Time to Say Goodbye...

Greetings to all of my wonderful readers... it is with mixed emotions that I must inform you of my change in status. As of November 1st, I am no longer a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. I hated to let it go, but as you can all tell from my lack of posting, I simply do not have time for it at this point in my life. I am homeschooling the boys, and enjoying our time together, as they will be grown up and gone before I know it!

With that said, I am now in the process of liquidating a large portion of my stamp supply... both retired AND current items.  I have created a list of everything I'm letting go, and would be happy to send it to you. Leave me a comment with your e-mail address (or e-mail me) and I will send it right over.

JANUARY 2012 UPDATE:  All of my supplies have been sold... (except, of course, for the things I will keep for when the stampin' bug hits me!)

Hugs to all, and HAPPY STAMPING!!!
Michele

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to us all! I hope you have a glorious weekend with your families. Here is the card I made for my own wonderful mom:

The base is Certainly Celery, with some of my new favorite DSP, and then Watercolor Paper. I used the WW Crayons to color the flower. You can't see it very well, but there's a pearl in the center of that flower to offset the two on the sentiment. Here, let me show you a close-up:

I love "antiqued" looking cards. I hope she likes it!

Michele

PS: This is a confession that my posts will diminish significantly over the next couple of weeks as I will have family in town (my mom, to name just one!). Please don't think I've left again for good... I promise I'll be back after I'm done hosting!

Happy Birthday to my Sister!

My sister's big Five-Oh is rapidly approaching! She likes turquoise, so I knew that had to be the basis for her card. Add in this very appropriate sentiment, and voila! A perfect milestone birthday card!

...is it just me? Or are my posts getting shorter and shorter? Hmmmmm, you tell me: would you prefer MORE shorter posts or LESS longer ones where I go into detail on how I made the card? I figure you're all smart cookies... you don't need me to hold your hand through these!
Michele

Congrats to my Niece!

Our niece, Heather, recently won a beauty pageant and I wanted to make a special card to commemorate her accomplishment. I got the idea for this card from my dear friend, Marelle, in Australia. She's MUCH, MUCH better at it than I am... this was my first attempt at a pop-up card:

The colors are Certainly Celery and Marina Mist. There was one mistake on the inside - a crease where there shouldn't be one. Ah, well... next time I'll do better!

Happy Stamping!
Michele

Thanks, Dr. Altman!

Nothing too flashy here... I needed a simple masculine thank you card for our vet. One of our kitties had to go in for emergency surgery last week and our vet has been very wonderful through it all. I wanted to bake him some cookies and send him a note of appreciation.

Have a great week!
Michele

My Old Standby

I sat down the other night to stamp a card for a good friend and I decided to pull out one of my all-time favorite stamps... this gorgeous dragonfly from Measure of a Life. Click here to see an old card I made with it that I still love. Now, here's an updated one:

The Perfect Plum DSP is from an old Halloween set, but it matched perfectly. I also used some black satin ribbon.

Here's a close-up of my watercoloring... The wings are shimmery (I used some white shimmer paint), but you can't see that in the photo. Use your imagination!

Have I told you lately how much I love being back at my stamp desk?! The neat thing is that we have recently done some updating in our basement to turn it into a cozier place to be. We added new carpet, a gas-burning fireplace, a new couch... it's such a wonderful place now to hang out and watch movies. And that's great for me, because that's where my stamp desk is! So, now you know why I've been at it more often.

Michele

More Congrats

One of my cousins just finished nursing school... I love it when card opportunities just drop in! Here's the one I made for her:

I know the base of this card is Baja Breeze, but I don't remember what this Designer Series Paper is... I'm pretty sure it's retired. The ribbon is the satin Espresso.

Here's a close-up of the little flower. I used one of the teeny-tiny buttons from the Vintage Trinkets - it looks great as the center of this flower!

Let's see... what should I make next?!

Michele

New Baby Girl

...no, not for the Forces. Wouldn't that just rock our world?! No, some friends back in Texas had a sweet baby girl last month and I wanted to send my congrats.

I like making anything pink since I don't get to do it too often. This little bear comes from Every Little Bit, and I watercolored her with my ever-favorite Watercolor Wonder Crayons.

I love using the textured cardstock for embellishments like this - they add that little extra touch that just makes it pop. I also "antiqued" the scalloped circle a bit by sponging the edges.

Have a great week!
Michele

...And Another

I told you I love this paper, didn't I? I think I need to order a few packs of it and then just make a stack o' cards so I'm always ready for a spontaneous event!

This one is a little more elegant... perhaps for a wedding or an anniversary.

I used Bashful Blue for the base, and then Shimmery White to jazz it up. I pulled out some white flowers (goodness me, but I can't remember what Stampin' Up! calls them! I'm WAY out of practice!)... anyway, I haven't touched these flowers in forever, so it felt good to let them breathe again. This was a perfect opportunity.

And check out those pearls! Gotta love that!

Now, I just gotta find someone who's getting married!
Michele

More Paisley Petals

Here's another one with that gorgeous DSP, Paisley Petals:

The base for this one is Baja Breeze, which matches so beautifully, along with River Rock. You know, I have to admit that River Rock was never really a choice color for me, but it's definitely growing on me! I truly love an antique-ish look on cards, and River Rock does a real fine job at that.

I happened to have some of the Baja Breeze flowers, so I layered them and then sponged the edges of the top one so it would stand out. An antique brad, clip, and a scrap of vanilla satin ribbon finish it off.

Hope you like it!
Michele

My New Favorite DSP!

I have to declare something: I LOVE the new Paisley Petals Designer Series Paper!! Oh my gosh, but it is SO beautiful! I have made four cards with it already - two of which I'll show you now and the other two later. By that time, I'm liable to have even more to show!

I also love the new Four Frames stamp set, as you'll see on all of these. I think I could last a long time with a few packs of this DSP, the Four Frames set, and some coordinating cardstock! Sure does allow for some easy cardmaking!

This first one uses River Rock as a base, with a hint of Not Quite Navy.

This second one uses Marina Mist (one of my new favorite colors) with a hint of Bravo Burgundy.

These two new favorites of mine will be in the new catalog in a few months, but through April 30th, you can purchase them early with any $20 order. If you don't take advantage of this offer, you'll have to wait until JULY! Click here or on the flyer at left for more details.


Enjoy the rest of your week... I'll be back soon. :)
Michele

One More...

I'll stop with the magnetic layouts after this one, I promise! I made this for my best friend's daughter, so it has a younger feel to it:

This is some old DSP, so I don't remember the name. I used the Big Shot to die cut the flower pieces and then I painted the top one with some of the white shimmer paint (I think that's what it's called... I'm too tired to go back downstairs to look!!). It stinks not knowing what all the names are anymore!! But I figure you come here for the pictures, not for my blabbering anyway. :)

The inside is decked out with another pearl-adorned flower.

Okay, I'm going to move on to other designs now... :)
Hope you all had a fabulous weekend...
Michele

Another Magnetic Birthday

I told you I liked this new style, so here's another one, with a more vintage look. This one is for a good friend back in Texas.

I used the gorgeous Bliss Sale-a-Bration stamp set, along with Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, and Cherry Cobbler. I cropped this next photo so you could see how I mounted the flat washer on the inside and then covered it with a small circle. Very easy - and I love how it "snaps" closed!

I have one more of these that I'm working on - but it's for a young girl so it will be noticeably different in appearance. :)

Have a great weekend!
Michele

PS: Have I mentioned that I LOVE being back at my stamp desk?!! Waaaahoooooo!

Feels So Good...

...to be stamping again! And thank you so much for all of your comments!! I was so pleasantly surprised that you're all still there! (who was the anonymous commenter who said their boys were thinking of my boys?? Jill, Jazen, Stef??)

I sat down the other day in an attempt to make something new for my best friend's birthday, and this is what I came up with. (I hope she forgets to read my blog!)

This was one of those "accident" cards... where you get a new idea from a mess up? Love it when that happens. Anyway, I used a small magnet and washer to hold the card closed. I believe the color scheme is Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy (see how horrible I am anymore at recognizing them?! I'm still not used to the beautiful new color palette). I used the En Francais background stamp on the bottom and then Vintage Vogue for the flowers. Of course, the flower was begging for a pearl accent! This is what the inside looks like:

I was so pleased with how this turned out that I think I'll be making a few more of them... even had my husband buy me some more washers when he was at the hardware store. :)

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Michele

The Return

I don't want to be the cause of any heart attacks, but yes, it's me. I'm still here. I don't know if any of YOU are still there, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if I receive any comments. In any case, I wanted to share a scrapbook page set I created... I started these pages a long, long time ago and just finished them today. I've been spending the last 3 or 4 days cleaning out the "utility room" (a.k.a. the room where everything got shoved for the last 2 years). A lot of my Stampin' Up! things are in there, and I suppose it gave me an urge to chisel the dust off my desk and see if I still remembered how to put ink to paper!

These are a couple of old school photos of my two oldest boys. I have always loved these shots, so they deserve a spot in my 6"x6" Favorite Photos Album.

I may have remembered how to stamp something, but I had a hard time adjusting the photos to look decent. I'll get frustrated if I try to fiddle with them anymore, so I'm going to just leave them as is.

I'm also not going to spend time searching through past catalogs to give you the names of the things I used! The fact is, most of you could probably tell ME what I used! Ha!

So there you are... the return of Michele. I hope I can get something else posted before another 6 months go by.

Hugs,
Michele