They are TOOLS Not TOYS!!

I had a GREAT day last Friday! It was like Christmas AND my birthday! I got my order of fun new goodies (and they ARE tools, not toys!) from Stampin' Up (I had ordered a bunch of things to preview from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog), I got two fun new Sizzix Bigz Pop-Up dies that I ordered from QVC (one of them is the pop-up ball that SU will be offering), a set of great vintage postmark stamps from Purple Onion, and a box of new dies (at least new to ME) from Spellbinders! Man, oh man . . . it was hard knowing where to start with everything as it was a bit overwhelming!!

The limited supply challenge on SCS Friday (LSC210) was to create a card, start to finish, in 30 minutes or less. WHAT??!!? I didn't even know that ANYone did this . . . EVER!! Seeing as I had so many new things to work with, I decided to accept the challenge. I actually accepted it THREE times!! I have NEVER done three cards on the same day for the same challenge! The first one was really hard to wrap my head around, but I just kept getting faster as the day went by!

This first one is also card #81 in my "Follow the Butterflies" challenge (see sidebar to the right for more info on that . . . there is a link to the card that started it all AND a slideshow of all of the butterflies I have created thus far). I knew, of course, that this butterfly die that I got from SU was going to be mine the minute I laid eyes on it. And this patterned paper (Good Morning Sunshine). Holy cow!! The colors TOTALLY speak to me! I also used one of the new EK Success border punches I picked up at Mike's last week for 30% off. LOVE 'em!!!!! I pushed this one right up to 30 minutes! Almost didn't make it!

Stamps: Sanded, Fundamental Phrases
Paper: So Saffron, Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Good Morning Sunshine dsp
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Bigs Beautiful Butterflies, EK Success Parisien border punch, small oval punch, satin ribbon, pop-up glue dots

On to card #2 . . . since I already had the butterfly die out, I decided it worked GREAT with the new Textured Impressions Manhattan Flower folder I got from SU. AND I used the new scalloped oval punch AND Oval All stamps that coordinate with it! Like I said before, I have new tools, baby!! You will see I used a lot of similar supplies on all three cards, as I was on a roll and the stuff out on my table kept getting used!

Stamps: Oval All
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose dsp, Good Morning Sunshine dsp
Ink: Regal Rose
Accessories: Bigs Beautiful Butterflies die, Textured Impressions Manhattan Flower, scalloped oval punch, chocolate chip taffeta ribbon, pearl stickers, pop-up glue dots

And last, but certainly not least, was the quickest card of all. I think I did this baby in just over 10 minutes (that included the "think about it" part, too!)! I'm pretty proud of myself!! I think this one would be GREAT for a workshop or class. Super quick and easy, yet beautiful and eye-catching!!

Stamps: Beautiful Borders (sentiment)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Candy Lane dsp
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: large oval punch, scalloped oval punch, Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions folder, 5/8" satin chocolate ribbon, pop-up glue dots, sanding block