Paisley Pumpkins

Another awesome contribution from the Sneak peak Holiday Mini night with my upline Liz ... I love the combination of all the sneak peak items she combined here as well .... all are from the Holiday mini - Stampin' Up really out did themselves this time with the selection and Liz put the card design together to totally rock the Halloween theme!

Personally I wish the tradition of Halloween card sending would increase the same as Xmas cards cause well these are TOO much fun to make man!

Sensational Swaps

One of the thing I LOVE about Stampin' Up! is the wonderful supportive and collaborative nature of the business - you never feel truly 'alone' in your endeavors! Our team meetings are always inspirational and we get to do card swaps to showcase and play with products we might not yet have purchased - this card is a prime example of how AWESOME getting to do swaps is!

The card is designed by Liz Goldhawk my upline and features the Stamp set Merry Crittermas from our Holiday mini which rolls out WEDNESDAY with some awesome new products I cannot wait to add to my collection! The paper is also from the Holiday mini called Candy Cane Christmas and the new Rectangle Scallop Duo Bigz die is also featured as well as the 2 1/2 inch circle punch. It is such a cutie!

On Dasher

This card features our Dasher Stamp set and the Reverse Masking Technique.

I paired this with Snow Swirled snowflake stamped in Old Olive on Old Olive card stock to create the background paper.

I also created my own designer paper ribbon using a piece of stamped Whisper White card stock and ran it through the Crimper to give it some texture - sentiment is punched out using our new Decorative Label Punch from the Holiday mini!

Inspired by Nature in the Fall

Prepared this card for Lisa's workshop tomorrow featuring the Inspired by Nature stamp set, a faux water colouring technique with the colours Cajun Craze and More Mustard cone flower with Always Artichoke pedals and grass and a Chocolate chip card stock.

Also snuck in a sneak peak from the Holiday mini ... the Decorative Label punch which I paired with the Curly label punch for a layered technique and idea I CASED from my upline Liz Goldhawk! Thanks Liz - love this together!

More Run for the Cure Cards

This first card is one of the cards from the Stamp for the Cure fundraiser afternoon hosted by Caroline Locke. Done up using the Elegant Bouquet and scallop circle punch and the 1 3/4 circle punch and the Ribbon of Hope with Pretty and Pink.

So I chose to CASE the initial card - which means to copy and share elsewhere - I wondered what it would look like with some Bling ... so I changed the orientation of the next card and glittered up the embossed flowers on the Elegant Bouquet!

Run for the Cure Hybrid Series - part five

This card for the Run for the Cure card set is the final in the hybrid series set I created for this week. Featuring the Elegant lines embossing folder and the Boho Blossoms punch. The Boho Blossoms are sponged with Pretty in Pink ink. I used the I wear Pink and Hope Ribbon stamps from the Breast Cancer Awareness Flourishes stamp set.

Run for the Cure Hybrid Series - part four

Pink Flamingos anyone?

Not to sure what the Flamingo has to do with Breast Cancer awareness - other than he is cute and pink but this is stamp number 4 in the Breast Cancer Flourishes set. I was also able to include a few more sentiments in this card by making use of the new Decorative Label Punch from the upcoming Holiday mini ... so the I wear pink sentiment paired with the for my and the friend stamp is a stand alone stamp which can be swapped out for numerous other more specific relationships.

The background paper was made with Pretty in Pink ink and the Ribbon of Hope sentiment.

The Bigz Die Oval was used again to create the frame for the flamingo ... and some pink glitter to bling him up :)

Run for the Cure Hybrid Series - part three

This shirt stamp is another fun one in the set! The stamp itself is 'blank' outline of the shirt and I paired it with the ribbon of hope. I also used the larger ribbon of hope to create a specialty background paper.

I was able to try out my new Bigz dies the Scallop Oval which I used the middle for this card and kept the scallop frame for another and I paired it with the Ovals Bigz die! I also used the 1 inch and 1 1/4 inch circle punches again for the I wear pink sentiment!

Run for the Cure Hybrid Series - part two

After a lovely day of shopping with my sister here in NY - where I got some awesome deals off my wish list! I thought I would take a moment to share another card - the joy of technology that I can be here on vacation and still sharing my stampin' passion with others! I downloaded these cards to my laptop before I left and even brought some water colouring images and my Stamp Write markers and aqua painter so I can create here too ..... cause creating is a vacation in of itself ;)

So without further ado here is another installation for my Run for the Cure - Pink themed card set ... I love the flowing dress from this stamp set- fun to water colour and hard to see but I blinged it up for a night on the town with some GLITTER always fun to add glitter!

Run for the Cure Hybrid Series

OK ... this card is a hybrid meaning that it features both Stampin' up! products ....including the new Decorative Label punch from the Holiday mini ....as well as the Fight like a Girl stamp set from the Breast Cancer Foundation which has been water coloured with my Stamp Write Markers and aqua painter and Pretty in Pink marker and Melon Mambo shading!

These are cards I am going to be packaging up and selling to raise funds for the Run for the Cure on October 3rd. The inside of the card is blank so that it can be used for any occasion .... and there are several more in the collection for another day ;)

A Wicked Cool Halloween

More fun with Halloween treasures!

Here are some sneak peeks from the Holiday mini Halloween collection! The Spider web embossing folder - used on vellum card stock for that wispy spider web look, the Bitty Bat punch and the Black Lace Trim - very pretty ribbon. The Spider stamp is from Batty for You and punched with a 1 inch circle punch and the Witches feet are from the new Wicked Cool stamp set ... looking forward to some more playing with this set!

Woodland Walk Scrapbooking

Here is a layout from my upline Liz's scrapbook class - fun with chipboard and the crop-o-dile! I am loving getting some of my really OLD photos finally blinged up in a scrapbook and out of the ole shoebox!

This designer series paper is so cute ... nice colours for a variety of seasons and occasions!

Technique Tuesday classes - Dryer Sheet

Only a crafty women can find a way to turn a dryer sheet into something FUN! I do not know the origin of this wonderful wicked women who actually made me excited to do laundry this weekend so I could accumulate a stash of bounce sheets - but kudos to her!

So here is our 6x6 technique card that we made to practices our technique with the dryer sheet and get our stamping muscles flexed before jumping into our cards!

Here is our first card that we made featuring Lovely as a Tree and Teeny Tiny wishes stamp set ... with a Night of Navy and Old Olive colour combo.

And our second card features the Snow Swirled Stamp set ... with a Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive colour combo.

I hope everyone had a great time at the class and learned something new to take home- I totally LOVE the energy of creating with a group of awesome ladies and am now all pumped up for more creating this week - so thanks ladies!

A Rose by any other name

This is my first attempt at the 'Ornament Rose' .... it uses the Stampin' Up ornament punch and each ornament shape is sponged around the edges and than curled to give it the 3D look and than glued onto a 1/34 circle to put it together.

Actually a quick and easy flower to make although it turned out a little larger than I had anticipated it would - the Stampin' Up! tutorial called for 18 punched ornaments and I think I ended up using almost 24 by the time I was done - typical of my style though - why use only 18 when 24 will do!

I used my favorite ticket corner punch as well and than for the first time I was inspired to try and use a paper piercer to give a little dimension to my paper layer - what a lot of fun that is - very therapeutic relaxation for any women who has stress in their life ... I am thinking the paper piercer will be making more appearances on my cards!

And what about those dainty half back pearls? Do they not just give it that subtle elegance?

I stamped an envelope out of habit - but in hindsight I am thinking that this card would work awesome as a 'bow / gift tag combo' on a gift for someone special!

I am planning on making up some of these to sell for the 'Run for the Cure' fund-raising for our Bold and Boobiful team! You can check out more about the Run for the Cure here!

Circle Circus

Shhh .... I spent a little time this morning playing with my toys instead of doing my chores ... don't tell on me :)

This is a beautiful card that my upline demonstrated at a technique class a while back - featuring the Chrystal effects and Circle Circus stamp set ... I LOVE this stamp set - it is so much fun!!!!

So for my birthday I bought the 'digital download' of it for My Digital Studio .... and decided this morning to play with it trying to 'recreate' a traditional inspired card using the program. What fun!

Front of the Digital version:

Inside of the digital version...

Yup - if I were not already sold on the versatility of the My Digital Studio to create with I would be now ... definitely FUN!!

My Digital Garden ...

A huge thank you to my awesome crew today for taking a nice long nap which allowed me a little bit of time to get scrapping my garden photos from this summer!

I am loving learning more and more about what the My Digital Studio can do - and was excited to download some new stamps and ribbon accents this past weekend - happy birthday to me!

I created all the flower embellishments in the layouts using DIGITAL PUNCHES and layering them up .... was even able to recreate a digital version of the 'butterfly pansies' using the butterfly punch template ... I was pretty proud of that one!

Bare with me :)

But I just have to share one more Greeting Card Kid card sample ... this one is technically supposed to be a 'Valentine' inspired stamp set - however the one thing I LOVE about the creative license of stamping ....you can change up the colours and accents and make a stamp set do whatever you want it to!

So this is a Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive inspired sending warm greetings for Fall card I created ... cause I am just not ready to be thinking about Valentines yet :)

Back to School

Here is another card sample using the Greeting Card Kids stamp set - featuring a back to school theme...are they not the sweetest little pair of kiddies?

I think the the vintage colour scheme of Cherry Cobbler , Basic Black and Whisper White are just screaming 'old school days' :)

I also figured out how to make a new a personalized watermark logo using the MDS program instead of Paint ... so much cuter than the plain text I think!

More Halloween Cards ...

I am just totally loving this card set .... so much I could not wait for October to start playing with it! I love the water colouring - it is so relaxing and reminds me of simple times of being a kid and turning something plain into something spectacular :)

The sentiment and spider web are from a clear mount stamp set from another company purchased before I was addicted to Stampin' Up products ;)

Halloween colour inspirations used in this card are Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Certainly Celery and Basic Black.

Used the Elements of Style vines to mimic pumpkin vines on the Razzleberry paper layer.

Mojo Monday 150 Challenge

Anyone who knows me will attest that I love a good challenge ... so I think it will be no surprise that now that I have stumbled across this awesome website group that I am going to get addicted to the weekly Mojo Monday challenge :)

Below is my inspiration based on this weeks challenge - a Christmas card featuring Stampin' Up! Greeting Card kids stamp set, Snow Swirled and Serene Snowflake Stamp set. I also coloured the Whisper White taffeta ribbon with my Cherry Cobbler marker to make my bow - as I did not have a ribbon that matched and wanted one and the Whisper White ribbon did not 'pop' enough for me!

Hope you like it :)

MDS Halloween Card

Playing some more with My Digital Studio this weekend ... wonderful weather for sitting on the deck :)