2 Very Different But Both Beautiful Cards

I got 2 cards last week from fellow Stampin' Up Demonstrators.  They are both beautiful cards but also very different from each other.  First, this gorgeous green card was made by Sheryl Walker.  She used some of the new DSP that will be in the NEW Stampin' Up catalog which will be released July 1st!  I'm excited about the new catalog, can't wait to see what new goodies Stampin' Up has for us!  I get to see the new catalog online June 1st and a copy will be sent to me with my first order (which I will place ON June 1st!!!).  I love sneak peeks, I always hated waiting for Christmas day . . .

Anyway, I love how Sheryl gathered the ribbon and placed pearls on each side of the card.  It's a great touch and when you look at it, the card is so simple yet simply beautiful.

The other card I got last week was from Deb Currier.  She used soft colors and the Strength and Hope stamp set to create a beautiful card.  Again, I love the ribbon treatment.  She pleated a length of Pretty in Pink striped ribbon and then tied the narrow Baja Blue piece of ribbon on top of it.  Great touch!  I love unusual ribbon treatments.

Thanks Sheryl and Deb for making the walk to the mail box more fun! 

Scrapbook or Card Club

I've been trying to get a new post up for several days.  Hopefully it will work tonight.  Blogger is experiencing some trouble and THAT causes me trouble!

For nearly 5 years I have been doing a scrapbook club.  The ladies comit to buy $25 a month and in exchange I do a 2-page 12X12 layout for them.  My newest club member doesn't scrapbook but wanted to join the club so I told her I would design cards for her to make using basically the same supplies as the scrapbook pages.  These are the cards from her first club meeting.  She was able to make 2 of each for a total of 6 cards.  The first card uses the grass stamp from the Inspired By Nature set and the butterfly from the Strength and Hope set.  The sunny burthday card uses the Presto Patterns paper colored with sponge daubers.  This beautiful paper makes a great accent on a scrapbook page or a card! 

Finally, I couldn't resist doing a card with that super cute duck!  What a great punch art for a baby card.  If you haven't joined my scrapbook club because you don't scrapbook, you can join and make 6 new cards every month.  You'll love the feeling you get when people compliment you on your handmade cards!

What Was I Thinking! Challenge

Wow, that was a quick week!  It has been nearly a week since I posted anything.  Thanks for coming back to visit me  :~)

I'm in a group with about 1700 Stampin' Up demonstrators and they post a challenge every week.  Sometimes I get to play but usually I have other things going on and don't get time to enter the challenge.  The challenge for this week was a "What Was I Thinking" challenge where we were to go back and CASE the first card on our blogs if we have a blog. 

I thought the first card I posted on my blog would have to be fabulous!  I started my blog in Jan 2009, I had been stamping for over 20 years and had been a Stampin' Up Demonstrator for several years so I was sure I would have posted a card that reflected my "abilities" as a stamper.

Then I went back and looked at the first card I posted - WHAT WAS I THINKING???????
Seriously, I REALLY don't like that card!  I can't believe I posted it first.  To say nothing of my photography.  I had a terrible camera back then and I hadn't discovered a close up setting if that old camera even had one. 

Here is where you can see that first disaster card.

At first I was going to use the same stamp set I used in my original card since it is a current set  and use a different background set and different colors.  Then I decided that since I hadn't played with the new 3-step punch yet, I would use it on the card instead of the stamps.  I did the Tempting Turquoise card first and decided to go softer and did the pink one. 

Turquoise card:  Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss and Daffodil Delight cardstock, Medallion background stamp and Teeny Tiny Verses sentiment stamp.  Punches were Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch, Modern Label Punch and Word Window.  Leaves were punched with the Blossom Petals Punch.

Pink Card:  Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue and Kiwi Kiss cardstock.  Stamps used, Baroque Motifs for the background and Teeny Tiny Verses for the sentiment.   Punches were the same as the turquoise card.  Both cards use the Flower Brads, they are a great little embellishment and are available in all 4 color families. 

Here is the link to that first disaster card: http://stampinreckon.blogspot.com/2009/01/card-to-start-filling-tin.html

It was fun to case myself and I like the new cards much better than the original.  They aren't my favorites but they are better!  I had fun playing with the new punch too.  I've got several other ideas in mind for this one and I reckon I need to order the doily one too.

My Own Swap Cards

I've shown some of the cards I got in the swaps from the Spring Retreat but I haven't shown the card I made.  This one is a Z-fold card that has also been embossed with the Tulip Frame Embossing folder and also a half a heart cut out with the heart from the Movers and Shapers Punch Windows die that stands out.

You can see how the card opens up.  I wouldn't call it a quick and easy card but it didn't take that long to make one.  Of course, I needed 60 for the swap.  When I got to the meeting, still needing to attach the hearts and sentiment, Nerissa, Debbie and Linn all pitched in and helped me get them finished.  Thanks yall! 

This is the card I made for the swap at Thursday night's meeting.  It was much faster than the other one and I only needed less than 10.  The story of my life . .  .

This card uses the new Flower Garden Embossing folder on the DSP which I then sanded to make the embossed image white.  I used a sponge dauber to add some color to the centers of the flowers before adding a Rhinestone to each.  The Thanks sentiment is from the Hostess set, Afterthoughts and the Baja Breeze label is cut with the Big Shot from the Lots of Tags die set.

Oh, and did I mention, I won a door prize.  Or 3!  I was very lucky Thursday night  :~)

I was extra excited because it was products from the Summer Mini catalog that I've been meaning to order.  I love the nautical Expedition DSP and The Open Sea stamp set that goes so great together.  And the Postage Stamp punch was going to HAVE to be added to my punch collection very soon.  I also got a pack of the fun Baker's Twine and a bottle of Wild Wasabi Stampin' Emboss Powder.  I'll show the projects we did and more swaps soon!

2 Beautiful Swap Cards

At the Spring Retreat there were about 40 swappers.  I'm sure I'll never get them all posted but I'm starting with 2 beautiful cards today.

First, a fun little card that uses the bird punch along with some ovals to accent the Top Note die that was stamped with En Francais.  Just a small length of striped ribbon and some beads finish this card off so beautifully!

This card made by Marsha Hosner features the Spotlight technique.  If you look closely at the butterfly from the Strength and Hope set you can see that a butterfly was stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock, embossed with silver and punched with a circle punch.   This is a nice way to highlight a part of your project.

There is a team meeting tonight so I reckon I better get going on my swaps for that.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love swaps????

Sweet

Here are a couple of ideas using metal.  I love how it embosses with the embossing folders and the Beautiful Butterflies Sizzlet!  Both projects pair embossed metal with the Paisley Petals DSP.  This great paper will be available in the new catalog when it comes out in July.  I'm getting antsy for the new catalog, less than 2 months away!!!

How do you like the hexagon box?  I used a clear window sheet for the box but you could use DSP or cardstock too.  The top and bottom are made from Stampin' Up's Fancy Flower punch with a strip punched with the scalloped border punch wrapped around to hold them together.  How fun is that?  The idea for these fun hexagon boxes came from Kim Score, check out her video tutorial.  You could put lots of different kinds of candy in the tube or maybe some lotion, nail polish or, hummmm, cut it smaller and put a set of keys to a new car in there!  I reckon I'm thinking big today  :~) 

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  I have neglected to post any Mother's Day ideas, I guess partly because my sweet mother-in-law died about 7 years ago and my own mother died 2 years ago.  Mostly though, I think it is just because I've been so busy I just didn't realize it is May already!

I did think the other day that I should have had my Strength and Hope class before Mother's day and given the students the option to stamp a Mother's Day sentiment instead.  They are all perfect for a Mother's Day card.  If your mom isn't into pink, you could change the color to her favorite and have a nice card for her.

Here is a preview of one of the cards for next month's Strength and Hope class.  I used a Rhinestone Brad for the butterfly's head and put some Stampin' Dimensionals under it's wings to give it more depth.  This is another quick and easy card. 

This card features just the "Hope" part of the "H" stamp in the Strength and Hope set.  I stamped it on Pretty in Pink cardstock and punched it out with a 1" circle punch.  The center of the flower is a bottle cap.  Did you know you can place a bottle cap inbetween the cutting pads and run it through the Big Shot machine and it squashes them down like this?  Pretty cool!  I had 1" acrylic centers to place over the cardstock to make the center look nice.  You could also use Crystal Effects over the cardstock if you didn't have the acrylic centers.

The die cut flower is called Fun Flowers, don't you just love the shapes of th flowers?  I really like this new die.  It was in the Occasions Mini catalog so it isn't in the big catalog yet.  You can still order it though!  The egg stamp from the Nature's Walk stamp set has been discontinued with the end of the Occasions Mini catalog though.  I'm so sad to see it go, it is a great stamp set.  I'm glad I ordered it though!

 Another card made with the Strength and Hope stamp set.  Don't forget, $2 from the sale of each of these sets goes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  My mother-in-law beat breast cancer only to die from another cancer.  This is such a worthy cause and the stamp set is great for so many cards or scrapbook pages. 

So, whether you are using the set for a cancer paitent, cancer survivor or a Mother's Day card, I hope you will buy it and enjoy creating with it for many years.

Did I forget to Mention . . .

The new Summer Mini Catalog is here!  There are some great new products in it and some fun stamp sets for your Summer crafting and scrapbook pages.  I got the set called Strength and Hope and have made lots of cards with it.  It is very versatile and it really "speaks" to me.  And the best thing about it is that $2 from every set sold from May 1 - Aug 31 goes to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Here are a few cards I have made with it.   

Another goodie in the catalog is the Triple Layer Punch.  There are 2 of them in the new Mini catalog.  The card below was made with the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch, I posted it a week or so ago but wanted to show it again since I haven't had time to make anything else with it.  You can get 4 different punch pieces from this punch, how cool is that???  I used a circle punch to add centers on some of the flowers. 

The other Triple Layer Punch is called Doily Triple Layer Punch.  It looks like - guess what - a doily!  Actually, it looks like 3 different doilies!  I haven't bought this punch yet so I don't have any projects to show using it.  It is beautiful though and I can think of many things to add some to.

If you click the Summer Mini Catalog on the right side bar you can see the great products and stamp sets in the catalog.  The Triple Layer punches are on page 6.  Be sure to check out The Nautical Expedition DSP and The Open Sea stamp set on pages 8 and 9 as well as the Baker's Twine (in 3 colors!) on page 10 and Sunny Fun stamp set on page 16.  There is a new embossing folder that is gorgeous on page 24 and don't forget the Strength and Hope set to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation on page 27. 

Baby Shower Invitations

Sorry I haven't posted in nearly a week, I've been sooooo very busy the past week!  I had 110 baby shower invitations to make, a prom dress for my niece and all of my kids were here as well as all 5 of my grandchildren so I'm not sure how I'm thinking a sane thought about now!

I made several sample cards for the baby shower and they picked the one they wanted. The colors were pink and brown.  Of course, they didn't pick the most simple card! I did have some friends help me put the invitations together so that helped a lot. Here are the samples.

This is the option they chose.  We did some with the treat cups as shown on the right (I didn't put any candy in my sample) and some without a treat cup like the card on the left. 

These would have been much quicker and easier, simple but nice.

 I couldn't resist making another duck.  Doesn't she look adorable in pink?

 This one was made with the onsies wheel.  Another quick and easy card.

Does this one look familiar?  I posted one in blue a couple of months ago.

Well it's late, I reckon I better head to bed.  I've got another busy day tomorrow.  They are all busy - sigh-