STAMPIN BY CANDLELIGHT

This past Friday there was a crazy rain and then wind storm here in Baltimore.  It almost canceled our Stampin Up! plans, but leave it to our incredible stamping group to improvise.  We dined by candlelight and were even willing to stamp and craft by candlelight.    This is my MDS page highlighting the evening!

Linda Murphy was a wonderful host.  She has a gas stove so she was able to cook the meal.  It was wonderful. We had delicious endive casserole, baked turkey and baked ham, a delicious green salad, homemade rolls and an incredible fruit salad.  The candlelight was perfect.  I love Linda's smile as she holds up some of her stamping creations for the evening (top right photo). I love her cards she made for everyone that we had on her SU! display (bottom left photo). Definitely one of the more interesting stamping adventures we have ever had!  Thanks Linda for a wonderful night!

SALEABRATION STAMPING USING THE BLISS STAMP SET AND SWEET AND SOUR SPECIALTY PAPER

We had a really great gathering of our crafting friends last night.  Linda Murphy hosted us in her home for dinner and then we headed over to Sandi's to stamp.  One of the cards we made used the Bliss stamp set that you can earn for FREE from Stampin Up! with a Sale-a-bration purchase!  I love this stamp set.  We also used the SU! Specialty Designer Paper called Sweet and Sour!  I love the rose red and pumpkin pie combination.  Here are photos of all the different versions of the card and all of the ladies who stayed to stamp with us!  2 New friends - Rachel and Jackie - joined us for the first time.  They loved it and we loved having them.

This first photo shows one of the cards that I made using not only the Bliss stamp set but also the set Clearly for you!  It's a great set that compliments the Bliss set.  We made the card with a slight vintage feel by adding the SU! pearls and the music notes (see the hint of those on the card? - I learned how to put them on with the wheel from my colleague Kim Van Diepen who also showed me how to distress the edges of the card).  This card just screams color and spring!

This is another version of the card.  I stamped the butterfly in pumpkin pie ink on another piece of card stock and cut it out so it looks like it could fly off the page.  I also added crystal effects to these cards and dazzling diamonds and the rose red satin seam binding.  SU! now sells this great embellishment in several of SU!'s favorite colors! The flourish I stamped is from the Bliss set. It is such a great accent stamp or it can provide the focal point!

 This is our hostess - Linda Murphy.

 

 Sandi Haertig!

 Rita Gorrick

 Hsiao-hui Lin

 Linda Kincaid

 Our new friend Rachel

 This is me!  Linda K took this photo of me.  Notice the envelope?  The butterflies are in flight!

Our new friend Jackie!

Here is what is included in this BLISS stamp set which you can earn for FREE in either wood or clear mount.

This Bliss stamp set is so cool!  The project ideas are really cool. I'll be posting more of them soon!
Also really cool is this SU! Designer Series Paper called Sweet and Sour. Look at the yummy colors and the designs you get in the pack! Notice that papers are EMBOSSED on one side!  So cool!

Sweet & Sour Specialty Designer Series Paper	#117390
Price: $11.95 US
Our Designer Series papers are absolutely beautiful and use our palette of colors and original images. Designer Series paper makes it easy to create a card or scrapbook page with coordinating background paper, card stock, and stamped images. It also covers On Board chipboard beautifully. ■ 12" x 12" ■ 12 sheets per package (2 each of 6 double-sided designs) ■ One side of each sheet has glossy design ■ Exclusive designs and colors, with patterns based on Stampin’ Up! art ■ Coordinates with Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive colors: Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red

We also have more cards and projects from Me, Linda K, Linda M, Hsiao-hui and Lisa C.  Watch for them this week, right here on my creative stampin and scrappin and craftin blog!

SU!'S SIMPLY ADORNED!

Oh, this is such a fun line for SU!  It is our exclusive Jewerly line.  It's called Simply Adorned.  I wear my necklace and charms almost every day!  You can change the charms and the inserts to match the season, the event, the day!  I love wearing homemade items!  Here is the necklace I wore today. I inserted a piece of Springtime Vintage SU! paper inside of it.  I highlighted the roses with crystal effects and dazzling diamonds.  The charms are awesome.  I love the keys and the crowns.  You could even add your own charms with a lobster claw or other jewelry finding.

The necklace here goes so well with my new SU! scarf and sweater that I got at SU! Leadership!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND BABY SISTER!

Today is my mom's birthday and it is also my youngest sister's birthday!  Poor Mom being in labor on her birthday some 30 years ago!  But she must have been so happy to have her 7th child and to complete our wonderful family that day!  In honor of their birthdays, here are some cards!

For this card I used Pacific Point card stock for the base.  The complementing colors are melon mambo and peach parfait (one of our SU! In Colors).  I love how these all coordinate.  The sentiment is from the level 2 hostess set which is a sentiment set called  Something to Celebrate.

The designer papers were earned for FREE during SALE-A-BRATION!  The die cuts came in the same package!  There is a lot of designer paper in this! The dsp/embellishments packs are called Ice Cream Parlor.  Makes me want some sherbert right now and a bright sunny day at the pool!  I also added some sticky back clear rhinestone bling which SU! began selling this SU! year with sticky back pearls as well.  These SU! rhinestones cannot be matched in quality by the ones in the craft store.  SU! simply outdid them.  They are so shiny and what bling!

 

The envelope uses coordinating colors and some of my favorite stamp sets - Bring on the Cake, Got Treats, Broadsheet alphabet and Flight of the Butterfly. I've added crystal effects and some dazzling diamonds.  Everyone deserves sparkle on their birthday!  The inside of the card, which is in the middle above uses our new Sizzix Big Shot die cut circle that I stamped on, Bring on the Cake sentiment and our new cupcake punch.  I punched the cherry from the red glimmer paper.  (You must have a few glimmer sheets on hand!  I have found it great for accents such as the cherry and little hearts, and other punched embellishments!)

This was on my mom's envelope.  I used my favorite alphabet Big Deal.  Oh, I'm so hoping that SU! considers putting that alphabet in MDS!  And the card below is the one my son JP sent to my mom.  He had his choice of several I had made up and he chose this one.  My mother thought this was such a cool card.  I think I may have shared a similar one back in January that I made using the same pieces for a card for a friend.  Cupcakes are hot right now!  This is a great stamp by SU!

So, hope you both had a great birthday and loved your cards and gifts!  See you soon!

MDS TRIFOLD CARD

Just to show you how quick and easy it is to make a card in MDS, I have another one made already.  This one uses the Sew Suite Line from SU!  I can print this card to send if I would like or I can use it as a template for a card I will make using cardstock and designer paper and real embellishments that SU! sells. This program is so versatile.  And I don't even need MDS to make the card.  You can use any program that takes jpeg and png files - such as corel draw, adobe photoshop and more.  By the way...this is a trifold card. When I have SU! printer print it - it will come scored in 3 places so I can fold it, and .... it will come with an appropriate size envelope, all economically priced and....matching SU!'s original colors.  Way to go SU!

 

I was thinking it would be great to have several of these made up and ready to go so I have them for just when I need them.  The other thing that would be cool is to send this to a friend and instead of putting the buttons in the centers, maybe put some photos.  Next, I need to learn how to stitch the leaves in place.  I haven't figured that out yet, but someone who has MDS has - so I'll be doing that next.  

ADVANCED MDS PAGE

I was spending some time at our SU! My Digital Studio website and found a tutorial by Heather showing how to put photos into punches!  Such a cool technique. She has a MAC computer I believe so you need to modify for the pc, but it is quite easy.  Then I was really inspired to play around and I figured out on my own how to line up brads.  I'm loving MDS!

This particular photo is our annual family Christmas photo taken on New Years Eve!

If you would like to learn how to make your own digital pages, I'm going to have classes in the near future.  Let me know if you are interested. Anyone who purchases MDS software from me will receive the classes
for free.  I will be teaching some really cool digital techniques.

MDS DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK 12 by 12 PAGE

I was digitally inspired today. I created this 12 by 12 page layout with SU! MDS - My Digital Studio! 
I love this program!

CARD BY KATHY WINLAND

This is one of the stamps you can earn for FREE this month during Saleabration. My friend Kathy Winland designed this card.  I love the colors...whisper white, not quite navy and baja breeze.  The stamp is the teacup stamp in the main idea book.  Thanks Kathy!  I love this card!

VIDEO MESSAGE FROM SU! CoFOUNDER AND CEO

Here is a video from our CoFounder and CEO Shelli Gardner.  She is a lovely person. Take time to watch this inspiring video message.

SALE-A-BRATION DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - YOU DON'T NEED MDS

I love SU! digital downloads.  Do you know that the hottest thing on the market right now is digital stamps, papers, embellishments and all?  Well, this month and next, you can earn the SU! Saleabration Digital Content CD for FREE with any qualifying SU! purchase.  This CD is a $25 value!  There is a common misconception that you must have a digital program to use this content CD.  This is just not the case.  As long as you have Word or any other program that accepts jpegs!  you can use this CD.  It's fabulous!  I love everything on this CD.  I'm so excited about it.  You can make anything on this CD in any color and any size!  Whoohoo!  Way to go SU!

Click on any of these to see them larger!

Here are 3 card samples I came up with (I used MDS for mine) followed by a Scrapbook Page!

What's great is that any of these can be printed out from your own computer or you can use a photo service or SU! very economically priced printing!  They look really cool printed!

LEADERSHIP 3D

Jan Shaw - one of my fellow Remarkable Demonstrator Friends - participated in a 3D swap at Leadership.  She was kind enough to let me photograph what she traded for.  Some of these are really cute.  Here are the photos for you also to enjoy!

GREAT VALENTINE DISPLAY

I bought this great wrought iron display from Southern Living when my neighbor had a party.  Doesn't it showcase my SU! cards well?  I had this up for the holidays and now I think it looks great with Valentine's cards on it.  It's a 2 piece so I took a picture of the top and the bottom display.  I think I'll keep this up all year and just change out the cards.