TESC142 Taylor Expressions Sketch Challenge

I used almost ALL Taylored Expressions product on this baby. The paper is Echo Park from a previous Key Ingredients kit I got some months back and the stamps are from their Much Appreciated set. So cute!


The pendents for the banner I made with my Cricut and my Tie The Knot cartridge. And the smaller banner I made with a Stampin' Up! Bigz Die, Petal Cone.


I think it turned out pretty darn cute! Loved this Sketch challenge! I think this is the first I've gotten into the new 'banner trend' and I do like it. ;)


Of course I had to stamp the inside as well. ;)

Thanks for looking today! ;)

Fun Flowers Birthday Card

Oh, I just LOVE these flower dies! They are so versatile. And this color scheme is one of my favorites. This is a super simple and easy card to assemble and packs a major punch! ;) lol!

I cased this card from this scs example. I love to start with an idea and then make it my own.

Supplies used:

Big Shot Die-cutting machine 113439
Fun Flowers Bigz Dies 121812
Little Leaves Sizzlits Dies 114511
Subtles Paper Stack 117152
Daffodil Delight Card stock 119683
Scallop Trim Border Punch 118402
Word Window Punch 119857
Modern Label Punch 119849

CTMH Annotations (happy birthday) stamp set

Thanks so much for stopping by today! ;)

CIC #31 Punches, Die Cuts, Cut Outs

I am entering this fun little number in the Clear Dollar Stamps Clearly Inspired Challenge. It's been a LONG time since I have entered any challenges. But I'm planning to do it more often.


For this card I used 3 different punches, all from Stampin' Up! The new Triple Layer Punch, Blossom Bouquet is fun to play with and layer colors.

Then I used the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Boarder instead of ribbon. Fun and a different touch for me. And finally I used the now discontinued Designer Label.

Thanks for stopping by! Blessings to you today!

Pumpkin Pie Birthday

I love the simplicity and classiness of this card. I stamped the background with pumpkin pie ink using the Always Elegant stamp set.


Thanks for checking in with me today! Blessings to you!

Cheery Summery Happy Birthday Card

The new Beyond the Garden Designer series paper from Stampin' Up! is so beautiful! It's just bright and cheery and happy. Lovely for making birthday cards! Almost makes me wish I had a summer birthday ~ but I wouldn't trade my September Sapphire birthstone for anything! ;)

The flower and sentiment are from two older sets of Close To My Heart stamps that I have in my stash. I hand cut out the flower after I also stamped it onto the card. Love layered looks. And the ribbon is also something I've had in my stash for a while.

I've listed this card in my etsy shop and hope someone will be very blessed by it.


Thanks for stopping by today! Now go bless someone with a card today! ~ Amanda

You Always Do The Nicest Things

This is one of the new stamp sets in the Summer Mini catalog ~ Happy Greetings. I really like this set. The sentiment sizes are great for making a focal point on your cards.


I also used one of my favorite punches ~ Decorative Label. See, look how great these sentiments work with this punch! That's my favorite thing about Stampin' UP! ~ stamps and coordinating punches! Sooo Fun! ;)


Now, this paper is discontinued, sorry. But I still have some left and I love these color combo's. And of course you can copy this layout with any color scheme!


Thanks for stopping by! Blessings to you! And as always you can leave me love by leaving a comment! ;)

Birthday Boy Party Invitations

These are so fun! Bright colors and two new stamp sets ~ to me anyway! The image stamps are from Recess in the SU Summer Mini and the sentiments are from Inviting in the current SU main catalog. Love'em both!
This little guys birthday is going to be at a local neighborhood park and they're gonna have a 'field day' theme. When I heard that I knew this set would be perfect!


I really like how simple yet striking this invitation set is. Very crisp and not foofy. ;)

Thanks for checking in with me today! Hope you like these new sets too! I have a feeling I'm gonna get a lot of good use out of them. ;)

Have a great day!

Retiring Stampin' Up! Products

Today is June 1st and you know what that means...the day we all find out which beloved stamp sets and accessories are being discontinued from the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog to make room for all the new products in the new catalog coming out on July 1st!

Discontinued Stamp Sets can be found HERE.

Discontinued Accessories can be found HERE and updated daily.

Discontinued Definitely Decorative products can be found HERE.

Discontinued stamp sets, Stampin' Up! will manufacture to fill demand. However, the accessories are first come first served, so don't delay in ordering! You can place your order with me - online HERE.

Sorry if my links are not working ~ they seems to be out of order and I've tried to fix it but it doesn't seem to change anything.

Please check out my Stampin' Up! website for all the sale and discontinued merchandise info: ABCandE.stampinup.net. Thanks!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Okay, so what do you think? I got the idea of the mini shopping carts from my Stampin' Up! upline, Becky Roberts, when she did a gift for her bff a while back. They are so little and cute! They are from The Lakeside Collection and I bought these 3 from them a while back to have on hand. I am so excited to give them to the boys' teachers!


The cute little apple is from Papertrey Ink and I hand cut it and pop dotted it to the front of the cart. I hope the teachers will like these and keep them on their desks.


I made them each a little post it note holder. Paper is all Stampin' Up! and the apple and sentiment are from PaperTrey Ink and the letters and numbers in the background are from a $1 stamp I picked up at Craft Warehouse.


I filled the carts with goodies from Bath and Body Works. Fun little lotions and anti-bacterial gel and a candle. Then I stopped at World Market and got them a mini box of Altoids mints. Just a few little things to hopefully helped them feel refreshed during the day.




Thanks for stopping by today! And blessings to all the teachers this week! ;)

May is National Scrapbooking Month

Have you ever thought of giving scrapbooking a try? It is easy with Stampin' Up!'s National Scrapbooking Month promotion where we have a wide selection of scrapbooking products including select stamp sets, select professional print products for My Digital Studio and special digital download bundles for My Digital Studio

at 30% off.

Click HERE to see what is on sale.

And - this is the perfect opportunity for those of you who are or want to be digital designers to join the Stampin' Up! family. During National Scrapbooking Month, new demonstrators will get 30 % off the Digital+ Starter Kit.
In addition, new demonstrators can purchase the Stampin' Memories Add-On kit for 30 % off, as well!

The Stampin' Memories Add-On includes:
1 stamp set
1 card stock pack
1 Designer Series Paper pack
1 Quick Accents pack
1 Designer Printed Album (12" x 12")

Regular price for the Add-On kit is $50. Now it's on sale through May 31st for just $35!
Digital+ Starter Kit (valued at more than $320!) regular price is $175.

Sale price through May 31st is $122.50! How about that?!

Click on over to my Stampin' Up! website and see all the goodies for yourself!

SCAL and Stampin' Up!'s Vinyl

I have recently discovered the joy of owning SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot). SCAL connects your computer to your Cricut so you can virtually die cut any font or image you can find online. It is AMAZING! So I've been playing with it a bit this week and altered these fun plates.


The plates already had the flowers on them, and I just loved them. So I thought it would be cute to add a fun word to them. Using my SCAL and the Lucida Handwriting font, I cut these words on black vinyl and they turned out pretty darn good.


What fun, plates like these would make for unique personalized gifts! By the way, the plates were purchased at my local Home Goods store for a $1.99 each! The vinyl is from Stampin' Up! which you can purchase through my website and it comes in a ton of great colors!

The ENJOY plate is for my Aunt. She wants to use it as a cookie plate for her Bridge club ladies. Great idea!


Thanks for stoppin' in today! Blessings!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Today I wanted to share with you a little whim I had last week. I don't really know why but I have been really wanting to decorate for St. Patrick's Day this year. I also did a little research on line and found out more about the holiday and about St. Patrick. It's pretty interesting stuff! ;)

However, it is pretty difficult to find nice and inexpensive decorations for St. Patty's Day. So I decided I'd make something of my own. It's not like I don't have enough supplies around anyway, right?!

I grabbed some Wild Wasabi, Pear Pizzazz and Whisper White card stock and sat down with my Cricut and the Storybook cartridge. I made the banner out of 3" Wild Wasabi kinda rectangle scallops, then the Whisper White is 2 1/2" rectangle scallops. The letters are made with Pear Pizzazz card stock at 2 1/4". Then the flourish is also Pear Pizzazz at 1 1/2" and I shadowed it with the Wild Wasabi.
For the crown I used the Home Decor cartridge and made it at 1 1/2" with the Pear Pizzazz and Wild Wasabi shadow combo. The ribbon is a fun green with gold edge I had picked up at Michaels at some point.

I hope you enjoy my little project. Thanks for lookin'!

March Flower Pin and Card Class

Is that FABRIC? Why YES it is! lol! This is the new Stampin' Up! Springtime Vintage Designer Fabric and it is darling! In my class this month you will have the opportunity to view this in person and get your hands on it!


In class we will also create this coordinating card to use to give our pins as a gift. If you can part with them! ;)

The Flower Folds die actually has 4 sizes and this is the smallest size flower on one of my daughters little beanies. But think of hats, purses, handbags, t-shirts, headbands! Just think of all the endless possibilities for these sweet little guys!

EDIT: Class is full! Thanks ladies!!

Class will be held at my house on Friday evening, March 11th at 7 pm
Cost is $12 all supplies included. If you bring a friend who hasn't been to one of my classes before then the cost will be dropped down to $10 for both of you! And if you place a Stampin' Up! order with me I will drop your class cost down to $8!

Please call or email me ASAP to sign up and reserve your spot, I only have 6 spots available!

Oh these are so so so so Fun! My wheels are turnin' with all the ideas for where you can use these! Where will you use yours?!

Don't forget Sale-a-bration is still going on! With every $50 purchase, you get to choose a FREE Sale-a-bration item!

January Blessings On Paper

We are making these 4 beautiful and fun greeting cards! All supplies are from the new Stampin Up! Occasions Mini Catalog that just started on January 4th! So many fun new collections to sample! I love the chocolate set! ha ha ha!

The cost is $8 and everything will be supplied there for you! If you haven't signed up yet, please send me an email and let me know if you're coming!

This card is made using the Bold Blossom stamp set. The butterfly and blossoms are so adorable. Although you may get tired of me by the end of the evening making you cut these all out by hand! ;) And the so saffron taffeta ribbon, yummy. ;)

Same with this one. I also added a glitter brad, lovely. And I used the Designer Buttons ~ Subtles collection. Oh these are amazing!

This is the Eat Chocolate stamp set. Too fun! I also added some liquid glass to the chocolates to make them look even yummy-er and I sprayed the Rose Red card stock (after embossing) with some homemade glitter spritz. I love that effect.

And this card just makes me laugh. It is SO me. lol! I am a list person and a chocolate person and having 3 young kiddo's sometimes this is how I feel. ;)

This Friday night class will be so much fun. I absolutely LOVE all my ladies that attend. See ya Friday!

Adjustments to My Happy Place

Okay so most of you know that My Happy Place is still in the very new stages. So that means that I will have tweaking and adjusting to do as I figure out the best way for everything to function in here. ;) And I like to SHARE those processes! lol! Things are really starting to fill in here. ;) Just ignore the right hand side, like from the end of the desk and over, I'll fill you in on that area another day. ;)

In my last photos of my room this section of wall was still pretty blank. So I've added a couple extra towel bars and the picture ledge with frames. Everything seems to really fit in place nicely and flows well.


Looky ~ looky! I am so excited about this! Okay so you know I am a new Stampin Up! demonstrator. Well I am not one that already has a collection of SU ink pads. I had previously really only had Close To My Heart ink pads, which I loved the way that I stored them and kept them so handy with the Ikea shower caddy's and towel bars. Now switching over to having SU ink pads, well...they don't fit the same way! And I don't really want a bulky ink pad tower on my desk. So look what I came up with!! It's the same Ikea shower caddy's I just turned them on their side! They still can hang from the towel bars and then I just (get this!!) twist tied the two caddy's together and just hung the top one from the towel bar. he he he! Each caddy can easily hold 8-10 ink pads, although keeping it to 8 is much more accessible. And I can just keep adding extra caddy's as my collection of ink pads increases. The caddy's are $1.99 and so is the towel bar. Pretty cheap!


In this picture you can really see the difference in how the two types of ink pads store in these caddy's. Also you can see that I keep my scrubber and spray handy in the top tray. My sponges are right next to that in the white hanging bowl. And next to the SU ink pads are my clear blocks. Everything within reach, in view and so accessible for all my stamping projects. You can see too that I hang my heat gun on a hook here and it is always ready when I need it. I really am a person who likes things in one room, everything in one place and within reach when I am organizing. I don't like to have to keep getting up to get something from somewhere else. ;)

This part is so much fun! I got this chunky frame and decor element in the bundle with the last Stampin Up! promotion and I love the way that it looks! I just haven't decided if I want a color or black and white picture in it yet. ;) And the Ikea frame next to it ~ they just totally look like they go together. Love it. Also the picture ledge is from Ikea too.

I think I'm gonna call this my 'Paper Manipulation Station'. lol! This is still one of my favorite finds. Purchased from Craigslist last year, it is such a nice piece of furniture and it really functions well for crafting. It's almost counter height so it's awesome for all my paper cutting, scoring, embossing and punching.

A bit of glare here, but more true to color for the wood of this piece. ;)

I LOVE having all my punches up now and I can see all of them in one place.


In the bottom right hand side cubby I use this large accordion file to store all my scrap paper. I love this system. It is organized just by color, so whenever I need a piece of red paper I can just go through that first before I start cutting anymore full sheets. Especially when I just need a bit of paper for a punch, it's really nice to have that handy. Also in that big green box is all my 'stuff' that I use with my Cuttlebug. Keeps everything within reach.

Thank you so much for checking in with me and my progress with My Happy Place. This has been such a joy for me and it's so much fun to share!

Have a blessed day!