June Newsletter is here!

From Heidi...
Just letting everyone know that our June Newsletter has been posted. You can click here to view it or scroll down to our Newsletter button. June's newsletter is full of pictures, news and a couple of recipes from the shower. These Fourth of July cupcake toppers are from our newsletter's Craftroom ...we've included a simple tutorial on how to make them. Have a great Memorial Day.

Baby Shower Gift Cards

From Heidi...I have babies on my mind...so, I thought I'd share a cute gift card holder I made for a baby shower or as a baby gift. I made a little "onesie" for the front of the gift card and used velcro as a closure for the gift card. Cute and fun to make!Today I'm working on some new gift card holder ideas for our project class in July. I wish that I knew what the new DSP were going to be in the new 2010-11 Idea book, so I could be creating with the new papers, but I won't know until next month...aaaah! Waiting is hard!

Stampset: Itty Bitty Bits; Punches: Itty Bitty Shapes, 1" circle, Bojo Blossom; CS: Certainly Celery, Cottage Wall DSP, Pale Plum, Welcome Neighbor DSP; Big Shot: Scallop Circle, Perfect Polka Dot Impressions Folder

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!