Happy Monday Everyone!

Happy President's Day and to those of you who have the day off I hope you enjoy it!! I hope everyone had a great weekend, ours was great here on the Mid-Atlantic coast, pretty windy on Saturday but the sun was shinning and it wasn't freezing cold so I will take it!! We had a nice weekend and had a great time at our friends' Daytona 500 party yesterday. I decided I needed to be done sharing the Valentine's Day cards and thought I would share this card I made for my hubby's aunt and uncle to celebrate their 55th Wedding Anniversary. They are such lovely people and a real testament to for better or worse and in sickness and in heath. So I thought they needed a pretty special card! I love the Baroque Motifs stamp set and use it on lots of stuff, including our friend's weeding invites ( I will share a sample later this week or next once I finish them for her). So here are the details on this card:

Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Versa Mark, Gold Encore Ink (I know it's retired, so I just used it n the sentiment :))
Accessories: Black Embossing powder, gold embossing powder, clear rhinestone brads, basic rhinestones, modern label punch, embossing buddy, dimensionals and snail adhesive.

I hope you liked this card, I was going for elegant yet simple, I didn't want to overdo it since it had to go through the US Mail and I didn't want stuff mangled and damaged. Do Happy 55th Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Bruce, I hope it was as wonderful as you two are!! I hope you all enjoyed the card and we will see you back tomorrow with a new card!! Have a great Monday!!!

TTFN,

Happy Thursday!!



I am back with a card I made for my best friends! I wanted to give them a card for Valentine's Day and I saw something like this online (sorry I didn't note the name, if you know I will certainly give credit) and I changed it up a bit and this is what I came up with. I did the inlaid embossing technique and it turned out so cute!! They liked the card and that is ultimately what matters! I made a couple other different cards and I will share them here later this week.



Cardstock: Whisper White, Mambo Melon, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red

Ink: Mambo Melon

Stamp Sets: Valentine Defined from the Occasion's Mini Catalog

Accessories: Heart to Heart Extra Large Punch, Full Heart Extra Large Punch, Small Heart Punch, Pinking Hearts Border, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Whisper White 5/8" Satin Ribbon, Vintage Brad, Sticky Strip, Snail and Dimensionals.



Well I will say bye for now but I will be back tomorrow with the Valentine's Day card I made for my hubby. Have a great day and see you tomorrow!!



TTFN,

Howdy!!!! How is everyone out in blog world doing??? I know I was MIA for about 2 months there but please forgive me. The holidays came and wet fast and furious, then January was crazy with work and family stuff, and I decided to go back and finish my degree and classes started late January, but all is well. I may not have been putting it on here, but I have found some time to make some great cards and projects I can't wait to share!! So I will get on with it. The project you see here was a gift card holder I made. I loved the colors and getting to use the beautiful DSP!! I saw a picture of one and wondered if I could make one and over all I think it turned out pretty great!! I was very happy with it. Here is what I used:

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black
Stamp Set: Artistic Etchings, Cute by the Inch (Hostess Set)
Accessories: Love Letters DSP, Eyelet Border, 1" Circle Punch, Round Tab Punch, Scallop Square Extra Large Punch, 1 3/8" Square Extra Large Punch, Very Vanilla and Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Crop-A-Dile, Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet, Sticky Strip, Snail and Dimensionals.

I hope you like it!!! I will be back tomorrow with a card I made for Valentine's Day!!

TTFN,

Gifts Part 2, I love these!

Good Morning!!

Well as promised I have another of my Christmas gifts I made to share with you today! It is sooo bitter cold and windy here that you can hardly go outside for more than a moment. My doggies are not happy campers when they have to go out and let me tell you this is the first time that none of them take their time and smell the roses!!

As you can see the gifts are the ornaments!! At my up up line monthly meeting one of the lovely ladies, Cathleen made one for each of us. I loved the one she made me (it was a beautiful pink, I think she said Pink Passion) and I begged her to tell me exactly how she made it. Well she was so wonderful to share with me how to do it! I know this may not be new, but this is my first Christmas a Stampin' Up demo so it was brand new to me and I loved it! I think I did pretty good, and it was super easy but the results are outstanding!!!! I made these for the ladies I work with and I am giving them out tomorrow at our Holiday Luncheon. I really hope they like them.

I found the ornaments at a local craft store (they were on sale) so I got 24 for only $10, then I used classic re-inkers and dazzling diamonds glitter. I put about 15-25 drops of reinker (depending on the color, the darker the color the more you need) and swirled it around until the inside of the ornament was coated, then I turned it upside down on a paper towel and let the excess re-inker run out (but there usually wasn't too much). I found that if I started with the lower amount I could add a drop or two or more as I needed it to avoid having too much re-inker that was wasted and it worked out great!! Then after a few moments I put about a teaspoon full of the dazzling diamonds glitter in the ornament and shook it around. Then I would pour the excess glitter into a little cup since it is now colored glitter, but there really wasn't too much excess there either, so there really wasn't much waste which was awesome!

A word to the wise, use gloves! I wore rubber gloves and that was a great help, trust me when I say do not do this project without donning rubber gloves!! Also the lighter the color ink the better!! Handsome Hunter is my favorite color so I was thrilled to make some ornaments in that color, well the ornament that looks black is the handsome hunter, so not so pretty. The Cameo Coral and the Almost Amethyst (shown by itself) in the retired colors were the most amazing to me!! The Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Real Red and Tangerine Tango (I was shocked too) were so pretty!!

I hope you enjoy the ornaments and you make some yourself and enjoy them!! I will be back on Wednesday with a beautiful window scene card. Have a great day and stay warm!!!!!

TTFN,

A Christmas Present

Hi All,

I finally realized I had to get a move on and start making the Christmas presents!! Well first up were the wine Charms for my boss with the Northern Frost strip for the Big Shot. It was a little time consuming and tedious but certainly worth it. I got the tutorial from Monica Weaver and it was great! They turned out really nice and I made her a set of 6 in 3 different colors, so I hope she likes them. I got her a bottle of her favorite wine and thought these would be a perfect little gift to so with them. So I won't give out the details since I don't think I am supposed to since I bought the tutorial, but really it was easy to do, I say tedious because of all the beautiful details on the snowflakes, so it was well worth it!!! I think I might make a set for my aunt too. As for the card, I saw a similar card on Stampin Connection (a place Stampin Up Demos can share and get ideas) and I had to make a swap card for a meeting last Friday and so I used this one but changed it up a little. Sorry I didn't get a name on the creator or I would at least give them credit but Thanks for Inspiration if the original was yours!!! Here are the details:

CardStock: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Real Red

Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, River Rock, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Versa Mark

Stamp Set(s): Holiday Line Up (pg. 32), Many Merry Messages (pg. 41)

Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder (pg. 196 ), Heat Tool (pg. 196 ), Tearing Edge (pg. 198 ), Embossing Buddy ( pg. 196), Snail Adhesive (pg. 197).

Thanks for stopping by, I will have the other Christmas gift I have finished tomorrow!! I love them so much I don't want to give them away!!

TTFN,

Hi all!!! I have been MIA for a while and I'm sorry but I have been super busy with work (the job that allows me to buy my stamping stuff) and with Stampin' Up stuff, so it has been exciting!!! I hope everyone is well and you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did, and then we did a shopping marathon starting at 1:30am the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was fun though!! Well today is a special day, it's my Mom's Birthday!!! Happy Birthday to my very, very wonderful Mom!! I love you and wouldn't be who I am today without you (and Dad). So in honor of my Mom I made the card you see pictured. She saw a trifold shutter card I had made at card club and she loved it, was just amazed by how it folded up and was in awe, so I filed away that I had to make one of those for her for her birthday! So here is the card I made and here are all the details:

Cardstock: Rose Red, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Night of Navy

Stamp Sets: Cottage Garden (pg. 107), On Your Birthday ( pg. 153), En Francis (pg. 142)

Ink: Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Versa Mark

Accessories: Sweet and Sour Designer Series Paper (pg. 172), Heat Tool (pg. 196), Snail Adhesive (pg. 197).

Not much too the supplies, but I liked the idea of stamping the background stamp on the Rose Red so it was all scripty and pretty. I didn't' want to make the papers too busy so keeping the smaller pieces small with the background stamp worked really well. A special thanks to Frances (my upline) for all the measurements and details on how to make the shutter card!! It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I won't overwhelm you my first post back, but I have tons of stuff to share so please, please come back tomorrow, I promise you will see something new!!!

Have a great day!!

TTFN

Candi

Fall Card Share

Happy Thursday!!

Sorry I didn't get anything posted Tuesday but my stamping buddy Julie came over and helped me get my blog updated and the links to catalogs and promotions all done!! I am so happy with it! Thanks so much Julie you are the best!!!!! I love that through Stampin' Up I have met some really wonderful people!! I have really been trying to learn new techniques and I got a little inspired last night while watching the hockey game (the Capitals of course!) and remembered a video I watched just the other day so I decided to give this a try. It is the Joseph Coat technique and I saw the tutorial video on Stamp and Scrap with Frenchie. The video was was done and easy to follow and I was so happy with my card. Thanks Frenchie for sharing!! Here are the details:

Cardstock: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Always Artichoke

Ink: Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Versa Mark, EarlyEspresso

Stamp Set (s): Paisley Prints (pg. 11 in the Holiday Mini Catalog)

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder (pg. 196), Heat Gun (pg. 196), Stamping Sponges (pg. 195), 5/8" Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon (pg. 191), Curly Label Punch (pg. 203), Embossing Buddy (pg. 196), Snail Adhesive (pg. 197)

I had never done this technique before and it was super easy. I sponged the vanilla card stock with the More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, and Cajun Craze so that the vanilla was covered completely, then I used the embossing buddy and rub allover the sponged cardstock and then stamp the image in Versamark then cover in clear embossing powder and then use the heat gun to emboss. Then take your darkest color (early espresso in my card) and cover the entire piece of sponged cardstock. Wait a little bit for it to set then wipe off the embossed images and voila..... beautiful!! I got my ideas for the colors from my very own front yard, and I had to share that picture too! It's so pretty this time of year with all the pretty colors so I tried to copy those colors in my card!! What do you think? I am going to try this again with glossy paper, and I will share that result once I try it! Thanks for visiting and I will have more cards for you either Saturday or Sunday!! Have a great day!

TTFN,

Hi All,

Well it's a new week! We had a great weekend and hope you did as well! The weather was wonderful and the hubby and I played a little flag football on Saturday with about 20 other people and I must say, we had a blast (our team won) but boy was Sunday a day to recover, I hurt in places I didn't really know I had... We got to see my in-laws who had been away for over 6 weeks! They had been on a driving tour of the US! They went all over the country, Lake Michigan, North Dakota, Seattle, Arizona, Knoxville, TN, and many, many places in between! They had a blast and shared some beautiful pictures. Well down to what you all are here for today's card!! I cased this from a swap my upline got but I changed it up a bit and I think it really cool!!!

CardStock: Concord Crush, Old Olive, Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie

Ink: Concord Crush, Old Olive, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight

Stamp Sets: Wicked Cool (pg. 23)

Accessories: In Color Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack (pg. 165), Large Oval Punch (pg. 203), 5 Petal Flower Punch (pg 201), Scallop Oval Extra Large Punch Pg 201), 1 3/4 X 7/8"Oval Punch (pg 203), Bitty Bat Punch (pg 201), Sponge Daubers (pg 195), Basic Rhinestones (pg 188), Black Flourish Designer Jewels (pg 8 of Holiday Mini Catalog), 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Daffodil Delight (pg 191), Dimensionals and Snail Adhesive and Glue Dots (pg 197).

This card was so much fun to make! I can't wait to give it to my parents! I think they will get a kick out of it!! I hope you enjoyed. Stop in tomorrow I will have another cute Halloween themed share for you!!

TTFN,

It's Friday!!

TGIF!!!

How is everyone out there in Blog World? I am good. It's Friday and that is cool with me!! We don't have any major plans for the weekend, but that is ok, a nice fall weekend here on the East Coast!! I have another card for you today! I made this at my Up-Upline's Monthly meeting and I think it is so nice! My only complaint.... I didn't get the sun round and I was using a template circle cut out and I still screwed it up.....

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: So Saffron, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Stamp Sets: Inspired by Nature (pg. 104), Sincere Salutations ( pg.155)
Accessories: Big Shot (pg. 200), Top Note Die (pg. 207), Two Step Bird Punch ( pg. 202), Brayer (pg. 195), Slot Punch (retired). Snail Adhesive and Dimensionals (pg.197).
It's a cute card and I had never really used the brayer before (always a little afraid of it), but I ordered one to use after this!! I tried to get the slot punch on the Clearance Rack Blitz but less than 24 hours after it started and I was too late for the punch it was sold out! Oh well just wasn't meant to be, and that is ok!!

I hope you like the card and have a great weekend! I will have a new project to share with you on Monday!!

TTFN,

HI!!!

I did not fall off the face of the earth, it just seems like it from a blog perspective! :) I am so sorry, I had a conference for work that took me to Nashville, TN for a week, I took on some more consulting and a part-time job for "pay the bills/allow me to buy more Stampin' Up stuff" job, then we had a planned vacation for 10 days to Florida (celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary) and some home projects that we finally got finished and things were just crazy. No excuse and I deeply apologize to my followers!! I have some really great projects to share with you and I am back on track to create regularly!! Some more great news I guess you can see my blog has been completely renovated and redone!!! Thank you Michelle Laycock of Laycock Designs I love it, what do you all think!! Did you scroll all the way to the bottom and see the tag line about the UPS man? It is sooooo true!! :) Well down to the reason you come here, the card I am showing you today I made for my friend's birthday (Happy Birthday Renee). I will admit to you that I bought the greenhouse gala Designer Series Paper just to show since I know that some of my friends would love it, however I am loving it! So versatile and pretty I love this paper! I have a project to share that will show you a way to use it as a gift bag! Thank you all to all my new followers from Stampin' Connection, welcome aboard and I promise you will see posts much more frequently!

Card Stock: Pear Pizazz, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Stamp Sets: Friends Never Fade (pg. 99)
Accessories: Greenhouse Gala (pg. 173), Pumpkin Pie 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon (pg. 191), Basic Pearls (pg. 188), Scallop Edge Border Punch (pg. 200), Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink (pg. 166),
Big Shot (pg. 204), Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder (pg. 214).

Such a pretty card and Renee really liked it too. Also the wood block you see the card displayed in, well my Dad made me a bunch of them he even made me to big size ones to hold scrapbook pages!! My Dad is so crafty and handy, I mentioned I was going to look for something and the next day he has all these made for me!! I am so lucky, thanks Dad!!!

Well have a great day and don't forget to come back because I am back in full force with tons to share!!!

TTFN,

Testing the automated siggy!

Write your post here!

HOOT HOOT!!

Hi all!!

As promised I have a card to share with you. This is a card we did in club and I just think he is the cutest. My upline did a sample card and cut all the pieces and left the design up to us!! I used the numbers for the year my Dad was born and wanted to give this to him as his birthday card. The other 5 ladies all did something different, they used the numbers to make 2010 or 2014 (one of the ladies son's graduates from one of the service academy's that year) or 2001 (I think this was a boo boo but it was too cute, so I think she was going to use as an anniversary card). It was really cool to see the different ideas that all of us came up with for the same supplies!! Here are the details for my card:

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise. Real Red , Old Olive, Crumb Cake

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Stamp Sets: Party Hearty (pg. 54) for the greeting

Accessories: Play Date DSP (pg. 175), Word Window punch (pg. 203), Owl Punch (pg. 201), Two-Step Bird Punch (Pg. 202) for the vine, Snail adhesive (pg. 197) and Multipurpose Liquid Glue (pg. 197), Paper Snips (pg. 199).

My Dad really liked the card so it was a success!!! I can tell you that while I thought the owl was really cute I wasn't going to buy him right away, but after doing this card, I came home and placed an order for the punch and this DSP!! Well I had better run, I have lots to do to prepare for my first Christmas Card Stamp a Stack this weekend!! I am really looking forward to it, we are making 24 cards for $30!! I will have pictures after Saturday for you to see!! Have a great Tuesday and I will have another card for you tomorrow!!

TTFN,

Candi

The Room is finally DONE!!!!!

Well here it is..... I don't know if the pictures were worth the wait for you all, but I am so excited and happy my stamp room is finally done I could CRY!! I wish I had some before pictures to show you, but the room looked so icky to me I never took pictures. There was no ceiling only exposed beams and pipes and bare bulbs for lighting. The walls were white and storage consisted of one of those white tables (that you see in the middle of the room) with my stamp and inks piled on there.... The paper was kept in plastic file bins and the accessories just stayed in boxes... Now everything has a home!!! I got the cabinets at Lowe's and I stained them myself (first time I have ever done that!!), the ribbon board is home made (my dad took plywood and covered with cork pieces and then I covered in some quilt batting and fabric and then used Pretty in Pink stain ribbon. The rack for my punches was made my my Dad and I already have another on order for the new style punches it will be the same dimensions as the other one, except it will all be wider shelves to house the new style punches from Stampin' Up. The walls are painted a color called Exotic Sea (Valspar from Lowe's) and it is almost a perfect match for Tempting Turquoise! I put some of the White Circles from the 2009 Definitely Decorative and also the Baroque Medallion (pg 25 from current Definitely Decorative catty) and the large Chocolate Medallion is on it's way as I type, it's going on the same wall just closer to the door. I love the Simple sign Chalkboard elements (pg 6 of Def Dec or pg 224 of large catty) the calendar accent is great for it, I got the largest size of both and love them so much I have also ordered the Curly sign to leave blank and write notes on!!! Putting them on the wall was soooo easy and as long as I didn't rush things went sooooo smoothly! I think you can tell I drafted my Dad a lot and he (as always came through), he does such great work and is such a perfectionist everything is always done right. From helping me cover the ribbon board (which he hated "too girly" he kept saying), to adding more outlets above my counter top, to installing the extra track lights, to building the punch rack, to helping me move and install the cabinets, installing the wall mount for my TV, moving the phone jack, etc. my Dad was AWESOME!!!! Ok that was a shameless plug but he deserves it!!! So it's all done and I had my first workshop there a week ago and got a lot of nice compliments!! Well, sorry it's not a card but I will have a card for you tomorrow, I promise... :)

TTFN,

Candi

Hi All,

I hope everyone is having a great week!! I am back today with another card. I had a little disagreement with Blogger and the orientation of my picture but as my Dad always tells me " It's operator error" so after blaming the computer and program, it came out fine on the third try. WOO HOO. This card is a cute card I am going to send to my friend in Texas just to say Hi. Here is the skinny:

Cardstock: So Saffron, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise (all pg. 166), Whisper White (pg. 169).

Ink: Old Olive and So Saffron (pg. 166)

Stamp Sets: Apple Blossoms ( Level 2 Hostess Set pg. 12)

Accessories: Curly Label Punch (pg. 203), Basic Pearls (pg. 188), Island Oasis Designer Series Paper (pg. 27) from the Summer Mini Catalog that ends on 8/31/2010.

This card uses the Rock n' Roll technique on the apple blossom stamps. The middle one is plain Old Olive then the the right and left side you clean the stamp of the Old Olive ink and stamp in So Saffron and before you stamp you roll just the edges of your stamp in the Old Olive then stamp on the Whisper White cardstock, then clean the stamp and repeat for the third stamp. I had never done it before, (thanks for teaching me Frances) but it worked great and I love the effect!! For the little tag I punched the Curly label and cut it in half. Really cute and I love the colors!! I hope you enjoy, and tomorrow as promised..... pictures of my newly renovated and completed stamp room, I am so happy it is done and can't wait to show it to you!!!! Oh and I might have a card too.... he he he.

TTFN,

Candi

Another New Favorite Color

Good Morning,
Sorry I have been missing for a few days. I have been getting the finishing touches on my "new" Stamp room. The transformation is absolutely amazing. I hope to be able to post pictures on Friday (need the paint to finish drying to put up the wall decorations)!! Well today's card features another of my new favorite colors, Cherry Cobbler, I love the deep richness of this color and I am so drawn to it and feel like I need to use it for everything, so I am pulling myself back and going to slow down and experiment with other new colors too. I made this card about 2 weeks ago and then I made a similar card for my Mom and Dad for their anniversary, (which was yesterday, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!) but it did not come out as well as this one (probably because I was trying to find stuff while everything was packed away and paint was drying and I was trying to touch up paint and I was rushing). Here are the details:
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizazz
Ink: VersaMark
Stamp Sets: Because I Care (level 1 Hostess Set) (pg. 11)
Accessories: Pear Pizazz Stitched-Poly Ribbon ( pg. 190), Gold Embossing Powder ( pg. 196), Heat Tool (pg. 196), Basic Pearls ( pg. 188).

Not much on the way of supplies, but a really stunning look. The gold on the Cherry Cobbler is stunning. I love this card and can see this will become a go to set for me. I hope you enjoy this card and I will have another one for you tomorrow and hopefully for Friday I will have pictures of the finished Stamp Room!!! Have a great day and will talk to you tomorrow.

TTFN,
Candi