Four is really hard for me.  Four to me, means my child is not so little anymore.  Not a toddler.  Definitely in preschool.  No more cute baby fat. 

But I'm not going to let the number four spoil his birthday party!  For six months now Drew has been requesting a baseball party.  When he gets dressed in the morning he wants to wear either a baseball shirt (any shirt with a baseball on it will do) or Lightning McQueen.  LOL  He has a baseball piggy bank.  He enjoys wearing his Red Sox hat.  You get the idea.

So a baseball party it shall be!

Here's the invitation front:

Here's when you open it up:

Surprise!  It's not a traditional opening card.  It has a little twist to it and shows another baseball through the peek a boo window.

Funny story about where I found this design.  So last month I go to Convention all the way in Salt Lake City, enjoy the entire thing but didn't walk away with that one "wow" project this time until… the airplane ride home!  The first leg of the flight probably was half filled with demonstrators and everyone was sharing their swaps with everyone else.  There was a fabulous Christmas Card that had this design and the best thing was the demonstrator included instructions!  So, a few clicks on my iPhone and I had the pictures and directions!  Woohoo!  And I knew this was my "wow" and this would be Drew's invite.

There are a few stamp sets used here…Just Baseball (retired), Homerun, Extreme Elements, Lots of Thoughts (retired), and Simple Serif Alphabet and Numbers (retired).

The colors used are Not Quite Navy, Real Red, Crumb Cake, and the bats and dirt on the baseballs are Soft Suede.

And I'm on a Shimmery White card stock kick right now.  The baseballs and the hat (notice the "D" for Drew?) are stamped on Shimmery White and I just love the way the Shimmery White CS takes the ink.  Love it.

Now to plan the games and snacks for the party…

Again, busy, busy!

Tonight’s projects include:
-  a gift card/money holder featuring the Top Note Die and Branch Out stamp set
- a card using one of my favorite Retiring Stamp sets, Heartfelt Thanks and also the Top Note Die with the Big Shot
- and a Totally Tool father’s day card.

I’ve been meaning to post this card for a while now and am finally getting around to it.  It’s an adorable card from Vicki for me and my new little one!  Isn’t it so cute?  Remember that Sale-A-Bration set So Many Scallops?  And I believe that’s the new Super Fine glitter on there.  And how cute is that little pacifier on the ribbon?  Funny thing is we bought several different binkies for him and his favorite is a clear one!  And it shows the Shimmery White paper and just how pretty it is.

Thank you Vicki for the card (and the gift). 

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

Sarah shared a card with me that she made for Easter.  Does that butterfly look real or what??  I love it!  Some of you may have this set (Touch of Nature) so here are the details…
Colors Used: Old Olive, So Saffron (CS), Whisper White
The butterfly – Clear embossed with  black craft ink on So Saffron CS, cut out, and then attached with a single glue dot in the middle.

Thank you for sharing Sarah!  I’d love to see what others are creating out there as well!

Well, I covered three things with the above cards:

1) I created two birthday cards for two different 6 year old boy birthday parties we had today.

2) I made a video tutorial for you all showcasing: (a) watercoloring with a blender pen, (b) creating a dimensionalized frame, and (c) personalizing a Stampin’ Up! designer brad.

3) Participated in Kristina’s Color Challenge! 

So, I hope you enjoy the video! 

 Happy Stamping!

 Part One Below
(To watch in high quality, click here, then click "watch in high quality" to the bottom right of the video.)

 Part Two  Below
(To watch in high quality, click here, then click "watch in high quality" to the bottom right of the video.)

Here’s another 6 x 6 Recipe Card.  This one was created by Phyllis, the originator of the idea!  Isn’t it great? That mesh is just the perfect touch.  And hey, if you don’t like clam chowder you could always put a picture there and it would make the cutest 6 x 6 scrapbook page!

(Originally posted on November 30, 2008)

So, some of you know I’m away on vacation (yeah!) but I didn’t want my blog to sit idle while I was away!  So, I went searching through my never ending stash of stamped cards and 6 x 6 pages and came up with a few things to share with you while I’m (hopefully) enjoying some sun.  I hope you enjoy these creations…see you in December!

Here is another scrapbook page from last year.  This one uses the retired Festive Favorites set and some of our retired Organdy ribbon.  That color (wine) was probably my favorite Organdy ribbon ever!!  And why oh why did SU! have to retire the zig painty?  I LOVE that pen!  LOL

(Originally posted on November 12, 2008)

Sarah sent me an e-mail today showing me a card she made for Halloween that was inspired by my Halloween layout found here.  Isn’t that a GREAT card???  I love that you can take a scrapbook idea and turn it into a card and vice versa.  Thank you for sharing with me Sarah and thank you for allowing me to share with everyone else!  (So, no, it wasn’t designed by me but I still put my watermark on it to get the (C) Stampin’ Up! legal stuff on there!)

Originally posted October 26, 2008

Here’s a page from last year’s scrapbook club.  I’ve been working on different things for current classes so I don’t have much new to show you, so I thought I’d show you something I love from last year!  And I thought why not make another little game out of it? Leave a comment here on my blog listing the stamp sets used by October 29th at 8 pm ET and I’ll pick a winner with random.org to receive 4 handstamped cards from me!  Happy Halloween! 

Well, this is definitely one of my favorite all time stamp sets.  I haven’t used it in quite a while because it’s retired and I don’t often use retired stuff for classes but I have my all day scrapbooking event at the end of the month and it just seemed PERFECT for this particular layout.  Unfortunately I’m not going to show you the whole layout because, well, people are paying for the layouts at the class.  But, I thought it presented an opportunity to play a fun little game and give away more fun cards!  So, post a comment here on my blog under this post with the name of the stamp set you think it is (remember, it’s retired) by 5 pm on 9/11 and I’ll put the correct answers on random.org to generate a winner.  The winner will receive 4 hand stamped cards all created with retired sets!  Have fun and get playing!

Oh, but I will tell you the colors on here, Riding Hood Red and Bashful Blue cardstock and the new Washington Apple designer series paper.

Winner!

Okay, well all of you are correct!  It is Shapes & Shadows – an oldie but goodie for sure.  And the winner, as generated by random.org:

So, Sarah, be on the lookout in your mailbox for those cards!!  Congrats and thank you for playing ladies!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

1	

Timestamp: 2008-09-12 17:04:38 UTC