Easter Salads

I spent most of my day making a Jello Ribbon Salad which I will take to a friend's house tomorrow for Easter dinner. It is a long process but you can get a lot done in between the steps. And it looks so fresh and springy! This is a favorite that my sister gave me. She would make it for the holiday meals and it always looks so pretty!

We had our Easter dinner with the daughters and son-in-law last evening so I wanted something a little lighter tonight for supper. It is just DH and I tonight - and he is in the basement riding the stationary bike - so I just put together a big salad for each of us using some of the leftover ham and some hard boiled eggs. I bought 3 dozen eggs to dye - but we didn't get around to doing that - so will have lots of eggs to cook with over the next couple week. DH likes an egg in his salad and it is one of Weight Watcher's power foods :-)

Now that's a salad! Baked ham, hard boiled egg, olives, baby gouda cheese, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, onion, green pepper, and lots of lettuce. It was 10 points (the ham alone is 6) but it was very filling and I am set for the evening.

More Fabric Cards

I've been playing some more with fabric on cards (thanks to sister/upline Jane for some ideas). This flower is made from 4 scalloped circles cut out using the Big Shot.

This is a larger scalloped circle. I like the fabric but I really like the piercing on the Baja Breeze five petal flower. It almost looks like leather.

This one has fabric for the cupcake base and the striped layer. A little bit of glitz with the red glitter paper for the heart/cherry and the background on the sentiment.

This was super easy - but adds a little something to a plain card.

I saw some like these from another demonstrator and had to try it. Very simple using circle and scallop punches.

The Big Shot works so well for cutting the fabric. The flowers are from the Herb Expressions stamp set.

Attempting Bargello

I have known of Bargello for a long time. It is a needlepoint stitch that I have tried in the past - but I had never attempted it with paper before this week. I used some of the Fall Flowers Designer Series Paper that is retired and I had purchased from the Clearance Rack (a great way to get discounted products and many still work with the current colors). I set out to use up the last scraps of that paper and had one fairly good size piece that was striped - so why not try Bargello. For those who have not tried there is a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers. It shows using wider strips of paper but I prefer the narrow ones because it looks more like the needlepoint designs.

For these cards I used Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Sahara Sand and Really Rust (retired) card stock. The ribbon is retired Kraft (Crumb Cake) taffeta. It is not an exact color match but looks good with the other colors. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. The owl stamp is from It's The Thought (retired) and I think I will use this as a graduation card. Hopefully everyone is a little wiser at graduation.

So - having tried that I pulled out some more of my stash of Designer Series Paper (DSP) and played some more.

This card was made using the Sunny Garden.

Thoroughly Modern (retired) also makes some interesting cards.

Blueberry Crisp has some lovely striped paper - the striped paper works best for this technique.

Tall Tales (retired) made some nice backgrounds. I'll be making more of these.

Jolly Holiday worked well and made a nice background and isn't just for Christmas. I think this paper was called Tea Party. It made some nice cards - perfect for Easter!

The Technique Tuesday in May will feature the Bargello technique - won't you join us? May 17.

I've been playing with Stampin Up's fabric and trying to incorporate that into some of my cards. It has been fun! Here are some of the cards I made - but have to save the one I like best because we will do it at the April club and I don't want them to see everything before our get together :-) The fabric is Candy Cane Christmas and was in the Holiday mini catalog but was held over so you can still order it and the Deck the Halls fabric too. I would have never combined these colors but that is what is on the fabric so I tried it, Garden Green, Baja Breeze and Blushing Bride. The stamp set is Elizabeth.

This uses the Pick A Petal and Thank You Kindly stamp sets. I used Cherry Cobbler and Bashful Blue. The striped piece is the fabric.

This is the new Four Frames stamp set. You can order it in April if you place a $20 order. It will come out in the new catalog in July.

And this did not turn out the way I thought it would but I like it. I layered the tiny polka dot fabric (You can barely see it in the lower right of the card) between Baja Breezse card stock and Vellum card stock. I then ran that through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder. The stamp set is Vintage Vogue. I cut out the flowers and curled the petals with the paper piercing tool. The ribbon is Blushing Bride. I used the retired slit punch to make openings in the top layer so I could run the ribbon across and tie a bow without covering the image. These are not colors that I would use but I think I will have to use them more.

Club in April

Here is a teaser for the club that will be meeting the end of April. I promised them (some probably think it was more a threat) that we would make a waterfall card. I wanted to use my Sweet and Sour Designer Series Paper so these are the two I came up with. We will be making the one on the left.
Card Stock: Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Sweet and Sour DSP
Stamp Set: Friends Never Fade, Tart and Tangy
Embellishments: 5/16 inch brads, rhinestone brads, 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon (Rose Red - not available currently), Certainly Celery 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon

Sail Away once more

I sat down intending to duplicate some of the cards I made for Operation Write Home using the Sail Away stamp - but kept getting more ideas for different cards. So far I have made about 20 of these and no two are the same :-) The colors on all of these are Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso and Basic Gray. The DSP is Nautical Expedition. The thin fiber on some of the cards is Baker's Twine. THe DSP , stamp and twine are all in the Summer Mini Catalog which begins on May 1. The ribbon is the 1 1/4 inch striped grosgrain in Real Red. The twine is something I had on hand from before Stampin Up. The brads are Pewter and part of the Metallic set.

The Happy Birthday is from the Punch Bunch set from Sale-a-bration.

The 'happy birthday' is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

I got this idea from the summer mini. I did two images - one on Crumb Cake and one on Very Vanilla. I cut out the body of the boat and the sails from the Very Vanilla and mounting them on the Crumb Cake image by cutting dimensionals into small pieces. I cut too much off the top so could not finish it the way it was pictured in the catalog. So I will have to try that again :-)

I lined the inside of the Early Espresso card with a piece of Very Vanilla. I made a sailboat watermark on that using Versamark ink. I can't wait until May 1 so I can do workshops with this stamp and these great products!

Cleaning out some scraps

I told myself I could not make any other cards until I used up some of my retired scraps - namely the Fall Flowers DSP. This paper coordinates with Old Olive and Sahara Sand in the current colors, Really Rust and Soft Sky in the retired colors. I never did have any Soft Sky but did have some odd sheets of Really Rust or Dusty Durango (very similar) so had to use those up too. I did a few just random cards and then had so many small scraps I just decided to make pinwheels - 16 to be exact :-) However, I did come up with some different ideas for the pinwheels. These were mounted on card stock or DSP and I used the linen thread to add an accent. I had some old buttons and one of the sets had the Really Rust and Old Olive buttons - what luck!

To make the pinwheel you use 2 squares of card stock as the base (You can check out my tutorail here - for the ones I made today I used 1 inch squares of DSP and 2 1/4 inch for the base squares) On a couple I decided to take some slightly larger squares and make a second base to add a contrasting frame. This one used 2 1/4 inch squares of Old Olive for the base squares and then 2 3/4 inch squares of Sahara Sand for the frame.

These just demonstrate different ways to use ribbon. I had some 5/8 inch grograin Old Olive ribbon that I used on these. The one of the left has the ribbon gathered by attaching a strip of Sticky Strip then just scrunching up the ribbon as you adhere it across the card.

The middle one had the ribbon wrapped and then a short piece of ribbon tied to that to make a faux bow. For the one on the right I tied a knot in the ribbon and then attached it to the card.

For these I used the ribbon punch and mounted that on a strip of solid card stock.

The one on the right shows a little different way of using the three different oval sizes to mount a sentiment. I like the 'off-centered' look.

So - what fun - right? One package of retired paper down and about 20 more to go. Of course, there are more on the clearance rack - maybe I should stock up!!!

Occasions Mini Ends Soon!

Hurry before they are gone! April 30 is the last day you can order items from the Occasions Mini Catalog. You won't want to miss these goodies if you haven't already ordered them. (Or if you need to get more :-)

Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper, Big Designer Buttons, Framed Tulip embossing folder Red glitter paper - a great way to add some sparkle without the mess of glitter. Seam binding and adornments. There is still time to get a 'share' of the seam binding, adornments, buttons and designer series paper - for details see Shares and Swaps These last two cards were made by my sister and upline. You can see more of her talent at her blog, Buzzin' by Bee Jane.

Create a Cupcake stamp set and Build a Cupcake punch.

Build a Blossom stamp set and Blossom Petals Punch.

Contact me today to get yours before they are gone! Email Mary

Just can't get enough!

I just can't get enough of the nautical theme - and what a better theme for some Father's Day cards for the Operation Write Home Father's Day challenge I stamped up 6 ships and then designed these in no time.

The acrylic block background works so well with the boat stamp. It can look like clouds or even a stormy sky. Stamp Set: Sail Away (from the summer mini catalog - available May 1) Teeny Tiny Wishes

Card Stock: Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Nautical Expedition DSP (from the summer mini catalog)

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue

Embellishment: Baker's Twine (from the summer mini catalog)

Punches: Tag punch - both sizes, Crop-a-dile

On the Cherry Cobbler paper for this one I used Versamark and a small star from the Seeing Stars stamp set to make a random design.

This uses a sheet of the Nautical Expedition DSP. Next time I will use Crumb Cake ink as the background for the stamped image to try to blend it a little more with the DSP coloring. The ribbon is a retired Real Red grosgrain.

And another sheet of the Nautical Expedition DSP with the retired Real Red ribbon. After tearing the DSP I rubbed some Early Espresso ink along the edge.

Another sheet of the Nautical Expedition DSP was used here. This one has several knots scattered throughout the design so it was fairly simple to line one up so you could see it on the card.

And for this one I tore the edges of the Whisper White and rolled them using the side of the paper piercing tool. I did the faux suede technique on the Real Red and then tore along the bottom edge. I did stamp Happy Father's Day using the Frost White shimmer paint. It shows up much better in real life.

Hope you have enjoyed my little sneak preview. I will most likely be planning a share for some items in the summer mini - probably a combination of the baker's twine and the DSP. Watch for details after May 1.

New toys and an old favorite!

I finally got some stampin' time - have been wanting to try this idea for over a year and finally got around to it.



Retired Stamp Set: Branch Out
Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Crop-a-dile, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch
Card Stock: Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi Embellishments: Large Eyelet, Linen Thread


And this is using some of my new products - available in the summer mini. One of the great things about being a demonstrator is getting to order new products before they are available to everyone else!
Stamp Set: Sail Away (from the summer mini catalog)
Card Stock: Night of Navy, Riding Hood Red, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Bashful Blue
Embellishment: Baker's Twine (from the summer mini catalog)



Another using the same colors and stamp set. This also uses Early Espresso ink nad some retired buttons that I had. I wanted the buttons to be raised so I could wrap the twine under them so I put in some large brads and then used a mini glue dot to adhere the button to the brad. It worked well.



And a little different color scheme.
Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Brocade Blue
Buttons: Retired

I love the Sail Away stamp! I will be making more of these for birthdays, get well, retirement - the possibilities are endless !

Technique Tuesday - Acrylic Block Background

I have been playing with using the acrylic blocks to create a background for the Technique Tuesday in April (April 19) - here are some of my experiments. Which do you like?

Card stock: Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Crumb Cake

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake

Stamp Set: Fast and Fabulous, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ribbon and Button - Retired

Card stock: Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Crumb Cake

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake

Stamp Set: Fast and Fabulous, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ribbon and Button - Retired

Card Stock: So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White

Stamp Set: Elements of Style

Ink: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist

Ribbon: Retired

Card Stock: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla

Ink: Bashful Blue, Cajun Craze

Stamp Set: Herb Expressions

Card Stock: Very Vanilla

Ink: Wild Wasabi, So Saffron

Stamp Set: Herb Expression

Card Stock: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi

Stamp Set: Itty Bitty Bits

Ribbon: Retired

Card Stock: So Saffron, Soft Suede, Whisper White

Ink: So Saffron, Soft Suede

Ribbon: Retired