National Scrapbooking Day

Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day and I plan on spending a good part of the day in my scrap room. If anyone would like to join me, I have set aside the hours between 1:00 and 7:00 pm for an open crop. My paper trimmers, decorative scissors and punches will be available for your use. I also plan on setting aside time to make requested images and/or titles for your scrap pages using my Cricut and Big Shot. Pizza will be served at around 5 with snacks, chocolate and beverages available throughout the day. The fee for this crop is $10 and can be paid when you get here. Please let me know that you plan on attending so that I can plan accordingly. In the meantime, find yourself some stampin' and/or scrappin' time.

A Perfect Match!

I am posting another card using the Thoughts & Prayers stamp set on page 52 of the SU IB&C. Yesterday we met our daughter and granddaughter for an early dinner at Claim Jumpers. Since the restaurant is in a shopping center with a Michaels, we left a little early so I could shop Michaels and John could window shop at Cabella's. Jenny and Syd had the same idea to shop first, so we met up in Michaels. While Jen was shopping, Syd & I went our own way--checking out all the stickers. Needless to say, she got a few packs from Grandma but kept saying that she really wanted to buy me something. I told her that shopping with her was a really good present, so she did not need to buy me anything. Well, after shopping, we met up and Jenny gives me a spool of ribbon--which is a perfect match for the Thoughts & Prayers image I use quite often. The colors were also a perfect match to Pale Pum and Chocolate Chip cardstock. I think the card is just beautiful and wanted to share it with all of you. And Syd was able to give me a present after all. Well, the Cricut girls are coming today, so off to finish getting things ready. Have a great day.

Happy Birthday Cards

A very simple card, but one that can be duplicated very easily. I used the cake from the Sweet Birthday stamp which is on page 208 of the Idea Book & Catalog. Using my markers, I colored in the image and then cut it out. I adhered the birthday cake to a 1-1/4 inch circle and then on a scallop circle. Using dimensionals, I adhered it on top of the ribbons, which is the SU 1/4" white grossgrain ribbon. The polka dot embossing folder added texture for the background.

Using Pacific Point cardstock (an old In-color that will be back come July 1st), I made the same card, but this time I used the Pacific Point ink pad for the image rather than markers. I added the sentiment using the Word Window punch. And there you have it--two cards, same ingredients. This is a card you can mass produce when you are in need of multiple birthday cards. Don't want to cut out the birthday cake? Stamp directly on white cardstock, punch out a scallop circle and there you have it. There are so many variations to this card. I would love to see your creations!

A Pretty Thank You!

Regal Rose and Certainly Celery are a winning combination in my opinion. And I am happy to say that both colors are remaining. Today I wanted to experiment with my markers. I wanted to use this floral stamp from the Thoughts & Prayers stamp set, but I wanted the flowers one color and the leaves another. I first inked the stamp using my Certainly Celery ink pad. I then carefully removed the Certainly Celery ink from the flowers with a cotton swab and then colored those using my SU Regal Rose marker. Again using my markers and a stamp from the Heard From The Heart Set, I was able to have two colors when stamping the sentiment. The Certainly Celery ribbon is retired, but adds to the prettiness and softness of the card. I was going to remind you to find yourself some stampin' time, but we are having such a beautiful day here, I would hate for anyone to miss out. So instead of stampin' time, find a little time to enjoy the beautiful outdoors!

Denami Challenge

The new Denami challenge is to create a card/project that is Spring-like. I had this scrap paper that is all about Spring--perfect for the challenge. I added a little bird from SU's two-step bird punch, some dots using Denami's single polka dot stamp to match the dots on the paper, SU's Pretty In Pink cardstock and taffeta ribbon and here is my entry. It seems as if the little bluebird is singing about Spring!

2 Sketches 4 You Challenge

This week I am participating in the sketch challenge at 2S4Y which is being hosted by Denami Designs. Once again, the Miracle Kit paper has proven it's versatility and was perfect for the quilted effect. I used my Big Shot and the Polka Dot embossing folder, Top Note die and the Butterflies Embosslit die. All cardstock was Stampin' Up's and Certainly Celery retired ribbon was the finishing touch. The stamp is from Denami's Designs. Being that this is the first 2S4Y challenge I am participating in, I am looking forward to comments and/or suggestions. Good night all.

Such Pretty Paper

Since I was hosting the weekend scrap over, I wanted to work on something that I could easily set aside and when I came back to it, just pick up where I left off. I happened to get a CTMH Miracle Kit and from the minute I opened the package, the colors and patterns in the paper just won me over. This was my weekend project! The directions were included-- although I did change the layouts a little bit--and I did end up with four beautiful scrap book pages. I used Stampin' Up's Certainly Celery, Soft Sky and Elegant Eggplant when I needed ink. The pages are gorgeous and now all I need are the photos.

I had some nice scraps of paper left and debated whether to make more scrap pages or cards. As you can see, I made the cards. Using a combination of my supplies--SU taffeta ribbon, ink & cardstock; Denami stamps; and CTMH paper--the cards are very pretty. I will make a couple more cards and package them as a gift for someone. Hope your weekend was an enjoyable as mine.

The Birthday Scrapover

I enjoyed the sounds of laughter coming from the scrap room as much as the girls enjoyed the absence of little voices calling for mommy and dear hubbies looking to see what was cooking! The girls scrapped and/or stamped until 12:30 AM, took a break for a little needed sleep and started again at 8:30 this morning (some a little later than others--lol). Three of the girls made good progress on catching up with their scrapping and one girl used the time to make cards--quite a few cards. And all of them went home with a two-page layout that I had prepared for them earlier in the week. To sum things up, the scrapover was a success. Happy Birthday, Jenny!

From My Little Design Team Member

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had given Sydney, our five year old granddaughter, Stampin' Up supplies for Easter. Today we received her thank you card. Being the proud grandma, I just have to share it with you. Sydney used the Forest Friends stamp set and then used a couple of her mom's stamps to complete the card. Our daughter was telling us that when Sydney was stamping her cards, she was very disappointed that the deer and bunny were both facing in the same direction, as she wanted one animal on each side of the tree and facing the tree. I called Sydney to thank her for the beautiful card. I asked her how she got the owl so perfectly sitting on top of the tree. Her response: "I did my very best!" I must say, I would have had to use my stamp-a-ma-jig to get the owl placement as good as she did. I also posted the inside of her card, which Syd dictated to her mom. She truly considers SU! stamps as professional tools. And I truly think that her mom does a great job by encouraging Sydney to not only be creative but to send thank you notes. I am so proud of my family!

Happy Thoughts!

I went downstairs to get a few things done for the weekend scrap-over and of course, made a card instead! The Itty Bitty Bits stamp set and the Itty Bitty Shapes punch set is very cute. Using Regal Rose (a color that is remaining) ink I stamped the tiny flowers and then punched them out. The punch is a bit bigger than the stamp, so it left a white border around the flowers, the reason for a white & Regal Rose card. Once I put the card together, I realized that I should have used an embossing folder or a texture plate for the larger piece of Regal Rose cardstock. Next time! Hope you are enjoying the same beautiful weather we are having here!

The Denami challenge this week is about buttons. The flower stamp is one of Denami's stamps which I stamped using Close to Cocoa craft ink and then embossed it with SU's clear embossing powder. I colored the flower and leaves using my Stampin' Up markers. The Happy Birthday stamp is from Endless Creations. I made the bows with Denami's ribbon which is a very pretty brown grosgrain ribbon--thank you Nami & Pauline! The cardstock is, of course, Stampin' Up! Now the problem came when I needed buttons as I do not ever use buttons. (That will change now.) Lucky for me, my friend, Regina, was coming over and she brought a stash of her buttons. I only needed one button and that is the center of the flower. It does not show up that well in the picture, but it is there. Now it is time for me to get back to my SU! projects. Good night everyone.

I Miss You!

On Friday I received a few of the SU! products that are in the Summer Mini which will be released on May 1st. If you are a client of mine, you should be getting your copy in the mail soon~~so keep an eye out for it. If you aren't a client, but would like a copy, please email me with your address and I will get a copy to you when they become available. The first card was made using stamps from the new Bouquet Bunch stamp set. The flower pot stamp is an outlined image. I stamped that in Real Red and then used my Pumpkin Pie marker to color it in. While stamping the flower pot, I made an extra image, but did not color it in as I only needed to mask with that extra pot. I cut that image out and using temporary adhesive I layed it on top of the colored in pot. After stamping the outlined image of the bunch of leaves in Old Olive, I removed the flower pot mask and then colored the leaves using Certainly Celery. (By masking the pot, the green leaves aren't hanging over the rim of the flower pot, thus making different colored leaves.) "Miss You" is one of the sentiments in the Three Little Words stamp set that is in the IB&C on page 139. I only wanted to use part of the sentiment, so using my Elegant Eggplant marker, I colored directly onto the stamp. Using Elegant Eggplant ink, I randomly stamped the bunch of leaves stamp to make the background.

Now how cute is the next card? The Sweet Scoops stamp set has so many possibilities. I again used the same basic idea of having three stamped images, with part of one image missing. I first stamped the ice cream scoops, stamping an extra one to cut out and use as a mask to protect the scoops when I stamped the cone. Close to Cocoa ink is a good color for the cones, although Creamy Caramel would be just as good. Close to Cocoa cardstock for the background which was run through my Big Shot with the diamond texture plate made the perfect coordinating background for the waffle cones. (I am so going to miss Close To Cocoa!) Maybe that's what I should have done! Made the card with three scoops of ice cream and the Close to Cocoa cone missing from one of them--LOL!!

And the secret to having the scoops & cones and pots & leaves spaced so perfectly--my Stamp-a-ma-jig! I have mentioned it before, but every time I use my SAMJ, I think about what a great idea the inventor had. Have a great day and find yourself some stampin' time.

So Happy Melon Mambo Is Staying!

With the color renovation in the news and on blogs everywhere, you will read about the colors that are retiring--the favorites, the ones that won't be missed--and I wanted to let everyone know that I am so happy Melon Mambo is a keeper! As a matter of fact, I made this card hours before Stampin' Up's big announcement. This card is for a special girl, Emily, who will receive her First Communion and make her Confirmation on Sunday. I met Emily shortly after my husband and I moved to the Phoenix area 9 years ago, Emily's family moved there, too. My husband and Em's dad worked together in Chicago for many years and it just happened that Emily's mom and I became good friends once they arrived. It was wonderful having a Chicago friend and what was better is that little Emily was a baby--and a true ray of sunshine for us. They still live in AZ, but we keep in touch and see each other when we can. Emily has turned into a beautiful young lady who is now 9 years old. A special girl, a special occasion and there couldn't be a more appropriate stamp set than Special Blessings. Emily, if you are reading this, we love and miss you and know that you will continue to grow in God's love. Congratulations!

SU! New Color Collections

Many of you have already heard about the color renovation Stampin' Up announced that will become effective with the release of the new Idea Book & Catalog on July 1st. Yesterday I posted a link to the color chart of the new "color collections". Well, no need to click on a link! With the help of a friend, I learned how to post the color chart showing the new "Color Collections".

And since I was able to do that, I have also posted the color chart of the retiring colors:

I am disappointed that so many colors will be retiring, but at the same time, in the next couple of months I will be able to hoard, I mean stock up on, the products that I especially like and use often--such as Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana and Green Galore cardstock. I have reinkers for all of the color families, so no problem there. I am looking forward to seeing the new colors in person and seeing all the new color combinations that will be available for my projects. I am thinking positive about this major change and getting excited about it. I hope that you will enjoy the excitement, too!

Sydney's Easter Basket

Jen & Mark requested that we not get Sydney much Easter candy as she just gets so much each year. She loves doing arts and crafts and when she comes to my house, she loves to sit on the "teacher" side of my scrap room island and teach me things. Replacing candy with Stampin' Up supplies was my solution. Her Easter basket from us was a shoe box (my ribbon storage solution) filled with Stampin' Up stuff. She was tickled pink as she found her own scrubbing pad and mist. And then Forest Friends had the bunny for Easter and an owl. (Her and Papa have this little imaginary friend named Magic, and he is an owl.) It couldn't have been a more perfect stamp set. She also had the Bitty Birthday set along with Pink Passion and Chocolate Chip ink pads. Jen told me today that Syd even mounted her stamps and told her mom not to worry, she would put them in the middle. And while doing this, Syd said, "I can't believe that Gay gave me professional stamps and supplies!" I will post a photo of her thank you card--which she can make herself, now that she has professional tools!--as soon as I receive it. Sydney is the joy of our lives. Every single day I am thankful that we moved back to Chicago!

Out With The Old?

Actually, some of the old is new again come the Stampin' Up! Catalog to be released in July. SU has worked on a "color renovation" and we just received the info about it. I have yet to get all of the details, but I do know that two of my favorite retired In-Colors will be back~~Pink Pirouette and Baja Breeze. So I ran down to my scrap room and made a card using those two colors, with a couple of little yellow butterflies. The ribbon I dyed using my Baja Breeze ink. I am so thrilled that SU brought back these two colors. I will post more details shortly. but wanted to let you all know that change is coming and it can be a good thing.

Tradition~~Easter Lamb Cake

Just about anyone from the Chicago area, especially the Polish people, know what I am talking about when I mention "lamb cake". Having a lamb cake at their Easter dinner table is a tradition of Polish people and many Eastern European countries. For as far back as I can remember we always had a lamb cake (or 2--lol) at Easter. Not only am I of Polish descent, but my grandpa was a baker. And all of us knew that on Holy Saturday, my grandpa would show up with our Easter lambs and "babka", another traditional cake, but not a tradition that I have carried on. We will be having Easter dinner with our son-in-law's family. My contribution each year is the Easter lamb. In years past, I have usually bought the lamb cake on Friday, but this year decided to wait until Saturday to get a fresher cake. Well, imagine my surprise when I went to my local Jewel and there wasn't a lamb cake to be found. By the third Jewel, I could feel the disappointment building. There wouldn't be a lamb cake. When we lived in Arizona, there wasn't a lamb cake anywhere! And as much as I missed my family on those Easters we spent in AZ, not having an Easter lamb only added to my sadness on Easter Sunday. One year Jen went to the Wilton Cake tent sale here in the Chicago area and found a lamb cake mold for me. That summer, Jen was in town visiting and together with two of my Chicago friends who also lived in Anthem, AZ at the time, set out to make lamb cakes. Well let me tell you--what a fiasco! But at the end of the day, we did have two lamb cakes (we were trying two recipes to see which was most like the Chicago bakery lamb cakes) all decorated in red, white and blue for our 4th of July party! They were very cute, but surely did not taste like those we remembered. That afternoon left all of us with even more wonderful lamb cake memories. So back to my Easter lamb cake hunt. My last stop was at a Dominick's store and I actually stopped there to get a Starbucks coffee. As I walked into the store, what was on the very first table but lamb cakes! You would have thought I found gold. The Easter lamb cake tradition goes on and I am sharing a photo of this year's lamb cake! Happy Easter and take the time to recall an Easter tradition or to start a new one. Happy Easter and Blessings to you and your families.

Happy Easter!

There is nothing better than waking up to a bright, sunny day as we celebrate Easter and reflect on the blessings we have received. We will be spending the afternoon with our family at the home of our son-in-law's parents--just one of the many blessings we have received throughout our lives. As grandparents all four of us can share special days together with our beautiful granddaughter, Sydney. Jen & Mark don't have to split their day or decide who they will visit first and at what time. And I don't have to do the cooking today. (Everyone comes to our house for Thanksgiving--so Dorothy gets a break for that holiday.) My contribution to the Easter dinner is the Easter lamb cake, which was the topic of my earlier post. In anticipation of our Easter celebration, I have created this two-page layout using CTMH paper and stamps and SU! ink. Now all I need are some pictures and today's memories will be saved. Have wonderful Easter.

Scrap Night

Mark your calendars for April 9th. This will be Friday night "Scrap Night" here at my house from 7:00--11:00 pm. I have been offering Scrap & Stamp get-togethers on a monthly basis, typically on a Sunday afternoon. I have heard from a few people that Sundays are getting filled with family activities. So this month, in addition to the Sunday Scrap & Stamp, I will also be hosting Scrap Night. The fee for this event is "bring a snack to share". As with Scrap & Stamp, bring your projects in progress and work on them without the usual interruptions. If there is enough interest in a Friday Scrap Night, I will be offering it on a monthly basis. Please call to let me know that you will be attending. If any of your friends are interested, they are also welcome, so long as I know in advance they, too, will be attending.

Stampin' Up! Specials

Stampin' Up! is offering some great deals now. The clearance rack has a variety of products, most of them discontinued, at substantially discounted prices. There are ribbons, paper, buttons and more. Check it out to see if there are any items you may have wanted in the past and were unable to get or that you can use now and in the future for your creative projects. The Clearance Rack picture here will take you directly to my SU! website when you click on it. When you click on the 2 Step Spring picture you will be able to read about the special "sneak peek" offer for a stamp set that will be in the new catalog available on July 1st and the four current two-step stamp sets which can now be purchased at 20% off. In order to take advantage of these specials, head over to my SU! website and shop now. If you have any questions about the current offers, please call or email me.

Mother's Day

This is a card I created for Mother's Day. I used the Tea Party Designer paper together with Almost Amethyst and Pretty In Pink cardstock and two half-pearls from the Pretties Kit. The greeting is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set. I punched the greeting using the Modern Label punch and backed it with the die cut left from the Big Shot Movers and Shapers die. By simply changing the greeting, this card would be great as a "Thinking Of You" or "Get Well" card as well as an appropriate card for a number of other occasions. We are having another beautiful summer-like day here, so it's out of my scrap room and out to the patio for a while. Hope your Good Friday is peaceful.

Easter Favors

Here's a little Easter basket that was quite easy to make. I used retired SU paper which I cut at 4 1/2" square. I scored each side at 1-1/4" and then made four 1-1/4"cuts as indicated on this not so good drawing. Fold on the scored lines, with the tabs inside. Adhere the tabs to the inside of the box and add a handle which I attached using brads. I stamped and cut the bunny from the Forest Friends set and adhered with dimensionals. Happy Easter is from Teeny Tiny Wishes (a go-to- stamp set for me). Add a little grass and some candy and you have the perfect little basket for someone.

I also needed little "somethings" for the people we will be celebrating Easter with. For this I used SU's 3"x5" cellophane bags. Filled them with candy and Easter grass, topped them with Top-Note die cuts, ribbon and the Easter bunny from a long ago retired stamp set.

Now that I am officially finished with Easter projects, it is time to start thinking about Mother's Day and graduation projects. I will be sharing these projects and ideas with all of you, so keep checking back.