TRASH TO TREASURE

If you've bought a box of tissues lately, you may recognize the artwork on this card.  I was about to toss an empty box that used to have tissues in it, but I couldn't throw the whole thing away . . . these flowers were going to make a pretty card!  And an easy card, too!  This is a gate fold, and I have a stamped layer adhered to both "gates," but you can't see the inside sentiment layer when the card is closed.  The stamped sentiments are from Stampin' Up!'s "Kind & Caring Thoughts" level 3 hostess set, and the stamped image is from "Pocket Silhouettes."

"COTTAGE WALL" MONEY HOLDER

It just so happens that I needed a money holder today, and I used Stampin' Up!'s "Cottage Wall" designer paper and Rich Razzleberry card stock for this one.  There aren't a lot of bells and whistles in the design, but that's one of the things that I love about this easy peasy project . . . it doesn't need a lot of hoopla!  Actually, if someone is giving you a cash gift, you probably don't care if it's even wrapped!  The sentiment on this project is from Stampin' Up!'s "Grateful Greetings" stamp set, and the oval layers were created with the Large, Wide, and Scallop Oval punches.

ANOTHER MONEY HOLDER

And another money holder, this time using all Stampin' Up! products . . . Christmas Cocoa designer paper, large and small tag punches, Round Tab punch, dotted Real Red grosgrain ribbon, gold cord, Scallop Edge punch, Circle Scissor Plus, Sizzix Scallop Circle die, and "Grateful Greetings" stamp set.

MONEY HOLDER

Looking for a quick and easy way to give a cash gift this Christmas?  I love this one!  I die-cut all of the pieces and then created an "envelope" by folding a piece of card stock in half and gluing the sides together.  Since my die cut had a "ready tab," I cut the envelope so it could be used as a pull tab, but you could just as easily use Stampin' Up!'s Round Tab punch for that.  Stampin' Up! products used for this project are all retired . . . True Thyme and Cranberry Crisp ink, and True Thyme Stitched grosgrain ribbon.  My intention was to add brads to the four corners of the stamped layer, but I glued it down and then remembered that I wanted brads!

MORE STORAGE STUFF!!!

So . . . I went to bed around 1:00 a.m. and got up at 3:45 (yesterday) to get ready for the big shopping day.  I don't remember ever taking on Black Friday (having a deficit of patience, I'm not much of a crowds person), but I braved the day--even with a twisted or pulled muscle in my back!  When Renee and I got home, I asked my husband and son to help bring in the loot!  Looking at these little storage morsels, my husband's only question was, "Where do you plan to put them?"  I hate it when he asks a reasonable question that causes me to look around and ask myself the same thing!  I suppose I'll have to move things around (again!!!!!) to find room for them, but aren't they awesome?  I already have 16 of these cubes in my room (6 of them still empty), but I now have two new styles to add to the mix!  My plan was to only purchase two of them, but I just couldn't help myself.  My husband doesn't know it, but I will ask him (later today--after a good night's rest) to get some Christmas trees and holiday decorations out of the attic (he never enjoys that) and to assemble my cubes.  I can't wait to start re-organizing my stamp room . . . for the umpteenth time!  I think I'll wait a while to show him the paint swatches that I picked up at Lowe's.

DIE-CUT NATIVITY SCENE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!  My husband is prepping the grill for marinated steak and chicken, and the potatoes are baking in the oven.  The vegetable dish is still being planned in my head and, so far, it looks like our dessert will be Oreo cookies.  Not a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but we three do not need a big turkey, nor do any of us really care for it.  Since my sister and I both celebrate November birthdays, our family doesn't get together for a Thanksgiving meal.  Christmas will be our next big thing!  I've been moving things around in the stamp room today, but I had to take a moment to play.  For some reason, I want to play with everything I pick up!  I hope you enjoy the holiday tunes that I added to my blog last night.  Some of them are the same as last year's, but I added a few new ones, too.  Drop me a line and let me know how you like the music and if there are any songs you think I should try to find!

DAZZLING "RAZZLE DAZZLE"

This afternoon, I used Stampin' Up!'s "Razzle Dazzle" stamp set to create this card for a swap.  The design was heavily inspired by a card that I saw online and loved, but I changed it up a bit.  I used black Craft ink to stamp the image and then sprinkled it with sparkly Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  The designer paper is from Stampin' Up!'s "Night and Day" collection.

DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN FRIENDS, CAKE, & STAMPIN'?

At my "3rd Friday" class, which was held last Thursday, we had a surprise birthday celebration for my sister, Renee.  My friend, Karin, made the colorful, whimsical cake (pictured above), and it was DELICIOUS!  You'll notice in the picture that we were all sporting a huge diamond ring.  Renee has a nice, big diamond so when I saw those party favors, they just seemed too perfect to ignore.  The only requirement during class was that everyone had to wear their diamond!  It was such a fun evening!  After the stamping was done, we enjoyed cake, pickles, chips, and ice cream.  Our special guest was Aiden.  Isn't he a doll????  He is such a sweet, sweet baby!  I doubt if we'll ever make a stamper out of him, but we can enjoy him before he starts resisting the ink.

"MY DIGITAL STUDIO" HOLIDAY LAYOUT

This is my first scrapbook layout created with Stampin' Up!'s "My Digital Studio" software.  As you can tell, I didn't crop the photos correctly, but I think I now know how to do it.  The main purpose, for me, was an exercise in designing a layout and taking some of the built-in tools and images for a spin.  Stampin' Up! has created an awesome product with "My Digital Studio."  It's a product that is easy enough for the inexperienced digital designer to pick up and run with, but it also has bells and whistles for the digital whiz to enjoy.

TRI-SHUTTER ALBUM IN THE WORKS

Recently, I saw a similar Tri-Shutter Album kit for sale and decided that I could "go to the drawing board" and figure out how to make one, and this is what I came up with! Of course, my prototype was created from copier paper, but I used it as a guide for this one. I even added a couple of extra photo panels which, I think, gives this album even more punch! My album, so far, is decorated with Stampin' Up!'s "Holiday Lounge" designer paper, "Tree Trimmings" stamp set, and Whisper White, Taken with Teal, and Sahara Sand card stock. There are so many areas for photos, journaling, embellishments, etc. I think it will be a lot of fun using some of the Stampin' Up! and Sizzix dies to complete this album, and I'll share a picture of the finished project after the holidays!

ANOTHER "MY DIGITAL STUDIO" DESIGN

You probably can't tell, but this card is printed on thin copier paper from my home printer.  I designed the card (inside and out) using Stampin' Up!'s "My Digital Studio" software and wanted to see how it would look printed from my printer.  I think it looks quite good!  The software has so many options to work with, and it's easy to get a little carried away adding punches and embellishments!  While I rarely stamp the inside of my cards, I find myself looking forward to dressing them up when I design with My Digital Studio.  I'm going to try to get the picture format right with this post, but my blog host has made some changes recently that have caused a bit of a challenge for me.  For one thing, pictures no longer open very large when you click on them, and that's disappointing.  Just as aggravating is the fact that I can't figure out how to get two pictures in the post without having a lot of wasted space!  Argh!

IT'S ALREADY BEEN QUITE A DAY!

Today is off to a wonderful start. I was listening to the radio, laying in bed, convincing myself to wake up (I have sooooooooooooooo much to cram into this one day) when my husband called. His flight isn't until 1:00, but he was calling early to remind me that UPS should be bringing his netbook. Not so much time had passed before I heard what sounded like a UPS truck (yes, I know how they sound . . . I'm usually listening for one of them).  Looking out the window, I saw that it was UPS.  O-M-G!!!!!!!!! Dash out of bed, why are my feet choosing now to forget how to put on thong sandals, grab yesterday's jeans to put on, run to the mirror and try to make hair lay down, stand up, or just come together, [ding dong . . . UPS at door now], and realize that I must put on a bra. It seemed like FOREVER passed while I struggled with what seemed like four arms to get that bra on, all the time repeating "must hurry . . . can't miss this delivery."  Breathlessly, I opened the door and tried to look normal, and that schoolmarm-looking UPS lady was giving me the "and-she-thinks-I-can't-tell-she-just-jumped-out-of-bed-and-I'll-bet-her-bra-is-twisted-in-the-back" look.  Whatever!  I wonder why UPS can bring my husband's beloved order early in the day, and I always have to wait, wait, wait for my fun orders.  The good news is that I have something to mark off of today's list.  The netbook is really cute.  I'm tempted to load "My Digital Studio" on it and play.  Ha!

JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!

Meet Buddy.  He belongs to our neighbor, and we L-O-V-E Buddy!  My husband and son started carrying dog biscuits in their cars so they'd have a ready treat for the greeting they'd get from Buddy each day but, recently, the neighbor installed an invisible fence (for Buddy's safety), so he doesn't get to come visit very often.  Apparently, the fence has been turned off since the weekend (yippee!!!!).  Buddy escorted each of my class guests to the front door on Saturday (and got biscuits).  He "helped" as we worked in the yard on Sunday and earned a few more.  This morning I was walking by the patio door, and guess who was standing there?  LOL!  He was looking in as if to say, "I'm here for my biscuit!"  Even if you are a person who doesn't like dogs, you would LOVE Buddy!  He's the sweetest, most loving dog--the perfect companion!

ALTERED "FANCY FAVOR" BOX

Stampin' Up!'s "Fancy Favor" die is one of my favorites--even moreso now that I have yet another creative project to make with it!  The Fancy Favor die-cut box is soooooooooo versatile!  For this project, I used Stampin' Up!'s "Bella's Bloom" stamp set to very simply decorate the note cards.  Other products used include Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette (retired In Color), and Whisper White card stock, Modern Label punch, and dotted Melon Mambo ribbon.

ETA:  A tutorial for this box was posted on 5-29-14 and can be found HERE.

"JOY" BANNER

Are you looking for a quick holiday decoration?  I believe this will suffice as I just spent about an hour making it.  That doesn't sound too quick, but I know the next one (if I need to make another one) won't take as long since I can "get my act together" and not make so many trips across the room to the Big Shot and then back to the card stock file.  Another Stampin' Up! demonstrator (Barb Mullikin) shared one of these banners that she had made, and I just made subtle changes and added more die-cut embellishments to mine.  Stampin' Up! products used to create this banner include Scallop Square die, Serif Essentials Alphabet dies, Merry Details Sizzlits die, "Merry Moments" designer paper, Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla, and Chocolate Chip card stock, Old Olive striped ribbon, Real Red dotted ribbon, Jumbo Brad, Sticky Strip, Ice Rhinestone Square Brads, and a retired piece from the Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware kit to use as a hanger. 

HEATHER SAVED THE DAY!!!!!

Heather Wright-Porto, thank you SO MUCH for working your magic to restore my blog's three columns, choosing a great color to coordinate with my new banner, and for getting my banner centered!  I love the new look, but mostly I love that you came to my rescue so quickly!

A BAD THING HAPPENED

You're probably wondering if you're at my blog, and I assure you that you are.  Unfortunately, with the click of a button, I lost all of the bells and whistles on my blog.  I am SICK about this!!!!!!!  I'm going to try to restore it, but that may not be possible.  Argh!!!!!!!!!  For now, I hope you can enjoy the new banner that I designed with Stampin' Up!'s "My Digital Studio."  I'm really pleased with the banner . . . I just wish, wish, wish that the rest of my blog remained unchanged.

PICTURESQUE FALL . . . DIGITAL CARD!!

Check this out!  I decided to see how my Fall window graphic would look on a card, and I used Stampin' Up!'s brand new "My Digital Studio" software to design this digital card.  It looks pretty good, huh?  I have  had so much fun learning to use the software, and it's actually quite easy!  If I choose to get this card printed, I can always add some buttons or brads later, but I really do think it looks fine the way it is.

PICTURESQUE FALL

Since my last post was a gripey one, I decided I should post something pretty!  This picture is one that I snapped as the sun was going down today.  The tops of the tallest trees looked so nice with the glow of the setting sun, but my photo looked mostly drab.  So, I "doctored" it using a colored pencil filter and then added the window framing.  Since my photo showed up (on the gray mat in my editing program) with white corners around the curved window frame, I thought they had to go!  My sweet and talented son made them disappear using Photo Shop and then came in my room to upload the picture for me.  When he saw that my blog background was white, he just shook his head and questioned WHY I thought those white corners mattered.  LOL!  I wasn't even thinking that they wouldn't show up here!  Anyway, hope you enjoy this pretty picture!

FAUX DESIGNER PAPER

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I rarely use sentiments of thanks, so it just figures that I'd need a "thank you" card. The Office Manager at my son's doctor's office has been sooooo very helpful in getting a claim filed (again and again and again) correctly and properly so that the insurance would review and approve it. This claim was generated over a year ago for lab work, and I know the Office Manager could very well have sent me to deal with the lab, but I'm so glad that she didn't. This claim, if not paid by insurance, would have cost me $350, but I knew the lab work was a covered service. And it was--finally! So, for using her experience and connections to save me a ton of run-around and further aggravation, I made this card to send to her. I absolutely love the faux designer paper technique, and isn't Stampin' Up!'s "Friends 24-7" stamp set just awesome? Other Stampin' Up! products used include Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, and Soft Suede card stock, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, VersaMark, Soft Suede, Brocade Blue, and Certainly Celery ink, Organza ribbon, Modern Label, Word Window, and Scallop Oval punches, and the handy dandy distressing tool.

FALL HELLO FOR AUNT BETTY

I made this card a few minutes ago to send to my Aunt Betty.  She lives in a retirement home and seems to get a little down (emotionally) during this time of year.  I know this card isn't exactly cheery by color or design, but I hope it will add a splash of Fall decor to her room (she keeps my cards on display--HA!) and cheer her up by knowing that I'm thinking of her.  Stampin' Up! products used include Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Whisper White, Really Rust, and Always Artichoke card stock, More Mustard 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (retired), "Loads of Love Accessories" stamp set, and Sizzix Leaves #2 die.  And yes, this is yet another square card.  ;-)

ADORABLE SNOW FRIENDS

I pulled out some retired Stampin' Up! products (and other items) to create these two "snow friends" cards.  I just need cooler degrees so I can put them in the mail to special people who could use a warm hug in a card!

PUNCH PURSES

I can't take credit for the idea of these purses as I saw them on another blog, but aren't they adorable?  My project is a card, but these purses, created from several Stampin' Up! punches, would be the perfect embellishment for a gift card holder.  Stampin' Up! products used to create this card include Whisper White, Real Red, and Basic Gray card stock, flocked "Christmas Cocoa" designer paper, Curly Label, Wide Oval, Small Oval, Round Tab, 1-1/4" Circle, 1-3/8" Circle, Modern Label, Eyelet Border, and Word Window punches, Texture Plate, Silver Brads, and Organza ribbon.  Goodness!  All spelled out, that sounds like a lot of products!  Ha!

IT'S EARLY FOR A TREE, BUT . . .

I couldn't resist getting this white tree for my stamp room.  I had already decided that I wanted to use jewel-colored ornaments, but the ornaments I had purchased were way too big for this little tree.  That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I was able to use the Big Shot and some Stampin' Up! dies, punches, and card stock to dress up this tree . . . using the same colors that I had wanted to use.  The tree still looks like a bit of a mess as I need to move some things around, but you can at least see how well the die-cut and punched pieces did a great job of dressing this tree!  I haven't decided what type of tree skirt to use, but I figure there's still time for that.  ;-)

90th BIRTHDAY FRAMED COLLAGE

In a couple of weeks, we'll be celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday, and I put together this photo collage for her.  Actually, she probably won't care to look at photos of herself, but family and friends who attend the party will enjoy it.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of photos from the earlier years and some of these aren't that clear, but Stampin' Up!'s "My Digital Studio" worked like a dream cropping the photos without compromising the quality.  And trust me . . . some of these pictures were REALLY cropped to a tiny fraction of the original photo's size!  Since I couldn't get a borderless collage print, I decided to add the journaling, which was inspired by something my son said about mamaw several years ago when I asked how he'd describe her.  He said, "She's really nice, and she never gets mad."  Sooooo true!  I can't think of a time in my life when I ever saw her angry or heard her raise her voice.  How many people do you know who fit that description?  Finally, the frame.  When I saw it, I had to have it even though I had already purchased a frame for this project.  I couldn't figure out why this frame seemed so important . . . until I finished.  Mamaw has often talked about mountain trips she enjoyed and walking along creek beds.  That immediately came to mind when I stood back and studied the finished project.  The colors in the frame look so much like rocks in a creek (they even look wet!), tree trunks in the woods, leaves that have been lying on the ground for a while, and sticks that she may have picked up and tossed--or larger ones used to steady herself while walking through the woods.  Yes, this frame is perfect, and I now know why.  BTW, the ribbon on the frame is some that she gave to me!  I almost forgot to mention one design detail . . . because of the colors in the frame, I opted to use a mix of sepia and black and white tones for the photos, which I think ended up being a great choice!

FELT SNOWFLAKE, NON-TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY COLORS

I love this color combo for the holidays!  I wanted to make a snowflake card, but I also wanted to use Sage Shadow since the ribbon had been getting velvety (some people call the velvet "dust").  Stampin' Up! products used to create this card include Blush Blossom and Sage Shadow card stock, white felt (for the snowflake), Snowflake die, clear rhinestone brad, "Snow Swirled" stamp set (sentiment and snowflakes stamped on the Sage Shadow layer), "Nouveau Chic" designer paper, Eyelet Border punch, Basic Black ink, and 1/4" Sage Shadow grosgrain ribbon.

HOLIDAY EMBELLISHMENT JAR

Customers who attended my Holiday Stamp Camp last week got to make one of these cute embellishment jars, which could hold a variety of goodies!  This project features a sample of Stampin' Up!'s Definitely Decorative vinyl designs, "Merry" embosslits die, "Merry Details" Sizzlits die, wide striped ribbon, and silver cord.  Since the embossed "merry" didn't show up well on my tag, my customers got to use designer paper for their tag and then sanded the embossed word to reveal the white core, which made the sentiment more noticeable.

I THINK IT'S CALLED A TENT TOPPER

This is an easy-to-make card which, I believe, is known as a Tent Topper. Stampin' Up! products used to create this card include "Holiday Lounge" designer paper (it's not just for the holidays), Taken with Teal, Sahara Sand, and Whisper White card stock, Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder, Scallop Circle, Wide Oval, and Scallop Oval punches, "Sincere Salutations" stamp set, and markers to ink the sentiment stamp.

PROCRASTINATION OR ADD?

I love this video! Welcome to my day-to-day life!