New IN Colors Preview

Here are a few cards made with some items from the new annual catalog from Stampin Up.  These items (and many more new products) will be available June 1.   Come to my open house on June 1 to see them all 'in person'. 



 I used the new hostess stamp set, Summer Afternoon, on all of these cards.  Also the new IN color card stock and inks,  Gumball Green,  Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ice, and Midnight Muse. Don't you love those names?
The ribbon is also available in all those 5 IN colors. 

 Here I added some of the crochet lace ribbon.  The sentiments is from the On Your Birthday set which is retiring.

 Isn't that a cute little puppy?  This is a paper-pieced card.  I stamped the image on the Primrose Petals and also on Whisper White.  I colored the puppy on the white and cut it out to layer on the Primrose Petals.  It makes a cute vocal point. 
The sentiment is from On Your Birthday.  The banner is cut using some new framelits.

And the third image in the Summer Afternoon stamp set.  This reminds me of a my brother and sister-in-law's wedding celebration.  They had a big party at her parents' house in the country and there was a swing like this in the yard.  At least six of the young cousins - maybe more - all crammed together in the swing and did the Ee-Ahhh for the camera. 

The background paper on this card is some of the new Designer Series Paper. 

And one more.  Can't wait to see what other demos do with these colors and products. 



Clearing out more paper

After the busy day in the kitchen I decided I definitely needed some craft time.  Since my pre-order of the new IN colors and products did not arrive yesterday :-(  I grabbed some scrapbook papers I had purchased and some that were from a scrapbook calender I got for Christmas a couple years ago.  I have lots of that non-SU paper to use up (I will have to live to about 150 if I am going to use it all up).

While some of the paper is cute and the colors are close to SU colors, the paper is not of the same quality.  It is thinner and not as easy to work with. If you adhere it to the wrong spot (even if you don't press it down to secure it) there is not way to pull it off without tearing it.  (Don't ask me how I know )

 I had a full 12 x 12 sheet of this kite paper.  Thought I better use it up while I still had Jane's Send Me Soaring stamp set. 

 Something a little different with the tag punch and the tiny tag.   I believe one of the tag punches is retiring. 



For some of the cards I did not use the stamp set but just let the paper speak for itself :-)   here I used the Lucky Limeade ribbon and brad to create a focal point.

 These young ladies were from the scrapbook calendar.  I thought they look rather "French" and had some samples of the background stamp En Francais that a fellow demo sent when she granted my 'wish'.   These really worked up quickly and thought some young lady might enjoy.

 I had a couple pieces of this graduation paper - and it IS that time of year.   None of the SU paper matched the purple but the So Saffron and Basic Black worked well.

 This is some really fun paper.  Who doesn't like pizza ?  Riding Hood Red and More Mustard matched fairly close.

 I wound up with a few pieces that were narrow.   A very simple card - sometimes that is all you need.

I used the pennant punch to go with the triangular slices of pizza.  
I was able to sit down amd make 24 cards rather quickly so I am stocked up for the all those graduation parties and those cards that I don't need will make great brithday cards.

Thanks for stopping in!

Three hours = 10 meals in the freezer

I got energetic and made up some freezer meals today.  The recipes are from Saving Dinner. I have used these before with my sister, Jane. I think one time we did about 30 meals each over a weekend.  I only did 10 today.   I purchased a subscription where I get 10 new recipes each month - this month was chicken. 

Here are most of the ingredients after I did the prep - cutting and dicing veggies.  Each recipe used about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken so I looked like I was have a big barbecue when I did my shopping yesterday - 8 packages of chicken breasts and chicken tenderloins.  Some of the recipes use the whole chicken breasts, some used strips (I used the tenderloins for those - less cutting) and some required I cut it up into 1 inch cubes.  I started with the ones that used the whole breasts because if I had miscalculated on the amount of chicken it would be easier to 'adjust' the 1 inch cubes than a whole breast :-)  As it turned out I used only 1 lb of the cubes for a couple stew recipes so I had enough chicken left to make some Thai Chicken in the crock pot for supper. 

 Some of the ingredients -  3 cups of diced onions and 1 cup chopped.  So thankful for my Pampered Chef chopper.  2 chopped jalapenos - I wore gloves but the 'fumes' about got to me - definitely opened up my sinuses.  Diced carrots, tomatoes, celery and green pepper.   Lemonade concentrate, pineapple juice, brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate.   And some peanut butter, honey, apricot preserves, sesame oil and soy sauce.  
That does not include all the spices.  Saving dinner recipes use a lot of spices and interesting ingredients like Thai Chili Paste.

And 4 hours later - meals are all in the freezer, dinner in the crock pots and kitchen is clean.   You should have seen the mess.  The worst was a cup of chicken broth spilled down the dishwasher front and on the floor.  Buddy got a treat :-)  I don't know why she has you put 8 cups of chicken broth in the bag with the stew ingredients.  It was sure hard to handle and get it air tight and zipped up.   Next time I will put a cup or two in the bag to blend with the veggies and then make a note to add the other 6 cups when I cook the stew. 
And only 1 casualty.  I dropped a couple clean Corelle saucers and one shattered all over the counter.  Thankfully there was no open food around or I would have had to toss it as the saucer shattered into slivers.   I was done with the meals and emptying the dishwasher - of course it was a clean dish that broke! 
And in the two crockpots -One has Aloo gobi (I understand it is an Indian dish - potatoes and cauliflower with a spicy tomato sauce) and Thai chicken in the other.   I 'm pretty sure I should have some pita bread or coucous or something to go with it all - but not tonight.  This lady is done cooking for the day.   And I think a blizzard is headed this way tonight  - the DQ kind. 

Soaring Away

I have been playing with the Send Me Soaring stamp set.  I do not own it but have one on loan from my sister until the end of May so thought I better get some use out of it.  This was one of the stamp sets in the Occasions Mini (sorry no longer available) and several of my customers purchased it so maybe they will try some of these.  I got the ideas for these cards from other demonstrators on the Stampin Up demonstrators website.   I also challenged myself to use only the card stock that I had in my scraps box (waiting to be sorted and put away).

 These first three were CASED (or inspired since only the first one resembles her layout)  from Brenna Anderson.  I tried to make cards that I can use for graduation or birthdays.  It's that time of year :-)

And a little variation here. 

And a little more variation here.

This one was inspired by Carol Millay.  The clouds are stamped and then cut out of Bashful Blue paper that was embossed with a retired floral impression pad.   The DSP is Nursery Nest which will retire June 1.  Get it while you can!

And a card designed by Julie Marshall inspired this one.  It was a little bit of a pain to glue down the baker's twine.  I used a little of the liquid Tombow and rubbed it on the underside of the twine in a couple spots.  That seems to be working.

There are a few more that I want to copy but that was enough today.  I also recently played with some images I received as a Wish List item from another demo.   I liked some cards I saw recently with this set and actually wound up ordering it for myself. 

The stamp set is Patterned Party and it will be around at least for another year.  When I get my set later this week I will have to post some more cards :-)  I tried some color combos from the Color Coach using Tempting Turquoise.

Summer Smooch Preview

Before Club this morning, I realized I had not made many cards showcasing the Summer Smooch paper and Bright Blossoms stamp set that are available this month as a preview of the new catalog that will be coming out in June.  So I got busy......



 This was a quick one using some Delightful Delight, Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango card stock.  Added a little Rich Razzleberry ribbon.

 Since I had the templates for the dial ready for the club for the kite card (see previous posts)  I changed it up a little and used the flowers in a vase.   Here the flower is in Read Red.

 Now it has changed to a tulip I guess, in Tangerine Tango.  It really whipped up fast with the template.   (The kite card went pretty well at club except when I opened up the Lucky Limeade and the stamp pad came apart and landed ink side down on my sample card AND the demo card - ARGHH!)

 This is a simple one - you can not see htem very well but there are score lines along the bottom that break around the image.

And this one has diagonal score lines making a diamond background design on the white mat piece.  I used the Rock and Roll technique on the tulips.

Did you miss ordering these in April?  Don't worry they will be back June 1.

Soaring Kites

This is the other card for the club on Saturday. It is CASED from a card we made at the regional convention in Milwaukee.  I don't have the Send Me Soaring stamp set but my sister (and upline) loaned me hers for a month or so. 

 The kite is stamped on a 3 inch circle of Whisper White card stock that is anchored with a mini- brad in the center.  You can turn the wheel and change the kite as you desire.  The colors used are Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo and Basic Gray.

 A turn of the wheel and you have a different kite.  A piece of Baker's twine is tied in a bow and added to the kite's tail.  I am thinking this would make a great graduation card.

 And another turn and you have a third kite.  Wouldn't this be a fun card to receive?   I think I will make some birthday cards like this too before I have to return her stamp set.

This is the card we made at the regional convention.  It takes the longer, narrow envelopes which I did not have so I tweaked the design to make a card that fit the standard invitation envelopes.  I wound up actually tearing this card apart to make get my card to work - and then put it back together again.  The dimensionals used to attach the front to the base made it easy to dismantle without tearing the card stock.

Card Club Designs

These are two designs for the Card Club on Saturday.  For #3 I will be casing a card we made at the regional conference.

This card features the Summer Smooches DSP.  There are so many bright designs, how can you not love it ??   Stamp sets used are Flower Fest (retiring June 1) and On Your Birthday. I CASED this card from Connie Babbert at Inkspired Treasures.

This is a small gift card using the Kindness Matters stamp set and the diagonal scoring plate to make the envelope.  I also put a square of Very Vanilla on the back of the gift card to write a short note and sign the card.

As I said the third card is one we made at the regional conference.  I still have to get my 'version' finalized :-)   I'll post it after Card Club - don't want to ruin the surprise.