Stamping with Melony

Bring On the Cake!

Stamps-in-the-Mail Round #10 Month 2!

Take a look at what my SITM Club Members are creating this month! 

 
For month 1, the club members recieved the great "Bring on the Cake" Stamp Set.  For month 2, the club members will recieve the New Build a Cupcake Punch and the Bday Party Rub-ons. 

 
This fun card made with Pear Pizzazz, Bashful Blue, and Real Red makes great use of the colorful rub-on sentiment that perfectly matches the card and cupcake.  I used the crimper to give the cupcake texture.  The 2 3/8" scallop circle punch compliments the build a cupcake punch so well along with the 2 1/2" circle punch. 

 
This fun card designed by demonstrator Sara Lundberg uses the Celebrations DSP on Real Red Cardstock with the same great punches and rubons. 

 
This card uses Whisper White and Blushing Bride with Chocolate Chip accents.  I used the Blushing Bride DSP from the In-color Designer Series Stack.  I highlighted this card with the fabulous Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch and the Heart-to-Heart Punch.   If you look closely at the cupcake top, you'll notice that I punched the top twice - once in chocolate chip, and once in blushing bride.  I additionally re-inserted the blushing bride top back into the punch to punch "sprinkle holes" that then show as chocolate when layered together.  Simple and effective sprinkle look!  :)

 
This final card uses Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait Cardstock.  I love the Peach Parfait Stitched Ribbon and the Scallop Trim Punch on this card.  For the sprinkles, I glued Pear Pizzazz and Blushing Bride sprinkle punches on using the 2-way glue pen.   Notice the crimper again on the cupcake base.  :)  Love using the crimper for this punch!

Have fun with your month 2 cards!!!  For those not in the round#10 club, look for Round #11 coming in April. 

Explore Your Creativity with Stampin' Up!

Click Here to Explore Your Creativity!

Stampin' Up! cofounder and CEO Shelli Gardner shares her passion for creativity and discusses the exclusive coordinated products that Stampin' Up! offers to help you explore your own creativity.

We Love Dad Garland

I've had some requests for more specifics on my We Love Dad Garland, so I thought I'd do an entry with some closer shots of it and some product information.  This is definitely one of my favorite projects that I've done.  My friend Janet Winz is who originally planted the seed that started my creative juices flowing towards this finished project.  :)  Thanks Janet! 

 
First, I used my Big Shot to die cut Serif Essential Alphabet letters spelling WE LOVE DAD.  I used both the negative and positive images of the letters for a little variety.  I was taking my friend Stacy's photography class through StacyMaePhotography at the time, so I was pretty psyched to try to get some great B&W shots.  ;)

 
I die cut the scallop circles in Basic Black using the Scallop Circle Die.  I used the Circle Scissors Plus to cut the Whisper White Circles and the B&W photographs. 

 
I layered the circles and scallops together with adhesive and then began to fasten the circles onto the White Satin Ribbon using Jumbo Eyelets with the Crop-o-dile. 

 
The kids and I had a lot of fun with this project.  I loved seeing the different expressions I could get.  This will be a great keepsake for years and years to come.  :) 

Try it for yourself!  I'd love to see your finished products! 

Birthday Wishes

I had a lovely time stamping these great birthday cards this week with 2 different groups of ladies.  Both cards were inspired by swaps that I photographed at the leadership conference in January.  Both cards are so versatile!  You can use them for men, women, or children.  I love versatility! 

 
I love these cards made with the FREE Sale-a-Bration DSP that comes in the Ice Cream Parlor DSP & Quick Accents Pack!   For my Stamp-a-Stack workshop, the ladies were able to create 2 blue and 2 pink cards for maximum versatility for their birthday card needs.  I LOVE this Bring on the Cake Stamp Set.  

 
We also used the Scallop Square Die for the body of the card.  The colors are Peach Parfait, Pacific Point, and Melon Mambo.  I gave a choice of Daffodil Delight Grosgrain or Old Olive Grosgrain, but the FREE Ice Cream Parlor ribbon matches great too!

 

This card uses the FREE Punch Bunch Sale-a-Bration Stamp Set punched out with the Scallop Square Punch and the Celebrations Designer Series Paper (DSP) punched out with the 1 1/4" Square Punch .  The color of the card is Bashful Blue with Pacific Point and Real Red accents to coordinate with the great DSP!  The ribbon is wide Real Red Grosgrain.    Earn this set for free when you purchase the other supplies for the card!  Very versatile products!

Get your FREE today with your qualifying Sale-a-Bration Order!  :) 

The Pirate Battleship

Last weekend was the "Blue and Gold" awards banquet for the Cub Scouts where Tyler promoted from a Bear Cub Scout to a Webelo 1 Scout.  :)  Fun stuff!  The theme for the evening was Pirates and each of the scouts was challenged to make a pirate-themed cake to bring to the banquet for a contest and then later to be eaten for dessert.  Tyler and I had a great time brainstorming for his cake, shopping for the "accessories", and then baking and decorating his Pirate Battleship! 

 
Our inspiration came from www.familyfun.com and from Kristen Bryant's Pirate Birthday Cake creation a few years ago.  Tyler worked hard on all of the little details and won a 1st place ribbon for "Best Appearance".  Way to go Tyler!

 
We started with 2 round chocolate cakes - baked them, cooled them, and then sliced them in half with a little off the bottom curve of each half circle to give a solid platform to sit on.  Tyler put a layer of icing between each of the 4 layers and then we set it up on it's flat curve and slid straws through in 3 places to make sure that it held firm and the sides didn't fall off.  :)  Tyler then iced the body of the boat to cover the whole cake. 

 
Tyler was diligent to cut all of the "boards" of the ship into the icing to make it look more authentic.

 
Tyler used Ho-Ho's for the cannons with candles for fuses (inspired by Kristen Bryant's cake) and Piruoette Cookies for the edges of the ship and for "the plank". 

 
Tyler worked hard on the masts that he cut out of paper in 3 different sizes and then drawing the perfect skull and cross bones that every pirate ship needs. 

 
Tyler used rolos and whoppers for barrels and cannons and gold.  The lego figures finished off his masterpiece.  :)  Way to go Tyler!  What fun! 

 
Tonight, Tyler and Kevin get to experience a real life Battleship as they "camp-in" overnight on the S.S. New Jersey with Tyler's Cub Scout pack. 

I have to admit that I'm a little jealous to miss this experience.  :(  The girls and I will have a fun girl's night I'm sure though! 

Card Ministry & Prayer Journals

Every other month, I host a card ministry evening for my neighbor Marie and some friends from her church.  It is always such a pleasure to get together with this ladies and make cards for the staff at their church.  The staff then sends the cards out to encourage others.

  
We made over 500 cards for MHCC in 2010.  In 2011 we decided to start the year off with personal prayer journals. 

 

I love all of the unique and personal designs that the ladies came up with.  It's so nice to have a personalized journal to record your thoughts and prayers in.  :)

 
This journal was a gift from a friend a couple of years ago and was the inspiration we used to get started.  We decided to make tabs for our journals to guide our prayer time a little with some structure.  Marie suggested having a focus prayer topic for each day of the week.  

 
  We thought our end result was quite clever.  ;)  "Maternal Monday" to pray for our family, "Tomorrow Tuesday" to pray for the future and the futures of our children, etc., "Wordly Wednesday" to pray for the things going on in the world these days, "Theological Thursday" to pray for our churches and pastors, "Friendly Friday" to pray for our friends, "Self-Searching Saturday" to pray for ourselves (I personally thought it should be called "Selfish Saturday", but Marie felt that might not be a very righteous attitude ;), and "Soul-Filled Sunday" set aside for praise and worship. 

Fun huh?  A nice fresh little twist on prayer time with a little structure and guidance.  A personal touch too!   Wanna make these great prayer journals with your bible study group or friends?  Let me know!  :)

My Stampin' Studio Back in Action! ;)

Welcome to my Stampin' Studio!  Always a work in progress...... but SO much fun!  :)  Come join me in my studio for some creative time and connection with other women!

 

When I lived in Michigan I had so many stampers that would love to come over and stamp at my house.  Now here in New Jersey, I have this great stampin' studio but my stamping network is so limited still!  I miss the consistent Creative Connection with so many different ladies!  I really hope to build up my contacts in 2011 and get the creative energy flowing again in this great space!  :)   I host classes and workshops in my studio monthly and am happy to do private classes and workshops too for a group of your friends in my studio!  Let me know if you're interested!  Join my mailing list in the sidebar to learn about my dates and times.  

 
The "Notes" Decor Element is one of the FREE items you can get during Sale-a-Bration going on now through March 30th.  It's a chalk board!  I'm going to use it to scribble down what supplies I'm running low on and need to order. 

The Scallop Circle Garland of my kids was a gift to Kevin for Father's Day 2 years ago.  We die-cut letters to spell "We Love Dad" and I photographed the kids holding them.  It is one of my favorite projects!  Most garlands I swap out for different holidays all throughout the year, but I can't bear to ever put this one away.... it's almost always hanging somewhere in my house. 

 
I stamped the huge clock on the wall using our craft ink as well as chipboard and some accessories.   I CASEd it right out of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog from a few years ago.  :)

 
The storage closets work perfectly for my paper racks and stamp shelves!

 
 
Nice little nook for a table to spread out on. 

 
Here's some ladies in action last week at my card ministry night I host for my neighbor Marie.  We were making Prayer Journals.  I'll show you the finished product in a bit.  :)

 
I can throw some tables in the center of the studio also.  Here's some more lovely ladies from the card ministry night. 

 
Doesn't it look so much better with people in it?  ;)  Come create with me! 

Stressing Over Stress Management

I'm new to blogging, so I'm not sure of what the etiquette is for "stealing" someone else's blog posts, but since she's a childhood friend, I'm going for it with full credit to my friend Stephanie Smith (aka Dr. Stephanie)  who posted this to her blog today.  I LOVE it!!!  and I can certainly be YOUR connection to the CRAFTY bullet point!  Come on over!  Let's create and relieve some stress!!!  :)

http://www.drstephaniesmith.com/?p=372&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DrStephanie+%28Dr+Stephanie%29

16 Feb

Ahhh...this looks like a stress management tip I can handle!

I case you missed my talk last night at the 3rd Annual Women’s Symposium here in Colorado, here’s some of the stuff I talked about:

Sometimes stress management stresses us out.  Do you know what I mean?  It goes something like this:

I should do yoga 3x/week

I should be meditating in the morning for 30 minutes before my family gets up

I should be communing with nature everyday

Ummm…right.  Those things just aren’t going to happen for me.  Perhaps they should, but they’re not.  And it certainly doesn’t help matters to feel stressed about not doing the “right” things for stress management.  So I’m offering an alternative.  A few cheap and easy de-stressors  – some of which you might already be doing.

• Breathe. Take a few deep breaths a couple times a day.  Imagine you are blowing on a bubble wand or a dandelion to ensure the really cleansing, relaxing kinds of breath I’m talking about.
• Learn something new. Try out a class, get a book at the library, or watch a video on YouTube – there are lots of ways to learn new skills.
• Remember something old. Think back to activities that used to bring you joy and give them a try again.  Rollerskating, anyone?
• Get crafty. Crafting is a time-honored way for women to connect and de-stress (think sewing circles and quilting bees).  Pick up some yarn, a needle, some beads, a paintbrush – something to get the creative juices flowing.
• Have sex.  Research tells us that that having safe sex with another willing adult can be one of the best stress-relievers around!
• Pick up the phone.  Calling a friend can be a wonderful way to gain a new perspective on life.
• Move your body. Take a walk, stretch a little bit, dance to the radio – do something to move your body in a new way.
• Laugh.  Laughter really can be the best medicine.  And finding funny things has never been easier with the internet!
• Do something fun.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but how often do we really do things just for the fun of it?

Now, get out there and do some de-stressing.

My Stampin' Studio!

Today's task is to get my Stampin' Studio and the rest of my house back in order before my Card Ministry tonight and before my hubbie gets home from India tomorrow.  :)  That's a tall order though!  I find myself in need of some motivation and inspiration....... so I thought I'd take a look at what my Stampin' Studio "should" look like before the girls come over to make their prayer journals tonight!  LOL! 

 
Deep breath!  Here's a motivations start..... ok....... I'll post more later...........

Better Late than Never!

2011 is already flying by!  Here it is February and I'm finally sending out my Thank You Cards from Christmas!  My kids got their portion done weeks ago, and as usual, mom has been the delaying factor!  LOL!  I'm finally getting these babies in the mail though!  Better Late than Never!!!!   Check 'em out! 

 
I LOVE the Simple Seasonal Thanks Stamp that I got from a Stampin' Up! mini catalog last year.  It is so quick and easy and perfect for the kids to use!  Check out the Simple Birthday Thanks Stamp on page 142 of the IB&C for a similar design that you can use for Birthday Thank You Cards! 

 
Here's my thank you card made with the Finial Press Embossing Folder with the Big Shot.  I also used the Serene Snowflakes stamp set along with Craft Ink and Dazzling Diamonds to give a little bling to the cards.  Makin' my mama proud by getting my thank you cards out.  :)