Good Times ...

First things first ... here's a fun birthday card I made for my cousin's daughter who just had a birthday! But, this isn't the first card I made for her this year. Actually, I had started out making her a baptism/birthday card. It is customary for children to be baptized at the age of 8 in the LDS Church, so I got myself all geared up. I used my Cricut, embossed, be-ribboned, blinged ... it was a fabulous creation ... and then I went back on my list to double check her birthday and realized that, since her birthday was on December 29, I had miscalculated the dates and she had actually SEVEN and not EIGHT!! Back to the drawing board ... good thing my OTHER cousin (cousin #1's sister!) has a daughter who IS turning 8 next month, 'cause I'm READY!!

I got the inspiration for this cute little owl with balloons HERE. What a fun idea!! I hadn't ever thought of adding hearts to the owls body to make his wings look like they are a-flappin'!! Pure genius!!

I'm headed back to Salt Lake from CHA in Anaheim today. It has been SOOO cold here!! (The highs during the day only get into the mid 50's!). And it is gonna be even COLDER at HOME ... where the HIGH temp is expected to be 12 ... sigh ... I've had SUCH a great time hanging with my friends and hanging out at Disneyland, too (can't be THIS close and NOT go there ... especially since my annual pass only has a couple of weeks left on it!)!

Aren't we gorgeous??? LOVE these ladies ... BEST part about coming to events like this is hooking up with the people ya know ... just fabulous! From left to right - Deb Felts, Lori Tecler, ME, Kate Baldwin, Karen Hunsaker and Lynn Mercurio.

Can't WAIT to start sharing the samples I made for Stampin' Up's Leadership Conference with you this week. Now that Leadership is actually over I am officially allowed to share what I made!

Stamps: Occasions Alphabet
Paper: Early Espresso, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Polka Dot Parade DSP
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Owl Builder Punch, Oval Punch, Heart-to-Heart Punch (retired), Cloudy Day Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Early Espresso Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Chocolate Chip Designer Brads (retired)

I WIN!!!

OHMYGOSH!! What a DAY yesterday!! Not only was it filled with fabulous friends, fun, food and GREAT crafty things, but ....

I WON A CRICUT!!! Amelia and I spent a BUNCH of time in the Provo Craft booth doing make-and-takes and listening to demos on new stuff (for each thing we completed, we had a ticket entered in the drawing for free stuff!). The drawing was scheduled for 3:00. AND ... they were running about 20 minutes behind. Soooo.... we stood and waited and waited and waited with the crowd (actually, by this point Amelia was sitting on the floor!)! When they were FINALLY announcing winners, I was right smack-dab in the middle of replying to a text someone had sent me and almost thought I had DREAMED hearing my name!! Shut UP!!! I am SOOO stoked!

Actually, I won a Cricut Expression. We had to choose between an "instant win" (the new "Birthday Bash" cartridge), or we could spin a wheel with prizes on it ... some were GREAT (like what I won!), and some were kinda dorky (like a hug from the "Cricut"). Anyway .... long story less long, I won!! And since I mentioned to them that I already HAD an Expression, they let me exchange it for this ....


A Cricut Cake Mini!!! Holy COWSERS!! I am SOOOOOOO excited! Amelia said, "I can't WAIT to get home and make a cake!!" We'll post some pictures as soon as that happens!


One of my mostest FAVOR-ITE things about coming to CHA is hooking up with friends, so here are some pix of just a FEW of my crafting buddies ..

Me and Robyn Cardon (The Pink Stamper) and Karlee Wilson. Sooo much fun hooking up with them. I knew Robyn way-back-in-the-day before she become a crazy-famous Cricut Crafting Woman! It was fun finally hooking up with both of these gals in person ...





Me and my BFF, Stacey Caron (love you, girl!!!!)! REALLY miss working with the whole Spellbinders team. It was great to get to see 'em and hug 'em!











Heidi Blankenship and Cathy Chlebana ... can't EVEN tell you how much I love these girls, too!! They are the BESTEST!!








And who DOESN'T {{heart}} the Cat in the Hat??? Connie (McCotter) and Deb (Felts) and I couldn't resist this photo op ... (they are my coolest roomies!)





Our Daily Bread ... these gals are the BESTBESTBEST!! We had the most YUMMY dinner (thanks, Kelley!)!! Good friends, good conversation (which, I hate to admit, I often contribute to WAY more than I should!!) and a happy place to be ... what could be better? That's Kelley Holland, Connie, Me, Lorelie Kim, Dawn Lusk and Deb ...

And HOW could I just NOT mention my totally amazingly wonderful roomies again??? These women are sooo fantastically special. I feel so blessed to have them in my life. Love you, friends!! (Deb, Me and Connie)


Last, but certainly NOT least ... my adorably fun and patient daughter ... she has let us drag her from one end of the Convention Center to the other ... yak-yak-yakking and doing lame make-and-takes (okay, not ALL of them were LAME!). We are all up and chatting already, and she is lying next to me doing one of the things teenagers do best in ANY situation ... SLEEPING!! Love you, honey!!

We're up and ready to get back in the game (well, ALMOST ready ... but DEFINITELY willing!!)!

Hugs to all!!

Home Again, Home Again ...

What a GREAT trip we had!! The only thing I have to say that was NOT good about it was the weather getting there and coming back home. Rain, snow, snowpack, hydroplaning, accidents in every direction ... it took us TWO hours just to get out of Los Angeles last Wednesday! Sheesh!

This is what we looked like as we were waiting for a cab on Wednesday afternoon. We ran over to Downtown Disney to do a little last-minute shopping, and it was POURING when we came out!! And, of course, there were NO cabs when we got out to the curb!! Not the most flattering picture, but we thought it was funny that we were getting so soaked!! (And I can't help but think about Nora Ephron's book, "I Feel Bad About My Neck" when I look at this photo!!)

So we drove and drove and drove some more ... we were soooo far behind that we actually stopped in Vegas at the good ol' Motel 6 to get some shut-eye. I was VERY grateful for a warm, clean bed!! (Always loved those old Motel 6 commercials, "We'll leave the light on for ya!" Guess I am REALLY showing my age!)

Funny story ... the first time we took our boys (ages 8 and 5 at the time) to Disneyland, my son, Garrett (who was the 5-year-old) posed for what has turned out to be one of my all-time FAVE photos. In it, he was just finishing up one of those chocolate-covered, Mickey-shaped ice cream bars. He was sporting an ear-to-ear, chocolate-lip-covered grin. LOVE it!! So, as an ode to him, Amelia and I posed for this so that we could send it to him and show him how much we missed him and were thinking of him ... (at least I don't feel bad about my neck in THIS photo!!)

Last night I went to a party for a very dear friend of mine. She and her husband are moving to California to be closer to her ailing mother. We have had some of the most awesomely-amazing, fun-filled trips with them. We were all asked to bring an 8 1/2" x 11" page for a little "goodbye book" that they were putting together for her. This is what I came up with using My Digital Studio. I printed it out on my home printer and it turned out FABULOUSLY!!! We are sooo gonna miss them. Good thing they are coming back in the summer to do another fantabulous river trip with a bunch of our friends!!

Hugs to all for a GREAT weekend!!

More CHA Fun & TEMPLATES!

What a fun-filled couple of days we have had!! My head is swimming with TONS of fun, new ideas AND I have been THRILLED to be able to spend so much time visiting with my cyber-crafty friends!

Here are Amelia and ME with Beate Johns and Connie McCotter ...









I keep telling Daven (Nolta, the SCS Guy!) that if it weren't for short people like me, tall people like HIM would never know they were tall, right???











I HATE it when the flash doesn't go off! (And I was NOT going to ask the nice man who was passing by and offered to take our picture to come back and do it AGAIN!!) Left to right that's Bev Giraud (TexasGrammy), Joan Ervin (joan ervin), Angie Crockett (angelladcrockett), Beate Johns, Connie McCotter (cmc2stamp), Me and Amelia ...

And I can't tell you how FUN it was to be able to meet and hug Lisa Johnson in person!! (Which is actually true to say of EVERYone I ran into!). It's almost as if we have all hugged before ... but I think all the chatting we do with each other online counts as cyber-hugging, right?

And how could I NOT say a HUGE THANK YOU to Marti Wills (owner of Pez-a-Doodle Designs) for being Amelia's "boss" for CHA??? She VERY graciously hooked Amelia up with a pass as an "unofficial employee" of Pez-a-Doodle so that she could get into the show. BIGBIGBIG hugs, girlfriend!!








And ...... here's the drumroll ...... the long-awaited templates I promised for the Valentine boxes I created as part of the Control Freaks Blog Tour!! TA-DAAAAA!!!












Here's the sucker box template ...



We are off to Disneyland today! What fun!!! I'll say hi to Mickey for ya!!

Fun and Friendships at CHA!

After what was a VERY harrowing drive from SLC to Anaheim (Thursday night the roads between Provo and Cedar City were a NIGHTMARE - snowpack, one lane, blizzard comin' down!!), my daughter and I FINALLY arrived yesterday afternoon to spend a few days playing at CHA and Disneyland. Don'tcha just LOVE this photo?? Yesterday felt like a family reunion!! I ran in to SOOOO many of my stamping/paper crafting friends!! This was my most FAVE photo from yesterday!!

Front row - Heather Rolin, Deb Felts, Lynn Mercurio; Back Row - Connie McCotter, Jenn Balcer, and ME!! I have many more photos to share, but I won't be able to post 'em 'til tonight (so you will see 'em tomorrow morning!).

AND, I am almost done with the templates for my little Valentine boxes, so I will post those, too!! I have to apologize because I noticed, as I was looking back at my Freak Blog Tour post at the instructions I left that I TOTALLY goobered them up!! The dimensions were sooo screwed up on the little Valentine box with the cards inside. I have fixed them and you will get to see a visual tomorrow when I upload the file ... Thanks for your patience and have a STAMPERIFIC day!!

OH!! And before I forget to tell ya, I have some VERY exciting news!! Many of you know (and many of you probably don't) that Stampin' Up started their own forum (kinda Splitcoaststampers-esque) for demonstrators a couple of weeks ago. (Sadly for some of ya, it is for demos only!). Anywho ... I found out this morning that I was chosen as their very FIRST Featured Stamper!! I have a silly grin on my face that probably won't come off for at LEAST a WEEK!!!

"Impress"ive!

One of the other cool things about CHA this year was that I got to play with a VERY cool new product being released by Spellbinders . . . Impressabilities!

These babies are a definite MUST HAVE for all of us crafty peeps! There are four different styles available . . . snowflakes, flowers, butterflies (which you ALL know is a personal favorite of mine!) and paisley! These are a stainless steel embossing template/stencil. There are a TON of different uses for these. First, you can use them like a stencil . . . lay 'em over your cardstock and spray with Glimmer Mist, sponge with ink, airbrush . . . many options here.

Another cool thing about these is that they will ENTIRELY cover the front of an A2-size card (edge-to-edge coverage, baby!)! They leave a lovely impression!



Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how we did our "make-and-takes" in the Spellbinders booth . . .

First, we cut out some flowers using the new Dahlia dies. LOVE these, for sure! One of the other things I love about the raspberry Wizard is that it comes with a magnetic spacer plate . . . awesome 'cause it holds your dies perfectly in place.




Next, we place the Impressibiliites template down on the mat and placed the already-cut Dahlias . . . still in the die. The reason for this is that not only will we get the lovely impression from the Impressabilities template, but we will also get the lovely embossed edge we usually get from any Spellbinders die, which gives these flowers are really great "finished" look.









Cover the sandwich with your tan embossing mat and finish it off with a white master mat.













Because we were using Coredinations cardstock, we sanded off the flowers to reveal the lighter color in the core of the cardstock, which just made those impressed images POP right out at ya!!











Here are ALL the flowers we cut out/embossed/sanded to create our lovely little flowers! MUI-MUI awesome, right??













And a close up of the lovely details . . .










Using a popsicle stick, some brads and pop-up glue dots, we made these darling little flowers. Wouldn't these make GREAT little party favors?? You could also use them as a pen topper, but they would be great to put on a treat (I'm thinking Pixie Sticks here!)



Here's another example of what you can do with the Impressabilities. You can cut out specific parts of the embossing template and "spotlight" them on your card or scrapbook page. (Since these babies retail for a mere $6.99, you don't have to feel bad about cutting them up, 'cause you can buy one for embossing card fronts and an additional one to cut up!) We did a "letter press" technique here. Heidi inked up the Impressabilities template (the little piece on the right) and then ran it through the Wizard. Isn't this just the COOLEST EVER??? It was hard for me to keep from "borrowing" one of these templates to bring home!! A new favorite for sure!!!

Stamps, Paper, Die Cuts & FRIENDS!

I foolishly thought I was going to be able to do two things differently this year at CHA . . . (1) put up a blog post every evening (yeah . . . right!!), and (2) see more of the show! Well, neither of those things actually happened. We were up VERY early every day getting things ready in the Spellbinders booth (on Monday we had a class to put on, so we had to be at the Convention Center by 6:15 a.m.!). We were also up VERY late every night (which was infinitely more fun going out to dinner . . . LOVE Bubba Gumps! . . . and Heidi and I went to Disneyland on Monday night . . . that was a REALLY long day!)

I'm actually back home already. I ended up leaving yesterday afternoon because of a funeral that I am going to today for my uncle (we were kind of expecting it, but hoping for the best). Anyway, after being delayed for TWO HOURS (I swear, I will NEVER do USAir again!), they decided to transfer me to a Delta flight, since I was going to miss my connection in Phoenix (yeah, yeah, yeah . . . a flight from Anaheim to Salt Lake should be a straight shot, right???). I ended up getting home two hours earlier than my original itinerary had laid out, which was good and bad, since I had planned on meeting my friend Karen (imastampin on SCS) to swap some things . . . I had a Wizard for her, and she had some of my new dies!!! Guess I will be making a trip to the post office later today!!

Anyway, I never DID get much time to look around at everything. Saturday was set up. Sunday I actually got to peruse things during my break for a couple of hours. Monday, my break was scheduled at the end of the day so that Heidi (there she is again . . . as in Blankenship) and I could go to Disneyland. And yesterday, since I was leaving early, I only had a one-hour break, so I didn't get to see a whole lot. I DID walk through the Convention Center from end to end about 100 times, so I got to see things briefly as I passed on by, but I digress . . .

My FAVORITE part about CHA is hooking up with my friends from all over!! What a fun experience that was!! I noticed several things while getting these pictures ready to share as well. First, I look tired in most of 'em!! (Guess the camera doesn't lie!) Next, I seem to be looking somewhere besides the camera a good deal of the time (guess I was marching to my own drummer, eh? Or maybe that was just the voices in my head!) I also noticed that I was on the same wavelength as some of my friends with our color combos for the day as well (Jeanne and I were pink, while Diana and I were green!)!

Anyway, without further delay, here are SOME of the friends I got to hook up with . . .

Diana Crick . . . can I just say that I LOVE this woman and that she is a GENIUS (she is, after all, the inventor of the Scor-Pal!)?? I had NO idea she was at CHA last year 'til after I got home (I was totally bummed that I had been in the same building with her for DAYS and never even knew we were under the same roof!) I also "scored" a Scor-Mat from her, which makes me mui-mui happy!! Can't wait to play with THAT I can tell ya (and Diana, if you ever DO make it to SLC, the offer of a free place to stay still stands!)!


Judy (StampinQueenJAR) Rozema and I had planned to hook up at the SCS Cupcake Reception before we even left for CHA. How funny that we were in the same room together forEVUH before she approached me (we had been on opposite side of the room, and since I am vertically challenged, we just didn't see each other!)! I am SOOOO glad we did finally hook up. We've been chattin' pals on SCS since, like, the beginning of time!!






Jeanne, Jeanne, Jeanne . . . what is NOT to love about this woman?? She's funny, talented and great fun to be around! Don't we just look FAB in our matching pink????






Gotta love those Hanna Stamps, right?? I have known Krissy Ferro for about 3 years. We were in the Control Freaks swap group together. I met her for the first time at CHA last year, along with my good friend, Vicki Garrett (summerthyme64). They are both such sweeties!! Krissy was busy setting some stuff up, so she isn't actually in the picture (she was just barely out of frame to the right of me!)! But, here I am with Jennifer Buck (JenniB04) and Vicki . . .



Can you say SHORT PEOPLE ROCK???? It is SO great when I actually get to talk to another adult and look them straight in the eye (as opposed to straight in the throat!)! Emily (emilymomto3boys) Giovanni and Natasha (Tashers) Trupp were great fun to meet. I am sad that this turned out so blurry, but happy to have been able to visit with these girls, nonetheless . . .



Laura (Lov'n Life n Vegas) Canale and Michelle (flaxychick) Giraud also stopped by the Spellbinders booth! It was AMAZING and TERRIFIC to be able to meet up with so many of my SCS friends. We took this picture right before I had to dash out the door to catch a shuttle to the airport. I was happy that I didn't miss hooking up with these girls!





Here's one more of me and Jennifer. She is the absolute SWEETEST person ever!! (Just as you would expect!) We had a very nice visit right before I left as well. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to hang out with some of the most talented women in the industry this week. How lucky am I???





Last, but not least, here's my BFF Heidi! I cannot tell ya how many hours we have spent on the phone this past year as members of the Spellbinders DT and as friends. She is incredibly talented, generous, kind and has a great listening ear (plus, she is now converted from the dark side and has decided that her kids NEED to go to Disneyland . . . thanks for being such a good sport and going on Space Mountain with me . . . still don't think I have EVER laughed that hard while on a roller coaster before . . . sorry we nearly scared ya to DEATH!!)

I have some fun photos of the make-and-takes we did in the Spellbinders booth, PLUS some close up shots of the awesome new Impressabilities, so stay tuned . . .

PS - Lynn Mercurio . . . if you are reading this you NEED to send me a copy of the picture of the two of us together where I look like an AMAZON . . . and you NEED to destroy the fire drill picture altogether!!

Pre-CHA Sneak Peek #10!!

EDIT: "Thanks to everyone who entered the Spellbinders' 5th Anniversary Party to win my Die Template release. You can no longer enter to win my release. Please check out the links below to enter the contest on other blogs. Check Spellbinders Blog for the announcement of Daily Winners. Grand prize winner will be announced on January 30th."

It’s Spellbinders’ 5th birthday, and I am sure many of you know that they are celebrating by sharing LOTS and LOTS of new dies via Sneak Peeks on the blogs of various designers (see the complete blog roll on the sidebar to the right). And can you say PRIZES??? Every day there is an opportunity to win the dies that are been showcased PLUS all the dies that have been showcased up to that point! Each day an additional die is added to the daily give-away list for a grand total of 16 dies on the 16th day of reveals! Who DOESN’T love FREE????

You still have until 1/14 until 11:59 CST to visit and enter Jeni Calkins' release at Mixed Media Madness.

Commenting on this post is welcome but does not enter you into the contest. This contest is sponsored directly by Spellbinders Paper Arts. Please read the post to find directions for entering the contest. If you have any questions, please e-mail ContestQuestions@spellbinders.us.

For those of you who have been religiously following our peeks (and for those who haven’t!), here is a list of the remaining peeks. Be sure to check them ALL out!!

Jan. 15 Beth Pingry - Cookies for Breakfast
Jan. 16 Keri Lee Sereika - Pink Lemonade
Jan. 17 Sally Lynn MacDonald - Inky Heart
Jan. 18 Donya Schroeder - Donya Schroeder
Jan. 19 Linda Duke - Linda's Works of Heart
Jan. 20 Trudee Sauer - Follow Your Bliss

Winners will be announced on Spellbinders Blog

When I was sent the image below and told that it was the die set that I was going to feature here on my blog, I was STOKED out of my MIND!! These little flowers are the dang cutest things EVER!! I see SOOOO many possibilities with them!! Cards, layouts, borders, altered items . . . the images in my head are endless!!



DIE NAME: Flower Bouquet Miniabilities
DIE SKU # S4-200
MSRP $19.99

How stinkin’ cute are these??? I see everything from fun and whimsical to classy and elegant with these little flowers! They are all approximately 1" to 1.25" wide and tall (the little flower with the heart in the middle is the only one that is out of proportion . . . it is about 1" tall and 1.25" wide).

Now, it’s time to play!! I made three different projects here. The first is a little more on the “over-the-edge” side, while the other two are quite simple. I wanted to be able to showcase different ways you could use these flowers with reverse stenciling, regular stenciling, and just plain ol’ cuttin’ and embossin’!





With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I thought making a framed wreath in a heart shape would be fun! I started by selecting the three dies from the set of 8 to use as elements in the wreath.









First, I cut/embossed all of the pink and white flowers. I used a technique known as “reverse stenciling.” Basically, you need to ink up the die BEFORE you run it through the Wizard. That way, all of the ink on the die will transfer to your finished image . . .



Don’t forget that you need to both CUT and EMBOSS the die in order for this technique to have it’s full effect, so each flower will need to run through the Wizard twice (I know, I know, that’s a lot of cutting/embossing, but well worth the effort!)

For reverse stenciling, pigment or chalk inks work best. You basically are going to need to use an ink with a slow drying time. This will allow you the time you need to cut and emboss while the ink is still wet so that it will transfer to the paper. Spot (meaning small) inks work the best, but you can use full-sized ink pads (a little harder to maneuver, but not too difficult). Another way is to use an ink refill and squeeze some of the ink onto a sponge and dab the die (as I did here with the silver ink).

Next, I did the same reverse stenciling technique with the little white and silver flowers (the ones with the heart in the middle). This will take a little patience and some time, but you will be happy you did it.





The black and silver flower square is done a little bit differently. I cut/embossed the image like usual. Before disengaging the cardstock from the die, however, I used a silver gel pen to trace the holes in the die onto the cardstock. A totally different look using the same little dies. I love it!!




I then cut out the second largest heart from the Spellbinders Classic Heart die set. This is an important element, as it serves as a base for your wreath and allows you to make a true heart shape (mine would have been VERY wonky if I had not had this!). If you don’t have the heart dies (and you DO need them!), any heart shape that you cut out will work just fine. Then, arrange your little flowers around the edge of the heart to form the wreath. I started with the little white/silver flowers, then added the black/silver flowers.


It is important at this point to use some glue dots or other adhesive to stick the black flowers to the white flowers on the points where they make contact. After doing so, transfer the flowers to the cardstock base underneath the entire wreath (in this case, the Berry Red cardstock, cut into a 10" x 10" square). I literally used a spatula to move the dies over. A few of them didn’t quite make it, but I had enough of the wreath intact to be able to replace them where they belonged once the wreath had been moved over. Center the wreath on the base cardstock and adhere (you will basically have to slide little glue dots or some other adhesive under the flowers here and there to hold them in place). Don’t worry too much about adhering each and every flower . . . when you place the white/pink flowers down with pop-up glue dots, they will help to hold the rest of the wreath in place.

At this point, you will be ready to add the white/pink flowers. I used pop-up glue dots to give them added dimension. I then added some rhinestones to the center of the flowers for some added “pop.”

The “forever” sentiment was typed up on my computer and printed out. (I used the third smallest Classic Heart die template and cut the sentiment out once it hat been printed). Just place the sentiment in the middle of your wreath and you are NEARLY done!

The last step on this wreath was just a little finishing touch . . . I intertwined some silver cord amongst the flowers . . . I think it adds just the right amount of sparkle, don’t you? This close-up shows the details a little more closely!

Supplies

Tools/die templates: Spellbinders Wizard, Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities (S4-200 – MSRP $19.99), and Classic Heart (S4-136)
Ink: Colorbox Warm Red Chalk Ink, Encore Silver and silver gel pen
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, and WorldWin DoubleMates Berry Red
Accessories: 10" x 10" Square Frame, Pop-Up Glue Dots, silver cord, flat-backed rhinestones, CK Wistful font, sponge

This next project was easy and fun! (My teenage daughter fell in love with these!) I also am proud to announce that this is a totally GREEN project!! I used soda pop cans as the medium for the cut/embossed flowers. I also used a cereal box for “chipboard” to back the largest flowers on which I adhered the little Flower Bouquet Miniabilities. Cute and environmentally friendly! Cool beans!!

The Wizard cuts through soda pop cans like they were buttah!! No problem at all! And the embossing detail really jumps right out at you!

Supplies

Tools/die templates: Spellbinders Wizard, Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities (S4-200 – MSRP $19.99), and Shapeabilites Nested Flowers (S4-159)
Paper: Brushed Gold and Bronze Cardstock (manufacturer unknown) and WorldWin Elan Metallics Obsidian cardstock
Accessories: Soda pop can, cereal box, jumbo paper clips, gold and silver ribbon (manufacturer unknown), Pop-Up Glue Dots, ZipDry by Beacon

For my last project, I made a card I have affectionately been referring to as the “Mod Squad” card! (I swear I think Peggy Lipton had a pair of pants that inspired this baby!) I used a sponge to stencil the flower petals before I removed them from the die. The background paper was created by placing the die, with the flat side down, on the paper and sponging around all the edges . . . inside and out! Yet another fun way to create a totally different look!

Supplies

Tools/die templates: Spellbinders Wizard, Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities (S4-200 – MSRP $19.99), Labels One (S4-163), and Classic Scalloped Circles Small (S4-125)
Ink: Hunter Green, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, WorldWin Treasures Sherwood Green and Prism Prismatics Majestic Purple Dark and Majestic Purple Medium
Accessories: black gingham ribbon, hardware, ¼" and ½"circle punches, Pop-Up Glue Dots

One of my favorite things about Spellbinders dies is that they are universal . . . which means you can use them with ANY die cut machine and still get professional-looking projects. Here are a few links to some tutorials that will help you see not only how to use the dies in the Wizard, but other machines as well: Check out this link on Spellbinders’ site:

Wizard Tutorials

Now, for all the details on the BIG CONTEST!

Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration

Sneak Peek Party Drawing Information
Spellbinders will randomly pick one entry from each of the 16 Spellbinders Sneak Peek Blog reveals as stated in the “Rules”. This name will be drawn to receive the die being revealed and any other dies listed as a part of said blog give-away. These entries must follow all rules stated below to be valid for the drawing.

Entrants visiting all 16 Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Sneak Peeks Blog reveals and correctly entering their information into the 16 separate drawings, as described below, will automatically be entered into a GRAND PRIZE give away of a full set of all 28 NEW RELEASE dies debuting at the Winter Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, California, on January 25-28, 2009!

Rules

Any participant wishing to be included in the daily drawing for the Spellbinders Birthday Celebration Sneak Peek die give away must adhere to all of the following rules:

1. Participant must click on the provided link on Reveal blog to enter each individual drawing on sneak peeks between January 5 and January 20, 2009.
2. Participant must type in the subject line the name of the die being revealed.
3. Participant must send their entry for this blog before 12:00 midnight Central Standard Time on January 15, 2009.
4. Participant is only allowed to enter each of the 16 Spellbinders sneak peek blog give away drawings one time per sneak peek. Participant must use the same email address daily to be considered for grand prize entry, no exceptions. Please consider whether you will have access to the same e-mail address from January 5th through the 20th and plan accordingly.
5. Spellbinders Design Team members and employees are not eligible for drawings.
Any participant wishing to be automatically entered into the drawing for the Spellbinders 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Sneak Peek Grand Prize drawing, must enter the drawing from all of the 16 blog reveals and follow all the above rules.

Please note:
*Spellbinders will only use email information to contact the winner.
*Spellbinders will not share this email address with any other parties.
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For more Spellbinders product release information go to www.SpellbindersPaperArts.Com

Thanks for stopping by to visit me today! I had SOOO much fun creating these projects with the darling Flower Bouquet Miniabilities (S4-200) die templates! Just one more set of dies to add to your wish list, right???