Window Valentine

On Sunday at my upline's team meeting, we continued our technique swap. I still needed one more card for my stamp camp on Friday, and although I had some ideas, when I made Jeanne's swap card, it fit the bill! I ended up making a slight modification to it and decided not to do it as a Secret Surprise card, but you can see the technique on her blog, here. I decided to keep the window and put another scallop circle on the inside to peek through. I'm excited about Friday. I typically have 6 to 8 at my stamp camps after work, but this time we're up to 13! Yay!! The more, the merrier! And just in time for Sale-A-Bration for those who want to place a $50 or more order! Double Yay!! It's been a long week thus far, so having stamp camp to look forward to will get me through it. Have a great day, and as always, thanks for popping on by today!

Lots of Hearts

Last weekend at my friend Erin's stamp camp, we made a card basically identical to this one. I didn't have the same DSP, so I used a strip of Really Red and embossed in white with the So Swirly wheel. The large red heart disappeared against the red background, so I matted it on the Pink Pirouette and it works much better. This is one of the cards we'll be making at my stamp camp on Friday. Only one more card to design, and I'll be ready for Friday!!

Tree Full of Hearts

Last week I was looking through the SCS galleries for some ideas to use for my Valentine's stamp camp next Friday. I came upon Tessa Wise's post and visited her blog where she had posted this beautiful card using the Season of Friendship set (one of my all-time faves). I didn't want to copy everything, so I did add a few of my own twists on it. My little one thought it was beautiful, and we both wondered how it would look with some glitter on the hearts. Glitter added - she loved it! So, this is one of the four cards we'll be making on Friday. I used Pretty in Pink for the card base, stamping the swirl from Priceless in Pretty in Pink along the edges. I stamped the tree in Close to Cocoa on Whisper White with Old Olive leaves (stamped off several times). The hearts are from Love You Much, stamped on Pretty in Pink card stock with the same color ink as well as on Regal Rose card stock with the same color ink, and punched out with the Heart to Heart punch. Dazzling Diamonds glitter was added to the stamped part of the hearts with a 2 way glue pen. I used the smaller photo corner punch in Old Olive with a Pretty in Pink brad. The sentiment is from All Holidays, stamped in Regal Rose and punched out with the large oval punch. Two Regal Rose large ovals frame the sentiment, and it's all popped up with two dimensionals. The tree is double matted, first on Regal Rose that was stamped along the edges in Regal Rose with Itty Bitty Backgrounds, then matted again on Rose Red.

Technique Card Swap

Here's the final version of my Reverse Spotlighting technique card and the 6x6 instruction card. Our stamping team has been doing these pages on and off over the last few months for our monthly swap to build an album with tons of stamping techniques to help us get new ideas when creating. This month I chose Reverse Spotlighting, which was really easy and I love the results. Thank you to those of you who left me some comments - this is the final version that we'll be stamping tomorrow. I'm looking forward to what everyone else came up with for their swap!

Accordion Valentine

Last night after visiting one of my favorite blogs, I was TOTALLY inspired! I love accordion cards (probably why I love those garlands so!), and Corinne's post yesterday was exactly what I wanted to make for one of the projects at my stamp camp on January 30. I used the dimensions from the accordion card I made for a stamp camp a while back - it will fit into a medium SU! envie if you fold back the ribbons. I used Real Red, cut 5 1/2 x 12 inches and scored at 4 and 8 inches for the card, and then added the So Swirly jumbo wheel in Real Red. The panels are matted with Chocolate Chip, cut at 3 3/4 by 4 inches, with Kiwi Kiss on top, then Bella Rose DSP. For the letters, I traced chipboard from Lower Simon onto Chocolate Chip (with the chipboard placed upside down, then traced), then cut them out. The dot on the 'i' is a 3/4 inch circle punch. I embellished the letters with some red ginham ribbon and Real Red brads, then mounted them on the panels with dimensionals. For the middle panel, I used the new Heart to Heart punch, then matted them. The large heart was stamped on the back of the DSP using the heart from Love You Much, then cut along the inner edge of the heart and flipped over for the side I wanted to use. I then stamped the same heart on Kiwi Kiss and cut along the outer edge of the heart, flipping it over to create the mat. I topped it off with Kiwi satin ribbon and Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon. I'm really happy how it turned out and I hope the ladies will enjoy making it next Friday! Thank you, Corinne, once again, for your inspiration!

Sharpening Craft Scissors

I was wondering if any of my cyber stampin' friends out there have any advice on sharpening craft scissors like Stampin' Up! paper snips. I've done a little reading on the subject and wondered what you all do to sharpen yours. Mine need a good cleaning with some rubbing alcohol before my next stamp camp for the gals at work (January 30th), but a few could use some sharpening as well. For my punches, I lubricate them by punching them a few times through some wax paper, and I sharpen them by punching them a few times through some aluminum foil. Several sites I visited today recommended doing that with the craft scissors, but I thought I'd like to hear from you on the subject!

I'm heading to my friend Erin's this afternoon where my upline, Jeanne, does a stamp camp each month. The theme is chocolate - Valentine's cards featuring chocolate chip paper. Sounds like fun to me! Erin was the winner of my blog candy, so I'm looking forward to bringing her goodies to her, too!

For me, I finally opened my 2009 Create a Calendar that was featured in the Holiday Mini SU! catalog, and started adding some stamping embellishments to the calendar pages. I didn't get a chance to finish it as I had to pick up the little one from a birthday party last night and then was too tired when I got back home, but I think I'm going to make mine a standing version, bound with my BindItAll along the top edge. Maybe I'll find some time this weekend after I finally finish putting the last box of stuff away that's sitting on the floor in my craft room. I'm so excited to have it clean and reorganized so I can use it again!

Have a great weekend, and to all of my cyber stampin' friends in the freezing US and Canada, I'll think of you while we continue to enjoy unseasonably warm weather here in sunny southern California - mid 70's are on tap today! Really, I'm ready to trade some winter weather for this spring stuff - I want to wear a snuggly sweater and my jeans and sit by the fire tonight - but not with temperatures this warm!! See you again soon!

And the winner is...

Happy weekend everyone! I had planned to post last night with the winner of the blog candy, but just didn't get to it. Tonight I finally had some time to sit down at the computer and I went to random.org to choose the winner, and it's my friend Erin! Congrats! Erin was the first to leave me a comment about my reverse spotlighting cards, and random.org chose number 1!

I hope you are having a great weekend. I took our youngest and one of her friends to a kids cooking class today. The theme was Bugz! and we had Bug Juice (lemonade concentrate - thawed, frozen strawberries - thawed, then blended, mixed with ginger ale) - yummy! The garnish on the cups was a gummy worm. Cute! Then we made Mississippi Mud Pie - coffee ice cream topped with Nutella, topped with crumbled Oreo cookie and whipped cream, which went into the freezer for eating later. Next up was Snail Snacks - a tortilla cut into a square, spread with cream cheese (or mayo, our choice), with spinach greens laid on top, then turkey lunch meat, and topped off with American cheese. This was then tightly rolled and cut into fourths. We used gherkin pickles, cut diagonally in half for the snail's head, and stuck chive antennae into holes made by a toothpick in the pickle - oh, so cute! I'll post a picture later once I've had a chance to download the pictures from my camera. Main course was a Butterfly Cheesewhich - grilled cheese cut into fourths (using two of them for the wings), a celery stick body, carrot sticks with cherry tomatoes for the antennae. We decorated the wings with shapes cut from a red pepper. Then it was time to eat the dessert we had made earlier - yummy! After the class, we went to see Marley & Me (enjoyed it, we all cried...), with dinner at Panera Bread afterwards. After our astronomy club meeting tonight, I got to open my Sale-A-Bration preorder that arrived yesterday. I ordered two stamps sets - Yummy, which coordinates with the Top Note die, and Botanical Blooms, a pretty floral two-step stampin' set. I also ordered the Delicate Dots designer series paper, which contains 16 sheets with 8 designs. I hope I can find some time tomorrow to stamp - tonight it's just getting too late, and I'm feeling pretty tired. I hope you can find some time to do something fun this weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Blog Candy Reminder

When I first posted my two Reverse Spotlighting cards below, I forgot to mention that I was including individual blocks so you can separate the So Many Sayings set into 33 individual stamps! My 'cyber stampin' friend' Corinne, aka Roxy, has a terrific hubby who has made some wonderful blocks to make some of our stamp sets even more versatile by mounting them on their own blocks! If you win, you can choose the already premounted So Many Sayings set, or you can choose to mount it yourself.

To enter, please leave me a comment on my post below giving me some feedback regarding which features you like from the two versions of my Reverse Spotlighting cards. I'll choose a winner randomly tomorrow night, Friday, January 9.

Happy New Year! & Some Blog Candy

Happy 2009! I hope it is a good one for us all. We spent New Year's Eve at my folks', munching the night away. I made Sausage Soup, a recipe I got from my stamping friend, Erin, and it was yummy! We watched the movie Down Periscope and then watched ABC's coverage of New Year's for the last half hour of 2008. At midnight, with the noise makers squeaking, we had fun strewing streamers all over Mom & Dad's living room from all of the poppers we'd brought, had some Asti Spumante, and then cleaned up. After we got home and the girls were in bed, I was wide awake, so I spent some time working on an upcoming swap in my newly reorganized craft room. For our team swap the end of January, we are going back to our technique page swaps. I was looking through the technique ideas on Splitcoast and settled on reverse spotlighting. I loved Beate's card for the tutorial she wrote on reverse spotlighting, and wanted to do something similar without simply copying hers. I hadn't used my Haiku designer series paper yet, so I decided to use the colors that coordinate with that for my card (Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, More Mustard). The stamp set I chose to use was Eastern Blooms, one of many sets in my collection that hadn't seen ink yet. The sentiment is from Simply Said. The flower centers were stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched out with a 1/2 inch circle punch. I love how they top off the flowers. The green paper filling the circle spotlights is from the Haiku DSP.

I finished a second version of the card this afternoon and would appreciate your comments. Do you like the monotone flowers (top) or the one with multicolored flowers? Do you like the Olive or the Tangerine ribbon? Do you like the Olive brads or the Mustard brads? Do you like the one with the sponging (top) or the one without? Please leave me your comments and the winner will receive the stamp set So Many Sayings (new, unmounted - the picture is from an ebay auction so you can see what it looks like) and a 25 yard spool of 1/4 inch Spring Moss grosgrain ribbon! I'll randomly choose a winner on Friday, January 9 when I get home from work that day. Good luck, and I look forward to reading your comments!