Well, I meant to share this card with you before the last catalog ended (along with the retired items), but alas, life got in the way. (Does that ever happen to anyone else?)

Regardless, here is a card that I made for my brother-in-law's birthday and I was so pleased with how it turned out that we made it at my January club meetings.

I chose the colors from the (now retired) Prestwick DSP – Basic Gray and Night of Navy. I cut a piece of DSP 3 ¾" x 5", then tore the paper approximately 2/3 of the way down (1/3 to 2/3 ratio). Since the paper is double-sided, I flipped over one piece and put them back together on my Night of Navy mat.

I created a monogram using Lovely Letters and Night of Navy ink and punched it out with my new wide oval punch. I used the same punch to punch a navy oval as a "shadow". I attached the white oval using dimensional to give it some depth.

You can't really see it in the picture, but I also used the Canvas background stamp (sadly also retired now) on the Basic Gray card base.

For the inside, my husband and I had fun using different stamps from Smarty Pants (not retired –woo hoo!) to create a greeting on Whisper White card stock with navy ink. My brother-in-law really enjoyed the card and said that it matched his personality perfectly!

Stamps: Lovely Letters, Canvas, Smarty Pants, It's Your Birthday

Ink: Night of Navy, Basic Gray

Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Basic Gray, Prestwick DSP

Accessories: Wide Oval Punch, dimensionals, sponge

- Kari

I needed a birthday card for my niece this past weekend and for some reason my (retired) Crayon Kids Simply Scrappin' Kit was calling to me. So I answered that call and glad I did, because I forgot just how easy it is to make a card from a Simply Scrappin' kit. And this kit is a bit older (can't remember how old – but it's when the kits were still 8 ½ x 11", not 12x12" like they are today), and the die cuts weren't self-sticking like today.

Anyway, I used everything from the kit – card stock, designer paper, die-cuts – and then added my own SNAIL, stamp sets, dimensionals and ink pads. I used the dimensionals to pop up the girl and the flower to add some extra interest.  This was one fast card! And I think it turned out rather cute. My niece seemed to like it, so that's really what matters to me.

So don't forget to look at your Simply Scrappin' kits for other uses than just scrapbooking – they are an awesome value and resource!

- Kari

Our neighborhood is participating in a "Neighborhood Phantom" program where you anonymously leave treats on the doorstep of your neighbors (the little poem is below in case you want to play along). We were just "tagged" last night, so I decided that I needed some stamping time just for me and created these treat bags for my neighbors so we could continue the "game".

I have see these adorable bags lots of places, in fact we are supposed to be having a demonstration on them this weekend at my downline meeting (but I couldn't wait!). If you've never seen these before, let me know and I'll post a tutorial – they are quite easy and quick to make.

I used some retired paper – Vintage Violet (this was one of my favorite In Colors from 2 years ago and it's hard to part with). I also used Pumpkin Pie DSP and some retired organdy ribbon. I did have to use the new Jumbo wheel – Haunting (#112480). I used Lovely Lilac because I sold my Vintage Violet ink pad – so the colors are bit off, but I still think my neighbors will like them.

For the treats, I decided to use my York Peppermint Patties some more and created scallop circle "covers" using a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set – Fright Night (love this set – it's one I doubt I will ever part with).

I hope you will enjoy my treats as much as my neighbors!

Happy (quick) stamping!

This is the time of goblins and bats,

Halloween spirits, ghosts & and black cats,

Weird happenings and witches brew,

Here are the things I wish for you…

May the only spirit you chance to meet

Be the spirit of love & warm friends sweet.

May the only goblin that comes your way,

Be the 'Neighborhood Phantom',

Whom you'll want to give away!

So by tomorrow, pick three friends With spirits sweet,

And give them all a special Halloween treat!

You only have one day so you'd better hurry!

Secretly leave the treat on the doorstep,

Then "spirit away" in a flurry.

To pass on the "neighborhood phantom",

These things you must do,

Or he will come back to haunt you!

Make 3 copies of both this letter and the phantom ghost.

Post a copy of the ghost in your window, or he will return to haunt you the most!

Take 3 letters, ghosts and treats; deliver them to 3 neighbors sweet!

Be sure in the window there is a phantom not! For we want to share the phantom a lot!

"Tis better to give than to receive", we all know it's true, so here's your chance to "treat" your neighbors for now the phantom is you!

Welcome to my weekly feature – quick card of the week. These are cards that you can make in 10 minutes or less. The techniques used are simple, fast and easy, and still result in a beautiful card. So next time you need a card in a hurry, look no further than my Quick Card of the Week.

This week's card was made for a dear friend of mine. Her birthday was last week (and would you believe that I forgot to send her card in time – ouch!). Hopefully she can forgive me for being late. You've probably noticed that I'm enamored with the Big Shot (#113439) and the Top Note die (#113463). It's so easy to use and very versatile. So this week's card uses the Top Note and the Upsy Daisy stamp set (#111710) and the beautiful Bella Rose DSP (#112041); throw in a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter and a cheater bow and you have a quick, elegant card!

Now I just have to share how easy this "cheater" bow is. You'll need your Crop-a-Dile (love this tool!) and your ribbon.

First, punch a hole in your card stock where you want your bow to be:

Then, place your ribbon on the front of your project (you will be wrapping the ribbon from the front to the back).

Pull the ends to the inside and feed one end through the hole from the back to the front:

Do the same thing with the other end (so now both ends of the ribbon are through the hole feeding from the back to the front):

On the front, place a ribbon end on each side of the ribbon on the front:

Then tie your ribbon as desired (I like a simple overhand knot – left over right):

Here's what it looks like from the inside:

I hope you enjoy this easy, quick bow technique!

Happy (quick) stamping!

Welcome to my weekly feature – quick card of the week. These are cards that you can make in 10 minutes or less. The techniques used are simple, fast and easy, and still result in a beautiful card. So next time you need a card in a hurry, look no further than my Quick Card of the Week.

Sigh.  I've been trying to post this picture for hours now and Typepad is getting the better of me.  Have any of you had problems getting a picture to display, and how did you fix it?

Now with all of the preamble out of the way, today's project is not a card! Eek – Kari, how could you? Well, I needed a quick bag for a customer order and whipped up this little brown lunch sack into what I think is a rather adorable gift bag. What do you think? 

It was very easy to do. First I cut off about 3" from the top of the bag and then I used the scallop punch along the top (though I'm going to try this again without cutting off any of the bag so I can fold it over instead of leaving it open). Then I added the designer paper and once it was down really well (i.e. I couldn't get it back up again without tearing the bag) I realized that I wanted to stamp the top of the bag. LOL! Do any of you do that, or is it just me and my blonde hair?

Anyway, I made a quick mask using my graph paper and stamped the Inspired by Nature flowers so it looks like they are behind the paper. Once I put the stamp set in the bag I realized it really was going to need a handle, so I took some of my retired organdy ribbon (I still love this ribbon and have quite a bit left) and stapled it to the sides of my bag. To help keep it sturdy, though (because I was afraid the staples might tear the bag) I took some of my pre-punched card stock circles and stapled them in along with the ribbon, providing some reinforcement. Unfortunately I already gave the bag away so I can't take a picture of the inside to make that more clear. If that just doesn't make sense, let me know and I take some pictures of what I mean.

If the picture never shows up, you can view it here on SCS.

Happy (quick) stamping!

Welcome to my weekly feature – quick card of the week. These are cards that you can make in 10 minutes or less. The techniques used are simple, fast and easy, and still result in a beautiful card. So next time you need a card in a hurry, look no further than my Quick Card of the Week.

This week's card is based on two of the weekly challenges on Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) – the sketch challenge, SC192, and the monochromatic color challenge, CC182. This is the template for this week's sketch challenge:

and the color challenge was to make a card/project using monochromatic colors (e.g. all purples, blues, reds, etc.).

I finally received my Upsy Daisy stamp set (which is on sale right now for only $16.11 – that's 15% off a brand-new, die-cut stamp!) and decided it would be perfect for this week's quick card. In fact you might see this stamp set used frequently for quick cards – it lends itself beautifully for a 10 minute card.

I also tried to get outside my comfort zone and play with the orange color family. Orange isn't one of my favorite colors (perhaps because it doesn't look good on me? Hmmm), anyway, I thought this was a good time to try to use it. I chose our new In Color – Tangerine Tango – as my base and then auditioned some other orangey (is that a word? LOL!) colors to see what I liked. To be honest, I really liked last year's Groovy Guava with the Tangerine Tango, but I thought I ought to try to use a current color. Really Rust to the rescue! I was rather surprised, and pleased, at how well these colors went together.

I started by using my Jumbo Watercolor Vine wheel, inking it up with Really Rust and rolling it across the 1 ½" piece of rust card stock. I attached that to my base card (Tangerine Tango – 5 ½" x 8 ½"). Then I stamped the flower silhouettes with Tangerine Tango and stamped it on Very Vanilla (I chose the vanilla vs the white because I was trying to keep with the yellow undertones). I decided that was a bit too stark, so I pulled out my Color Spritzer Tool (so happy they brought this back) and spattered Really Rust ink over my flowers. I notched the corners with my ticket corner punch and matted it with a piece of Really Rust and sponged the edges with the rust. You could definitely stop there, but I wanted a little bling, so I added gold brads in each of the four corners then popped it up with dimensional.

I hear people tell me all the time that they can't create a card in 10 minutes, so I'm thinking about creating a contest to get you all stamping (quickly, of course!). Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the idea – and what you'd like to see for the prize! (A stack of quick cards from me, or a free stamp from my retired stamps perhaps?)

Happy (quick) stamping!

Just a quick post today to share the card I made using this week's SCS color challenge: Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa & Blush Blossom.

I used markers to color the rubber then spritzed it with water (from a fine mist bottle - empty/clean Stampin' Mist bottles work great!).  And as I mention frequently, I love to have coordinating envelopes, so I stamped the envelope with Blush Blossom to have a coordinating set.

Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Ink: Blush Blossom, Ruby Red & Close to Cocoa markers
Card stock: Blush Blossom, Ruby Red & Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Gold brads, fine-mist water bottle

Hope you like it!

I needed a quick card for a friend to say thank you and decided that I had to use items that were on my desk. (This was a ploy to convince myself to clean my desk, but alas, it didn't work!).

For my card stock base, I used some leftover Wild Wasabi textured card stock (4 1/4" x 11". I used our new scallop edge punch (definitely still on my desk!), to punch one short end and then folded it back. I had some retired designer series paper (DSP) hanging around, so I put that on the base of the card for my main background. Then at convention we received the new Ronald McDonald House stamp set – Say It with Scallops – so I took 30 seconds to mount this one image and stamped with with Chocolate Chip ink on Bashful Blue card stock. Unfortunately I don't have my scallop square punch yet, so I had to suffice with the 1 3/8" square punch. I then matted that with a 1 ½" square piece of Chocolate Chip card stock, and then again with a 2" square piece of Wild Wasabi that I punched the corners with the Ticket Corner punch.

Before I attached the stamped image to the card front, I used my ¼" square punch to punch a small hole in the fold of the base card stock so I could run a piece of Chocolate twill ribbon (sadly this is retired) around the front of the card. Then I used dimensionals to pop up my stamped image on the front of the card, and voila! In less than 10 minutes I had my card done and ready to mail to my friend.

Happy Stamping!

Well, I tried posting this once already, but unfortunately I had an "I D 10 T" moment (that's idiot for those who haven't seen it before) and overwrote my post with another one. Sigh. I hate it when I'm my worst enemy! J Anyway, I'll see how much I can remember of the original post.

I saw a set of note cards (unfortunately I do not know who made them or I would give them credit for their beautiful work), and decided I needed to make a version for myself. And as it turns out, I needed a thank you card for one of my hostesses, and my free Lovely Letters stamp set just arrived (gotta love free stamp sets!) so the timing was perfect to create this card. I think this would be a great hostess gift where you could use the initials of the hostess' name (first or last name) as the letter on the card. Wouldn't you love to receive a set of monogrammed note cards from someone coming to visit you? I know I would!

I started by dry embossing the Whisper White card stock using my Scor-Pal – embossing a diamond grid pattern every 1". At the intersections of the lines, I squeezed a dab of Crystal Effects and then sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds glitter over the top. While that was drying, I punched a scallop circle from Groovy Guava card stock, and punched 1/16" holes in each of the scallops. I then stamped the letter 'T' (for Thank you) with Guava ink on a scrap piece of Whisper White. I punched that out with my 1 3/8" circle punch (in my opinion it's always easier to stamp then punch, as opposed to punching first, then trying to get the stamp lined up perfectly) and sponged the edges with guava ink. I attached that to the scallop circle and set it aside.

Once the Crystal Effects was dry, I wrapped a piece of Groovy Guava double-stitched ribbon around the front of the card stock. I attached this to the guava card and then added the scallop circle using a dimensional to pop it off the card. While this was very quick and easy to create, I think it's also very elegant. Sometimes simple really is the best.

Don't forget that the retiring stamps and accessories will only be available for a couple more weeks. Currently I'm at the Stampin' Up! convention, so I can't place any orders, but as soon as I'm back, I will be happy to place your orders for any of the retiring items that you need before they are gone.

Happy Stamping!

I needed a birthday card for a friend of ours, and didn't have a lot of time after getting back from our trip – so quick cards to the rescue! This is the card I created using one of my favorite sets – Lovely As a Tree (and I also used Sincere Salutations).

I used Blue Bayou, Always Artichoke and Confetti Cream card stock. I had an oval mask already created from a different project (I try to save all of my masks, so I don't have to re-do any work) – this mask was originally created using my Coluzzle. I attached it to the confetti card stock using my 2-way glue pen (I let the glue dry first, so the adhesive becomes repositionable). After the mask was in place, I stamped the trees with Always Artichoke and then sponged around the opening with Artichoke first, then I sponged a light layer of Blue Bayou over the top.

I removed the mask and then stamped the evergreens and the saying with Blue Bayou. I sponged the edged of the Confetti card stock with Blue Bayou, wrapped some chocolate taffeta ribbon across the top and tied on a "cheater" bow. I then adhered this to the Artichoke mat and then onto the Bayou card itself. I hope our friend likes it. Considering this was one of my quick cards, and didn't have lots of embellishments, I think it's just about perfect for most guys. What do you think?