March is Women's History Month... The Austin Area Stampers group is hosting its first bloghop...my first too...and we decided...What a fun way to create and honor Women’s History Month! Use our art and passion as a way to commemorate an often overlooked month. The theme, Women’s History Month is anything you want it to be as long as it involves paper crafting. As an officer and more importantly, as a WOMAN in the military, I chose to create a piece representative of freedom! The stamp I chose, A Beautiful You! is from the current Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog.  Of the three images in the set, this one spoke to me of FREEDOM. FREEDOM... of women to be able to serve their country, not just in a support role, but in combat as well, right along side their brothers. FREEDOM... to be a Soldier/Airman/or a Marine and still BE a woman FREEDOM... once your duty to serve your country is complete, to celebrate life. Want to recreate this card?  Here are the supplies u...

Angie Girl - Gianna One of my new discoveries in stamping is  +Unity Stamp Company  .  I absolutely adore their products.  Don't get me wrong, I am still and always will be a Stampin' Up! girl, but these stamps, especially the Angie Girl Collection, speak to me.  I find that the sentiments and the stamps in this collection "look" like me.  I'm not a size 0 or size 4, so the full-figuredness of the girls say, look at me, "I like who I am" although I'm not a Size 0.  The sentiments give words of encouragement and motivation. Angie Girl - Stand Tall On the Unity Show & Tell Facebook page, there was a Paper Piecing Technique Challenge.  These were my submissions for the challenge.  I like them! Enjoy and Happy Stampin!

There are days in life when one must stop and be appreciative for the blessings and good things that are happening in their lives rather that focusing on the negative. My world has been spinning lately...literally and figuratively...and if you believe, that's God's way of telling me to slow down and appreciate the blessings that he has given me.  This card was born out of that feeling of Thankfulness and appreciation for what I have. Thank you...for tomorrow isn't promised. All products used to make this card can be found on my Stampin' Up! website . Product List Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [ 100730 ] Cucumber Crush 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [ 138335 ] Dapper Denim 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [ 141414 ] Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad [ 141394 ] Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad [ 131181 ] Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad [ 138324 ] ...

It's High Tide... Item 143006 My stamp set of choice this week, was  +Stampin' Up!  High Tide, a new release in our Occasions 2017 Catalog.   I created three card projects with this stamp set and I'm working on a fourth, as the idea for it just popped into my head...this one using the Stamp Set "A Beautiful You", also from the Occasions Catalog...more to follow. High Tide has 16 photopolymer stamps, 2 of which you can use to do a little two-step stamping.  I've tried to show you some of the versatility of the stamp set, although I've utilized the same colors throughout the projects. In the piece above, I incorporated a little Reflection/Mirror Image Stamping Technique and I must say for the first effort, I didn't do so bad...  In all of the projects, I used the sponging technique... Products used: Stamp set:   High Tide Inks:   Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry , Pool Party, Soft Sky , Crumb Cake , Soft Suede ...

It's Sale-A-Bration Time! Avant Garden (143272) It's that time again...are you ready for the Occasions and Sale-A-Brations fest-o-rama (yes, I made that word up)?  Starting January 4 - March 31, 2017, when you shop Stampin' Up!, you have THREE ways to earn FREE products!.  SHOP for every $50 spent, you earn FREE product from the Sale-A-Bration catalog; JOIN my Stampin' Up! Team-start your own business and get additional FREE products in your Starter Kit or HOST a Stampin' Up! party to get more FREE products with Stampin' Rewards!    How cool!  Hey Chick (143331) As a creative expressions artist (read: demonstrator) with Stampin' Up!, I was able to pre-order some of the awesome products both from the new Occasions catty (read: catalog), and from SAB.  Here are two projects done with my two favorites (so far) from the SAB catalog.  Tutorials for both card projects will be available for purchase through Sweets' Signatures Class by Mail. ...

I often times hit a creative block and will need a little inspiration.  Does that happen to you?  To mitigate that, some times I'll search Pinterest for ideas or I'll visit a Facebook Group called Stampin' Gals Gone Wild! where weekly the administrator  +Connie Stewart   will post a sketch/layout for the members to interpret and post their cards based on the sketch. I've decided to share my cards based on these and other sketches found across Pinterest.  I'll post a new sketch weekly on a Monday as well as my interpretation of the design.  If you'd like to join me, you can...here's how: 1. I'll create an Facebook event and a photo album in my Facebook Group page and you can join the event and share your photo uploads. 2. You can comment here and include a photo. There are always rules...but these are pretty simple All entries must have at least one (1) Stampin' Up product (after all, I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator) Post must fo...

I love my Friday's off (although I went in to work for 1/2 day).  It's when I get to get together with my Stampin' friends and get creative and we share lots of tips, tricks and techniques with each other. Yesterday's tip and trick came courtesy of  +Sharon Coleman  (relatively new to our Friday crop circle).  For my project yesterday, I was "struggling" with trying to make my bow without contorting my body in all sorts of uncomfortable positions.   +Sharon Coleman  watched this struggle for a few minutes then said, "Do you need my finger?"  This led to can I show you something that works for me?  Enter in today's tip, trick and technique. This tip involves a plastic bottle cap (really you can use whatever you'd like, but most inevitably you can find one of these lying around the home) and a toothpick...huh?  How's that gonna help me tie a bow? LOL...that's what I thought to myself too...so here's the tip...to add bows to ...