Bundle Cards

These are 2 of the 6 cards we will be making to for the "Bundle of Cards" party for the Polka Dots & Paisley Bundle special that Stampin' Up! is having in the month of March. Everyone who attends will make these plus 4 other cards using their stamp set. I will provide the background paper and everything else you need to complete your 6 cards -- you will not have to use the background paper that comes in your bundle! The second card was inspired by a card on Splitcoaststampers (sorry, I don't remember who!), I just changed a few things but I kept the color scheme because I loved the color combination!

Stay tuned for more cards for the class to be posted in the next few days! :)

New Card from an Existing Sample

One of the tasks assigned to me last week in my new stamping endeavors was to copy a card from the Stampin' Up! IB&C (Idea Book & Catalog) exactly, and then to duplicate it using a different stamp set and different colors.

I copied this Living Large card from page 86 of the IB&C. It uses Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Cameo Coral, Brocade Blue & Confetti White cardstock, along with Celery grosgrain ribbon, silver brads and watercolor crayons with a watercolor brush. Also, Fontastic background stamp was used on the Cameo Coral layer.

Then I used the sample layout but substituted the stamp set "Because of You" on page 139 of the IB&C. I used Gable Green, Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal, Lovely Lilac and Confetti White cardstock, along with Rose grosgrain ribbon, silver brads and a blender pen and inks to match the cardstock. I also used Aida Cloth on the Apricot Appeal layer.

So in case you are stumped trying to come up with a card, open up that IB&C, then take an idea and make it your own using the stamps and cardstocks you have available!

Happy Stamping!

March Stampin' Up! Special

We all like a great sale, or a super bargain, and this month's special from Stampin' Up! is both! You simply purchase 3 items from the Spring Mini Catalog in a "bundle:" 'Polka Dots & Paisley' stamp set + Petals & Paisleys designer paper + 'Petals' the jumbo wheel for $34.95; then you can purchase any other single item in the Spring Mini Catalog for HALF PRICE!! Pretty good deal, right? I had some new customers take advantage of this special last week, and they purchased one of the Simply Sent kits that are in the Spring Mini. It was an excellent deal for them! The Simply Sent kits each contain a stamp set that is die-cut -- all you do is pop them out and put them onto the wood block, then put the sticker on, and you're ready to stamp! -- along with cardstock pre-cut for 12 cards, and all the accessories you need to make your cards. Easy breezy! It's a super deal for new stampers, no measuring, no designing, no cutting cardstock, just the fun part of stamping and accessorizing. Of course, there are a ton of other stamps and accessories to choose from in the Spring Mini, so don't miss this opportunity! Please call or email me today to order, or to request a Spring Mini should you not have one. You can also go to the website to look at the mini catalog, but we all like a catalog in our hot little hands, I know, so feel free to request one from me.

Have a great evening!

Birthday Cards

I realized last night that I have a serious lack of masculine birthday cards! So, I will be posting a couple of those tonight, for those of you who are wanting to have some "guy" cards handy. After all, they have birthdays, too!! What was I thinking??!

Have a great day!

p.s. You can post comments to each blog posting if you want to. Comment on the cards, or just comment on stamping in general, or ask a question! Thanks!

Birthday Card Bash!

Ta-Da! I promised to share my new blogspot with you on Tuesday evening, and here it is! Although, it is slightly past the evening... it is actually more like early Wednesday morning. I started this blogspot so that I could share what's going on in the Stampin' Up! world with you, my friends. This will be a fun way to post the latest Stampin' Up! specials, and samples using the newest Stampin' Up! stamp sets and accessories.

If you have not been visiting blogs, you may not know how to work them. The main thing is to notice at the top of your browser (if you're using IE 7.0) an orange square with white curving lines -- that is a "feed" button. If you click on it, it will change the blog page and there will be a link to click if you want to subscribe. The web site will be saved in your Favorites under "Feeds", a sub-directory in your Favorites. Thereafter, when you click on Favorites, then Feeds, the title of my blog (and any others you subscribe to) will be bolded if anything new has been added to that blog. I hope you'll subscribe to my blog! You can also look for a link on my page (and a lot of other blogs) that says "Subscribe to this Blog." You can click on that and add your email address, and you will be notified every time my blog is updated. Once on the blog page, to see the latest additions, just make sure you click on the blog name.

This first time, I am sharing the birthday cards that we will be stamping this Saturday at my Birthday Card Bash. I realized that I really needed birthday cards, and I thought what better way to get to make myself some cards than having a major card-making session! So I'm inviting all my friends!

As I mentioned in my email this past weekend, I am posting the cards we will be making, and you can choose which cards you would like to make, and how many of each. You can make 2 or you can make 20, it's up to you! The cards cost $1.25 each to make, but there are ways to get to make some cards for FREE!

• Bring a friend, or two, or three... (you get the idea! ). You and your friend(s) can make 2 free cards each if your friend has never been to one of my classes or a workshop that I demonstrated!



• Purchase from the Stampin' Up! catalog and/or Spring Mini Catalog at least $35, and you can make 5 cards for free!



• Finally, if you book a workshop to be held in the next 6 weeks, you can make 10 cards for free!! That's a pretty good deal, I think.

Card 1: I love this card! For this one, I used the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set that Shelli Gardner, founder and COO of Stampin' Up!, sent to all demonstrators free as a Christmas gift. She treats us demonstrators so great! I got the idea for this card from another demonstrator, just changed it up a bit to meet my needs, but I kept the color combination -- it's one of my favorite combinations! I used Whisper White, Regal Rose, Mellow Moss and Apricot Appeal.

Card 2: This uses the Doodle That set from the Spring Mini catalog, using Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery and Vintage Violet colors.

Card 3: This card also uses the Doodle This set. I used Sage Shadow, So Saffron and Pixie Pink cardstock, as well as watercolor paper. I guess it's obvious that I like the square cards -- they're just so nice and big, they give me plenty of canvas to be creative!

Card 4: For this card, I used the Big Blooms and Polka Dots & Petals stamp sets from the Spring Mini. I made the card in the size of a business envelope, 9-1/4" x 4", with Cool Caribbean cardstock (my current favorite color!), So Saffron, Regal Rose and Whisper White cardstock. You'll get to learn how to make a scalloped border out of a slit punch when you make this card!

Card 5: I used the stamp set Doodle This from the Stampin' Up! Spring Mini catalog. I got this set free when I went to the SU! Leadership Conference in Houston back in January. I used Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Not Quite Navy and Vellum cardstock. Did you notice the greeting seems to be missing? I am waiting for an order with more word stamps, so don't worry, your card will have words!

That's all for tonight, ladies (I mean this morning!). I'm going to get some sleep now! Please email me with your choice of cards, along with how many of each. You can click on "Contact Me" on the right side of my blog, or you have my email address in the invitation.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! I hope to see many of you this Saturday for our Mystery Hostess workshop!

Be Happy

I still haven't gotten to stamp anything new this week! It's frustrating because I have lots of ideas in my head. But while I'm still working on getting those ideas onto actual cardstock, I thought I would post this card I stamped last fall. It's one of my favorites that I've done this year. I stamped this for a Splitcoaststampers color challenge using Cool Caribbean and Certainly Celery colors, as well as Pixie Pink, Basic Black and Whisper White. I used the stamp sets Be Happy and Well-Worn Words. I hope you like it!

Oh, and it's my Birthday

I forgot to mention in my very first blog that this is my birthday! Which seemed a significant point, so I'm very unhappy with myself that I forgot to mention it. I only think it's significant in that I decided it was a good day to do something new! like start a blog. So there you go.

My "Maiden" Blog

You'll see further down why I named this My Maiden Blog. I was just recently on a cruise ship... well anyway, you'll understand. But yippee, I've finally started a blog! My own mother started her blog before me, and I thought, my goodness, it's time I got on board with this new-fangled method of communication. (Did you get that, on board! lol. I'm feeling funny today).

I didn't have any really new stamping projects to share right now, although I am working on some things. So I'm posting the projects we made at my chipboard class a few weeks ago! We made a candy box (out of cardstock and Stampin' Up! Designer Paper "Loves Me"), a chipboard Bitty Book by Stampin' Up! with a cover, and a 4x4 scrapbook accordian folder (to display proudly on your desk or table!). We used for all of it Stampin' Up! Designer Paper "Loves Me", coordinating cardstock Regal Rose, Taken with Teal, Cool Caribbean and Chocolate Chip, and a coordinating stamp set "Sweet On You." The Designer Paper and the the "Sweet On You" stamp set are both from Stampin' Up!'s Winter Mini Catalog, along with the Ribbon Originals "Flirty." We had a lot of fun making these projects.

See the sweet baby in the pictures? That is my beautiful granddaughter! She was 3 months old at the time. Now she's 4 months old... I already feel like she is growing up too fast! I'm new at this, but I love, love, love being a grandmother! I loved being a mother, too. I mean, I still am one, but they're not little and cute anymore. They're grown-up and beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I'm not the center of their world anymore, and I can't make them laugh by making silly faces anymore.

Last week, my husband and I went on a wonderful cruise to the Texarribean for our 25th wedding anniversary. It lasted 7 gorgeous days. We boarded the ship on Saturday, Jan. 27th, in Houston, TX, and we went to Progreso/Merida, Cozumel, and Belize. If you've been on a cruise before, you know what I'm talking about when I saw I have never been treated so much like a princess in my life! All the meals cooked for me, all the decisions made about what to have for meals, waiters who even open your napkin for you so that you don't even have to raise your lily white hands to do that little task, white linens and "candlelight" (real candles not allowed on the ship!) at dinner every night, my room cleaned every day, and the bed turned down with chocolates on our pillows and little towel animals waiting for you every night... oh, sorry, I got carried away with the fond memories. Back on track... If you haven't been on a cruise, I urge you to GO NOW! Anyway, again I say, we had a wonderful time, and may I just say there are lots of opportunities to shop in Cozumel, lots of jewelry stores, and we took full advantage of that (I love jewelry!).

But on Thursday before we got home, I developed a sudden cold and cough, and I do mean a nasty cough. I've never had a cold move into my chest so quickly before, that I can remember. Anyway, by the time we were driving home from Houston on Saturday (Feb. 3rd) I was shaking with cold, I mean teeth-chattering shakes. So my hubby drove straight to the Med Clinic here by our house, before we even came home, and 2 hours later found out that I have pneumonia!? I don't have a clue how I could've gotten it! So, now I am at home in bed this week, I can't go to work, I am taking a million pills, and drinking lots of water, and -- the final cruelty -- I haven't gotten to see my granddaughter since we got home! We were supposed to babysit her during the Super Bowl so her parents could go to a Super Bowl party, but I was robbed of that privilege, fearing I might be contagious. Also, of course, because I didn't have the strength to lift my fingers, much less the baby, and had not the breath to move from my bed.

Enough of that. I really was just saying all that to say that I'm stuck in bed, so I am trying to catch up on blog-reading, and see what stamping projects everyone else is making, so I can get busy making things as soon as I can sit up long enough to stamp something! I love being inspired by everyone!