Under the Stars Birthday Gift Bag and Blog Candy Winners

I made a quick gift bag to go with this "Many S'mores" birthday card.  I just love this card and made a stack of them to have on hand.

Whenever I make a mask for a stamp I keep it with that stamp set to have it handy for the next time.  This mask is well loved!

Masking is a simple technique for adding dimension to a project.

1.  First stamp the image on a post-it note and trim it carefully.  (If the sticky wears off eventually you can add temporary adhesive such as Dotto it keep it from slipping.)

2.  Stamp the image to be masked on cardstock.

3.  Cover image with mask.

4.  Stamp image you want to appear in back over the masked area.

5.  Remove the mask to see your "layered" image.

I added gourmet cookies to the bag for our friend's surprise birthday party.  Everyone brought a pie to share - yum!

And now for the winners of the Free passes to UStamp:  I entered all names into the list randomizer on Random.org.... the top 2 names are... Kristen and Tilly!!
Here is a screen shot of the list:

Congratulations!! I know you will enjoy all that is in store at Hey Big Shot!  UStamp!

Tiger

Blog Candy!!!   Leave a comment on any of the posts starting with Wednesday April 21 and you will be entered in a random drawing for 2 FREE PASSES to the HEY BIG SHOT!  session of USTAMP.  You may comment once on each post between now and April 29.  See THIS POST for all the details. 

It has been a while since I have done a "kitty post".   Today's featured kitty is "Tiger".  Not a highly imaginative name but it fits him well.  He is a delightful yet "low maintenance" cat.   He loves to come in the house for petting and attention but is happiest outside where he is captain of the Rodent Patrol.  (He is very proud of his work and brings us proof of his prowess quite frequently.)

As our oldest kitty (he is 12 years old), he has weathered his share of kittens.  He at first tries to ignore the pesky little newcomer.  Then as they try to play with him, he walks off in huff.   But after a few days he will be playing with them and from that point on they are best buds.

Not so with the dog.  He does not tolerate Chester at all.  Chester knows better then to get too close.  Tiger is definitely "top dog" around here.

Tiger loves a tummy rub:

 

A game of cards:

Or a comfortable napping chair:

He has a quirky way of napping, hanging over the edge:

 We love our Tiger!

You can see past "kitty posts" HERE.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Blog Candy!!!   Leave a comment on any of the posts starting with Wednesday April 21 and you will be entered in a random drawing for 2 FREE PASSES to the HEY BIG SHOT!  session of USTAMP.  You may comment once on each post between now and April 29.  See THIS POST for all the details. 

My parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on the 23rd.    You can see a scrapbook page I made for a calendar for them on MDS with pictures of their wedding HERE.   This is the card I made for them.  Of course for a Golden Anniversary, I needed to go gold and glitzy.  Really hard to get a decent photo though.

The card base is River Rock which looks lovely with gold and Very Vanilla.  The flowers were cut with the Floral Fusion die and then spritzed with Vanilla Smooch spray.  It is impossible to photograph the shimmer of the Smooch spray but it is SO very pretty IRL.  

Supplies:  Paper: River Rock, Very Vanilla.  Tools: Manhattan Flower embossing folder, Floral Fusion Sizzlet die, Scallop Trim Border punch.  Accessories: Vanilla Smooch Spritz, brads, Non-SU! ribbon.

Multiplying Butterflies

Blog Candy!!!   Leave a comment on any of the posts starting with Wednesday April 21 and you will be entered in a random drawing for 2 FREE PASSES to the HEY BIG SHOT!  session of USTAMP.  You may comment once on each post between now and April 29.  See THIS POST for all the details. 


Lately I have been using lots of butterflies on my projects.  In particular, I have been using the Beautiful Wings Sizzlet die.  It cuts five tiny little butterflies at a time.  That is great.  Except I use one or two from each type of paper on a project.  That leaves three or four extra butterflies each time.  And OF COURSE I could never just throw away a perfect little die cut butterfly.   I have a pile of these little guys that just keeps growing and growing.

I decided to make some cards to use them up.  Easier said than done.  I start designing a card and think "Oh, such and such a color butterfly would look so cute with this layout.  And I end up cutting more of the little rascals!

Here are few of my flurry of flutterby cards:

The center square card has little leftover pieces from cutting out the lattice die cut.  I couldn't throw those away either!

You will be seeing more butterflies in the near future - the butterflies continue to multiply!

4H Fund Raiser-Stampin' Up Donation

Blog Candy!!!   Leave a comment on any of the posts starting with Wednesday April 21 and you will be entered in a random drawing for 2 FREE PASSES to the HEY BIG SHOT!  session of USTAMP.  You may comment once on each post between now and April 29.  See THIS POST for all the details. 

The kids from our 4H club had a fund raiser for a local camp for disadvantaged children.  Stampin' Up! donated a wonderful generous assortment of stamps and products for the silent auction.

 Bidding on the items:

A great time for a great cause.

The club members were delighted to be able to donate over $500 to help other kids.  Thank you Stampin" Up for your support!

Inspired By Nature Gift Set

Blog Candy!!!   Leave a comment on any of the posts starting with yesterday and you will be entered in a random drawing for 2 FREE PASSES to the HEY BIG SHOT!  session of USTAMP.  You may comment once on each post between now and April 29.  See THIS POST for all the details.

One of my favorite things to design is personalized gift sets.  I like to start with an item or two and build the set around that theme.  Two $1 notepads were the inspiration for this ensemble.  The set includes four cards in a magazine-style holder, a note pad, a covered "To do" list pad, a two drawer matchbox chest with decorated paper clips and Hershey nuggets, matching RSVP pen and a gift enclosure card.

The colors of the "To do" pad match Basic Gray, Basic Black, Dusty Durango, and Pumpkin Pie.  Those are not colors I would have thought to put together but the more I worked with them the more I liked the combination. Here you can see the notepad that inspired my color scheme.

I made a simple cover using Basic Gray cardstock.  To decorate the cover I used one of the pieces of notepaper from the other pad, added a monogram and used a portion of the Inspired by Nature stamp.

I thought this second notepad had a very interesting design.  The papers are attached in a spiral.

  All I did to this was cover a coaster with Pumpkin Pie DSP to make a solid base.

For the cards I used markers to ink up the stamp and blended the colors with a sponge

and made a box from the Pumpkin Pie DSP.

The little matchbox chest of drawers has 4 large paper clips decorated with 5 petal punched pieces and 4 covered chocolates.

I used cut up portions of the larger stamp design plus tags cut with the Matchbox die to decorate the gift enclosure card and gift bag.

Whirl-a-Round 3x3 Desk Caddy Version # 2 and Blog Candy!

Lots of good things to post today!  I am so delighted to have been asked to design for the next round of UStamp.  If you have not heard, it features the Big Shot this session!  All the info can be found HERE or by clicking on the button below.

To celebrate I will be giving away TWO FREE PASSES.  To be entered in the random drawing to win just comment on any post between now and April 29.  You can leave a comment on each post between now and that date.  For each comment I will enter your name in the drawing.  Winners will be announced April 30 and you MUST contact me by May 1.  UStamp is so much fun if you have tried it you are in for a lovely surprise.  I have meet the most delightful stampers world-wide as a result.   So leave your comments everyone - the fun has begun!

This is a project I created for a past UStamp session to give you an idea of what you might see:

Isn't the Kaleidoscope Designer Paper is beautiful!  I used it to re-create my Whirl-A-Round desk caddy project.  (You can see the original set HERE.)  

The variations in the Kaleidoscope paper were fun to work with - very bold and bright.   I wanted to use the Very Thankful stamp set and was delighted to see how the different paper patterns worked with the diverse stamps of this set.  

I added confetti hearts to the treat cups.

Thanks to Felicity Fernandez for the idea of putting an empty ribbon spool underneath to make it turn easily. 

It has room for LOTS of cards plus envelopes.

Check out this yummy paper.  Elegant swirls for the peacock:

Spots for the turtle:

Stripes for the boy:

And geometric for the circular design:

Supplies for Caddy: Paper: Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper.   Punches: Full Heart.  Accessories: Heart Treat Cups. Adhesive: Snail, Sticky Strip.  Other: cardboard backing from Designer Series Paper, empty ribbon spool, purchased confetti and RSVP pen.

Supplies for cards: Stamps: Very Thankful.  Paper: Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Brilliant Blue cardstock.  Ink: Jet Black Staz-on.  Stampin’ Write Markers: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Pretty in Pink, Green Galore, Gable Green, Brilliant Blue.  Accessories: Stampin’ Dimensionals

New Colors!

It was a happy stamping day trying out new goodies! The May issue of Stampin' Success (SU! publication for demonstrators)  arrived in my mailbox today and it had samples of the 5 new colors being introduced in the 2010-2011 main catalog (launching in July).  And THEN the UPS man arrived with my preorder of the Summer Mini catalog products (launching May 1).  So many new things but I did not have time to get too fancy as it was a really hectic day.

Of course the new colors have fun names The blue is Marina Mist- deeper than Bashful Blue but still nice and subtle.  Early Espresso is the brown - rich and warm.  Daffodil Dash is really snappy - brighter than I had pictured it in my mind.  It will stand up nicely against dark colors.  And my personal favorite - Cranberry Crisp- as yummy as it sounds!  I had a piece of Always Artichoke laying out for another project and they will be perfect together for Christmas.  I did not use Cajun Craze- a rich rust - also very pretty.

The blue and yellow flowers are cut with the Island Floral Big Shot die, while the brown is punched with the Extra Large Fancy Flower punch.  They nest just perfectly.  I misted the flowers with water and scrunched them up in a ball to give them a distressed look.  I also misted the Cranberry Crisp strip to make it easier to pleat.

For the background I used the Bella Toile stamp inked in Close to Cocoa and then spritzed it with the new Log Cabin Smooch glitter mist.  Of course that does not photograph well but it adds a beautiful dark coppery shine.  All the prettiness of glitter without the mess!

The Cat in the Hat

We attended an awesome production of Seussical the Musical put on by our local Homeschool Performing Arts group.  Wow!! What a tremendous amount of work went into the preparation.  From the costumes to the choreography it was fantastic.  We personally knew so many of the kids performing that it was fun from beginning to end.

I made these congratulatory cards for some of the kids.  I found a hat outline in a literature curriculum and printed it on Whisper White cardstock.  The hats were cut out and colored with a Real Red marker.   The stars were gold embossed on black cardstock and popped up on dimensonals.  The sentiments are from the Picture This hostess set.  The cards were very bright and eye-catching-definately Dr Suess style!

We are looking forward to more great performances in the future!