Trio of Thank You Cards

I made this trio of Thank You cards for Boss' Day a few weeks ago as a thank you for doing a great job. We have 3 bosses in the office and I challenged myself to make 3 unique cards using nearly identical supplies. Earth Elements is my favorite of Stampin' Up's 4 color families and the colors on these cards make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I did the wave card using whisper white cardstock, but switched to very vanilla for the other two. Parts of the 2 upper cards were inspired from cards I saw on SplitCoast.

Stamp sets: all through the year, so many sayings

Inks & Markers: chocolate chip, close to cocoa, old olive

Cardstock: kraft, old olive, really rust, very vanilla, whisper white

Embellishments: chocolate chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, natural hemp twine, really rust eyelets

Tools: circle punches, coluzzle, corner rounder, cutter kit

Vacation Scrapbook Pages

I was able to spend a day scrapbooking with my friend Ann recently. We went to the local scrapbooking store, Scrapbook Your Story. Though I took alot of stamps with me, I didn't use very many. Because I had alot of products at my fingertips (after purchasing them of course), I took advantage of using stuff that I normally wouldn't have at home. Anyway, I started on my vacation photos and was able to get a few 2-page spreads done.

The year before last, we went to Baraboo, WI with my dad and stepmom for our vacation. We had so much fun, that we decided to go back. This year, my mom and our neighbors tagged along. It was a blast.



The first 2-page spread is of our girls' only outing to Circus World Museum in Baraboo.
I found the perfect old-circus style patterned paper at the local scrapbook store. Unfortunately I used it without noting the brand first (as is the case with most of the products I used in these 6 pages).



Supplies:
Stampin' Up!: it's a date and best friends lower alphabet stamp sets, chocolate chip ink & marker
Non-Stampin' Up!: cardstock (Bazzil), die-cut letters (Basic Grey), patterned paper (Rusty Pickle, unknown), die-cut star (unknown), jumbo eyelet (unknown), rub-ons (unknown)





This 2nd 2-page spread is of the same outing, but with an equestrian theme as I got some great shots of the girls on horses (real & carousel). The text on the 2nd page reads:

Horsin' Around at Circus World Museum
At the circus, I told Mia that
she could either
ride an elephant or ride a horse.
I wasn't surprised to hear which one she picked!
Snapped photos of all 3 girls on the carousel.
It's no secret that these cowgirls love horses!
Amber, Mia, and Lauren

Supplies:
all non-Stampin' Up!




This last 2 page spread focuses on the photos from our hike at Parfrey's Glen, Wisconsin's first State Natural Area, at Devil's Lake State Park. The text talks about the history of the site.

Supplies:
Stampin' Up!: always artichoke & kraft cardstock; versamark; all through the year, big deal alphabet, in the loop alphabet, and typeset lower alphabet stamp sets
Non-Stampin' Up!: patterned paper


I'll post more pages when I get them completed. At least I'm off to a good start.

October Stamp Club Projects

My Stamp Club met this past Wednesday and these are the projects we did. I had alot of fun creating the samples and my clubbies seemed to enjoy making them as well. I'm really lucky - I have a great group of 8 ladies in my club and we've have alot of fun! Next month is our last club meeting for this particular club (Stamp Club 3.0). I'll start version 4.0 in January, though I'll be running 2 clubs this time (version 4.0.1 & verson 4.0.2). Many of the same members will be continuing on in the new year. In fact, two of the ladies have been with me since version 1.0. How cool is that?!

Autumn Fest Thank You Card - just in time for Thanksgiving! You might have already seen this card on SplitCoast as I posted it there about a month ago.

Stamp sets: autumn fest, short & sweet
Ink: ruby red, chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, more mustard
Cardstock: whisper white
Embellishments: chocolate chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, pumpkin pie eyelets, natural hemp twine
Tools: crop-a-dile, stamping sponge
Technique: faux tearing

Whimsical Tip #1: Faux Tearing. Tear a piece of thin scrap paper. Lay the scrap paper over your cardstock to cover a portion of it. Stamp leaf images. Ink a stamping sponge in more mustard ink and dab it all over the top portion, creating the look of another layer of cardstock. Remove scrap paper and you're done!



Batty For You 6x6 Vellum Page - (shown on elegant eggplant cardstock so you can see the page better). I got this idea from a vellum card on SplitCoast (sorry, I can't remember who it was).

Stamp sets: batty, batty for you
Ink: whisper white, only orange, black staz-on
Cardstock: vellum cardstock, green galore, whisper white, elegant eggplant, pumpkin pie
Embellishments: pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon, black gingham ribbon
Tools: scallop punch, circle punches

Whimsical Tip #2: Create a vellum scrapbook page. Simply use stamps or a wheel to add craft ink to your vellum cardstock for a fun and unique page. Note: vellum cardstock is sturdier, and thus more suited for this project, than vellum paper.


3-D Pumpkins
I got this idea from my 2nd & 3rd upline demonstrators. My 3nd upline designed a mini version using pumpkin pie designer series paper for the body and the 5-petal flower punch for the pumpkin top. My 2nd upline did a similar version using cardstock instead of designer paper. I wanted to try a bigger pumpkin, so I used 3 larger cardstock pieces (1-1/2" x 9") for the body and the big flower image from Office Accoutrement stamp set for the pumkin top. I used the speckled wheel on the cardstock strips and inked the eges with versamark to give them the ridged pumpkin look. I had originally cut the tops of my stems (ribbon), but one of my customers left hers with a loop and I think it looks super cute! What do you think?

By the way, there's a Reese's peanut butter cup on the inside. Yum!

Stamp sets: carved & candlelit, office accoutrement, speckled wheel
Ink: wild wasabi, basic black, versamark
Cardstock: whisper white, pumpkin pie
Embellishments: wild wasabi double stitched ribbon
Tools: crop-a-dile

12 x 12 Cardstock Returns!

Awesome news! Stampin' Up! announced today that beginning with the Spring-Summer Collection 2008 big catalog (available January 1, 2008), 12" x 12" individual card stock packages for all colors will return, in addition to the color family assortments! With the current catalog, single color 12 x 12 packs were only available in select colors. Stampin' Up! heard your complaints and they are bringing it back. Sweet!

Where are the Scrapbook Pages?

I know that based on the subtitle of this blog (Stamping, Scrapbooking, and Life) you're probably wondering when I'm going to post some scrapbook pages. I actually cropped with my friend (and fellow SU Demonstrator) Ann last Monday and got a number of pages done for the first time in a long time. When I get my camera back, I promise to post some photos!

In the meantime, I did sort through all of the scrapbook pages I've done....putting them in piles according to major subject: Mia's pages, Seth's pages, and the family pages. I didn't start scrapbooking until a little over 2 years ago, soon after my son was born and my firstborn was already 4 years old. As a result, my scrapbooking has been hit and miss. Some old stuff mixed with recent events. In an effort to at least get an album done to commemorate the first year of life for each of my kids, I thought I'd better take stock of what I had already done. Until now, I'd just throw my completed pages in the next available plastic sleeve in the scrapbook album, with no rhyme or reason. Now I can see things a little more clearly. I hope that this recent bout of organization will help me catch up (ha ha!), though it will probably only serve to depress me by knowing how far behind I am! ;-)

Elusive Guy Cards

I've been reading on some of the stamping blogs lately that some ladies consider themselves masculine-card challenged. I'm no different. I find it hard to create stuff for the men in my life. Here's hoping that the January catalog will be chock full of manly stamp sets, which can only help!


This card was made for my dad's birthday last year. Simple.


Stamp sets: all about you, all through the year
Inks: always artichoke, bravo burgandy
Cardstock: always artichoke, bravo burgandy, naturals ivory
Embellishments: twill tape
Tools: corner rounder




One of my staff was stationed in Iraq for about a year. This is the card I made to celebrate his return last year. I first thought of using a patriotic theme but then decided to use the All Through the Year set to pay tribute to our line of work: natural resources. This was probably at least partially cased from SplitCoast since I had (and still have!) such trouble with guy cards. Sorry the picture is a little washed out.

Stamp Sets: all through the year, euphoria alphabet (retired), newsprint alphabet (retired)
Inks &/or Markers: always artichoke, bordering blue, chocolate chip, so saffron
Cardstock: always artichoke, bordering blue, chocolate chip, so saffron, very vanilla
Embellishments: silver brads
Tools: paper-piercing tools

Happy Holidays card & a Challenge for You!

I won't have access to the camera this week, so I will be posting photos of some of my older creations. Here's the card I made for swapping at the Stampin' Up! Regional Workshop in St. Louis last year. I wanted a holiday card without using the standard red/green holiday colors. All images are current except for the one used to make the snowflake background (I used the little snowflakes stamp from Happy Winter).

Stamp Sets: all through the year, frosty, happy winter
Inks: bordering blue, night of navy, whisper white
Cardstock: bordering blue, night of navy, so saffron, whisper white
Embellishments: silver cord, silver brads

Whimiscal Tip #1: Try the rock and roll technique! Ink a solid stamp with light colored ink. Do not stamp the image yet. Continue by placing your stamp on the dark colored ink pad at an angle and then roll your wrist around so that only the edges of the stamp pick up the dark ink. Now stamp your image! The edges of your stamp will now be a darker color. You can see this effect in my large snowflake in the picture above. Try several color combinations to see which one looks best for your project!

The Challenge: I challenge you to make a holiday card with non-traditional holiday colors and email me a photo (use link at top of blog) or send me the real thing. I'll pick a few at random and post them here! We can all use a little inspiration for the upcoming holiday crafting season!

Breast Cancer Awareness Cards

My latest creations.....I wanted to do something in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month. I opted for simple and elegant. Though my mom and 2 aunts were diagnosed with this disease, they are some of the lucky ones. So many women battle this wicked enemy and do not survive. These cards are dedicated to all women whose lives have been affected.



Stamp Sets: in the loop alphabet
Inks: basic black
Cardstock: basic black, whisper white, loves me designer series paper (retired)
Embellishments: black grosgrain ribbon

Just Like You Swap

My upline is hosting a swap using the Ronald McDonald House charity stamp set, Just Like You, and this is what I came up with. I knew that I wanted to use the bayou blue, purely pomegranate, and river rock double stitched ribbon side by side so I designed the rest of the card around that. I think it looks good but I have this nagging feeling that the card still needs something, but I've promised myself to keep my hands off. Too often, I over-embellish or get a little carried away with too many layers, etc. For some reason, I have a hard time keeping cards simple. With this card in particular, I've been going back and forth between tweaking it or leaving it alone. Despite the little devil sitting on my shoulder telling me to add a brad or an eyelet or something, this card is finished. I promise.....(I think)! ;-)

Stamp Sets: just like you

Inks: blue bayou

Cardstock: blue bayou, glossy white, purely pomegranate, river rock

Embellishments: blue bayou, purely pomegranate, and river rock double stitched ribbon

Whimsical Tip #1: To ahere your ribbon in a straight line on cardstock, use a scrap piece of cardstock or a ruler as a guide to align it.

Update 10/13/07: Well I couldn't leave it alone. I ended up submitting the swaps with an addition. I put 2 Not Quite Navy brads running vertically in the upper left corner of the card. So much for willpower!

Love is in the Air

Brian and I celebrated our 9th anniversary today. We've actually been together for alot longer though as we dated for 10 years before we got married. Tonight we went to dinner at Augie's Front Burner (http://www.augiesfrontburner.com/). I wanted to go somewhere that we wouldn't ever take the kids. A true date night place. The food was beyond awesome as usual. We both had caeser salads (you could taste the zingy flavor of those anchovies) and delicious rolls to start. Brian also got a cup of oh-so-creamy Lobster Bisque. I ordered the Roasted Vegetables with Chinese Noodles and Asian Pesto and Brian had the Chilean Sea Bass with Asparagus and Hollandaise Sauce. I've never tasted sea bass before and it was as incredible as I'd heard. It was cooked to perfection and was the richest-tasting fish I've ever tried. We both shared a bowl of cinnamon ice cream for dessert. Wish I had a picture of the dishes when they arrived at our table. They were truly works of art. You can check out some photos of their dishes in their gallery online at: http://augies.cspango.com/gallery/index.html.


This is the card I made Brian for our anniversary. I was really happy with the way it came out. Sometimes I really struggle with putting a card or scrapbook page together, but in this case, it came together in a short amount of time, especially considering I had to do a fair amount of drawing with my white gel pen. I used the retired Love Matters stamp set and the retired Folk Heart punch. The rose red hearts are made from Designer Series paper. I stamped the word "Love" in chocolate chip ink but it didn't seem to stand out well, so I colored in the inside of the letters with my gel pen and then traced around them again with my chocolate chip marker. I used the reverse masking technique to keep the inside of the heart free of polka dots from my large background stamp.

Stamp Sets: love matters, polka dot, rough edges alphabets
Inks: chocolate chip, rose red, versamark
Cardstock: chocolate chip, not quite navy, rose red designer series paper
Tools: chocolate chip marker, folk heart punch, white gel pen, word window punch
Embellishments: not quite navy brad

Whimsical Tip #1: Give your cardstock some depth by using the direct-to-paper technique like I did with the Not Quite Navy-colored heart above. Simply take your Versamark pad and "stamp" it on your cardstock at various angles.

My good friend & neighbor, Mary, was sweet enough to watch the kids for us tonight so we could go to dinner. And she made us this fabulous Anniversary card! She cased it from SplitCoast. I think I just may have to case it myself!

The happy anniversary stamp and ribbon are non-stampin' up! products.