Retiring Stamp Set – Moving Forward May 22, 2013

We are counting down the days – 13 more days left to order from the 2012-2013 Stampin’ Up! catalog – June 3rd is the final day.  Stampin’ Up! decided to extended it by a few days.  Remember that stamp sets will be available until the last day but the accessories and Stampin’ Around wheels are only available while supplies last.  You can see the most current list by checking out my website online store and look under the category Retiring Products.

I love how this card turned out.  It was based on a swap I got from Trudy Freas.  This stamp set is special.  It’s te Ronald McDonald House Exclusive stamp set – for the sale of each set Stampin’ Up! donates $3 to RMHC.  Several of the demonstrators in this area volunteer each month at our local house to make cards with the guests.

Retiring items on this card:

• Moving Forward #126320 $19.95 (w)  #126322 $14.95 (c)
• Storytime Designer Series Paper #126907 $10.95
• 3/16″ Metallic Brads #119741 $6.95

I have a special offer going on right now for anyone placing an order through my online store.  Read more about it HERE.

Smile today!

Retiring Stamp set – Aviary one more time May 15, 2013

We are counting down the days – 20 more days left to order from the 2012-2013 Stampin’ Up! catalog – June 3rd is the final day.  Stampin’ Up! decided to extended it by a few days.  Remember that stamp sets will be available until the last day but the accessories and Stampin’ Around wheels are only available while supplies last.  You can see the most current list by checking out my website online store and look under the category Retiring Products.

Retiring items on this card:

• Aviary stamp set #116956 $24.95 (w)   #120462 $17.95 (c)
• Pool Party Baker’s Twine #125574 $2.95
• Regal Rose card stock (already sold out)
• Regal Rose ink #126947 $5.95

I have a special offer going on right now for anyone placing an order through my online store.  Read more about it HERE.

Have a great day!

Hey Dude – a Birthday Card March 5, 2013

Have you seen the Hey Dude kit made just for men?  It was introduced during the Stampin’ Up! Leadership conference.  It’s a manly kit designed to help out the guys in our life to make cards for us of course.  Well I have a house full of guys and figured this was just what I needed to get for them.  So I did.

It arrived at least a month ago (before Valentine’s Day) and I put it out for them to explore and use.  Well Valentine’s Day came and went – and I said to them – why didn’t you make me a card?  They all looked at me like what in the world was I talking about.  I said I got you this kit from Stampin’ Up! – Dude! You’re Welcome – it has everything you need to make me a card.  Greg says – yeah I opened it – I looked at it and I closed it back up.  I didn’t know I was supposed to make a card with it.    This would be a good place to use the stamp that says this “#%&@!”   – sigh – it didn’t work like I had planned.  But now they know how I feel about it and what they should be doing with it and it just so happens that my birthday is today!  And I was gone all day Saturday so there was time for them to use the kit without me even knowing about – yes the opportunity to surprise me.  And yes this time – Tyler came through – he got out the kit while I was gone on Saturday and put it to use to make my birthday card.  And here is the result -

Tyler looked through my stamps for a birthday stamp since the kit didn’t include one that specifically said that.  He found Easy Events and used the cupcake from that – it’s stamped in Island Indigo ink – that is what was lying on my craft table.

From the Dude Kit he used what looks to be 4 different postcard pieces  – on the base one he used the edge of the Special Occasion stamp and the Basic Gray ink to stamp several times.  And then he cut pieces of the other cards and layered them on.

That was my birthday card from the boys!  Tyler even cleaned and put away the stamps too!

We actually celebrated my birthday Sunday evening so Kyle could come and join us.  I love to have all of the boys with me!  Dinner was great – a ton of food though – we took most of it home to eat as leftovers.  And my favorite Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream from Bruesters!

I have been home all day today doing mostly nothing – keeping up with birthday messages from Facebook friends, and playing a little in my craft room.  Tonight I’ll go to Panera for the My Digital Studio digi crop with the girls.

Thank you for all my birthday wishes!

Let’s Sale-A-Brate – Sycamore Street Candy Container February 18, 2013

This super cute candy container is made from something you probably already have on hand.  You need an empty button/brad container.  You know the plastic containers that the Stampin’ Up! buttons, brads and trinkets come in.  That’s the one – and don’t even worry about getting all the labels off because we will be covering all of that up too.   This idea has been floating around amongst Stampin’ Up! demonstrators since the fall (at least that is when I first saw it).  And I have decided to use several items from the Sale-A-Bration brochure to create a fun Birthday treat container!

This project actually uses a whole hand full of Sale-A-Bration items – but this idea is easy enough to swap out with other items you already have on hand – choose a different designer paper or ribbon, or change the tag.  This one is easy to change for any occasion that you want.  So let’s take a closer look -

• first find an empty container and open it up – I save all mine after they are empty so I have lots – this is the container I’m talking about – if you want pull the label’s off – really all I did was pull of the tabs that came over the sides – the top and bottom will get covered.
• Now you need a piece of window sheet – about 8-1/2″ wide and then the height that you want – I think mine is either 2-1/2 or 3″ tall.  Put Sticky Strip along the bottom long edge and along one short edge.  remove the red cover on the long edge.  Now you are going to roll up the window sheet and fit it so the sticky strip sticks inside the lid of the empty container.  This becomes the bottom of your treat holder.
• sorry I don’t have another picture I gave the ones I made to my niece and nephew and I don’t have them here anymore.  Once you have the window sheet attached all the way around remove the red cover from the side and attach the side edge.  Make sure you keep it all straight.  Now test it to see if the bottom of the empty container will slide over the top edge of the window sheet – this is now your lid – don’t attach it just slide it on and off that way you can get to what’s inside!
• I used the 2-1/2″ Circle punch to punch 4 circles – these will fit on the inside and outside of the button container to cover the labels – for the ones going on the inside – use the Distress Tool (new in the Spring Catalog) and distress the edge all the way around the circle so that you can fit it inside the container.  I used Sticky strip to attach the circles.  All were plain except the one on the top – I just embossed with the Vine Street Embossing Folder.
• I cut strips of the Sycamore Street Designer Series paper to cover the outside edges of the containers – 1/4″ for the small one (now the bottom of your treat holder) and 1″ for the larger side (now the top of your treat holder).  I did use Sticky strip to secure these to the container.
• Add a piece of sticky strip across the bottom and secure the center of a piece of ribbon – bring it up to the top and tie a bow – to open the container – just slide off the ribbon – you don’t even have to untie it!  The ribbon I used was the Sycamore Street Ribbon & Button Pack – I used Island Indigo.
• Now make a tag to hang on.  More Sale-A-Bration items used for mine.  Pretty Petites stamp set and the Petite Curly Label punch.  I also used the Sycamore Street Designer Paper and the Vine Street Embossing folder.  The base of the tag is the Decorative label punch.  And it’s tied to the ribbon with some Baker’s Twine.
• 
• Slide off the ribbon, slide off the top and fill with candy – replace the lid and the ribbon and give it to someone special.  I did add a little Rhinestone to one of the tags too – I gave that one to my niece – I figured the little hint of bling made it girly.  I’m not sure she noticed though.

Hopefully some of that made sense.  I know that other demonstrators have made these and if you visit Heather Summer’s she has a video where she made one back before Christmas.

These are all the Sale-A-Bration items that I used -

1. Sycamore Street Designer Series paper
2. Sycamore Street Ribbon & Button pack
3. Vine Street Textured Impressions Embossing folder
4. Pretty Petites Stamp set
5. Petite Curly Label punch

Just a cute little container for a fun occasion!

A quick card to brighten a dreary day January 30, 2013

I wanted to share this quick card to brighten a dreary day.  Yep it is one of those days – the TV is on and it has pretty much been weather reports all day – strong storms, tornado watches and warnings, rain, flooding, wind – everything all around us.  Our tornado sirens have gone off several times.  I took the dogs down to the basement for a while – Magnolia decided to stay down there curled up in the blankets.  I’ve gotten reports from Ryan at school and Tyler down at KSU.  Plus I have a new lake in the backyard and side yard and a little waterfall coming through the back wall.  It’s not over yet but hopefully will be soon.

So here is a bright cherry card to show you today – I took it with my cell phone so I hope the quality isn’t too bad.

This was a card choice today in my Card Maker’s class.  It’s pretty quick and easy to make and uses some of the Sale-A-Bration items that you can get free right now by placing a qualifying order.

• Card Base is Rose Red
• then a layer of Whisper White
• a panel of Whisper white that was embossed with the Vine Street embossing folder
• stamps from the Madison Avenue stamp set – stem in Lucky Limeade on Whisper White – punch with the 2-1/2″ circle punch
• stamp the flower in Rose Red card stock in Rose Red ink and punch out with the 7/8″ scallop circle
• stamp small flower on Pretty in Pink card stock in Rose Red ink and punch out with flower from Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack
• crumple those, pierce a hole in the center and add a brad through the middle add above the stem with a dimensional
• stamp a greeting in Basic Grey ink on the circle
• Add the circle to the front of the card.

This cute idea came from one of the photos I took at Leadership.  I made a few changes but generally it is the same.  Cute card don’t you think?

 

My Digital Studio Birthday Cards January 28, 2013

You can use My Digital Studio to create a digital card to post on your friends Facebook pages on their birthday.  That was what I did this weekend.  I made two cards – a “girl” card and a “boy” card.

Boy birthday card

girl birthday card

And I’ve already used them since Facebook tells you whose birthday it is – assuming you check Facebook each day – when you see the notice then you can click over to their page and post a photo message.  I created the cards in My Digital Studio and then exported them to a .jpg file so that I could use it anywhere I want.  I may even get a couple of these printed.

Both were actually from templates.    The boy one was easy – all I really added was the Happy Birthday stamp underneath.  The girl one was a bit harder – I found a quote that I wanted to use – then I searched for stamps of the key words and added those in different colors ( I replaced the quote that was in the template) and then added the rest in text boxes.  I did have one tricky word – smiles – the word was actually smile and I needed to add an ‘s’ – well thank goodness we have the new CROP a stamp feature in MDS2 – I was able to find another word in that stamp set with an ‘s’ and crop the rest of the letters away and tack the ‘s’ onto the word smile – I bet you didn’t even notice! Here is a photo so you can see what I mean

And one more thing on the girl card – the template was actually a 11 x 8-1/2″ scrapbook page and I converted it to the card and removed the photo box replacing it with the birthday cake stamps.

Oh the things you can do in MDS2!!!  Hey that rhymes!

On Tuesday nights a group of us get together here near my house at the Panera restaurant and work on our MDS projectst together – we usually have a new trick or idea to share  too.  Come join us.

Sycamore Street Sale-A-Bration Birthday January 25, 2013

This is a really fun bright birthday card!  And rather easy and fun to make – fun if you like the color spritzer tool – which I do!

I did a lot of spritzing on this card which makes each one unique.  This was my GoDiva Sale-A-Bration swap card that I made to showcase some of our fun new Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration products that you can earn free through March 22, 2013.  Here is a look at how I made this fun card -

• first I stamped the happy Birthday from Bring on the Cake stamp set on the Whisper White panel
• then emboss the Whisper White panel with the Honeycomb embossing folder and the Big Shot
• then pull out the Color Spritzer Tool and some Stampin’ Write Markers and have fun spritzing – I used the colors to match the designer paper – Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Summer Starfruit, Pool Party and Sahara Sand
• 
• Cut various strips of the designer paper – Sycamore Street – a Sale-A-Bration freebie choice, snip points into the ends to make flags and staple them to the white panel
• Tie a piece of Island Indigo ribbon – Sycamore Street Ribbon & Button Bundle – another Sale-A-Bration freebie choice – around the panel
• add the panel to the Tangerine Tango card base
• finish with a Tangerine Tango button – Sycamore Street Ribbon & Button Bundle – a Sale-A-Bration freebie – tied with some Whisper White Baker’s Twine.

A super fun birthday card that you could give to anyone!  It’s just bright and cheery.

Stay warm – we are anticipating sleet and freezing rain for today (Friday) – yikes!  That may cause issue for my scrapbook class today – I’ll be posting on my FB page if I need to postpone or cancel it.

Henry Says “It’s Your Birthday” January 18, 2013

Henry Says, Pinwheels, and Parker’s Patterns make for a fun birthday card.  I created this fun card for the GoDiva Spring Catalog Swap.

I used lots of fun products from the Stampin’ Up! Spring Catalog -

• Henry Says stamp set (my favorite!)
• Parker’s Patterns Designer Series Paper
• Cloudy Day Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
• Pinwheel Sizzlets Die
• Hearts A Flutter Framelit Dies

I love the little pinwheel coming out of Henry’s trunk – I even tilted him back a bit so it looks like he is really blowing out some air to get that pinwheel going.  What a fun little guy!

If you would like to buy any of these products you can shop at my online store on my website – www.monika.stampinup.net 

 

Cute Punch Art Lion January 9, 2013

Look at this cute thing we made at stamp club last week!  I had a punch art Lion card from another Stampin’ Up! event – I think convention probably.  It was a swap I received and had posted on my card tree that was up during my classes.  Everyone always thought it was cute and Cari wanted to make it at stamp club.  Finally I designed a card to go with the punch art lion.

A few new products from the Spring Mini are on here – including the Parker’s Patterns Designer Paper and the Honeycomb Embossing Folder.    I’ll come back later and add in all the punches and dies.

Have a great day!

It’s time for a 2 week double challenge November 15, 2012

Are you ready?

This week’s Thursday challenge at Create with Connie & Mary is a 2 week double challenge!  First it’s a sketch challenge and second we have been challenged to create a shaped card using one of Stampin’ Up!’s Big Shot dies or framelits.

So with that in mind – what was I going to make?  That took me a while to figure out.  I finally found some inspiration on Pinterest and here is my card for the 2 week double challenge -

It’s not a very big card – we have a 3-1/2″ circle die and a 3″ circle die and that’s what I used.  I think I need to make an envelope for it but I haven’t done that yet.    The card base is Basic Black and I started by cutting a regular sized card and scored it in half.  Then I put that on the 3-1/2″ circle die so that on the side with the fold it was inside the cutting blade – that keeps the front and back connected.  Cut Whisper White with the 3″ circle die – cut two so one can go on the inside.  The one on the front is then run through with the dots embossing folder.  I actually sponged a little bit across the dots and around the edge of the front circle.

The Itty Bitty Banner fit perfectly on this card since it was pretty small.  I cut an extra banner in black and layered it behind to create a shadow.  I tied two golf tees together with the Basic Black ribbon and then put them on the card front with mini glue dots.

I hope you can see the sketch in this card – the two tees are the two strips going down the left side of the card.  The bitty banner is the greeting.  The bow around the tees is the “flower” on the card.

So who is going to get this card – I was planning to give it to Greg for his birthday which is quickly approaching but we were just invited over to celebrate his golfing-buddies birthday on Friday – so it just might go to him instead.  I guess that means I better make another one.

Stampin’ Up! Supplies:

• Stamps:  Itty Bitty Banners
  

• Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Crumb Cake
  

• Card Stock: Basic Black, Whisper White
  

• Accessories: Big Shot die-cut machine, 3-1/2″ circle die, 3″ circle die, Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Bitty Banner Framelits, Basic Black 1/8″ Taffeta ribbon, Stampin’ Sponge, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Visit the Create with Connie & Mary site to see the creations from the rest of the design team and to submit your own creation for this new challenge. This is a two week challenge – so we’ll see you again after Thanksgiving – I hope you have a nice one with your family and friends!  Be safe if you are traveling.

Did you check out Connie & Mary’s new online mini class?  It’s called Card “Create”-ions – we just used one of Mary’s cards from the preview in my downline meeting – everyone loved it!    Here are some of the details about the class for you – just a couple more days of new card ideas.

JOIN US for a BRAND NEW venture with creative card ideas
using holiday and winter stamp sets from the Main and Holiday Mini catalogs!

* Over 45 EXCLUSIVE cards with 15 stamp sets featured!
* 3 week mini edition
* October 28 thru November 17
* Printable supply lists & measurements
* 24/7 access
* Perfect for classes or personal cards!
* Designers Elizabeth Price, Debbie Henderson and Deb Currier are joining us!