March Stamp n' Snack

Last month I hosted my first card club and had 7 ladies.  Tonight I have 11 -possibly 2 last minute decisions!  That's nearly double and I'm so excited about it!  These ladies had a ton of fun last time.  Tonight we'll be playing with the big shot and I hope they love it as much as I do.  

Last night everyone was in bed by 9 and I still had to come up with 2 more cards and cut everything!  I debated going to bed "early" and thought I would prep this morning.  My husband said he'd help with the boys so I decided I'd crash early too.. For three hours... Sammy was WIDE AWAKE from 12-230am, so I did my cutting then.. 

Love when God has other plans.   My hubby woke up with a fever and is sick in bed.  I wouldn't have had time today.  Let's just pray he's better by 6! I need a "babysitter" :) 

Here are the cards we are making:

At the last class the ladies asked if we could make a sympathy card this month.  Seems we don't have them until we need them.  

Hope you enjoyed these cards.  Thanks for stopping by! Off to clean the house!

-Holly

Sale-a-Bration News!

Well here we are! It's finally March which means two things - Spring is coming and Sale-a-Bration is ending!  You only have 29 more days to earn extra goods!  I do have exciting news today, but I also have some not so exciting news...

First, the good!  This is the perfect time to order those items you've been wishing for AND earn free products at the same time!  Stampin' Up! has released NEW sale-a-bration items that you can order with a qualifying purchase.*

Here are the new items just released:

I personally the vellum pack but they are all great!

It's also a great time to join my team! 

For $99 you get to pick out $125 worth of products (yes, you pick the goodies!) and you will also earn a certain product kit or two sale-a-bration items.  Being a demonstrator doesn't have to involve you hosting parties - YOU can be your own customer as a hobbyist.  You get 20% off your orders and your first order over $150 earns you an extra 10% off!  Stampin' Up! Is a great opportunity to make some extra cash and enjoy the fun that card making and scrapbooking provide! Contact me with any questions!  I'd love to have you on my team!

So as I said.. I do have some disappointing news.  If you're unfamiliar with the markers called Blendabilties, they are alcohol based markers (kind of like Copic markers) that SU released last year.  Unfortunately some packs of markers are being delivered to customers dried out and while SU works on the issue, all orders for blendabilities are shut off - including the Sale-a-Bration blendabilities.  If you have ordered some and they have dried out or arrived dried out, contact Stampin' Up!.  I will continue to use these markers because they are great to color with and well, I've been on a blendabilities kick.. So forgive me!  I'm hoping this all gets worked out and we can order again soon!

Have a blessed beginning to a new week!  

-Holly

Hollywood Squares for a Friend

Yesterday I dusted off an old recipe that I used to make when I was a teen.  It used to be a favorite of my best friend and I and we would make it every once in awhile when we got a sweet tooth.  Oh to have the metabolism of a teenager!  These treats are not one bit heathy! In fact, let's just say I'm too embarrassed to even share the recipe!  

But I was thinking about them this week and thought since it had been years, I would make some.  I needed a thank you gift for a friend too.  She helped bake chicken for Eli's paw patrol party 2 weeks ago.  

I packaged them in one of the Tag a Box gift boxes from Stampin' Up!. These boxes are a great value and you can get many uses out of them!  Remember This box I made for my niece?  A dress fit in it! Anyway, this box was perfect for these squares.  

I wrapped the box with some Best Year Ever DSP from the Sale-a-Bration catalog along with some ribbon.  My favorite part is the tag made with the Handpicked Dies.  They're new and so fun to use! :)  you might not recognize the stamp, but it's from the Num-Num stamp set.  I never thought I'd use this particular stamp because I don't make cake pops, but I found out a way to put it to use!  

Hope you enjoyed these pictures.  Now go wipe up the drool off of your screen.  ;)

Oh, and feel free to pin these! I finally figured out how to add the Pin button on my pictures. :)

-Holly  

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Refresh Renew Rejoice - Prayer Journal

Most mornings I don't get around to my quiet time with The Lord.  I'm not disciplined enough to wake up earlier before the boys do because let's face it, they wake me! EARLY!  Our 8 month old hasn't quite mastered sleeping through the night and his recent ear infection isn't helping.  Needless to say, I'm slacking on my time in His word because I'm so tired.  And I can't say I don't have time to myself because I do.  It's just that I can stamp with noise. 

However, one of my struggles is that I will tell someone I'll pray for them and I forget to add them to my prayer list.  So the thought came to me last night that I should make a prayer journal.  (You know we don't need to always rely on our ipads/computers… we CAN use other forms of note taking.) :)  This way, I can carry it with me and add to it when needed.  

For this journal, I used a new Easter set from Stampin' Up! called Indescribable Gift - perfectly named I think!  I love the look of the flowers!  I stamped the vellum with whisper white craft ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  I then turned the vellum over to color the flowers with blendabilities.  Not only do the colors not wipe off, you can still see the bright white outlines on the other side without them being colored.  (If you were to color on the embossed portion with blendabilities, it would stay colored.)

I also stamped the background of the journal in crumb cake with the flowers and the "Refresh Renew Rejoice" stamp.  I originally stamped and embossed the saying on the journal in Calypso Coral, but they didn't quite match the calypso coral flowers that I colored on the vellum.  I added some linen thread and dimension to the saying and it's done!

Such a sweet reminder that we can be refreshed & renewed because of Jesus and we can Rejoice in His indescribably gift of love!

Have a blessed Friday!
-Holly

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Dusting off the sewing machine!

My friend just had a baby on Sunday night and we anxiously waited to hear if she had a baby boy or girl.  For some reason I felt as though she would have a girl so I made a card on Saturday to send out as soon as we received word.

Lets just say, it's a good thing I don't bet!! Baby Carson was born on Sunday night and he joins his big brother.  He and mom are doing great! :)

But now I needed to make a boy card.  I knew I had a few baby boy bibs that I made this summer and back in September I wrote this post on stamping on fabric.  I wanted to make something out of the box for a ccreative challenge offered by Shelli Gardner (CEO of SU!).  Well, I didn't win, but I'm happy I tried.  I learned 2 things… 1) don't stamp on fabric if you want to actually use/wash this piece of fabric - it will bleed! and 2) leftover pieces that you find months later can be used for cards! 

I'm so glad I figured out number 2!  I was digging through a drawer for the baby bib that I had sewn and found a scrap piece.  I had stamped the fabric with the little bird stamp in pistachio pudding ink.

It's been awhile since I have sewn on a card, so I broke out my sewing machine and gave the card some extra detail.  I love sewing on cards and I don't know why I don't do it more often!

I wanted to bring in some silver too.  The buttons, silver stars and pistachio pudding cards add the perfect amount of dazzle :) 

The birdie and top sentiment are from the hostess set Hello Love and the "it's a boy" is from A Dozen Thoughts. (Both great sets!)  They're embossed in smoky slate and pool party embossing powder.

The inside I used a scrap piece of the pool party DSP and some washi tape.  Punched out a star and I'm done!  

I thoroughly enjoyed making this card.  I love making them extra special for friends.  Congrats K & D!  We love ya!!

Happy Stampin'!

-Holly

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Facebook Giveaway!

To celebrate hitting 300 likes on my Facebook page, I'm giving away this 

Painted Blooms 5pk of cards!  Click on the Facebook icon on the right and follow all three steps on the giveaway post! Winner will be announced Friday! What are you waiting for?? :) 

Another blog challenge - Friday Mashup!

I apparently have too much time on my hands, or it's the fact that the cold temperatures and feet of snow outside, but I'm feeling quite comfortable in my craft room :) I was browsing some blogs and came across another challenge this morning from Friday Mashup. This week you can either do the sketch challenge, an "in flight" theme, or mashup the two and do both.

Here is the sketch:

So I don't quite have the layout for the sketch, but I just so happen to finish this card this morning for my niece and I think a hot air balloon counts as "in flight".  Her birthday is Monday and her card will certainly be late, but she'll be in Disney anyway, so it'll be there waiting when she returns :)

I wanted to use the balloon framelits but did not necessarily plan on the hot air balloon.  But I'm glad I switched gears to match the clouds from the Sweet Dreams DSP from Stampin' Up!  This DSP is cute huh? :) I used crisp cantaloupe and early espresso door the card base.

To get the glitter look I took a sticky round and added strips of the DSP leaving space for glitter. I got this idea here from Jane Lee.  And like she said, you get to wear glitter all day, week, year, eternity. Haha! I think I'm starting to hate glitter as much as my husband.  But hey, it adds a little extra sparkle and what 7 year old doesn't like sparkly stuff? :)

The words I made with the alphabet rotary stamp. It's so worth $10! I've used it many many times lately! The possibilities are endless!

I hope you this inspired you today to get creative!  Try the sketch out yourself! Have a wonderful day!

- Holly

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog