Towards the end of June, our son called and said that he and his fiancée were going to get married–like the NEXT DAY!  And I didn’t even know his friend, Sonya, had graduated to the rank of fiancée.  Now she was going to be my daughter-in-law!  But I have to tell you that I could not have been happier – unless they would have had a formal wedding, where I could have played mother of the groom properly.  But that was not to be.

In the midst of everything, we had some travel planned, my husband became ill on the trip; he got well and I went off to the Stampin’ Up! convention; he became ill again while I was at convention, and – all of a sudden it’s November!!  Now, it’s not like I haven’t been paying attention to them – I have visited them on the mainland and we text about every day.  But I never sat down and made them a card.  And making cards is what I do!!!

The reason that I finally made this card today is that, while there won’t be a formal wedding in the United States, my son and his bride will be celebrating next month with a wedding in Indonesia which her father and stepmother will be giving them.  Unfortunately, with uncertainly about my husband’s health (we think the docs have fixed him up now, though!), I couldn’t plan for us to go that far.  So I thought I’d send a little wedding gift inside a handmade card.  With all the greeting card design challenges going on this week, I decided to pick one of them and use it for the wedding card.  (I have no worries about my son seeing it early as I don’t think he ever visits my blog.)

This challenge is from the Stamping 411 group, who do a great job in coming up with designs for everyone to use.  What fun!  Thanks, ladies!  And the card will go out in the mail on Monday.

The colors for the card are based on the Designer Series Paper, Thoroughly Modern:  Rose Red and Bermuda Bay (one of this year’s In Colors).  I stamped the heart from the stamp set, Love You Much with Rose Red and colored in some of the flowers with Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede Stampin’ Write markers.  The greeting is from the Level 3 Hostess Stamp Set, Kind and Caring Thoughts.  Embellishments include three small Clear Rhinestone Brads and some 1/4" Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon.  A really fun and simple card to make!

If you’ve been reading my blogs and other commentaries around the web, you know that I’ve been trying to get myself out of the Red and Green "mold" of the Christmas season.  Today, I spent my time with Taken With Teal and Sahara Sand–can you BELIEVE that these are Christmas colors????

Yes, they are – and Stampin’ Up! has included these colors, along with Whisper White and Ruby Red, as part of their 2009 Designer Series Paper set, Holiday Lounge.  I decided that Taken With Teal could make its case as a "green" and Ruby Red was, well, a "red."  So I bit the bullet and bought a set of the papers.  AND I’ll have to buy more

The reason I’ll have to buy more is that I spent a lot of time today making Diaper Fold Gift Pouches with many of the papers in the set.  And now I want to make MORE!!!!

The project at the beginning of this article is one of the Diaper Fold gift pouches that I made with this fabulous paper.  What fun it was to make!  And what fun it was to videotape my project so that you can follow along and make your OWN Diaper Fold gift pouch. 

I’ve also included in my "Techniques and Tutorials" section some tutorials that you can print out, along with some other ideas on how to use this great project for other types of gifts.

Just a reminder for those of you on my newsletter list–there are SPECIAL DEALS throughout the 2009 Holiday Season!  Just look at the last article in ALL my newsletters for November and December 2009–don’t miss out on a GREAT deal!! Sign up for my newsletter now

That’s not an idle question!  I have some lovely (if I say so myself) cards that I’ve made with My Digital Studio, and that have been printed by the Stampin’ Up! printing service.  I’d love to send you one if (1) you’re not already a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator; (2) you sign up for my Newsletter (and it’s a good one especially this holiday season!) and  (3) if you’d leave a comment right here on my blog before November 3, 2009.  Now that’s not too much to ask for a beautifully designed and printed card, is it?

This is one of the cards that I’ve had printed by Stampin’ Up!’s printing service.  I was going to send them all out, but I just have to keep one for myself (and no, this is not one of the cards I’ll send out–it will be something non-seasonal!)

Hope to hear from LOTS of you!!

I found a delightful card this week on Split Coast Stampers, using the Sock Monkey stamp set to make a fun Halloween Card.  I really wanted to copy it for myself, but decided that the original card had too much of its own personality and I just couldn’t make that personality reappear in my own card.  But I still had to try out the idea, and made my very own Sock Monkey card to celebrate this fun holiday time.

I hope you’re having lots of fun making holiday cards–and it’s not too late to start thinking about Thanksgiving Cards.  Don’t forget that my Newsletter is featuring a new holiday card every week from now until Christmas.  And I’ll be sneaking in a Thanksgiving Card (or two?) over the next few weeks.  Sign up on the right and I’ll make sure you don’t miss a one!

As many of you know, I love making birthday cards using the Stampin’ Up! Sock Monkey and Sock Monkey Accessories stamp sets.  So far, all those cards have been for the grandchildren in my life.

This Sock Monkey card, though, is for an adult.  A friend from here in East Hawaii has made her father a Sock Monkey for a birthday gift, and will be taking it to him on the mainland next month.  Her father used to own a sock monkey, and was also in the Navy.  Isn’t this Sailor Boy Sock Monkey just wonderful!  And I couldn’t resist making a card to go with it.

The card uses Night of Navy and Rose Red ink to accent the Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel colors of the monkey. The greeting is from the level 3 Hostess Set, Kind and Caring Thoughts, which fits very nicely inside the Modern Label punch.  I also used the 5/16" Jumbo Brads and a Circle Fire Rhinestone Brad to accent the card and a hat and cupcake to top it off.

What fun it was to make this card!

I’m still working on my goal this week of using stamp sets and Designer Series Papers that I own but haven’t used.  The stamp set in today’s card is called, "Charming," and was meant to go with the Stampin’ Up! jewelry called Simply Adorned.  Unfortunately, the jewelry production has had some problems, and won’t be available for awhile yet.  But the good news is that the stamp set is just lovely, and very usable!  In today’s card, I’ve used 5 of the 7 stamps in the set.

I decided on the colors for this set based on this week’s Diva Coffee Break challenge:  Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Really Rust and Basic Gray.  You should visit their blog to check out some of the great designs done by their Design Team!  The DSP is Christmas Paper!!  It’s from the Merry Moment set of DSP, and I can see that any leftovers I have after Christmas will work for just about anything!

Don’t forget that I’m sending out instructions for a Christmas Card every week until the holiday!  To get your copies of all the cards, just sign up for my newsletter!

Tomorrow it’s back to some holiday designs.

Of the many groups to which I belong, one in which I have the longest membership is Toastmasters International.  Right now, I’m a member of Hilo Toastmasters Club, which is one of the oldest in the world, with the low 3-digit number of 248.  My last Toastmasters Club – Albuquerque Toastmasters Club in New Mexico – also has a long history with the club number 122.  With more than 12,000 clubs in the world right now, you can imagine how high the club numbers go!

But I digress.  This week, Toastmasters is celebrating its 85th Anniversary, and the theme of our meeting yesterday was "Happy Birthday," with gifts and some cake.  The "gifts" for all our members were bookmarks, made by yours truly.  Every Toastmaster has at least two manuals in play at any given time, so we can always use bookmarks.

For this project I used the Designer Series Paper Set, Autumn Traditions.  Now I’m sure some of you may be wondering why I would buy some autumn papers when I live in Hawaii.  Well, many of my friends, family and business acquaintances–many of YOU!–live where there is a colorful autumn each year.  And I love to share projects that relate to fall with you.  The coordinating card stock colors for these bookmarks are Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, and More Mustard, with appropriate coordinating 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  (For those of you who are sticklers about such things, my apologies for sneaking in some retired More Mustard ribbon.  I just can’t imagine what Stampin’ Up! was thinking when they retired that color ribbon!!!  And I haven’t been able to talk myself into just putting it away where I won’t see it and use it by mistake.  But the bookmarks are done, so the ribbon’s staying!)

On the bottom of each bookmark is a stamped definition from the stamp set, Define Your Life.  I occasionally use one definition stamp from this set.  But this time I was able to use more than half of those in the set and still have the bookmarks be appropriate for Toastmasters. 

And I have to make a point here about My Digital Studio.  Remember when I mentioned the question about whether having My Digital Studio would mean no more paper and ink?  Well, you can’t make a bookmark like this with My Digital Studio.  In fact, there’s not a whole lot in the way of handmade papercrafted gifts that you can make with MDS besides photo albums, cards, calendars and multi-media digital projects.  So, no, I won’t be giving up paper and ink!

Mary Jo Price-Williams started this whole thing!  She has a Monday Challenge, but she decided to use one card for both her own sketch AND the Late Night Stampers Color Challenge.  So I did the same thing!  The color challenge is to use Ruby Red, Really Rust and Old Olive in a card.  The design challenge is from Mary Jo’s blog.

One of the things that I’m trying to do this week–besides getting into the Craft Room and making cards with real paper and real ink!–is to use some of the Designer Series Paper I have in my stash but have never used.  Today’s efforts have included Autumn Traditions (of which you’ll see some more tomorrow), Thoroughly Modern (I’m using it for my own Wednesday Morning SUDSOL Challenge), and The Write Stuff.

Today’s card uses The Write Stuff Specialty Designer Series Paper.  Two of the three colors in the Late Night Stampers challenge for the week – Ruby Red and Old Olive -  are featured in The Write Stuff set.  What’s "special" about The Write Stuff is that there are three pages of die cuts that can be used for Scrapbooking journaling and design elements.  The large circular element on this card and the flower in its center are two of the elements in The Write Stuff, as are the Ruby Red and Old Olive papers featured as the background for the card.  The small flowers are made with two of the designs from the Boho Blossoms Punch.  The large circle in the middle of the die cut element as well as the small circle in the middle of the flower, are punched with Stampin’ Up! Circle Punches.  All, of course, are featured in the Stampin’ Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog! 

The stamp is from the  "Heard from the Heart" set, and the ribbon is 1/4" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon.

Thanks for the challenges everyone!

Last week saw the very first new downloads for My Digital Studio.  There was so much in the original MDS package that I couldn’t imagine what Stampin’ Up! would come up with first.  Well, first on my list was the Halloween stamps and papers!  Now I know there are some of you who don’t pay any attention to Halloween.  But there are quite a few images in the stamp sets and patterns in the papers that I’m sure you’d love both sets.  Think of how you could use those lovely pumpkins for a fall garden scene!

But for now, my first Halloween Card with the new sets. This card is a 5" x 5" card.  Now, if you just had the rubber stamp sets, you wouldn’t be able to make this card, because the pumpkin stamps are too big.  BUT, in My Digital Studio, you can resize everything to your heart’s content (well, if you make things too much larger than the original, there may be some pixilation of the design–ask me if you want more information).  Everything in this card is downsized! 

The jack-o-lanterns, the grass and the greeting are from the new digital download, Pumpkin Patch.  The spider is from the older set, Eat, Drink and Be Scary (included in the original MDS), and the Designer Series Paper is the new digital set, Cast A Spell.  The card stock colors are Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, and Old Olive.

This really was a lot of fun to do!

Tomorrow, I’m back to paper and ink!  But I saw a great card done with some other new digital downloads that I’m dying to copy and share with you.  So you may see some more digital projects before long, too!

There was a question yesterday on one of my Yahoo groups about whether having My Digital Studio would mean that we’d spend less time with paper and ink and real embellishments.  As far as my greeting cards go, the answer is a definite, "No!"  Although I’m a computer junkie, I still love my paper and ink!

So, now it’s time to send a Thank You to my son and his family for their hospitality earlier this month, and a stamped card is the only kind that will do.  For this card, I used the lovely 2-Step Stampin’ stamp set, Greenhouse Garden.  I am hooked on that hibiscus!  And, as you can see with this card, you can make a whole bouquet and now repeat a color set.  OK, so there are only three flowers in this bouquet; but I was on a roll and could have done lots more–just would have needed a larger card

If you look closely at the three flowers, you can see that I tilted each flower a bit differently.  And that top (darker) layer, doesn’t have to be "just so."  You can stamp it a bit differently with each flower to make it look like you have REALLY unique flowers!

For those of you who haven’t made use of Stampin’ Up!’s 2-Step Stampin’ sets, you should really try it.  Of course, a Stamp-a-ma-jig is an absolute necessity for this operation.  If you’d like a copy of my 2-Step Stampin’ Tutorial, just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me and I’ll be happy to share a copy with you!

Meanwhile, I’m going back to My Digital Studio, and will have some brand new "stamps" and "papers" to share with you tomorrow!