Easter Already?!

Ok, so it's not Easter just yet, but seeing as we're in the middle of Lent, we know it's fast approaching! I have already made a few Easter cards and hoped to inspire you to do the same. 

These were made with the beautiful Timeless Tulips stamp set paired with the Tulip Builder Punch. I love to use punches as they are quick and easy, and allow you to pop certain elements of your design off the card with Dimensionals.

The cards look shiny in these images because I had already packaged them up in clear envelopes. ;) 

Click here to view this bundle in my shop.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Michele

Thinking of You

Here is one of my latest fun-fold card layouts... I've done it before on some cowboy-themed cards (those were made 2 years ago, but they're only 2 posts down - ha ha!!). As you can see, I still enjoy it! It's a great way to use up some Designer Series Paper. 

I had a blast doing the coloring on these. So therapeutic. Sorry for not snapping the photo before I wrote in it... but you get the idea! (and, for the record, my nickname is Miki). 

Have a great week, everyone!

PS: Jackie - thanks for your comment!! It was great to hear from you, sweet friend!

Hello!

...it's been a long time - a VERY long time! But isn't that just the greatest thing about being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator? I have remained active all this time, just haven't done much "publicly"... and then COVID happened. But perhaps it's because of COVID that I'm wanting to ramp things up again?! A global pandemic somehow inspires one to get creative. Blessings do come in strange ways!

Anyway, I am still here... and I've reinstated my Business Website so you can easily find out about the current special offers and shop. The link is on the top menu bar - "Shop Now". 

Let me know if you're still here - leave a comment below, or drop me a line! I'd love to hear what types of things y'all would like me to post these days. Be as specific as you'd like... Do you want just photos (no text)? cards for special occasions? things other than cards? tool reviews? Anything goes... well, almost!

In the meantime, hug your kids, hug your spouse, and hug yourself!!

We'll chat again soon!

Michele

For the Men

Stamp-a-Stack this week! We'll be making some masculine cards this month. Sentiments can be flexible to suit particular needs... gotta love that! Stamp sets include the Crackle Paint background, Country Livin', and Picture Perfect Birthday.

It's great to have a stash of cards all ready to be sent to the men in our lives!

Happy Stamping,
Michele

OnStage 2019

Well folks, I'm B-A-C-K... again! One of the most wonderful things about Stampin' Up! is that you can come and go as you need to. And I've definitely needed to come and go over these last few years.

But, I've never, ever lost my love for Stampin' Up! (nor will I ever!) and I've managed to hold a couple of workshops already this year! I'm hoping to add more offerings to my calendar and ramp things up a bit. I even made it to OnStage in Salt Lake this weekend and had a wonderful time. I ran into these two familiar faces while there:

Recognize them? Yep - Donna Griffith and Pam Morgan!

Okay, so I totally give you permission to hold me accountable to posting more often. If you haven't heard from me in awhile, drop me a line and give me heck about it!

Stampin' hugs to all!
Michele

Girlie Grads!

As promised, here's a peek at what my new Cricut Maker helped me make for all of the girls graduating...

 I purchased a file for this cute little coin purse, and then I resized it so it would fit into one of our standard envelopes. It also came with a belly band to hold it closed, but I didn't use it this time. I wanted to use the Congrats word again. Here's what's inside:

Isn't that cute?! A pocket in the coin purse for a check or a gift card. I just fell in love with it and I was so happy to be able to pair it with Stampin' Up!'s beautiful papers and ink. I made a few of these... but I'm sure I'll be making more for girl birthdays and the like!

Happy stamping!

Michele

Graduations Galore!

The announcements just keep comin' in! Here is another version of graduation card I came up with...

...and in case you're confused, that "Congrats" sentiment is not a part of Stampin' Up!'s current or upcoming collection, but everything else is. I am the proud new owner of a Cricut Maker, and I just picked a font and had it cut the word out for me! Don't worry - I'm still a die hard Stampin' Up! purist... but I don't consider this cheating. Wait until my next post where you'll see how my Cricut helped me make a girl's graduation card!!

Until then,

Michele

Mother's Day 2018

I hope all of you moms had a wonderful weekend with your little ones (or big ones!). I sure did. We went camping and had glorious weather and made some fun new memories - including an off-road Segway excursion!! Then, they gifted me with a robot vacuum cleaner... what could be better than that?!

Here are the cards I sent to the moms in my life... I used a new set that will be available in just a few short weeks! It's called Varied Vases. Such fun! The sentiment on the front came from another upcoming set called Itty Bitty Greetings.

It's fun to play with new toys... especially when those new toys involve paper and ink!

Enjoy your week!
Michele

Apologies

We all have to do it some time... apologize. Well, I had to apologize for a late birthday wish, and then I apologized to someone for the loss of their sweet pet. Here were the quick cards I whipped up and got in the mail before any more time had passed:

On this next one, I went back over the top of the letters with the same color marker to make it darker and more interesting:

Do you have some sorry cards in your stash?

Happy stamping!
Michele

PS (5/14/18): Here's another one I had to make...

Graduation Time

It's that time of year - graduations!! I'm trying to keep up with the graduation announcements that we receive. I always like to send a beautiful homemade card to commemorate their wonderful accomplishment. I don't have a graduation stamp set per se, but I came up with this idea which is simple and quick (and I can now watermark the photos on my phone - yay!). I have used some retired items for these, but the basic idea can be used with anything...

Both of these are using Night of Navy ink, but it looks black in the photos.

That's a start - I'll just keep using up some DSP, both new and old, and pop these cards in the mail lickety-split! How many graduation cards do you think YOU'LL have to make this year?!

Happy stamping!
Michele

Getting Back in the Groove!

Hobbies are such a wonderful thing... especially when you have more than one and you get to rotate them! Although I haven’t been creating many cards (or just not posting the ones I HAVE made), I do still LOVE to make them. After a lengthy spell of sewing, I am ready to do some stamping! And because I can create these posts fairly easily on my phone, the process of getting them posted is no longer as daunting a task. I’m skipping the watermark part for now, as that has been a himderance to me posting. So if some dishonest soul decides to take this photo and pretend it’s their creation, well, I’ll just have to hope that the guilt of doing so will disrupt their sleep and their bad choice will catch up with them somehow. 😜 (UPDATE: I can now watermark easily on my phone - yay!)

So here is a card I made yesterday just because I love this stamp set (Friendship’s Sweetest Thoughts) and I’m sad that it is retiring.

I used a combination of watercolor pencils and Stampin’ Blends to get some subtle color with touches of vibrant color. Everything is Stampin’ Up! except the paper clip... I found those at a shop in Berlin while I was there a few weeks ago visiting my son. I thought they were just so cute and they’re partly the reason I’m stamping again, so I hoped you’d forgive me!

Good to be back.

Hugs to all (if anyone still gets my posts!)

Michele

Ghosting

Tried my hand at the Ghosting technique... it's where you stamp the images in craft white, and then stamp over them a little offset with color. Stunning!!

That was the first one I made... and then I just kept on going!

Hugs,
Michele

For My Dad

I know it's not Father's Day yet... but I just wanted to send my Pop some love! Tried out my new Urban District stamp set that hadn't seen ink yet...

He received it over the weekend and said that it brought tears to his eyes... probably from the sentiment inside:

Such a beautiful stamp set!

Hugs,
Michele

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's another special Valentine I made... I have a dear friend who lost her husband on Valentine's Day last year, so I know that today is a very hard day for her. I sent this to her to lift her spirits:

 I love the all-pink balloon with the one red stripe. Here's the left part of the inside:

In what I wrote, I told her I know her husband is raining down hugs and kisses on her, so I punched out some tiny hearts from the heart border punch and put them in a little bag attached to the "note" explaining that the note tells her to toss them in the air so they'll rain down on her!

Now, here are the cards I made for my favorite Valentines... my husband and children!

First, my boys:

Next, my girls. Theirs have a solid balloon except for one stripe is darker:

And finally, Michael's. "You Are My Sunshine" is our quote, so I mixed things up a bit and pulled some stamps from different sets (Over the Rainbow):

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day filled with love!
Michele

Valentines

I used my Lift Me Up bundle to make lots of Valentines this year... and to make it less labor-intensive, I used a solid color for the balloon (I just made a template using the framelit and I keep it in the stamp box for when I want to use it). Here are the Valentines I sent to my nieces and nephews (and a few others):

You can't see it in that photo, but I "winked" up parts of the balloon - see here:

I also made one for a dear friend of mine who is a true prayer warrior and I needed her to know how much I appreciate her lifting me up (what a perfect set for that!):

Tomorrow, I'll show you the Valentines I made for my kids and my husband!

Have a great night!
Michele

Lift Me Up

A dear friend of mine lost her dad recently, which was a perfect opportunity for me to try out the beautiful new Lift Me Up bundle. This card is completely CASEd from the one in the Occasions catalog on page 10, but having that as my base gave me confidence to then go on and explore my own creations (which I'll be sharing with you in the coming days!).

I just LOVE how we can make the balloon's sections any color we want... or all one color if we choose to. Just so much fun! Here's the inside...

Needless to say, my friend loved the card, and there's nothing better than "Sending SMILES across the miles!"

Have an UPLIFTING weekend!
Michele

Happy Birthday, Gorgeous!

Several of my friends have had birthdays recently and I felt this was the perfect card for them to find in their mailbox:

Who wouldn't want to be called GORGEOUS on their birthday?! This was fun to make. I used Shimmery White and Brushed Silver cardstock along with the Beautiful You stamp set. I love how the "scribble" stamp perfectly colors in her Flirty Flamingo dress. For some soft bling, I added Wink of Stella to her dress (can't see it in the photo, but it really makes it pop) as well as some silver thread. I'm not usually one to adhere things crooked on a card, but for some reason, I liked it better on this one!

Enjoy the rest of your week!
Michele

Jar of Love

I'm having fun with this set... it brings back memories of chasing fireflies back in Missouri when I was a child. Don't see them up here in the mountains... I guess they don't like altitude. ;)

Here's a close-up of the little firefly... I used Wink of Stella on his wings, but it's hard to photograph:

(actually, after this photo was taken, I decided to Wink up his "light bulb" too!) Here's the inside of the card... I just drew on his swirly flight path with a Smoky Slate marker. So fun!

Have a great week!
Michele

Set of Cards

Lots to show you today! I wanted to make my pastor a set of cards because he sends notes on plain postcards made out of a 1/4-sheet of white cardstock, which is certainly no fun for anyone! Here are some that I gave to him:

Those first two use images from Remarkable You with the sentiment from Strength & Prayers. These next two are from Country Livin'... (but I did not give him the truck - that was a lot of watercoloring, so I kept it to give to someone special!)

Isn't that such a fun truck?! That thank you sentiment comes from One Big Meaning. And this last image comes from Wetlands: 

I think he liked them, but perhaps they could have overwhelmed him since he's not used to sending out anything quite so fancy. Ha! ...Eh, that's alright. I had fun makin' them!

Blessings,
Michele