Gotta love technology...

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, we had a lovely Trojan Virus break through and uninstall our anti-virus and wipe our main computer out...thankfully we had most of our files backed up and were able to re-load them onto our hard-drive once it was cleaned and re-formatted. However it takes time to get everything back up and running properly. I hope to be able to start posting new cards and projects soon.

Halloween is coming...

Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays! We always go all out on decorating the house and yard. As a family we have tons of fun setting up the cemetery, the fog machines, the black lights, the spider webs...you get the picture I'm sure. I'll post pics of our house decked out this year...


On to the cards now!! This first card is an updated version of a Halloween card I made last year, and it is cute and simple. I really do like this Ghostly Greetings DS paper, and I thought the bats would be perfect for this card. I also used a wider ribbon than last year for the embellishment and boy does it make a difference!!!


After doing the first card I wanted to step it up a notch - so this is what I came up with...I'm loving this kicked up version! I used the idea on page 27 of the Fall-Winter IBC 2008 to color my cat green and added a Kiwi Kiss triangle to the front of the card to help balance the colors out.


These are the first two cards for my 5 card challenge using Haunting Halloween...be on the look out for more to follow soon.

Cheers!!

Hi there - I have another card done for the 5 card challenge. For this one I used the set Cheers to You. I have to apologize for the fuzzy picture, my camera was having a hard time focusing on the stripes ;)
This was going to be for a stamp camp I have soon, until I remembered that there would be minors at the camp and I wasn't too sure about having them make alcohol related cards, so I changed the card for the camp, but still think this turned out pretty cute. I does need a little work, but right now I'm not sure what...

I will definitely be playing with the rest of the stamps in this set in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out. I will have to do some research, being I don't really drink, to find out how some of these drinks are suppose to look... ;)

Upsy Daisy part 1

Good Morning!! I have a few more cards to share with you for the 5 card challenge. I'm curious if any of you have decided to challenge yourselves as well? I can tell you it is quite fun to try to look at your stamps in a different way. Alot of the stamps I have I got because I saw "THE CARD" and wanted to just make it. Now I am trying to stretch my creative legs alittle to see what else I can make with all the wonderful stamps I have...

I was so excited to get this set and so far it seems justified!! I'm just loving the looks you can create with this bold, solid image.


My first card was inspired by pchefcindyw on SCS - here is her card. I changed a few things to help make it more mine. I flipped the card on it's side and changed the sentiment and the location of it. I stamped the image a total of four times without re-inking it to really give a look of depth to the image. I really love this monotone color pallete. I'm also loving the Prestwick DS paper. I am thinking of doing this same design in some other monotone colors.


The second card was what I came up with after seeing rohla's card on SCS - here is her card. I wanted to make it a little more me so I changed the direction of the card as well as the ribbon and sentiment. I also used my Sanded background stamp in Tangerine Tango on the card. Coloring on this stamp was loads of fun! I started with the Pumpking Pie marker and then used Always Artichoke for the stems and finished off with Really Rust for the tips. I also used the Thumping technique to add the Really Rust color.

Zoofari cards part 1

Hi there! So my kids challeneged me to use the Zoofari set for my next 5 card challenge...I have gotten 2 cards done with this set so far and I think it is starting to grow on me...This was a set I pre-ordered last year and just never really played with.


This was the first card I made, and by far one of my favorite cards to date! I played with the paper layering technique and am quite happy with how it turned out. I tried to watercolor a little on his body for shading, but am not quite happy with how his bottom turned out :(


Here is a close up of how the layers look together. I thought this would make a great kids birthday card of welcome baby card.

For this card I started with the CB'ed piece of Bravo Burgundy and build the rest of the card around it. I got the color combo from my Color Coach. This is Bravo Burgundy, Handsome Hunter, Mellow Moss and Apricot Appeal. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line all the birds up and watercolored them. It is hard to see in the picture, but the tag says "Time To".

Be on the look out for more cards to come as I keep playing with the 5 card challenge. I may not always make all five of one set at one time, but eventually they all will get done.

More Butterflies...

Hi there! I made a couple more cards for the 5 card challenge, and completed all 5 for the Kind Thoughts set...WooHoo!!!

I think this one is going to be one of my new favorites!! I love how this image looks cut into thirds and then mounted on a darker piece of paper. I have seen many cards like this on SCS and finally decided to try one for myself. Of course I had to add my layered butterflies.

This card was me just playing with some scraps that I had laying around...It is kind of cute, I think. I did get to play with the scallop edge punch we now carry and who can resist the yummy Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon...I used my Trio Flower punch to create the small flowers in the circles and stamped on them with the small flower detail stamp from Kind Thoughts.

I'm so thrilled to have one set completed! I can't wait to get started on some other sets!! I let my kids pick the next set they want me to work on so be prepared to see a lot of Zoofari cards in the near future!!

Butterflies Galore!!

How many times have you found a great stamp set that you just KNEW you had to have only to get it home and then nothing?? or even worse make the one project that inspired you to purchase the set and nothing else??? That has happened to me more times than I care to remember...because of that a bunch of my friends on Splitcoast Stampers and I have challenged ourselves to make at least 5 projects with each set we get, and the goal is to make those 5 projects BEFORE we purchase new sets to play with ;)

I did pretty good with the last catalog in making cards before I purchased new sets, but have slipped off the wagon a little with this AWESOME new catty...so I decided to get busy making cards with the great sets I have and try to postpone buying more sets until I have some great samples in my binder.

Here are 3 cards I created with Kind Thoughts (pg 122, #111095, $25.95):

This card was greatly inspired by PickleTree on SCS - you can see her card here, I changed a few details to make it more my own. This is also a bigger card than I usually make, this one is 4.5 x 7. I'm just loving Chocolate Chip lately so of course it had to make it's way into this card, and this is really the first time I've played with Baja Breeze, which is one of our new In Colors for 2009. I wasn't too sure of it at first, but it is so elegant with the Chocolate...I stamped my butterflies in Chocolate Chip and them stamped them again on a scrap piece of paper in Baja Breeze with Chocolate Chip around the edges, using the Rock-n-Roll technique. I cut out the wings and them covered them with Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Once the CE was dried I adhered the wings to the Chocolate Chip butterflies and finished my layering. I also got to use the new Scallop Edge punch and to help pull the scallops in I used my Scallop Circle punch to create 2 circles and then quartered them and adhered them to the corners of the card.

Here is the second card I created with Kind Thoughts:

I wanted the butterflies to be a little more whimsical for this card so I punched the circles out of my Pacific Point first in a random pattern and them stamped my butterflies in Chocolate Chip on a Whisper White background. I wanted to make sure their wings would be poking out of the circles so I purposely stamped them off center. I created a great faux background sheet by tearing a scrap piece of paper and adhered it to my card base with repositionable adhesive. I sponged Kiwi Kiss all over the bottom of the card and used 2 more pieces of scraps with straight edges to created a striped effect. I sponged the stripes with Old Olive to have a little contrast. Here is a tutorial for the faux tearing from SCS. This isn't the exact way I did it, but pretty close. Again I stamped my butterflies on a scrap piece of paper in different colors and cut out the wings to attach them to the card. This time I used my fingers to bend the wings up a little and only adhered the wings right next to the body.

For the third card I also got to play with the Little Tee's from Gina K:

I used Pink Pirouette for my base and did a tone-on-tone image of the great flourish from Kind Thoughts and also did tone-on-tone for the butterfly. I added a Baja Breeze panel down the left side and did tone-on-tone butterflies on this as well. For the Little Tees I sponged Pink Pirouette and Pretty in Pink onto the shirt after I stamped and colored Eeyore with his butterfly. Then I cut the shirt out and mounted it with pop-dots. I made this card for a co-worker who had a rough day on Sunday, so I thought this would help cheer her up.

I hope you have enjoyed these 3 cards, hopefully I will have a couple more to show you in the next couple of days.

On-Line Ordering is Finally Here!!!

I'm so very excited to be able to finally make this announcement! If you wake up in the middle of the night with the perfect plan for the perfect project, just pop on over and place your order! You need to make cards with no time for a workshop?? Head on over and order what ever you need!! You want to shop for the perfect gift for the crafty person in your life?? That's no problem either! Now you can order Stampin’ Up! ’s awesome products from me day or night from the convenience of your own home. All you have to do is visit my demonstrator’s web site http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/stampingsarah , click on the shop now button at the top right hand side of the page and order what ever you need.

I hope all of you are as excited about this great new feature as I am!!