Unfrogettable Stamping!

In the spotlight: Build-a-Bear product line

   The exclusive Build-a-Bear product line carried in our current Idea Book & Catalog will be retiring on May 31st so I wanted to spotlight some of my favorite projects featuring this line to inspire you.  I purchased my bear above at the Stampin' Up! Convention a few years ago when this product line first debuted.  We have an assortment of stamp sets along with coordinating Big Shot dies - order them now while they are still available!  Remember, it is easiest to order these retiring products online via my website here.

These projects were from a Mom & Me class that I did a few years ago.

I created this card as a Fabulous Friday project for the Sisters in Stamping blog.

This was a project featured on a display at Convention... what a cute idea!

Here is one other sample showing two card ideas.

If you love this product line, be sure and purchase your Big Shot dies and stamp sets before May 31st!!

 

 

 

Diva Day projects for 1st quarter 2012

  I held my Diva Day event last night for my Top 3 Demonstrators for the  Jan - Mar, 2012 earning period and wanted to share the projects with you.  I have been holding these incentive events for over a year now and love rewarding these leaders on my team for their hard work!  I have a point system that I use that is a combination of sales, recruiting and personal promotions.  The demonstrators that we celebrated last night were Jennifer Rawlings, Wendy Boothe and Julia Miller.  Congratulations, Ladies!!

  We started the night with a meal of Paula Deen's taco soup, chips & salsa, salad and orange creme cake for dessert (I pinned the taco soup recipe and it is sooooo good!).  Afterwards, everyone opened up their goodie bags that I stamped with my new favorite Island Indigo ink and Everything Eleanor stamp set.  Inside was a brand new large 2" x 1-1/2" Simply Adorned charm and 24" chain along with a sampler of the new daffodil delight stitched grosgrain ribbon and new In Color card stock.  The projects for the night were creating six different inserts for the charm.

  I CASE'd the black/First Edition insert in the lower right-hand corner from one we had made at Leadership last year and the sunset with butterfly in the lower left-hand corner is a CASE of one that was posted on Stampin' Connection by Ashley Sokal.  The rest are ones I designed.  Even though the Simply Adorned line is being retired at the end of this month, these are great conversation starters and a way for my business builders to share their Stampin' Up! story with others.

  Sadly, I forgot to take photos of everyone last night... thanks to Jennifer, Wendy and Julia for their hard work!   I hope you all had fun!!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

  My friend and downline Sarah Eller's birthday was yesterday and I'm hoping that she received her card in the mail before she sees it in this post.. wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!  It had to travel from  Virginia to Seattle so I decided not to post it on her birthday in case it arrived yesterday.  I have loved making these fabric flower pins using my Big Shot and the Fun Flowers Bigz L and Flower Folds Bigz XL dies.  Attaching them to a center step card is a great way to present them!!

  Here is a side view of the flower - lots of fluffy layers, right?!  I had this black and white fabric and matched the card to the pin.  The center of the flower is a retired corduroy brad - I so miss these!  This fabric flower is actually one of the projects that I'll be teaching in my fabric flowers class later this month.  Want to come?  Contact me so I can reserve your spot!

   On the inside of the card I just stamped a very simple sentiment from the retiring On Your Birthday stamp set... since the sentiment is only on the inside of the card, Sarah can use the card base as a photo frame once she removes her pin.  So, two gifts in one!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Sarah!

   Don't forget that if you are loving all the fun projects that can be created usig the Big Shot and you don't have one yet, I have a fabulous Birthday Big Shot Bundle promotion going on now through my birthday, May 30th!  Check out the details here.

Mini scrapbooks are fabulously fun!

   May is National Scrapbooking month and in honor of that we are featuring mini scrapbooks as our theme for Fabulous Friday this week on the Sisters in Stamping blog.  I created this mini scrapbook that is sized at approximately 4" x 4" - the perfect size for a proud Grandma or parent to carry around.  I could also see my daughters filling it with photos of their friends.  This will be one of the make-n-takes at my Craft and Scrapbooking Crop on Saturday, May 19th... I still have openings so let me know if you'd like to join me!!  Find details here.

Below you will find photos of the inside pages... I just used one sheet of gorgeous paper from the retiring Paisley Petals DSP pack with scraps of marina mist and always artichoke card stock for my embellishments.  The pages are made of naturals white card stock and the scrapbook is held closed with retiring 1/4" marina mist grosgrain ribbon.  The butterflies were cut out with my Big Shot (have you seen my Birthday promotion this month?) and the Beautiful Butterflies bigz die and Beautiful Wings embosslit.  I embellished the butterflies with basic pearls jewel accents - aren't they pretty?!  I also used the Vintage Wallpaper and Square Lattice impressions texturz folders to add some texture to my cover.  The flower on the inside was created with the retiring triple layer Bouquet punch and the Little Leaves sizzlit.  I also used the Scallop Square Duo bigz die for some of the pages.  I love this scrapbook and can't wait to put photos inside!

For even more inspiration, be sure you visit the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to check out what mini scrapbooks Karla, Rachel and Jacque came up with this week.  Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  My kids will be swimming in their first long-course swim meet of the season in the Virginia Tech pool.  I will be enjoying the smell of chlorine all weekend!!

 

 

In the spotlight: Fox & Friends

   What a cute set Fox & Friends is... so perfect for baby cards, kids projects and so much more as you will see in the samples I am sharing with you today.  Don't miss out on this fantastic solid image set before it's gone... you have until May 31st to order it.  It is available in both clear mount (#118565, $14.95) and wood mount (#117020, $18.95).  The set above was one I designed for a Mom & Me birthday class a while back.

Here is a cute Valentine card featuring the monkey from this set.

I love this owl - it fits well in the xl oval punch!

How cute is this chocolate bar cover?

This was a card created for one of our monthly swaps and features the whale - notice that it fits in the tag punch!

Darlene Crockett made this card for a catalog CASE swap - what a cute baby card.

Krid Sennett created this card for our shoe box swap last July featuring the Fox from this set.

 
A candy favor with the monkey hanging from the "vine" created with the image from the retiring Baroque Motifs.

This card was also for a swap and features many of the different images from the set.

   If you love this set, be sure to get it before it's gone for good!  Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful rest of your weekend!!

In the spotlight: I {heart} Hearts

I wanted to share some of my favorite projects featuring the I {heart} Hearts stamp set that is retiring next month... even though this set features a bunch of hearts, it isn't just for Valentine's Day as you will see!  Enjoy! 

If you would like to purchase this set (available in both clear mount and woodmount), please contact me or place your online order here.

   

 

Crafting with the Lovely Ladies...

   I have been doing crafting classes (mostly stamping) with the Lovely Ladies of the Williams Home for over a year now and have grown to love these women!  I lost my Grandmother years ago and these sweet women with their Southern accents just remind me of her so much.  Sometimes we'll have as many as 8-10 that come to class and last week we just had 4, but no matter how many come we always have a great time!

  Our crafting session this time was to create fabric flower pins for their upcoming Spring Tea.  I used my Big Shot and the Fun Flowers L die to cut out 240 layers of fabric - there were 4 patterns in total of various shades of purple and I spray starched the flower layers ahead of time.  The Ladies mixed and matched the layers and we held them together with an antique brad to form a total of 26 different fabric flower pins.  They turned out great and I can't wait to do more fabric projects with them in the future!  I think we may be embellishing canvas bags with different flowers sometime this summer - doesn't that sound like fun?!

   Here are some close-ups of a few of the flowers... if you haven't made any of these yet they are so much fun!  If you'd like to schedule a private flower class contact me for details...

   I love the time I spend with these Ladies, sharing my love of stamping and crafting with my Big Shot and other Stampin' Up! products.  Thank you, Melody, for giving me the opportunity to be able to do this!!  If you have the opportunity to go into a retirement facility and do some crafting with the residents there you will get so much back for the time you spend with them, I promise!

Happy Birthday, Gerin!

   What birthday gift do you give to a friend who has it all?  You make her something unique and pretty!!  I made this fun fabric flower pin for my friend and downline Gerin using my Big Shot and the Flower Folds Bigz XL die with a matching center step card.  It is very similar to my Fabulous Friday project from last week (see that here).  The "happy birthday" sentiment is the 1-line large text stamp that I had custom-made by Stampin' Up! and I use it a lot!

   Here is another view of the card... rather than attaching the flower pin like I did with my card last week I decided to use baker's twine to hold it onto the card so that after removing the pin  she could add a photo to the card front (thanks, Melody, for that idea!).

   This card is sized oddly so doesn't fit in a regular A2 envelope... luckily, I still had a few of the chocolate chip envelopes that came with the carousel notecards (remember those?) from a couple of years ago so it worked out great to hold the card and flower pin.  I just wrapped it with some pretty in pink striped grosgrain and added a tag.

   Believe it or not, when I took the gift to Gerin yesterday she was wearing a pink shirt with brown accents and a white cardigan... the flower had the perfect fabric to match her outfit!!  Who knew?!?  So the next time you have a gift to give, think about what you have in your craft room and try making it!  The recipient will love that you put so much thought and love into your gift!!

April 2012 downline swap, part 1

I held my team meeting a week early this month because of Spring Break and wanted to share some pictures of the presentation and our swaps.  Kris Burdeaux was my presenter and did a fabulous demonstration on how to make a trifold shutter card.  I had seen these online before but didn't realize how they were made - they are so much fun to open!!  She made this beautiful card above and gave it to me at the end of her presentation... needless to say I was THRILLED!  It is gorgeous!!  Below you'll find a photo of it opened up...

This month our swap hostess was Jennifer Rawlings and she chose a theme of Teentastic Birthday... quite a challenging one for most of us!  I shared my card with you on Thursday and wanted to share the rest - I'll post a few today and the rest tomorrow.

Jennifer Rawlings

 

Gerin Martin

 

Kathy Kennedy

Aren't these great?!  You'll see the rest tomorrow... just as good, I promise!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!!

 

You're going to fall in love with Summer Smooches!!!

   Aren't these projects fun?!  They were created using the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper, Daffodil Delight seam binding ribbon and the Petite Purse Big Shot die from the Summer Smooches product suite that is available for purchase during the month of April as part of a Sneak Peek!  The bright colors sure make me think of hot, lazy summer days... what about you?!

Don't miss your opportunity to get these great new products throughout April - two months before they debut in the new catalog in June!

Click here to see the color flyer

Visit my online store here

Item Description Price
125495 Bright Blossoms Wood-Mount Set $16.95
125497 Bright Blossoms Clear-Mount Set $12.95
125409 Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper $10.95
125583 Daffodil Delight 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon $6.95
125411 Summer Smooches Designer Fabric $9.95
125589 Summer Smooches Fabric Designer Brads* $6.95
125626 Summer Smooches Décor Stencil* $7.95
125606 Petite Purse Bigz L Die $32.95
129919 Summer Smooches Photobook Template $17.95
129601 Summer Smooches Digital Kit $9.95

*Exclusive to the Summer Smooches Special Offer and will NOT be available in the 2012-2013 catalog

Product Details:
•Designer Series Paper coordinating colors: Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry.
•Designer Fabric coordinating colors: Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango.
•Fabric Designer Brads: 24 pieces, 8 ea. of 3 designs.
•Summer Smooches Photobook Template and Digital Kit are My Digital Studio downloads.