Cheerful Critters are On the Fence

The best thing about being part of a great team is having a great leader - I'm happy to say my leader, Lorri Heiling, is the best in my book!  She has such fun creative ideas and shares them with everyone.

Yesterday she posted the cutest card and I simply had to snag it and give it a go.  I made a couple of changes to make it mine, but the concept I borrowed from Lorri.  Thank you Lorri, this is adorable!

Sadly this adorable stamp set - Cheerful Critters - will be gone June 2nd and is not carrying over to the new Annual Catalog!  It's such a cute set, so if you want it, grab it now, before it's gone!

There are a couple of things on the list below (see on my blog if you can't view them in an email) that won't be available until June 2nd, but I couldn't resist using them.  The Watermelon Wonder (balloons) and the Cucumber Crush (bunny's dress).  Also, Since I'm keeping my Blendabilities until they dry out, I decided to use them to color.  I just can't give them up while they still have life!

Thank you for looking in today!  Don't forget Mother's Day tomorrow!  If your Mom is still here, please give her an extra hug for those of us who have to wait to see our Mom's again in Heaven.  Mother's Day is especially difficult for me because My Dad's birthday is today (May 9th) and usually falls near Mother's Day - which it makes it a double whammy.  

I miss them both so much.

God bless!

~ 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

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

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

Making it a Happy Day!

Thursday was just 'one of those days'... actually, it's been 'one of those weeks', so I decided it was time for a Happy Day card! I actually spotted the idea for this card from Connie Stewart.  I changed up the colors, ribbon, sentiment and added an extra layer, but it was her idea and it made me happy!  So it became my project for Thursday night for posting today.

I used Pistachio Pudding and Pink Pirouette for the colors.  I stamped the bunny from Cheerful Critters onto Whisper White 2 1/2' x 2 7/8" with Black Memento ink and then stamped her dress again on a scrap of Whisper White so I could punch her flower corsage.  The white layer goes over a Pink Pirouette layer 2 5/8" x 3 1/4" Then I stamped her dress several times onto Pink Pirouette using Strawberry Slush.  I cut out her dress and adhered it to the white and black image.  I punched additional flowers out of the other pink dress dots. The card base was cut at 11" x 4 1/4" and scored it at 5 1/2".  The 2nd layer is 5 1/4" x 4" and embossed with the Large Polka Dot embossing folder and popped it up with Stampin' Dimensionals.   I hope this cute little card has cheered you up.  It sure worked for me! OH.... BY THE WAY.... Have you spotted the newest Photopolymer Stamp set?  It is called Better Than E-Mail and it is perfect for those great "back of the card" stamps!  They are also great for any other part of your card!

 

 

Thanks for looking in today!  Have a wonderful weekend. 

 

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Hooray for Cheerful Critters

I'm beginning to think there is no end to working with these Cheerful Critters!  They are just so cute together and now today, alone.

Look how fast and easy these are to make.

I stamped onto a 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" Whisper White square and colored them in with my Blendabilities.  While I did blending on the bunny's dress / shirt, I want to make sure you don't have to BLEND when using these fabulous makers. 

As you can see with the bear, I didn't blend the bronze blendability marker, I simply colored it in until it had nice coverage.  If you use the Stampin' Write Markers for coloring, they tend to not fill in well, but with the Blendabilities, they color so nice!

So, don't be afraid to try the Blendabilities, they can be used without knowing anything about blending or you can play with them and learn by trial and error (and great YouTube videos!) how to blend them.

During Sale-a-bration, you can actually get FREE Blendabilities Markers (see page 20 of the SAB catalog).  What better way to try something new by getting it for free!!!

The ribbon on this card was also a freebie from Sale-a-bration (see page 4).  It is in the Best Year Ever Accessory Pack.  1/4" polyester ribbon in Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry and Coastal Cabana and matching designer buttons in the same colors.

Thank you for looking in today.  Have a happy stampy Saturday!

~ Donna

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Best. Day. Ever. for Cheerful Critters

Ok, my Cheerful Critters just got even cuter when mixed with one of the Sale-a-bration freebies - Best Day Ever stamp set.  I think they are so cute!

Now, I bet you think that BEST. DAY. EVER. is three different stamps, right.... wrong!  It's ONE stamp.  So I had to get creative to use the plan shown below.

I chose to select the Photopolymer set as my freebie for a couple of reasons.

First, it makes lining the stamps up perfectly where I want them.  Second, it makes what I'm about to do a little more bearable, because you can easily "fix" it.

Below is how the stamp comes out of the box.  Don't look too close though, at least not yet.  In the second picture, you'll see what I did.  Take a deep breath before you look if you are squeamish about your stamps.  LOL!

 

Ok, I know I'm going to hear gasping, but just bear with me and don't call the SEMT (Stamp Emergency Medical Transport) Team.

 

Yep, that's right, I used my snips and ever so carefully cut the words apart.  Now you can look closer at the picture above and see where I cut them.  Are you breathing okay yet?  Really, it's okay! 

 



 

Now you can use the words however you want.  All together, spread apart or maybe just use one word somewhere.

 



Thank you for looking in today.  I hope you have your wish list filled out and ready to order!  If you need an Occasions Catalog or Sale-a-bration catalog, just let me know and I'll be happy to send one to you if you don't already have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Happy Thursday!

~ Donna

 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Cheerful Critters - Sneak Peek!

Oh My Gosh... my pre-order for the 2015 Occasions Catalog came today and I just had to make a card with this cute new set!  It's called Cheerful Critters and it will be available to the public on January 6th. 

If you REALLY love it, you can join my team and pre-order one for your very own.  Tempting?  Contact me and let's talk! 

 

We're having a little celebration tomorrow for a co-worker who is about to be a first time Daddy and I think this will make a great Welcome Baby card.  Don't tell, but a couple of us are also working on a Project Life book for the new family as well.  I can hardly wait for them to see it and start adding pictures to it.

Thank you for looking in today.  I hope you love this great little set as much as I do.  I see a LOT of great ideas this can be used for.  Not to mention all the other new sets that will be available in the new Occasions catalog in January!

Happy Hump Day!

~ Donna