Mar 12, 2010 | Big Shot, Build-a-Bear, Cards, Designer Series Paper |
Stampin’ Up! is a national sponsor of the Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC). They have partnered to bring comfort and creativity to the lives of Ronald McDonald House guests. Each year, thousands of families stay at more than 160 independently operated Ronald McDonald Houses in North America. These Houses serve as temporary homes for the families of seriously ill children who are being treated in nearby hospitals.
One of the things that Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators do is volunteer time at the house helping the guests make cards. I was finally able to reach the coordinator of the house here in Atlanta and got to visit on the Stampin’ Up! night in January. This month I designed the card and will be going to the house with all the supplies on Tuesday night. Here is what I designed for this months project:
This is very similar to a card I made last year. Using the Big Shot die-cut machine and the Top Note die I made sleeping bags and then cut Build-a-Bears to go inside. I think they will really like this project – at least I hope the kids will really like this project!
The Designer Series paper is retired paper that I had – I thought this one would be fun for the “boy” cards and then I’m using a different one for the “girl” cards – I’ll show you that one next week.
Part of the work will be pre-done – I’m going to have everything cut, the sleeping bags glued together and the faces finished on the bears. The house guests will choose a sleeping bag, dress their bear, stamp something on the sleeping bag and then add it to the front of their card.
I hope it will be a successful evening at the Ronald McDonald House – I’ll report back next week.
Tonight is Stamper’s Club night so I’m off to finish getting ready for that.
Have a great weekend.
Mar 6, 2010 | Cards, Create with Connie & Julie, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010 |
We are finally at the end of the Create with Connie & Julie – at least the end of new project posts – the site and all the projects will be there for some time. This week our challenge was to create a Mother’s Day card. And the featured products this week were Garden from the Heart and Messages for Mom stamp sets in the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini catalog.
Congratulations to last weeks winners of the color challenge – 1st place was Sandra, 2nd place was Lori and Honorable mention to Jessica. Thanks to everyone that played along the entries were all great. I hope you will play during this last week too.
This weeks challenge was so much easier for me – I love the Garden from the Heart stamps set – right up my alley. And guess what I even used some more purple colors! I used Perfect Plum and Pale Plum on this card. I don’t use them often but they were perfect for what I wanted to do here.
I actually made the card and was happy with it but I kept looking at it like I forgot something. I finally figured it out – so I came back and added one more thing. The sprtizing with the Color Spritzer Tool – I used a Soft Suede Stampin’ Write Marker and just added some spritzing on the card. For me that was it – exactly what it needed, something really minor but it was what it needed.
The flowers are stamped with Jet Black StazOn ink on Whisper White card stock. I colored them with Stampin’ Write markers – Mellow Moss, Perfect Plum, and Pale Plum. I also sponged the edges of the white piece with Mellow Moss. A piece of Perfect Plum punched with the Scallop Trim Border punch is layered behind and a piece of Linen Thread is tied around the top.
I LOVE using Linen Thread – I even had a dream (or nightmare) that it was being retired and I had to order a whole bunch so I would never run out…..LOL. The flowers on the bottom are part of the hat image and I carefully cut them out – that was the hardest part! I’m not sure I would do that more than once.
I decorated the inside of the card too – stamped the hat in the corner. The ribbon is also stamped on Perfect Plum card stock and cut out and glued back on the hat. I like to use the 2-Way Glue Pen when working with small cut pieces or punched pieces. The hat is actually colored in with a VersaMarker – it darkens the card stock just a bit. I did spritz on the inside too but didn’t retake the picture.
I hope you like it. I want to find some other stamps to use with the same layout – it is very simple.
Here is a full list of Stampin’ Up! supplies for this card:
- Kraft card stock
- Whisper White card stock
- Perfect Plum card stock and Stampin’ Write marker
- Pale Plum Stampin’ Write marker
- Mellow Moss Stampin’ Write marker
- Soft Suede Stampin’ Write marker
- VersaMarker
- Jet Black StazOn ink
- Scallop Trim Border Punch (SAB)
- Corner Rounder Punch
- Garden from the Heart stamp set
- Well Scripted stamp set
- Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
- Color Spritzer Tool
- Linen Thread
Check out what the rest of the Create team did with this challenge:
Connie
Julie
Mary
Kerin
Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Stampin’!
Mar 5, 2010 | Birthday, Build-a-Bear, Cards, Designer Series Paper, Watercoloring |
Monika’s March Madness Mystery Hostess Birthday Celebration!
Well that was a mouthful! Now what does it mean….
Today, March 5th is my birthday and I have decided to celebrate with all of you – its madness.
All Stampin’ Up! orders that are emailed to me from Friday, March 5th through Sunday, March 7th will be entered into a Mystery Hostess Drawing –
So if the combined orders total $150 or more then I will draw a Mystery Hostess (or 2) to receive the hostess benefits.
AND
I will pay the shipping (10%) on everyone’s orders
AND
You can qualify for Sale-A-Bration rewards if you order over $50 in product!
Email me your order and/or your questions to [email protected]
Happy Birthday to you!
The birthday card above is one that I made for Tyler to give to his girlfriend – her birthday is tomorrow. Tyler said it was going to be hard with my birthday and hers right together. He was invited to go with her family today. But decided to stay with us for my birthday tonight and spend the day with her tomorrow. Although I think it was maybe the fact that we are having steaks tonight that swayed him. Tyler made a rum cake for me yesterday it should be good tonight!
Stampin’ Up! Supplies for the Happy Bearthday Card:
- Brocade Blue card stock and ink
- Pretty in Pink card stock and ink
- Whisper White card stock
- Pawsitively Prints Designer Series paper
- Beary Best Friends stamp set
- Beary Best Wishes stamp set
- Jet Black StazOn ink
- Creamy Carmel and Close to Cocoa Ink
- Stamp-a-ma-jig
- Aqua-Painter
Thanks for stopping by today!
Mar 3, 2010 | Cards, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010, Thank You, Wildlife |
This card was created by Wendy Randall for some swaps. I got one at our group meeting in January but I don’t think I ever shared this card here on my blog.
Now that most of our snow is gone from yesterday it is time to focus on Spring – come on Spring – I am ready!!
I love the little bird cage stamp in the Happy Moments stamp set – this is one you can get for Free during Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration.
Wendy created a pole for the bird cage to hang on and the bird is singing “thank you, thank you, thank you”. The pole is two pieces – the curved piece comes from one of the die cut alphabets and then she cut a straight piece the same width. The little piece of ribbon hides the spot where they are joined.
The faux wood background is something Wendy uses a lot – to create this look pull your ink pad across your card stock – this is called the direct-to-paper technique. Then using a Stampin’ Write marker add little nail heads here and there to create the illusion of wood planks.
A cute card!
Here is a quick peek at what the Bluebirds were doing this morning – 
I found Mr. Bluebird inside House #2. I checked later on to see if they had started a nest in there, but not yet. Maybe he was just taking a closer look. This was the house they used last year so maybe it is the one they are leaning towards. Hopefully they will decide soon and start to build. Last year it was around the middle of March.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Mar 1, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Demonstrator, Designer Series Paper, Occasion Mini 2010, Ribbon Flower, Sale-A-Bration 2010, SU Ribbon |
On Sunday afternoon I had a group meeting with the Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators in my PAWS group. Not everyone was able to come but the ones that did had a great time. I would love to have more people join Stampin’ Up! and be part of my group and this is a great time to do it. During Sale-A-Bration (thru the end of March) there is a special on the Starter Kit – 15% off plus you get an extra FREE stamp set. I joined during Sale-A-Bration the year that I signed up so I could get the extra stamp set – I was able to pick the most expensive one in the catalog at that time – I don’t think the kit was discounted that year though.
Anyway at our meetings we talk a little business, share ideas with each other – Lisa brought a bunch of cute decorate milk cartons using the new Big Shot die from the Occasions Mini catalog. And of course we do some stamping. One of the cards we made was what I guess you would consider a fancy fold card – it is called a Tri-Shutter card. I designed this one using several products from the Occasions Mini catalog and the Sale-A-Bration brochure. This was a fun card and not nearly as hard as it looks. I’m thinking about using this as a Stamper’s Club project for our March meeting – not this exact design but this style of card.
Here is the card when it is folded closed. It has lots of different panels and you could decorate each one with various things.
For the whole card the base is Old Olive card stock, each layer is Taken with Teal card stock and on each panel I used various pieces from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pack.
On the front panel I added a ribbon flower. This was easy to make using our Double-Stitched Grosgrain ribbon. You cut a length of ribbon (short piece creates a smaller flower), then pull the white stitching on one side to gather the ribbon in the center – I pulled from both ends until it was tight and then tied the white thread into a knot and trimmed the excess. I just overlapped the two ends – since the flower is gathered you can’t really see where the cut ends are unless you look for them. I used a Jumbo Glue dot to attach the flower to the front of the card. Then used another Jumbo Glue dot to add one of the little circle from the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt Flowers. A stitched felt leaf was added under the flower.
I also cut some butterflies using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit for the Big Shot – these are in Pumpkin Pie. The tiniest one is glued to the ribbon flower. Two of the others are glued on the panel next to the flower.
When you pull the card open you can see some more of the panels. The far right one matches the front minus the ribbon flower. For the bottom panel I added a piece of Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon.
One view shows all the “front” facing panels.
And the other view also shows you the “back” facing panels including the large one in the center. Here I added a bird punched with the new XL Two-Step Bird Punch. And then stamped with the Whimsical Words stamp set from the Sale-A-Bration brochure – I used “you’re to Kind” for my card. This would also be fun for Mother’s Day, a birthday or Thank you. You could do more decorating on each panel and stamp some more too. My top panels that look really plain in these photos actually have the paper with the clouds on them so it is supposed to be the sky part of my card.
I also used the Scallop Trim Border punch from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. I didn’t realize just how many products I used from that were SAB and from the Mini – 2 Sale-A-Bration items and 5 from the Occasions Mini.
Have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by – if you have time leave me a comment – I love reading them!
Feb 27, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Julie, Designer Series Paper, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010, Stem Sayings, Thank You, Watercoloring |
Boy the week just flies by – its Saturday again and challenge day at Create with Connie & Julie!
Congratulations to last weeks winners of the Easter Card challenge – 1st place was Lisa, 2nd place was Robin and Honorable mention to Cynthia. Thanks to everyone that played along the entries were all great. I hope you will play this week too.
This week our challenge was a COLOR challenge – So Saffron, Certainly Celery and Orchid Opulence. And it was definitely a challenge for me! Why? Because my least favorite color out of all the Stampin’ Up! colors is Orchid Opulence – so I don’t have an ink pad and only a couple of pieces of card stock – luckily I did have my Stampin’ Write Marker! One of the big reasons that the Stampin’ Write Markers are so great – if you buy the whole set like I did then you will have ink in every color so when you need one and don’t have an ink pad – pull out the marker and you are set! It saved me with this color challenge!
The featured items this week are from the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration Brochure – Abundant Hope stamp set, Stampin’ Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Butterfly Accent stamp and Decor Stencils – Paisley Patterns and Folk Flowers. My choice was to use the Beautiful Wings Embosslit – because I love it and because it was the only one of the featured items that I had this week. And here is what I created….
Are you wondering where the background is from, the flowers under the butterflies? It is a piece from the Storybook Designer Series Specialty paper. If you haven’t taken a look at this pack of paper on one side of each is what looks like a coloring sheet. It is textured card stock so it was similar to watercolor paper. I picked a piece of one of the patterns that had flowers on it so the butterflies could be flittering around the flowers. And with no color on the design I could watercolor it with any colors that I wanted. I used my Aquapainter and the classic ink pads. But since I didn’t have the Orchid Opulence ink pad what I did for those was scribble on one of the plastic stamp cases to make a puddle of ink to use for watercoloring. I always loved to color in coloring books when I was little so I had a lot of fun with this and now that I got the pack out I think I need to play some more.
I used the Beautiful Wings Embosslit in the Big Shot to cut the Butterflies in So Saffron and Orchid Opulence. I edged the butterflies with a Soft Suede marker to make them stand out a little bit more. I used some white crochet thread around the centers to make the antennas. The butterflies are on Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Here is a full list of Stampin’ Up! supplies for this card:
- So Saffron card stock and ink
- Certainly Celery card stock and ink
- Orchid Opulence card stock and Stampin’ Write marker
- Storybook Designer Series Specialty paper
- Soft Suede ink and Stampin’ Write marker
- Sahara Sand ink
- Stampin’ Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit
- Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
- Stem Sayings stamp set
- Scallop Trim Border Punch (SAB)
- Aqua Painter
- White Crochet Thread (not SU)
- Stampin’ Dimensionals
Check out what the rest of the Create team did with this challenge:
Connie
Julie
Mary
Kerin
If you haven’t checked out the Create with Connie and Julie site yet it isn’t too late to do it! We feature new Occasions Mini product every week. 
I counted today and there are at least 27 tutorials out there already. We like to have lots of fun so we have challenges and prizes for our subscribers. Our sites stay up long after the session is done so you will always have access to the site and the tutorials. For more information and to see our Preview Week projects please visit the Create with Connie and Julie site.
Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Stampin’!
This is very similar to a card I made last year. Using the Big Shot die-cut machine and the Top Note die I made sleeping bags and then cut Build-a-Bears to go inside. I think they will really like this project – at least I hope the kids will really like this project!
