Stampin' in Paradise!

It's vacation time again, and yes, I brought stampin' stuff along with me.  I was bummed that the stamp set I had planned to bring with me, Friends Never Fade (ordered on June 1), didn't ship until June 22 (and should arrive today) - and I'm no where near home to pick it up!  I did bring the coordinating paper, Greenhouse Gala, which will be available to order starting July 1 when the new Stampin' Up! catalog goes live.  So, instead of being able to stamp a card, I used the DSP and cut out an image I wanted to have as the focus of my card. Here it is:

Isn't it pretty?  I used Marina Mist as my card base, two pieces from the Greenhouse Gala DSP, along with some textured Chocolate Chip (mounted on the card with dimensionals), and a border of Pear Pizzaz around the Whisper White.  The main flower was cut from the Greenhouse Gala DSP, and is popped up with dimensionals.  The ribbon is a retired one, I believe it's called French Blue.  Went along nicely with the Baja Breeze in the DSP and the Marina Mist card stock, don't you think?

I did bring along two stamp sets with me - Watercolor Trio, and Fast & Fabulous (a new hostess set).  The mojo wasn't flowing as well on my first stamping attempt while on vacation, but I'll show it to you anyhow.  I used Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie card stocks (Whisper White, too).  Not sure if you can see it, but there's some glitter on the flowers.  If' I had a few other punches with me, I think I would have added the sentiment (which is from the Watercolor Trio set), stamped on white, and framed using the oval and scallop oval punches - something I'll likely do to this card when I get home.  Here's what I made:

Not sure if you can see it, but I used the tall flower stalk stamp to create a background, stamping on the Daffodil in Daffodil ink, each time placing the stamp a little lower as I stamped from left to right.  I love the scallop trim border punch, and if you didn't happen to pick it up during Sale-A-Bration time, it's available in the new catty on July 1.  That's a little piece of Pumpkin Pie ribbon to top it off.  A pretty basic card, but I kinda like it.

Thanks for stopping by today.  We're off to my favorite local oceanfront dining place tonight, Leilani's in Ka'anapali.  Teriyaki steak tonight, along with my favorite drink, a Dig Me Daquiri (yummy!).  We'll probably hit a shop or two there in Whaler's Village before we head back to the condo.  Aloha from Maui, and mahalo for visiting my blog today!

Retiring SU! Stamp Set Mega Blog Hop

Hello there!  Welcome to my blog.  We're celebrating the upcoming new Stampin' Up! catalog by featuring sets that are bidding us a fond farewell.  If you are just joining us, be sure to follow the link at the bottom of this post to see all the gorgeous cards and projects my fellow Stampin' Addicts members have created for your viewing pleasure.  If you've arrived from Cindy's blog, didn't you just love her post featuring Spring Song?  My favorite was that last one - wonderful coloring and the Cameo Coral was perfect for that card!

One of my favorite SU! sets, Embrace Life, made it onto the Last Chance List this year, and I'm truly sad to see it go.  My projects all feature this gorgeous stamp set.  Now, I do have to warn you.  If you are a regular visitor to my blog, after seeing my projects, you might start to wonder if you've seen two of them before.  Well, the answer is yes, and no!  With one daughter graduating from middle school, another from elementary school, and myself wrapping up the school year where I work - all on the same day this week, life's been a bit hectic as of late!  I really wanted to participate in this blog hop, so the two cards I made were CASEs (copy and steal everything) of work I've done previous using Embrace Life.  Not to worry, I think they came out GOJUS as one of my favorite bloggers, Jan Tink, would say.  My third project is something new (made just today, just in time for this mega blog hop), and I know I'm going to enjoy using it - but first, onto the cards...

My first card is one I actually CASE'd from another favorite blogger of mine, Corinne 'Roxy' Somerville.  I've updated the card with new colors - my favorite color combo, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive (can I tell you just how excited I am that SU! picked up Razzleberry as part of their new color system?!).  This card features not only a retiring stamp set, but also my favorite and now retiring designer series paper from this past year, Cottage Wall, as well as a retiring color, Orchid Opulence, and a retiring punch, Trio Flower!  Oh, wait!  Nearly forgot - it also features another retiring set - Itty Bitty Backgrounds, which has probably seen more ink than any other stamp set I've ever owned.  So sad to see that one go, too!  Here's the card:

My second card is one I made for my very first sketch challenge when I used to be a regular visitor 'over there' and of Beate Johns' blog.  It was for one of her weekend sketch challenges, and I've made several cards in the past using that great sketch.  So often I get stuck in a rut and use a standard greeting card size, and this one's great for breaking me out of that mold to do something different.  You might notice that once again, this card features my favorite, Cottage Wall designer series paper with the Razzleberry/Olive color scheme.  The blossoms were stamped using Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry markers to color the stamp, and then I used some Pale Plum from my chalks, added onto the image using a cotton swab.  I so love that polka dot ribbon to finish off the card.  Isn't it beautiful?

My last project is a card organizer.  Guess what designer series paper/color scheme I decided to use?  You get three guesses, and your first two don't count!  Yup, it's more of that gorgeous Cottage Wall paper and my favorite color combo again.  I printed out the monthly templates from the tutorial I originally saw 'over there'.  They're printed on Whisper White card stock, trimmed and adhered to the pockets of the organizer.  I used my Bind-It-All (which I sadly had to dust off) to put it all together.  The beautiful floral image was done using the fun reinker technique that was all the rage last spring/summer.  My card organizer also features the retiring Jumbo Outline Alphabet, another set I'm sad to see go.  Wanna see it?  Well, here it is:

This is a fun project to make, especially if you are like me and you make several of the same card (with different sentiments) and then wonder if you've already sent that one to someone, not wanting to send the same one again.  With his mom out of state, I often will use the same card design for both of our moms, and putting them in a card organizer as soon as they're made sure helps me keep it all straight.  Card organizers are also great so that you actually have a card ready to go when you realize someone's birthday is just around the corner, and time's tight.  I love it when I check my card organizer and find that I've already got the card ready to go, complete with a decorated envelope to match!  The tough part is just remembering to put the card in there once it's made, but I'm getting better at that part! 

I hope you've enjoyed my salute to Embrace Life!  Now it's time to head on over to Rhonda's blog and see what she's done with A Beautiful Thing.  My favorite is her last card - go check it out...love it!  Once again, thank you for stopping by today!

Click here to go to the next stop on the blog hop!

Stampin' Addicts Retiring Blog Hop

Be sure to come back between June 11 and 13 when I'll be participating in a Mega Blog Hop, sponsored by Stampin' Addicts.  We're featuring stamp sets that are on the Stampin' Up! Last Chance List.  One of my favorites, Embrace Life, is on the list.

I'll be sharing with you a few projects that feature this gorgeous retiring stamp set.  I got two cards done last night, and I hope to have at least one more project to share with you (two if I'm lucky).  See you then!

Last Chance List Contest

It's that time of year again... time for the Last Chance List from Stampin' Up!  I am hosting a Last Chance List contest to celebrate.  Now through Sunday, May 30, the contest will be open for you to guess which 10 stamp sets you think will be retiring from the current SU! Idea Book & Catalog.  You have until midnight (PDT) on Sunday, May 30 to email me at lovetostampandscrap@yahoo.com with your list of 10 stamp sets that you think will be retiring.  I will go over all the submissions and the person who guesses the most stamp sets on the Last Chance List will receive an "a la carte" or "Under $10" stamp from me, either from the Summer Mini or from the new Idea Book & Catalog when it comes out!  If there is a tie, there will be a drawing held to select one winner.

As a reminder, your lists should consist of stamp sets only - no accessories like ribbon, brads, buttons, wheels, and so on.  Also, please do not include hostess sets (which retire each year), the "Under $10" individual stamps from the last page of the current catalog, or items from any of our current mini/specialty catalogs.  Stamps available in multiple languages can only be counted as one item on your list as well.  If you need to check out the catalog, click here to download the catalog or view current stamp sets online via my demonstrator website.

Please come back and visit my blog on the evening of June 1 to see the actual Last Chance List.
Good luck!  Cheryl

Latest Sparkles Team Swap

Our next team meeting is coming up and I decided we'd do red, white and blue as our theme for this month's swap.  I recently got the new July Fourth stamp set from the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini catalog and decided to use it on my swap project.  At first I pulled out Brilliant Blue and Real Red to use, but then decided to go for Riding Hood Red and Pacific Point since they're headed back to the SU! color lineup.  The firework background was created by stamping off once (removing the ink intensity by first inking up the stamp, them stamping on a scrap of paper before stamping on the actual card stock).  The top center one was not stamped off, and I really like the softer look achieved by stamping off, so that's how I did the rest of them.  The bottom red piece was stamped using the Dot, Dot, Dot individual stamp, inked with Riding Hood Red ink.  I used a sticky back rhinestone on the fire cracker, but the rest is all SU!  Take a peek:

I found these cute patriotic Sweethearts boxes while grocery shopping last week (at our local Ralphs grocery store), so I made a slide up treat like the candy bar one I made back in December.  To make the box, cut a piece of card stock 4 inches by 7 1/4 inches.  Score at 3/4 inches, 3 1/4 inches, 4 inches and 6 1/2 inches.  Stick the ends together with a little Sticky Strip and decorate with your favorite stamps/punches.  Super easy to make!

I'm really happy with the way they came out, and I hope the gals like them, too!  I'm off to my folks' for Mother's Day - have a great one!

Sunshine Award

Wow, I've never gotten a cute blog award before!  Candace over at CJ Lawlor Designs awarded twelve folks with a Sunshine award, and I was one those lucky recipients!  Thanks, Candace, that's so sweet of you! 

Candace left me a comment on my last post and I've had fun checking out her work on her own blog this afternoon.

Now it's mine turn to pass the torch.  The guidelines for the award are:

1. Put the Sunshine Award on your blog and/or within your post.
2. Pass the award to 12 other bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

The hardest part, of course, is narrowing it down to just 12 blogs!!  It was tough but here are 12 blogs that I enjoy visiting on a regular basis (in no particular order):

1.  Nancy iSTAMP
2.  Gretchen Inspiration in Action
3.  Deb ARTfelt Inspirations
4.  Connie Constantly Stamping
5.  Dawn DO Stamping with Dawn
6.  Corinne (aka Roxy)  Stamping With Roxy
7.  Jaydee  Stampin! With Jaydee
8.  Miriam Creations by Miriam
9.  Mike  Stampin-Style
10.  Teneale  Teneale Williams
11.  Margaret  Margaret Moody
12.  Michelle  Freedom in Creating

Thanks everyone, for your inspiration - some of you I've been visiting for quite a while, and some I've just recently found but plan to visit often!  Have a great day!

April Sparkles Team Swap

I really waited until the last minute this month to get my swaps done for our monthly meeting (which I can't attend this month - sigh).  This was a BUSY week.  Sunday was my first stamp camp for a friend in a LONG while, then Monday through Thursday nights I was busy helping my daughter with her 'Larger Than Life' art project where they take an object and enlarge it 10 times (she did a single-serve carton of Tropicana juice, and it turned out GREAT - no bias there, right?!).  Meanwhile, progress reports were due mid-week as well, so I've had zero time to do anything, until last night.  After work, several of my stampin' teacher friends got together and they did the Vintage Vogue cards my wonderful upline, Jeanne, had designed for a stamp camp of her own earlier this year.  While they were stampin' away, I got busy working on my swaps (FINALLY).  I had been inspired by this card that I saw on Jaydee's blog, and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into my swap card this month.  Since I'm the Sparkettes team swapmeister, I get to pick what we swap each month.  This time I choose an old Mojo Monday sketch for us all to use to create our swaps:

I used Jaydee's cut out embossed petal and white background stamping ideas and came up with this:

I used Whisper White for my card base, with the outline flower stamped in White Craft ink on Night of Navy card stock.  The petals were stamped in VersaMark onto Night of Navy card stock and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and are mounted on the Whisper White circle with stampin' dimensionals.  The Old Olive DSP is from Cottage Wall (my favorite!).  I used Crushed Curry card stock and polkadot ribbon as well.  I found some clear stick-on crystals in my stamp room, so I decided to use them for my card.  My prototype used the smallest clear rhinestone brads (why are they so dang hard to line up?) and the Old Olive was card stock stamped with the small outline leaf that comes with Awash With Flowers instead of using the pattern from Cottage Wall DSP.  I like the second version of it, shown here, better.

Happy Easter!

Last Sunday at our upline's meeting, we made these cute square baskets.  The idea came from another demo's blog, but they're so cute!  I made one for my stampin' sistah, Darla, who couldn't be at the meeting.  For hers, I used up some retired DSP (Spring Fling, I think), and I added the grass in the box along with the butterfly die on the handle.  Unfortunately I was shooting in low light quickly this morning before heading off to work, and my pictures were all out of focus a bit, but you get the idea.  The box holds three Cadbury Creme Eggs.  At Jeanne's meeting, we made an insert tray that helped keep the eggs standing upright - very clever of us, if I do say so myself!  I gave Darla her basket today and I think she liked it a lot - especially because it had Cadbury Creme Eggs inside!  I knew there was a reason why she and I get along so well - we like the same Easter candy!  This is the first time my Chocolate Bunny stamp has seen ink - amazing it took me so long!  I'll have to use him this weekend to make up some Easter cards for my family.  Happy Easter!

March Upline Meeting Swaps

They're not quite done yet, but this is what I've been working on this week for my swap at our team meeting on Sunday.  A while back I purchased a 'Scrapbook in a Box' project from another demonstrator as it used my favorite, the Petal Party Simply Stampin' kit.  I offered this project with my FLEX class students and it went over quite well.  For that one, I used card stock and patterned papers that I had on hand before I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator (I'm such a paper hoarder!).  We decorated the box tops with the Flower Folds Bigz XL die and a 1 3/8 inch circle in my FLEX class.  This time around, I used several papers from the Sweet Pea DSP Pack, as well as two of my favorites, Cottage Wall and Razzleberry Lemonade.  Our swap theme is to use punched/die cut flowers to decorate this month's project, which can either be the punch/die cut itself, or a flower created using punches/die cuts.  I'd seen these beautiful paper roses on Gretchen Barron's blog, and I got the link to Julie Wiliams' tutorial for these beauties from Gretchen's blog.  I knew I wanted to use those flowers in my project, so I decided to put them on the center panel of the scrapbook inside the box so they wouldn't get crumpled.  I used the same flower die on the lids, but added sponging on the petals, and added some rose leaves I had on hand, left over from my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary party (wow, that's nearly 2 years ago!).  I kept the inside pretty basic to allow the gals to add lots of pictures to their scrapbook page.  I hope they like them!

I'm Still Alive...

It's been a busy February and March.  I was on a jury for 16 days in February (my first time), so I had very little time to do any stamping between being in court and then writing lesson plans for my subs.  I was originally called for the week of Thanksgiving, but I didn't want to spend my vacation on jury duty, so I postponed it until the end of January.  I was one of the first 18 called up to the jury box, and the judge and attorneys didn't ask me much, which I knew meant I'd likely be selected.  Unfortunately for my students, we couldn't get one person who would be available to cover all of my court dates, and I ended up with 4 different subs.  Let me tell you, my kids were happy to see me when I was back for good.  The trial was interesting.  It was a murder case, and a difficult one at that because of the circumstances involved.  After two days and another hour or so of deliberating, we ended up with a verdict of involuntary manslaughter.  I was amazed how emotionally drained I was when I got home after the verdict was read.  It was also tough saying goodbye to those 11 people I'd been hanging out with during the course of the trial.  We went through a lot together those last couple of days.  I just hope that the defendant makes some lasting changes in his lifestyle so that this type of unfortunate incident doesn't happen again.  What was the toughest was knowing that no matter what we decided, nothing would bring back the victim, and I know his family was upset that we didn't find the defendant guilty of first degree murder, but the evidence and testimony in the case didn't support that.  It was a good first jury experience - I just wish it had been for a shorter trial.  I had to laugh, though - my hubby got a jury summons during the last part of the trial, which he's put off until state testing at school is over.

I'm starting my second week of Spring Break.  Last week my DH and I spent three nights at the Venetian in Las Vegas.  We saw Rita Rudner one night, sat out by the Venetian pool one afternoon and had a nice dinner at Benihana over at the Las Vegas Hilton.  It was nice to have some time just for the two of us.  Our girls stayed with our youth director at church again, and they had a good time even though they were there on three weekdays.  Next time Jean said she'd love to have them for a weekend day to hang out together.  It's nice to have someone to leave them with so we can spend some quality time together now and then.

I did get some stamping time in this weekend at my friend Erin's.  My upline, Jeanne, does a stamp camp for Erin each month, and it's fun to get to see the stamping friends I've met there each time I can make it.  The theme was butterflies, featuring the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, as well as the butterflies die and emboslet.  We got to choose ahead of time which card design we wanted to make, as well as how many, which is cool.  I've been doing the same with my own stamp campers at work, and I think they like being able to pick and choose.

Right now I'm working on my swaps for our team meeting on Sunday, and I'll share some pictures once I've got them done.  Speaking of my swaps, I'd better get off the computer and work on them... thanks for stopping by today!