Pumpkins, Apple Cider and Sweaters

I'm pretty sure I write this every year around this time, but I just SO love fall.
For one of our club projects this month, we made this simple, understated card:

I love, love, love it.  We used 4 different punches: Wide Oval, 1 3/4 Cirlce, Decorative Label and the Bird Punch.  We sponged the pumpkins in Tangerine Tango (the card stock is pumpkin pie).  The colors are old olive, pumpkin pie and early espresso.
Later this week I will be posting the things we did at the Regional Conference last weekend.  Happy Fall!

Back to School

Fall is here!  My oldest, Audrey, is in Kindergarten (and loving it!) I'm hoping this means I will have more time for stamping and scrapbooking this fall before the baby comes in February... but I doubt it!

For club last night, we made the cutest backpack box... I love it, because you can put a little note in the front folder, and then fill it with candy corn, or any fun fall treat!

 cute, right? I got the instructions and templates from splitcoaststampers: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/backpackbox/

It's quite an undertaking, as it is 31 steps, but we had fun making it! I used old olive and chocolate chip, a favorite fall combo of mine... and the stamp set "day of gratitude".

As a second project (which we never got to), I made a simple 3 x3 card from the stamp set pennant parade:

I used brights, because I wanted a simple, cheery card.  I made the topiary with the trangle, then used the small tip of melon mambo stampin' write marker and the mat pack to make the circles.  I also made the envelope using this tutorial: http://acreativeneed.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/3x3-envelope-tutorial/
Here's the stamp set I used:

Which is a super versatile set... you can use it for ice cream cones:
 


or a little sail boat:
             


or christmas trees:


or birthday hats:


There are tons more ways, I just love this set!

papaya collage and perfect wedding card

Summer is flying by, and I have had little to no time to stamp.  However, I did make these two cards for Stamp Club in July:

This to me is the perfect wedding card.  It is simple, elegant, and can be changed for the wedding of your choice.  It uses the big shot "vintage wallpaper" embossing folder, the stamp set "papaya collage" for the frame, and "make a cake" for the insides.  I used Cherry Cobbler for the accent color, but you can change it to the color of the wedding you will attending

This is totally different for me, but I love how it turned out!  It uses almost every stamp in the "papaya collage" stamp set (my MUST HAVE) stamp set for the new catalogue... and it's accented with Calypso Coral, which I will grieve when it's gone in less than a year!
Hope you enjoy your last little bit of Summer!  I am looking forward to fall, routine, scrapbooking, hot tea, and sweaters!

Olympics Part 2

Our final count is we made dishes from 44 Countries!  Here is the display after Audrey finished coloring all of the flags:

I'll be posting card projects I've been working on next week, but for the most part, I've been taking it easy from crafting during July and August.  Thanks for looking!

Olympics 2012

It's been a busy time in our house, we are expecting our 3rd Child in February, we went on a vacation to Black Creek on Vancouver Island, and my husband and I are in a Worship Band (www.hillsworship.com) and we opened for the band Starfield on August 5th at the Abbotsford Aggrifair!
Needless to say, it's been insane.  On top of all this, it was the Olympics for the past two weeks.  My mom started a tradition with the Olympics when we were little, to make dishes from some of the Countries represented at the Olympics, to have us try different kinds of foods and to grow appreciation for different cultures.  At the Winter Olympics in 2010, my sister and I made a dish for each Country.  This year there were over 200 Countries in the Olympics, and we were on vacation for 1/2 of the time, so we were only able to do about 60... I haven't got the exact count yet.
Here's a sample of my kitchen wall:

That was early last week, we've done more Countries since then, I will post when they are done... my daughter, Audrey, just turned 5, and she has loved coloring each of the flags, and learning about different kinds of foods.
Here's a sample menu of one of the nights we did:
Carribean Night:
On the menu tonight:
Drinks:
Ginger Beer (Jamaica)
Kanpe Tea (Haiti)
Banana Punch (British Virgin Islands)

Appies:
Spicy Mango and Avacado (Antigue and Barbuda)
Johnny Cakes (Cayman Islands)

Potato Salad (Panama)
Fried Plaintains (Dominican Republic)
Mango Chutney (Dominica)
Barbados shrimp with raspberry sauce (Barbados)
Belinean Rice and Beans (Belize)
Cheeseball (Honduras)

Dinner:
Empenadas (Costa Rica)
Bahama Mama Chicken (Bahamas)

Dessert:
Barfi (Trinidad)
tropical fruit pudding (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

It was a blast!

Open House with new in Colors!

Last weekend was my annual Open House, and we had the best time!
We made these cards:

There were two color options: Gumball Gree and Midnight Muse, or Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple.  Both were accented with Marina Mist.
We used the new stamp set "make a cake", which is super simple but elegant.  The DSP (Designer Series Paper) is Patio Party, which co-ordinates perfectly with this stamp set.  We also used the new stamp set "Itty Bitty Banners", and used the banners cut outs with the big shot!

I was also busy in June making nearly 20 Grad cards for the Graduates in our Youth Group.  I wanted to do something simple, so I used the scraps of DSP from my scraps bag, then just coordinated the ribbon and the paper from there.  This is an old stamp that I can't get rid of:

Here's a close up of the stamp:

I hope to post more this summer, but I'm planning on spending as much time outside as possible!  Happy Stamping!

The 2012-2013 Annual Stampin' Up Catalogue

I am in love.
With the new catalogue.   Have you seen this gorgeous catalogue?
Just the cover alone inspires me beyond belief:

If you haven't seen it, you can browse it at: http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/fortheheartofstampin/catalogs on my official stampin' up website!

The stamp sets are beautiful, some new favorites of mine are No Peeking, my must have Christmas set:

My go to Baby Stamp set will be Baby Boutique, so darling!

And don't forget about the new In Colors!

There are 5 fabulous, current Colors:
Gumball Green
Summer Starfruit
Primrose Petals
Midnight Muse
Rasberry Ribble

See all the In Color Products here: http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryID=1113

What's your favorite new product in the Catalogue?  I always love hearing from you!