire to make one of these cases for everybody I know:)

A huge shout out to RaeAnne for the idea and the "fixings" to make them.