Thank You Swap Card

Hello once again! I still can't believe how busy things are! Despite my busy schedule, I was able to travel to Kansas City last Friday for a Regional Stampin' Up! convention. It was only a one-day event, but we got to make lots of cute projects (I'll be posting those later this week) and I got to swap with some wonderfully talented ladies!

Here is the card I chose to make to swap with the other regional convention-goers:



I just couldn't resist using the Big Shot to make at least some part of my swap card! I used the Scallop Circle Bigz die to make the large Old Olive scalloped circle. I also used my favorite "thank you" stamp from the Holiday Blitz stamp set, and how could I resist using my new Text & Texture stamp set!? I really enjoyed making these cards, and I'm glad I kept one for myself! I received lots of cute cards with tons of products that I don't have so when you all come to my house you can see and touch the products for yourself!

Additionally, I'm in the middle of trying to redesign my blog (again). Since my husband won't let me paint and rearrange our apartment every couple of months, I decided I'd just re-design my blog instead :-) If you subscribe by email to my blog, take a minute to visit and let me know what you think! I always like comments on my blog, and this should get you warmed up for the give-away I'll be having in a couple of weeks in honor of my birthday! Keep your eyes open...and yes, you will have to leave a comment!

Stamp Sets: Holiday Blitz, Text & Texture
Colors: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Confetti White

As always, Happy Stamping!

Flower Shadow

I still LOVE my new Upsy Daisy set. Remember you only have until Tuesday to order this BRAND NEW STAMP SET for 15% off!



This is a very simple card, and it really showcases the beautiful "shadow" technique that can be used on these great silhouette stamps. I purposefully left the card without a greeting to make it useful for any occasion. It's really nice to have cards like this so you're ready for anything!

The shadow technique is very simple. You really only need a dark color, a light color, and a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig (one of my most favorite tools!). Stamp the image in the light color first, then using the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, slightly offset the image and stamp again with the darker color. This works with all different color combinations and with almost any solid stamp! Try it yourself!

By the way, I am at the Stampin' Up! Regional Convention in Kansas City today. Hopefully I'll have some very cute things to share when I return!

Stamp Set: Upsy Daisy
Colors: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Whisper White

Catalog Copy

Here's another card I just had to copy from the catalog. This card can be found on page 90 of the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog. I changed the colors and the greeting, but I really liked the design of the card:



It is much different from the cards I usually make. It's not centered and it uses a Bordering Blue, a color I NEVER use! I think it turned out pretty cute :-)

Stamp Sets: A Beautiful Thing, Best Yet (Hostess Level 1)
Colors: Old Olive, Bordering Blue, Very Vanilla

Thanks for stopping by!

New Flower Fusion

If you haven't yet noticed in the new catalog, Stampin' Up! has introduced a new set of Flower Fusion felt flowers--Flower Fusion Too. These flowers are Chocolate Chip (yay!!), Pink Pirouette, and Baja Breeze. I decided I'd use a Rose Red felt flower from the original Flower Fusion set along with a new Pink Pirouette felt flower. I still LOVE the rhinestone brads, so of course I had to use one of those as well.



This card was so simple to make and would be a GREAT card to make in bulk. I'll definitely keep this design in mind when I'm in a crunch for a bunch of thank you's!

Stamp Set: Seeing Spots
Colors: Very Vanilla, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip

Birthday Celebrations

I'm back! My excuse for not posting last week is because I accidentally squirted dish soap in my eye on Thursday afternoon. My advice--don't do it. It hurts. But at least it got me out of doing dishes for a few days :-)

Today I got my order in the mail! Whoo hoo!! It's always going to be a good day when I come home to a Stampin' Up! box :-) Upsy Daisy is one of the sets I received in my order. If you like this set, you should definitely think about ordering it before October 1st as it is on sale for 15% off!



My card today was inspired by a card Jenn Diercks posted on her blog. I love her blog! It has such a beautiful design, and she's always got great ideas!

Stamp Set: Upsy Daisy
Colors: Old Olive, Old Olive Designer Prints, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're enjoying the new KSU purple theme :-) Go Cats!

Get Well Wishes

I know I've mentioned this about a million times before, but when I'm stumped for ideas, I love to go to the catalog to either copy a design or receive inspiration for a card. Our catalog is called an "idea book and catalog" for a reason! It's absolutely FULL of wonderful ideas and inspiring designs/color combinations!

Obviously, I copied this card from the catalog. I went back to the Spring/Summer 2008 collection catalog and found this design on page 3. I used the same colors, but just changed the stamp set.

For my card, I used the blender pens to color in the flower image. It has the appearance of water coloring, but without the mess! To make what appears to be the scalloped oval, I simply punched out two scallop circle punches and adhered them to the back of the flower image to make them appear to be an oval. It was so easy!

As always, thanks for looking!

Stamp Set: Fun & Fast Notes
Colors: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Old Olive, Naturals White

All Occasions!

We had a fun time on Sunday afternoon this week creating a few new cards to re-fill that card collection :-)

Here are two of the cards we made this weekend:



I love the colors on this card! They are bright and PERFECT for a child's (or adult's) birthday card. And I absolutely LOVE PUNCHES! They are so easy to use, and Stampin' Up! makes many of their punches to layer together (like the stars on this card).



I really liked this design, and I've made few cards before using it. It's super-simple (again, utilizing the great punches SU! makes), and it's perfect for almost any occasion!

I'm sorry I've been pretty much MIA since school started. I really underestimated my load this semester! I'm trying to get better, but it sure is difficult when I only have a few hours of free time a week, and I should use it to do homework! Oh well :-) Thanks for looking!

P.S. Don't forget that you only have one more day to earn a free stamp pad by placing an online order by TOMORROW (Tuesday, September 16th) AT 11:59 P.M.! Do it now! :-)

Card 1:
Stamp Set: Celebrate Everything
Colors: Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss, Bashful Blue

Card 2:
Stamp Set: Wow Flowers
Colors: Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Bashful Blue

Online Ordering has Arrived!!

I am so very excited to announce that starting today, right this very minute, you can place an order on my Demonstrator Business Website all on your own! No more emailing me, then waiting for a response, then emailing me back to confirm, etc. You can place your own order 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Please know that you are free to call or email me with your order if you like. I'm always still available to answer any questions you might have about any product or promotion or technique, but now if you decide you just have to have that Stamp-a-ma-jig when you're up at midnight trying to stamp that silly greeting straight on your project, you can just get online and order it! It's as simple as that!

In addition to being able to order online, the entire catalog is online as well along with lots of the card samples. The Big Shot and all of the dies are pictured as well as our entire Decor Elements line! It's all there and ready to be ordered. To access this online catalog and ordering system, just go to my Demonstrator website (www.createwithcari.stampinup.net) and click on "Shop Now" in the top right-hand corner.

TRY IT NOW!

As an added *BONUS*, if you place an order of at least $25 in merchandise before 11:59p next Tuesday night, you'll receive a *FREE* Classic Stampin' Pad of your choice!

**You will not be able to add this stamp pad to your order (unfortunately), but I will order your stamp pad for you, and you'll receive it on or around Wednesday, September 24th. Once you've placed your qualifying order, just email me with the color of stamp pad you would like as your free gift and I'll order it for you--free of charge!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

September Card Kit of the Month

I'm so excited to announce a few changes to the Card Kit of the Month program!

First, instead of having only one original design and three alternate designs, you’ll be provided with materials to make 6 each of two original designs, and when you purchase the kit you’ll receive two alternate designs that can be made using the supplies in the kit! You’ll still receive the supplies to make 12 cards and you’ll still receive the instructions for 4 different designs, but with this new program you’ll have much more variety in the 12 cards you create!

Second, in addition to the featured Stamp Set of the Month (which is always 15% off!), you'll have the chance to purchase a featured Accessory of the Month! This accessory will not be required for the creation of the cards, but will be a nice asset to the cards you’ll be creating. The plus side is that you’ll get to keep the leftovers! Instead of receiving just enough of the accessory to finish your 12 cards, you'll receive a whole set of the accessory to use on future projects!




















September Accessory of the Month: Clear Buttons

September Stamp Set of the Month: Eastern Blooms (15% off with the purchase of this kit!)

Be sure to visit my upcoming events page or contact me for more information! Order your card kit soon—the deadline is next Friday, September 12th!

Big Shot--Birthdays are the Best

Here's my last example this week using the Big Shot die cut machine:



Birthdays really are the best! I really like how this card turned out. I used the Leaves #2 die to make these great leaves! I know I've mentioned this before, but I think my favorite part of this machine is the perfection of each thing that is cut out...plus I don't have to hand-cut ANYTHING! It's wonderful!

I wanted to make these leaves look more life-like, so using my thumbnail, I curled up the edges of each leaf to make them 3-D. I tried to take a picture to show these leaves, but the picture just doesn't do the card justice:



I used the Chit Chat chocolate chip rub-ons for the sentiment on the bottom, and I used the scallop edge punch (now my second-favorite tool from the new catalog!) to make the scalloped edge. I used the Coluzzle to cut out the circle on the edge of the card.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing several fun projects and cards this week using the new Big Shot machine. Thanks once again for looking! To download the Big Shot brochure, click here. To order the Big Shot machine or any of the exclusive SU! dies, please click on the "Contact Me" button at the top of the page.

Colors: Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Kraft, Kiwi Kiss

Big Shot--Thanks

The font I used to spell out "Thanks" on this card is the Go Go Boots font featured on the final page of the Big Shot brochure. These letters were simple to cut out, and I just used a Snail Adhesive to adhere the letters to the card. I really like this font!

I used the Green Tea Designer Series Paper for the dotted paper on the card, and the Baja Breeze button is from the Button Bouquet. I love the new In Color double striped ribbon! The ribbon on this card is Baja Breeze.

Thanks for looking! To download the Big Shot brochure, click here. To order the Big Shot machine or any of the exclusive SU! dies, please click on the "Contact Me" button at the top of the page.

I have one more card to show you! Be sure to stop by again tomorrow!

Stamp Set: Eastern Blooms
Colors: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze

Big Shot--I Just Can't Thank You Enough!

Here's the third project...



...a scallop circle card! Yay for scallops! I love scallops!! I got this idea from Dannie Graves on her blog. She posted a small tutorial for making these cute cards. See that tutorial here. She used the Scallop Circle #2 die, which makes smaller scallop circles than the Scallop Circle die, which I used for my card. However, her tutorial still applies to the regular Scallop Circle die.

The final size for this scallop circle card is approximately 4-1/4" x 4-1/4", so it will fit perfectly inside a regular card envelope! I love it!

Thanks for looking! To download the Big Shot brochure, click here. To order the Big Shot machine or any of the exclusive SU! dies, please click on the "Contact Me" button at the top of the page.

I have two more cards to share, so be sure to check back tomorrow and Friday!

Stamp Set: Say it with Scallops
Colors: Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, More Mustard, So Saffron

Big Shot--Christmas Pillow Box

Here's my second project using dies and the Big Shot machine...



...a pillow box that was so easy to make that I will be making one of these for each of my fitness center employees this Christmas!

Obviously, I made this box with the Pillow Box die and the Big Shot machine. The final size of this pillow box is 3-3/4" x 2". This was a little smaller than I expected, but it works perfectly for a nice small gift to give to teachers, co-workers, or (in my case) employees. You could easily fit small wrapped candies (like Crunch or Dove Chocolates) or bags of candy (like M&M's or Skittles) inside this box.

I used the Designer Label Punch to punch out the sentiment for this box. In order to make a layered look for this label, I punched out two Chocolate Chip labels and adhered one slightly offset on the top, and the second slightly offset on the bottom. Since I didn't care to layer the label on the sides, you can't tell that there are two punches layering the main label!

Thanks for looking! To download the Big Shot brochure, click here. To order the Big Shot machine or any of the exclusive SU! dies, please click on the "Contact Me" button at the top of the page.

I'll have another card tomorrow made with embellishments from the new Big Shot dies!

Stamp Sets: Eastern Blooms, Best Yet (hostess set)
Colors: Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze

Big Shot--From My Heart, Thanks

Here's my first card using the Flower Layers die and the Big Shot die cut machine:



The Flower Layers die has four flowers that can be die cut. The two flowers I used on this card are the two middle-sized flowers (there is one flower that is bigger than the larger flower on this card and one flower that is smaller than the smallest flower layer on this card). These flowers were so easy to die cut. The handle is so simple to turn, and I was even cutting through three pieces of card stock (since I wasn't sure which colors of flowers I wanted to use). Each flower was cut perfectly--no frayed edges!



I free-hand paper pierced around each of these flowers. The button in the middle is from the Button Bouquet, a new set of button embellishments in the catalog. The rub-on on the bottom is from the new Chit Chat rub-on set, also new in the catalog.
Thanks for looking! To download the Big Shot brochure, click here. To order the Big Shot machine or any of the exclusive SU! dies, please click on the "Contact Me" button at the top of the page.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see a new project using the die and the Big Shot die cut machine!

Stamp Set: Eastern Blooms
Colors: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze