Blogger's Challenge #148: Color Challenge!

Our challenge was to use blue, orange and moss.  I went with something retiring, something staying and something returning for my colors.  The color retiring is Mellow Moss...Oh how I'll miss this color!  The color staying is Not Quite Navy and boy, am I GLAD! It will be moving to the Regals Collection.  Finally, the color returning is an In Color from last year called Tangerine Tango!  LOVED this color...but I love ALL orange!  It'll be apart of the Brights collection.

I made this card for my friend and our school secretary.  I used the upcoming Decor Stencil called Mostly Vintage.  With this one, you get both the stencil and the mask!  I used the stencil on this one with Tangerine Tango, Mellow Moss and sponge daubers.  I stamped the sentiment right over the stencil in Not Quite Navy.  I also brought out my Pretties kit and made a Tangerine Tango flower for under the Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon...get this while it's available!  I also used the pretties to add a little bling!

Be sure to see how the other players used these colors to make some wonderful creations!

Blogger's Challenge #147: Sketch Challenge

Our challenge this week was a sketch challenge.  I am using a brand new stamp All a Flutter from the upcoming Summer Mini Catalog from Stampin' Up!  It's a real bargain because you can just buy the individual stamp for only $6.95.  The phrase is also from the Summer Mini from a set called Elements of Style.  Using my Bashful Blue marker and my Color Spritzer, I added just a splash of blue to the butterfly background.  I used my Aquapainter and Pumpkin Pie ink to add color to each butterfly.

After stamping and cutting my butterfly background, I didn't want to cover it up with cardstock as in the sketch.  So I used Vellum Cardstock so the butterflies were still visible.

Be sure to check out what the other players contributed to this sketch challenge this week!  I know you will LOVE them!

Blogger's Challenge #145: Alter It!

This week's challenge was to alter an item.  I found 7 of these frames at our Walmart on the clearance endcap for $.33...that's right!  Thirty-three cents!!!

I took the Flight of the Butterfly stamp and used Tempting Turquoise, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, and Certainly Celery to create this fun spring decor item.  I also broke out my Big Shot and my Simple Letters Bigz die to die cut the letters.  (Remember that Lavendar Lace and Almost Amethyst are the Fond Farewell retiring colors list so get them while they're hot!)

I was inspired by a card I saw on a blog by Leanne Pugliese.  I can't find her blog addy right now but her blog is called Wee Inklings, I believe. 

Please take some time to see what the other Blogger's challenge players altered this week!

Blogger's Challenge #144: Happy Easter!

Happy Easter and many blessings to you in the name of our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Those of you who are in my Go-Diva swap have a copy of this card already but I haven't shared it on the blog yet. Since our theme was Easter this week, it was the perfect time to share!

As soon as I saw the Beautiful Wings Embosslit, I knew it was a must-have! It's still available but only until the 30th of this month!

Today is Good Friday and it is truly good as I attend worship services remembering the suffering and death of our Savior, Jesus. Many blessings to all of you at this special time!

Blogger's Challenge #144: Sketch Challenge!

Our challenge this week was to use the sketch below:

I took a few liberties when making my card.  I used buttons instead of the rectangular element and used a stamp instead of the circular element.  Off and running to accomplish some more tasks today!

So sorry I didn't post on time on Friday!  I promise to be better this week! Happy Palm Sunday!

Blogger's Challenge #143: Think Spring!

I chose to do a page in My Digital Studio, Stampin' Up's fairly new papercrafting solution program.  I LOVE scrapbooking this way and there are so many other things you can do with the program.  I watched a webinar last night that taught me how to use it to make a multimedia project, such as a movie using a project.  You can also create calendars, cards, and there's now a download to print little box patterns!  Super cool!

I used the My Sweet Pea download that I purchased recently.  It contains the same designs that you can also get as "real" paper!  (That's another reason I love MDS...you can coordinate with SU's "real" materials and create a hydrid project; one that is digital and paper combined!)  I also learned a little corner "folding" trick from Caroline Lebel's blog...thanks so much, Caroline!

The picture is of our dog Annie.  Annie was 13 years old when we put her down.  She was a great dog.  In this picture Annie is really happy.  We had gone to the Pembina trail where she didn't need to be on a leash.  She loved her freedom!

Thanks for taking a look and be sure to see how the other players share their spring fever with you!

Blogger's Challenge #142: Happy Birthday!

Welcome to my Blogger's Challenge for this week!  Our challenge was very appropriate as it will be our List Mom, Lisa's birthday on Monday!!!  Happy Birthday, Lisa!!! 

My card today isn't her birthday card, however...I'll save that until after she receives it in the mail. My card today instead was created for my brother and my brother-in-law.  Since these guys never see each other and have birthdays just 5 days apart, they usually get identical cards.  I'm also fairly confident that they don't check out my stamping blog!

I began my card by stamping the medallion with my Whisper White Craft ink onto the Close to Cocoa cardstock and allowed lots of time for that to dry and set.  Then, I inked the medallion with Chocolate Chip ink and slightly offset the image atop the original. The rest of the card is self-explanatory.

Thanks for checking out my blog and please check out the other birthday wishes for Lisa out there!

Blogger's Challenge #141: Green!!!

It's Friday!!!  So excited!  We have our big Celebration Sunday this Sunday at my school so tomorrow is set-up and then Sunday (after church) the celebration begins!

I'm also excited because I finished my Blogger's Challenge!  The challenge was to use green.  I chose Always Artichoke.  If you have any questions about my card, please let me know and I'll be HAPPY to answer them!

Be sure to see what the other players did with GREEN...I'm off to check them out!

Blogger's Challenge #140: Boxes and Bags

Lisa gave us the challenge of creating any type of box or bag.  I was stuck for a little while today (hence the late post) but then had a "duh" moment...."Lisa Bohler, you have a Big Shot die that will complete this challenge for you!" So I grabbed my Big Shot, some cardstock and DSP and Stampin' Up's exclusive Bitty Box & Envelope Bigz XL die and got right to work.  In hardly anytime at all, my challenge was complete!

The most challenging part for me in using this die is that the card you need to make is only a 2 by 2 card!  There isn't a lot of room in a 2 inch square!  But thanks to the Saleabration set Vintage Labels, I had the perfect little words to fit that size of card.

The die makes both the envelope and the box and I just needed to cut a card to fit (and stamp and add some adhesive, of course!)  I also just got the satin Old Olive ribbon so I had to put that to use with the Cottage Wall DSP.

Thanks for looking!

I've already checked out the boxes and bags that most of the other players created and you DON'T want to miss them!  So go...check them out!!!

Whoo hoo! Products still available!

Stampin' Up has chosen to carry over several products from the Holiday Mini catalog (shown below).  These products will also be available in the next Idea Book and Catalog!!!

Item # Description Price


116794 Ornament punch $15.95

116806 Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint $5.95

116854 Frost White Shimmer Paint $5.95

116807 Platinum Shimmer Paint $5.95

116829 Décor Elements Blocks $9.95

116824 Stampin' Up! Textured Impressions Folder Petals-A-Plenty $7.95

116821 Stampin' Up! Holiday Windows Magnetic Movers & Shapers $29.95

116819 Stampin' Up! Table Setting Bigz XL die $42.95

116820 Stampin' Up! Embosslits Merry die $11.95

116823 Stampin' Up! Sizzlits Merry Details die $5.50

116822 Stampin' Up! O Christmas Tree Pop-Up Bigz XL die $42.95

118140 Stampin' Up! Tree Decorations Sizzlits die $5.50

118108 My Digital Studio $79.95

116519 Charming stamp set $19.95

Blogger's Challenge #139: Sketch Challenge

Our challenge this week was a sketch challenge created by our list mom, Lisa Somerville.  Kraft cardstock is still inspiring me but this time I used the Kraft coloring in the DSP that you can get for free during Sale-a-bration with Stampin' Up! called Welcome Neighbor.  It's a 6 by 6 paper pack loaded with fun and cheery designs!

I got a little dot happy, too, by adding the dots onto the Extra Large Flower punch.  It's also sweet that SU has coordinating Kraft Corduroy buttons to finish my card off!

Thanks for looking and please take some time to click on my sidebar and see what the other BC members did with this fun sketch!

Stamps for Sale!

Underneath my new blog header, there's a link to the retired Stampin' Up! Stamps sets, wheels and accessories that I have for sale.  Please check them out and let me know if you are interested!

New Blog header!!!

I'm so excited!!!  After watching some great hints by Patty Bennett on her blog, Patty's Stamping Spot, figured out how to make my own personalized blog header using My Digital Studio!!  If you are on Google Reader, you'll have to click and come to my blog to see it!!!

Thanks for looking!

Blogger's Challenge #138: Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day...a little early!  The girls from BC will have some wonderful cards to inspire you this Valentine's Day and it's not too late to try them out...if you hurry!

Kraft cardstock was my starting point this time and using the fabulous Sending Love Specialty DSP.  Can you believe I almost didn't order this paper?  Shocking!

Using lots of hearts, ribbon and the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set, I completely this LOVEly challenge.  Did you know that with every sale of this stamp set, SU is donating $2 to the people of Haiti? 

I am prepping my post a little early.  Off to see Leap Year...hoping for a little fun and laughter with a girls' night out! Happy Valentine's Day!

My Digital Studio

Whoo hoo! This weekend, I went to a scrapping day and finally made myself sit down with My Digital Studio and finished FIVE digital pages. In realty, I only spent a couple hours working on this. I can see that this style of scrapbooking is for ME!!!

My Digital Studio is available from me on my online website: http://www.lisabohler.stampinup.net/. If you already have a digital scrapbooking program, downloads are available for that, too!!!
Here are my pages. The cute little boys are my great-nephews but the rest of the page-stars are me, my dh and our dogs.

New Stampin' Up! Border and Corner Punch Video

Bonnie Thurber with Stampin' Up! has a new video with lots of hints and tricks for using the new corner and border punches.  If you've already purchased them, this will really help you!  If you don't own them and after watching the video, you HAVE to have them, just email me or shop  online at my website:  http://www.lisabohler.stampinup.net/

Blogger's Challenge #137: Black, Red and White

Lisa as given us one of the most elegant color combinations to work with this week:  Red, Black and White.  My Stampin' Up! color choices were:  Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White. 

I am trying to hit a grand slam (Twins' Baseball spring training begins at the end of this month!) by meeting these challenges, all with one card:  1.  A thank you to one of my Stampin' Up! party hostesses (hi J!...look in your mailbox soon!)  2.  Blogger's Challenge  3.  Mojo Monday sketch and 4.  Using a new technique from the Technique Junkies latest newsletter. I succeeded!

Here's the Mojo Monday sketch:

The technique is called Mono Dies and it's from the February/March 2010 issue.  I have a link to Technique Junkies in my sidebar...go check it out!

Finally, here's the Grand Slam (complete with using the Scallop Trim Border punch which you can get for free through the Sale-a-Bration promotion.  Email me or check out my SU website for more details.  http://www.lisabohler.stampinup.net/):

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to see what the other girls did with this fabulous color combination!

Inspiration from Unusual items

This isn't the first time that a Puffs tissue box has inspired a card from me!  But I thought I would share some pictures to see how they may inspire you!

Card Recipe:

Stamp sets:  Close as a Memory, Flower Fancy

Ink/Cardstock colors:  Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla

Other:   Corner Rounder punch, Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

Blogger's Challenge #136: Happy Birthday!

Our challenge for the week was "birthday".  I needed a birthday card for a young man so this was perfect timing.  I cased the card from the May 2009 issue of Stamper's Success, a magazine published exclusively for SU demos.  I changed up the colors, the background texture (which the picture doesn't capture well) and the label but other than that, I copied it completely! 

That's an important thing to note.  I deal with copying quite a bit as a teacher.  I always tell my students that it's a compliment when someone copies you.  However, in the world of creativity and such, it is essential to give the original creator all of the credit!  The Stampin' Success doesn't mention the creator's name which only tells me it was a Stampin' Up! employee but that person had my idea originally!

The card is a bound-edge card.  To do this, simply score a selected distance from the fold of the card and score.  The ribbon makes the card  appear to be "bound" together.

Please be sure to see how the other BC members celebrated birthdays today!  Happy Friday everyone!

Blogger's Challenge #135: Die Cuts and Punches

What a fun challenge our challenge leader, Lisa, gave us!  We were to use die cuts or punches.  I used both!

I began with my brand new die for my Big Shot called Fancy Favor.  I changed it up a bit, though.  First thing was to trim off the "fancy" portion.  I love the decorative trim that the box comes with but I wanted to use my SaleaBration FREE Scallop Trim Border punch.  The intent was to weave some crochet thread through the holes of the trim.  (Where's the crochet thread?  Decided I did NOT like it, after all!)  Before assembling the box, I stamped on the front and back of the box with the Vintage Vogue stamp set.  Using some felt and the Birds and Blooms Sizzlet 4 pack, I added the bird atop an Large Oval punch, layered with the Scalloped Oval punch.

Hope you enjoy it and see what the other BC girls were punching and die cutting this week!

Hugs!

Taking care of your Ink Pads

The Stampin' Up! ink pads are the best...I know I sell them but I owned them BEFORE I became a demo!  They are wonderful!  They also keep the ink for a long period of time.  BUT....lots of you out there have had some of your ink pads for awhile now and it may be time to refresh the ink!

Here's how you know:

Can you see how the corner of the ink pad is lifting up a bit?  Definitely a sign that you need to add some ink refill!  Another sign may be that images are not stamping well on your projects. 

The good news is that Stampin' Up! sells refills for all of their colors in the classic style for just $2.95 a color.  OR you could purchase an entire color family of 12 for $28.95 that would be like getting two for free!)

Let me know if you have any questions about your ink pads or need some refills!