Catalog Dates…

So, there are a few changes coming with the transitioning to the new catalog!  I wanted to let you all know the changes and the dates so you can see all the exciting things to look forward to very shortly!!

• the CURRENT Idea Book & Catalog ENDS on May 31 (therefore the NEW Idea Book & Catalog begins JUNE 1st!  An entire month earlier than usual.)
  • the NEW Catalog will be smaller and printed on lighter weight paper
• RETIRED LISTS!
  • The Retired STAMP list will be available April 15th (next month!!!)
  • The Retired ACCESSORIES list will be available April 25th  (as usual, with the accessories, once the accessories retired list is released these items are sold until the run out.  There is no guarantee that any accessories will be available thru the end of May.)
• Seasonal (mini) catalogs
  • these will be reduced from three a year to TWO a year
  • the HOLIDAY Seasonal catalog will run from August 1 – beginning of January 2013
  • the SPRING Seasonal catalog will run from beginning of January 2013 – May 31, 2013
  • these Seasonal catalogs will be larger in size and in page count! (that means MORE goodies in these catalogs!)

And just because you took the time to read all of the above here is a sample card for you too.

Christmas… in March?

Well stranger things have happened, right?  Like 80 degrees in NH in March!  Yup, that's how our weather has been lately.  I'll take it!

Tonight was the first meeting of my Christmas Card club, so yes, we made Christmas cards on the first day of Spring!  Ahead of the game this year…. that's my mantra… we'll see if I can stick to it and maybe, just maybe, apply that mantra to other parts of my life.

Here's one of the cards they made tonight…

This one has a nice vintage, oh-so-me, feel to it!  I wish I could take a lot of credit for it but I really can't.  Here's why…

The layout came from Mojomonday.blogspot.com… it was sketch #227.  I loved the sketch so went searching for fun samples.  There were plenty to choose from but the one below caught my eye.

So as you can see I didn't change too much.  The color scheme of course is different completely.  Where this stamper used Calypso Coral, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake and Pool Party, I used Read Red, Early Espresso, Confetti Cream and the Berry Bouquet DSP from the last Holiday mini.  I also used Very Vanilla seam binding instead of the Crumb Cake one.  I believe this stamper has another oval punch and put on the designer frame where I just stamped inside the designer frame.  But clearly, the inspiration lies here and I'm so grateful because I really love both cards!  Hope you do too.

More Apothecary Art? Yes, Please!

I can't get enough of the Apothecary Art Stamp set and the coordinating Labels Framelits so here's another sample for you!

Colors used include Soft Suede, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz (for the banner), Lucky Limeade (for the markering).  The DSP is from the In Color Stack.  Love.  And I used a couple different types of ribbons, some I put rhinestone brads on, others had pearls in the corner.  Just little touches here and there.  Love playing with all the doodads. I don't know if you can see it but I also put a dab of Dazzling Details in the center of all the flowers and used the Color Spritzer tool with the Peach Parfait marker on the main image just to shabby-it-up a little more.   Oh and if you look closely, the one with the Crumb Cake ribbon I put the Vintage Wallpaper embossed image "raised side up" and on the other card I put the embossed card stock "raised side down."  It's fun to play and change things up a bit here and there!

Hope you like!

Cards for no real reason…

How often do you check your snail mail?  6 days a week, right?  How often do you get something other than a bill or a catalog or junk?  Not often enough!  Back in January I made some cards and sent them out to a few people for no real reason than to say 'hi' and thank them for being a friend, on my Stampin' Up! team, themselves, or all of the above!  I heard back from many of the recipients saying how nice it was to get a card out of the blue.  I need to do this more often.  I mean, I love making the cards, right?  So why not send more??

These cards use the Apothecary Art stamp set from the Occasion mini  (I do LOVE this set!!) along with Sweetly Said.  I used the Labels Collection framelits as well.  I cut out around the edge of the first layer with my paper snips then popped this up with dimensionals on a label of the same color.  The designer paper is also from the Occasions mini, Attic Boutique. 

I don't know why these pictures are so blurry but I can't take anymore because like I said, these went out in January!

Maybe the picture below can show better the dimension and the various patterns of DSP I used, the various banner colors, and flower colors!

Open House Favor Boxes

Yesterday I had an Open House to celebrate Sale A Bration.  (Thank you to the wonderful ladies who attended!)  At the end I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the fancy favor boxes I had made… so here are the few that were left next to some flowers my husband bought for no reason. )

To make these I used 12" x 12" Crumb Cake card stock (you can get 2 boxes out of 1 sheet).  I ran it through the Big Shot with the Fancy Favor box die.  Assembled it, layed it flat, then ran it through the Big Shot again with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  The flowers feature the new Attic Boutique designer paper featured in the current Occasions mini catalog.  I ran that DSP through the Big Shot with the Fun Flowers die.  I then spritzed the flowers with water, crumpled them up, let them dry, and uncrumpled.  I then layered them on top of each other and secured them all together with an Antique brad.  Then I spritzed the flower with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz and let that dry.  I attached the entire flower to the box with sticky strip.  For the banner I used Regal Rose card stock and the Petal Cone die with the Big Shot.  The "So Grateful" sentiment came from the Apothecary Art Stamp set (again from the Occasions mini catalog).  I placed a few yummy Hugs Kisses in the boxes and hopefully everyone enjoyed the chocolate and the Fancy Favor box! 

I really love the style of these boxes!!  It's very me.