Howdy folks!

As promised, here’s another layout from my Crop n’ Cards class! I wish I would have taken some close up shots of this or at least zoomed and cropped on the cute elements. Unfortunately, the original photo was deleted during an "emergency memory delete"  during my niece’s birthday party pony ride highlight! (Why is it that the memory is full message comes up during the most CRITICAL times! ha ha ha!) And, I’m swamped so I don’t have time to take another and edit it.

I purposely left the baby rattle element from the absolutely fabulous and versatile Something Sweet stamp set ( in the upper left) blank in the center so you could crop in a photo if you want. Or, some of my stampers put a punched star in there just like the card below. On the upper right, I used a small square glassine envelope from the current mini catalog to tuck in a fun little pocket for memories or a lock of hair or a tooth–whatever special keepsake you want to save! I stamped "A star is born" from the "Picture This" hostess set also in the mini. All the other word embellishments are from the Little Angel stamp set. I’m really going to miss all the wonderful products in the Ocassions Mini catalog, aren’t you!? If there’s any favorites you haven’t purchased yet, NOW’S THE TIME!! )

Here’s the coordinating card from class:

As you can see, I used blue in the layout and pink in the card. I arranged for my stampers to be able to use either color depending on their needs for the layout and the card. Are they spoiled or what? (I LOVE MY CUSTOMERS!! Spoiling them is fun!) You can see that I used the Little Angel stamp set words as a "background" of sorts on the right hand side of the card. My customers could choose from pink or blue ribbon and pink and blue scraps and inks were also available. I also used So Saffron Print Patterns designer paper for both the layout and card with the Scallop border punch to provide just the right whimsical touch!

Well, gotta start packing! If you’re reading this post on Sunday, April 25–I’m on my way or IN Puerto Rico ready to set sail to the Southern Caribbean! Thanks to all my wonderful customers for your support! I wouldn’t be on this all-expense paid trip WITHOUT YOU!! Keep tuning in, though! I’ve scheduled a few posts and the Royal Blog tour with some "TROPICAL" contributions on my part is next weekend! Be sure to check it out! I’ll post some highlights of my trip when I get back!

Bon Voyage to me! Woo HOO!

Layout and Card Supplies:

• Picture This Hostess set
• Something Sweet Stamp set
• Little Angel Stamp Set
• So Saffron Print Patterns Designer paper
• Large Star punch
• Small Star Punch
• Scallop Border Punch
• Pink and Blue striped ribbon
• Word Window punch
• Small oval punch
• 1 3/4" Circle punch
• Small Square Glassine envelope

Helloooo! Been nutsville around here but I promise you’re going to understand why very soon! I’ve been up to some fun stampin’ shenanigans! And you’rrrrrreee gonna LOVE IT!  Plus, I’m getting ready to hop on a plane to Puerto Rico in a few days to enjoy 7 glorious Southern Caribbean days on the SU! incentive trip! WWAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Can’t wait…I’m ready to go now! 

But, I do have some things I can share with you today since I have been neglecting you! Recently had my Crop n’ Cards class where we made:

CUTIE PATOOTIE! Don’t you just love that lil’ monkey guy hanging down? Even cuter is the coordinating scrapbook page created with the same AWESOME stamp set, Fox & Friends:

This is one my favorite scrapbook pages I’ve done in awhile. I just love that turtle trying to drag that Zoo wagon. Here’s a close up:

I really hope this Occasions Mini stamp set makes the new Stampin’ Up! catalog. It is so cute and I haven’t worked with it as much as I would have liked. Last night I demonstrated with it at a workshop and created an adorable baby shower gift card holder made with an envelope and it was stinkin’ cute. I stamped the giraffe in Bashful Blue and added a saffron button under each of the sets of legs. Adorable! I kinda demo’d it off the cuff so I didn’t have my camera with me to take a picture! There’s just so much potential with this stamp set and it’s going away at the end of this month! 

SO, if you want to purchase this fabulous set, give me a buzz or e-mail and I put it on the order I’m placing this Saturday before I leave on vacation. Or, don’t forget, you can always order online: http://amanda.stampinup.net . BUT–THE LAST DAY TO ORDER FROM THIS MINI CATALOG is APRIL 30!!

Here’s the recipe for the above projects:

• Fox and Friends Stamp Set (117020 $18.95 Wood  or 118565 $14.95 Unmounted)
• 115678 Tall Tales Designer paper $9.95
• 115951 Stampin’ Up! Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Medium Sizzlit dies  (exclusive to SU!) $74.95
• 113463 Stampin’ Up! Top Note die $21.95
• 107217 3/4" Circle punch for Wagon Wheels $10.95
• 104390 1/2" Circle punch for Wagon Wheel hubcaps $5.95
• Card stock colors: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Whisper White ($5.50 for 24 8 1/2 x 11 sheets)
• Classic ink colors: Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Dusty Durango, So Saffron ($5.95 ea)

Thanks bunches! I’ll post another layout and card tomorrow! Caio!

I’m behind…I’m behind! Aacck! You wanna know which die did this cute truck, don’tcha, huh? Huh? Who won the Blog Candy? Should I make you wait until I chat all about my Easter and birthday!?

The main guess was the matchbox die. But it wasn’t iiiiittt! Naaa…naaa…naaa…na..na-na! 

I’m gonna make you wait a bit longer. I’ll share some Easter and birthday photos first! Heh … heh!!

Easter was a lovely day spending time with the family. The nieces loved their little baskets (I even made an extra for their friend who I think secretly lives with them they’re together so much! )  )

L to R: Elizabeth (friend) and my nieces,Vanessa (5) and Savannah (4)–my brother’s girls

Aren’t they adorable? (The girls not the baskets, silly!) They had so much fun looking for eggs this year and I had a blast following them around with the camera. My mom has this beautiful batch of Snapdragon flowers growing that perfectly matched their dresses so they bravely risked ant bites for Aunt Amanda to get these pictures:  

And here, they proudly display the results of their hunt:

My sister’s youngest, Canyon ( 2 1/2), cracked us up when he found eggs. His method was to hunt them, load up his arms and then go dump them in his Easter bag. He was Mr. Serious!

Here’s the whole gang (including my sister’s husband, Uncle Al) after they finished the Egg Hunt:

This is what keeps me smiling, week to week. Can you tell? Even though I don’t have any children of my own, it sure is fun to borrow everyone else’s, spoil them and then give them back to do the rest!  ha ha ha!

So after the big Easter Hunt and Feast, we also celebrated my birthday! (April 5) Here’s my mom putting the candles on my cake:

She’s so funny! She was trying to get everyone together to sing and I jokingly said, "Wait! Where’s my birthday hat?"

She laughed and said, "Oh, I’ve got a hat for you." She then proceeded out the back door, to the shed and comes back with the hat I’m wearing in these photos. Not quite appropriate, but hey–it will do!

The lil guy, Canyon, loves to blow out the candles so he always gets the lap seat during the seranade:

Here I am with my silly hat and birthday candles:

And in case you were wondering what I got for my birthday….

I was sillily calling the money, my "Pay the GEICO deductible fund" since there was a little incident with my car and a bent up hood, broken grill and dented bumper that I’m in denial about and not talking about. SO don’t even ask! A $500 deductible being yanked from my SU! Caribbean Cruise mad money is not making me very happy!

So there you have it…This is what’s been keeping me busy doing other things besides stamping. And we won’t even talk about the taxes that still aren’t done yet!……. 

So, have I held you in suspense long enough?

AND THE BLOG CANDY WINNER!!! IS. . .

Kadie Labadie….WOO HOO!!

She correctly guessed that I used the Box #2 to create the truck box! Good observation, girlfriend! Send me your address so I can mail you your goodies! I promise I’ll be making some more of these lil’ trucks for Father’s Day, so stay tuned! And if you got this far in my blog post…I’m darn proud of ya! You are awarded the most loyal blog reader EVER! )

Thanks and have a great week!

Hello!

Sorry I haven’t posted the last couple days. Easter flanked by my nephew’s 16th birthday and my birthday got in the way of my postings! So, in order for you to forgive me–I’m bribing you with some blog candy! Read on:

Thursday night, I started with the cute idea to make a box to put some small items in for my fabulous nephew’s 16th birthday. My sister and brother-in-law were surprising him with a truck for his BIG PRESENT and he had no clue. After some configuring and snipping and re-configuring, here’s what I came up with:

As you can see, once I was done with the box it was too small to fit any presents in (I had purchased him some small things like a SUNPASS for the Expressway tolls, car freshners to hang and a key ring with some tool gadgets on it.) so it became a focal decoration for the top of his present stack from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Patrick.  He’s not loved very much! (Not only is he well-mannered and handsome, but he also carries a 4.7 GPA in advanced classes as a sophmore in high school, sings like an angel in the school choir AND is in a fabulously talented high school singing and dancing troupe called Entourage! Okay…I’ll stop bragging..ha ha ha!)

Here’s a close up of the paper crafted truck (photos of the real truck and the nephew are coming up!):

Isn’t it ADORABLE? Can you guess what die cut box I used to make this? If you can, I’ll give you some chipboard, retired Flower Fusion felt pieces and brad bling Blog Candy!  I’ll post the answer and winner on Tues.!

Now keep in mind that my sister said the truck was blue. I asked her if it was light blue, dark blue, what kind of blue? She said, "It’s just blue!" (Can you tell she’s not a stamper? Love ya sis!)  So, I figured I’d be safe going with Brilliant Blue and come to find out it’s Night of Navy!…sigh… )  

Here are some photos of the birthday boy (I should say "handsome young man) and his REAL truck:

 That’s a good looking truck, but he’s better looking, don’cha think?

Okay, enough bragging by a proud auntie! Look forward to the posted guesses on which die was used to make the paper-crafted truck!

More pictures from Easter and my birthday tomorrow! Adios, amigas! (y amigos)

 When I saw this stamp set in the Occasions Mini, it immediately reminded me of my mom. I specifically bought it to do some watercolor art with and frame it for her for Mother’s Day, which will be here before you know it so I’d better get on it! It’s quite lovely and I’m looking forward to the Tote-Ally Awesome Tote class I have coming up that features it.

One of the projects we’ll be doing at the class is this lovely card:

Here’s a close up:

 I love that white scallop edge against that orchid paper. It looks so dainty.

Here’s a view of the card’s pull-out:

Hope you’ll be signing up for this class! The last day to sign up is Easter Sunday!

And…before I forget, yesterday I meant to provide Diana Gibb’s blog link where I got the Punchy Bee idea and forgot: dianagibbs.typepad.com/stampin_with_di/2010/02/punch-fun.html She was great about sharing how I inspired her so I wanted to make sure I did the same. We swap often at SU! events and I really admire her work! Thanks Di!

 
Ran across this cute punched bee on a cute card by Diana Gibbs and I just knew I’d be adding this lil’ fella to my April Get Punchy! class. He’s a little smaller than the one I saw on her card because I used smaller circle punches so he’d fit on my pull-out book mark made from the Two Tags Die!

Yes, I was a little light on stamping my greeting so I’m going to have to go back and fix it. I thought it was good enough for now. I needed to put a quick advertisement out for my quickly approaching class so it just had to do.

Card Stock colors here are Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal..one of my very favorite combos of all time! If you’d like to sign up for my April Get Punchy class go to http://getpunchyapril.eventbrite.com  . The deadline to sign up is this Sunday, April 4!!

Have a wonderful day!

Ahhh…Finished my last Eggscellent Eggs Eggcoutrements class today — so much fun! Now, I can finally post the step-by-step instructions for the Easter Egg Basket I’d posted here.

Step 1:

Cut out two Milk Cartons from the Big Shot with the Milk Carton die.

Step 2:

Cut the tops of the milk cartons above the score line as shown.

Step 3:

Cut off one of the end bottom flaps of ONE of the boxes.

Cut off one of the skinny side flaps on ONE of the boxes. 

Step 5

Apply Sticky Strip piece to the 2nd box’s skinny slide flap.

Step 6:

Apply two Sticky Strip pieces to the box that you didn’t cut a bottom flap off.

Step 7:

 Overlap the box with no bottom flap on the box in which you applied the two sticky strip pieces to create one long complete piece.

Step 8:

Bring the one end of the connected boxes around to meet the other skinny flap end to adhere to the applied Sticky Strip

Step 9:

 Fold down every other flap on the bottom of the basket until you have two left next to each other as shown and adhere the flaps so they’ll lie flat.

Step 10:

 Glue the remaining flaps down to complete the bottom. Wa..la! A Complete basket bottom. Add a 1" x 8 1/2" strip of card stoc, to each side of the basket to create the handle and you’re done!

Here’s my orginally created one. Here I ran the cut out milk carton dies through the Big Shot Texture plate and burnished it with ink. Decorate as desired!

That’s it…easy, right? Thanks for stopping by! I’d love to see what your basket turns out like! Be sure to share! Have a wonderful day!

In a couple weeks, I have a class that includes a tote, a couple cards and a beautiful envelope photo book. All of them use the gorgeous Shades of Spring Designer paper. I just love the color scheme of that paper!

Here’s the envelope photo book: 

Isn’t it gorgeous! The class will include the step-by-step instructions to make the tote. And you’ll get all the suppllies, including the silk flowers, hat pin & beads, ribbon and flat pearl to make this project along with a 1/2 pack of the Shades of Spring paper and the Garden from the Heart stamp set (unmounted) for only $35! It is a stunning ensemble that would make a fabulous gift for mom, a teacher or loved one!

This project has six pull outs for photos topped with tabs to make it easy to pull out and view your photographic creations.

Registration for this class ends Sunday, April 4! To register, go to http://springtoteclass.eventbrite.com

Want to hear a funny story about the shenanigans surrounding the development of this class?

Around convention time (early July) last year, my friend Amy Celona, said "Do you want to be in my WOW swaps again this year? I said, "Sure!" Her swaps are the bomb! She was particularly excited about one of the swaps in which we were going to swap a whole planned out class with an elite group of stampers. So, the time came up on me VERY fast and she signed me up for a GAZILLION (can you hear the dripping sarcasm here? I love to tease Amy!)  swaps and I was stamping until I was cramping so I could get them all done.

This particular swap of a WHOLE class was a daunting one. I kept searching for ideas until I remembered one I hadn’t tried yet. I  had purchased a pattern for this really cool tote about a year before and thought, "THIS IS IT!" So I used the instructions to create this gorgeous tote  along with the card (that was part of the instructions) and I added in the above envelope album creation for good measure.

I couldn’t wait to tell my friend Amy all about it! So, a few days before leaving for convention, Amy & I were talking (or Amy was talking and I was just listening…ha ha ha! Love you Amy!) and she was looking forward to this swap and proceeded too rattle off the names of the swap participants and how we were going to get such AWESOME swaps back. And one name caught my ear IMMEDIATELY….and I said…"Wait…who did you just say was in this swap?"

She said, "Becky Roberts, Why?"

My mouth dropped to the floor.

A few curse words may have slipped out. )

Becky Roberts is the girl I purchased the pattern from over a year ago!! SHE WAS GETTING HER OWN SWAP BACK!! I was mortified. But it was way too late to change it and I went through a lot of work to do all of them.

So, the day of swap came and I sheepishly approached Becky and told her the story and said that I was so sorry that I didn’t know she was in the swap or i would have created something different. She was so sweet and understanding about it. I mean, I was actually nervous talking to her as she is the GODDESS of paper crafting. And, a few weeks ago, she even posted my Tote project on her blog here. Wow…what an honor! And she didn’t even mention my embarrassing story. A true class act! Now..I’m even more of a fan! I’d be president of her fan club if she’d let me!

Then, she actually CASE’d one of my projects and posted it recently! Wow! Holy snikey…Talk about flattered! Here’s her version of my Milk Carton Watering Can without using the Eggscellent Eggs kit.

So, Becky…thanks for being so sweet. And..for linking to my site. I think all your traffic drove mine over the bandwidth. ) Thanks bunches!

Gotta run and finish my prep for the final Eggscellent Eggs class that’s tomorrow. Look for a post on how to create the cute Milk Carton Easter basket  tomorrow! Hasta manana!

….how my wonderful friend, Lisa Curcio, spoiled me ROTTEN at our joint group meeting with Pam Morgan (may she rock on forever or ) MSROF for short) last weekend! Lisa is one talented lady! She’s always got the best 3D projects to share. Here’s a photo of us from the meeting with Pam Morgan (MSROF) last Saturday:

Lisa is the sweetest most loving person. For the first time ever, even though we met on the SU! cruise 10 years ago, this year, for the very first time, we’ll be dining together the whole week on the SU! incentive cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Only 28 more days left — WAHOO!!

So, we were wrapping up the absolutely fabulous meeting with Pam (MSROF ), Lisa turned to me and said, " I brought these for you."  HOLY CANNOLI — here’s what she brought me:

Did I hit the mother lode, or what? Oh, yea…count them, babeeeee… SEVEN FABULOSO GIFTEES!! See…I told you she was mega-talented, didn’t I? Am I spoiled or what!

Here’s some close ups:

So, stinkin’ cute!

ADORABLE!

Gorgeous–just gorgeous!

And she made all of these candy bar favors for the meeting. All attendees got one when they registered at the door! At that point, the meeting was darn perfect …since chocolate cures ALL!

Is that green-eyed monster out-of-control with envy yet? Sorry…I warned you to keep him under control! Lisa — thank you so much for the gifts, for sharing your talents with all of us at the meeting and for just being you!

SO, this is the last post on that meeting with Pam (MSROF!) . If I could shower her with roses, send her buckets of chocolate peanut butter candy  every month and rent her a massage therapist every day for lunchtime massge, I would. But, since I can’t, I just hope my enthusiastic 3-day blog tribute will do! Thanks again, Pam, (MSROF) — YOU DA BOMB!!

Back to our regularly scheduled creative posts tomorow! TA!