Butterfly Card

My adaptation of Shirley's card

Shirley's instruction sheet and card

Yet again I am wowed by my friend and downline, Shirley.  Here is the second project that she had for her club.  I did change things up a bit at home because I do not have the same stamp sets that she does.  I hope that you enjoy!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Weekend Video Soft Sayings Card Kit

Aren't these cards gorgeous?  Sigh...yet another thing for my list of "must haves"!  LOL!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Cards from my upline Suzanne

Sometimes my upline and I text pics back and forth and we share our club projects.  Suzanne gave me permission to share her sweet cards with you.  She does beautiful work!  I am so very jealous that my embossing paste is on backorder until the end of the month...sniff!  It should ship any day now.

Happy stamping,
Stef

Daisy Delight card for Club

Picture of Shirley's inspiration card

My card at the class

My adaptation for club

Wow!  I had so much fun the other day when we drove up to visit my downline, Shirley!  Initially I wanted to go be a blessing to her but she was such a blessing to me!  My daughter and I took up a light lunch to share and then I was able to participate in a bit of her club.  Before I left she loaded me up with a set of her other projects so that I could play with them at home.  What a sweetheart!  It was such a treat to stamp when I did not have to create them but could enjoy someone's creativity.  I will have more projects to post for later days and it triggered more creativity.  Love you, Shirley!

My take aways:

1. Definitely make time to create an instruction sheet for club projects because those sheets are so handy.
2. I am super glad that I just splurged on more of the auto collapsible trash bins for club/stamp camps.
3. I should always bring the photo holder for my cards.
4. Shirley is Ms. Organization and I could stand to reevaluate my stamping work space!  She even had someone recreate the storage units sold by a popular online storage store.

Happy stamping!
Stef

Stamps:  Daisy Delight and Label Me Pretty

Colors:  Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst and White

Supples:  Big Shot, Brick embossing folder, Berry ribbon, dimensionals, snail, Pearls, label punch, and sponges

Directions:

·         Stamp the stems in Tranquil Tide.  Stamp the outline of the flower in Berry; stamp off and stamp the bold flower image over the outline.

·         Run the stamped CS through the Big Shot with the Brick folder.

·         Mount the White CS on top of the Berry CS.  Mount ribbon on top and then mount front onto white CS base.

·         Stamp the labels from the Label Me Pretty set onto White CS with Tranquil Tide ink.  Punch out the image with the label punch and then punch out another Berry Label.

·         Cut the Berry label horizontally and mount behind the white label so that the Berry “peaks” out behind the white one.

·         Adhere pearls to flower centers.

·         Optional:  If you have a small bee stamp, stamp in black ink and color with yellow marker and Wink of Stella.

Delightful Daisy pop up card (Club Project)

I found a Youtube video of a German demonstrator making this card and I just fell in love with it.  I just had to do it for my club project!  Of course, I made it my own card by improvising and changing up the color scheme.

Stamps:
Awesomely Artistic
Delightful Daisy Bundle (stamp set and punch)

Colors:
Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist, Powder Pink

Supplies:
Big Shot
Layering Circles framelits
In Color DSP
Sponges
Scoring tool
Dimensionals
Doily

Happy stamping!
Stef

Weekend Video Wood Textures Suite

I have to admit...this suite is on my short list because I love the country/western/rough look.  I was not too sure about the crates when I saw them in the book but now I love them!.

Happy stamping!
Stef

Daisy Delight Card #3

Many of my ladies were not too sure that they would like the Lemon Lime Twist but we all agree that it is a fun color.  I used it quite a bit at my recent stamp camp and it was a big hit.  This was another fun card and I was able to use scraps of the DSP leftover from my stamp camp. Woo hoo!  Always a winner to use those little leftovers.  I am going to make more cards like this one in the future so that I can use the scraps.  I hate pitching them in the trash when the paper is so pretty...

Happy stamping!
Stef

Daisy Delight Card #2

As I sat in Big O tires I realized that I left the house before posting this morning.  Yikes!  So sorry that this is late.  I think that I need to figure out how to schedule posts so I won't have to worry about remembering.  LOL!

This was a super fast card.  I picked a framelit and then cut out the Soft Sky CS just a bit bigger so that I could use both parts on the card front.  Does the pearl and ribbon formation look like a face to you?  Maybe I am just too tired.  LOL!  Anyway, I also doubled up on daisies because I like the layered look best.

Happy stamping!
Stef

Daisy Delight Bundle Thank you card

I love love love this card!  I found a similar card and then adjusted it to fit the colors of my Designer Series paper and my taste.  Just in case you are interested in the bundle please note that the daisy punch was so popular that Stampin Up sold a year's worth in just a few months.  They have two emergency orders on their way but, for now, the punch and bundle are unavailable.  I believe that at the end of July SU will have the new punches in stock.

Busy morning!  My daughter and I stained/sealed the back porch posts after I treated my flowers with Neem oil to get rid of the pesky Japanese beetles that seem to infest everything and eat my roses down to stalks.  I think that I have a winner because the neighbor (yard of the month) told me what she does to treat her flowers. 

Stamp camp was a blast and this morning I put away my "toys".  Now I am prepping posts for this week.  Hooray!

Here is a Possum pic from when he was helping my daughter empty trash cans this weekend.  LOL!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Weekend Video Color Theory Suite

I really love the "paint strip" look!

Today is stamp camp and I am soooo excited!  If you are reading this during the day on Saturday I am so sorry that you had to miss. 

Happy stamping,
Stef

Retro Week Godspeed set Card #3

Sorry!   It has been a busy day and I just got a chance to post on my blog.  Today was my son's day off so we had doctor appointments and hair cuts and....you get the picture.

I am finishing the prep work for stamp camp tomorrow!  Hoot!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Retro Week Godspeed set card #2

Oh happy day!  The roofers just left after replacing a missing shingle and patching a few spots.  I can sleep through the rain.  (-: 

Here is my favorite of the Godspeed cards.  I love the Topnote die and was so sad that it retired.

Happy stamping!
Stef

Retro Week Godspeed set

This week for retro week I am creating some military cards so that our family can send neat cards to a friend who is in basic training and then going onto more training.  I will be using this stamp set for the entire week.  Not interested in military cards?  No worries!  I will pull out another retired stamp set soon and do another retro week!

I wanted simple cards with relatively few frills and doodads for this soldier.  I was not happy with the sentiment on the top card so I ripped away and liked the new version.  I also smudged a bit of ink on my Crumb Cake CS but liked the wink at camo that sponging created.  Hope that you enjoy!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Weekend Video and my new favorite technique

I plan to use this technique at club in July!  Love it!  I can hardly wait to get my paste and goodies to try it.  I did notice that it is marked as low inventory though so you might want to hurry if you plan to order it.

After a happy morning puttering around my yard in the flower beds I am off to my stamp nook to come up with next week's blog content.  I am seriously leaning towards the Daisy  Delight bundle. I do have a disclaimer though...the Daisy punch was SERIOUSLY popular and SU sold out faster than they anticipated.  They pre-ordered enough punches for the entire year (like thousands) and the demos alone about cleaned out the supply.  Once the powers that be saw how popular the punch was they put in an emergency order and then another one but these things take time.  SU turned off the order number on the bundles and on the punches until the first shipment arrives. 

Happy stamping!
Stef

Planning to order?  Please consider using me as your online demonstrator here.  

Stamp Camp Oh So Eclectic #4

Here is the last card for stamp camp.  I saw the card in the catalog that had jewels on the DSP but I had already used the front side for another card so I started to play around with different layouts.  I combined a sample that I saw with the fourth card and got this one.  I used an acrylic block for my background and did not mind that it was less than perfect because the DSP had "less than perfect" circles on it.  Fun!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!  We have so many brave men and women to thank for the freedom that we enjoy every day.  Thank you to all of our service men and women who have served and are serving today.  God bless America!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Stamp Camp Oh So Eclectic Bundle #3

It has been a rough weekend in the Nichols house but we finally got internet back up and running.  The pain and suffering has been acute and our cell phone data usage spiked to accommodate our lack of internet.  Right after I posted my Saturday blog post I called C@@L@@k (not saying bad words...not saying bad words) and the tech BROKE my internet.  We went from dial up slow to broken slow.  LOL!  I was much happier with dial up slow, let me tell ya!  Today, my son called from work to see if he needed to stop at the library on his way so that he could get an internet fix.  Ba ha!   Thankfully the repair dude was working on it but he went through three modems before we had all systems operational.  Let me tell you, it was heartbreaking for the teen members of my family to watch the internet symbols come and go on their electronic devices.  LOL!  Thankfully we have a device free dinner in the works.  Funnier still...they had just gotten home from camp when the internet went out.  Of course, there was a ban on devices at the camp.  The suffering of this generation...

One more card left so be sure to keep an eye on my blog!

Happy stamping!
Stef

Stamp Camp project #2 Oh So Eclectic

Project #2 is complete and was super fun!  I love love love that fun hexagon die that was used in the background! Too be perfectly honest this card is CASED from the catalog because it was just too cute.  I did tweak a few elements and may go back to add some sequins sprinkled across the front. 

I had trouble realizing that I pulled the wrong leaf framelit from the package also; who knew that there were so many embossing framelits in the package?  Totally did not catch it until after I had spent at least 10 minutes adding shims (additional layers of paper under the bottom cutting pad to raise up the die).  Blushing here...  Now that I know I love the fact that I can cut AND emboss with this set.  So far I have found a diamond (gem not shape) and leaf that emboss.  

Yesterday the kids got back from camp and they had a ball.  Our neighbor had a fire pit and outdoor movie but I thought our kids might be too tired to go.  Silly Momma!  I went home to bed at about 10 pm but my kids stayed for both movies and then my son got up for work today.  He is going to be one tired puppy tonight.  My daughter decided it was worth the adventure and she would just sleep in.  The difference two years makes!  LOL!

Happy stamping!
Stef