Stampin' Up! Best of 25 Years March Stamp Set

Back in January, Stampin' Up! announced the Best of 25 years promotion.  If you would like to read more about it and see January's Birthday stamp set click here.  Click here to see February's best of Love stamp set.

March's Best of 25 years stamp set is the Best of Flowers!  Click here to see the full flyer but here's what's included in the Best of Flowers stamp set.

Some things to remember:

• All Best of stamp sets will include 3-5 images, including a never-before seen image, and will be priced at $14.95.
• While we are releasing just one Best of stamp set per month (with a new theme each month), all of the Best of sets will be available until March 31, 2014.
• A new flyer will be released every month for each new Best of set.
• All Best of stamp sets are available in Clear-Mount only.

While we are releasing just one Best of stamp set per month, all of the Best of sets will be available until March 31, 2014.

As a special incentive to collect the Best of stamps, we're including a collector's card and 25-year proof of purchase sticker with every Best of set. Collect six stickers, and send it in to redeem a FREE set of your choice valued up to $14.95! Free sets must be redeemed no later than April 30, 2014.

Click here to place your order through my online store and don't forget to collect those proof of purchase stickers for your FREE stamp set!  Check back next month to see what April has in store.

Birthday Card

This has to be one of my favorite birthday cards I have made in a LONG time.  I just love everything about it.  I love the colors to this, the layout, the flowers, the texture, etc.  I got my inspiration from Mary aka Muffin's Mama on Splitcoast Stampers.  I changed and added things that would fit my style and supplies.  I actually don't want to give it away.  Ever have that problem?  My solution is to make 2 than I can keep one for myself!!

Here are the supplies needed to make this card:

Card Stock: Rose Red
                     Daffodil Delight Designer Series Paper Patterns Pack
                     Early Espresso
                     Whisper White

Ink: Early Espresso Ink Pad
        Rose Red Marker
        Daffodil Delight Marker

Stamp Set: Bring on the Cake

Accessories: Basic Rhinestones
                      Chocolate Chip 1/2" Scallop Polka Ribbon
                      3/16" Brads - Brights Collection (Daffodil Delight)
        Tools: Big Shot
                   Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Die

Boho Blossoms Punch                    Paper Piercer                    Mat Pack          Adhesives: Snail                             Stampin' Dimensionals

Grape Cookies

Pinterest is the best because you can find SO many great ideas that you probably never would have known about or thought of yourself.  I saw a great recipe for jello cookies that will work great with our Sweet Pressed Cookie stamp sets on Pinterest and found the recipe courtesy of iheartnaptime.com here.

The best thing about these cookies other than the great color is that they actually taste like the flavor.  I tried grape since my husband is a fan of grape flavored everything and he was going to be the one testing them out the most!  I really wish you could jump into the computer to taste these cookies.  They are delicious!  I was so happy to find that they worked with the cookie stamps and they tasted good!

If you print out the recipe to use with Stampin' Up!'s Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps like I did, please note:

1. Omit the baking powder so the cookies don't rise during baking and ruin your stamped image.
2. The recipe calls for 4 different flavors but I wanted to try just one.  I added 4 Tbs. of the grape jello into the batter and saved the rest to roll the dough into.
3. The recipe mentions "you might need to add food coloring" but the color really doesn't pop until you DO add the food coloring.  I followed the box recommendations for purple to get the color that I liked.
4. Mix the rest of the grape jello mix with about 2 Tbs. of sugar than roll the dough balls in the sugar mix before putting onto cookie sheet.
5. Press your cookie stamp into the doughs.  The sugar "should" prevent the dough from sticking onto the cookie stamp.  If not, clean your stamp before pressing into next dough.  If you don't like how your stamp turns out on the cookie, just roll into ball and try again!

I am so excited to try these with all the different flavors of jello.  Next on my list is Strawberry since that is MY favorite!!

Upcoming Workshop

I have been receiving a lot of interested members for my Meetup group. We are going to meet and craft next Friday and Saturday. I offered 2 days since I know people have to work and wanted to give everyone a chance to come. So this week I worked on the 2 cards we are going to make. I have to say that I am VERY happy with the two cards that I created. I can't say that they are my original designs but did tweak them to match what I wanted. My first card I cased from the March Stampin' Success magazine. As a demonstrator, you receive a monthly idea magazine that talks about the business and has some great ideas to demonstrate with. Another great reason to become a demonstrator. You can always join my team where this month you will receive some helpful DVDs to help start you on the right track for your business. Click on the join my team link if you are interested in learning more.

Now onto the cards.

The second card I got the idea from BJ Peters using the Top Note Sizzix Die. She created a flower 3D box, so I used the idea to make it on a card. Again, I am very happy with the way this card turned out.

These two cards have been my favorite that I have created since becoming a demonstrator in February. I am really looking forward to demonstrating these examples at the Meetup because I am very proud of them! I also hoping they inspire some people to place orders (maybe for the Big Shot especially!!) I will update everyone next weekend how both Meetups go!

Stamping 411 Challenge and Demo Swap

I created this card for two reasons. One is apart of the Stampin 411 Saturday challenge and the other is for a demonstrator meeting swap. If you click on the link, you can see the sketch that I used to make this card. I scored the blue paper using my paper cutter to make the checkered background. I border punched the yellow paper. I used one of the stamps from the Flower for All Seasons set. It's a great set with four different flower pots. I used the earth elements crayons and blender pens to color in most of the stamp. I used the colored pencils and blender pens for the tulips. I stamped happy mother's day with versamark then used my stampin' pastels to add a little color. I am very happy how this card came out. It's inspired me to make a flower pot card for Mother's Day to send to my mom and mother-in-law. Check back this week for pictures of my version of a flower pot card.

My demonstrator meeting is tomorrow night so check back for the cards I get from the swap. There are always great cards from the other demonstrators.

Here are the supplies and directions I used to make this card:

• Bordering Blue 8 1/2 by 11 paper cut at 5 1/2 then folded at 4 1/4.
• So Saffron paper cut 4 by 2 1/4 then punched with Eyelet Border Punch.
• Sage Shadow paper cut 1 3/4 by 2.
• Flower for All Seasons stamp set stamped onto Whisper White paper cut into 1 1/2 by 1 3/4.
• Using Earth Elements Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pens, color flower pot
• Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon cut 2 3/4 then wrap and glue onto back of So Saffron.
• Stamp happy mother's day from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set with Versamark then using Stampin' Pastels, rub Sage Shadow over happy mother's day to add color to stamp.
• Glue So Saffron onto Bordering Blue

Thank you for looking and reading!

Challenge Card

I finally got some time to craft tonight. I made this card to participate in the Saturday Stamping 411 sketch challenge. The in colors were used along with Fresh Cuts and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets. This card is also going to be made at my Cards for Troops workshop next Saturday.



I will preview more of my cards for next Saturday when I get done with them. I am trying to have at least 3 different cards to make. I'm hoping I get a good response so that I can design a few more cards that we can make to send for the troops. I am very passionate about this workshop since I am a military wife and know how great it would be to have a card sent from my husband for Mother's Day.

I am also hoping to get back to scrapping my son's album. We were back in Pittsburgh for 2 weeks introducing him to both sides of the family. I have tons of pictures I need to scrap from our trip. I hope to get somewhat caught up tonight and tomorrow.

First Meeting

I went to my first meeting on Wednesday night. It was with fellow demonstrators so it was great meeting these ladies. I was about 10 minutes late. This was my first time really going out since having my baby in December and I didn't time it right. Plus there was some traffic. When I got there the ladies were working on their projects. It cost $5 to make 5 projects. We made a box, 2 cards and 2 pages for a calendar. It was a lot of fun because this was my first time really using some of the products. It was nice talking to the ladies since I'm a new demonstrator too. They gave me some great ideas to help build my business. I left looking forward to the next one and wanting to get a group together to craft. I kept thinking that's exactly what I want my business to be like, having a group who gets together at least once a month to make projects. I just need to start finding people who are interested in paying to craft. I'm hoping after my first workshop I'll have a few who are interested.

Here are the projects we made

During the crop we also exchanged the cards we made. I was very impressed with all of the cards everyone made. I was definitely motivated after being at the meeting to craft. Here are these wonderful cards.

Our next meeting is March 9th. Unfortunately I won't be able to go because we are flying to Pittsburgh for a few weeks. I'm hoping I can still make the projects they make for this meeting. Each time we are going to make 2 pages for the calendar so I don't want to not have March and April pages. Hopefully the host will keep the supplies for me for the meeting in April.

Let me know if you want to know how each of the projects were made. I can give you a list of supplies needed and you can buy from my site. I can also host a workshop to teach you how to make any of these projects. Contact me if you are interested in making these projects.

My First Card!!

After receiving my starter kit on Friday, I was very excited to start crafting. Unfortunately after organizing everything Friday, I didn't have time the rest of the weekend. Saturday I watched the starter DVD, but didn't craft because I was busy with my family. Since Sunday was the Super Bowl, I didn't do anything that day either. I was just itching to use my new supplies. I finally got a chance to make my first card today. I am going to a demonstrator meeting on Wednesday where I'm participating in a card swap. I needed to make 7 cards so I can swap with the others. This will begin to grow my examples of what you can do with Stampin' Up! supplies. I am really looking forward to this meeting to meet fellow demonstrators and get some great ideas. I will upload pictures of the cards I receive after Wednesday.

Here is the card that I made for the swap.

Supplies used to make this card include:

• Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Define Your Life (XOXO)
• Classic Red, Basic black and Pixie pink ink
• Pink, purple and white cardstock
• Snail Adhesive
• Glue dots

This was a pretty easy card to make once I figured out what I wanted it to look like. I did a little searching online to get some ideas with the eastern blooms stamps that I wanted to use. I did it like an assembly line since I was making 8 cards. The longest part was cutting out the flowers to pop up on the flower stems. I loved how this technique turned out on the card though. It adds a neat touch. I am very pleased with my first card. I am definitely looking forward to making more. Stay tuned for my idea for my upcoming workshop Feb. 28.

Contact me if you are interested in learning how I made this card or would like to attend my workshop. The links will take you to my website so you can buy the supplies I used to make this card.