This is my favorite project from Saturday's Summer Mini class. I used Tropical Party to create the focal image as well as the gorgeous background paper. The coconut is paper pieced while the shell was made using a faux suede technique. The stamped Shimmery White background paper comes out looking a little like shiny plastic in the photo but it's sparkly in person.

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The New Summer Mini is Here!

Wow! The time has just flown by this year! Can you believe school is out next month? That means I'm running out of time to get a stamp camp scheduled before your summer vacations start AND.... there is something scheduled on my calendar almost every weekend for the next two months. So, that leaves me only one weekend open to do a class and that is Memorial Day weekend.

If you will be in town, I'd like you to come to my Summer Mini Camp on Saturday, May 29th, from 11:00-2:00, at the Juanita Village Starbucks. Some of the things we'll be doing are the faux suede technique, making 3D scrunched flowers, making our own designer paper and using the new Smooch Spritz. The cost for this class is $20.

To register for the camp, please send your payment to me by Friday, May 14th. If you are new to my camps, just send me a quick email to melissa_canales@yahoo.com and I'll send you my payment address.

Want to earn some free stuff or get a discount on your class fee? Sign up a "new to me" friend for camp and you'll get to pick from my freebie basket (there are new/unopened stamp sets, ink pads, etc... to chose from). If you place a $50 order with me on the day of camp, I'll give you $5 off your registration fee. A $100 order will get you $10 off and hostess benefits kick in at the $150 level. Hope to see you all there!

On another note, all mini catalogs should have been delivered by now. If you are on my mini mailing list and haven't received your copy, please let me know.

Now for some fun pictures... I went to an event this weekend and saw a lot of great samples made with the new Summer Mini products. Take a look at the work of a very talented demonstrator:

Above is a full sized party banner and below is a coordinating mini banner that has been draped over a candle.

Here she made some festive table decorations, including a place card, napkin ring, and gift box.


And the last thing I have to share with you is the new project I have for your next home party. If you schedule a party with me before the end of June, look what your guests will get to make:

Flight of the Butterfly Boxed Card Set

This project makes a great gift for teachers, mothers, a friend's birthday, etc... Please let me know if you are interested in scheduling a home party!

One More Valentine Post

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved one(s). We had a long, busy weekend so we stayed in today and ordered take out.

I have one final Valentine post for you. This was the box I made for the two giant Hershey bars I bought for my husband. The card was one I put together in just a couple of minutes for my oldest daughter. The two went so well together, I just had to take a photo to share with you all.










And below are a couple more photos of the two boxes I made for my girls. I decided to use Nerds as the candy for the drawers. I was prepared to empty the boxes into some small zip lock bags but two of the boxes fit perfectly. So, I just wrapped them all in coordinating paper for a nice finishing touch.

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Have you finished your holiday projects yet? If not, here is a little inspiration to help get you motivated.....Enjoy!





I made a treat box for each of my daughters for Valentine's Day (one of which was also a camp project from last month). I haven't decided what's going in them for sure, probably some sour gummy candies or Nerds. Those are always a big hit with my girls!








The boxes are made using 3 cuts of the drawer on the Matchbox die. The hinges are also from this same die. I used Chocolate Chip Taffeta for the ribbon closure.











I used the Sending Love Specialty paper on both boxes. The designer paper as well as the flower brads on this box can be found in the Occasions mini.




















The following "half cut shape card" uses the Mover's and Shaper's die along with the heart shaped window die. This technique is a very simple way to make a quick and easy Wow card.





This is the card front.













When you pull the left and right sides of the card it opens up to this:






Here is one more version. This card was also a camp project.





And if you aren't too tired of looking at Valentine's, this is a little card I made last year. It is one of my favorites. The envelope is made using the Scalloped Envelope die.

This darling little gift created for a neighbor was another project from my January camp. The carrier holds four milk cartons that can contain all kinds of little goodies, like gold fish crackers, decorative office supply items such as paper clips, push pins, binder clips, etc., and of course everyone's favorite.... candy or chocolate.

To make this little treasure I used the new, totally cute Mini Milk Carton die, Pinking Hearts Border Punch, Good Neighbor designer paper (the images are cut out from the DSP and mounted on the Bashful Blue card stock) as well as, the Mini Tag Punch, Tiny Tags stamp set, mini binder clips, Bashful Blue satin ribbon, and Kraft taffeta ribbon. Hope you like it.

Please feel free to leave comments on my blog. I truly enjoy reading them! Thanks for looking!

January Camp Project

Hello Everyone,

Sunday's camp unfortunately had to be canceled but hopefully you will enjoy this little peak of one of the projects I had planned for you. If there is enough interest, I would like to reschedule the class for sometime in early March. Please email me at energizerbunny67@hotmail.com if you are interested in attending.


This card features the new Sweet Pea designer series paper, Sweet Pea stitched felt, Jewelry Tag punch, Tiny Tags stamp set, Lots of Tags sizzlet die, chipboard owl from the So Tweet collection and a little piece of felt ribbon from last year. You can find the ribbon on sale in the clearance section of my online store for a great price!

Family Christmas Card

With the holidays behind us it is time to look forward to a new year and some new products from Stampin' Up! But before I get into what is new, I'd like to share the Christmas card I made for our extended family this year. Since I forgot to snap some pictures of the cards before sending them off to the post office, I am sharing with you a slightly stepped up version which went out to a dear friend of mine in Texas. The bow on this card was too big for standard post so I left it off and stamped Peace on Earth in Real Red in it's place. I also ended up using the Perfect Details embossing plate on the tree instead of the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder used here. The deeper embossing by the folder made the tree a little hard to work with.




Now on to some Great News! In case you haven't heard, Stampin' Up! has been busy making some improvements to some of their products ........

New Clear-Mount Rubber Stamps by Stampin' Up!

Over the past few years, there has been enormous demand from demonstrators and customers alike for a line of repositionable clear-mount rubber stamps. Well, you asked for it, and now you have it! Starting with stamps in the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog and the 2010 Sale-A-Bration Brochure, Stampin' Up! now offers our exclusive stamp art in both traditional wood-mount, and the new clear-mount option.

Our new clear-mount rubber stamps are the result of extensive research with the intent to maintain the very best image quality in the stamping industry, while at the same time offering the ease-of-use and storability inherent in repositionable clear-mount rubber stamps.

Clear-Mount Rubber Stamp Features

• Nine different sizes of clear blocks available individually or as a discounted bundle.
• Blocks have ergonomic grooves on all four sides for easy grip and traditional wood-mount feel.
• Stamps and blocks are durable and easy to clean with your Stampin' Scrub and Stampin' Mist.
• Optional image labels on stamp backs let you decide if you want to see the image through the block or not.
• Tight die-cutting for easy image positioning.
• Large clear blocks can be used to create collages or spell words with alphabet sets.
• Stamps store easily in standard, DVD-type cases with artwork on front and spine, making organization easy.

Another great improvement involves our punches......

New Punch Design

Starting with the new 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog and continuing with all new punch designs going forward, Stampin' Up! has adopted a new body style for our punches!

A few features of the new punch style:

• Low-profile, rectangular punch body allows for easier stacking and storing
• Punches lock shut for easier storage and transport
• Dual labels on top and end allow for easy identification and selection when stored
• Available in three sizes: small, medium, and extra-large
• New punches allow for larger punched images and more intricate designs while providing greater ease of use.
• Extra -large punch images also allow for two-step designs like the Two-Step Bird punch in the Occasions Mini Catalog
• Corner punches allow you to punch a corner design along the inside edges of a page, not just corners
• larger, whole-hand handle design provides better leverage for easier use
• Available in an exclusive Stampin' Up! color

Part of Stampin' Up!'s commitment to providing customers with the very best crafting tools includes the belief in what we call continuous improvement. Essentially what this means is that even if something works very well, but we see a chance to improve it, we will work to make it even better. While new punch designs will be in the new body style, existing designs will remain in the existing body style for now.

For those of you on my mailing list, the Occasions Mini and Sale-a-bration catalogs should be arriving in your mailboxes soon! Please send me an email if you would like to be added to the mailing list: melissa_canales@yahoo.com.

Upcoming events will be announced soon!