Freebie Friday 8!

Yay! It's Friday!!! Are you ready for today's Freebie giveaway? It's a cute little card holder set that holds three 3x3 cards and envelopes. Here are a couple pictures of it below:


This adorable little package is made from 2 scallop envelope dies. I trimmed the bottom flap of the envelopes to 1/2 inch, which is also the depth dimension of the box. I wrapped the outside with a 2"x8" stip of the Sweet Always DSP. I used the flower from the Sale-a-bration set Polka dot Punches and also the trio flower punch for the center flower. This would make a great hostess gift, favor, or cute project to do for a stamp class! You can also fill with candy too...I got my inspiration to make this from Jenn Dierck's chocolate filled envelope.

Ready to play? To participate in this Freebie Friday giveaway, please leave me a comment with your email address on this post by midnight Friday, Feb 27th Pacific Time! You can leave me a comment about anything, or answer this question...but don't forget to leave me your email address! Here's today's Freebie Friday question: What is a fun fact about you that you would like to share? You may already know this if you've been following my blog, but one thing I like to do is run. I'm kind of bummed right now that I have broken from my running routine and haven't figured out when to squeeze it in, but I really do like running and doing races. My goal is to do the LA Marathon in 2010 (it's a big milestone year for me), but my favorite race distance is the 10k. I'm not a fast runner, but just enjoy the workout I get from it. Believe it or not, I think about stamping projects a lot on my run! Look forward to reading about you!

Enjoy your Friday!

2nd Day of Swaps!

Today marks my first full week of work and it sure did go by fast! I've made a concerted effort to stay on top of my blogging and I'm hoping to keep up this routine. The only thing is I need to figure out when to squeeze in my workouts too...boy - I feel like there's not enough hours in the day! I guess there's still some tweaking to be made to my schedule, but I suppose that's just part of life, right? Well, enough of my rambling...here are the 2nd set of cards from the swap I wanted to share!





Hope these cards gave you some good ideas and inspiration for using the new stamp sets, papers, and embellishments that the new Stampin'Up! catalog has to offer. One of the embellishments I was excited to see on the cards was the crochet flowers. Personally, I think they are just adorable and can't wait to try them out next! Ciao for now and hope to see you tomorrow! (plus, it'll be Freebie Friday!)

Swaps!!

Hi all! As I had mentioned last week, I participated in my first SCS swap for Stampin'Up! Demonstrators to create WOW cards from the new Spring Summer catty, and guess what? I got the swap cards in the mail this past Monday! Woohoo! It was a 10+1 swap, meaning you make 11 cards, and get 10 cards back (the "+1" is for the hostess that coordinates the swap). Anyway, I am so excited about the swaps I got back that I wanted to share them with you! I'll share the first 5 today and the next 5 tomorrow. Each card has the name of the demonstrator that created it so you can ooh and ahh and know who made it! Here they are in no particular order.




Arent't these cards fun? I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did when I got them in the mail! Stay tuned for the 2nd half tomorrow.

I can't believe today is Ash Wednesday already! I need to figure out what I'm giving up for lent. While I reflect on that a bit, I want to wish you all a good day. Thanks for stopping by :)

Mojo 75 Card

Hello all and Happy Fat Tuesday! Today's post is gonna be quick! Here's my card creation for the Mojo Monday 75 card sketch. I've wanted to use the Always DSP with the Humor in High Heels stamp set, which I just got! I think it's gonna be one of my favorites. I love the dress and purse stamps in this set! You'll see I just used the dress stamp below, but it's got so much potential with paper piecing and coloring. I paper pieced it with the pink polka dot paper in the Always DSP. Hope you like it! Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Flower Assortment Special...

I'm offering a special promotion this week! Starting today, Feb 23, through Friday Feb 27th, the first 5 people to place an online order of $50 in merchandise (before taxes and shipping) or more from my Demonstrator Website will receive a pack of the Flower Assortment Designer Brads in the mail from me for FREE! Here's a visual for you:
So, not only do you get these fun brads, but since your order will qualify for a Sale-a-bration reward, you'll get to select something from the Sale-a-bration catalog AND also get a free Idea Book and Catalog from Stampin'Up! as well. How cool is that! To get started, you can access my Demo Site here and then click on the Shop Now button. Have fun!

Freebie Friday 7 Winner!

Hope you all had a good weekend! It's time to announce the winner for Friday's giveaway. I guess it's my own fault for not spelling out the rules, so since I didn't specify to leave your email or blogsite along with your post, I included everyone that left a post with a datestamp of Friday Feb 20th. The odds this week were excellent!! There were only 6 comments, so that's a pretty good chance to win. And the winner is....Karen! There were actually 2 comments from Karens - one with an email address and one without...and the winner based on this random list is the one without. There is a caveat though - I need to hear back from the winner by the end of today (Midnight on Feb 23, 2009, Pacific Time). Here are the results of the list in order.
If I don't here back from Karen, the person in the #2 slot - Alicia - will be the winner. I'll keep you all posted!!

In the meantime, I will probably post my Mojo Monday card on Tuesday, due to my new job logistics...I won't be able to whip up a card as quickly now that I have to head into the office by 8 am! Please stay tuned and have a great day! Thanks for visiting!

Snapshots from the Getty Villa

I thought I'd share some pictures from our Getty Villa excursion last weekend. It's in Malibu perched on top of a hill that overlooks the ocean. While it was not the clearest day (sorta overcast), it was still a fun day of viewing exhibits and walking around the grounds.

This purple flower caught my eye because the colors were so vibrant!
The little hummingbird was cool to see flitting from tree to tree to fountain.
This mosaic fountain was just gorgeous!
Another fun fountain

Here's a picture of me and Michael - one of those self shots where Michael took the picture.
This last picture is actually the sunset on Valentine's Day from our backyard.

Hope you all have a great day!

Freebie Friday 7!

Hello all and Happy Friday! This week went by super fast! Are you ready for today's Freebie Friday? I'm giving away a little pocket note set of 10 Pretty in Pink and 10 Chocolate Chip pocket note cards and envelopes and approx 5 feet of Cranberry Satin Ribbon:Here it is all packaged up nice and neat for you!

Ready to play? Leave me a comment on this post before midnight Pacific Time tonight. You can answer the following question or just leave me a general comment! Here's the question for you: What's your all time favorite stamp or stamp set? My all time favorite stamp set was the first one I purchased - which is the old Hydrangea stamp set that was from the 1999-2000 Stampin'Up! catalog. I used it for my very first stamping project, the table numbers for my wedding. That was when vellum was all the rage and I printed the numbers on the vellum and had the hydrangeas peaking through from behind. It was awesome! At least, from my memory :)

I can't wait to read your comments - it's always a highlight of my day! Have a good one!

Can't get enough of these backpacks!

I just love the backpack project I posted the other day that I had to make some more! My first attempt here was to make more of a boyish looking one, so I used the Owl paper from the Good Morning Sunshine DSP, and also used the Hooray Designer hardware (partly inspired by my excitement to go back to work....hence "Hooray!"). Here's the backpack:
I also wanted to make these little backpacks for my nieces that will be visiting this weekend, so here are the ones I made for them:
Aren't these fun? I was playing on the computer and made the little round tags with their names on them and then sized them to fit our punches! Hope you like them!

Have a great day!

Scallop Bag and Box #2

The UPS man came yesterday and brought me some fun new goodies to play with! I got the Box #2 and Scallop Bag Bigz dies along with some fun new papers (and stamps, of course!) I was excited about using the specialty papers for these box dies since they are of a heavier cardstock. I was really happy to find that they're also a very nice quality and weight - and the patterns are beautiful to boot! Here's a sample of each of the dies in the Parisian Breeze paper, which is soo wonderful and pretty!Aren't these boxes so cute? I think they are simply adorable and are such a sweet and dainty size. Really great for favors.

Here's a sample of the Parisian Breeze papers (#113993, $11.95):

As I had mentioned in yesterday's post, I LOVE packaging, so I am in sensory overload right now with all my packaging options! If you're planning a shower or party and need to create some party favors, these would be a great option! Stay tuned - one of my upcoming classes will focus on boxes and bags. Now I just need to figure out a time to schedule it! I will definitely keep you all posted...

Have a great day!

Exciting Non-stamping news

For those of you who've been following my blog, you may know that I got laid off from my day job this past fall. Well, I am excited to report that I'm gonna be starting a new job TOMORROW! WooHoo!!! While it is a contract job, I have to say that it feels great to know that I'm back to work. I'm excited about it and looking forward to a new challenge! That said, I do want to also say that I intend to keep up with my blog, but just wanted to let you know that if I miss some posts, it might be due to me adjusting to a new schedule. I've enjoyed blogging, stamping and crafting these last few months while I've been looking for work that I really want to make sure that I keep a work life balance! We'll have to see how I do in the coming days and weeks....in the meantime, read on to check out the cute scallop bag and box in my next post...

Thanks for visiting :)

Backpack CASE you're gonna love!

I am so excited about today's post because it is just so adorable! I can't take the credit for coming up with the design, but I am happy to share where I found this adorable backpack design that I just had to CASE....here it is:Did I lie? Isn't it just too cute? I had to make one to see what it was like in person! Here are a few more pictures:


I found this super cute creation on Patti Lee's blog, "Creations by Patti", specifically, I saw this backpack post and you'll see that I CASED it to a T, except used the Sweet Always paper instead of the Raspberry Tart. I was even more excited when I discovered that she put together an awesome tutorial for it as well, complete with measurements! You'll notice the use of the Top Note and Scallop Envelope die, which are both part of my regular repertoire of favorite stamping dies to use for projects ;)

These backpacks are a lot of fun to make - as a matter of fact, I've started a few more to give to my nieces that are coming to visit this weekend. I love cute packaging, so I think this will be something I'll have on hand for future occasions. Who knows...this may also be an upcoming Freebie Friday giveaway.. It's a great project and I really encourage you to give it a try! Thanks so much Patti, for sharing your creativity! ;)

Have a great day, everyone!

Mojo Monday Sketch 74

My inspiration for today's Mojo Monday challenge actually came from the beautiful tree blossoms I saw yesterday when we went to the Getty Villa (I'll have to post more pictures from our excursion later...it was such a fun little trip!). This particular tree that I photographed had pretty flowers in a light pink and raspberry color, which reminded me of the Raspberry Tart paper. I thought the flowers from the Petal Pizazz stamp set would be perfect to help me capture the picture I snapped in the garden:
Here's my card translation:
What do you think? I really love this springy color scheme. It's such a happy and girly combo to me. Hope you like it! Thanks for looking ;)

Freebie Friday 6 Winner!

Wow! This past Friday's Card Folio giveaway has generated the most responses so far this year! Thanks so much for all your comments on the project!! I had fun reading about all your favorite movies. I'm a huge fan of the Pride and Prejudice movie too - I think that's definitely my all time favorite book. I actually like both the A&E version and the Movie version with Kiera Knightley as well. Some of my other favorites include Sound of Music, Sixteen Candles, and Shawshank Redemption, which were also mentioned in the comments. As for Best Picture this year, my vote goes to Slumdog Millionaire. I really enjoyed that movie. And if you're interested in other recommendations from this year's movies, I would also say that Vicky Christina Barcelona was a fun and quirky flick too.

Well, shall we get to the winner? Drumroll please.....and the winner is:Priscilla!!! Here's what she said:
Thanks so much to everyone for playing! I had a few of you ask about directions or a tutorial for this Folio. Since the original idea came from Lauren Meader's creation, I provided a link to her template. As I had mentioned in my post on Friday, I reverse engineered her project and actually saw a picture of a finished project on Melissa Saul's blog. You'll see it's the second picture on this post. After seeing that, it got the wheels turning in my head and I was inspired to create, or reverse-create as was the case here, though I added a little bit of my own creative license. I can tell you that my finished Folio measures 6 1/2"x5"x1" and the 2 inside pockets are 3/8" thick. I'm so glad you guys liked the project!
Now read on below to check out my first SCS swap submission, and of course, check back later for Mojo Monday! There's a lot to share today! Have a Happy President's Day...thanks for popping by ;)

Cheep Talk Swap share

Guess what? I am participating in my first SCS swap! The category was to use a new Stampin'Up! catalog stamp set, and create a card using Stampin'Up! products only where you also had to use a minimum of 3 embellishments or accessories. Since the cards are due to the hostess by Tuesday (tomorrow), I mailed these off the middle of last week, but I didn't want to post too early! I knew I wanted to use the Cheep Talk set, because that's one of my favorite new stamp sets and I also wanted to use the Good Morning Sunshine paper. Here's the card I made:
Check out the bunch of birdies! I had to make 11 cards, which was actually pretty fun. I got to practice using the Circle Scissors, which after some trial and error, I decided that taping the cardstock onto the glass mat secured the paper the best and prevented the cardstock from "slipping" when I circled around with the blade. I tried using the dotto adhesive, but I don't think I have the motor skills to execute that properly, since my circles didn't quite retain their uniform shape. The tape really transformed my impression of the Circle Scissors! Now I love the tool! The diameters for the circles I used are 2 7/8" and 3", which I found layered nicely on the larger scallop on the Scallop #2 die.
Hope you like my swap card! I think this is my first combo using Kiwi Kiss and So Saffron, accented with the chcoloate chip, and I think I like it. It sort of reminds me of Brazil's soccer team colors ;)

Here's more info on the circle scissors and the glass cutting mat....and here's a visual of all the images in the Cheep Talk stamp set - isn't it just too cute?!

I'll definitely post the cards I get from the swap when I get them! I'm excited to see what stamp sets and accessories everyone used!
Have a great day!

Hand Drawn Bundle Cupcake Birthday Card

Hope you all had a nice Valentine's day yesterday! We really enjoyed ours. My hubby made me a fantastic dinner which really was just so delicious!! I am so lucky to have a husband that is such a great cook! Mmm mm mm.

For my card share today, I'm posting a card that's simple and sort of masculinish, keeping in mind that I wanted to give it to my brother-in-law for his bday. Here's what I came up with.
I like the baja breeze and chocolate brown together - I think it's a great combo for a guy or girl card. I made the heart paperclip after watching Kristina Werner's tutorial, which showed how easy it was to transform a plain old paperclip into a heart! Check it out - it's fun! One of these days, I'll figure out how to do a video, but just haven't gotten around to that yet...it's on my to do list ;)

The stamp set I used is part of a level 3 Hostess set called "Hand Drawn Bundle" which also includes designer series paper and rub ons. Isn't it a great bundle? If you're interested in hosting a party, this is one of the hostess benefits you can choose with a qualifying workshop of $500 or more. Not to mention, at that level, you also receive $60 in hostess awards in addition to the Sale-a-bration rewards you'd qualify for as well! Worth it to you? Contact me to schedule a workshop!

Hope you have a nice Sunday. We're off to go check out the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades today. I'm so excited! I haven't been there before, so it'll be a treat. Let's just hope that it doesn't rain on us.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!! I am so excited to have combined three elements in today's Valentine's Day Card for my hubby - Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #55, Kwernerdesign's Color Challenge #41, AND most importantly, our Kitty Oliver on the card!! ;) I have to say that I was intimidated by Taylor's sketch design, but this morning, I woke up with a clear vision of what I wanted to do for my hubby's Valentine card and it just so happened that it would work with these 2 sketches. I have to thank Oliver for the inspiration!

Here's the card:
Here's the recipe - it's got lots of embellishments incorporated in it....even glitter, which is rare for me!

*Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black and Riding Hood Red cardstock
*Candy Lane DSP
*Here Kitty Kitty stamp set (retired!)
*Full Heart and Heart to Heart punches
*Large Dots and Small Dots Texturz embossing plates
*Scallop Circle 2 die, and circle scissors
*Chunky Glitter,chipboard letter, bouquet buttons, and riding hood red taffeta ribbon

Thanks for looking! Hope you have a fantastic Valentine's day!

Freebie Friday 6 on Friday the 13th!

Happy Friday! I'm a little late in getting this post up, but that's because I was working on today's giveaway! It is very cool, and I got the idea from Lauren Meader's All Boxed Up Template. Granted, since I'm the daughter of 2 engineers, I have it in my genes to try and reverse engineer things, so mine is a little different. Out of respect for Lauren's creativity though for coming up with the design, I encourage you to get her template! And without further adieu, here are pictures of today's blog candy!



Isn't this Card Folio just absolutely adorable? It will fit 4-6 standard sized cards (4 1/4"x 5 1/2") and envelopes depending on how thick your cards are. Keep in mind that today's blog candy is just the folio, so it's up to you to fill it with your beautiful cards!! ;) Hope you like it! This is probably going to be a project for an upcoming stamp class...so if you're local, stay tuned!

Now, in order to be eligible for this blog candy, please leave me a comment with your email address (or blog URL so I can contact you somehow) on this post by midnight Pacific Time on Friday the 13th! You can comment on anything or answer today's question(s): What is your all time favorite movie? Or, What movie do you think will win Best Picture at this year's Oscars? Look forward to reading your comments. Good Luck!

Making a Heart Flower

I was watching the Today Show the other day and Martha Stewart happened to be on sharing some Valentine's Day projects with the Today Show hosts. Matt Lauer's project was a flower made out of hearts and as soon as I saw it, I thought of making it out of the Full Heart punch and make it card sized. Here's a picture of the finished flower that I embellished on a Top Note topper:

I thought this was easy enough to show step by step, so here it is for you!

1. Punch out 5 hearts (they did it with 8, but it was a bigger flower!)

2. Fold them down the middle and stack them

3. Use a paper piercing tool or punch to make a hole about 1/8" from the base

4. Secure the hearts with a brad. I punched out a trio flower to embellish the brad

5. Fan the hearts out

6. Viola! Finished flower!

How fun and easy is that! All you need to do now is adhere to your card or project and you're good to go. And the cool thing is, it doesn't have to be just for Valentine's Day...try it with different papers to get a whole new look. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for peeking in today!