A Flip Card for a Friend

A very special friend is having a birthday next week.  We have known each other since we were 2 years old!  She has had a rough few years including three bouts with cancer (she's in the middle of chemo right now) and a heart attack.  I won't even get into the family things she deals with but I guarantee it makes all of our lives look easy.  Yet, she is happy...deeply and profoundly happy.  I don't get to see her often as she is a few states away, but I look forward to each and every visit because I learn so much about "attitude" and what a difference it makes.

This card had to be very fun and bright.  It also needed to include a cat as her cat is her baby!  I'm not sure it could be much brighter than this...

I'm hoping the coloring looked better than this in real life but I already sent it so I can't check!

This is a flip card, so when she pulls on it, it does this...

My flip card was a fun find this week at Hobby Lobby.  I hadn't seen that Sizzix dies have a series of flip card dies.  The dies are $30 at Hobby Lobby - be sure to take your 40% off coupon.  I picked up the circle, but Hobby Lobby also had a square, a flower and an elegant frame (the Sizzix website shows even more!). What a quick and easy way to make this fun card!


I also have to share a story and see how many of you can match me for sheer obsession.  Two nights ago we had a storm that felt like the apocalypse!  Constant lightning, thunder that made the house shake...but that's only when you could hear it over the golf-ball size hail.  I'm not kidding...

Here's one of the many pieces that the hail took our of our now totalled camper...

It could have been worse, our neighbor has a big, black hole in their roof from lightning.  And I just talked to a friend who still has snakes crawling in her house because the rain came down so hard and so fast that they got flooded out of their holes!


So...the lightning is flashing, the hail is pounding, my youngest is insistent that we get downstairs due to tornado warnings and the cats are howling in fear - a truly terrible sound.  But I had two cards to make for a blog hop on Thursday morning and nothing was stopping me.  I tuned it all out and crafted as fast as I could - before the power went out!!  How many of you can say they have crafted through the apocalypse!!???

• Stamps: Lil' Inkers Cutie Cat, Stampin' Up sentiment
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pumpkin, 7Gypsies dsp (but it came out of an OLD stash)
• Ink: Memento black, copics
• Accessories: Sizzix Circle Flip-It die, Crafts Etc embossing folder, Nestabilities circle and flag dies (flag from pennant set), Papertrey Ink button

A Big Day: Sweet 'n Sassy's June Release

It's the big day for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps - the June release!

If you have come here from Cathy's blog, I am sure you are loving the blog hop.  If you started with me, you might want to head back to the beginning - the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog to join in the fun.  Plus...if you leave comments, one random design team blog will be chosen, then one lucky comment-er on that blog for big prizes!!

It's another fantastic month with such a variety of stamps.  I wanted to stay with the variety that Sweet 'n Sassy always offers and give you a variety of cards.

This first card uses the new set Make a Wish (available tonight after the big release party!).  I have been taking classes - online and in my local scrapbook store - on Tim Holtz type techniques and I knew that some of these techniques would work beautifully with this set...

Then for my second set, I went for a very different look.  The stamps are so detailed and beautiful that they work well with very little embellishment.  I used the new set Vintage Baby and made a baby girl and a baby boy card...

You next stop on the hop is Brenda.  Have fun with the rest of the samples, then be sure to join us for the big release party tonight at 8 pm EST in our Splitcoaststampers forum!  Don't forget to leave comments!

Here's the entire list for this blog hop - just in case you get lost along the way!!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps 

Jessica Fick

Dina Kowal

Sandy Domelle

Mary Faus

Cathy McCauley

Kim Singdahlsen <---YOU ARE HERE

Brenda Weaver

Taylor Usry

Bridget Finlay

Holly McMillen

Kim Schofield

Giovana Smith

Monika Davis

DJ Rants
Korin Sutherland 

MAKE A WISH:

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Make a Wish
• Paper: watercolor paper, Papertrey Ink Canyon Clay
• Ink: Versamark, Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo, Papertrey Ink Canyon Clay, Distress Stains in Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed
• Accessories: Tim Holtz tissue tape, Mark Richards black nailheads, Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder, Cuttlebug embossing folder

VINTAGE BABY:

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Vintage Baby
• Paper: white, Stampin' Up Pool Party and Rose Romance
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party and Rose Romance
• Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folders, Martha Stewart gems
• Challenges: CAS-ual Friday Put a Bling On It

Happy Birthday Weiner Dog

I have been feeling so blocked lately, which is a huge problem because I have two design team commitments this week:

1. It's new release blog hop and party day for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps tomorrow - the hop is up at 8 a.m. Mountain Time!
2. It's a new Dynamic Duos challenge on Saturday!

I haven't even felt a glimmer in my brain of ideas for either of these projects.  I finally decided yesterday it was because my desk was overwhelming me.  It was piled high and I had so much to do...

• I had stray clear stamps that needed to go back with their friends but I couldn't find the sets and constantly worried that they had fallen off my desk into the trash (usually with the help of one of our felines!)
• I had stray post-its and scraps of paper with shopping lists or card to-dos.
• I had new sets that hadn't been indexed (I actually take every stamp and stamp set that I own and put it into labelled sections in notebooks.  For example, if I buy a floral set but it happens to include a "Happy Birthday" - that "Happy Birthday" goes in the birthday section of the notebooks and the florals go in the flower section.  A pain in the *!?#** but so very worth it in the long run!)
• I had wooden sets that hadn't been removed from their blocks and had tacky glue applied (every stamp that I own is in a CD cases)
• I had cards that weren't "kitted".  Every card you see on my blog is actually one of four.  I either make the other three for our church card sales racks or I cut everything out and put the paper and supplies in a pencil box to take to church cardmaking for others to make.

Wow - that was quite a pity party, huh??

But I finished, and...not a big surprise...now I have lots of ideas in my head for these card commitments!

While I was cleaning, I ran across some stamps that I had purchased half-off at Hobby Lobby.  I knew my mojo was better when I pictured a card using these stamps (not from a set, but they are so cute together), plus the Washi tape I used a few weeks that I swore I would use more than once.  This card was together in  less than a minute!!  Perhaps it shows that it was this fast - but I love it anyway!!

I hope to see you back tomorrow for some new stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy!

• Stamps: Stampabilities sentiment, Printworks dog
• Ink: Memento brown, Stampin' Up Island Indigo
• Paper: white
• Accessories: My Minds Eye Indie Chic Washi Tape

Bird of Hope

I know an incredible family from church.  They are very blessed financially, yet the father uses his time to run a local food bank as a full-time "volunteer".  They are also very busy keeping up with their five young children (including a set of triplets!).  But no one's life is ever as easy as it may look...the mother has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and has undergone a double mastectomy.  My heart and my prayers go out to this family.

I created this simple little card to let them know that people care and are praying...



This is definitely not a great photo - but I wanted to keep the shadows on the card to highlight the subtle embossing. 
I used the sketch from retrosketches and, as I wanted to keep it cheerful, I played along with the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use bling.

• Stamps: unknown "Hope"
• Paper: white
• Ink: black
• Accessories: Cuttlebug large border embossing folder (done one way, then flipped and embossed the other way), bird and swirl stickers (they say "White Blossom" which I have never heard of, but I found them at one of the big box stores - there's a sheet of the birds and another sheet of the swirls), Quickutz tag, crochet thread

Another Quick Gift Set

I just can't seem to plan ahead - because I found myself needing another gift set and I had around an hour to do it.  There's nothing to do in cases like this except to CASE - and who better than Christina at Sea Glass & Sentiments.  This link takes you to a card folder and gift set that she had made using WPlus9 stamps.  (BTW - if you don't follow WPlus9 you should check out their blog.  They are in the middle of new release week and they have a fishing set that is DARLING - and I don't even fish!!)

If I were making these cards for myself, I would have kept them all green and brown as did Christina.  I do not really know the recipient of these cards so I thought I better add some color just in case that's what she prefers.  Because I added color, I had a few other options out of various WPlus9sets.  FYI: I did not have time to make Christina's folder, but I did make three each of these cards for the gift...



The sentiments are from a variety of companies - they just happened to be on my desk for other projects.  Let me know if you want details and I can find them again!

Dynamic Duos #5

It's such a fun color combination this week at Dynamic Duos.  It's the first challenge of the month so we are going "Bold and Sassy" with the fresh and fun combination of Read Red and Island Indigo...

I had the fun of playing at a friend's house one afternoon this past week.  She is the only person I have ever met that has a bigger collection than I do!!  Nothing on this card is mine!  It sure is fun to have access to her incredible craft room!

The design team has put together quite a variety of cards for this challenge so be sure to check each one out.  Then play along - it's a great color combo!

The Dynamic Duos Challenge Blog

Allisa Chilton

Anne Marie Hile

Anika Lerche

Bronwyn Eastley

Kim Singdahlsen

Lesley Croghan

Lisa Elton

Melissa Chipperfield

Paige Grabau

Sue Joyce

I did use the sketch from the Paper Players challenge.  While I was creating this card days ago for the design team deadline, the Paper Players challenge was open.  I forgot the fact that it would be closed by the time this challenge would be posted. 

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Betsy's Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes 
• Paper: Stampin' Up Real Red, Island Indigo and Summer Smooches dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Island Indigo
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Circle punch, unknown scalloped circle punch, Stampin' Up Flower Burst Embosslit, Island Indigo ribbon and baker's twine, unknown flag dies

Cake and Bling!!

What a perfect combination...cake and bling!

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to "Put a Bling on It".  I wanted to go big (while still keeping it CAS) so I dug through my box of I-liked-it-when-I-bought-it-but-now-what-do-with-it stuff.  It's usually stuff that isn't necessarily my style but I wanted to try.  In this case, I found this bling on clearance at Michaels awhile back. I usually don't add quite this much at one time!!  But...I like it!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Birthday Bakery (only half the row of six cakes), On Your Birthday
• Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo
• Ink: Memento Black, copics
• Accessories: Mark Richards Crystal Stickers Clusters, Cuttlebug Cupcake Folder