My Best Valentine's card

So I was going to wait until closer to Valentine's day to show this card but I'm just so excited I couldn't wait. This is the card I'm going to give to my husband and I'm pretty proud of it. Like I said in an earlier post I won't be in the dog house this year.

I used the new Sweet Stems set and coloured them with Pretty in Pink, Rose Red and Kiwi Kiss inks with blender pens. I added antique brads to the center of the flowers for a bit of glitz. I had to use some ribbon because I'm a ribbon junkie but I didn't do a bow or anything because that's not manly. But somehow I've convinced myself this amount of pink is OK though.... The other colours I used are Cameo Coral cs, Whisper White cs and Raspberry Tart DSP.

February Club Date

It seems as though I have forgotten to post the date of the next class. We decided at the last meeting that Feb 15th at 1pm works best. I know this may cause some problems being the day after Valentine's day and some ladies having full romantic weekend plans. But for some of us it seems fine (I wonder what that means???).

Just so you know I have some a cute project planned already but if anyone has a suggestion for another project, like an occasion they need something for, I can incorporate it.

Sale-A-Bration is almost here

This is the biggest sale of the year for Stampin' Up! and it runs from Feb 1-Mar 31 and is full of FREE stuff. Let me say that again, FREE stuff. It is based around a gift with purchase strategy. For every $60 you spend from the new catalogue you can choose 1 item from the sale-a-bration flyer for FREE. But wait, there's more. If you hostess a workshop and your sales total $350 or more you get to choose one item as well as your regular hostess benefits. This couldn't be a better time to plan your workshop.

Feel free to browse the sale-a-bration flyer now and pick out your favourites.

Class Project #2

Here is the second project we made the other night. I decided to step outside the card realm and do a 3D project. I got the idea for this when I went over to my upline (stampin boss') house to pick up some brochures and asked her for some ideas. She must have had this on the brain because she quickly pulled out a template for this little heart box and let me copy it.

I decided to decorate it simply with the Bella Rose DSP and a tag using the Define Your Life set. Of course the finishing touch was the bag of candy inside. It turns out candy is really heavy so if you make this be careful not to fill your bag like I originally did :(

Here is the template for the box, I hope this works for you.

To use this cut the solid lines, score and fold along the dotted lines and then fold all the pieces in one direction and voila, you will have a box!

Class Project #1

I had my first club/class yesterday and it went great. I had a small group come and we had a blast, lots of snacking and chatting. Here is one of the projects that we made. I don't have a lot, or to be honest, any, Valentine's day sets so I had to get a little more creative with what I do have. This card uses the Echos of Kindness hostess set from the NEW CATALOGUE and the cherish from the Baroque Motifs set.

So here is the quick and dirty explanation of how to make the flowers stand out on this card:

1. Stamp your image in either Craft ink (takes 2 hours to dry) or Stazon (takes minutes to dry) onto vellum CARDSTOCK
2. When dry turn your paper over into a foam mat (like that come in the mat pack or a mouse pad would probably work too) and using the embossing stylus rub in a circular motion over the parts that you want white - you may need to use quite a bit of pressure
3. Flip the paper over and attach to your card!

The rest of the supplies for this card are the Raspberry Tart DSP, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red and Whisper White CS and Rose Red and Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, silver brads and Rose Red ink.

Class update

So I have been crafting up a storm to get all my project for my class ready for tomorrow. In the midst of all my crafting I came up with the perfect card for my husband for Valentine's day! I won't be in the dog house (or the wife equivalent) this year! Now I just have to see about getting a Valentine's day appropriate gift - challenge #2. I will post a picture of the card in a few days, after I make sure he doesn't check here.

On another note there is still room to come by tomorrow if you want to see what it is all about. If you don't want to commit to the club you can still come by and see what it is all about, I would love to have you here. Like I said I've been crafting up a storm and have come up with some really cute projects. I will post them here next week as well so everyone can see what we made.

More Dry Embossing

Here is another Valentine's day card that I came up with. I did the same dry embossing with vellum cardstock that I did on the last card but this time I wanted to see if I could add some colour to the flowers by painting the backside of the vellum with the ink. It kinda worked but I think I should have used a darker colour, I used Regal Rose but I think Rose Red would have worked better.

On this one I used clear embossing powder on the background which is really cool. I love the way it looks, all glossy and shiny. I'm going to have to use this on more cards,since it's super easy and really pretty.

New Spring Summer Catalogue

The new catalogue is here! The new spring summer catalogue went live yesterday and I love it. I have to admit that I've had the catalogue for sometime now but I didn't want to make everyone jealous be letting them know :) There are some great new stamp sets (I've already ordered a few of them) and textured papers in it, along with all the new ideas for cards, scrapbook pages and other projects. It definitely worth a look.

Just so everyone knows if you want to get a free catalogue you can get one by joining my club, hosting a workshop or placing an order with me for over $35. Lots of ways to get a catalogue other than the $11.95 option actually in the catalogue.

Class Teaser Card

The first class for my technique club is this coming Sunday and is still room available for more people to join. I thought I would post a teaser card for everyone to see the technique we are going to be doing. It will be similar to this one but we will be using a set from the new catalogue. I have to keep something a surprise for Sunday.

I was playing around last night to come up with some ideas and get the Valentine's day juices flowing. I made a few cards and I'll post some of the other ones later in the week. My husband was a little less than impressed when I showed him my cards and asked him which one he wanted for Valentine's day. I think I need to work on my romance skills a little.

Valentine's Card #2

I wish I could say that this card was my design but, alas, I cannot. I made this card at a Stampin' Up! meeting where they show off the new stamps and demonstrate new techniques and stuff like that. There are so many perks to being a demo! This card was made using the Love You Much bundle and the Big Shot.

For those of you that don't know the Big Shot is a die cutting machine and SU! has some exclusive dies that are, of course, super cute. It was only introduced during the last catalogue but there are already a tonne of dies, and lots of new ones in this catalogue.

To make this card you fold a piece of Riding Hood Red cs and put it through the Big Shot to make the scalloped card base, then you stamp the hearts all over the background in the matching ink. Slots get punched in the card and Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon gets fed through. Then all the rest of the stuff gets attached to the card. This one is finished off with a piece of Bella Rose DSP on the inside so it could be a gift card holder if you only glue down the edges.

Club Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that there are a few spots left in my Technique and Marker club. They are running together and the first meeting will be on Sunday January 25th at 1pm. If you are interested but don't know if you can commit to the entire length of the club come anyway, I'm sure we can work something out.

I have some really cute projects planned with some of the stamp sets from the new catalogue which goes live this Monday! I have to say there are some super cute new sets in the catalogue and I love the new Designer Paper.

I hope to see you there :)

Pseudo Valentine's Day card

With Valentine's Day fast approaching I thought I should get into the groove and not forget about it this year like last year. Oops! I decided to start stretching my romantic muscles, they don't get used too much and do need stretching. The problem is that I ask my husband a lot of questions when I'm crafting such as "how does this look" and "do you think these colours look good together" so it is going to take me some time to make a card worthy of him without him knowing about it. So this is one of my warm-up cards.

For this card I borrowed the Eastern Influences set from a friend and then coloured in the flower with blender pens and Real Red ink along with Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip. I stamped the background in Belle Toile (also borrowed) in Rose Red. I matted the flower and greeting (from the Best Yet hostess set - retiring soon) on Rose Red as well and black. I finally used my scallop border punch for the edge and put it all on Rose Red. The brads are vintage gold I believe and they are from a craft store.

I love the way I coloured in Real Red but it looks find with the Rose Red paper. I am finding it really easy to fake having the matching colours and since there are, like, 6 shades of pink and red it is satisfying knowing I don't need to have then all to make some pretty cards.

Inventory Blowout Sale!

So Stampin' Up! is having a huge sale with up to 50% off. If you like the last In Colours then you'll love that you can still get the ink pads (no paper though). You can also pick up the new In Colour textured cardstock for a deal. You can see the complete list here.

This is only available until January 18th and only while supplies last so if you see something you just have to have then pick it up now while you still can. You can go to my SU! website and click the shop now link to order online and you can give me a call and I can order it for you.

Pretty Peony

Here is a card that I made for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday. I always have a hard time deciding on what to get her since her birthday is right after Christmas but for the past few years I have been making her a selection of cards and it seems to be going over well. At least that is what she tells me :)

I made this card using the Pretty Peony set that will be retiring (see the retiring sets here). This set uses the two step stamping technique to get the layered look. I don't concern myself too much with lining the stamps up, I figure it gives it more of an artistic look if they don't match up. For the greeting I used my Sincere Salutations, my absolute favourite greeting set. It has something for every ocassion and the font goes really well with flower stamps.

For the peony flowers I used Regal Rose and Rose Red since they both come in the Rich Regal stampin spots set. For the leaves I used Old Olive and Kiwi Kiss (one of my favourite combinations). For the ribbon I only had white but didn't want to use it white so I ran it across my Rose Red ink pad (or Regal Rose) to give it a bit of colour. To finish it off I added some faux stitching with the black marker. All this was done on Kraft cs and mounted to a Chocolate Chip card.

This has to be one of my favourite cards, so simple yet really easy to make. I hope you like it too.

Late Christmas Cards

Since I just love Christmas so much I am having a hard time letting it go. I got some great Christmas cards and probably should have showed them before Christmas but since I didn't I'm going to post them now. The first one is from the well-seasoned Stampin' Up! demo Ann Driscoll. I just love how she made the poinsettias with the 5-Petal punch and the Spotlight on Christmas stamp set. The other stamp set used is Christmas Classics which she embossed in gold. This card is quite simple to make but is really great. Beware if you are on my Christmas list you may be seeing a card like this one in your mailbox next year.

The other card is one my husband got from my cousin Sheila (she drew his name in the swap). I love this card because it is a little different, it is not a traditional card because it doesn't open but it does stand on it's own. What is really cool is the santa is stamped and coloured in and then placed on the back piece of cardstock behind a window that is on the front piece of cardstock. It is hard to see but on the window the greeting is stamped. I think I will be modifing this design for another occasion. The santa is from the Jolliest Time of the Year set and the snowflakes are the Bold Snowflakes wheel I believe.

Both of these cards, like most cards, would be great for any occasion if you just change the stamps and sentiment. I think I will be taking ideas from both for birthday and may be mother's day cards.

Valentine's Day is Next!

Phew, the holidays are finally over and now I have time to think again. I had a blast seeing all the family but with the travelling and all the snow I have to say I'm glad to be home. Now that all the Christmas presents are put away and some of the pre-existing clutter is cleared away I can finally sit down and craft a little. Well, I haven't yet but I should be able to now if I want to.

I wanted to let everyone know that there is a Valentine's promotion bundle out - the Love You Much bundle - and the best part is it is 20% off until January 31. It is super cute and comes with Candy Cane Lane DSP, the Heart to Heart punch and the Love You Much stamp set. All these items are exclusive to the bundle so if you want them this is the way to get them.

I will be posting some more in the coming days to show you some of my projects, some of my favourite handmade Christmas and birthday cards that I received (my birthday is a little before Christmas) and to keep you posted on the goings-on at Stampin' Up! Remember the retiring stamp set list is out the but the stamps will only be here for a few short weeks more.