First Swap

Today I am posting photos of card fronts that I have made for my first swap. I thought this would be a good first try as anything goes as long as it is Stampin' Up! Product and 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 in dimensions.

 I am only including a few of them and as you see some of them look familiar, with maybe some slight changes. In the next few weeks I will give the project recipes for these card fronts and include the ones I do not have finished or photographed yet.

I hope you enjoy!

DanicaA

Before Stampin' Up! Cards

Today I thought I would post some photos of card I had made previously to joining Stampin' Up! as a Demo. Now days I try to use exclusively SU products, I have quite a few non-SU items I still need to either use up or clear out but haven't really gotten to that stage yet. Although I haven't used any of them for the last few months, so we will see.

I created a couple of collages of my card pictures as I feel this will look better than multiple single shots. I have been learning to use Photoshop Elements and I love being able to do things like this with my photos.

Some of my favorite papers prior to using SU, were by Die Cuts With A View. You will see quite a few of their papers here as I have pile of 12x12 pads about 2-1/2 - 3' high.

Let me know which card  is your favorite. My favorites are most of the cards in the top collage.

I hope you all enjoy! 

DanicaA

Multiple Challenge Card

I made this card today with the hopes of making it a multiple challenge card & I think I actually succeeded. I have never done any of the challenges I have seen on other blogs but thought this would be a great way to stretch my boundaries and extend my abilities. I started out unsure of what I was doing but in the end came out with a card that I really like. This is also not my usual style, I tend more to the simple & elegant, where as this is a little more gussied than I normally would do.

I started out by viewing this card by Lesley of Always Playing With Paper Blog. She did three different challenges with this one card. So, I decided to give it a try. 

The challenges are as follows:

Color Throwdown #176  this is where I got my color choices.

January 2012 SFYTT this is where the basic layout came from (the sketch).

PLG #16......Flutter By Butterfly I got some of my inspiration from this picture. I felt the colors from the above color challenge worked perfectly with this photo and Butterflies are always fun to incorporate.

Leave a message and let me know how you think I did.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Pool Party Card Stock, Mocha Morning Designer Series Paper, Victoria 5/8" Crochet Trim, Chocolate Chip Quilted Satin Ribbon, Pool Party Bakers Twine, Pool Party, Rose Red, & Chocolate Chip Classic Stamp Pads & Stampin' Write Markers, Mixed Bunch, Punch Potpourri, Valentine Love Stamp Sets, Big Shot, Perfect Details & Backgrounds 1 Texturz Plates, Fancy Fans Letterpress Plate, Hearts Collection Framelits,  Scallop Trim Border Punch, Blossom Punch, Butterfly, Corner Rounder Punch, Vanilla Scented Embossing Powder, Basic & Large Pearls

Vegan Fudge

1-10 oz. container Suzanne’s Ricemellow*

1-1/2 c sugar

2/3 c soy milk

1/4 c soy butter*

1/4 t salt

2 bags 12 oz. Guittard Semi –sweet chocolate chips

1 c chopped walnuts

1 t vanilla

In a large saucepan, combine Ricemellow Crème, sugar, milk, butter and salt.

Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, Boil 5 minutes

Then remove from heat. Add chocolate chips and stir until chips are melted

And mixture is smooth. Add walnuts and vanilla, and mix well. Spray a 9” square baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour fudge into prepared pan

And chill until firm. Cut in desired size squares.

Our you UPS driver really enjoys this fudge. Quite often when he makes a delivery or if I happen to see him elsewhere, he asks if I have made fudge lately. Needless to say I make sure to set aside a few pieces for his next delivery.

*These items can also be purchased at your local health food stores.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Free 30 day Trial......

of Stampin' Up!'s Digital design program My Digital Studio (MDS) download available February 1st.

This is a great opportunity to try this product. If you are a digital scrapbooker, with this program you would have access to Stampin' Up!s exclusive artwork. You can also do hybrid card making, scrapbooking, calendars, etc.. I love this option as I do like working with the Stampin' Up! products, but I also like the idea of being able to add my own text or that perfect saying with out having to worry if I have a stamp set that will convey my message. I can type it in MDS, or I can do a layout in MDS with photos & text and then print to the card stock and continue layering and embellishing with non-digital products. 

With the FREE trial, you'll get:

• Full access to the software at NO COST.
• Full design functionality.
• Exclusive artwork that comes with My Digital Studio Express.
• Opportunity to purchase additional downloads from designer templates to stamp brush sets--and everything in between.
• Access to our professional print services.

It's simple; add the free My Digital Studio Express trial (#129600) to your online shopping cart, & then download.

You can download it from my online store.

Watch for more information on February 1.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Butterfly Thank You

I started this card out by choosing my colors. I wanted something a little different from what I tend to gravitate towards. I used Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry & Crumb Cake as my main colors and added some glossy white card stock for the butterfly and Mocha Morning DSP. I ran the Pear Pizzazz through the Big Shot with the Fancy Fans Letterpress plate. I used the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set for my images. The butterfly was stamped on glossy card stock with Versamark ink & then embossed with the vanilla embossing powder. I then sponged over the butterfly with Rich Razzleberry & Pear Pizzazz ink. This is the same technique you can view in this Video by Frenchie from frenchiestamps

I used the butterfly punch which coordinates with the stamp set to punch out the butterfly.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, & Glossy White Card Stock, Mocha Morning Designer Series Paper, Fancy Fans Letterpress Plate, Big Shot, Flight of the Butterfly Stamp Set, Butterfly Punch, Vanilla Scented Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Embossing Buddy

Sale-A-Bration Begins Today!!!!

Yeah! This means free product. With every $50 Purchase not including S&H &Tax you receive a free product of your choice from the Sale-A-Bration (SAB) catalog. 

There are quite a few products to choose from, some are from the main catalog & some of your choices are exclusive to this catalog for this year, they will not be available again.

The Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper (Pg 7, 126154) has some gorgeous papers in it, there is a matching Ribbon & Brad pack(Pg 7, 127279), what cute brads.

Images© Stampin' Up!

Images© Stampin' Up!

New Stamp Sets 

Images© Stampin' Up!

My Digital Studio CD's

Images© Stampin' Up!

Hostess Benefits

Images© Stampin' Up!

Join Stampin' Up! during SAB for extra benefits for the rest of the year!

Images© Stampin' Up!

Images© Stampin' Up!

Images© Stampin' Up!

To shop visit my Stampin' Up! Website. Remember you also receive hostess benefits for order of $150 & above, along with the SAB freebies. This means for an order of $150 you would receive  3 free items from the SAB catalog, $25 in free product from the main catalog (IB&C) & a free Stampin' Up! tote* (pictured above with the hostess benefits). And a $400 dollar order will get you the SAB Bundle of DSP, Brads & Ribbon, & stamp set all pictures above for free in addition to SAB products, $65 in free product from the IB&C, the free tote* & 1 full priced item at 50% off.

To join contact me or visit my website, no password needed.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

*Free shopping tote with workshop, customer and demonstrator orders only; offer does not include online orders. Free hostess bundle with workshop, customer, or demonstrator orders; offer does not include online orders. Offers are not incremental (i.e., a hostess does not receive two totes for a $300 workshop or two bundles for an $800 workshop).

Love Letterpressed

I have to say that I really like this card. I used the other half of yesterdays paper doily and mounted on whisper white card stock. I then took my Lots of Love Letterpress Plate & sprayed it with the Blushing Bride Smooch Spritz. I like how the shimmer brings out the letters.

This card will be a definite pick for craft camp or a workshop. It also works great for my Big Shot club as it uses a lot of Big Shot dies.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey, Whisper White Card Stock, Lots of Love Letterpress Plate, Paper Doily Large Sizzlit, Big Shot, Blushing bride Smooch Spritz, Mixed Bunch Stamp Set, Blossom Punch, Heart Punch, 3/8" Riding Hood Red Satin Pleated Ribbon, Basic Grey Glimmer Brad

Dare To Dream

I have been working on a second project for a valentine's day craft camp & had the idea to layer the paper doily. I wasn't sure how well this would work, but I had to give it a try & I have to say that I definitely like the results. I layered the doilies after cutting the sections down for each layer and then cut the doily in half creating two halves, one of which I used on this card and another on the card I will be demoing at craft camp. I will post that card tomorrow.

I used the Heart Pressed Letterpress on the Basic Grey without adding any ink as I wanted to just have the image embossed into the paper. You can see this in the picture below. I am really like the pleated ribbon although I have found that when I wrap the ribbon to hide edges it does add a little too much weight. To fix this I cut the ribbon thread and opened the pleat at each end and then wrapped, this makes the card front lay down flatter.

To finish I used the Mixed Bunch Stamp Set & Blossom Punch to create a butterfly, which I added a glimmer brad and attached to the card. I wanted to use a saying that is a little more Valentine's dayish but as I do not have a huge supply of current stamp sets yet that have to do with love, anniversaries, weddings or valentines day I made do with what I have and ordered the Valentine Love stamp set. I should be getting my order this week on Tuesday or Wednesday. Just in time to get my make-n-takes ready for craft camp this weekend.

Hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey, Basic Black, Whisper White Card Stock, Riding Hood Red Classic Ink, Loving Thoughts & Mixed Bunch Stamp Sets, Paper Doily Large Sizzlits Die, Heart Pressed Letterpress Plate, Big Shot, 3/8" Riding Hood Red Pleated Satin Ribbon, Blossom Punch, Basic Grey Glimmer Brad, Dimensionals

Re-purposed my file drawer.....

at the beginning of the year. I have a four drawer file cabinet and was not really using part of it. Plus I don't really like the way the drawers pull out, so I decided to see if I could use a couple of drawers for something other than files. As you can see below I have moved my printer papers & envelopes to the drawers.

I have four mesh paper holders that I had previously been using in a bookshelf. I really like this much better, I do not need to be in here all that often and I definitely needed the bookshelf space. 

Starting from left to right I have regular printer paper, 3-Hole punched printer paper; cheap card stock, Avery Labels & Business cards; resume paper, decorative printer paper, photo paper, large white catalog envelopes and two different sizes manila envelopes. I also have envelope moistener (I absolutely hate licking the envelops) & two other smaller sized envelopes tucked in the side (you can see them better in the top photo.) 

My printer sits right above this drawer so this is very convenient for me. 

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA