Countdown Calendar

I had to share this. It's the new Candy Countdown Calendar from Stampin' Up!. What a fun activity this would be to make with the kids and then it becomes part of your holiday decor! Not to mention the fun of opening each box each day as you count down to Christmas. It comes with everything down to the twine for hanging {it would be fun to add some glimmer brads!} and it's only $19.95. This would make a unique gift as well. Love it! Click here to order.

a lift from Papercrafts magazine

I fell in love with the simplicity of this card when I saw it in Papercrafts magazine and just happened to have the same Stampin' Up! stamps so I couldn't help, but recreate it. Of course I changed the size and mounted mine on real red card stock, but it's almost the same. This card uses the masking technique so that the apple doesn't interfere with the letters.

I'm planning on teaching how to mask and create this card in my next card class

Stampin' Up! Two-Step Bird Punch

It was love at first site when I saw this bird punch! It kind of reminds me of Bella and Max! (my kids' finches). The punch has the bird, a wing and the branch all on the same punch. This is one of the cards we made in my August card class. The bird was stamped with one of the stamps in a hostess set called Punch Potpourri which can be earned for free by having a workshop.
Every stamp in that set (bird, flowers, butterfly and heart) coordinates perfectly with a Stampin' Up! punch...love that!

New mini catalog starts today and a free tote promotion

2010 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog - WOW!

Oh my gosh...Stampin' Up! has outdone themselves with the new 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.

From Traditional to Whimsical, from Vintage to Cute...Stampin' Up! has covered all the bases for your handmade projects for the upcoming holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and even a little bit for Valentine's Day).

You'll be bowled over by the HUGE selection of new Big Shot dies, folders and NEW Letterpress Plates!

LOTS of new Bling...Glimmer Brads, Simply Adorned Baubles, Tinsel Trim, Glass Glitter & Designer Jewels!

And even "Stampin' Sound Cards"!!!

Ooh - I almost forgot - Stampin' Up! Designer Fabric!

Join my team this month and receive this beautiful craft tote (value $39.95) for free.
My favorite thing about this tote is that it holds 12x12 paper!

Cardmaps

I'm participation in a challenge over on the SAS board. For August we are challenged to make a card for every cardmap from the pagemaps collection from September of 2009.

Here's my first one. I used a combination of new Stampin' Up! supplies with retired. The stamp set, Wicked Cool, is from the new 2010-2011 catalog.

Here's the sketch and my card based on the sketch:

sorry for the bad photo, I took it with my cell phone.


supplies: Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry and Basic Black card stock, new 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, scallop border punch, rich razzleberry ink, basic black ink, Always Artichoke ink.

Stampin' Up! Watercolor Trio stamp set...

Just a few cards I made with the Watercolor Trio stamp set from the Stampin' Up! Summer mini catalog. I love this set!

Kim Kesti's Card Challenge

Kim Kesti from Papercrafts Magazine is having a sketch challenge on her blog. Go check it out. Here's my take on one of the sketches.

I used the new Stampin' Up! scallop border punch to create a decorative journaling spot for the sentiment.

I joined Stampin' Up!

This is something I've wanted to do for a while now and I finally took the plunge. I can't wait to start teaching card making and scrapbooking. Come check out my new Stampin' Up website.

Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger

This week on the Moxie Fab World blog the Tuesday trigger is a fabulous card by Kimberley Crawford. I was inspired by the color combination and use of linear pearls. This is my first try at a Tuesday Trigger and had so much fun! This is what I came up with...





and here is Kimberly Crawford's card:

Thanks, Kim, for the inspiration!

Love always

While I was making this card Nicholas asks "Is that a card for the bathroom?" Funny, even a 6 year old knowhttp://cassie-d.blogspot.com/s the universal restroom symbols!

some cards

Just a couple of cards I made this weekend...
(photos aren't great - I used my old camera)

I was dying to try out my new Nestabilities Die that Santa left in my stocking so I made this Valentines Day card. I didn't have any Hero Arts Valentine's stamps...boo, so I had to use this cheapy I had gotten a few years ago to make the kids Valentines to send into school.


This one was for a sketch challenge on SAS.

Wow!

I let my blog go for 4 months! I needed a break, but am wishing I kept up with it so I would remember all the little things that happened in our lives. After all, that's why I'm blogging anyway. It's like a scrapbook to me. Thinking back, these are some things I want to remember about the past 4 months:
August
-Vacation in Fenwick Island, DE with the Merkers. The big thing that happened that week was that Nicholas seemed to get over his fear of dogs and fear of the ocean. It was like he was a whole different person than last year and he enjoyed himself so much more!
- My 16 year old niece, Alexa, moved in with us. This was supposed to be for a few weeks until my sister sold her house and moved down here to PA, but the house sale fell through and she’s still with us. I love having her here. She's artistic and crafty and loves to bake!
- Kids started school; Nicholas – Kindergarten, Sophie – 4th grade and Alexa 11th grade.

September
- For a Labor Day barbeque we had lots of fun baking mini-cupcakes that look like Hamburgers, complete with a sesame seed bun!

October

- The tooth fairy made her first visit to Nicholas on October 4th.

-Sophie wanted so badly to join the school band and take drums, but there were too many kids wanting the drums and she didn't get picked. She thought about it and after checking out my flute decided to take flute...woot! I can't wait for the day we can play a duet.

- Halloween was fun even in the pouring rain. Thinking back, I can’t remember when it ever rained on Halloween. I don’t think it ever did. Nicholas was “Dark Vader” (as he calls him) and carried a “Life Saver” and Sophie was a candy corn witch like she was last year. We got some ruby slippers in the mail right before Halloween and Sophie said that next year she wants to wear them with Nicholas’ Darth Vader costume to be “Dorothy Vader”! I thought that was pretty clever. Let’s see if she remembers that next year.

November
-Alexa’s 17th birthday which means she got her driver’s license…Woo Hoo!

-Sophie joined the chorus at school and had her first concert at Barnes and Noble.
-We had a very small Thanksgiving celebration. We had just my parents and Krista. I tried “brining” a turkey for the first time. It came out super moist and smelled wonderful while cooking. I used Alton Brown’s recipe. That one’s a keeper (the recipe, not Alton Brown)
-After planning to make my Christmas cards with photoshop to make things easier this year I got a different idea while getting ready for work one morning. I couldn’t wait to get home to figure out how to contruct it and created the prototype. So much for easy this year.
-Decided to decorate the outside of the house right after Thanksgiving to avoid decorating in the freezing cold which I usually end up doing. I got everything out of the basement, tested all the lights, hung it all up, set up the daylight sensors and…the lights didn’t all work. That’s what we call “The D’Ambrosio Factor” . Love that!

December
- Still working on the cards. The idea was to have them look like an ornament from the front with a window to the photo inside.

- Sophie wrote Santa a letter asking for one of those Magic Elves that come to life at night and get into all sorts of mischief and fun. Santa not only left her the elf that she asked for, but left Nicholas a little brother elf. So lets see, they have taken out an old photo album and we found it out on the floor. They were looking at photos of Oakley when he was a puppy. We also found them in a drawer full of plastic cups and bowls. They had watercolor paint sets in the elves’ little sacks. The kids found them in the closet putting together a puzzle this morning. I wonder what they’ll get into tonight

- Tonight Nicholas started a book reading log for school. I decided to let him read as many words as he could on his own while I would fill in the longer, more difficult words. I was so amazed and proud of him. I had no idea he could read that many on his own.