WOWZERS!!!! RETIRED LIST NOW AVAILABLE!!!!

My ohh my....the list is out.  You really need to check this out and get these great items before they're gone!!!

RETIRED LIST HERE

Throwback Thursday

Oh how I just love a good waterfall.  The sound of the water crashing into the stream and rocks.  The powerful river flowing carelessly over the edge and just seemingly falling towards the earth without a care.  I could stand and watch these massive monsters flow all day long.

I am reminded of a trip we took when we were younger.  We would load up the trailer and the Chevrolet and go camping.  We took one trip up north and went to Copper Falls.  I fell in love with the waterfalls and the surrounding beauty.  Two years ago, we revisited Copper Falls (in Melon WI) and had a wonderful trip.  MY whole family went...4 camp sites...15 people...and endless fun.

And speaking of waterfalls....today's Throwback Thursday's card is a "waterfall" card.  If you haven't check out these kind of cards, you'll FALL for them :)

To make the waterfall card work, you just pull gently on the ribbon tab.  As you pull, the cards flip forward and you'll see the full images on each little card.

Do you see it?  The tab with the ribbon is pulled farther out while the cards are starting to flip forward.  How awesome is that?!?!  

And what a cute little saying....driving by with a birthday "Hi."  This was one of my favorite sets with all the different little things you could put in the back of the truck.  

Well anyways....hope you reminisce a little bit on this Throwback Thursday and create something that will remind you of your childhood!

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND!!!

My lovely husband Brian turns 40 today.  And yes for those who know us...he is 7 years older than me.  Which sometimes looking back, it seems really weird.  We've talked about several instances where we were in the same place at the same time but NOT doing the same things.  One place was the race track.  When I was in middle school, my dad raced out at the Marshfield Super Speedway.  Well, come to find out, Brian would go out there and drink on race night.  I'm not sure if we ever ran into each other but just interesting to find out.  There was also the movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure that we both went to see (I think he said he snuck into the theater.  But anyways....happy birthday to my old man :)

This picture was from the first FORMAL event we were at together.  I stood up in my friend's Terri Rundle Wojcik's wedding.  He was such a good sport.  He had to sit all by himself without really knowing anyone while I was with the bridal party.  In this picture I was prego with Alex.  Boy time flies!

This picture should be pretty obvious...our wedding picture.  Yes we did things a little backwards....kids first and then marriage but everything is wonderful.  Nov 2003

Here's a couple pictures from our vacation last year in Cabo San Lucas.  I love this shirt (I got it at a museum on one of the field trips with the kids).  It says...NO Thanks, I'm having butter.  For those of you who know Brian this fits him to a T!

And here's a picture that is worth a 1000 words!  I'll let you use your imagination :)

Anyways...if you see him...wish this old man a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Butterflies in the Sky

Do you remember that show on PBS called "Reading Rainbow"?  I LOVED that show.  They always had their opening song....Butterflies in the Sky, I can go twice as high.  Take a Look, Read a Book, It's Reading Rainbow....I sing that song every time I work with butterflies (and trust me...that's a lot!)

I wanted this card to mimic the OMBRE look which look which is really popular right now.  I love the blues together (plus doesn't it look like a sky).  This card was very very easy to make.  The hardest part was lining up the three pieces of card stock in the embossing folder.

For the label, I used the designer label punch and just entered the one side through the bottom of the punch and put it between the two cutting blades to get just the one end punched.  The dollies were cut into thirds and just tucked behind the label.

Colors:  Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Naturals White, and Smoky Slate

Accessories:  BIG SHOT, (Retired Embossing Folder), Papillon Potpourri Stamp Set;  Many Thanks Stamp Set; Bitty Butterfly and Designer Label Punches; Dollies; Stampin' Dimenstionals, Rhinestones, and Stamp A Ma Jig

Papillon Potpourri (Butterfly Stamp Set)

Pop up box Card

Once in a while, creativity just sparks and you run with it.  This past Saturday morning I was working on some "leftover" cards from my stamp camp.  As I sat there working away on projects already created and styled, I wasn't enjoying myself.  We had two birthday parties to go to that day.  My son Alex was invited to a friend's birthday party at the bowling alley and we had my cousin's husband's party later in the day.  I was going to just GO AND GRAB a card out of the card box but I felt like I wanted to do something more....plus when we give gift cards, I always like to spice things up a bit.

I remembered doing this card at a stamp camp a couple months back and thought....that'd be a great card!!!  So away I went to my craft room...with a little help from my son Alex (he did the numbers, stars, and picked the stamped saying. 

The Box Cards fold flat so you can put them in the envelope.  Since it's an odd size, we used the Envelope Punch Board to make our awesome envelopes to go with the cards.

 We made each one pop up with their age.  We attached the numbers with clear plastic strips and then carefully placed them so when the card was folded down, you wouldn't see them popping out the sides.

This is the side view of the card for Alex's friend.  AND OF COURSE THAT'S ALEX in the background with his smirk of a grin :)  As you can see, I just used a small envelope and ripped it so I could place the gift card in it.  It's kind of hidden from the front view as well.

Here's a top angel so you can see better how the items are connected in the middle.

What a great card for a 12 or 30 year old or more :)  It's fun at any age.

I got the pattern in the forums on SplitCoastStampers.com 

Colors used:  Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip and Old Olive.

Accessories:  Perfect Pennants Stamp Set; Banner Framelit Dies; Real Red Ribbon, Fringe Sissors, Sticky Tape, and Scoring Tools (Some items were d/c.  The designer series paper I used was retired stock.)  

PERFECT PENNANTS AND BANNER FRAMELIT BUNDLE

Lovely Doilies

I am just in love with these doilies!  They come white but you can do so much with them.  You can emboss, color, crumple, tear, use part of them, or just leave them white!  Doilies always remind me of my Grandma's house at Easter time.  She always had this one bunny standing on it's hind legs and on a white doily.

This card was featured at my Stamp Camp last night.  The doily daubbed with multi colors makes it almost seem like a dyed Easter Egg.  First I colored it all So Saffron but I didn't like that.  SO then I added colors with the spongle daubbers.  AND I REALLY liked this.

The VINTAGE FACETED BUTTONS are my favorite accessory!    I just love the glamour look they give to any project.  My only complaint is the thickness of them so these I only use on hand delivered cards.

Since we made a square card we used the envelope punch board to create a lovely Square Coordinating Envelope.  It's so easy to use and quite versatile too!

Colors used:  Soft Sky, Perfect Plum, So Saffron, Calypso Coral

ORDER THE ENVELOPE PUNCH BOARD HERE