Here's another card using things from the Sale-A-Bration mini catalog. I didn't have time today to stamp so I went through some of my swap cards and found this one by Lisa Ashton, a fellow Rubber Queen. She used three different things from the mini on this card. Starting with the designer paper on the background. It's called Welcome Neighbor and it has 72 sheets of paper in the pack and you can get it free.
The stamp set is Happy Moments and the greeting is Whimsical Words and they are both in the mini. And then notice the ribbon. It's the new satin ribbon that's in the Occasions mini. So Lisa really loaded this card with new things. I love the greeting.

And this Thursday is my regular card class so if you want to come just let me know. And then we'll hope that the snow isn't to bad. Today was real interesting with the snow and the wind.

Well, I'm here to say that I had great intentions to post something every day. Then, wham, real life hits and things go to the side of the road. My brother called me early yesterday morning to tell me that my cousins husband had died in the night. They live about 1/2 from me and Carol wanted me to be the one to start calling family to let them know what happened. Well, between phone calls and everything else I never even thought about this blog. And I'm not sure when I'll get back to posting Sale-A-Bration cards but I'll try.

A Sale-A-Bration set

Here's a card done with a stamp set out of the Sale-A-Brations mini as promised. I have to thank Tamie Ackerson for the basic card idea. I just changed it a little bit. The medallion is from the Vintage Labels set. The set has 3 label stamps and 3 word stamps. The label stamps co-ordinate with Stampin Up punches. The punch used for this label is the scallop circle punch.

This is going to be one of the cards that we'll be doing next week at card class. If you would like a card like this just let me know that you'll be attending card class.

One more scallop punch idea

Can you believe it. I made lots of valentines and never posted them. And then I made a couple of birthday cards for teenage boys and never posted them. I don't know what I was thinking. But I'm going to try and do better.

Stampin Up! is halfway through Sale-A-Bration and I'm going to challenge myself to post one card a day using something out of the Sale-A-Bration mini until I've used all of the stamp sets that I have. I don't have them all because this year there's a lot more stamps than usual. There are actually 79 stamps that you can get for FREE this year. 75 of them are stamps that are in the big catalog and quite a few are either in Spanish or French. There's also a punch and a package of designer paper that you could get. How can you get them free? Just place a minimum order of $50.00 and get something free.

So having said all that, this card doesn't have anything from the Sale-A-Bration mini but I wanted to show you one more thing that you can do with the new Scallop Corner punch. And this punch does match the Scallop Border punch that is in the Sale-A-Bration mini. Look at the beautiful photo corner that you can make. The only problem with this is that it's kind of tricky getting the paper into the punch just right. In this case you want to go beyond the corner and push the paper all the way into the punch. But you want to keep the corner of the paper lined up with the corner of the punch. And so far I haven't found any little shortcuts for getting it just right. So just play with it and see what you can do. And after you punch it you have to use scissors or your paper trimmer to cut the corner. I think it make a really cute card.

And now I want to share with you this little poem about greeting cards.

What is a greeting card?
Author unknown

It's a little piece of paper
that tells someone how you care;
it can be a ray of sunshine--
it can be wish or prayer.

It can simply say, "I love you"
or just say, "I understand:
It can be a little visit,
or the clasp of someone's hand

It can be a word of comfort
when somebody's heart is sad,
it can be a smile or chuckle
making someone's heart feel glad.

It can keep folks close together
even though they're far apart;
it can show someone your're thankful
from the bottomo of your heart.

It can travel any distance
in all kinds of weather, too.
And it has the "magic something"
that some "big things" never do.

Yes, it's just a piece of paper
and it costs no big amount,
but it proves that old, old saying;
it's the little things that count.

So get busy and make lots of cards and get them in the mail. Have a great day.

Corners and borders

I guess it's finally time to add some instructions for using the new corner and edge punches. The first thing is that you need to have your paper cut to the right size.
So here are the sizes for the Scallop Trim punches.
1 15/16, 2 3/8, 2 7/8, 3 3/8, 3 13/16, 4 5/16 and 4 3/4.

Here are the measurements for the Pinking Hearts punches.
2 1/2, 2 7/8, 3 1/4, 3 5/8, 4, 4 3/8 and 4 3/4.

These are the sizes that worked for me. If you're a little off then you can just add a smidgen or go shorter. If you want rectangles then just pick two measurements and use them. A good idea that I read about is to make a set of templates and then when you are making a card you can just use the templates to see what size you want to cut your paper.
I think the biggest difficulty in using these punches is getting the paper into the corner punch just right. You want to be sure that you are exactly in the corner.
Punch all four corners first and then do the edges. If your paper is wide enough you can just line up the paper on the template on the punch as shown in this example.

However, if your paper is shorter and doesn't show on both sides of the punch then it's really easy to get it lined up wrong.

So the answer is to turn the punch over and check to see if the paper is lined up with the punch. Here you can see that the scallops are lined up right with the punch.

And I'm not saying that you can't line it up the first way but it just never worked for me. So have fun and if you have trouble you can always email me and I'll try and help you.

Scallop punches

Here's the rest of the cards from the Sale-A-Bration kickoff. These cards are using the new scallop and heart edge and corner punches. Can you tell that I don't have my catalog right here. There's an official name but you get the idea.
On this first one I just punched the corners with the scallop punch.

This one used the scallop corner punch but I punched straight across the paper instead of the corners. Does this make sense to you. It's easy to do but just be sure that you've moved far enough along the edge of the paper so that you don't catch the edge of the previous punch.

This one is using the heart edge punch. I just punched in the middle of each side. It's just something a little different.

And this card is one that I got in a swap somewhere but I don't remember where. Anyway it uses the heart edge punch and the heart corner punch on the same card.

New punches in the Occasions mini

Here's some of the new punches that are available in the Occasions Mini. This first one is the Extra Large Fancy Flower punch.

This valentine card is using the scalloped envelope Big Shot die and the new Small Heart punch.

This card uses the Scallop Trim Border punch and the Extra Large Two-Step Bird punch. The bird is really cool because the wings and the body are seperate and you can make the bird with wings that are a different color. Or use designer paper and make the body and wings different.

Here's the bird punch again combined with the new Mini Milk Carton Bigz die. Just add a roof over the top of the milk carton and punch a hole for the bird house opening. The flowers and the roof shingles are from the Eggcellent Eggs kit. These are so cute that I pland on making a bunch of them for Easter decorations. I think they'll be really cute hanging in a table top tree.

More card class samples

Can you believe that I went to Detroit today to go shopping at IKEA? The weather wasn't to bad but some of the drivers just don't believe in slowing down. On the way home we stopped in Holly to shop at the Goodwill store and then we came through Owosso and stopped at the Wrought Iron Grill for supper.
Here's the last four card's from last week's card class. This one is a straight copy of one that I got as a swap at leadership. I love this stamp set and hope it doesn't retire any time soon.
This one uses the Christmas ornament punch. I thought that it was pretty easy but most of the ladies said that it was hard. I think it was because they had a hard time lining up the petals.

Here's a simple Valentine's card. Sometimes we need to go back to the simple cards. And this one is simple. The scallop edge is the new punch that you can get for free in the Sale-A-Bration catalog.

This card is a copy of one that Shelli showed at Leadership. Her's was a little more detailed but I like this one. I thought that this would be the hardest one that we did but what do I know?

Tomorrow I'll start posting some cards that I did for the Rubber Queens Sale-A-Bration kickoff last Sat. I showed some cards using the new punches in the Occasions and Sale-A-Bration catalogs.

Card Class

Here's four of the cards from last weeks card class. This first one is using the heart sweet treat cups. Always need some cards for teenage boys because we seem to have an abundance of them in our family.

This baby card is using the new scallop punch that you can only get for free out of the Sale-A-Bration catalog.

This card is using the new embossed heart sizzlit. Very pretty and so easy to do.