Happy Birthday Dan!

Last night Andrew and I went over to his parent's house to celebrate his brother's birthday with the family. His birthday is not until Saturday but last night worked for most the family. This is the card I had made for him. I cased this card from Karen Graff-Provis (you can view her blog here). I just made a few changes on the card. I made this card a few weeks ago and forgot to write inside the card, so I left it on my stamp people before I left for work in the morning and planned on doing the inside when I got home from work, before we headed over to the in-laws. However when I got home Andrew said he had already finished the card and sealed the envelope, so I had no idea what he wrote on the inside. When Dan opened the card, Andrew tried to convince Dan that I wrote the card, but Dan knows his brother better than that. Andrew had written some smart comment inside, that only he could have come up with. I will need to ask Andrew what it was, because I can't remember now. There is always alot of laughing when Andrew and Dan get together they are have the typical brother relationship. Andrew constanting tries to pick on Dan and get him going, but being the younger brother, he never wins. It was a good night.

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Lovely As A Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Old Olive DS Prints
Accessories: Chocolate Chip 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch, 5/8" Brad, Corner Rounder, Stampin' Dimensionals

More Scrapbook Pages

I am so excited that I have been able to get lots of scrapbooking done recently. Here are another two pages that I created. I love the look of simple and clean pages. They come together fairly quickly and I get a sense of accomplishment. As you will notice I don't do alot of journalling I figure as long as the page has who, what, where and when I am happy with that. These pages use some paper from the Stampin' Up! Simply Scrappin Kit 'Best Ever' (now retired).

Scrapbooking

On my holidays recently I was able to spend some time scrapbooking. It was great to have lots of time that I could dedicate just to stamping and scrapbooking. It was so relaxing. I really need to set aside time to do this more often. The Christmas layout was cased from jaymemuc at Splitcoaststampers. The second layout was a sketch from a recent Creating Keepsakes magazine. I find it so much easier to scrapbook with sketches. Whenever I see a sketch I like, I will copy it and place it in my sketch binder which is sorted by number of photos on the page(s). Since I started doing this it has helped me so much with my scrapbooking.

Cheep Talk Thank You Notes

My newest stamp set in June was Cheep Talk (I know I should have got it a long time ago). I knew I wanted to use this set for my July thank you notes. I cased this card from Dawn Griffith, I just changed the colours. Because it was using the card for my July thank you notes, I knew I wanted to use some of the new in-colors. The colors used on this card are: Soft Suede, Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry.

Supplies Used:

(All Stampin' Up!)

Stamp Sets: Cheep Talk

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede

Cardstock: Whisper White

Accessories: Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

Nephew's Birthday Party

This past weekend we went over to Andrew's parents for a birthday party for our four nephews. Their birthday are all between the end of May and the beginning of July, and since three of the nephews live about 3 hours away, we usually wait until the beginning of July to hold a birthday party for all four boys together. This year though the party ended up being a little later than normal, so we just had it. The boys are between the ages of 4 and 12. Below are pictures of the cards that I made for them. I have posted the crocodile before (it was one of the cards we made at the Wild About You class), I justed added some googly eyes to it. I also added googly eyes to the little bulldozer. I added crystal effects to the jelly fish and the the cupcake cards.

Supplies Used:

(All Stampin' Up!)

Stamp Sets: Little Trucks, It's Your Birthday
Ink: Black StazOn, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Basic Gray, Going Gray, Basic Black Markers

Cardstock: So Saffron, Basic Black, So Saffron Prints DS, Whisper White

Accessories: Black 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Googly Eyes, Stampin' Dimensionals

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Crazy for Cupcakes
Ink: Black StazOn, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie Markers
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Summer Picnic DS
Accessories: Crystal Effects, Stampin' Dimensionals

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Wild About You, See You Around Wheel
Ink: Old Olive
Cardstock: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Urban Oasis DS
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, Googly Eyes, Stampin' Dimensionals

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Fishey Friends
Ink: Black StazOn, Old Olive Marker
Cardstock: Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Green Tea DS
Accessories: Bashful Blue Double Stitched Ribbon, Crystal Effects, Stampin' Dimensionals

Soft Suede Kind Thoughts

This is another card I had on display at my new catalogue open house. I used lots of new products for this card, Soft Suede cardstock, Soft Suede Polka-Dot Ribbon, Modern Label punch and two new stamp sets - Kind & Caring Thoughts and Teeny Tiny Wishes. This card was cased from Wendy Bell, I just changed a few things are the card. I love how this card, the picture really doesn't do it just.

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Kind & Caring Thoughts, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Soft Suede

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Kraft, Whisper White

Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Modern Label Punch, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Soft Suede Polka-Dot Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

New In-Colors

These are the cards I had on display at my open house earlier this month. I kept the cards simple and used black cardstock as the mat for the main image, the only thing I changed on the card was the color the image and sentiment was stamped in. Each version is made with one of the new in-colors. When I first saw these color, I wasn't sure if I would like them, but the more I use them they are really growing on me. I am sure by the spring, I will be so attached to them, I will be sad to know that they will not be available after June.

Colors Left to Right: Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede

Colors Left to Right: Dusty Durango, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry

June Thank You Notes

Okay, I broke my promise and did not post on holidays, however I did do alot of stamping, so I do have lots to share with you. This is the card that I made for my thank you notes for the month of June. This card was cased from a card in the Occasions mini that just ended in June. For this card I kept the colors and just changed the stamp set. I used the new hostess set 'Kind & Caring Thoughts'. This set has so many great sayings, I can see myself using it so much.

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Kind & Caring Thoughts, All Holidays
Ink: Rose Red Marker, Mellow Moss Marker, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Rose Red, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Small Oval, Large Oval

New Catty Open House

Last night I held a new catty open house in celebration of the new SU catalogue. It was so much fun. Along with showing off the new in-colors I also had some of my retired sets for sale. Below is the card we did for the make and take. I wanted a card that used the new in-colors and ribbon. As this is the only in color ribbon I currently had it was the starting point for choosing the colours of this card. I love how the new in-colors work so well together.

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Accessories: Soft Suede Polka-Dot Ribbon, Glue Dots, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

Shadowed Daises

This is the third card we did at my Shadowing class last weekend. I just love this card. I have made this card many times before but always with different colours. I really have a thing for stripped paper so it shouldn't be any surprise that every card like this has always used stripped paper. The paper used on this card is from the Designer Series Washington Apple pack (now retired:( ) I think this is such a bright and cheerful card, I just love it.

Supplies Used:
(All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Upsy Daisy
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Whisper White, Washington Apple DS
Accessories: 1" Circle Punch, Silver Brad, Stampin' Dimensionals

I hope to be able to post quite a bit over the next couple of weeks, I am on holidays and we are staying around the house. My plan is to spend alot of time in my stamp room, stamping and hopefully getting some scrapbooking done too. My husband is suppose to be working on drywalling our basement with a couple of friends, however if the drywalling goes anything like the building the shed earlier this week went, I think I might have to take his spot in the drywalling process. Tuesday evening we starting building the shed and in the process Andrew cut his finger pretty bad, I had to take him to the hospital, got it bandaged, he just has to be careful for a while. So Wednesday morning I called a friend to help me finish the shed. Just as we were finishing up we asked Andrew to just hold something for us and he ends up getting poked a little bit with the drill, nothing serious. But he sure has been accident prone this week. Hopefully we can get through the next couple of weeks without having to go back to the hospital.

The New Catalogue is Here!

The new Stampin' Up! catalogue is here. I am so excited about this catalgoue and all the new products in it. One thing I am extremly excited about is the fact that this catalogue is good for a whole year, so that gives me lots of time to purchase everything I want. The second thing I am so excited about is the new in-colors. I loved this colours we had this past year, and I have to say I wasn't really sure about the new in-colors when I first saw them, but after having some chance to see the actual colors in paper and ink, I have really started to like them. Soft Suede and Rich Razzleberry are my favourites right now. My favourite stamp set that I can't wait to order is Greenhouse Garden and the second thing I can't wait to order is the Paper Piercer. I know this seems like such a little thing, but I love paper piercing. This will definately be on my first order. When you have had a chance to look through this great catalogue, let me know what are your favorite things in this catalogue.