COMFORT AND JOY

This NEW Stamp set Comfort and Joy is beautiful.  The dove is amazing!  Someone really worked hard to design this one with all of the elegant scrollwork.  I knew right away that I had to get this set.  For this card, I stamped with versamark first on glossy card stock.  Then I heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then I swiped pacific point classic ink pad on the card stock.  When you cover the entire card stock and then wipe it with a paper towel, you are left with this amazing image on glossy cardstock.  I really love it.

The card stock - by the way - is Letters to Santa and my card stock is old olive and soft suede.  I embossed the soft suede with a brand new embossing folder called Snow Burst.

NEW STOCKING PUNCH CHRISTMAS CARD

Ok, if you only get one punch this year, make it the brand NEW Stocking Punch! It's incredibly cool!  I've made a few projects already and I'm really in love with this punch.  I have so many ideas in my head how to use it.  Here's a card I made using the punch and one of our new embossing folders for the Big Shot.  I CASED this from a card I saw on the internet.  I love it.

The dsp for the stocking and for the paper is NEW Holly Berry by SU!  It's gorgeous!  The paper on the bottom that looks like a candy cane is actually textured and really reminds me of a candy cane.

Here's what the Stitched Stockings stamp set looks like

What better way to deck the halls than with an assortment of festive Christmas stockings? This seven-piece set coordinates with the Stocking Builder Punch to help you create unique gift tags, cards, or scrapbook pages.

And here is the stocking punch:

MORE BALTIMORE HONS - MDS

Here's a Stampin Up! My Digital Studio Page of Sandi and I at the CM Scrapbooking Retreat.  We dressed as Baltimore Hons.  Don't we look delicious?  This was a premade page that I had to alter just a little.  It was perfect for us Baltimore Hons Friends, don't you think?

We had a magnificent time also.  We got a lot of projects done, we enjoyed great food, and we really had a blast playing up the hons!!!!  A Big Shout Out to our Friend Pat Nuckels for arranging the retreat and inviting us!

OFFICIALLY FALL

Fall has arrived.  Although we've had a few muggy days here in the Baltimore area, you can still tell that Fall is here.  Leaves are turning and falling!  I haven't used my French Foliage stamp set since last Fall so I wanted to pull that out.  I stamped some of the leaves and other stamps in the set on river rock card stock.  Then I added some always artichoke dsp from the designer paper pack (I love those packs, and what value!!!) and a piece of dsp from my scrap bin (also SU!) and embossed using finial press and vintage wallpaper embossing folders for the Big Shot by SU!  I had some copper cording from SU! in my stash and added it for a little bit of elegance. 

I really like the way this turned out.  I'm going to give it to my dear friend Hsiao-hui today.  Hopefully it will make her day!  I have to give her some money for purchasing tickets to the upcoming Cesar Milan dog whisperer show we are going to go to. She and I are huge dog lovers as you probably can tell from my scrapbook pages I do of my dog Luigi.  Hsiao-hui's dog is Audrey and she is adorable.  I'm going to be working on some pages of us and our pets so watch for that soon.


Here's the envelope I stamped  for the card.

 ok, Happy Fall Y'all!

GETTING INTO THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT

Now that Autumn is finally upon us - Halloween is not very far away! I'm on a scrapbooking retreat this weekend and I've been making lots of pages and doing lots of crafting.  I just had to share this great page I completed today.  It looks easy and didn't take too long to complete.  I die cut the BOO with a die cutting machine.  The other pieces are die cuts I purchased at the retreat and the background paper I got at the craft store.  The photo is my adorable dog LUIGI.  This is his Halloween costume from last year - He was JAWS!

This page is 12 by 12.  It will fit great in in a display frame I purchased last year that I have hanging in my foyer by the front door.  I change out the scrapbook pages depending on the time of the year.  This is going to be great for this season.  Now, I did purchase Luigi's costume for Halloween this year, but I'm not telling anyone yet what or who he is going to be. Does anyone have any guesses?

BALTIMORE HONS HIT IT BIG TIME

Tonight Sandi Haertig, Pat Nuckels and I hit it Big as the Baltimore Hons!   We are at Pat's Scrapbooking Retreat in Quarryville. It's been fantastic and the dress up part was just AMAZING!  Here we are posing!

We are certainly having a BLAST!  This has been a truly great event.  Pat and her friend Elizabeth put this together twice a year.  There is always a theme for Saturday night and this year - The Baltimore Hons was over the top.  Believe it or not...I did not have a costume until the day before.  I ran out to the local craft store and bought a long blonde wig that I fashioned into my beehive.  I bought the glasses some time ago and I just went with it. I'm pictured on the right.  Sandi is in the middle and she's wearing Pat's wig.  Pat is on the left in
the purple wig.  After our posing for pictures, we had Berger cookies (yummy!) and played some really cool Baltimore games. 

Tomorrow I'm going to post some things I made on the retreat.  I still have some fun to go, so I'm hoping to get lots more done!

MDS FROSTWOOD LODGE CARD - 2 WAYS

SU! has been releasing NEW DIGITAL DOWNLOADS just about every Tuesday for My Digital Studio and any program that takes JPEGS.  I just purchased Frostwood Lodge predesigned card shown in the first photo and then I modified it with some NEW Letters to Santa dsp.  So cool, with just a few changes, I have a different look.  You know how I love MDS.  I can see some cool digital projects with this program.

 These papers and images also come as stamp sets and designer paper which are in the SU! Holiday Mini Catalog - link on right.

A STAMPED HOLIDAY PROJECT

A few weekends ago at my upline JANET WAKELAND's home, I had the opportunity to make these adorable Christmas Holiday projects.  The first one uses the Two Tags Die by SU! to make this little treat holder.  We used the new paper Holly Berry Bouquet and the new Stamp Set Pines And Poinsettias which I earned FREE when my girlfriend Sandi Haertig signed up to be one of my directs at SU! Sandi also earned the stamp set for FREE!

I added some smooch shimmer spray and some pearls to mine.  I love the satin seam binding - gives it a vintage feel.

This is a sampling of what is included in the specialty paper pack:

Holly Berry Bouquet Specialty Designer Series Paper 124004  $12.95
Poinsettias, pinecones, and holly berries on this specialty paper will make your holidays beautiful and elegant. Two sheets have one glittery side—making your project extra fancy! 12 sheets total. 2 each of 2 double-sided designs with red glitter on one side; 2 each of 4 double-sided designs without glitter. Nonglitter sheets are acid and lignin free. 12" x 12".

And here is what is included in the stamp set:

This set can be ordered in French or Spanish as well.  The French set is neat for English speaking also because it has Noel instead of Christmas which looks really cool in the banner.

SU! STAMPS ARE A WINNER!

Creating Keepsakes Magazine announces their awards for BEST crafting tools.  SU! STAMPS has won again!

Stampin' Up! Stamps a Top 10 Tool for 2011

September 20, 2011 We're excited to announce that Creating Keepsakes magazine has named Stampin' Up!'s wood- and clear-mount rubber stamps as one of its Top 10 Tools for 2011!
While Stampin' Up! has long been recognized in the stamping and crafting industry for producing high-quality rubber stamps and exclusive images in a variety of artistic styles, being recognized by Creating Keepsakes is just another validation that when customers choose Stampin' Up! products, they are choosing the best!

MY SISTER IS HAVING A BABY

My sister Christina is having a baby.  Yes, it's no. 6 for her!  Lucky her and lucky 5 older sisters for this little baby girl or boy!  Christina has waited until delivery to know the sex of each of her children and this little one will be no exception.  Do you know how hard it was for me to find generic baby clothes for her.  Since she had the 5 children, she and her husband thought they were done.  Baby no. 5 is 5 and just started kindergarten.  Now no. 6 will be here shortly - probably late sept. or early oct.  I finally found some clothes in newborn 0-3 months for her and sent them off to her with this card.

I used mostly current SU! stamps (all but the alphabet for baby and the no. 4) on this card.  The baby carriage on the envelope is from Baby Bundle.  I love the baby booties in the set and I stamped them to hang off the end of the carriage.  The giraffe comes from Fox and Friends, which is a really neat set because it can be for babies, children, or even adults. The 4 you is from Tiny Tags set and I used the coordinating tiny tags punch which is also exclusive to SU!.  It's a jewelry tag punch.

I also did some dry embossing with my SU! Big Shot to texturize the paper.  Finally, the let's celebrate
and inside of card sentiments are stamped using stamps from the all in fhe family phrases.

And here is another image on my card from the Fox and Friends set.

This monkey is so adorable!

I can't wait to meet my new niece or nephew!

PIECE OF POISON HALLOWEEN CARD

What a cool name for a stamp set - piece of poison?  I love it.  And the designer paper that goes with it is called Pick Your Poison.  I made this card using the stamp set and the frightful sight paper featured yesterday at my upline JANET WAKELAND'S home a few weekends ago.  She had an evening with the dreambuilders and directs at her home and we got to use all of the new SU! holiday mini products.

All of the stamped images on this card are heat embossed with black embossing powder.  The card base is crumb cake and we added twine and a glimmer brad.

Just for fun, here is the sampler of the Pick Your Poison dsp.  If you love Halloween, you NEED this paper!

Pick Your Poison Designer Series Paper 124001 $10.95Creepy images crawl over this paper, giving your Halloween projects just the right sinister look. Coordinates with the Pick Your Poison suite. 12 sheets total. 2 each of 6 double-sided designs. Acid and lignin free. 12" x 12".

You can also get this paper and/or the stamp set for My Digital Studio.  The elements in this stamp set are very spooky!