Lotus Blossom in Rose Red

Playing with color combinations again with the Lotus Blossom Stamp (one of many FREE choices with $50.00 purchase during Sale-a-bration).

Today I used Blackberry Bliss and Rose Red.

A lot of the combinations I've been reading about and trying start with the light colors first and stamp the darker color last.  With this one, I wanted the Blackberry Bliss a little softer, so I stamped it first.

With this stamp set, the Lotus Blossom comes with numbered stamps, so you know which stamp is first, second and third.

Stamp #1 - stamped with Black Berry Bliss
Stamp #2 - stamped with Rose Red
Stamp #3 - (the solid stamp) also stamped with Rose Red, but stamped off onto scrap paper first and then stamped onto the flower for the final result.

The base and first layer are Rose Red card stock.  8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".  The second layer is 5 1/4" x 4" and embossed with Large Polka Dots embossing folder and is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The Whisper White is 4" x 3" and matted on Black Berry Bliss 4 1/4" x 3 1/4".

I then punched two Wild Wasabi banners with the Banner Punch and blinged them up with Rhinestone Jewels.

Thank you for looking in today.  I'm excited about the weekend, time to spend stamping and prepping for next Saturday's workshop!  Wooo Hooo!  First one since November, maybe even October, so I'm excited to get together with my customers again!

Happy Saturday!
~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Butterfly Birthday

Today's card uses the beautiful Butterfly Thinlits Dies.  I'm thinking this could be my next workshop card...

When I began this card, I started with Bermuda Bay for the base and then realized the DSP I was planning to use has Coastal Cabana.  I like the way they mix together though, so decided to leave it the way it is.  What do you think?

The Bermuda Bay Base is 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".  Whisper White 5 1/4" x 4" and then I used the Butterfly Thinlit in the upper right corner.

The Bermuda Bay strip is 4" x 1 5/8" with DSP (Best Year Ever) at 4" x 1 1/2"

The Coastal Cabana ribbon and the DSP are both freebies from Sale-a-Bration.  The Calypso Coral Pompom Trim is in the Occasions catalog.

When using the butterfly dies or any intricate framelit, it can be frustrating to have all those little pieces stick inside the framelit.  Well, worry no more! 

Once you cut your butterfly and all the pieces are still in the framelit, simply take a fragrance free dryer sheet (the cheap ones at the dollar store are perfect!) - fold it in half and in half again and place it on your cutting pad, place the framelit - paper side down - onto the dryer sheet, add the 2nd cutting plate and run it through again.

The butterfly will stick to the dryer sheet and be completely released from the die.  Then simply lift off the butterfly from the dryer sheet.

If you find yourself scratching your head, you can find multiple examples of this on YouTube - just type in "butterfly dies with dryer sheets". 

Thank you for looking in today.  Looking forward to a great weekend with Super Bowl on Sunday!  My favorite team didn't make it, but I love the commercials, so it doesn't really matter who's playing!

Phoenix is all a-buzz with Super Bowl Fever and the Waste Management Open (formerly known as the Phoenix Open).  So getting around town this week has been interesting.  The funny thing, at least to me, is that it's RAINING!  (tee hee).  Welcome to the Valley of the Sun!  Actually, the Seattle Seahawks fans are used to the rain, so they've been out enjoying the NFL Experience in downtown Phoenix like it's nothing at all.  I'm loving the rain.  We don't get enough to suit me, so I think it's great!

Have a great weekend - wherever you are!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Happy Retirement!

Today I'm sharing the card I made for my co-worker who is retiring today.  Today she took home her giant Teddy Bear that she's had in her office for as long as I can remember.  She's a bear lover like I am, so I just knew she had to have a Bear on her card!

What better background for a bear, than honeycomb, cute - right? 

I added some sparkly red stars and popped them up with dimensionals and double stamped his nose (muzzle) and popped it up as well. 

 

Have a Happy Thursday!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thank You With Painted Petals

Do you ever have "Creator's Cramp"?  I knew what I wanted to make, but it just wouldn't come together.  I ended up with two cards and they'll be okay, but at the time of completing them, they were just not going to get posted here.

So I looked through my stamps and I'm tickled with what I found!

The cards are "note card" size 5" x 3 1/2" in Whisper White.  They also come in Crumb Cake and with envelopes.  I love these for making a set of cards for gifts.

The stamp set is Painted Petals and they come in Photopolymer which is the easiest to use for creating beautiful flowers.  I stamped the stems in Wild Wasabi and the flowers in Real Red.  The ribbon is Painted Blooms Cotton Twine, also from the Occasions Catalog.

These will be a gift for a  lady at work who is retiring this week.  She loves red, so I hope she loves these.

I have three more to tie the twine on to for completion.  Then wrap them up and they will be ready for Thursday's party.

To order any of these items, just click on the links below and you will be taken to my store.  Purchase of each of these should bring you to just under $50.00 (before tax and shipping) so add some Stampin' Dimensionals and you'll earn a Freebie from the Sale-a-Bration catalog!  Don't miss out!

Thank you for tuning in today!  Happy Hump Day!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Painted Blooms Monogrammed

I recently received a promotion in my Stampin' Up! adventure and to celebrate, my Sweet Upline, Lorri Heiling, presented me with Sophisticated Serifs - a set I've been wanting since I first saw it. 

I can hardly wait to play with it more, but for now, here's my first creation using Painted Blooms DSP and the letter "D" (for Donna, of course!).

This set comes with two full alphabets in upper case.  Two sizes, perfect for the fancy monogram you would see on fancy schmancy cards (see page 44 in the Occasions catalog).  That's what I'm planning next!

The card above is Daffodil Delight and Strawberry Slush with the great little tulips from Painted Blooms and tied up with Wild Wasabi Painted Blooms Cotton Twine.

Here's another color combination I'm planning to work with next.  Soft Sky and Blackberry Bliss.

Which combination do you like best? I'm just thinking of all the possible colors that can be used with just this DSP alone!  Think of all the other beautiful papers that will also work - awesome!

Thank you for looking in today.  To purchase any items shown - just click on the picture links below!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Berry Basket, or is it Beary Basket?

Here is another adorable project we made at our weSTAMP Regional event on Saturday.  I've been trying to resist this Berry Basket Bigz Die, but I don't think I'm going to be able to now!

Is this the cutest basket you have seen?  I think I love it so much because every summer my Mom and I would go to my Great Aunt Annie's farm in Indiana and we would always have blackberries and especially strawberries to pick.  Aunt Annie always had these "old fashioned" baskets and these really remind me of them.

They are SO easy to put together.  A couple of glue dots on the border (pink here) and a couple of staples on each side of the basket and it's done!  Just fill and enjoy!  After decorating, of course!

On the front of the basket is the adorable bow made from the new Bow Maker Punch - so cute using the Stacked with Love Designer Series Paper Stack.  Just remember when putting your bow together, if your pattern needs to be running the same way (such as these hearts), you'll want to turn your paper upside down and punch an extra "tail" piece so the hearts will be upright. 

 

Thank you for looking in today.  I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

 

~ Donna

 

 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Team Meeting Regional Event

My amazing upline, Lorri Heiling, hosted another "Regional Event" for our team on Saturday.  We had Prize Patrol, a beautiful gift bag and yummy snacks provided by several of our team members.  Part of our event also included seven make and takes and every one of them was fun to do and turned out great!

I'll be sharing them over the next week or so, in between my own creations.  I trust you will come back each day and check them out.

Here is one of my favorites.

We embossed Real Red card stock with Large Polka Dots embossing folder (133739).  Lorri pre-cut the black mats under the DSP and since we each had a pack of Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack (137779) in our gift bag, we were able to cut out the tops for the mats.  Aren't they beautiful?

 
We also made an envelope liner using the Envelope Liners Framelits (132172) from the DSP stack for our You + Me card.

 

Come back tomorrow to see another project.  There are so many fun and cute things we made and I'm anxious to show them off!  Thanks again to Lorri for an amazingly fun day of crafting with the girls!

~ Donna

Happy Anniversary!

It's Anniversary Day for hubby and me.  Eighteen years today.  This is the card I made for my hubby.

The new part is the great back of the card stamp that's in a new Photopolymer set!  This is a perfect stamp for making a card for someone special.

Thanks for looking in today! 

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Love is Kindness Anniversary Card

I thought I'd try my hand at something a little different today.  Inspiration for this comes from Cindy B.  She does a much better job at sponging, but I think this turned out pretty good for my first attempt.

The base is Bermuda Bay 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".  The next layer is Basic Black 5 1/4" x 4" and then Whisper White 5 1/8" x 3 7/8".  I used the corner rounder from Project Life on the Basic Black and the Whisper White only.

The sponged on colors are Bermuda Bay and Wild Wasabi and the Tulips are colored with Blendabilities Melon Mambo and Old Olive.  The Rhinestones are colored with the darkest of the Melon Mambo.

I just LOVE coloring the Rhinestones and Pearls with the Blendabilities.  Mostly the Rhinestones because they look like beautiful colored jewels!

Remember, you can earn FREE Blendabilities during Sale-a-bration.  See the flyer for details!  If you would like an Occasions Catalog or the Sale-a-bration booklet, please let me know and I'll be happy to send one to you!  I'd love to be your Stampin' Up! Demonstrator if you don't already have one.

Thank you for looking in today.  Happy Friday!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Cheerful Critters Hello You!

I finally had a chance to play with my Hello You Thinlits Dies and I'm really happy with how they came out.  The "thanks" card idea came from Martha Inchley.  Mine is a standard card size and I used a sentiment from "And Many More" (134273) because I wanted it to be more mine.  Thank you Martha for the idea to get me going!

After finishing it I thought maybe it needed more but didn't want to attempt modification and mess up what I had done.... have you ever done that?  Ack!  So, instead of adding to it, I made a second card with the bunny and added some DSP from Sale-a-bration - Best Year Ever (138633) as well as ribbon also from Sale-a-bration (138634). Both FREE with Sale-a-bration.

I added some pretty little flowers and colored the Rhinestones with my Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.

To the "thanks" card I added some gold foil stars for a little shine!

Thank you for looking in today!  We're over half way through the week with a big weekend ahead!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

January My Paper Pumpkin

Oh my goodness, these are so cute and were so much fun to put together!!!   Quick and easy and came out beautifully.

All I need now is more candy!  Each bag holds a serving of m&m's perfectly, which is 1/4 cup.  I could have put in less, but who wants less candy?  Right?

There are 24 bags in the kit, so I recommend getting 4 bags of m&m's (if that is your candy of choice, of course).  Then again, if you snack as you fill, you might want 5 or 6 bags.  tee hee!

 

 

If you haven't signed up for My Paper Pumpkin, what are you waiting for?  These kits just get cuter and cuter each month!

 

 

 

For the first time ever, Stampin' Up! has lowered the price of the 3 month prepaid subscription. During Sale-A-Bration (January 6-March 31) you  can save money and instantly qualify for a FREE product!

Why did we choose to discount the 3 month subscription? Because all good things come in threes! Here are three things we know you'll love.

1. Save $5.00 on your subscription.
2. The price point instantly qualifies for a FREE Sale-A-Bration product.
3. Skip to the fun for three months with all the stamps, ink, and paper ready to go for amazing papercrafting projects. 

 

137859 Three month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription was $59.85, now on sale for $54.85!

 

Thanks for looking in today!  Happy Thursday!

 

~ Donna

 

 

Weekly Deals - January 20th - January 26th, 2015

January 20, 2015

Weekly Deals

 

We hope you enjoy this week's Weekly Deals!

	2013-2015 In Color Stampin' Write Markers Item # 131260 Regular Price: $14.95 US/$19.95 CAN Discounted Price: $11.21 US/$14.96 CAN
	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers Item # 133654 Regular Price: $14.95 US/$19.95 CAN Discounted Price: $11.21 US/$14.96 CAN
	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment Item # 129370 Regular Price: $22.95 US/$31.95 CAN Discounted Price: $17.21 US/$23.96 CAN
	2014-2016 In Color Printed Clothespins Item # 133630 Regular Price: $5.95 US/$7.95 CAN Discounted Price: $4.46 US/$5.96 CAN
	Basic Gray Baker'S Twine Item # 134587 Regular Price: $2.95 US/$3.95 CAN Discounted Price: $2.21 US/$2.96 CAN
	Bermuda Bay Baker'S Twine Item # 134575 Regular Price: $2.95 US/$3.95 CAN Discounted Price: $2.21 US/$2.96 CAN
	Crushed Curry Baker'S Twine Item # 134586 Regular Price: $2.95 US/$3.95 CAN Discounted Price: $2.21 US/$2.96 CAN
	Box Of Chocolates Kit - Digital Download Item # 133024 Regular Price: $9.95 US/$10.95 CAN Discounted Price: $5.97 US/$6.57 CAN