All Good Things . . .

. . . must come to an end?  At least it's almost time for this year's Sale-a-Bration to end . . . today's (March 31st) the last day!!!!  If you haven't taken advantage of this Sale-a-Bration yet, be sure to head on over to my online store to do some shopping now!  (You can choose one FREE Sale-a-Bration product for each $50 in merchandise you purchase.)

Here's a quick and easy mini note card made with a few Sale-a-Bration products:

We made these in my Marvelous Minis class last month, and I realized I hadn't shown the project here yet.  The Designer Paper, flower and cute border are all from the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Paper and Quick Accents kit, and the "thanks" is from the So Happy For You stamp set. 

Tomorrow I have another kusudama project to show you . . . stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

So Happy For Trying Inlaid Embossing!

I've seen the inlaid embossing technique on quite a few cards now, and been wanting to try it.  So, I finally did . . . I needed a birthday card for one of my 8 year old's friends, and he wanted something bright and happy but still masculine, so here's what we came up with:

The base of the card is Tempting Turquoise.  The Top Note piece was cut from Pacific Point card stock using the Big Shot.  I then punched out circles in a variety of sizes from Real Red, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango.  I glued those onto the Top Note piece, and ran that through the Big Shot in the Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The results are so fun.  If you haven't tried the technique yet, you should!

To finish the card, I wrapped a piece of Real Red 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon around the Top Note.  I topped that with the greeting piece -- the stamped image is from the Afterthoughts set (a Level 1 hostess set), which I used markers to color and stamp.  Then, I punched that out using the 1-3/4" Circle punch.  I sponged the edges with Tempting Turquoise ink. 

The little shooting star accent is from the So Happy for You stamp set (this is one you can choose for free during Sale-a-Bration with a $50 order.  But, hurry, Sale-a-Bration ends on March 31st!!!) I colored the image with markers, stamped, and then cut out the image.

Hopefully the birthday boy enjoyed receiving it as much as we enjoyed making it!  Hope you like it, too, and are inspired to try out the inlaid embossing technique for yourself!  Please let me know if you need any supplies.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

True Friend Pillow Box

Happy Monday!  Can you believe March is almost over?!!!  Not sure where it went!  That also means there are only a few days left to Sale-a-Brate!  If you haven't taken advantage of this great special yet, what are you waiting for?   Be sure to head on over to my online store, and shop now!

Today I have a project to share with you that I made at my newest downline's first workshop earlier this month!  It was such a fun evening -- a great group of ladies!   Anyway, I wanted to show off a couple of Sale-a-Bration items, and here's what I came up with:

This pillow box was created using the Big Shot and Pillow Box Die to cut a piece of designer paper from the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper & Quick Accents Pack (one of the great products you can choose as your FREE gift with a $50 order during Sale-a-Bration).  So many fun, happy designs in there!  

The "belly band" around the box was created with a strip of Old Olive, which I embossed using the Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Embossing Folder.   I topped that with a flower, which was die cut using the Fun Flower die and Big Shot from Tangerine Tango Textured Card Stock.

The flower center is a piece of Whisper White which was stamped with the Punch Bunch Stamp Set (another of the Sale-a-Bration gift choices!), in Night of Navy.  I punched that out with the 1" Circle Punch, then sponged the edges with Daffodil Delight, and ran a little Gold Lame Smooch around, before adhering to the flower with a dimensional.

Quick, easy and fun!  (Even more fun with a couple pieces of chocolate inside . . . or jewelry . . . or whatever else you like!  :)  ).

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

. . . and one more . . .

My SUper Friends team had a swap this past Monday, and I needed to come up with a fun and great card fast.  Well, I had some partially completed cards sitting on my desk and realized that what they needed to finish them off were some of the Petal Pizzazz/Fun Flower/Sew Suite Fabric brad flowers (featured in my last couple posts) that also happened to be sitting on my desk! 

Here's how the swaps turned out (each card is just a little bit different, even though the basic ingredients are the same):

The cards are each made with a Melon Mambo Card Stock base.  I created the designer paper layers in My Digital Studio using one of the fabulous papers from the Sweet Stitches Designer Series Paper, and then printed that out on my home printer on Whisper White Card Stock.  I added some Basic Jewels Pearls in the flower centers. 

The sentiment is from the A Good Egg stamp set, and was stamped in Wild Wasabi on Whisper White card stock.  I punched it out using the Modern Label Punch, then sponged the edges with Melon Mambo. 

I'm really happy with how these turned out!  Hope you find them inspiring, too!

Thanks for stopping by.

- Michelle

P.S.  SUper Friends is my downline group -- I'd love to have you join us if you are interested in becoming a demonstrator!  To become a demonstrator in my group, please email me for more information (using the link in the sidebar) or visit this page of my website for more information. 



One thing leads to another . . .

In my previous post, I showed you a mini card I created using the Petal Pizzazz set and a Sweet Stitches brad.  Making that flower was so much fun, I decided to make some more.  Here are a few of the next batch I created:

 

For these, I again stamped the largest flower and punched with the Scallop Circle punch, cutting in between each scallop to create more realistic petals.  The edges were sponged with either Melon Mambo or Tangerine Tango.  Then, I added another flower in between the big flower and the brad.  The middle flower is also a stamp from the Petal Pizzazz stamp set, which I stamped in either Tangerine Tango or Melon Mambo, cut out with my Paper Snips, and then sponged the edges.

After creating these, it occurred to me it would be fun to layer these on a flower die cut using the new Fun Flowers Bigz L Die.  I printed some patterns from my Sweet Stitches Designer Series Paper download for My Digital Studio to use as background papers, and created these cards with my flowers:

And, here are a few close ups of individual cards:

The card base is crumb cake, and was cut to be 4.25 x 11.  I scored to create a matchbook-style card, and used my scallop edge punch on the ends of the paper.  I layered on a strip of stitches (also printed out from the Sweet Stitches Designer Series Paper digital download), some Wild Wasabi pieces, and some Melon Mambo pom pom trim.  The pom pom trim adds such great dimension and texture!  It's easy to add, too -- no stitching required.  I just squeezed on a thin strip of Tombo Multi Adhesive and that worked! 

The flower leaves were created by stamping the leaf image from Petal Pizzazz in Wild Wasabi and cutting out with my Paper Snips.  (I realized later I could use the Blossom Petals Punch and Build a Blossom stamp set, too -- that would have been a bit faster!)

My recent blog candy winners will recognize these cards!  Inside, I put some tea and chocolate, and a little note card that I created in My Digital Studio:

Hope you like these!  I have one more variation on these to show you . . . hopefully tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Petal Pizzazz Note Card

Happy Friday to you!  Just a quick share today.  This is a little note card that I created a little while back and wanted to show you. 

The flower was created by stamping an image from the Petal Pizzazz Stamp Set in Peach Parfait onto Whisper White Card Stock.  Then, I punched it out using the 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch.  I sponged the edges with Tangerine Tango.  Inspired by the beautiful flowers in the scrapbook page on the cover of the Sale-a-Bration brochure, I then snipped from the side of each scallop close to but not through the center, to create petals!  I finished my flower with a Sweet Stitches Fabric Designer Brad (love these!  By the way, I'm having a contest over on my Facebook Page, where you can win a package of these for submitting a photo of a spring project you've made with Stampin' Up! products . . . so if you love these brads, too, you'll want to head over there and enter that!) 

The leaves are pieces of Old Olive Card Stock that were punched out using the Blossom Petals Punch, then sponged.  I also added the line using my Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker.

The card base is Crumb Cake (Kraft), and I added a layer of Melon Mambo and a strip of Sweet Stitches paper (actually printed on my home printer from the digital kit for this paper in My Digital Studio, so I guess this is technically a hybrid card!)

I had so much fun creating the flower for this card, that it inspired the next creations I want to show you!  My recent blog candy winners received those creations . . . so stay tuned to see what I made!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day . . . hope it is a wonderful day for you!   Wanted to pop in and share a quick project I created to fill with treats to give to the kids' teachers.  Here it is:

I created these using the Mini Milk Carton Die and the Big Shot.  They are made from Certainly Celery card stock.  I wrapped a band of Wild Wasabi, which I had embossed using the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, around each milk carton.  The boxes are closed with a Mini Library Clip.  

The Happy St. Patrick's Day image is from the single stamp Lucky Shamrock (in the Occasions Mini). I stamped it in Wild Wasabi Classic Ink on Whisper White card stock.  I punched it out with the 1-3/4" Circle Punch, which coordinates perfectly.  (These circles also layer nicely on the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch.  In fact, I created some little badges by layering stamped, punched images onto Certainly Celery punched scallops and was then going to create pins with those for the kids in D's class.  But, alas, I didn't have enough pin backs or safety pins in the house.  So, I instead sent the pieces off with him in case they can incorporate them into one of their art projects today!  That's the danger of last minute crafting, I guess!)

For a finishing touch, I spritzed the little boxes with Gold Glow Smooch Spritz.  Here's another view, which I think shows the little golden flecks just a little better:

And, last but not least, I wanted to show you my just-a-little-bit Irish eyes a smilin' for the camera this morning before school.  They had so much fun dressing up in green for St. Patrick's day:

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle



Fun Flowers Note Card

Hi Everyone!  I've been a little quiet as far as blog posts!  Sorry about that!  Life got suddenly more busy than usual with both my little guys starting Little League (baseball and t-ball, respectively . . . and with Coach Dad needing the computer to organize a few things!)   I have a pretty serious backlog of projects I want to share with you.   Today, I have a little spring note card to show you:

This was created using the Fun Flowers die from the Occasions Mini Catalog.  Near the Pear Pizzazz ribbon, you can see one of the petals is folded -- this is the edge of the card.  I layered one more Baja Breeze card stock flower on top of the card base, then a smaller flower cut out of the beautiful Springtime Vintage Designer Fabric.  It is topped off with a Springtime Vintage Big Designer Button.  The greeting in the center was stamped in Night of Navy on Whisper White using the Punch Bunch stamp set from Sale-A-Bration (almost over . . . can you believe it?!  It ends March 31st . . . so if you haven't taken advantage of it yet, no time like the present!  You can head over to my online store and shop to your heart's content.) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

Celebrate 8 Birthday Card

This week's challenge over at Late Night Stampers is to create cards for children (this week is Dr. Suess's birthday, so this challenge celebrates that).  Well, one of my boys has a birthday to go to tomorrow with a soccer theme, and I figured I could make a card that would fit that theme as well as the Late Night Stampers challenge!  Here it is:

The card base is Pacific Point, with various sizes of Poppy Parade circles layered on it.  I die cut a piece of Daffodil Delight card stock using the Top Note die.  The soccer balls used to form the 8 are from the Goal set.  I punched the balls out using the 1-3/4" Circle Punch and the 3/4" Circle Punch.  The party hat and banner were created using a stamp from the Party Hearty set.  "Celebrate" is from Family Phrases, the greeting set that goes with All in the Family.  I cut out the piece of Whisper White the greeting is on by hand, and then used a Basic Black marker to add the stitching around it. 

I even finished the inside of the card!  I added a Whisper White Top Note inside, which I stamped with the soccer ball from the Family Accessories set, and the "happy birthday" is again from Family Phrases.



The lines next to the soccer balls were drawn in using a Pacific Point marker, and I added a couple more Poppy Parade punched circles to echo those on the card front.

Hope you like it -- and hope the recipient will think it is fun, too! 

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Springtime Vintage Spinner

Looking back through my posts, I realized I had not shown you the make and take from my hostess tea yet!  So, I think it is time to do that!  We created a spinner card, using the Take a Spin set from the Occasions Mini, along with the coordinating Circle Punch and Spinner Hands (plus some other fun new products from the Occasions Mini!).  Here's a photo of the card:

The card base is a square of Rose Red, and the flowered paper is from the beautiful Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper.  We embossed the designer paper using the Tulip Frame Textured Embossing Folder.  Then, we used a sanding block to lighten the color on the embossed image, and used a sponge dauber to add subtle shine with some White Shimmer Paint.  Here's a close up so you can see that a little better around the edge:

The image from Take a Spin was stamped twice on Very Vanilla card stock, once in Rose Red and another time in Baja Breeze.  The center of the Rose Red image was punched out with the 1-3/4" Circle Punch, before punching with the 2-1/2" Circle Punch.  The Baja Breeze image was simply punched out with the 2-1/2" Circle Punch. 

There's a Rose Red Seam Binding knot behind the spinner piece.  The buttons were die cut from Very Vanilla card stock with the Sweet Buttons Embosslit. 

The little flowers were punched out of Baja Breeze cardstock using punches from the Itty Bitty Punches Pack.  The leaves are made from sections of flowers punched out of Pear Pizzazz with the Boho Blossoms Punch.

These interactive cards are so much fun!  If you haven't tried one yet, you should!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

March Calendar Page Share

Here's the March calendar page I created with the 2011 Noteable Desktop Calendar Digital Download.  Don't you love the papers that come with this download?!  I think they are really gorgeous -- and the nice thing about this digital download is, you can use it for more than just making calendars -- you can use it for cards, scrapbook pages, and more!



For this page, I started with the designer layout that came with the digital download.  I added the photos, and also added the artwork on the bottom right.  For that, I started with a digital Scallop Circle Punch, and filled it with So Saffron.  The bird stamp was added on top of that; it is from the Friends 24-7 digital stamp set, which is one of the sets that come with the My Digital Studio program.  The bird is stamped in Soft Suede, to match the background behind the 2011 on the label.  Then, I added the flowers from the digital For All You Do stamp set, which also comes with the My Digital Studio program.   I colored them using the "color picker" to match the colors in the cherry blossom photo.  I love that feature!  Then, I finished the flowers with a digital pearl in the center. 

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Blog Candy Winners!

Wow!  I can't believe it is already Thursday -- this week has just flown by for me!  Has it for you, too? 

The kids had their winter break last week, and so I've felt like I've spent all this week trying to catch up from being away on our quick trip to the snow.  Slowly, but surely, I'm getting there! 

Anyway, the kids helped me draw some numbers out of a hat today to choose blog candy winners.  Here are the results. 

(Recognize these numbers?  I had them left from an advent calendar kit in the Holiday Mini!  Glad I saved them, as they really came in handy for this!) 

The first number drawn was 14, so that's who wins the "grand blog candy."  And, drumroll please . . . number 14 is . . . Jana!

The five winners who'll receive a special card from me are:

12 - Marlene

5 - Kallien

2 - Cari

9 - Sherry

7 - Meg

Congratulations to the winners!  I'll be in touch with each of you about getting your "candy" to you!  And, thanks so much to everyone who took the time to leave a comment!!!  Always very appreciated!

- Michelle