Thursday, January 28, 2010

Well hi everyone. Did you see the comment Kelly made to the post I did last night??? How cool is that. Someone noticed me on the web other than my favorite handfull of followers. You faithful followers are what keep me creating. So I had to post a card I just made to keep you all interested.

I had ordered a few digital downloads for my MDS and 2 other people had asked me for something from the catalog, so I placed an order and got the free Welcome to the Neighborhood Sale-A-Bration 6x6 pack of cardstock. As soon as I opened it when I got home tonight, I couldn't wait to get in my craft room and make a valentine card. The first paper right on the top with the little houses and the tiny red pin stripe on the back, screamed to send a valentine card to all of those that I don't necessarily want to say "LOVE" to but want to know they are special to me. So here it is. What do you think?

The layers from bottom to top are: whisper white card base, baja breeze cs, pink pirouette cs and then the "Welcome to the Neighborhood background paper. I had a little piece of the top paper and so I turned it over which revealed the red and white pin stripe. I punched two 1/2" borders using the pinking hearts border punch from the new Occasions Mini, attached those to the strip and then wrapped a piece of the red satin ribbon from the Occasions around that piece and taped them down. I took a retired Happy Valentine's Day stamp and stamped that in Chocolate Chip. Finally, I went to my computer and typed in Times Roman From our Home to Yours (12pt) and printed that out on whisper white cardstock. I punched it out using the new modern label punch - and you know me, I had to have my touch of glitter, so after sponging the label in real red ink, I attached it to MM silver glitter adhesive paper using dimensionals and then stuck the silver paper down onto the ribbon. If I was only going to make one of these, I would probably use red gems, but I needed to come up with a simpler more economical solution, so I used my quickie glue pen on each end of the modern label and sprinkled some of Stampin' Up's fine red glitter and it gives it just the punch it needed. Finally I used my glitter pen and traced all of the houses and the clouds. I'm sure you can't see it in the photo, but it is a very sparkly card.

So I don't know if you've placed a $50 order through me from Stampin' Up yet to get your free paper pack, but if you haven't, call me, email me or go on my demonstrator website (using the button on the side here) and place that order. It is well worth it. Very very cute paper.

Well that's it for tonight. I'm a sucker for Project Runway and so that's about to start, so I'm going to rest up and I'll be back in that craft room tomorrow night creating all sorts of new things to inspire you and get you to use all of that "stuff".

Goodnight and may you always have time to play,

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Well we're halfway through the week and I have Valentines on my brain. Maybe because I've got my Heart Chipboard - Things I Love class coming up on Tuesday, February 9th - don't forget the deadline to sign up is this coming Friday - January 29th. I need to order everyone's materials and it takes a week for the product to come in.


The other reason may be because I have some friends at work that purchase handmade cards from me and they're asking for Valentine cards. I pulled out some cards I made last year and thought I would post a few of them here tonight. Maybe one of these will inspire you to re-create your own valentine for someone you love. With the weekend coming up, it's supposed to be really cold out and it would be a good time to whip up some cards.



So here they are. What do you think. Some of you probably remember these and maybe they're on my Picasa album already. If you leave me a comment, I'll drop a little valentine in the mail to you from me.



The first one is a very simple card using glitter die cut letters to spell out X and O and I hung a little heart from the "O" with some silver cord. Very quick and easy.


The second one is created mostly by the big red polka dot background paper. I just layered a heart glitter sticker onto white cardstock and cut it out and attached it with dimensionals. The other glitter paper on the bottom is Making Memories red adhesive glitter paper.

The third one is an oldie but a goodie. The little dotted backgrounds were made using one of Stampin'Up's retired sets.
It's a set called "By Design" in case you want to see if you have
it. And I stamped it 3 times using versamark and then used red
and black embossing powder. It gives off a really cool shimmery
look. The hearts are also from a retired set and those were
embossed and cut out and then attached using dimensionals.
This card would probably take the most time out of the 3 but it
is still a very easy card and you could cut out the embossing and
just stamp it and use a glitter pen or stickles to add shimmer to
it. So Enjoy and I'll try and post some more tomorrow night so
you have a few more ideas to ponder over the weekend.
Good night everyone and remember.....
May you always find time to play.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

More importantly than any of the posts I did this weekend is the Haiti Relief button. This would be a great time to sign up for my class so that your dollars can go to a good cause. Click on the button on the right to see more details.

Have a great week everyone and as always.....

May you always have time to play.
So with all of this creating and posting, I'm getting in the mood for a class. Have all of you see the cute little chipboard books that Stampin'Up is selling in their Occasions Mini catalog.
They are only $4.95 and you can get them in the shape of a bird, flower or heart. So how would you like to attend my class on Tuesday, 9th - 6:30 to 8:30 PM at my home and create a cute little "Things I Love" Heart chipboard book. Class fee will include: (1) chipboard heart book; (2) Designer Specialty cardstock (in Occasions Mini) and other miscellaneous items I will add to the class to create your own one of a kind mini book. We will only be covering 4 pages (hearts). The cost of the class is $20 and I will need you to reply to me at stamperwithdayjob@gmail.com no later than Friday, January 29th so I can pre-order the class materials from Stampin'Up. I am limiting the class to 7 students, so hurry up and sign up for this class as I'm sure it will fill up fast. As a bonus, I will throw everyone's name in a hat that signs up and I will draw 2 names. One person will receive the free hostess merchandise and one person will receive the free hostess set.
So I'm anxious to get together and start crafting again with all of you and look forward to hearing from some of you.
As a bonus to those who sign up, I will throw in the instructions to create this 4 photo display or candle holder for you to create with the extras from your materials.

I have also decided to offer my kits for purchase to anyone who would love to make these projects but just can't find a way to break away on a week night. The kit is still $20.00 plus shipping. Email me if you would like to order a kit to create at your leisure or maybe even give as a gift.




Hi everyone. Well as much I've been oohing and aahing over MDS (My Digital Studio), I still love all my stuff. I don't know if it's the feel of things and being able to play with all of those little extras or what. But I love my buttons and punches. This card uses the scallop border punch that you can earn free with a $50 order from me through Stampin'Up. The butterfly is Stampin'Up's punch as well, but that has been in the big catalog since it came out. I did however, punch first one in light pink and then a 2nd one using the clear acetate w/black polka dots that came with the halloween paper pack last fall. Punches work great with acetate and creates a nice layering effect. The red corduroy buttons are in the Occasions mini catalog and available now in this red or pink.
Here's another very quick card. The butterflies are made using Beautiful Wings Embosslits available now in Stampin'Up's Occasions mini catalog. The brown textured cardstock and a little rub-on in white is all you need to create this cute card. I did wrap some silver cord around each of the butterflies for centers and then attached them with a mini glue dot. I'd love to see someone else's spin off of this one.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Good morning everyone and happy Saturday and I'm glad to see you all made it to the weekend. First things first this morning, I finally trashed the rest of the Christmas cookies that have been sitting in tins on our counter. Enough of those and way too tempting to just eat one every once in awhile. Then I talked to Chris for a little bit and then fired up the laptop and poured myself a cup of coffee.



I had purchased some digital downloads from Stampin' Up yesterday and thought this would be a good time to download those. The nice thing is I can download them to my laptop and then later, when I take my flash drive over to my desktop and I have a few extra minutes, I can go to Stampin'Up's website and download those same things onto my desktop. You can download MDS onto 2 computers in your home and that applies to elements you purchase as well. One of the things I purchased was "The Write Stuff" digital kit because it has some tags in it with the curly label in the kit which I could duplicate by punching if I wanted to add depth that way to my project. The one thing I would warn though is to be sure if you are putting a curly label tag on your project, make sure you don't alter the size too much - or a little tip - punch a curly label out and hold up to the screen on your computer to see if it comes up the same size on your digital card as your punch size. When I create a card in MDS, I view it at 75%, but when I would be comparing label vs. digital, make sure you are viewing at 100%. So here's the digital card I made this morning.


Have a great weekend everyone. My company holiday party is tonight, so I don't know how much I'll be creating tomorrow, but who knows. I've got a few other cards I made to go to the club 10 hostess in January and I'll post those either later or tomorrow.

May you always have time to play and create something beautiful.

Monday, January 18, 2010


I'm baaaaack. Here is the card all hybrided (is that a word?) up.
Of course, there is a little glitter on the top of each hat on the tassle and then there is gold glitter paper on the band and top of the red hat on the zero in 40. The only other thing I did was I put white pen stitching on the 4 and the 0. Layered it with a scrap of red cardstock I had sitting on my table, then black and then on a vanilla card base.
It's Monday and believe it or not, I am blogging 2 days in a row. I hate Mondays, but then if I didn't have to work on Mondays, I guess I would hate Tuesdays. But for some reason, today wasn't that bad. I guess because I got a good night's rest last night I had no problems dragging myself out of bed this morning. And as Mondays go, it was just another day at the office. But I couldn't stop thinking about MDS and what could I make tonight. My DH is gone tonight playing sheepshead and so I told him that tonight I was going to sit and veg and watch the Bachelor. Do any of you watch it? I swore I was not going to watch it after last week with the babe that cheated on the bachelor - but they sucked me in. Supposedly tonight someone reveals they are pregnant.


Anyway, a friend at work asked me if I could whip out a 40th birthday card for a friend who's birthday is Wednesday and so while I was sitting at the kitchen table watching the evening news and eating dinner, I grabbed my laptop and whipped out this card. What do you think? I'm off to my craft room to "hybrid" it up. So that's it for tonight. Have a great evening everyone and check back tomorrow. I'm on a roll - 2 posts in 1 week - whoo hooo! [Chrissy must be so proud of me.]


Sunday, January 17, 2010



The weekend is over and what another busy weekend it was. Saturday night we had a going away party and today Peter and I did the Sampson Stomp at the zoo and then came home and have been busy all day long. Made a turkey and had a nice dinner and finally sat down on the couch at 7:45 PM. Wow - I'm beat. But I now have a laptop I bought for myself with some Chrismas mone I got and decided to play in MDS. And in the 45 min. I've been sitting here, I created this digital card. I'm telling, this is really addicting.



I can't figure out how to rotate this picture, so you'll have to turn your head sideways to look a it. I think it's pretty obvious which way it opens up. I'll bling it up and then post it here in hybrid form. If you're intrigued, start to familiarize yourself with digital terminology. Hybrid just means, digital and physical embellishments, like stickers, rhinesones, ribbon, and stuff all of us already have. I know you're getting sick of hearing me saying this, but COOL HEY!





Alright so I'm back already. I just came out of my craft room, now mind you, it took time to take a picture of this hybrid card and then download it onto PSE 7 and adjust it a little bit, but overall, what did it take me, about 30 minutes to put a digital creation into a hybrid creation. Check it out!

All I did was added my grey background card on top of a black & white checkerboard piece of background paper and then that onto a cream card. The card dimensions on MDS is a 5x7, but this actual card is 4-1/2x6-1/4". I then added an epoxy exclamation mark by Oh No!, put a black grosgrain ribbon across the bottom where the green border met the 3 elements above, added a little circle paper clip and finally, went and used by glue pen and added glitter to the candle on all 50 candles. How quick and easy. DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT???!!!












Alright, so I know, I know, it's been way too long since I've been on my blog. I can't believe how much time this blogging stuff takes. I'll keep this post brief and let you know that I purchased My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up in November and played with a little bit when I was home from my foot surgery, but since then, I've really been able to sit down and play, play. Check out some of the cards I made this weekend. Peter's nephew's 2nd birthday is next weekend and you know how it is with kids, they won't remember for a minute what cards they got unless the parents keep their cards, so my first thought was this would be a cute card to create digitally and I don't have to spend a lot of layering and cardstock on. Well, while creating this card, I found out how to create a blank page and copy elements from my card to a blank document and then I can cut that element out and put a dimensional under it and raise it up. Such as the boat. There is also a feature on MDS (my digital studio) where you can put a shadow on an image and the computer makes it look like it's raised right off the page. I think I'm going to teach a class so you can all see how great this program really is. Don't misunderstand me, I have PSE7 (Photoshop Elements 7) and that is a very powerful program, but MDS is so incredibly user friendly and with a few lessons, you could be on your way creating cards right on your computer. I should add a disclaimer and say that I was worried if I started creating digital cards, then what do I do with the enormous amount of "stuff" I already have. Well believe it or not, I have found that I am actually using more little embellishments than I ever did before because now it's just a matter of tweeking it with a little bling. The star on the boat in the photo, Chris & I had bought these little viales of stars, flowers and paperclips, probably more than 2 years ago around halloween, I may have used 1 or 2 here and there. Well one of those little crystal stars worked great on my little boat. And I printed out another boat, copy and pasted onto a blank page, and walla - I have another boat to cut out and layer it on top of the digital boat. You guys have gotta see this amazing product Stampin' Up has come out with.






Here's a couple more pictures of cards. 1st one is a going away card for my cousin and her husband that are leaving for Memphis, TN next week.






The 2nd one is a 50th birthday card for a friend at worked that ordered one. The candle is from Big Bold Birthday stamp set and I just cut, and pasted until I had 10 across, highlighted all 10 and created a grouping and then copied and pasted that grouping 4 more times to create 50 candles on his cake. Gotta love that!
I'm going to head to my craft room right now and spoof this one up. Check back for more this week. This is very addicting. Thanks everyone for being loyal and still checking out my blog.