Happy for You Window Cards

I thought I'd pop in today and share a couple versions of a card I created for my Creative Connections class last Sunday and that works for this week's Late Night Stamper's Challenge (LNS# 179), which is to create a project that uses paper piercing.

Here's the first version:

The card base is Baja Breeze, and the window is die cut in the front using the Apothecary Accents Framelits.  Then, the holes are pierced around the window, using the new Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack.  (I love how the pack has patterns that coordinate with the Apothecary Framelits!)  Then, a little faux stitching with a Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Write Marker completes the window.

A piece of Whisper White lines the inside of the card, and is stamped with an image from the Happy for You hostess set.  The boot is paper pieced, using a scrap of the beautiful new Floral District Designer Paper, and the flowers and the paper-pieced boot are colored using Stampin' Write Markers.  

A strip of Floral District Paper and a piece of Rich Razzleberry die cut using the new Finishing Touches Edgelits decorate the bottom of the card.  And, to top it off, is a bow created using the new 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon in Daffodil Delight and one of the sweet new In Color Dahlias!  A dot of Tombo Multi holds the ribbon and the Dahlia to the card.

 Here's another version of the card -- landscape instead of portrait, using a different image from the Happy for You set (and the detail-oriented will notice a Primrose Petal Dahlia instead of a Raspberry Ripple one!).

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Hope this inspires you to create your own window card, add some paper piercing to your next project, or both!

- Michelle

Sunny Summer Thank You Card

Although the kids have been out of school for over two weeks now, this is the first week that really feels like summer break!  They have swim lessons, and a little bit of baseball for my eldest (and coach dad), but we've also had a lot more unscheduled time, which has been very nice!  So, since I'm in a summer frame of mind, I thought I'd pop in and share a summer-y thank you note I recently created.  It's an adaptation of this card I made about a year ago -- can't believe it's been that long already!  Anyway, here's the card:

The card has a So Saffron base, which I embossed with the Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  I added a strip of Pool Party card stock on top of that.  Then, there is a square of So Saffron topped with a square of polka dot embossed Whisper White.  That's followed by a strip of striped designer paper and a Pool Party piece punched with the now retired Lace Ribbon Border Punch.

The ice cream cone consists of some Calypso Coral ice cream, punched out using the Cupcake Builder punch, and a cone, stamped with an image from the Pennant Parade stamp set in Early Espresso on Crumb Cake card stock and punched out with the Petite Pennants Builder Punch.  I added one of the fun little Brights Button flowers, with a Pearl Jewel in the center.

The greeting is from the new Itty Bitty Banners stamp set, and I inked it up with Early Espresso and Tempting Turquoise Stampin Write Markers, stamped, and then die cut using the coordinating Bitty Banners Framelit (can you tell how much I'm loving all the new Framelits?!  I don't think I've made a card without them in quite a while!)

Hope your summer is off to a great start, too!  Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle




If you'd like to order the supplies used to create this card, please visit my online store here.

Reason to Smile Swap Card (and Sneak Peek!)

As promised, today I have the card I prepared to swap with my SUper Friends group this month.  I also made a birthday card.  I decided to use a stamp set called Reason to Smile that will be part of a special promotion next month (stay tuned for more info on that around July 1st) and that demonstrators had the opportunity to pre-order from Stampin' Up! this month (gotta love the perks of being a demonstrator!!!)  This card also happens to have paper piercing on it, so fits with this week's challenge (#179) over at Late Night Stampers.

Here's my card:

The card is a "Double Dutch Fold" style, and there's a great tutorial for how to make these on Splitcoaststampers here.  I've actually been making a lot of these lately, and I will try to post some of the other cards I have made using this style soon.

The card base is Primrose Petals card stock, and the double doors piece is made with Midnight Muse, topped with designer paper from the International Bazaar Pack.  I used a small piece of Raspberry Ripple card stock, die cut with one of the Finishing Touches Edgelits for the trim along the side of the top part of the card.

The large Whisper White piece was die cut with a die from the Apothecary Accents, then I two-step stamped the daisies from Reason to Smile using Primrose Petals ink.  I used the new Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack to pierce around the die cut.

I stamped "happy birthday" in Midnight Muse ink, using the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set, on another piece of Whisper White.  Then, I die cut around it using the coordinating Itty Bitty Banners Framelit.


Three rhinestones in the bottom left corner add a bit more sparkle and interest.


This is such a fun card to make -- it will be one of the cards we will make at my Creative Connections Class coming up in July!  


Thanks for visiting my blog!


- Michelle

SUper Friends June Swap Cards

Can you believe it?  I'm posting two days in a row!!!  Actually should be more regular with posts now that we're getting settled into our summer routine.  And, I actually have the cards from this month's SUper Friends swap photographed and ready to share with you!  So, here goes!  You'll notice there was a definite birthday theme to these.

First up is Nancy's card.  It's beautifully clean and simple, but with a neat twist.  Here's how it looks closed:

And, as you open it, you realize it is actually a window card:

Pretty clever, right?!

Next up is Jodi's bright and beautiful card:

A little hard to tell from the photo but she fussy-cut some of those balloons and popped them up on dimensionals, which is a great effect!

And, finally, Agnes created this wonderful, masculine card:

Stay tuned to see my card tomorrow!  (It is also a sneak peek of a stamp set that will be available as part of a special Stampin' Up! promotion next month).

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Owl Graduation and Teacher Appreciation Cards

I'm back again!  We had a busy but fun last week at our church's Vacation Bible School.  I'll share the projects from that soon, but first wanted to finish sharing a couple of fun projects I made for the boys' teachers.  The first was for Timothy's kindergarten teacher, who received her Ph.D. this year.  I saw a couple of neat cards using the Owl Builder Punch (one by Helen, whose amazing card you can see here, and the other by Mary Fish, whose equally amazing card you can see here), and CASE'd them to come up with this:  

I created the background for the owl, by repeated stamping some appropriate sentiment stamps in More Mustard ink on Very Vanilla.  I sponged around the layer with More Mustard as well.  Here's a close up, so you can see that a little better:

And, here's a card Daniel helped me create for his third grade teacher.  He selected some of the Play Date Designer Series Paper (now retired), and we took it from there:

My favorite part of this owl is that it is holding a little apple for the teacher -- we created the apple using the cherry from the Cupcake Builder Punch!  Pretty clever, huh?!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!!

- Michelle

Happy Father's Day!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!  My husband took me fishing with the boys on Mother's Day, and I teased him that since I did what he wanted to do on Mother's Day, today he'd have to scrapbook with me.  I didn't hold him to that, though.  Instead, he and the boys went fishing again, while I stayed home and have been preparing for a busy week ahead!  And, now I have a few minutes to pop in here, so I thought I'd share a card design that I used for both his Father's Day card and some thank you cards he gave to his assistant coaches for our oldest's baseball team.

I used the team's colors -- had to go back into my retired inks and papers to find just the right color, Taken with Teal,  for the card base (their Little League team this season was the Marlins).  And, I also used two now retired sets -- Home Run and Extreme Elements.  There's a new stamp set called Great Sport that I think would work well to do something similar, and it's high on my wish list, but I couldn't get it in time to make these cards!  So, without further ado, here's what I created:

The stars and the "Home Run" are heat embossed with Silver Embossing Powder, so they have a great shine i.  I used the new Apothecary Accents Framelits to create the focal piece, and the "Home Run" banner was die cut using one of the new Bitty Banners Framelits. The Basic Black card stock layer along the bottom is embossed using the Stripes Embossing Folder.  I just ran it through the folder twice, lining it up carefully the second time, to  have the stripes go along the entire length of the card stock.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Teacher Appreciation Treats

My boys had their last days of kindergarten and third grade this week, and now we are getting settled into summer vacation!  Before school ended, I was busily creating gifts for end of school and end of baseball season and I will share those soon, but first I wanted to share with you some teacher appreciation treats I made about a month back for our school's "bring your teacher a treat" day.  I decided to make homemade fudge for the boys' teachers and some other staff members, and of course, that meant I needed some fun packaging, too.

For the packaging, I decided to use cello bags, tied with some ribbon and a tag, and then inserted into a box made with the Fancy Favor Bigz XL Die.  I created the tags in My Digital Studio, then used my home printer to print them out on Very Vanilla card stock.  I punched them out using the Scallop Oval Punch.  I just love how My Digital Studio coordinates so easily with non-digital Stampin' Up! products as well!

For the box, I decided to re-create this project I made a while back, just changing the colors and shapes a bit.  I die cut the box from Groovy Guava (a long-retired In Color -- you could use Calypso Coral for a similar look), then heat embossed the Hello, Doily image using Versamark Ink and White Embossing Powder.  For the accent piece, I die cut a piece of Soft Sky (another long-retired In Color, but Pool Party could be substituted for a similar look) using the new Apothecary Accents Framelits.  I layered a piece of Very Vanilla cut from the new Bitty Banners Framelits on top of that.  The "fabulous you" is from the Fabulous Phrases stamp set.  I created the flowers by stamping the image from Itty Bitty Bits in Melon Mambo (stamped off for some of the flowers), then punching out with the coordinating Itty Bitty Punch.  The leaves are punched from Wild Wasabi Card Stock using the branch from the Bird Builder Punch.

Here are the boxes completely assembled and ready to go.  I used some Soft Sky ribbon from my stash as well as some Pool Party Baker's Twine to attach the tag and close the cello bag.

Hope you like this project idea!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

- Michelle

SUper Friends Swapping Again . . .

I'm finally posting the wonderful creations from my last SUper Friends group get together!  Just in time, too, because we're going to be meeting and swapping again early next week!!!  (If you are in the San Jose area and would like to join the fun, please email me or leave a comment, and let me know!)

First up is a beautiful little goodie bag created by Motoe:  

Here is a fun and summer-y birthday card created by Nancy:

Here is Renate's wonderful card:

And, last but not least, this beautiful card by Agnes:

It's always so fun to see what everyone creates!  I'm looking forward to our next swap!  And, I'll try to be faster about sharing photos from it here.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Have you seen the new catalog yet?

Hello!!!  I'm still here . . . just been a bit overwhelmed with the boys' end of school year and end of baseball season activities!  Just over a week to go and maybe then we can relax a bit?  We'll see!

Anyway, I just had to pop in and make sure you've seen the beautiful new Stampin' Up! Catalog!   Here's what the cover looks like, and if you click the link below the photo, you will be able to see and browse the online version of the catalog:

Stampin' Up!'s 2012-2013 Catalog

There's also a new Celebrando Creatividad!  Here it is with the link:

Stampin' Up!'s Celebrando Creatividad

And, there is a wonderful opportunity to become part of Stampin' Up! and my SUper Friends Team this month:

To learn more, please click here or contact me by leaving a comment or sending me an email using my sidebar link.

Thanks for visiting my blog!  I'll be back again soon with some cards to share with you!!!

- Michelle