Friday, October 19, 2012

Flower Power!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my Stamp Club ladies had a "CASEd from the Catalogue" theme this month.  One of the items we copied was the flower featured on p. 99 of the catalogue.  Well, as I was looking at the flower, I thought we needed to do something with it.  It would be cute as a decoration in a plant or for a party favour, but with only one of them, my ladies needed a card!  So I added it as an embellishment to a card and here's what we made:
I used Rich Razzleberry as the card base and accents (from the Brights designer series paper stack).  The white piece is embossed with our new Argyle embossing folder.  The sentiment is stamped from Itty Bitty Banners and cut out with the Bitty Banners framelits dies.  I adhered the flower to the card with mini glue dots (those little suckers are strong!). 

Here's the flower before it was made into a card, as posted previously here:
I'm gearing up for Christmas now, so you'll be seeing lots of holiday ideas in the coming weeks!

Blessings to you,

Friday, October 12, 2012

Peaceful Snowflakes

I've been spending a lot of time this week preparing cards for my upcoming Christmas stamp-a-stacks.  I try every year to have an assortment of cards ready, and my hostesses get to choose four of them for her and her guests to make at their event (they make five of each card). 

This one is one I came up with using  the new Snowflake Soiree stamp set. 
I try to keep the cards simple but pretty for stamp-a-stacks since they will be making so many card, and I don't want it to take hours and hours to finish!  So this one is simply the snowflakes stamped in Marina Mist, Midnight Muse and Wisteria Wonder on some Shimmery White cardstock.  The sentiment is from Greetings of the Season, stamped in Midnight Muse.  The card itself is Midnight Muse with a layer of Wisteria Wonder under the stamped portion.  To finish it off, I added a couple of rhinestone jewels. 

Blessings to you,

Monday, October 8, 2012

Hilton Head Island

Thanks to my wonderful customers and my amazing downline, I was one of thirty Canadian demonstrators who earned a weekend getaway to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina from Stampin' Up!  My husband and I enjoyed four relaxing days last weekend at the Westin Resort and Spa on the island.  I had never heard of Hilton Head Island before I earned this trip, and I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived.  What a beautiful place!

This first photo was taken from the airplane as we landed in Savannah, Georgia.  I just loved how the sunlight came through the clouds, and you can see the lush trees below.  In Savannah, a shuttle picked us up to take us on the short trip to the hotel on Hilton Head Island.
This photo of the beach from our hotel was taken when we arrived Thursday evening.
On Friday, we took a shuttle from the hotel to Shelter Cove Marina, where we walked along the boardwalk, shopped at touristy boutiques and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
We also enjoyed walking along the beach.  There are miles of soft, white sandy beaches here!
 These are five of the six ladies in our downline group who earned the trip! 
On Saturday morning, my friend, Donna, and her husband, Dan, who had rented a vehicle, drove us to Harbour Head so we could see the lighthouse there.  It was another beautiful morning!
Saturday afternoon, we spent bike riding around the island.  Stampin' Up! had rented bikes for us to sign out and use, complete with a Stampin' Up! flag on the back, which we got to take home after!  The island has bike paths everywhere, so it is very bike-friendly.
 On Saturday night, Ian and I dressed up a bit and enjoyed a nice dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants.  You can see how curly my hair got because of the humidity!
Every evening, Stampin' Up! left a "pillow gift" for us in our rooms.  The first night, we got a beach tote, the second, there was a fruit & cheese platter with fancy water bottles waiting for us, and the third night we received a storage container filled with a stamp set, designer series paper, ribbon, ink pads and embellishments (that was the best one)!
On Sunday morning, we went for a nice breakfast, walked along the beach one last time, and took a few photos outside the hotel (this one is at the fountain in the courtyard).  Then it was off to the airport for our flight home.

It was a wonderful trip, and my husband and I enjoyed having some time together without the kids (my mom was kind enough to come out from B.C. and stay with our boys while we went on the trip).  So thank you to my loyal customers, my hard-working downline and Stampin' Up! for a trip we will never forget.

Blessings to you,





Friday, October 5, 2012

October Stamp Club Cards

I'm entitling this month's club theme "CASEd From the Catalogue"!  I had some requests for catalogue samples, and I found a few that I liked as well, so I figured why not show how easy it is to replicate the catalogue projects.
This first card is a CASE of the card on page 31 of the Holiday Catalogue.  I used the You Are Loved set instead of Tweet Leaves.  The colours are Cajun Craze, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, More Mustard and Early Espresso.
Of course, we have to do a little Halloween treat, so I used the Ghoulish Googlies designer kit and copied the sample on p. 27 of the Holiday Catalogue.  I added one of the round tags as a bag topper, just folding it over the top of the glassine bag and stapling it.  The oval tag covers the staple.  (It's filled with gummy pumpkins - my favourite!)
This adorable mummy card isn't CASEd from the catalogue, but it is CASEd from this card by "Doodlebop" (her Splitcoast Stampers name).  I couldn't resist - how cute is this card?
Finally, these cute flowers are featured on page 99 of the Annual Catalogue in an assortment of colours.  I used Rich Razzleberry with Daffodil Delight for this one. 

Hope you enjoy these CASEd creations.  I think my Stamp Club ladies will like them.

Blessings to you,

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

October Scrapbook Club Layout

I thought it would be fitting to do a Halloween layout for our October club meeting, and I absolutely love the Googly Ghouls stamp set!  I'm not a big Halloween person, and I don't usually buy those sets; I opt instead for Fall/Thanksgiving-themed sets.  But, I couldn't resist this adorable set, especially once you add those googly eyes to it!  I also happened to stumble across this gorgeous layout by Kay Kalthoff, and I figured why re-invent the wheel when she's done such a wonderful job.  So we're making a CASE of her layout for our club meeting.  Here it is:
This layout uses the Howlstooth designer series paper, along with the googlies, some glimmer brads and our new silver frames.  So cute!

Blessings to you,