Join Me for April's Creative Card Class - Saturday, April 10th

Hi Everyone,
Well, in all the excitement I almost forgot to tell you about this month's Creative Card Class. We will be making 5 High Quality cards that you can use for the wonderful ladies in your life. You can choose to create cards for Mother's Day, Birthday, Thinking of You, Thank You etc. The choice is yours. 
This is a great opportunity to play with some of the colors that will soon retire, to see if you like them enough for your own collection.
Once again, there will be two class times available:
Morning: 10am - 12noon
Afternoon: 1pm - 3pm
This is a fun and relaxing class. No stress allowed! We will also be trying out some Two Step Stamping as part of April's special promotion, so it really is a great opportunity to come and play and learn something new. Plus, you get to take home 5 fabulous cards that you made yourself.
Tomorrow I will post sneak peeks of the card designs we will be making, just to tempt you (I hope, lol).
Please contact me to reserve your spot and don't forget to bring a friend to share the fun with you.
Until Next Time.
Stampin' Hugs,
Tricia Butts

Stampin' Up announces its Color Renovation

Hello Everyone,
Well, I had planned to share a project with you today but that has been bumped for some exciting breaking news from Stampin' Up.
Starting with the new 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog, Stampin' Up will launch its new Color Renovation consisting of 4 Color Collections. Each collection will consist of 10 colors to give us 40 core colors.
Here is the list of the 4 new color collections will be available July 1st, 2010. The new collections consist of 25 current colors, 10 returning In Colors (including current In Colors Melon Mambo, Soft Suede & Rich Razzleberry) and 5 new colors. (Click download to save this file to your desktop or click print to print a copy).
In addition, July 1st will also see the release of the new In Colors and the great news is that they will be available for 2 years instead of one! Stay tuned for further updates as we get closer to the new catalog!
Sadly, this also means we must say goodbye to some of our old favorites.
Here is the list of the colors that will be retiring June 30, 2010. (You can save this PDF file to your desktop by clicking download or print out a copy by clicking print.) In addition to this list, Basic Brown and the three remaining current In Colors: Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay & Dusty Durango will also be retiring.
The retirement of these colors means that any inks, reinkers, cardstock, embellishments (ribbons, brads, buttons etc), Stampin' Write Markers, Water Color Crayons and Pastels in these colors will retire June 30th.
These colors will be available while stocks last, so if you see any colors that you would love to own, contact me to place your order before they disappear. Also, if you have any questions about this new development, please contact me and I will be happy to help you.
With all of these exciting changes, I will be posting projects in coming weeks that will feature some of the current colors that will be retiring so that you can get a chance to say goodbye to them and decide if it is something you would like to add to your collection.
I hope you are all as excited as I am about the new changes that are coming to Stampin' Up! This will provide you with new, updated colors that are in keeping with current trends and wonderful new options for your creative projects.
Until Next Time.
Happy Stampin',
Tricia Butts

The Birds are Back!

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with family and friends. I am sorry I have been AWOL the past few days but I what I thought was just allergies has turned into a nasty cough and my voice has practically disappeared. Let me tell you, it has made life challenging with my 4 kids, lol.
Today I thought I would share with you a card that I created with Stampin' Up's new Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch and the stamp set, Vintage Vogue, both from the Occasions Mini Catalog. Did you know that April is the last month to order from the Occasions Mini? Time really has flown by (sorry, bad pun) and I can't believe that we will soon have to say goodbye to all the wonderful products available in this catalog.

This card is a great reminder that Spring has returned with the two cute little birds perched on the card so cheerfully. I chose to use Melon Mambo cardstock for the card base and stamped the large flower from the Vintage Vogue stamp set all over the card front with Melon Mambo Classic ink for a tone on tone pattern.

The birds were created using Pretty in Pink cardstock for the body of one and Barely Banana cardstock for the body of the second bird. The wings I punched from Whisper White cardstock and then stamped them using the vine stamp (from the Vintage Vogue stamp set) using Sage Shadow Classic ink on one wing to coordinate with the Barely Banana bird and Real Red Classic ink on the other to coordinate with the Pretty in Pink bird. Both of the branches were punched from Soft Suede cardstock.

I took a strip of Whisper White cardstock and stamped it with the vine stamp and Sage Shadow to create an all  over pattern. I then punched one edge with the Scallop Trim Border punch (sorry, now that Sale-a-bration is over this punch is no longer available). I matted the Whisper White strip onto a piece of Barely Banana cardstock.

Last piece of the puzzle, I stamped the F friends stamp (also from Vintage Vogue stamp set) with Sage Shadow onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock and matted it onto a piece of Sage Shadow cardstock.

Now, the fun part - assembling the card. The important thing with this card is to work out your placement before you apply the adhesive. This way you can plan out your layout the way you want it.

The first layer to adhere to your card is the Whisper White-Sage Shadow stamped cardstock that we matted with the Barely Banana cardstock. I positioned it so that it was approx 2/3 of the way down the card and adhered it with Snail Adhesive.

Next I positioned the F friend stamped cardstock piece so that it overlaps the top part of the Melon Mambo card front and the Barely Banana/Whisper White patterned piece. Apply Snail adhesive around the edge of the piece but when you place it on your card, don't apply pressure to the left edge (this is so that you can slide your branches underneath).

Take the two Soft Suede branches, apply Snail adhesive carefully to them and gently slide the end of each branch under the Friend piece to hide it. Gently rub the branches to adhere them to the card and then gently rub the edge of the Friend piece to adhere that to the card.

To assemble your birds, use Snail adhesive to glue the wing to the corresponding body and then using the Soft Suede Stampin' Write Marker draw a dot for the eye on each bird. Then using the Dusty Durango Stampin' Write Marker I colored the triangle for the beak.

Finally, I adhered both birds to the card using Snail adhesive to complete the card.

This card is a great combination of stamping and using punches to create a great card for a friend. You could also add a sentiment to personalize it for a birthday, thank you, thinking of you or get well card.

Hope you have enjoyed today's card share. Don't forget, April is the month to take advantage of the great Stampin' Up products from the Occasions Mini before they disappear (last day to order is April 30th).

Please Contact Me to place your order or visit my Online Store by visiting my Stampin' Up website and clicking Shop Now in the top right corner.

Until Next Time.

Happy Stampin',

Tricia Butts

Products Used (All Stampin' Up):

Stamp Set:  Vintage Vogue - Clear Mount Stamp 118598  Price: $17.95

                                                    Wood Mount Stamp 117690 Price: $23.95 

Set Quantity: 8

Cardstock: Whisper White, Barely Banana, Melon Mambo, Soft Suede, Sage Shadow, Pretty in Pink

Inks: Melon Mambo, Sage Shadow, Real Red

Accessories: Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch (currently not available), Soft Suede and Dusty Durango Stampin' Write Markers (from set of 6 In Color Stampin' Write Markers), Snail Adhesive

Let's Celebrate Spring with Two Step Stamping!

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all survived the 1st day of April. April Fools Day definitely gets pretty crazy and this year didn't seem any different.

One thing that is not a joke is Stampin' Up's new promotion for April, celebrating Two Step Stamping. This is a wonderful way to get started on your Spring projects and you get the chance to save on select stamp sets as well as the chance to earn a brand new stamp set for free.

Aren't these samples beautiful! These were created with the new Awash with Flowers stamp set.

OK, do I have your attention? Here are all the details:

Attention Hostesses

Host a $350 workshop and receive the brand-new Two-Step Awash with Flowers stamp set FREE!
Item Description
117062 Awash with Flowers (wood-mount)
120549 Awash with Flowers (clear-mount)

Now to help you achieve that $350 goal, Stampin' Up is offering this great special.
Attention Customers

Two-Step into spring with a sneak peek from the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog! Be the first to add the Awash with Flowers stamp set to your collection.

Item        Description                                            Price
117062  Awash with Flowers (wood-mount)    $39.95
120549  Awash with Flowers (clear-mount)  $27.95

Plus, purchase spring-themed Two-Step Stampin' sets at 20 percent off the retail price--no additional purchase necessary!

Qualifying stamp sets are listed below:
Item    Page   Description              Discount Price
113824   94    Greenhouse Garden    $20.76
113734  98    Fifth Avenue Floral  $19.96
111578  101   Flower Fancy           $29.56
113258  112   Trendy Trees            $14.36

Important Note: The Awash with Flowers stamp set is a sneak peek from the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog and will not be available again until the release of the new Idea Book & Catalog.
You can download the special flyer for this month's special offers Here for all the details.
Contact me today to place your order, or better yet book a party and earn the new Flowers Awash stamp set for free.
Until Next Time.
Happy Stampin',
Tricia Butts