Stampin' Up! Endless Wishes

I had a total "work day" today and managed to finish up my samples for my class and get all the supplies ordered.  Now I just need to finish up a set fo cards I'm donating to a silent auction and do birthday cards for my sister-in-law and my niece.   So much stamping!   This one was CASEd from a sample that Stampin' Up! posted back last year when this set was released.  It's such an awesome set and I am so glad it's going to be available again.  Just a couple more weeks to wait.

And here's my final version of this one we are making.   The last design still needs some things that are coming in my order, so I'll share it with you later.  

My little helper was having lunch when I took my pictures today, but she gave me some smiles to share.  :)  

Stampin' Up! Festival of Trees

Laila has been taking a super long nap today, so I have had time to work on some samples for my upcoming class.  It usually takes me making quite a few before I narrow it down to the actual projects we'll make.  This one was inspired by a sample in the holiday catalog and I don't think it will make the cut.  I am going to try changing up a few things, so you'll see a different version (or two) in the future.  

Stamps:  Festival of Trees, Greetings of the Season
Ink:  White Craft, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight, Versamark
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Tools:  Hearts & Stars Decorative Masks, Tree Punch
Accessories:  Linen Thread, Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder

Greetings of the Season is one of the sets that you can still get right now.  Once the new holiday catalog starts on August 28th, that won't be the case. To see all the carryover items, look here.

She is back on the sunglasses kick!  lol   I love it.   She's also back into reading after a slight break, so I'm happy about that as well.   I don't always love reading the same book over and over, but whatever it takes to keep her love of books going.    I hear her up, so I'll stop here and go get my after-nap snuggles.  :)

'Tis the Season 9: Ornament Keepsakes

Don't blink!  That is definitely a Christmas card you're seeing.  :)   Holly at 'Tis the Season asked me to be a guest designer for their 9th challenge.  They have a color challenge going on this week, so drop by and play if you get a chance!  

I used my Ornament Keepsakes set and some Iridescent Ice embossing powder to make a sparkly ornament.  This was one of those ever evolving cards because I kept messing up.  First I stamped the sentiment crooked so that got a new layer.  Then I moved the bow and tore the white so a ribbon hanger got added.  I decided I'd better leave it alone before anything else happened.  

I can't believe how long her hair is getting.  SO crazy!   It's been a very, very, VERY rough week here.  Tuesday night she wouldn't go to bed until almost 9.  Then she was back up from 1-4.  And then up for the day at 7:30.  Jason and I were so worn out yesterday.   We go for her 18th month checkup today, so I hope it's all good news.  Bandit will be getting a biopsy done on his spleen on Tuesday, so keep sending good thoughts our way.  I will have to take Laila with me when I drop him off and pick him up, so it should be interesting.  Oh to have family close by....

Stamp Review Crew: Festive Flurry Edition

Welcome to the first blog hop of the Stamp Review Crew!  We'll be featuring a stamp set on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of every month.  This month's set is the gorgeous Festive Flurry set that also has matching framelit dies!   You probably arrived here from the fabulous Kerry Willard Bray's blog.  Wasn't her project awesome?!  I love seeing all the beautiful projects everyone made.

I don't have this set yet, but a dear friend was kind enough to send me some images to play around with.  After making my card and looking through my fellow demos' projects, I am totally kicking myself for not investing in this one.  The snowflakes are amazing and the matching framelits to cut them out makes them so much more versatile!

I actually designed this card in my head before my happy mail from my friend arrived.  I was hoping that it looked as good on paper as it did in my head.  I believe it did too! :)   This is one of those sets that you just can't make a bad card with if you tried!   It's that awesome!

My blog is the end of the hop, but if you want to go through it again or if you didn't start at the beginning, be sure to go back to Heidi's blog!  She never fails to have fantastic projects to share.

Stamps:  Festive Flurry, Greetings of the Season
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Accessories:  Paper Doilies, Basic Pearls
Tools:  Big Shot, Elegant Stripes TIEF, Festive Flurry Framelits

If you get lost or confused, you can always go to our main landing page, The Stamp Review Crew blog.

Stampin' Up! Christmas Star

Today I wanted to share one of the projects we are making at my stamp club on Sunday.   I decided to focus on Christmas and the Envelope Punch Board for this month.  I love these file folder cards and had to make one!  I used the gorgeous Christmas Star single stamp.  You can find it and the other single stamps in my online store under the stamp category.

Isn't that designer paper gorgeous?  It is called Winter Frost and I just love it!

Stamps:  Christmas Star, Greetings of the Season
Ink: Smoky Slate, Island Indigo
Paper: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Winter Frost DSP
Accessories:  Vintage Faceted button, Island Indigo baker's twine
Tools: Envelope Punch Board

Once she mastered the ottoman, she moved on to bigger (and more dangerous) things.  Yikes!  We are working on sitting in the chair so that mommy doesn't have a heart attack.

FMS106: Merry Christmas

This was one of those cards that almost didn't happen.   I had a pretty rough month last month and then started this month off with yet another bad day.  I planned to take this week off from Freshly Made Sketches because I've just been too upset/depressed to stamp. My awesome teammates gave me a pep talk and I decided to go stamp (or try to) last night after dinner.  This is what I came up with.  It's by no means the best card ever, but I'm happy I made something.  It helped so much! Our sketch this week was by the talented and oh so sweet Amy. 

Isn't that a great sketch?   As you can tell from all the design team samples, the possibilities are endless!  :)

Laila got her very own page in the Hope Calendar this year!   :)   I just love it and I can't wait to get one.  If you'd like to support a wonderful charity, you can purchase a copy here.

Stampin' Up! Evergreen

Bad picture alert.  Sorry!  I don't know what was going on with that tonight but I am way too tired to go fight with it.  I'm hoping Jason will have Laila down by the time I finish this post so that we can watch Big Brother and then go to bed.   (I'm a reality TV junkie!)   Anyway....   I have a Christmas card class coming up next week and I wanted to finish up the designs for it.   I had pinned this gorgeous card by Jen Sannes and wanted to try a different design with some of the same elements. I love the navy/silver/gray combo!  Now the stamps I used aren't in the catalog but they are still available.  There's a list of them that carried over for this holiday season from last year's catalog. You can find them online under the "Online Only" section under stamps.  

Stamps:  Evergreen, Greetings of the Season

Ink:  Night of Navy, Versamark

Paper:  Night of Navy, Brushed Silver, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Tools:  Heat Tool, Big Shot, Woodgrain EF, Scallop Edge border punch, embossing buddy

Accessories: Silver embossing powder

Here's another proof from Laila's birthday session.  She is just too cute! 

Mashuped Up Ornament

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project with a "Christmas Ornament".
2. Or Make a project with some "Sparkle".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Christmas Project with some Sparkle".

Amanda has a fun challenge at the Friday Mashup this week.   With October over halfway gone, it's time to get serious about those Christmas cards and this challenge is perfect to get started.   I am embarrassed to say that I had not inked up my Ornament Keepsakes bundle, so I just had to pull it out for this challenge!   I combined it with Bev's HYCCT challenge and here's the description for it:  Make a card (or project) using lots of sparkle. You know how much glitter you usually use (a little spot here or there)? Double it! Triple it. Shimmer and shake it, baby! We want to see your sparkle! 

I really loved Erna's card last week for my sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, so I inspired to try the sketch and ornament for myself.  I don't know why, but I was in a one color mode the day I put this one together.   I do love Island Indigo, so it was an easy choice.  The sparkle isn't showing up in my picture, but the ornament is embossed in Iridescent Ice embossing powder and there's some homemade shimmer mist on the Very Vanilla background.  It's pretty sparkly in real life, trust me!  :)

LOL  This was the end of the pumpkin patch for the day!