An Occasion to Sale-a-Brate! (Pun Intended)

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog today! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Although I was a bit under the weather and couldn't participate at our family Christmas dinner at my Aunt's house, I tried to spend some of my days off playing with my new goodies from the Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogs.  Starting January 6th, these items will be available for purchase and I thought today I'd give you a sneak peek of some of the wonderful things you'll find.

Today's first card uses Birthday Bash designer paper and Balloon Bash stamp set. The tag was made using the new Ornate Tag Topper punch.  Let me say, I am so glad SU came out with all these tag punches (2 are in the annual catalog) and now this one.  They aren't just for tags, as you can see.

My second card was snap to make.  My inspiration came directly out of the Occasions catalog but I modified it a bit. Using Birthday Bash paper and our new Bow punch, these little bows are put together with mini glue dots.  This card is great for a guy or a gal... Bow ties anyone?

This card is made with Naturals card stock and the new Butterfly Basics stamp set.  The matching Butterfly Thinlets are a perfect addition to this card.  I wanted an "organic" feel, so I stamped the honeycomb along the bottom and stamped the fern in Mossy Meadow and the flowers in Rose Red. I didn't want the entire stem of the flower to show beyond the bottom of the butterfly, so I inked the stamp up, then placed a post it note directly on the stamp to cover the stem, and stamped down firmly. The butterfly is placed strategically so that it covers the place where the stamped image ends.

You can also turn this card on it's portrait end for a different look:

I hope you enjoyed my post today.  If you don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, contact me today and I'll be happy to send you a catalog.  Enjoy your day and please leave me a comment!
Happy New Year!

Washi Tape Thank You

Hello friends!  I hope you are ready for Christmas. Can you believe it's only 9 days away?  What will you do after the day is done?  For those of you who will be sending out Thank You cards, today's post may be of some help.  Stampin' Up! has the best note cards and envelopes. They come in Whisper White and also Crumb Cake and are a real life saver at only $ 5.95 per pack of 20.  I used the white ones for my cards today.

I used the All Is Calm Washi Tape set, which gives you 5 rolls of different designs.  Washi tape is a snap to use.  It's easily removable, so if you put it down, and don't like it in that spot, simply pull it up and re-apply it somewhere else.  It's quick to "cut"; just tear it, then I trimmed it with my paper snips, just along the top fold of the card. A piece of All Is Calm designer paper is adhered along the bottom.  A quick stamping of "thanks" on a scrap piece of white, along with a punch of the scalloped oval in Lost Lagoon, and the card is finished.  I sponged Lost Lagoon on the white piece, just to give it a little dimension.  This card was done in less than 10 minutes.  A real time saver if you have to make a lot of thank you cards, when you get all those presents on Christmas day.  :-)

If you need a thank you card that is more masculine, here's one I made using the Santa & Co. Washi Tape and designer paper.

The washi tape is the 3 stripes right above the "thanks" oval.  The rest of the card is made with both 1/2 and 3/4 inch widths of Santa & Co. designer paper. I used Marina Mist ink and card stock, as well as candy dots in Subtles (Marina Mist).

EXCITING NEWS!
The new Occasions catalog is coming soon!  For those of you who are regular customers, your catalogs are in the mail and you should be receiving them shortly. Sale-a-Bration, our biggest sale of the year at Stampin' Up!, is also just around the corner.  For every $ 50 you spend before tax and shipping, you get to choose one item FREE from the Sale-a-Bration catalog.  If you do not have a demonstrator, please contact me and I will be happy to send you out your very own copies of both catalogs.  Visit my online store for more details!  www.yurcutestamper.stampinup.net

Merry Christmas!  And best wishes for a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!

Dashing Through The Snow

Today's card is one I sent to Brian King http://stampwithbrian.com/    for his holiday card swap. As soon as I decided to buy the Santa & Co designer paper and saw these cute snow people, this card popped into my head.

As you can see, hardly any stamping at all.  Most of my time was spent cutting out those snow people and being VERY careful cutting out those skinny little arms!  It was fun though.  Paper snipping relaxes me, like coloring does.  Weird?  Maybe, On a Marina Mist card base, with a layer of Dazzing Diamonds Glimmer paper, it was a quick card to make. A touch of Dazzling Details for the snowy area and it was finished. The sentiment comes from the Project Life December Wonder stamp set, from the holiday supplement catalog.  I cut out the sentiment using the Artisan Label punch only on the ends of a scrap piece of white card stock.

Christmas Bauble Meets Ornamental Pine

Welcome!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  Can you believe the year is just about over? Christmas is just 3 weeks away, so I thought I'd play with two new sets, Christmas Bauble and Ornamental Pine.  Here's my card:

I wanted to try my new Blendabilities and Christmas Bauble is the perfect stamp for it.  It has large areas where you can color and do some shading, as well as some smaller areas where I could practice shading on the most intricate parts of this stamp. I put a little touch of Dazzling Details on the center swirl and a little on the holly berries. A quick snip of the ornament, popped up on dimensionals allows it to show off, front and center. I love how it turned out.  Non traditional colors on a Pool Party card base.  It needed something behind it, but I didn't want to take away from the colors of the ornament, or the beautiful needles of the pine tree branches.  So I pulled out my never used Fancy Foil Designer Vellum in Gold, and placed it behind the image as a layer. Hope you like it...leave me a comment and let me know.  I love hearing from you!

If you don't already have a demonstrator, contact me and I will send you an Annual catalog, and a Holiday catalog. Sale-a-bration is just around the corner and it's our biggest sale of the year! 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by today.