Monday, May 31, 2010

IN REMEMBRANCE

While we all enjoy the wonderful Memorial Day holiday, let us not forget those who have gone before us and served others. This is also a wonderful day to remember loved ones who are no longer with us. My grandparents and some relatives and dear friends and classmates have passed away over the years. May they rest in peace. Amen.

GARDEN Tea PARTY IDEA from REMARKABLE TEAM EVENT

Fellow Remarkable Team Mate Deb Lever put this wonderful display together at the last Remarkable Team Meeting. She used the Elements of Style Stamp Set as the main theme. Now that summer is upon us, let the garden tea parties begin.
Deb designed cards and invitations, place-mats and even stamped the napkins.
The place setting is an adorable sun hat. What clever ideas. I also love the SU! Big Shot butterfly garland. Great job Deb.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

OUR ANNIVERSARY PHOTO and the scrapbook page I made with it

Bill took me to Stony River (awesome steak restaurant in Towson) tonight. We brought JP along and he took this great picture with Bill's iphone. In honor of our 18th Wedding Anniversary, I made this scrapbook page below from the photo above. I used My Digital Studio (love that program) by SU! I made this page in less than 10 minutes.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY SWEETIE

Bill and I at Orient Beach in St. Martin
(Southern Caribbean) May 2010.

Today Bill and I are married 18 years. Happy Anniversary Honey!
1 son, 2nd dog, 4th house, a personal meeting with Pope John Paul II in Rome
and many wonderful trips to/from fabulous places around the world later.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON LIBERTO

I did a variation of this card in an earlier post. I loved the design so much that I used a similar one for my friend Sharon's birthday card. Sharon's birthday is May 30th which is also my wedding anniversary. I'll post Sharon's card today, so I can post something else on the 30th. Sharon is a good friend of mine who several years ago left the hospital to go work for Hospice. She is a great RN and I'm glad that I still get to stamp with her from time to time.
On the cover of this card, I stamped some Vintage Vogue, a stamp set that was in the spring mini catalog which is still available for purchase even though most of the other items in the mini catalog have retired. I used melon mambo, summer sun and only orange ink colors. All but Melon Mambo are retiring on June 30th.

OOPS, NIGHT OF NAVY IS NOT RETIRING

I just wanted to thank Cindy Ferenz for correcting me that Night of Navy is not retiring. Whooo!
I can't believe I made that mistake and sorry for any confusion it may have caused. That card stock is headed back to my card stock folders.

Friday, May 28, 2010

BARELY BANANA AND NIGHT OF NAVY ARE A GREAT COMBO

Here's a no stamping card front. I had fun the other day, just embossing my card stock and dsp. Barely Banana and Night of Navy sure do look good together. I'm going to miss Barely Banana. Thankfully Night of Navy is staying! Similar to the card I made the other day is this one. I also punched a 5 petal flower punch and ran it through the square lattice embossing folder, just like the barely banana card stock. I used one of the brads I got for FREE with the SU! promotion this month (only a few more days left!) for the center of the flower.
Now, I did stamp the inside of the card. How could I not? I love to stamp! I used my new stamp set Elements of Style on the inside. I love this hummingbird! I also put a little glimmer on the inside using some vanilla smooch spray! Oh....we'll be using that new shimmer glitz spray at class a lot more and I'll have a sample from last night's class using the smooch. Wait til you see more!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

GREAT EVENT AT PAULETTE'S HOME LAST NIGHT

Last night was another example of a lot of fun and creativity. Paulette Hall invited us all to her house for dinner and then we stamped and created. Janet Aker is above working on Hsiao-hui's glitter card. I think we may have a new queen of glitter. The class was our Bling it On class and it sure had lots of glitz! Notice that Janet is in gable green - a SU! fave color of mine that is retiring.
Cathy Weir was back! Yeah! She is stamping away and having lots of fun. Cathy told us that her cousin received a cute company greeting card that was a neat fun fold. Cathy loved it so much she asked her cousin to give it to her so she could take it apart and figure out how to make it and teach it to our group. Oh wow! I'll be excited to see that card.
Linda Kincaid demonstrated the smooch technique. Wow! What a great concept. The smooch is glitzy paint in a spray that shimmers! Tawanda - Paulette's cousin - has her back to us but notice her lovely blouse. The colors are gorgeous. Might just have to use her blouse for inspiration for a card or scrapbook page. And notice that Linda Kincaid has a shade of cameo coral on (sigh! another color leaving us from SU! but still available until June 30th) Don't forget to order your retiring paper, reinkers, pastels, markers!!! their going soon!

Diana Hnat is in pale plum (yes another retiring color - could we have planned this evening any better with our clothing choices?) She is deciding on colors for the card she is working on.
Linda Murphy and Young Brown really enjoyed the evening. We made 6 wonderful cards that everyone loved and that I will show in the next few days.
And here is Paulette Hall our hostess with the Mostess! She did an awesome job. She not only made dinner, she made everyone gifts also. Paulette's works of Heart were all in celebration of Memorial Day. Below are some of these wonderful things she made.
There were wonderful potted flowers, red white and blue jelly beans, and this awesome popcorn bag!
The lollipops were made with our brand new SU! die in the Summer Mini Catalog. The same die that Hsiao-hui made on her card. Really beautiful Paulette and incredibly thoughtful!
Linda posed with Paulette just before the evening was over. Paulette worked very hard and had a wonderful smile. Thanks so much Paulette. I have more photos to share soon!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH

Here's another Tropical Party card. I had this card precut from a Fall class and wanted to use it up. I therefore, turned it into a summer card. I used Tropical Party again since I had that stamp set out and went to town stamping and embossing. Do you know what embossing folder I used? Of course you do...it is the new square lattice embossing folder for the Big Shot, exclusive to Stampin Up! That means you can only get this folder from SU! The card stock base is soft suede (so too is the ribbon) and the other card stock is crushed curry and very vanilla. I used a variety of bold bright colors for the stamping.
This is my colorful envelope! Remember to order your retiring card stock, inks, markers, and all before June 30th. But don't wait too long. SU! is not making any new card stock in the retiring colors, so if you want some colors in a color retiring, get it before it is gone. Some card stock will be replaced with textured card stock which I love, but once that is gone, it's gone!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

TROPICAL PARTY THANK YOU

As many of you know from my post the other day, I was just down in Marco Island, Florida for a conference for work. Oh, it was lovely there. Well, just before I left, I wanted to make my next door neighbor a Thank You card. She and her husband are so good to us. Whenever we go away, they watch out for our newspaper and our mail and my precious SU! deliveries via UPS. This is the card I made them. I used the Tropical Party stamp set. Isn't this coconut just too adorable? I ran the melon mambo card base and the coconut through the square lattice embossing folder for texture. Loving it! And then I colored all with my stampin write markers. Finished it off with crystal effects and I punched out little flowers with the new mini punches from the SU! mini catalog. They are just too cute and they compliment a stamp set called itty bitty bits and there are clear tiny buttons to go with them that we will be using in class soon!
Here's the inside of my card and the envelope. Notice how I used a great tropical green color called gable green and the smaller flowers in only orange. Both of those colors are retiring June 30th, but selling out fast.

Monday, May 24, 2010

GORGEOUS SUNSET MARCO ISLAND

We are back from the trip of our lives. Bill, JP and I went to Marco Island Florida last Weds and we are finally back home in Baltimore. Oh, what a grand time. The best sunsets in the world are here and of course the best beach. Here are some photos we took last night as the sun was setting. More photos from the trip in a later post and more great samples of SU! this week.

We got these matching shirts a few years ago at Marco. They had them again this year
but totally different colors. I like the blue we bought a few trips ago. Hope we can get back to Marco next year or the year after for sure. It is absolutely my most favorite vacation spot. I hope some day to call it my home!


This photo above looks upside down, but let me reassure you that it is right side up. The sun was setting below the clouds here.
Oh, I can't wait to scrapbook these!

JP AND BILL AT MARCO AT SUNSET

JP and Bill enjoyed the sunset at Marco!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

FLOWER FANCY BY YOUNG BROWN

Oh, this was such a fun card to make. Young Brown demonstrated this card for us and it was a totally wonderful card to copy. The set uses Flower Fancy Young colored most of the card with watercolor pencils. I had forgotten that this stamp set was in the main idea book until SU! mentioned tsis technique.
Great Job done by Young! We look forward to more of her creations in the future.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

JUST BUZZIN BY

I designed this card for my stampin group and they absolutely loved it. I used the stamp set Just Buzzin By. I stamped the hive on summer sun card stock (retiring June 30th) and cut it out for this card. This was a whole lot easier than coloring in the whole hive with markers or watercolors. I also cut and paper pieced the hive stand and the home sweet home sentiment. The bees are directly stamped to the ultra smooth white card stock and then colored in with stampinwrite markers by SU!
This is the inside of the card. You can see that I love adding crystal effects to my stamped images. The base card stock is close to cocoa (also retiring June 30th).
My favorite part of the card is the envelope. The pink flowers are from greenhouse garden stamp set and are stamped onto the envelope first. The next step is to stamp the bees and the flowers from just buzzin by and then coloring them in with the stampinwrite markers. Their wings are colored in with the whisper white craft ink.
Even the backs of my envelopes need to be signed (or stamped, tee hee!)