Last week I sat down with the “Great Grads” stamp set on page 55 of the SU catalog to see what I could come up with. This is the result!

  Here is the whole group of cards.

This one I stamped the background all over with the multi-word stamp using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the stamping lined up right.  The little cap over the “a” is popped up with a Dimensional.  The “G” is layered on a scallop punch with another black scallop behind it for contrast.

This one my demo friend, Anne, embossed the quote with the stamp set in silver, which made something resembling a little plate on the front of the card.  Tying the red ribbon around the side strip seemed to add balance.

For this card I CASEd (copied) a card I saw on Splitcoaststampers made by Nancy Riley.  She used Designer Paper and the jumbo star wheel whereas I stamped the words on the strip, used a smaller star wheel at the bottom and used my white gel pen on the black strips.

This card opens at the top.  Again an embossed quote at the bottom and just the “Graduate” medallion at the top for a very simple look.

And one more, very simple and easy!

Now I just need to make a special one for my son graduating from the University of Texas at Austin!

You know it is springtime in Texas when the bluebonnets start blooming.  When we moved to Texas in 1982 we were incredulous at the first field we saw of bluebonnets.  We had never seen huge fields of any flower blooming like that or, at a minimum, large patches of wildflowers here and there.  Usually there are some Indian Paintbrush wildflowers mixed in with the bluebonnets, too.  People stop by the side of the road to take pictures or plunk their babies and children into a patch of bluebonnets for a beautiful portrait.

Last weekend on our way to Austin to visit our boys, we took the route through Brenham, TX which is one of the towns known for bluebonnets.  We have photos from many years ago of our children in the patch of bluebonnets!  Although it was a bit past the peak time, we found a large field of bluebonnets behind a motel and shopping area, but still beautiful.  Thank goodness for digital cameras because you just want to keep taking and keep taking pictures of the flowers.

Here are "just a few"!

I’ve been seeing many "clear cards" made by other Stampin’ Up! demos but hadn’t tried it until the other day.  I had already bought the transparencies to make the acetate boxes so it was finally time to try making an acetate card.  The trick of the card is to attach the layers without any sign of how they are adhered!  There may be other versions out there, but for this one I mostly followed a tuturial on Splitcoaststampers.  On my card, the birthday cake is layered on the Pink Passion card stock…..and from the front looks like it has two additional layers….Green Galore and Yoyo Yellow (it was time to break out the Bold Brights for a change!!).  But only the Whisper White stamped with the cake and the Pink Passion are on the front of the card.  The larger green layer is underneath, adhered to the inside front cover of the card.  On the back of the card the yellow is adhered….and on the inside of the card, the greeting is stamped on Whisper White and placed layered over the yellow (which is on the backside) and it’s all lined up to be under the front layers.  Clear as mud??  Try it, or email me with any questions!  I used Mini Glue Dots on almost everything and made sure they were hidden underneath the layer on top.  I also stamped a few stars with White Stazon ink across the bottom front of the card.  It is on page 183 of the catalog, along with Stazon Cleaner, which works great.  The stamp set I used is called "Eat Cake" on page 41.

I found it easiest, on my second try, to adhere the layers starting from the back.  I attached the yellow with just one glue dot in the center to the back of the card, then turned to the inside to make sure it was straight.  The SU Grid Paper worked great for that!  Then I adhered the greeting layer, on the inside of the card, so that it was lined up with the yellow layer underneath.  After that was attached, I went back to the yellow layer and attached more glue dots at the corners to hold it, making sure they would be beneath the white layer of the greeting.

Next I closed the card but slid in the green layer to make sure it aligned properly with the yellow layer beneath it, using one glue dot in the center again.  Then I could adhere the pink layer and cake on the front, placed properly over the green…and then go back inside to the green to add more glue dots, hidden under the pink layer so they wouldn’t be seen.

The stamping on the acetate can be a little slippery, so be careful!

Make sure on your greeting layer to leave room to sign it or write a little note.  You won’t have any other place to write it on this type of card!

Back of card.

Here it is on a blue background in case it is any easier to see!

Try one and let me know how you do!  I want to make some more!

Happy Easter everyone!  Here is a card I had fun making!  Not that I made up the design myself, I copied it from one made by another demonstrator, Olive Barnes, on Stamper’s Showcase, on the Stampin’ Up! demo website the other day.

I used the A Good Egg stamp set to stamp the egg, colored it in with markers and then adhered Dazzling Diamonds Glitter over the whole egg using the Two-Way Glue Pen.  The egg is popped up with Dimensionals on the Wild Wasabi cardstock.  I also used the Priceless Classy Brass Template to emboss a few designs on the card.

And here is a cute little basket and scallop-covered York Peppermint Patties, courtesy of Cambria’s tutorial on Splitcoaststampers, also using A Good Egg stamp set.  They can really be made for any season or occasion just by changing the colors and stamp images.  I used the Flowers For You Designer Paper on the basket.  My demo friend Anne and I made these together the other day and although they are very simple to make, we managed to make it as complicated as possible!  I think every time I look at this basket I will remember all the laughs and giggles we had over putting these together!

This is the azalea bush on one end of the front of the house.  Unfortunately, this burst of blooms faces the house next door and doesn’t show as much from the front!  But it is just gorgeous!  If you click on the photo you should get an enlargement.  Every March Houston holds the annual Azalea Trail where you get to visit a few beautiful houses and gardens in the River Oaks area.  This is one outing my husband and I have always gone on every year that we have lived here, which now is twenty-five years.  Some years we carried a baby or brought all the kids if we had to, or if we were really in luck, found a babysitter and also got to have a nice lunch out alone afterwards.  We went last Friday afternoon, an unusually cold and windy day in Houston, but the sun had come out. We wore winter coats and the River Oaks Garden Club hostesses got to wear their long fur coats!

OK, I just couldn’t resist making this card I saw on Splitcoast for my husband for Valentine’s Day!  It was some sort of challenge on SCS so there are a lot of examples.  Mine pretty much copies one by another ‘Karen’.  The base of the card is Blush Blossom.  You could use Designer Paper for the "fabric" and then doll it up however you like.  I chose to use Real Red cardstock which I embossed in black with the doodles from Doodle This.  I thought it looked Valentine-y.  For the lace I just used my Slit Punch to make a strip and then bent it a little to fit the curve.  I used the wide red grosgrain ribbon for the straps and the regular black grosgrain for the bows.  The possibilities are endless!  Have fun with it!  (You can click on any photos for a larger image.)  Here is a link to the SCS challenge and template:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316869

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here is another card we made at my Valentine’s stamp camp.  I’m afraid I don’t remember where I got the idea or how much I directly copied it, but I "think" a little of it is my own design….maybe just the words!  I love the card because while it looks like it is for Valentine’s Day it really can be used for other occasions.  In fact, I sent it to my sister-in-law for her birthday.  The card is made with Ruby Red, River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Very Vanilla cardstock as well as the new Designer Paper "Ginger Blossom".  To add some interest to the background I stamped the Ruby Red with some flowers in Embrace Life with Ruby Red ink (although you could also use Versamark).  The swirls from Priceless (what a great set this is!) are stamped on the Very Vanilla and the Priceless hearts cut out and mounted with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals.  The words, ‘from the heart’, are from Holidays & Wishes.  And, of course, the ribbon is the double-stitched River Rock.  It was fun using these colors!

Yesterday our little group of SU Demos got together for our monthly meeting.  Not everyone is still a demo, but that’s how we met and we still keep it pretty much Stampin’ Up!-oriented.  I always say, "What could be more fun than getting together with other stampers, having lunch, stamping, and swapping?!"  One person is always in charge of a project we will stamp that day and everyone else brings a swap.  So fun!!  Most of these swaps were to copy something out of the    new catalog, Spring~Summer Collection 2008.  Thanks Anne, Nona, Dixie, Gerrie, Sandi, Joan, Diana, and Cindy!

I had so much fun making Valentines yesterday!  Naturally, it was a race against the clock to try to get them out to the mailbox before the mailman came.  I wanted to make some valentines for my eight nieces and nephews.  Normally I would spend at least half a day searching for all possible designs that I liked online before I would find something to copy….but I’m finding that if I just sit down and play around with my stamps and ink I can actually come up with things myself!  For these valentines I wanted just kind of the little "kid size" cards.  I got into my stash of retired items and found these Pretty in Pink Pocket Note Cards.  You can still buy an assortment of Pocket Notes in the catalog, just different colors.  They’re very cute and really suited my purpose.  On the one heart you can see some retired colors of beads, which I attached with the new Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive.   I used the Happy Heart Day stamp set, Simply Said, Tagger’s Dozen, and Holidays and Wishes to make the cards.  You’ll also notice some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter on a couple of the cards.  What’s a day of stamping without some glitter?!

And here are the kids they are going to!

The other day I discovered this heart-shaped box in my pile of stuff!  Immediately, I thought of using the Stampin’ Up! Rub Ons on the box and see what I could do.  The heart box is probably from the Target Dollar Spot last year or else one of the dollar stores.

I used the Eastern Elegance Rub Ons and adhered some black gingham ribbon around the lid of the box.  It still needed a little something so I stuck on a white flower from the Pretties Kit plus a half-pearl in the center.  I found the rub ons to be fun and easy to use.  You will want to try them also!  See how many fun things you can find to apply them to around your house…or in your craft stash!

Here’s a cute and easy Valentine card to make with the Stampin’ Up! Valentine’s Day Bundle.  I found a card made by KimberlyG on SCS although I left off a scalloped border she had.  I love this wide grosgrain ribbon!

Here are some monogram cards I quickly made for my daughter, Amy, last night before she left to go back to California today.  I think she asked me to make her some more months ago after I made a first set for her.  Better late than never!

I used the retiring Letterpress Alphabet and Label Classics for the monogram.  For the card itself I used Whisper White cardstock for the base and pieces of Certainly Celery Designer Prints from the pad from last summer.  On solid green Certainly Celery I added some design using the fantastic stamp set Priceless, choosing a different stamp for each card, using Certainly Celery Ink.  And to finish off the card I used the retired narrow white organdy ribbon.  Click on the picture to see the cards in closer detail.

It was wonderful having Amy home over Christmas although the time goes by too fast.  She is becoming quite the personal finance writer.  She has always loved to write.  If you would like to read the article she wrote for Forbes Media "Investopedia" click on this link: "Avoid Overspending This Holiday Season"

Ok, this really isn’t for "funny money" of course, but I think it is really a cute idea!  I think you could adapt the Christmas idea for any other occasion, too.  This idea came from a fabulous Demo, JanTink, on her blog, who figured out how to punch the holes in the right place and how to make the whole idea work.  I just used different Designer Paper and the Snow Blossom Punch.  The stamp set is the retiring Cold Play.

For two more gifts, I decided to use these jumbo clothespins that make great photo or memo holders…or just a decoration!  I just applied some Wintergreen Designer Paper using my SU Anywhere Glue Sticks, stamped some Twill Tape to tie around and made little initial tags for the recipients using the retiring Letterpress Alphabet.  I would have done a little more in the way of decorating but of course it was time to get the packages mailed or they wouldn’t even receive them by Christmas!