Happy Easter Everyone !!!

I've been busy making Easter Treats and Eastercards!!! My family and I rejoice and celebrate in the Easter season,after the 40 days of Lent.. And I can't wait to share with you what I have done.

First of all, my Easter cards are cased from Ronette's class that she had a couple of weeks ago. She sent me the flyer and I thought the cards were so beautiful, I recreated them for myself (did I ever tell you that my spiritual gift is forgery? ). Here are some of the cards that I made. I don't know if you can see it or not, but the middle card, I used the mother of pearl technique.


I also made some "carrots" that hold treats using the petal cone die for the big shot. Aren't they cute?


Here's a close up.I texturized the cone by using the texture plate, and then swiped Tangerine Tango across the texture to give it more of a 'Carrot' look. I used a Spring Vintage Pear Pizazz Designer button and threaded grograin ribbon through. The little rabbit is from the retired set "8 Great Greetings" and For You stamp. Finish with some pom-pom trim and a few
rhinestone accents and you have a winner.

The other thing I did was make little square Easter Baskets. I thought these would make really cute place settings at my Easter table.


Here is a sample of these:











I hope you enjoyed seeing my Easter projects! Have a joyful and blessed Easter!!!

Here are some of the treats that I made for my little boos who will be visiting tonight. I LOVE Halloween! Ladies, anyone else do something special for Halloween?

Sheryl

The Weddings

I've got two children; both boys and this year they decided to get married with in 5 weeks of each other. I'm in wedding overload! I thought I would share with you what I have done, Stampin' Up wise for both weddings.

The first wedding was my oldest Matt and his bride Alex. They were married on August 7th. What I did for them was at their rehearsal dinner, held at the IVY club in Peoria Heights. I created flower center pieces; with punched out stars and their picture.

The paper and the star punches were Stampin'Up small star and star punches. In addition, I made favors which consisted of the Big Shot Fancy Favor Box. I used the retired color Brocade Blue and the stamp set Elements of Style. I glammed them up by spraying them with Champaign Mist Glimmer paint which was mixed with rubbing alcohol to give them sparkles. I also used the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and some Vellum card stock to make the beautiful butterflies. I made 65 of these (with the help of my friends at work) and they had a bag of Hugs and Kisses in them.

Here is a close up:

For the wedding coming up this week (September 10th), Jeff and Renae, I made all 300 of the wedding favors. The flowers are made from the scallop circle punch. We made all 300 of them while on a weeks vacation in Wisconsin. My son, my grandson and my husband all helped. My 6 year old grandson is quite the flower fluffer! I made 150 of the Matchbox boxes and 150 of the Scallop bag (now retired). Chocolate chip and Tempting Turquoise with a touch of Old Olive made up the flowers and bags. The paper is the retired Bride specialty paper.

They are currently in my basement - all lined up like little soliders. They are everywhere! I am now a self proclaimed expert on putting together the matchbox die cut boxes and I now have "flower maker" on my resume. My short term memory is shot and my hands ache from all the punching, folding, and tieing, but by golly, I got them done and on time!

Bird Punch Challenge

This is a card we made in the Card Club. It is so much fun to use the Bird Punch and of course, the Big Shot ! The top of the card is cut in half so when it is opened you see the embossing, but still have room to write your message. Challenge...post a card you made with the Bird Punch.

Inkcited Top 10 for April

10 Candis Fralick
9 Barb Fehr
8 Carolyn Black
7 Judy Elting
6 Judy Miller
5 Marsha Markas
4 Lisa Howard
3 Christina Staes
2 Avis Janes
1 Leslie Buhl

Congratulations, ladies!

Congrats Card

Hello everyone, this is my first post on this Blog. I have been a dem for about a year and a half under Dawn. I consider myself mostly a hobbyist. I do love maing cards and home decor items for all occasions. This card I made for a dear friend of mine who is expecting their fourth child any day now. I just love the bird punch. It offers a lot of possibilities. I am loving the clear mounts as well. It is so nice to see exactly where I am going to stamp. I never got the hang of the stamp-a-magig. Anyways I hope everyone has a blessed day and hopefully our spring will return soon.

Clear Block Storage

Can you believe it, 2 posts in 1 day!? I have been trying to figure out how to store and transport my new, awesome blocks! I decided that today would be the day I would figure it out. Guess what? I did! This might not be ideal for some of you, but I think it is going to work out great for me. The bottom of the box is 4 x 6, the front comes up 3" and the back comes up 5 1/2". I added additional card stock and DSP to the sides and the flip top to add some strength. I also cut some cardboard backing to slide in the bottom to give it more strength. I keep all of the board backing from the packages of DSP, the Big Shot Dies, etc. I use it for projects that need a little extra something for strength. When I added the ribbon, I criss-crossed it so that the box would be less likely to topple when I picked it up. To keep the flap on the inside of the box where I want it to be, I added 2 little pieces of magnets. The DSP is the Sweet Pea pack from the new mini. I used Dusty Durango and So Saffron card stock, Pewter Jumbo Eyelets and the new Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon. I think it turned out great and will definitely help to protect my wonderful, new blocks!

Cocoa Specialty Gift Class

Okay, I know it's been a long time, but I still have to share this project from Christmas. I had several attend this Cocoa Specialty Gift Class. One of my customer's even brought her boyfriend. I think he did better than anyone in the class! This picture was my first try and Leslie provided me with the directions. At the class, we used the Cocoa Specialty DSP. They turned out beautiful. My customer and her boyfriend used the idea to provide their families with his secret Chicken Salad. He said that everyone loves it but that he won't actually share the recipe. What a wonderful gift! I thought this would also make an awesome Easter basket using some of the new DSP.

Whimsical Words Valentine

Winter here in central Illinois can be soooooo long!! Fourteen inches of snow is beautiful to look at, but as you all know..gets old after a while! I was especially glad to have "Brown" ringing the door bell with my Occasions and Sale-A-Bration supplies. Some catalogs really grab me. If the rest of the new catalog releases are as good as this, I'll have to build a room on!! The card I'm featuring today was created for a sketch challenge over at Sudsol. It is also one of the first I've created using the clear mount stamps. Of course with Valentine's Day only a few weeks away, I naturally thought of the Sending Love Specialty Paper and Epoxy Brads from the Occasions Mini. This is not a beginner card, but there are lots of upsale opportunities included in this design. Hope you enjoy.

Happy Valentines Day!

Judy

Recipe:

Whimsical Words Sale-A-Bration Stamp Set, Real Red & Very Vanilla Card Stock, Sending Love Specialty Paper, Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, Clear Embossing Powder, Sending Love Epoxy Brads, Perfect Polkadots Impressions Folder, Mover's and Shapers Punch Window Heart, Pinking Hearts Corner Punch, Dimensionals, Big Shot

I added a Very Vanilla mat on the inside with another Punch Window Heart in the lower left corner. To cover the brad prongs, I chose a strip of the DSP, used the Pinking Hearts Border Punch to edge it and adhered it over the brads.

Vintage Vogue and more

Have I mentioned how much I love the new punch design? This XL Two-Step Bird punches like a hot knife through butter! I really thought that branch would pose a problem...think about how hard it is to use the Boho Blossoms punch when punching all three flowers at once...but boy, was I wrong. I made this card multiple times for a swap and never regretted it. And how nice is the locking mechanism on the punches? Oh, the joy I get from the littlest details!

Materials: Vintage Vogue stamp set, Very Vintage jumbo wheel, Old Olive, Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry and Sahara Sand card stock, Rich Razzleberry stamp pad, Scallop Trim Border punch, XL Two-Step Bird punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, 2-way glue pen

SAB Share

If you are debating the clear-mount stamps, let me put it quite simply: GO FOR IT. I was skeptical as I've used contraband acrylic stamps at other peoples' homes and let's just say I didn't like them. At all. But I love, love, love SU!'s new CM stamps. Why? I don't have to sacrifice the rubber I love. Can I see where the exact image is stamping? Nope. Will I still need the stamp-a-ma-jig? I'll confess -- I used it to put the roof on the house, but mostly because upon closer examination, I did a poor job of placing the sticker on the roof stamp itself. For other images (phrases, for example), stamping them so they're straight is a breeze! I'm sold!

Materials: Good Neighbors stamp set, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White card stock, Melon Mambo and Crushed Curry classic stampin' pads, Melon Mambo polka-dot ribbon, Big Shot, Scallop Circles #2 Bigz Die, SU! Backgrounds 1 Texturz Plates

Merry Christmas!

OK, this is from last year's photo shoot, but I just put this page together a few days ago and thought I share anyway! It's uber-simple, but I think it captures the JOY that's gushing out of my daughter...have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Beautiful Butterflies

I don't know how many of you purchased the Beautiful Butterflies Embosslits Die from the mini catalog, but I wanted to share this photo with you so you can see the intricate designs as well as how itty bitty the butterflies are. The butterfly on the top of the right-most column is the one with the vertical stripes.

Gotta' love it!

The new punch design is AWESOME! If you didn't work at least one of the new punches into your stamping budget, then you absolutely MUST do so! This scrapbook page shows off the Scallop Trim Border punch that is part of SAB. I will definitely be using this punch in my classes and workshops over the next three months. It won't take much to sell people on the redesigned punches...all you'll have to do is put one in their hands!

Holiday Decor Blocks

I'm happy to be able to finally share my holiday blocks with you! Our camera bit the dust when we were in Chicago several weeks ago, so I had to wait until we bought a new one to be able to post my latest creation.

I really liked the Decor Blocks right when I saw them. I know -- you're thinking all I had to do was go buy some wood and cut it -- but since Steve's not handy, that would involve purchasing a saw first. Suddenly, it wasn't very cost effective! I'm impressed with the sturdiness of the SU blocks, and they're lightweight, too. At a perfect 3 inches, it was very easy to cover each side of the blocks as desired. FYI, I opted to use Modgepodge and it worked great!

I used all but 4-5 of the images from one sheet of the Holiday Mix Decor Elements, and could have used those as I had room to spare, but I chose to leave the tops and bottoms of the blocks plain for ease of stacking. I stuck with a consistent color theme and used Old Olive Patterns paper to add some extra interest along the way. Beyond some direct-to-paper and background images (like the jumbo Textured wheel), I didn't stamp at all. This one's all Decor Elements, punches, ribbon and a few accessories.

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Today I'm showing my treats that I made for my fellow workers and also my favorite children who will be coming by tonight. These turned out really cute. There are 3 different item: First, I used the Big Shot fancy box die, the other on is a little pocketbook containing candy, and the last sample (pic to the left) the has the candy STAPLED into it (that's my trick!)_ Have a blessed All Saints' Day tomorrow!

Decor Elements on canvas

OK, this is the final Decor Elements post that I'll subject you to (but I hope you've been inspired along the way). This one just takes a simple canvas and any Decor Elements product of your choice. Once again, take your brochure and tape measure to the craft store when you go. It makes choosing the proper size of canvas so much easier!

I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but I will pass on one tip: purchase the smoothest canvas that you can find. There are different levels of texture out there, and the smoother your surface is, the better. My mom had me help her apply two Decor Elements products to a bumpy canvas and though we were successful, we had a rough time getting to the final product. When I purchased my canvas, I was ready for another fight but found that things went so much easier with the less textured canvas. So now I have my eye on the Dasher Level 2 hostess goody...I think he'll make a fantastic addition to my holiday decor this year!

Decor Elements Blocks

Here is my very simple contribution for the Decor Elements Holiday Mix and Blocks which are in the mini catalog.

Monogrammed Box

Here's my next contribution for ways to use Decor Elements... I had purchased the white Ee and used the lowercase e on a picture frame -- I'm sure many of you have seen it on my stamping ledge. Well, I had the capital laying around just begging to be used so once again, with ruler in hand, I found a plain, ugly box at the craft store that I thought would do the trick. A little bit of designer paper applied with modgepodge and just about 30 minutes of my time was all that this project required (and most of that was spent letting things dry). The finishing touch was putting my E to good use. Do I let Emma use her monogrammed box? Are you kidding me? Of course not! But someday I'll entrust her to take care of it well enough that I'll hand it over. Now I have to go buy another box because Benjamin is asking where his B box is =)

Snowflake Block

I've been looking for ways to use the Decor Elements product line that go beyond walls. To get inspired, I spent some time wandering around craft stores with the SU! Definitely Decorative brochure and a tape measure in hand. When I saw the display of kraft blocks at the end of an aisle, I knew I had to try it out. This project uses just one of the 10 snowflakes that come in "Flurry". With one set of snowflakes, you can make 6 of these blocks: 4 that feature a single snowflake and 2 that feature three smaller snowflakes on each block. What a fun--and affordable-- gift for Christmas!