Blog Hop - "Use Your Words"

Hello! It's time again for our monthly We Create Blog Hop. This month's theme made me laugh out loud when I heard it, because it's something I say a lot -- "Use your words." I can only imagine I'll be saying it even more when I have kids someday!

Anyway. I was super excited to do this hop because, if you haven't already seen them, the new catalog features some sets with AMAZING typography! The stamps I've featured are ones that can stand all on their own (though adding a little extra pizzazz is never a bad thing, right?), which makes cards come together lickety-split! In fact, I made all the cards for this hop in under an hour total! Like I said, super quick and easy!

Stamp sets: Big News, Something for Baby
Framelits: Baby's First Framelits 

Stamp set: Big News

Stamp Sets: Occasions 4 You, Mixed Bunch
Petal Punch 

Stamp Set: Big News

And because Stampin Up loves making things so easy for us, there's also an index of greetings & alphabet stamp sets right in the back of the current catalog! How easy is that?! You can check out the catalog by clicking on the link in the sidebar.


There are SO many more great ways to Use Your Words with Stampin' Up!'s word sets, so be sure to hop through the rest of the blogs to see what other ideas you can find!

Bundle & Save Blog Hop (Or, Please excuse the moving madness)

Welcome back, stampers! This month has been insanely busy! As you saw in my last post, I'm getting ready to move, along with helping several friends move and deal with other huge life changes, and getting to go on vacation with my husband (our first road trip!). So please excuse the temporary lack of project and enjoy the quick post about the great Bundle & Save options that Stampin Up offers.

This year's catalog features several fantastic "bundle" options that pair a stamp set with matching accessories -- usually Framelits for the Big Shot -- and give you a 15% savings! You can't beat coordinating products AND great savings!

Here's a handy list of each of the Bundle & Save options included in this year's catalog:

• Chalk Talk -- pg 11 
• Label Love -- pg 14
• Four Frames -- pg 21 
• Journal Bundles -- pg 29
• Apothecary Art -- pg 57
• Something for Baby -- pg 74
• Itty Bitty Banners -- pg 79
• Simply Sports--  pg 90
• Playful Pennants -- pg 91/92
• Starburst Sayings -- pg 117 
• Honeycomb Hello -- pg 134 
• Flower Patch -- pg 156 
• Tag a Bag -- pg 201

I decided to feature the Chalk Talk bundle, which is so much fun to play with! It was one that I borrowed from Julie, actually, but it may be on my "need to buy" list now! The stamps are super fun, but the really awesome part is the Framelits! You can cut out (somewhat) customized tags out of anything! So versatile!

This card features a cute little narrow tag and a popped-up heart. As you've seen in previous posts, I really love the combination of Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler (maybe because they're both desserts?) It's such a simple card, but the textured background and the chalk-like font give it a lot of character.

My second card was a little more tricky to figure out. I tried and tried and tried to figure out how to put one of the big tags on this card, and it just wasn't happening. So I browsed Pinterest and got the inspiration I needed: Ditch the big tag and focus on this super-sweet sentiment instead! After that, things just fell together so much better. The oval was cut out using a punch, rather than the Chalk Talk framelits, but I think the Oval Framelits would work too.

What's your favorite Bundle & Save option? Be sure to hop through all the other blogs to see their great projects!

New Catalog! And time for a Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to another month of our We Create Blog Hop! We're so glad you could join us this month, because we have something extra-special for you today: a BRAND NEW CAR CATALOG! (Sorry, bit of a Price is Right fan here.)

Every June, Stampin Up puts out a brand-spankin-new catalog. (If you were here last month, you heard about how that necessitates retiring some products. Sad day.) But even though we had to bid farewell to some long-loved sets, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for the new stamps! Seriously, guys. It's amazing. Take a few minutes (or hours, whatever; I won't judge) to go peruse the new catalog. I'll wait.

Click picture to go check out the catalog.
Seriously. Go check it out.

Ok, you've checked it out? Browsed a bit? Yes? Isn't it fantastic?! I have to admit, I'm always a bit nervous when this time of year comes around, but this year's catalog blew me away. As a typography nerd (I was an editor in a past life) (and by past life, I mean barely a year ago), I was SO EXCITED to see all the fun, creative, beautiful word art they have! I definitely have a long wish list.

Alright. Enough yakking. On to the projects! I'm the kind of gal who just doesn't plan ahead very well, so instead of seeing new products (my order is still sitting in limbo, poor thing), you're going to see some of the products I'm most excited about that are sticking around!

This card came together pretty darn quickly, helped along by the fabulous ladies over at Freshly Made Sketches. What a great layout - so easy to work with.

The picture is a bit dim, but hey, it was midnight when I took the picture. (Remember what I said about not planning ahead well? Yeah. Prime example here.) It's Tempting Turquoise and Very Vanilla, with super-fun Silver Glimmer Paper banners. This showcases some of my favorite things that are sticking around -- or rather, coming back! The banner punch and the polka-dot Textured Impressions Embossing Folder were featured during this year's Sale-a-Bration, and I couldn't be happier to still have them available! Seriously. They're just so cute and versatile!

The original sketch from Freshly Made Sketches - #138

And to go along with the card, I made a quick little gift box. I'm so happy the gift boxes are sticking around! I embossed the clear plastic sleeve with the same folder I used on the card, and I love the way it turned out! Wrap some twine around it, add a tag, and you're good to go. Inside the box, you can see some of our Stampin' Write markers. What I wanted to have in there, I haven't ordered yet -- the new Blendabilities pens! They are SO awesome! I'll show them off to you soon, I promise.

Be sure to hop through to see all the other wonderful posts celebrating our brand new catalog!

And if you're in the Provo area, come to my New Catalog Launch Party! I'm holding an open-house style party to celebrate the new catalog AND my new craft room! (I'll have pics of that later this week.) Next Tuesday, June 10, 7-9pm. Contact me with any questions!

Blog Hop - Celebrate the Everyday

Happy New Year!!

The We Create Blog Hop group has committed to another year of fun, inspiring blog hops, and I can't wait to see the awesome projects my fellow demonstrators and I come up with this year! This month's blog hop is up a few days later than usual to accommodate the crazy holiday schedule.  We also bumped the date back a bit because . . .

our Occasions Catalog debuts today!!

Check it out in my sidebar! There are SO many great stamp sets, project ideas, supplies, and tools in there! The theme is great too. So great, in fact, that we stole it for our Blog Hop this month! There's always a reason to celebrate, and this catalog encourages you to "Celebrate the Everyday." Sounds like an excuse to party to me!

One of the first things to catch my eye in the new catalog was this fun Burlap and Blooms Wreath. I've been doing a lot of home decor projects lately, and this is the perfect thing to hang on your door to welcome in Spring! The fact that we're just starting Winter is irrelevant - ha! The pastel colors and the fun blooms make for a welcome addition in all this white snow and ice. It took longer to put together than I originally thought, but it's super simple. Just folding, gluing, and wrapping - easy, peasy!

I haven't put all the flowers on yet, but I thought it was pretty darn cute as-is!

Lots of opportunity for customizing and personalizing this fun wreath.

I'll be hosting a class to make these adorable wreaths in March, so stay posted for updates!

Here's wishing you a fun, happy, and creative year in 2014! Thanks for stopping by!

"CASE That Pin" Blog Hop

Hello! And welcome to this month's We Create blog hop! This month, our projects have all been CASE'd from projects that inspired us on Pinterest. If you're new around here (or if you need a refresher), "CASE" stands for "Copy and Share Everything" and it's our motto when it comes to sharing ideas among friends. We love being inspired by other peoples' projects! So this month, you get to see what inspires us, and hopefully it will inspire you to create, too!

The cards I chose (from my over 400 Stampin Up pins!) all focused on a fun technique that I haven't really played with before: Negative Space. Stampin' Up! has tons of fun punches, and I've done plenty of projects with them, but these cards use the punches kinda in reverse - instead of looking at the punched out shape, you're looking at what's hiding behind it. It's super-duper easy, and it gives a really fun look to your cards. Try it out!

Here's the original, from Kay Kalthoff:

And here's my CASE'd version.

This is just such a cute and simple card. The background is a piece of the Quatrefancy DSP, and the center of the Blossom punch is popped up with the 1/2-inch circle punch. I added a few little rhinestones in the upper corner to help balance out my rather bottom-heavy version of this card. Such a bright, happy hello to send to a friend!

The second project I did was a lovely little butterfly card. Here's the original (which I just love!) from Karla Dick. Unfortunately, this one was only posted on Stampin Connection, so not everyone will be able to see the original source page - sorry! I tried to find it on a blog or something and just couldn't. :(

And here's my (larger) version.

I realized as I sat down to make this butterfly card that I don't have any white ink -- a major feature of the original. Oops! So I improvised and used the silver metallic ink that's available in the Holiday Catalog. This card is very elegant. The background flowers are stamped in the silver ink on Not Quite Navy cardstock, then the butterflies are punched out of the Crumb Cake overlay layer. The Crumb Cake layer is popped up on a few dimensionals, so the background pattern is a bit removed from the butterfly outline. It gives a lovely pattern to the butterflies, don't you think? I added some pearls and a quick sentiment, and that was that!

I hope you've enjoyed the "Pinspiration" this hop has shared so far! Be sure to check out the rest of the hop, and as always we welcome comments and Pins! Click on through to the next blog, and Happy Stamping!

Quick Apology: Somehow, the month of August just completely flew right by! I started prepping for this Hop and realized that I haven't blogged at all since last month's hop - yikes! Sorry, guys! I promise to do better this coming month. Now that summer is winding down, maybe my schedule will start to be a tad bit less crazy.

"The Great Outdoors" Blog Hop featuring Stamp Camp Creations

Hello, and welcome to this month's We Create Blog Hop! Tanya from Tanya's Stamps & Things chose the theme for August: "The Great Outdoors!" So this month we're showcasing our nature-themed projects, whether it be flowers or birds or camping - anything you'd find outside is fair game!

For the hop, I've decided to show y'all the projects I made for my first-ever Stamp Camp that I held a little while ago. (For an explanation of how a Stamp Camp works, see yesterday's post.) The set I featured for this Camp was "Regarding Daliahs" - a cute set that's perfect for a beginner; it has ONE image and four great "any occasion" greetings.

I made 4 projects for this camp. Most of them are very straightforward projects, as this was a camp for beginners. The last one (my favorite!) involved heat embossing (one of my favorite techniques) but was still a very simple card. All of these cards were CASE'd, but I don't have the originals handy right this moment. As I find them, I'll link to them in the picture descriptions.

Enough words. On to the pictures!

Thanks for checking out my Stamp Camp! I'll be holding more of these in the coming months; my goal is to do one EVERY SINGLE MONTH! Early next week I'll reveal August's stamp camp, so be sure to check back!

Now go enjoy the rest of the hop! If I was your last hopping stop, thanks for joining us! Hope you've felt inspired to go CREATE!

Regarding Daliahs

Last week, I had my first-ever Stamp Camp! For those of you who might not know what a Stamp Camp is, let me explain. I plan out 5 projects for you (cards, notebooks, gifts, etc.), all centered around 1 stamp set. You pre-order the stamp set and pay the usual class fee, then on the day of the Camp you come and learn how to make the projects. At the end of the day, you go home with 5 fantastic projects AND your own stamp set! It's a great way for beginning stampers to start building their own collection of products.

You'll get to see the fun Stamp Camp projects tomorrow during our We Create Blog Hop, so be sure to check back!

The card I'm sharing today is one that I made after the camp as kind of a bonus project. It's full of sparkle and, of course, my favorite color: Pool Party.

I'm quite proud of how this card turned out! This is the first time in a long time that I haven't relied on a challenge to come up with a card idea. I also realized that, for as often as I used to use them, I haven't used banners in a while. I created a "waving" effect with this banner by carefully bending and rolling the paper and then attaching one end higher than the other (the flower is popped up on Dimensionals for a bit more ... well, dimension!). 

The ribbon in the back is some of our retired 1" Satin ribbon in Whisper White, but you could easily substitute a current ribbon or even a strip of cardstock, perhaps with a decorative edge.

Here's a close-up of the detailed parts so you can see what's going on a little better.

Remember to check back tomorrow to see my Stamp Camp projects and the rest of the We Create Blog Hop!


Card Details
Colors: Whisper White, Pool Party
Paper: Silver Glimmer Paper, Quatrafancy Specialty DSP, Whisper White Cardstock
Supplies: Pool Party ink, Stampin' Sponge, Basic Rhinestones, Paper Trimmer, Dimensionals, 3-Way Glue, 1" Satin Ribbon in White (retired)

Soft Vintage "Oh Hello" (and 3 more challenges)

I seem to have gotten into the habit of posting really late at night. I've been trying to get better -- I promise! -- and had every intention of posting early, but then I got distracted. Go figure. I'm working on planning a trip to Disneyland, and it seems to invade every waking minute of my thoughts lately! So here I am again, nearly 1 AM, and I'm just starting to write up this blog post.

Maybe next time I'll manage to post before midnight.  . . . Maybe.

Anyway, on to the card! Determined after my last epic fail of posting a multi-challenge card, I wanted to get this one up as soon as possible so I didn't miss ANY deadlines. Woo-hoo!

I combined the color challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary (CCMC SUM13-02) with the layout from this week's Clean and Simple challenge (FTL248). Then, my stamping buddy Julie pointed out that Friday Mashup was hosting a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge (FM117), so I was all over that -- especially since it involves butterflies and pearls! My favorite things! So combining all that, I basically had my card all set up for me; I just had to pick out two measly little stamps. How easy is that?!

A close-up of the butterfly, colored in, with some great pearl details.

Julie suggested adding a tiny seed pearl to the brad - perfect!

The tiny butterfly details were colored in with a Stampin' Up! Blender Pen in Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe. The tiny pearls create the "body" of the butterfly, and in that one little details I've captured all three elements of the Friday Mashup Tic-Tac-Toe challenge! I also added a pearl to the antique brad off to the left, which adds just the perfect touch of "something special" to tie it all together.



Card Details
Colors: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Tools and Accessories: Lace ribbon, Antique Brads, Linen Thread, small Butterfly punch, Perfect Pennants Bigz Die (Big Shot), Basic Pearls, Blender Pens, 1 3/8" circle punch, DSP (don't remember which - sorry!)
Stamps: Oh, Hello and Butterflies

"Summer Celebration" Blog Hop! (And Fusion#13)

It's time for another We Create Blog Hop! July's theme is Summer Celebration - and what better way to celebrate summer than with bright colors and sunny salutations?

I created this first card for the Fusion #13 sketch challenge. The "window panels" layout was inspired by this card over on Jill's, Ink.

Close-up of the "window-pane," made with the Postage Stamp punch.
The Daffodil Delight string was dyed by pulling white Baker's Twine
through the Daffodil Delight stamp pad with a sponge on top.

Then I made this second card to coordinate with the first - same color scheme, same stamp sets, but very different cards.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out all the other great bloggers in the hop this month to see their Summer Celebration inspiration! As always, follows, Pins, and comments are welcome  :)

Card Details

Stamp Sets: Betsy's Blossoms, Four You

Colors: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, 

Accessories: Old Olive ribbon, Whisper White baker's twine (dyed with Daffodil Delight ink pad), Basic Pearls

Fusion Challenge and My FIRST My Digital Studio!

Hello again! I hope you all enjoyed the fun May Day Blog Hop we had last week! If you missed it, click here to start hopping.

This week, I've tackled TWO new things in one project! It was a little overwhelming and scary for me to take on that much "new" all at once, but I'm pretty proud of myself in the end. As silly as it sounds, even though I've been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator for nearly 3 years -- and even though My Digital Studio (our digital crafting software) is only $20 -- until this week, I'd never actually created ANYTHING in My Digital Studio! I know, it's ridiculous. But I've now righted that wrong!

And so I present: My very first MDS creation! Made entirely in the FREE TRIAL of My Digital Studio!

I made this card for the Fusion Card Challenge, which is a relatively new stamp challenge blog with a fun concept. The designers give you a sketch and an inspiration photo; you can use either -- or both! -- in your creation. This was their Fusion #5. I was inspired by the photo, so I pulled its colors into the card (made with their layout, too). I'm pretty happy with it.

As I mentioned before, this was made entirely with the free trial of MDS. I didn't buy/download any stamps or accessories or anything. And it was made from scratch, not from a template (but that's another fantastic option, too).

May Day Blog Hop! (And SUO 69!)

Welcome to our May Day Blog Hop! Take a hop through and see all of the fun May Day projects we've come up with for you. As always, please hop all the way through. Comments and pins are always appreciated. Enjoy!

Today, I wanted to show off one of my FAVORITE new stamp sets. You'll get to see this gorgeous set in the upcoming catalog, and I just can't wait until all of you can use it with me! To me, May means birthdays. My family has at least 6 birthdays in May, and so I wanted to create fun, happy, special cards with specific people in mind. So here's what I've come up with.

I made this 3x3 card last, but it's absolutely my favorite! I love how you can create
your own "DSP" look in the background by lining up the stamps!

Since these adorable little 3x3 cards can't be mailed, this mosaic card is for one of my dear friends here in the Provo area. It's such a perfect little pick-me-up card! The students here at BYU have just finished finals, so I think I'll send this as a "Welcome to summer!" note for a friend.


This next one might be my favorite. It's so hard to choose, though -- it's like picking a favorite kid!

This one was CASE'd from a card by Illina Crouse,
and I'm totally in love with the details of it! 

"Today calls for something pink with sprinkles on top!" The saying on this card absolutely, positively reminded me of one person in particular - my old roommate and best friend, April. She LOVES everything pink and sparkly! Which is just fantastic, since she's expecting a little baby girl this summer! This may just turn out to be her baby shower card. (But shhh! Don't tell her!)

If the SUO Challenge I entered (see below for details) only lets me enter one card, it's this one! It's my favorite of the three -- if I really, really had to choose.



Next up, a colorful variation!

This one was a total mess until my dear husband suggested the
dimensional gray flowers at the bottom. Perfect touch!!

And this card is most likely destined to be a thank-you card for a friend of mine. I have so many great friends to be thankful for, so it's going to be hard to choose! I guess I'll just have to make more!

Card Details:

All of these cards were made with the Mosaic Madness stamp set, the coordinating punch and Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and just a few colors - Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Silver Glimmer Paper (or embossing powder), and Very Vanilla.

Since 2 of the 3 cards I made used the Textured Impressions Embossing Folder for the Big Shot (both Sizzix products, sold by SU), I've decided to enter these cards in the SUO Challenge this week! Their challenge, SUO69, features ANY Sizzix product, and you should go check out the fun entries there!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my creations.

ColourQ and Messy Deadlines

This week's ColourQ challenge gave me a gorgeous palette to work with - Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Kraft (Crumb Cake), and (Whisper) White. Such fun, springy colors! I came up with two freaking adorable cards for this challenge, and it was going to be the perfect post for our upcoming May Day blog hop -- except that the challenge ends tonight (!!) and not on Wednesday when our hop is. Oops! So here's the challenge projects, and you can look forward to seeing some brand NEW (hint, hint - sneak peeks!) projects for the hop in a few days.

My favorite part of this one? The details!

My second favorite part? The adorable coordinating 3x3 card I made to go with it!

I like the torn honeycomb background in particular. Isn't it fun?


Like I said, this was for the ColourQ cQc182 Challenge, which has this fun and Spring-themed inspiration photo:

This card was CASE'd! I also want to give credit to the card that inspired these projects. I found this card by Amanda Mertz over at Did You Stamp Today, and I just LOVED it! So I decided to basically use her layout with the ColourQ color challenge.

REMINDER: Look forward to our May Day Blog Hop this Wednesday! My projects will feature some of the fun BRAND NEW, will-be-debuting-in-June's-catalog products I bought at the Salt Lake Regional event.