Weekly Deals May 12th

Check the specials for this week. Gotta love a great deal!

Weekly Deals May 12-18, 2015

2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers [133654] $14.95 $11.21	Fun Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [133727] $8.95 $6.71	Gold 5/8" Satin Ribbon [134547] $6.95 $5.21	Hexagon Punch [130919] $15.95 $11.96
Kraft Grid Journal [135718] $4.95 $3.71	Lullaby Designer Series Paper [133695] $10.95 $8.21	Sticky Strip [104294] $6.95 $5.21	Wild Wasabi 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon [134570] $6.95 $5.21

Stampin' Addicts Retiring Stamps Hop: Little Buddy Birthday

It is the time of year that we say goodbye to many of our favorite stamps sets. Sad, but we must remember that we are making room more NEW favorites :) Well, my friends from Stampin' Addicts and I are each featuring one of our favorite retiring sets and giving you some inspiration, kind of a last hooray.
If you are following along in order, then you just arrived from Mary Trautner's blog where she featured the Just Sayin' stamp set. Fun stuff, right!

 I am using the Little Buddy Birthday set, as you may have noticed in the title of this blog post :) I had just purchased this set a couple of weeks before the retirement list came out, so it seemed to be a good idea to use it before it goes away :)

This first card was quick and fun to throw together. I was going for a mountainous/desert feel here, as that is where I imagine an armadillo would live. He is a cute little guy! He is stamped on some Watercolor paper then I used an Aquapainter to color him with Sahara Sand and Hello Honey ink squeezed onto the lid of my inkpad. A sheet of DSP from the Moonlight DSP stack sewn onto a Sahara Sand card base, some embossing, and diecutting, outline in white gel pen, pop up with dimensionals, and you are all done!

Card #2 was a special card. My grandson, Cameron, just turned 1 year old on April 23rd, so I needed a really cute card for him.
I stamped the little monster fella in Black Stazon on Vellum repeatedly, then colored the back of the vellum with markers. Then I diecut the circle and a slightly larger circle in Whisper White, then glued those together. The Pool Party panel is embossed, then I stamped the little birthday cake in Pool Party ink on all of the raised dots. Made a little banner in Hello Honey and stamped the sentiment, diecut a number 1. Lots of dimensionals later, I added the Candy Dots as a fun pop of color.

Inside, I adhered a vellum circle with a monster (I had colored a 4¼"x5½" panel full of monsters and had lots of little guys left). Then I stamped some balloons and colored with Blender Pen and coordinating inks.

That's all I have for you this time. Now it is time to go see what Carmen has made for us!

Armadillo Mountains:

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Little Monster One:

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May 2015 Card Class

My next card class is all ready to go! Reserve your spot by clicking here and purchasing a class admission. When and where you ask? Check it out:

Where: Bemidji Hobby Lobby Classroom

When: Saturday, May 16th, 2015 at 10:00 am

Cost $15 per person

Inspiration credit: 

Debra Burgin

Gina Wiseman

Cindy Schuster

Weekly Deals May 5th

Check out what is on special this week! Gotta love a good deal :)

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Stamp Review Crew: Butterfly Basics Edition

Woo-hoo! We are back with another fun hop, this time featuring the Butterfly Basics stamp set. This gorgeous stamp set coordinates with the lovely and intricate Butterflies thinlits! And guess what?! They are both carrying over into the annual catalog this year! Yippee!!

Ok, so if this is your first time through one of our hops, we are a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators, and we choose a different stamp set to highlight on each hop. We all use the same set on each hop so you can get tons of inspiration for that set :) You can click on the banner at the top to get to the official blog of the Stamp Review Crew and check our past hops-they will always be intact and take you straight to the posts you want :)

If you are following along in order, then you have just arrived from Mike Funke's blog, he always has such fantastic ideas and well worded instructions, don't you think?!

I made this project at least a month ago, and then I had to kind of hide it from myself so I wouldn't be tempted to post it before the hop, lol! I can't remember which challenge blog sketch I used, but I know I did use one. When I create a card I know I have to wait a while to post, I usually write the colors and the sketch challenges on a Post-It and stick it to the back so I remember all of it when I type it up. I did not do that this time. See, I need to follow a routine still :) But here is how I made this card:

1. Cut an 8"x8¼" piece of Crumb Cake cardstock, then on the 8" side, score at 4" and fold in half. 
2. Cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock to 3½"x8¼", the diecut one long edge with the Large Scallops edgelit. 
3. I used a lot of masking on this card with the medium sized Butterflies thinlit negative space on a piece of copy paper, so cut one of these out. ( I use 1 unscented dryer sheet folded in half under the cardstock and die in the sandwich to prevent the cut from sticking in the die, and to get all the little pieces to stick and not have to be poked out-works like magic!). Diecut a Vellum butterfly and set aside for later.
4. Then I sponged on the Soft Sky butterfly first and stamped the honeycomb stamp in Gold Encore ink while the mask was still in place. 
5. Move butterfly mask and use some scratch paper and the positive cut of the butterfly to mask off the blue butterfly. Then sponge the Pink Pirouette butterfly and stamp the round flower in Gold ink. 
6. Repeat step 5 in Crisp Cantaloupe sponging and Crisp Cantaloupe and Gold ink with the stem of flowers. Then again in Crumb Cake sponging and Crumb Cake and Gold inked stamping with the striped line image. 
7. Stitch around the 3 not-scalloped sides of the white panel. 
8. Adhere a strip of Naturals Chevron ribbon just above the scallops, then add Gold Baker's Twine, and a small strip of Gold Sequin trim. Tie a bow with Gold Baker's Twine and adhere with glue dot or some other adhesives.
9. On a 1¼"x4" strip of vellum, stamp the greeting in Early Espresso ink.
10. Adhere 3 sequins using Crystal Effects and the Vellum Butterfly you diecut earlier.
11. Stamp the striped strip in Gold ink along the bottom of the Crumb Cake card base.
12. Apply dimensionals to the back of the white panel and adhere to cardfront, slightly lower than the fold. Trim off the overhang of the Vellum butterfly. 
13. Stamp honeycomb image in Whisper White in lower right corner of the inside of card, then the sentiment in Early Espresso.

Phew! That didn't feel like so many steps when I made the card! I think it was worth it though :)

That's all I have for you this time, let's go see what Jennifer Timko has in store for us!

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April Paper Pumpkin!

It is here, the latest Paper Pumpkin arrived at my door last night! And I have already been playing with it. I'll show you mine later, but for now, check out this great video from Stampin' Up! featuring the April 2015 Love You A Lot Paper Pumpkin kit :)

Stamp Review Crew: Zoo Babies Edition

Hello again, so glad you stopped to visit us on another round of the Stamp Review Crew! This time we are using this super cute set full of sweet little animals! I am sure that you have already seen a ton of ideas with this set, but I think we may have a few new ones for you here :)

As always, if you get lost along the way, or just want to check out some of our past hops, click on the banner at the top of this post and it will take you to the Stamp Review Crew blog with all of our past hops intact in the archives.

If you are following along in order, then you just arrived from Betty Traciak's blog. She also comes up with some great out-of-the-box ideas :)

I suppose you would like to see what I made for the hop, huh :) OK, so I thought I had this stamp set. I was SURE of it. And I am a procrastinator.... so when I was ready to start my projects on Thursday (before going to work, mind you) I realized that I do not, in fact, own this set. But, since I make all of the banners and buttons for Stamp Review Crew hops, I do have the digital version :) Check out my hybrid projects!

I printed a few fun animals on some Whisper White cardstock, then started playing around. With alligators mouth open and the little heart cutout on the image, I thought it would be fun to have him talking! I threw in some of the Core'dinations paper that I have been hoarding forever (it is still on the Clearance Rack, so go get yourself some!), embossed with the Happy Hearts embossing folder, sanded the paper to expose the slightly lighter core, and distressed the edges.I pulled out the Fringe scissors that I have not used nearly enough because I needed to ground that little fella with something, and grass sounded good :) The sentiment is from Just Sayin'.
I got some help with the layout from the Friday Mashup Challenge.

Fruit Loops or Juicy Fruit anyone?! That is what this toucan with his colorful beak reminds me of :) I kinda cheated and used the toucan image I colored on MDS for the banner and buttons, lol! More Core'dinations with the Pumpkin Pie panel, embossed and sanded. The striped paper is the Irresistibly Yours specialty paper that I colored with some markers. (Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, and Blackberry Bliss).
I stamped the sentiment bubble in Blackberry Bliss on the vellum, then heat embossed with Clear embossing powder. SLICK, I tell you!
Add a rainbow of Candy Dots and voila!


Now it's time to head on over to the next stop, Rochelle Blok. She is sure to amaze you!

Alligator Card:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Challenge used:

Toucan Card:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog