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!

I found my camera cable! Hooray!

This is a picture of a card I made for my sister's birthday. I knew that I wanted to do a Spiral Pop up Card. I read the tutorial on this on www.splitpoststampers.com. Here is a link to the tutorial http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/spiral_pop_up_card. It is really easy and very impressive.

For the card, I used Stampin Up! materials. Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White and Chocolate Chip paper.

I used a piece of Pacific Point 8 1/2 x 11 paper and cut it at 5 1/2 inches to make a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 piece and then folded to produce a standard 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 card.

Then I cut a piece of Tangerine tango paper 4 1/4 by approx. 2 inches. I used the scallop border punch to do the edging. I decided to use a versa stamp pad with one of the Wow Flowers Stamps to make the tangerine paper look like a table cloth.

The cupcake stand image is from the Crazy for Cupcakes set. It is stamped in basic black and colored with markers: Real Red, Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac and Cameo Coral. The silver is actually a CM silver pen. The words were stamped in Chocolate Chip.

The images inside the card were stamped from the Party Hearty stamp set and then cut out. I used SU markers to color the stamp itself to produce the colored images without needing different color stamp pads. It is an easy and inexpensive way to make multicolor images or even to stamp images in colors that you do not have stamp pads in. The stars were also using a CM product, the small star punch.

I think this card came out so cute and was not very difficult at all.

Well, thanks for looking.

Happy Stampin'

~melanie

Okay, I still cannot locate my camera cable! So, I scanned this card, the colors came out so dull! In real life it is so bright!
This is the card I made for my daughter Lily for her 4th birthday. We had a cupcake party. It was so much fun. All the kids got to decorate and take home 4 cupcakes, we had different color frosting and candies for on top. Anyway, the card was made using:
card stock - whisper white, yo yo yellow, lovely lilac and pink passion
ink pads- basic black and whisper white stamp pads
marker colors - pink passion, tempting turquoise, yo yo yellow and lovely lilac
accessories - purple eyelets, crystal effects and orchid fine cosmo glitter
I wish you could see this card in person, it is really so much more impressive. I need to find that camera cable!
Thanks for looking!
~melanie

Almost a month!

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I have blogged anything! Time flies. I have just been so busy and then sick with a cold/sore throat for a week. Now am feeling much better. I have worked on a few things , but I cannot find the cable for my digital camera! I need to find that to download my pics. I will either locate that cord or scan with my printer soon. Sorry~
~melanie

I've got an award!

My friend Selene http://stampinfunwithselene.blogspot.com has honored me with this award! This is my very first BLOG award!!!! I know I have mentioned Selene in my blog, she is very talented and very crafty :) check out her blog to see what I mean!

Now, this award comes with an assignment. I have to do the following:
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from (see the link above)
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.
Here are my selections in no particular order:

http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/

http://www.stephsstampinstuff.blogspot.com/

http://melaniemuenchinger.blogspot.com/

http://reneevs.blogspot.com/

http://livingituponthenorthstar.blogspot.com/

http://bevithia.blogspot.com/

http://stampadoodledoo.blogspot.com/

these are the blogs I check out daily or every other day and drool over their designs.

So, thanks again Selene!

Everyone else if you want to be inspired, these are 8 blogs definitely worth looking at!
happy stampin'

~melanie

I have to say that this cute box was CASED from a friend of mine... Selene (http://stampinfunwithselene.blogspot.com). She had this really cute box called and she was calling it birthday in a box. It contained a hostess cupcake a candle and a pack of matches. I thought that was so cute that I wanted to make one for my friend. I used Kiwi Kiss card stock and Riding Hood Red. I did not have dimensions for the box, so I kind of winged it. I used my scallop edge punch (NEW) to make the scallop edge on the top of the box and I also used it on the Bella Rose DP on top. I punched a Kiwi Kiss circle scallop, a riding hood red circle and then a smaller Pink Pirouette paper. The saying is stamped in Kiwi Kiss using an older SU! set - it says Joyful Wishes. Lastly, I used a piece of 5/8 inch grosgrain in Regal Rose to tie around the box. I think it is such a cute idea, thanks Selene!

Oh, I am also very happy to say that I have replaced my stolen cell phone and now I am reachable again. Sorry to any inconvenience to anyone.

I have had a little stamp time this week, so I plan to post more later. I have my daughter Lily's bday invites and her card to show using great new cupcake stamps! fun! And am working on a great composition notebook for my stepdaughter Emily.

happy stampin'

~melanie

MY ORDER HAS ARRIVED!!!

Today was a great day! Not only did my daughter have her first day of kindergarten: See Allison getting on the school bus here:

but...my SU order came. This was my first purchase from the new catalog and I am really loving the stuff. I spent my afternoon (while the kids were napping) sorting stuff and mounting my stamp sets! I am so excited, I cannot wait to play with my new goodies! I will be working on my daughter Lily's birthday invitations tonight. I have made some of the cards so far, but was waiting for my new stamp sets and supplies to completed them. Stay in touch for them and all the other new goodies I will be having fun making!

Congratulations Allison on your first day! I am so proud of you for taking the bus and going to school alone, you are really such a big girl now!

~melanie

Ahoy Matey!

I love this little pirate! He is too cute. I had been eyeing him for a while. This is my first card with him. I stamped him and colored him with my SU markers, but I colored outside of the lines! So, I took my scissors to him and cut him out. Then I used the matching treasure map wheel to decorate the Kraft paper. I placed him on top of the paper and put his parrot in the upper right corner. I used a piece of yellow paper to make an X for the treasure map. I used the Family Phrases stamp set to stamp in Real Red the happy birthday sentiment. Then I stamped and colored the corner of the envelope. I love how this card turned out, especially since it is better than the card I was originally planning!

My sister Kim saw the mini album I made for my mother for Mother's day and decided that she needed to make some of her own for her in-laws. She is in Ireland right now and she made these great mini books to bring to her husbands family. She used one of the Simply Scrappin' kits from Stampin' Up! and some 12 x 12 whisper white cardstock and this is what she came up with! Isn't it great? I love the Simply Scrappin' kits because they come with 2 colors of textured cardstock, 3 designs of double sided patterned paper and 3 design sheets of cardstock stickers. She made 3 of these mini albums with lots of leftovers for other projects. Hopefully she will take lots of photos and Ireland and make a scrapbook! For these books, she was planning to put pictures of her 2 children on the first page and then leave the others open for the recipient to fill with photos they take of the kids during the trip. Her kids are 2 and 6 months and this is their first trip to Ireland, as well as my sisters, where there father comes from. Some of the family has never met them, so this is a very special trip. I wish them a great time and I cannot wait to hear about the trip!