Birthday Cards!

The girls in my stamping group are just so thoughtful, I have an upcoming birthday so they gave me these beautiful cards that they made of course! I had so much fun last night, it is normally the only night I go out without the boys. I have been working away on punched stuff so last night I took everything I have made so all the girls could pick which ones they wanted to make for their own punch book.

By Sherri Mills

By Pat Skirtschak

Jenn VanBroekhoven

By Sue VanBroekhoven

Thanks Girls!

Sun Flowers

Are you getting tired of punched stuff yet?

 I have a lot more to come, ever since my husband built me an amazing punch shelf I have been busy punching! I found I didn't use the punches as much because had them all in a rubbermaid container and would have to dig through every time I needed one. Now they are all organized on a wall shelf and easy to use. I will post a picture once I have one uploaded on to the computer. I am so glad I have a handy husband, he has also built me a ribbon holder/shelf and an ink pad holder/shelf. It is amazing how much more you can get done when you are organized.

Have a great day!

Flower Pot

 I got the idea for this card from one of the swaps I received at Regionals! I don't have any flower stamps to use so I decided to use punches instead, these flowers are so easy to make and can be used for so many different projects. I think this is a great way to send some flowers. I used the 5 Petal Flower punch for the flower and used a So Saffron brad to hold each one together. I stamped with sympathy on the card from the teeny tiny wishes stamp set.

A new technique!

I learned this neat technique at regionals in Cincinnati, it is so easy to do. This is a plain card but I wanted you to be able to see lots of the background paper. It is made using the backgrounds 1 textured plate for the big shot. 

I will write out the instructions in steps to make it easier;

Step one:

   Cut a piece of wax paper and run it through the Big Shot using any textured plate you'd like,

Step two:

   Place the wax paper with the impression face down onto a sheet of Whisper White card stock,

Step three:

   Heat up your iron and iron the wax onto the white card stock and remove wax paper,

Step four:

   Use the Brayer and whatever color of ink you would like and roll it onto the card stock and voila, you have your own designer paper!

I think this technique is so wonderful, now I will have to order more textured plates! I really like the idea because sometimes the color of designer paper might not be available so now you can make it with what ever color you would like to match your project.

Punched Bat

A little more Halloween! For the background of this card I used the brayer with Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango ink on glossy paper. I used the Happy Halloween from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and embossed it using black embossing powder, you can't tell in the picture but it is really shiny on the glossy paper. I used the 1 1/4" circle punch to create the moon with Crushed curry and sponged the edges with Dusty Durango. The bat is made using the 1 3/8, 1 1/4, 1/2 and 1/4" circles along with the 5-petal flower, scallop circle and the star punches.

Dragonfly Punch Art!

 I was having a bit of a creative block and I have seen several bloggers use different things such as magazine ads, clothing or furniture to serve as their inspiration so I decided to give it a try. My inspiration for this card was my son Ryan's sleeper. This is my favorite sleeper, my husband calls it his jail bird sleeper. I am very happy with how the punched dragonfly turned out and that I came up with this one on my own! I decided to stamp hello baby on the card from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set, I know a few people that are expecting and thought it would be a cute card if they have a boy. I am going to make a girl version too!

I really like swap that I posted the other day by Kathy Doughman. I like the Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango together. I decided to case her card but make some changes, I don;t have the stamp set that she used so I decided to use the Garden whimsy set. 

What you need to make this card;

Stamp sets:

   Garden Whimsy

C/S

   Crushed Curry 4 1/4 x 11"

   Dusty Durango 4 x 5 1/4" and 2 3/4 x 3 1/4"

   Whisper White 3 3/4 x 5" and 2 1/2 x 3"

Ink

   Crushed CUrry

   Dusty Durango

   Old Olive

   VersaMark

Ribbon

   Dusty Durango dotted ribbon

Other

   White embossing powder

   Paper Piercer and Mat Pack

   Syamp-a-ma-jig

More swaps!

Made by Dawn.

Made by Liz Orr.

My up-line Pat Skirtschak made this one.

Made by Susi Brunk.

I am definitely going to be using this Christmas tag idea. Made by CHris Stromberg.

Made by Stephanie Ferrara.

Made by Amy Cloncs.

Made by Kathy Doughman.

Regionals!

I am finally posting from Regionals. I have just been so busy with the boys this week, I think they missed me :) 

Here I am with the co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up!, Shelli Gardner.

Here is part of my group that I get together with every month, from the left are: Kristie, Jen, Pat C, Pat S, and me!  

I love this card! It was made by Bobbi P.

Another favourite. Made by Kathi Boresh.

This is a little sticky note book, I think I might keep it in my purse. Made by Becky Bose.

I thought this was a great idea for kids. Made by Cathy Roy.

I like the flower pot idea. Made by Sherrill Evans.

I have more swaps to share with you. I hope you enjoyed these ones, I can't wait to make some of them myself. I really enjoy swapping cards with others, it is such a great way to share our ideas with one another.

Butterfly Card

I had a great time at the Cincinnati Regionals. I learned so many new techniques and cannot wait to try projects of my own to share with you. I did get lots of great swaps that I am eager to share with you as well, I will hopefully have those uploaded tomorrow. Cincinnati is a beautiful city, after the regionals we went for a carriage ride so we could see a little more of the city. We thought it was really neat that they had a town square (not sure what it was called) where they had a huge screen that played movies, E.T. was playing that night, they even sold pop and popcorn. It was so nice to get away with some of my friends, although I did miss the boys very much and was so happy to see them on Sunday. I have the greatest husband, I guess the boys didn't want to sleep much while I was gone:(

Some of my fellow demonstrators and myself are heading to Cincinnati tomorrow morning for Regionals on Saturday. I am excited for a weekend away but will miss all three of my boys very much, I have never been away from the little ones for this long. I have such a wonderful husband to let me get away for an entire weekend, thanks Jeff:) 

Here are some of my swaps that I have made, I really like in-colors, I never thought I would use them as much as do, I am very happy with them and especially like the polka dot ribbon. It is hard to see but the Whisper White background is of course embossed using Backgrounds 1.

I hope you enjoy these cards I will be back in a few days with some more swaps that I have made and some that I have collected. If I have a chance I will try and upload some on the weekend.

Have a great weekend!

So I decided to change yesterdays card around a little, I really wanted to put a phrase on it and nothing looked right with the daisy being in the middle of the card. I liked how simple it looked before so I wanted to keep it that way, I used the best wishes stamp from the Short and Sweet set. I liked Niki's idea of using rub-ons to finish the card, only I don't have any on hand right now to see how it would look.

I really like how this card is coming along, I just can't seem to finish it. Everything I try to add to it just doesn't feel right. I thought I would post what I have done so far and maybe get some suggestions on how to complete it from you. If you have a suggestion you can leave a comment or email me. Thanks for stopping by!

Spooky Nights!

I managed to get all the beets jarred tonight, I really didn't feel like doing that today but I figured I better get it over with, now all I have left is my homemade relish, yummy! Both our boys got up at 4:20 am so I didn't feel much like doing anything today.

I haven't used the Brayer for a while so I thought I would dust it off! I used the Autumn Harvest and the Halloween Fright's stamp sets. For the background I used the brayer and rolled  Summer Sun on first followed by Dusty Durango on the top and Old Olive on the bottom (I got this idea from Heather Summers blog). I colored both pumpkins with Pumpkin Pie and it is hard to tell but I colored the cats eyes and whiskers with Summer Sun to make it look a little spookier and then cut out both pumpkins and the cat so they could be popped up using dimensionals.

Mummy bag

Sorry this is not a very good picture. On the right is another one of the bags that I made last Halloween. I made my smaller bag almost the same, I like the bigger eyes on the new version. I used Very Vanilla Card stock and sponged all the edges with Creamy Caramel. The remainder of the bag is white so I sponged over it on the outside ,on the inside part that is visible and the handles to change the shade to match the mummy front. I purchased the small bags at Walmart and the Larger ones at Target, you can get both sizes at either store.

Have a great day!

Halloween Bags!

I am getting excited for Halloween! It is my favorite, I love seeing all the kids out and about in their costumes, I am already trying to find the perfect costumes for our boys.

I figured I better get working on some halloween projects since it really isn't that far away. I like to make something special for my nephew and nieces so last year I made them big treat bags (on the right). I decided to make some miniature versions of them (on the left), I am really happy with how this one turned out. Because of my love for punches I try to use them as much as possible, I used circles for the eyes and nose, it is hard to see in this picture but I used the my way for the things sticking out of his neck (not sure what they are called??) and then I used the large star to make the hair (I think it looks a lot cleaner then my last year's free handing). 

I better get back to work on some more bags, hopefully I will have more to share with you tomorrow!

So today I jarred some dill pickles, Craig was so cute, he sat in the kitchen pointing at all the jars saying 'pickle'.

For this card I used the Look Who's Turning stamp set, I was really excited to get this set, I think it is so cute! The colors are Whisper White, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore. It is hard to tell but the Ostrich in the center is popped up with dimensionals.

I haven't had a lot of time for my crafting today, I went to the local farmers market and was so happy to see that they still had pickling cucumbers and beets available. I am so late this year, August just seemed to be so busy for us and it just flew right by. It will be interesting tomorrow, I am going to have about 20 jars of pickles on my counter and my 2 year old son Craig loves them! He points in the fridge at the pickle jars saying 'pickle' in the cutest little way!

For this card I used the More the Merrier and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets, Melon Mambo and Whisper White card stock, Melon Mambo polka dot ribbon and the in-color markers. I also embossed the Whisper White with the polka dots from the Backgrounds 1.