Take a spin

I'm still working on coming up with 5 different b'day themed cards.  What do you think about this one?  You can't see the bottom of the card too well.  It's circles, using the 1 1/4 circle punch.  I saw a card with that on You tube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC8cEuSDtj8&feature=related.  I liked how it looked, so I tried to do my own version of it.  I've really liked the other 3 I already posted, but I don't have that immediate "got it" feeling on this one.  So any input would be appreciated.  Thanks as always for looking and your comments.  I really appreciate them!!

The 5-10-15 Event

I've been working on what cards I'd like to do for my 5-10-15 birthday card event, and I've come across 3 that I've cased.  I definatly like this one.

This particular card I cased off of Split coast.  Kim Lampone did it.

This next one I like, but I'm not too sure about the colors yet.  I definitely like the lay out of it, and it was cased from Dawn Griffin.  (LOVE HER!!)  I changed the colors on all of my cards, and either added, things, left things out, or tweaked it in a small way, but the idea was theres.  It's so nice to have a community of such talented people who are so willing to share. 

I used the "In color" Poppy parade.  I've not used my in colors at all.  Maybe that's why I'm not sure if I like the colors on this card.  What do you think?

Last, I'm not sure if I like the colors on this one either.  My husband said he really likes it for a masculine birthday card, but I wonder if there isn't a bit too much brown.

This particular card I cased from...that's right, I saw this cards somewhere and the lay out stuck in my head.  I didnt' think to write it down at the time where I saw it.  I just ran the base of the cupcakes through my crimper, I believe that's the only changes other than color that I made to this card.  If this is off your blog (I'm following a ton) please let me know.  I can't believe I didn't write it down.  I will gladly give credit where credit is due.  Thanks for looking and please let me know what you think.  This is the brain storming time for me, I've still got a couple more images in my head that I'm sure I saw somewhere, when I get it together, I'll be posting the rest of the birthday cards.  So keep checking in to see what the final 5 cards will be for my event.

Wow, what a feeling!!!

I am so excited to say that I have finally been able to do some cards for OWH.  (Operation write Home).  I feel so passionate about this cause.  Being married to a man who is in the military and who feels very strongly about the sacrifices that our military members and their families do on a daily basis, I think this is a very good cause.  I wish I could get more people involved in this, but I'll take what I can get.  Thank you Kathy for helping me with these cards.  I really feel so good at having accomplished this goal of making some cards for our soldiers.  They don't ask for any recognition at all, and to be able to provide them with some cards that sadly may be their last contact with their loved ones, I feel honored to be a part of this.  If you would like more info on this great cause, you can get that here.http://www.operationwritehome.org/.  Thank you for looking and as always, I LOVE to read your comments.

It's Christmas in January...

I love Sale-A-Bration's!  LOVE,LOVE,LOVE!!!  I just placed my order on Tuesday morning and surprise!  My SU order is here.  This is what I came home to find on my door today.

WOOHOO!!!  The box was almost 25lbs!  I wish I could say the entire box is mine, but it's for my stamp club members too.  The goodies that are for me, I can't wait to start playing with.  I finally broke down and bought some DSP.  I haven't thought much of it before, but from blog surfing, I've become converted.  I love all that you can do with it.

I finally received the owl punch, cause again, checking out some talented ladies blogs has made me have to have the owl punch.  I'm the proud new owner of the build a cupcake punch and a few others, so we'll have to see what I can do with them.

Here's all of the free stuff that I have gotten from celebrations, or the lucky ladies in my club are getting. I should add that this is also some of what the Hostess is getting.  Lots of loot ha? 

 If you haven't taken advantage of Sale-A-Brations, ladies, I'm telling you, now is the time to do it.  You just spend $50 dollars, and whalla, you get a FREE stamp set!  Really, I don't think it get's any better than this.  I am a bargain shopper, and this is definatly a bargain!!

I'm so excited!  I can't wait to play!!!!  Keep checking back, I will for sure be posting something with all this fun new stuff I've got to play with. 

Just waiting...

I am waiting as patiently as I can for my Sale-A-Bration order.  I just put it in yesterday morning and I'm not sure I can keep myself together.  I'm so excited to get the package, it's gonna be like Christmas.  I've got 10 celebrations stamp sets coming!  Some of the stuff is for my Stamp club, but ooohhh, alot of it is my order.  What better time to stock up?!  TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK...

I LOVE SALE-A-BRATION.  If you'd like to get something free for EVERY $50 you spend, now is the time.  Now through March 31st there are 3 easy ways to earn free products.

1.  Spend:  For every $50 you spend, you earn one Free Sale-A-Bration product of your choice.  There is no limit- for every $50 you spend, you can select another FREE Sale-a-bration product! 

2.  Host:  Host a workshop of at least $300 and earn one free Sale-A-Bration product of your choice in addiction to the generous hostess benefits.

3.  Join:  Join Stampin'Up! by becoming a demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration and get 15% off your starter kit.  PLUS get a bonus bundle filled with over $50 in free products.

Contact me now to take advantage of this wonder sale!  I promise you won't be disappointed.

I'll be posting pictures when my package comes.  So excited for all the free stuff!!

What a surprise...

I LOVE getting things in the mail, I'm sure we all do. So today was such a nice surprise, I got this in the mail. 

A few friends and my upline who is also a dear friend started our own little swap.  We mail things out to each other on the 20th of every month.  So I was definatly expecting some stuff in the mail, but not for a couple of days.  So this was such a great surpise!  Then when I opened the box, I was completly blown away.  My friend, Melanie is so talented!

Look at this very cute box.  Inside there is some Ghirardelli squares, yum!  Some peppermint patties, that she decorated really cute, and some tootsie rolls, and...a beautfiully put together book.  It's just amazing all of the things she put together.  Heres a close up of the book.

Next there's a cute little stationary box.  Inside there are some cute little cards with matching envelopes which she made using the die cut scallop envelope.

A cute little notebook with a key ring.

Lastly, her version of the marble technique in a card.  I love how her card turned out!  Isnt' she super talented!  Wow, thanks so much Melanie!  It's all really amazing!

In need of B'day cards?

I'm so excited to say that I will be having a 5-10-15 event on Friday, February 18th! So if you live in the Salt Lake area, you are welcome to come. We will be making 10 cards.  The theme for this one is Birthday.  So you will leave my home with10 beautiful cards ready to give away, (if you can part with them.) 

I will provide glue sticks, if you would like another form of adhesive, please bring that with you.  I promise you wont' be dissappointed!!  I will be posting some of the cards we will make that night, so keep checking back. 

The cost to attend is $15.00.  PLEASE R.S.V.P so that I can be sure I have enough supplies on hand for everyone.  Thanks!

Finally letting out a breathe of relief...

First I'd like to thank you lovely ladies for your kind words.  I was so stressed out about this first club party and then when I lost my voice, I thought I was going to have to cancel.  I had to put in so much work in both my house and getting all my supplies ready, I didn't want to have to cancel, by some miracle, (thanks for the prayers) I was able to use my voice.  Not normal by any means, but I was able to get out a little noise.  So what a relief!

Last night went really well.  I think the ladies all enjoyed themselves, and I learned a few things too.  I feel more and more confident on what to do next time and what works, what doesn't work.  With that being said, let me tell you how it went. 

 I had originally thought that the "shaving creme" technique would take up plenty of time, but when I could finally step back and see that everything was taken care of and I had a few minutes to breathe, I started thinking that I wanted my clients to leave here happy and feeling like they had gotten their money's worth, so of course it's 5:15 p.m. and I decide that I need to have a second card to do.   The party was set to start at 6:00   I tryed out a few things and I didn't like how any of them were turning out, so now it's 5:40 and I'm really stressing out.  Then the thought hits me, "Check out my friends blogs for ideas."  You ladies always have such cute ideas on your blogs!  SO I came across this one on whatareyouinking.blogspot.com and I had it! 

I was able to put together a card instantly and the ladies loved it.  I told them that this card was good because you can use your scraps of paper, which is exactly what I did!

Here's my card: 

Over all for my first club ever, I think it went pretty well.  I think everyone went home with their cards pleased.  That was my main goal, that they like what they were going home with.  I also gave them their own SU bags that I picked up at...for pete's sake, my mind is totally blank.  Anywho, they got their bags, and a little treat pouch that I put together.  (Thanks Dawn for the tutorial.)

DA!  CONVENTION, the SU bags I picked up at convention!

Thanks for stoppin by to take a look!  As always comments are appreciated and welcome!  Have a great weekend!

Does it look better?

I've been looking at this card, and looking at it and I just wasn't sure what was missing.  I just didn't like it. 

Now, I think I've figured it out.  A friend of mine was looking at it and thought it might need a dark base.  I decided, "that's not a bad idea," so I added a darker scalloped edge and  a darken ribbon on top.  Is it better now? 

My nephews b'day card

I think this is one of the hardest cards I've had to come up with.  My nephew is 11 today!  He's at that age where he's too cool for alot of things, so I wasn't sure how to come up with a card he would like that was "cool" enough to give to him.  I finally thought a pocket card would be kinda neat.  In the bottom pocket I am going to add his b'day gift which will be money!  I know that sounds like we're not putting much thought into our gift, but our 10 year old daughter LOVED getting money for her birthday last week. 

I have tons and ton's of things from SU that are retired, so I decided that I need to start using some of that stock up, so this card is using retired everything, except for the white card stock.  :)  As always, comments are really appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by!

Constructive criticism is good!

I have spent the entire day trying to figure out a card for my first ever stamp club.  I was beginning to think I should NOT have made SU more than just a hobby, and then finally, it came together.  I think this is the card.

  I would LOVE to know what you think.  It's so much more stressful because people are coming to me and expecting me to provide something amazing and top quality and I still feel so "new" to stampin.  Like I said this is completely out of my comfort zone.  This card however did get the seal of approval from my wonderful husband.  It's hard sometimes hearing him say he doesn't like something I worked so hard on, but it's defiantly worth it.  I like this card SOOOO much better than the other two I did.  As usual I would love some feed back.  It defiantly helps me feel more confident in my ability to hostess a show.

Back to the drawing board...entirely!

My husband just came home from work and when I asked him which of the two cards I made he likes, he said, "honestly neither."  So I posted the one, and to save time, I won't post the other one he didn't like.  This is what I get for telling him he needs to have more to say about my cards than just, "ya, that's okay."  I think I liked "ya, that's okay," better.  Oh, well, I do appreciate the constructive criticism.  If I am totally honest, I'm not much liking the cards either.  It's so frustrating that I can't pull something together when I've got a class coming up!  So like I said, Back to the drawing board.

What am I getting into...

I have started a stamp club and I am really, really nervous about it. I feel like I'm just barely starting to get comfortable enough to know what I am doing, but do I know enough to start a club?! My first class meets on Friday, January 14th. I've decided that we would learn techniques, so the first class I'll be showing the shaving cream technique.

This is the card that I am going to have the ladies do. What do you think? Is there anything I should add, change? If anyone has any helpful advice, or ideas on how to run a successful club please let me know. I am extremely nervous, and this is stepping completely out of my comfort zone! I wonder if I know enough to actually venture out and start a club. I guess we'll see.

I've also noticed that the colors in the back ground dont' show up very well in the picture. I used pretty in pink, certainly celery, and bashful blue. I originally tried just pink and celery, and it came out looking more like a Christmas card. So with those colors you defiantly need the bashful blue.

As always ladies, thank you for your continued support and kind comments. I really appreciate them.

Operation Write Home (OWH)

I would very much like to start doing a group for OWH. I am going to start doing cards for these soldiers, and if anyone else in interested in helping me, I would greatly appreciate it. Leave me a message if your interested. Ideally I would like to have a bunch of people making cards, and then getting them mailed to me, and I would add all of mine to it and label the backs of them. I intend to start a group here at home and see what I can do. I say mail them to me because my thinking is unless you have a ton done, it wouldnt be worth mailing them out to the OWH, but if you can be a part of a bigger group, you would just have to do a few cards at a time and everyones few cards would add up to a bunch to mail in. It's just a thought. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks!!

What a mess!

This is how my craft room looks after my friend and I made our Valentines cards for our card swap. I will have to post a picture now of what my craft room looks like clean! I think I should feel embarrassed enough that I should keep it off the Internet, but I figure being creative has a price and who better to understand that than fellow stampers! Like I said though, WHAT A MESS!!

Valentines Day

I LOVE so many of the things that Stampin Up has retired, so I decided that I would make some cards using some of my retired stamps, paper, and ribbon. I am in a card swap that is separate from SU, so that's where these cards went. I wish the Sending Love designer paper would come back! I bought about 6 packages of it when it was retiring. I wish I'd bought a ton more! On an entirely separate note, does anyone know how you would go about doing cards for soldiers? I've heard a little about it,and being a soldiers wife, I would LOVE to get info on how I go about sending cards to our soldiers for them to use. If anyone has any helpful information, please leave me a comment. Thanks as always for looking and leaving me comments!

I think it's finished...

Okay, thank you to all of you lovely ladies who gave me advice on how to finish my daughters b'day card. I really wanted it to be different, an idea I came up with on my own, and not something she's see somewhere else. It was so frustrating to be so stumped! I think it's much nicer now. I just didn't like it one bit before. Let me know what you think now. Again, thank you so much for your support!

I need some ideas asap

My little girls birthday is tomorrow. She's turning 10! So I've made her a card, but there's just something missing. I can't figure out what, but it's just not turning out how I'd envisioned it, so if you have any helpful advice on what I need to do to this card to bring it together, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks as always for looking!!