I know I know...

I know Valentine's Day is over. But I had just a couple more things for Valentine's Day that I wanted to share from this past weekend's regional. I hope that your Valentine's Day was a great one & that you got to spend it with the ones that you love.

The first thing I am going to share today is this cute cute Xs & Os banner.

It uses the awesome Love Letters designer paper & tons of ribbon & embellishments. Wouldn't this banner be a great decorative item that you could pull out year after year.

This next project is a neat way to give your valentine some yummy candy.

This treat card uses the Sweetheart stamp sets & the awesome heart treat cups. The tab at the top actually is in between 2 layers of the real red cardstock, so you can pull that piece out to get to the candy without destroying the whole card. The wonderful color combination is real red, whisper white & tempting turquoise. The words on the tab are from the stamp set teeny tiny wishes.

The last project for the day uses the new petal cone die for the Big Shot machine. Found the occasions mini catalog. I will be sharing a few projects this week using the petal cone die. Just love it.

I know the picture is not that great. It was made by someone doing a WOW workshop moment at Regional. Tons of other people were taking pictures at the same time & I thought it would be rude to turn it around for a picture from the other side as they were taking pictures. : ) So I will point out some of the great things used to make this cute gift holder. The cardstock for the base is rose red. The flower was made using the great new blossom petal punch. The petals have been embossed with the vintage wallpaper embossing folder & sprayed with smooch spray. The little scallop border above the flower is done with the ribbon border punch. Both the border & the flower are made out of pink pirouette cardstock. The ribbon on the back is very vanilla seam binding. The glitter is the champagne glass glitter. I will definitely be making a project using the champagne glass glitter because I got one FREE at Leadership & Regional. So they obviously are trying to tell me something. (smile)

Happy Tuesday to you all.

Happy Valentine's Day

What a weekend! I left friday morning with 2 of my wonderful team members (BIG shout out to Sheilla & Crystal) on a 8 1/2 hour trek to Minneapolis Minnesota. On Saturday we attended a Stampin' Up Regional Conference & man was it great. We had the best time. Although I can't say I have ever been to a Stampin' Up Event & not had a great time. (smile) So after driving home the 8 1/2 hours on Saturday night & getting home just a little after 1:30 AM, I was pretty beat yesterday. All I could accomplish was unpacking my suitcase & getting some laundry going. So today will start a week (at least) of sharing awesome things from that Regional. Plus this week (I promise) I will have my full class schedule out through at least the end of April.

Now on to the stamping...that is why you stopped by right? (smile) This first card is far from perfect but it is my little guy Robert's valentines for his party this morning.

I got the idea from somebody else...I just can't remember who...sorry. The card is whisper white cardstock that I ran through the Big Shot with the tulip border embossing folder. I took the big heart punch and punched out 2 real red cardstock hearts & 2 real red glitter paper hearts to form the butterfly wings. The words are from the teeny tiny wishes stamp set & they are stamped in real red (Robert "helped" with this). I glued the wings down using the anywhere glue stick & next attached the smarties with glue dots. Just love it. Plus it was simple enough a 4 year old could "help".

This next project was done at regional by our very own Shelli Gardner, CEO & Co-Founder of Stampin' Up. She said they were her Valentine's Day gifts for her kids. It is an insert for our chunky frame.

Isn't it absolutely beautiful. There are so many products & layers on here that I don't think I can even begin to list everything. So I will just try to list some of my favorites. On the crumb cake base layer, it has been run through the Big Shot with the polka dot embossing folder & sprayed with smooch spritz spray. She cut the old olive seam binding ribbon in half to make it's width smaller for her bow. On the chantilly lace ribbon she cut off the very bottom to shabby up the bottom & the sides. She used 2 of my favorite embellishments, antique brads & the key trinkets. Just love the whole thing. Wouldn't that be a great gift for someone to display year after year. So while we are on the subject of Shelli. Here is a picture of myself & team members with her on Saturday.

Thanks so much to Shelli for taking the time to take a picture & meet Crystal & Sheilla who were attending their 1st Stampin' Up Event.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Valentine's Day. Try not to eat too many sweets.

A Postcard & Thoughts for a friend

For this snowy Super Bowl Sunday I am going to be sharing A Valentine's Day Postcard plus a card sending out thoughts to a friend.

The Valentine's Day Postcard was designed by Trevis Bossaller, a demonstrator that I swapped with at Leadership.

The vintage look is done in a different way then I had done before, she took Stampin' Up's stipple brush and dabbed crumb cake ink onto the very vanilla cardstock around where she had stamped the "Postcard" words from the Winter Post stamp set. The designer paper is from the awesome love letters pack. Then she stamped the Be My Valentine stamp twice on 2 different pieces of very vanilla cardstock. Once in riding hood red & once in crumb cake. Both got cut out but the crumb cake one only the banner part was used. Using a couple of dimensionals she attached it on top of the riding hood red heart. Then put a few pearls on it to accent the flower pattern. Just love it. It was one of my favorite swaps.

The next card I saw as I was going through some of the pictures I had taken at Leadership & it made me think of my friend Jennifer. Her family lost their beloved dog Gracie last week, very unexpectedly. So this card is for her.

This card was posted up on one of the share boards at Leadership so I do not know who was the designer of this wonderful card. It uses friends fur-ever stamp set. That includes the dog, the bone, & the heart. The words are from the curly cute stamp set. The colors are real red, basic black & whisper white. Part of the base of the card is embossed with the polka dot embossing folder. Just love that cute little dog.

Until next time,

Some Favorite Valentine's

Happy Thursday to everyone! At least I think it is Thursday. With the kids not having school the last couple of days it is totally throughing me off as to what day of the week it is. But with it being the 3rd of February (can you believe it's February already) Valentine's Day is just around the corner. So to get us in the spirit & give you some ideas for your Valentine's card, here are a few more cards that I received from Leadership swaps. This first one was designed by my new friend & Demonstrator Denise Ometzberger. She is in Houston Texas. If you are in that area & need a demonstrator she is your gal. The funny thing about Denise is that her whole family lives less that 30 minutes from me. She is orginally from Pekin, Illinois. Small world.

To make this adorable card Denise used the Valentine Defined Stamp Set with real red and basic grey stampin' write markers to color it. The two pieces of designer paper are from the Love Impressions. Both the Designer paper & the stamp set can be found in the occasions mini catalog.  Thanks Denise for sharing your awesome card & talents.

The next card was designed by my other new friend & Demonstrator Isis Pinero. She is a very talented Demonstrator from Miami Florida. Don't I wish I was visiting with her right now.

The nice thing about this card is that it isn't too girly. My son Jeffrey is always complaining when he needs are card that I have too many girl cards. Now that being said he more often needs a card for a girl than he does another guy. Don't you just love the daffodil delight pom pom trim. Talk about retro. Just love it. It also comes in melon mambo & tangerine tango.

The last card was designed by fellow Demonstrator Lisa Shepherd. Unfortunetly I can't tell you where she is from because the card only had her name & # on the back. But thanks Lisa for the swap.

A couple of things about this card are hard to see from this picture. The whisper white piece was run through the Big Shot machine using the polka dot embossing folder. The banner that says "Be My Valentine" is popped up on deminsionals and to the right of the striped designer paper is a piece of the awesome real red glitter paper. Have I mentioned that I just love that stuff? I know I have : )

Thanks for stopping by on this snowy Thursday.

Kristy

Valentine's Day & Greeting Card Kids

Today my posts are themed for Valentine's Day using the Greeting Card Kids stamp set. I love this stamp set...but I unfortunately just assembled it at the beginning of January to make some of my swaps from Leadership. Here she is:

The interesting thing about this card didn't even end up in this picture. For some of my swaps the awesome Basic Black & Very Vanilla 1 1/4" striped ribbon was put on the card using this awesome back and forth technique. It wasn't on there just flat like this one is...Well I started to run low (I thought) on glue dots. Which help hold the ribbon down in this technique. After searching through my pre-Leadership mess for what seemed like to long I went to just putting the ribbon on flat. I don't love it as much but the little girl is so sweet she makes up for it. As do the colors. I just love basic black with any pink but especially with pink pirouette. The embossing folder just gives it a little pop & the girl & the saying are popped up on dimensionals.

The next card, I could not get the picture to come out well when I took it. I didn't have anything, other than my hand to hold the card closed. So please forgive my thumb in the picture.

This adorable card is also a gift card holder. The piece that says "love you" is folded up to make a flap to hold the gift card. It was one of the great swaps that I got from Leadership, unfortunetly I gave it away before finding out who the awesome designer was. So if this is your card email me so I can give credit where it is do.

Today's last card was designed by Crystal May of East Moline, IL (Shout out to another Demonstrator from Illinois). Where it doesn't say Valentine's Day by words on the card, it sure screams it to me. For this card greeting card kids, just believe & the great new You're A Gem stamp sets were used. The two colors are real red & whisper white. What is hard to tell from the picture is that the "4 Ever" words are actually embossed with white embossing powder. Really helps to give it a pop. The Designer Paper is the Love Impressions in the Occasions mini.To add a little more to the card you could even color the cute boy & girl.

That is it for this snowy day. It has really started coming down here in Central Illinois. Luckily all my family is home & accounted for. Hopefully we will be able to have some good quality time while this blizzard comes through. The kids didn't have school today & it is doubtful they will have it tomorrow, especially if we get the 12" to 18" of snow they are predicting. Brrr...luckily it gives me some extra time to stamp.

Sharing some Candy in time for Valentine's Day!

So the shares from Leadership continue. These two yummy cards were on the Stampin' Up walls of ideas. So I have no idea who designed them. First up is this yummy card using the Eat Chocolate Stamp Set in the Occasions Mini Catalog.

It includes 3 of my most favorite things. 1. The ribbon, I just love our 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon. I don't think you can ever have enough of it. 2. Embossing folders. I never meet an embossing folder that I didn't love. 3. Ghirardelli chocolate. Yum is all I can say to that.

The next card would be great for any age. As a matter of fact it is probably going to be my 4 year old, Robert's Valentine's Day cards for his pre-school.

It is so simple. The card base (real red) gets run through the big shot on one side. Then punch out 2 hearts using the full size heart punch out of our new real red glimmer paper (just love it - hoping for lots more colors) & out of the Love Impressions Designer Paper. Glue them down & glue the smarties candy down using glue dots. Then the words are stamped on whisper white cardstock with real red ink. Then punched out with the designer label punch. Then the edges are slightly sponged with the real red ink. Attached to the card probably with dimensionals. One more little heart punch out of the glimmer red paper & the card is done.

As a reminder Sale-A-Bration started yesterday. The catalog (in case you don't have one) can be found on my blog or email me to get a copy.

New friends & something warm

Happy Sunday to All. Boy this weekend is just flying by. I have been working on all kinds of great goodies & give-a-ways for my Customer Appreciation Event next Saturday (the 29th). Make sure you are registered. Registration ends today at 5 pm. OK now on to the good stuff.

As most of you know I went to Leadership by myself (well kinda, my husband, Craig did travel with me). But I did not know a single person when I got there. The night before Leadership started (since I didn't qualify to go to Manager's Reception - just wait next year I will be there) I ate dinner with a group of great ladies from an online Demonstrator group that I am on. These two ladies with me were part of that group. Denise is on my right & Isis on my left. They were actually roommates whom had never meet before getting to Leadership. The funny thing is Denise is a local girl. Originally from Pekin, Illinois, just on the other side of Peoria from me. Small world huh. These two ladies I spent almost all of the next two days with & can honestly now call them my friends.

So as for stamping...I don't know how they weather is where you are...if you are my new friend Isis (who is from Miami) you are warm. But here in Central Illinois it is extremely cold. So to help warm us up how about a nice cup of Hot Chocolate?

I am not sure who designed this cute gift card. I took a picture of it when someone was holding it during one of our general sessions. So that means it could be one of 999 people (not 1,000 because I know I didn't make it). It uses one of the neat single stamp images out of the new occasions mini catalog.

One of my new favorite this that I just got for Christmas (Thanks Santa Mom) is My Digital Studio. Here is a picture of just a few of the neat things you can make using this awesome program. (After all the items from Leadership be on the look-out for me to post some items that I am making using My Digital Studio).

No more having someplace make our Christmas cards. I will be able to make them all by myself. Just love it.

Well I must get back to my gifts for next Saturday. I hope to see you there.