April Suite Sampler #4-A Pretty Foil Bag

Hello there! The snow is melting and the creek is flowing! I think spring is finally here. Might get to take the outside Christmas decor down this weekend. I even noticed my daylilies are coming up. Yep, spring is here. :o)

I thought I'd share with you another project from the April Suite Samplings Kit. If you're not sure what that is, check out this post. The kit included a couple of the gold Striped Treat Bags. These are flat treat bags, but with a couple of score lines, it's pretty easy to make a gusseted, stand up style bag.

Start by scoring a line 3/4 of an inch in from each side and the bottom.

It's a good idea to then fold the bag along those lines in both directions. Then it's just a matter of opening up the bag and creasing along those folds.

Just pinch along the edges to crease them. The bottom corner will end up making these little triangles. You can use a glue dot or Tear & Tape to adhere them to the bottom of the bag.

Voila! You have a gusseted bag! Once the bag is filled, fold over the top and add your decor. For my bag I cut a 2 x 6 piece of DSP and a 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of vellum. They were both banner punched and then folded about 2 inches down from the top and simply laid over the top of the bag. I didn't even glue the vellum to the DSP. The library clip is holding it all together. Some simple stamping and fussy cutting, along with some sequin trim finishes up the tag. I used the Sweet & Sassy heart dies to cut out my heart, but you could easily fussy cut that out.

What do you think? Are you enjoying these projects? I hope so. I've been perusing through the new catalog and picking out which suites I love the best and what items to put together with them to make up next year's kits. So many super-awesome choices! It's gonna be hard narrowing things down. I do have June's picked out and most of the details figured out. Can't wait to share it with you. Remember, there won't be a kit in May due to most of the DSP retiring. I will announce the June kit as soon as I am able to.

I will be back with at least one more project using the April kit. If I have time, I will show more because I have a LOT of paper and supplies still left from this kit. Just not sure I'm going to have time to make more goodies before April is gone. I would love to know where time flies to. If anyone finds out, could you please let me know? Thanks.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

Mail A Card Monday--Turquoise Dragonfly

Hello there! Doing my part to make Mondays a little more enjoyable. It's Mail-a-Card Monday again. Here's a look at the cards I mailed out today.

Two of these are from my stash and were made a while ago. Unfortunately, the food truck stamp set has been long retired, but, as you may remember from my last post, I love a good pun, so I've been holding onto this card for a while. Thought it was time to bless someone else with it. It's on its way to my super awesome sister. (Hi, Pam!!) The middle card uses the Flourishing Phrases stamp set that has been in the catalog for a while, but is retiring soon.

The dragonfly card we made at last month's TNT (Tips N Techniques) Class. All of our projects that day focused on embossing--heat embossing, dry embossing, and embossing paste.

On this card we used the embossing paste and colored it with several shades of blue and green. As we smeared the paste over the stencil, the colors blended together. It came out pretty awesome! Thankfully, the Detailed Dragonfly Framelits are not retiring, but the Tempting Turquoise cardstock is. I actually designed this card specifically for one of the ladies who comes to class as it is her favorite color.

Kind of hard to see in the pictures, but there is vellum behind the wings that we colored with blends in various shades of blue and green. Then, of course had to use a spattering of iridescent sequins to mimic real dragonflies.

Another dragonfly stamped in Lemon Lime Twist for the inside. Love how this came out. What do you think? I wasn't real fond of Lemon Lime Twist when is first came out, but it really is such a fun color to use and I love it with the Turquoise. 

It looks like spring is finally coming to Wisconsin. Our creek is flowing and I can see patches of grass here and there. Still have 2 feet of snow on the flower bed, but that'a half of what it was this time last week, so that's good. Hoping it will warm up enough to open some windows soon so we can hear the water. Love that sound. 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

You Octopi My Thoughts!

Hello there! What do you think of this fun card? My family well knows that I love a good pun. My daughter's and I are constantly sending jokes to each other. Sometimes, when you're having a bad day, a random joke is just the thing to put a smile on your face, and puns like this are so fun. 

So, there's actually quite a lot going on on this card. Lots of texture and movement. I used the "Smoosh" technique to apply Bermuda Bay ink to the watercolor paper background. Once that was dry, I used some Embossing Paste that I colored with Bermuda Bay and added Dazzling Diamond glitter to. I made a stencil to apply the Embossing Paste through by cutting some scrap paper with the Swirly Scribbles wavy thinlit.

The "netting" is a piece of the Copper Trim that I stretched out. Super simple stamping and a splattering of copper sequins from the Metallics Sequin Assortment finishes off the card.

Unfortunately, the Message in a Bottle stamp set is retiring, so be sure to order yours soon if you are like me and you love a good pun.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

A Cherry Pie Card

Hello there!

I have a fun card to share with you today.

Isn't it cute? To make my pie I used the Basket Weave embossing folder that I got for free during Sale-A-Bration. Didn't get one? Don't worry, it will be available when the new catalog comes out in June. I think it is one of my absolute favorite embossing folders. To get the look, I cut out the largest circle from the Stitched Shapes Framelits and one of the scallop circles from the Layering Circles. Before I put the stitched circle into the embossing folder, I lightly ran my Crumb Cake ink pad over the raised side of the folder. This helped add shading to my lattice without a lot of work. Since my pie was a cherry pie, I used the Real Red marker to fill in the little squares between the lattice. Then it was just a matter of gluing the two circles together and cutting out a pie piece.

My plate was made with 1 inch and 1 3/8 inch circles.

I love how the background paper turned out. We don't have any DSP with this pattern. I just randomly stamped cherries from the Cool Treats stamp set all over some Pool Party paper. Reminds me of a kitchen from the 50's.

I stamped a couple extra cherries and cut them out with the matching dies. You might notice that a couple of them are raised up. I cut one of the mini Dimensionals into fourths. Those were a bit fiddly to work with, but I was able to use the Paper Piercer to grab and put them where I wanted them. After they were adhered to the card, I added some Fine Tip Glue over the cherry part to make them shiny.

For some reason, the Real Red ink under the Fine Tip Glue turned super light, almost white, so once it was totally dry I went over them with the Cherry Cobbler Blends pen. Worked like a charm.

This card reminds me of summer time. My hubby keeps telling me it will be summer in just a couple of months. Since this was the view outside my craft room this weekend, I'm not sure I believe him. :o) Bonus though--no mosquitoes!

Till next time...
Stay warm, enjoy whatever season you are in, and God's love and blessings to you!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

April Suite Sampler #3.

Hello there! I am back with some more ideas to use the April Suite Sampling Kit. This time I'm going to share 2 cards with you. The first one is a great way to show off both sides of some Designer Series Paper that you love. Sometimes I hate using DSP because I love both sides and I don't want to glue down one side and not be able to see it. This way you get to see both.

To make this card, I cut a piece of DSP 4 x 6. Since the sheets of DSP are cut to 6 x 12, it was simply a matter of cutting off a 4 inch piece. I then tore the paper by hand about 5 inches down. I glued smaller piece to the bottom of the card front and then flipped it over and glued the larger piece on top. By cutting the paper at 6 inches your bottom piece should be large enough for the top to overlap it and not have any gaps for the card base to show through.

The sentiment was stamped onto Whisper White and then punched out with a 1 3/4 inch circle punch and mounted on one of the larger gold circles included in the kit. That was adhered with dimensionals. In the picture below, you can see that I glued some of the mini sequins included in the kit between the flowers on the larger piece of DSP. They co-ordinate well with the gold foil circle.

For the inside I stamped some Whisper White with one of the flowers in the stamp set and some leaves. To get a bit of a watercolored look, I inked up the stamp and then sprayed it lightly with some water before stamping onto the cardstock. Super simple. I did create a mask to go over the flower before I stamped the leaves.

My second card showcases one of the other floral patterns in this kit, but on the envelope flap. The card highlights the various stamps in the set. I love that you can get this multi-colored stamped look super easily. I simply started by stamping the sentiment, and then stamped the various leaves and flowers around it. Most of them are just ink straight from the pad, but the little flower and what I think are berries were inked up with Stampin' Write markers so I could get the various colors. 

I little strip of DSP and some shimmery ribbon complete the card.

To cover the envelope flap, I traced the flap onto the DSP and fussy-cut it out. I glued it on with Tombow Multi Adhesive as I wanted to make sure I got the adhesive all the way to the edge. 

One last thing before I go: this stamp set and the coordinating DSP on the retiring list. So, if you didn't order the April Suite Sampler, but you would like to make these projects, you will want to get an order in for them as soon as possible. 

I will be back later with some other projects using some of my favorite retiring products. Gotta use 'em while I can! 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

5 Year "Wooden" Anniversary Card

I figured out something kind of fun earlier last week. My hubby and I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary this year, and so is Stampin' Up! My daughter and her hubby just celebrated their 5th anniversary, and so did Paper Pumpkin! How cool is that!?! Just one of those funnies.

Do you remember this picture from this Mail a Card Monday post?

Well, one of those cards actually wasn't finished when I took this photo. Do you see a difference?

I didn't want to stamp the Happy Anniversary on it as I know my daughter reads my blog (Hi, Angel!), and I didn't want her to suspect this was for them. After chatting with my daughter while she told me what she was getting her hubby for their anniversary, I realized it was no coincidence that the free gift in the March kit was a set of wooden embellishments. Wood is the traditional gift for a 5th anniversary. I don't really keep up with those things.

Anyway, the embellishments were the perfect things to use on this card for them. While I used the embellishments from Paper Pumpkin, you could use the Touches of Nature Elements instead. I CASED this card from Mary Fish at Stampinpretty almost exactly. 

I don't have the Wood Textures paper, but I do have the Hardwood stamp, and a retired wood grain embossing folder. I'm loving the Pinewood Planks embossing folder. I think I'm going to have to get that one soon. I used the stamp and embossing folder with various shades of brown to make my different "woods". 

The cute little "Always" heart comes from the Sure Do Love You stamp set, which is also retiring. Thankfully, the Happy Anniversary is from Beautiful Bouquet and that is NOT retiring. Whew! I love that set. The fonts are so pretty. 

The end of my banner was cut with the banner punch--love that thing! The hearts were cut with the Sweet & Sassy Framelits (Yes, these are retiring. Let's just stop and have a moment of silence. So sad.) 

And a little Linen Thread and Burlap Ribbon add just the right amount of texture to the card. 

I totally love how this came out. Often times my anniversary cards come out very feminine, but this one I think is equally balanced. 

Thanks to Stampin' Up! and one of their new DSP's coming out (which is gorgeous, by the way), I realized that the traditional gift for 30th anniversary is pearl. What do you get a guy that's pearly--besides a pearl handled pistol. :o) Hmm. I have till August to figure that out. 

Check out my website to see what else is retiring and what's still left. I still can't believe my favorite butterfly dies are going. Gonna have to plan some projects for this month's classes with them. 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

Stampin' Up's! 2018 Retiring Colors

Hello there!

I'm sure you've probably heard by now that Stampin' Up! is introducing a color revamp this June when the new Idea Book and Catalog goes live. Not only will there be new colors introduced and old ones returning, but they've also redesigned the ink pads themselves. I got to play with the new ones last weekend while I attended OnStage and I really like the new, streamlined look. For those of us that have been using SU pads for quite a while, it will take a bit to get used to, simply because they open slightly different than our current pads. Everyone at our table kept trying to push the pads forward to open them. The new ones are actually easier to open, just different, and different takes some getting used to. :o)

I will write another post on the new colors and pads a little later, but for now I wanted to share with you the colors that we will have to say "good by" to. I know, it hurts my heart too to see some of these go. We've been good friends for quite some time (yes, Chocolate Chip, I'm talking to you). There has been some confusion when looking at the retiring list that is on the website. It lists ALL the colors. That's simply because all the colors are retiring in the old pad style. Most of the colors will stay, they will just be in the new pads. The colors listed below are the ones that are actually retiring, as in not coming back. :o( We will also be losing our Archival Black and Basic Gray, but both colors will still be available, just in different forms; the black in the form of Staz-On and Memento, and the gray as one of our Classic Stampin' Pads.

Always Artichoke

Chocolate Chip

Dapper Denim

Elegant Eggplant

Emerald Envy

Island Indigo

Marina Mist

Peekaboo Peach

Perfect Plum

Pink Pirouette

Rose Red

Soft Sky

Sweet Sugarplum

Tangerine Tango

Tempting Turquoise

Wild Wasabi

Wisteria Wonder

(The names above will take you to my store and show you what's available in that color.)

Why am I sharing this with you? Because I know some of you love these colors just as much as I do. If you have the ink pads for any of these, I highly recommend you pick up some re-inkers so your pads will last you as long as possible. You may also want to stock up on cardstock and/or ribbons in your favorite colors.

One other confusion on the retiring list. All of the bundles are retiring, but not all of the stamps/dies. Many of the stamp sets and dies in those bundles are staying, but they will not be available as a bundle which means you would miss out on the discount. Does that make sense? My suggestion is, if you see something on the list that you love, order it quick! Everything on there is "while supplies last", so don't delay.

Well, I spent the afternoon putting together a bit of a different area for taking photos, and got pictures of several projects I want to share with you, including some more ideas for April's Suite Sampler. I'm waiting on the order for that now and will get those divided up and out to everyone early next week, I hope. It looks like we may get a snow day from church tomorrow, so I may have a little extra time to get some posts ready for next week. :o) (Yes, it is the middle of April and we are still looking at up to 3 feet of snow in some areas of my yard (namely my flower bed) and they say we're supposed to get several more inches tonight. I might get to take my outdoor Christmas decor down before the 4th of July, but I'm not counting on it!)

Anyway, just for fun, please comment below with which of the retiring colors you will miss the most. I would love to hear from you! Mine will definitely be Chocolate Chip, with Island Indigo a very close second.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!!

March Customer Thank You Gifts

Hello there! I am writing this a bit early, because, when this goes live, I will be on my way to Milwaukee for Stampin' Up!'s Onstage Local. I am so super excited!! This is an event for demonstrators to learn new techniques, swap ideas, receive recognition for special achievements, but most of all, we will get to see the new catalog and new goodies!! Ack! The hardest part is that we have to censor what we can show and tell for the next 2 months till it goes live. The good part is that, as a demonstrator, there will be items we can order early so we can play with them and come up with lots of fun projects to share with you. You're welcome.

This is also a reminder that the retiring list will be posting pretty soon (like in a couple days) and many of the items will be "while supplies last", and they won't last long. I don't know what the list is, but I am pretty sure the 2016-2018 In-Colors and the majority, if not all, of the Designer Series Papers will retire. If you are interested in any of these items, I suggest you get an order in quick or you may miss out.

Now, on to the project I have to share with you. First off, I want to say, I have the most awesome customers. I am so grateful that they choose to purchase some of their crafting goodies through me, and I like to send them a little "Thank You" at the end of the month. It isn't much, but I do so appreciate their business, and I hope that they know it.

I usually send a card along with a gift of some kind. Sometimes it's a hand made item, sometimes it's a prettily packaged chocolate treat. If they have chosen to use that month's hostess code, I also send out some free merchandise as well, since I use the hostess credit from that "workshop" to buy little goodies for them. It might be some ribbon, or sparkly gems and such.

This month, the Thank You card included the gift on it.

Can you find the gift?

They are magnetic bookmarks! The colored rectangle on the card front was only adhered on the sides and bottom, making a pocket for me to slide the bookmark into. I sized the Thank You embellishment so that it would hide beneath the bookmark. I did this on purpose as I generally do not sign the cards that I send out. This way they can reuse the card and send it along to someone else if they would like. I wanted the card to look nice without the bookmark in case they wanted to keep the bookmark but pass the card along. The pocket is done in such a way that it could be left as is, no one would really notice it is open at the top, or it could be used to tuck a gift card, or even a tea bag into it.

I did use some of my Sale-a-Bration stash for these cards, but the idea is easy enough to replicate with just about any stamp set or paper that we have. Wouldn't this be darling with our Pretty Kitty, or Bella and Friends stamps? Ooh, more ideas!

I need to head out the door and pick up my daughter from orchestra practice.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

April Suite Samplings #2-A "Locking" Card

Hello there! I'm back with the first of several cards using the April Suite Sampling.

This pack of DSP has quite a variety of colors and patterns. I think the multi-colored florals are my favorite, but for this design I wanted something a bit simpler so the heart wouldn't get lost. The front is a simple layering of Basic Black Cardstock and the pink floral DSP, each 1/4 inch smaller than the layer behind. I tied a bit of the Black Shimmer Ribbon around the two layers before adhering them to the Powder Pink card base. The shimmer in this ribbon is very subtle, but, oh so pretty.

The fun part is the little heart. I used the Sweet & Sassy hearts dies to cut the stamped image, and 2 Basic Black hearts. If you don't have the dies, you could use the gold hearts that I include in the kit as a template and trace around them and fussy cut. The black hearts are folded in half and then glued to the back of the stamped heart so that they form an X.

I used the retired Word Window punch to punch out a slot in the card front, but you could use the Classic Label punch for it as well. Slide the heart into the slot so that the stamped image is in the front and the other half of the black "X" is inside. Apply adhesive and stick the heart to the inside of the card. Now the heart acts as a lock to keep the card closed, but when you open the card, the heart is on the inside. Does that make sense? If not, leave me a comment and I'll see if I can put together a better tutorial on it. 

What a fun card. I do like interactive cards and this one has a sweet message. :o) Only a couple more days to get your reservation in for the April Suite Sampling Kit. Don't miss out. I do have several more projects to share with you over the month, so as you get your kit, you will have lots of ideas of things to make with it.

Email me to reserve your kit.

Be sure to check out this post for all the information on the kit, and this one for another fun idea. Deadline to reserve your kit is April 6th!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!!

Mail a Card Monday-A Little Wild Card

Hello there, and Happy April to you!! I would love to say Happy Spring, but here in Wisconsin, spring is slow to wake up. I'm sure it will be glorious when it does, but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the excuse to stay inside and craft. :o)

I did put on my snow boots and hiked out to our mailbox (we have a long driveway) so that I could get a few cards out today. Glad it was today and not tomorrow--we're expecting another 6+ inches of white fluffy stuff tonight. Anyway, here's a quick shot of the cards I mailed out today. I'm not going to say a lot about them as the recipients may read my blog and I don't want to spoil any surprises.

Two of the cards are from my stash, but one was made special last night. I will post more on it later. Here's a card I mailed out a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure it has arrived, so I can talk about it now.

Isn't he just adorable? I CASED this card almost exactly. Nikki even has a little tutorial on the bottom for the sky. LOVE how it came out. I used a couple of sets for this: A Little Wild, Butterfly Basics, and Sitting Here. I think I may have to make a whole set of these as I have so many long distance friends I could send it to, and it was actually quite quick and simple to make.

I will be back with another project for April's Suite Samplings Kit. Remember, this Friday (April 6th) is the deadline to reserve your kit. I've been having so much fun making projects with it. I have 5 so far and I haven't really made a dent in it. Check out this post for all the details and this one for the first project I posted.

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!!