Frames---Faith, Hope and Love

These are the beautiful frames made by my friend Elizabeth. She had been wanting to get together to make these for awhile and we finally did it in early August!! :0) We dug through all of my Designer Series Scrapbooking paper that I sort of hoard---I have LOTS of paper, but I'm trying to get better about using it and letting others use it too. Anyway, this is some retired paper called Brocade something or other. I only had a little bit, so for the HOPE frame we had to improvise with cardstock, stamps and ink! I think that it turned out just beautifully, what do you think?



I hope that you are having a wonderful Labor Day weekend. I'm spending it at home trying to do some work and some fun. I got some cards stamped today. Now once I get around to snapping some pictures of them, I will post some pictures. I've been playing with my punches for my upcoming Getting Punchy Stamp Camp in Sept. Check out my EVENTS on the side of the page for the date, times, and cost of my classes. Then make sure to contact me to sign up!!! :0)



~Amy

Birthday cake and ATC cards

Today, I wanted to show you the beautiful cake that my daughter, Emily, made for my birthday. She did the basketweave pattern on top with flowers drizzled around. (I requested purple flowers!!)

The other two pictures today are of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) made by my up-up-upline, Melissa E. ATCs are small versions of cards, made to conserve card stock but to share ideas at the same time. To give you an idea of size, think baseball trading cards. These are two cute little ATCs!! Thanks, Melissa, for sending them my way!!

Have a blessed day!!!

~Amy

Stampin' Up! Birthday Cards

Here are a couple of birthday cards that I got for my birthday this past Saturday. The grape card (made with the Gorgeous Grapevine set---sorry, it's retired now) was made by Emily, my 14 y.o. daughter. The other was made by my downline, Connie, using the Unfroggetable set which is also retired now. Thanks so much, both of you!!!

Have a wonderful day!! My Big Shot stuff is supposed to arrive today. Hopefully, I will get to play with it sometime this week and/or weekend. See you soon.

~Amy

Stampin' Up! Open House

Here are pictures from my SU! Open House on Thursday. I hope that everyone that was able to make it had a great time. I enjoyed seeing you all. Lots of cards were made, stamp sets (and other stuff) was sold and door prizes given out. If you weren't able to make it to this time, maybe you can make it to some of my upcoming events!



This was our make and take card with a matching envelope. Do you decorate your envelopes to match your cards? It is a great idea and adds that little extra to your handmade cards. Give it a try!!



The holder that I made for candy! Yum!!








All of these pictures are the door prizes! The Grand Prize (which I forgot to take a picture of) was a box of goodies, including a stamp set, note cards, a punch, a blender pen, a sample of the new button assortment, cardstock including the new In Colors and a variety of whites, and I can't remember what else!! It was a great gift. Congratulations to Diana M. who was the winner of the Grand Prize!!

Have a great day!! Thanks for stopping by!

~Amy

Fripp Island, South Carolina

Here are some beach pictures finally!! We had a great time, but I just got the pictures on my computer. I was too busy getting ready for my Stampin' Up! (r) Open House this week to think about these pictures. (I'll upload some pictures from that soon!)

The first picture is of my 3 girls, plus a friend that we took to the beach with us. My youngest daughter found that cute little starfish in a tide pool. She always finds the coolest things. A couple of years ago in around the same place, she found a live sea urchin!! And we often find sand dollars---sometimes alive, sometimes dead, but often whole.

And the last picture is just a beach shot. It was taken our last morning at the beach. It was a little overcast that day, however we were already packed and ready to head home, so we weren't playing in the ocean anyway.

If you are looking for a great, quiet family beach getaway, I would recommend Fripp Island, South Carolina (near Beaufort). It is small and peaceful, but if you are looking for lots of activities, then this is not the place for you!! ;0)

Have a great day!! I'll try to get back quicker next time. I just seem to need about 36 hours per day right now!

~Amy

Big Shot samples

Well, I am away on vacation but I decided to show you some pictures today. I need to upload my beach pictures and show you where I am, but maybe tomorrow! The pictures for today are made using the new BIG SHOT that Stampin' Up! will start selling Sept 1st. (As a demo, I was able to preorder, so hopefully it will arrive at my house late next week or early the following week so that I can play a little bit!!) Anyway, the Big Shot is a die cutting machine. You can use so many different materials with it---of course, card stock, scrapbooking paper, but also things like fabric (check out the last picture!). In this first picture, the die is used to make the bag topper. Cute!!
And how about these little pillow boxes!! I ordered this die, so I'll probably make about a million little boxes to make my purchase worthwhile!! :0) The flowers on the card below are die cut---they look like foil to me....it is definitely a material on the list.
The "G" here seems to be die cut out of chipboard---also on the list of materials that can be die cut! Pretty card and super easy.

And, lastly, here is the fabric!!! Isn't this an awesome matching set?!? I only wish now that I could sew. :0) Maybe I'll have to learn---I do have a machine, but it has seen rare action.

The last thing for today is leaving you with a list of the approved materials that can be used with the Big Shot dies. Have a blessed day!!! It's a rainy beach day here----aka, a shopping day!! And it is my middle daughter Meredith's birthday today---12 yrs old!!! That will involve eating cake, of course!

~Amy

Cut through the following 50 materials using steel rule dies and your Big Shot machine. Please note the maximum thickness of several materials.
Brass (.055)
Light weight steel
Aluminum (.016)
Tin (.008)
Aircraft plywood (1/64")
Basswood (1/16")
Balsa (3/32")
Paperwood
Mat board (adhesive or none)
Chipboard
Fabric
Silicone
Foam with chipboard (.1)
Corrugated pad
Adhesive-backed cork
Fine sandpaper (.00)
Strene
Extra thick template plastic
Template plastic
Plastic canvas (7 mesh)
Bubble wrap
Sheet foam
Friendly (jewelry) plastic
100% pure beeswax (cut with parchment paper on top & bottom of beeswax)
Adhesive and non-adhesive rubber
Ruffleboard
Static cling vinyl
Warm & natural batting
Fusible fleece
Quilt batting
Adhesive and non-adhesive flexible magnet
Heat n' shrink plastic
Adhesive and non-adhesive felt
Pop-up sponge
Shiny self-adhesive and non-adhesive paper
Iron-on fabric
Poly foam adhesive and non adhesive
3-D illusionary plastic
Glow in the dark adhesive and non adhesive
Suede paper
Funky fur
Personal Embossing Plastic (PEP)
Shaggy plush felt
Canvas
Vinyl flooring
Shelf lining
Placement
Embossing rubber
Thin leather
Gasket material

(Wow! I don't even know what some of this stuff is!!)

New card making stuff

It is almost time for the unveiling of the new catalog---on August 11th you will be able to find it online. Then you can get your hard copy of the catalog at my OPEN HOUSE on Thursday, August 21st (from noon to 8pm)!!! I've got my demo copy in my hot little hands and I am loving it!!! And have you heard that a Big Shot diecut machine is coming to SU!? Whoo-hoo!!

I was able to preorder some of the new catalog items (that is just one of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! demo!!!) and I will share a few pictures with you today. By the way, speaking of being an SU! demo----have you heard that there is a new $99 Starter Kit Special? Ask me about the details. There is no better time to sign up---$99 to start and only $300 in sales per quarter will keep you active and receiving your discount (usually 20% off, but sometimes more)!!!

Now on to the cards---

These cards use a new Simply Sent Card Elements Kit. The kit I used is called Flower Power Card Elements and costs $15.95 which includes all the supplies to make 9 cards (3 of each kind that I will show you). You can also get the coordinating stamp set called Wow Flowers that costs $12.95 or you can just use whatever words you happen to have on hand. I used my own medium Whisper White envelopes and stamped them to match the cards. I love making matching envelopes----it gives my cards a real designer look!! Have you tried doing that?

This Simply Sent Card Elements Kit includes cardstock, double sided paper, die cut stickers, ribbon, buttons, and brads. The kit also includes instructions for you so that you can easily create these beautiful cards!!

Here is card #3. I love these bright, cheery cards. I made all of my cards as "Thank You" cards because that is what I needed. You can easily use whatever words you need.

The new catalog has 3 different Simply Sent Card Elements Kits which do not include the coordinating stamp set. There are also 2 Simply Sent Card Kits which include the coordinating stamp set and the elements to create the cards (10 cards in each kit).

One of the SS Card Elements Kits is called Handmade Holiday Card Elements and you can use it to make 18 Christmas cards!!! It only costs $17.95 for the kit and $18.95 if you would like the coordinating stamp set. But remember, you may have your own stamps that will work with the kit.

The final picture shows all three cards with one envelope and a couple of the stamps from the Wow Flowers set. How do you like these cards? I thought that they were simple beautiful.

I will be headed to the beach in only two days!! I am so excited. Does anyone out there reading this live near Fripp Island. If so drop me a note and maybe we can stamp together next week!! I will definitely be stopping by the Carolina Stamper---great stamping/scrapbooking/jewelry making store in Beaufort, SC!! If you ever get a chance, stop by and see them.

~Amy

I can blog again!

For some stange reason, my blog was mis-identified as a "spam blog" and I was locked out for a couple of days!!! Now prior to that, I just didn't get around to showing you anything new.

So here goes:






These cute little gift bags are called a bag in a box or box in a bag or something like that. Aren't they great?!? The green one uses some retired scrapbooking paper, but that beautiful red one uses the new Bella Rose paper and the Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss papers. And check out that scallop edge paper around the bottom!!! It is made using SU!'s new scallop edge punch. Love it!!! I hear that there are more new punches coming in less than two weeks when the new Fall/Winter Stampin' Up! catalog debuts. I'm excited about it, are you?






This Treat Box is made with one sheet of 12"x12" textured card stock (chocolate chip for this box) and a little scrapbooking paper (Berry Bliss in this case). All you do is fold the card stock and thread ribbon through holes that you punch. Lastly you just pull the sides up with the ribbon. I filled mine with lots of different candies and have it on my stamping tables. Want to come to my house and stamp? :0)



Have a great day!! Now go and stamp something!