March Blog Candy (staying at the top!)

**NOW CLOSED** Check back on Thursday to see who won!!**


Click here to find out about the March giveaway/ blog candy!

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Use It Tuesday #1

Welcome to my new weekly "feature". This is going to be a challenge of sorts because I am trying to use my stash. I have been hoarding for some time now, and I finally feel like it is time to USE IT! I hope you will join me and use some of your stash too.

Here is the first installment of USE IT Tuesday!

I made this LO:
This LO features a couple of old items I have had in my stash. First, the dog photo sticker border thingy, I have a whole sheet of these cardstock stickers made by Cloud 9 Designs.

The next old item is the lime colored thread. I decided to hand stitch a little on the border sticker to accent it. I totally dislike actually hand stitching, but love the effect.

The LO design was heavily inspired by this weeks sketch at Nuts About Sketches. I didn't have the correct size or number of photos, but I designed my LO the same.

All the paper is from DCWV's new Latte stack. I love the funky colors in this stack.



The flowers are actually just silk flowers I pulled apart and then I accented them with a circle punch in the center.

The dark brown flowers at the bottom were stamped using the SU Friends 24-7 Stamp set.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Happy LO

This is a LO I made using our Prom photo. I used 3 three different challenge ideas for this LO! One is the weekly challenge at Vintage Plum. One is the color combo challenge at Color Combo Galore. And the last one is the sketch challenge at Sketch This.

The pattern paper & pink cardstock is from SEI. The cardstock is Stampin' UP's Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue. I used an edge distresser on the cardstocks. The butterfly is from Stampin' UP's Dreams du Jour stamp set. The alphas are Fabric Thickers.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

My Ball LO

This LO was made using a sketch from Nuts About Sketches. I also used the Vintage Plum March kit called Hill Country. All the supplies came with the kit except the journaling Marker. For the journaling, I used a Stampin' UP marker. The border on the tree paper was made using the Martha Stewart doily lace border punch.

And. . . in other news. . .

I WON!!!! I won the March challenge at Gettin Sketchy!! I entered the sketch challenge with my Play All Day LO which was also using myMarch kit from Vintage Plum.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Stamp Set of the Month Archive

Here you will find past months of my Stamp set of the Month Archive


Past months:

October 08

November 08

December 08

January 09

February 09

March 09
April 09

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Sketch Challenge #11

**I  am on a ProvoCraft/Cricut Boycott! They won't get another dime from me!  Got a Cricut? Well use it! Don't have one yet? Consider a different  machine!! Click here for more details about my boycott and how I got here!! You can join the boycott too!**

Sorry this is so late! I got sidetracked today with other posts :O)


Here is the LO I made using this sketch:
This is a LO I made using the Vintage Plum March kit called Hill Country. I just LOVE the colors of this kit. They are totally not the colors I normally use, so it was a blast to try out something new.

I cut the shapes out of the yellow cardstock for a different LO and so I thought I would try to use the negative space. This LO was made using a challenge over at Mon Ame Memories so it is like a triple special LO :O) HA HA HA HA (Easily amused here!)

And of course, we can't forget about the journaling square. It was made using the SU Top Note die for the Big Shot!! I stamped the bottom with the SU Upsy Daisy stamp set.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Announcing. . .

Every Tuesday, I am going to start digging into my stash and using something I have been hoarding. I have a room full of stuff and I am going to try to USE IT!! I hope you will join me and start using your own stuff more.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

1st Stamp-A-Stack!

Today was my first ever Stampin' UP Stamp-a-Stack. I held it for my buddy MeMe. She just became a Tupperware consultant so if you need Tupperware, she is the lady to talk to!! You can find her at: http://tupperstampinglibrarian.blogspot.com/

For those of you who don't know, a Stamp-a-Stack is where you get a group of people together and each person makes X number of cards for X dollars. Ours was 12 cards for $15 and there were 3 different design cards (so 4 of each design). I had a bunch of fun planning it (I LOVE to plan things!!) and then actually being there was a lot of fun. I already knew MeMe was a pleasant young lady, but her friends were great too (they will all read this so I have to be on my best behavior, LOL). :O)

I have never held or been to any kind of workshop or stamp a stack so I was very nervous until I got there and met everyone.

I wanted to share the cards we made:This card features the SU Upsy Daisy stamp set. You cant tell, but we used the a VersaMarker to go over the edges of the flowers and then used heat and stick powder on it to add glitter. These cards look amazing in real life, but you can't see the glitter on here. The Almost Amethyst paper was cut out using the Big Shot with the Top Note die. AND finally, the Certainly Celery paper was cut using the Eyelet Border Punch.

This card was CASED from someone else :O) The ribbon is in the ribbon bundle from Sale-a-bration and will only be available with a $50 SU purchase through Tuesday!!! The stamp set used is SU Pocket Silhouettes.

This card features SU's Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set. I used the Sale-a-bration ribbon on this card too!! I used a SU texture plate for the embossed background. The cupcakes were colored with my handy dandy SU Markers.

SNEAK PEEK ALERT!!! The sentiment was stamped and then punched out with a new punch coming out in the Occasions Mini on April 1st!! It is called the Scallop Oval Punch.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Specialty Paper kits

Here are some beautiful paper kits I am adding to my ebay store: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Scrapmasters-Paradise These are include specialty designer series paper from SU! The specialty paper from all the kits shown except the Rockabilly are cover weight textured patterned papers. They have a great thickness and texture. The Rockabilly paper had glossy accents on it!!

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

IBCC #10

IBCC stands for Idea Book & Catalog Challenge. The IBC challenges are intended to get everyone thinking about the Stampin' UP catalog as an idea book and not only a catalog (since it is intended to be BOTH!). The Idea Book & Catalogs are all filled with great sample projects which you can use as inspiration.

For IBCC #10, use the card above as your inspiration.

Here is my example card:For my example card, I used stamps from the Darling Dots stamp set. This set is a hostess level 1 stamp set. The circles are Almost Amethyst, Cameo Coral, and Kiwi Kiss. All the pieces of paper used on this card were scraps I had laying next to my paper trimmer from previous projects so I felt awesome making it!! The Close to Cocoa cardstock was embossed with my Big Shot using a SU Texture plate. Finally, the patterned paper is from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Forest O' Friends LO

I used a sketch from 52 sketchs 52 weeks for this LO. The items used are from the Vintage Plum March Kit called Hill Country. The tree paper was made exclusively by VP AND the best part is our names are on it!!!! FOR REAL!! Jenny (one of the owners) had a post in the blog where we could enter to have our name added to the paper design and yeah my name is on it :O)

I made some faux brads using some of the paper that was included in the kit. The faux brads were cut using a 1/2 inch circle punch and then coated with paper glaze. When they dry they look glassy like little brads!

The border was made using the SU Eyelet Border Punch.

These flowers were cut from paper included in the VP kit. I used the Cricut Walk in my Garden cartridge to cut them out.

The top corner was stamped with a stamp from the SU Baroque Motifs stamp set using VersaMark. I just love this stamp!! Journaling was done using a SU Marker.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

View LO

This is another LO I made using the February kit from Vintage Plum called "Crush". I had trouble getting a good photo because the top sheet (with the hearts and dots) is a transparency sheet! All of the items used on this LO are from the February kit except the Stampin' UP Marker I used for journaling. I happen to just LOVE the paper with the clock on it!! That paper was made by Vintage plum. They include their own paper designs in each kit and I think that is the neatest thing!

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

The Grand Paper Share

Would you like to have a sheet of each Designer Series Paper available through Stampin' UP?? Well here is your chance! I am excited to announce my first ever paper share!! I have many options to choose from!

TO SIGN UP:
1. Go to the bottom of this post and choose your package from the drop down menu and pay now through Paypal.
2. If you would like to pay with a check, money order, or credit card, please email me with your contact info (NOT your credit card number!!) and we can get your payment completed.

I wanted to go ahead and offer this because I know some people have contacted me with interest. Now is the time to stock up on the current designer papers because MOST of them will be retiring in the new catalog and will go away forever (I know this because the In Colors will be retiring before the next catalog!!)

(USA ONLY!!!)

The options are:

Option 1:

one 6X6 sheet of EVERY designer series paper pattern available in the catalog (including the specialty DSP, but not the Patterns DSP)

This package includes 120 sheets of DSP for $30 which includes shipping!

Option 2:

one 6X6 sheet of EVERY designer series paper PLUS patterns
This package includes 204 sheets of DSP total for $47.50 which includes shipping!

Option 3:

one 12X12 sheet of EVERY designer series paper
This package is the ultimate package for a scrapbooker! This comes with 120 sheets of DSP for $110 including the shipping!

Option 4:

one 12X12 sheet of EVERY patterns designer series paper
This package only contains the Patterns DSP with a total of 84 sheets of Patterns DSP for $70 including shipping!

The fine print:
*Prices INCLUDE shipping
*USA ONLY!!
*I will place our order as soon as I have enough participants. Please sign up ASAP!
*Email me with questions at sstracha@utk.edu
*If you would like your own custom paper share, please let me know what you would like and maybe we can split an order of paper together! I am almost always in need of more paper :O)

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Porch LO

For this LO I used items from the March kit at Vintage Plum. This kit is called Hill Country. Everything used came with the kit except the ink, ladybug stamp, marker, and staples. I used a sketch from Sketch This to make this LO.


I used Stampin' UP Purely Pomegranate ink to color the letters and a SU marker to do the journaling. I also used Stickles glitter glue to outline the polka dots on the arrow.

I used a marker to make the faux stitches (I am too lazy to do the real thing LOL) and the ladybug is from the SU Darling Dots stamp set. It was stamped in Purely Pomegranate.

And I have another paper kit to share with you! This paper kit is now available in my ebay store: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Scrapmasters-Paradise

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land