New header....and a card

I made my first header with MDS. It's not 100% the look I was going for, but it turned out cute, and happened to match my current blogger background! YAY.

Anyway, here is the card that i accidentally posted last week then deleted...but it still showed up as there. My great uncle passed away a couple of weeks ago and I made a handful of these cards cards to give to my grandma and his family. He lived a long life and it was okay that he passed.

Fathers Day

I procrastinated....I worked just hours before club to create, design and prep for club! Naughty Naughty! I hate to do that, but yet I've been doing it lately. Anyway. Here is what I came up with for Fathers Day. Seems like we always give my Dad some sort of Nutty gift.....Sunflower seeds, bulk cashews, etc. So I thought, for club, we'd make a little box that has a window perfect for a nutty gift! I actually got design idea through inspiration of our own beautiful catalog. Imagine that ;)! I was looking to guess the dimensions of the party favor die, and there was an amazing sample with a window on that very page. So I modified my size and figured out what would work best.

This particular box starts out as a 4 1/4 x 10 peice of cardstock. It gets scored, 1 1/2", 4 3/4", 6 1/4", and 9 1/2". Then long ways 1". I used Night of Navy for the box, then a piece of 3x3 More mustard ran through the big shot with the lattice folder. A piece of Brocade Blue (retiring, SAD!) 5/8th Grosgrain ribbon, tied with linen thread, and then a cute little tag from "Tiny Tags" that says "4YOU" punched with the tiny tag punch.

To give examples to my customers I whipped up this 3x3 card that fits inside. We aren't making it for club (because we are making the card below), but I wanted to show them how perfectly a little card would fit in there.

Projects

Here are my most recent projects. This one is using the new Elements of Style set that just came out in the Summer Mini Catalog. I have seen so many beautiful cards made with it that I just HAD to have it. With it being on special this month, I figured it was a good time to get it! So this first one is what we are going to do for club this month. The circle brads come free with a qualifying stamp set purchase.

Since I had several practice images colored, i decided to make a card with them. So this one I was just playing around. I crumpled up this Pink card stock until the layers started to separate, then I gently peeled them apart. Whala. The result is a "suede" looking piece. It's much prettier in real life.
The cards below I used Fifth Avenue Floral. It was on special last month, and since it has been on my wish list for so long I decided to get it. I just LOVE it! I made these two cards with it for mothers day.

Below is the Milk Carton die. It was so quick and easy to throw together.
This one was a fun one. You have to look close, but the ribbon is not actually going around the whole card front!
Another card that is better in real life :). I embossed the image with irredecant ice embossing powder, then we sponged over it with various colors of ink.
This was my Mom, Mom in law, etc gifts. I made this tiny little card that fit inside the box. I made the box to fold like a pizza box, and inside I made an insert that would hold a necklace I made. unfortunately I don't have pictures of the necklaces. They were the most beautiful!

A few more pages

I have finally made a few more pages! I am so in love with this software. It makes scrapping so easy! I made three pages tonight in the course of 2 hours. That's a lot better than I would take to make these same pages with paper! LOVE IT!

Digi Scrappin

i am so excited! Stampin Up has now released a digital Scrapbooking program called My Digital Studio. If you print with them you are guaranteed that they will be printed to true Stampin' Up! colors, so you can do some "hybrid" scrapping! SOOO EXCITING! Here are a couple of pages I made in seriously, like 10 minutes each. The software comes with all the essentials. If you already had a software program you can just buy the elements! YAY! Love it. I will be most likely doing this for all of my scrapping needs now. It's just so quick! There's pattern paper, brads, buttons, hardware, ribbon, stitching, staples, stamping, and punches. LOVE IT! Anyway. here's the projects. IF you have any questions on it let me know!

Altered Notebook

I picked up a few of these fat little notebooks at Family Dollar for $1. I decided I would make little notebooks for my convention friends. It took me just about all day to make 10 of them, but they are done and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. They were really easy to make. This particular size is a quarter sheet size (4.25x5.5) So it was pretty quick cutting everything out. I unwound the wire so i could make the holes perfect. I glued my front on and then flipped it over to see where the original holes were and then used my 3/16th side of my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes. That by far was the worst part of the project. I thought the unwinding and winding back up would be bad, but it really wasn't! I used Stampin Up supplies for everything. The stamp set is the Level 3 Hostess set, Kind and Caring thoughts. I used the new in color markers to color the image and then used Melon Mambo for the base, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Rich Razzleberry and Crushed Curry cardstock. I used my mini calendar alphabet to spell "notes" and then cut them all out. I hope everyone who receives them loves them as much as I do! hehe!

swaps

In just two weeks I will be surrounded by thousands of Stampin Up demonstrators at our yearly Convention. I am so excited I can't even stand it! It is tradition to make swaps and trade cards with people. So here are the cards I've prepared.

This card is for a "case the catty" swap I'm doing, but it's not actually a part of convention. I copied the card on page 105. I changed the colors to Ricsah Razzleberry, Elegant Eggplant, Burmuda Bay, and Basic Gray. I used a cotton swap and smeared ink on the circles of the leaves. It seems like that's what they would have done and it worked out great! I used the flower punch (the one that has three flowers, I can't remember what it's called) and a clear rhinestone brad near the sentiment. I used Sahara sand for the sentiment. They used Kraft in their example, which wasn't used elsewhere, so I figured Sahara Sand was a good substitute for my color scheme. This picture does not even do this card justice. It might be the best card I've ever created!

This card is also part of the "case the catty" swap. I cased the card on pg 82 for the Lots Of Bots page. I knew the moment I laid eyes on the bots that I had to have them. So I told myself if I was going to get them I'm have to use it to make my swaps. I only had Real Red 5/8 grosgrain ribbon, so I pretty much had to design the whole card around that color. I wanted the bot to have some sort of red in it, but to actually color it red was too much. I inked him up with Real Red ink, and then lightly color washed him Crushed Curry. Seems like that got the red point across, but wasn't so in your face. I used Soft Suede for the card base, Burmuda bay for the long strip, Crushed Curry for the mat and then my Real Red ribbon with a filigree brad. Unfortunatly that was the best option for the brad that's meant for that spot. It looks good enough I think.

Now this card is for a true convention event. We are having a dinner the opening night of convention, and this will be my swap. Again I used Lots of Bots (because I had to :)). I used Burmuda Bay for the Card base, with accents of Crushed Curry. You may notice it's the same layout as I did for my July projects. That's who much I loved the layout! I used Thoroughly Modern Designer Series paper here with Soft Suede grosgrain ribbon. I punched my bot out with the 1 3/4 punch, but then used the Circles big shot die to get the border. (something I wished I would have had when we did our July club). I plan on making this same card with girl colors, so I can prove these bots are for girls too!! hehe. I still have to make my "general" swapping cards. I'll probably make about 50 card fronts and I'm not sure what I'll do yet.

July Projects

Here are the projects for our July workshop. I found this card layout for an advertisement for a whole other company. I loved it immediately and thought it would work great showcasing the new in colors and Designer Series Paper, Which by the way is Razzelberry Lemonade. The new In Colors this year are just amazing. I am completely in love with them already!

This card showcases the new darker purple, Rich Razzleberry; new yellow, Crushed Curry; and the new bold pink, Melon Mambo. I used the In color markers to color the cupcake from Party Hearty and used the 1 3/4 circle punch to punch it out. The ric rac is actually Elegant Eggplant, but it went very well with the paper, so I used it. It's part of one of the Ribbon Original bundles. This card was so quick and easy to throw together. A person could easily put a birthday/celebration sentiment where the ric rac is and have the same darling card!

WE also made this post it note holder. I loved this bird set so much that I just had to use it this month for our workshop. The set is called Bird on a Branch. I used Soft Suede for the branch, So Saffron for the spotty leaves, and Tempting Turquoise for the bird. You can't really see from the picture, but I used the color spritzer in the background with a Certainly Celery marker. It's very cute in real life. Also I used the new phrases set called "Teeny Tiny Wishes" at the bottom. I picked up the post it notes at the dollar store 4 / $1, so it makes this project very inexpensive. I used So Saffron Cardtock for the base, then Tempting Turquoise for the mat, and Very Vanilla for the picture. I wrapped Certainly Celery 1/4 grosgrain ribbon around the whole thing to keep it closed. Because the post it notes are a different shade of yellow, I matted them on a piece of Tempting Turquoise card stock just like what's on the front. This project was a little more time consuming because we used the stamp-a-ma-jig for precision for the branch and leaves. But it could easily be mass produced. We cut the bird out and popped it up with a dimensional.

Mojo Monday 91

I am finally posting something!  I have been making stuff, but I just haven't been taking pictures.  I was totally inspired by this Mojo Monday sketch, so I had to participate! I used a retiring set called Stitched Exotics stamps, and a brand new set called Teeny Tiny Wishes that will be in the new catalog! I used Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper, Regal Rose, Rose Red & Kiwi Kiss card stock, along with Rose Red ink and Ribbon, Regal Rose & Kiwi Kiss ink.  It will be sad when we let those colors go, but I can PROMISE the brand new In colors are just amazing! I am so exciting for them.  Stampin Up Debut's a new catalog July 1st and It's GORGEOUS!

New projects

Well it's been a while since I've posted anything.  IT's not because I haven't been making anything...I've just been too lazy to take pictures!  So once again, I'll work on being better.

We recently found out that Daron and Angie are having a little girl.  I was feeling very domestic and offered to make the blanket.  Well the fabric was so stinking cute that we had to make curtains (not pictured) and then of course the bumper.  Angie had no idea I was making the bumpers so she was very surprised when I whipped them out of the bag to show her!  It was a really fun project and It really didn't take that long to do.
This was one of the projects for our March club.  I used the big shot and the Stampin Up! exclusive die called Baskets and Blooms to cut it out and we assembled it.  The paper was the free paper from Sale-a-Bration, as well as the flower stamp set.  It was so simple to create!  The ladies loved it!
I had 9 birthdays this month.  And I'm starting a new thing where I will actually make and mail birthday cards (novel idea huh LOL).  So here's my card for Melody (my neice). I used Stampin UP!'s Flight of the butterfly set, with pretty in pink, rose red, and certainly celery card stock.  The ribbon is from the free ribbon bundle for Sale-a-bration.  There's nothing like using up FREE SUPPLIES!
This is another of my many cards.  I used a new set that being released April 1st called Great Friend.  it's so darling! I love the butterfly!
This was a simple box I have seen floating around the web and wanted to give it a try.  I used Close to Cocoa CS with the Sweet always designer paper with Regal Rose ribbon.  The set is yet another of the free Sale-a-bration sets and it says "A little yummy for your tummy".  I used the stampin up markers to color the image in two different colors.
This is the another stamp in the same Sale-a-Bration set as above.  It fits perfect with the Stampin Up exclusive big shot die called "Top Note".  I just cut the tope not in half long ways and stamped.  This is the perfect size for a gift card. I used Baja Breeze ink and designer paper, and then a So Saffron Marker for the words and then so saffron ribbon (which is the other ribbon that came in the Sale-a-Bration bundle)
This was our card for Februrary's club.  I wanted to show how easy it was to "watercolor" with inks and blender pens.  The ladies who hadn't known of this technique were thrilled with learning how simple it was!  And it really is.  I used Pretty in Pink and Old Olive Card stock with the Raspberry Tart Designer paper and Pretty in Pink Ribbon.  It was so easy to create!
This was our other project for March.  We showed using the Stamp a ma jig to create perfect 2 step stamping.  And the ribbon was a fun way of "frilling" up the card.  It was very simple.  Because I'm hoping for spring soon, I chose colors from Stampin Up!'s new paper called "Tea Party".  I gave a challenge to my club members this month to pick a card layout in the catalog and recreate it using stamps and paper that they already had.  So this was my take on the card layout too.  It's from page 58 of the Spring/Summer Idea Book.  
My dear sweet brother's birthday is on St. Patty's day.  So of course I had to make him a shamrock card!  I used a heart stamp with the new full heart punch to make it, and then free handed the stem and added a square green brad.  Turned out pretty cute if you ask me!

Hopefully I'll be a little better at updating this website.  I have a bunch of scrapbooking layouts as well.  

As always you can check out the latest products on my Stampin Up website at annaRblack.stampinup.net and chose "Shop Now" and it will bring up the shopping page.