Beate's weekend sketch challenge

Have I told you how much I love to visit Beate's blog? She really puts me to shame - she has such cute stuff and makes things daily, as opposed to me since I am now lucky to stamp once a week. :(

The challenge for this past weekend was to make a card following this template:

Here is my entry:

As you can tell - I am all about the designer paper lately! This uses paper from Petals & Paisley and the stamp set Doodle That. Both of these items are from the Spring mini and I really hope they make it into the catalog that comes out in just days! I love them both.

Anyway - Happy stamping!

more chocolate and pink

A friend of mine recently had a little girl and wouldn't you know it - the only baby card I had made was for a boy!

So I threw this together about a week ago - but haven't seen my friend yet to give it to her. :(

I used the retiring set Baby Firsts and the Baby Time wheel and my favorite paper Au Chocolat. The cute ribbon is the stuff from Michael's - gotta love it.

Enjoy!

Father's Day

I saw this same card last year - just with different colors. Can you believe it took me a whole year to get around to making it?

This uses the All-Year Cheer II stamp set (which is retiring in 2 weeks!), as well as the Monogram "F", Itty Bitty Backgrounds and Everyday Flexible Phrases. My papers were Brocade Blue and Au Chocolate (as well as Vanilla to stamp the "F" on).

Hope everyone has a great Father's Day!

What a cute little crab!

So - I love to check out Beate's blog - once you check it out, you won't visit mine anymore! Anyway - she posted a challenge to make a gate card a few days ao and here is mine. My sister got the Crab and Company stamp set from the Spring mini and that is what I used for this.

I actually thought that making the gate card was a lot of fun and I was really wishing that I got this stamp set for myself, but considering that I bought 4 other stamp sets from the Spring mini - I just couldn't do it. I guess I will be borrowing it from my sister a lot!

This week is killing me!!!

So - I started to write all about how I am super swamped this week with the summer classes that I am teaching, but I changed my mind. I am too excited to post the card that I somehow managed to make this week. I do have to warn you though - I think that my posts over the next 5 weeks will be few and far between. However, after July 11th I will have plenty of time for stamping!

So - I have noticed a trend in the last few things I have made. I must have a thing for big flower images lately. I really need to find the time to make cards that have something besides flowers on them.

For part of my birthday present, my mom had given me some little chipboard puchouts that she got at Michael's. Ok - who am I kidding - that I picked out at Michael's for her to give me. :) I got two packs and they both have the same images in them - various flower and heart shapes - but one pack has colors and patterns, the other doesn't so that I can color them anyway I want. I looked through the colored and patterned ones and thought about how the lavender color that they used was so close to Almost Amethyst.

So - when I finally sat down to make something with it, I pulled out some of my designer prints that will be in the next catalog (July 1st is too far away!). I really htink it matches so well - it is hard to believe that the flower image isn't Stampin' Up!'s!

Anyway - until my life calms down and I have more time to stamp - enjoy yet another flower card!

Prima Flowers

Things are getting really busy around here for me. Summer classes start on Monday so I have been trying to put together 2 different syllabi, work on my lectures for the first week, etc., etc. Teaching in the summer is far more intense than teaching in the fall or spring so I usually don't have to put as much time in all at once but when you have to cover the same amount of material in 5 weeks as you usually do in 15 there is cause for panic.

Anyway - enough about that. About a month ago I got some of those Prima flowers that are so popular right now, but I couldn't figure out what to use them on. There are tons of them in a pack so I know this means I will have them until the day I am so old I can no longer see to stamp! I pulled out some of that ribbon I got in the bargain bin at Michael's and decided it was just the right colors to use with my little flowers. And lucky for me - the ribbon was pink and chocolate brown so you know I was reaching for my Au Chocolat paper!

Here is what I came up with:

I actually only used one stamp on the whole card - the "thank you" came from a Sell-a-bration set that I got over a year ago!

Enjoy!

Big Blooms

Have I told you how much I love the stamp set Big Blooms? It is in the Spring mini and I have to admit, when I first saw it I wasn't so impressed and didn't think that I would be get it. But it has really grown on me and I want to use it on everything. :)

Anyway - I sat down with Big Blooms and some of the Prints Designer Series paper (currently available as a promotion, but will be in the catalog coming out on July 1st!). I wanted to use only solid cardstock and the prints, but I just kept coming back to Au Chocolat (love it). That is when I decided that I could combine some of the prints paper with Au Chocolat and this is what I came up with. I love how just about everything looks great with chocolate!

After I was done with it, I surprised myself to see that I had chosen the print with the paisley on it - I am not such a paisley fan. The neat thing about the Prints paper is that it will come in a variety of Stampin' Up! colors so it will match everything great!

I actually made that one a few days ago, but didn't want to post it yet until I had done another one. A few weeks ago I bought some really cute ribbon from the bargain bin at Michael's. In fact, I sorted through and picked out ones that I knew would match Stampin' Up! colors. The one that I used in this card I knew would match Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore. In fact, this is the first time that I have ever used Taken with Teal so it was an adventure. :) I also used some of the Petals & Paisley Designer Paper on this one.

One Sheet Wonder!

Stampin' Up! gave all their demonstrators access to a template where you can take one 12"X12" sheet of designer paper, cut it according to the template and be able to make 16 great cards. It took me a while, but I finally got mine done. I first did one (pictured above) with a sheet of paper from Petals & Paisley (from the Spring Mini) and then did another (pictured below) with a sheet from Au Chocolat (also in the Spring Mini). Enjoy!

I am such a bad blogger!

So, I have been really terrible about updating this blog lately. The truth is, I really have had no time to stamp at all. I gave my final exam this week and had grading to do and believe it or not, Colby (the puppy) really does take up a lot of my time.

Anyway - tonight I hosted a Bunco group and was cleaning and cooking all day. But once they all left I had some work to do. Mother's Day is this weekend and I had to get the cards made. So here it is:

The formula for this one is very simple. I used some of my favorite paper - Petals and Paisley, paired with some Old Olive and Regal Rose. Only one stamp was used for the whole card and it is from All-Year Cheer II which is retiring on June 30th.

Speaking of retiring - the retired list is out and it is incredibly long - over 220 stamp sets are retiring. There is some good news though. Anyone who purchases retired stamps from me gets them at 15% off. If you are interested in seeing the retired list, or want to order something from me, just let me know.

Happy Stamping!

Shhh - don't wake the sleeping puppy!

CPS put up another template and I decided to give it a try. However, with a sleeping puppy downstairs I needed to do things very quietly - which means no eyelets, nothing needing the heat tool or anything else that would wake him up. Here is the very simple card that I came up with:

My favorite thing abou this card is the embossing done on the background. I have seen people using these Cuttlebug embossing folders and been very jealous that I don't have a Cuttlebug. That is until this week when I was actually checking out the embossing folders at Michaels. It just so happens that they work in my Sizzix!!! Although by the looks of it the Cuttlebug is better - I really can't get another $80 die-cut machine - but now I have learned that I don't need to in order to use their oh so cute stuff! Yay!!!



The other things that went into this card are some of the Petals & Paisley Paper and a retired set that I have called Something to Celebrate. The cake was colored with Pastels and a Blender Pen. Then I added another one of those really cute flower-shaped brads that I bought at Michaels.



As time passes and Colby gets more used to us here (and housebroken) I hope to have more time to make cute things for the blog. Happy Stamping!