Pretty Little Owls

This new Two-Step Owl Punch is so stinkin' cute! I knew I had to buy it as soon as I saw it in the new catalog. Owls have been popping up everywhere lately & I'm lovin' it! The inspiration for this card came from one of my daughter's bibs:

I love these colors! My Stampin' Up! color translation was: Baja Breeze, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery & So Saffron. With the owl punch it was so fast & easy to make these cute little owls. I also used the new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch with a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock to act as my branch for the owls to sit on. And I used my Birds & Blooms Sizzlit with my Big Shot to cut out the leaves. The pretty polka dot paper came from the Subtles Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack. In the new catalog you can buy a paper stack that has 2 sheets each of 2 double-sided designs in 12" x 12" size paper in each color collection. Each stack is $19.95 for 40 sheets total. My favorite new color collection is the Subtles: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist & Perfect Plum. Such pretty colors! Oh & I used a new stamp set for the greeting on my card too. It's called Fabulous Phrases. I love this font! And I decided to buy all of my new sets as clear stamps to give it a try. It's a pretty significant savings though-on this set it was $10 less than the wood version. So far I really like the clear stamps too! Well, I hope you enjoy my happy little owl card! And remember that you can find inspiration for your cards anywhere!

Melon Circle Circus

I was just playing around with some new product again! It's so much fun when Stampin' Up! comes out with a new catalog! I decided to keep it really simple with this card. I only used the new In Color Melon Mambo on Whisper White card stock & then added a touch of black (which is textured, but hard to tell in the photo). I love black & pink together! This also uses 2 new stamp sets-Circle Circus & Teeny Tiny Wishes.

All supplies Stampin' Up!:
STAMPS: Circle Circus, Teeny Tiny Wishes
PAPER: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Basic Black Textured
INK: Melon Mambo, Basic Black

Mother's Day Gift Class

Can't think of a unique gift to give for Mother's Day? I've got the perfect class for you!

I decided to put together a little Mother's Day Gift Class.

Everything for this gift set is coordinated in Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip & Kraft. We will be using some textured designer paper & many beautiful embellishments. This would make a great little gift for any other occasion as well!

Here's what you'll be making:

5 cards (envelopes included) - birthday, thank you, thinking of you, friendship, blank

A cute little customized gift bag that holds all of the cards

A little (3" x 3") Mother's Day card (envelope included, could also be stamped with another greeting if desired)

DATE: Saturday, May 2nd

TIME: 10am

PLACE: Julie's House

COST: $15

RSVP: You must PREPAY & RSVP by Wednesday, April 22nd

(So that I have enough time to order supplies!)

Just email me to RSVP or if you have any questions!

Here are some close-ups of the 5 cards:

Here is a close-up of the cute little coordinating gift bag:

Here's a side-view of the bag so you can see how the cards fit inside:

A close-up of the Mother's Day card (3" x 3" in size, can be stamped with another greeting if you don't want to use this for Mother's Day):

I hope to see you there! And friends, family & neighbors are always welcome too!

March Card Club Samples

Here are the samples for our March Card Club!

I hope you like them! This month we will be learning heat embossing

& dry embossing (using the Big Shot).

Card Club is:

Thursday, March 12th

@ 7pm

Julie's House

The cost is $5 & you will get to make & take the 3 cards below: On this card we are heat embossing the apple to make a "scratch-n-sniff" embellishment. You mix clear embossing powder with powdered juice mix & it melts together when heated. Then you can scratch the apple & it will smell like fruit! Yummy!

This is a close-up of the apple. You can see the texture that the powdered juice mix adds to the apple & it smells delicious!

On this card we are heat embossing the tree. It looks so pretty in person! The vanilla cardstock on the background also has some swirl images dry embossed onto it, but you can't see it in the photo. That was done by using the Big Shot & a Texturz plate.

The white card stock on the background of this card is also dry embossed with the Big Shot & a Texturz plate. There are tiny raised dots, but you can't see it in the photo. In person it looks really pretty!

Swaps for Tonight

Yep, it's my monthly demonstrator meeting tonight! I'm so excited because we'll get to see all of the cute stuff that they got at Convention this year! Also, my upline, Margaret, is one of the few demonstrators who has been with Stampin' Up! for all 20 years, so congratulations to her! Our assignment for this month was to make swaps using any of the hostess sets from the new catalog. I fell in love with the Holiday Happenings Bundle, so that's what I chose to use. My card is sort of a mixture of this card & this calendar cover that I made a while back. I also used some of the new In Colors-so pretty! I'm really loving Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette & Riding Hood Red, but I'm having a hard time getting into Pacific Point & Tangerine Tango. I'm sure I'll love those colors too once I use them a little more!

All supplies Stampin' Up!:

STAMP SET: Seasonal Icons, Happy Everything, Celebrate Everything

PAPER: Holiday Happenings Designer Paper, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White

INK: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss

ACCESSORIES: Scallop Edge Punch, 1-3/8" Square Punch, 1-1/4" Square Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1/16" Circle Punch, Brads-Silver, Stampin' Dimensionals

More Great Occasions Mini Collection Ideas!

These are the cards we made at my demonstrator meeting last night. Aren't they super cute?!? If you haven't been able to tell yet by all of the recent pictures on my blog, this upcoming mini catalog is fabulous! AND the Occasions Mini Collection starts this Saturday, March 1st & overlaps with Sale-A-Bration which goes until March 17th! That means that from March 1-17, orders from the Occasions Mini Collection & the Spring-Summer Collection both count towards free Sale-A-Bration sets (must order a minimum of $50 Stampin' Up! product, before tax & shipping)! Yay!

All supplies Stampin' Up!: Tart & Tangy, Phrases for a Friend stamp sets; Summer Picnic Designer Paper, Real Red, Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock; Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad; Old Olive, Real Red Stampin' Write Markers, Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals.

All supplies Stampin' Up!: Friendly Flowers stamp set; Whisper White, Basic Black, River Rock card stock; Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad; Ticket Corner Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, Build-A-Brad, Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin Dimensionals.

Another Occasions Mini Sneak Peak!

It's that time again! Tonight is my monthly demonstrator's meeting. For swaps this month we were supposed to choose anything from the upcoming Occasions Mini Collection (available March 1-May 31). I chose a set called Friendly Flowers. I instantly loved this set when I saw it! My favorite flower is the sunflower, so when I saw this flower image from the set I knew it would make a perfect sunflower. I can't wait to see what everyone else chooses!

I used a couple of new tools on this card, but it's hard to tell-the Coluzzle Cutting System & the Stamp-a-ma-jig. I used my new Coluzzle to create the circle in the Kraft paper. It was so easy to use! And the kit is great for the price-you get a circle template, oval template, cutting mat & cutting knife packaged in a Craft Keeper. Each template cuts many different sizes too. I raised the Kraft paper over the Wild Wasabi paper & stamped sunflower by adhering it with Stampin' Dimensionals. It gives a window effect to the card, but I know it's hard to tell from the photo.

The other tool I used was the Stamp-a-ma-jig. This tool is awesome! I don't know why I waited so long to buy one! I think I was intimidated because I wasn't quite sure what it was or how to use it. The Stamp-a-ma-jig is a reusable stamp positioner that allows you to have exact positioning of your stamp every time. Did you notice how nice & straight my "friend" sentiment is? All 25 of my swaps are perfectly straight thanks to this tool! It would be great to use for any of the 2-step Stampin' sets or the alphabet stamp sets where you want to make sure you know exactly where you are stamping. Kristina Werner has a great video tutorial on her blog that shows you how to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig & she gives you some really great tips too, click here to see it (You have to scroll down a little until you get to "Video Tutorial: Stamp-a-ma-jig". This link takes you to all of her video tutorials & they are really helpful. I recommend watching them all!). I love how Kristina uses Vellum Card Stock with her stamp sets so that she doesn't have to stamp & clean the imaging sheet every time. She is so clever!

All supplies Stampin' Up!: Friendly Flowers, Poka Dot Background stamp sets; Kraft, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White card stock; VersaMark & Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad; Summer Sun & Chocolate Chip markers, Wild Wasabi Double-Stitched Ribbon, Coluzzle Cutting System, Stampin' Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig.

Time Well Spent Swaps

Tomorrow night is my monthly meeting at my upline's house. The stamp set we are supposed to use for swaps this month is "Time Well Spent." It's a Hostess Level 3 set from the new catalog. As a demonstrator, we received it as an appreciation gift from Stampin' Up! back in December. It is a really cute set! The images are line images which are great for watercoloring. However, watercoloring is not my favorite thing to do, especially when I have to make 20+ cards. So, my card is very simple, but I like the way it turned out. All supplies Stampin' Up!: Time Well Spent, Polka Dot Background stamp sets; Kraft, Apricot Appeal, Groovy Guava, Whisper White card stock; Apricot Appeal, Groovy Guava, Close to Cocoa Classic Stampin' Pads; Groovy Guava Double-Stitched Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Stampin' for a good cause!

Here is a card I made for swaps at my upline's house last night. It uses the Just Like You stamp set (p.105). For every set that Stampin' Up! sells they donate $2 to Ronald McDonald House Charities. I love to stamp for a good cause!

All supplies Stampin' Up!: Just Like You, Polka Dot Background stamp sets; Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Whisper White card stock; Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou, Rose Red, Basic Black Classic Ink Pads, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, 1/16" Handheld Circle Punch, Corner Rounder, Silver Brads.