August Stamp Club #3

This was the third project we made for August Stamp Clubs. Simple, but I think pretty. I love that it uses my new favorite color, Baja Breeze and the new Upsy Daisy stamp set, currently on special for 15% off. One of the things I like about this stamp set is its versatility. It comes with thank you, birthday, and thinking of you type greetings, and there's so many techniques you can try with the silhouette image. The butterflies are from Flight of the Butterfly. They are cut out and glued onto the top note with the wings bent upwards for some dimension. Don't you just love this top note die cut? It's made exclusively for Stampin' Up! to use with the Sizzix Big Shot die cut machine, now carried by Stampin' Up! The new wide double-stitched ribbon is wonderful too.{Thank You recipe}
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Flight of the Butterfly
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Whisper White
Accessories: wide double-stitched ribbon in Baja Breeze, Big Shot, Top Note die cut

August Stamp Club #1 and Another Award

Yeah, I know, I didn't come back yesterday. That's because I had nothin' for ya! I finally finished my Stamp Club projects around 1:00 a.m. and had to go to bed. I was slow moving, out of my stamping groove. The good news is that I now have today's project, plus two other cards, and Saturday's Sketch (not started yet). So, there will be blog posts a-plenty for the next few days.


Anyway, I'm back and I want to share with you a project that all of my club members will make at their first meeting, some this month, others next. I decided that I would showcase each of the three Style Watches from the new IB&C. Actually, I decided this after two of my cards already did that by accident. Such a good planner I am. For those of you who don't know, Style Watches are collections of coordinated products that emphasize a current trend. The three current Style Watches are Sweet Bella (a vintage, country type collection), Eastern Eclectic (floral theme with an Asian twist), and Silhouette (keeping with the current trend of silhouette prints and patterns).

The first project showcases the Sweet Bella Style Watch. This is a little notebook club members can use for their wishlists, to do lists, notes, whatever. Many of my gals have notebooks from last year that they may want to continue to use, so I thought I'd leave this one flexible. They can give it whatever title they want or stamp their name on it. The main image is embossed and watercolored with blender pens and classic inks. You can barely see it, but there are butterflies on the pink background. The words are stamped with Simple Serif alphabet in Riding Hood Red, and it's all tied up with that yummy new Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon. The club members will make this with 1/4-inch pink grosgrain though, since 10 yards won't be enough for all my club members, but I wanted to show off the new ribbon so I used it on the sample. The ribbon is attached with Sticky Strip. That adorable checkered paper is from the Bella Rose Designer Series Paper.


When you open up the notebook, there's a small pad of lined paper inside. It's the perfect size to record a Stampin' Up! wishlist on, use for a grocery list, or a to do list.
The notebook is from a 5x8-inch pad of paper purchased Office Max or Office Depot. They usually come in packs of 6 or 12. The store has a machine that will cut the pads in half to create little 2.5x8-inch pad of paper, perfect for making lists, lists, and more lists. Office Max has cut these for me at no charge. Yesterday, at Office Depot, they charged me, but it was super cheap, $1.50 to cut 12 pads in half.
Now, as much as I would like to think I'm brilliant enough to come up with this on my own...of course, I didn't. I first saw these little notebooks ages ago on Michelle Wooderson's blog. You may remember I made myself a handy one to keep all my internet logins and passwords on. You can see that one here. Sadly, those logins and passwords are still located on a stack of sticky notes next to my computer because I haven't made up the labels for them yet. Someday. At least my photography has improved slightly. Speaking of which, I just order a light tent off of Ebay. Now that school is resuming and the typical rainy, overcast days are looming, I figured I needed a way to take those late night photos.

{Sweet Bella Notebook recipe}

Stamps: Dreams du Jour, Simple Serif

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose DSP

Accessories: Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon, black embossing powder, blender pens, sticky strip

Onto other news...While I was in California, Lynn Put left me an award on her blog. This is a fun trend. It just so happens, that every time I've gotten an award, I've been out of town. If that continues to be the case, I guess my next award should come around Christmas time.

I love the little logo for the award. It's so cute! Thanks, Lynn, for giving me this award. I {heart} your blog too. Have you visited Lynn's blog, The Queen's Scene? If not, what are you waiting for? She's got such fun ideas and makes the cutest cards, and I'm so excited she just joined the Great Swaps Girls 2 because now we get to swap together!

Here are the rules for playing:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog

2. Link the person you received your award from

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Put links of those blogs on yours

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

Since I've had a several awards in the last few months, I've nominated so many of the blogs I love already, so it's fun to be able to pick out blogs I haven't given other awards to yet. Here are my picks:

1. Jenn at Stamp Your Heart Out

2. Charmaine at Oodabugalley

3. Beate at Fresh & Fun

4. Cindy at The Creative Closet

5. Jen at I{heart}2Stamp

6. Julie at PoeticArtistry

7. Wendy at WeeBeeStampin'

Well, I guess I've made my blog quota for the day. Thanks to listening to my rambling.

Inspired By Nature

This is a super fast, super simple card using a new SU! set that I got for FREE at convention. It's called Inspired by Nature. This is the kind of card you can whip out in five minutes when you need a last minute birthday or thank you card, just change out the sentiment. The grass is stamped in Versamark, and the greeting and flowers are stamped in Chocolate Chip Craft ink. Then the whole thing is embossed with clear embossing powder. I actually only meant to emboss the flower, but I forgot I stamped the grass in Versamark, so when I dumped my embossing powder on, it stuck to the grass too. A happy mistake. I have to tell you, I made another card with this set that I just LOVE! But I'm not going to post it quite yet, because I think I'll be using it for my September Technique Class. Once I have both cards made for that class, then I'll post. {Live with Passion recipe}
Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip Craft
Paper: Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Clear embossing powder

Thanks for stopping by!

Deer Friends Convention Swap

I forgot to post this card when I got back from Convention. I made this card for a small swap with some of the Great Swaps Girls 2 who were attending convention also. I love this little Deer Friends stamp set. It's a new level 2 hostess set in the SU! Fall/Winter Idea Book & Catalog. You can't see it in the photo, but I added some crystal effects on the reindeer nose and stickles on the star topper and carrot nose. On my swaps, I had added stickles to my Santa. BIG mistake! He bled. The red ink just sort of spread out. I felt really bad that I had ruined my swaps. I couldn't even fix them because I was working from my hotel room the night before the swap. In this sample, I also popped up the red layer off of the white piece with the images. {Deer Friends Christmas recipe}

Stamps: Deer Friends, Heard from the Heart, Polka Dot

Ink: White Craft, Chocolate Chip Craft, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip,

Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White

Accessories: circle punch, chocolate taffeta ribbon, clear embossing powder, crystal effects, stickles, SU! markers in basic black, pumpkin pie, brocade blue, real red, old olive, summer sun, chocolate chip

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Santa Rosa, California to turn-in Addy, our fifth service puppy in training for Canine Companions for Independence. She's almost 17 months and ready to go off to "puppy college" so she can learn more about how to be a good service dog. It's always SO hard to let go of these dogs. We raised Addy's mom, who became a CCI breeder. We also raised Addy's half-sister (from our breeder's first litter), who decided the working life wasn't for her and is now our family pet. It's particularly hard to say goodbye to Addy. We feel like she's part of our family, especially since Tanith is her sister. At least we adopted Georgia, so Tanith won't be too lonely. Aren't they cute all snuggled up together?

I've scheduled a couple of posts for while I'm gone, including one for Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge.

July Inspiration Class

This month we will celebrate Christmas in July. Our featured stamp set for July's Inspiration class is The Snowflake Spot, which will sadly be retiring in August. I'd forgotten how much I love this stamp set until I started working with it again. I used a lot of inspiration and CASEd some ideas from SCS. Here's the set of cards we will make at class. {Red Cheers recipe}
Inspired by this card by Momscrzr on SCS
Stamps: The Snowflake Spot
Ink: Encore Silver, Real Red
Paper: PTI White, Real Red
Accessories: Clear embossing powder, Snowflake Cuttlebug folder, 5/8" red grosgrain ribbon{Gold Cheers recipe}
Inspired by this card by Annette Polsky on SCS
Stamps: The Snowflake Spot
Ink: Encore Gold, Versamark, Bravo Burgandy
Paper: PTI White, Bravo Burgandy, Brushed Gold
Accessories: Clear embossing powder, gold thread
{Ornament Joy recipe}
Inspired by this card by Kristina Werner
Stamps: The Snowflake Spot
Ink: Real Red Craft, Old Olive Craft, Brocade Blue Craft, Versamark, Basic Black
Paper: Kraft
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig {Snowflake Wreath recipe}
Inspired by this card by suzstamps on SCS
Stamps: The Snowflake Spot, Little Pieces
Ink: Mellow Moss, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Real Red
Paper: PTI White, Real Red, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Red satin ribbon (I might go back and add brads to the red flowers...){Soft Sky Cheers recipe}
Stamps: The Snowflake Spot
Ink: Soft Sky, Sage Shadow
Paper: Soft Sky, Sage Shadow, Certainly Celery, Wntergreen DSP (I think that's the name???)
Accessories: Soft Sky double-stitched ribbon, celery brads, nestibilities, corner rounder

{Blue Joy recipe}
Completely CASEd this card by Danielle Lounds, except I added the IRI embossing powder Stamps: The Snowflake Spot
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Versamark
Paper: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Accessories: Iridescent Ice embossing powder, White embossing powder, White taffeta ribbon, circle punches, slot punch, rhinestone brad, silver brad