I can't believe it!

Well, my little baby niece turned 18 last week! (insert sobs here!) Sadly she lives 1,000 miles a way and I haven't seen her since Christmas, but I did make her this card. She loves pink, or at least she did 6 months ago! This card started out very different because the base and the layers were from a card I was supposed to make at card club with my upline, but I didn't really like the stamp set and decided I would use my own, and when I got home I knew I had to use a bella for her card! It's perfect! Stamps are Stamping Bella's ipodabella and Happy Birthday, SU's Brushstroke Numbers and Perfect Fit Stampin' Around Wheel; Cardstock is Confetti White and Pretty in Pink; Ink is Pretty in Pink, Bashfully Blue, Barely Banana, Creamy Carmel and Copic Skin White. I used a Silver Glitter Gel Pen for the Ipod; I used Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds for the "fur" and misc flowers and bling brads. The white cardstock with the Bella is distressed with distressing tool. I just loved this card, almost hated to send it out, but, what am I going to do with a card that says happy birthday and 18? I hope she liked it (and got it!)

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! We did absolutely nothing on the 4th of July! (Well I worked on more swaps for convention!) It was great (except my hubby was still recovering from an awful cold he had).

New to Me Color Combo

I needed a sympathy card and didn't have much time to design it so I went to my SU color wheel and found this combination and I have to say I love it! It is Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow and Barley Banana. I also used Whisper White Cardstock. I used my Vases in Vogue stamp set and colored the stamps using Stampin' Write Markers. The sympathy stamp is Hero Arts. I foresee using this color combo a lot! Chocolate chip is my favorite! I can't believe I didn't use any brads or ribbon on this card. I guess you don't have to use them all the time! Why didn't anyone ever tell me that?

Last weekend I was able to complete a lot of stampin projects. As I've mentioned in previous posts I am headed to the SU convention at the end of this month (woo hoo!) and I've been working on the swaps for that. I am getting very close to being done and ready for Salt Lake City! I promise to post pictures of all my creations after convention!

It's Summer!!!

In an effort to celebrate the beginning of summer, one of my SBS2 sisters, Catherine, started a swap in our group and had the theme be summer themed cards. I had been playing around with my new Life's A Breeze set and came up with this card:

I thought it was just fun and so very summer like. As I said, I used Life's A Breeze stamp set. Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Brocade Blue; Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Brocade Blue, Close to Cocoa; Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain Ribbon; Tools: Tag punches, corner round punch for scalloped “waves” - except on the one in this picture, I think I used some wavy scissors, but on all the rest I used my corner round punch because I was going to use this card for a swap at convention and decided against it. Plus now it is on the dormant list...boo hoo! I guess it wouldn't be a practical set for wintertime anyway other than the fact that what do we all dream about in the winter, but sun and warmth right? (OK, maybe I dream a little bit about snow, but that's only on Christmas day!) I really enjoyed doing this swap with my SBS2 sisters, they are all so talented and I loved all the cards I received, very creative girls we have!

I'm still plugging along on all my convention swaps. I have a couple of organized swaps I signed up for that I need to finish then I am going to do make some general swaps. Only a month to go, yay, I'm so excited. I have the 4th of July weekend to work on all my swaps, we do not have any big plans, so I should get a lot accomplished. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Father's Day

OK, I know that this post is the same type of project as my previous post, but I liked this one better and I had to wait until after Father's day before I could post it. I made this for my daughter to give to my husband for Father's day. I took a great picture of them in Hawaii that was perfect for this. I used the Western Sky DSP; Blue Bayou, River Rock and Ruby Red cardstock; Blue Bayou and River Rock ribbon; Ruby Red and River Rock (to distress edges) ink; Boho Blossoms punch; paper crimper, photo corner and tag punches; my Olivia Cuttlebug Alphabet for Daddy & Me. The tag says the best things in life are not free, but priceless from Seaside Sketches. My husband really liked it. I will be sad to see these In Colors go. I really like them.

Enjoy Every Moment!

That is what I have been doing! I haven't been creating many things I can post on my blog. I've been preparing my swaps for convention and I am going to wait until after I get back from convention to share them with you. I will try to still get my weekly post in, but I realize I have been MIA for a while! This was my first attempt at covering a chipboard clipboard. The picture is shaded to protect the innocent =-) I used Spring Fling DSP, Certainly Celery, So Saffron and Pretty in Pink Card Stock; Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink Grosgrain Ribbon, Hemp Twine, Scallop Circle Punch, Three for You Punch, Dimensionals, Photo Corner Punch, Clear Embossing Powder, Versamark and the Enjoy Every Moment Stamp set. I think that's all, he he! I've actually done another one since this one that I prefer, but I can't show it just yet, I will post it after Father's Day. A couple of weeks ago I held a class to promote Stampin' Ups! recent chipboard promotion and we covered these. I gave everyone the basic instructions and had them do their own thing and it went very well. Everyone enjoyed it and did a great job! Of course I talked the whole time and didn't finish mine, but that's part of the benefit of being the demonstrator! I have all the stuff and can finish mine later!

Party Favors

I did this cute little party favors for my daughter's birthday party a couple weeks ago and realized I never posted a picture! I used the tutorial from Splitcoast. It can be found here. These were so easy to make! We had a Spongebob theme so I used Ballet Blue, Yoyo Yellow and Whisper White cardstock. Ballet Blue and Yoyo Yellow ink; pumpkin pie striped grosgrain ribbon; hemp twine; scallop circle punch. I took the fish and bubbles from Life's a Breeze and stamped the ballet blue before putting them together. I also used my Riveting stamp set. I think that's it. I put about 4 Hershey kisses in each. I didn't have to do too many, but if you planned ahead you could easily do a lot of these!

Happy Sunday!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! So what do you think of my new blog? I decided I needed a change. I think its pretty! I'm still playing around with the layout, but I think I have everything added that was on my previous blog.

Hope you like it.