Chicken Love

  Is everyone keeping warm?  It has been unusually cold here in the Richmond area the last few days.  We had some snow last week and even another dusting overnight last night.  They are saying there will be some snow tomorrow as well!  I love it when it is snowy and cold; probably because it doesn't happen too often here but it's nice that the weather actually fits with the season in my opinion!  I think my northern DNA gets a little out of whack when January temps are in the 60s so all is right with my world the last few days!  Maybe I'll get some stamping in tomorrow in my cozy stamp room.

  For now I'll show a card that was inspired by one that I saw over the summer on Diana Gibbs' blog.  She was given an adorable chicken card by a friend and I just fell in love with the darling hen!  I grew up with chickens and I can say that none of ours were ever this cute all grown up!  I had been holding out on creating one of my own because to be honest I'm kind lazy and didn't want to have to search out a template and hand trace any thing.

  Stampin' Up! helped me out by releasing a brand new set of Framelits in the spring catalog…..OVALS!  Sometimes you can't beat basic shapes and the largest oval is scalloped and I thought it would be a great fit for a chicken body.  What do you think?

  I simply used the framelit and some of the new (also in the spring catalog) Primrose Pink Core'dinations cardstock to make the oval and then folded it in half.  I used the small heart punch and Real Red cardstock for the comb and another small heart folded in half for the wattle.  The beak was a little tricky and I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it but I used Daffodil Delight cardstock, punched a pennant with my pennant punch and then just snipped off the narrow pointy end and folded it in half.  Eh….it's a paper chicken, how picky can she be about her beak right?

  Next, I added a googlie eye leftover from this past Holiday catalog.  For her wing I punched a Full Heart out of the new More Amore DSP.  I should have re-done it with the hearts facing the right way but I'm hoarding that paper so sideways it is!  The final touch is the Sycamore Street button (Sale-a-bration reward) tied with linen thread.

  And that's that…a paper chicken!  I hope you and all your chicks are staying warm!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: None

Ink: None

Paper: Primrose Pink Core'dinations, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, More Amore DSP

Accessories: Oval Framelits, Full Heart Punch, Small Heart Punch, linen thread, Sycamore Street button, Pennant Punch, googlie eye

Vintage Chalkboard

  Yesterday my stamping ladies and I celebrated the first day of Stampin' Up!'s Sale-a-bration (SAB) promotion!  I had a blast seeing everyone and introducing them to the new spring catalog as well as the fun freebies to be had during SAB.  We had fun making some projects, eating some yummy snacks and catching up from the holidays.

  Along with some fun new products I showed the ladies how to do the chalkboard technique.  Chalkboards and hand lettering are all the rage these days (have you seen it all over Pinterest??) and of course stamping is no exception.  Some of the new sentiments just lend themselves so well to this technique I made sure to incorporate it into one of our projects yesterday.

  The chalkboard technique is super easy.  Just use white embossing powder on black cardstock for your image.  Once it has cooled just use a damp paper towel and dab it onto your Whisper White craft ink pad and swipe it across your embossed image.  Add more craft ink for a heavier "chalk dust" look or use a clean section of the paper towel to wipe off some ink if you got a bit heavy handed on the first swipe.  What did I tell you…..Easy right?

Here's a close up:

  So we took our chalkboard panel and adhered it to a piece of the SAB DSP Sycamore Street.  Then all of that was adhered to a panel of Island Indigo that was dry embossed with the new Simply Scored Borders plate.  I used the zigzag pattern but it doesn't show well in the photo.  Believe me it's a cool effect to get dry embossing in places that you just can't with an embossing folder.  Plus it's 12 x 12 so you can embossed the whole length of a 12 x 12 scrap page!

  For the final touch we used some of the new Natural Trim ribbon to make a knot with a Vintage Trinket safety pin attached and added it with a glue dot to the corner of the chalkboard.  All of this goodness was mounted on a Sahara Sand cardbase.

  If you'd like to enjoy some of these new products head to MY ONLINE STORE to get started shopping.  If you have some questions before getting started just send an e-mail or leave a comment!  I'm happy to help!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Vintage Verses (SAB)

Ink: Versamark, Whisper White Craft ink

Paper: Sahara Sand, Island Indigo, Sycamore Street DSP (SAB), Basic Black

Accessories: Natural Trim, Vintage Trinkets, white embossing powder, Simple Scored Borders Plate, gluedots

Sale-a-Bration is Here!

  Happy first day of Sale-a-bration!  Today is the start of Stampin' Up!'s best promotion of the year.  For each $50 you order (before taxes/shipping) you get to choose a FREE Sale-a-bration (SAB) product!   Wow!  There are so many great things to choose from this year it's really hard to narrow it down!  Ribbons, buttons, stamp sets, punches, and more!

  Have yourself a little party and order $150 worth of product (you know it not hard after looking at the awesome spring catalog!!) and not only get 3 SAB items you also get $25 in hostess dollars to spend any way you'd like!  How awesome is that?

  You can shoot me an e-mail if you'd like to place an order or just head over to My Online Store to get shopping!  Anyone local to Richmond/Glen Allen, VA I have an order going in tomorrow if you'd like to save on shipping with a group order.  Don't miss out on earning free stamping supplies!

  Check back over the next few days to see some fun projects using SAB and Spring catalog products!

Snowman Thank You

  This is going to be a quick post this morning as I have to clean my house to get ready for the first stamp club of the year tomorrow.  I'm so excited for my ladies to see all the new spring catalog goodies and the wonderful Sale-a-bration offerings.  But first I need to get my house in shape!  No one wants to see dog and cat hair blowing across the floors!

  Check out this cute little snowman I made for after Christmas thank yous.  I saw THIS card by bookworm over on Splitcoaststampers and thought it was just so adorable that I needed to make my own version.

  I stamped Snowflake Soiree in Whisper White craft ink onto a Baja Breeze card base.  I added a strip of Floral District DSP along one edge.  When I first saw this pattern last summer it totally looked like little snowflakes to me and I've been kind of hoarding it to use this winter!  I cut a narrow strip of Rich Razzleberry and used the large scallop edgelit to add some detail.

  The snowflake is cut with the Snow Flurry die.  I added one of the new Sycamore Street buttons (SAB) tied with Island Indigo bakers twine.  The thank you banner was stamped in Island Indigo and hand cut.

  For the snowman I used the new oval framelits to cut an oval out of Whisper White and then just cut the oval in half.  His scarf is also a SAB item, Sycamore Street ribbon.  You get 3 colors of buttons and 3 colors of ribbon in once package….it's an awesome SAB reward if you ask me!  His carrot nose is Pumpkin Pie textured cardstock (retired) punched with the pennant builder punch.  Each pennant can be cut in half to get 2 noses.  His eyes are black brads.  I popped the snowman up on dimensionals because I just can't say no!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree, Itty Bitty Banners

Ink: Whisper White craft, Island Indigo

Paper: Baja Breeze, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie textured (retired), Whisper White, Floral District DSP

Accessories: Snow Flurry die, Oval Framelits (spring catalog), Pennant Punch, brads, Sycamore Street ribbon & button pack (SAB), Scallop Edgelit, baker's twine

Love You Banner - Fab Friday 10

  I know that it's been 2 weeks since I've posted, have you missed me?!?  At least make me feel good and lie!   I promise that I've been stamping but it's mostly been for my stamp club on Tuesday so it's a secret….Shhhhhh!  You'll have to come on the 22nd to see.  Just shoot me an e-mail if you're planning on attending.  Friday (tonight) at 8pm is the cut off!

  I think I'm finally back into a routine with the boys and will be posting regularly.  I have many new Spring Catalog and Sale-a-bration items that need love.

  I used a few new products to create my card for today's Fab Friday Challenge.  This time around we have a fun set of colors to work with!  At first I was wondering how I was going to get all of these colors onto one card but they coordinate so well it wasn't hard at all!

  I don't usually send out a lot of Valentines but of course I do need a few for the handsome guys in my life!  I don't know how they will feel about the Pink Pirouette but at least it's a start right?

  The base is Very Vanilla and then a smaller layer of Very Vanilla with rounded corners and run through the Big Shot with the new Honeycomb e.f..  They I took some scraps of the challenge colors and ran those through with the Honeycomb e.f.  Using my paper snips I cut out the the inside part of each hexagon and then glued it down inside the embossed areas.

  Next I stamped my hearts and then used the Hearts a Flutter banner framelit to cut them out.  I stamped another Cherry Cobbler heart and cut that out with the matching heart framelit.  It is popped up on the banner with a dimensional.  The mini banner from Itty Bitty Banners was stamped in Crumb Cake and then cut out and adhered and a small rhinestone was added.

  I wrapped some linen thread around 2 Vintage Trinket brads to "hang" my banners.  I accented the brads with a few rhinestones just for good measure.  The banners are just adhered with dimensionals.

  There you have it!  Head over to the Fab Friday Challenge to see our wonderful group of designers and all the genius ideas they've got!  Remember you've got lots of time to enter so no excuses right?  I can't wait to see your take on the challenge colors!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hearts a Flutter, Itty Bitty Banners

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Hearts a Flutter framelits, Honeycomb e.f., linen thread, Vintage Trinkets, rhinestones, dimensionals, corner rounder punch
 

Winter Thank You

  Happy Friday!  We're back into the swing of things at the Fab Friday challenge.  Mindy has a fun and versatile sketch for us this week.  Head over to the Fab Friday challenge to see the other design team inspiration and play along.  Remember you have 2 weeks so that's plenty of time to enter a card or 2!

  So what are you going to make with this sketch??

  Here's what I did….

  After every Christmas I need a giant stack of thank you cards for family, friends and co-workers so I was going for a winter themed thank you with this one.  I used Shimmery White card stock for the base and snowflake layer.  I embossed with the Northern Flurry embossing folder after stamping the snowflakes in Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant.

  The sentiment from Sweet Essentials was heat embossed in white on Elegant Eggplant card stock.  Don't forget to use your Embossing Buddy (yes this was my second attempt!).  I added some bling with rhinestones and a Silver Glimmer paper snowflake popped on a tiny piece of dimensional.

  I wish the photo showed the shimmer more but there is something funky going on with my camera…see the little bit of blur up at the top?  There is something stuck inside the lens of the camera and I can't get it out.  I think it's messing with the crispness of the macro setting.  My husband had to take the camera apart before for the same problem.  Does anyone out there know anything about this?  I'd appreciate any insight you might have!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree, Sweet Essentials

Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Versamark

Paper: Shimmery White, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Silver Glimmer

Accessories: rhinestones, corner rounder, white e.p., Northern Flurry e.f., Snow Flurry die