Hearts & SAB

Once a month I make cards with some sweet sweet sweet teenagers. The girls are staying at Jesse's House, a local organization that houses girls who have removed from their residences by the county court because the environments aren't safe. The location is so secret that I can't even reveal to the other members of my family where it is. I wish there wasn't a need for such a place, but this is a good place if you have need of it.

Whenever I go, I try to create a card that ties to an upcoming holiday or is something a teenager would find hip. I'm SO not HIP, y'all, so this is quite a challenge for me! With Valentine's Day being just about 2 weeks away, I thought this would be the perfect time to see what I could come up with using the Heart Framelits from the Occasions Mini Catalog. More about that in a minute.

I chose the 3 smallest hearts and placed them on the Whisper White panels, which measure 1 7/8" x 5.25". A quick run through the Big Shot and I had a cute overlay for the base panel of Melon Mambo, which measures 2" x 5 3/8". This is a shutter card, which just means it measures 5.5" x 8.5" and then it's scored along the 8.5" side at 2 1/8" and 6 3/8".

The WOW factor for this card comes inside (which was hard to photograph, so excuse the slightly blurry pics!). I was inspired by this card by Heather Summers of Canada. Check out her video to see how this card opens and closes, creating the peek-a-boo effect. To create this, take 2-3" x 2" strips of patterned paper and cut a triangle shaped notch out of one end. Then you overlap them over the image that's peeking through the circle created by the 1.75" circle punch. A little adhesive in the right place (watch the video), and you have a place for a secret Valentine-y message to be hidden and revealed only to your sweetie.


Now, some other news. I've already shared that we have a new Occasions Mini, but what I haven't told you is that it's SAB time! Sale-A-Bration time! SAB is a great 2-month period every year when SU! rewards you for buying stamping goodies.

Pick out $50 (before shipping and handling and taxes) of ANYTHING--from the Occasions Mini or the Big Idea Book & Catalog--and you'll get to choose a FREE FREE FREE product from the special Sale-A-Bration brochure! ANYTHING you can think of to purchase qualifies you for FREE STUFF. What's better than FREE STUFF? Nothin', if you ask me! If you choose to host a get-together of your friends and the gals' orders total $150 (or you place an order all by yourself of $150), you get this cool tote bag! If the orders from your get-together or your personal order total $400, you get a FREE bundle of coordinating stamps, Designer Series Paper, and ribbons and brads. Seriously, this is a WIN WIN proposition.

So follow the link above to the new Occasions Mini or click on the picture of the Big Idea Book and start shopping! All you have to do to place an order is contact me. Leave a comment on this post with your email address, and I'll get in touch!

Little Love with Framed Hearts

I saw this card on Pinterest. The original blog isn't in English, and when I translated it, I still couldn't tell who the crafter is. Still, she or he deserves credit for a very cute card that is simple and stunning. After admiring it, I set out to copy it.

I mentioned in my last post about some new goodies called Heart Framelits that debuted in the Occasions Mini Catalog, which went live Jan. 4. Here's the link if you want to sneak off and peruse its contents.

Framelits are thin diecuts that are shapes and they cut that entire shape out of whatever you place them on top of. Therefore, they can be placed anywhere on a surface and when you run them through the Big Shot, they create, in this case, heart-shaped holes in the middle of your card stock. They're fantastic! The link shows the shapes the framelits cut, but not the framelits themselves. I think you get the idea.

The littlest heart fits sweetly inside a 1.25" square. Here's how I made the squares. I cut a strip of Whisper White card stock 1.25" wide and left it 8.5" in length. I centered my framelit and ran it through the Big Shot. THEN I cut the paper to 1.25" long to create the square. Much easier than trying to center a framelit in the middle of such a small piece of card stock.

Each little heart window is backed with 1" squares of the latest Designer Series Paper offering, Twitterpated. Fun word, huh! It's not in Merriam-Webster, but according to the Urban Dictionary, it means to be completely enamored with something/someone. I'm not sure if you'll feel this way when you see this paper, but it is pretty romantic. If you want to see what the patterns look like, feel free to click on the word to view them.

ANYWAY, after I used the Twitterpated DSP, I created a mat using 1.5" squares of Riding Hood Red. The colors that coordinate with Twitterpated include Riding Hood Red, Basic Gray, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, and Whisper White. You'll see that I used Blushing Bride, RHR, and Baja Breeze when I stamped the sentiment. It's from Three Little Words, and it's just the right size.

You might be wondering how I created that embossed frame that runs .25" around the entire base of the card. I used the Simply Scored Tool. It is so easy and the trickiest part was remembering that I needed to score on the inside of my card so that I would have a raised line on the outside (front) of my card.

Hope you enjoyed this introduction to Framelits. If you'd like to order anything you've read about, feel free to click on my shop online 24/7 button on the right sidebar. That will take you to my demonstrator website. Click on the shop now button and you'll be redirected to SU!'s online store. Set up an account and the goodies will come right to your front door! Sale-A-Bration is going on right now too, so you'll get something FREE from a special catalog for every $50 you spend! More on that tomorrow!

Valentines for Ronald

Last night I met up with some other demonstrators and we facilitated stamping for some families at the Ronald McDonald House. SU! is offering a few a la carte stamps in its Occasions Mini Catalog, and "Be Mine, Valentine" is one of them. While I have other ambitions for this stamp (don't those hearts remind you of Conversation Hearts?), I like that it stamps up nicely in a single color too. That makes it easier for the stampers at RMH too.

I saw the card that inspired this one on Pinterest. Oh.My.Word. Don't get me started! I could get LOST on that site for HOURS, if I really knew how to use it! Anyway, a shout out of thanks to Lisa A. for posting this there!

While she only used her 3-Heart Punch 2 times, I used it 4! By rotating the position of the punch and what side of the card base you punch it through, you can get the heart patterns to mirror each other. It sounds much harder than it is. I offered several different kinds of Designer Series Paper scraps as backings for the heart holes, and they came out very cute! This is an excellent way to use up retired patterned paper.

I'll be back later this week--or maybe tomorrow--with another card for Valentine's Day using a new product from the Occasions Mini--Heart Framelits! Stay tuned!

This is My Idea of Snow in January!

I'm a born and bred Hoosier, but in my 6th winter in the South, these are the kind of snowflakes I find myself preferring more and more. I don't mean to rub it in, but today is sunny sunny sunny and the temperature is 61 with NO WIND. It's glorious! Now, it was 43, cloudy, and rainy rainy rainy yesterday. Yesterday? Who cares about yesterday--it's SUNNY today! Alright, enough about the weather and more about the card.

This card's snowflake art started out as a lightweight cardboard box top protecting chocolate fudge. It had my attention at "chocolate fudge". The image was just a nice side feature. The ribbon came as part of another Christmas gift, I think. Anyway, they found themselves in proximity to each other on my dining room table one day, and instantly I knew there was a quick and easy card in my future. I'm posting this I'm thinking you might be like me and still have some Christmas cards lingering around your house that may have nice images that could be repurposed. That would make you feel better about them than you would if you threw them away, wouldn't it? I knew you were like me!

I cut the box top down to 4"x5.25" and mounted the ribbon scrap around the corners. I took a strip of Whisper White card stock and stamped "thanks so much" from Three Little Words in Real Red and mounted it across the middle. DONE!

Hope you find some gems in your Christmas card stash. But don't wait around too long to sort through them. Who knows? You might have spring in February and then your moment to use your wintry scenes will have passed!

Don't Faint!

Hey! Happy New Year! A friend of mine said that she has been checking this space in hopes of finding something new here, so I decided to surprise her and post something. If you've missed me, would you give a shout out? Honestly, I need to know there are readers out there who want to know what I'm crafting; I need a nudge.

This card was created for Ruby, one of the partners at my Starbucks who has been in the hospital with ketoacidosis. It's a nasty side effect of having diabetes, and it almost killed her 2 years ago. Thankfully she's on the mend, but I wanted her to know we're thinking of her. All of us will sign this and get it in the mail to her this week.

I used the Morning Cup set and an unusual color combination for me--Daffodil Delight and Basic Grey. I wanted something cheery and I remembered seeing this combo on someone else's blog. Since there are many fine line art images in this set, they lent themselves easily to creating a background by stamping with Basic Grey classic ink.

I had the idea to create a belly band to hold the card together. I scored a 2.25" strip of Basic Grey at 2.75" on each end. It didn't result in an overlap, but that was just what I wanted. I used a 3" circle from my Circles #2 die for the Big Shot that I had left over from another project. Then I layered a 2.5" circle in Whisper White.

The most fun I had making this card was incorporating the tiny "perk up!" sentiment around the edge of the circle. It was easy to do using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig! The little flower buttons were almost an afterthought, but I like the feminine touch they add.

Crafting a Goodbye

My friend Sara died Saturday evening after a long battle with Akylosing Spondylitis. I struggle to put into words the impact her life had on me. Sara and I did not have a regular friendship. We knew each other through her blog, Choose Joy.

I know it sounds weird to say you're friends with someone you only know through an online community. But Sara was.not.ordinary. Whenever I connected with her, whether it was through exchanged comments on a post or an email or a card, she was able to infuse JOY, selfless JOY into my day. She was transparent about her challenges, but she refused to be defined by her illness or let the disease steal from her the JOY God had to provide her with through each day's moments.

A quote by Henry David Thoreau describes what she accomplished in her life: "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." That is what Sara did. By the attitude she chose, moment-by-pain-filled moment (that stretched on for hours and days at a time), and her artful, thoughtful sharing of that outlook on life through her words, she altered the course of my days many times. She elevated life from a focus on circumstances to a meditation on the person of Jesus. I will never be the same.

I made this card using a video tutorial by Wendybell. I've embedded the video link so you can watch how this is made. It's really quite simple and it's beautiful and unique.

I like that it hides the message you'd like to send in a pocket of sorts, and that the flap tucks into the diamond square in the front to keep it closed. For another occasion, I think it would make an excellent invitation. I really hope the family finds some small bit of comfort from it. It's what I found to do to share in the grief of a large community of people who loved Sara. Oh that my life will leave such a legacy.

New Month, NEW CATALOG!

I know you're probably focused on the fact that this weekend is Fourth of July, but in SU!land, another reason to celebrate is the launch of the new 2011-2012 Big Idea Book and Catalog!!

I've included a link on my sidebar so that you can peruse it online, but if you want to get your hands on a copy, just let me know by leaving me a comment. I've been poring over it for days and I still haven't decided which new stamp sets I'm going to purchase first. There are 84 NEW stamp sets!

There's also a NEW Hostess Program! The chart shows you the deal: starting with a $150 order or workshop total, you get $25 to spend AS YOU WISH! Now you can spend those dollars on specially priced Hostess sets, and there are no levels so you can choose any set you want! If you don't favor any of the Hostess sets, you can use your money toward anything you want! And the money you have to spend increases with every $50 additional dollars that your order/workshop tallies!

When you get to $400, you get $65 PLUS you get to choose 1 item and only pay HALF PRICE for it! Been eyeing that Big Shot diecut machine or a set of Stampin' Write Markers? You can get it HALF PRICE--sweet, huh!

There are also five NEW colors for the InColor Collection debuting with this catalog. Pool Party, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, and Wisteria Wonder are beautiful--the picture of the stamp pads doesn't really do them justice!

The greatest thing about the InColor Collection is that the InColors from last year's catalog DIDN'T RETIRE!! InColors are now on a 2-year rotation, and there is word from SU! that some might be incorporated into the permanent color families when their time as ICs concludes. That's FANTASTIC news because now you don't have to be hesitant about adding these to your crafting color options! There are classic stamp pads and refills, adorable ruffled ribbon, card stock in 8.5"x11" and 12"x12" (smooth and textured), patterned Designer Series Paper, Markers, and brads for these colors. WOW! That's a lot of crafting options for something that's "limited edition".

I hope you're as excited as I am about this event this weekend! Don't let the lazy days of summer get away from you. If you schedule a get-together with your friends and let me introduce them to all this fabulous NEWness and your workshop order total $150 or more, I'll GIVE you a stamp pad or a pack of 8.5" x 11" card stock from the new InColor Collection! This is only available for the first 5 people who contact me, so don't overthink this and miss out! You can host a catalog show if you don't live near me. Let me know you're interested and I'll give you all the details.

I have dates available this month and before school starts, so don't delay--book today!