Dust Storms and Poolside Tags

 I'm sure you all have seen pictures of the huge dust storm (aka haboob) that swept through the Phoenix area last week. It was quite a sight...very ominous looking and a little apocalyptic feeling. It came through just around dinner time. We could see the wall of dirt off to the south of us, so we piled into the car and drove about a mile south to watch it come through the mountain and fields.

It was pretty cool to watch it sweep through the mountain, it looked like a volcanic eruption.

As it got closer we decided we better head back home, there's nothing fun about getting stuck in a dust storm.

The pictures tell the best story...but within minutes the light disappeared beneath the cloud of dust, turning evening into instant darkness. As amazing as the storm was, the media totally overplayed it. We get crazy monsoon storms here with strong winds that can do quite a bit of damage, but this didn't bring much of either, but it was something you don't get to witness everyday.

It did dump a bunch of dirt everywhere, including our pool, which afterward, looked more like a pond. It took several days to get it clean again. So speaking of pools, I wanted to share with you these little Poolside Tags that I made for my stamping friends this month. I used a bunch of punches to make the embellishments. I used the Blossom Petal punch for the Pacific Point faux leather scallop flower; Itty Bitty punch for the little Tempting Turquoise 4-petal flower; Word Window punch for the stamped Whisper White sentiment; Tag Corner punch (retired) for the upper two corners of the Bashful Blue tag base; Corner Rounder for the bottom left corner of the Bashful Blue tag base; and the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border for the Tempting Turquoise, Pear Pizzazz and Not Quite Navy trims. All the colors together remind me of the colors you find around a pool (a clean pool)...very cool and summery-looking. Thanks for letting me share my Dust Storm pictures with you. See you next time!

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You're invited: Stamp-A-Stack and Gift Cards

From Heidi...

Wow... two posts from us in one day! I'm posting pictures of our upcoming Gift Card Holder class (4/16) and this month's Stamp-A-Stack (4/21). This month we'll be using the new Designer Paper, Scallop Oval punch and Oval All stamp set from the "Occasions" mini catalog to create the gift cards.

We'll be using punches to create these fun Stamp-A-Stack cards. Each class is $10. You can email or call me to RSVP, so that we're sure to have enough supplies prepared. I do want to mention that the brown circle-flower card was cased from KWerner's blog, I thought it was so cute. You can click Here to view it.

Thursday, April 16 - Gift Card Holder Class (3 gift cards/$10)
Session 1 - 12:30-2:30 PM/Session 2 - 7:00-9:00 PM

Tuesday, April 21 - SAS ( 5 cards/$10)

7:00-9:00 PM

Another Mother's Day Card

From Adriel:

My mom showed you the Mother's Day cards she made last week and I wanted to share one of the cards I made as well.

I used THIS CARD LAYOUT that I showed you last week sometime. I simply made the card horizontal instead of vertical and it gives the card a totally different look! I did this primarily to fit my sentiment on the card stock, which was quite a bit wider than the sentiment I used on the original card layout. This way, the sentiment fit and I just moved the flowers as well. =)

I love the pink and the Bella Rose designer paper on this card and our free stamp set, Polka Dot Punches, that we got during Sale-a-Brations looks great. I also heat embossed the sentiment, so it's slightly raised and shiny.

On a slightly different note, the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog is out and they have this adorable new die for the Big Shot! You can see what I'm talking about by clicking HERE (and go to page 16). Beyond cute, right?! There's even a couple stamp sets that coordinate with this die... doubly cute! Well, we don't have a Big Shot, so it would be kind of hard to use, ya know what I mean? (BTW, my birthday is May 5th, and I'm going to put aside my birthday mula towards a Big Shot.) My mom and I did get the Oval All set along with the new Scallop Oval Punch and the Walk in the Park designer paper and we are enjoying those! In fact, for our SAS and Stamp Club this month, we'll be using some of that new paper and the new stamps and punch, so you don't want to miss it! You can check our newsletter for the dates and times for these events.

Anyway, more to share with you later! Thanks for checking in and have a great day! =D

Stuck on this Set

From Adriel:

I showed you all an Easter card made with one of flowers from the Fifth Avenue Floral set... I made a few different cards last week with this set, so I'm showing you another card with this set! I love the lined images and how sleek they are. They are great for using as the focal point of a card, or as a background, as shown on this card.

This set makes it easy to make your own beautiful decorative paper! I used a combination of four different punches to make the tag: Designer Label punch for the top, 1-3/8" circle punch for the middle, Round Tab punch for the bottom and Boho Blossoms for the little embellishment. It was super easy to make and it looks great!

I finished the inside with white cardstock, because this chocolate chip card stock is way too dark to write on.

I worked today on pictures of new projects (my mom made a couple of cards that I can't wait to share with you!), finishing up a couple of projects and working on cards for a class we have coming up next Tuesday at Tumbleweed Rec. for kids! My own kids, Kayla and Jacob, helped me out with putting together the samples for the class, so I think we are good to go. =) My kids want me to put the cards that they make up for sale in our Etsy shop! LOL! They're so cute! =)

Have a wonderful day!

New Slideshow Pics!

From Adriel:

We have a new album on the slideshow on the right-hand column. Check it out when you have a chance! The new album is pictures of the card candy class and the card candy that we mentioned a few times during the past couple of weeks. Here's a picture of all the card candy that we made at this class!!

Bookmarks!

From Adriel:

Wow, it's been several days since I posted anything on this blog! I do have something cute to share with you. These bookmarks!

The first one is one that I made and the second is one that my 7-year-old daughter made! Kayla loves to create, too! Actually, my 5-year-old son, Jacob, begs to make cards and creative things as well.

Anyway, wanted to share these with you. They are SO easy to make. Just punch out scallop circles in DS paper and coordinating CS. Decorate the scallop as you like. For mine, I first punched out a 1" circle, then took a 1-1/4" circle punch and made the ring. Then I used a 3/4" punch for the center circle. Just attached the scallops to the paperclip with mini glue dots and tied some ribbon on the side! All done!