Holy Spellbinders, Batman!!!

Happy Saturday, everyone! I am posting this from Sunny Arizona (which is actually still quite dark as it is only 6:00 a.m.!!). I am just about ready to begin day 4 of my retreat at Spellbinders' headquarters. For those of you who may have forgotten, I was recently chosen to be a member of the 2008 Design Team for Spellbinders, the makers of the Wizard (the most awesome, amazing and wonderful diecut/embossing machine!! I am now convinced there is almost NOTHING that baby can't do!! This next year is going to be sooo awesome, and I'm going to be stretching my creative wings more than I could ever have imagined! You are DEFINITELY going to be seeing a lot of new things here over the next several months. We didn't make anything that I can show you yet (as virtually all of what we have been doing here is learning how to run the machine and do cool techniques with it), but I can assure you, excellent things are on the horizon. AND, Spellbinders has been busy working with a TON of vendors, who have agreed to be "partner" companies with them over the next year. Which means, I have a MOUNTAIN of new product to play with, as many of these companies have graciously provided us with things to play with!! I'll take a picture once I get home so y'all can see what we got an drool a bit - I know I'm totally in drool mode myself!!

Needless to say, I have only done a couple of cards in the last week (both of which, surprise!, have butterflies on them!!) before coming to Arizona. This first one I made as art of a swap I signed up for (HELLO fellow Control Freaks!!), using a set from the SU Preview Mini (actually, I featured one of the new hostess sets - Cause for Celebration - AND a great new sentiment set called Celebrate Everything). I also used a color combo that SU has featured in the new catty and I love it!! It's Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa (these colors are all featured in the new Berry Bliss designer series paper - can't WAIT to get my hands on some of that stuff!!) Since I had to make about 30 of these babies, I have had little time to make anything else, especially since I was trying to get ready to get outta town!

Stamps: Cause for Celebration, Celebrate Everything
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate

In my rush to get packed and out the door on Wednesday, I got up at 3:30 (as in A.M.)!!! Couldn't sleep, anyway. I needed to get another card out for my son (see the "Follow the Butterflies" link on the sidebar here for more details). I have been thinking about this card for weeks, and decided I needed to take a stab at it. While I was in Phoenix LAST month, I found some really fun acetate (12 x 12!) that was covered with lots of sheet music. I used it as an overlay for the butterflies on this one. Since my son is a music FANATIC (he LOVES all choral music, plus he sings beautifully and plays the piano!), I thought he would enjoy this card.

Stamps: Butterflies (Stampendous), Elegant Notes
Cardstock: Handsome Hunter, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Music Acetate (not sure who makes it)
Ink: Handsome Hunter, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron

Hope everyone has a great day! I know I'm going to! We're off to play some more. I'll post some pictures of all the fun we are having when I get back home!