Spring Break!

Well, I don't think there are too many of you reading my blog, but if you are, I'm gone to Disney! We'll be in Florida for the next week - until April 5. I know...you hate that for me! Anyway, I'll get back to blogging in April!

Doggie Day at the Ballpark

D-d-d-doggie!!! How many times did we hear that when we went to the Toronto Bluejays game? Halleigh was in doggie heaven on this day of our vacation last summer. Toby was, too, as you can see!

I used the Pacific Point/Kiwi Kiss/Baja Breeze combo I found from one of the past designer series papers in the winter catalogue. I have found that looking through the color combos at the bottom of the designer series paper combos is a great way to choose colors even if you're not using that particular DSP.

For stamps, I used the Frames with a Flourish stamp set and the cute doggie from All in the Family.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Here is a birthday card I made for my brother using the Big Birthday Candle. He's turning the big 3-0 this year, so I thought I'd just stick with 3 big candles (30 was quite a few to stamp!!!). Anyway, I used the sketch from The Pink Elephant website and stuck with my last color scheme - real red, bashful blue, and old olive. I used my SU textures to create a textured background and used the center of the diamonds as a guide for placing my silver brads. My stamping technique is called 2-step stampin'.

And here is what the card looks like when you open it up! Now, that is what I call a happy birthday! A little word of advice if you purchase the pop-up birthday cake die cut for the Big Shot. It is great - it takes a little while, but as you can see it is worth the wait! Above all - use a HORIZONTAL card for this...the bottom part of my cake is spilling over the side. Thankfully, my brother probably won't care!!!

And here is one more view of the cake from the top. Get your sticky strips ready. I still have a spot trying to pop out of there! Happy birthday, Mikey!!! I love you!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Here is a layout for our summer vacation album. Toby wore his Phillies jersey to the Detroit Tigers game, so I went with Real Red, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, and Kraft. I saw that color combo in the SU catalogue and thought it would look really good with our pictures. I used my new Frames with a Flourish set for the title and did my journaling above and below the picture set. In the bottom right corner, I made a little picture of "us" using the All in the Family set. I am so proud of myself - it was almost perfect because I was able to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig!

Step up those pages!

I was inspired to try doing one of these progressive pages at my stamp club meeting this Sunday. I have been trying to make a 6X6" page at each club meeting. I thought this time I would have a ready made 12X12" page to show how you can step up a smaller page and use it on a larger page.

I found this picture of my two darlings - my hubby and my baby. Then I remembered how a few of my friends noticed that the ribbon on her dress looked just like the Rose Red stitched grosgrain, I thought it would be the perfect picture for this page!

Manhattan flower embossing folder

I know you're going to want a Big Shot after you see these cards! The top card took about 5 minutes total to make! I used the new embossing folder that is just the perfect size for a card. It is the Manhattan flower embossing folder. It takes about 20 seconds to emboss! It's so easy, my 2 year old likes to help! And remember, if you order a Big Shot before March 31, you can get free Sale-a-Bration items with your order!!! Go on - shop all you want! http://valeriedurham.stampinup.net

Here is the first card that I made. I used a new set of stamps called Great Friend. If you are in my stamp club, you should be receiving a mini-catalogue any day that will have this set! It was one of my favorites!

Scrapbook pages in the Sunshine Garden color scheme

These two layouts are the other two layouts that I made in our scrapbook class the other night. As you can see, there is lots of Sale-a-bration product on those two pages, which, of course, makes it a really inexpensive page to make! Both of the pages use a lot of Big Shot die cuts. What's not to love about choosing your own color coordinated accessories? I just don't know how I lived without the Big Shot for so long!!

Here is where my new Stamp-a-ma-jig became ever so helpful. For the first time ever, I was able to perfectly layer the Certainly Celery flower with the enjoy stamp. Yet, another product that I didn't even know that I'd been missing! Finally, the yellow petals on the accents are made out of a 5 petal punch and the swirls coming away from the enjoy title are the leftover pieces from my swirl.

Good Morning Sunshine class

I'm so excited! I just figured out how to sew (not that I've sewn anything on this page...) and I just finished this kit of cards. I am going to offer this as a class on Friday, April 10 at 6:00 p.m. at my home. You will make 12 cards and a lunch box tin for $30. Aren't they darling? I just love them! Please email me if you are interested in taking this class: tvdurham@newwavecomm.net Here is the lunchbox tin that you can hold all of your cards in. I used the Provo Craft lunch box tin and lots of Tombow Mono Adhesive (I love that stuff!)

And here is the finished product. You will make 4 designs of cards, 3 of each card, envelopes included. All of the cards coordinate with the lunch box for a very sweet general card assortment. Sign up before all of the spots fill up!

Look at the post below for more close-ups of the cards shown in the picture.

Cards for an upcoming class

After having such a great time at our scrapbooking class tonight, I decided to work on another class. I used the sketches from a set of cards made by Andrea Walford, an outstanding demo from Canada and used the resources I had to start working on a card class. Each participant will make a total of 3 of each card (only 3 cards are shown here). There will be 4 cards, so that will make a total of 12 cards. In a few days I will show a lunch box tin, also, that participants will make to hold all of the cards.

The card above is made from the Goody-Goody Gumdrops set and the Good Friends set. I added a little sprig of leaves and topped it off with ribbon for the finishing touch.

I love this vase idea Andrea had - you just cut your cardstock slightly more narrow than a wide oval and it will cut off the edges to make a vase. I filled it with flowers from the Itty Bitty Buds hostess set and used the Great Friend set at the bottom as well as the inside.

I love, love, love this bird! I even broke down and ordered Pacific Point ink just so I could make beautiful bluebirds with it! (That's pretty addicted, isn't it?). I used almost all of the stamps from the set to make this card and a little punch for the center of the flower to top it all off.

More to come later...

Let me know if you live near Somerset and I'll tell you when the class will be.

Sunshine Garden Scrapbook Class

Preserve you memories forever with this one- of- a kind scrapbook layout! Its soft colors and beautiful design are sure to compliment your photos and bring the freshness of spring into your scrapbook.

You can attend this class on Friday, March 13, 2009 at my home or you can receive instructions via email as well as the materials to make this scrapbook layout when you make a purchase of $50 or more on my Stampin' Up website - http://valeriedurham.stampinup.net
***Please note - the class to go pack is not available to Stampin' Up demonstrators, if you would like more information, please email me.

Please email me to sign up for this class: tvdurham@newwavecomm.net

Supplies• Stamps: Doodle This, Hope Happens• Inks: Basic Black, So Saffron Classic Ink• Paper: Sunshine Garden DP, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Sunshine Garden Die Cut Sheet• Accessories: ?” Striped Baja Breeze Grosgrain Ribbon, Clear Rhinestone brads, Snail Adhesive, ?16 “ handheld circle punch or paper piercer & foam mat, Paper trimmer; Optional: Embossing Buddy

Big shot playtime!

I recently got a new die cut for my Big Shot - the butterfly die cut. Since I've just been waiting to play with it, I decided to try it on a scrapbook page. I noticed lots of grey, blue, and green in the pictures, so I decided to go with the Urban Garden paper. Then, I used some scraps to make the butterflies (notice the visual triangle?!). Finally, I tied both pages together by using the F for Favorite and doodle-pierced a semi-circular pathway for the butterflies.

My amazing life

Hereis the final picture collage of our trip Hiking on the Sheltowee Trace this past fall. I went with the colors in my daughter's pajamas - real red, tempting turquoise, and pink pirouette. I used some old SU stickers I had in a drawer and combined those with some flowers from the Polka Dot Punches hostess set and finished this page quickly. I tied all the pictures together with a handmade crocheted hearts from one of my friends and that was a quick, but cute page!

Foreshadowing

I know you can't see it in this picture, but Toby's shirt says, "Missouri loves company." It's supposed to be funny, and it is...now....We were backpacking about 10 miles with our not quite 2 year old at the time we took these pictures. After getting over the sore feet, aching back, and my 3 hours of sleep from sleeping in the cold on the ground, I was trying to enjoy our hike again when we ran into major brair patches. Evidently, the Sheltowee Trace trail had not completely been cleaned up after the ice storm (Hopefully not the ice storm 5 years ago!). Needless to say, I couldn't think of a more succinct title for this page - Foreshadowing.

My cherry amour

I made this layout based on this cute little outfit Halleigh was wearing. I loved the little cherry motif on her outfit, so the cherry from the Goody Goody Gumdrop hostess set was perfect for this page! I wasn't sure how to use red, green and pink all on the same page, but the colors matched her shirt perfectly, so after I was able to find a good balance, I thought it worked okay. I made the green galore stems using the Sweetest Stems embosslit.

Travel album page cover

I made this page last night. Toby knew I was happy to finally get some scrapping done this weekend. To me, it is a terrible shame to have to go all week and not get to do any scrapping and stamping! Anyway, I finished my other album of everyday life, so I am ready to go back and do my Summer Vacation album. I started with a very simple and cheap layout to do. I used mostly scraps, the free paper and ribbon from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue and a few punches and ended up with a nice, clean image for our Canadian vacation album from last year. We'll see what comes next!