Summer mini Bicycle Shoebox swap

I participated in 3 different swaps this last weekend. For this shoebox swap we were to use the Summer mini stamp sets, I choose Pedaling Past (pg. 7). We were to have all the pieces cut and ready to assemble in 5 minutes. Uff-da, for me, quick and easy is always a challenge. But look look:

I done good didn't I?

45 Graduation cap cards

You're looking at 45 graduation cap "spring" cards. This time I almost followed the spring card directions without changing too much.

These cards fit in the medium envelops. When the graduate pulls out the card the cap springs up. 40 of these are for the Minnesota Leadership swap that I signed up for plus a few for the graduation parties we have been invited to attend.

Water Color Trio Swap

Here's the card I made for the Summer mini swap I was in last weekend:

Continuing your stamped image off the matted layer

Have you ever wondered how they get those images to line up from the background onto the matted layer?

Colors: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Bashful Blue

Punches: Large oval, Scalloped oval, Hearts edge punch, Scalloped circle (mask for clouds)

Stamping alignment Tip: Using dotto adhesive (pg. 192) temporarily attach the white layer on the old olive background layer. Stamp your images. Remove the top layer and attach the razzleberry mat. Now re-align these layers and attach with dimensionals.

Graduation cards & Shower cards Monday Mini May 10th

It's that time of the year when you need to have cards on hand for graduations and wedding showers. Here's the cards that my stampers made for the Monday mini class, May 10th.

This first card is a very quick and easy card:

This next card, I would call a fun funky fold. When I saw the spring fold cards, they reminded me of a graduation cap. I eliminated one of the folds from that pattern and switched around a couple other folds to make the gift pocket. What do you think?

Stampin' Up!s  ribbons only unravel from one direction. Therefore if you tie a knot on the one end and unravel the other, you'll have an easy tassel. Attach it to the top of the card/cap on the other side of the knot that is not unraveled, trim any excess ribbon. When the graduate lifts up the cap, it will reveal a pocket where you can place a gift card, cash and a small note letting them know it's from you.

I'm so loving the Big Shot embossing folders. Seems like my cards are missing something when I don't use at least one of the embossing folders. Here's the punchy shower card that was made, with just a little bit of stamping.

Isn't the crunchy punch flower just adorable? It's no secret I need to work on my photography skills, there really is 3 different pinks.


Punching Tip For Layering: For perfectly centered punches when doing multiple layers, start with the smallest punch, add adhesive and attach to the next layer, then center and punch.


Tip for Punching Corners: If you are having trouble with the new corner punches, curl the tip with your fingernail. Then when you slide the paper in, the tip will catch in the corner so you don't go to far.

Mother’s Day Pansys

OMG! These pansy's are so adorable. Here is the Mother's day card that stampers made at my Monday mini class on May 3rd.

Colors: Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry, Glorious Green, Shimmmer White

Punches: Bird, wing & branch; Butterfly, Wide oval, Scalloped oval

Big Shot: Manhattan Floral embossing folder, Top note die

Accessories: Fire & Ice brads, Curry Polka dot ribbon

Can you believe it's made from our butterfly punch - yeah sure you betcha' - look again - see. How cool is that?

Okay I know I'm not the best photographer, but those little specks on the flowers are actually the sparkles that are in the shimmer white paper. I'm so proud I was able to capture the shimmer. These are so spectacular in real life.

The larger leaves are the wings from the bird punch. At first the leaves looked so flat and out of place, therefore to add dimension to the leaves, I used the mat pack (pg 191) and Empressor stylus (pg 188). The stylus is like a ball point pen without ink, it rolls so smoothly.

DRY EMBOSSING TIP: Hold the leaves at the base, start pressing at the tip and pull towards you. If you start at the branch and push towards the tip of the leaf, the leaves have the tendency to rip and pull off the branch.

Dawn Olchefske is the very talented demo and creator from right here in Minnesota. Check out her "How to" video tutorial and make sure you leave her a comment. Thank you Dawn for sharing!

Dusty Durango Upsy Daisies

I hope you are sitting down. Here's another quick & easy card. What a shocker - huh? It uses the same layout as my Yellow Fifth Avenue card. To change it up a bit, I added a scalloped edge to the top layer, used a glue dot to attach a bit of ribbon and stamped the saying on layered punches. I gave the workshop guests a choice of sentiments to use: Happy Birthday, Wonderful Mother, Thinking of you. Don't I just pamper them rotten?

Even though I don't have a picture, some guests stamped the inside corner of the card with daisies and the corner of their card.

Yellow Fifth Avenue Floral

Quick and easy cards have always been a challenge for me. This is card that was made at my Friends & Neighbors Make & Take workshop, and my sister-in-laws workshop. Members also made this card at the Special Touch meeting, and A Place to Belong. It's really made the rounds hasn't it? And with that I say farewell to my (retiring) Summer Sun paper; it is now all gone.

This card is a case of Cindy Baughman's card on Stampin' Connection. Sorry if the link doesn't work for you, it's only for demonstrators. Join my team and you too can have access to Stampin' Connection's showcase of over 65,000+ examples. Stampin' Up! has a couple great specials for new demonstrators, check out my website. My recruit password is BerryPineStampers.

CASEd=Copy And Share Everything. I almost copied everything, only changing three things. The Cindy's background layer was two toned, half white and half yellow. I only did yellow. I also had alternate sayings for my stampers, some made it into a Mother's day card, others used birthday greetings and wedding phrases. Many of my stampers added color to the flower centers for lovely extra added touch.

Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set was 20% off during the month of April. 

Easter Cards

I taught another class on Tues. afternoon (March 23rd) at "A Place to Belong". They were soooooo excited about their creations. They asked the coordinators if I could come back again so they could make Mother's Day and Father's Day cards. I'm booked for May 4th and I am planning to have alternate verses incase Mother's and Father cards are unneeded. You all know that I'm "easy challenged".  Therefore if you see some easy guy cards, I NEED to see them.

A Place to Belong is a social setting for people go to that are having mental difficulties. When demos coined the saying that Stamping is rubber therapy, I don't think this is what they had in mind, but it's right on the mark! Seeing their faces as they look with pride at their cards is priceless. The coordinator said they really look forward to me coming and it's all they talk about for days afterwards. Even though these classes result in no sales, the feeling that I've really made a difference in someone's day is so amazing and fulfilling. And that's therapy for me!

Bunny card details:
7 minutes, 35 seconds is all it took me to make my display card!!! Yeah!! I'm pretty proud of myself about that! When you say chocolate bunnies and baby chicks, it reminds everyone of Easter!

Supplies:
Crushed curry; paper & ink, Chocolate Chip ink, Gold brad, blender pen. The inside is stamped with God's Blessings in chocolate chip ink: Sharing with you the miracle of new hope and new life through the glorious gift of Christ the Lord. They also stamped the little chick and broken egg shell next to the verse. Obviously the yellow envelope is not SU, it's from my before SU stash because I only had enough white ones to give them 1 each. 

Stamping Tips: 

--- Stamp the bunny in the corner  on the whisper white layer before doing the embossing. --- Stamp the inside verse before assembling the card & if you muck it up refold the card so it becomes your front. You can cover up the mucking with your embossed whisper white bunny layer.

Supplies:

Pretty in Pink paper, retired stamp set: 1998 Easter Blessings, retired Raspberry Tart DSP 3"x4",  Mellon Mambo ink, the little flower is from Eastern Blooms, Crystal clear brad. The inside is stamped with God's Blessings in mellon mambo: Blessings brighten when we count them! THANK YOU for blessing my life in such a wonderful way!  White SU envelope. One of the things I so appreciate about doing these classes with "A Place to Belong" is they have provided me with an opportunity and have encouraged me to use retired products. 

To make the flowers: I had them put the punched pieces in the palm of their hand and then rub the petals with the bone folder to add curves. One of the members was worried about the wrinkles in the paper, and I said it made them look like the veins in real flowers. The edges of the flowers are sponged and then attached with dimensionals. My original sample didn't have sponging on the edge of the card, but a couple ladies asked if they could sponge the edges like last time. Then others asked what that meant, so I used my card to show them how it would look. Before long everyone had sponging all over - on every edge you can think of, even the envelopes and the flaps. 

I'm showing two different variations of the same card because one lady had trouble stamping on the inside of the card and smudged the verse. Tip: Stamp your inside verse before embossing the front of the card. This horizontal version of the card has the DSP in the middle to cover up the previously stamped and smudged image. I did this card to show them that there's no mistakes, just revisions in the layout. I think I may even like this one better. If I would have put the saying in the opposite corner it would have looked great vertically also.


Another tip: Never leave home without extra supplies for a couple additional cards.

Inspiration for my cards came from Lisa Reber and Debbie Currier cards on Stampin' Connection. It's an awesome website only for Stamping Up! demonstrators. I'd love to help you sign up to be a demonstrator so you can access to  all the wonderful ideas, examples, and discussions.

What's happened to my brain? Card challenge SCCSC7

My daughter asked me to bring my Big Shot and scalloped square when I was going to visit her. She wanted to make one of those famous Big Shot rag bags. In the meantime during packing, I forgot to grab my sister's birthday card. So once I got to my daughter's house I found myself in need of making the card and was challenged to use only the supplies my daughter had on hand plus my Big Shot with only the scallop square die.


Thankfully Diane Noble had emailed the Stampin' Connection's card sketch challenge SCCSC7 to our SU Diva group (Thanks Diane, it makes it so much easier to find). With the sketch to help with the layout inspiration, my next challenge was to decide on colors. Boy I never realized how much I used my color wheel to help me decide which colors to use together.



Here's my masterpiece! (big grin)
I just love how the new scalloped punch fits inside the Big Shot's scalloped square die.

So what do you think of my limited resources card? Okay it's not so limited, but without my craft room at my fingertips it sure felt that way   ; )

Here's a couple pictures of my daughter and her helper cutting out her butterfly purse:

Notice the butterflies!

I had taken some pictures of the other pieces, but they were blurry. Hopefully over Easter we can get it sewn together for her and I can post the finished purse then.

In the Dog House

Got-ta love Sale-a-bration FREE stamps!

I'm behind on making special cards. My up-upline was pretty ill and I wanted  something special to send her. I was waiting for my "Wellness Wishes" set to come and had planned to use the "Praying for you during your illness" stamp from that set. But this 3-D card is what I ended up with, hope she liked it. Better late than never, right?

Doesn't the SAB paper make for an adorable back drop?

I left the one side of the top un-sticky-taped so I could send it in the mail. I cut off the front flap and folded it in half, then attached it to the back flap. That way it could be assembled like a box without needing to be taped on the bottom. Here's what it looks like going into the envelope. A perfect fit with some room to spare.

This time I actually made two so I could have one for my own display, but her sister ended up having a terrible week and needed to have a tooth pulled because of an infection. I decided she needed a pick me up card, so here it goes off to the mailbox. It's a good thing I never sticky taped mine together. 

Howled R U?

Sorry, I just couldn't resist the title. 

Close your eyes and say it out loud - you'll get it!

Man am I clever or what?  (giggle)  

Sometimes I even surprise myself with how creative I am.

The stamp set "Nature Silhouettes" was calling me to use it for my son's birthday card. The name of their software company name Howling Moon was my inspiration.

It was difficult to get a good picture that showed the Shimmer frost paint sponged on the moon. This card is impressive in real life. Click on the picture to see a larger image. If you look at your screen sideways, it picks up the shimmer - that's so cool that it can do that!

They've recently released another application program called "Upshot" for macs. Earlier this year they were at a game developers software meeting and found out that a significant number of programmers were using his chipmunk physics program which he released as shareware while he was still in high school. They are currently working on additional upgrades for his chipmunk physics program.

I'm so proud of him, and that he had the courage to go after his dream. Thank you for letting me "howl" a little about his accomplishments.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Now I need SU to make a chipmunk stamp.

Special handicap class Valentine cards

I received a panicked phone call asking if I could help out the Community Education handicap class. They wanted me to prepare 2 different cards for 16 adults for that evening's at 5 pm class. 

Here's the two cards I designed for them:

I used retired DSP for these projects. There was a lot of pre-work involved in their projects. The cards were embossed and pre-punched. I also had the hearts already stamped, pre-punched, and stuck on glue dots so all they had to do was peal and stick. They also stamped matching envelopes. For the brocade blue card they stamped matching envelopes with the SAB polka dot hearts. I ended up giving my sample envelope to one of the students. (I'm always running out of the white envelopes.)

It was wonderful seeing them so proud of their projects. When they finished the cards, they sat and asked what card they could make next. Sadly, 2 cards were all I was asked to prepare for them.

Valentine projects, SCCSC3=Easel card

I thought I was off to a good start when the stampers arrived, however I soon found myself laying things down and then not being able to find them. I couldn't believe it when I mislaid the cut card stock for their easel card; I had to re-cut ALL the pieces while the club members worked on their first two projects.

Then when it finally was time to make that card I also mislaid my mat packs . One minute I was taking my mat packs out of my drawer and the next I found myself at the table holding only the piecing tools. Thankfully we quickly found the mis-laid packs and everyone had a good chuckle. It was just one of those days where a good long scream could have helped. 'Know what I mean?

This little gem was a case of ______'s card. I found the directions on her blog, and thought I saved her address. See it really was a day of losing things.  I loved the idea of using the slit punch to hold the card closed.

If this is yours or you know who's card it is,
please let me know so they can get credit for it.

I try to remember to ask my hostesses to pick one of my sample cards that they want to make for their project. It makes planning so much easier when I know what they want to learn. Here's a peak at my "Berry Pine Stamping" display wall.

The hostess picked the black & red card from a SAB swap made by Mary Hophner. Her simple design lends to the card's elegance and the classic colors of black & white with red accents really pop and catch your eye. It's versatile enough that it can be used as a Valentine's Day card or a wedding card depending on the sentiment you stamp inside. Great design Mary, thanks for letting me post your card.

Now for THAT easel card that gave me so much trouble.
For the front / stand up part of the card, I used Stampin' Connections card sketch challenge tagged as SCCSC3. It was created by Diane Nobel who is part of the Design team for Stampin' Connection AND is one of my sister demonstrators from Patsy Waggoner's downline team.

Everyone really enjoy making this card. It was putzy, but that's my speciality even when I try to be simple. Several of the club members talked about bringing it to work the following day to show it off to their office mates. I sometimes think there's an unspoken contest happening between them.

Here's close up  so you can see the details a little better:

My wish for you is your heart is filled with love this Valentine's.
Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day. 

Valentine Cards for "A Place to Belong"

I spent a delightful afternoon at "A Place to Belong" helping 10 women created these 2 valentine cards with matching envelopes. I think it is safe to say the highlight of the class was when they each took a turn at the Big Shot embossing their card fronts. It is now on their wish list for their organization to purchase once grant monies can be found.

The first card was designed by Mary Hophner, I received the card as a SAB swap. The second card used retired Raspberry Tart paper.

They were so excited about their projects that by the time I had left, they had convinced their coordinators to schedule another class to do Easter cards.

A shimmery case

For those that are wondering about the chocolate Crunch bar, it's no longer unharmed. When I was putting cards together on my display board for a workshop, I wanted to display the wrapper, so I just had to eat it. You agree, it would have been too thick to hang, right?

I was inspired by Ellen Kemper's tote to make this hostess gift.

Here's one of the projects the guests made using rub-ons, the elastic cording, and the new SU ornament punch that's available in the Holiday mini catalog:

The hostess wanted her guests to make an ornament for hanging on a tree, so this is what we came up with:

We talked about many simple hand-made gifts and the different options that Stampin' Up! can help you with for the Holidays. For a fast gift and easy gift, I demonstrated how to stamp on candle.

I did stamp shimmer snowflakes in Dashers horns, but once the image was melted into the candle it was extremely difficult to see the shimmer. I would suggest using two-way glue and dazzling diamonds for a more dramatic effect.

Leave a comment if you'd like me to email

specifics for any of these projects.

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle Dawn

Dasher Crunch card - Stepping it up

Remember my Dasher card that was inspired by the Crunch candy bar - well I decided to step it up a couple notches. First I rotated the Baroque Motifs stamp and added Merry Christmas. To mimic the edge of the candy bar, the one end was crimped and punched with the scallop edge punch. The snowflake was stamped before I punched it out. Red fire brads were added to the snowflake and as a collar for Dasher. A real red mat was added as well as embossing the real red stamped images. The final touch was stamping shimmer snowflakes on the brilliant blue background, and whisper white mat.

First my assistant has to check out my work.

Yep, the chocolate is still unharmed and in one piece.

She is still guarding the chocolate,

but I can at least take the picture now.

I'm lovin' the new shimmer inks!

It's like magic, now you see nothing and now you do, depending on the angle of the light.

I don't know if you can see it, but I also stamped some shimmer snowflakes in Dasher antlers. Isn't that cool how it disappears!

Candy inspired card

I've recently joined a group called Stampin' Up Late Night Stampers. And for those that know me - it's the truth, there really is such a group - how totally perfect for me. Click on the name!


After my trouble the previous week I told myself I wasn't going to be doing the last minute dash to my computer and try to upload a card, and yet that's exactly what I did. Squeaking by with only minutes to go, I got it uploaded to the right file this time. Ta Da! 


Last week they had a challenge to create a card using colors from your favorite candy. Unfortunately I ended up being sick during week and blurfing (my word for blog surfing) was the extent of my activity. I loved seeing all the great candy inspired cards. I dreamt of carmel (yum it totally destroys my will power 'til it's gone) and yet strangely this is what I ended up with. 

Stamp set: Dasher, Merry

Inks: Real Red, Whisper White

Paper: Brillant Blue, Real Red, Whisper White

Accessories: White embossing powder, Snowflake punch

If you're wondering why it's not carmel, here's what happened:

When I stopped after church to pick up potatoes and carrots to add to our pot roast supper that I was making for friends, this candy wrapper yelled "Pick Me, Pick Me! I'm a Dasher card". So I tossed it in the cart along with a 100 Grand bar. 


After spending a wonderful afternoon of playing dominos, eating, and talking, our friends left for home. I made some return phone calls and then while cleaning up the kitchen, I found the candy bars. The Crunch bar said "Hurry, Hurry! It's 10:30! You have 90 minutes to copy me and turn me into a card" (I agree it's strange to have candy talking to me and I only had 1/2 a glass of wine at supper, that's the truth. Maybe it was the eggnog). However when I looked at the 100 Grand candy bar, the only inspiration that happened was the feeling of still being sooooo very stuffed after supper and having it topped off with cranberry cake and butter cream sauce and just like that there was a snarf sound it was gone. Oops! That wasn't the inspiration I was looking for - he-he. Please note in the picture: the chocolate is still in it's Crunch wrapper!

I almost gave up when I checked Mary Jo Price-Williams email and I read "12am EST". Since I live in Minnesota, that meant I only had 20 minutes. Eek! 

This would easily a 10 minute card if you don't count: 

--- grabbing the wrong embossing powder and needing to re-stamp the Baroque Motif swirl

--- having my cat decide she needed me to play with her and climbing all over my lap, shoulders, etc

--- then she attacked my scrap of paper that I punched the snowflake out of - spooking herself causing my papers and other things fly all directions as she jumped in the air and tried to run and jump off my desk. 

--- All the while time was tic-tic-tic rapidly disappearing. 


All in all, I'm happy with the card. I struggled for about 30 seconds whether to punch a heart like what was on the candy wrapper or a snowflake. I wish I had taken a picture of the clock or a timer because anyone who knows me is never going to believe that I made a card in less than 10 minutes, much less that I also took a picture and got it uploaded too.

Michelle Dawn

MDS card for iTouch/iPhone programmer son

This card is inspired by their business name Howling Moon Software. Since I am intrigued with other demos punch art; I thought this was a perfect time to use MDS to do some  punch art. First I did a google search on images of howling wolves to use as a model.

WOW it was harder than I thought it would be using the shadows and layering. No matter what I tried - the wolf on the front reminded me of the singing mouse or reindeer head (that other demos have done) on a frogs body. So I used a different image and "punched" another wolf on the inside of the card.  

We're so proud of our son. Their first program was an iTunes "Staff favorite" and now his second program has made the What's Hot list. To find their game, Twilight Golf in iTunes you need to go to the Apps store, then games. They have a free trial version of this game.

I'd love to hear what you think of my first MDS card.

Community Education Classes

This fall I will be offering a series of monthly card classes through Community Education office. 

Each month you will be able to stamp 5 cards which will include each of the following themes: gal, guy, sympathy, seasonal, and just for fun.

I have also scheduled several project classes. Build-A-Bear magnetic paper doll with case and 6 outfits; stamp and decorate a picture frame; create a 6"x 6" mini flip album.

The above display shows examples of the various outfit choices available to make for the Build-A-Bear paper magnet; and the picture frame. I will also be offering a 6" x 6" mini flip album in October. A sample of the album will be posted later.

Dates and times for the classes are posted

on my Stampin' Up! website calendar.