Card Box

Sorry guys I thought I hit the post button yesterday on this!!



When I finished my paper on Sunday for Cultural Anthropology I needed some down time in my craft room. I spent about an hour cleaning up from club on Friday and then I wanted to play. I decided to give Just Celebrate a break and pulled back out Pun Fun. I wanted to make "something" for a lady at Andrew's school for all that she has done for the kids and teachers over the year. Here is what I came up with.



As some of you know I was asked to stamp almost 80 cards for the teachers and staff of Frieldstone for Christmas. I was actually given a fair amount of time too (10 whole days). I have had a lot of positive feedback on the cards. I wanted to show off my card making skills again so I made this box that has 18 - 3x3 cards and envelopes in it. It only took me a couple of hours to cut, stamp, color and assemble so it was a quick and easy project.







Here is the recipe for the box and card



Stamp Sets: Pun Fun and a retired alphabet that I cannot think of at the moment.

Card Stock: Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Basic Black and Whisper White.

Inks: Balck Staz On, Black Craft Ink (for the chipboard and letters), Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive Classic Ink.

Accessories: Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper, Aqua Painter, Stampin' Dimensionals, Crafter Tools Kit, Black Brads and a non SU! chipboard for the "C" (I was out of SU! "C"'s or I would have used that one instead).

Stampin' Up! Information

So I have a few tid bits to pass along from Stampin' Up!

1. Starting immediately (from what I understand) the minimum shipping price has increased for an individual order to $6.95. I was half expecting all shipping prices to go up so this was a pleasent surprise for me. We still only pay 10% shipping for any party order of $150 or more. Do not fret, I place an order at least once a month so you will not have to pay the $6.95, unless you do not want to wait for a club order to be placed (we will talk when you order).
2. There is a Wild Wasabi promotion going on right now (see the side bar for a link to the promotion).
3. Coming March 18 to April 30 Stampin' Up! has TWO promotions for you. The first is for the hostess, for a party of $350 or more the hostess will receive an extra $25 in hostess dollars to spend. For the customer there is a wheel promotion. I will add the link to the side bar later today. Let's just say that you will not want to miss out on this promotion. I already have a few sets on an order form ready for March 18 to roll around (no pun intended).
4. The catalog will be released later than anticipated this summer. August 15 will be the first day that we can order from the new catalog. So for those of you in club we will have a fun event planned in July since our club is supposed to end in June. Details will come later.
5. Anyone up for a stamp a stack? I am thinking of putting together one in the near future. For those of you interested either e-mail me or add a comment to this post some dates in April/May that will work best for you.

Sorry my card samples have been sporadic lately, I have spent my "free time" searching myspace for long lost friends. I acutally found a few and it has been fun catching up with them. If you are interested in a more personal side of me check out my myspace page at www.myspace.com/ashleyvaerst

I have club tonight and will post those cards later. For those of you going stamping for the weekend in the Clearwater area have fun. I really wished I could have gone too. I am leaning towards going to convention (shhh I have not talked to the hubby about this one yet). I REALLY want to be one of the first to see the new catalog.

Two in One Day...Embrace Life

I just finished the first part of my Cultural Anthropology mid term and decided since I finished what was available I would post another card today.

This card is for my club that is meeting on Friday night. Have I told you how much I love this set?? Embrace Life is another set that has not left my desk since it arrived in my house.

I knew I wanted to use paper from the Ginger Blossoms Designer Series pack and this is what turned out the best (I will post my really UGLY one later....it is on my desk burried so I did not have to look at it anymore).

Dang it my son is screaming at something. I will finish posting later. Enjoy!!

Fun and Fast on a Wednesday

A few weeks ago Splitcoast had a color challenge of Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie and Orchid Opulence. I never would have put these colors together, but decided I wanted to play anyway (maybe I would be surprised at the results and love the color combo, who knows). So I played for a few hours with these colors and my neutrals. I had a tough time pulling these colors together and not come out with a Halloween card (I have a few to show you later that I actually like for Halloween).

Here is my attempt at something "springy" with these colors (plus Basic Black and Whisper White).

The main image is from the set Fun and Fast Notes. Plus I used En Francais background stamp (not that you can see it very much, it is stamped lightly on the Orchid card stock).

The base of the card is Certainly Celery. The I pulled the Orchid Opulence and backed that with Whisper White and then Basic Black.

I stamped the main image in Staz On on Whisper White and backed that in Basic Black. To color the image I one again pulled my Classic Stampin Pads in River Rock, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie and Orchid Opulence. I used my Aquapainter to color the image in.

I wanted to pull more of the Pumpkin into the card so I used the Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain Ribbon to finish the card off.

I do not love the card, but I do like it. I like the Halloween cards I came up with these colors more, but I am thinking spring not Halloween (even though it is SNOWING again today...agh!!).

Two Days in a Row!!!

I am in love with this Designer Series Paper (Afternoon Tea - Available now in the Occasion's Catalog).

I built my card off of the scrap of paper I had. This card is a 4 1/4 square. The base is Soft Sky with layered on top of that and then my Afternoon Tea Paper.

I liked the soft colors and thought Wedding. Now most of my friends are Married, but a good friend of my sister's is getting married this June. This card is for Liz and Jason. After I made the card my sister told me that the colors of her wedding are Chocolate and Light Blue - perfect!!

The only set that I have that shouts wedding is the Fun and Fast Notes, well not the entire set, just the cake. I stamped the cake image in Basic Brown on a piece of Whisper White Card Stock. I backed this in Chocolate Chip. The card looked a little busy with just the chocolate square on the background paper so I added the rest of a Groovy Guava scrap that I had already scalloped with my corner rounder a few cards ago. I trimmed this to size and it looked much better.

To color the image I pulled out my Classic Stampin' Pads in Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava Wild Wasabi and Soft Sky plus my Aqua Painter. After my cake was colored I added some sparkle with my handy dandy glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

I knew I wanted to play with the new Hodgepodge Hardware from the Ocassions Catalog so I pulled out all my frames and settled on the square frame. I stamped the words on Whisper White in Basic Brown and framed it in the Silver Hodgepodge Frame. I added brads and then I sat back and said "done".

After showing the card to my sister she said she liked it, but mentioned it did not look like one of my cards because it did not have "Holes" in it. So I went back and pierced the Soft Sky base with my crafter tools kit.

I am hoping to give Liz this card in person in June. I want to go with my sister to California to the wedding, but we will have to see. Just thinking about Liz brings back a ton of fun memories of my sister and her growing up and getting in trouble together, then calling me to get them out of trouble.

Bright and Early on a Monday

I know some of you have already seen this card, but some of you have not so here it is.

This past Christmas demonstrators received a Level Three Hostess set (Time Well Spent) from Stampin' Up! as a thank you. I had to try it out, here is the card I made with the set.

The base is Wild Wasabi. On the Wasabi I stamped the little flower in Wild Wasabi Classic Ink (for a tone on tone look). I layered the Wasabi with Groovy Guava.

I stamped the flower image with Basic Brown on Whisper White. To color them in I used my Groovy Guava Classic Pad and my Aqua Painter. For the center of the flower I used the So Saffaron and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Markers. I backed this with Chocolate Chip. I cented this (top to bottom) on the Groovy Guava and secured with Stampin' Dimensionals.

For the words I stamped the image in Basic Brown and colored in with the Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker and my Groovy Guava Classic Pad just like above.

To add a little something to the card I pulled out my Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware and added it to the words. I added the wide Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon tied in a smiple knot to finish the embellishments off.

Once I had everything down I decided that the Groovy Guava needed something so I pulled out the crafters tool kit and did some piercing (which I think I use on every card these days).

This card was another card from my January club, but it is one of my favorties (if I do say so myself). I just love how it turned out, even though this card took a while to complete at club.

Have a good Monday everyone. It is cold and windy here right now. Dave stood out at the bus stop with Andrew since he is off this week and came in rubbing his ears. I guess since it is only 9 outside and windy my ears would be cold too.

So I Lied

I know I said I would post on Wednesday, but Wednesday was not a good day (neither was Thursday or Friday). I had plans to post tonight, but my camera battery is charging! I will post tomorrow.

I do not have a lot to show. I have a club meeting coming up on Friday and Saturday so I have been working on cards for club (and do not want to post those until we get closer). Plus, I am in charge of the Vacation Bible School Preschoolers again and I have been working out kinks in the program so it runs a lot better this year. I will post those fun crafts when I get those done, this year the theme is all on Science (which is a challenge for me, but I have great help).

Anyone want to read my Cultural Anthropology book for me? Yeah I don't want to read it either, but I guess I better if I want to pass the class.

Look for some cards tomorrow. My battery is charging right now.

Have a good week!!!