…for the summer. I can’t believe it’s almost September already! I have a feeling though that I will still use the butterflies once in a while….they’re just so pretty!
There’s not much to do when you are feeling sick so I took a pic of this card I made a few days ago. It started with the Amethyst and Saffron printed papers. I don’t use the Amethyst cardstock enough! The Saffron paper was punched with the slit punch to make the scallops. Julia S has a tutorial here to show you how. Have a great day!

stamps- Garden Whimsy, Whimsy wheel
cardstock- Amethyst, Lilac, White, DS papers- Amethyst & Saffron
ink- Amethyst, Lilac, Saffron
access- white gel pen, Stickles, ribbon, photo corners & slit punches

It’s time for another cookie exchange and this time 3 of my DD Alumni friends agreed to play along! We decided to use the new SU! set Big Bold Birthday. I didn’t give them any other guidelines….just to use this set. Jen del Muro, Paula Bloom and Michelle Laycock participated in my challenge. Click on their names to check out their cards.
I decided to make a Big Buckle card using the Word Window punch for the hole. Directions for the Buckle cards can be found here on Splitcoast. Beate does a fantastic job with the tutorials there! I turned my card around a bit and just cut a 1 1/2″ strip off the front for the buckle. I scored it at 1″ and then attached the 1″ section on the back of the card.
When the new catty came out I was a bit confused until I found out that there was a mistake in it. The bottom of the cupcake is pictured as a solid image but in fact it has the happy birthday words all over it. I love it with the words….so cute! After stamping the dots on the frosting, I added some Stickles. And I added some Stickles to the candle flames and horn (under the words) as well. Hope you like it!

Here’s a pic of the card when open.

stamps- Big Bold Birthday, Dilly-Dally Party wheel
cardstock- Cocoa, Guava, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, white
ink- Soft Sky, Pomegranate, Guava, Blue Bayou, markers- Choc. Chip & Not Quite Navy
access- Stickles, punches- corner rounder, Photo Corner, Large Oval, Word Window

Sweet 16….remember those days? I needed a gift card holder for a birthday girl and I really liked this design that a friend shared with me. It uses a portion of the SU! 5 in 1 envelope template. Directions can be found here. I omitted the purse handle and added a velcro dot to keep it closed. The velcro was placed over the back of the brad and hid it well.
The gift card was purchased from the requested teen store. I must be getting old…..I don’t remember the stores advertising with the pictures like they do when I was young. LOL. It’s not that bad, but I covered up most of it with the sentiment card for the pic. Oh well, even if I am getting older I was surprised today at the local drugstore when I was purchasing some cold medicine. The cashier (older than me) asked me my age….LOL!!!…..ummm…..hello…..I definitely look older than 18…..sheesh. LOL!
Soooo………back to the card. Here’s a pic of it open. I used some retired SU! paper that has barely been touched.

And here’s a pic of it closed. I added a Silk flower to the front and I am debating on stamping the girl’s name on the bottom right side. What do you think? Should I stamp her name or leave it the way it is? I can’t decide.

stamps- It’s Your Birthday, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Little Pieces, Stamp Craft Dot Alpha (numbers)
cardstock- Moss, Choc. Chip, Banana, Spring Flowers DP
ink- Choc. Chip
access.- Creating Keepsakes silk flower, brad, retired Daisy punch, oval punch, slit punch, round tab punch, 5 in 1 envelope template, velcro dot

Last night I got together with my upline to design a few cards to showcase the Three For You punchbox. I haven’t taken a pic of those yet, but here’s a card I made before I came home using her Autumn Apparitions set from the Holiday mini. I had the new colors of cardstock with me and one piece of Wild Wasabi was just a little short of the size needed for a card base. So I decided to use it anyway and add a strip of Groovy Guava to the front to add a little length. That’s how the card got started….not conventional colors for Halloween but I liked the end result! I don’t have the Spiral punch and my friend suggested I try it when I was deciding what to do with the Guava strip. She also suggested using the gel pen to highlight the words and I like how both of those ideas turned out. The stem of the large pumpkin was inked with a marker to add some green leaves to the corner stamp. I also used a brown marker to extend the lines so it wasn’t just floating in mid air. To finish it off, I used the horizontal slot punch to run some ribbon through.

stamps- Autumn Apparitions
cardstock- Wasabi, Guava, White
ink- Choc. Chip, Guava, markers- Choc. Chip & Old Olive
access- Horizontal Slot & Spiral punches, Wasabi ribbon, white gel pen

I have been working on a card that I can’t share quite yet…for another cookie exchange. So I decided to share a recipe instead. This is a 6×6 recipe page that I did for a swap back in January. I printed the recipes from the computer and then cut them out with the Sizzix File folder and my Cuttlebug. Last night we attended a salad dinner and I wasn’t sure what to make. I was also only home about a half hour to throw something together! This recipe is very quick and it was a hit. Everyone seemed to like it.

stamps- DD Grapes, Fine Lace, Noteworthy, Karen Foster Snap Stamps- small casual, Northwoods
cardstock- Lilac, non- SU
ink- Lilac, Garden, Mustard, Saffron
access- Sizzix File Folder, ribbon, brad

The My ABC’s wheel was the first thing I bought from the new catalog. I still haven’t used it for it’s intended purpose, though…LOL! Here’s my first card where I used it to make a road. Now I decided to make a masculine card and use it for a plaid background. The wheel was repeated both vertically and horizontally to make the plaid design.
I also loved Jami’s paper-pieced boat and was anxious to try one myself. Paper-piecing is such fun and it’s been a while since I’ve done this technique. Just stamp the image onto cardstock, and then again onto patterned paper. Cut the patterned pieces out and layer onto the cardstock. Easy-peasy! I also cut the large smoke cloud out and layered it on. The smaller 2 clouds were made with a white gel pen and when they were dry I outlined them with a black marker to match the large cloud…..I love how they turned out! I also used the white gel pen on the life preservers. A red & green marker were used to highlight areas that were not paper-pieced. And I just had to add some doodled lines. “sharon in ne” noticed the little heart on my doodle in my last card with Anna’s kitty. I liked how that little heart accidentally popped into a card recently so now I have a hard time not putting one on….it’s like a little signature design I guess. LOL.

stamps- My ABC’s wheel, Linen
cardstock- white, Thyme, Buckaroo, Vanilla, patterned paper-unknown
ink- black, Thyme, Caramel, markers- Brocade, Rose Red, Artichoke
access- circle punch, Word Window punch, gel pen, brads

I threw this card together with some scrap pieces I had laying around and I liked how it all came together. So for all of you sketch junkies (like myself) I made up this sketch design. If you use this sketch to make a card, please post a link back here in the comments.

Edit a year later… if you make a card and upload on SCS, please use the keyword PCSC2.  I would love to see what you create!

Oh, gosh….I love this stamp! The first time I saw it I thought it was just adorable! This is one of Anna Wight’s new releases with Whipper Snapper rubber stamps. You can find the stamp here. I am not affiliated with Whipper Snapper….I just love Anna’s artwork and photography! I never got around to ordering any of her images, so when the new releases came out I was anxious to get a few. My coloring just doesn’t compare…LOL…but I had fun with it. The words were computer generated. I made them to fit inside the SU! Word Window punch, but I was pleasantly surprised that they also fit inside the small oval punch- yea!

stamp- Whipper Snapper
cs- Mustard, Black, Bashful, non-SU
ink- Black, various colors to watercolor
access- black marker, white gel pen, ribbon, pop dots

Wow- I can’t believe how busy the summer has been! Time is flying by. I haven’t had much time for stamping this week so far but we got our spaghetti sauce canned, among other things. I needed a bunch of quick little gifts and with little time, I thought the giant paperclip bookmarks would be perfect! I was able to use up some scraps of paper on these. I believe 11Valerie11 originally thought up this idea…someone please correct me if I’m wrong! They are super easy to make and you can find the directions here. I drew some lines on the center flowers with a marker and added some Stickles.

I did get a chance to finally use one of some special stamps I received a week or so ago. I’ll be back tomorrow to share the card I made. Good night!

Julia Stainton is also a Dirty Dozen Alumni from SCS and an awesome stamper. She has the following tutorials on her blog for making scallops with the Slit punch and Stitching on paper with your sewing machine. Check them out!

I enjoyed reading all of the comments that you made about what you enjoy at a workshop! Thank you for sharing those with me! A lot of you said that you enjoy the projects to make and learning new things. One person commented “I went to one party where the demo said - “this is a card I made with this set” and that was the end of it!” That gave me a chuckle…LOL. I want to try not to talk too much, but I hope I explain things well enough!

OK, so here’s our winner…..
Random.org picked Janet Allen. Janet, send me an e-mail with your address. Thanks to everyone for playing along and sharing your workshop highlights with me!