It's Finally Friday Challenge #4

While I don't know if I'll keep that as the title, that's how I feel this week!!! The week has gone by too fast but Friday has taken forever to get here! This week's challenge is about the highlight of the week...getting my new Spring Summer collection(and wow was it worth the wait!!) For the challenge create a project that is about celebrating or being happy.

Can't wait to see everyone's designs!

Scrapbooking Tips

I currently have quite a bit on my plate for homemade gifts. I have a few christmas cards left, 3 scrapbooks, teacher gifts and some thank you notes. The other day I cleaned my stamp room so everything was put away neatly and now half a scrapbook later, it looks like i left my window open during the nor'easter.

I've been using the old scrapbooking set island blossom to make a book for my mother about our recent trip. I've cropped out the mess surrounding the book!!

Things I've learned while doing this book

1. I am a very messy scrapbooker and need your help for some tips to stay organized!!

2.The price on the new simply scrappin kits, which I thought at first was a little high, is completely reasonable. The new kits have so much more than this one which is only 2 years old. The paper and the die-cuts are so much better now and offer a lot more variety. I am super excited to see the new ones in the new spring summer collection.

3. 8x8 scrapbooks are fun but for a quick gift 6x6 is the way to go. Those 2 extra inches really add up!!

I'll post my other creations as I cross them off the list, 1st on the list is getting my daughter to take a nap(I like starting with the impossible)

Friday Challenge #3

So first I think I need a fun name for my challenge...Fun Friday, Funky Friday....I don't know I'm open to ideas. I had a fun little challenged planned but I've decided to change it in honor of the boatload of snow we just got and are going to get.

SO today challenge is to make it snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thru using a technique(shaker card, icicles or whatever) make it snow. Feel free to use snowflake stamps but try out a snow technique too. I'll post when I figure out what I'm doing. Have fun, good luck and send me a link to your card!!

So this is what I came up with for my snowy card. I did a criss cross design which is super easy.

1. Cut your background color into 2 pieces of 5 1/2 x 4 1/4. Then cut one piece in half diagonally.

2. For the DSP, I used the front and back so I cut 1 piece of the wintergreen DSP (4 x 5 1/4) in half diagonally.

3. I flipped the piece over so for one side the "back" is showing and the other side the fronts are showing.

There are other tutorials out there for criss cross cards, I like this one because I think it wastes the least amount of paper, you just have to be careful where you place the adhesive so your insert fits in.

For the snowflake, I stamped it in vanilla craft then embossed a mix of dazz. diamonds and white EP. I then applied a coat of crystal effects to the main snowflake and covered that in DD, so it's really raised off the page.

As usual, I used the ticket corner punch and a rhinestone brad.

I've been tagged.....

I've been tagged by Lynn !! So i need to come up with 7 interesting things about myself hmmmmmm.....

1. & 2.You know that icebreaker 2 truths and a lie??(you tell 3 things about yourself and then people guess which is which) Well this reminds me of that and I always do the same 2 truths for obvious reasons...1.I've been run over by a clown on a unicycle and 2. I've been hit on a moped by a horse.

3.I'm really fast now at typing with my left hand only. I'm right handed, but since having my daughter, Reagan, who is now 6 months, I only get on the computer when I feed her so I only have my left hand free. And now I rarley use my right hand even if it is free.

4.I have lived in and loved (most of the time) living in NH my whole life, except for when I...(fact 5)

5. Worked at Disney World in Florida. I sold soda, scooped ice cream, worked retail and loved every minute of it!! We try to go as often as we can, since I get park withdrawals and start to shake. My daughter, Meredith, who is 3 is the same way. She's looking forward to all the scary rides on our next trip.

6. I love ice cream all ice cream.

7.Well the last fact not overly interesting but before I became a mom and SU! demo, I taught high school history and economics.

Alright not to link 7 blogs this may take a few so bear with me

1. My talented downline Denise
2. Julie
3. Vicki
4. Sandy

Friday Challenge #2

Hi All, This is my second installment of a Friday challenge. Today's challenge is based on my "christmas card shortcut."

Have you ever made a card to demo at a workshop (or at a workshop) and then told everyone there something along the lines of, "just add ______________, to really take this card to the next level"? Or have you ever gone to make a card and when you finished said, "too bad I don't have___________ to add to this card"?

Well this happens to me a lot either by trying to keep the cost of materials down or realizing at 11pm with 2 little ones sleeping I'm not going to be using a heat gun or banging eyelets. (of couse the crop-a-dile solved the eyelet problem!!!)

Anyway for my christmas cards this year I am taking old fronts and "jazzing them up" in an effort to save time. So far I've done 20 in almost no time at all.

So your challenge today, take an old card or card front and either "jazz it up" or recreate it using different materials to make it the card you always wanted it to be.

This is the card front I chose to turn into a full card. I received it in a swap, and really liked it, but I include photos and quite a bit of writing in my christmas cards and didn't want to see that thru the hole. I took this pic after I added a clear rhinestone brad to the silver cording to keep it from coming undone.

This is the end result. I first removed the wasabi strip to trim the sky layer and add polka dots from polka dot and paisley in versamark and add a WW layer. Then added a wasabi circle to the celery circle. I reattached the wasabi strip then attached the whole thing to a wasabi back. I then added glitter to the star and the dots around the snowflakes. Then doodled the upper left corner. Now I have the whole thing to write in!!

Challenge Results

So I finally finished my own challenge from Friday. I used my first SU stamp set--Flaky Friends(which is retiring at the end of the month) and my newest purchase, Wintergreen DSP. Along with my 2 favorite must-haves the ticket corner punch and rhinestone brads. I am having a great time looking at all my sister's blogs, there are a lot of super blogs out there. I'm looking forward to visiting as often as I can to see everyone's work.

Hi All

I just joined the sisterhood of the blogging stampers!! Group #3. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone and sharing ideas. A little about me.....I am a stay at home mom of 2 little ones, 3 and 6 months. I stamp whenever I can, but I am finding it's a litle harder to have free time to stamp with my girls!! So I've started my oldest daughter stamping with her own ink and stamps and that's starting to work really well.

I became a demo 3 years ago and I am now really getting into scrapbooking as well as cards and anything else I can stamp!!

Hopefully being part of the sisterhood will help me remember to post to my blog.

Have a great day!!

FRIDAY STAMP CHALLENGES

Do you have a lot of stamps and paper and accessories and...... but don't use them all as often as you'd like?? I tend to just look at all my stuff and say how pretty it is but don't want to part with it. Then I realize once I do use it, it's a lot more fun!!! So I'm going to start Friday Stamp Challenges to help myself and anyone reading my blog to use what you have stashed!!!!

Todays challenge:

Make a card or whatever using the oldest SU stamp set you have (just brush off the dust first) AND the most recent SU purchase you made.

The oldest one I have is good ol' Flaky Friends and my newest purchase is either a new container of i. ice embossing powder and/or DSP. I'll post this afternoon when I return from my morning of errands. Feel free to post your creation or the name of your oldest set. And most of all....have fun.

This is a card I demonstrated at a workshop today at our public library. It's a great layout that cn be used with a lot of different sets and papers.

Directions:

1. Fold 4 1/4 x 11 piece of old olive cardstock in half.

2.Stamp joy from love & joy set in old olive on a 2 1/2 x 4 piece of vanilla cs. Adhere to old olive.

3. Stamp the "squiggle" in river rock thru the word joy.

4.Stamp merry in real red on vanilla and cut out with 3/4in punch. Adhere with dimensional.

5.Adhere 2 1/2 x 4 pice of dsp from the dashing paper to card front.

6.Tie a knot in red 5/8 in grosgrain.

You could also use a strip of red cs if you did not have the ribbon or just a 4in piece of ribbon without the knot.

This is a page I did in my cousin's scrapbook. She's expecting a boy next month. I used apricot appeal for the freehand trunk. I used both celery and wasabi for the tree. The soft sky backgrond is from the prints double sided paper. The other strips of card stock are from the special delivery boy simply scrappin kit.



This is the page opposite the family tree. All Stampin Up's Double sided paper is on sale this month, buy 3 get 1 free, this shows how easy it is to scrapbook with this great paper.

Halloween

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. This is the Halloween card we sent. Instructions to follow

If I can post the picture, you can make the card

This card is incredibly easy to make. It uses Heartfelt Thanks, a floral set from Stampin Up!, to make a holiday card (a great way to justify the purchase!!) Here's how I did it....

1.On a 3 1/2 square of Very Vanilla lightly trace a circle using a pencil. I traced an eyelet container.

2. The stamp the flower image in Mellow moss all around the circle.

3.Stamp the overlaying flower image in Always artichoke.

4.Stamp the "berries" using Purely pommegrante.

5.Using the double circle punch, punch out the two circles and thread artichoke ribbon through them.

6. Mount on a 3 3/4 in square of river rock, wrapping the ribbon around the river rock.

7. Mount on a folded piece of Artichoke at 4 x 8 1/2. Giving you a finished card front of 4 x 4 1/4.
8. Using the cropidile lightly "emboss" circles across the bottom using the A1 setting.

9. That's it!!!

My first Blog entry....

So I am blogging now. I never thought I would but, well all the cool kids are doing it. Anyway I hope to continually post some great ideas to inspire you to stamp and/or scrap.

Just so I can see how this whole thing works I am going to post a picture of a card I did at my last workshop. Let's see how I do...

Wow!! This is just as easy as stamping!!!