In April, I am doing another fundraiser for the women’s group at my church.  They like to make cards, plus another project.  I needed a prototype of the other project to show the leaders of the women’s group on Thursday.

I usually don’t show my prototype projects, but decided that you need to know that I struggle like everyone else does.  There is no stamping on this project, which wasn’t my original intent.  I don’t have a big enough alphabet stamp set to use on this project.  I don’t own a Sizzix alphabet die that is big enough either.  So I settled for printing the letters on the computer.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas to jazz up this project without making it too hard for new stampers?

This is such a bad photograph.  The wall is white, not yellow.  Sorry…  Here are close-up’s of each coaster:

Tags: Decorating, Gift Item

Sunday was my birthday party with my family.  The menu was some of my favorite food.  My son-in-law grilled a turkey.  My daughter-in-law made rosemary oven roasted potatoes and asparagus cooked with Italian dressing.  My hubby brought bread from Panera.  My daughter made a meringue layered dessert filled with fresh raspberries and ‘real’ whipped cream.  Plus she made brownies.  I felt pretty special and quite spoiled by them!

Here is the birthday card my daughter-in-law made me.

She is quite new to stamping and has limited supplies.  She did an awesome job!

Here is the card from my daughter.

Now, wasn’t she clever?  No stamping involved at all.  Just rub-on’s, felt flowers and brads.

Here is the card from my five-year-old granddaughter.

She loves printing her and her sister’s names, plus the name of the person getting the card (Nanna).  Inside she stamped a big heart.  She is creative!

Here is the big surprise gift from my daughter.

She handcut the letters and pages to make this FAMILY scrapbook.  No kit for her!

She put a lot of photographs on each page.  She is notorious for making gifts that make me cry and it happened again.  Plus, she attempts projects that I would never, ever consider making!  She’s amazing!

Tags: Scrapbooking, Stamping

Tomorrow is my downline, Susie’s, son’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor.  I don’t have any eagle or boy scout stamps, so I had to come up with something appropriate.  It helped that my hubby was an Eagle Scout, so he told me the color scheme to use.

I used Whisper White cardstock for the base and added Night of Navy and Ruby Red cardstock.  I had to shabby it up with the Sahara Sand ink pad.  I dragged it on the front of the card.  Then I stamped the small star with Versamark ink all over the front of the card.  I took a chipboard star and inked it up and poured gold embossing powder on it.  Embossed the word ‘congratulations’ and adhered it to the gold star with dimensionals.

I know Sean won’t get two of these cards!

Tags: Stamping

Here are some more samples using the 4 Sale-a-Bration stamp sets, Sale-a-Bration Designer Series Paper and Sale-a-Bration ribbon bundle.  If you spend $50, you can get one of the six Sale-a-Bration items free.

All these beautiful and creative samples were also made by my downline, Denise.  She has such an elegant, yet simple, style of stamping.

Tags: Sale-a-Bration, Stamping

I love getting handmade greeting cards from people.  My birthday was this week and some of my downline were really sweet and made some spectacular cards.

As usual, Wanda wow’d everyone with making her own background paper on the computer for my birthday card and gift box.  Inside the box was a beautiful handmade beaded bracelet with lots of bling. 

Liz made a great card which is kept shut with the circle with a brad in it.  I love it!

Denise made a candle and a card that matched.  I love how she cut the different layers of the flower to give it such depth.

Susie went all out with a card made from acetate.  WOW!  Quite spectacular.  I haven’t attempted this type of card yet.

Cyndi rocks with this card!  It is so hip and urban, with a striking color combination.

Peggy put the bling into this card.  I love all the glitter and bright colors.

Julieanne scored points for using purple and hearts on this card.  How clever that she left off the word "heart" and used "birthday" on the word stamp.  I’m copying that idea!

Amy brought some spring sunshine to a wintery day with this card!  I love the bright colors!

Gerry, one of my former downline, sent me this card, filled with pearls and silk flowers.  I love how she incorporated a die cut and a rub-on too.

I sure was showered with love with all these beautiful handmade birthday cards!  Thanks DIVA’s!

Tags: Gift Item, Stamping