My Happy Stamping Place

Fun Gift Idea!

Whew!  Where did that last week go?  It all passed in a blur for me.  My husband was out of town on a business trip and my daughter was on a mission trip to New Orleans.   That left me and my two boys at home.  I spent the week as taxi cab driver getting them to everything they had going in their busy schedules and they had plenty!  I went through a tank of gas in two days.  It didn't leave much time for stamping that's for sure.  I'm ready to get back to that.

My daughter was invited to a last minute birthday party for a guy friend of hers.  Last year there was a party for him and we were told no gifts.  So my daughter didn't bring a gift.  It turns out she was the only one who didn't and she felt pretty stupid.  So this year we are making up for it!  We always like to give money or gift cards in an interesting way  That way they can see you put time and effort into it even if it wasn't a present you bought in the store.  I first saw this idea for a lei with money on it on Patty's blog.  I tucked that in the back of my brain to try one day.  Well, that one day came quicker than I thought!  I couldn't tell how the money was attached so I googled money lei and ran across this. 

It was a bit tedious to make but we had a team of my daughter, son Sam, and I working on it.

Here is how our money lei turned out.

Then my daughter said that her and this guy friend have an inside joke about deer.  So I found this deer card I received in a swap(sorry, there was no name on the back) and I added the "my deer friend" sentiment by printing it out on the computer and punching it out with the new modern label punch that will be in the new catalog starting Wednesday, July 1!  Here's the card.

I love papercrafting!  It's so fun to make a gift and card that is so personal to the recipient! 

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back soon with some more stamping projects.

Robot birthday

I finally had some time to stamp with my new stuff!  Stampin' Up! lets demonstrators pre-order a select batch of products ahead of the catalog release on July 1.  This new stamp set is called Lots of Bots and will be perfect for guys, teens and kids!

The background on the basic grey cardstock is created with a new set called Circle Circus.  I can already envision many fun backgrounds and scrapbook pages with this set!

Recipe:
Stamps:  Lots of Bots, Circle Circus
Ink:  Basic Gray, Dusty Durango(new In Color!), Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Basic Gray, Dusty Durango, Confetti White
Other:  Dusty Durango polka dot ribbon, horizontal slot punch, modern label punch

It's a hot muggy one here today!  We're about to take off for a soccer game for my son, Nick. Ugh!  At least I'm not the one who will be playing in this heat.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp and Scrap challenge#2

It's time for another Stamp and Scrap challenge!  This week's challenge is to make an outdoors or nature page using the digi image from Sweet and Sassy stamps from their Bug's Life collection. I chose this cute butterfly.  This is my first time printing a digital image.  I liked being able to print it in the size I chose.  For my layout I used the butterfly in three different sizes.

Recipe:
Image:  Butterfly image from
Paper:  So Saffron, Basic Black, designer paper from My Minds Eye
Other:  Hambly transparency(over the journaling block), Glitz frosting(in green butterfly's wings and at bottom of journaling block, Eyelet border punch, bracket from My Mind's eye, copic markers, Stampin' Up! Sizzix billboard alphabet

Check out what the rest of the design team came up with at Stamp and Scrap.  They'll knock your socks off! 

You can play along with the challenge too!  We'd love to see what you come up with using these criteria.  You have the chance to win prizes also!  Go to Stamp and Scrap to check it out!

Retirement cards

One of my friends, Pam, recently retired from working in the school system.  She was counting down the days with us.  She also has a daughter who lives in Hawaii so she has visited often.  I decided to make her a Hawaiian based retirement card.  The background is stamped with some of the new In Colors and the Petal Pizazz stamp set.  The little Hawaiian gal was made with Stampin' Up! punches. 

A couple of my customers called to purchase Stampin' Up! gift cards for their friends who were retiring.  I pulled out my new Stampin' Up! Bigz Look Here die to make the gift card holders.

What a fun way to give a gift card!

My 15 year old daughter, Rebecca,  leaves for a mission trip to New Orleans tomorrow.  She'll be gone for a week.  Rebecca has gone on week long camps before but those were only a few hours away.  This will be the other side of the country!  I am surprisingly ok with it.  I'll miss her when she's gone but feel like she's in good hands.  She's a trooper too and does well when she's away from home.  The hardest thing when they go away like this is that they can't call home.  I'm sure she will have some wonderful experiences and will enjoy seeing a whole different part of the country.

Tune in tomorrow for the next Stamp and Scrap scrapbook page and challenge!

10-10 card class

This is a sampling of the cards we will be doing at my 10/10 card class this Thursday.  For this class I CASE'd and tweaked cards I found on SCS and blogland.  The cards should take about 10 minutes or so to make.  They encompass a wide variety of occasions including graduation, wedding, birthday, sympathy, etc.

If you are local to the Twin Cities area and would like to come you can contact me at [email protected].  I still have a few openings left. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!

Graduation

I need a graduation card today for my husband's best friend's son's graduation open house.  I remember when this kid was born.  I especially remember Drew when he was going through his Hulk Hogan faze and he would pose like the Hulk.  teehee.  I don't have any graduation stamps per se so I channeled my inner Angie and came up with this card.  Thanks for the inspiration Angie!

Recipe:
Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes(new greeting set from the 2009/2010 idea book and catalog)
Ink:  Basic black
Paper:  Rockabilly designer paper, Basic Black, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Ballet Blue\
Other:  Rich Regals button, small star and large star punch, Stampin' Up! Sizzix GoGo boots alphabet

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day!

A cloudy day

This was the third card for my stamp clubs this month.  We used the circle scallop punch to sponge a cloudy background behind the bird.  It's fun to make a scene for your focal point sometimes instead of keeping the white background.  We made the grass with the blender pen and Certainly Celery and Kiwi Kiss ink pads.  Then we finished off the bottom by sponging Kiwi Kiss ink. 

Recipe:
Stamps:  Pun Fun, Heard from the Heart
Ink:  Jet Black Stazon, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Kiwi Kiss
Paper:  Washington Apple dp, Rockabilly dp, Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss
Other:  Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Lovely Lilac watercolor wonder crayons, blender pen, circle scallop punch, stampin' sponge, Word Window punch, Eyelet border punch, Pigtails ribbon originals, Flower Sizzix embosslit, Birds and Blossoms Sizzix die

Speaking of clouds, it's been cloudy and rainy here for about a week.  Ever since my kids got off of school.  But yesterday, the sun finally came out.  It was a beautiful day!  It felt wonderful and there were so many kids walking, biking, and playing outside.  Finally, it felt like summer! 

Dyeing to meet you Bluebird

For one of my stamp club projects this month we dyed one of the pretties flower to match the card.  There are many ways to dye the flowers.  The method I used was to put rubbing alcohol in the barrel of an aquapainter and pick up some reinker to paint the flower.  You get more intense color then if you used some other methods and the alcohol helps it dry fast.  This is great for a stamp club project or impatient people like me. *smile*

Recipe:
Stamps:  Good Friend, Sincere Salutations
Ink:  Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Good Morning Sunshine designer paper
Other:  Pretties flower, Punches Plus classy brass(to punch holes around the chocolate chip circle), button bouquet buttons, linen thread, aquapainter, rubbing alcohol, baja breeze reinker, 5/16" jumbo brads

We've got a couple more rainy, gloomy days to get through here in Minnesota until we finally see the sun on Thursday.  That's ok.  It makes great stamping weather! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Stampin' with some new product!

I received my box of Stampin' Up! goodies from my preview order.  Woohoo!  It always feels like Christmas when I get new stuff!  I don't care how many packages I get, the feeling never goes away.  So I haven't had a whole lot of time to play but this is one quick card I came up with.

I used the new Razzleberry for the card base, new dp, and the new and fabulous polka dot ribbon!  I got some in every color!  The flower is done using the Scribbles Sizzix flower die, a flower from the Birds and Blooms sizzix die and a half back pearl from the pretties kit.  There's monomulti glue and dazzling diamonds glitter on each prong of the Scribbles flower.

Summer has officially started here complete with fights and priveleges taken away.  The weather has been cold and rainy but yep, Summer is here.  We had a no electronics day here at home after my two boys were physically beating each other up.  As much as they bemoaned the loss of their beloved Wii, computer, DSi, and tv they came up with some ways to pass the time.  They played board games, played some games with their webkins, indoor hide-n-seek(cuz it's rainy outside) and used their imaginations more.  I think we'll do no electronics days around here more often.  :)  *grin*

Thanks for stopping by today!

Summer Sketch Challenge

Today's the day for the very first Stamp and Scrap challenge! Scrap and Stamp is a new challenge blog.  The founding members Alex and Melissa wanted to create a site that featured scrapbook pages that combined stamping and scrapbooking.  I am part of their design team to kick things off!   This first one is based on a sketch and a summer theme.  Here is the sketch provided by fellow design team member, Pamela. 
  
Here is my Summer page based on this sketch.
 
All materials Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.
Recipe: 
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, mini alphabet(retired from Stampin' Up!), See You Around Jumbo Wheel(background underneath photos)
Ink:  Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise ink cartridge
Paper:  Kraft, Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Cool Caribbean, Rose Red
Other:  Chipboard heart, My Way punch, Glitz frosting strip, corner rounder punch, scallop border punch

Check out what the rest of the design team came up with at Scrap and Stamp.
You'll be amazed at the wonderful pages!

You can play along too!!!  Create a Summer page that incorporates the sketch above and use 2 different stamps on your layout.  Leave a comment with a link to your page on the Scrap and Stamp blog post and you could win the following fabulous prizes from Limelight Papercrafts!

The deadline is Thursday, June 19 PST.  The winner will be announced the next day on the Stamp and Scrap blog.  I can't wait to see what YOU come up with for this challenge!!!