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!

Another "new stamp" card

I made this card with two of SU! new stamp sets: the saying is from Heard from the Heart and the circle stamp is from Wow Flowers.
I stamped the circle in Tangerine Tango and used the circle punch to cut it out. Then I used Kiwi Kiss to punch a larger circle. They are mounted on dimensionals and placed on a Whisper White scallop punch.
The main card is Tangerine Tango. I cut an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper lengthwise on 4 1/4 to give me a 4 1/4 x 11 piece of card stock. I folded it to create a traditional size 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card but in a nontraditional layout. I then used my new scallop punch to cut one end of the 4 1/4 end to create a scalloped edge. I then cut a piece of whisper white paper to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 to mount to the inside right of my card. When the card is closed the white edge shows behind the scallop side.
Then I cut 2 ribbons and tied them around the inside of the card to the left of the front.
The saying is stamped inside the card in kiwi kiss.
Thanks for looking!
~melanie

Stampin' with the kids

We had a stamping party at my house a couple of weeks ago with my niece and my sisters.

This is my daughter Allison and my niece Megan with the cards that they made. They had so much fun and they made their cards so intricate. We used the pirate stamp set and wheel from stampin up. They decided after taking the picture that the cards were not done and colored in every detail afterwards. Ally's completed card is here.

The kids had so much fun using the stamps and the markers. These cards were for a party we had the next day. Megan also made a couple of other cards and decorated a baby formula container to put in her bedroom for storing small objects:

I really was so impressed with the attention and details they put into their work as well as to the level of creativity involved. Great job guys!

~melanie

New Ideas Book and Catalog from SU! Now available!

OMG! I love it! Today is the day the new SU Ideas Book and Catalog is available and I want everything in it! There are great new stamps and awesome new In Colors papers and stamp sets. Also, lots of cool new accessories and papers. Check out the scrapbook sets... love them!

So how do you see the new catalog? go to www.stampinup.com and check it out!

How do you get a new catalog? Host a workshop in your house or a catalog party. Also available for purchase for 9.95 each

Now for the fun stuff:
1. Stampin' Up! is having a Never Before Seen Stamp sale. Select sets are 15% off for a limited time. http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/11559.asp
2. Mass is having a tax free weekend, this weekend (August 16th and 17th). I will be placing an order on Sunday the 17th at 5 pm. Call me this week and I will order your goodies with no sales tax on Sunday (we also accept CC payments now)
3. And my own promo: To celebrate the new catty, if you place an order with me this week over $45. you get an 8x10 pack of cardstock (24 sheets) in any of the new in colors of your choice. Tangerine Tango, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss or Pacific Point

Take advantage of one of the offers, or take advantage of all three: order new stamps at 15% off by Sunday and spend $45, get free paper and no sales tax!

So check out the new catalog and call me soon. (You will need to call me on my home phone in the eves 978-649-1853 and not on my cell as listed beside, as I was robbed this past weekend and my cell was stolen along with my ipod out of my car in my own driveway! :( or you can email me and tell me when and how to best reach you)

Happy stampin'!
~melanie

Celebrate!

I love to make cards to celebrate special occasions. This card was made for my friend who was to start a new job:

My background paper is wild wasabi from stampin up. I then used my craft white pad to stamp a background stamp randomly around. The patterned paper was from a pack I got at Michael's. I used my bella stamp with the martini glass, colored the glass green to make an appletini. Then I used SU! crystal effects to go over the glass and also the hair. Her Jeans are water colored for the 2 tone effect. The spiral and the frame are SU! hodgepodge hardware in pewter. I hand wrote congratulations in.

I really love the bella images. They are so fun and trendy!

Thanks for stopping by

~melanie

Summer Fruit

Don't you just love a juicy orange in the summer? I saw this stamp from the Tart and Tangy stamp set and thought oranges! Then I saw other cards made with this set using the stamp to make lemons and limes and I thought - great idea! See sometimes I just don't think outside the box. So I made an orange, a lime and a pink grapefruit! I used the circle punch to cut out each image and then matted on yo yo yellow squares. The polka dot paper behind the stamps and then a quick happy joyful birthday stamp and all done! A quick cute card perfect for a summer birthday.
It does not have to be complicated or time involved to be handmade and from the heart.
happy stampin'
~melanie

Sneak Peek

Okay, here it is... the first card I made with my new stamp set.! The one that is not even available yet. This is your sneak peak to the new catalog ( coming August 11th!).

Okay, let me tell you a little about this card. I really wanted to use my new stamp set, the new in colors and only SU! stuff.
So.... I used very vanilla cardstock for the card base (standard card size - folded to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches). Then I wanted to use the paper from the new Bella Rose Designer Series paper pack, so I cut a piece 3 3/4 x 5 inches to center on the vanilla cardstock.
The ribbon is Regal Rose 5/8 inch grosgrain ribbon.
Then I cut a piece of the new Kiwi Kiss paper in a rectangle. I used my Old Olive pen to make foux stitching in 2 corners.
The stamp is from the Dreams Du Jour stamp set, stamped on vanilla cardstock in Kiwi Kiss ink, then colored with old olive on the leaves and for the flowers I used 2 markers and overlapped them to get the dark pink color I wanted - pink passion and cameo coral.
I matted the stamped image on Pink Pirouette paper and then placed it on the Kiwi Kiss rectangle using dimensionals.
I really had no plan for this card, other than wanting to use only new stuff. I fiddled with it for over a half an hour and then ended up with this. I really do like the end result though, and I hope you do too.
Keep posted for further sneak peeks!
~ melanie

Really cool!!!

I just got my new SU! stuff today! I am so excited, I can't wait to use my new stamp sets. The best part is THEY ARE DIE CUT! All of SU new stamp sets will now be die cut. I literally put 4 stamp sets together in 15 minutes! So cool. Keep posted for pics of new stamp sets! Sneak peeks coming soon....