Eclectic or too Hectic?

One of my favorite blogs is Heartfeltgreetings because I just love the way that she mixes all different really bold patterns of cardstock together. I'm usually the really conservative sort (big surprise!) when it comes to my designs, so I thought that I would step out of the box and try something a little more eclectic. It's pretty busy, but I like the way it turned out! I think that I'm going to try a few more today using some of my bolder printed DSP and if I like them I'll try and post them later on today. I'm also going to try and get a ton of scrapbooking done this week so hopefully I'll have a few layouts to share with you too!

Recipe: Stamp Sets: Priceless and Lovely Labels; Ink: White Craft, Pretty in Pink; Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White; Accessories: 5/8 Olive Grosgrain, White Gel Pen, DSP Rose Red Print Patterns, Scallop Circle Punch, Small Corner Rounder, Paper Piercing Tool and Template, Coluzzle Cutter.

Happy Bird-Day!

I recently saw a card in Papertrends that was so simple, but it just struck me as being very clean and classic looking. This is a twist on that card (sorry, I don't know which issue it was in!), using the SU! set Pun Fun. The only part that took any time at all was the paper piercing around the edge (which I 'stitched' with a Real Red marker). It's really difficult for me to come up with gender neutral cards, and I think that this one really works for either girls or boys.

Recipe: Stamp Set: Pun Fun; Ink: Classic Black; Cardstock: Gable Green, Real Red, Whisper White, Bashful Blue; Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, Real Red Brads, Slit Punch, Paper Piercing Tool and Template.

Fourth of July Spinner

I've always loved making Spinner cards. They were one of the first really different technique cards that I ever made, and they're so simple to construct and fun to receive. This Fourth of July Invite card was made by my Club members and they loved them! One of the great things about this particular card is that the Star is really heavy and it spins really fast. To make the star:

1. Take a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 piece of O'So Sticky tape and peel off the red backing.

2. Stick the piece of Sticky Tape to a piece of Whisper White Cardstock (it HAS to be Whisper White because the other cardstocks are too thick) that's slightly larger than the tape.

3. DO NOT REMOVE THE OTHER PIECE OF BACKING YET!

4. Use the Large Star punch and punch out a star.

5. Remove the other piece of backing from the sticky tape and push the sticky side of the star face down into the beads (I put it in the larger bead assortment first, and then pushed it into the micro beads).

That's it! For more information on how to assemble the Spinner Card, go to

Cambia's tutorial and it gives step by step instructions!

Card Recipe: Stamp Set: In the Stars (Occasions Mini Catalog); Cardstock: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White; Ink: Brilliant Blue Craft Ink, Real Red; Accessories: Bead Duos in Blue, Word Window Punch, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat gun, Dimensionals, 2 pennies, O'So Sticky tape.

Thanks for looking!

My swaps with the new Party Hearty Set!!

I got a FREE stamp set for having a $400 workshop within 2 weeks after the Milwaukee Regionals. This new 'PARTY HEARTY' set will come out in the Fall/Winter Catalog on Aug 11th. I just LOVE IT! It's such a versatile set for both male and female birthday's and it is quickly becoming one of my favorites (although I don't think anything will take the place of Baroque Motiffs!). Here are the two cards that I made for the swap with this fun new set.

Using my favorite color combo of Celery and Pretty in Pink, I CASE'd a card that was on one of the display boards at Regionals. I really dig the fact that the 'celebrate you' stamp can be punched out with the Circle Scallop punch! This is a 3x6 card (a great size because you can make 4 of them out of one sheet of 12x12 cardstock!) and was a quick and easy one to make. Here's the recipe: Stamp Set: Party Heart; Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White; Ink: Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink; Accessories: Olive wide Grosgrain, silver mini-brad, paper piercing template, 1/8" circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Natural Hemp, dimensionals.

My 2nd card made with the same set is also CASE'd from the display board, but I changed up the colors and the ribbon placement a bit. I rarely ever use the Kraft Cardstock and have a big pile of it that I need to use. I think that this card could be really masculine with the absence of the red flower. Recipe: Stamp Set: Party Hearty; Cardstock: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White and Bashful Blue; Ink: Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue; Accessories: Striped Real Red Ribbon, 3/4" circle punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, silver mini-brad.

Thanks so much for looking!!

Downline Meeting

Every other month I get together with my Stampin' Up! downline to swap cards, talk about our goals, and to brainstorm about business ideas. I'm really lucky that I have some really great, creative people in my downline and I love to get together with them and exchange ideas. One of my favorite parts is our swap. Here are the cards that I got from them, and the two that I made.

These first two were made by Robin whom I love for her big bold designs. I'm always complaining to her that I don't know what to do with any of the Bold Bright colors except for the Real Red, so she made this fun "B is for Birthday card with that in mine. Can you believe that she took the time to mask all of the beautiful flowers? She's my stampin' hero!

Her 2nd card is great because she did this fun fold. I always forget to use anything other than a standardly folded card. Good thing I'm doing a Fabulous Folds Stamp Camp next month. I really need to step outside of the box!

Vanessa made this beautiful 'Cherish' card. Her designs are always crisp, clean and elegant. I also love this card because of the chunky glitter....it really makes the design 'pop'. And she's famous for using the Basic Gray instead of black, which she's got me doing too. Especially on cards like this one, it's definitely softer than the Basic Black.

The Birthday Wishes card she made is such an easy one that can be made quickly (my favorite because goodness knows I'm using stampin' a card about 2 minutes before we have to leave for a party!). I love how she took a blender pen and swiped it over the word 'wishes' with the Bashful Blue ink. My eye went right to that word on the card. Great idea!

Stampin' Up! Regionals Swaps

I received some of the greatest swap cards this year at Regionals! I am CASEing many of them to use at Stamp Camps, Clubs and Workshops, but I wanted to share some of them with all of you too! This first one was made by Pam Peterson using the Level 1 Hostess set 'For a Friend'. I loved the use of the DSP Cutie Pie with this stamp set, and the brads just tied it all together.

The second card was made by Kelli Metzler and uses the stamp sets Sweet Serendipity and Priceless. I love the color combination and the use of the DSP Prints that match the detail in the swirl on the Priceless stamp. Such a simple card, but with the use of the punches it really steps it up a notch. Love it!

Thanks to these two ladies for the great swap cards!!

Desktop Challenge

I'm always reading about how different stampers challenge themselves to do different things like, only use certain colored CS on a card, or use an inspiration piece. I decided to challange myself to making 2 cards using ONLY items that were actually on my stamping desk. I should have given myself this challenge about 2 weeks ago before I had cleaned my desk (LOL - when is a stamper's desk ever clean?), but I still had PLENTY of things to work with. The only exception to this rule was ink color - because I store my ink pads on a seperate table, I didn't limit myself on those. I can't believe how much fun I had doing this!! I really dug through the little scraps that were sitting in piles, and used some fun color combos. I (luckily) had the stamp set SO MUCH (pg 97 in the catty) that I got for FREE at SU! Regionals (don't you just LOVE FREE stuff?????) on my desk and because I hadn't had time to really use it much, this was a great opportunity. Here are the two cards that I made. It took me less than 10 minutes!

Recipe for Turquoise Card: Stamp Set: So Much; CS: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Whisper White; Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red; Accessories: Tempt Turq 1/4 grosgrain, rose red stitched-retired, DSP Bali Breeze (I think!), DSP Prints Rose Red

Apricot Card - Stamp Set: So Much; CS: Apricot Appeal, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery; Ink: Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie; Access: DSP Bali Breeze, Paper Piercing Tool, Mat and Template

Notice on this card how the center of the flower is cut into a circle shape.....it was killing me not to pull out one of my punches, but they weren't on my desk!!! I actually cut this circle with my snips the old fashioned way. Boy am I spoiled with all of my wonderful tools. To think that I used to have to hand cut all of my shapes before punches and paper trimmers! ;)