Stampin' Up's! New Presto Patterns Specialty Papers!

I've been having so much fun with these new designer papers. You can make them what ever color you want by sponging over them, using Classic Ink, chalk, watercolor crayons and I'm sure more. Here I've used all of the In Colors to make these simple cards. I decided to try a 4 1/4 square card for a change and cased them from Angie Juda. I then took a piece of the Presto Patterns paper and cut them at 4 1/4" x 2", used a sponge dauber and sponged the whole piece of paper. So easy! Added a piece of the coordinating card stock and punched with the Scallop Border punch and added the Thank you from Matchbox Messages, by stamping in the same ink, punch with the 1 1/4" circle punch and layering it on the 1 3/8" circle punch. Done! Easy peasy!

These new papers will be available to order tomorrow and you can find them on page 15 of the Summer mini catalog. You won't be able to download the new mini until tomorrow, May 1st. If you would like me to send you a hard copy and don't already have a Stampin' Up! demo, send me an email, I would be happy to send you one.

As you probably know, Stampin' Up's! Occasion Mini catalog will end on Friday, April 30th. We will be sad to see it go. So I thought I would share with you a different way to use your Hugs Love Notes (page 19). I saw this on Angie's blog and had to give it a try. So if you don't have these yet, you better hurry and if you already have them, here is something else you can do with them.

You need two Hugs Note cards and you will score at 1/2" all the way around the first one. Then score just under the 1/2" mark to make the top a little big bigger. Then crease all the fold lines and snip just up to the fold line on each corner. I used Tombow multi glue to glue down the flaps. And decorate. I put 2 Hershey Nuggets in each box. They will hold the miniature candy bars, but I couldn't find any when I was at the store. I used a bit of Certainly Celery 5/8" satin ribbon and then the Stitch Felt Sweet Pea pieces. Sadly, these are no longer available. But you could cut some felt pieces out with your Sizzix dies and your Big Shot. If you don't have a Big Shot, you really, really need one. Sorry, that was my outside voice..........Again, click on the photos to see them better.

Stitch & Flip Carrot Table Runner

I know this isn't stamp related, but I just had to share my first quilted item.

So here is my quilting project, finished, Yipee!! Like I said before I know Easter was almost a month ago, but at least I will have it for next year. This technique is called, stitch and flip. So much fun and easy for a beginner like me. Plus the five of us (we have 5 gals in our little quilting group) all bought 2 fat quarters each and then shared, so we had 10 different orange fabrics. You can click on the photos to see them better.

Next week we start our REAL quilt. I think there is 12 blocks and everyone has a different snowman on it. I will be sharing as we go along.

What I'm doing on Tuesday Evenings.........

My friend Lynne Marini started a come over and quilt/sew every Tuesday evening for a couple of hours last month. I thought it might be fun to sew again, as I've really never quilting before with the exception of the Scallop Square Rag purses. So I needed to finish up the baby carriers I was making for my granddaughters and this was a good way to get me to sew again. Its really been a very long time since I sewed anything. I used to sew a lot, but Stamping has taken over my life.......in a good way! So after finishing the baby carriers, blankets and diaper bags we all made one of these tool caddies. We cut them out and sewed them in one evening.

Then we made these chicken pin cushions. This is the Stitch & Flip technique. So fun and easy. Which is good for me, since I've never quilted before.

Last week we started making a Carrot table runner. I know Easter was almost a month ago, but it will be done for next Easter. Yeah!

Then we start a REAL quilt. So excited. I will share when I get my first square finished.

Look What I Got in the Mail on Saturday.......

Patty Bennett, (my upline) sent me this beautiful card. Its even more gorgeous in person, with the embossed stencil flowers ( Elegant Trio, page 11 of the Definitely Decorative catalog add on). I just love all the details, a narrow strip of dsp, a torn sheet from a book. Then she stamped on it and added the embossed flowers. All of this on a card base of Soft Suede. She also did something that I have never thought to do; when you have a card base that is dark its hard to write inside unless you use a white gel pen. Well she put a Very Vanilla Top Note inside and wrote on that. OMG! Such a great idea, why didn't I think of that? You can check out Patty's post on these beautiful cards here.

Glassine Bag Album

This is the project my "Club Gal's" did today. I saw this album on Kimberly Van Diepen's blog, with a tutorial. How cool is that? So I decided this would be a good project to do. And since the Occasions mini catalog from Stampin' Up! is coming to an end in less that 2 weeks, this would be a good project to use so many items from the mini. We used a little bit of dsp from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack (page 33), Glassine Bags, (page 19, #117228), the Extra Large Fancy Flower punch, (page 11), the Extra Large Two-Step Bird punch, the Chocolate Chip & Pretty in Pink Epoxy brads, (page 13) & the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, (page 32), all from the Occasions mini catalog.

The Flower is punched twice and then you break down the fibers (using your bone folder) until the c/s starts to split and you pull them apart. It looks like faux suede. A really cool technique that is so simple. You can click on the photos to see them up close.

These are the pages pulled out a bit so you can see them. All of them have different tabs. You can check out Kimberly's blog to get all of the directions. Thank you to Kimberly for such a great project!

Haute Tote Class with 4 Cards

Need a Mother's Day, Birthday or Graduation gift? I'm having a class on May 1st, 10 am. Cost is $25, must RSVP by April 29th. After class I will post details on all of the cards and the purse. The cards with envelopes will fit in the purse. You can view my "other" purses here. I love this dsp (designer series paper). Wish I would have used it before now. It will be retiring June 30th, along with Sage Shadow.

Ice Cream Birthday Favor

Wouldn't this make the cutest Birthday Favor? I purchased the pattern here. Uses 3 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of card stock. I used the texturz plate for the cone part. Used Dazzling Diamonds and Heat & Stick powder. You can print your pattern right on the card stock so you only have to cut it out. Easy peasy. You can click on each photo to see it better.

Here is the front view.

This is the side view.

Inside view. Its a pretty nice size, not too big, not too small.

Charming meets Very Vintage!

Here is a really simple card we did for my Stamp-a-stack last month. The card base is Kraft (new name will be Crumb Cake, so cool, since I relate to anything with a food name). I rolled the Very Vintage (page 27 in the Occasions mini) wheel in Chocolate Chip. And stamped the word stamp from Charming (which was in the Holiday mini and still available, # 116519)in Rich Razzleberry, (another color that will stay, YIPEE!) Then using my markers in Rich Razzleberry & Always Artichoke stamped the flower image over the words. Love how that looks. This is fast becoming one of my favorite stamp sets. So glad it will be in the next BIG catalog. The sentiment is from the Sale-a-bration set, Whimsical Words. The 1 3/8" circle is punched in Rich Razzleberry and the vanilla with the sentiment is 1 1/4" circle punch. Then I added some of the 1/2" Polka dot Rich Razzleberry grosgrain ribbon to finish it off. You can click on the photo to see a close up.

Tulip Mother's Day Card

Here is a card we did in my last Stamp-a-stack. Not much stamping, but can you guess what punch we used for the tulips? Its the wing from the 2 step bird punch (page 11 in the Occasions mini, you really need this punch). You punch out 3 wings, sponge them (of course) and glue them together. Easy peasy! The stems are also from the same punch. The white square is the Scallop Square die embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (occasions mini, page 35). The base of the card is Lavender Lace, which is one of the colors that will be retiring. The strip of dsp (designer series paper) is from Shades of Spring, (in the Occasions Mini, page 25). The sentiment is from Well Scripted (page 19 of the Occasions mini). This was a really fast card. Great for Mother's Day, Birthday, or even just because.

On Board Bird Books

Last month the gals in my Stamp Club made these On Board Bird Book. I gave them a couple of pieces of Designer Series paper from the Sweet Pea (Occasions mini) paper pack and 3 birds. Then we went to work on making these gorgeous roses. After you complete all of your roses, they look so beautiful if you spray them with Shimmer paint. (take 1 oz of rubbing alcohol and 8 drops of shimmer paint. Mix well and then spray on your project).

The Pretty in Pink bird was made by Sandie Garcia.

The Old Olive Bird was made by Cheryl Carpenter.

The Turquoise Bird made by me.

Roses from the Flower Layers Die

You will need to cut 3 out of the second largest flowers. With this die you can cut them all out at the same time.

You will leave one flower whole, cut 1 petal off the other and 2 petals off the last one. You will have one with 4, 3 and 1 petal. Throw away the one with 2 petals. Next you will cut in 1/2 inch between each petal. Now is the time to sponge each petal.

The flower with 3 petals glue together to form a cone. Do the same with the 4 petal flower.

Now you will shape each layer. I curled the top of each petal with a skewer. The one petal you will curl on each side.

Punch a hole (3/8” with the Crop-o-dile)in the whole flower. I then used Tombow Glue to glue each layer together. You will have to hold it a bit until the glue dries. You can also add some Crystal Effects for extra staying power.

My example was made with Kraft card stock. You can't tell by the photo, but I sprayed it with shimmer paint. Even in this color card stock, the rose looks beautiful!

So go and make your own roses now. They are so fun!

Baby Carriers for my Granddaughters

For Easter I made our two granddaughters these baby carriers. I used Chenille fabric and flannel. The Chenille fabric is really hard to work with. Won't be using it again. But it was so worth it. My oldest granddaughter, Jocelyn spotted the carriers as soon as she came in the door. She ran over to the table and asked, "Grandma, are these for us?" Did you make them for us? Jocelyn especially loved it and takes it with her everywhere. I made matching baby blanket and diaper bag using the Scallop Square die.

Here are the diaper bags. I used the flannel for the inside and the strap.

Color Renovation!

Stampin" Up! announced a "Color Renovation". What does that mean? They have totally redone the color families. Bringing in 5 new colors, (Daffodil Delight, Early Expresso, Crumb Cake(was Kraft)Cherry Cobbler & Marina Mist), plus bringing back some of the In Colors from previous years (plus this year as well) and retiring 30 colors. All of these "new" colors are FABULOUS! And bringing back some of our In Colors. OMG! Stampin' Up! will be offering some bundles on all of the new colors. That means, you will be able to get: markers, ink pads, Pastels (chalk), card stock, watercolor crayons, all in the new colors. How great is that? So you won't have to re-purchase what you already own, you can purchase just the new colors. Yeah Stampin' Up!

So, if you want to stock up on any of the retiring card stock or inks, now is the time to do that. After June 1st, once they run out it won't be available any longer.

The new colors will be available to Demos to pre-order June 1st (a great perk for being a demo. Contact me if you would like to receive a discount on your stampin' supplies & talk about all the other perks of being a demo.)and for everyone else, July 1st.

Happy Easter

Here are my granddaughters dying eggs. We all had so much fun dying the eggs. This year was so much better because now they are 4 & 3 years old. The perfect age!

Jocelyn is so pleased with her egg. Just sheer joy on her face.

Now Gianna, such concentration, so serious.

Hope you all have a Wonderful Easter!

Easter Bunny Card

I've seen several of these bunny cards on different blogs. I sent this one to my son and his girl friend. After embossing the bunnies in Craft Chocolate Chip ink I used the circle scallop punch to "bite" off the pink bunnies butt. She says, "My butt hurts". Then the boy bunny says, "Huhhh????" and I used the same punch to "bite" off his ears. Before putting them on my card, I stamped the grass from Inspired by Nature. I also stamped the grass on some white scraps and cut a few so the boy bunny would be behind some grass. Also sponged some Bashful Blue ink for the sky. You can click on the photo to see it better.