New My Digital Studio Download

From Heidi...Stampin' Up! just came out with a new My Digital Studio download called Summertime Splendor and I am in love with this paper. The watercolor flowers on the front of this card are one of the digital images...this digital DSP is beautiful! My dad was a watercolorist who painted beautiful landscapes and waterfront images...so I think it's pretty cool to be able to print up a beautiful watercolor image, stamp a sentiment on it and put together this hybrid card in a matter of minutesTo create this card I opened MDS, and chose the square punch. I resized it to create a 3-1/2" square and filled it with the Summertime Splendor digital paper, printed it out, trimmed...stamped sentiment in basic black, and put the card together...in less than 15 minutes!I love stamping and I also love digital creating, as well. The combination of the 2 creates fun hybrid cards. I am looking forward to playing around with this new digital paper and coming up with some hybrid cards. Stay tuned for a hybrid card class in the near future!

Graduation Cards

From Heidi...These 2 graduation cards are similar to the pinkish grad card I showed you several weeks ago, except I used different colored CS and DSP on them. I like this card layout...I know I said that before, but it just needed to be said again! The colors I used on these make them more masculine looking, which is good since they are going to guys. Thanks for checking in with us and I hope that you have a great day!
CS: Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White; DSP: Welcome Neighbor; Stampset: Starring You; Punches: corner rounder, scallop oval, large oval; Accessories: Black embroidery floss, brad, buttons

Dimensions: Bravo Burgundy (5-1/2x8-1/2, fold in half; 2-1/4x4-1/2; 2-1/2x2-3/4; punch piece) Whisper White (2-1/4x2-1/2; punch piece); DSP 1 (4x5-1/4); DSP 2 (2x4-1/4)

A Sneak Peek...

From Adriel:

Next month's Stamp-a-Technique class has two themes going. First, my mom thought it would be fun to do a "summer" theme for the cards, so they are a bit "summery". The technique theme for these cards is punching, so all the cards use punches and hopefully we'll be showing you some different ways to use your punches!

The sneak peek today is an adorable card that my mom, Heidi Tekunoff, made for the class. It is just darling, isn't it?

Summer Cottage Punch Card

She used a variety of punches and did some beautiful stamping with the Vintage Vogue stamp set. I think her card turned out so charming and I know those of you coming next month will enjoy learning how to make it. =)

More sneak peeks to come! Stay tuned! =)

Stamp-A-Stack, Tuesday and Thursday

Masculine and Father's Day Cards

We still have room for you in our (5/18) Tuesday evening, 7-9 PM, and (5/20)Thursday afternoon, 12:30-2:30 PM classes. Email us and we'll save you a spot.

A Thank You

From Heidi...I had a wonderful Mother's Day...I hope all of you mom's out there had a great one, too! My Mother's Day was full of eating. My son made me breakfast (yum!), we met Adriel and her family for Starbuck's (Starbuck's was offering frap's for 1/2 off last week), and then we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Mandarin Chef (on the SW corner of Queen Creek and Val Vista Rds., for those of you who live in AZ). I received some very fun gifts, so I wanted to make some special "thank you's"...thanks for letting me share them with you!CS: Whisper White, Old Olive, DSP paper Ink: Taken with Teal, Old Olive Big Shot: Scallop Circle, Circle #2, butterfly embosslit

May 13th Already?

From Adriel:

Can you believe that we're almost halfway through the month of May already? Craziness! Time is flying by in some ways, but in others, it seems to be inching by. My due date of June 2nd doesn't seem to be getting any closer... I'm in that stir-crazy phase of pregnancy, trying to keep myself busy and occupied. I know it's not a long wait now, but it still seems so far away and like it's never going to happen. Craziness (in a different sort of way... like mental)!

Anyway, that's a whole lot more than you came to hear today, I'm sure! LOL! I really began this post to show off what we're making today at our project classes today. This cute box w/ 5 note cards.

We're going to be using the Big Shot like crazy today! It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to teaching the class. We'll be seeing some of you later!

And for those of you who are not able to come, but would like the PDF of the directions, I will have that available to purchase later for $3. I want to double-check my directions first for any errors before making it available. =)

Brayer Class Today

From Adriel:

Today my mom is teaching a card making class at Tumbleweed Rec. Center using various brayer techniques. This is the second installment of a brayer class that we have offered. My mom taught the previous class as well. She is definitely better at brayering than I am and her creativity with it really comes out in this class, I think. Here's one of the cards my mom will be teaching today to those of you who signed up!

I love this card and the other cards are wonderful as well (I just don't have pictures of them).

Enjoy your day! =)

Entries for THS Color Challenge #3

From Adriel:

Hi there! I hope you are all doing well. I've been neglecting this blog lately, but life has just been very full (in a good way) the past couple of weeks, so that is my excuse! =)

I never posted the entries for our last color challenge. We didn't have as many as last month, but they were lovely and deserve some time in the spotlight. So here's the entries from last month's color challenge!

Kirsten Bailey joined us again this month! This time she painted not one, but two beautiful paintings!

Kristen made a lovely card for this challenge.

Thanks for joining us, ladies! Hope you enjoyed it. =)

Don't forget about this month's color challenge! You can get all the details by clicking HERE! =)

Have a wonderful rest of the week! We've got some classes going on this week where I'm sure we will be seeing some of you! Thanks for stopping by! =)

Happy Birthday, Cinco De Mayo, and Anniversary

From Heidi...Quite a title, huh? May 5th is a busy day. The "Happy Birthday" is for Adriel...today is her birthday! "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Adriel...Happy Birthday to you!!!"It's also Cinco De Mayo! We had a friend request a Cinco De Mayo/Anniversary card this week, which explains the anniversary heading. Here's a card I came up with for her. I used retired stampsets for the stamping and My Digital Studio for the sentiment. She requested that it be colorful and happy, so this was a fun challenge to create. I hope this card makes a bright spot in your day!

THS Color Challenge #4 for May

Hi to all of you! We've got our new color challenge for this month picked out, so here's what it is:

Here's my sample for the color challenge this month:

I hope you will join us this month! Our challenge is open all month, so start thinking about how you're going to use this elegant color combo! =) This challenge is open to all of our artsy, craft friends. Whether you make cards, scrapbook, knit, paint, make jewelry, or anything else in between, we'd love to have you join us!

Our color challenge this month is: Chocolate Chip, Kraft, Very Vanilla, and Rose Red (these are Stampin' Up! color names... use what you have, but try to keep it close). Make something creative using our color challenge and use inlinkz at the end of this post to submit your creation or send us a picture of your inspired creation and we will post an inlinkz box on your behalf. We will choose 5 of the submissions to feature on our blog at the end of the challenge!

Sound fun? Join us!

Guidelines to participate:

- Use the colors in the challenge as a springboard for your creativity.

- Challenge ends Monday, May 31st @ midnight, Arizona time.

- Please keep submissions family friendly. =)

We're looking forward to seeing what you have to share with us! Let your friends know about our challenge, too!

Have fun!

From Heidi...The new Summer Mini Catalog is now available. You'll want to check out the new products being featured in the catalog. If you'd like to see a quick video of the new Summer Mini items you can click here on Stampin' Up! Youtube video to get a quick overview.

This Thursday we'll be at the Tumbleweed Recreation Center offering the Altered Photo/Memo Clipboards. Classes are 12:30 - 3 PM (385TW.350) and 6:30 - 9 PM (386TW.350). We still have room for you, if you'd like to join us.

Hope that you all have a great Monday!

May Newsletter

From Heidi...
Wow...that's what comes to mind first when I think about the shower we had today for Adriel. We had such a great time with everyone who shared the day with us. What a wonderful group of ladies and friends! You should see all the scrap pages they created for the Baby Album...26 pages done in about 1/2-hour. Wow!!! If any of you are reading this, we just want to say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I've got our May newsletter done, so you can either Click Here or scroll down to our newsletter button to view this month's happenings!

Looking forward to seeing all you this month!

If I Had More Time and More Creativity...

I would give these challenges are whirl.


Unfortunately, I'm not feeling all that creative
and there are other pending matters
that demand my attention.

I can dream, right? ;-)

Hence, my Challenge Dream List...


Embellish Embossing Color Challenge - The colors for this challenge would definitely be too challenging for me right now... I'm totally not feeling loud and bright at the moment. However, if I was in the right mood, I can see this challenge being a ton of fun, so this one goes on my challenge dream list.



Shabby Tea Room "Comforts of Home" Challenge - So I'm not sure if I would be able to show what my comforts of home are in a card or other papercraft project (and honestly, my brain doesn't even want to think about how I would go about doing that), but I love the inspiration photo for this challenge and the shabby, victorian style. I would love to make something with those elements incorporated into it.

Mojo Monday Sketch 136 - Even as uncreative as I'm feeling, this sketch has the potential to propel me toward making something! I love that there are two options... a square or a circle. I would probably go for the circle, just because I haven't made a circle card in almost forever and in addition, I would love to try making one with our scallop circle die for the Big Shot. So many things to try...


Technostamper Sketch Challenge #119 - I love how different this sketch is. It's mighty tempting... I am in the process of designing some thank you cards... hmmm... ;-)

Do you have any creative dream lists?

Baby Album Cover

From Adriel:

My mom did a beautiful job on the cover of this album, don't you think?

Our baby scrap-together in preparation for Allison's arrival is this weekend and we are spending this week putting the finishing touches on getting ready! We have pages ready for assembly, with pictures of what each finished page should look like. We've never done anything like this before, so we're curious to see how it all will go together! Here's a couple more pictures of pages for the album:

The pages are going into the before-mentioned album that my mom did the cover for. I think it turned out beautifully and I love how she did Allison's name. Very cute!

Looking forward to seeing some of you there and will miss those of you who are not able to make it.

Hope you're all enjoying your week and having a wonderful day!

Graduation Card

From Heidi...I love all the fun blogs Adriel has been posting. The Color Challenge treasury has some cute stuff on it. It's amazing how many creative people there are out there.

I'm going to be needing some graduation cards this coming month...so one of our stamping friends, Janann, got me going on this card. She wanted to make a graduation card for her granddaughter and wondered if we could come up with something fun. So this is what I came up with...and I'm planning on using this layout and the stamp set "Starring You" for the rest of my graduation cards. I will change the DSP'ers and CS colors. I got the idea for the tassle from a custom graduation card we made last year, which needed a tassle. Thanks for looking!CS: Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White
DSP: Sweet Pea

Stampset: Starring You
Ink: Regal Rose
Accessories: Embroidery floss(for tassle), buttons

Happy Weekend! Color and Card Sketch Challenges

From Adriel:

What a nice Saturday this has been so far! My husband took our children fishing today and the quiet I have been able to enjoy today has been a treat! I got to eat breakfast with my parents and brother all by myself... it's been very relaxing. =)

To top off the wonderful day, my husband and I are going out on a date tonight! I'm getting pretty spoiled today! =)

I made this card yesterday for an upcoming class (although I will make some changes to it for the class). I used the ColourQ Challenge #29 and the Diva Coffee Break Design Sketch Challenge #173.

The colors were not my favorite to create with, but I needed a springboard. They were definitely a "challenge" and when you combine it along with a sketch challenge, also... it's just a little more challenging. The sketch was great and easy to work with, but I'm not sure it was the best sketch for working with these colors. Hmmm... anyway, it gave me something to do. My creativity needs a jumpstart and I'm hoping it gets going soon! =)

For the ice cream bowl, I ran a piece of Whisper White CS through the Big Shot w/ the Perfect Polka Dots textured impressions die and sponged the embossed cardstock w/ YoYo Yellow ink. Then I punched it out with the large oval punch, cut off the top and used the top as the base for the bowl. =)

The ice cream is from the new stamp set, Sweet Scoops, coming out in the new Summer Mini catalog, which you can order from starting May 1st. It's super cute! I inked the ice cream image first w/ VersaMark, then with Tangering Tango ink. I stamped it and then sprinkled w/ a clear embossing powder/Dazzling Diamonds glitter mixture, embossed with the heat tool and cut out. The scoops are attached w/ dimensionals.

The background is just 1-3/4" punched squares (embossed with the same Perfect Polka Dot impressions die) with punched scallop squares. Lots of bright colors on this card!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Friday's Fresh Finds: Color Challenge Treasury

It's Friday! This week seemed especially long... Wednesday felt like Friday. Anyone else have that kind of week?

Kirsten Bailey, one of our faithful color challenge participants, used this month's THS Color Challenge #3 to make her own treasury from Etsy with picks using the colors from the challenge. I thought that was such a fun way to use the challenge and with Etsy opening up Treasury East which has unlimited treasuries and no more waiting for openings, I thought this week was a great week to try it out and use those colors to put together a treasury based on this month's color challenge. I hope you enjoy it! =)



Don't forget to play along with us in this month's THS Color Challenge #3. The colors are so yummy! =)

This & That Thursday: Scrapbook Layouts

Here's a few pictures of some of the layouts we have been working on for the scrap-together coming up soon! The pages are not assembled yet. We just took pictures for an overall picture to help all of the wonderful ladies coming to assemble them. The pictures should help with putting the pages together quickly and also alleviate any concerns from those who think they don't know how to scrapbook.

So, those of you coming get a sneak peek!

And for those of you not able to make it,

hopefully it makes it seem like you're a part of it still. =)

We've got some yummy food planned, too! =)

I'm planning on making my Sour Cream Lemon pie...

it's so yummy and I rarely make it,

so it's a treat for me too! =)

It's getting closer and I'm looking forward to it! =)

Thanks for stopping by!
Enjoy your day!

Wowzer! Wednesday: Beautiful Card

Today we're featuring another stamper and card maker's lovely work!

This card by Jenn D. is just beautiful! It just pops with those colors and the layout! It's a wowzer! Beautiful! =) You can check out Jenn's blog by clicking on the picture below for all the details about this gorgeous card. While you're there, leave her a comment! =)


Hope you're all having a great week. We had a busy day yesterday with two SAT classes... those went great and the cards turned out beautifully! We'll be repeating this class two times tomorrow also. There's still room if you're interested in coming!

Have a wonderful day!

Newsy Tuesday: SAT class & Altered Memo Board

We have been busy mainly with getting everything prepped for the SAT classes today and Thursday, as well as designing for upcoming classes. We're also putting the last details together for our Preparation Scrap-together for Allison next month. It should be a lot of fun! =)

Anyway, today's Stamp-a-Theme cards are girly-themed. We'll be making 3 cards. I only have pictures of two of the cards... the other card we're doing is a dress card my mom designed that is super cute! =)

We'll be doing an altered memo board class at Tumbleweed in May. We're actually making 2 different designs. This is one of the designs. I just have to tell you that the other design my mom did is just GORGEOUS! Can't wait to get some pictures taken to show you... it's awesome! =)

We had a great time last week making our shabby flower brooches and boxes. There are so many things you can do with the Big Shot! =)

Don't forget that the THS Color Challenge #3 is still open until the end of this month. You can click HERE or on the picture below to get all the details!

Sweet & Simple Monday: 3x3 Kraft Note Cards

These cards feature some DSP and colors that are no longer current, but you can easily take the dimensions and the idea and swap out the retired DSP and colors for current DSP and colors for the same simple and charming effect. Kraft (which will be renamed "Crumb Cake" in the new Stampin' Up! catalog coming out July 1st) is so versatile and will go with almost anything. I used this DSP paper because we had some sitting around. Use whatever you've got! =)

1. Fold a 3" x 6" piece of Kraft CS in half to form a 3" x 3" note card. Round bottom corners w/ corner rounder.

2. Attach a 1/2" x 3" strip of DSP toward bottom of card front with SNAIL, approximately 1/4" from bottom edge. Attach a 1-1/4" x 3" strip of DSP directly above first DSP strip with SNAIL.

3. Stamp floral image from Priceless stamp set with coordinating inks, depending on DSP you use. Punch out stamped image with 1-1/4" circle punch.

4. Punch a 1-3/8" circle out of a piece of cardstock in a coordinating color. Punch a 1-1/2" circle out of a piece of cardstock in a different coordinating color. Layer these circles with SNAIL, attaching stamped circle in center.

5. Attach the layered circle piece to card front w/ dimensionals toward upper right-hand corner.

Sometimes a simple scrap or stamped image can give birth to a sweet and simple design. I love how these cards look and they're one of the simplest cards I've ever made!

Thanks for stopping by our blog today. We hope you enjoyed the sweet and simple project. Leave us a comment if you like or show us some of your own sweet and simple projects you've been working on.

Have a wonderful day! =)

You can order all your Stampin' Up! supplies from Heidi by clicking HERE!

Supplies: Kraft CS, Stampin' Up! DSP, Classic inks or Stampin' Write markers, Priceless stamp set, corner rounder, SNAIL adhesive, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Friday's Fresh Finds: Giveaways

Hi to all of you! Today's Fresh Finds are some great giveaways on some other craft blogs! I thought you might like to have a go at winning some of the wonderful finds being given away...

1. Poppy Place PDX is giving away Four 5x5 Rose prints... really lovely. All you have to do is follow their blog and leave a comment... easy peasy! =) Enter the giveaway HERE!

2. Maureen Cracknell Handmade is giving away a custom owl. Let me just say that she makes super cute owls that she involves her kids in... they help her choose fabric and colors and they also help name them. Cute, huh? Anyway, all the details about entering her giveaway are HERE, but it's basically follow and comment. Easy again!

3. Java Mama Cooker is giving away an altered recipe journal. Same requirements: follow and comment. Enter the giveaway HERE!

4. Crafty Dream is giving away a beautiful tree necklace from Earrings Nation. There are a few ways to enter the giveaway, so find out how to enter HERE!

5. That Girls Crafty is giving away a beautiful pair of earrings from Julie Ellyn Designs. They're gorgeous! There are a few ways to enter the giveaway, so find out how to enter HERE!

Hope you all have a great Friday! This week seemed really long and I'm glad Friday is finally here. The weekend is tomorrow! Yay! =)

My April Color Challenge Card

From Heidi...My Summer Mini Occasion pre-order came last week, so I had to play with some of the fun stuff we got. Our Color Challenge this month and the new stamp set "Sweet Stuff" was a great starting off place. This is an adorable stamp set and was a lot of fun to use. I used my crimper and scallop edge punch to make the card a little playful. The card reminds me of an ice-cream parlor.Stamp Set: Sweet Scoops and Starring You

Punches: Modern Label, Scallop Edge, Corner Rounder
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Cameo Coral, Creamy Caramel, Night of Navy
Big Shot: Texturz plate
Crimper 1/8" ribbon.