Teaser for Blog Hop tomorrow!

I have a little teaser, or appetizer if you will, for the Blog Hop I am participating in tomorrow (Friday April 30-Sunday May 1). I know you all can't wait to see all the amazing new goodies that will be available in the Summer Mini starting May 1st. I know I am loving the new stuff, as per usual, of course! There is a reason I became a dealer, um, I mean demo, lol! I'm as addicted to this stuff as the rest of you ;) 

So here is a little peek at one of the projects I made for the Blog Hop.

I made 6 projects for this Hop, so be sure to come back and see them all. I hope we knock your socks off with the 23 amazing stops on this Blog Hop!
Oh, and by the way, in case you missed it, there's a Blog Hop tomorrow that you are going to want to check out ;)

Hope to see you there!

My First Rag Bag Purse

This is not a card, can you tell, lol! I made this with our Scallop Square die and the Big Shot with some really fun fabrics. It was not necessarily a good idea for me to enter the fabric section of the craft store again after so many yeasr avoiding it for the stamp and scrapbooking section! I fell in love with so much fabric, we won't talk about how much money I spent while I was there. Let's just say that I should make everyone I know a cute purse like this one, lol....
This purse was really easy to make, and I am by far not the first person to make one. I have seen the idea in so many places, I can't give credit to any one person. I did make it with an outside pocket on each end for keys and a cell phone. Next time I think I will put some pockets on the inside too. The cute little grommet on the front closure is one of the Designer Hardware grommets you can still get on the clearance rack on my Demo website (see the icon for SHOP NOW on the right side bar).
Have you made a Rag Bag purse? Leave a comment and link to yours! I would love to see them!

April Club page

This is the page we made in club this month. I have been really busy with work lately so I have not had time to post anything lately. I actually worked an extra 12 hour shift on my last pay period and didn't even realize it until the timekeeper sent me a note saying "If you worked all of the shifts you were scheduled for last payperiod, please submit on OT/CT request" I actually had to go find a schedule, and sure enough, I had been scheduled 8 twelve hour shifts that schedule and I just came to work when I was scheduled and didn't even notice! My next check should be nice....
Ok, back to the page. I love how this turned out. I hope that you all put pictures of yor mothers, grandmothers, or mother figures on this page and share them with those special people. I know that Renae said she was going to use pics of one of her kids' grandmothers and frame it as a gift for Mother's Day.

• Stamps: 5th Avenue Floral, Whimsical Words 
• Paper: Whisper White, Pale Plum , Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Shimmer paper
• Ink: Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
• Other: Little Leaves and Top Note die with Big Shot, Scallop Oval  and Flower Trio punches, reinkers and Aquapainters, White embossing powder, Heat gun, Embossing Buddy, White gel pen, sponges, So Saffron and Certainly Celery 5/8" ribbon.

Decorated Notepads

I found these little notepads that were not very pretty and did not have a cover at out local print shop and decided to pretty them up! This is one of them that I came up with. Don't you just love this patterned paper?! It is the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pack #117161 from the Occasions Mini and is only available until the end of April. Of course, I didn't buy the paper pack. I have the wonderful papercrafting computer program My Digital Studio from Stampin Up and I was able to purchase the digital version of the Sweet Pea Paper pack and now I can print my own at home :) I think I used up all my ink playing around, lol! I also used some Sweet Pea Felt, the real version. There is a digital version of those too. But I wanted the real thing on this item. The ribbon is 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain and the base card stock in Pretty in Pink with a Close to Cocoa mat.

This one has a Melon Mambo base with an Old Olive mat and Melon Mambo ribbon, Sweet Pea felt and a large Clear Rhinestone.

And another one! Don't you just love the variety of patterned papers in this pack?!

And this is the last one. It has a base of Bermuda Bay with Pumpkin Pie mat, Bermuda Bay and a retired 1" wide Chocolate Chip satin ribbon with a Pumpkin Pie Corduroy Button and some crochet thread. 

My notepads are 3-1/2 x 5-1/4" so I cut the base of the cover at 7-3/8" x 5-3/8", scored at 3-1/2" and 3-7/8". Decorated the front, then adhered the notepad inside with Sticky Strip.
I have been using one in my go-bag for work to keep track of my Weight Watchers points ( I have lost almost 20 pounds so far, woo-hoo!). The rest I will give to my Club ladies as a little appreciation gift.

Leave a comment and link to yours if you make some too. I would love to see what others come up with!

A Summer Renovation

Spring has always felt like a preparation time for me, and I guess Stampin Up! feels the same way. There was a major announcement yesterday in preparation for a wonderful change coming July 1st. I am so excited about this change, I can hardly contain my use of exclamation marks! (See, one sneaked out!) And what, you may ask, has me wiggling in my seat as I sit typing this?


Stampin Up! is doing a Color Renovation with the new Idea Book & Catalog that will be released on July 1st!

How awesome is that! We are totally shaking things up for a fresh and fun color palette. There will be 4 color collections with 10 colors each. Each year we will get 5 new In-Colors with a lifespan of 2 years. There will then be 10 In-Colors starting in 2011-2012 IB&C. Then in 2012-2013, then new ones from this summer will retire. Love it! Here is a link to the new color families starting July 1st. You may have noticed some new colors in there. Yup, we are getting 5 new core colors, and Kraft is becoming a core color and being renamed Crumb Cake. It will now feel more like part of the in crowd, as it really is! And we will then have ink, pastels, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, and markers in Crumb Cake! Yippee!!! The other 5 colors are: Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, and Marina Mist

One of my favorite parts of this Renovation is that we are bringing back some of our favorite retired In-Colors! Woo-Hoo!!!!! I can't WAIT! We get these gorgeous colors back:  
Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, Wild Wasabi, and River Rock ! I know that I miss every single one of the ones that are gone already, and the ones we get to keep from this year are definitely my favs from this year! See, Stampin Up! really does listen to their customers and demonstrators! 

Now for the possibly painful part of this amazingly fabulous change. There are 30 colors that will be retiring. Here is a link to a chart of those that we must bid farewell. By giving us all this big of a heads up, we can stock up on the ones we just can't let go of yet without breaking the bank. How sweet of Stampin Up! to consider our feelings in both directions! I just love Stampin Up!

Ok, I know this is a lot of information to process, so I will stop for now. I will let this absorb before I tell you more details :) There are LOTS more details to be shared about this Renovation, but we have time!

Mother's Day Mojo 131

I thought I would actually try to do the Mojo Monday challenge as soon as I got it today. I am supposed to be sleeping right not because I work the night shift at 7:30pm, but I slept until 11am, so I will just take a little nap before work and play with my stamps until then, lol! This is the first time this stamp set has seen ink and I have had it for over 2 months! For shame, I know! It was fun to put this together, it just kept evolving as I went along. I also used a color combo challenge from Stampin Addicts called  SACC47 Forest Friends Easter Greetings. 
 Check them out, there are lots of great challenges there! 
You probably can't tell in this picture, but there is Shimmer Paint on the MOM and on the Pink Lattice pieces and on the butterflies and I inked up the texture plate with So Saffron before I ran the paper through the Big Shot. 

• Stamps: Messages for Mom
• Paper: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
• Ink: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Frost White Shimmer Paint
• Other: Beautiful Wings embosslit, Lattice die, and Perfect Details texture plate with Big Shot, brayer, sponge, Cutter Kit for distressing tool, Pinking Hearts border punch, Aqua painter, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain, Scallop border punch

Spring Window Vinyl

 

I did some window vinyl ornaments and snow flakes around Christmas, and thought it was time to do something springy. So  here are some butterflies and flowers! These were all made with various Big Shot dies and Sizzlets, were cut with different dies on 1 piece. I'm thinking these would look fine layered, if it was on something other than a window. Right now the sun shining through makes stuff on the bottom layer visible. I put these in the upper corner of the door to our 2nd story deck and in the background you see the Norway Pines that give us what little green we have this time of year, lol. 

• Dies: Stampin Up! Beautiful Butterflies, Stampin Up! Blossom Party, Scribbles Swirls, Stampin Up! Little Leaves
• Vinyl: Real Red, Bashful Blue, & Old Olive Decor Elements Vinyl Sheets

Our Decor Elements Vinyl Sheets are available in 22 colors, including Clear, Kraft, and Chalkboard and they include the transfer sheets. Some come in a tube with 2 sheets of 14-1/4"x24" vinyl and 2 sheets of transfer paper for 14.95. The rest of the colors come in 12"x24", 2 sheets vinyl and 2 sheets of transfer paper.
The possibilities are endless! I have even drawn an image on the paper backing of the vinyl and hand cut the image. 
If you are interested in purchasing some for yourself, please visit my demo site (click on the SHOP NOW icon in the upper right corner of my blog and then in the upper right of my demo page).
So, show us what you come up with! Leave a comment and link to your effort :)