Sue Daly's Summer Challenge

Hello again! Sue Daly had a fun idea and since I have very few people frequenting my blog I thought I'd try it to get some new reader/viewers. So she sent me a beautiful card (the photo seriously doesn't do it justice) and supplies to make a creation of my choice. My favorite part is the gorgeous paper piercing!!! Amazing - I think you can at least see that detail in the crummy photo of mine. Go to her blog to see more of her work...but here's a little sampling:



Ok - here's my creation using supplies she sent me, besides the Pink Pirouette and Kraft cardstock, punches, and hemp. I also used stamp sets of my own including the brand new Inspired by Nature (grass), Flight of the Butterfly (small flower stamp), and Wow Flowers (Happy Birthday circle)as well as the oldie but goodie Short and Sweet. Ink used was VersaMark, Ruby Red, and Chocolate Chip. I tied the hemp through the button and stitched a stem (mostly covered by ribbon) for the large flower. I super heavily distressed the edge with a scissors - a skill I had to learn at Convention as the Cutter kit (with distressing tool) was no where in sight) - I thought it made it look rougher and more grass-like. FUN! The DSP, chipboard flower, hardware, ribbon, Old Olive & More Mustard cardstock were all sent to me by Sue.



Although I don't have much left over I am going to try to make another card or other creation using what is left of Sue's goodies. My family is coming to visit this weekend and next week is crazy so I don't know when it will happen but be on the lookout. I was pretty productive today and also made a card for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge #18 so I'll be back in a sec with that! :)

Celeb-Blogger Anxiety at Convention!

So probably one of the highlights of convention was getting photos with 3 of the 5 bloggers that I HAVE to look at everyday!

So first of all I have to tell my Kristina Werner story...

I LOVE Kristina Werner! Her creations, her personality...she's just too fun! Anyway I had the thought that she might be at Convention since she's an SU! employee but when I saw it posted on her blog that she was excited to take photos with us I was just hoping for the opportunity.



I know I totally sound like a stalker now...but I just think that she is FABULOUS! So I was running through the convention main hallway on my way to my hotel on Wednesday (check in day, Riverton tours, and of course the SCS dinner) and I saw her taking photos - I even said to my upline (who I was on the phone with at the time) "I just saw Kristina Werner!!!". I think I had to repeat myself because I may have been screeching it...hahaha :) but my swap was coming up in no time so I could not stop.

Fast forward to Friday, my 26th birthday - I was walking in about the same area and just thought darn wouldn't it be a great birthday present if I could take a picture with and meet Kristina Werner? So I keep walking and guess who I see? It was perfect birthday karma!

There was another lady getting her picture taken with Kristina and chatting with her and as I stood there I just got more and more nervous. I'm such a total dork around anyone I don't know. So I finally get up there and stick my hand out and say "Hi I'm Sarah" oh and wait for it...my favorite part - Kristina says to put that thing away and hugs me. She's just as warm in person as any avid lover of her blog would think! I just hope that both of us are at convention next year and I don't spaz out again! My new Canadian friend Amber took the photo and began conversing with Kristina about the P.F. Chang's phone number (Kristina looked it up for her) and about local scrapbooking stores. I just stood there...although I vaguely remember saying something like "I'm the girl who emailed you asking for names of great local scrapbooking stores"...could I be a bigger dork?

I'm sitting here laughing right now because this is so funny to recall. Oh and I'm thinking that Kristina will probably read this and agree that I'm a total nerd...

Ok onto my other 2 favorite bloggers...

I have another story about this one...I was going to my upline group meeting (SWAS Ink.) and as we're driving I said something about a great video I had watched on Angie Juda's Chic n' Scratch blog. My lovely upline Beth says "You know she's going to be there today right?" I said "Why?" and Beth says "She's in our group too"...



So again I was a total dork the first time I met her...I'm pretty sure I said something super eloquent like "Hi, I read your blog everyday" Anyway, thank goodness Angie's super nice as I occasionally have to email her with questions (ps if you don't have her Chic Stand for your paper piercer you've got to get it - wonderful for traveling) and of course look forward to seeing her at group meetings and CONVENTION!!!

So I randomly saw Angie when I was wondering around the Sizzix Big Shot Marketing area (woohoo Stampin' Up! What a great area to branch into!!!) and we took a photo together. She also gave me some great business advice! Thanks Angie!

So Angie and I are walking together and guess who comes up to talk to Angie? Dawn Griffith !!! Anyway they apparently know each other and they were such a hoot to watch interact. I think between the 3 of us we definitely had more energy than normal humans should!!! :) It was great to meet her as well but I think meeting her with Angie helped ease my celeb-blogger anxiety.



And of course our brand new blogger, the cofounder and CEO of Stampin' Up Shelli Gardner! I was so lucky to get a picture with her! As I walked up to her she said 2 more pictures so I was really happy that I got in there in just the nick of time! I was hoping to get one with her at regionals but someone said that she doesn't attend every regional so I was hoping for an opportunity at my first convention! What a special photo for me to have! Her blog just went live Sunday and it is so CUTE!!! Go check it out by clicking on her name. Isn't she super photogenic? I look so silly next to her!



Anyway more pics to come soon...I gotta get one up of my awesome roomies!!! (Hi Michelle, Vil & Sheri! Miss you gals already!)

Convention & First Post in a Month!!!

WOW!!! I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted! I've seriously been working on my 16 SCS swaps day and night, night and day for the last month! I didn't even get to making any general swaps...oh well. Today I'll be working on getting some Stampin' Up! Convention photos to all of you. It was so amazing and I have oodles to share - not the least of which is my excitement! Check back later!

Scrapdango GDT Search

Hola! I made this layout for the Scrapdango Guest Design Team Search and although I cannot get it to load on their site (www.scrapdango.com - go check them out, the members are awesome and I love their message board, gallery, and monthly kits) I thought I'd put it on here. I'm going to include the link in the thread about the GDT but we'll see if they accept me as an actual entry or not. Most times computers are amazing, but sometimes they overwhelm me with frustration!

Here's my info that goes with it...along with a little bit about the process (we had to ink/distress the papers, use chipboard, and do some type of stitching):

I had so much fun with this one!!! I inked the edges of every paper - mostly with SU! Chocolate Chip (I sponged it onto/into the KI lace) but inked the background one with a Colorbox Cat's Eye in Copper for some extra shine. I used acrylic paints to paint the "D" and "C" chipboard and left the rest of the letters as they came. Finally, I used my sewing machine to stitch for the first time!!! I used white thread straight down the red/green piece near the edges. I used brown thread around the green photo mat. I also used a bit of embroidery floss to hand stitch a bit on the edges of the journaling block. One additional fun thing I tried here - I printed my photo on textured cardstock (looks more worn already because of the ridges) and then I sanded the edges of the photo before popping it up with dimensionals on the green mat. Hope you like it! Thanks for looking!

Note: The name tag is something you have to wear at Discovery Cove and they attach a map to your lanyard which is what the thing under my name tag is. I really wanted to include them - I love actual souvenirs from any trip/place/event!!! :)

Brown, Green, & Red Patterned Papers - My Mind's Eye
Yellow CS - Stampin' Up!
Polka Dot Pattered Paper - Deja Views
Blue Dot Lace CS - KI
Ink - Stampin' Up! & Colorbox
Thread - Coats & Clark
Embroidery Floss - DMC
Journaling stamp - Scrappy Cat
Chipboard - "D" & "C": Provocraft & rest of letters (white): Heidi Swapp
Green Staples (hard to tell in photo) - Making Memories
Ric Rac - Hobby Lobby
Journaling Pen - Zig Writer

* Sorry the photo isn't super straight - my title really is (I'm a psycho about straightness so this drives me nuts) - I was having camera issues tonight!

Have a great day! Hopefully I'll be back with a card or layout using Kristina Werner's new Color Inspiration challenge!

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #12

Hi again! I love the colors in Kristina's challenge this week - So Saffron is one of my favorite Stampin' Up! colors (if not my very very favorite)! So here's my card - for my sister-in-law's 30th birthday as well!

I really wanted to stick with a mostly neutral color scheme and was inspired by the white circles in the photo so I made my own attempt at this one! Originally I started punching circles from vellum cardstock but was having adhesive issues so I abandoned that for the white circles in the finished product. Hope you like it!!!

The photo isn't so great but I used Wild Wasabi ink on the So Saffron piece and it looks gorgeous. Also you can't totally tell but the entire frame is popped up on dimensionals as is the sentiment. I really love this card!

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron
Ink: Wild Wasabi
Punches: 1/2", 1", 1 1/4" circles
Other: Dimensionals (lots of them), White 1/4" grosgrain

Retired List

Hello! Stampin' Up released their list of retiring stamp sets (will not be in the Fall/Winter 2008 Catalog). Make sure you get these stamps before they are gone!!! Here's a link to the file with the retiring stamp sets.

You can either leave a comment here with your name and phone number or name and email or contact me at scrappinNstampin@yahoo.com if you need to order any of these great sets! One of my personal favorite image sets - Year after Year is retiring - check that one out for sure!!!

I'll be back in just a couple with this weeks entry for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge!

Fresh Cuts & Fresh Cut Notes

Hi! New set (available for order in June only until new catalog is released August 11th) making its debut in the brand new catalog!!! I LOVE this set despite my aversion to flowers (that's wearing off as I become more deeply entrenhed in card making & scrapbooking). It is such a fun set with 5 great stamps! Here's a link to my upline Beth's blog for her photo of the set as well as using it with the Fresh Cut Notes which are laser-cut so you can see through the petals! Worried about writing on the inside of the card? Just stamp your image (the large collage stamp is great for this) and cut it to just 1/4" smaller on each side than the acutal cards and glue inside with the image facing outward!!! Also then if you have a stamping boo-boo you don't ruin one of these gorgeous cards. Maybe I'll try and do a tutorial on that this week, once I recharge my camera batteries (I took today's photo on fumes). Anyway here's the card I made using this incredible set ($21.95 and you get the notes for $5 - they are regularly $8.95).

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge #9

Ok so I got this done for the first time (under the time limit). I really enjoyed using STARS because I LOVE stars. I also tried a new idea...can you spot it? By the sentiment (Congratulations from the Great Grads set) I punched out a small star and traced around part of it. Using a hobby blade, I cut around that star in the upper corner and slid my main image panel under it. I really like the way it turned out and plan on sending it to my best friend Sara who just received notification of some amazing med school accomplishments! (Way to go Sara!)

Anyway, I hope you like it...leave some comments on my unfrequented blog...PLEASE!!! Have a fantastic day! Almost to the weekend now! :)

Craft Fair Items

I sold both the paperclip bookmarks from my open house and this new "girlier" version...


I also had these post-it note keychains (tutorial found at www.chicnscratch.typepad.com):


Nugget boxes (combined tutorials from Chic N Scratch & Splitcoast - used the Bohemian papers):



Cello bags with Peppermint Patties (I'm obsessed with the Chocolate Chip/Certainly Celery combination):


Thank you card (CASEd from Chic N Scratch as well):


Mother's Day card (ribbon only is not Stampin' Up! - I totally hoard my SU! ribbon):


Father's Day card (I don't own any SU! eyelets yet!):


Graduation cards (in the colors of the 4 high schools in our town):

SU! Convention Bound

I am soooo excited! I am going to Stampin' Up!'s Convention from July 30th-August 2nd (coinciding with their 20th anniversary). I am making bunches of different swaps, both general and ones I've signed up for with my ladies over at Splitcoaststampers! Here's a pic of one that I'm doing for the "Dream" 3D Items Swap...

***Note: I DID NOT make this project, but will be remaking it as it was a fantastic idea. I received it in my email from Scrapbook & Cards today (http://www.scrapbookandcards.com/) which is a Canadian publication that is available both in stores and for FREE online. I LOVE it!!! Please check it out!

Anyway, I participated in a craft fair this last Wednesday so I'll be posting pictures from all the projects I made from that...as soon as I get them photographed!!!