Meee-ow!

My Aunt Dee is one of my favorite people in the world! She's so friendly and helpful and caring. She definitely always makes you feel like the absolute most important person in the room. (Which can be tough in my family, with my dad and his 4 brothers and sisters, their spouses and children, plus me, my husband, my brother & his family.... there's a lot of people to contend with!) She's the best! I don't get to see her as often as I'd like, but she loves cats, and has an orange one. So, I made her a cute kitty card using a new set from the 2009-2010 Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog.

Cat Card for Dee
Stamp Set: C is for Cat
Cardstock: Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
DSP: Cottage Wall
Stamp Pads (Classic): More Mustard, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive
Accessories/Tools: Circle Scissors Plus, Wide Oval Punch, Corner Rounder, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain

I love it! I am also proud to say I picked out the colors all on my own! (I can tend to be tied to my Stampin' Color Coach Wheel most of the time). The Circle Scissors Plus is not working 100% accurately for me. I always end up with a little tail, much like on this card. Though, I'm sure it's not the actual Circle Scissors.... it's probably more user error than anything. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them! :)

Total CASE from Stampin' Success

As a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I get a free subscription to Stampin' Success, a magazine full of business ideas, card ideas, and other good Stampin' Up! information. Usually I admire the cards in the magazine, then put it in my magazine rack and forget about it. Well, this month I saw a card I just HAD to make. In the magazine, this layout was used to feature a mosaic design tutorial. I don't care so much about doing a mosaic on my card, but I thought the large flower was so cute! I just had to CASE (Copy And Share Everything) it!

Big Flower Thank You

Stamp Set: Trendy Trees

Cardstock: Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
DSP: Thoroughly Modern
Stamp Pads (Classic): Crushed Curry, Soft Suede
Accessories/Tools: Circle Scissors Plus, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Crushed Curry ribbon

I love how it turned out! Maybe this is a technique I can teach in my new Hostess Club - circles or punches or something like that. At any rate, it made a super cute thank you card, one I desperately needed to send to a customer for an order. :)

Old Meets Noveau

My friend Andrea and I cleaned and organized my stamping area last week. She couldn't stand the mess! (It really didn't bother me all that much). Anyway, the result was nicely organized-by-color scraps in Ziploc baggies. It is actually quite handy! Thanks Andrea!

While we were cleaning out my big pile o' paper, I found a 1/2 made card that I never finished. It was the card below. I had the base, the scalloped layer and the DSP layer all done, but I never finished it! I whipped up this cute card using a new stamp set called Chic Boutique.

Old Meets Noveau

Stamp Set: Chic Boutique
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Whisper White
DSP: Sweet Always (and how I miss you so!)
Stamp Pads (Classic): Stazon Black, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip (mostly for blender-penning)
Accessories/Tools: Crushed Curry Stampin' Write marker, Scallop Edge punch, Scallop Oval punch, Large Oval punch, Masterpiece ribbon originals

This card is cute, and serves its purpose as - yet another! - thank you card. BUT, it makes me desperately miss the Sweet Always paper. I only have but scraps left (which are now organized, thanks to Andrea!), but it was definitely one of my faves from the old catalog. I don't think I like any of the new paper as much ....... YET! :)

Keep your eyes peeled for 5K blog candy coming soon!

Trendy Trees in In-Colors

I just can't seem to get in a rhythm with stamping and blogging, which seems weird because I'm on summer break and don't have a lot of other pressing issues! I guess the running, the painting of the whole house (my wish) from top to bottom, going on vacation, having visitors, cleaning the house, and just plain sitting around gets in the way.

I did have a few uninterrupted, solid hours of stamping last night. I made many thank you cards (after all, they are what I use the most). I have pictures of them all taken. I shall post every day for the rest of this week! (I hope...) Here's my first:

Trendy Trees
Stamp Set: Trendy Trees
Cardstock: Rich Razzlberry, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
DSP: Cottage Wall
Stamp Pads (Classic): Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede
Accessories/Tools: Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker, Word Window punch, Rich Razzleberry grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals

I love this card. I think it's cute, it's fresh, it is getting me used to the new In Colors. But mostly, I love this card because I finally figured out a way to use Trendy Trees and not get upset that the leaves weren't lining up with the trunks! (I don't have a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig.... they scare me!) So, for this card, I stamped the trunks on the base Whisper White. Then on scrap Whisper White, I stamped the leaves, cut them out, colored in the trunk area with the Soft Suede Marker, then popped them up on the card using dimensionals. This is totally how I am going to use this set from now on. Frustrations be gone!

I'm working on ideas for a Christmas card class coming up. I want to call it "2-4-6-8 Christmas Cards" and I hope to meet for 4 months - Aug through Nov - to make a few at a time and get our cards done! The details are still being worked out - as are the samples (many of which I plan to make using the cute stamps from the Holiday Mini, which I don't have yet) - but once I get the details and the samples done, I'll post here for a sneak peek! I'm excited about Christmas in July, even though I'm thoroughly bummed at how fast the summer is going. :-(

Mid-July ALREADY?!

What happened to the summer? It seems like it is flying by, waaaay too fast, which is evident by my lack of posting. Jeepers. Vacations, painting the living room, workshops, open house -- things just got in the way!

Here's an oldie but goodie. I made this at a workshop last month to show the versatility of the Simply Scrappin' kit. I love how this kit coordinates with Best Wishes & More (which I got free at the Mpls Regional this year).

Simply Scrappin Card
Stamp Set: Best Wishes and More
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
DSP: None
Simply Scrappin Kit: Petal Party
Stamp Pads (Classic): Pumpkin Pie, Pink Passion
Accessories/Tools: 1/4" Pumpkin pie Grosgrain ribbon

Simple and pretty. I ended up sending this one to my mom. She loved it - so much so that she said she's ordering a variety pack of cards from me! I'll probably just make them and give them to her for Christmas or something. Or maybe start a side business. She knows lots of people, she could be my marketing executive! :)