The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the grass is GREEN!! Oh SPRING how I LOVE YOU!! It may snow this weekend ... sigh ... and then we will be in SUMMER!!! Seasons change SO quickly here in Utah! Sometimes the transitions are HARSH, I tell ya!! This month the Control Freaks are freaking out about MASCULINE/BOY cards! Cindy Elam certainly NAILED it, didn't she??


Last Saturday, along with a BUNCH of my wonderful Stampin' friends, I was able to attend Stampin' Up's OnStage event in Salt Lake City. We had SUUUUUCH a good time!!! One of the BEST parts was that we got to play with some of the "new" stuff coming out in this year's catalog!! HOOOORRAAAYYY! Even BETTER??? We were able to preorder some of the things we had seen!! How FUN is THAT??? This "Come Sail Away" Suite of products may be one of my most FAVE set of things that have come out in a while. I am gonna be creating a BUNCH of things with this stuff!!

This was my first creation ... and in spite of myself it's kinda #cleanandsimple. I have a hard time NOT using ALL the layers!! The designer series paper and the dies that go with the stamps are GREAT!



Stamps: Sailing Home
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Come Sail Away DSP
Ink: Night of Navy, Balmy Blue
Accessories: Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Baker's Twine, Smooth Sailing Dies, Metallic Pearls


And NOW ... I think I tried to put as much DSP on this baby as I could!! I mean, REALLY??!!?? Isn't it ALL just SO LOVELY??!!??

Stamps: Sailing Home
Paper: Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Soft Suede, Come Sail Away DSP
Ink: Night of Navy, Soft Suede
Accessories: Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Baker's Twine, Smooth Sailing Dies, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Seaside Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Sail Away Trinkets, Linen Thread


Next up???  ... the oh-so-creative Julie Davison!! Always a pleasure to see her creativity!

Welllll ... TODAY is a GOOD day!!! Not ONLY is it Fab Friday (and I KNOW you always love that!) ... but I have friends arriving for all over hither and yon to attend Stampin' Up's OnStage event!! I LOOOOOVE my stampin' friends more than I can even tell ya! Heck ... it's BECAUSE of them that I even HAVE a blog!!

I have decided recently to regain my "overdoes-it-girl" mentality when it comes to making cards. I have been STRUGGLING the past few years to try to make cards that are "simple" or "easy" ... and I have just let myself admit to myself that I have more fun when I add #allthethings and #allthelayers. So there you go!! Which bring me to this week's challenge. It's a very clean and beautiful sketch ... and I, of course, added a gazillion layers more than I needed to ... but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet, Well Said
Paper: Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Basic Black, Real Red, Pineapple Punch
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Basic Black, Real Red, Pineapple Punch
Accessories: Bouquet Bunch Framelits Dies, Well Written Framelits Dies, Stitched Rectangles Framelits Dies, Classic Label Punch, Tufted Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, 1/2" Circle Punch, Braided Linen Trim, Happiness Blooms Enamel Dots







Can you see how my card started out with this sketch??? It's a fun one!









Here's a link to the Fab Friday Challenge Blog so that you can play along:

Fab Friday Challenge Blog

Mindy Backes
Heather Heroldt
Brian King
Amy Koenders
Amanda Mertz
Brenda Myers

I will be spending the better part of today helping to set things up for the OnStage event at the Salt Palace convention center. Then I will be hanging with friends ... and Saturday we will ALL be together and enjoying crafty goodness (and we will get to see the new 2019-2020 Stampin' Up catalog)!! I can't WAIT!!

If I haven't mentioned it before, I have a VERY large extended family. YEARS ago I started writing all the birthdays/anniversaries for all of our Weixler family members and giving them to everyone for Christmas. THEN, kids were growing up, getting married, and having babies of their own. It got to be a HUGE amount of work AND a HUGE amount of expense to make these calendars (which I was now adding family photos to AND printing out in color for each and every family member who was living in their own home). I finally gave in some years back and just settled on creating family lists with birthdays, anniversaries, addresses, phone numbers and the like. They get fixed up pretty and emailed to all the family peeps. SOOOO, because it's fun and I don't have enough things to do, I send birthday cards to all of the extended Weixler family members (I gave up on the anniversaries and decided a text to the anniversary couple will have to be good!). You may have noticed that a LOT of my cards are of the birthday variety, and now you know WHY!

CUPPYCAKES!!! Oh man ... oh MAN!! I LOVE ME SOME ADORABLE LITTLE CUPPYCAKES! Hoping that my cute little cousin will like them, too!!

Stamps: Birthday Cheer
Paper: Blushing Bride, Basic Black, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Butterfly Gala DSP (recently retired)
Ink: Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride (applied with an aqua painter to background)
Accessories: Stitched Shapes Framelits, Detailed Birthday Edgelets, Dot to Dot Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Stitched Rectangles Dies

Next week OnStage will be happening here in good ol' Salt Lake City! Getting VERY excited for my BFF, Bree Renwick, to come stay with me! AND to be able to hang with my very best besties and crafty SU friends!!! Such a good time is ALWAYS had!! Squeeeeee!!!

I cannot BELIEVE that it has been TWO YEARS since I hopped withy friends on the Stamp Review Crew. And not only am I stamping and hopping with them ... I got my days mixed up so now I am LATE with them!! (I thought that this post was to go up TOMORROW night instead of TONIGHT!! Oh what a GOOBER I feel like NOW!!!

In any event, I got to pull out the super FUN Apron of Love Bundle.  Stamp, dies ... every single piece is A-DOR-A-BLE!! And I'm gonna be honest ... I'm not exactly SURE what a "best friend ever" would want to receive a card with an apron on it would signify.  PERHAPS one of all-y'all should make me a PIE or a CAKE or some other such delectable treat ... THEN I could send you this fun little card as a THANK YOU!! It's a WIN-WIN, isn't it???

Stamps: Apron of Love
Paper: Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White, Silver Foil, Tranquil Tides DSP
Ink: Night of Navy, Real Red
Accessories: Apron Builders Framelits Dies, Stitched Rectangles Thinlits Dies, Stitched Rectangles Dies









Cute ....







And SUPER CUUUUTE, right???









Next up?? Click on "Next Blog" to check out what Sue Plote has "cooked up" with this cute apron!! Click on the "Previous Blog" button to see what Cindy Elam has whipped up!!