Featured Artist ~ Alicia Menchi ~ Garden Whimsy

This talented artist is also a tastefully simple consultant! Well, she's MY tastefully simple consultant. If you are interested in her YUMM-O goodies, check out her website here.

Alicia kept it simple but ADORABLE with this fabulous butterfly card!

Using the scallop edge punch, we punched the new bella rose paper to make the border at the bottom.

She stamped the butterflies in craft ink ahead of time, so it would be dry enough to cut without fingerprints. How about that tiny library clip?? I LOVE the new accessories!!! We just tied a knot in a piece of white ribbon and glue dotted the knot to the clip. The butterfly was added to the front with dimensionals. Like many of the cards, the photo doesn't do it justice. It's prettier in real life! Awesome card Alicia!

Featured Artist ~ Patricia Call ~ Kindness Card

Another gorgeous color combination from Patricia!

We used the scalloped edge punch to make rickrack ribbon on this card. It always amazes me how a simple design can look so elegant!

I always have to remind myself that it shouldn't take 2 hours to make a card... and it really shouldn't!

So, break out the punches and make your next masterpiece!

Featured Artist ~ Bonnie Call ~ Fresh Cuts

What a great color combo this is! I wouldn't have thought to put these two colors together! Bonnie stamped the image from the NEW fresh cut set and used a 5 petal punch to punch it out.

I've been cutting those little flowers out by hand for months now! What a fabulous design!

Bonnie is another team member who attended out team shoe box swap last night! Awesome Card Bonnie!

This would be an awesome workshop card!

Featured Artist ~ Carol Hughes ~ Sock Monkey Card

Carol is a bright spot on our team. She is ALWAYS smiling and ALWAYS has a 100 ways to tell you how to use a product!

I would be telling tall tails if I told you that I loved the sock monkey set before. I just wasn't sure about him! After seeing Carol's card, I'm quickly changing my mind. This card uses the "paper piecing" technique. She stamped the sock monkey twice and had us all cut out the monkey's face and the tips of his hands on white cardstock. Then we stamped him again on craft. We used a red marker to color his butt and mouth. we also used dimensionals to pop up the little heart he's holding. We used a paper piercing tool to pierce the scallop edge on the right, made with the NEW scallop edge punch!

Totally AWESOME card Carol!

What a FUN lookin Bunch!

This is my WONDERFUL team and I last night at a team shoe box swap event. Each demo could bring a friend and we all had an awesome time together stamping away!

Interested in being a part of the crew? Send me an email or give me a call and we could make that happen!

To Slack or Not To Slack

I was told today that I'm a blog slacker! I say to her... Yep, you're right! Sorry about my extended online absence. I have no excuse, i'm just a slacker! LOL (but you already knew that!)



So ~ moving Right along. I needed something to put my spectacular gift in, right? So I made a box. I just took a 12 x 12 piece of card stock scored it evenly on all sides and made a box. To make it tall, i cut some 12 x 12 down to 3 x 12 and ran two pieces all the way around the box. Plus I used a TON of sticky strip.


The top, is just scored 1 inch all the way around and assembled.

I love the EASY stuff, and this doesnt get much easier. Keep in mind that the middle part of your box topper has to be slightly larger, so the measurement is slightly smaller on the cover. Clear as mud?


So now onto the cute gift bag. Stampin' Up! has these cute little bags in the back of the book, and with a simply scrappin kit, they are super simple to decorate!

My Cousin had a baby!

I love having new babies in the family. First, my cousin John and his lovely wife had a bouncing baby boy, and now my other cousin Jay and his sweet wife Dedra had a girl! Here are some photos of the fun gift i made for them.

First, I dyed one of our neutral albums to groovy guava. I know that one of my friends from the Utah Diva's designed this technique. You take 4 parts water (i used spring water) to one part reinker and paint it on the album. Let it dry for a few days and viola! You have a custom colored album! Fabulous!

Next it's time to layer the inside of the album with matching designer series paper and decoroate of course! Why waste the inside cover of the album, when you can make it a wonderful addition to your album?

Here is a photo of the entire gift but I have much more to share. This was so much fun to put together. I actually included a gift card to babies r us. However, sometimes I feel funny giving "just" a gift card. A personalized album is an amazing touch to any gift card. When you make something by hand for someone ~ that's a thoughtful gift that cannot just be "purchased". See you tomorrow with more things baby!