Is it just me or is it hard to believe that Easter is almost here??!! Time is just flying by!
When my daughters were growing up, they LOVED Cadbury eggs. I can’t pass them in the grocery store without thinking about my girls!
I was doing some Spring Cleaning the other day and came across a cello bag with Halloween candy (yes, the candy was still in there) and a cute topper. Since I haven’t made a topper in a while, I thought it would be perfect for the Cadbury eggs with a few Hershey eggs thrown in.
I used one of the cute little chicks from the set For Peeps’ Sake. The stamp has a row of three chicks but I only wanted the middle one, so I put some tape over the other two before I inked up the stamp. It’s very important to remove the tape before you stamp onto your Whisper White card stock (ask me how I know). My sentiment comes from this same set. I punched out my chick with the 2-3/8″ Scallop Circle punch and then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the sentiment exactly where I wanted it. If you aren’t sure what a Stamp-a-ma-jig is or how to use it, you can watch a video I made two years ago by clicking here. I think this was my very first video. I’m a bit ( a lot) embarrassed by it but what the heck, gotta start somewhere, right?
Using my dauber, I sponged around the scallop circle and the flowers with Daffodil Delight. I think the topper would have been cute had it been embossed but I ALWAYS do that so I decided to just leave it plain. I have to admit, I love an embossed piece of paper.
Click here to place a Stampin’ Up! order. Every $50 (before shipping/tax) purchase entitles you to a free Sale-a-bration product. $100 = 2 Free products . . . . .
On Monday I shared the invitation I made for my sister’s wedding. For the day of their wedding I wanted to make them a card. I thought it would be fun to give them the same card as their invitation except change out their first names to their official married name! I hope they liked it!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Product List – Click on any of the items below to visit my Stampin’ Up! online store.
Since Blendabilities are no longer available as a Sale-a-bration item (and have been discontinued from the catalog), Stampin’ Up! has added more products that you can earn for free with a $50 order! Click here to see the flyer as a PDF.
Last week I shared several items I had made for Erin’s Baby Sprinke with My Digital Studio (MDS). It was announced this morning that as of May 31, 2015, MDS will be discontinued. For those of you that use MDS, be sure to check the digital download offerings and purchase the ones that you would like before they go away. The program can still be purchased until May 31st but after that date any MDS products as well as the Stampin’ Up! professional print service will no longer be available.
The Weekly Deals are here! These prices are good until March 23rd or while supplies last. Click on any picture below and you’ll be taken to my SU! online store.
If you’ve followed my blog for some time you know that I am not always consistent with my blog posts. When I retired almost three years ago from being a full time elementary school teacher, I thought that I would have oodles of time to do EVERYTHING, including posting to my blog seven days a week! What was I thinking???!!!! If anything, life has become even busier!! Three months after retiring, my first grandchild, Audrey, was born. And in a few short weeks, my grandson will be born!!!! As with any major life changes (in my case, retiring and grandchildren), you have to figure out your new direction in life. You have to find balance and decide what’s most important to you.
I love being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. I love seeing the excitement when my stamping friends come over and we create. I love when those same friends text or email me cards/projects that they’ve made with their SU! products. I love sharing on my blog and especially love when my blog followers reach out and tell me that they love something they’ve seen on my blog or that they’ve recreated one of my projects.
I also LOVE spending time with my family. Being retired has allowed me the freedom to spend more time with family and that has been absolutely wonderful! Trying to find the balance between spending time with my loved ones and my Stampin’ Up! business has been tricky. Both are important to me but as I am sure you would agree, family is always at the top of the list.
I would love to be in my craft room daily but at this point in my life, it doesn’t always happen. When I babysit my two year old granddaughter, I am bone tired at the end of the day. Now I know why you have children when you are young! Ha ha! I wouldn’t give up spending time with Audrey for anything.
I recently heard a successful blogger mention how important it is to post to your blog consistently. Okay, this isn’t new information to me. But, then she said, it can be as often as you want, as long as it IS consistent. The light bulb went off. I thought about it and tried to think what I could do consistently and the schedule below was born! I am sure there will be weeks when I can share more, but I will consistently post on the days noted below. This will give me the flexibility I need to juggle my crazy life these days!!
Monday – post a card/project
Tuesday – post the Weekly Deals any other important info
Thursday – post a card/project
Saturday – post a card/project
For several years now I’ve also had some ideas for offering an online stamp club. I’ll be able to work on this idea with my new schedule in place!
Thanks so much for reading this far! Since I’ve spoken so much about my family, I’d like to end this post with pictures of my loved ones. I’ll be back later with the Weekly Deals!
Audrey
My oldest daughter, Jenny
My youngest daughter, Erin, and my grandson (she is also Audrey’s mom)
My husband, Mark – our 35th anniversary is coming up in August!
On Saturday I attended my sister’s wedding! Lisa is now Mrs. Nelson which is funny because Nelson is our maiden name! Both my mom and my sister are Mrs. Nelson! That doesn’t happen often! It was a lovely ceremony and my sister looked beautiful. We are very happy to have Dan in our family!
My dad passed away six years ago and he was greatly missed at this family gathering. My mom did a wonderful job walking my sister down the aisle. My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter (Erin, Tyler and Audrey) were unable to attend the wedding as they live out of town and Erin is pregnant, due next month. They were very missed!!
When Lisa and Dad became engaged, she asked me if I would make their wedding invitations. It took many months to decide what design we wanted and which colors to use. Dan always gives Lisa beautiful flowers so we tried to make a photograph of a rose he had given her as the focal point of the invitation but we just couldn’t make it work.
We then went in a different direction and Lisa decided that she would like to use gold paper. So, I checked the Stampin’ Up! catalog and found beautiful gold satin ribbon and gold paper. This was a shock to me as I have gone through our catalog from cover to cover (more times than I can tell you) and had no idea we had these two products! The Brushed Gold Cardstock is tucked away in the catalog on page 193 in the far bottom right corner, if you want to take a look (along with several other specialty papers)!
I made several prototypes for Lisa and she chose the one you see above. It is much prettier in person as you can see the flecks of color in the gold paper and the shiny ribbon. The finished card measures 5″ x 7″. I printed their names for the front on my printer using Whisper White cardstock. I did this on the inside as well with the invitation information.
My Whisper White embossed piece measures 4-1/4″ x 6-1/4″. The one “problem” that I had to figure out with the card was how I was going to emboss this piece since our embossing folders are much smaller. Here’s a picture tutorial to show you how I did it. I’m using a piece of Hello Honey so that it’s easier to see.
1. First I placed a pencil mark where I knew my ribbon would be (you can see it in the far right corner at the bottom of the embossing folder). I then placed my paper inside the folder with the last row of dots aligning with my mark.
2. I turned the paper around and inserted it back into the embossing folder with the piece already embossed sticking out. If you look closely, you can see my pencil mark (it is still on the right hand side).
3. The next step is to run it through the Big Shot with the end not yet embossed, going through the Big Shot. The part already embossed WILL NOT be run through again or else it will be flattened! Roll it through and once you see that you’ve embossed the new part, run it backwards and out again.
4. Here’s the finished piece. You can still see my pencil mark. It is flattened a bit in this area but this is where the ribbon will go and it will be completely hidden. I did this 40 times on Whisper White and after doing it so many times, I was able to do it in such a way that I couldn’t even detect a line. I made the invitations in January so I am out of practice.
If you give this a try, let me know how it goes!
Product List – Click on each item to view at my Stampin’ Up! online store
