More from the Spring/Summer Card Buffet!

One more sample from my Card Buffet!  Another CASED idea from the Fall-Winter 2008 IB&C.  Really like the Brights now that I am being forced to use them!!!  Should've tried them sooner!

Another Card Buffet Card

This is another Card Buffet card CASED from the Fall - Winter 2008 IB&C using retiring colors!  I love the color combo for spring/summer card giving!  Organic Grace is the stamp set and I always used with more earth tone colors, but I am liking it with the brights!  What do you think?

Card Buffet Card

Since SU! has decided to have a Color Renovation, I have been going through my cardstock stash and creating cards for my next Card Buffet using outgoing colors.  The next few days I will share cards with you that I CASED from the Fall-Winter 2008 IB&C.  Again, I have adjusted some of the colors to meet my Color Renovation needs.  Enjoy!

Last Hostess Club Card

This is the last card that we made at our Friday Night Hostess Club last week.  I followed the same techniques from the blue butterfly card with one additional step.  After sanding, I went back over the embossed image with Close to Cocoa ink to give it an antiqued look.  While the butterfly card was clean and fresh looking, this one is a little more rustic!  The paint for this card is also Apple Barrel Acrylic but in Light Leaf Green.  The ribbon is Soft Suede Polka Dot and the base is Night of Navy.  I know it looks black in the photo but it is blue.  I liked the green, blue and brown combo.  I am trying to stretch out of my comfort zone with colors. While these are favorite colors, I usually don't use them together!  Enjoy!

More Cards to Share

Well, the ladies had fun on Friday night at our hostess club!  I promised that I would share more of the cards that we were going to make.  Here is one of them.  I have fallen in love with the Big Shot machine!! I used the Top Note die and Whisper White cardstock to create the background. Then I ran the Top Note die through the Big Shot again with the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder.  I took Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint in Cloudless and painted over the entire image.  I did two coats because I wanted a strong blue image.  Then, I lightly sanded the embossed image to reveal the flowers in white.  I tied a piece of Whisper White Taffeta ribbon around it and added one simple butterfly to top it off. I mounted this on a Basic Gray cardstock base. I did not put any sentiments on this card.  Lots of the ladies in club like to add their own or leave it blank so that they can use it for whatever occasion they need it for!  I hope that you like it!

Hostess Club Card Sneak Peek

This is the card that we will be making at our monthly hostess club tonight!  I CASED it from the SU! Summer Mini that starts May 1.  I think that the ladies are going to love it!  We get together once a month to stamp, share a meal and have a relaxing Friday night!  We do a lot of laughing and sharing our stories from the previous month.  I always look forward to spending the night with everyone! I will share the other cards tomorrow!  Hope that your Friday is a great one!

Teacher Gift Set

What a practical (and stylish) end of the year teacher gift!!!  This gift set includes a clipboard, paperclip holder, post it note holder, and notepad & pen.  All matching of course!  Urban Garden Designer Series Paper is a retired SU! product but I love the big, bold flowers and the color combination!  As a full time teacher, I would love to give and receive a gift like this!  This is another class that I will be offering throughout May and June.  It is a great class for a mom or dad to bring the child along to assist with their teacher's gift don't you think?

Graduation Card

Can you believe that graduation season is coming upon us so quickly?  Wouldn't your grad love to get this homemade card!?  This is the Happy Grad stamp that will be available in the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini Catalog.  The Bravo Burgundy background paper is embossed with the new SU! Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder which also available in the new Summer Mini!  This card will be featured in my Card Buffet class that will be held several times throughout May and June.  Contact me if you are interested in attending. 

I GOT AWAY!

I got away this past weekend with some of my SU! teammates and lots of other SU! demos at The RemARKable Retreat!  This is another one of the make and takes that we did while we were there!  I am really loving this new Designer Series Paper called Sentimental Journey.  It will be available starting May 1 in the new SU! Summer Mini Catalog!  The weekend was so much fun filled with tons of stampin' and some scrappin' too!  I even got a headstart on my Christmas cards!  Keep an eye out for a sample soon!

Black and White

Here is the first one! I promised to show you projects from my weekend SU! event!  These are 12 x 12 scrapbook pages.  I love how they turned out! They are very simple, clean and neat.  I am going to try to find some good black and white photos to add to them.  Since we have been going through old family photos lately that shouldn't be too difficult. Enjoy!

FUN WEEKEND!

Got back at around dinner time on Sunday from my weekend of stamping and creating with my SU! team!  What a fun time!  I enjoyed getting to see some old friends from around the country and got to meet some new ones!  Lots of fabulous ideas, great conversation and sharing, wonderful food and really fun tablemates!  I got to sit with my new friends Amy and Jean from South Carolina and my SU! teammate Nicole!  We had a lot of laughs and the time passed sooo quickly. It is amazing how well you get to know someone when you sit with them at a table for almost 72 hours straight!  I think that maybe Amy and I may have been separated at birth! Amy's mom Jean reminded me so much of my mom!  I couldn't have picked better tablemates!
It really was a realxing, enjoyable weekend!  I am totally exhausted, but energized about all of the wondeful projects and new products that SU! has coming our way!  I am looking  forward to sharing some of those tomorrow!

Teammates!

I am looking forward to spending some time with my Stampin' Up! teammates this weekend!  I am sure that I will have lots of new ideas and projects to share next week!  It always a fun time!  I hope that you all have a great weekend!

Calendar Creation

This is the calendar that we created at one of my classes.  I will be hosting it again in a few weeks.  I love the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper!  It is nice and bright!  Good for spring and summer projects.  I also like the fact that the calendar is perpetual.  Everything is on magnets and when the month changes all you need to do is shift the dates around. You may be thinking, where are the rest of the months?  They are hidden on the back!  What an ingenious hiding spot that my friend Dee discovered!  This is a great gift for everyone......you can pick papers that fit anyone's style! Enjoy!

Flower Jars!

My daughter wanted something to put on her desk for utensil storage.  I just picked up these jars at the Flower Warehouse.  Only $1.95 each!  Aren't they great summer/spring colors!? I dug out some of my old rub-ons to dress them up.  She was very happy with them and they are already on her desk!  I was also planning to use some of them on the deck for candle holders.  I really seem to be loving all things flowers lately!  Maybe it is the season!!!

Baby Girl Card

This is the first time that I have used my Fox and Friends set.  The monkey is so adorable! The bib part of the card was inspired by my teammate Jill.  It made a great baby shower card.  My cousin is expecting and we went to her shower on Saturday.  This was the card that I gave to her. The scallop circle Big Shot die made it so easy to recreate a bib shape. I used the slit punch to hold a Target gift card on the inside. I will definitely be making more of these cards!

Chocolate Bunny

I made these cute little chocolate bunny plant sticks for the Easter flowers that we bought for our family and neighbors.  I just love the Chocolate Bunny stamp!  I did emboss him with Chocolate Chip Craft Ink but it is hard to see in the picture.  They did turn out really cute and the recipients loved them too!

Family Photo Blocks

This is one of the photo blocks that we will be making in a class later in April!  I found some old black and white photos of me as a baby.  The first one is my beloved Italian grandmom holding me.  She was the only grandparent that I ever knew growing up.  She lived to be 92 years young.  What a lady she was!  She lived in her own home and kept a yard that was unbelievable until she passed in 1997.  You name it and she grew it. Flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, walnut trees, fig trees!  It seemed like everything that Grandmom put into the ground flourished.  All of us grandkids were always loved by our teachers on Monday mornings when we showed up with gorgeous bouquets of flowers freshly picked after Sunday dinner at her house. They were better than any bouquet that you could buy in a flower shop.  My Grandmom came to the U.S. from Italy when she was 8 years old.  She loved everything about the U.S. and cherished her schooling.  She would recite poetry that she learned in her one room school house until her death.  Even though some recent memories were not as strong for her, her early years were still very clear to her.  I think because it was so important to her and she was so grateful to come here to live.  Grandmom soaked up everything that life in the U.S. could offer to her in the early 1900's.  Education and family were number one!  I miss her dearly.

The next photo is one of my brother and sister and my handsome dad holding me!  I assume that my mom was taking this picture.  That is somewhat ironic because my dad was the official photographer in the family.  We have soooo many slides and pictures from our childhood thanks to my dad.  I love this picture because it looks like everyone is so calm and happy.  I wonder what the house was like just before and after the photo was taken?  With a 10 year old, a 9 year old and a newborn I am sure that it was exciting!  My brother and sister look pretty happy despite the fact that they really wanted a puppy and ended up with a little sister! Happy Easter to all of you!  Enjoy your families and cherish your time spent with them. 

Terrific Tiles!

These tiles were a lot of fun to make!  They are tumbled tiles that you can pick up at any home store.  They are not coated and are rough to the touch.  Truly tumbled tiles.....  This is the same texture paint that I used on the glass candle holder yesterday.  It looks so rustic on the tiles.  Wouldn't these be cute displayed in a kitchen or bath?  Since they do have dimension, you would have to be careful if you wanted to use it as a coaster.  You would also want to seal it if you were planning to use it as a coaster or hot plate.  There are so many different mediums that you can use on the tiles.  I will share more soon!  Enjoy!

Spring Flowers!!!!

It is a beautiful spring day here in Pennsylvania. Everything seems to have grown so much over the past few days after all of the rain! So, I thought that I would share another flower project! When I go shopping now, I look at things differently. I look at them to see what I can do to alter the original look! This glass candle holder came from Dollar Tree and was only $1.00! The flower stencil is from Stampin' Up! The dimension in the flower was created with texture paint from Michael's. I am happy with how it turned out for a first try. This would make a great teacher gift for the end of the school year, a Mother's Day gift, or maybe for friend that needs a pick-me-up! It can be filled with candy, shredded designer paper, or even a candle! Enjoy all that spring brings!