you don't love every card you make

This is one that I don't love. There are parts of it that I really like. I love the button as the center of the blue and orange flower, and although you can't really tell I curved the petals of the orange flower so they are pointing up. I don't really like the center punched out of the green flower. I thought I would try something different so I punched out the center and then put the flower on with dimensionals so it would create a window effect but it didn't really work. I like the idea of using ribbon knots for leaves, but the don't look quite right with the stem on a red background. Maybe I just put the whole thing on white background then you can see the green stems better.

so next time I make a card I will take the things I like and try it again, but change the parts I don't like.

Now the big questions is what do you do with the cards that you don't like? Do you still send them to people and if so do you send it to the people that you don't care about or do you send it to the people that you really love because you know they won't care what your card looks like?

Challenge for Labor Day Weekend

Here is a quick card done with the garden whimsy stamp set. It uses no ribbon, no hardware and only one punch. (give a girl a break I had to use some of my fun stuff) The words are from a package of rub-ons. To kick this simple card up a notch I traced some of the butterfly with a two-way glue pen then sprinkled it with dazzling diamonds glitter. I used real red, sage shadow and chocolate chip. I love this color combination, I used it last you to make unisex birthday cards.

So here is the challenge. Show me what you can do! Use the layout, the color scheme, the stamp set or glitter to create your own card. Feel free to make small changes. If you don't have the scallop edge punch just leave it straight. If you don't have rub-ons stamp your sentiment. After you have made the card take a picture or scan it and either email me or post a comment with the picture or link to the picture if you have a gallery on scs or if you have your own blog.

The challenge is simple: Take something, anything from this sample and make your own creation!

Submit the cards by Friday September 5th by 6pm and I will randomly pick one to receive some blog candy(I'll show you a picture of what you'll get later for now you'll just have to wonder).

let me know if you have any questions!

Emma's Hair

I don't show pictures of the kids a lot, but sometimes something is so cute I just have to share it with the world. This is Emma with her "Princess Leia Hair". that's what she calls it any way. When I was little my mom used to fix my hair like this and we called it "doggy ears" or "doggy buns" I don't remember which--Mom do you?

Anyway she was so cute this morning with her hair fixed and her pearl necklace and her missing teeth that I had to take a picture.

by the way I told her I'd giver her a quarter when she got home if she left her hair alone and they were still in when she got off the bus. We'll see what she does!

More Wow Flower Samples

Here are the last two pictures of the cards we will be making at the Wow Flower Card Class.
Remember: the Class is September 19th at 10am and 6:30pm
RSVP with Payment by September 10th
Cost is $15

Wow flower class samples

Here are two of the cards we will be making in the Wow Flower Class. One of the things that I love about this set is that it contains both birthday and thank you sentiments!

If you want to get a better look at the cards just click on them and you can see them better.

Wow Flowers Class

Here is a picture of the purse and four cards that we will be making at the Wow Flowers Class! this set will make a great gift for yourself or someone else!

September 19th 10am and 6:30pm
Cost $15
RSVP with Payment by September 10th

this is a close up of the purse it's self!

Over the next couple days I'll post pictures of each card. At this class you will get to play with many different products including the crop-o-dile, jumbo eyelets, 10 different punches, rhinestone brads and the new in colors.

Free hand with the coluzzle blade

I'm loving this Happiness Always set. It seems to be the one that I grab when I can't seem to get inspired. On this card I used my coluzzle blade to cut a curve free hand. I tried to do it with scissors first but it just didn't give the look I wanted so I did it with the coluzzle blade and I think I like it. The card base is Kiwi Kiss, then I put a strip up more mustard on the edge of the inside of the card so you can see it from the front. The leaves in the background were stamped with Kiwi Kiss. The butterflies were stamped with more mustard first then the detail layer was stamped with Tangerine Tango. The sentiment is from the occasions hostess set (I don't love the images in that set, but the words are great) and is stamped in Kiwi Kiss.

Retired Sets for Sale

I still have several retired stamp sets for sale. Some are slightly used, some are brand new! They are approx. 50% off the catalog price. If you are interested in any of them let me know.

Make it Count (num) $10
Sweet Dreams (num) $10
Polka Dots & Paisleys $9
alphabits $9
sidekick sayings $10
Christmas Carolers $9f
ine frames $7
Wishing you$10
So much $15
Friends & Flowers simply scrappin kit $10
purely pomegrante stamp pad $3
blue bayou stamp pad $3

Happy Anniversary

Today is my Mother and Father-In-Law's wedding anniversary. This is the card I made for them. The base is Riding Hood Red, with chocolate chip and blush blossom. I colored the flower from the pretties kit using riding hood red and my aqua painter. I think this is the easiest method unless you are doing mass quantities. I attached the flower using a rhinestone brad. Simple but very pretty.

Have you seen this card??

This was one of the first cards I made with Wow Flowers. I really love how the flowers are really more like shapes than flowers. I think they are very funky. I paired Kiwi Kiss with really rust and chocolate chip for this card. Do you think it could be a man card or is the ribbon too girly?

New Catalog Try-it Clubs

There are so many great new accesories in the new catalog that it would break the bank to get them all. So I'm going to offer three different try-it clubs. In each of the clubs you will get a sampling of the product. The price includes tax and shipping to my house. Let me know if you have any questions

Paper Club (1 6x6 of each design)
Cost $13.50

Urban Garden
Bella Rose
Washington Apple
Green Tea
Holiday Treasures
Ghostly Greeting
Prestwick

Accessories Club
Cost $10.50

Button Bouquet (5 buttons)
Clips Assortment (4)
Designer Brads (1 of each, 8 total)
Flower Fusion Too (20 flowers)

Ribbon Club (2 yards of each)
Cost $11.50

5/8" Striped Grossgrain Red Riding Hood
5/8" Striped Grossgrain Pink Pirouette
5/8" Striped Grossgrain Baja Breeze
5/8" Striped Grossgrain Pacific point
5/8" Striped Grossgrain Tangerine Tango
5/8" Striped Grossgrain Kiwi Kiss


Join All three clubs and save!!! If you join all three the cost is $30

How cute is this monkey??

Here is a card using lots of new stuff. To make the monkey I stamped him using chocolate chip ink on whisper white cardstock, then I stamped him again onto so saffron dsp. I cut out the body of the monkey from the dsp and adhered it to the whisper white cardstock using liquid glue. Then I colored the rest of the monkey in with markers. This techniques is called Paper Piecing. I think it works really well with the monkey. I used the scalloped edge punch on the so saffron dsp on the edge. The chocolate ribbon is a scrap that was lying on my table, it wasn't long enough to tie around the chocolate cardstock so I just tied it into a knot and used a glue dot to put it where I wanted it.

Garden Whimsy--New to me

I know many of you are salavating for more samples of the new stuff--well Garden Whimsy is new to me. I have wanted it since the first time I saw it but for some reason I kept spending my money on cool tools and punches instead of stamp sets. Last month I entered a drawing by supmitting samples to my up-up-upline and I won a free stamp set so this is the one I chose. I love it. It is so easy to use!

I did use the new scalloped edge punch on this card and a little bit of Kiwi kiss. The colors are real red, kiwi kiss, summer sun and taken with teal. It just gives me a happy feeling to look at it!


This card uses taken with teal and real red with a little bit of black to ground it.

New Catalog Party Samples

Here are three of the four cards we made at Friday's New Catalog Party. We had a great time stamping and ohhing and ahhing over the new stuff. If you weren't able to make it to the party but want a copy of the catalog make sure to contact me, you might be eligible for a FREE catalog.

I love this card, it is so bright and cheery and easy!! I've never been one for a lot of layers but I think all the different color cardstock looks great!
Stamps: Happiness Always
Ink: chocolate chip, tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, pacific point
paper: tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, pacific point, whisper white
accessories: silver brads

The circles are really big in this catalog. It must be the "new thing". So we used the coluzzle to make this circle then paper pierced around it.

Stamps: Heard from the Heart

Ink: baja breeze

Paper: pink pirouette, baja breeze, whisper white, apricot appeal dsp

Accessories: scalloped edge punch, coluzzle, paper piercer

This card was simple, and beautiful. I wanted to make a card with some of our traditional colors just to remember that all of our colors are beautiful!!

Stamps: Wow flowers

Ink: bashful blue, always artichoke, close to cocoa

Paper: always artichoke, close to cocoa, confetti cream, bashful blue dsp

accessories: mellow moss ribbon

Scalloped Edge Punch Ric Rac--and a childhood memory

Okay so the card is not my favorite but I wanted to show it anyway because I used the scalloped edge punch to create this paper ric rac. I love ric rac, it makes me think of the great clothes my granny used to make for me when I was little. My favorite was an orange, green and pink plaid shirt with green ric rac along the edge of the shirt. It really shouldn't even be called a shirt because it was just a piece of fabric shaped like a trapezoid and that tied around my neck and behind my back. Pretty saucy for a six year old now that I think about it. But I loved that shirt. Okay so the card isn't that great but it brought back a great childhood memory and uses lots of new stuff so it was worth posting!

Stamp Set: Occasions
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss
cardstock: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: scalloped edge punch, scalloped circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, 3/4 circle punch, dimensionals

some of the in colors this year are bright

I'm not Bold Bright's number one fan, and when I first saw some of the new in colors for the next year I immediately thought "Bold Brights, I'll never use them." Well, never say never. These three colors; pacific point, tangerine tango and riding hood red are vibrant but they have deeper hues than a lot of the bold brights colors. There is not another color I can compare pacific point to. I think it's a perfect boy color. any way I guess it doesn't hurt to try new things even if you don't think you'll like it. As it turns out I do like bright colors.

Stamp: Happiness Always, occasions (both hostess sets)

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point, Riding hood Red

Paper: Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point, Riding hood red

Accessories: Small and large oval punch

Something old and Something New

here is a card that I made using a new stamp set and retired ribbon and paper. Sometimes it's fun just to rummage through the scrap bin and see what you can find.

The stamp set is Happiness Always, which is only available if you host a workshop

Ink: Groovy Guava (I will really miss this color) Chocolate chip, old olive

Paper: Groovy Guava cardstock, DSP retired, sahara sand

Accessories: groovy guava ribbon

I will be selling my retired stamp sets and incolor stamp pads, cardstock and ribbon at my party Friday night. We will also be doing a few projects and of course there will be the star of the event the new catalog. It's Friday at 6:30p, call or email to RSVP.

New Stamp Sets on Sale

Stampin' UP! is offering a 15% discount on some of the new never before seen sets!! This offer is good until September 30th on the following sets.

Item Code Pg. # Description Regular Price 15% off Price
111690 32 Snow Swirled $24.95 $21.21
111586 55 It's a Stretch $23.95 $20.36
111544 81 Putt Putt $24.95 $21.21
111626 91 Eastern Blooms $21.95 $18.66
111672 98 Pocket Silhouettes $18.95 $16.11
111710 101 Upsy Daisy $18.95 $16.11
111556 109 Under the Stars $29.95 $25.46
111644 145 Heard from the Heart $22.95 $19.51
111570 157 Contempo Alphabet $40.95 $34.81
109381 23 Felicidades Siempre* $17.95 $15.26

The new catalog is online!!!!! Click here to view it online!!

Heard from the Heart

Stamps: heard from the heart
Ink: pacific point and baha breeze
Cardstock: whisper white, pacific point

Stamps: heard from the heart, sock monkey

Ink: Tangerine tango, chocolate chip

Cardstock: tangerine tango, whisper white, chocolate chip

Accessories: 1 1/4 circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, scalloped circle punch, blender pens

Well I think most of you know how much I love simple one layer cards. Sometimes the stamps are just enough. Although neither of these officially fall into the category of one layer, they are close. I added a layer of Pacific point cardstock behind the card on top. I love the Pacific point color. It's not like any other color stampin' up offers.

On the second card I did make the cupcake pop by using my favorite punches and stampin' dimensional. I colored the cupcake by dipping my blender pen into the ink and coloring like a marker.

Both of these cards are very easy to make--I hope you will try.

Wow Flowers.

Stamp:Wow flowers

Ink and card stock: tangerine tango, kiwi Kiss

accessories" scalloped circle punch, circle punch

Stamp set: Wow flowers

Ink: Pirouette Pink, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Riding hood Red, Pacific Point, Baja Breeze Cardstock :Whisper White, Pirouette Pink

I think this maybe one of my favorite new sets. It's cheap, easy to use and versatile. It comes with four stamps (two flowers, birthday wishes, thank you). It's every thing you need to get started. This set and a couple of ink pads would be great for a beginner stamper.

I'm in love with the Sock Monkey

I was playing with some of my new stamps (one of the perks of being a demo is that you get to preorder some of the new stuff!!) and I've discovered that I love this little monkey. You have to know that I had my own sock monkey as a child, and a few years ago I made sock monkeys for my nieces and nephews for Christmas (7 total). So I had an immediate fondness for this image. One of the things that I love about it is that in the new catalog there is an accessories stamp set. You can put Easter bunny ears or a Santa hat on the monkey. How fun!!!!

The two samples show here use a retired designer paper (I don't remember what it was called). The top card I used paper piecing technique. Which basically means that I stamped the monkey on the kraft cardstock, then I stamped the monkey on the patterned paper. Then I cut the patterned paper and glued it on the monkey where I wanted it. This creates a great look, but I don't really love cutting so I don't use it very often. Of course I used my paper snips, without those I don't think I would even attempt this technique (or maybe I'm just getting spoiled with my tools).

The second sample I colored the monkey in with markers. Then I stamped the cupcake on a scrap of whisper white, colored and cut it out. I adhered it with a stampin' dimensional.

New Catalogs on the Right

Make sure to check out the right side of the blog. I've put links to several of the new catalogs. There is the Fall/Winter Sampler; this catalog give you a peak at some of the hot new items in the catalog. There is also the Big Shot catalog that shows the Big Shot, die, and sample projects. I can't wait to play with this new toy!! I've also placed a link to the decor elements catalog. This product is like great big rub-ons for your wall. This is the first phase, I've seen a few samples from convention of more to come. I'd love to hear what you think of some of Stampin' Up!'s new products.

Your Business, Your Way!

Stampin' Up! is offering a great way for you to start your own business with this mini kit for only $99. It includes all of your business supplies and you get to choose what area of the business you want to focus on; stamping, scrapbooking or home decor.

If you'd rather go with the traditional starter kit, you can pick on additional set out of the sampler catalog for FREE!!.

This is a card I made quickly the other night. I was playing with my new in colors and one of the Level 2 hostess sets. The set is a two step set with flowers and butterflies and two sentiments. I really like it. It's very versitile.

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss

Stampin' UP! Retired Accessories List

There are lots of accessories on the retired list this year, some are on sale. When they are gone, they are gone. So check the list by clicking on the link below.

Retired Accessories list