More fun cards

I thought I would share a couple of fun cards with you this afternoon.  Both have been used in classes in the past month, and both are fun to make and play with!  

First off is the spinning apple/smile card.  This one is a tad fiddly to make (lots of Sticky Strip!) but does it ever have WOW impact.  That and people love to play with the circle to make it go around!!

The card really is an easy one to make.  The "Thank You" is from the Enjoy Every Moment set, and has been stamped in Basic Black.  The "Smile" is from the Be Happy set, and is stamped in Real Red.  The back of the smile is an apple from the Tart and Tangy set (yum!).  The paper used in the card's creation are Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, and Summer Picnic Designer Series paper from the Occasions Mini.  I heard someone say that this is the greatest paper ever and I have to agree.  The patterns and colours are awesome!!  Directions were found on Splitcoaststampers, and can be found here.

The other one is a fun pop-up card that can be mailed.  I made this one last year using some of the old In Colours, but rejigged it for a workshop this past weekend using Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, Basic Black and Whisper White.

I originally made this card at a team meeting last spring, but don't have any written instructions.  Give me a day or two and I'll create them and post them on my blog.  

Oh, before I forget... the stamp sets are Warm Words and Polka Dots and Petals.  The stems were added using a ruler and a Certainly Celery marker.

Until later...  Cheers!

Yesterday's Fun in London

I'm feeling a bit more awake now than I was when we returned from London last night.  Getting up at 5:00am is NOT my idea of a good time!  Leaving at 5:30am isn't fun either.  We went through the Timmy's drive-thru at about 6:00, and I was happy because my coffee and bagel were handed through the window.  I was one miffed girl though when I realized a half hour later that there was sugar in my coffee!!!  People who like their coffee black (aka me!) DO NOT want sugar in their coffee.  I drank it anyways as there were no other Timmy's around.  Blech!

Spring Fling in London was awesome!  I received some interesting cards, and 3-D items, and we made some gorgeous projects using Tart and Tangy.  There were some really neat demos put on by some of the talented ladies in Alicia Ryckman's group, and I certainly saw some new projects that I'm just going to HAVE to try!  Two demos from the U.S. were there as well.  They had some great ideas and tips for us, and both of them were hilarious to boot!

I took oodles of photos, but have only just loaded them into iPhoto.  I'll sort through them all, and post a few in the coming days.  I do have one for you today though... this is a wall hanging that was put together by Debbie Whatling.  She used So Saffron Paper, Soft Sky Prints DS paper, stamps, and items from the Pretties kit!  Enjoy!

Swaps galore!

Sorry - I've been so busy stamping this week that I haven't had time to post anything fun on my crazy blog!  Luckily the madness will end on Saturday after I return from Spring Fling in London.  As it is I've still got hoards to do, but realize that I really need to share some fun projects with you!

I've made 40 swap cards (picture to be posted later - once I actually take one!) and 16 3-D swap items.  I was at a bit of a loss for awhile as to what to create, but I ended up finding some cute boxes at the 'Rama and gussying them up a bit.  A quick note about the boxes...  these are in the hardware aisle, NOT the craft aisle.  They do have boxes that are bigger in the craft aisle, but they are a much bigger pain to cover with paper as they don't have a straight edge on the hinge side of the box.

The boxes are great for holding embellishments, and toting them around to wherever you decide to create your masterpieces.  I've used some of the Cutie Pie Designer Series Paper for the edges, as well as some Certainly Celery for the mat.  I just received my Jumbo Outline Alphabet, and thought that this would be a fun time to play with it!  I saw some awesome cards on Splitcoast that have been made using this alpha, and loved the way that they overlapped the letters.  I've stamped mine in Chocolate Chip ink, and coloured them in using a Blender Pen and some Bashful Blue ink.  I've then punched the flowers out using the 5-petal punch, and some Rose Red, So Saffron & Bashful Blue paper.  If I have enough time I'm going to print out some labels for the inside, and punch them using the My Way (arrows!) punch.  

Gotta run - my kitchen is a DISASTER!!!

It feels like it's summer out there!!!

Who feels like stamping when it's gorgeous outside???  For one, not me.  But... I have to.  I have 2 workshops this week, 2 stamp clubs this week, and I'm going to London next Saturday for an all day stamp-fest.  So, what's a girl to do?  Stamp!  Wanna see a couple of new creations?

This one's pretty easy to do, but it's a unique card to open.

The Pretty In Pink outer envelope is simply an 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece, stamped, scored and folded at 2 1/4" from either end.  You fold the ends in, and adhere them together.  Take a piece of Sticky Strip, adhere it inside the envelope right at one end, and glue the end shut.  A 1 1/4" punch was used to punch the half circle on the right side.

The inside piece is a 5" x 3 3/4" piece of cardstock.  I've stamped the end, and attached a ribbon to help the recipient pull the card out.  I've used a piece of 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon for the band around the envelope.

Thanks to Jennifer Tinline for making & giving me the original sample of this card at a mega-meeting last year!

For those of you in stamp club, here's a taste of what's to come this week...

It's a shaker card!!!  More details to come... after this week's zooeyness is over.

Enjoy the wonderful Ontario weather!!!  It's going to be warm and gorgeous all week!  

May Promos

Ooooo... for all you chipboard lovers, we just found out that our May promotion involves chipboard!!!

From May 1st through 31st, you get 25% off all On Board chipboard products when you spend $40 on any Stampin' Up! products.  

I'm loving this as I've just started to really add chipboard to my scrappy albums, and there's SOOOO many things that you can do with it!!

In addition, anyone who purchases a Cutting Mat in the month of May will also receive a free Hobby Blade!

What a busy weekend!

This weekend has been unbelievably productive.  Derek and I have done a pile of stuff this morning that resulted in a much cleaner laundry room, hockey equipment that's ready to go down south (aka the basement) for the summer, and a fridge with a door that closes!

Last night was my first ever stamp camp.  We made three mini albums, and although we didn't get the final one finished, we still had fun!  I'll definitely do something like this again, but this time I won't make the girls work so fast.  I'll be loading pics of the books to Split Coast, so check out my gallery!

I have a workshop tomorrow evening with a bunch of ladies that are new to scrapbooking.  We're going to put together the page below in an effort to get them started.  I like the layout as it's very simple and you can use full 4"x6" photos.  However, it's definitely missing something...  lots of embellishments!!!  You know me... I'm the queen o' stuff!  I can totally see myself bringing this home, putting together an accompanying page, and then adding oodles of stuff!!!  We shall see...

I promised you a photo of my spinner card.  Check it out!  Isn't the frog just the cutest thing??  This was one very fun card to put together!  I think I'm going to make another one!!!

'Til tomorrow...

She's completely spun.

Okay, no pictures tonight.  Mainly because I'm dead tired, but also because I can't be bothered to try and get the light right.  What have I been up to you ask?  Making spinner cards!!!  Come back tomorrow for a sneak peek...

A new Crop Partner!

One last quick note this evening...

We have another partner for our big Scrapbooking crop on May 24th.  Cathy Hogan, from Creative Memories, will also be at the crop!

Have a peek at her website here!

We all hope to see you on May 24th - please let us know if you can come!!

Loonies for Littles - I've got pics!

I spent this afternoon playing with my Loonies for Littles Stampin' Kit.  What a lot of fun!  The instructions that come with the kit show you the layout for the cover, as well as one scrapbook page inside.  I now have the covers finished, as well as 12 of the 20 inside pages.  Although Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive are not my favourite colours to work with, this book is pretty cute.  It would make a great Mother's Day gift for someone!  As soon as I've finished this post I'm heading back into my dining room to try and finish it off.

Here are some pictures for you...

The top photo is the front cover of the album, and the other two are select pages from the inside.  The only things that I've added to the creation of this album are the use of Soft Sky classic ink, and the Priceless stamp set.  Many of the images on the stickers and paper are from this set, so I'm using it!  I haven't embellished the living daylights out of it - yet.  Stay tuned on that one...

Enjoy!

It's FINALLY spring!

This afternoon was absolutely gorgeous!  Derek went to the Jays game with a friend (they beat up on the Red Sox for the second day in a row!  Yea!), and I took the kids to the park for the first time since last fall.  We then came home, and Chris coloured on the driveway while Brendan and Michelle "helped" me clean out the car.  That was a chore in itself!!

Last night I had some wonderful ladies over who had the opportunity to try something new.  It was a great evening, and they had a wonderful time playing with things that I don't normally bring out at workshops or Stamp Club.

Here are the cards - I remembered to take the photos this afternoon when I didn't need to use a flash.   The first card looks better for it - Brocade Blue cardstock, Rose Red & So Saffron Prints Designer Paper, Ribbon from the Jersey Ribbon collection, and of course, Pretties!!!  I LOVE painting these flowers, and using the bits and pieces to attach them to cards.  The sentiment is from Fundamental Phrases, and was stamped in Rose Red ink.

When I first saw these two colours together (Wild Wasabi & More Mustard) I wasn't thrilled with them.  They are the two colours in the ribbon on the card (also from the Jersey Ribbon collection), but they just aren't my colours.  The ladies last night liked the combination quite a bit, so I felt relieved!!  We used a More Mustard marker and a blender pen loaded with Wild Wasabi ink to load up the flowers on the stamp, and then very lightly stamped off before actually stamping the cardstock.  Have a look a the brad - it's one of the Build-A-Brads!!  Very fun!

Last, but certainly not least, is this really bright Real Red Card.  We used a bit of Summer Picnic Designer Paper, Real Red ribbon, and one of the silver ribbon slides from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware kit in the Occasions Mini Catalogue.   The large orange flower is one the Die-Cut blooms and the white rub-on in the red scallop (A Perfect Day Rub-Ons) are in the mini catty.  Once again, Fundamental Phrases was used for the "celebrate", stamped in Real Red in.  Fun, Fun, Fun!

Enjoy the weather!!!  Time to go back out and check out my perennials... some of they have started to pop!

Serves me right...

I had two new cards finished this afternoon.  Did I take pictures of them when the wonderful sunshine was streaming into the dining room?  No.  Now that I have three cards finished, it's 11:00pm, and the pictures of each are lousy.  

For those of you that are coming to tomorrow evening's "Try something new!" workshop, here's a sneak peek of what you'll be making...

Mmmmmm.... flowers from the Pretties kit!  More details (and decent photos!) tomorrow.

It's all in the details!

Today was monumental in the "nailing down details" department.  My fellow stampers (Corrie, Colleen) and I have gone from "well, we have a place and a date" to "here's the date, time, place, & details".  So, on to the details!

We're having a combo Stamp-a-Stack (SAS) and Scrapbooking Crop on Saturday, May 24th!  The location is McKinney Centre, located at 222 McKinney Drive in Whitby.  

What is a Stamp-a-Stack you ask?  It's the other name that we gave the Holiday Card Workshop that we held last November.  For pictures of our last stack, click here.

SAS Details: 

• The stack is being held from 1-4pm
  
• Cost is $25.  
  
• Make 12 designer cards (2 each of 6 designs).  Which cards you ask?  You'll have to wait and see...  the only hints that I'll give is that they will be all occasion cards, and one will be manly (says Wendy in a deep manly type voice that really sounds like Patrick Star from SpongeBob).
  

Crop Details:  

• The crop is on from 9am-9pm 
  
• Cost is $40, 
  
• Participants will be allocated one half of an 8 foot table (for those of you that are math challenged, that's a 4 foot section of table!) 
  
• Lunch & dinner are included!
  

Do you want to do both???

• The cost is $55  
  
• Make your cards in the morning, scrap the rest of the day!
• Lunch & Dinner are included
  

All participants can also expect the following:

• All day coffee, tea & bottled water
  
• Door prize draws throughout the day
  
• A ticket for the Grand Prize Draw
  
• Project displays - cards, scrapbook pages & 3-D items

Now, here's the really important stuff:

• Early Bird Registration (including payment) ends on May 3rd!
  
• Final Registration (including payment ) ends on May 10th!  
  
• No late entries will be accepted, and the cost of all three options goes up by $5.00 if you register between May 4th & 10th!!!
  

Register early as seating for all options is limited!!!!!!!!  You can e-mail me at littleinklings@rogers.com or call at 905-655-9347.  Payment can be made by cash, cheque or credit card.  

Share this with your friends, and I hope that you can make it out to our second big event!!

What did the UPS truck bring? My Loonies for Littles Kit!

The UPS truck brought a great surprise today - my Loonies for Littles kit!  What on earth is a Loonies for Littles Kit?  Well, let me tell you!

Loonies for Littles is a campaign that is running from April 15th through May 31st.  For each kit sold, Stampin' Up! will donate $2.00 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada.  The kits themselves are an outstanding deal.  They are $32.50 (after 7% price adjustment), and each kit contains the following:  a stamp set exclusive to this campaign, a 5" x 5" On Board Art Journal, Designer Series Paper, textured cardstock,  self-adhesive die cuts, 2 Stampin' Spots, instructions, and a craft keeper!

I am planning on putting my journal together this weekend.  Once it's finished I will cheerfully take it with me everywhere, and show it to everyone and anyone!

Although they are not available for order until April 15th, I am taking pre-orders on the kits now.  The total cost of each kit including tax & shipping is $40.40.  They are a great gift for someone!!!  Please let me know if you are interested!!