Royal Blog Tour!

Hi stampers! The Royal Blog Tour has finally arrived. I've been thinking and thinking trying to decide on a few projects with the stamp I chose. All A Flutter is a single stamp located on the last page of the new Summer Mini Catalog. (I did, indeed say Summer!)

My first project uses some of the discontinuing colors, Taken With Teal and Orchid Opulence. Don't they look great together! How do you like my azaleas in the background?

I ran the Taken With Teal cardstock through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots Impressions folder. This makes a wonderfully textured background for your card. I used 3 different stamp sets on this card. Of course, it features the All A Flutter stamp, punched out with the Wide Oval punch.

I also used one of the stamps from the Vintage Vogue set for the border around the white rectangle and the Well Scripted set for the sentiment. I layered this on a rectangle of Orchard Opulence and punched 2 slots for the ribbon with the Double Rectangle punch and tied a short length if white organza ribbon through them. The card was so quick and easy that I made 45 of them for the swap at our Stampin' Up Spring Retreat a couple of weeks ago!

I did a stenciled oval for the background of this card. I made the stencil with a window sheet and the oval Big Shot die. You can use several mediums for stenciling but for this I wanted a very soft look so I used the Stampin' Pastels. I left the window sheet stencil on the card after I applied the chalk and stamped the word image from the Charming stamp set so the words would be only in the stenciled area.

I also stamped the pretty flower from the Charming set with Rich Razzleberry ink as well as the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set and the All A Flutter butterfly, cut out and mounted on a piece of Old Olive punched with the Wide Oval punch. I love the polka dot ribbons that Stampin' Up carries so I tied some of the Rich Razzleberry polka dot ribbon around the front of the card before mounting it on a mat of Old Olive cardstock.

My third card features the All A Flutter stamp on vellum and colored with markers. I finally got a chance to try my Gold Glow Smooch Spray on the Whisper White base before stamping another butterfly on it. I cut out the vellum butterfly and didn't have to worry about the antanne, not only does the butterfly on the white add dimension to the vellum one, it has the antenne so I don't have to cut around those little bitty things! You can see some of the dimension in this side view.

I used YoYo Yellow, More Mustard and Really Rust to color in the butterfly, then used Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie cardstock to mat the artwork. The DSP on the left side of the card is from the Bella Bleu collection.

I thought the butterflies would make a nice border for a scrapbook page so I looked for some pictures that would work with them. These pictures of my granddaughter at Easter time seemed perfect. She is 2 and pretty much always puts her shoes on the wrong feet so that is one of the pictures I wanted to include.

The border is stamped on Whisper White cardstock, alternating to the left and right. I used my trimmer and trimmed just to the wing, raised up the blade and moved it past the wing and cut to the next wing. raised it up again and finished the cut. Then I used my Stampin' Up paper snips to trim out the rest of the wings and mounted that piece on a strip of Certainly Celery Cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed "fluttering by" my blog today. Have fun on the rest of the tour!

I'm putting the final touches on my projects for the Royal Blog tour scheduled for Friday and Saturday. It's a busy week!

I thought I'd post 4 more cards from the Spring Retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago. The first one features a great new stamp from the Summer Mini Catalog called Tropical Party. She also used the new Textured Impressions Embossing folder, Square Lattice.

Next is a beautiful card from Patti Keitzman. She combined the Friendly Words jumbo wheel along with a stamp from the Friends stamp set. I love the Handsome Hunter and Sage Shadow colors she chose.

On the lower left is an oragami fold flower and on the lower right is an embossed card made by Carol Edwards. She used the Elegant Boquet Testured Impressions folder on the white background and added Brilliant Blue flowers from the Trio Flower punch.

I hope you enjoyed these 4 great cards and can use an idea or two from them. Don't forget to come back Friday or Saturday for the Royal Blog Tour!

Garden Giggles Layouts

I knew when I ordered Gretchen Baron's Garden Giggles directions that I needed to do a layout with these cute critters. Easter and Spring pictures gave me the perfect opportunity to try them. I designed 2 layouts for my scrapbook club, one had pink and the other was blue. The pink layout features pictures from the Easter pictures I got of some of my grandchildren. The bunny I copied from Nancy Dawson was great for the lower corner of this layout.

The other layout features pictures I took in my yard of some of my spring flowers. I think it must have been the long, cold, snowy winter we just went through but I was so excited to see spring come! What do you think, were these cute critters perfect for the layouts?

I used the beautiful Shades of Spring Designer Series Paper for the strips of paper at the bottom of the layouts. This beautiful paper is in the Occasions mini catalog which expires April 30. The stamp stamped in Certainly Celery above the strips of DSP is from the hostess set called Asian Artistry. If you look closely at the top of the layouts you can see that I sponged clouds using the Scalloped Flower punch and Bashful Blue ink. I also embossed the 5X7 piece of cardstock on the first page with one of the Texture Plates from the Backgrounds 1 collection.

The titles were cut with the Timless Type Alphabet Junior die cut set.

Stampin' Around Wheel Builder

I've been playing around with one of Stampin' Up's newest toys. I love the new, smaller wheels. You can use them alone or with up to 3 of them in the Jumbo Wheel Handle. You can switch them out to use different ink colors on each of them. I used my Stampin' Around Wheel Guide to help me keep the lines straight and make sure I got the second "roll" in the right place when I used the wheel more than once on a project. I suppose you could do it without the guide but why tempt fate!

There is a new wheel spindle and spacer tool you can get to make all these variations possible. I made a couple of cards today with my new Builder Wheels, Posy Party. Thoughtful Friend and Bees and Blossoms. I need more of these fun little wheels!

I took lots of pictures so you could see some of the variations you could use. I made 2 cards today but I'm definitely planning to use these wheels more! I hope you enjoy the cards. I only have a Brocade Blue and Bashful Blue cartridge for the Jumbo Handle so they are both blue cards. I need more cartridges!

The first card I used 2 wheels side by side and rolled it across my cardstock several times to make a background pattern. I used the Vintage Vogue set for the flowers in the corner and some of Stampin' Up's colored buttons for the centers of the flowers.

The other card uses the wheel with 2 Wheel Builders spaced in the middle. Then I put in the Thoughtful Friend wheel and rolled it in a different color. I also used the Vintage Vogue set for sentiment punched out with the Wide Oval punch.

Have a great day! I'm heading back out to my garden. I've planted 10 rows and have 4 more left to plant. So far I've planted lots of corn, peas, beans, squash, spinach, beets, zuccinni and snow peas! I'm also going to plant lettuce, tomatoes, watermelon, cantalope and pumpkins. I reckon I'll need help weeding soon!

Stampin' Up Spring Retreat

Every year my upline and her upline host 2 retreats, one in the Spring in the Nashville area and one in the Fall in the Huntsville, Alabama area. These are always great but they totally outdid themselves this time! I felt like I had gotten my money's worth before I even ate lunch! I'll post a couple of the projects over the next week but some of them are going to be May classes so you won't see them for a couple of weeks. I also did a stenciling demonstration at the retreat so I'll be posting a tutorial for that once I get all the pictures loaded and descriptions written.

For today though, the swaps! There were 41 people who participated so I got lots of great cards and a few other goodies too.

The first 2 cards use the Vintage Vogue set. I posted a card I made with this set using Kraft and Chocolate Chip paper and inks and a reader posted that she liked the stamps but wanted brighter colors. Well, these are both in more muted shades but I'll be posting some more Spring colors using this set soon. The first card was made by Janice Jones, isn't it beautiful? I like the brown and blue color scheme of her card. I sat at the same table with her all day at the retreat and she is a wonderful person too.

the second card is by Kathy Brown and uses brown and blue as well as More Mustard. It features the Faux Tile technique which she did an amazing job on, isn't it beautiful? Of course, it looks better in real life.

The creator of the 3rd card did't put her information on the back but I love her card and the stamp sets used for it. It is a neutral card but the big of Old Olive makes it very nice.

Ruth Hatch made this beautiful card, again with browns and blue. I think it is beautiful, I love her coloring of the eggs in the bird's nest. How do you like my azalia bushes in the background?

The Perfect Polkadots Embossing Folder adds a nice dimension to this card as well as the next one.

Annette Takko used the Upsy Daisy and Wel Scripted sets to make this cheerful card for Mother's Day. No browns on this one for a chane! I like the blue and green combinationand the way she stamped the same stamp in 2 different colors for a great effect on her card.

Yet again, a great day and a wonderful reason that I love being a Stampin' Up demonstrator! More swaps later, have a great week.

Useful project

This is a handy little project that is quick and easy. You can buy these little acrylic frames lots of places and in different sizes, if you are lucky you might find them at one of the dollar type stores. Simply add some Designer Series Paper inside the frame, mat a post it note pad in coordinating cardstock and add a fun embellishment like the butterflies to the side.

You could also put a picture on the DSP before sliding it in the frame and put the embellishments above and/or below the picture. You can see from the side view that it will be on your desk raised up some so you can easily refer to the note on your post it pad but not too high that you can't write on it easily.

I used the Razzleberry Lemonade DSP on this one and the butterflies from the Flight of the Butterfly Set.

Color Renovation

I guess you have all heard about the big changes at Stampin' Up! As a demonstrator, I'm pretty excited about this change. I don't look at it as loosing the old colors, I look at it as a great chance to add lots of new, great, updated colors! There are only 2 colors that I am sad to see go but then, I can still use them. It isn't like my ink pads are going to disintegrate!

I have a lot of reinkers but I need to get them for the inkpads I don't already have them for so I can continue to use my old favorites that are retiring as long as possible. Need reinkers too? I can enable! They will be gone after the new catalog comes in July.

I have some inkpads that I haven't even opened yet. I may find a creative way to share. Keep posted and I'll let you know when I decide how!

Now. look at this picture of the redbud tree at the end of my driveway. Is Orchid Opulence the perfect match or what??? It is one of the retiring colors, I'm glad I have it to scrapbook my spring pictures with this year!

Owl punchart

My son-in-law is graduating from Optometry School this month. It's been a very long haul for him and we are all so excited (especially my daughter!). I remembered the punch art owl I made for a Halloween layout a couple of years ago so I thought I would recreate him for the card.

I used the scalloped circle punch for the feet and wings and double punched the wings with the 1 3/8" circle punch. That is how the inside of the wings is round. His body is the 1 3/4" circle punch and his head is the round tab punch.

To make his hat I cut a strip of black cardstock 2 3/4 inches wide and punched the edge with the heart punch to make it the 2 arches. The top is a 1" strip cut in diagonal pieces with a brad added to the middle.

I used a stamp from the Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment. That set has a stamp for nearly every occassion! I think it is my most used stamp set, it was worth every cent! I added the owl and sentiment to a card of Chocolate Chip cardstock layered with Bella Bleu Designer paper.

Easter Wishes

Here is my Easter card to all my blog readers. I used the Bashful Blue 1" double stitched ribbon around my stamped image. It is so easy to gather it using the white stitching on one side. This card uses Bella Bleu DSP and the Asian Artistry stamp set.

Happy Easter! I hope it is as beautiful a day where you are as it is here. The sun is shining and the flowers and trees are blooming. The woods are starting to turn green and the grass needs to be mowed. I hope to get my garden planted this week, I'm so glad Spring is here!

I haven't posted lately, a virus got my computer big time and the tech says it will take a while to get them all off. :~( I miss my hard drive.

I love this picture of Christ rising from the tomb. He truly lives!

One of my favorite songs:

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me a sinner he suffered, he bled and died.
Oh it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me.
Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me.

May you feel the peace that Christ wishes to share with us all on this Easter Sunday and all year long.