Happy Birthday Wow

I made this card for my son's birthday. Wow, I am having a hard time believing my baby is now 24 years old. I really need to stop referring to him as my baby, he's probably 8 inches taller than I am (and I'm no shorty).

I really like the crisp contrast of the Pacific Point and Kiwi Kiss, with the white accents. I'm always looking for inspiration to make cards that are fast and easy. When I saw this card on my up-up-line's bulletin board, I thought "Ah-ha, I could make that card in less than 10 minutes!" I consider this card a success. 

Stamps: Wow Flowers, Short & Sweet (envelope)

Paper: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White

Ink: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss

Punch: Circles: 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1", and 1/4"; Word Window, Snow Blossom 

Other: Circle Ice brad

I've been cased - How cool is that!

My little lambie card has been copied. What an honor!  Michelle from down under in Australia has copied my card. She has an adorable story about the changes she made in creating her little lamb cards.

My card was also posted on Patsy Waggoner's blog, my second-up-line. When I shared the card in the Definitely Divas shoe-box swap, we were suppose to include an embellishment, so that little lamb is feeling all fancy with a little bow on her head.

I've just gotten home from babysitting my youngest sister's little 6 month old boy who is sick with RSV. Please include all children who are suffering from an illness in you prayers. Thank you.

So glad we are friends

Every weekend my hubby and I look forward to spending time with our friends playing cards or dominoes. We joke that we are in withdrawal if we are unable to get together and it's been more than a week since we last played. I felt the saying "Live with Passion", that comes in this stamp set, was calling out to be used in a Valentine card and it was perfect for the inside of the card for our newlywed friends. 

I love the stamp set "Inspired by Nature"; remember I used it on my little lambie card. I cased this card that Patsy, my 2nd-up-line made. It's crisp clean simplicity glows with elegance and style. 

So when you change the colors of the paper and ink, and the stamped saying, can you still call it a CASED card? Whatever it's called; you can certainly see that my card was directly inspired by her card. 

Triangular Gift Bags

The first time I made a 3-sided gift bag was for a Home Business Christmas  fair. But now trying to fill my new empty shelves, I decided to make a new triangle bag to display for Valentine's. 

While making it, I thought I should submit it in the SoShelli challenge. As I was setting it up to take a picture, I felt it was missing something. I literally only had minutes left before the deadline and I decided to quickly stick a bottle of wine in it. Rip went the bottom corners, and that was the end of trying to do a last minute entry. 

After letting it sit for a while, I decided to try and salvage it. I added the bands at the bottom to hold in and cover up the rips. 

I think that was the finishing touch it needed from the start. 

I'm planning to make an other 
triangle gift bag for Easter. 
I would love to see your 
triangle bags creations. 
Check back next month for 
my post and in the comments
leave a link to your gift bag.

My Craft room

This has been a busy year helping my family with their moving, remodeling, painting, and decorating projects. Plus I have enjoyed helping with the Christmas decorating at church. In January my daughter decided it was my turn to be helped and drove two and a half hours to help me put the boarder in my craft room. Isn't it perfect for a craft room? 

I'm such a recycler (some would say penny pincher) my mom had a shelving unit cut down so it wasn't so deep and I couldn't justify tossing the the shelving pieces that were only 4 inches deep. So with help from my hubby, he cut it in half, so I'd have two short ones. With the addition of angle brackets - ta-da, I had a whole wall of shelves to display cards and projects.

FREE catalog campaign

From February 1- April 30, 2009

Each customer who places a first-time online order through my web site will receive a free Idea Book & Catalog with their order! There is no minimum order amount required, so anyone can take advantage of this offer. Stampin' Up! will be offering a free Idea Book & Catalog with the first 22,000 orders or until April 30, 2009, whichever comes first.

Suggested price:  $9.95 (+ sh & tx)

Love Ewe

Even though it is cold and the snow is waist deep in my yard, with Valentine's day a month away I thought it was time to make a "warm & fuzzy" card to get in the mood. Ok the card is not really fuzzy but sheep are in real life and there's green grass not snow, which feels warm just looking at it. Remember I have snow waist deep in my yard and as I'm writing this it is -29* outside and if you include the wind-chill it is -46* Brrrr! So trust me, this looks warm to us here in Minnesota. 

I’ve fallen in love with the various little punch art sheep that I’ve seen lately on Splitcoaststampers. There are so many variations, I’m not sure who originally created them, but the first scalloped circle punched lamb that I remember seeing was created by Meredith Burnsed.

This is a WOD designed card, "Walking Out the Door", that I came up with to demo and give to my hostesses this past week.

Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Paper: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Basic Gray
Accesories: Top note die, Tombo glue, Join in the Cheer die, Scallop punch, Trio flower punch, 5-petal flower punch, White gel pen, Naturally Serif alphabet die
Techniques: sponging, masking


So here’s the story of how this little card came to be a WOD design:  
As I was loading the car to go to my Sunday afternoon workshop, this image popped into my head. I ran down to my craft room to quickly cranked out a white and red top note, black letters and the “Love” from Join in the Cheer strip die; punched the flowers and scalloped circle. Then I grabbed the Inspired by Nature stamp set and ink and headed off to the workshop. When I arrived at my hostess’s house I found out her little 1 year old daughter is totally in love with sheep. The whole time I was there, she held onto her little fisher price lamb. She was so adorable! Talk about divine intervention and inspiration to change my demonstration at the last minute. The card was a big hit. Did you notice my heart shaped moon?

Just a comment about this stamp set: 

I was surprised and disappointed to see this stamp set end up on the Spring & Summer 2009 dormant list. It is such a versatile set; it's like getting 2 background stamps for the price of one. However when you live in Minnesota and embrace the fall and winter seasons in your creations, flower stamps are not at the top of your wish list. But don't you fret there's no need to worry, even though the set is not in the Spring & Summer '09 catty, you will still be able to purchase it - whew! I'll post the new dormant list on the sidebar after Jan. 18th.

Warm winter wishes to you (that aren't Hot Flashes - whew!)
Michelle Dawn

Pick of the Patch

Last fall when I attended Scrapfest at Mall of America in Minneapolis, I noticed a lot of pumpkin pictures being scrap booked. That's when I started thinking about this title and was surprised no one had used it. I had thought of asking my youngest sister to take a picture of their little boy sitting with pumpkins, but I forgot.

The other day I was looking at some of the pictures my sister had taken and there he was sitting among all the pumpkins. I felt like I was being told to follow through with my idea. After seeing his picture, I decided to alter a picture frame that I had bought for half price at Target after Halloween. 

I water-colored  the leaves with my aqua painter, cut them out and mounted them with glue dots; they are from the "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set. The swirls are from the "Priceless" stamp set and are stamped with Stazon ink. The letters are from "Naturally Serif" Sizzix die cuts. The pumpkins were also water-colored; they are from "Autumn Harvest". While the paper was still somewhat damp, I turned the pumpkins over and rubbed on them to stretch the paper and give them a rounded appearance. They are mounted with double thick dimensionals.

We are so thankful for this precious little life that God has blessed our family with. He is the pick of the patch!

Stamp-A-Stack of Wishes on Sat. Nov. 22 '08

Drum roll please - Ta dum dum dum!

It's been a while since my last Stamp-A-Stack (SAS) class. Even though it's a busy season coming up, I delighted to have requests for another. So grab your pen & mark your calendars on Sat. Nov. 22nd, 

1-4 pm. 

These cards will be in keeping with the theme of the season: fall, Christmas, and the soon approaching winter, but still versible enough to use for birthdays, thinking of you, or as sympathy cards. The class fee will be $10 for a set of 8 cards; 2 each of 4 designs. When you call/email to RSVP let me know how many sets you would like to make.

Star of Wonder ornament

Even though I haven't had time to teach classes, I have done some stamping during the past few months. One of the things I'm rather excited and proud about is the new ornament that I've created out of paper. I showed it to my up-upline Patsy Waggoner and she encouraged me to submit it to Stampin' Up! I have wrote up step by step instructions with pictures. I'm so excited about it. Yes, yes I am. Oh dear, I'm being such a tease - he he! If it makes you feel better I will be having it as one of the projects in my upcoming classes, and then you'll be able to make your very own. Or give me a call if you can't make it to class; we can set a time that you can come over to my place and bring a couple of friends to make one.  I promise this will be an ornament you'll be proud to say "I made it myself".

Update: My "Star of Wonder" ornament has been posted in Stampin' Up!s training area for demonstrators. Woo who!