March 11, 2013

Sketch-Inspired Patterned Occasions! Thanks a Ton!

Isn’t this elephant from the Sale-A-Bration Patterned Occasions stamp set just stinking cute?!! And when you stamp him in the deep purple of Rich Razzleberry all his little funky pattern is fabulously vivid. A little touch of Tangerine Tango orange pops off the purple.

I punched him out with the 1-3/4″ circle punch and then layered it with dimensionals on punched 2-3/8″ scallop circle. The flower on the stamp doesn’t quite fit in the circle punch, but that’s OK because I when you add a Itty Bitty punch flower and rhinestone over it.

Sale-a-bration ends March 22nd! FREE EXCLUSIVE SALE-A-BRATION ITEMS with qualifying order: Patterned Occasions stamp set & Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper and Button & Ribbon pack (Choose one Sale-a-bration item FREE with every $50 product purchase. All supplies are from Stampin’ Up! Click on the links above in the descriptions for product details & ordering.)

Patterned Occasions Bundle: Order the 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, 2-3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack AND get the SAB Patterned Occasions Stamp Set FREE. (Substitutions can be made. Order must total $50 or more in product to qualify for free SAB item.)

Create a set of thank you cards with the Patterned Occasions stamp set and the punch bundle above and delight a friend today.

Enjoy! Julie

March 10, 2013

Family Share: Indoor Family-Friendly Games and Recipes

Yesterday I saw this fun post on creating an indoor hopscotch grid at PrettyHandyGirl.com. I’m sure there are tons of restless kids out there with anxious moms looking for a fun activity to keep the kiddos happy until the weather is nice enough to send them outside again.

When I was a kid we used to turn the chairs upside down and create a ring toss with the chair legs. Here’s a picture above to show you what I mean. We used old rubber canning rings that were used to seal Ball Jars, but any type of rubber or plastic ring would work. If you have the bright plastic dive rings that the kids use to play games in the pool this would be a great way to use them during the winter.

Another favorite indoor game that is easily set up with common household items is the bean drop game. Get a quart size jar, place it on the floor, hold a large bean near your nose and try to drop it into the jar. The taller you are the harder it is, which makes this game perfect for families.

Another family favorite is the toothpaste cap game. I think this is best played in a group of 6 or more. We’ve played this with as many as 25 people in a circle. The person that is ‘it’ fills a small toothpaste cap with water and chooses a category, such as makes of cars, disney movies, animals, colors, etc. And they choose a specific item in that category. Then the stand in front of the each person as they guess an item. When someone guesses correctly, the ‘it’ person splashes them with the water and now they are ‘it’.

This past week my daughter Kristin posted some interesting recipes at Green Leaves and Jam. One is a simple toasted peanut butter sandwich and the other a carrot ‘hot dog.’ Before your dismiss the idea of a carrot hot dog, you’ve got to read about it. Very interesting. And I had never thought about toasting a peanut butter sandwich, but it is yummy when it’s cold outside, and I’ve toasted my peanut butter sandwich everyday this week.

Carrot Hot Dogs

Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I hope you enjoyed these family-friendly games and recipes for these last few weeks of winter weather.

Enjoy, Julie

March 9, 2013

StampingJulie Sketch Inspired: Get Well & Happy Birthday

When you’re not feeling well bright and cheery is the answer. I combined the Sale-a-bration Patterned Occasions stamp set with the Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper to create this upbeat get well card.

I love to use the colors in a pack of designer series paper to inspire my creating, but you can also experiment with colors outside the paper pack’s color palette. Here I combined the striped Tangerine Tango paper with Melon Mambo cardstock for a fresh new color combo.

My sketch inspiration is from Friday’s CAS Sketch Challenge . You can see more and play along here. I kept this card super simple by following the sketch and adding simple interest with bright colors, a layered banner flag and a popped-up heart. The heart was stamped from the Hearts-a-Flutter stamp set and punched with the Small Heart punch .

This card is also made with paper from the Sale-a-bration Sycamore Street pack and the Patterned Occasions stamp set. Again I chose a coordinating color outside of the colors used in the pack. In this case, I used the Pool Party patterned paper with a softer pink, Primrose Petals.

The scallop circle here is the mid-size doily from the Delicate Doilies Sizzlets Die from page 191 in the catalog. When the catalog was printed the numbers got reversed and the largest die was listed as 1-3/8″ in diameter which is much smaller than what I wanted. When I found out the correct dimensions were 3-1/8″ for the largest doily I ordered the die immediately! As you can see here the mid-size doily layers perfectly with the 1-3/4″ circle punch.

Again, I used Friday’s sketch for inspiration, changed the orientation to landscape, tied the Primrose Petals stitched ribbon across the card and added a bitty flower from Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack with a Rhinestone.

Less than two weeks left to take advantage of these exclusive Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-bration goodies! Earn free SAB product with every $50 in products you order. Click here for the complete list of SAB products! Click here to shop.

FREE exclusive Sale-a-bration items with qualifying order: BPatterned Occasions stamp set & Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper and Button & Ribbon pack (SAB supplies are free with a $50 product purchase. All supplies are from Stampin’ Up! Click on the links above in the descriptions for product details & ordering.)

Enjoy! Julie

March 9, 2013

A Happy Birthday Cupcake from Patterned Occasions

March 8, 2013

Bloomin’ Marvelous CAS Sketch Challenge

I love the simple layout of this card created with the Bloomin’ Marvelous and Mixed Bunch stamp set. I love it so much that I’m excited to have you play along! Announcing the FIRST EVER StampingJulie CAS challenge linky party (SJCAS001)! To enter go to the bottom of this post for details and linking instruction. And have fun!!

Here’s the sketch. I purposely did not give you dimensions because I’d prefer you customize your dimensions and have fun with it. I love sketches because it makes creating soooo much easier if you already have a design in mind. It’s kind of the ‘complete pancake mix’ of crafting! Instead of ‘just add water’, ‘just add paper’!! Sometimes I like to just pick up a scrap on my craft table and make it work. I think some of my best work has started that way.

Here’s a close up. I stamped the background flowers from Bloomin’ Marvelous with versamark on the Basic Gray cardstock and then stamped the sentiment in Black StazOn over that. To finish the button, because I don’t like buttons without a finish, I added a rhinestone to the top. A super easy solution to naked buttons!!

And here’s another variation. I used the same More Amore Specialty Designer Series Paper (not just for Valentine’s Day) and the same Primrose Petals stamped and punched flower, then changed up the background paper, the ribbon and used butterflies.

Can you see that I heat embossed the butterflies on the background? I also stamped and punched a scallop circle to layer under the button.

Here’s the card recipe:

FREE exclusive Sale-a-bration items with qualifying order: Bloomin’ Marvelous stamp set & Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper (SAB supplies are free with a $50 product purchase. All supplies are from Stampin’ Up! Click on the links below for product details & ordering.)

Mixed Bunch Bundle: Order the Mixed Bunch clear-mount stamp set, Acrylic Block ‘D’, Blossom Punch, Dimensionals AND choose 1 FREE Sale-a-bration item. (Substitutions can be made. Order must total $50 or more in product to qualify for free SAB item.)

SALE-A-BRATION IS THE PERFECT TIME TO STOCK UP ON YOUR CRAFT SUPPLIES! Earn free SAB product with every $50 in products you order. Click here for the complete list of SAB products! Click here to shop.

The StampingJulie CAS Sketch challenge is open all week. (If you don’t have a blog and want to participate, send me your picture and I’ll post it for you. 🙂 And you do not have to use Stampin’ Up! supplies only.) So feel free to enter more than once. My goal is to give you inspiration so you can enjoy your time in your craft room: the stress-free zone!

Have fun! Julie

InLinkz