It’s the first day of spring!  I hope it is like spring at your house! I decided to use the Perfect Pennants stamp set on this card with a few Petite Petals flowers to look like spring. This wasn’t what I planned to make at all!  Funny how you can have something in mind and then just completely veer off into something else! When I saw these stamps in the Perfect Pennants stamp set I put both the dots and the lines on the same clear block (an advantage of the clear-mount stamps!) and stamped them together. I used Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo markers to ink them up since an ink pad wouldn’t work with the two stamps on there together.  Once I had the first two at the bottom, I thought why not go on up to the top of the card! I thought that greeting fit the space well and chose Old Olive ink to use another color in the Brights.  That way it would all go together. Then I stamped and punched out some Petite Petals with the Petite Petals Punch. That makes it real easy!  You can also buy the Petite Petals stamp set and punch together in a bundle and save 15%! The flowers are stamped in Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, and Tangerine Tango. When you choose colors from the same color family, you know they will all work together!

The Petite Petals Punch has been on backorder but should be ready for shipping soon.  You can order it and Stampin’ Up! will send it as soon as they have a new shipment.

Do a little spring shopping today instead of spring cleaning and take advantage of Sale-A-Bration while you can!  Sale-A-Bration ends March 31 so time is getting short! Shop at my Online Store HERE.

Just make a simple card sometimes! I think we often get so caught up in all the latest techniques and designs that we forget we can make something beautiful in just moments! And sometimes it pays to be messy, because the inspiration for this card came from just seeing some scraps laying on my desk that appealed to me. I’ve always loved this Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper, so now that our azaleas are starting to bloom and spring appears to be on the horizon, this bright flowery card seemed just right. Just layer a piece of designer series paper on your card base (or even just use part of a piece on the card base, add a tag or greeting, maybe a bit of ribbon or a bit of bling and you’ve got a beautiful creation. Honestly, can you make anything ugly with Stampin’ Up!’s coordinating colors, inks, papers, and accessories?

Here are the other supplies I used on this card!

• Pear Pizzazz 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock [131201]
• Island Indigo 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock [122923]
• Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [100730]
• Melon Mambo 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [115320]
• Daffodil Delight 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [119683]
• Chalk Talk Wood-mount Stamp Set [130631]
• 1-1/4 Inch Circle Punch [119861]
• 1-3/8 Inch Circle Punch [119860]
• 1-3/4 Inch Scallop Circle Punch [119854]
• Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents [119246]
• Petal Parade Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133602]
• 3/16 Inch Corner Punch [119871]
• Whisper White 3/8 Inch Taffeta Ribbon [109070]
• Scalloped Tag Topper Punch [133324]
• Melon Mambo Classic Stampin’ Pad [126948]
• Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin’ Pad [126944]
• Island Indigo Classic Stampin’ Pad [126986]
• Stampin’ Dimensionals [104430]

Go look at the pile of scraps on your desk or just pull out a a pack of designer series paper and one coordinating card stock color and see what you can make!  Remember to just keep it simple!

If you are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day today, maybe you would like to make this St. Patrick’s Day Pot of Gold Rainbow card! It just takes some watercoloring and some punching! To make this card, I used Shimmery White Card Stock, although Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Paper would be better and easier to work with.  But Shimmery White is the next best thing! To make the rainbow, I just used my Aqua Painter (like a paint brush with water in the barrel) and picked up some ink from various colors. Above and below the rainbow I colored in with Soft Sky. I even spritzed the card with a little bit of water and kind of smoothed everything out again with my Aqua Painter.

For the Pot of Gold, I punched a circle with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch and also the top rim of the pot with the Word Window Punch.  I just laid the “rim” on top of the circle where it would stick out a little on the sides, then trimmed off the excess of the circle above that. For the pot feet, I used the 1/2″ Circle Punch.

For the gold coins, I punched both 1/2″ circle coins and 1/4″ circles (1/4″ circle in the Itty Bitty Punch Pack) with those size punches out of the Gold Foil Sheets. I thought the 1/2″ circles were too big but they could at least fill up the background better and then I glued down the 1/4″ circles over them.  Worked great!

I wondered what I would use for the greeting, but one of my favorite stamp sets, Teeny Tiny Wishes, had exactly the right words! I just made a little banner out of it and layered it over another piece of Gumball Green, same as the card base. And for a little more pizzazz and gold, I used the Gold Baker’s Twine.

For any of these supplies, you can shop at your convenience online at my Stampin’ Up! Store. Remember, it all counts toward a free Sale-A-Bration product when you spend $50 or more!

Be sure to check the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals that will end tonight!

Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and I hope you find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! If not, just make your own on a card or scrapbook page!

Happy National Pi Day! Pi is the distance around a perfect circle divided by the distance across it. (But you probably knew that already!) Pi is 3.14 (hence March 14) and the digits go on and on. Some people (my son) even see how many of those digits they can memorize. Apparently he held the record for awhile in his high school math class and got a t-shirt. We could never understand how he or anyone could possibly do that but he had some kind of system.  It’s been a few years so I don’t remember what. Maybe he thought of it as rooms in a house or something. It was unbelievable to me that he or anyone could do that.

If you have heard of the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX that has been going on this past week or longer, what better place and way to celebrate Pi Day than by skywriting. SXSW is a combination of music, films, and technology, so I think writing Pi in the sky fits right in, don’t you?! You can read more about it and see one of the photos HERE. My Pi son must have seen some of it because when I emailed him a link to a photo of the skywriting, he said, “Oh that’s what that was! But Pi Day isn’t until tomorrow!” Well, they got an early start by doing it early last evening. As a mom, I was glad I was the one who “knew something” for a change!

Now to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator or papercrafter, you don’t need to know the measurement of pi. Probably the most useful math you need to know to make cards is to know that if you cut a piece of card stock in half at 5 1/2″ and then fold that piece in half, you will have a card! You can use a little bit of math to make some other projects, but nothing too hard! So even if you do not understand pi, you can still sign up to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator HERE. It’s a great deal if you do it before March 31! Get more for your money in your Starter Kit by signing up during Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-Bration! You can start your own stamping business for just $99!

If you want to celebrate Pi Day, there is no math required.  Stamp or make something round.  Eat something round, like a donut or a cookie! Find some circle stamps you have and stamp like crazy! Decorate some wrapping paper!

My little punch art pie is easy to make.  Punch the crust with the 2 3/8″ Scallop Punch.  I sponged my Crumb Cake crust with a little Crumb Cake ink. For the pie, pick your flavor from the Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper! Punch out with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch  and adhere to the “crust”. Punch out a piece of pie with the new Triangle Punch. Place the pie on a plate cut from the 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals and then place the plate on a pretty Tea Lace Doily to serve!

Have fun on National Pi Day, no matter how you choose to celebrate!

Today is the anniversary of the first telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, just three days after he received the patent for his invention. This is the day he spoke the famous words into the transmitter, “”Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you!” and his assistant, Mr. Watson, was able to hear them in the next room. He had an interest in the deaf as his mother and the woman he married were both deaf.

Do you think Alexander Graham Bell would be amazed at how far his invention has taken us? Even from the time I was growing up the telephone has changed so drastically! Do you remember the rotary dial, party lines, and toll calls a few miles away? We used to call my grandparents by letting the phone ring only once as the signal they should call us back so the phone call wouldn’t be counted against our monthly allotment. I think maybe it was called the 40-call phone or plan or something. And of course the phone company owned the phones and you would have to wait for them to come out to install one or fix one.

To commemorate this telephone anniversary, I found this punch art smart phone made by a Canadian demonstrator named Allison.  She made them for Valentines. I thought they would also make darling birthday cards for teenagers, and I might just make another one for that purpose! It’s simple to cut the paper and the words come from the Just Sayin’ Stamp Set and the Word Bubbles Framelits Dies. You can also buy this stamp set and framelits in a bundle and save 15% by buying them together.  Choose wood- or clear-mount.

• To make the phone, cut a piece of card stock 10″ x 3″, score at 5″. Use the 3/16″ Corner Rounder punch to round the edges.
• Cut Whisper White for the screen 3 3/4″ x 2 1/2″. Round the corners.
• Punch a 3/4″ circle for the button and sponge around the edges.
• Cut a tiny strip for the ear piece at the top.
• Stamp whichever sayings you like from Just Sayin’ and die cut with Word Bubbles Framelits. I used Smokey Slate card stock and Black Stazon ink.

This is a fun and easy card to make!  I hope you will try one and think about the changes in the ways we use telephones!

To purchase that great bundle with the Just Sayin’ Stamp Set and the Word Bubbles Framelits, just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store. Remember, your $50 purchase counts toward Sale-A-Bration and you will get to choose a free product from the Sale-A-Bration Brochure! Only a few weeks left! Sale-A-Bration ends March 31.

This Peachy Keen card is an example of how the Stampin’ Up! catalogs are really idea books. I simply copied this card from the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Catalog (except for using Crumb Cake as the card base!). I doubt I would have thought of all these elements without getting the idea from the catalog!  I used the On Film Framelits Dies to make the “polaroid-look” picture frame. If you look closely in the photo you can see the embossed diagonal lines. You can also ink up the framelit and that will make the lines more pronounced. The little banners I punched from the Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper with the FREE Banner Punch in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure!  This is the month for Sale-A-Bration which ends March 31 so don’t let it slip by! Just purchase $50 in current product from Stampin’ Up! and choose a free gift from the SAB Brochure. The little camera is stamped and then cut out with Paper Snips. I used a little Retro Fresh This and That Designer Washi Tape on the top of the banner. The stamp set is called Peachy Keen, amazingly enough!

All of these products are together in the same suite, Retro Fresh, in the Occasions Catalog.

If you would like to make this Peachy Keen card and more projects just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store to check out all these products and more!  Be sure to look at the Weekly Deals and Clearance Rack to find some bargains!

I can’t believe I haven’t really played with the Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper but it came out today to make this card along with the Starburst Sayings Stamp Set and Starburst Framelits Dies.  I decided to make a 6″ tall card.  Just cut your card base 3″ x 6″ and fold in half. Just something different. I also used the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder for the Very Vanilla piece on the top of the card.  You can get the Decorative Dots folder FREE with a $50 purchase during Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-Bration during March.  It’s really a cute folder! The scalloped strip is So Saffron.  The ribbon pieces are Baked Brown Sugar Ruffle Stretch Trim.

Just get out some designer paper and card stock and play!  See what patterns appeal to you that day and then see what the coordinating colors are that go with it.  Before you know it, you will have a lovely card or other project!

You can purchase the Starburst Sayings Stamp Set and the Starburst Framelits TOGETHER in a Starburst Bundle for a 15% savings!  Be sure you choose some Retro Fresh Designer Paper as well just because you will really like it!  You can find my Stampin’ Up! Online Store right HERE.

It’s time for Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French and is the celebration the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. Mardi Gras is the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the religious obligations of Lent. Of course everyone has heard of the parties and parades in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but actually celebrations are held in lots of places. There are big, fancy parties with delicious food and parades with floats and throwing of beads and other trinkets. These are just a few of my beads, not from going to the real Mardi Gras, but from going to Mardi Gras parties for a few years. The man who hosted the parties was from Louisiana so the food was great and the live music great! Not to mention the little parade through the tables of the party when they would toss some beads!

My card is made from a base of Very Vanilla with a Brushed Gold card stock layer (hard to tell in the photograph). I decided to make little Mardi Gras banners with the Triangle Punch “strung” on Gold Baker’s Twine and then I just hand-lettered the banners. To jazz up the card a little I decided to add some Watercolor Wonder Designer Washi Tape at the bottom. I also punched a few stars from the Goil Foil. Can you figure out how I made the little mask? I folded a piece of the Gold Foil and stuck it in the wing piece on the Bird Punch, just so the fold line would not be cut. I thought it kind of looked like a mask! I dug out the retired Crop-A-Dile to punch a hole or two in the mask to make the eyes.  Then I added a string of Rhinestone Jewels to decorate the mask.

Make something with gold, green and purple today to celebrate Mardi Gras. The colors have meaning: purple for justice, gold for power and green for faith. There are lots of interesting articles online to read about Mardi Gras! It’s quite the day and celebration!

Here are the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals:

These are good through next Monday night! Have fun shopping at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!