Bella Rose Book Class

On a recent trip to the Bay Area, I attended a class/workshop at Patty Bennett's house where we created these amazing books using Bella Rose Designer Series Papers and a myriad of other fabulous SU products. You can see the full book on Patty's Blog at www.pattystamps.com. We worked many hours, just to get the insides ready so we could bind them. After I returned home, I spent a few more hours finishing the embellishments on the inside and deciding how to decorate the outside. I really love the faux "quilt" look, and woke up one morning with this image in my mind. First, I covered the whole outside of the book with Pirouette Pink DSP. Then, I started with a piece of the Bella Rose DSP with a pink rose and then punched Photo corners from contrasting DSP. When you line them up around the outside of the rose, you get the center of this page (looks like a pieced quilt). The remaining "quilt" pieces are just ever increasing sizes of contrasting papers, set at angles to each other to build to the outside border. On the back, I simply cut a piece of DSP in half on the diagonal and turned one over, snailed it all down and added ribbon. It was lots of fun andI'm really happy with the result. Enjoy.

Great gifts for friends

What a great way to show a special friend that you really thought of them! I got this idea from a set of darling cards that I received from my Stampin friend Christine for my birthday. I sat down one afternoon and made a few gifts for my special friends. It's a pretty easy process, just using DSP with coordinating cardstock. I LOVE the Lovely Letters Alphabet, and it fits so nicely inside the circle punch! Backed with the Designer Label and Scallop Circle punches, it looks elegant!
There's no end to the color and style choices, not to mention additional embellishments! Yummy!

Goodie bag

I'm working on projects for an upcoming class, and made this little goodie bag using the Fabulous Top Note Die and the new Itty Bitty Buds Hostess Set (pg 19, new catalog) I stamped the images randomly (and you have no idea how difficult this is for me!) on the Top Notes using Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango and Yoyo Yellow. Then I used snail to attach them to the little bag, which I had cut down to 2 3/4 in.(purchased at the craft store) I then punched the handle with the wide oval, and used the punched section for a tag with a smaller yoyo yellow oval. Then tied it up with the Tangerine Tango 5/8" striped grosgrain ribbon and the Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla satin ribbon. I think it would make a great Hostess gift or little gift bag.

God Bless America

Last Monday, Patrick and I attended the swearing in ceremony for new naturalized citizens. There are now over 1100 new citizens in the Fresno area alone! That's quite impressive. We went because a good friend of ours became a citizen that day. She's been in this country for many years and is proud to be a true American now! We gave her an American flag to hang outside her new home and I made this card for her. I used the Classic Stars wheel with Brilliant Blue Ink, then Brilliant Blue and Real Red cardstock. Then I punched out stars to add. I had punched a square out of the brilliant Blue and was just going to layer it behinD the "Congrats" but my husband laid the discarded piece over the letters and said, why don't you do this and back it in red. I think he was right! I thought you'd like to see. The ceremony was quite moving, and it was amazing to see people from nearly every country pledging their loyalty to our great country. Welcome to America, Lucia!