$1 Bird House

Here's one of those $1.00 bird houses you can find at JoAnn's turned into something gorgeous!
The papers are all Stampin' Up! the rest you can find at JoAnn's. Those cute little birdies were cut using the Cricut.


I'll admit, this took me a bit longer than I would have liked. I had some health issues and ended up in the hospital for four days. ugggg. Plus my thumb, that I had surgery on last year, has not been very co-operative. Looks like another surgery in the making. another uggg. Although, I would definitely exchange a surgery for staying in the hospital. I hated staying there.


Enough of that...Isn't this the cutest!!! I have another bird house to alter, but I'm playing with my Cricut a bit more. I'm trying to do some paper piecing with the Happily Ever After cartridge. It's not as easy as it looks!
Thanks for stopping in today,
Michelle
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Hello

Honest, I haven't forgotten to post, I just haven't been all that busy being creative. I could give excuses, but do you really want to hear my woe's?
For this card I decided to try out my Cricut. The partridge in the tree is from the Storybook cartridge cut out twice. First with retired SU's Baja Breeze then slightly larger with Going Gray for the shadow.


I printed the word HELLO using my printer...how easy is that?! Cut it out along with another piece of gray. Added a pop dot in the center, threaded the button with some really skinny gray paper and glued it all down. The paper is from Making Memories Greenhouse collection.


Then there's the ribbon and pretty cool ribbon I must say. I found it in the clearance aisle at Michael's. What a fun surprise that was. The ribbon is straight to begin with, then when the ivory thread is pulled, the ribbon gathers. How nice!
thanks for stopping in to say Hello :-)
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Christmas Cards In the Pink, and Blue too

Today's card was created for the Pals Paper Arts In the Pink Challenge PPA14 to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Karol Harris, and her loving daughter (and PPA Design Team member), Kris Kilcoyne.

I'm also dedicating my post to my very dear friend, Betty, who is also fighting this battle. I have no doubt that she will win. She is one strong cookie!

The only requirement for this challenge was to use pink, so I made my first pink Christmas Card. I must confess, I did case someone out there in web land for the above card as well as the one below.

But I do hope that I've added some of my own touches to the cards so I can call them my own. I think it was achieved because my silver stickles just happen to be not put away and it was screaming at me to use it. Hence, the silver glitter on both cards that show much brighter in person, of course.
Thanks for stopping in,
m
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Falling Behind

Happy weekend, woops it's almost over. I am so falling behind in my postings. This beauty is called a recessed window card. Here's the link for the directions. The papers are all Stampin' Up! The blue flowers were made using my Silhouette, I then sponged everything I could with Chocolate Chip and sprayed the flowers with some Glitter Mist.


Lots of layers with the flowers. I also curled in their petals using then end of a paintbrush.

I made this card for my friend Betty who loves butterflies.

Lots of gold embossing. She is gonna love it.

And the last card for the day is one of the cutest little cards I've made in awhile. Betty will probably want this one too. The stamp is from ClearStamps.com. I stamped it on watercolor paper and used SU markers and an aqua pen to color her in. The other papers are from Stampin' Up! I did a bit of distressing and sponging around the edges.

I love the look of layering ribbon on top of the lace.

Isn't she a cutie.?

Next on my agenda, a little Stampin' Up! news
Most of you have heard me talk about Sherrill Graf before. She is the list mom for the LNS group. One of Sherrill's callings is to be lead at the Ronald McDonald House in Las Vegas, NV. Sherrill has asked us to post the following three links on our blogs to increase awareness of the RMHC and to hopefully drum up more interest and volunteers for this great organization. Please take a moment of your time to see what this great partnership between SU! and RMHC is all about.

http://latenightstamper-stampandscrap.blogspot.com/

http://www.sugardoodle.net

http://rmhc.org/how-you-can-help/volunteer/30-ways-in-30-days

tri-shutter card

Here's my take on the tutorial over on Splitcoasters for the tri-shutter card. You can find the directions here. I used the beautiful, retired Parisian Breeze Specialty paper from Stampin'-Up! The stamp is from the Baroque Motifs set, then added lots of flowers, half pearl backs some ribbon and a ribbon slide. Didn't it come out great?
I had made one of these a week ago, but ended up giving it to a total stranger who had admired it at CHA. She had admitted to be a newbie to the craft world and was totally overwhelmed by CHA. I'm so glad to have been able to help her along with a new craft. Who ever you are, I hope you are still smiling and enjoying your new hobby.
hugs,
Michelle
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Deal of the Week #4

Deal of the Week #4 Is Up!

Deal of the Week #4:
Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware

Stampin' Up!'s Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware adds class to any project. Get it for just $18.99 (over 30% off the regular price of $29.95)—only July 20-26!

Throughout July, be sure to check my web site every Monday for the week's new deal.

Period	Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Special Price
July 20 through July 27	112454	178	Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware	$29.95	$18.99

Candy alert

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.

Stampin Up Starter

Stampin' Up! has come up with a nifty payment plan for their Starter Kit.
The Three Easy Payments option allows you to make a partial initial Starter Kit payment and still receive the Starter Kit right away. To qualify for the Easy Payments option on the discounted Sale-A-Bration Starter Kit price of $169, (valued at more than $335) the Starter Kit paperwork and an accompanying forms must be received by Stampin' Up! (not postmarked) on or before March 31, 2009. Paperwork received after this time will be processed for the regular Starter Kit price of $199.
Let me know if you're interested in learning what is included in this fabulous offer. Gosh I sound like an 'as seen on TV' advertisement.

Happy Valentine's Day Baby

Happy Valentine's Day Baby!
Here is a picture of the card and box of goodies that I made for my hubby for Valentine's Day.
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.
huggies,
Michelle
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fun times

Now for some exciting news! I've been hired as a Creative Designer to create cards for my upline's upline, the famous Sherrill Graff whose upline is nun-other than the incredible Shelli !!! I will be creating samples for her using some new products from our brand new Stampin' Up! catalog. These samples will be shown at her upcoming events and shows and then donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Las Vegas. How cool is that???

The following talented demonstrators have also been hired to create cards and projects for the month of February. Be sure to stop by their blogs and see their creative ideas!

Susan Shields

Julie Semones

Heidi Michel
this is gonna be fun!!!

If you are interested in joining a "GREAT" group of talented folks, come and check out our Yahoo group called "latenightstampersconvention2008". You won't be disappointed!.
Have a safe night,
Michelle
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Another sketch challenge

Today's post is from another challenge over at 2 Sketches 4 You. Here is a link to the actual challenge. It took me awhile to create the card. You know how you have something in your head but it doesn't want to come out. Well I guess it was my turn. I'm glad I finally got through my lack of creativity and have completed the challenge.


Thanks for popping in :-)
Michelle
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2 sketches

Today's posting are from a couple of sketches I found over on 2 Sketches 4 You. The girls are conducting a Design Team call and I thought I'd give it a try. The first sketch uses the stamp set Eastern Blooms with Tangerine Tango and Ballet Blue. I also added in some black embossing to pop it a bit. I used Crystal Effects to cover the main flower and it dangles from some black grosgrain ribbon.

I used the set Say it With Scallops for my next entry along with some of the new Stampin' Up! designer paper. It's an interesting color combination but I think it works quite well. Orchid Opulence (which I hate) and Regal Rose.


Here's a close up of the faux brads. Whenever I add them to my cards I love the way they turn out. And they are so easy! Just punch out some small circles, I used my crop-a-dile, glue them to your card and add a glob of Crystal Effects onto them. ta-da! ain't it pretty?
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Goody Goody Gumdrops

Two posts in a day...wahooo! Well it's only because Blogger was having some major issues yesterday. I'm glad to see they are fixed and all the Stampin' Up! sneak peaks are rolling in. My favorite is that SU is going to get into the digital world. It sounds like it's going to have ~ drag and drop SU embellishments, eyedropper color changes, crop, zoom, drop shadows, fonts from your computer, resize elements, premade templates if you want them. Very exciting stuff!
Now on to the card. ~ I used Regal Rose for the base, Very Vanilla for a smaller than normal mat and then the gorgeous new Designer Paper. I also did the same for the band with the yummy Kiwi Kiss ribbon. The image is from the yet to be released Goody Goody Gumdrops set...shhhh.


Here's a close up of all the 'faux' brads. SO easy to make!
Thanks for stopping by...hey leave me a comment or two!
Michelle
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Mercy's sketch

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! Today's post is from a sketch challenge over at Mercy's site. It's also the weekly challenge at Late Night Stampers. The design team at LNS challenged us to make a manly Valentine card. Since my husband likes glitter and pink, I did not find that challenging at all. So I challenged myself not to use them.

Here is Mercy's sketch and the card I made following the layout. I wasn't thrilled with it so I changed it a bit. I used Real Red for the card base, followed with Black then some of the yummy new DP from SU. All the layers were outlined using my silver marker. I then cut out the scalloped rectangle nestie out of black, used my swiss dot embossing folder and then outlined the scallops, again with the silver. I embossed the heart from the Always set with silver embossing, cut it out with my colozzule, outlined in silver and popped it up with dimensionals. I also through in a ribbon, 1" black circle (outlined in silver) and a button.

Ain't it cute :-)
Thanks for stopping by
Michelle
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New Years card

Happy New Year...I'm just a little late, but I do have an excuse. I'll get to that later because I'm sure you're here for checking cards.
This beauty started out because of a fabulous card that I came across at Scrapnextras, which you can see here. The flower is stamped with Regal Rose using the large flower from the retiring :-( set Fabulous Flowers, three times. I then cut them out, used my trusty glitter glue on the petals, then popped them up with dimensionals. I cut out two circles using Whisper White and Regal Rose with my coluzzle. Next I used my scallop circle nestie with Old Olive. Whisper White was ran through my cuttlebug with the Textile Texture folder which almost matches one of the new SU designer papers that I used here.

The cute corner pieces were cut out using a punch from EK. Everything was matted onto Old Olive then onto the Regal Rose base. And of course we can never have enough bling, so I added some rhinestones in the corners and the center of the flower. I think the card has a bit of a Victorian flare. I love it!


My excuse...I had a trip to the ER on Tuesday. I woke up around 4:30 that morning with bend over make you cry cramping belly...I don't want to go into gory details but I spent the whole day in the ER. Got home about 9:00Pm with the diagnosis of colitis. uggg. Just a month ago I was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer. I don't know what's going on with my digestive trac but it doesn't sound pretty. So there's my excuse.
Anyway ~ I hope you like my card :-)
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Totally Cased

Ok, right up front I am saying this card is totally cased. Isn't it gorgeous!? You can see the original gorgeous card here. The main image is one of the blooms from the upcoming hostess set called Echos of Kindness. I water colored the flowers using Regal Rose and my aqua painter. I love how the water coloring makes the flowers light and dark. I also used the gorgeous new designer paper called Raspberry Tart. I paper pierced all around both pieces of the designer paper and then popped all the layers on dimensionals. ain't it purty?


My husband...errr Santa brought me a light box to take my pictures of the cards I make. It comes with this pretty blue background, but I'm not convinced on using it yet. He also brought me a new flat screen monitor, which I am definitely convinced on using. :-)
Let me know what you think of the blue and the card.
Thanks,
Michelle
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Swirly Santa

Isn't this the cutest idea using the cuttlebug? I came across this card idea on SCS by Heather Freeman. Sorry Heather, I've lost the link to your stuff. It's a fast and easy card and oh so cute!!
I started with the base card using Very Vanilla. Using my finger, I added his rosy cheeks and lips using some chalk. His beard, mustache and fur trim are Whisper White run through the cuttlebug. His red hat uses Real Red card stock then I added some red flocking to it. His eyes are Black circles that I cut out then blobbed crystal effects on them. His nose was cut out using the 1" circle punch popped up on a dimensional. Ain't it the cutest!
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Be Merry

I guess it's time to start rolling out the Christmas Cards. Here's one that I created using the Christmas tree from the Fun and Fast Notes set and the sentiment from the Warm Words set. If you look closely you can also see that I used the Canvas background stamp on the main part of the card. I paper pierced the green strip, used the cuttlebug on the red square and did my faux brads in the corner. (you know, the blobs of crystal effects on small punch out circles)
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and not stressing that Christmas is creeping up on us very quickly. arghhhh
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Challenge #7 @ Paper Craft Planet

Ok, well I missed a few days of the Twelve Days of Christmas Challenge at Paper Craft Planet. They were finally getting tired of birds ( you know, a partridge, calling birds, french hens, turtle doves...) so they decided that Swans are elegant, right? Create a card (or any paper craft) that is all black and white - think of "high formal" weddings. Feel free to toss in a dash of color. Phew, I can do that! I decided to try out a black flower using the Fabulous Flower set. I must say, that flower looks gorgeous in any color!

Challenge #12 Gift Card Holder

This week's challenge with the Late Night Stampers, is to create a gift card holder. They are very easy to make and so timely!


I used the Eastern Blooms stamp set and embossed the flowers with black powder and added some dots of white with a gel pen in their centers. I stamped the three flowers with versamark and embossed them as well with the black embossing powder. Then cut them out and popped them up on dimensionals. For the inside, I used the sentiment from Heritage Holiday set. I also used the scallop punch for the front edge. It's all tied together with black gingham ribbon.


Thanks for visiting, and have a fabulous day!