Scallop Square Spinner Card

Wow! Try saying that title 10 times as fast as you can. Quite a tongue twister, huh? =)

Here's the last card that we made in our classes this month. The Take a Spin stamp set is kind of fun with the spinners. There are a variety of occasions you can use this set for. The image I used for this card is for a birthday and it has a lot of fun sayings that you can point your spinner to. It's not the most exciting layout, but I felt a little locked in by the size and shape of the stamp, so I went with basic (and maybe a little boring), but I tried to make it a little more interesting with some fun, bright colors and polka dot ribbon. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you're having a great weekend. =)

Doily Valentine Heart Card Video Tutorial

Hey there! Remember this card I showed you several days ago?

Well, this card was part of our card class this month and several of our local stampers bought a kit. I thought it would be nice to include a little video for them to put together this card (not that it's hard or anything!). Plus, it gave me an excuse to make a video... heehee. ;-) And with Valentine's Day being just a few days away, I thought this would be appropriate.

Enjoy the video!



I'd love to know what you think!
Let me know! =)

My Digital Studio Contest Reject #3

From Adriel:

To see my other submissions for the My Digital Studio contest, click HERE and HERE. =)

So here is my last (rejected) submission for the contest. I took a chance with this one, as the requirements were 1 card and 2 layouts. This might not have met SU's idea of "layout", but I wanted to think outside the box. It was a layout in my mind.

This is a weekly menu planner. We will actually be making a real one of these that looks almost the same at one of our upcoming classes. I'm looking forward to that! =)

So I have now shared my failures rejects submissions. ;-)

I hope you enjoyed them.

Which one was your favorite?

Leave me a comment to let me know! =)

Have a great day and thanks for visiting our blog.

Doily Valentine Heart Card

From Adriel:

Here's one of the cards we will be making at our Valentine card class next month.

I had a lot of fun with this card. We had these small doilies that we had bought awhile ago and I finally created something with them! It's just a really fun and lovely way to dress up a card or project.

The heart is a die cut from the "Hearts & Brackets" die. I used Blushing Bride CS for the pink and Rose Red CS for the heart die cut. The heart was stamped with an image from the Elements of Style stamp set in Versamark ink and sprinkled with a clear embossing powder / dazzling diamonds glitter mixture and set with the heat tool. It's a great way to make your own specialty paper. =) The little sentiment is from the Tiny Tags set. And of course you have the doily in the background.

Soft and sweet with glitter and frills. =)

BTW, I was designing something recently and I used ANOTHER doily! I'm stuck!

How about you? What are you "stuck" on right now?

Looking forward to this class on Tuesday! We'll be all sparkly! =)

Idea - Decorated Cookie Sleeves

Here's a fun way to to dress up cookies for giving away!

Take a cookie sleeve and adhere festive decorated paper to the front. Slip your cookies in, put them in a cute little box and tie a nice ribbon around it. You've just got a nice homemade gift for that cookie lover! =)

You could do this for a variety of occasions, just use different paper! You could also fill these sleeves with other goodies.

We've got these fun cookie sleeves all ready for you in our Etsy shop if you don't have time to make them yourself. Visit us HERE!

Hope you're having a great December so far! For us, it's going by way too fast. =)

Custom Orders for Coupon Organizers

From Adriel:

We recently completed two custom orders for our cute and stylish coupon organizers. One of them actually was the smaller receipt size. They both turned out so nicely and the customers did a good job with their paper choices. The end result is always the best part, because they end up so cute! We just wanted to share them with you. =)

Hope your week has gone well. We've been busy working away on orders and creative stuff. For my mom that's nothing new, but it's been a nice break for myself to do some creative work solidly. I planned lighter school (for K & J) for the month of December so we could enjoy doing things we don't normally get to do so much... like creating (and making gingerbread houses, which we did Wed.)! =D

Have a great weekend!

2 years on Etsy!

2 years ago we opened up our Etsy shop! That's right! Today is our 2-year Etsy-versary. =)

We've come a long way from when we first opened. Our pictures have definitely improved (how in the world did we sell anything with our beginning photos?!), we have a better idea of shipping prices, we've learned how to use Google Analytics, twitter, and facebook, we've learned how to take better photographs and edit them to look normal and not blah... lots of things! It's been quite a learning experience.

Here's the first item we sold:
Tea Bag Book

This photo is actually not too bad, but the black background is definitely not us. The bright and happy feeling in our shop definitely is a much better reflection for us. =)

Anyway, we are celebrating our Etsy-versary today by including a free handmade card with any purchase from our shop today! you can visit our shop HERE! =)

Hope you are all having a nice day. Thanks for visiting! =)

October's Color Challenge Submissions

This is terribly late, but better late than never!

Here are the submissions we received for October's THS Color Challenge! Enjoy! Both of the submissions are from our regular stampers, Crystal and April. =)

Crystal submitted these really cute Thanksgiving cards!

April made a fun fall/autumn-themed card!

Thanks for playing along with us, stampers, and thank you for being patient! I haven't even posted the color challenge on our blog for this month. I'm so behind!

Have a nice weeked! =)

Holiday Boutique Review

We enjoyed seeing a few of you on Saturday at the Holiday Boutique that we participated in! I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of our table.

We're still getting the hand of this kind of thing. I honestly think we have too much of a variety of items to sell. I think our table is overwhelming to people. I'd like to experiment with limiting the types of items we sell to just a handful. Hmmm... what do you think?

Anyway, if anything, it helped us get all of our items organized. I don't think either of us (and especially myself) realized how many cards we had! Oh my! Everything is nicely organized and copyright stamped and many things are even packaged, so there's no excuse for me not to get these things in our Etsy shop soon. I'm hoping to focus this week on getting pictures taken and edited to do just that. =)

Hope you all had a nice weekend! Did you do anything special or fun?

Brand New Coupon Organizers

From Adriel:

Finally, the moment has arrived!

I finally got some coupon organizers done!

These have been sitting half-finished for quite awhile.

It feels so good to have completed them.

It's a nice feeling to get something done. =)

Look for them soon in our Etsy shop!

Have a wonderful day!

Little Leaves Sponged Card

From Adriel:

I had some flowers leftover from the watercolor spread technique I talked about in this post. I couldn't let them go to waste! =)

I used the reverse masking technique from the Little Leaves sizzlet die and sponging to create the background for my card. I love how the sponged leaves create such a lovely background on this simple card. Sometimes less is more.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Face Lift

Hi to all of you! Just a heads up that our blog is undergoing a face lift! Things are out of order and some things aren't fitting very well at the moment. It's all being tinkered with and will soon look better! Thanks! =)

Masking with Die Cuts

From Adriel:

I designed the cards for this month's card classes with a focus on masking, particularly using die-cuts. Many of us have at least one of the popular die-cutting machines. We personally own the Sizzix Big Shot and enjoy using the special dies that are available exclusively through Stampin' Up!. The fact is, none of the die-cutting machines are cheap and finding new ways to use them is a great way to get more bang for your buck! So I wanted to focus on using die-cuts in our masked cards class to give you more options for using your die-cutting machine. Each card employs a different technique on applying the ink to get that masked image, so we're also showing how to get different looks when masking with your die-cuts. A description of each card is below!

Elegant Top Note Card

This card uses the popular Top Note die as a mask. Stamping using the beautiful Fifth Avenue Floral set, along with sponging creates a beautiful frame around the die-cut. A large trimmed flower, a simple stamped sentiment and a lovely cluster of pearls adds just the right amount of extra to the card without taking away from the masking.

Delightful Floral Card

This card combines the combination of brand new colors from Stampin' Up! along with a special floral background using a die cut flower and sponging. The two-tone sponging adds depth to the flowers and the background created is beautiful in itself. A simple stamped and punched sentiment along with some elegant satin ribbon gives the finish that complements the beautiful masking. I was inspired by Dawn's video tutorial for this masking technique.

Butterly Flourish Card

Butterflies are very popular in crafts lately and they get incorporated into this lovely card. Butterfly die-cuts create a mask over the cardstock, which gets a spray of shimmer mist, creating a sparkly background to the sweet butterflies. Stamped images from Vintage Vogue complete the elegant look of this card.

You can purchase the directions for all 3 cards for $5 using the button below. A PDF will be sent to you within 48 hours of purchase.

You can purchase a kit for this class for $12 (which includes S&H) using the button below. Kit will include the pre-cut/scored/punched card stock, die-cut masks, ribbon, and pearls for 3 cards, 1 of each of the designs. You will need your own adhesive, stamps, ink, and shimmer mist. (Because of the angel policy for Stampin' Up!, we cannot pre-stamp for kits we sell.) Kits will be mailed in 1-2 days of purchase and should be received within 1 week. Kits are available only while supplies last.

Let us know what you think about this month's cards and the kit! We'd love your feedback! =)

THS Color Challenge #6 for July

I'm super excited about the color challenge this month! I've been waiting for the new colors from Stampin' Up! to come out and they are finally here! Woohoo!

Here's this month's color challenge!

THS Color Challenge #6

Poppy Parade, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla (these are Stampin' Up! color names... use what you have, but try to keep it close).

Are you lovin' it? I know I am! =)

Here's my card for this month's color challenge.

Supplies: Elements of Style stamp set, Perfect Punches stamp set, Early Espresso ink, Concord Crush stampin' write marker, Early Espresso stampin' write marker, Very Vanilla CS (base), Concord Crush CS, Poppy Parade CS, Pear Pizzazz CS, Color Spritzer tool, Top Note die, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Scallop Oval punch, Corner rounder, Cream satin ribbon, adhesive half-pearls, dimensionals.

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!

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.
• Please keep submissions family friendly. =)
• Challenge ends Saturday, July 31st @ midnight, Arizona time.
• Have fun!
  We're looking forward to seeing what you have to share with us!

Let your friends know about our challenge, too!

Have fun!

Two Happy Stampers Color Challenge #5 for June

Hi to all of you! The colors for our color challenge this month were inspired from a gift bag from a birthday present. I loved the colors and thought they would make a great challenge!

Our color challenge this month is: Almost Amethyst, Perfect Plum, Bermuda Bay, and White (these are Stampin' Up! color names... use what you have, but try to keep it close).

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!

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 Wednesday, June 30th@ 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!

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! =)

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! =)

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!