Winter, Spring ...Summer Plate Face

From Heidi...
After Spring comes Summer...so here's our Summer Plate Face! We used the Tart and Tangy stampset for our Summer Plate Face and a combination of Real Red and Rose Red.
CS: Real Red, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White, (non-SU DS gingham paper)
Stampset: Tart and Tangy
Big Shot: Bigz Dies Scallop Circle, Scallop Circle #2, Sizzlits Little Leaves
Punches: Scallop Circle, 1-1/4" Circle, Scallop Oval, Modern Label
Accessories: White button, glue dots
MS Word generated "Summer"

To order any of the above products, visit my website

Happy Birthday Plate Face

From Heidi...How about something other than a Christmas related post? Here's the "Happy Birthday" plate face we created. This was a fun project to make...can't wait to share it with everyone next month.
CS: Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Whisper White
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Certainly Celery
Punches: Scallop Edge, Circle Punches - 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1-1/4"
Stampset: Circle Circus, All Holidays

Accessories: Silver Brads, 5/8" Dusty Durango grosgrain ribbon

To order any of these products, visit my website

Thanksgiving Table and Stamp-A-Technique Classes

Here are the pictures of our upcoming classes.
Thanksgiving Table, Thursday, October 15
12:30-3 PM and 7-9:30 PMStamp-A-Technique with Watercoloring

Tuesday, October 20
1-3 PM and 7-9 PM
Thursday, October 22
7-9 PM

September Stamp-A-Stack

Join us this month for one of our SAS classes. This month's cards uses fun Designer Series paper.
5 cards/$10

Tuesday, September 22, 1-3 PM or 7-9 PM
Thursday, September 24, 7-9 PM
Call or email us to reserve your spot.

Enjoyable Class

From Adriel:

We had a great time stamping with our stamping friends this past Thursday at our afternoon and evening classes. The response to our celebrate summer cards was very positive and our ladies enjoyed getting creative and making those "yummy" cards! It was fun and I enjoyed seeing everyone, especially some of those whom I hadn't seen for a couple of months. =)

We'll be seeing a lot of our ladies again this coming Tuesday for our special Stamp-a-Technique class where we will be doing brayering. I haven't done all that much with brayering, so this was fun to try something new and create for. Here's the card I will be teaching.

I used a circle template and brayered ink over the card stock and then stamped with a couple of the stamps from Circle Circus, along with some sponging. I don't usually stick to such a limited color combo, but it really worked nice for this card and I like the results. =)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you're having a nice day. =)

If it looks like I had some fun...

You are right!!

We're doing a Celebrate Summer project class in August and I had way too much fun making this card for our sample!! I'm looking forward to teaching our ladies how to make this, because I know they're going to love it and have a lot of fun, too! =D

I did bubblegum, vanilla and mint chip for my ice cream scoops. I sent my "cone" through my Big Shot using the argyle texturz plate. We have a bunch of DS paper from Sale-a-Bration so I used that for the background paper.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to stop by our blog! Hope your day is going well and that you're staying creatively inspired. =)

Natural Beauty

We recently went on a camping trip with our families. We slept outdoors (in tents, of course!), ate outdoors, visited outdoors, amused ourselves outdoors... did I forget anything? =)

Thought I would share a couple of photos of the outdoors that we enjoyed!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

It doesn't matter how lovely man can create something... nothing compares with the beauty that God creates. =)

Where was my brain?!

From Adriel:

We recently sold our Bargain Birthday Bundle of cards out of our Etsy shop. This has been in our shop for a month or two... at the price, I was actually surprised it took so long to sell. That is until I read back over the listing and realized my HUGE error in the description. Before I let you read it, I'll let you know that we sold this bundle of 8 birthday cards for $12, just to give you an accurate view of the price. Okay, here's the picture of the cards:

And here's the part of the description that made me wonder "Where was my brain?!" (I didn't actually think that, but it was something like "Ohhhhhh!"):

<<"Get a bundle and save a bunch! You pay $12.00 for each HANDMADE card! Unless it's pretty mediocre, you can't get a mass-produced card for that much. Buy handmade and give something special!">>

Did you catch my mistake? I made it big and bolded it so you would find it. ;-)

Oh boy, it's special alright! $12 for each card... wow, what a bargain! LOL! =P I'm sure glad I included so many pictures so the buyer understood that the listing was for 8 cards and the price for all of them was $12. I wonder how many people have clicked on that listing and read that and gotten out of there as fast as they could! Yikes!

Ha Ha!! I thought my blunder was funny and wanted to share (at my expense)! Want to share one of yours? Leave us a comment! We would love to laugh WITH you! =D

More Christmas in July

From Heidi...

Here's another Christmas card we came up with for our Christmas in July class which will be held Tuesday, July 28, at the Tumbleweed Recreation Center, 9:30-Noon. Registration is still open for this class. If you'd like to attend, go to and follow the instructions for registering online: www.chandleraz.gov/recreation

This is a "carpet tape" card. The carpet tape cards I saw used the Word Window punch to make their strips. I actually used the papercutter, cutting each strip 13/32" wide, so that I could use my Scallop Edge punch to round the ends of each strip all at once, quickly and easily. Since we're doing 5 cards in a 2-1/2 hour timeframe, each card needs to go together quickly. I love the Christmas Punch stamp set...it's a nice variety of stamps that coordinate nicely with their punches.

Christmas and Lemonade

From Heidi...I know these don't seem to go together, but their commonality is that they're both card themes for a couple of our themed upcoming classes - Christmas in July (at Tumbleweed Rec. Ctr.) and Celebrate Summer (our August project class). While for most of you, summer is a time for gardening and being outdoors, summer for us in AZ is a time to escape the heat. We do a lot of indoor activities for a few months in the summer, unless we're swimming. This time of year is great for creativity, because the heat is not very luring...while the rest of year the outdoors cries for you to come out and play! With that said, here are a couple of cards that we'll be making in our upcoming classes. I wish I could take credit for their originality, but I was inspired by several other inspiring paper crafters. I've seen several of the lemonade cards posted on different blogs, so this is my take on both of the cards.
The Christmas in July Class will be held at the Tumbleweed Recreation Center, Tuesday, July 28, 9:30- Noon. You can find all the details and registration information at: www.chandleraz.gov/recreation
Have a great Tuesday!

What We've Been Working On...

From Adriel:

My mom and I have been busy working on samples and projects for upcoming classes we will be teaching. We have a Christmas in July class coming up at the end of this month through our city's Park & Recreation program... we just need a couple more people to sign up and then I think the city will run the class. Otherwise, it will be cancelled. For this class we are doing 10 cards, 5 different designs. We only have 2-1/2 hours for the class, so my mom and I really had to keep the cards basic and simple, but still looking good and interesting! =) Here's one of the cards we will be making at this class, inspired by THIS CARD on Splitcoast:




We have a fun summer-themed project class planned for August. My mom tried out a super cute lemonade card that looks like it was a lot of fun to make. I think our attendees will LOVE it!! In keeping with the summer theme, I thought this popsicle card would be a fun addition to the class. So cute!! =)



We got a box of new goodies from Stampin' Up! a few days ago... we've hardly had very much time to do much with it. I did use a few things out of the new stash, among them the Razzle Dazzle stamp set. I made some really nice background paper with that set and I'm thinking I will do a tutorial on that. =) Don't have a picture of it yet, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it came out looking pretty nice! =D

What have you been up to? Share your recent or current projects that you're working on! =)

Something from the Scrap Pile

From Adriel:

The other day I found a piece of Old Olive CS in our scrap bin that was already folded as a standard A2 size card and the front of it was stamped with some images from Fifth Avenue Floral. I must have been feeling adventurous because I decided to make the poor card into something...

Um... I'm not sure if I like it. The card may have been better off left uncompleted in the scrap pile. I don't know... when I picked it out of the scraps, it seemed to be screaming for someone to finish it. I just think I wasn't the right person to finish it. =D


Anyway, it was fun to play around with. I used my mom's sewing machine again and tried out
(by memory) a ribbon pleating tutorial I ran across awhile back. It also has a nice paper pleating tutorial along with it and you can find those HERE on Studio Calico's blog. I don't know if I followed their directions exactly, but I ended up with pleated ribbon and that was the point, so I was at least successful in that regard. =P

At least I tried something new and had some fun. And I enjoyed myself!

Stitched Bella Bleu

From Adriel:

I was inspired by THIS CARD a few days ago and made a card based on it with the Bella Bleu DS paper from Stampin' Up!.

I used my mom's sewing machine on the zig zag setting and sewed away! It was fun. I need to incorporate sewing into my cards more often... it adds a special something! =)

Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty and would be perfect as a wedding card. It has that look. =)

Here's what I used for this card! Hope you've been inspired today to make something lovely!

Stamp Set: Oval All (113790)

Paper: Very Vanilla CS (101650), Not Quite Navy CS (101722), Close to Cocoa CS (101341), Whisper White CS (100730), Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper (113974)

Ink: Close to Cocoa marker (100072), Not Quite Navy marker (100059)

Tools: Tag Corner Punch (107215), Scallop Oval Punch (114889), Large Oval Punch (107305), 1-3/8" Circle Punch (104401), Sewing Machine

Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals (104430), SNAIL adhesive (104332), Cream Satin Ribbon

You can order any of these products from Stampin' Up! by clicking HERE!

Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper

Happy Stampers!

From Adriel:

I took a few pictures Thursday afternoon of my mom (Heidi) and my daughter (Kayla) crafting. My mom was putting the finishing touches on her latest tea bag books (so cute!) and Kayla was just making a card for fun.

My mom loves to make these tea bag books! She looks like she's enjoying herself. =) BTW, I think her hand-cut apple is very well done!

Happy Stampers don't always smile when they're working...

...but they almost always smile when they're finished! =D

Kayla's finished card! She did a great job! She stamped the little border free-hand with a small stamp that didn't cover very much... I'm surprised at how even she got it! Wow! I did have to help her with her bow, but she will eventually learn how to do that herself. =)

Kayla wants to sell her cards like Mom and Grandma do. Maybe one day she will! =)