Happy Wednesday and some Birthday cards!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Can you believe it's the last Wednesday of October already? Where does the time go? Today I'm sharing cards from Adriana Benitez, a fellow Florida demonstrator. (It sure doesn't feel like I'm in Florida this morning! It's 37 degrees at my house!)

Don't forget! The Birthday sale is only available until Friday, the 31st! Don't miss your chance at 20% off select birthday sets including the ones in Adriana's samples!

Here's what Adriana has to say about her cards!

Just a few project notes: This one was a little time consuming but fun to make! The large cupcake was stamped onto Baja Breeze and onto the DSP, then cut apart and pieced together. The dots you see on the cupcake and scallops are all from the reservoir on the handheld punch. (Whenever you punch, the circles are stored in there until you empty them out. If you've never noticed that... you probably have a few stored up - ready made confetti!) This card begins as a 6x6 square of cardstock - so this design could easily be opened up into a 6x6 bragbook page.

Stamp Set: Crazy for Cupcakes and coordinating standard wheel Cupcakes
Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic Ink Pad and standard cartridge
Paper: Baja Breeze, Really Rust, Autumn Vine DSP
Other: 1/4" vanilla grosgrain, Scallop Border Punch, 1/8" handheld
punch, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, Tombow Adhesive.

This card is made using the same supplies with the addition of
chocolate chip and naturals vanilla cardstock, a 1/4" circle punch and
the Outlined for Fun stamp set. The punch is used to punch out the
corners of the chocolate paper and for additional dots (under the
sentiment) just for an extra touch. I recently received the Outlined
for Fun stamp set and am having so much fun with it! As you see, you
don't really have to add color to the entire image to make it pop. And
just so ya know... the curly thing on the top right is a noise maker -
I've had 2 people ask me what the deal is with the water hose! lol

Thanks for sharing with us today, Adriana!

Have a fabulous Wednesday! See you all back here next week!

*~Elizabeth~*

Into the Scrap pile!

I am sure that if you are anything like me you save every piece of paper and cardstock which are leftovers from a project you have done. Also, if it is anything like mine they are overflowing! I have tried many ways to store and keep these cut offs/scraps but was never happy ... well till now :)

I've been using this system for a while and I find as the scraps are handy to my work area I just need pull a drawer open and there they are! now in saying that I need to work some more with my soft subtle scraps!
It also makes tidying up quick and easy - well it would if i did tidy my table! I have a drawer for each family plus another set of drawers on the shelf above for the patterned papers scraps.

I was at a loss today on what to blog here and I saw some of the girls on UDI talk about storing their paper scraps so I thought I'd share how I store mine and also make a couple of things to show you that you can use those bits left over instead of putting them in the recycling bin or giving them to the kids!

Here are a couple of 4x4 cards I made a while ago using scraps from the Enchante Papers and the Carte Postale Stamp Set. I love these little cards as they are just so quick & easy.

I wanted to make something new for you and thought well I only have one more month left with the Summer Mini here in Australia so I'd use up some of those papers.

Here is a 6x6 layout I whipped up tonite using scraps from the Loves Me papers - yes these too are in the Summer Mini Catalogue so will be gone after 31st March.

I have just used strips of the papers and used the small corner rounder to give them a decorative edge. I've also punched out the circles from the same paper pack and raised them with Stampin Dimensionals.

I quite love this layout but then this little angel is easy to scrap!

Recipe for Love U layout
Stamps: Dream come true, Big Deal Alpha
Papers: Loves Me Designer Series Papers
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals, Snail Adhesive, small corner rounder punch

Scrappin' Saturday

I am so excited to introduce a fellow UDI member to you today--Sue M. I am a huge fan of all of her work, especially her wonderful 6x6 recipe pages. Today, I'm sharing one she created for a chocolate recipe swap. This page is amazing and I'm so glad I also participated in the swap just to have my own copy. :) Here is what Sue wanted to share......

Hi! I'm Sue Martin, I live in the "heart" of PA Dutch Country, my very favorite place in the whole wide world! :) I'm married to my wonderful husband for 33 years, we have 4 great sons, and 5 awesome grandchildren! I collect Mary Engelbreit, Susan Branch, & Tasha Tudor books and memorabilia, as well as anything Gingerbread. Thanks to a very special friend who has introduced me to the fabulous world of Raggedy Ann & Andy, I now also collect them!

I've been crafting in some form or another since I've been a teenager. My most recent, and one of my favorites is paper crafting. One of the best decisions I've made was when I decided to become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator 7 years ago. Getting out and having workshops, making lots and lots of new friends and gaining many wonderful relationships has totally changed my life from what it was before. I am truly grateful for that. I joined UDI in 2006 and have enjoyed being a part of the group there as well. I was very excited when Alicia asked me if she could feature my work here. Thanks again, Alicia!

Now for the recipe: I made this 6x6 card for a Chocolate recipe swap that I was a part of on UDI. Recipe swaps are my very favorite swaps to join. Though I don't often even make the recipes, I just

love to collect them and put them into albums! For this swap I used the "Time Well Spent" set and gave it a bit of a different twist. I wanted to somehow stay in keeping with "chocolate" in my design, so I printed out the word "chocolate" and then inked up my "time spent with friends is time well spent" stamp with my black marker omitting the word, "friends". then used my "stamp-a-ma-jig" to align it to fit perfectly around the word, "chocolate". Thus the saying, "Time Spent With Chocolate is Time Well Spent". Well, who among us women can't say that to be true? (smile) Especially if it is chocolate chip mint ice cream, namely DOVE "Give in to Mint"! Try it sometime --- you'll see what I mean. ;) Oops! Back to my card; For the top right corner where the definition of chock-lit ;) is, I again printed it out then used the stamp "too much of a good thing is a good thing" as the definition. I punched holes in the large flower where the dots are, used a white brad in the center of the flower and grosgrain ribbon for the stem and leaves. I drew and cut a flower pot out of Close to Cocoa and shaded it with Choc. Chip ink. Other colors I used are Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, Rose Red, Old Olive, and White. I hope I have explained this in a way that is easy to understand. If you have any questions you can e-mail me at sugarmart74@aol.com Oh, and BTW, the recipe for this candy really is very very yummy! ;) It makes wonderful peanut butter eggs for Easter! May all your "chock*lits" be "a good thing!" (smile).

Thank you to Sue for sharing with us this week. Looking forward to seeing more of your projects in the future. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Alicia :)