cards

I love stamps that have detailed line art, they are so flexible. Normally I would look at this and think I should add colour to the image, but sometimes the simple beauty of line art can help you easily create a stunning card.

The SUOC (Stampin’ Up! Only Challenge) has a great theme - Anything Winter! I decided to make a winter card without any snow, even though we have snow here. Instead, I decided to focus on a glorious sunny day that can make even the coldest temperatures seem a little warmer. The trees are bare, but the sunshine is wonderful.

What’s the Occasion you ask? Why a new catalogue of course! The new Occasions catalogue is now available and with it comes Sale-a-Bration (SAB). You can see all the fun new items in either catalogue here.

The January Girls Get Away Weekend (GGAW) has now come and gone, but what a fantastic time we had!! I was joined by a great group of ladies, and we spent the weekend doing what we love; stamping, scrapping, crafting, sharing and caring.

The day we have been waiting for! The new Occasions catalogue and Sale-a-Bration (SAB) are now live. Check out the new catalogue here. There are lots of great new items in both the Occasions and SAB catalogues.

January 1, 2019. Welcome to a brand new year!! I hope the holiday season has been great for you and all your loved ones, and now we begin a new year. Let’s celebrate Another Wonderful Year.

Beginning January 3rd, we will have a new Occasions catalogue, and Sale-a-Bration (SAB) will begin. Many will say we have just celebrated the most wonderful time of the year, but if you are a stamper, a scrapbooker, memory keeper or papercrafter, the most wonderful time of the year starts in January.
Stampin’ Up! has a fabulous sale starting and that means lots of amazing FREE product for you!

Three years ago I met a wonderful, sweet man. He rocked my world and made it so much better in countless ways. Today we are celebrating sharing our lives and our love for the past three years, and in less than one month we will be married!

This week the Global Design Project has a colour challenge, and I have a sneak peak at a new stamp set from the Occasions catalogue available starting January 3rd.

Have you noticed how so many hand made cards have a ‘feel’ to them? Some feel homey, some feel cozy, some feel fancy and others are bright and sun shiny. To me, today’s card feels like winter freshness.

Stamping a cute image on a card front can be fun, but stamping it twice, as a mirror image just ups the fun and cute factor off the chart! The Stamparatus makes it easy to do.

The last few days have been snowy in Wasaga Beach. This is both good and bad news!! It is good news because I love to ski, and Blue Mountain is opening this Friday. The bad news is that we haven’t seen the sun much as it has been cloudy and snowing. Today I have a sunny card to fix that!

As a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator there is lots of support and help we can take advantage of to run our business. There is a Business Development Program that Stampin’ Up! offers, and I joined this. My BDA is ReNee, and I love working with her. I always tell her she “kicks my butt in the nicest possible way” as she helps me set goals and be diligent in my business.
I got to meet ReNee face to face at OnStage, so I wanted to make her a card to let her know how much I appreciate her help.

I love to make and share Welcome Packages. I use these to introduce my stamping business to new people. In the package I include a note about upcoming classes, my business card, a little treat, and a card they can send to someone special. I needed more cards for these packages, so I stamped a bunch of birthday cards.

Yesterday was my sister Patrice’s birthday, and her son’s decided to surprise her with a dinner of 35-40 of her closest friends and family! It wasn’t a milestone birthday, because they figured that would never surprise her, but it is always fun to celebrate your special day, no matter what the age. Here is the birthday card I made for her.

Twice a year Stampin’ Up! has a conference, and this year they are also celebrating their 30th Anniversary. Although there are lots of local events around the world, the main live event was hosted in Orlando, Florida, and I HAD to go!!

My brother’s birthday is in early November, and my sister’s birthday is a couple weeks later. I wanted to make special cards for both of them, so I decided to make my brother’s card sparkle.

I was playing with Sponge Daubers, making polka dots on card stock, and thought it would make a fun background for a card. I made two cards with those backgrounds.

Have you seen the Joyous Noel Specialty Designer Series Paper on page 29 of the 2018 Holiday Catalogue? It is really pretty paper, and has copper foil accents on one side. And the best part . . . even though this is called Joyous Noel, and makes amazing Christmas cards, it’s not just for Christmas!!

My card the other day used some of the Country Lane DSP, and a sentiment from the Contry Home stamp set, both part of the Country Lane Suite in the Holiday Catalogue. If you missed that card, you can see it here. Today my card uses some of the other stamps in the Country Home stamp set. It is a fantastic set with some great stamps that have a real down home country feel.

My card for today is sending loving thoughts and prayers to brighten up your day. I used bright colours and stripes to pack a punch - Pineapple Punch with my card!

Fall has definitely arrived where I live. The days are shorter, the nights are colder (and sometimes the days are cold too!), and there is a definite fall feel in the air. Fall can be a season of glorious colour as nature paints everything in new fall shades.

In a recent post I mentioned that it was my fiance’s birthday, but I couldn’t post the card I made him until after his birthday. You can see that post here if you like. Today I am showing you the birthday card I made for him.

Have you ordered the Wishing You Well stamp set yet? It is a fantastic stamp set with gorgeous images, and sentiments suitable for Fall, Christmas and all year round. Over the next four blog posts I will be showcasing this stamp set, so you will see just how versatile it is.

Some days it is really easy to create, while others seem to stump your creativity. I don’t know why or how this happens, but we all seem to experience it from time to time. I’m grateful on the days that I go to my craft studio and the ideas just flow like butter melting on hot toast! On days that have no toast, I call upon one of the many ways to jump start creativity.

Gratitude is the easiest way to bring more good into your life. Living a grateful life is a choice we all make. We can focus on what we don’t have, or we can be grateful for the many blessings we have in our life. For me, that choice is easy. I am truly grateful for many things in my life, and I take time each day to think about at least some of them, to give thanks, and be grateful for them. It really is the easiest way to bring more good into your life.

So few people send cards, and it is such an easy way to brighten someone’s day. The Pastor at my church is fantastic at staying in touch with people, so I make Thinking of You and Hello type cards for him to send. I love donating a stack of cards to the church and knowing they will bright so many peoples day. I’m truly grateful that he takes the time to stay in touch with people, and love to do my part to help with that.

I love the High Tide stamp set. If you check out page 145 in the Annual Catalogue, you will see a few great projects made with this stamp set. I especially love how they have cropped some of the greetings to give even more flexibility to how you use this set. For my card today I used a full sentiment stamp that shares a great message of support.

Sometimes our cards have stamped images or items we have cut with our Big Shot, but sometimes I like to make a card where the sentiment is the main focal point. My card today is just that type.