No Stamping involved!

Can you believe this card has no stamping? All the images and words in this card are SU! rub-ons! How cool is that? It was super easy. I used the popsicle stick applicator to rub on the image, matted it in similar color. I then rubbed the sentiment on my designer paper and used my designer hardware to frame my sentiment. Ribbon and a decorative rub on and voila! my card was completed. Took me about 5 minutes! Very cute and super simple and who wouldn't love to get this cute card?

Well today is my day off from work so I am hoping to get some card time in. I guess that depends on my 2 little ones home. I also am started to cough and my back is achy! I better not be getting sick!

So, I will post later after I get something accomplished!

Thanks for looking!
~melanie :)

Fall in New England!

I LOVE fall in New England! It is so beautiful. Not to mention the fresh, brisk air. I am sad this year though, because it seems half of the leaves have already fallen from the trees.

This card thought is my new favorite card. I made it using all of the "fall" colors. It is all SU! products also. The card Base is Chocolate Chip cardstock ( Love it! ) For the front base I used Dusty Durango and my versa stamp to randomly stamp the leaf image. I colored my tree stamp (Forest Friends stamp set) with my SU markers and stamped it on whisper white paper. Using sponge daubers and my ink pads in Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry I sponged a border around the tree. Matted the image on Crushed Curry and then used 5/8" grossgrain ribbon in Chocolate Chip!

I used my Modern Label Punch to punch out my sentiment.

I am so excited about the inside of my card. I often leave the inside of the card without sentiments, but try to put some design inside. I again used sponge daubers on whisper white paper to make the left edge and then again stamped my leaf stamp, but this time with my Dusty Durango ink pad.

I hope you like this card. I had so much fun making it with my sponge daubers. It makes me want to go outside and play in the leaves. It is sunny here today, so maybe I will get the kids and do just that.

Thanks for looking!

~melanie

Wedding Anniversary

This is a card that I made for a friend of mine at work celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary. The image was stamped and colored with stampin' up! markers. I used the blender pen to pick up color from the marker and place it on the flowers and leaves to create a softer look than coloring directly on the image. The sentiment was colored my coloring the stamp with my marker and stamping on the card.
I love this color paper and ribbon. It is Rich Razzleberry and one of the current SU! "In colors". I LOVE it!
I also used my decorative edge punch to create the pretty boder on the paper.
I was very happy with how this card turned out. It was to her and her hubby from all of us at work, so I hope she and everyone else like it!
Thanks for looking!
~melanie :)

Where has the time gone?

Can you believe it is October already? I have been so busy. I just did my first craft fair today and it was great! I had so much fun and I sold lots of my stuff and it was really great for my self esteem! Everyone was so generous with their positive comments, thank you all!

So, I am posting today pictures of me and my table at my craft fair. It was at Lowell General where I work FT as a nurse. Stamping is my hobby although my husband might say obsession!

Here are some closer looks at my table:

Well, now that the fair is over I am sure my house will be cleaner! I won't have to spend so much time in my craft room locked away! I do have quite a few orders to fill though, so I will still be busy. Christmas time is coming soon! Now that I am doing more, I plan to be updating my blog more often so check back for more projects.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Stampin'

~melanie

It's been a long time...

since I posted any of my projects. I have been making them. In fact I have been very busy getting ready for a craft fair. Unfortunately, my camera broke! I do have a scanner, but the images do not come out very well. I plan on snagging my daughter's camera soon to take pictures though, so keep looking.
Thanks, Will be writing and posting soon!
~melanie :)

Do you really love Blog Candy?

Another amazing stamper/blogger is celebrating Blog accomplishments. Bev Rochester is giving away major blog candy...check out Bev's blog for her amazing prize give away and all of her cool projects.

Do you love Blog Candy?

Who doesn't? If you do...you need to check out Steph's blog. She has an amazing blog candy prize to celebrate her blog milestones. Way to go Steph! While you are there check out her amazing creations.

Pink Cat Studios

I know earlier I told you that I really love Pink Cat Studio stamps. Well, they are introducing a new stamp set on Thursday August 6th. Make sure you stop by to check it out! I can't wait to see it....

Birthday Hero

I know it has been well over a week since I have posted, but I have not had much chance to do any cards or scrap booking lately. Sad I know. And, my digital camera has broken, so the cards that I have made, I had to scan and it does not do them justice. Anyway, this card was made a couple of months ago for my friends son. I just love this card.

This card was for a 3 year old boy. It was a Buzz Lightyear party, so I thought this little super hero was perfect. This card was really very easy to make. I chose Gable Green and Tempting Turquoise because it reminded me of Buzz. And Connor has red hair, so I colored the hero's hair red. This adorable image is from Pink Cat Studio. They really have adorable images. You know I love Lily and Billy stamps! Then I used lots of punches. My CM star punch and circle punch and my SU! Scallop circle punch.

This card was simple to make, came together quickly and I totally love it. Hope you do too. Thanks for looking!

Upsy Daisy

I love this SU! Image Upsy Daisy! It is one of the few solid stamps that I have, because usually I love to color. What I did though is color my stamp. I used my SU! Markers to create multiple colors on one stamp and then breathed some (of my) hot air on the image to make sure it is moist and stamp....voila, multi colored image!

Ingredients:

• cardstock: SU! Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery
• ink: SU! Markers Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue and Garden Green
• accessories: oval punch, scallop oval punch and certainly celery ribbon
  

This card is very simple, but I love the way it came out...one of my favorites!

Thanks for looking!

girly bot

As promised...I have my girly version of a robot card. Again using Lots of Bots set from SU! and new in colors.

Ingredients:

• stamps: SU Lots of Bots
• cardstock: white, SU! basic grey and melon mambo
• DSP: SU! razzleberry
• markers: SU! rich razzleberry, melon mambo, garden green, going grey
• accessories: misc. small flower punch & brad, SU! black 1/4 grosgrain ribbon, SU! scallop border punch, dimensionals

In this set this image actually comes with an I'm sorry message, but when I mounted my stamps, I cut off the sentiments and mounted them on the side of my blocks. I decided not to make an I'm sorry card, but used the get well sentiment from one of the other bots.

I think I did okay with my "girly" design, I proved to my daughter robots are not for boys only!

Thanks for looking. Have a great day!

Happy Birthday Human!

As promised I am sharing a card I made with my new goodies! I stole away from the family this morning and was able to make this cute card.

I made it for a boy birthday, so I wanted to keep it fairly simple. This cute set is Lots of Bots (page 82 of catty) I used new "in color" SU! cardstock... crushed curry and dusty durango on top of a base of basic grey which I used a versa stamp to create the screw and nut background image. This year SU! also has coordinating "in color" markers to match the cardstock and stamp pads, so I used them to color the bot in...crushed curry, dusty durango and bermuda bay!

I could not find my metal gromets that I wanted to use, so I used metal brads for accents. The bot is cut and popped up on dimensionals.

Well, I hope you like. Tomorrow I will have a card that is a "girly robot" as my daughter told me that robots were "boy" things!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Stampin'!

Birthday Bella!

My sister Kim's birthday is July 4th. This year I decided to NOT make her a red, white and blue card...I bet she has had enough of those!

I love bella stamps, this one is cakeabella and she is so cute!

I ALWAYS use Stampin' Up! cardstock, it is so nice and thick and comes in so many colors, this one is Ruby Red. The DSP is also from SU, it is textured and the cherries shine. Unfortunately this DSP is retired, but there are so many new choices in the new catalog!
The sentiment is from SU! set Heard from the Heart (page 142 of new catty)

I then used my SU markers to color the image, I did use 2 markers for her hair and 2 for her apron, I did not like my original color choices so I had to color over them to make a new color. I like the results.

To accessorise this bella, I used a SU! Playground Designer button (pg 181 of catty) and some hemp twine. Popped up on a glue dot and all set!

I really liked the final card! Before I could give it to my sister, the kids knocked it off of the desk, ran it over with the computer chair and then the baby tried to eat off the button! I think Kim loved it anyways!

Thanks for looking!

Another Mother's Day card

This card was made for my mother in law for Mother's Day. I realize that mothers day was like a month and a half ago, but I just downloaded my camera!
I used the same cardstock as for my last card, but I used flowers and brads on this one. I really love the tempting turquoise color, it is becoming one of my favorites. I never would have thought to pair it with red, but I pulled the colors from the designer paper because I loved it. Turqoise and red are one of my new fav combos.
Thanks for looking!
Happy Stampin'
~melanie

Lovely Birds

This is the card I made my mother for Mother's Day. I love these little birds. They are from SU! Cheep Talk stamp set. The paterned paper is from SU! Pink Flamingo set. I decided to pull some colors from the paper to make the card. Cardstock is Pretty in Pink and Tempting Turquoise. Accessories include Real Red Grosgrain 5/8" ribbon and Eyelet border punch. Everything on this card is Stampin' Up!

To add some dimension I stamped the blue bird a second time on white cardstock and then cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals.

I love the final card, and I think my mom did too!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Stampin'

~melanie

NEW CATALOG!!!!!

Stampin' Up! has decided to go back to yearly catalogs. So today is the first day of the new catalog The 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog . I am still waiting to get mine in person, it should be here any day :) , but I have been perusing the catalog online and am so excited. I love the new stamp sets and accessories. I have some on the way to me now, so keep posted for new projects showcasing new products!

Have fun browsing and as always, Happy Stampin'!

~melanie

From All of Us

Last week was my Dad's birthday and I made him this adorable card from my family. I used the fun All in the Family stamp set from SU! and the All in the Family Sentiments. I had a little trouble matching up the arms and heads to the bodies at first, but then I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig and it was so easy! I think that this is our first "family portrait" since the baby was born! I made the card long enough to fit into a legal size envelope, I had some colored envies that I had bought and I figured I would need to make the card long to fit all 7 of us and our cat! I think it is fun to make this size card, it is different and unexpected.

I used my SU! scallop punch and circle punches for mounting the sentiment. The solid cardstock is SU! and the patterned paper is from Pink Cat Studio.

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for looking!

~melanie

Make A Wish!!!!

Everybody knows that I love Pink Cat Studio stamps. Well here is an opportunity to get one of their digital stamps and benefit a great cause. Please click to see these great stamps !
These adorable cowboy/cowgirl stamps will benefit the Make A Wish foundation, a great cause.

Thankyou everyone for looking.
Happy Stampin'

~melanie :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!

This is a card I made for my husband. He is a big kid at heart.
I used this really cute "Billy" image from Pink Cat Studio (fitting too because his name is Bill)
I then colored the image with my SU! markers and drew on grass. The frog has crystal effects to add shine and dimension. The words are from a SU! simply scrappin kit, stickers that I cut up and placed crooked. My husband said it reminded him of a ransom note! Not quite what I intended :)
All in all I like the card, but if I made it again, I would have chosen different patterned paper, the paper itself is kind of boring to go with this lively image.

Thanks for looking and Hoppy Father's Day!

~melanie

With Sympathy

Has it really been a month since I have blogged? Time flies by!

I always find it difficult to make sympathy cards. I need to get some better sentiments. This is the best I could find at the time. It is from an old SU set. The image is from SU! Forest Friends stamp set. I was browsing websites online and I noticed that I liked the cards that used deco paper as a background for the stamped image. This is something that I had never considered before. I really like the results.

I hope the person who recieved this card felt the love that I put into it and gets some comfort.

Thanks for looking.

See you sooner that a month!

~melanie

New Baby

This is the second card that I made with my new Pink Cat Studio stamps. They are so cute and fun. This is the card for my friend who had the baby making her 1st daughter the big sister who is getting the other card...(sounds like a mouthful)

I used paper piecing to make this card, on the shirt. The images are colored with SU markers. I also used my new favorites: oval punch and scallop oval punch for the sentiment. Then I used a pale pink button, also from SU to put next to the sentiment. I had a lot of fun making this card, I hope you like it.

Thanks for looking.

Happy stampin'!

~melanie

Big Sister

I got my new Pink Cat Studio stamps and was so excited to use them. I love this Lily image (I also think it is kind of cute my daughter's name is Lily), so I really wanted to use her. I stamped her with stazon ink and colored her in with SU! markers. I used design paper and cardstock from SU! as well as ribbon. The flowers were punched using my cuttlebug machine. Then I used my new twinkles from Taylored Expressions. They are so cute and little sparkling rhinestones in various colors. I use my SU! crystal effects to adhere the twinkles as the purse handle, center of the flower on her belt, and earrings. I also used it to add dimension to her purse and ponytail holders.

As I was making this card, I decided that I was going to send it to my friends 2 year old daughter because she is a big sister now. I really like it and I hope she does too.

thanks for looking!

~melanie

Scrapbook pages

Okay as I promised I have pictures of my scrapbooking accomplishments. 5 pages this weekend! may not sound like a lot, but it IS definitely!

I really love Stampin Up! Simply Scrappin kits. I used Hoppy Memories (19.95)

They come with cardstock, design paper, and nice thick stickers to work with, all color coordinated.

I did 3 pages from the zoo:

The first page uses only the cardstock and then a few coordinating stickers. On the upper right corner sticker, I journaled a little.

The kids had fun at the zoo, and I took a few animal pics, so I decided to place the animals and the kids eating ice cream on the same page (my sis has the same pic and she used a sticker next to it that was a sign that said "don't feed the animals") Here is close up of the kids:

The next 2 pages show the kids playing on the zoo playground. the word play is actually stickers, the design paper is from the packet. Then I STAMPED on my Scrapbook Pages. This is the first time I have ever done that. I used the lion from the Wild About You set and a monkey from another set that I cannot remember the name of right now. It was fun.

and 2 pages from decorating Easter eggs:

Again, the design paper is from the Hoppy Memories scrappin kit. Then I used Gable Green cardstock for the background, and I used my CM circle cutter to cut Apricot Appeal and Tempting Turquoise cardstock. I again stamped on my pages in Tempting Turquoise ink with the bunny an older SU set. Then I used my CM oval to draw a turquoise oval and line it for journalling. Lastly, I added Prima flowers with SU button centers. Again, I have never used embellishments like this on a scrapbook page, so this was new for me.

Well, thanks for looking! Hope you liked!
~melanie

Dahlia Fold Flower

This card made by my sister Chrissy last time we got together uses the Dahlia Fold technique found here http://www.cardsandcrafts.freeservers.com/dahlia.html It looks really impressive and difficult, but is very easy, just a little time consuming. It works best with double sided designer series paper, here she used paper from SU's Bella Rose collection. She also coordinated cardstock by using Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red. She stamped the image in chocolate chip ink. The pearl used in the middle was actually a bead from a dress or a purse that one of my daughters had that had broken!

I love this card. I am posting it today because 2 of my sisters are coming over tonight for Scrapbook night! I love getting together sharing ideas and sharing creativity. I'll post some of tonight's work this week.

~thanks for looking

~melanie

Thank you!

Allison finally finished her thank you cards for her birthday party from ... gasp..a month ago..!I know we are very late, but they are done and in the mail!

They came out really cute. We used the big cupcake from stampin' up! Simple Birthday Thanks ($17.95) Allison then filled out the names, gifts and signed them herself. I cut out each cupcake and she colored them with her markers. After she used rhinestone stickers to decorate the frosting. I cut out DSP in 4 x 5 1/2 and we glued them on!

This thank you cupcake is so great because the kids can fill in the blanks themselves and do the coloring. We could have gotten more involved with the design, like paper piercing the frosting or crystal effects on the cherry, but it already took us a month to do!

I am pleased and I know all of our family and friends will be too.

thanks for looking

~ melanie and allison :)

Kid's birthday

I have had so many birthdays in the last 2 months. Lots of kids born in March and April!

This card was so easy to make and came out cute...it was for my nephew Jeff who turned 7! this month.
The monkey image is from an old SU hostess set. I stamped it in brown on white cardstock and then again on designer paper (from a pack at Michael's) and again on yellow cardstock. I cut out the parachute from the patterned paper, the suit from the yellow paper and paper pieced them onto the original image. I used a pale green and blue paper from my Creative Memories stash to punch stars with my SU! Large Star Punch. I also used SU ticket corner punch to do the corners of the monkey image.

I just quickly threw this card together and was pleased with the results. Hope you like it too.

thanks for looking!
~melanie

Another birthday card

Again I used the Taylored Expressions challenge TECC62 for my layout.
All of my accessories are stamping up. The card is 41/4 x 4 1/4 in Only Orange and the cupcake image is stamped in this color as well. The image is from the hostess level 1 Darling Dots set. It is circle punched mounted on another circle and the circle scallop punch. The designer paper is from the Rainbow Sherbert paper pack and matted on a square of tempting turqouise cardstock. I used 2 strands of 1/4 inch gross grain ribbon in tempting turqoise and then stamped the sentiment in a Family Phrases stamp.
I really love the bright vibrant colors of this card. I think it would be great for any kid's birthday!
Well thanks for looking!
happy stampin!
~melanie

Hello Again!

Hi, I am back. I have not posted in 3 months, have been super busy!

This last week I have decided to get back into things. I think it is spring and that motivates people to get moving, it certainly has me. I have been doing work on my basement craft room and have made 4 new cards this week for no reason other than wanting to!

I chose to work on birthday cards because I can always use those and sometimes at the last minute I realize I have no cards!

I love Taylored Expressions website http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/ and I really was inspired by her layout challenge TECC62

this is one of the cards I made with it....

This card is made with all Stampin' Up! products:

*I started with a 6 x 12 piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock folded to make a 6X6 card.

*I really wanted to use the polka dot paper from the Rockabilly Specialty paper pack. So I cut it 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 and then cut 2 squares of the red dotted paper from the same pack.

*I stamped the ladybug from the Hostess level 1 set Darling Dots one whisper white cardstock and punched it out in a circle, layered on a circle of black dotted paper and finally layered on a scallop punched riding hood red paper. the center is mounted using dimensionals.

*I really love paper punches and you can see I used alot on this card. I used the horizontal slot punch on the upper left of the card and thread my white 1/4" gross grain ribbon, which I tied in a knot, added a second white knot and a black one.

*The sentiment is stamped from the Happy Everything set. The happy was done with white craft stamp pad, and the everything was done in riding hood red on whisper white paper and punched out with the Word Window punch and adhered to the card with my snail adhesive.

*Inside the card I mounted a piece of 5x5 whisper white paper so I could write inside when I am ready to deliver the card. I stamped another ladybug in the lower right hand corner of the card inside.

I really like this card and I know just who I am going to give it to!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Stampin! and Happy Easter to all!

~melanie

Congratulations

I just found out one of my friends became engaged to be married over Christmastime. I was so excited and I knew I needed to make her a card!
The image is from Stamping Bella. I stamped it in SU! basic black and colored with markers Real Red and Cameo Coral. I used crystal effects to color the entire glass and stem as well as the top of the stirrer. In real life it is very shiny. Paper is Cameo Coral, Real Red, Whisper WHite and Pink Pirouette. The patterned paper is DS paper in real red.
I used the tag corner punch on the white cardstock and the stamped saying is from the set level 3 hostess set Goody Goody Gumdrops.
I had fun making this card, hope you like it!

New Year

It is a new year (well, a week and a half in) and I finally have a little creative motivation.

December was a busy month, with Christmas and Ice storms that left us powerless and with water in our basements (and craft rooms!). But it is 2009 and a new year, all is cleaned up and working on reorganizing.

This weekend was cold and snowy and perfect for staying in. My 5 and 4 year old daughters spent some alone time with mommy and made cards. They came out great. They each chose who to make a card for and one is a birthday card for thier aunt and the other is for another aunt just because they love her.

They did really great and had a lot of fun!