Welcome to the Stampin’ Addicts SU! Occasions Mini Blog Tour. We’re kicking off the year in grand style, showcasing many of the products in Stampin’ Up!’s newly released Occasions Mini brochure. These items will all be available from your demo on January 5.

You may have arrived here after visiting Dawnmarie’s site, didn’t you just love all the wonderful creations she made using the gorgeous Shades of Spring designer series paper! If you are starting the tour at my blog, you can continue on to visit all 23 participants via the link at the end of my post. If you get lost anywhere along the way, you can find links to all the participants on Stampin’ Addicts website. All links will remain live until Sunday evening, so sit back, take your time, visit often and ENJOY!

I am showcasing the stamp set Vintage Vogue, available in wood mount and NEW clear mount. I decided to be brave and try the clear mount set, must admit I was totally thrilled with how easy they are to work with.

The first project I’m sharing is a stamped picture frame. I purchased this several months ago with the intention of altering it – this stamp set seemed perfect for this project. I used Brocade Blue and Soft Suede inks, and the "rock and roll" technique to get some variation in coloring; then stamped randomly all over the frame. Since these were the clear mount stamps, I was able to eyeball the placement. What a super easy project and I love how it turned out!

RECIPE:

Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Paper: Bashful Blue
Ink: Brocade Blue, Soft Suede

Next I chose to try my hand at stamping on a tumbled tile. This was totally new to me and a fun learning experience. The distressed look of these tiles just seemed to go wonderfully with this stamp set.

RECIPE:
Stamps: En Francais, Vintage Vogue
Ink: Pale Plum, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Mellow Moss

For my last project I decided to make a stair step card. This was once again my very first attempt at this so please excuse my imperfections! I discovered (by mistake!) that the new Beautiful Wings butterfly embosslit layers PERFECTLY with the Bigz Beautiful Butterflies diecuts. I had so much fun making this card and it seemed to continue to grow with each and every step. I finally had to call it quits before it became too busy.

RECIPE:
Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Pretty In Pink, Mellow Moss, Sweet Pea DSP
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Pretty In Pink, Versamark
Accessories: White EP, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Modern Label Punch, Pretty In Pink Corduroy Button, Regal Rose brads, Little Leaves Sizzlet, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, hemp twine

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting, I hope you enjoyed my projects as much as I did creating them. Please continue on the tour by visiting Marie who will be showcasing the brand new stamp set "Tiny Tags".

I was working on reorganizing the closet in my stampin’ quarters yesterday and came across a package of cork trivets I had purchased several months ago.  I’m sure you understand … one of those things I saw that I thought “hey, I bet I can do something wonderful with that!”, and it magically jumped into my shopping cart.  Once home, it was put into the closet where it was quickly buried forgotten (I prefer to believe it was hiding from me).  With the holidays quickly approaching I thought I would finally take some time to play and see what I could come up with …  

… a nifty message center!  On the left side is a dry erase marker board for those quick little notes I’m always needing to jot down, the right side is a mini calendar and bulletin board.  Lucky me, I just happened to have some push pins that color coordinated with the Stampin’ Up! Cottage Wall designer series paper.  I cut the prongs off of a jumbo white grommet, attached it to some ribbon and used it as a hanger.  Below is a picture of it hanging proudly on display!

Recipe

Stamps: Flower Fancy, Grateful Greetings
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Cottage Wall dsp
Ink: Old Olive, Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Old Olive 1 1/4″ striped ribbon, Rich Razzleberry polka dot ribbon, jumbo grommet, corner rounder punch, sticky tape

Need a card and have no idea where to start?  In one of those creative slumps?  Take a peek in your Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalog, it’s a wealth of wonderful inspiration at your fingertips!

On this card I used a layout from page 27 in the IBC, chose some of my fun new holiday toys to play with.  Do you see the tiny bit of shimmer on the Santa and reindeer image (ok, so you have to really squint to see it – the photo doesn’t do it justice) … just ink up your stamp with classic ink, then use a dauber and lightly dab with the new shimmer paint – I used Champagne Mist.  It really gives the card a sparkly glow!  The smaller snowflake (Merry Details sizzlet) was cut from Night of Navy cardstock, then sponged with more shimmer paint … oh how I love this stuff!  If you’re wondering, the background is just wadded up wax paper, which I smooshed in the ink pad and “stamped” it randomly in Brocade Blue and Night of Navy (saran wrap works well too).  I really like the results of this technique.

 
Card Recipe:
Stamps:  Wandering Words
Paper:  Brocade Blue, Night Of Navy, Real Red
Ink:  Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint
Accessories:  Jumbo Snowflake Punch, Merry Details Sizzlit, Big Shot, Polka Dot Ribbon, brad, dimensional, sponge dauber, Scallop Edge punch

I saw an ad in a magazine last month, I loved the way they had patterned papers scattered for display.  This idea has been rolling around in my head ever since and I was wondering if I could actually bring it to life.  Stampin’ Up! has so many cute designer papers, all of which I thought would be perfect for this project!  Using a full 12″ length strip of dsp allowed me to complete two cards.

I do have to thank a wonderfully kind and talented friend (thanks Susan!!!) for teaching me how to make the beautiful butterflies … and if you are reading, you’re right … I WAS making those antennae much harder than they were!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Great Friend, Wings of Friendship
Paper: Sage Shadow, Basic Gray, Apricot Appeal, Nouveau Chic DSP
Ink: Sage Shadow, Basic Gray, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Big Shot, Matchbox die, Beautiful Butterflies die, brads, hemp twine, dimensionals, sponge

I hate throwing away all those little scraps of paper I seem to create and it doesn’t take long for my desk to become somewhat buried.  This weekend I decided to finally put them to good use!

What more perfect way to use them up than to make some birthday cards using Stampin’ Up’s new Sweet Centers stamp set.  These cards were my first attempt at this 3-D balloon … it was a bit of trial and error to achieve the dimension I wanted.
 

Card Recipe: 
Stamps:  Sweet Centers, A Little Birthday Cheer
Paper:  Ruby Red Textured, Certainly Celery, Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Happy B-Day SS
Ink:  Brocade Blue
Accessories:  Rhinestone brad, scallop circle punch, marker, dimensional

I was much happier with how this second card turned out.  Using four scallop circle punches instead of the three that were used on the first card seemed to make a huge difference.  I also popped the rhinestone gem out of the brad and glued it on the banner.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Sweet Centers, A Little Birthday Cheer
Paper: Pretty In Pink, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Happy B-day SS, Tea Party DSP
Ink: Almost Amethyst
Accessories: Rhinestone brad, marker, scallop circle punch, ticket corner punch, Tombow Multi Purpose adhesive, dimensionals

I am all caught up, have spent this entire week finishing up several projects that have been patiently awaiting my return.  I can’t tell you how good I felt finishing those items AND finding my stampin’ desktop clutter free once again.  As my children used to tell me many years ago … “this is the bestest day ever”!

My now clean creative corner kept calling my name, finally luring me back into it’s web … to make yet another mess (just a slight mess this time).  I have always loved the look of those “pleated flowers” I have seen others make but honestly was quite intimidated to give it a try myself.  Thanks to a dear friend who incorporated this idea into a class project (which was one of those many things I needed to finish up!), I discovered how very simple these were and decided to try my hand at making one for a card. 

I started with the pleated flower, felt that the size and shape warranted a 5″ square card for a change of pace.  It is matted with the exclusive Stampin’ Up! Bigz Clear Scallop Square Die.  See that purple scalloped mat in the back???  That is made using 4 cuts from the same die, overlapping and adhering to make a wonderful mat for the original die cut.  I love it when an idea in my head works out the way I envisioned it! 

Card Recipe:
Stamps:  From the Crypt
Ink:  Versarmark
Paper:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Cast-A-Spell designer series paper
Accessories:  black embossing powder, mini glue dots, pop-up glue dots, Bigz Clear Scallop Square die, circle punch

It’s finally time to celebrate the official rollout of Stampin’ Up!’s My Digital Studio software.  Some of us from Stampin’ Addicts have come together to throw a blog party to show you some samples of what we have been having fun with the past few weeks.  This blog party is a little different in that it will be active for the entire month of October … you don’t have to rush through all the blogs in one weekend … please come back and revisit as often as you would like!  There is a button in my sidebar on the left side of the page that will take you to my announcement post where you will find a list of all the party participants.  Without further ado, I’d like to show you what I’ve been up to, and maybe, just maybe, spark your interest in the MDS program a bit more.

For my first project I decided to make a birthday card using a photo my daughter had taken.  Long story short … my grandson is the ultimate Star Wars nut – when we were in Las Vegas a year ago my daughter saw someone dressed up as a Storm Trooper and was kindly allowed to take a photo to take home to her fav nephew.  I have always wanted to make him a Star Wars birthday card, but alas, Stampin’ UP! has no Star Wars stamps.  What a breeze this was to make with MDS – took all of about 15 minutes. 

I love the ability to create oval crops of your photos and mat them perfectly!  I then located a star stamp in the software, resized to fit my needs and scattered a few in each corner – again, matting perfectly with a click of a button and adding drop shadows for depth.  Then I chose a black brad, copy and pasted to add one to the center of each star.  Gray grosgrain ribbon is in this program … woohoo, perfect!!!  Did you notice that little staple I added to connect the ribbon pieces?  Yup, in the program also! 

The first photo is straight from the MDS program, which you could then have printed through their professional service if you would like.  The second photo is a “Hybrid” card I made using the same project.  I just printed it out, cut and matted onto red cardstock – added brads to all those tiny stars and added a piece of hodgepodge hardware and red brads around the sentiment.  How cool is that!!!

I am super excited about my next project, and LOVE how this turned out.  I started out playing with the software to make some “designer” cardstock of my own.  I used a script background paper in MDS, then added the damask stamp from Friends 24-7; copy and pasted, lined it all up and printed on whisper white cardstock.  Then I decided it MUST be double sided so back to work I went, this time using a soft flower background – then “stamping” a torn edges floral border on the edges and in the middle.  I turned the whisper white cardstock over and printed this design out.  So what do you think so far???

Stay with me … the next part is what I think is the really cool part!  I took this card stock and cut out two envelopes using the Sizzix Bigz Scalloped Envelope die.  Used the remaining pieces of scrap designer paper to form the bottoms and sides to appear more “tailored”.  Added a felt flower, large brown button from the Button Latte collection and a snip of celery ribbon to the front … jumbo eyelets to the sides and Old Olive grosgrain ribbon to form the handle for this cute little purse box!   Do you see the double sided paper in action and are you loving it so far?  There’s still more!

Can you see those cute little note cards peeking out of the box?  Those are 3×3 cards (they fit perfectly!!!) which were once again designed entirely with My Digital Studio to create custom designer cardstock, then printed out on whisper white cardstock.  I cut the paper into 3×6 pieces, to form the three gift cards.  All I added was a photo corner punch using leftover scraps from the original box cardstock, a felt flower and a brad.  I think these would make a really special gift!

I hope you have enjoyed my creations as much as I enjoyed designing and sharing them with you. 

Remember, this is an ongoing party and all links will remain active until November 1st.  Take your time, visit these Stampin’ Addicts blogs often for more ideas on using MDS to its fullest! 

DMDezigns/Dawnmarie: My Digital Studio – The Birdseye Overview
HowManyCats?!/Comeka: Digitize Your Sketch Library with MDS
Yapha: Turning Templates into Treasures
Willysgirl/Sarah: MDS Xmas and Extras
Hollylogic/Holly: MDS as a Design Tool (or How Not to Slice Up All Your Brushed Gold)
Lyssa: Playing with Stamps You Don’t Own
Lilysinkpad/Sara: Simply Scrappin’ Kits Go Digi
JulieA/Julie: Wanna Little Music with Your Slideshow?
lovetostampandscrap/Cheryl: Creating a Calendar to Beat All Calendars
Melina Stamps!/Melina: Man-Scrapping with MDS
BroncoMom/Joyce: Build Your Own DSP
Britiney: Clever Album Covers – A Piece of (Cup)Cake
S1itcher46/Kim: Hybridizing and Cataloging Collections
Kelli: Side-by-Side Test: Is it Actual or Is It MDS?
Scrapbookmama/Ellie: Keeping the Spotlight on Your (Adorable!) Subjects

We’re trying something a little new and different for this upcoming event.  Starting at noon EST on Saturday, October 3, Stampin’ Addicts will be hosting a Blog Party that will be done carnival style.  I will be posting links to ALL of the party participants creations in this post.  Each blog will also have a sidebar button that will link you to the entry with the master list of blogs, which should make it easy for you to find your way back.  All links will remain in place and active until November 1st, so you can visit and revisit at your leisure! 

This party will be showcasing many fun, exciting and different ideas on how to use the My Digital Studio software.  Don’t think just digital scrapbooking … this software is so much more, limited only to the extent of your imagination!  We all have had so much fun getting ready for this event and can’t wait to show you how incredible My Digital Studio really is.

This is the party you won’t want to miss (no special attire is necessary!!!).  Be sure to join us this weekend as we celebrate the launch of Stampin’ Up!’s My Digital Studio!

Here’s a list of all the blogs participating in this party.  Enjoy!

1. DMDezigns/Dawnmarie: My Digital Studio – The Birdseye Overview
2. HowManyCats?!/Comeka: Digitize Your Sketch Library with MDS
3. Yapha: Turning Templates into Treasures
4. Willysgirl/Sarah: MDS Xmas and Extras
5. Hollylogic/Holly: MDS as a Design Tool (or How Not to Slice Up All Your Brushed Gold)
6. Lyssa: Playing with Stamps You Don’t Own
7. Lilysinkpad/Sara: Simply Scrappin’ Kits Go Digi
8. JulieA/Julie: Wanna Little Music with Your Slideshow?
9. lovetostampandscrap/Cheryl: Creating a Calendar to Beat All Calendars
10. Melina Stamps!/Melina: Man-Scrapping with MDS
11. BroncoMom/Joyce: Build Your Own DSP
12. Britiney: Clever Album Covers – A Piece of (Cup)Cake
13. S1itcher46/Kim: Hybridizing and Cataloging Collections
14. Kelli: Side-by-Side Test: Is it Actual or Is It MDS?
15. Scrapbookmama/Ellie: Keeping the Spotlight on Your (Adorable!) Subjects

Due to a serious creativity slump, my tiny little blog has been feeling very neglected.  I’m sure there aren’t many people who check my blog on a regular basis anyway, but I still hate posting just anything – it has to be perfect … at least in my goofy mind!  So today I finally took some time to create something I felt was actually “blog-worthy”. 

I saw a card similar to this in one of the many craft magazines I read, loved the concept and layout and thought it would be fun to see if I could CASE it using SU’s new My Digital Studio software.  I’m amazed at how quick and easy projects are to complete, as well as the ability to perfect them without all that paper waste and frustration I put myself through.  I think I have fallen completely in love with this program (surprise, surprise)!!!   

 Card Recipe (all items from the MDS software):
Stamps:  Cheep Talk, Season of Cheer
Colors:  Real Red, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Paper:  Real Red, Very Vanilla, Christmas Jingle
Punches:  Modern Label Punch 
Embellishments:  Christmas Jingle Borders, Christmas Jingle Elements, straight stitching, buttons, brads

As promised, I’ve finally found some time to post more details on the Autumn Meadows card set I created for the Stampin’ Addicts recent blog tour.  Admittedly, thinking fast is NOT something I am proficient at … but it is something I’m working on.  I’ve found (for me anyway) that using SU’s designer papers is a great way to make quick, easy and great looking cards. 

On this card I colored the acorns in with blender pens and covered with crystal effects.  I love this organza ribbon, so easy to die to match your project and always looks so elegant!
Card Recipe
Stamps:  Grateful Greetings, Autumn Splendor
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Taken With Teal 
Paper:  Autumn Meadows DSP, Really Rust
Accessories:  Organza ribbon, tag corner punch, crystal effects, dimensionals

             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to do with the random leaf print in the series, which had a lot of white space – decided to use it on the inside of the card with just the border peeking out the bottom.  PERFECT!
  
Card Recipe
Stamps:  Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Autumn Meadows DSP, Really Rust
Accessories:  5/8″ grosgrain ribbon, scallop border punch

             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The large bold prints work very well as the main focal point of a card, then simplify with plain coordinating colors and a single stamped image/sentiment.  This card really didn’t need any embellishments, sometimes less really IS more.    

Card Recipe
Stamps:  Wandering Words
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Autumn Meadows DSP, Taken With Teal, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Scallop Border punch

             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I know my tastes are different from others, but this has become my favorite card of the bunch … again, quick and easy!  I cut 4 rectangles of the same size in two different patterns, then just layered them onto a card base alternating the patterns.  Topped with a single stamped image, a sentiment, piece of ribbon and a brad.  I twisted the ribbon before affixing the brad, going for a “different” look.

Card Recipe
Stamps:  Autumn Splendor, Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Autumn Meadows DSP, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  brad, ribbon, ticket corner punch, dimensionals

             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Last but not least is the cute little purse box that all these cards get put into if needing something for a gift-giving occasion.  The leaf was stamped with shimmer paint, embossed with clear EP and cut out – then sponged with various colors to give it some depth.  It doesn’t show in the photo well, but leaves are randomly stamped in Taken With Teal ink on the bottom section of the box.   
Recipe:
Stamps:  Autumn Splendor
Ink:  Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal 
Paper:  Autumn Meadows DSP, Taken With Teal, More Mustard
Accessories:  Champagne Mist shimmer paint, grosgrain ribbon, large eyelets, scallop border punch, dimensionals, sponge, thin magnet or velcro for closure