Awesome WOW! Presentation

When I went to the SU! Regional, one of the best Wow! presentations of the day was from a demo in Austin named Cyndee Rust. Her stuff was awesome! She only had 5 minutes, but I think it blew the whole crowd away. Since she didn't have that much time, she was kind enough to take people's email addresses and send them the tutorials on how to do the projects. Here is what she showed us (all images courtesy of Cyndee Rust):

This first one is a peppermint patty box (holds two), which she adapted from Rochelle Wick's blog Impressions.


The next thing she showed us was an adorable mini pizza box filled with gift tags adapted from Jen del Muro's blog I{heart}2stamp.

Here is a scallop box with mini tins that Cyndee adapted from Sheryl Dickinson's blog Stamping with Sheryl. It uses the scallop die cut from the Sizzix, which is a neat tool (just a little expensive).


Here's another view.


This was so adorable. It's a Kit Kat bar cover! Use a 6”x6” piece of DSP. Mono around all 4 edges – completely all the way around. Fold up and around. Then crimp ends. Instructions were from Toni Tessler's blog Toni's Adventures in Stamping & Scrapbooking.

Then there was this criss cross box. Adapted from Nichole Heady's blog Capture the Moment.


Finally, she showed us a wonderful flip album. This picture doesn't do it justice, it was such a Wow! piece. This was adapted from a tutorial on Chiaki Haverstick's blog StampingPro.



She did a great job, and the thing that floored every person in the room? The fact that Cyndee made this all with one (1!) Simply Scrappin' Kit and had so much left over! I plan on attempting my own variations with these projects at some point, so I will post those when that happens. But don't hold your breath, I have to finish my Thank You cards for the wedding, a Thank You swap I joined, also after all these birthdays I need to make cards for - and, AND - I'm in the beginning stages of a rehaul of my designated stamping room. I have a room for everything, but I always bring my projects downstairs to the dining table because it's bigger and the lighting is better, so I am figuring out how to keep it more contained, so my husband doesn't run from the house for fear that the crafts are taking over, hehe. Busy busy, but still excited!

Ranch-ish themed birthday cards

My friend Cody asked me to make birthday cards for his parents. This was fun, because it required me to find and use some stamps that I normally would not use. His dad likes outdoorsy things, but not camping or fishing which are the "manliest" stamps I own. Luckily, Kim from Stamp-a-rama was kind enough to let me use her stamp set to make this little number. I actually like how it turned out, and now that I have used the set, I certainly appreciate it more. The images I stamped in the background could work so nicely for so many things! The ribbon is from the latest Stampin' Up mini catalog, and coordinates very nicely with the new Riding Hood Red In Color paper.


I used:
Card stock - Riding Hood Red (base), Chocolate Chip and White
Stamps - SU! Wanted, SU! Bitty Birthday

For his mom's card, she likes chickens alot, which is one of the only barnyard animals I don't have stamps of. I did find this really cute one of a chicken and some sheep on ChristianBook.com. I colored in the image using Stampin' Pastels and blender pens, and mounted pieces on top of a paper I ran through the Cuttlebug.


I generally don't do anything for the inside of the card since I usually have a whole story to write, so it just gets in the way if I stamp anything on the inside. But this time I decided I would, and I found a great little add on. I found a booklet at Jo-Ann's Fabrics in the scrap book section and it had different little sentiments on vellum. I picked up ones for birthdays, thank you's and love/wedding. So I mounted that on a piece of DSP and attached it with silver brads.

I used:
Card stock - Opulent Orchid (base), Pixie Pink, So Saffron, Prints Pack DSP (retired) and White
Stamps - Sheep and Chicken (Christian Book)

Giving MORE Thanks

So as I mentioned in the previous post, I am making the wedding thank you cards, and thought wouldn't it be nice to have them before (or at least around) Thanksgiving? I've been prepping them for assembly the last couple of days. This weekend my husband and I are going to sit down and just try and crank them all out in one go. I was able to use some leftover wedding ribbon (it has our names and the date of the wedding). I used the Cuttlebug with a really cute birdie embossing folder.


I used:
Card stock - White (base) and Certainly Celery
Stamp - SU! Too Terrific Tags (retired)

So what's actually left to do? Well I tied all the ribbons tonight. So just punching out the tags, stamping the image and punching that out, glueing things down, writing stuff inside and mailing it off. I'll do all the tag stuff tomorrow evening to kill time waiting for The Office. :)

Giving Thanks

Well, it's very convenient that I have a post before Thanksgiving concerning Thank You cards! I signed up for a Thank You card swap and came up with this. It also serves as a nice little tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness, too! The Cuttlebug is an awesome tool and is well worth the price (even though I don't own one myself, but still!) Also, you can kind of see it in this pic, but I used some Crystal Effects for the bra, for added Oooh lala. ;)

I used:
Card stock - Black (base), Pirouette Pink and White
Stamps - SU! Fashion Statements (retired)

I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out, so hopefully the other swappers feel the same! And I really need to kick it in gear with my own Thank You cards for the wedding. o_O I have the design, all the cutting, and all the scoring done, now I need to get started with the meat and potatoes of assembling and writing nice things. Luckily, I will be recruiting (aka forcing) my darling husband to finish them with me.

More from SU! Regionals

So for those of you who don't know the happenings of a Stampin' Up Regional Meet...well this was my first one so I'm no expert - all I can tell you is that it was FUN!
I had to wake up really early, because I was carpooling with Kim from Stamp-a-rama. I got there a little after 5:30 am. The plan was to be out of the door at 6:00 a.m. so we could stake out a good spot. It was a fun drive up to San Antonio. Kim drove her new, pretty SAAB with her friend Keli, Lydia from Understand Blue and her friend Neelam. I'm not really a morning person, but it was a lively group and you couldn't help but feel chipper. We got to the convention center and it was kind of funny. You could tell who was there for the regional meet - a large migratory group carrying their stamping totes and luggage, swap bags in hand. I really like that everyone comes together, and really connect because of a common bond. It sounds cheesy, but that's how it was. Everyone there was wonderfully nice - you can tell that this was a group of very generous and kind people. :)
We went up to the registration table and picked up our free stamp set and our make and take kits. We got there at a good time, because there was hardly a wait.


We staked out a spot in front of the door and people would come by with their swaps. It was really cool, it felt like Christmas, everyone exchanging their handmade gifts. I’m really happy with the swaps I received, there were so many beautiful ones! I’m not sure if I can post them, but they are so pretty I would like to share them. *If you’re the creator of any of these cards, please let me know if you want me to remove them, otherwise give me your info so I can credit you! :D


Then they let us through the doors and I saw Kim make a mad dash to get a great spot in perfect view of the big screen - it was a great spot!
There were also easels all over the room displaying cards to help inspire people.


I also got to meet Shelli Gardner, the founder of Stampin’ Up! and she was a very lovely person. :) Shelli is kind of a rock star in the stamping world, people were cheering and screaming. She started off the regional meet by demonstrating a cute Halloween game. There were so many great projects we got to make. I’ll be posting those with tutorials soon.

San Antonio Regionals

I attended my first SU! event in San Antonio. It was an eventful day, full of lots of cool demonstrations, make and takes, fun fun and fun! I made some swaps for this event, and got so many cool ones back! I only wish I had made more than 15, because there were some really adorable projects people came with! It seemed like enough at the time, (because I was tired of piercing paper) but now I know for next time. Here is what I made:


Cardstock - Tangerine Tango (Base), Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Stamps - SU! Bitty Birthday, SU! Eastern Blooms

I went with Kim from Stamp-a-rama, her friend Keli, Lydia from Understand Blue and her friend Neelam. I'll be posting more pics of the conference in the next day or so, but I want to show a picture of what we got upon entering. I have a new stamp set - Best Wishes & More and a set of 6 make and takes.

My voice matters!

I was picked to participate in the Stampin' Up Survey Panel! I was sent a questionnaire, and as long as I finish at least 80% of it, they will send me a goodie box in the mail after three months. I wonder what will be in it. Oooooh :D
Of course, I finished 100% of my survey (why not finish it up if you got that far, plus everything you have to add only helps the company make better informed decisions). If you want to apply to be part of the panel visit http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/10796.asp