Stampin' Up Sneak Peak!

I have to say that a new post is WAAAAAAAAY over due! I've been so busy playing with all of my new Stamin' Up! goodies and spending time with my family I completely forgot about my blog, I don't think anyone really even looks!

Well here are a few samples using products coming up in the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog AND the Sale-a-bration catalog! What is Sale-a-bratio

n you ask??? Well it is only the best sale ever form Stampin' Up! For every $50 you spend yo

u receive an exclusion Sale-a-bration item of your choice!!! This starts January 24th, 2012. You can check it out HERE!

This card is made using the stamp set called P.S. I Love you. Wait until you see how many images are included in this set!

This next card is using the Mouthwatering stamp set also in the Occasions Mini! There is soooo much in this catalog

your mouth is going to be watering!!! lol

Now it's Sale-a-bration time!!! Check out the Designer Series paper on these cards!! you can get an entire pack for FREE when you

spend $50 during this sale!!

Elf Punch Art

Hello!

Here is a picture of the cutest elf ever!! When I went to Stampin' Up Convention in July I signed up for a punch art swap! I made 40 of these little guys to swap with everyone! I used all Stampin' Up punches to create him!

Isn't he adorable???

Croptober Fest!!

Stamp A Candle

Hi Everybody!!

Last weekend at our Club meeting we stamped a candle with a matching gift bag and tag! We used the Baroque Motifs Stampin' Up! set with the Soft Suede and Calypso Coral Classic Inks. First we stamped on a small piece of tissue paper then wrapped it around our candle, secured it with wax paper and heated it with our heat tool! once the wax cooled we peeled off the wax paper and viola, we have a stamped candle!! It was such a fun club project!! I heard the ladies talking about all the different stamp sets they wanted to use to stamp on candles at home!!

Have a great weekend!!

Thank you very much!

I had such an awesome 30th Birthday that I had to make some thank you cards! I made many but this one turned out to be my favorite! I used the Sweet and Sour DSP from Stampin' Up! even though it's retired. I just love the faux quilt technique that I had to try it again! I think it turned out awesome, don't you??

Joseph's Coat Technique

Hi Everyone!! I hope you all are enjoying your weekend!! I had a fabulous crop last night! We had about 16 ladies! That's a pretty big group for Croppers Couture!

This Tuesday I will be teaching my Technique Tuesday class at Potbellies so if your in the Tampa area, come join me!! We will be learning how to do the Joseph's coat technique. The first card is a Halloween card I came up with because I really wanted to use the bat wheel from Stampin' Up!

I started with a piece of glossy white CS and then randomly sponged Peach Parfait, Lucky Limeade and Rich Razzleberry all over. I used my embossing buddy over the ink and then I used VersaMark ink on the bat wheel and ran it across the colored glossy CS. I used clear embossing powder and then heated it with my heat tool. After it was all dry I was going to use my brayer but it didn't turn out as dark as I wanted so I used a large sponge dauber and my Basic Black reinker, inked the sponge and rubbed it all over my paper. This gave the dark black background I was looking for!! I let it dry of a second and then wiped my bats with a paper towel and there is our Joseph's coat!!

I did the same technique for this card but used Daffodil Delight, Regal Rose and Rose Red on the bottom and then the Rich Razzleberry reinker for the dark background. I mounted it on Whisper White and then Early Espresso, using the Regal Rose as my card base. The I {heart} hearts stamp set worked really well for this technique!!

Thanks for stopping!! I hope you've enjoyed my Technique Tuesday cards, even though todays not tuesday, LOL!!

Faux Quilt Top Note Purse

Hello! My Faux Quilt Top Note purse was inspired by Angie Juda's creation from her blog over at Chic N'Scratch. She made this cute little purse awhile back using different products. I used the Paisley Petals DSP, using 2 different sheets but both sides of the sheets. I glued the 1-1/4" squares onto a piece of white cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot on top of the Top Note Die!! I then used my Chocolate Chip marker and made tiny X's for my stitches. Using a small white craft bag, I cut it 2-3/4" from the bottom and glued my quilt to the front and a blank top note on the other side of the bag to get the purse effect!! I then punched my handle using the Large Oval Punch and tied it up with a piece of the Marina Mist Striped Grosgrain ribbon. To complete this cutie, I used the my friend stamp from the Perfectly Punched stamp set in Chocolate Chip and punched out with the Curly Label Punch. I sponged all the edges in, guess??, Chocolate Chip!! I colored in 'friend' with the Marina Mist marker and used dimensionals to add it to the front on the purse!!

This would be so cute with some candies in it or even a gift card! This style of bag or purse would be perfect for a guy to use to give jewelry to a gal!! LOL

Club Projects!

I had a great Club meeting last night and wanted to share the projects that we did!

I bought these 4x6 photo albums for $1 at Walmart and decorated the fronts. I emailed all the girls all of the club projects that we have done so far so they can cut them out and put them into this album for an idea book!!

The second project I cased from Stampin' School

everyone had the oportunity to use the Triple Layer Blossom Punch! Some of us got frustrated with the punch but after some practice we all got it and loved it!!

On my way Home!!

I have to say that I've had 2 of the best trips ever! I started off in Conneaut Lake with my Dad, Sis, nephews Weston and Ian, Ian's friend Bobby, Sis's husband Ramine, and there 2 dogs!! Yes it was a full house but it was filled with so much fun and so much love!! We did lots of boating, sun bathing and walking!! We had awesome weather and I even had the joy to see my Dad teaching my nephew the 'proper' way to boat. He was so much more calm with him then he was with me 15 years ago. I guess patients comes with age! LOL

After the lake I enjoyed the company of the rest of my family. I had lunch with my beautiful mother and grandmother, visited with my other gram and pap, had my best friends babies 1st birthday party and I'm sure there was

more......

After all the fun in PA I left for Salt Lake City to attend the best Convention ever!! This was my first Stampin' Up! convention and it surely won't be my last!!

I meet some really awesome girls while I was there and received some really great swaps too!! I'll be sharing some great ones with you soon!!

Here's a pic of me at the Awards Night after party! What an inspiration it was to see all the ladies receiving their awards that night!!

I soooo want to earn the incentive trip to Fiji!!

Getting Ready to Go!!

I'm getting ready to head on up to PA for a fun filled 4th of July with the Fam!! I'm really looking forward to getting away from this humidity, ugh!! Then I'm off the Salt Lake City Utah for the Stampin' Up! convention. Here's a few pics of some of my swaps I did!! I am in a few organized swaps and then I made a few other designs for my general swaps!! I'm not done gluing those ones yet but here are my Christmas cards I made!!

I wish you could see this top on in person! I mixed some frost white shimmer paint with some rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and spritzed them!! It looks so cool!
This one was a little harder to reproduce 20 times! I used my snowflake punch on the Bashful Blue piece, stuck it on a piece of sticky sheet and then stuck that to the white paper then on the blue again. I took my dazzling diamonds glitter and rubbed it into the snowflakes to get that nice sparkle!

Happy July!!

Notebook Case

I am having my monthly club meeting tomorrow and we are making the Notebook Case using the Stampin' Up! clear stamp cases. I had OfficeDepotcut the 5x8 notebooks down to 5x7 for less then $2 to cut!!

We are making 2 cards and this project! I made the design simple letting the Sunny Days DSP do all the work this time!

Bouncing Brayer Technique

Here's a cool technique you should try!

Happy Graduation!!

Hello! Graduates are getting closer to there, well, graduations and I have a young lady who works for me who is graduating next week! Her school colors are black and silver so those are the colors I used!! I used the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge on my cricut and my gypsy and I used the numbers from the Designer Calendar cartridge. I added some bling and used a stamp from Teeny Tiny wishes made from Stampin' Up! I punched it out with some of there punches too!! Enjoy!

Strength and Hope

Here is a card I made using the new Strength and Hope stamp set from Stampin Up! Every set or digital download they sell, $2 goes to Breast Cancer research! It is such a beautiful set!!

Here is the card closed! I used sticky strip on the edge to bunch up my Pretty in Pink satin ribbon.

When you open the card it folds to the side to form an easel card. It stays up by resting on a rhinestone. I really like how this turned out!!

Beveled Windows and Nature Walk Set

I've had these windows for some time now and just couldn't figure our what I wanted to use them for. So I decided to have a crop night the Saturday before Easter and I gave everyone an Easter card with a treat when they got to the crop! This is one of the cards I made for them!!

Berry Sneaky Layout

I had a Last Minute Crop on Saturday night, yes the night before Easter, but I had a great turnout and this is the layout I completed. I finished one other but that was it! I usually don't get much done at my crops but I always have a blast!

I used the cricut preserves cartridge to cut out the strawberries and Wild Card fonts for the letters. I used Stampin' Up! border punch and the new Melon Mambo embossing powder from the Summer Mini Catalog for the "dip" on the strawberries! Didn't it turn out perfect?

Sunny Fun

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator we get to pre-order items from the mini catalogs so we can prepare for our workshops! I just love this set called Sunny Fun from the 2011 Summer Mini. Here is a quick card I made. I was in the mood to color and I used so many different Writer Markers I can't even remember all of them. I did use Daffodil Delight CS and the Daffodil Delight Grossgrain Ribbon. I LOVE this ribbon! I used the new bakers twine from the mini also and the brights collection buttons! Enjoy!!

Manly Birthday Card

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to show you this card I made for my boyfriends birthday tomorrow. He had been buying a lot of old cars lately so I thought this one was pretty appropriate! And guess what? This isn't a stamp!
All of the paper is Stampin' Up! I used the Naturals White, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip card stock and the brass eyelets to decorate. The Happy Birthday stamp came from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and I punched it out with the Word Window punch and the label is punched with Chocolate Chip. BUT the car I copied and pasted to a word file from google images, printed it and then colored it with chalks! I just couldn't find the right stamp in my stash that would fit what I wanted to do, so this was a quick and easy fix. Not sure how long it will last being on printer paper but as long as it makes it to tomorrow, I'm fine with that! I hope you enjoy. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Flip Top Box Video

"Manly" Thank You Cards!

I was asked to make some manly thank you cards and here is what I came up with.......I got my inspiration from Schnauser Crafts Creations and changed it up a bit! I used the Word Play stamp set from Stampin" Up! as well as the decorative label punch, cajun craze, baja breeze, very vanilla and old olive card stock. I used the lattice embossing folder for the texture and the star punch for the stars (duh!)

You can check out the video on how to make this card on You Tube! Subscribe to Croppers Couture and watch them all! I plan on making more videos soon, I just need to do some fine tuning and hopefully I'll get better at it! Enjoy!!

The other cards I made for my 'manly' card request are pictured below! If you have any questions or comments please post them!!

I hope you like them!

~Valerie

Fun Fold Cards!

Well, last night I had an awesome night! I did a sale-a-bration workshop with my friend Kris as the hostess and she received a ton of free products!!

Then today I had a fun fold card class! We made 3 fun fold cards inspired by Stamping School! Thanks Linda! Here are the photos of the cards!

This first one is an adorable flower pot card. It opens from the top and would look really cute with with some extra flowers coming out of it!

Next, we did an origami like folded card. The top flap slips into the square that the cake is on and opens really neat!
The last one we did was a flip card. This is the front and then when you pull the sides open you get.......
This! These are the cutest cards ever! They would make awesome invitations.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Just Froggy!

Are these not the cutest frogs you have ever seen??? I saw a picture of them on a blog right before my computer died and I'm not sure who to give the credit to but thank you, thank you for the cutest frogs ever!! I used my stampin up punches to create this little guy and I used this card as one of the cards or my Valentine's card class!! The ladies had an awesome time making them!!

Tickled Pink!

Friday was my first annual Tickled Pink! crop for Croppers Couture meetup group and it was a blast! Everything was pink!! My sister and her friend Jen came down from Conneticut for this crop and they has lots of fun too! Here are a few of the pictures........

The Classy Croppers!

Prizes!

Me and Thister!!

Thister update!

Yesterday my sis and nephew were suppose to be here but due to the inclement weather, haha I said inclement, their flight was cancelled but here is an upate! Can't wait to see them!!

Hello! It's been a while....

Hi!! Wow has it been a long time since I've posted!! Well, here's two months in a nut shell......

Ready!?! I went home to Pittsburgh in early December for my youngest nephew's 1st birthday, awesome pool indoors of course! Then, my oldest nephew turned 16!! His mom, my sis, and my cousins went to the Steelers game on his b-day and my brother in law and I hung out in some cool spots downtown Pgh. to watch the hype!! It was really awesome! Then came Christmas and then the lake and then New Years and then I finally returned to Florida!! It was a very nice visit.

Now, it's time for Sale-a-bration with Stampin' Up! and I'm soo excited! My sister is coming down from Connecticut for a visit and she finally gets to come to one of my crops! I think this one is going to be an annual event!! It's called 'Tickled Pink' and we are going to have a blast!! My sis says that she's coming to visit but I think she just wants to get outta that snow!! I don't blame her though! lol

Here is a pic of the layout I made for our Tickled Pink scrapbook, if this is going to be an annual event I've gotta keep a scrapbook right?