Happy Friday - Stamping Bella Style

Ah, its FRIDAY at last.  For me, its been a long week.  Husband hitting the slopes in Colorado with friends, me home sick with the boys.  

But this weeks inspiration piece from Emily and Nicky at Stamping Bella was just the excuse for me to ink up this adorable image and some very cheery colors.

I have a few sheets of Wild Wasabi hidden in my storage shelves, and I grabbed this fun piece of lemon polka dotted paper.  I just ordered lots of new buttons the other day, because I was running low, but look at this button I found.  eeks, it is nearly EXACTLY Wild Wasabi!  Seriously, little things like buttons make me a very happy girl!

The Wasabi panel was run through my big shot with the Paisley embossing folder, and then to unify the top and bottom panels, I stitched everything with my Janome.  I tied the grey from the inspiration piece in by using Basic Grey cardstock for my matting.  

This was such a fun challenge. I'm already looking forward to whatever Emily and Nicky cook up or next week! You can see lots of samples by hopping on over to Blogabella.  Meet you over there? Don't forget to comment on Emily's post (I welcome you to post here, but I don't have the candy.. em does!) for a chance to win some Bella Bucks!

Stamp Night!

Tonight is my monthly Stampin Up get together with my girls!  I've got two of the projects we'll be making for tonight's class and I'll share some more with you early next week.

My very favorite new set from the new catalogue has to be "For the Bride." I just love the elegant details in the set and I love it paired with the "Parisian Breeze" Designer Paper.  This paper is so luxe, so heavyweight and beautifully patterned.

We'll be stamping the wedding cake with white craft ink and quickly heat embossing it to bring texture and depth to that paisley cake.  I paired it with the elegant satin Baja Breeze ribbon from the Valet Ribbon collection from Stampin Up. I'm so glad that SU now offers the Sizzlets Lots of Tags dies.  As someone that uses nesties constantly for my sentiments on my non-su cards, I'm thrilled to have a similar treatment to offer in my classes!

Our next project is a little gift tag using the Sale A Bration set "Congratulations." I received some of the fun "Darling Dots" designer paper and the in my last order and thought this would be a fun way to use a paper blossom.  They're so big they don't fit well on a card, but on a tag, it makes a fun little adornment. The So Saffron ribbon is also part of the Sale A Bration rewards, its from the Ribbon Bundle.

I'll have some more of my Stampin Up creations to share with you early next week!  If you have any questions on supplies used in these products, if you have questions about how to earn Sale A Bration products, or if you're interested in placing an order, please drop me a note!

Right now I'm off to double check that I've got all the supplies ready, vacuum up dimensionals off the floor,  and declutter my desktop.  Can't wait for a little vino, some stamping, and a lot of chatting with the girls!

Thanks!

Don't forget! Bellariffic Challenge is up!

Tuesday night, I stayed up probably a little too late to work on my sample for this weeks Bellariffic challenge, I couldn't help myself, it was so fun!  Just look at this fantastic inspiration piece that Nicky found! Besides, it was a great excuse to play with my Bella's who were feeling a bit neglected. Poor girls! 

Read all about the challenge, on this post, don't forget you've got until tonight, Thursday night at 6pm EST to email your sample to Emily.

I'll be back tomorrow with my finished card for the challenge! 

By the way, in re-reading Emily's post on Blogabella to link this up, I noticed that she's releasing new stamps on Friday March 6th!  Oh my goodness! So excited to see what she's got up her sleeve this time!

A Happy, Scrappy Little Card

I've got a scrappy little card to share today.  I always love when other people make them, and never give it a try myself... so here goes.  

I flipped when I saw this orange polka dotted paper from Pink Paisley. I've been on a real orange and pink kick lately (I guess that's probably a welcome change for anyone tired of my pink and cocoa combination I was infatuated with last month...)

Its Wednesday, so Gina has a new Technique Episode and project on Stamp TV posted today, and it features a little technique I put to use on this card.  Kissing. Be sure to head on over to Stamp TV to see the latest episode, participate in the challenges, or just come chat with us!   

I kissed the polka dot patterned stamp from the Bold Flowers stamp set within the Floral Frenzy Stamp TV kit to the large bold flower.  I inked the bold flower with Pink Pirouette and the Polka Dots in Pumpkin Pie and the {mwah} kissed them together, huffed and stamped.

Once I huffed and stamped, I trimmed out the flower, and then bent each of the petals so that they sit forward on the card.  I also used the white paper flower from the kit, and the green grosgrain ribbon for my stem.  All the edges were sewn with my Janome.  I kept the sentiment simple, just good old "Happy" - its open ended for whatever happy occasion I might need it for.  Till then, all that orange and pink just makes ME happy.

just a little find: Family Game Night

We were very fortunate to receive a Wii game system from Santa this year, and my boys just love it.  But, my husband and I agreed that in order keep "screen time" from overpowering our daily schedules, that we would also pick up lots of extra board games to keep those little minds stimulated!

My little one is totally obsessed with penguins, so he was thrilled to receive Pengaloo!  Its a memory game to find various colored eggs.  Its a favorite of my three year old and all my daycare charges too!  The greenie in my loves that its made of all wood no plastic!  I also love that its fast based play, so that if one child wins, we can quickly play again so that everyone gets a turn to win!

My husband and six year old have a tie for their favorite new game, its a toss up between Blokus and Mancala.  I love that both these games further develop my six year's sense of strategy.  I'll admit, that shamefully, my six year old quite often scores better than I do in both  these games.  He very quickly mastered Mancala - before I'd even dragged my behind out of bed on Saturday morning he and my husband already played three rounds! 

We've made board games our new go to present for all the birthday parties we've been attending lately.  We've been sharing all our new favorites with friends! 

If you're looking to freshen up your games closet, or give really thoughtful gifts, you can find all sorts of games, reviews and recommendations, product finders and more at  Time To Play.

This Friday night from 9-10pm EST there will be a Sitewarming Party for #timetoplay over on Twitter. You can chat with Toy Expert Jim Silver and enter to win prize packages!  To read more about the Grand Prize Goody Bag, event details and to register your chance at a door prize, RSVP here on the ResourcefulMommy blog!  

I'd love to know, what games does your family enjoy?  

Edited to add:  I just wanted to share with you, one of Santa's most favorite places to shop for toys - Magic Beans!  While their three stores are located here in Massachusetts, the do also offer online shopping.  In addition to a top notch selection of products, they also have the most amazing customer service! 

Watercolor Dreams

I hope you've been able to head on over to Stamp TV and get yourself set up with a login. Did you see that its already jumped to number THIRTEEN on the Stamping Top Fifty? WOW!  

Each day, Monday through Friday there will be a challenge hosted by either Gina or one of the Design Team members.  And get this, every single challenge comes with a chance at a free stamp set valued at $19.95!  Get over there and get stamping!!

This is for Cindy's color challenge on Monday which included Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie and Apricot Appeal.  There is, just the teeniest bit of Pumpkin Pie in there, I used it to deepen portions of the orchid.  

I used the crackle background stamp included in the Bold Flowers stamp set (part of the Floral Frenzy Stamp TV kit!) and stamped it repeatedly with Always Artichoke onto Always Artichoke paper.  Then I wanted it to be all distressed and aged, so I ran it through my crimper.

I know, I NEVER use that thing, but once in a while it comes in handy...  I ran it through in both directions. Gives it a neat waffle weave texture, then I ran my palm over it a few times to smooth it back out.  It was adhered lightly with adhesive and then all the edges were sewn down with my Janome to the card base.  

Since I stiched it directly to my card base, I wanted to be especially sure that all the edges were nice and neat.  You want to go nice and s-l-0-w around the edges, I actually operated the machine by hand around the corners rather than whirling the foot pedal.  On my last turn, I made sure to tie a nice discreet knot in the thread on the inside and snipped it close.  

The main image is from Asela's "Botanical Dreams" set which I stamped to watercolor paper then painted with my reinkers.  The sentiment is lifted from the "Elegant Flowers" set (also part of the Stamp TV kit) which I added with a piece of WeR Memory Keepers hardware. 

I'm feeling the urge to add more more more to this card, but my mom commented the other day on how she missed some of my more clean looking cards. So mom, this one's for you.  

Have a great day everyone!

MFT Monday - Tote-ally Spring!

I know, its only February, and here in New England, we could still have some nasty winter storms pop up.  But, me....I'm thinking spring.  

Friday I was out and about with my mom and my sister, we happened into CrewCuts (that's JCrew for kids) and it was so bright and cheery in there. I loved all the colors on the tabletops, they have some truly adorable things for little ones.  (Thanks mom!!)

That was the inspiration for my card this week for the Monday "Who's That Girl" challenge.  Christina is our hostess this week and the challenge is to put "Tote'ally Fantastic" to use.  (Of course, if you don't have that one you're welcome to use whichever ones you do have just come and get inky with us!!)  

And this is a challenge that's right up my alley lately - nothing NEW in your card, you've got to play in your stash!  This card was made entirely with scraps I found in my paper pile. Nothing new was purchased, and no full sheets were cut, these were all leftovers that I trimmed down for this project.  I'm embarrassed to say that this stamp hadn't seen ink from me yet, although I've had it since November. Gulp.  That was when we had the guest design team for December and I actually took Kim up on the offer to take a few weeks off.

Head on over to the My Favorite Things Member Company forum, see Christina's card for this challenge, and get started on your own! One lucky participant will be selected at random to win a $5 gift certificate to MFT!

Have a great day! 

just a little green: Farm Fresh

Its been a while since I've blogged about our green adventures.  I've had to go back to the nasty commercial cleansers due to my youngest allergies to pretty much all the green cleaners.  We've still been shopping for organic foods and recycling like crazy.  I've donated a ton of extra clothing and toys that have been collecting around here via FreeCycle.  I totally stopped buying paper towels.  I use cloths for cleanup and the kids enjoy using what they call "lapkins" instead of paper napkins at the table.  Its a nice break on my shopping list, and less trash!  Of course, a little more laundry for me.. but that's okay.  

We've also continued  composting all winter.  It is actually very funny to watch my husband run out across the snow to dump the scraps into the composter.  I never stick my face in there, but my husband who examines it each week, says that no matter how much we put in there, its only ever about 1/3 full.  Just keeps breaking down and turning into dirt for our garden. The other thing that's been great is every week, we're down to about 3/4 of a barrel of trash ever.  That includes Christmas week when we were all home all week, we still didn't have even a full barrel of trash for the garbage man!

I will say though that I'm really missing fresh fruits and veggies - the pickings at the supermarket this time of year just aren't the best, and lets be honest, they're expensive!  You figure all this produce is flown in from somewhere that its actually in season right now, and then it spends a LONG time in transit.  I recently bought my husband strawberries and by the time he went to eat them, they were already pretty gross.  

We've just signed up for our local farm's CSA.  That stands for Community Shared Agriculture.  Its a great way to support your local farm and to reap significant benefits from the farm in weekly harvest shares throughout the summer and fall months.   Buying your food locally helps to financially support your local farm, reduces fossil fuel usage since you're picking it up locally rather than having it shipped from another state, country or continent on its way to your table. This all results in healthy and super FRESH food!

Last summer, my eldest spent two weeks at camp at Tangerini's Farm and we got to know owners.  As a very picky eater, we decided that our son could benefit from learning where food actually comes from, and why its important not to waste it.  After a few muddy mornings at work on the farm, he realized how much work it takes to bring food to your table, and that simply, his job was to eat it! 

Little guy enjoyed his camp days so much that we actually had his birthday party on the farm the kids all picked fresh corn, fed the goats and played in the hay maze. My kindergartener is very excited to head off to camp again this summer, this time with one of his best buddies!  We're thrilled to be financially contributing the the success of the farm, eating healthier this summer, and I can't wait for my Flower Share to kick in - farm fresh flowers for my table each week!  

This summer, I'll be sharing with you what comes in from our share. I'm sure that there will be some items that will make me scratch my head as to what I'll actually do with them, so I'm off to buy a few cook books that have been recommended on the topic of eating in season.   I can almost taste the farm fresh tomatoes and corn - I've really missed my grilled corn salad that was a staple in our diet last summer!! 

You can read more about CSA's here on the US Department of Agriculture and search for a CSA near you! I'd love to hear if you've participated in a CSA before, and would LOVE even more for you to join us on this next step in our green-adventure.  

Announcing StampTV!

I'm sure by now, you've already been over to Gina's Blog and read her big announcement and seen what's in the box!  I can't wait to see who was lucky enough to win that box of happiness!

There is just SO much news to share, you might want to snuggle up on the couch with a coffee, or you can simply pretend that you're very very busy with email at work!  

If you haven't already heard, Gina has started up a new offering from Gina K Designs: StampTV. For anyone that has wondered how specific techniques work, or scratched your head trying to follow along in a step by step photo tutorial, let me say, this is just an outstanding resource to literally watch Gina work.  

The video quality is truly magnificent, broadcast quality. So clear, so professional, and so so easy for you to follow along at home.  And besides, is Gina just the cutest thing or what? 

With the coordinating "Floral Frenzy Stamp Kit" you literally can follow along and make the projects she creates on each Episode.  The kit includes stamps, paper, ribbon, embellishments and patterned paper! The kit contents will vary with each launch, depending on the techniques Gina will feature, but this month, the kit contains two amazing stamp sets.  

Yesterday, you saw just a preview of Elegant Flowers, but today, I've got a sample with Bold Flower to share with you.  I simply **adore** this stamp set!  And I squealed when I saw this adorable Neapolitan Patterned Paper.

Guess what, there's MORE!  If you've been using the Gina K Pure Luxury cardstock, you'll just FLIP out when I tell you that its now available in Ivory. Yes, IVORY! I love it.  I'm finding that I use Pure Luxury Cardstock for almost all my cardbases now, and having the flexibility to make it with Ivory is perfect!  I also love having ivory cardstock that works like a dream with my Copics.  Its available in both the Base Weight and the Layering Weight.

Gina has the link to the new site where you'll be able to watch the Stamp TV episodes and where all of us on the Design Team have been lurking secretly all week!  The Gina and the Design Team will be hosting challenges Monday through Friday, and each challenge will have a chance at a free stamp set!!  Our challenges begin on Monday!  To get started, hop on over to Gina's blog!

Can't wait to see you over there!

Are you ready??

Have you been following along on Gina K's Blog all this week to guess "What's in the Box?"  I've got to say that its been so fun to read all of your guesses. 

If you haven't already been over there to enter the contest, get going, a winner will be selected at random and announced on Friday along with the big reveal!  

That's only one more sleep till you get to see something totally new to Gina K Designs! Let me just say that Gina's been very very busy!

Today, many of us on the Design Team have hints too.  As usual,  you won't want to miss Gina's blog today!

For a little more Gina K Eye Candy today, please be sure to hop on around to visit: 

Asela, Cammie, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Kurtis, Melanie, Theresa and of course GINA!

To keep you busy while we wait for Friday's big reveal, I've got two cards to share with you today.

The materials used to make these two cards came from a special new product being launched tomorrow at Gina K Designs!  You won't want to miss it!  

The first one is pretty much solemn, and gender neutral, but I just loved that big pop of rusty red across the olive backdrop.   

Lately when I've been making cards, I've decided that when a card is missing something, an extra layer of matting either black or chocolate seems to do just the trick.

That and of course, my standby, stitching.   I used faux stitching on my first card, and lots of machine stitching on my girly card.   

Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow!!

MFT Crew is Twisted Again!

Have you been having fun twisting along this little blog My Favorite Things hop?  

I'll be making the rounds to see everyone's projects in a moment, but you can be sure that I will not have a sip of coffee until I'm done because you just never know what this crew will cook up.

Twisted 2 is now available as well as printed 6x6 paperpacks of both the Spring and Summer collections. 

Many of you know that this set is not for the faint of heart, it is twisted and oh so hilarious! 

I will say though, I was good, and went tame on mine, I mean really, my MOM reads my blog!

My first card uses the "Bunny Slippers" for the main image this reminds me of those mornings when I've either had one glass too many of vino with my friends the night before, or the countless nights when I've stayed up an hour (or maybe two hours) too late crafting when I should have been sleeping.  

On those mornings, all the world is too bright, just a bit too loud. My pj's are just too cozy, and I'd give anything for a swig of orange juice, right from the container.

My second card uses "Think Pink" I went clean and simple on this card.  Making this card the other day reminded me that I hadn't yet made that appointment I've been putting off. So, I made the call.  If you're due for a check, go ahead, make the call, and Get 'em Squished!!

My husband is watching me type this and wonders why I've made such a bizzare card.  He wants to know if "Turn your head and and cough" is also included in this set. I've got tears running down my face I'm laughing so hard....Kim, you can add that for Twisted Three next year!

The next stop on this blog hop is Paula!  Oh my goodness can that girl ever color! I can't wait to see what she's got cooked up for all of us.  Don't forget to travel all the way through the blog hop.  You'll find a set for FREE at the end! 

Gina K: Surprises and Challenges

I've got a Gina K card for you today, but before I get started, I just wanted to mention that Gina has big news this week!  She's started posting hints on her blog, and something new and truly fantastic will be unveiled on Friday!  Be sure to visit Gina's blog each day this week to see what's been keeping her so busy!

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Although my typical style of cardmaking is usually all things girly... sometimes the occasion pops up that I've got to make a masculine card.  I don't know about you, but I find them really challenging.

I'm embarrassed to say how long I've had this image from Gina K Designs that had not yet been inked.  This set is called "King of the Grill" and was illustrated by Rupa Shevde. This week, I have a card to send out to my Dad, and he pretty much lives to golf.

I stamped the image first to ivory cardstock, and then stamped it again to a piece of scrap, colored it with my Copic markers, and then bumped it up and add some dimension.  All my panels are stitched, there's straight stitching, zig zag stitching and even the mini zig zag which was actually way more difficult to keep straight than I'd expected.  

I used Jen Del Muro's "Sketch for You To Try" which I must say, is always such a project jump start for me. The designer paper here is the new "To The Nines" specialty paper from Stampin Up.  I love the heavyweight feel to it.

For those of you that have been joining me for challenges over on the Gina K Member Company forum...My challenge to all of you Gina K fans out there this week is to either ink up one of your most recent Gina K stamp purchases, or you can ink up one that has not yet seen ink. The only thing is, you've got to fess up, how long has it been in your stash. Okay, I'll come clean. This stamp set was released I think in May of last year. That's SO bad of me...  So, come join me and Get Inky this week. 

MFT Monday - Who's that Girl!

Hope you all had a truly wonderful Valentines Day and a beautiful weekend.  I was happy to have a few quiet hours of crafting this weekend and I've got some new goodies to share.

I'm so happy to announce that Christina Fischer and I are going to be working on the MFT Monday "Who's That Girl" challenge. I adore her style and well, we all know that I simply adore "Who's That Girl" too.  

This week's "Who's That Girl" challenge has us working with "Can You Dig It" which is great, because have I mentioned, I'm totally over winter, and read to move onto spring??  The challenge part is to use three flowers and add ribbon.  And you know me, I just love flowers and ribbon, s this was so fun!!

My fascination with cocoa and pink continues... this time I used the Sabrina line of paper from Making Memories. My cocoa and pink panels are stamped the cocoa and pink panels with white craft ink using the "Behind the Scenes" set from My Favorite Things. "Who's That Girl" is paper pieced and then colored with Copic markers.  I took my wide width pink pirouette ribbon and tacked some ruffles in place with adhesive, then stitched the panel down with my Janome. 

I hope you'll hop on over to the MFT Member Company Forum on Splitcoast Stampers and join Christina and I for a little "Who's That Girl" fun each Monday!  

February Dirty Dozen Gallery

I'm sitting with my laptop and a cup of coffee - don't forget to hop on over to see the creations in this month's Dirty Dozen Gallery on Splitcoast Stampers. 

I had a lot of fun working on this month's theme - "What I like about you." We've been looking for inspiration from all forms of art - for me, I found inspiration in unlikely sources like Lilly Pulitzer (one of my favorite clothing designers) as well as my love of The Cure, and a collection of Wedgwood Jasperware that my husband started for me on our honeymoon.  Lets just say, my taste in art has elasticity!  

I can't believe that Jennifer Buck and Mary Jo Albright just finished their last month on the DD, I'm going to miss their beautiful creations.  I won't give away the surprise for the two latest dirty girls... hop on over and see for yourselves!

  

Have a great day. I'm headed back to the galleries to drool a little more!

Have a Happy Heart

In addition to baking treats for the kindergarten Valentines celebration, and making cards for the kids, I've also been working on some Valentine treats for the teachers.  

Since I'm short on time, with a very long to do list, I'm so happy that I thought ahead and picked up twelve of these Tote Bags from Jody's Die Cuts for Sale page.  Trust me when I say they go together so quickly with the teeniest bit of adhesive.

I paper pieced this sweet little mouse from Stampin' Up and colored his body with my Copic markers.  I put my little tag punches to work, they've been sitting idle a seriously long time, but they're just the right size for this little project!

Tuck your bag inside the assembled box, fill it, wrap a quick ribbon, slide on a tag and a fun little stamped panel and shazam! Valentines!

My three year old has been sick the last few days and suddenly burst into tears watching me make these.  When I asked him what was wrong, he replied that I didn't have any valentines for HIM.  I said that of course, I did, but that he just hasn't seen them yet.  Turns out, what he's looking for is Conversation Heart candies.  His little heart was broken when I told him that they're made with corn and he can't have them.  Broke his heart, which in turn broke mine.

So this morning, we're off to the supermarket, then we'll be making sugar cookies, cutting them with heart shaped cookie cutters and adding our own letter decorations to cheer him up.  Drats for all these food oriented holidays, guess what else is made with corn... jelly beans.  I'm going to start now looking for Easter replacements.  I also feel a toy purchase coming on because I'd SO much rather buy him a toy than candy....  I'm sure he won't disagree.  

Have a wonderful Valentines day!  See you Monday!

Kindergarten Valentines!

I've been busy making valentines for my son's classmates and teachers all week.  Twenty two in the kindergarten, two teachers and then three preschool teachers.  Lucky for me the preschool class doesn't do valentines till next year! Whew!

My mom suggested I just go out and just buy some, but honestly, given the amount of materials I already had in my basement, that would be a crime!

Instead, I forced myself to just streamline the process, and come up with some clean and simple designs.  I put my new lOve sOngs stamp set from Paper Trey Ink to work and made one design for the boys, and one for the girls. 

Since I'm on a "paper diet" this was a great excuse to dig into my scraps and some papers that were even previously untouched! 

By keeping the designs simple, and going into mass production mode, I was able to get them done very quickly.  I cut all the paper one night, then cut nesties while we watched TiVo another night, then stamped all the images another night and then one afternoon I sat and adhered all the fronts to the card bases.

To save on cardstock since I know that these will end up in the trash (oh the horror) I created cute card fronts and attached them to confetti white cardstock - I had LOTS and didn't want to dig into my colored cardstock too much for this project. 

This third card, the red, kraft and black card, is the one that I'll tuck inside my little guys bag for him to open in school on Friday during their class celebration. 

I'll be back with teacher cards tomorrow!

My word of advice to those doing projects with children. Have them sign the cardbases FIRST then adhere your main panels. That way if they decide to make a mess of the inside you can just hand them another card base and save your pretty card! I learned that lesson the hard way last year when my son scribbled ALL OVER a finished valentine!

Supplies:

All cards use lOve sOngs stamp set from Paper Trey Ink.

Girls Card: Sweet Blush, Pink Patterns and Spring Moss stitched grosgrain ribbon.  Berry Sorbet ink for balloon image. Oval nestie.

Boys Card: Lemon Tart ink for ice cream top, Pure Poppy for cherry, Brilliance Pearlescent chocolate ink for sentiment (from Stamp a Sweet Impression) and ice cream cone.  Curvy rectangles Nestie

Love Note: Pure poppy cardstock, stitched grosgrain ribbon and ink, Fresh Snow ink, Basic Black and Kraft cardstocks and slit punch (Stampin Up) P

Love Owl-Ways - Embossed Hardware

I'm still playing with my Powder Keg Embossing powder.  This week, I tried it out on some bronze hardware I had in my stash.  First, I dipped it into my Versamark pad, then coated up my hardware to this pearlescent chocolate finish.  It has such a warm patina to it, I'm lovin' it!

For anyone that is interested, I have done a tutorial on the MFT "How'd They Do That" forum showing step by step how to change up the embellies you already have on hand to give them a special finish for your projects!

I got my printer all hooked back up after some crazy computer trouble here at home last week.  And, the very first thing I did was download and print this Chocolate Kiss Digital Paper pack from MFT.  

You'll see I also am still on a Kraft paper binge!  I stamped the birds and the branch to Kraft, then stamped the birdies again to a scrap of white paper.  While you can color with  Copics on the Kraft, it isn't the best for blending.  So I colored the owls separately and then added them back in place.  

This is my sample for Jen Del Muro's Sketch for You To Try this week.  

I had such trouble with the double embellie on the top left hand corner of the card.  What I really wished I had was some sort of flourish punch or diecut, and tried every sort of button, flower combination for that top corner.  Finally I added a little ribbon tab added a paper flower, embossed hardware, button, thread combo on top of that.

Have a wonderful day! Me, I'm off to work on a few more Valentines!  

Scalloped Purse - Samples and Tutorial

Recently, my friend Jody began selling die cuts on her blog "Confessions of a Ribbon Addict."  I of course, had to have some of those little rectangular tote bags after I saw her adorable creations.  She offers diecuts in a wide range of colors from both Stampin Up and Paper Trey Ink. You can find all the various dies she has for sale HERE

I also instantly fell in love with this little Scalloped Purse. 

Doesn't it look just like a teeny Bermuda bag?  With baby and bridal shower season coming, aren't these just perfect??  

I altered one up for either a tiny welcoming gift for a little one (ahem, a gift certificate for diapers anyone?) or it could be used for a shower favor filled with those custom M&M's. YUM! 

Uuummmmm.....I'm noticing my eyelets look crooked in this photo. Trust me they're straight, just sitting funny in the angle of this photo.

So, I realized that duh, you might want to see a photo of how I altered it. So I pulled out this Rose Red one and made a little treat for my son's bus driver! Now, this seriously took me 10 minutes, no lie.  I've outlined it step by step for anyone not familar with how to alter these types of things, but really it is a piece of cake!  

To begin, I dug through my stash to find a good match for this Rose Red paper. I actually purchased SO much of this Loveland Paper from Scenic Route last year. Its still my favorite!

To begin, trace your die cut onto the backside of the designer paper.  I traced the scalloped part, and traced along the straight part of the handle. Then I folded up my bag along the score lines to trace the entire front of the bag.  

When I was finished, it looked like this. Now using your scissors, trim out this shape.  

I cut off along that straight line so that I'd alter just the bottom half of the bag. If you wanted a fully patterned bag, you'd just cut out the whole thing! Adhere to the front of the bag.

The diecut already has a closure built right into it. However, by altering, now I've closed that up.  Easy peasy... just flip it over and place onto a self healing mat (can I just say, I LOVE my Scor Pal!!)  using a craft knife (or if you're a mess like me, the sharp blade of your scissors.) 

Just slice upon this line and you'll open back up the slot for the closure!

Now, I flipped my tote back over and added some ribbon trim to cover up that seam between the original diecut and the patterned paper.  Just don't put ribbon over the actual slot you just opened up for your closure! Fold on all your score marks with a bone folder, and then you'll be able to close up your nearly finished bag. 

Embellish as desired, I chose this sweet Feb 14th image from Stampin Up and finished it off with a scalloped flower medallion and some felt flowers I've had forever!  

I'm tucking a gift certificate for Dunkin Donuts inside because if I were a bus driver, I know I'd need a LOT of caffiene to tackle that job each day!  I'm so thankful for Amy, she's wonderful!!

By the way, if you were mass producing these and wanted to save a step, you could easily just overstamp them with a background stamp, or a stampin up wheel, or embossing folder etc! 

Jody has lots of other shapes available, be sure to check out her die cut shapes.  I've some more that I'll have samples of soon, just need to get 22 Valentines finished first!

Thanks for popping by today!  

Retired SU Stamps for Sale

Just reposting this real quickly for anyone interested.  I'll be moving these to ebay over the weekend so if you'd like to grab any at these before I do so please email me!  basilefamily at comcast dot net

I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing around here.  I turned up LOTS of Retired Stampin Up Stamps that I can't use in my business any longer, and thought I'd share the love.

These are all priced to move!  I can only sell these within the United States (sorry to my readers from outside the US, but it is part of my Demonstrator Agreement with SU.)

I'll require payment via PayPal and I'll ship everything via USPS Priority Mail.  If you'd like to claim any of these for your own, please email me at basilefamily at comcast dot net

I'll happily combine shipping on orders of multiple sets and will revise this list as stamp sets have been claimed:

**all stamp prices do not reflect shipping. USPS Priority Mail of $4.95 per set***

Tiny Talk $5

Stars and Swirls $5

All about Gratitude Wheel $7

All about Birthdays Wheel $7

Snowman Fun Wheel $7

Only Ornaments Wheel $7

Party Punch - $7 claimed by kellygrl27 

Seeing Spots - $7

Polka Dots and Petals - $7

Tags so Much - $5 - Sold (Kathy Weaver)

All in a Row - $10

Flowers and Flourish $10

Naughty or Nice - $10

Bundle of Joy $15

By Land - $15

Big Pieces - $15

Year after Year $15

Birthday Whimsy - $15

Wishing You $15

Office Accoutrement $20

Window Dressing $30

GKD Challenge - Get Krafty

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This one sped right past me - I can't believe its Monday again.  I feel like I made completely no progress against my to do list, maybe its just because most of what I'm working on is for some upcoming deadlines...

I posted this week's challenge to the Gina K Designs Member Company Forum last night.  I challenge you to Get Krafty!  This challenge is open until next Monday and one lucky participant will be selected at random to win a stamp set valued $19.95 or less from Gina K Designs. 

Its no secret that I adore Kraft cardstock and use it in probably half my creations.  This time, I stamped directly to the Kraft cardtsock, and then colored with my SU watercolor crayons.  

Quick post for me as my to do list is long this week, lots of valentines to finish up!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT day!