SUO, CAS and Bling!

Don't you just love the acronyms or stamper lingo as I like to call it. Over time I think you just learn and know them, but just in case you ever get lost and want to check out what something means, there is a thread on SCS (yes, they think of everything over there) to help you out. And if you need something more relevant to everyday acronyms or texting codes, a friend sent this to me a while back. I have it book marked for the day I need to reference it. My boys are too young to have cell phones and to be texting, but one day (sooner than I think, I'm sure) I'll be wondering what something means that they have texted in code. Anyway, here's the link. You can type in the text code (I'm sure there is a way cooler name for that, but I'm not cool enough to know it, lol!) and it will spit back the real meaning, in English. Okay, back to my card. It is clean and simple, Stampin' Up! only, and full of bling! The big shot, big bold cupcake die, and punches helped make this card come together extra fast. Colors are soft suede, apricot appeal, regal rose and the new melon mambo. Thanks for stopping by! Hugs, Lisa

Awesome Give Away!!!

Wow, how cool would it be to win this?!!!! Stampin Addicts dot com has tons of ideas using the Stampin’ Up! Big Shot and is giving away a Big Shot Die Pack as part of the Stampin’ Up! summer celebration. To enter, all you have to do is write about it. This is my entry. Now give me my dies.

Check out the details here for your chance to win the die package for The Stampin' Up! Big Shot!
Hugs, Lisa

Fun with White

The Ways to Use it challenge on SCS this week was to use all white (you could color an image that was stamped onto whit cs) products-cs and embellishments. I stuck to the rules and made a crisp, clean all white card. The butterfly was cut out of vellum cs and linen vellum cs (by PTI). I used one of the hat pins from the pretties kit to add some pizza to the pretty butterfly. I did add one pop of color with the sentiment (from Matchbox Messages) stamped in Tangerine Tango!
I really like this! I can't believe this was my first Ways to Use it challenge. I know I'll be back to play, it was a fun challenge. Hugs, Lisa

Two days left of SAB!

April 1 is almost here. So if you haven't gotten all the SAB Freebies you wanted, be sure to get your orders in by tomorrow night. You can order directly from my website, see the link in my sidebar. This also means in two days you can order from the new Occasions mini. Here are two cards I did for swaps. These both use the new paper and new stamp set, Great Friend. They also use the bigz Butterfly die. I told you last week this is one of my new FAVES!

This first card was for my GSG group. Isn't the color combo great? I've been using a lot of pale plum lately and pairing it with basic grey. For this card I threw in a pop of kiwi and think it looks great. This next card is very similar, but I pulled the colors from a different pattern of dsp (a walk in the park)-baja, cameo coral, and basic grey. Plus I used more of the stamps to accent the cardstock. This card was for my NMBS group. Enjoy your Monday! Check back tomorrow for my CAS challenge card. Hugs, Lisa

My new favorite way to start the week

Yes, I have decided that I really like to start my Monday's with the CAS challenge over at SCS. I've been talking about them for a few weeks now and I really look forward to seeing what the challenge is on Monday. This week's challenge was to make a CAS card with punches. I decided to use these gorgeous daisy die cut flowers (thanks, Kristin) as my punched imaged. The card base is baja breeze and I added a bit of dsp from the new paper pack, A Walk in the Park. The sentiment comes from the new set, Great Friend (both the stamp set and paper are available on April 1). I'm not exaggerating when I say this card took all of 5 minutes to make. If you really want some CAS inspiration, do a search in the SCS gallery with the keyword, CAS. Or check out the gallery for this challenge here. Hope your day is beginning on a positive note! Hugs, Lisa

Crazy for Circles

Or is it crazy for scallops? Both in this case. I am totally in {love} with my new giant scallop circle die for the Big Shot. I have been close to ordering another brand of circle dies, but held off and then decided to get the one that Stampin' Up! sells. It was hard to swallow the price, $20, but it is soooo worth it! It is huge and I love what I have been doing with it. Here are two circle cards I made today. I have seen lots of circle cards, but my friend Vera was the first one I saw post a card using the die from SU. Check this out! The first one is for my BFF's birthday and was for the Unity Wednesday Pre-Hip Hop challenge (use the colors Black and Pink). I finally ordered the Pink Pirouette striped ribbon, so I had to use it on this card. I REALLY love how this second card turned out. I just think it is soooo stinkin' cute. I used the Season of Friendship stamp set along with the colors Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red and some Choc. Chip. I accented it with some striped Tangerine ribbon and a Kiwi Kiss button from the button Bouquet. The scallop card is easy to make, just put a folded piece of cs on the die with the folded edge just inside one part of the circle. This will make your hinge and leave a flat edge to the card. To hide that straight edge, Vera suggested cutting out another full scallop circle and attach that the the card front. Just line the scallops up together and it gives a nice finished look to the card. You will be seeing lots more of this die. It is my new favorite toy, I tell ya! What is your favorite new item you've purchased lately? Hugs,

Yeah it Worked!

So after fiddling with my cable for almost an hour, some how and for some reason it just started working again. My pictures uploaded and now I can share the Birthday ensemble I put together for my dear friend, Dawn, who just celebrated her 40th Birthday yesterday. She had a fabulous blow-out birthday bash with lots of yummy food and drinks! I wanted to give her a little something (even though the invite said, "no gifts please." I opened up my new pack of Hawaiian Papaya dsp and put together a beaded pen, a set of monogram note cards, and a little basket (made with the Baskets and Blooms SU! exclusive die for the Big Shot). For her card I used the Sticky Die cut Numbers and covered them with sparkley green glitter. I added little tags to the felt flower using the word window punch and the words "Fabulous", "Beautiful", and "Amazing" from the Amazing to Zany stamp set. The ribbon is wide celery grosgrain (I finally used up my pre-cut strips that I mis-measured from my last swaps). I used my favorite print from the Hawaii Papaya dsp pack as the main image on the set of note cards and added some more of that celery ribbon and a monogram script letter "D" (Papertrey Ink-Ambassador Alphabet set) to a scallop circle for a quick and fun stack of cards. I used another Papertrey Ink set, Beautiful Blooms to create coordinating envelopes and a matching beaded pen. Dawnie loves coffee so I also picked up a Starbucks gift card and used more of the Hawaii Papaya dsp and the Big Shot to create this fun little basket. The cool thing about the double sided dsp is that you can flip the paper over and use the opposite side to decorate the basket and only have to run the die through the machine once (meaning you don't have to keep running different colors of paper or cs through to create accents for your projects if you don't want to). I put the gift card in the basket and added a little strips of crimped paper for filler to the basket. She loved it and so do I. Well, I am just in LOVE with the paper. I think it would make any project just fabulous. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs,

More Die Cuts

Like I said in a post the other day, I like to use all my new stuff at least once before I dive into any time committed work. I quickly saw a sample of this die used at convention and I loved how it looked all cut out. I can't wait to use it on a scrapbook page as a boarder strip. Here is the strip in it's full glory. Isn't it so cool?! I love all the swirly letters. Since I wasn't' ready to use it on a scrapbook page yet, I wanted to see how it would work on a card. I cut apart the words Joy and Love (keeping those two actually attached) and then came up with this card. It is a little cutsie for my taste but I figured I'd show you anyway. The hearts are from Priceless and I embossed two of them with white embossing powder and then cut them out. The polka dot dsp is Kraft Patterns from the hostess sampler pack. I love this color choice, I only wish it were available in 12x12 size. I used the scallop edge punch along the bottom and finished it off with a Kraft taffeta bow. Happy Monday!