Featured Project of the Month

This will be something new that I add to my blog each month. Be sure that you check it out each month & if you create the project, please let me know by sending me an e-mail with a picture of your project. Experiment with the colors and layout of the project and see what you come up with. I look forward to seeing what you create! As a matter of fact, I think there should be a monthly "contest"! Everyone that sends me their version of the monthly project will be entered into a random drawing to get a gift from me. Go ahead, start creating~

Love, Peace, Joy card

Stamps:
Branch Out
Paper:
Bordering Blue card stock
Bravo Burgundy card stock
Very Vanilla card stock
Ink:
Bordering Blue Classic Stampin' Pad
Bravo Burgundy Classic Stampin' Pad
Close to Cocoa Classic Stampin' Pad
Stampin' Up! Accessories:
Very Vanilla 3/8" taffeta ribbon
Chit Chat Rub-Ons
Stampin' Dimensionals
Scallop Edge punch

Instructions:
Scallop edge of Bravo Burgundy card stock using Scallop Edge punch. Adhere to Bordering Blue card.
Stamp snowflakes image repeatedly in Bordering Blue ink on Very Vanilla card stock.
Stamp tree image in Close to Cocoa ink on Very Vanilla card stock. Stamp bird image in Bravo Burgundy ink on tree branch.
Tie Very Vanilla 3/8" taffeta ribbon in a knot and adhere to bottom-right corner of Very Vanilla card stock.
Apply "Love, peace, joy" Rub-On to Very Vanilla card stock using stick included with Rub-Ons.
Adhere Very Vanilla card stock to card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Anything Missing?

Have you noticed anything missing from the Spring/Summer '09 catalog? Even though it's 212 pages long, there are over 20 pages missing. Those missing pages are the project "recipes" that you normally find in the back of each catalog. Why leave them out? So that more products can be included in the catalog!

There is a big difference in these pages and what is usually provided. What is the difference? There is a picture with every project so that you'll know which "recipe" goes with which project. It's a pretty cool thing but you'll need to download the Supply List and save it to your computer. That's even easy to do - just click on "Supply List" in the previous sentence and it will start to download for you. Once it finishes (it may take a few minutes), save it to your hard drive for future reference.

Place An Order, Get a Catalog!

From February 1-April 30, 2009, we're giving away our award-winning Idea Book & Catalog with every online purchase. To receive a free idea book, simply place an online order through my web site during the promotional period. There is no minimum order required, and you can combine this offer with any of our other current offers. To place an online order click on the picture above to view and select products. Once you place your order on my website (don't forget to select me as your demonstrator), you'll be eligible for the free idea book and you'll also qualify for the discount price listed on all products.

Stampin' Up! will be offering free idea books with the first 22,000 orders or until April 30, 2009, whichever comes first.

Valentine's Swap

I made this card for a Valentine's Day swap I was in. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to put the birds on top of "Love" and left the flower off so that the birds would be the only thing there. I used the Big Shot to cut out the pink layer as well as the DSP layer. I cut the DSP into thirds and put one section at the top, middle or bottom depending on which section I grabbed. This made it SO easy to use less DSP and do more cards! I'm telling you, I'm loving that Big Shot!

What do you think? Hopefully the ladies that received the cards liked them. I was happy with the way they turned out. :c)

Ghirardelli Boxes

I made a couple of these EASY boxes for friends and got the bright idea to see just how easy they were to make. My niece and nephew came to play with Trevor until he had to go back to his dad's. I decided that they needed to stay a little longer to play with me and my stamps so I took Trevor to meet his father and came back to play with Sydney and Donny before meeting their parents (my brother and sister-in-law) for supper.

I showed them my box and asked if they would like to make one (dumb question, I know). I let them pick out their own colors and stamps and this is what they came up with. I forgot to get a close-up of Donny's box before I left and this is not the better of the two pictures of Donny, but it absolutely, positively captures his personality.....cracking himself and everyone around him up! Donny made his box for his dad (you can see his head over Donny's left shoulder there).


Sydney made her box for her mom. She was quick to pick Tempting Turquoise as her box color and then the coordinating DSP. This girl's got an eye for coordinating! She came back the following day and made a card and another treat holder but I forgot to take pictures of them. :-(

This is a close-up of Sydney's box.

If you would like to try your hand at it, you can find the directions on the SplitCoastStampers (SCS) website - or just click here to go directly to the directions. If an 8 year old and a 5 year old can make these with very little help (seriously! I only cut out the sections because they couldn't see where they had scored - that's it!), you can whip out a dozen or so with no problem!

If you make any, please be sure to leave me a comment with a link to your finished version - I would love to see what you came up with!

Valentine's Day

This is the card I made for Gary. No stamping, just a punch, DSP and a rub-on. How easy is that?!

Gary's favorite candy bar is Snickers so I made this treat box and filled it with 6 mini Snickers. The box still looks like this today but the rest of the bag is almost gone....and Gary didn't eat them! :-(


I made these cute treats for the ladies that came to my Stamp-A-Stack on Valentine's Day. I also made one for my niece and nephew.

I'm 40!

Unlike so many people, I don't have a problem with 40. In fact, I couldn't wait to get there! I just knew that my 40th birthday would be an amazing day. January 14, 2009 was so much more than I could have ever imagined!

It began with family and friends calling to wish me happy birthday. I had a great work out and then went to my neighbor's house for hot chocolate and treats. My other neighbor asked me if I would be home around 2:30 or 3p so I was looking forward to a visit from her and her two boys later. I had a great day doing whatever I wanted to do and then my doorbell rang. I expected to see Jenn and the boys but when I opened the door I found SEVENTEEN kids on my front stoop & down the stairs! They were there singing "Happy Birthday" with a bouquet of tulips, a huge card and birthday balloons! Y'all know I started crying! :-D After they finished, one of the moms gave me a bottle of champagne from "the big kids". Do I have THE BEST neighbors or what?!!

Since I didn't get permission from their parents to post this picture on my blog, I've blurred out the faces of the precious "chorus" members but you can see how many there are. OH! These kids are all in elementary and pre-school so the oldest is in 5th grade. Can't you just hear those sweet voices singing "Happy Birthday" right now? It was as amazing as you're imagining!

This is what the kids had for me (minus the champagne).

My Birthday Cards

Along with the sweet angelic kids that made my 40th birthday, I received the following cards throughout the month. I have a wonderful life and wonderful friends! ;-)

Trish Brunkhart

Trevor (my son)

Sue-Lynn Bock

Ruthann Suttles

Penny Bongers
Michelle Gensheimer

Michele Bortvit

Mary Craig

Mary C.

Liz Bassett

Julie Galbreath

Judy Baughman

Jeanne Gibson

Jane Giggy

Hetty Sanders (all the way from the Netherlands!)

Chera Wiest

Cathy Silver

Barbara Gates

I have "puppies"

Meet Lily and Layla (left to right, 2 and 5 years old)

Lily is a love pup!
She is also a total lap dog! You can't really see her because I'm wearing a black shirt but she's laying in my lap like a baby! Seriously?!

My mother called me right before Christmas to see if we wanted to get Brittany a dog. Apparently some friends of the family had taken these two in from a lady that couldn't take care of them because she started traveling more for her job. Our friends took them in but they have a dog that is very old and she was NOT having new dogs invade her turf! She went into a depression and they decided they couldn't let their dog commit suicide in order to give these two a good home. They talked to my parents to see if they could give these two a good home and my mom called me and my brother thinking that maybe we could each take one. Me and the kids visited to see how the dogs were and after we dropped my mom off at her house I called back and asked if I could pick up both dogs the following day. They joined our family on Dec. 24, 2008 at 11a. :-D Aren't they just too cute?!

Christmas Projects

The first picture is the gift tag for Brittany's gifts. This was easy to do with our punches!


This next project was what I made to hold the "Magic Reindeer Food" for the kids in our neighborhood. I got the idea from a friend's blog (thank you Chera!). She took the directions for a triangle box directions from SplitCoastStampers and then added the details to make Rudolph. You can see her version here and go to the directions for the box here. The oval at the end of the ribbon says "Untie Here" because Gary told me that he wouldn't know how to open the box if I didn't have some kind of direction added to it.

Multiple reindeer but this is not all of them - SO easy to make!

Giftcard Holders

This year was "Gift card Central" around here! These are a few of the gift card holders I made for family members.

These first pictures are of Kimberly's gift card holder.

Closed

Open - it held 4 gift cards

These are pictures of Trevor's holder - it also held 4 gift cards:

Front - closed

A little bit open

Open so you can see where the gift cards were held.

More Gift Cards

These are for the Franklin family...First is Haley's.

Closed

Open

This one is Grant's.

Closed

Open

This one belongs to their mom & dad. I LOVE how easy this was with the Big Shot and punches!!

Closed

Open