Random Cards

You're probably just as surprised as I am, but I finally have some cards to post! This weekend several wonderful people came to my house and helped me to begin on my wedding invitations! (Special thanks to, My mom, Dad, Aunt J, Jamaal's Mom, and T! I could not have done it without you all!) The design I chose requires embossing, which means that we stamped an image using an ink that does not dry quickly and covered the image with embossing powder, tapped off the excess, and heat set the powder. When you heat embossing powder you get a nice raised image. In the case of my invitations it also becomes metallic, because we used silver embossing powder. No pictures yet, the invites are still in pieces, and parts still have to be finished, but it's coming along well!

Before I get to the cards I have a quick sneak peek for you all! Because the Occasions Mini Catalog has several Easter stamp sets in it, SU! is letting customers order a select number of the stamp sets before the rest of the catalog is available for purchase! Check it out here!

So let's get to the cards!

This card I made for a party I had in December. I actually really like this card, and it is pretty simple!

Stamps: Season of Joy, Punch Pals
Paper: Old Olive CS, Real Red Textured CS, Ski Slope DSP (Holiday Mini '08), Whisper White CS, Chocolate Chip CS
Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black
Accessories: Signo White Gel Pen, Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker, Not Quite Navy and Summer Sun Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Big Shot, SU! Bigs Top Note Die, Small Felt Flurries, Tag Punch, Small Tag Punch
Techniques: Watercolor

This card I made for Jamaal because he was being very good to me during a very hard day. (My dog ate my $300 phone, and then I discovered that my book collection was starting a mold collection...it was terrible for me.) I think it is really cute, and was super easy!

Stamps: Loads of Love
Paper: Basic Black CS, Very Vanilla CS, Kiwi Kiss Textured CS, Old Olive CS, Pacific Point CS
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Crop-o-dile, Jumbo Eyelets in Pewter, White Signo Gel Pen, Many Marvelous Markers
Techniques: None (unless you consider paper tearing a technique)



Stamps: Forever, To have and to Hold
Paper: Pink Pirouette CS, Very Vanilla CS, Going Gray CS
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Markers in Basic Black, Regal Rose, Going Gray, Clear Rhinestone Brads, Small Polka Dot Texture Plate (for Big shot), SU! Simple Flower Embosslit, Dimensionals
Techniques: None

This card I made for my Fiance's friend's wedding. I really loved the finished product! I have to say this picture does not do this card justice!

I am still here...

Goodness me! It has been a long time since I have posted! I have been in hiding. Since I got engaged, we have been very busy. I feel like I'm working all the time now. And when I'm not working I fill by days off with other little things.

We will be getting married in June. Between now and then I'll be pretty focused on my own thing. However, if you want to do a Stampin' Up! party or get together, let me know, because I can make time for that.

The last week in April, I will be decreasing my hours at work, so that will help me to feel a little less overwhelmed with working, and give me more time for my stamping obsession!

I will be making my own invitations, which I have purchased all the supplies for. I will show you pictures once I have completed my masterpieces...

Meanwhile there are a few good deals going on!

1) Buy online from me on my SU! website and earn a FREE Spring Summer catalog! That is a $10 value! Best of all, there is no minimum purchase required. Let me know if you need help getting started. (Click the link, and go to "shop now")

2) Saleabration is going on! If you buy $50 worth of products you get to pick an item out of the Saleabration catalog for free. (only the ones without a listed price) So when you go on to get your free catalog, spend $50 worth of products and you'll ALSO earn a free item. If you spend $100 in product, you'll get 2 items free! You can get an unlimited number of items, it's simple, for every $50 in product, you get 1 Saleabration item free!

3) If you want to become a SU! demonstrator, (and earn that 20% off discount) now is the time to do it. Not only do you get to pick out a FREE stamp set (up to a $47.95 value) you also get the starter kit for 15% off! Regularly it is $199, now only $169.

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In other news, I have changed the URLs of my other two blogs. now you can find them here:
http://toward-the-horizon.blogspot.com
http://pass-the-menu.blogspot.com

Holiday Extravaganza!

Today started the exciting sale from SU! Click the link to the right under "specials" or go here!

So exciting!! Order now, or you might miss out!

And now I present to you...

some cards!! Finally, right? I have been busy working, and not so busy stamping lately. The DB (Dear Boyfriend) doesn't like me on the computer all the live long day, so I try to limit the time I spend on the computer. I need to clean up my stamp room, because I am scared to go in there right now! I hate messes, but I also hate cleaning. Besides the fact that since my stamping area is new, I have very little storage at the moment, so that means that even if I did clean the area up, it would not be very organized. It's a work in progress, I hope that I have at least an area at our next place fit for stamping! Now, on to the cards!

I made these cards for my Aunt and her work buds. I think they turned out pretty good, and the ladies really like them! (We started with the first card, and finished with the second.) And we were cramped for time, we only had an hour to work...but everyone finished their two cards. I am going to try to present my cards a little differently. (when I have time to do this, I will actually spell out the dimensions, etc of the card. It will be more descriptive this way.


I got the idea for this card from Nancy, be sure and check out her card too!
I started with a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of chocolate chip textured cs. Then I layered a 4 1/4" x 1 3/4" piece of more mustard cs with a 4" x 1 1/2" piece of Autumn Vine DSP. I then punched a piece of more mustard cs with the scalloped square punch. This card uses only one stamp. It is a stamp from the Loads of Love Accessories stamp set. (I just got some watercolor wonder crayons, so prepare for some Loads of Love cards here soon!) On a 1" x 1" piece of whisper white cs I stamped "happy harvest" in chocolate chip ink. For the pumpkin, I punched three ovals with the wide oval punch in really rust cs. I folded a small piece (perhaps 3/4") of old olive 1/4" grosgrain ribbon and used snail adhesive to attach the ribbon to the middle oval. I wrapped a very thin scrap of old olive cs around a toothpick to make the vine, and attached it to the middle oval with tombow adhesive. I added faux stitching and faux piercing with a white gel pen.
You might notice that the bottom left hand corner is smeared, which is a result of me not waiting until the very end to add the gel pen...you live and learn I guess! I just wanted the mistake FOR you ;)...


Sometimes when I make a card, I realize my mistake too late, and don't feel like changing it for my sample, instead I change it for the kits that I make after the fact. This card is an example of this. My whisper white cs card measures 4 1/8" x 5 1/8" when it should have measured 4" x 5 1/8". The reason is that I have the card mounted on a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of real red textured cs, and you can only see the mount on one side of the whisper white card. I wanted the real red to be evenly around the white. Oh well...I will use the measurements for my intended card, not for the actual card shown here. First off, I sponged real red ink on the poinsettias, old olive on the tree, and baja breeze on the snowflake of a season of joy stamp. Then I cut the images out (I left the three flowers connected to make my life easier, but they could just have easily been cut apart). I then stamped the entire image in chocolate chip on a 2 1/2" x 2 3/4" piece of whisper white cs. This was layered on top of a 2 3/4" x 3" piece of real red textured cs, a 2 7/8" x 3 1/8" piece of chocolate chip cs, and a 3" x 3 1/4" piece of old olive cs. I added the previously cut out pieces using dimensionals to add a little pop. I stamped my favorite swirly image from season of joy on the card base (in chocolate chip, of course) where I thought it would show from behind the main image. I added a strip of 1" double stitched grosgrain ribbon to fit the card base and a 1 1/2" x 4" piece of ski slope DSP. Cute huh?

Exciting News

Stampin' Up! will be having a sale from November 26-December 1st. No one knows the details yet, but we know it will be a good one...It is a sale to celebrate the season...

It is called: Holiday Extravaganza.

More details to come. The anticipation is killing me, and I hope that now you will be waiting as anxiously as I! :D

It's official! :D

I finally got around to applying for my business license! I realized that I wanted to have a business account for my Demonstratorship, so that I can keep track of my monies from SU! I hope I filled it out right...it was so darn confusing!!

$15 isn't bad...

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In other news, if you haven't heard about it, or seen it yet, starting November 1st you can buy the Country Living stamping kit! It is absolutely FABULOUS! The greatest part about it is that the possibilities are endless with it! You can make cards, ornaments, home decorations, etc. It comes with a stamp set, 3 stampin spots, craft ink reinker, adhesive, ribbon, accessories, chipboard, cardstock...GLITTER!! All you need are scissors, and you could get away with out having them! :D

I'll show you projects later....but seriously you'll want to buy it.

AND if you want to buy it, you should host a party with me, because if you want it, you know your friends will too...and just think of all the money and free stamps you'll get right there!! :D

Not just for Christmas, my friends!

You might think that the Season Of Joy stamp set, (shown above) is only for Christmas, which, I actually thought before this weekend. I was stamping like crazy in preparation for my first workshop ever! My mom hosted this workshop at her house, and I'm not going to lie, I had butterflies during the drive over! :D

It went pretty well, the ladies loved the Country Living Promotion that starts in November, so much so that we might actually place this workshop on November 1st so the ladies can buy the Kit! :D So anyway, I was struggling to find a card to have the ladies make. I was limited by the fact that my mom wanted a Christmas card, which really isn't much of a limitation, as I have like 3 or more Christmas stamp sets....the real limitation was that I wanted to use some of the bulk buy paper I have, and was trying to force something to work. The first card I made is this one:

I didn't really like it. I thought others wouldn't like it, and so I moved on. (The more I look at it though, I really do like it.) Who would have thought that Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss would be on a Christmas card??

Stamps: Season of Joy
Paper: Whisper White CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Kiwi Kiss Textured CS, Frosty Day DSP
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Close to Cocoa

Accessories: Whisper White Grosgrain 1/4" ribbon, scallop edge punch

Techniques: Masking

The Masking Technique was actually used for all of these cards. All you do is stamp the flower, or main image on the cardstock, and also stamp it on a scrap piece of computer paper. Cut out the computer paper image so that you have a little weensy bit of white showing, this is your "mask" (in other words you can see all of the image, plus a small border of paper.) Cover the main image with the mask, and stamp around the image as desired. The mask protects the main image and makes it pop out a bit. Cool huh? And pretty easy too! :D

This was the second card I made, and I settled on it as my workshop card. I felt that it would be accepted easier as a more "traditional" Christmas card, with the typical Green, white and red colors. You might notice a little mark of red ink where is shouldn't be, that is only because it fell onto a sponge dauber with Riding hood Red ink on it...it didn't completely ruin the card so no one was injured! ;)

Stamps: Season of Joy

Paper: Whisper White CS, Riding Hood Red CS, Chocolate Chip Textured CS, Garden Green CS

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Whisper White Grosgrain 1/4" ribbon, scallop edge punch, Wide oval punch, sponge daubers, white half-pearls from pretties kit
Techniques: Masking

So once I was done with the card for the workshop, I had to start working on a card for a swap tomorrow. It is a swap with my Upline and her downline (so my "sisters") Only 6 of us will be swapping so it wasn't too difficult for my first ever swap! I hope they like the card. The theme was friendship or thank you. I looked at my first attempt, and said "that could be a thank you card!" Then I looked through my stamp sets for a "thank you" stamp and finally found one I liked in Enjoy every moment!

Stamps: Season of Joy, Enjoy Every Moment
Paper: Whisper White CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Kiwi Kiss Textured CS, Frosty Day DSP
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Whisper White Grosgrain 1/4" ribbon, scallop edge punch, pretties kit Rhinestone brad, paper piercer, paper piercing pad, dimensionals
Techniques: Masking

It was a pretty productive week, and now I've got to get to work on a project for something else! I might be able to start this week, I just need a few things first!

If you're still with me through this long post, thanks for looking!! :D