I {heart} your blog award!!

I was so excited to have a comment the other day from someone who {hearts} my blog!! That is such a boost to the creative juices!!! :0) So I want to say a big THANK YOU to love2Bcreative. Check out her blog by clicking on her blog name---there are some really cool things on there.

The rules for accepting the “I {heart} your blog” award are:

The winner can put the logo on their blog.

Link the person you received your award from.

Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

Put links of those blogs on yours.

Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

Now I am going to nominate some other blogs for you to check out.

1) Kristin at Cottage Stamping (this is my upline!)

2) Shelley at Mocha Memories (don't you just love her blog name?!)

3) Stacey at Stacey Stamps

4) Amanda at Stamp Vamps

5) Virginia at Virginia's Website

6) Twila at The Stamping Spot

7) Diane at DD Stamps in Montana

Okay, go and check out these ladies wonderful blogs and load them up with comments!!

Have a great Labor Day!!

~Amy

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!!)