It’s a great time to have a workshop as Sale-A-Bration(SAB)  is in full force until the end of March!   For every $50 of product you buy, you get one of the SAB products for free!  This year, they’ve even included some stamp sets out of the regular catalog!  So pull out your calendars and pick a date to have a workshop – you don’t want to miss this promotion!

I know January is almost over, but here’s some of the projects I’ve been showing at January Workshops!

The first is just a simple card using one of my favorite sets Thoughts and Prayers.

Sorry the picture is blurry – unfortunately I didn’t get a better shot!   During the workshops, I usually added a sentiment to the bottom right corner as well.  This card uses Mellow Moss, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum.   The background on the Mellow Moss is done using a stamp from Vintage Vogue.

I always try to do a technique at my workshops – this month we were doing popping pastels!

I used the Vintage Vogue set and matching Very Vintage Wheel for this card.  The colors are Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, So Saffron and Handsome Hunter.  Popping Pastels is really easy to do.  Stamp your image with Versamark.  Then using the Stampin’ Up! Pastels and a daubber, apply the pastels to the image.  Doesn’t it look lovely!

For my last workshop, I did throw together a scrapbook page – and I do mean throw together.  I had about 5 minutes to design and complete it. I was going to redo it, but I just haven’t had the time – so forgive my side borders and we’ll call it good!

So, this uses paper from the Sweet Pea Paper stack, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, and Rose Red cardstock.    I used the FastFlowers wheel for the border and one of the flowers from Flower Fancy.  The bling in the center of the flowers is from the Eggcellent Eggs kit and the flowers are from the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt.

I’m working on February’s Workshop projects now – so get with me soon to schedule a workshop because my dates are filling up fast!

Last night was our demo meeting and of course,  we were swapping!  This month we were focused on Valentine’s Day – so I made this card

Isn’t the flower wonderful?  Ilina Crouse has a tutorial for this flower on her blog.   The center of the flower is one of the new  Pretty in Pink  Sending Love Epoxy Brads.  I love how it matches one of the papers from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack that’s in the flower.  And look at the ribbon . . . . this is our new certainly celery satin ribbon and  . . .it’s embossed!   Crazy isn’t it!   To emboss the ribbon, simply spray it with heavy starch and iron it, then run it through the big shot inside an embossing folder.  Voila!  You have embossed ribbon.   I used an extra cardstock shim with mine to get a deeper impression.    The saying ” Love you much” is embossed using white embossing powder and the stamp is part of our new set Well Scripted.

The main background of the card is Very  Vanilla -  I used Rose Red, but I rolled off prior to rolling the card stock to give a lighter look.   I used the Very Vintage Wheel.  Then I lightly sponged it with Certainly Celery ink.  It’s layered on Certainly Celery( also rolled with Certainly Celery Ink)  and Rose Red Cardstock.

Oh, and the leaves under the rose are certainly celery cardstock punched out from the new 2 step bird on a branch punch.  They are the birds wings.  I rolled these with the Very Vintage well as well because they seemed a little plain before.

Hope you enjoyed this one!

There’s a stamp set I’ve been wanting since it was first released, but I hadn’t had a chance to get it until . . GASP . . .they decided to retire it!  Well, I ordered it anyway and I’m so glad I did.    I love this set!  Where have you been all my life?    I so wish I had bought this when you could still order it,  but now it’ll have to be an old friend even though it’s new to me.

I absolutely love this card!

Thinking of you card

I used the Baroque wheel  and Always Artichoke ink on Very Vanilla cardstock to create the background.   Then I layered Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla Cardstock, and stamped the image from Font of You in Always Artichoke.

Another great image from this set is this awesome umbrella!

Let a smile be your umbrella!

I used  Night of Navy and Very Vanilla for this one.     It’s very simple and easy to make.

That’s all for now!  Have a great day!

It’s so great to have some time just to stamp for fun.   At first, I couldn’t decide, do I try Jan Tink’s Joseph’s Coat technique, do I case something,  do I try to create something original?     After some time spent surfing my favorite blogs, I decided that I really was in the mood to watercolor.   I still want to try Jan’s technique, but not today.  Today is all about comfort, relaxation and enjoying myself.   Today’s cards are what I typically refer to as a clean and simple style.  They’re easy and quick to create and still are pretty.

Country Morning Notecard

This card uses the Country Morning hostess set.  I wasn’t sure I liked the set, but I thought my grandma might like it, so I got it with her in mind.   I know, and here I am inking up her set. . . . . .  It’s really a great set for watercoloring.   I used Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue and Ballet Blue for the flowers,  So Saffron for the centers, and Sahara Sand for the bottles.  To give the background some interest, I used the vine stamp from Vintage Vogue stamped in Bodering Blue on Bordering Blue cardstock.  The watercolored image is layered on Bordering Blue and Night of Navy cardstock.

Giggle in the Spring

So, there’s still a little snow on the deck and ice anywhere the sun hasn’t hit,  the temperature hasn’t hit freezing in 2 days, the wind chill is in the single digits, and yes, this is ATLANTA!  It’s supposed to be at least 45 to 50 degrees!   Naturally, I’m dreaming of spring, which is obvious when you look at this card.   It makes me feel all warm inside.   I used the Flower Fancy stamp set watercolored with Brocade Blue and Old Olive.   The card base is Brocade blue.  I’ve stamped some of the other flowers from  this set on the card base in brocade blue, added a little bit of ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals pack and the word “giggle.”  Doesn’t it make you smile?

I’m headed back to my stamping table -  Have a great day!

When I was working on my projects for our latest blog hop -  I made this pretty covered box.  When I first started the box,  I was thinking about what I could put in it.   The idea of a blessing box came to me.  I searched the internet for a suitable legend to go with it.  All I could find was  descriptions of writing down your blessings and  putting them in the box.   It didn’t really fit the bits and pieces of a story that were forming in my mind.  So, I shared my thoughts with my mom.  She took those thoughts,  the picture of the box and all the embellishments I wanted to put on it that just didn’t fit right,  her knowledge of me and my love of butterflies and my never ending belief in hope and created the following Legend.    I thought it was perfect and knew I had to share it.   So here it is,   The Legend of the Blessing Box,  by Jeanne Hicks Barnett.  I hope it blesses you.

My grandmother told me the story her grandmother had told her and I was sure, therefore, it must be true.

A little girl about your age was sitting under a tree crying when her father found her.  Being a wise man, he did not ask her what was wrong, but instead asked if she had noticed the brightly colored, tied-in-ribbon box that was sitting on the piano in the parlor.   She said she had seen it and stopped crying as she asked her father what it was.  His reply caused her to forget what she was crying about.  “That is the Blessing Box,” he replied. “What is the Blessing Box?” she asked.

Well, let me tell you how it came to be called “the Blessing Box.”  One day, I was feeling really bad;  I was a 19-year-old who had just lost his job and when I arrived home, I found out that my father had just died.  I ran out into the yard and cried my heart out.  Once I had stopped crying, I sat down at the base of a tree and looked up to the sky not really seeing anything until something caught my eye—it was an empty cocoon.

All of a sudden, light seemed to come out of nowhere and the thought came to me: that cocoon represented the death chamber for the worm that had become a beautiful butterfly and left it hanging there discarded. The worm did not know what was to come from what he thought was his death, but the blessings came anyway. As the worm crawled along, he had no thought of splendor and grandeur or of flying over the entire world he now only viewed from a branch. What blessings would come when he came to what he thought was the end of his world.  I wondered if it could be the same for me. My world had certainly ended and all I could see were tears and pain on the branch where I now sat. What if there were some blessings I could not see now just waiting to come into my life? It brought me hope and gave me the strength to go on through a very dark period and before long the blessings came.

I took that cocoon and put it into a box and wrapped it in brightly colored paper and tied it up with a ribbon and put it where I could see it every day to remind me of the
blessings that could be waiting for me when all I could see were the walls of a very dark cocoon facing the end of my world so I would never forget to hold onto that hope I found when a cocoon reminded me of hope found in the depths of despair.

From that point on,  the Blessing Box has been passed down from generation to generation to remind us that every time the world gets dark:

we should remember a worm who didn’t know he was about to become a butterfly and see the world from a whole new perspective,  rising high because of his struggles—

and, most of all, to remember the greatest blessing in that Box . . . hope!

Welcome to Stampin’ Addicts 2010 Occassions Mini blog hop. We’re kicking off the year in grand style, showcasing many of the products in Stampin’ Up!’s newly released Occasions Mini brochure.  These items will all be available from your demo on January 5.

If you have been following the blog hop in order you’ve just seen Holly K’s wonderful creation’s at Rubber Redneck featuring the Abundant Hope Stamp Set.  Weren’t those projects so beautiful? If you are starting the tour at my blog, you can continue on to visit all 23 participants via the link at the end of my post.  If you get lost anywhere along the way, you can find links to all the participants on Stampin’ Addicts website.  All links will remain live until Sunday evening, so sit back, take your time, visit often and ENJOY!

I’m featuring the Shades of Spring Designer Series Paper.  I knew the moment I saw this that I was going to be buying a lot of this paper!

My first project is a Blessing Box.

It’s a cute little paper mache box that I’ve covered with the Shades of Spring Designer Series Paper and tied with our new Certainly Celery 5/8″ Satin ribbon.  I kept trying to embellish this box more, but I kept coming back to just a simple box.  It’s seems appropriate since some of our best blessings are the simple things that we often forget to count as blessings.  I tied a ribbon around the box, so my blessings won’t “float away.”  Check back on Monday to read “The Legend of the Blessing Box.”

Next I made this cute little Thank You Card.

I love making Thank You Cards.  It seems I need one everytime I turn around!   This card uses Very Vanilla and Certainly Celery cardstock,  Old Olive, Certainly Celery, and Orchid Opulence Ink,  Shades of Spring DSP, Thank You Kindly Stamp Set, and the new Vintage Vogue Stamp Set.

Lastly, is this cute and simple note card.

I used Certainly Celery for the card base and layered the Shades of Spring DSP.   The butterfly is cut from the same DSP using the Big Shot Butterflies Die.  I embellished the top butterfly with half pearls from the pretties kit.

I hope you enjoyed these projects!  I only wish I had more time to play!   So now it’s on to the stop on the hop,  Joyce’s  Stampin’ Central, where she’s going to show you the awesome set Vintage Vogue that I used in the thank you card.

The hop is over now, but here’s a list of links for the sites involved in case you missed it!

1) Stella – Garden from the Heart
2) Sharon – Pinking Hearts Border and Corner Punch
3) Sarah W - With All My Heart
4) Barbara - Sending Love Specialty DSP & I{Love} Love Wheel
5)Melina – I {Heart} Hearts
6) Krystal - Scallop Heart Embosslit
7) Cindy - Love Bandits Kim – Folk Flower Stencil
9) Cheryl – Well Scripted
10) Heidi - Something Sweet
11) Rhonda – Eggcoutrements
12) Holly P – Mini milk carton die
13) Holly K – Abundant Hope
14) Dawnmarie - Shades of Spring DSP
15) Joyce – Vintage Vogue
16) Marie – Tiny Tags
17) Lyssa – Messages for Mom
18)) Sara M-B – Fox & Friends
19) Twila – Sweet Pea DSP w/ the matching Sweet Pea Stitched Felt
20) Heather - Chipboard Books
21) Melissa - Little Angel
22) Yapha - My Matryoshka