Slit Punch Flower Card

So I totally wish I could take credit for this little idea, but I cannot. I did however, HAVE TO DO IT. The flower frame uses the slit punch, how stinkin' cute is that???? You can find the tutorial for it here. The stamps are from Paper Trey's Butterfly Kisses and I just free hand drew the stitching with a gel pen around the flower. Colors are Cool Caribbean and Rose Red. Sorry this is such a short post, but I had to get something up today and I have to be to work in 2 hours and have 3 errands to run.....gotta go..........................

How to make a microbeaded window

Can you say busy weekend???? I can. I haven't posted since Friday. I won't bore you with the details, instead let's teach you how to make a beaded window card.Start with a 3x3 piece of paper and use your square punch to punch out a square in the center.
Now take a piece of clear packing tape and adhere it to one side of the paper. In this case I wanted the argyle side of the paper to show on the card so put the tape on the opposite side. Now turn the paper over.
Set your square in your tray with sticky side of the tape showing through the window. You then pour microbeads all over the square, getting them to stick to the tape.
Your window will now look like this. Microbeads covering it, with no sticky stuff left.
Now you will stamp something to appear through your window. I used the ENJOY square out of BE HAPPY. I stamped in Amethyst and rolled the edges in Eggplant.
Adhere your window over your image.
Here is the finished product. Instead of applying microbeads you can use Dazzling Diamonds as well. I'm not crazy about the finished product, but it's done!

Cool Little Lady

Are you sick of Little Lady yet???? I promise to stop using her after today, at least for a day or two!!!! Today she is wearing a lovely shade of Cool Caribbean accented with Chocolate Chip-a totally hot look for the summer. Okay enough fashion blah blah.
This is a pocket card. I wanted it to look like she was pulling the paper back, did I accomplish that?????????????? Her wings were stamped in Versamark on vellum, then embossed with iridescent ice. Be careful if you do this as you can scorch the vellum. The little bugs wings are the same. Then I curled them just a little bit. Busy, busy day here, but wanted to get a card up. Thanks to everyone who had left sweet comments in the last day, I've really needed the lift!!!!!!

Doodle This Card Sketch

So, it's Thursday, and I'm finally getting around to doing Amy Westerman's Sunday card sketch. It's another one of my goals, to do her Sunday Sketch each week. I just recently got the Doodle This set and told myself to figure out a way to use it with this challenge. The other thing we had to do was some paper piecing with it. Boy was it fun to cut out those petals-NOT! I am happy with the end result however.
Here's the recipe:
Paper: Black, Whisper White, Palette o Prints rose and saffron
Ink: black, markers of Rose Red and Certainly Celery
Accessories: Black gingham ribbon
Sets: Doodle This, thanks from Little Lady from Paper Trey

Little Lady Gift Bag Envelope

I decide to set a goal for myself and start doing a weekly feature I'm going to call Tuesday "How To...". For the first one I will show you "How to make a gift bag out of an envelope".Begin with using a large white mailing envelope. I bought mine at Walmart, something like 6 of them for $1.97.
Next you will stamp your image all over the front and the back of the envelope. I used Paper Trey's Little Lady in Summer Sun and Ruby Red. The flowers are Pumpkin Pie.
Next you score the bottom, right, and left edge at 2 inches. I used my scoring blade in one of my cutters. Then fold back and forth along those scores to loosen up the paper.
Now you open up the top of the envelope and put your hand inside to push out the bottom of the bag and to form the sides of the bag.
Now take any type of tape (I had packing tape handy) and fold in the bottom triagular edges and tape them down. I do recommend using a good quality tape and not your tape runner. If you put anything with some weight in the bag, you will it to be strong.You bag should now look like a lunch bag would look if the top where folded over.
This is the end version before the final embellishments. I will tell you, if you are a SU demo, this WOW's people EVERY time at a workshop! It's a great stamp camp project too. And people are amazed when they get them too, that "you made that out of an envelope??"
This is the final project with a bow tied on and a tag added. Leave me a comment with a link if you make one, I'd love to see what other people might be able to make. Hope your inspired!

Here's the recipe:
Paper: Large white mailing envelope
Ink: Summer Sun, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Gold organdy ribbon, small and large tag punch
Set: Little Lady from Paper Trey

Little Lady in Amethyst

I couldn't wait to play with my Little Lady set from Paper Trey. It is so fun to work with!!!!!!!!!! I stamped the wing piece in Versamark on the amethyst Palette O Prints paper and then sprinkled it with iridescent ice and heat set in. After that I cut in out and then in half. I only adhered the very top of the wings and kind of pulled them up to give it depth.
I varied the little ladybug trail with the two small dots.
I love how Almost Amethyst pairs with Vintage Violet, it will be so sad when it is gone!!!
Here's the Recipe:
Paper: Almost Amethyst, Vintage Violet
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Vintage Violet
Accessories: Iridescent Ice embossing powder
Sets: Little Lady from Paper Trey

Beate's Butterfly Challenge Card

Well, Beate handed out another challenge early this week and I of course had to play along. The best part was I go to use my new Butterfly Kisses set from Paper Trey (the website is on the right of the page). I know I said this before when I got my Bella's, but I've been dedicated to Stampin' Up since I became a demonstrator that I never really looked at other stamps because they wouldn't help my business. What I have found since I started the blog is that I'm stamping for ME again and not always looking at it like a business. Which brings me to this card. I love my new stamps from Paper Trey. I'll be playing with them more. You have to check the website out!!! They make such cute stamps, and I am really liking the acrylic blocks and clear stamps-as much as I hate to admit that! If you want to know how the frayed ribbon is done, visit Kim Wilson's tutorial about it.

Here's the Recipe:
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Ruby Red
Ink: Brocade Blue, Ruby Red
Accessories: Blue Ribbon, Scallop scissors from Fiskars
Sets: Butterfly Kisses from Paper Trey

The ants go marching one by one...

Last night's stamp camp was a lot of FUN!!!! Today's card is another sample from stamp camp. Each demonstator (6 of us) shared a different way to use the round tab punch.My demo was an apple core. I decided to use the little ant from Bugs and Kisses to make them look like they where stealing picnic items. In making the apple core, I accidently stumbled on making an orange slice too. I hope to get a little tutorial done with some tab punch ideas over the weekend. I'm off to the real job today-bringing life into the world!!!!
Here's the recipe:
Paper: Bashful blue, Palette o Prints striped celery paper
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Round tab punch, 3/4 inch circle punch, large oval, red gingham ribbon
Sets: Bugs and Kisses, words from Pocket Fun

Blue Layered Background

Alright one more of the demo's for tonight. This one is brayered with Bashful Blue. The flower was stamped Chocolate Chip, then cut out. I pulled the edges of the flower up to give it some depth. The "friend" is from Simply Said. It's in one of the sayings and I just colored it with a marker and stamped it. Have a great Thursday!

Paper: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Au Chocolate brayered with blue
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Vanilla ribbon
Sets: Big Blooms, Simply Said

Sketch Challenge/ Colored Background #2

Todays card is another dual purpose card. It is another demonstration card for my Stamp Camp tomorrow evening. The polka dots on the background were colored in using a Celery Marker. It also features a small piece of the Palette O Prints celery paper. The layout is from Amy Westerman's sketch challenge two weeks ago. Click here to see it. The little flowers are accented with some faux stiching using a white gel pen.
Here's the recipe:
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery Palette O Prints, Pixie Pink
Ink: Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Spring Bouquet Flower Punch
Sets: You Make Me Happy

Sketch Challenge with Brayered Paper/ Daisy How To

So todays card is a very multipurpose card. First of all, this Thursday is an upcoming Stamp Camp for me and 5 of my demo friends. How we do it is, every 3 months we bring our customers together for Stamp Camp. We offer 5 projects, usually 2 cards and 3 other projects, demonstrations, food, door prizes, inspiration sheets, and lots of FUN! We all take turns demoing something, well... my demo is to show how the Au Chocolate paper can be brayered to color match your project. So I used the polka dot paper and brayered it with Almost Amethyst for the background.
The other purpose it serves is to use Amy Westerman's Sunday Sketch Challenge. To see the layout she offered click here. I love Amy's ideas, they really inspire me. Tomorrow I'll put up another card from her sketch from 2 weeks ago.
Last I wanted to show you how to alter your daisy punch to make it match your flowers with a straight edge.
First, you punch out the flower.





Next, just snip of the very ends of the flower with your paper snips.
Last is the finished flower. I used it up in the right hand corner of the image. It matches the little stamped flowers in the bouquet better than if it has the rounded edges.

Here's the "recipe":

Sets: Flower Filled, Warm Words
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Au Chocolate brayered with Almost Amethyst, Shimmery White
Ink: Boots-Almost Amethyst with dots of Eggplant Envy before stamping, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose(stamped off once)
Accessories: 1 3/8 circle punch, Daisy Punch, 1/2" circle punch.

My First RAK

I got my first bloggers RAK, isn't it cute!?! I'm so excited! The only bummer thing is that she didn't give me her blog address so I can give her credit! So Denise, if your out there, leave me a comment so I can send people to your site! THANK YOU FOR THE CARD-I love it! I wish you all could see it in person-I've always loved this dress!

Beate's Challenge Card

I love a challenge. So here's the scoop if you already don't know. Over on Beate's blog, she put up a layout for you to use, then you submit it and create a link to your blog so people can see it. It's part of here blog candy challenge, because she's had almost 200,000 hits on her blog. (I'm hoping to hit 1500 this week--wow--what a difference). Part of her prize is a Stampin Up Big Deal alphabet--too cool. Anyway, if you need details click hereAs for my card. It uses the some of the gorgeous rose red paper from the Palette O Prints. The saying is from Friend to Friend, one of sets I'm going to miss the most!!!! The edges are all sponged with Chocolate Chip. The little brads on the flowers have the bottoms turned out to add a little extra interest, and then they are adhered with a glue dot.
So here's the comlete make up:
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Rose Palette o Prints
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Brads from Hodgepodge Hardware, Daisy Punch
Stamps: Friend to Friend

New everything!

So this was one of the Bella's I got a few weeks ago and I haven't played with yet. I just love the Bella's, they are so fun. I also used a piece of new paper from the May special of Palette o Prints. These new papers are gorgeous! And last but not least...
I got 3 new alphabets on a scrapbooking show on QVC. (I'm a little bit of a QVC addict too.) Anyway they come in this great little tin, with the 3 different alphabets, and an acrylic block. Why do I love it? Because you can MAKE YOUR OWN WORDS. The CHEERS is from the one alphabet. Just place the letters on the block, and stamp. Because CHEERS has 2 E's, I stamped the CHE then the ERS. TO FUN!!!!

I have a problem

Hi...my name is Kat...and....I'm a floweraholic. It's true. That's why you have seen any posts. When this time of year hits I have one thing on my mind---planting flowers!!! I have spent an obscene amount of money this week on filling my habit, and I have been planting away. My house itself has become a small nursery. We also started a perenial garden last fall that has needed some attention...weeding, planting, seperating, etc. I just wanted to share with you my BEAUTIFUL creeping phlox. It's peaking right now and it is so gorgeous. Okay onto some stamping stuff!

Flower Film

So I got this great idea from one of my fellow demonstrators named Sara Redman, who brought a card using this idea to make it look like film to our last group meeting. I wanted it to look a bunch of pictures of flower, like you had been a nature hike or something. I colored the flowers with my chalks to give them all a soft look. What a great way to use this spiral punch!!

Scrap pieces

Well it has taken me a few days to post. I stamped yesterday, but what an uninspired, lack of quality stamping day it was. I didn't feel like I made anything worthy of the blog. I just hate it when you hit those creative walls. So today I'll have 2 for you. This one is just 1/2 inch pieces of the double sided paper with every other piece the opposite side of the paper. The flower is just 2 daisy punches and the small flower from the flower trio punch. I haven't made a card with base just white cardstock for a long time. Kinda fun!

Trifold anniversary card!

So I've been seeing these really fun trifold cards that were designed by Cambria, and it is yet another one of those things in my "to make pile", (by the way it's a rather large pile). But then yesterday I went to see what Cambria was up to, I was totally wowed by her beautiful trifold card and in turn inspired to make one. Her's uses the new Paper Palette paper and I'm so jealous. (Mine is coming this week!) This was for my parents 45th wedding anniversary. I'd show you the inside, but my little brain wasn't smart enough to take the picture BEFORE I wrote the sappy sentiment on the inside and I didn't feel like sharing that with the world!
Beate made a great tutorial for this card over on Splitcoast if you want to make one too.

This is one of those projects that I've had sitting on my work table under the "I've got to make one of these" sections. I can't take any credit for the the layout at all, the inspiration came from Amy Celona's website. If you go to her site, click on the project gallery to see all her stuff. She has great instructions for them that you can download.
She had some really amazing projects there. Her original was a little photo holder. I saw it more of a pull out card idea. And I am all about simple, so I used the Friends and Flowers Simply Scrappin' kit. There isn't a single stamped thing on here. Sometimes I just love that!

Here is what the little pull out inside looks like. I think I'll make it a card about "Why you are my friend" and write on each of the little cards. I didn't have any of the mini envelopes like she used, but I had some left over pocket cards from the last mini catalog.

I promise to stamp!

Okay, I promise you that right after I type this I will go upstairs and stamp something for a post later today, but I had to take care of a few things.
First, I own 51 of the retiring stamp sets and 4 wheels. I would think that sounds really sick except I know my upline owns something like 130, so I feel better now.
Second, if anyone was curious, the new puppy is named Ozzie. So now we have Quincy and Ozzie.
Last I was tagged by Audra which means I have to tell you some fun facts about myself and then "tag" other bloggers.

Okay-
1. I've been married just shy of 10 years, known my husband almost 15 years. I met him in college because my chemistry partner was "fatally attracted" to him (literally-like the bunny in the pot crazy!!!!) and I felt bad for the guy and warned him to keep an eye open!

2. Best summer of my life was spent working on a ranch in northern Minnesota. Makes up some of the best memories of life. I'm a darn good rider and love to barrel race.

3. I always wanted, and still want to own my own horse, but the financial life plan seems to always put the horse at the bottom of the list.

4. My biggest vice--OREO's--can't have them in my house. Aren't they like one of the worst foods ever because of what they are made out of??? Must be why they are so darn good.

5. My biggest life lesson so far--the power of girlfriends!!!! The last few years have taught me some harsh lessons in the need for the female bond. I love my friends dearly and don't know what I would do without out them. Wait, I do know what I would do without them--sit an a padded room eatting Oreo's!!!!

Okay know my favorite blogs that I think you need to visit:

1.Well, let's start with Audra, she's the one who tagged me, and the deserves a little love back. Plus I really enjoyed visiting her.

2.It seems a little ridiculous to put up, but if you haven't visited Beate yet you have to!!! She's like the Yoda of stamping.

3. Allisonis one amazing woman with all the amazing info she puts up on her blog. I can't believe she has a "real" life too.

4. If you are looking for a layout ideas don't miss Amy Westerman's blog on Sunday's. See puts up a Super Sketch idea each Sunday and they can give you great inspiration when you are stuck.

5. Last, check out Amy Celonaif you are looking for project ideas. She makes some amazing things. Click over on the right of her site where it says Stampin' Blog. Great instructions too!!!

Okay, off to stamp!!! See you later!

Pseudo pansy

I love it when stamping inspiration happens totally by accident. I was playing around with the little flower outline from the Polka Dots and Paisley stamp set and I figured this out.
If you start with stamping the outline. Then keep stamping it in succession in a "circle".
You will end up with a fun new little flower. When I got it done, I thought it kind of had the shape of a pansy. Now, obviously pansies don't have skinny petals but I colored my flower to kind of look like one.
Here is the finished version. It uses an aqua painter to color in the flower and give it a little watercoloring effect. The green cardstock is Sage Shadow, and the paper is from the last suppliment. I think it turned out kinda pretty.

My new baby!!!!!!!!!!!

Look what I got!!!! This is the newest edition to our little household. He is a nine week old Shih tzu puppy. Is he not the cutest thing ever? We have a nine year old terrier/Bichon/mutt mix named Quincy that isn't quite sure what the heck has happened to his happy one dog home, but he is doing very well.
So we had no intention of getting another dog, but it was our little town's city wide garage sale this weekend and I happened to stop at this garage sale that had these puppies. Well 5 return stops to the garage sale and he was coming home with us.
My husband is not thrilled, but tolerating like a trooper. The fact that we have been married 10 years and I've only adopted 2 dogs and one hampster is really showing a great deal of restraint on my part. I am totally an animal lover and would bring home just about anything if it were only up to me. He does have a name but I will share that with you tomorrow.
Leave me comment, what would you name this guy???