Cookie Monster

I have been working 24-7 on my projects for Quarterly next weekend as well as on calendar pages for my upcoming Calendar workshop.  I will be having the Calendar workshop this Tuesday.  If you live in the Sherrills Ford / Mooresville area, you are welcome to attend.  I have a few seats left.  Just let me know so I will have a packet ready for you.

I also had a few birthday cards to make.  This one is for a cute little boy who will be turning one and who likes cookies!


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This was such an easy card to make.  I used the Scallop Circle Sizzix die to make the card and Circle Dies for the mouth (in black), eyes and cookie.  I used the eraser end of a pencil dipped into Chocolate Chip ink for the "chocolate chips."

Sammie found a new viewing spot to keep her eye on me today.  The past couple of days she has been whining and acting like she wanted to get on top of my shelving unit where I keep my stamps, dies, etc.  So today I put her up there.  She loved it and learned how to get up and down by herself.  So, that is where she spent most of the day watching my every move!

I Freakin' Love You!

I received a sweet thank you card this week from Ashley.

 

She used the stamp set, Really Good Greetings and the Naturals White card stock.  Don't you just love it?

NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCED TODAY:

The Everyday Occasions Card making Kit was developed with the new customer in mind. It is intended to introduce--by way of a simple, fun experience at a great price--the arts of stamping and card making to people who have not yet experienced the joy of Stampin' Up! products. Why go to the store when a birthday, graduation, wedding or even a time for expressing gratitude comes up? The Everyday Occasions Card making Kit puts cards for all of those events right at your customers' fingertips, and best of all, they'll be handmade! The kit contains everything necessary (minus adhesive and scissors) to create 20 beautiful cards for almost any occasion, and it comes in a beautiful box to store them in.

But even those of us who are not new customers can use this kit to quickly make a card when you need one fast!  And you can always use your bling and other things you have in your stash to bling up the card.

This kit is:

1. Easy
2. Great for new card makers and experienced – EVERYONE
3. Includes 7 piece stamp set, block, ink spot, dimnensionals, bakers twine, all pre-cut materials and envelopes
4. Quality card stock and tags
5. Love island indigo and basic gray inks and they are the two colors included
6. Visual tips and tricks brochure
7. Silver glimmer paper and cute clips are part of the kit – I love these products.
8. It would make a great gift for a new card maker - think Christmas for your granddaughter, neighbor, daughter or son, etc.

Check out the flier HERE.

ALSO .... if you haven't gotten the great Envelope Punch Board yet, you may have to wait a bit on it. The supply is running low.  Stampin' Up has had an overwhelmingly positive response to the new Envelope Punch Board--so much so that that they have nearly sold through the supply weeks sooner than they anticipated! SU has already taken steps to restock the inventory, but the new supply will not arrive in the Distribution Center until mid-October. They anticipate that the Envelope Punch Boards will be placed on backorder in the next few days. 

Paper Pals Sketch

This week's Paper Pal Sketch was an easy one.  I used the digital kit, Follow Your Bliss.  I really like the color combo in this kit.  There are some great cards this week.  Make sure to check them out here.

I went out to lunch today with the Newcomers Out to Lunch Bunch.  We went to Jeffrey's in Mooresville and I had a delicious meal of shrimp and grits.  If you are not southern, you probably are saying "what??"  I was not familiar with the dish growing up but since I have moved back to NC, I have discovered it.  I think the first time I had shrimp and grits was visiting Ashley when she lived in DC.  We went to a soul food restaurant for her birthday and Ashley ordered them.  Since then, I have had them several times and they are always prepared a bit differently.  Today's had shrimp, Andouille sausage, and spices with yummy buttery grits.  It was delicious!  After lunch I headed over to the Department of Motor Vehicles to take my driver's test.  I passed and didn't have to wait too long.  The only "hiccup" was that since I hadn't planned on going to DEA today, I didn't have my checkbook and they don't take credit cards  - only cash or check.  There was a lady there getting her license renewed also who had been at lunch with me and she told me it would be $20.  Well, wouldn't you know it, I had $19!!  So she lent me a dollar.  When I finished the test (only had to do vision and signs), the man told me it would be $32!  Oops!  Guess I'm "young" enough that I get more than 5 years worth of renewal (it's $4 per year).   So I had to leave and go to the bank and get cash; then go back to pay and have my picture taken.  I should have my new license in a couple of weeks.  Yay! 

September Stamp Club

I think it is going to be a long football season for the Steelers this year!  I just finished watching them get beat AGAIN.  They are now 3-0 for the season - no wins!!  Isn't that crazy??  I can't ever remember a start to the season like this one.  Sonny will be hard to live with this winter.

I had Stamp Club last week and we made some great cards and learned a new technique.

We made this card using the Faux Cloissone Technique.  I did this technique years ago and forgot about it until we made Belinda's card in the shoebox swap a couple of weeks ago.  I thought it would be a fun thing to do with my club gals.  They loved it!  The flower is from Secret Garden so we used the die to cut it out instead of having to cut it free hand.  The butterfly is cut with the die from Backyard Basics.  To do the technique:

• ·       Select a colorful page from a glossy magazine.
• ·       Rub your Embossing Buddy over the part of the magazine page you want to use.
• ·       Ink the Secret Garden flower stamp with Versamark ink and stamp on the magazine page.
• ·       Pour Gold Embossing Powder over your image.   Tap off excess powder.  Use the heat gun & emboss the gold powder.

 

 This card uses the Peekaboo Sizzix die.  I really have not used this die as much as I should have.  I just forget about it.  But it is so easy to use and makes such a cute card.  The stamp set is Halloween Hello. 

This card turned out so pretty!  I used Natural Composition DSP and rubbed white ink over the DSP with a dauber.  Then I wiped the ink off the flowers with a paper towels.  It's like the ink resist technique.  The stamp set is from Serene Silhouettes.

 This was my favorite card!  I used Shimmery White cardstock and just did a color wash with my Aqua Brush.  You just have to be careful and not get the card stock too wet.  First we used painters tape and taped the edges of the card stock.  I squeezed my ink pads to get ink in the lid to paint with.  I used Soft Sky for the top half; next Marina Mist; and finally Soft Saffon and a little bit of Baked Brown Sugar for the sand.  Then stamp the birds and sentiment.  I love this stamp set!
 

Lost in the Maize Maze!

The Newcomer's monthly outing was to the Rural Hill Amazing Maize Maze on Friday.  The Maze is the largest one in the southeast - a seven acre corn maize with over two miles of interconnecting paths.  Many of the paths were dead ends and we found ourselves going around in circles many times!  It was a lot of fun though.  There were nine of us so we decided to split up into three teams and see who finished first. (guess whose team that was!!!!)  We were given a game board and had to find 12 mailboxes that held map pieces in the maze and tape them to our board.   As you find more mailboxes you slowly build your map and find the way out. It took us an hour and 45 minutes and we walked almost 3 miles!!




The group - hot and tired!

We sorta cheated - we couldn't figure out how to get to the path we wanted to so we cut through the corn!!

Ahhh - the path to get out .... we think!

My team members - Toni and Joanne

Wednesday was Jeff and Darcie's my (son and daughter in law) ninth wedding anniversary.  I can't believe it's been nine years!!  The day they got married we woke up to rain in the morning but shortly before they said their vows in an outdoor ceremony, we saw the most beautiful rainbow.  I'm sure they've had moments that weren't rainbow moments over the years but their love has grown stronger and they are happy.  That's all that matters.  Rainy wedding days are supposed to be good luck.  Guess it was for Sonny and I since it poured on our day .... 40 years ago!  Wednesday was not a rainbow type of day though for Jeff and Darcie.  The night before the water softener that was in their garage exploded as Jeff was trying to add salt to it and dumped gallons of water in the garage and into their kitchen.  It ended up costing them an unexpected $2,000.  Sometimes you get rainbows; sometimes not!  This is the card I made for them using that great Owl Punch.   How do you like it?

 

 

Shoebox Swap Cards

Here are some more of the cards I made at the Shoebox Swap at Allison's (who likes to see her name on my blog!!) shoebox swap.  I have been sharing them this week with my Stamp Club gals.  It's great to have these cards to share .... that way I don't have to buy all the sets!  (I try to anyway though!)

I'm not sure if I remember who did which card but I am going to try.  (Allison - let me know if I get one wrong.)

Good color blocking and using different embossing folders on Sharon Measmer's card.

Using the Chevron Punch and Expressions Thinlits Dies (pg 36 - holiday mini) Belinda made this colorful card.

Creative way to make a wreath - Sharon Measner used the flower from Betsy's Blossoms (pg 87)!  Great card!

A great fall card by Allison.  She used Pretty Prints embossing folder, Expressions Thinlits and that great burlap ribbon.

I think this was one of Allison's cards (??)  Great use of the single stamp on pg. 23, O Holy Night.

Love this punch art bat!!  Kathryn made this great Halloween card.

Perfect Blend, MDS style

I have been seeing such great cards made with Perfect Blend stamp set.  But I don't drink coffee so thought that would be an odd one for me to purchase.  I know lots of people who are big coffee drinkers - my mom and my sisters - but not me or Sonny.  And I don't think either of my children drink it either - I know Ashley doesn't but not so sure about Jeff.  Anyway, off the subject!!  I know you could always use the cups in the stamp set for tea drinkers but the sayings are also about coffee.  So I was really happy that SU offered Perfect Blend last week in the weekly downloads.  Now I can print the cups out and use them any time I want as well as create a card in MDS with them - like I did for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge this week.

Another great download last week was Burlap Ribbon.  How do you like those burlap ribbon flowers?  I recolored them to try and better match the brown on the cups.

  Background
     Color = SOFT SUEDE 
Embellishments
    Burlap Ribbon\Burlap Ribbon - flower (re-colored)
    Burlap Ribbon\Burlap Ribbon - flower (re-colored)
    Grosgrain Ribbon\Crumb Cake Grosgrain Ribbon (re-colored)
    Grosgrain Ribbon - knot\Crumb Cake Grosgrain Ribbon - knot (re-colored)
    Baker's Twine\Baker's Twine - Crumb Cake
    Baker's Twine\Baker's Twine - Crumb Cake bow

Stamps
    Friend by Definition\Friend by Definition, Color = BAKED BROWN SUGAR 
    Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 4, Color = CRUMB CAKE
   Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 4, Color = VERY VANILLA 
    Perfect Blend\Perfect Blend - cup
    Perfect Blend\Perfect Blend - coffee & friends
Punches
    Basics\1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = CRUMB CAKE
    Basics\1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = VERY VANILLA 

So, what do you like to drink in the morning?  Coffee or Tea???

Customized Ribbon

Stampin' Up's 7/8" Cotton Ribbon is so versatile. You can use it straight out of the package, dye it by spritzing it with Classic Stampin’ Ink Refill and a Stampin' Spritzer, or customize it with our Stampin’ Write Markers  — which is what I am going to show you today.








Since Stampin’ Write Markers come in our exclusive colors, you can customize your ribbon with whatever color you need to coordinate with your project. (The colors featured here are Midnight Muse, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay.










Here are some fun and easy patterns for custom ribbon. I used the brush tip for all three designs. As you can see, the ribbon picked up the ink color really well. (If you look closely, you’ll see that my free-hand lines and polka dots aren’t perfect. And that’s okay—the imperfections give projects a handmade look and feel!) 
So pull out your cotton ribbon and markers today and start designing your own custom ribbon!

by  Robyn P. / Stampin' Up Sr. Concept Artist

Winning Shoebox Cards

I have a few cards to share with you today!  Marianne and I went to a Shoebox Card Swap last week at Allison Barber's home.  We had a great time visiting with the gals and making the cards.  Everyone did 3 shoe box swaps so we got a lot of new ideas.

My swaps hit all the upcoming holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I have already shared my Halloween card so here are my other two:

This card is very simple to make but it packs a "wow."   For the Christmas card, I used the stamp set, Joyful Christmas from the mini catalog.  I embossed the poinsetta on the Vanilla card stock with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder.  I stamped a second poinsetta and cut out the middle part of the flower and attached it to the embossed flower with a dimensional.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  But my favorite part is the Frosted Finishes Embellishments in the center of the flower (pg. 28 from Holiday Catalog).  They are gorgeous rhinestone embellishments!! 

My Thanksgiving card has lots of textures to it.  I embossed the Crushed Curry card stock with Stripes Embossing Folder in both directions to create the plaid embossed effect.  The DSP on the bottom is from Sweater Weather with a small strip of Cajun Craze to separate the two pieces.  They are layered on a Chocolate Chip card.  I stamped a Vanilla rectangle with the background from Truly Grateful (after stamping off once.)  Then I stamped the wheat in Chocolate Chip and used different markers - Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Choc. Chip to color in the wheat.  I matted this piece onto Chocolate Chip and Cajun Craze.  I stamped the "Happy Thanksgiving" (Tags 4 You) in Choc. Chip ink onto Crushed Curry card stock and cut it out.  (There is a punch for this set but I haven't purchased it yet.)  The final touch was to add a little of Gold Glitter to the wheat using my Two-Way Glue Pen.

Allison asked her neighbor to come over and judge our cards and pick a winner.  Well, guess what???  My Thanksgiving card was her choice!  I was totally surprised!  Allison gave me a super prize that I want to CASE.

Isn't this a great decorated note pad and pen?  I don't want to use it and have to mess up that stamped front page!

This is a coaster.  She covered a tile with Eastern Elegance DSP.  It is really cool!

Parisian Jewelry

Woo hoo! The Magnetic Platform is back!  Stampin' Up! has received a full shipment of Magnetic Platforms (Item #130658, $39.95)! They are pleased to announce that the great wait is over and they can start filling new orders on September 12 (today!) 

Why not place an order for the magnetic platform, and add the new Envelope Punch Board (Item #133774, $19.95)?

My oldest granddaughter had a birthday recently.  I made her a few jewelry items and packaged them up in a little tin for her.


Here is the card I made for her using Gorgeous Grunge and Tape It stamp sets.  It's not my usual style but thought it was appropriate for a teenager.

Torri and Darcie (my daughter in law) took a European trip for Torri's high school graduation this summer.  They enjoyed Paris and the Eiffel Tower so I thought these items were perfect!

I got this bracelet and paper last year at CKC.  I used my hole punch to punch the circles out and glued them on with Crystal Effects. 

This is a little key chain with the Eiffel Tower and a jewel on it.  This stamp set is retired but it is great for these soda top items.  I really was surprised that Stampin' Up took these out of the catalog this year! 

This is the necklace I made for Torri.  Again, with the Parisian theme.

Here is everything inside the small tin.  I put a piece of DSP (non SU) in the bottom of the tin.

Challenging Card Sketch

Here's a sketch that will make you put your thinking cap on!



There are lots of layers and shapes in this sketch.  But it was fun to play around with.  I used the paper that was in last week's MDS download, Etcetera.  I really love all the soft colors in the collection.   The saying is from a calendar download.  I copied it a few times, cropped it and changed the colors.  It turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself!

 

Check out what the other Paper Craft Crew members came up with HERE.  I especially like Pam's easel card.

Let's see what you can do with the sketch this week.

In Remembrance of 9-11

Our lives changed forever on the morning of September 11, 2001.  So many people were impacted by those terrorist attacks, whether they had a friend or loved one in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, or in the Pentagon, or on Flight 93 which made a crash-landing on the fields near Shanksville, PA. Twelve years later or a hundred years later, we will never forget the 2,997 people who lost their lives that day, and we will never forget the changes that have impacted the United States and the world since that fateful day.  Since September 11, 2011, countless troops have died in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other war zones around the world.

Where were you on 9/11?

Cruise Tee with MDS

When Ashley came to visit, one of the things on our "to do" list was to design and make a tee shirt to wear on one of our theme nights on our upcoming cruise.  The theme for one night is "Back to the Bowery with Alabama".  Alabama is celebrating their 40th year together and they started their singing career at the Bowery in Myrtle Beach.  So with our trusty My Digital Studio, these are the shirts we came up with:

We got a deal on the shirts - nice white tees at Belk's for less than $10 - Sale!!    On the front are flip flops from Holiday Blitz stamp set (MDS).  We added a text box and typed:   Alabama and Friends Festival At Sea and the dates of the cruise.  On the back, we took a picture that I had taken at the beach of my feet in the sand and put the stamp from Summer Possibilities (dance barefoot) on top.

 

 

Luckily, Ashley had done these tees before so she remembered that we had to print them onto the transfer sheets in mirror image so it would turn out right on the tees.  I probably would have ruined my transfer paper before I realized it!! 

 

They were really quite easy to do.  We designed our pictures and printed them onto Iron On Transfer paper.  I bought my transfer paper at Staples but you could also get it at craft stores.  Then just follow the directions on the transfer paper and iron it onto your shirt or whatever you are making.

They were fun to make.  We didn't figure Sonny would want to  wear these so we found some great sales - again at Belk's on tropical tees and shirts for him to wear!

Envelope Punch Board

The latest cool tool from Stampin’ Up is available NOW!  It’s called the Envelope Punch board.  I have one here in my stamp room but with everything I have had going on the past week, I haven't gotten to play with a whole lot.  I did make one envelope last week when Ashley was here.  But this week I plan to play with it a lot more.  I was thinking I wouldn’t need it with my diagonal score board but this is much easier and I LOVE that it punches the notches out so nicely. It’s also more compact and with at least 66 sizes, that’s pretty cool!

Envelope Punch Board  Item #133774  $19.95 

More Details:

• It creates totally customizable envelopes in up to 66 different sizes (not to mention a million different color and pattern options depending on the paper you want to use). Even tried and true envelope sizes will only take you moments to create!
• It’s small and lightweight; this makes it easy for you to take it on the go!  Portable and easy to store.
• It even has a slick scoring tool as well as a punch that lets you create rounded corners on your envelopes.
• It’s easy to keep it all together; the stylus storage compartment and two punches are designed into the tool so you don’t have a bunch of little pieces to keep track of (even the instructions are printed right on the tool so you won’t lose them!).
• The price is terrific-especially for a tool that does so much!
• It will be in next year’s annual catalog, so it’s here to stay.

Envelope Punch Board Projects

I am having such fun with the Envelope Punch Board.  Not only can you make all sizes of envelopes but I've also made tags and file folder cards with the board. 



I watched a video on Patty Bennett's blog for the file folder cards.  Here is a card I made for a friend's birthday next week.  I used a SU DSP stack that is retired.  The "happy birthday" is a die that I have had for a long time.  Believe me, it is not as easy to use as Stampin' Up's thinlits!!

I used my new Wetlands stamp set for the birds.  Love it!  I stamped the little birds in Baked Brown Sugar.  I think this was the first time I used this color.  I tend to go to Soft Suede automatically and forgot all about Baked Brown Sugar.

Today I also made these cute tags using the Envelope Punch Board.  I found a U Tube tutorial that I had pinned to Pinterest.  Check it out HERE if you want to make these little tags.

This is the tag and a little tag holder that I made

Everything on this project was made with the Punch Board.  It is a handy little tool!

Woot! Woot! Be Awesome!

Woot!  Woot!  (Seriously .... do you use this slogan?  I don't think I've said it!)  But it looks cute on this card.  This is my interpretation of the Paper Craft Sketch this week.  Most all of the pieces on this card came from the digital pocket card set, Happy Together.  I decided to do a square card this week.  I don't usually make square cards because of having to spend extra postage to mail it, but hey - this is digital - I probably won't print it out and mail it anyway!

This week's sketch had a lot of of bits and pieces on it.  It was definitely a challenge to do this week.

We had a great time in Greenville and arrived back home around 4 yesterday.  It was good to see our friends again and Greenville was the perfect spot.  I was pretty wiped out last night and had planned on doing absolutely nothing today.  But, I looked at my calendar last night and realized my Newcomers coffee was this morning.  We had a nice fashion show at the coffee.  Afterwards a group (of 21!!) went to lunch at Oh Charley's.  The waiter and waitress did a good job taking our orders and getting our food to us in a timely matter but paying the check was another story!  We waited 35 minutes for him to return with our change / credit cards!  I really think the manager should have stepped up and helped him out.