Petal Party Simply Scrappin' Cards

Our team is taking on a rather ambitious swap this time around. Each of us picked a Simply Scrappin' kit from the new catalog and were to design 15 cards using the kit, plus any embellishments we wanted to add. Nine of us are participating, and we'll each get eight Simply Scrappin' kit of cards designed by fellow team members, ready for assembly at our next team meeting. I designed 5 cards last weekend, then got on my garland kick, so I had to get going on my SS cards this weekend. I made a few more last night, and finished them this afternoon. Now comes the 'fun' of cutting up 8 more SS kits and getting them ready to swap. I'll try to do a little each night over the next few days so I don't end up having to do them all the day before our meeting (we'll just see how well that plan works... :) I picked the cute Petal Party kit, which I'd like to actually use for a scrapbook in the future. For my cards, I used sentiments from various stamp sets, including Fresh Cuts, Spring Solitude, Hugs & Wishes, Warmest Regards, Heard from the Heart, and Say It with Scallops. I hope you like them, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else did with their kits!

Autumn Garland

Wowza, two garlands in one week! I'm going to do one for each season, but Winter will have to wait as I want to use the new Ski Slope designer series paper, and I don't have any of it yet! The Autumn garland was fun to make (and faster than the Halloween one). I love the Autumn Vine DSP. The letters are painted with a dark brown acrylic paint that I picked up at Michaels. More Mustard, Really Rust, and Chocolate Chip card stock accent the Autumn Vine DSP. Earth Elements buttons and brads were also used, along with Chocolate Chip 5/8 inch grosgrain ribbon, and Mustard 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Ok, I should be working on my swaps...

...but I'm having so much fun making garlands! I know, I said in my last post that I really should be working on my Simply Scrappin' Kit swaps, but I felt more like working on another garland, so that's what I did! I don't have any brown acrylic paint to paint my chipboard letters, but I'll pick some up at Joann's or Michaels on Monday. That didn't stop me from working on a couple of panels of my next garland project, did it?! Ok, so they're addictive... I thought you might like a peak at how it's coming along. I'll post again when it's finished. TTFN!

Halloween Garland Detail

Here are some close-ups of the Halloween garland panels. I think this is my favorite garland I've created to date. I think I'll also do an Autumn one, using the Autumn Vine DSP and Season of Friendship stamp set.

First, however, I need to get working on my Simply Scrappin' Kit swap for our stampin' team. We all chose a SS kit and are creating 15 cards with it, then swapping with fellow team members. The 15 cards have to use just the textured cardstock that comes in the kit, plus any embellishments we want to add, including ribbons and brads. An expensive swap this time, but I'm hoping it will lead to a few sales or at least a stamp camp or two. I designed the first five cards while hanging out with my dear hubby at our local coffee shop on Friday afternoon/evening, but I need to add a couple of embellishments and greetings to them (didn't bring any punches with me to the coffee shop). Then to come up with another 10 designs to use up the majority of the stickers and cardstock that comes with the kit. Next, the real fun starts - cutting up kits for each of our swappers, and we have a big group participating (10 or so). I have until the end of the month to get it all done, but I don't want to wait until the night before, trying to get it all together.

I have tomorrow off (yay!) so while the girls are at school, I think I'll work on a few of the swap cards (and maybe the Autumn garland)! Have a terrific week!

Halloween Garland

Looky what I made tonight! Ok, so it was last night and into the wee hours of the morning, truth be told. My brother-in-law was over Saturday night getting some much-neede tech help for his laptop from my hubby. While my hubby installed Ubuntu and Windows XP on the needy laptop, I decided to have myself some stampin' creative time! Here's the Halloween garland I created. My upline, the talented Jeanne Ciolli, created a garland with this paper and another stamp set (Batty for You), and I had intended to just copy what she had done when I got my stampin' stuff out. I'm glad that I decided to create my own so I can share it with any ladies at my stampin' group at work. I hope you like it! It features the new Halloween Frights stamp set along with the newest Halloween designer series paper, Ghostly Greetings. I just love these garlands, don't you?

Season of Friendship

I made some time to stamp this weekend with my newest set, Season of Friendship. It will be available to order from the Stampin' Up Holiday Mini Catalog on October 1. I love fall, and this set really helped put me in the mood!

Each year our church & school has a pumpkin patch fundraiser where they sell pumpkins and holiday crafts & decor. I've always wanted to help out by making some cards for them to sell, but there never seems to be time. This year, I thought I'd make more of an effort. After my Upsy Daisy class, I loved how simple and fast those cards were to put together, so I thought I'd work a set of fall-themed cards based on the Upsy Daisy card designs. I've managed to get the box and two cards finished. I think I'll do one more, then make doubles of each. As mentioned, the cards feature the Season of Friendship set, along with the new Autumn Vine designer series paper that will be available for purchase on October 1. The colors used where Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, More Mustard, and Sage Shadow. They go together so nicely! I'll add my third card once I have time to design it, but right now, it's getting late on a Sunday evening and 5:10 comes mighty early!

Have a great week, and thanks for looking!

Fabulous Workshop!

After work tonight several of my coworkers, former coworkers, and my downline, Heather, joined me for a workshop featuring the Upsy Daisy stamp set. I purchased the class instructions from Andrea Walford (see post below) and tonight we had a great time making her four cards, the two additional cards I designed that coordinated with Andrea's, and then finally the cute card box Andrea designed. Everyone had a great time, and their cards and box turned out great! I hope to do a workshop each month, featuring various projects from cards to scrapbook pages, to that cute DVD tin scrapbook that was recently featured on Splitcoast. I should have brought my camera with me to get a few candids, but forgot it at home. Had a great time, anyhow! Have a great weekend. I'm hoping to find some time to do more stamping as I finally got Inspired by Nature and I can't wait to put some ink on that baby!!

Upsy Daisy Card Class

Happy Monday! Earlier this month I purchased a card class from the talented Andrea Walford. She offers a demonstrator card planning service and provides a TON of information and handouts each month for her Demo to Demo projects. I'm having a card class for my coworkers on Friday, so over this past weekend, I made my samples and prepared my kits. After making the four cards that came with Andrea's class kit, I felt that there was plenty of room left in the cute card box for two more cards, so I designed two more!

The top image shows Andrea's cute card box, two of her tall cards and one of mine. The next image shows Andrea's cute card box with her two wide cards and the one I designed. The next to last image shows the tall card I designed, and the bottom image is the wide card I designed.

On Friday, the ladies will be making six cards and the cute box! I'm so excited, as I currently have 9 coming to my class after work! Now if Friday would only get here faster, I'd be happy!

Snow Swirled, Version 3

I made some time tonight to do a little stamping. This was a pretty quick card, and I'm still thinking about redoing it to put the snowflakes on Very Vanilla card stock instead of the Old Olive I used here. What do you think? This card also features the beautiful Holiday Treasures designer series paper, new to the Stampin' Up! Fall -Winter Catalog & Idea Book. It's one of my favorites from the new catty. Still playing with my Snow Swirled stamp set before I pick my final two cards to use for our swap on September 14. Thanks for visiting - have a great day!

Snow Swirled, Version 2

This is my second card with Snow Swirled. I really wanted to use the Holiday Treasures designer series paper after seeing this gorgeous card by Gretchen Barron. My card was inspired by Gretchen's card, as well as a card from Andrea Walford's September Class Planner. I'm still in design mode and will figure out which two cards I'll use for our team's upcoming Christmas Card swap. I have one more week to pull it all together so I can start cutting card stock! Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a terrific week!