Swap cards from France

I received both of these cards from Valerie Perlin from France. I did a swap through UStamp with Dawn and Friends and my swap partner was from France. How cool is that?!?! Except, of course, sending 3-d objects to France is a little expensive, LOL! I love all the French writing on the cards, though! How neat is that?

Dasher swap cards

Let me just clarify that the cards I am showing are not cards that I made, but cards I received during my swap. They were just too pretty to keep all to myself! The one above has a really cool fold - the dasher image lifts up to show the sentiment underneath.

This one uses the finial embossing folder and has snowflakes embossed in silver on top of each of the flowers.

And, of course, I LOVE the glitter on the antlers here! What a cute tag!

Cincy Regional Swaps

I got to go to the Cincinatti Regional Stampin' Up event last weekend. Let me just say that it was absolutely AWESOME!!! I had a blast and got to meet Shelli, the founder of Stampin' Up. She is super sweet!
Anyway, I made about 60 items to swap and it will take forever to share them all, so I will just start with some basic groups of cards. These all use stamp sets that have an ornament them, such as Delightful Decorations in the new mini catalogue.

These are great cards for swaps because they are all simple and quick to make, yet beautiful to look at!

Little Bookworm

It is official - our home has been invaded by a worm....a little bookworm! I literally have to limit her to 2 books at bed time and if she gets in trouble, the consequence is to miss a book at bedtime. This happened last night...my husband came home and said, "Is she really this pitiful over losing a book?!" It's true!

She's even crazy over non-fiction books! Who would have ever thought that a non-fiction book about training dogs would be one of the favorite books of a 2 year old? Not me!

Stamps: Wanted

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Paper: Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, To the Nines DSP

Accessories: Scallop Circle, 1 1/4" circle, 1/2" circle, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Very Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Build a Brads, Chocolate Chip Corduroy button, Simply Scrappin' stickers

Fall will be here soon!

I made this with the new Wandering Words stamp set. I love this color combo that was used in the new mini catalogue. It is such a vibrant touch on fall colors!
My original idea was to simply stamp on the twill, but since I was using classic ink, it faded away rather quickly (I know, it's just another ploy to buy something new - I need those watercolor crayons!). Anyway, since you could see a faint color left on the twill, I decided to layer above and below it and line everything up. Thus, the clear embossed image on the background with more mustard and chocolate chip sponged on top and the sentiment stamped again on more mustard and layered on top.
Stamps: Wandering Words
Ink: VersaMark, More Mustard, Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Taken with Teal, More Mustard, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Clear embossing powder, chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, polytwill ribbon

Back to school

It all started with this basket...I was cleaning out the basement (and the plethora of toys that accumulate with a 2 year old in the house...) when I found this basket. It was one we received at Applebee's because the manager thought our daughter was just so cute playing with it! Well, now that it has been sitting around the house for a year, I decided it was time to find another home for it!
That's when it occurred to me that my hostess for our September stamp club is a teacher and I could turn the basket into part of a hostess gift!
Thus, the aha moment that started this little endeavor...
And here are all of the little teacher-y items I placed inside the basket - post-it notes, a pen, and 4 bookmarks for her or her students to use.

Now, if you wanted to step it up a notch, you could add a darling little card and a little stamp for great papers and you have a delightful little gift for a new teacher for your child to adore.
And, of course, what teacher wouldn't adore a child who brings him/her great little baskets of treats?!

Stamps: Darling Dots

Ink: Real Red

Paper, Whisper White, Sale-a-bration paper, Real Red DSP, Basic Black Old Olive

Accessories: Small grommets, Black Gingham ribbon, Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon, Boho Blossoms punch, Round tab punch, White Signo gel pen, Square/circle punches, silver cording

Liz's Sketch #71

I love to use sketches in my layouts, so I'm always happy to put Liz's sketches to work in my albums! You can check her out at the right hand column - Scrapbooking, Sketches and Life, Oh My!
This is a layout based on her sketch #71.
Below is a closeup of the cascading hearts that were embossed with Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder - I love that stuff!
Supply list:
Stamps: Lovely Letters, Sweet Stems, It's a Loop Thing
Ink: VersaMark, Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Cottage Wall DSP, Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry grosgrain, Eyelet border, scallop circle, 1 1/4" circle, full heart punch, sweetest stem embosslit

Best selling stamp for SU!

It's no secret that this gorgeous medallion is the best selling stamp for Stampin' Up right now! And to be quite honest, I can see why! I haven't purchased any background stamps in a long time because they are expensive for one stamp (they are huge! You're getting what you pay for!) and I haven't really been inspired to get a background stamp. That is...until recently...
I gave in and bought this gorgeous medallion and now have 3 more background stamps on my wishlist! (I know...that and 5 gazillion other things...if only I were rich....oh, well!)
As I was looking at my stamp, I decided it would be really neat to stamp it in Versamark and then chalk or ink over the VersaMark to give it different colors. It ended up being a little more messy than what I envisioned, but the overall effect was nice. Maybe next time i'll get my Circle Cutter out.
Stamps: Medallion background
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Taken with Teal, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Rose Red ribbon, paper piercer, stickers from an old Simply Scrappin' kit