1 More Cupcake Swap To Share

This is the last Cupcake Swap from January to share with you. This one uses the Build-A-Cupcake punch, the Eat Chocolate stamp set, and the Tulip Frame Embossing Folder, all from the Occasions Mini catalog. Colors are Brushed Silver, Early Espresso, and Whisper White. I also used silver eyelets. I haven't used them in forever! Did you notice the lines in the cupcake wrappers? I "drew" them in with a bone folder.

Gotta love cupcakes!

Project 52- Week 8

The theme for Week 8 is "The View From Here"

This was our view on Tuesday as we walked out of the house after the wind blew 8 inches of snow around and piled it up by the barn. John plowed a little Monday night when he got home at almost 9, but he was too tired to do the whole driveway. Usually we have a circle that goes by the house and barn and then back to the garage. Here's another shot, zoomed in on the barn:

I actually went out to take pictures in the morning, but then relaized there was a big shadow from the house. So I waited until afternoon to take more pictures. The 1st picture was afternoon, the 2nd was morning. I am so glad I don't have to do chores anymore or I would have been busy with the shovel!

Use 2 Embossing Folders For 1 Background!

It doesn't show up very well in this picture, but I used 2 embossing folders on the Crumb Cake layer for this card. First I used the Finial Press, then the new Tulip Frame. The Finial Press is not as pronounced as the Frame, but it is there and adds a unique look. The image is from Eat Chocolate (love that set!). Colors are Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, and Whisper White, but I decided it looked better with Very Vanilla instead of white so that's what everyone used at the SAS. The ribbon is discontinued, but you could use Early Espresso instead. The punches are the 2 3/8" Scallop Circle and 1 3/4" Circle. We don't have a punch that would layer inbetween, so use the Circle Scissors to create a 2" circle.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the cards from the February Stamp-A-Stack! Join me for the next Stamp-A-Stack on March 19th- sign up by March 16th. Details are on the "Calendar of Events" page (click on the tab at the top of the page, under the picture of the Building). Have a great weekend!

Cupcakes & Ribbon

This cupcake image is from Birthday Bakery, a hostess set on page 10 of the Idea Book & Catalog. I love this set, but it can be a lot of coloring! That's why I decided to focus on this smaller image for the Stamp-A-Stack. Colors are So Saffron, Riding Hood Red, and Soft Suede. I'm impressed with how well these colors work together! The ribbon is discontinued, but you could easily substitute another color if you don't have any of this in your stash. The Poppy Parade 1/2" Stitched-Poly would look good! To bunch up the ribbon like this, I put down a piece of Sticky Strip about 4" long, laid down the left end of the ribbon, then made a loop and attached the other side 3 times, left a flat area in the middle for the tag, then did 3 more loops on the right. I probably should have trimmed off a little more on the right end since it sticks out farther than the left end. I've seen lots of cards where they sewed the ribbon like this, but everyone who knows me knows I don't sew! At all! I do like the look, though.

Lots of Cupcakes!

Wouldn't it be fun to get a whole stack of cupcakes like this for your birthday? This stamp is from the set Crazy For Cupcakes (page 56 in the Idea Book & Catalog). Colors are Blushing Bride, Not Quite Navy, and Chocolate Chip. The ribbon is discontinued, but you could use Early Espresso instead. Are you wondering what I used to cut out the white shape? It's the Top Note Die! Cut it like you normally would, but then take the cut out piece, turn it 90 degrees, and cut it again. Isn't that cool?

Create-A-Cupcake

As soon as I saw the Create-A-Cupcake stamp set and punch in the Occasions Mini Catalog (page 22), I knew I had to have them! They are so cute and I'm a sucker for punches! I'm not a big fan of cake, but I'll eat a little, so cupcakes are perfect for me.

This card uses both the set and punch, as well as the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper, Ribbon, and Buttons from the Sale-A-Bration brochure (page 7). For the Stamp-A-Stack, we make 3 cards of each design, so for this card they did 1 each in Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, and Daffodil Delight. I love how the buttons have a little recessed area in the middle that is just perfect for a rhinestone!

Using the Build-A-Cupcake punch can be tricky, especially if you want to punch out different colors. I cut small pieces of cardstock and then attach the corner of them to a long, thin piece of scrap cardstock to make a handle to hold the little piece where I want it in the punch. This way I can stamp the individual pieces (like the card above) or just punch different colors of cardstock (like the card below).

This was another swap I made in January that uses the Create-A-Cupcake stamp set and punch. Colors for this one are Pretty In Pink, Early Espresso, Whisper White, and Real Red.

Cupcakes & Chocolate!

This was my card for the SUDSOL (Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing On Line) Group swap at Leadership in January. I liked it so much I decided to use it as one of the projects for the February Stamp-A-Stack. The stamp set is Eat Chocolate, on page 30 of the Occasions Mini Catalog. Colors are Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White. I also used the Decorative Label and Photo Corners punches.

With the Create-A-Cupcake stamp set and punch and Eat Chocolate in the Occasions Mini Catalog, I decided to go with the theme of Cupcakes & Chocolate. So of course I had to bake some cupcakes, as well as my famous Cupcake Bites!

Aren't they cute? Wait til you see the inside...

Lemon and Chocolate!

I've been making these for almost 2 years now and have made hundreds of them! I started out making them for John's birthday and have made them for Easter, 4th of July, Christmas, and just for fun. One of John's friends paid me to make him 100 of them for Christmas in 2009 and last summer my sister talked me into making them for her oldest daughter's graduation party. Good thing we had lots of helpers- we made 900 of them! Lemon and Chocolate are our favorites. I made them once with just a white cake mix and they were pretty boring. For the grad party we also did strawberry and carrot cake and they were good, too. They are kind of putzy, but they are so cute! I enjoy making them. Thank you to Bakerella (http://www.bakerella.com/) for coming up with these and sharing them!

Check back every day this week to see another yummy card!

Project 52- Week 7

I'm caught up again! The assignment for Week 7 is "Open Your Heart". Of course I had to take a picture of our Valentine's stuff. The card on the left is the one John & I gave Chase. The one John gave me is just like it, but was a card front so that's why he added the Post It on the back. The card on the right is my card to John. I've shown that one already, so scroll down a few posts to see the details. The nugget tin is Chase's present from Grandma & Grandpa (my parents). Grandma made these for all the grandkids (7) at our last stamping weekend at the Building. Aren't they cute?

Explore Your Creativity with Stampin' Up!

Project 52- Week 5 & 6 (a little late!)

I struggled with the Week 5 Assignment "Muse". My first thought was the view out the window from my desk, where I sit and daydream in between stamping projects and e-mail. But the window is dirty and it's too cold to go outside and clean it! Same with the kitchen window, where I stare out at the pastures while I do the dishes and remember the horses I can't have anymore. So in trying to come up with something, anything, I procrastinated long enough to miss the deadline. Then I forgot about the project altogether!

But I'm back, determined to catch up! See, this is why I said I wasn't ready for taking a picture every day! Once a week is enough of a challenge, especially with the suggested themes.

Week 5 - "Muse"

I finally settled on a picture of my clear mount stamps! Looking at them makes me happy! Thinking about what I want to make with them, combining colors, trying different techniques...I think about them a lot!

The assignment for Week 6 was "Words"

That was easy- my Nook! I'm reading the "Complete Works of Jane Austen" - Emma, Lady Susan, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. I watched Pride & Prejudice on TV once and was intrigued, so when I got the Nook for Christmas, that was the first book I looked for. I ended up getting the whole collection, for 99 cents! They are quite interesting!

OK, so now I'm up to Week 7 (this week) and the assignment is "Open Your Heart"...

Awesome Stampin' Up! Regional in Minneapolis!

Stampin' Up! had a Regional Event (kind of a mini Convention!) at the Minneapolis Convention Center on February 12th. This was the 3rd Regional I've been to and it was by far the best! Entertaining presentations, awesome project ideas, and great people (500!) to hang out with for the day! One of the highlights of Stampin' Up! events is swapping! These are the different designs I brought with me:

The image on the first 2 cards is from Love You Much. Colors are Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray, & Whisper White.

Greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes

Greeting is from XOXO

I was using up the Love Impressions Designer Series Paper from the Occasions mini catalog. I thought these could be used for more than just Valentine's: anniversary, wedding, love you, etc. Love the Glimmer Paper!

We also had cupcakes for a 3:00 Snack Break, which is a tradition at the Stampin' Up! office:

Marble cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate curls on top! What a nice surprise!

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day yesterday! John surprised me by taking one of my extra swap cards and putting a post it note on it that said "Happy Valentine's Day! Love You!" and put it in my laptop. He didn't get home from work until after 9, so we didn't get to go out for dinner or anything. But I did go out for lunch with a friend I haven't seen for months (hi Nicole!) and Chase & I went to Caribou after school. He likes their smoothies and I like the dark hot chocolate. So it was a good day anyway!

Operation Write Home- Our 3rd Box!

Last Thursday I took our 3rd box of cards for Operation Write Home to the Post Office! Of course I was in a hurry and forgot to take a picture of the cards in the box before I taped it shut! So I took a picture of the box before I went in to mail it:

Imagine what it looked like, filled with 354 cards!

And here is the "receipt" I rec'd by e-mail on Saturday:

Thank you to everyone who donated cards! Doesn't it feel good knowing you are helping out our soldiers? For more information, check out their website: http://www.operationwritehome.org/.

Cards Made With My Digital Studio

 I was going through my card samples and found a couple I don't think I've shared before. They were both made with My Digital Studio. I never thought I would like digital papercrafting, as I like having the actual products in my hands as I'm creating something. But I find myself using MDS more and more! I've done some scrapbook pages, actually had a book printed that shows some of the thigns you can do with the program, printed a Christmas card, printed designer series paper for a class, have been making my calendars of events to hand out, use it to design cards, and now to make some cards that I've printed at home!

This one uses the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper that was in last year's Occasions Mini Catalog. That's another thing I love about My Digital Studio- nothing ever retires! Once you buy the downloads, they are yours forever! Stampin' Up! has released updates, including all of the new colors, so I have everything current. But I also have all of the old colors, to use whenever I want! The colors on this card are Taken With Teal, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip. The sentiment and Modern Label Punch are real, added after I printed the main panel and layered it on card stock. 

Isn't this pretty? And I bet you don't recognize it! That's because it's from Designer Series Paper that is only available in My Digital Studio! This is a totally digital card, in fact I haven't even printed it yet. All I did was size the paper, crop the image to show what I wanted, and added the greeting. Voila! Quick and easy!

Now is a great time to buy My Digital Studio! It's Sale-A-Bration! For every $50 you spend (before shipping and tax) you receive a FREE Sale-A-Bration item! There's even a Digital Content CD, which is all of the images in the Sale-A-Bration brochure! You can use it in My Digital Studio or other digital software programs. Contact me today to place an order! And check out http://www.mydigitalstudio.net/ for more information, to see what downloads are available and samples from demonstrators and customers!

I Think The Cold Froze My Brain!

I completely forgot to post this week! It has been really cold and windy with nasty windchills. The actual temp this mornign when I took Chase to the bus was 23 below! It didn't hurt my feelings at all that he was home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Other than taking him to the doctor Tuesday night (strep and influenza tests came back negative) we didn't leave the house. It's supposed to gradually warm up starting this afternoon, and should be in the 30's this weekend! Woohoo!

OK, back to stamping! Here are 3 of the cards I worked on this weekend after I finished making my swaps for the Stampin' Up! Regional that is this Friday in Minneapolis. I'll share those next week. These were all made with the Love Impressions Designer Series Paper from the Occasions Mini Catalog (page 7) and Pink Pirouette and Whisper White cardstock.

Full Heart Punch and Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder

(I would have used the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit, but I forgot it at home)

The birds are from Love You Much. I used the 1 3/8" Circle, 1 3/4" Scallop, and Pinking Hearts Border Punches

Love is from XOXO in the Occasions Mini Catalog (page 6). I used the 1 3/8" Circle, Modern Label, and Decorative Label Punches and the new Tulip Frame Embossing Folder in the Occasions Mini Catalog (page 28)

So there are 3 cards, so that makes up for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! I'll be back tomorrow with 2 more cards to finish off the week. Next week I'll share pictures from Regional!

Embossed Metal!

Just before Christmas I bought some red metal sheets, thinking I would use them for Christmas projects. Yeah, well...that didn't happen! So I took one out this weekend, cut a piece off, put it in the Square Lattice Embossing Folder, and ran it through the Big Shot. WOW! I couldn't believe how cool it looked! So I did it again, and then made this card. The 3 red panels and the punched heart are the metal sheet. The gray layer for the heart is the Scalloped Heart to Heart Embosslit. The Designer Series Paper is Love Impressions- page 7 in the Occasions Mini Catalog. A piece of Whisper White Organza Ribbon finishes it off.

If you would like to make cards like what I have shown you this week, click on the Online Ordering picture on the right side of the blog and order through my website. Or send me an e-mail! It's Sale-A-Bration, so you get a free Sale-A-Bration item with every $50 you order!

Valentine's Hearts

This is the third card I made with the Heart Pressed Letterpress Plate. It was made the same way as yesterday's card- Real Red craft ink on watercolor paper, then layered on Real Red cardstock. The Hearts were made with the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit (page 215 of the Idea Book & Catalog). The right one is up on Dimesnsionals. The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes- I tend to use that set a lot! It's kind of expensive ($36.95), but it has 24 greetings. That's only $1.54 per greeting! And they all fit the Word Window Punch, which layers perfectly with the Modern Label punch. Another quick and easy card!

I've got one more Valentine's Day card to show you tomorrow...

Love and the Heart Pressed Letterpress Plate

Here's another experiment card with the Letterpress Plates. This one uses Lots of Love like the card I showed on Monday and also uses Heart Pressed. I used a Real Red craft spot to ink up the whole plate. A full size craft pad would be even easier and would give better coverage! You can see there are some smears on my watercolor paper. The Love was actually from a full size piece I did that didn't ink completely, so I just saved this part of it. It's layered on a piece of Real Red cardstock punched with the Pinking Hearts Border punch. Another quick and easy card! Come back tomorrow to see another...

Organizing Your Ink Pads

Did you organize your stamps last month? I’ve heard from several of you who did. Way to go! Hopefully it will be easier to get to your stamps and use them!

This month we’ll tackle ink pads. You can’t stamp without them! Well, you could use markers, but that takes forever on the larger stamps. So you have lots of ink pads, because you need lots of colors. How do you organize them? They usually don’t stack well, and even if they do, it seems you always need one that’s towards the bottom.

Stampin’ Up! has the Color Caddy, which holds 48 ink pads, each in their own slot. There are 12 slots on each side and it rotates. There’s even a handy tray at the top for holding your ink refills. And when you fill up the 48 slots, there is an Extender Kit you can buy and attach to the top of the caddy. It will hold 12 additional pads. Perfect!

But not for my stamping room/office. I don’t have room for something that large and still have it rotate. Plus I like seeing all of my ink pads at once. I use an old cassette tape organizer instead.

It sits on my stamping desk so all of my ink pads are right in front of me and I can see them all easily. Some of these have full shelves, but this one just has little nubs on the sides that hold the tapes in. The ink pads are too narrow to sit on the nubs, so I cut little pieces of thin cardboard to make shelves. They sit on the nubs and then the ink pads sit on the cardboard. This works for my new style ink pads from Stampin’ Up!, the old style flip top pads from Stampin’ Up! (I still have one Basic Black!), Versamark pad, and Staz-On pads. I have room for 100 pads, but don’t have that many! So I keep the ink pads towards the top, arranged by color collections: Brights, Subtles, Regals, Neutrals, and the last column is my miscellaneous: craft pads, Versamark, Staz-On, etc. The In Colors are in the lower left hand corner. The rest of the bottom is open, and that’s where I keep my Stampin’ Mist sprayers, Staz-On Cleaner, Crystal Effects, and Smooch. Then I know right where they are and that they are standing upright at all times!

I did have John cut a piece of trim to put under the front edge of the holder so it’s tipped back a little. That way nothing falls out. I thought about hanging it on the wall just above my desk, but I wouldn’t have been able to reach the top pads if I did that. This way everything is within reach.

The Color Caddy is on page 193 of the Idea Book & Catalog. It is $59.95 and the Extender Kit is $14.95. I haven’t seen cassette holders for sale anywhere for quite awhile, but you may find them at garage sales. If you do a search for “Ink Pad Storage” online, you’ll find lots of other options. Everything from cardboard to wood, in styles similar to the Color Caddy and my tape organizer. It all comes down to what works in your space and how much you want to spend. Another thing to consider is if you need something portable. I know of several people who have found organizers in stores like Home Depot and Menard’s that are for “guy stuff” but are the perfect size to hold ink pads and are designed to be carried. You could also use plastic shoe boxes or containers.

Whatever you use or decide to use, get your ink pads organized so you know what you have, can see them, and can use them! Now go stamp something!

Next month: Cardstock!