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.