The big weekend is almost here for my oldest son’s First Communion.  Family is coming into town and it is sure to be a great time for all!!

This is the invitation that we sent to friends and family.  It was such a joy to make these!  My son chose the colors (yep, the apple doesn’t fall far from this tree) and they seem perfect!  I was actually going to use just Basic Gray and Very Vanilla but he told me it wasn’t happy enough.  He was definitely right!!  The Early Espresso and Baja Breeze set just the right tone.  I played around with this cross and found that using the “sharp” end of the Stampin’ Write Marker is great for coloring the narrow spaces.  The sentiment is from Inviting.  I love that the font is flexible for many card styles!  A Basic Pearl was the finishing touch on the stamped panel and I popped that panel on Dimensionals.  I have to admit that I am pretty proud of this one!!  The best part is that it was simple enough to replicate and not make myself too crazy.

You’ll notice that the ColorLab Challenge did not post this week.  We will be back next Thursday with our new colors and you will love them!  I’m so glad you were able to stop in today.  I’m hoping to have a fun post ready for Mother’s Day (hint…I didn’t make the cards).  Have a great weekend and I’ll see you again soon!

Stamps:  Crosses of Hope, Inviting; Paper:  Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso; Ink:  Baja Breeze, Early Espresso; Accessories:  Stamp-a-ma-jig, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals

All products are Stampin’ Up!

I have a set to show you today that includes 10 thank you notes for a friend. 

Ever since I first saw the current Stampin’ Up catalog, I have been inspired by page 97.  I knew that I wanted to use the palette there to make some cards.  Well, it certainly took me a while but I finally got to do it.  I made 4 1/4″ square cards and used a version of the box I created here.  I did make the box a bit deeper to accomodate more cards.  The colors I chose were Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Perfect Plum.  What a pretty combination.  I’m sure you can see the influence of the catalog page!  The images were colored using a Blender Pen mixing Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso and Perfect Plum ink.  I love how calm this feels!

Inside I designed two styles of cards and added the Inspired by Nature flower with the same colors.  To help balance the box, I put the button on opposite sides.  The sentiment comes from the ever-useful Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I’m glad you were able to drop in today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with another ColorLab Challenge…you are going to love the colors!!  Hope you have a great day!

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes, Inspired by Nature, Every Moment; Paper:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory; Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Perfect Plum; Accessories:  Blender Pen, Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Mini Glue Dots, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Bone Folder

All products are Stampin’ Up!

I am back today with the ColorLab Challenge for the week!

More spring fabulousness (ok, not really a word but you understand)!!  But I have a confession.  Any stamper who has worked with me knows that Chocolate Chip was a go-to color for me.  The key part in that is the “WAS”.  As soon as Early Espresso showed up on the scene, my poor Chocolate Chip was left unused and almost forgotten in my drawer.  It is so bad that I was literally down to my last sheet of card stock when I started this card.  Of course, once I started I was reminded why I love that color so much in the first place.

Fortunately, because I am a ribbon hoarder collector, I still had some left over Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon to use.  I saw this amazing flower technique over at Kathy’s blog, Stamping Still.  She found the tutorial written by Kelly Acheson that is fantastic.  For once, I followed it pretty much exactly.  This layout comes from the Paper Players PP39, a clean and simple layout.  I cut the edges off some extra ribbon and applied the heat tool to those edges for the horizontal piece of the layout.  I added a little sponging to the edges of the designer papers from Greenhouse Gala DSP and added a retired sentiment.  Unfortunately, I need this for a sweet friend.

Thanks for stopping in to see me today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a Friday Mashup card.  Hope you have a great day!

Stamp:  Warmest Regards (retired); Paper:  Greenhouse Gala DSP, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Ink:  Chocolate Chip; Accessories:  Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon (retired), Basic Pearls, Sponges, Dimensionals

All products are Stampin’ Up!

It is Ash Wednesday and for all of you who celebrate the Christian faith, I wish you a day filled with reflection.  During the journey of Lent, I hope you find peace in your prayer and penitence as we look to renew our lives with God’s grace.

Last weekend, my son’s school had a fund-raiser that was really fun.  As a small Catholic school, these fund-raisers are critical to get needed books and up-to-date teaching supplies.  The community members of Warrenton were incredibly generous and offered raffle items for the event.  If you live in or near Fauquier County, please remember to tell Iron Bridge Wine Company, Hartman Jewelers and Old Town Athletic Center that their contributions are truly appreciated!  As a small thank you to them, I made some cards for the school to send.  We all know the power of a hand-made, hand-written note and I hope that these will show our gratitude.

I think the beauty of the card lies in the Clean and Simple style.  I love the crosses in my Crosses of Hope set and the sentiment says it all.  I stamped in Night of Navy and added a Night of Navy border.  A large pearl from the Basic Pearls is the finishing touch.  The event coordinator wanted to hand write her thanks and I think the sponsors will greatly appreciate her efforts! 

Thanks for stopping in today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with another ColorLab Challenge. 

I hope that your Lenten sacrifices come back to you as rich blessings and that the true Cross of Hope strengthens you every day.

Stamp:  Crosses of Hope (120567); Paper:  Whisper White (100730), Night of Navy (100867); Ink:  Night of Navy (102977); Accessories:  Basic Pearls (119247), Dimensionals (104430)

All products are Stampin’ Up!

Who would have thought that I could be stylish??!!  Apparently, two of my favorite stampers do and that means a lot to me!!  Cindy over at Heart’s Delight Cards and Heidi at RunningwScissorsStamper have awarded me this honor.  Thanks to both of them!!

Now the rules of this are:

I have to tell you 8 things that you may not know about me and pass this on to 8 of my favorite stampers.  So here goes with what you may not know:

1.  I grew up in Orlando, Florida and much of my family still lives in Florida.

2.  I was a Math major at Florida State University and was in Air Force ROTC there.  This is where I started flying and had the good fortune of being selected to go to Pilot Training.

3.  I lived in the country of Panama for three years.

4.  I have been qualified on lots of airplanes in my life:  T-37, T-38 (Instructor), C-130E/H, B727 (Flight Engineer), B737, B757, B767, Airbus 319/320.

5.  I look forward to the day that the pilots and other employees of United Airlines get reprieve from the bankruptcy contract where they took 50-65% pay cuts to save the company.

6.  I love stamping with my friends!  They make the most beautiful cards and they have a wonderful variety of styles.  I always learn something from them.

7.  I really, REALLY want to go to Stampin’ Up’s Convention this year so that I can meet in person some of the lovely stamping friends I have met through my blog.

8.  I have never been very artsy until the last few years.  While I was on maternity leave with my oldest, my husband deployed for the beginning of the Iraq war.  In order to fill time, I went to Stampin’ Up classes, sewing classes, cake decorating classes.  One of the reasons I love Stampin’ Up so much is that the products proved to me that I have a creative side and made it easy to make beautiful things!  Oh, and I still make cakes too.

Cindy and Heidi are a great source of inspiration.  Others whose blogs I love (in no particular order):

1.  Sarah Wills – http://sarahsinkspot.com/blog/

2.  Debra Burgin – http://heartfeltinkspiration.com/

3.  Krystal De Leeuw – http://krystalscardsandmore.blogspot.com/

4.  Yapha Mason – http://yaphamason.com/

5.  Lisa Young – http://addinkandstamp.blogspot.com/

6.  Jen Mitchell – http://www.jen-icreate.blogspot.com/

7.  Jennifer Weide – http://www.sunflowerstamper.com/

8.  Karen Barber – http://karenbarberstamps.blogspot.com/

I hope you have learned a little about me and maybe found a new favorite blog to go visit.  Thanks for stopping in today.  I’ll be back next Tuesday with SUO Challenge #11 and I’m busily working on my projects for the Stampin’ Addicts SAB Blog Hop that starts in a week.  See you soon!

You may have noticed that I have updated the look of my blog banner!  It may even look familiar and you would be right.  It is the Travel Journal DSP from last year’s Summer Mini made into a Digital Kit for My Digital Studio (MDS).  The digital kit not only includes the paper but the stamp set too!  I have to admit that it seems tailor made for a blog called Stampin’ on the Fly!!  All I had to do was copy the paper as a JPEG file and insert it into my header.  Easy, peasy!! 

With that done, I moved on to making my own shopping button.  As promised, I now have an on-line store and wanted my button to match the blog header.  I started with a blank card template, filled an oval punch with “paper” then added my airplane stamp and a text box.  A little swirl (made with low opacity) and I was done.  I love it!  I also love that I can change the look anytime I want.

I have a couple more pictures to show you from an MDS calendar I created for my husband as a Christmas present.  I downloaded the Notable Desktop Calendar Kit and all I had to do was put in the pictures.  I changed very little because the pages are so great! 

I might be a little biased but aren’t these pages awesome??!!  This is what the kit contains:

The “paper” in the set is really fantastic and you can see how well done the layouts are.  Both of these kits are available for MDS in Window or Mac OS X.  I am a My Digital Studio Certified Instructor so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.  If you want to see more of the downloads available, take a look at the Digital Crafting section of my online store.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Let me know what fabulous things you have created with MDS…I’d love to see them! 

All products are Stampin’ Up!

We all know that Sale-a-bration (SAB) is truly a time for celebration at Stampin’ Up!  If you have received your SAB flyer, take a look at the back page and you will see a special offer.  If you start your Stampin’ Up business during Sale-a-bration (Jan. 25th – Mar. 31st), you will receive a bonus bundle of over $50 in free products.  That’s right, more free products!!  Take a look at what you can get:

Color Coach   p. 155

Something Special Simply Sent (or any Simply Sent Kit)   p. 183

Live, Laugh, Love Stamp Set (or any Simply Sent stamp set)   p. 183

Heart to Heart Punch (or any punch values $17.95 or less)   p. 202  

 This is in addition to the amazing savings already offered on the Starter Kit!  There are so many advantages to starting your business during Sale-a-bration!  When you sign up to be a demonstrator, you save 30% on your first demonstrator order (made within 45 days).  During SAB, you will also receive your SAB benefits and free stamps for that order along with any hostess benefits.  WOW!!

I’d love you to consider starting your business with me.  If you have questions or need further information, you can click here for my contact information.  Becoming a Stampin’ Up demonstrator is one of the best decisions I have ever made.  Let me help you take your next step on your creative journey!

As promised, today’s card is actually not made by me but came all the way from Australia to my little mailbox in Virginia.  What a lovely, lovely treat!!  Monica made this beauty and I must say that, while it is stunning in the picture, it is spectacular in person!  The camera simply can’t capture the sparkle of the Dazzling Diamonds on the ornament.

I just love how that ornament from Delightful Decorations is suspended in the oval.  Make sure you go over and check out the other wonderful things she has made on Monica’s Blog and don’t forget to leave her some comments about this card. 

I’ll be back tomorrow with a new color challenge from ColorLab that uses one of my all time favorite colors (it returned because I think I wasn’t the only one!)…hint, hint!  Have a great Wednesday!