Before I left for vacation, I participated and hosted 3 swaps! Here are just some of the swaps I made for them. I love partipating in SU! swaps, you get back some great quality samples!

Lily's first day of school!!!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Well, we have returned from our fall family vacation in Disney and Lily started her very first day of pre-school today! I made this layout using Smilebox.com. A great place to make some scrapbook pages to share with family far away!

Back to School

These are for a really fun class I am doing this weekend. The theme is Back-To-School, and we are making lunchboxes, spiral notebooks, a post-it note holder for the teacher, pencil box and a crayon or colored pencil box. Everyone gets to select their own kit and there is enough product left over for a 6x6 scrapbook or 40+ card fronts! My goal with this was to do little or no stamping to show how beautiful these kits are by themselves (for my non-stamping ladies). I hope they all have fun with these!

Workshop CASE

My latest workshop was a challenge for me! My hostess requested a class with hand crafted gifts and a 12x12 page. Now I don't have a school age child, so I don't have any stamps sets to go with that theme! Think...think...think... I decided to make projects with the Office Accoutrement stamp set in the colors featured on page 8&9 of the catalog. It took me a while to figure out what to do for the 12x12 layout, then I spotted my inspiration, the sample from the 2007 Cinci regionals! So I cased the page and also made 2 mega paperclip book marks. It was totally fun creating BTS stuff, now I can't wait for Lily to start Pre-school!

Mom's class for friends

Mom's girlfriends from high school still get together once a year for a few days to have fun, connect and reminisce about the old days. This year they are staying at mom's and asked if I could come over and have a stamp camp! So I have 7 projects for them (I know I went over board), 2 are from my stamp camp on the 14th, one I haven't taken a photo of yet, so here are the last 4. I LOVE the 3x3 cards with the Take Three stamp set, so simple and cute! I'll be doing that one more often!

Fabulous!!!

So I've finally stopped traveling and am now home catching up on life. After days of laundry, cleaning and trips to the vet, I have finally been able to get down to stampin'! Liz Anton and I were talking at the gym today how much fun she had doing the SCS challenge this week, (her first time to participate) jealous, I decided to get home and do one. This is from a few days ago, the Color Challenge, and she's right they are so much fun...I've missed doing them! The colors for this challenge were Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. I hope you like it!

Finally, I'm stamping again!

So...I've been on nationwide tour for the last 3 weeks, with each stop filled with work, fun and frivolity. When I came home, to my surprize (well, not really since I ordered them) were 3 SU! boxes filled with goodies for me to play with! Here are some samples of the projects we will be doing at my New Catalog party this Saturday in Perrysburg. All of these were CASED items from SCS. Thanks for the inspiration!

Bows, bows, bows!

People ask me all the time how I make such perfect bows for my cards. Although I have had extensive training in the art of bow making (former florist & special events designer) I have to admit, this techique came from the master herself...Martha. After you complete your bow, just attach it to the card using a glue dot, it stays on perfectly! I hope this helps you all with your bow making and check out the other bows she has tutorials on.

1. Shape two evenly sized loops, one in each side of the ribbon.

2. Cross right loop over left one.

3. Knot loops by threading right loop behind left one, under, and up through the hole; make sure ribbon is not twisted or bunched.

4. Pull loops into a smooth knot. Adjust loops; trim tails to be slightly longer than loops

I'm Baaaack~

Well, I've finally made it back from the sunny hot state of Florida! We took our daughter to Disney to see all her "friends". In preparation for our trip, I made her an autograph book for the characters to sign. I had a ton of fun making it for her, and have many more pages to add (I thought 30 pages would have done it, I was wrong!) I don't have the photos in it as of yet, that's my next project. Here are a few pages to look at, but check out the entire album by clicking here Let me know what you think!

Look at what I've been doing!

I've actually gotten some stamping done this week! I've joined in some swaps on SCS so it's given me a great excuse to get some "work done". The first swap I joined is for mini sprial notebooks, which I love to make! I thought I'd join so I culd see what other people are doing! I of course had to add some "bling" to each of them. My favorite is the "Sweet Friend" one.

The cards are for a swap called the Great Assortment Swap. I make 11 of the same card in different catagories and receive 10 back, all different themes! I picked out Humorous Birthday, Baby Girl (of course), Thanksgiving and Love note. This is the Humorous Birthday one made with Birthday Banter retired last year.
I had to use my favorite stamp set, A Little Love for this one. It's my favorite stamp set and card layout.
This one was by far the hardest for me to make, I don't have any Thanksgiving stampsets!
I think it's pretty self explanitory why I used this stamp for my Love Note card!!

Heartbreak...

My heart (and current stamp collection). It's broken. Shattered into a million little stamp pieces. Devistation. The SU! retired list came out yesterday, and I have lost a total of 42 stamp sets to retirement. (I have a lot of gold watches to buy).
Then a ray of hope...something new, exciting, and cutting edge on the horizon? While I morn the departure of my dear good friends, the remaining 13 (yes, only 13) stamp sets and I eagerly await the arrival of new bundles of joy! I have had a preview of the hostess sets alone, and they are AMAZING!!! I can't wait to "bulk" back up so I can create hip and happenin' cards, scrapbook pages and 3D items to knock your socks off! Check out the list and let me know if you need to order that stamp set you've been eyeing, because after June 30th, they are off the books!

Who'd a thunk?

On Tuesday, SCS posted it's weekly color challenge, Pink, Pink & more Pink! Make cards using any color of pink and a neutral! I thougth this was a great idea for 2 reasons. First, this theme was to honor the Avon Walk for Breat Cancer Awareness, and second, since I only have 1 daugher, my life is surrounded by pink, so I have tons of it! I posted this card I made 2 years ago when I did craft shows in Perrysburg, Ohio and Petoskey, Michigan. I had a few left over and thought I would post it on SCS for this challenge. This is my favorite layout for cars, simple and cute! The similar card below is one I made that was featured on the SU! web site a few months back for a baby boy. Well, the ladies at SCS loved it, and have been e-mailing me their comments for the last 2 days! It just goes to show you, simple is better!

Simple Invites

After Gina's bridal shower invites went out, a friend of my MIL contacted me and asked if I would make some for her daughter's bridal shower. The theme of the shower is lady bugs and dragon flies. Well, I just got rid of my Bunch O' Bugs stamp set, so I had to get creative! Here are some simple samples of the invites I came up with. The first 2 have bugs made out of punches. The dragonfly uses 2 vellum heart punches from QuickCuts and I cut the body out by hand and covered with beads and glitter. THe lady bug is made with SU circle punches and a hand held heart punch for the spots.

The last 2 are the really simple ones! The 3rd one has a black embossed Floral piece of paper trimed with red grosgrain, and the last one is totally computer generated and just mounted on Real Red paper! I'd love to hear your opinion or suggestions too...please leave a comment!

Little Sis Paperbag Book

Here is the first Paperbag book I made. My "little sis" stated she loves the Petal Prints stamp set and wanted a paperbag book. She is also the only woman in her house, so I thought I'd make this to celebreate the men in her life. I hope she enjoys it!

This is page 1 & 2. There are 2 pull out tags for photos or journaling between pages 2 & 3.
These are pages 3&4. There is a tag for journaling on page 4.

These are pages 5&6 with 2 pull out tags on page 6.

This shows the detail of what the pockets look like. They are made with the opening of the paper bags.

Paper Bag Scrapbook

Well, I have to admit I never thought I would make one of these, but now I think I'm hooked! I haven't even put photos in it yet and I love it. I am a member of the SCS DDSS club (secret stampin sisters) and my "little" stated in her questionare that she would like to see a paperbag scrapbook. So I did some research and got my directions from momscape.com. After I made hers, I had to make one for myself! So here is my personal favorite creation. Check out the above link for detailed instructions.

This is the front of the book. The colors for this book was inspired by the striped ribbon I used in the binding and on the front. It has Yoyo Yellow, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Whisper white and an old SU color, Mint Melody. When I found this ribbon, I thought the colors were unusual, but pretty. I used white lunch bags I found at a local craft wholesale store, but they are also available at GFS. I punched 3 sets of 2 holes and tied various ribbons thru them to make the binding of the book.

This is page 1 & 2. I used SU daisy flower punch to create the edge of page 2 and attached daisies to the edge of the tag that are in the pocket.

These are pages 3 & 4. Under the flap of the bag I added a tag that is removable for journaling.

These are the last 2 pages in the book, and it also has a daisy pull out tag from a pocket made from the opening of the bag.

Birthday Party!

Aren't these cute party invites? These are going out to some of our friends for Lily's Birthday party next weekend. I'm making favors for the kids using this same stamp set "Kids Cards". I'm stamping this and the other images to the center of a blank card, putting them along with a box of crayons and envelopes so the kids to take home and make cards themselves!

Wedding Shower Invitation

It's been so busy here in Ohio! I just planned and finished my future Sister-in-Laws bridal shower and it was fabulous! Special thanks to my good friend Janna of Janna Coe Designs, Pickerington, Ohio. She got me the flowers for the shower, and they matched the invitation perfectly!. Katie and Audrey did a fabulous job with the game, restaurant and slide show (I guess I didn't plan all that much!) Here is a photo of the invitation!

Vacation is over!

And so I'm back! I just returned from the shiny sunhine state of Florida, and I'm ready to create! I will be busy this week creating all kinds of scrapbook pages at my "Scrapin' & Stampin', Soup & Salad Saturday!" A bunch of ladies and I are getting together to work on our scrapbook pages without the interuption of kids or husbands! I'll be excited to share all we made!

I love to alter ANYTHING!

Now that I've got my camera working again, I can now post a few things that I've been working on! I'm a member of SplitCoast Stampers, Secret Sisters Club, and here are the gifts I'm sending my "little" this month!

The first item is for my "little", she loves ribbons for her projects, so I gave her a sampling of all the ribbons I own for scrapbooking. I think it ends up being about 60 yards! The jar is an altered salsa jar (my DH loves salsa) I cut the circles using my Coluzle, lightly sanded the lid and attached the circles and ribbon using Modge Podge. The sign on the jar is attached with sticky strip on the ends and mono for extra security on each layer. I hope she likes it!






I love to alter anything I can get my hands on, and it's amazing what you can find at you home or even in Target's $1 Spot (my favorite place for alterables). That's where I got this lunch box last fall during back to school. I attached the SU! designer paper with Modge Podge on both sides, and created my own chipboard letter by using the SU! letter as a template on the packing boards they include in their designer paper packs. I glued my papers to it using the MP and cut them out. Inside the lunch box are letter magnets I made using the Big Deal Alpha and Stayzon. My little's son is 4, so hopefully he will enjoy this. Since I have a little girl, I don't have a clue on what to make for little boys, I hope he likes this!

Spring Catalog Promotion

It's the first day to order from the new Stampin' Up! Spring Catalog, and as always SU! has a great deal for you! From now until the end of March, when you purchase the Polka Dot & Paisley Package totaling $34.95, you can get ANY additional item from the Spring Mini Catalog at 50% off! The Polka Dots & Paisley Bundle includes:

• Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set


• Petals Jumbo wheel


• Petals & Paisley Designer Series Paper

This card made with the adorable new Polka Dot & Paisley stamp set! Check out pages 8&9 of the new catalog for the great items in the bundle!

Blurred Vision

This was the weekly technique from splitcoaststampers.com. Here is my attempt and the instructions on how to do it!

This is the EASIEST watercoloring technique ever! Everyone can do it. Simply stamp your image just like you always would, and then take your aquapainter and run it along the stamped edges. The ink will run a little, smoothing the color and blurring the lines. Very easy and very pretty! If you don't have an aquapainter, just use a regular small paint brush or even a wet Qtip.

I first stamped French Script in Creamy Caramel on Very Vanilla paper. I then ran my aqua painter over the entire paper, saturating it. Next, stamp the same stamp in Close to Cocoa over the paper while the paper is still wet. The water does all the work for you! Finally, I ran my Creamy Caramel stamp pad over the edges of the paper and...voila'!

Welcome!

Well...I'm not sure if I'm going to be a great blogger, but I'll do my best! You'll find updates on all the happenings of SU! and my personal class schedules. If you ever have any questions or comments, plese feel free to leave them here on this blog and I'll respond as soon as possible. Until then, I hope you enjoy!
Thanks!
Kristin