Fall Swap with Marlene

I was going through photos and posts yesterday and realized that I had not shared yet the wonderful projects I received in my fall swap with my amazingly talented friend Marlene Caravello.  I am sure you will agree when you see them, better late than not at all!!!  

The first project is this adorable scarecrow box:

Marlene used a Fancy Favor box as the base, and then the scarecrow's hat is made using pieces from two Top Note die cuts.  I love the fabric flower on the hat with the little bird tucked in, too.  Just charming!

The next project is an awesome Halloween card -- check out all the fabulous details from the front cover to the back!

Here's the front, where Marlene used the faux torn paper technique:

Then, it opens to this fabulously spooky artwork:

The Peek-a-Boo frame opens to reveal a hidden message, embossed in what looks like either Gumball Green or Wild Wasabi Stampin' Emboss Powder:

I love the texture on the wooden fence as well!  And, isn't the punch art face terrific?

On the back cover, Marlene stamped the Frightening Feline image in Whisper White, creating a great Halloween version of the Chalkboard Art look that is so popular everywhere right now:

And, last but not least is this beautiful Thanksgiving slider card:

So many great details on this card, too -- from the beautiful fall leaf die cut from the Autumn Accents die, the Woodgrain texture and beautiful fall colors in the background under the leaf, the embossing on the Orchard Harvest Designer Paper on the pull out piece, and the sponging on the 7/8" Cotton Ribbon Marlene used for the slider pull.

Aren't these fabulous?!  Thanks so much, Marlene!!!!

And, thank you for stopping by to check out my blog!

- Michelle

Thanksgiving Cards with a Twist

Have you checked out the Stampin' Up! Online Extravaganza yet?  If not, be sure to head on over to my online store (from the main page, click the shop now button) and check out the great deals, after you finish reading this post!

I've seen some really neat cards with a twist lately -- including the one I received from my friend Agnes in our recent swap, and finally got around to trying some of these out myself.  I followed the instructions in this video tutorial by Kelly Gettelfinger -- and was amazed how quick, easy and fun these are to make!  I'll definitely be making more of these.

Here's how a couple of my Twisted Thanksgiving cards turned out:

Supplies used:

Stamps:  Full of Blessings
Ink:  Versamark, various colors of Stampin' Write Markers (including Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Gray, Marina Mist, Baja Breeze, and Cajun Craze), Basic Gray
Paper:  More Mustard, Basic Gray, Watercolor Paper, Howlstooth & Scaringbone
Accessories:  Label Framelits, Aquapainter

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Michelle

A Little Hot Chocolate for a Rainy Friday . . .

It's been a rainy Friday here in California, and I've actually enjoyed it!  It's perfect weather to be inside stamping, with a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate!  So, I thought this would be the perfect card to share with you today:

I created this card about a month ago for a party with some wonderful ladies!  I think they enjoyed making it, and it was fun to see the variations they came up, substituting different images from the Scentsational Season set.

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Scentsational Season
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink Pad, Early Espresso Stampin' Write Marker
Paper:  Note Card, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, and Lucky Limeade Card Stock, plus Festival of Prints Designer Paper Pack
Accessories:  Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Stampin' Pierce Mat and Paper-Piercing Tool, Rhinestone Jewel, 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/4" Circle Punch


There's also lots of exciting news from Stampin' Up! right now:

• The Ink-credible Promotion is going on!  
• The Stampin' Trimmer is now available!  
• You can now include digital content on workshop orders!   
• The Simply Sent iPhone app, which allows you to create an e-card to send via email or post on Facebook, is now available for free!  You can download it from iTunes or the App store.
• Stampin' Up! has the Sizzix Texture Boutique Embossing Machine available now, while supplies last! 
• There's a new product called Talking Tag, that's now available!  
• The Online Extravaganza starts Monday!  

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

SUper Friends Holiday Swap Cards

It's been a busier week than planned, so I haven't been able to pop in here and post much, but saw an opportunity tonight, and have been anxious to share some beautiful cards I received from some of my SUper Friends!  We swapped cards at our October meeting, and without really planning it, most of the cards had a holiday theme!  

Here's Agnes' "Twisted Greeting Card" using the Polar Party stamp set:

Renate's card using the Ornament Keepsakes Bundle:

Motoe's card, also using the Ornament Keepsakes Bundle:

And, Nancy's punch-art Christmas tree card:

Aren't these all wonderful?!  I am so thankful for all my talented SUper Friends!!!  Hope you enjoyed seeing some of their recent creations.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Mojo-ed Congratulations!

This week I finally had a chance to play along with Mojo Monday again, and decided to use this week's fabulous sketch (#266, which you can see here), to create a congratulations card for one of my SUper Friends team members who just promoted to Supervisor!   Very proud of her!

Here's the card I created:

I used the Blue Ribbon stamp set for this card.  The "congrats" is actually from the "congrats GRAD" stamp, and I used my Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker to ink it up -- I was pleasantly surprised to see how nicely it worked, and that it came off my stamp just fine when I cleaned it right after stamping.  Here's a close up to give you a better view of how that came out:

I did a fair amount of sponging on this card -- you can see it on the "congrats" banner as well as on the #1 ribbon.  Here's the close up of that:

In this close up, you can also see that I used the Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker to do a little faux stitching as well.  

Here's a complete list of supplies used:

Stamps:  Blue Ribbon

Ink:  Midnight Muse, Chocolate Chip, and Early Espresso Classic Ink; Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker

Paper:  Midnight Muse Card Stock, Calypso Coral Card Stock, International Bazaar Designer Series Paper, Very Vanilla Card Stock, Daffodil Delight (for the flowers), and Champagne Glimmer Paper

Accessories:  Stampin' Sponges, Bitty Banners Framelits, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper-Piercing Tool, Stampin' Pierce Mat, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, Rhinestone Jewels

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Ornament Keepsakes Bonus Projects

Recently, I've enjoyed having a couple classes to teach friends how to create this beautiful ornament from the cover of the Holiday Catalog.  In addition to the ornament, I prepared a couple bonus projects to show my friends a few other ways to use the Ornament Keepsakes bundle.  And, now I want to share those here, too!  

Here's the first one:

This window-style card is relatively quick and easy to create because it starts with one of Stampin' Up!'s Note Cards.  It has a 4-1/2" x 3" layer of designer paper from the Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper.  And, on top of that is a 4-3/4" x 3-1/4" piece of Whisper White, out of which the ornament is die cut, and which is embossed with the Northern Flurry Embossing Folder.  I drew the ornament hanger on the Whisper White using a Silver Stampin' Dazzle Marker.  For the ornament cap and part of the decoration, I used Silver Glimmer Paper. The cap is just a straight strip placed under the die cut Whisper White layer.  For the decoration, I punched a 1-1/4" Scallop Circle of the Glimmer Paper.  On top of that is an image from the Ornament Keepsakes set, stamped on Whisper White in Gumball Green, and die cut with one of the Holiday Ornaments Framelits.  For the finishing touches, there's a Gumball Green Stitched Ribbon bow on top of the ornament and a small Pearl Jewel in the center.  

I used the same stamp to decorate the edge of the envelope as well:

The second card is a variation on the first, and this was actually inspired in part by this card in Connie Stewart's Flash Cards Series:

Again, I started with one of the Note Cards.  This time I inked up the ornament stamp using Stampin' Write Markers (Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, and Gumball Green), and stamped it roughly in the center of a 4-3/4" x 3-1/4" piece of Whisper White Card Stock.  I die cut the stamped image, then set it aside, while I embossed the "frame" left behind by the die cut.  I used the Snowburst folder here, which I've since realized is actually retired; however, the Lacy Brocade or Vintage Wallpaper Folders would work beautifully, too.  This time I used a Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker to draw the ornament hanger, and used three of the Pearl Jewels to dress up my ornament.  The "merry" is from the Tiny Tags stamp set, and is stamped in Gumball Green on Whisper White, then die cut with one of the Bitty Banners Framelits.

The final project for today is a mini-version of the larger ornament, created using die cut paper from the Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper and one of the smaller Holiday Ornament Framelits.  The center is decorated with pieces of Very Vanilla die cut using the Snow Flurry Bigz Die, and finished with a Pearl Jewel:

Whew!  Hope you enjoyed these projects and that they inspire you to create something special, too!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

MDS2 for Friends and Sports Fans!

I've been busy working on a few projects in My Digital Studio 2, and wanted to share at least one of them with you!  But, before I do, it's Digital Download day, and this week's downloads are perfect for sports fans!  You can see today's downloads by clicking here.  I'm very excited to get the Game Day download as well as the baseball and soccer kits to go with it.  I will get lots of use out of that with all the photos I have of my boys at their games and practices!!!  

Okay, now on to my project . . . Here's a card I recently created using the Enjoying Everything Digital Kit that I got for free during Stampin' Up!'s Digital Scrapbooking celebration last week:

Front cover:

Here are the inside pages:

 And, the back cover:

I love being able to design and coordinate all 4 pages of the cards!  I've sent these to Stampin' Up!'s printers and am excited to get the printed copies back.  I may have to turn some of my printed cards into "hybrid" projects, adding a few pearls to the front.  It will be easy to do since the digital pearls are sized to match Stampin' Up!'s actual Pearl Jewels!

For those who are curious, here are the supplies used (one of the great new features of MDS2 is it generates these lists for you -- making it easier to remember what you used on a project if you want to re-create something for another project or share the "recipe"): 

Front & Back Cover:

Background
     Card Stock\Dusty Durango

Embellishments
    _Designer Kits\Enjoying Everything - embellishments\Enjoying Everything - floral with bow
    Designer Rosettes\Designer Rosettes - pointed very vanilla
    _Designer Kits\Enjoying Everything - embellishments\Enjoying Everything - flower
     Basic Pearls and Rhinestones\Basic Pearls and Rhinestones - pearl large
    Basic Pearls and Rhinestones\Basic Pearls and Rhinestones - pearl medium
    Basic Pearls and Rhinestones\Basic Pearls and Rhinestones - pearl small
    Satin Ribbon\Satin Ribbon - Certainly Celery bow (re-colored)

      _Designer Kits\Walk in the Park II - embellishments\Walk in the Park II - green leaf  

Stamps
    _Designer Kits\Christmas Jingle - stamps\Thank You Kindly\Thank You Kindly - thanks, Color = EARLY ESPRESSO 80,57,49
     Cheerful Treat\Cheerful Treat - flourish, Color = APRICOT APPEAL 255,207,145

Punches
    Extras\Flag Punch, Fill Color = CHOCOLATE CHIP 104,73,71
    Extras\Flag Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Enjoying Everything - designer series paper\Enjoying Everything - 1
    Extras\Perfect Pennants Circle Punch 2,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Enjoying Everything - designer series paper\Enjoying Everything - 2     

Inside Pages:

Background
     Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232

Embellishments
    _Designer Kits\Walk in the Park II - embellishments\Walk in the Park II - friends forever
    _Designer Kits\Enjoying Everything - embellishments\Enjoying Everything - bunch
    Designer Rosettes\Designer Rosettes - pointed very vanilla
    _Designer Kits\Walk in the Park II - embellishments\Walk in the Park II - green leaf
    _Designer Kits\Enjoying Everything - embellishments\Enjoying Everything - flower
    Basic Pearls and Rhinestones\Basic Pearls and Rhinestones - pearl large
     Basic Pearls and Rhinestones\Basic Pearls and Rhinestones - pearl medium

Stamps
    Cheerful Treat\Cheerful Treat - flourish, Color = APRICOT APPEAL 255,207,145
  

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!  

- Michelle

My Digital Studio and a few treats!

It's the last day for Stampin' Up!'s Digital Scrapbooking Day celebration -- have you gotten your free digital downloads and 50% off digital kits yet?  If not, hurry on over here (well, preferably after you take a second to finish reading this post!)  

Since this is my first November post, and still during the Digital Scrapbooking celebration time, I thought it would be fun to share the calendar page I created for this month.  As with the others I created for this year, it uses the Year to Remember Calendar template and some of my favorite photos from this month last year:

I guess it's time to get to work on my calendar for next year!  Can you believe how quickly this year is going?!

I also have a few photos to show you of some fall treats I sent in a recent swap I did with my friend Marlene (you know what that means . . . photos of the amazing and beautiful projects I received from her are coming soon, too!).  I had fun creating special tags for these treats.  The first is a Halloween tag, using the Toxic Treats stamp set, stamped in Basic Black, and sponged with Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Rich Razzleberry:

I used the Basic Black/Basic Gray 1/2" Striped Satin Ribbon from the Holiday Catalog to tie the tag to the package, along with a piece of the Pumpkin Pie/Whisper White Baker's Twine from the Ghoulish Googlies Designer Kit.

For the next tag, I had fun playing with my new Floral Framelits and coordinating Daydream Medallions stamp set.  I also used the Mixed Medley hostess stamp set and 1-1/4" Scallop Circle Punch:

Finally, I wanted to show you what I did with my Ghoulish Googlies Designer Kit -- I used the tags and Baker's Twine from it along with the 1 x 8" Cellophane Bags to create these pencil treats for my 1st grader's class:

Timothy wanted one tag decorated with a couple of the characters from the Googly Ghouls stamp set, and then he signed the tag behind it.  

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle