sale-a-bration almost gone...

The once a year, fabulous sale-a-bration promotion is amost gone.  Only one week left!  I know many of you have already placed your $60 order to get your free stamps and accessories but if you haven't, make sure to do so before they are gone! 
Here's a couple ideas to help your inspiration:
This one uses pool party cardstock and the everyday enchantment dsp and brads (sale-a-bration exclusive!!)

This one is a super simple one using the beautiful fresh vintage set in blushing bride.  The blushing bride colour along with it's 2010 in colour teammates, pear pizzazz, poppy parade, peach parfait and concord crush will be gone very soon so order your cardstock and refills now before they sell out in May.

I'm STILL loving that pleated satin ribbon!

Playing with stamps and paper

Just spent most of the day playing. I have a slew of private classes and events coming up so whenever that happens I just sit down and stamp a whole bunch of simple cards and then figure out later which card will be for which event.
I thought I would share a couple with you. Of course if you want to see more ideas, you need to book your own private class with me!

This one below was just something fun using the twitterpated dsp and the co-ordinating buttons.  It's hard to tell but the base colour is blushing bride and the red is the riding hood red.  The dsp shapes were made the the 1 3/8" square punch and 1 1/4" square punch and two of the corners were rounded.

This card uses two sale-a-bration products: the everyday enchantment dsp and the embossing folder frames.  Pool party and Lucky limeade are great colours to pair together. The stamp set is called Clearly for You.

Clean and Simple cards

For me, the magic of stamping comes from being able to create something lovely in just a few steps and just a few minutes. Here's a couple of cards that you can easily reproduce. Just take out your supplies and go for it.

Here's my first Christmas card using the new Sounding Joy stamp set in the holiday mini catalogue. The holly berry bouquet designer series paper told me that wild wasabi, chocolate chip and real red work well together. So, that's the colour scheme I used here. I used vanilla smooch spritz to glimmer up the whisper white cardstock. (for those faint of heart who don't like spraying, use shimmery white paper instead). Some real red ribbon finishes it off.

Here's another super simple card using the Elements of Style stamp set. I just stamped the flower image on some very vanilla cardstock and matted it with soft suede cardstock. I quickly coloured the flower using the blushing bride marker and river rock marker. The card base is river rock with the flourish image stamped on the background and a sentiment from the Heard from the Heart set on the bottom. See? So easy, so fast. Way faster than going to the store to buy a card. I love stamping.

Sweet Summer Watercolour

At club last night we had fun playing with the watercolour crayons. They come in the different colour families. I love how you can colour with the crayons but then blend the colour with the blender pens to achieve a softer look.

Can you see some spot glimmer? That is using the smooch pearlized top coat. The applicator is just like nail polish tip so you can get a precision application. Another way to add bling! Yea!

Using Fabric--without sewing

It's no secret that I don't like sewing. I've tried very hard to like sewing. Before I discovered papercrafting, I did a lot of sewing with pathetic results and a lot of stress. I bought the SU fabric because I couldn't resist buying co-ordinating product. I loved the candy cane dsp so I figured I would like the fabric as well. It took me a long time to figure out how to use it while avoiding sewing. I talked to my downline Esther who informed me she uses the fabric all the time. She said: just use it like ribbon. She ties it around her cards and everything, just like ribbon.

Here's some projects made with the fabric. I really like the added interest and texture provided by the fabric. (isn't the cheep talk stamp funny? It's a partridge in a pear tree!)

The circles for my daughters headband was cut out using the big shot circles #2 die. I just used hot glue gun to stick it all together.

If you're liking the fabric look, stay tuned for the occasions mini coming out in January. Oh my! Beautiful fabric, paper and accessories!

Snowflake Spinner and Medallion Wreath

Here's a couple of cards that my friend Susan made. They were so cool I thought I'd share them with you. I love that the Medallion can turn into a Christmas wreath. Not only is this background stamp great for everyday cards, now you can make holiday cards with it.

The spinning snowflake punched out with the silver cardstock is so stunning. Woohoo! I'm really starting to get excited about the Christmas season.

chocolate projects

I had a great time at my Chicks n Chocolate class. My classes are a great way to make projects and get creatively inspired. Here's a couple of the projects that were a part of the class. Part of what I wanted participants to experience is the versatility of the chocolate chip and early espresso colour. Here's a card we made using crumb cake for the card base and cardstock of blushing bride, peach parfait, cajun craze and chocolate chip. Someone exclaimed that they would never consider putting those colours together but they look great. Surprise!

Here's a little treat holder. I was so excited when I learned how to make this flower using the eyelet border punch. So easy and I've noticed that every flower comes out unique. Baja Breeze and Early Espresso look so elegant together. A square ice brad, a few stamps of the small medalliion from the Artistic Etchings set and some early espresso grosgrain ribbon finish off this project.

We all had fun eating chcolate chip cookies, chocolate timbits, chocolate dipped stawberries and drinking chocolate milk. What a pleasant evening!

sale-a-brate birthday

I wanted to make a card with some extra paper I had left over from a workshop. I had something totally different in mind but this is what transpired. I wanted to make something fast and simple because ds would be coming home from school any minute.

Vintage Medallion

When surfing on the net, I saw a few samples of the vintage labels sale-a-bration set combined with the Medallion. Here's my version. I used perfect plum and pale plum. I'd be very curious how night of navy and bashful blue would go together on this card but I haven't had a chance to try yet. The heart in the middle is from the something sweet set and the sentiment is from the ever popular Heard from the Heart