A Very Special Birthday Card

Good afternoon, I am sorry that I have been quiet this week. We have had a busy week with six baseball games since my last post. On top of that we also got to spend 4 1/2 hours on Thursday in the ER with middle son. He is fine now after a few stitches to the mouth but it sure cuts out on my crafting time when every thing else gets behind. Today's card is a very special one as the title of the post implies. It was made for me by my wonderfully talented daughter. She is becoming quite the card maker. She is also very green in her cardmaking (something her mother is trying harder to be). She will use punched items that I leave laying on my workshop or even prestamped images and make them her own. She started with one of my favorite stamp sets and one that I am offering through today 10% off. Crazy for Cupcakes is just a fun set to use. She stamped it twice with Chocolate Chip Classic Ink. On the first image she sponged Pink Pirouette all over. Then sponged the edges with Riding Hood Red. Both of these colors will be retiring at the end of June so if you don't have a reinker for your pads you might want to add it to your next order. On the second image she punched out just the top cupcake and the next two on the layers. She colored the icing in and paper pieced the cupcake liner with Candy Cane Lane Designer Paper. The technique she used is called spotlighting. I think she did a great job and I am not just saying that because I am her mom. ;) The cupcakes are mounted on a textured piece of Close to Cocoa. She texturized it by running it through the Big Shot and added polka dots to the card stock. The sentiment is also from the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set and was stamped with Pink Pirouette Classic Ink punched with the small oval punch and layered on the Wide Oval Punch. She used White Taffeta ribbon across the bottom. I really love that she takes the time to make me cards. I know that she is busy and with me in my craftroom she often has to work around my schedule to make something to surprise me. IF you feel inclined leave her a comment I am sure she would love it.
Just a reminder Monday the Last Chance List will be coming out for the Spring Summer Catalog. I will post it as soon as it is available. Also if you are local and interested in hosting a workshop during June Stampin'Up! is offering extra Hostess Awards for hosting and having a qualifying workshop. As always thank you for stopping by and I will be back on Monday with a new post. Have a great weekend, Tonya

Inspired by

Today's post is one that I promised you a while back when I wrote my last inspired by post. I made today's card based completely off my DD's shirt. It is really a great color combo and one that I would never have put together if I hadn't saw the shirt. I actually made this card almost a year ago, and forgot to take a picture. Thankfully I hadn't gave the card away yet and I was able to take a picture. Now when looking at the shirt I knew that I wanted to use Tempting Turquoise and Night of Navy together and of course Whisper White. I decided to use a technique called emerging color. It is a heat emboss technique that allows you to layer colors. I started with a piece of Whisper White Card Stock and using Versamark and the stamp set Big Flowers I randomly stamped the large white flowers. I used Clear Embossing Powder and used my Heat Gun to emboss the flowers. This allows them to stay white while I added color to the card stock. I next used the brayer and Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink and covered the whole piece of card stock. The embossed flowers stayed white. I stamped more flowers all over the card again with Versamark and embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder. The final step after this was heated was to brayer Night of Navy Classic Ink over the entire piece of card stock. This gives you three different colors on the one sheet of card stock. Since the background was what I wanted to highlight, I kept the rest of the card is pretty simple. The sentiment is from Hugs & Wishes Stamp Set and is stamped with Night of Navy Classic Ink on Whisper White card stock. I punched it out with the Key Tag Punch and layered it on Tempting Turquoise Card Stock. I used the Horizontal Slot Punch to punch the holes in the side that I feed my Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon through. Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you. As always thank you for stopping by my blog. Have a great day, Tonya

I had this post all ready to go but this morning Stampin'Up! announced a June special for hostesses and I just had to share. If you host a workshop in the month of June and your party has $250 or more then you will earn extra hostess awards to spend on any of our great products. This also includes personal orders and online orders. Here is the break down:

Host a workshop that totals $250-$399.99 and you will earn an additional $20 in hostess awards.

Host a workshop that totals $400 and above and you will earn an additional $40 in hostess awards.

So if you would like to host a workshop in June it is not to late just contact me and we will find a time for you. Thanks again, Tonya

Birthdays just Pop Up!

I hope that you are all enjoying a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with your family and friends. We have had a great weekend with two cookouts, a baby shower and time spent with those we love. Today we have a relaxing day planned with nothing to do. I fact I still have kids sleeping in. Ah, the joys of summer vacation.


Today's card is one that I made for a very special girl. I know she liked her card and thought it was neat, but she did think that it was a musical card. You know the ones they have a musical chip inside that plays a song when you open it. My kids love them and would love to stop and listen to them all the time but since I rarely set foot in the card section of a store they sadly miss out. I will look into adding sound to my cards as I think that would be really cool, especially on one of these.


The front of the card is pretty simple. I used the Rainbow Sherbet DSP. I love this paper for kids as they really love its bright colors. I used my Short Order Alphabet stamp set to stamp my birthday girl's name on Apricot Appeal Card Stock with Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink. I then punched out the letters and lined them up on the card. The flower was made with the Big Shot and the Flower, Daisies #2 Die. I love this die and would highly recommend it. I used a Build a Brad in the center with a punched out piece of Designer Series Paper in the middle for the flower center. The card is a 5 1/4x 5 1/4" square. This size works best for the inside feature which is a pop up birthday cake. This is a new Big Shot die and since it was the first time I have used it I kept the cake pretty simple.
The die is called the Three Tier Cake Pop-up Bigz XL die and is $39.95. I found it to be easy to work with and the directions are great that come with the die. I also have seen some great variations using this die, so it doesn't have to just be a cake. You do need Sticky Strip to assemble your cake. I used more Rainbow Sherbet DSP to "ice" the cake and the topper is stamped with the Wow Flowers Stamp set. I used my Stampin'Write Markers to ink up the various colors on the stamp before stamping the image. I layered the image after I punched it out on another circle then on a scallop punch. What do you think? Would you like to add some extra pop to your birthday cards? We also have a pop up ball but I haven't purchased that new die yet.
Don't forget about the Birthday Special that I am running for a few more days. Also if you have ever considered becoming a demonstrator then now through the end of May is a great time. Contact me to find out more information, but most of all thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog today. Enjoy the rest of the long weekend and I will be back tomorrow with another birthday post. Tomorrow's post will be another inspired by post. Have a great day, Tonya

Birthday Special

Have you ever started a card with one idea in mind and then the card takes a completely different turn. This is one of those cards. I was going through my leftover card parts. You know those pieces that are left when you are mass making cards. For those of us that are demonstrators these could be those extras that you make when you have a class or workshop. Well, I decided I would take those parts and make a completely different card. Different stamp set, layout you name it just something different. The pieces for this card were from a Valentine's Day workshop that I did back in February. It used the Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper and I was originally going to add a strip of the paper somewhere across the card, but after stamping the cupcake tower from Crazy for Cupcakes I decided that simple was better. I did do a lot on the cupcakes. The stamp was stamped twice once on the Very Vanilla Card Stock and once on a piece of the pink polka dot paper in the Candy Cane Lane DSP. After I stamped them in Basic Brown I used blender pens to color the cherries, icing and the stand. I added 2 way glue and Dazzling Diamonds on the icing to give it a little extra sparkle. The cupcake liners were cut out from the second stamped image and placed on the Very Vanilla image. This is called Paper Piecing and while it can be a challenge to cut out some images it does add extra pop to your card. The finished image is mounted to Riding Hood Red card stock and the base of the card is Pink Pirouette. Before I added the matted image to the card base I ran the base through the Big Shot using the Stampin'Up! Backgrounds 1 Texturz Plates. This helps take a simple card from plain to wow! I love the Texturz Plates and would highly recommend them to anyone. So there you have it a simple but special birthday card for someone special in your life.

Now for my Birthday Special. Our family has a couple of busy birthday months, May is one of those. Since May is my birthday month I thought I would give you a special. This special is good only through me it isn't one that Stampin'Up! is offering but rather my way of saying thank you. So from now until the May 30 the Birthday sets and wheels on pg. 38-41, Birthday related Rub-on (pg. 172-173), Best Ever Simply Scrappin Kit, and 2U Card Elements & More, and More Thoughts Simply Sent Card Kit will be 10% off. All Page numbers are from the Spring Summer 2009 Idea Book and Catalog. Regular shipping and tax will still apply. All orders will need to be placed directly through me no online orders this time because of the discount. You can also order the Designer Paper Special at this time also even though the discount will not apply. If you order $150 or more then you will qualify for the hostess benefits. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I will be sharing some other birthday cards through out the week so be sure and stop back by and take a look. I hope that you all have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. I will be spending time with my family which is always a great way to spend time. Thanks for stopping by, Tonya

Sweet Birthday!

Hello! May is a big birthday month for many of my friends and family, including myself so I need lots of cards for this month. Today's card combines the Sweet Slumber Specialty Designer Paper and the White Shimmery card stock technique that we did at club last week. I used the stamp set Pick a Petal to stamp six petals on shimmery card stock with Whisper White Craft Ink then heat embossed with White Embossing Powder. Two of each of the petals were watercolored with the aquapainter and reinker in Ruby Red, So Saffron and Baja Breeze. I am sure going to miss that color after next month. :( The sentiment is from Wow Flowers Stamp Set. I used the large oval punch to punch it out. I added a Baja Breeze Corduroy Button from the Occasions Mini and crochet thread in the center of the flower. Pretty straight forward, but if you have questions be sure and let me know. Sorry for the short post but DS and I are headed off to spend the afternoon with the kids at Picnic in the Park. Our school does this every year and it is just to beautiful of a day to stay inside. Be sure and come back on Friday when I post a special sale that I will be having to help celebrate my birthday. It will be good only thru me and only on direct orders, no online orders sorry. Have a great day and thank you for stopping by, Tonya

Monday Morning time to share!

Good morning, I hope you all had a great weekend. The weather was a little on the chilly side but that didn't stop our kids from being out and having activities. I didn't stamp the entire weekend but I do have a gift cardholder to share from Friday. My middle DS invited us to a 1st and 2nd Grade Tea at his school. We had a lot of fun at the tea and both class had a presentation for us. 1st grade sang for us and if you get a chance ask my son about the Rooster song. It is really cute. The class decided to give their wonderful teacher a gift card to thank her for the wonderful year. Enter the card for today. I volunteered to make a card for the occasion. This card is similar to the Graduation card we did at club this week. I started with a piece of Pink Pirouette Textured Card Stock (remember this is on special the rest of this month) and cut it to 6 1/2 x 9". I will take some pictures and show you how I made the gift card portion inside and post later. This is slightly larger than our club card but I wanted to make sure I had plenty of room for 15 kids to sign. I used the Flight of the Butterfly Stamp Set and stamped the sentiments in Chocolate Chip Classic Ink using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. I used the Bella Birds Designer Paper(also included in the special), Big Shot and Stampin'Up! Beautiful Butterflies Die to cut out the butterfly for the top of the card. I added three of the smallest Rhinestone Crystals that I removed from the Rhinestone Brads to make the body of the butterfly. The bottom piece of designer paper is scalloped on the top with the Scallop Border Punch and the whole card is tied shut with the Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon. Not a difficult card to make and it fits into our Small Open-End Envelopes. The Buy Three get one Free Special will be ending on May 31.Our Designer Series Papers are so great, they are a true 12x12" size perfect for scrapbooking or cardmaking and are double sided so you get double the options. So if you would like to still place an order contact me. As always thank you for stopping by today and have a great day, Tonya

Embrace Life

Good morning, today I am sharing one of the two cards we made at Stamp Club this week. For those of you that might not know about my Stamp Club let me take a moment to explain. I have two groups of ladies that meet every month at my house to make two projects. These can be cards, scrapbook pages, 3D items made from a template or the Big Shot Dies. They each agree to purchase a certain amount each month and one month during club they are the hostess and they get all the hostess benefits! Next month will be our final club for this catalog period and we will be starting a new Stamp Club in July. I hold my Stamp Clubs on Tuesday and Thursday night and the members have the option of attending either night. This allows them some flexibility with their schedules. Oh and did I mention that they also get their new catalogs as soon as they arrive. If this is something you might be interested in then please let me know and you can be our guest at next month's Stamp Club. It is a great way to meet new stamper or just get together with friends.

I used the technique that was demonstrated at the Seattle Regionals and was created by Crystal French a Stampin'UP Demonstrator from Denver Colorado. It uses Shimmery White Card Stock and Reinker. I love the look of the flowers after it all dries. After my Oval All Note Card Class I had some Walk in the Park DSP leftover so I pulled out the kiwi kiss leaves sheet and cut it to 4x5 1/4". This leaves just a little bit of the base card showing. I used the Kiwi Kiss Textured Card Stock for the base. Did you know that the 12 x12" Textured Card Stock is also included in the buy 3 get one Free special that is going on now until the end of May. We used the Embrace Life Stamp Set and stamped the leaves onto Whisper White Card Stock with Basic Gray Classic Ink. We used the aquapainters and the Kiwi Kiss reinker to color the leaves in. Next we stamped the flowers on Shimmery White Card Stock in Craft Whisper White Ink. We used White Embossing Powder to heat emboss the images. The next step is to spray the images with a water bottle and then using the Aquapainter and Baja Breeze and Cameo Coral Classic Reinkers we added color to the images. This is a really neat effect because when you touch the color to the water it spreads out. Set aside to dry. While we waited we finished assembling the card and stamped our choice of sentiment on Whisper White Card Stock and punched it out with the Scallop Oval Punch from the Occasions Mini. This was layered onto Cameo Coral Card Stock that was punched out with our Wide Oval Punch. After the flowers were dry we cut them out and popped them up with Dimensionals on our leaf image. Let me know what you think of the card and if you would like to take advantage of our specials for this month remember that you can order online directly from my Stampin'UP website. As always thank you for stopping by today, I really appreciate it. Have a great weekend, Tonya

Faux Stain Glass

Good morning, yesterday was a busy day, but I got quite a few cards made and I will be sharing them with you through out the week. I want to thank all of you that stopped by yesterday and checked out my Faux Stain Glass Tutorial. I loved reading your comments and hope that you will stop by often. Today's card is the the Faux Stain Glass example that I made while I was taking pictures for the tutorial. I didn't want the faux stain glass to not get put into a card and the look is so much different than the other finished card that I made for the previous post. I changed the frame a little by making the base frame smaller and letting it show thru behind the image. I really like the Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouette Reinkers. I sure am going to miss these two colors. If you have the InColor Ink Pads remember to purchase your reinkers before they retire next month so that you can keep your stamp pads reinked plus you can do great techniques like this one! If you would like to learn other techniques that you can do with reinkers leave me a comment or email me and I will be happy to help you. Have a great day and thank you for stopping by, Tonya

I was asked how long the Crystal Effects takes to dry so I thought I would just add the info to this post. I usually just make mine in the evening and let it dry overnight. It does matter how thickly you put the Crystal Effects on. The thinner the coat the faster it will dry. I would allow at least 3 hours but it could be longer. Thanks for asking and for leaving me a post. Tonya

Window Sheets, Reinkers and Crystal Effects Oh My!

Hello, today's post is going to be a long one with lots of pictures that hopefully I will be able to get in the correct sequence. I am going to show you a new technique that I have been doing with Reinker, window sheets, and crystal effects. Before I get started I will give you a list of materials that you will need.

Materials List:
Medium weight Window Sheet
Crystal Effects
Two Reinkers
Permanent Black Marker
Toothpicks

Big Shot
Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Die
Scoring tool ( I use the Paper Cutter and scoring blade on pg 189)

1. Cut your Window Sheet to 5 1/2" x4 1/4". This is the standard card front size.

2. Run the window sheet through the Big Shot using the Manhattan Flower Textured Die. I used an extra shim to make sure the impression is nice and deep. The window sheet is clear I just placed it in front of Certainly Celery CardStock to show the details.

3. Turn the window sheet over to the wrong side. The raised outline of the roses should be facing down. With a permanent marker trace the valleys in the image. Do the entire image. See the picture below.
4. After you have the roses traced, flip the window sheet back over and start filling the rose in with Crystal Effects. The raised lines will keep the Crystal Effects in place. After you have completely covered one rose then you are ready to add your Reinkers. For the sample below I used Baja Breeze and just added a few drops and mixed to spread the color.



5. After the first color has been blended to your liking you can add a second color. I just add a few drops of reinker to a stamp case and then pick up smaller amounts with the end of a toothpick and deposit it around the image. I then blend again. See picture below for an example.

6. Repeat adding Crystal Effects to the second rose and then the reinker. On the second rose I used the Pink Pirouette as the main color and the Baja Breeze as a secondary color. After you have completed these steps you can set the window sheet aside to dry.

7. To make the frame for the Faux Stain Glass, I used a standard size card and scored the front 3/8" from all four sides being careful not to score past the 3/8" on the corners. I then cut out the center. I also made a second frame the same way out of a piece of 5 1/2" x 4 1/4 "card stock.

8. After your Stained Glass Image has dried you will use Mini Glue Dots to attach the window sheet to the card base frame. You could also use Sticky Strip but I found Mini Glue Dots worked great. After the image is attached us Mini Glue Dots to add the second frame. This will hide the glue dots and stabilize the image. As an extra touch I stamped a sentiment on the window sheet with Black Stazon Ink. Your Faux Stain Glass is now complete. All products can be purchased through me except the permanent marker.

If this technique has a name I have not discovered it and if it doesn't then I guess I would call it Faux Stain Glass. Either way let me know what you think of the finished product and of my first tutorial. If you have any questions please let me know. Thanks for stopping by, Tonya

Bambi and Thumper

When the Occasions Mini came out and I saw this set I immediately fell in love with it. It reminded me so much of Bambi and his friend Thumper that I started calling it just that. The Bambi and Thumper Set. Now of course the real name is Forest Friends but to me it will always be Bambi and Thumper. These cards were started some time ago and like so often happens they were set aside and not finished. Fast forward to today. After creating six Mother's Day cards last week my room was a mess. DD had of course been creating to but I must admit she is much better about cleaning up than her dear old mom . As I was cleaning I came across the deer and the Bashful Blue Bib so I thought a card was in order. I quickly decided to keep it simple and used just a Whisper White base. The card is a simple 4x4" card just perfect for giving with a gift. I used the Scallop Circle #2 Die with the Big Shot to cut out the Bibs. Then I used the Wide Oval Punch to cut out a section to give it the bib look. I textured both the bibs with the Stampin'UP Backgrounds 1 Texturz Plates and the Big Shot. The So Saffron Circle that is layered behind the deer is made with the Circle Scissor Plus. This is such and easy tool for making circles. I used my circle punches to punch out the stamped images and then also the bashful blue circle. The sentiment is from Holidays & Wishes. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to get is just right on the bottom corner of the card.

I had originally wanted to use this set for the Baby Shower Invites that I recently did but after seeing the napkin I went in a totally different direction. I

do think these will be perfect for my cousin's baby gift. Hopefully she doesn't take a peak at my blog. DD and I have also decided to make a Diaper Cake as a center piece for the shower so stay tuned for pictures of it later this month. As always thank you for stopping by. We have a busy week ahead of us with two Stamp Club nights and 8 baseball games between our 3 DS's. So I may not get to post everyday. If you have any questions please let me know. I would be happy to help. Have a great day, Tonya