Song of My Heart Stampers

I'm going to Fiji!!

Yes, me! Little old me. I'm going to Fiji.  WHOO HOO!

THANK YOU, my incredibly awesome customer friends!!

Stampin' Up Grand Vacation 2013 --Fiji's Denaru Island--Sofitel Resort & Spa

Wedding Words jumbo wheel

There is the CUTEST jumbo Stampin' Around wheel to go with the Love & Laughter stamp set in the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog--did you see it? It's called Wedding Words, and it's super versatile. You can even ink individual phrases with a marker and stamp them separately, if you don't want to use the the whole roller. You'd be set for years to come, with a phrase for every season of love.

At only $8.50 each, jumbo wheels are an excellent choice for those occasions when you don't really need a lot of cards and don't want to invest in a whole stamp set. Definitely peek at the Baby Tees wheel--that one is TOO darling! You can see all the wheels, including our new Builder Wheels, on pages 235-6 of the 2011-12 Idea Book & Catalog.

Here's the inside of the above card, which is Blushing Bride (how appropriate!) and Basic Black, with Very Vanilla and a wee heart of Silver Glimmer Paper. We'll be making this at the 10-10-10 event tomorrow--and yes, I'm aware that this one is definitely going to take them longer than ten minutes to make! I may need to do a couple of the steps in advance. You guys are so spoiled.

Do you make the insides of your cards pretty, too? I'm enjoying the new Edgelits and coordinating Adorning Accents embossing folders for the Big Shot, on both the outside and inside of cards!

Last days to Sale A Brate!

We're down to the final three days of the biggest sale of the Stampin' Up year--Sale A Bration 2012! It's your last chance to get your free reward choices from the Sale A Bration brochure before they are gone for good. Choose one item to get totally free--no shipping or tax!-- for every $50 spent by March 31st. What a great deal!

This fun birthday card features two of the exclusive reward choices--the ribbon and brad pack, and the 12x12 Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Papers (pages 6-7 of the SAB brochure).

Get me your orders by THIS Saturday at NOON--the website gets slammed at the tail end of Sale A Bration each year, and I want to make sure I din't miss out on getting your freebie because we left it too late! Don't put it off any longer. You know who you are!

For my momma and gma!

Wish we could have a cuppa together today, beloved ones! ! I just got off the phone with my mom and I miss her so much! She lives waaayyy too far away from me--over 1100 miles away. All ya'll with your momma nearby or even in the same town, you BE THANKFUL for that! I'm really jealous of all my mother-daughter and three generations stampers that come to my events. But, I know we are both where God has placed us, and at least in this modern world we have wonderful forms of communication that weren't possible even a short while ago. AND, I'm looking forward to a whole week with my mom and kids at Disney World--in just over a month!

Well, anyway, this Tea Shoppe card was created for the 10-10-10 event I'm holding this Saturday. It's all filled up, but you can email me if you want to be on the waiting list and if I get any cancellations, I'll call you right away. I mentioned I have a Designer Series Papers theme going on for the projects, and this card uses one of the most beautiful packs of them all, Beau Chateau. It is SOOOO gorgeous. I love the color combo of Soft Suede and Pink Pirouette with Very Vanilla.

After the 10-10-10, this card is headed to my beloved Gma--my grandma--in honor of the many tea parties we have held and attended together! She always got out the good cups. It made me feel special and grown up. The atmosphere was unhurried, full of reminices of my people and places I came from, and if I close my eyes I can still remember the breeze blowing through the sheer curtains in the dining room, the feel of the afternoon sun strong on my back. The cool, fragile china that warmed to the tea and then cooled it enough to sip. The funny tea cozy that went over the "Desert Rose" tea pot. The moist Depression-era "poorman's" bars with their plump raisins, and the thin-sliced, dry "seedy" cake that went so well with the Calli tea.

"She always got out the good cups." May it be said of me. May it be said, that I took moments out of my life to sit with friends. To pass the baton of memory down the road to the generation following. To take extra care that things looked pretty, that friends felt special, that an afternoon lazed by now and again. That I sent the cards I made. May that be said of me.

Two-tone ribbon technique

I accidentally came up with a cool thing while I was designing this easy Easter card to start things off at  my friend Laurie's workshop earlier this month. Love it when an accident turns into something neat! I had planned to sponge the entire Whsiper White Organza ribbon for this card with my Elegant Eggplant ink to match the card base.

I started sponging it, but I didn't know how much ribbon to cut off the spool and therefore how far to keep sponging. So I wrapped it around my card and was in the process of mentally adding a couple more inches for the knot, when I realized that if I left it the way it was currently sponged, the knot would be two different colors.

Sure enough, after I cut it and tied the ribbon around my card, I had a two-tone ribbon and knot, and an easy and simple new way to embellish my card!

The possibilities for this are pretty cool--you can combine yellow AND green, pink AND blue, black AND white--you name it! Just sponge only half the ribbon you need to wrap around your project. I especially love the Whisper White Organza ribbon for this, because it has a gorgeous sheen to it, which still shows through any color you sponge on it. So it's like having shiny sparkly ribbon in ANY color! Sweetness!

Click here to see a quick photo tutorial on how to dye organza easily with a marker, and how to make it into curly ribbon, too! And then head to www.lyssa.stampinup.net to shop all our fantastic ribbon and embellishment choices. It's the last week of Sale A Bration 2012, too--make it count!

3/26/12

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Hearts Collection Framelits Easel Card

I've been in bed all day with a sick headache, so no stamping for me today--boo hoo! Too much partying over Spring Break, maybe? But luckily for you, I had some pictures of something impossibly cute I worked on last week that I can show you for your weekend inspiration. This is an easel card made with the Hearts Collection Framelits for the Big Shot. Ain't it something? Love my Framelits!

I've made lots of rectangular and square easel cards in my time, but this is the first heart-shaped one I've attempted, and it sure is cute. And now, with the new Diagonal Plate for the Simply Scored, I can make an envelope to exactly fit it, too. Here's a side view so you can see the mechanism behind the easel.

While I had everything out to make the cute 1-inch square quilt part, I made up some quick "you rock" cards to send to members of my group who have accomplished something cool this last month. I love my Song of My Heart Demonstrators team ladies! I feel privileged to be the one to mentor them on their Stampin' Up journey. These cards will fit in our long open-end envelopes (and yes, they're mailable).

AHHH! I love it. While I was typing that last part, I got a Facebook notification from a team member who signed up her very first recruit today. Loving what we do and sharing what we love! I can't wait to meet the newest demonstrator in our group. Headache? What headache!?!

Be sure to let me know if you'd like an info packet on being a demonstrator, what all comes in the Starter Kit, and all the perks that you'd get if you signed up by the 31st. Don't wait, if you've been thinking about it--the big sale ends soon!