Hi everyone. I will be posting some cards but just on my picasa album. Click on the link below to go to Picasa. In the meantime, I wanted to send a quick post of something really cool that happened today. It was gorgeous outside yesterday and today, so I got a lot of gardening done. Today I was working on the other bed closer to the house when I grated a big pile of mulch and what looked like fur and sure enough, underneath were these little cuties. At first I thought they were baby mice but then Peter ran up from the fire pit where he was burning and sure enough they moved just a little bit and you could see their ears. Now try and keep a dog away from there - that's almost impossible. I turned my back for just a few minutes and she had dug them all out of the hole. I gave her a swat on the butt and covered them back up. There are 5 of them in this little tiny hole. I then proceeded to get some netting and cover this huge bush of tulips right next to them. I mean - salad bar right outside their door. What a feel good find. Have a great week everyone.

Oh happy Monday. I don't do Mondays very well, so I am going to share with you another card I made over the weekend. Whenever one of my club 10 people is a hostess for the month, they receive a pack of 6 cards as a gift from me for being a club 10 hostess. I used to think "who would want a pack of my cards," but I've had so many comments about the card the club 10 customers get with every order, I thought "hey, I'll be they would like more than one card as my way of saying thanks." So here it is.

As you can tell, I really love the Welcome to the Neighborhood paper pack and so it's another card from there, but then I embellished it with the cute little walkway in front of the house and a little grass stamp I had on hand. I'm sure it's from an old Stampin Up but I can't remember which one. I then stamped one of the little trees from "Trendy Trees" and embellished it with a few little rain dots, added a cute little butterfly from the embosslits.

Enjoy!

The weekend is almost over and I wanted to quickly post this card I made over the weekend. I got the Stampin'Up stamp "Thoughts & Prayers" with the big tree that I've wanted since the catalog came out last August. I even have the same tree as a decor' element on my living room wall because I love it so much. Anyway, I was flipping through the Welcome to the Neighborhood paper pad you can earn free until the end of the month and when I saw the paper with the clouds, this idea came to me.

Enjoy!

One more quick post today. So while I was in the mood for making St. Pat cards, I was looking thru my sticky cuts from Stampin' Up - I think all of us have ordered those at some point and they're sitting in our craft supplies and we forgot all about them. They are #114301 in the current catalog - page 180 - Sticky Cuts Sweet - $8.95.

Anyway, I was looking at stick cut hearts to create a 4 leaf clover when I came across the tree and thought - I bet that would be cute on one of Stampin'Up's little clipboards (#109191 4-1/2x 9" - $6.50 p.185). So I

covered the chipboard with a light green/blue/yellow striped background paper, sanded the edges, painted the top section by the clip in a tan, but I may change that to white paint yet, and then I stuck the tree on the cardstock. I did the tree in sections so I could see where the leaves were placed on the sticky cuts sheet. 3 of the leaves I layered twice onto white cardstock to give them some depth. I peeled all of the top layers of the leaves off and sprinkled them with certainly celery fine glitter (#108796 $13.95 p. 180). I then wanted to differentiate between the color of the leaves and the trunk so I sprinkled old olive embossing powder and embossed the trunk. I wasn't sure embossing powder would emboss on sticky tape, but it worked. Finally I used the Go Green Ala Carte stamp from the Occasions Mini (#117074 - p. 43 - $6.95).

Enjoy - I've gone on long enough. Now go play!

Top Of The Mornin' to all of you. When I was a little girl, my Grandma Ball would call us when we got home from school to see if we had worn green on St. Patty's day. I don't remember exactly how much my grandma really was Irish, but I do remember that my mom always tried to make St. Patty's Day a festive time and would set a special table for dinner on St. Pat's Day decorated with green napkins and she would color our mashed potatoes green and serve a green vegetable. Funny how those little things meant so much to me that they really stuck with me and I did those same things to my son as he was growing up.

So I thought I would share the cards I made this year to ring in the green. And I realized as I was lining them all up to take a picture, that I had made exactly 12 - that must mean something right - maybe I should go buy a Powerball ticket. Anyway, enjoy and hopefully one of them will inspire you to create a card of your own and send it out to someone who loves green. Besides, isn't everyone a little Irish on St. Patty's Day.

Make some time for yourself to play today.

So I thought I would make a quick post to the card asked about the most. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" This card was cased directly out of Papercraft Magazine March/April 2010 page 66. As you can see, I blinged mine out more than they did, but everyone that knows me knows that I couldn't call a card complete without a little bling. Also, by sheer accident I wanted to put some sort of flower on the card because I had this cute "bloom" saying and so I opened up my corduroy buttons from Stampin'Up and put a red button on the card, then I thought maybe it would be prettier with an orange brad, so I put that on there and then, I put the prongs of the brad through the holes of the button and whalla (sp?). I cut a stem and punched a leaf and completed my flower. I love this little addition to the card. The other products I used is of course Making Memories adhesive glitter cardstock that I love. Unfortunately I heard that MM was not going to be making this anymore :(. I embossed black cardstock and attached that to a white card base.

I almost forgot to tell you the most important thing - the way I got the petals. These are simply rectangles (cut from Welcome To The Neighborhood SAB paper pack). They measure 2x1-1/2" and round opposite corners with a corner rounder punch. Who knew! The card base measures 6-1/4 x 4-1/2".

Take some time and play this weekend and copy this idea and put your own spin on it.

So here's to Traci who we missed at our card meeting last night. I hope you're feeling better. Card #1: We used a "Design Adhesive" sticker/glue border called Butterfly swirls. You rub the design with a bone folder or something hard edged onto the top sheet of the 2 layers and then you very gently peel off the top layer and place that onto the yellow cardstock. It will be sticky, so make sure you don't touch one of the butterflies with your finger. It is also a little larger than your cardstock, but don't worry about that, what doesn't touch the cardstock won't stick. Then take your bone folder and rub the design onto your yellow cardstock. Gently... pull off the piece of paper just leaving the glue of butterflies. Sprinkle glitter onto the butterflies generously. Assemble card. A piece of baby blue satin ribbon is tied around the top and bottom layers and then a thin strip of pink sugar coated cardstock is glued onto the top of that. The "Laugh" and tiny flowers are attached using dimensionals.
Card #2: the second card we made was a digital card I created using My Digital Studio and then the students "hybrided" it up. Very quick card. The only thing you had to add was a metal white hodgepodge hardware bracket after inserting 2 small green brads. I put a small round dimensional to hold the brads in place and then attached that to the "digital" hodgepodge hardware. We then wrapped a piece of glorious green grosgrain ribbon and taped the ends to the back, right between the "digital" white and always artichoke ribbon. We took the extra little piece and tied a knot around the green ribbon and this way you can slide it to wherever you want to on your card. Finally we stuck a little glitter foam shamrock down on the right hand lower corner. We also layered the digital card onto glorious green cardstock and then onto a whisper white card base.

Card #3: The final card we made was taken right from the Sale-A-Bration catalog. I was running into a bind timewise and decided why not create a card that is right in the catalog and put my own spin on it. Which is what being creative is all about - an inspiration jump off point.

Traci - all of the elements are in your kit and I think the card is pretty self-explanatory by looking at it. The only little hint would be to let you know that the chipboard heart, little flowers and arrow are all attached with dimensionals. The ribbon is attached the same way we attached it on the St. Pat's card. Wrap a piece around to the back and cut off the excess. Then tie a little bow with the remaining piece - tying it only once. If it slips a little tip is to put a little glue dot where you're going to tie it to hold the bow part in place. Finally we layered the swiss dot top onto a piece of melon mambo cardstock and then onto a white card base.

Enjoy .... and always find time to play....

Hello everyone. The weekend is almost here and I am so ready. What a week. I did have something good happen this week and that is I was able to share My Digital Studio with 3 of my friends and share the same excitement I have, or you could say addiction. Believe me, when I say it's addicting, I am not exaggerating. So thanks for Chris, Traci and Lou Ann for giving me an opportunity to share a new way of papercrafting.

So last night a dear friend of mine came home from work and found her dog had passed away in his crate. As a big dog lover, my heart goes out to her and the pain she must be feeling and sense of loss. She does have 2 dogs, so she still has a dog at home to lay and cry with her while she misses her dear Beauregard. She loves Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Beauregard was her 3rd Ridgeback and now she has Toby left. So inbetween commercials of Survivor I created a card on MDS and I wanted to share it with you.

So you can refer back to this post and maybe re-create it when you purchase My Digital Studio for yourself. I created a 5x7 Portrait Greeting Card - Designer - Summer Home - 5x7 Card 2. The polka dots on the background were actually a tiny little border on the side of the designer card that I stretched out to cover the entire background with polka dots. I think this is what Chris was getting at last night and YES Chris - you can create a swiss dot "effect." The computer still won't physically emboss my card, but I love the sweet little white polka dot on the card. The 3 squares are just blank templates you can drop cardstock into. Remember when you do this, you want to open your cardstock as a page layer and then drag it over the square until the square turns blue and then drop it in and it fills the square. The stitching and staples were from another website where I got a free digital embellishment. Start scouring the web, there are lots and lots of free digital embellishments, paper, fonts and so much more out there free for the taking. All digital elements come "zipped" and you will have to "unzip" all of your digital files. Make a post and let me know if you want more information on that and I'll create a post about it.

Anyway, this is getting long, so one last thing is I wanted to say that the dog stamp is from "Man's Best Friend" and I just mirror imaged the middle one to face it in the opposite direction. Enjoy and I'd love to hear what you think. I'm off to the print to finish up my card using product now.

Happy Friday tomorrow. I hope you find time to play this weekend.

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I wanted to quickly let you know about a class that I will be offering for My Digital Studio. It will be held on Wednesday, February 24th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The class will be limited to 4 students and the first 2 will arrive at 6:00 and create a card on my computer using Stampin'Up's Digital Papercrafting software called My Digital Studio. They will create, prepare to save for the web so they can share it with their friends and print and change assemble it using hybrid products. The 2nd group will arrive at 7:00 Pm and we will go thru the same steps as the first group but at least 2 people will be creating while the other 2 are learning.

So if you're interested - hurry up and sign up. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, February 19th. Cost of the class is $10.

I have also posted several valentine cards I made, both digital (and then spoofing up with product) and paper versions and posted them on my Picassa gallery, so be sure to check them out.

I will also be having a March monthly card making class on Wednesday, March 10th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. So if digital just isn't your thing, I'd love to have you join me to create 3 projects on March 10th.

Until then, take care and always find time to play.

Now that I'm in the habit of posting at least once or twice a week, it seems like it's been awhile since I posted. I got a bug from my husband or it could have been from any number of people at the office, but in any event, I've not been feeling too well since Sunday and so I just haven't even felt like going on line. But I could tell I was starting to feel better yesterday when I felt like opening up My Digital Studio and playing around again. However, I was able to play a little bit in my craft room on Friday night and Saturday and so I did make a couple of valentine cards I thought I'd post.

The first one is my 2nd attempt at using the Welcome to the Neighborhood Paper Stack (6x6) that you can get from Stampin'Up free with a $50 order during Sale-A-Bration. I guess you can tell I really love the paper with those cute little houses on it. I had some Making Memories Chipboard from their Love collection a couple of years ago and so that's what's in the upper left hand corner. I then just cut out a couple of the clouds and layered them with dimensionals and I had some puffy hearts and added those. Quick and simple.

Another card I made was using a sample that is in the Occasions Mini. I didn't have a large alphabet stamp and so I just cut a 2" "U" out using my Cricut (Basic George) and I also used cut 4 hearts out right away since my Cricut was already set up. I'm sure they used the heart punch in the Occasions Mini, but believe it or not, that's a punch I don't have. However, I did get the jewelry tag punch with last month's order so I punched one of those out in white and stamped "Love" on it and tied it onto the "U" with silver cord. (That part isn't in the sample I copied). The card I'm talking about that I copied is on page 11 of the Occasions Mini. Check it out!
So when you're stuck for inspiration, pick up one of the current catalogs and copy one of their cards and put your own spin on it. It's really OK to copy - everyone does it and that's the whole idea behind inspiring you - to give you a jump off point. Just always remember to give credit to the person you're copying.

Until next time,

May you always have time to play........

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,

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.