Thanks for the memories...

It's official -- I am no longer a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I had decided to retire from official duties once the baby came since I had to go back to work full-time. As it is now, I only see him for 3 hours a day (1 before work and 2 after work) before he goes to bed and I couldn't imagine missing 2 of those 3 hours on a regular basis to do workshops. I did think that I would hang on as a hobby demonstrator for a while, but that made less and less sense as time passed as well. So, I will go back to being a happy customer and now I feel my stamping options are a little more open as well. No more guilt for buying other stamps & supplies.

Aside from the discount, which was nice, the thing I will really miss is hanging out with all of my demonstrator friends at convention, local training meetings and online swap groups. I was lucky enough to be in Christina Crawford's 5th level. Over the past few years, I've gotten to meet Christina and I am happy to call her my friend. She sent the cutest little summer outfits for the baby last week, so I need to whip up a thank you card.

Okay, on to the card. At this point, I am sick of baby themed cards and I wanted to use all Stampin' Up supplies. So, I pulled out my new Prehistoric Pals set and grabbed the thank you from Family Phrases. I used Amy's Friday sketch #17 for this card, but I had to drop a layer since my card is only 3.5x5" and my focal image was a little large. The colors were inspired by one of the baby's new summer outfits. I like the contrast of the night of navy & green galore.

Stamps: Prehistoric Pals, Family Phrases
Ink: Night of Navy, Green Galore, Creamy Caramel, Palette Noir Black
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Green Galore, Creamy Caramel, Bordering Blue
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Coluzzle Circle Cutter

Baptism Thanks

The baby's baptism was 3 weeks ago now, so I needed to get my act together and make some more thank you notes. For mother's day weekend I asked for some stamping time and I was actually able to make 25 thank you cards in one sitting! It really felt good to start and finish a project on the same day.

I loved Beate's Weekend Sketch #47 this week. It was simple but eye-catching and just perfect for mass producing 25 thank you cards. I did tweak the oval position a little bit because my oval ended up being too small. It looked out of balance on my card, so I moved it over a little. I want to try the sketch again with the proper oval placement though. I can see myself coming back to this one over and over!

When I make thank you notes, they are almost always 3.5 x 5" instead of the standard 4.25 x 5.5". I always feel like I need to fill the inside with my thank you note, so smaller is better. ;) I try to keep a package of small note cards with envelopes around just for this purpose. It really does speed up the process.

The patterned paper I used is long retired from Stampin' Up! which is a shame because I am loving the colors in it. The little feet are from a Studio G dollar stamp set that I picked up a while back at Michaels. Gotta love that price!

These are definitely my favorite of all the baby thank yous I've made this year. I hope you like them too.

Stamps: Baby set from Studio G, sentiment from A Muse
Ink: Palette Noir black ink, Bashful Blue
Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, retired designer paper from Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon
Tools: Extra Jumbo Scallop oval punch from Marvy Uchida

Pottery Barn inspiration

I decided to sign up for this week's challenge on the Sensational Stampin' Up! Swappers group. We were to use this rug from Pottery Barn Kids as our inspiration. I love the Pottery Barn look, so I had to jump in on this challenge.

Then I realized that I don't have very many current Stampin' Up! sets -- let alone floral sets. From my collection, my choices were to use Bud Basics or Doodle This. I decided that Bud Basics would work perfectly since it has two sizes of flowers & leaves.

When I first looked at the rug at Pottery Barn, I thought it was one rug - a chocolate rug with an ivory border. So, I was going to try to emulate that myself. I decided to use the chalkboard technique to get the flowers to show up on the chocolate cardstock. To match the softness, I planned to use poppin' pastels for the flowers on the white cardstock.

Unfortunately, when I put my two panels together it looked way too busy. So, I decided to just go with the larger white piece. To salvage the chocolate panel, I made a little 3x3 card. I hope Kristin likes at least one of them!

Stamps: Bud Basics, All Holidays
Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Poly-Twill Ribbon
Tools: Sponge Dauber, Stampin' Pastels




Stamps: Bud Basics
Ink: White Craft Ink
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Celery Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Sponge Dauber, Stampin' Pastels, Signo White Gel Pen

Thank You Alli!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win Alli Miles blog candy -- her new set Garden of Life! I couldn't believe my good luck! I was going to order this set from the minute I saw it so I was so excited to win it.

Well, the set just arrived in the mail on Friday so I had to make time this weekend to make a thank you card.

I've long admired Alli's style in designing cards. When I think of Alli's cards, I think of bright & rich colors. So I chose to use red, yellow & black. The layout is Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch #24.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but I embossed the outline of the daisy on the black panel. The red daisy also has an embossed outline and was cut out and popped up off the summer sun panel (which is also popped up off the card). In real life, it really pops!

Thanks again Alli! I know that I will turn to this set a lot and I'm looking forward to seeing your next set for Papertrey Ink!

Stamps: Garden of Life from Papertrey Ink
Ink: VersaMark, Real Red, Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Whisper White, Summer Sun, Basic Black, Real Red
Accessories: Vintage Brads
Tools: Black Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Stampin' Dimensionals