Spookable Fun!

I have been playing with my Halloween stamps and papers trying to figure out which projects I want to do at my upcoming Halloween stamp camp. These are a few of the things I made. The first one is a Halloween sketch card based on Beate's Weekend Sketch#57. This is a new stamp set that will be in the Holiday mini October 1.

The Halloween mini album is based off of an album I made as a make-n-take at scrapfest. Super fun and easy!

The third project is a CASE from a treat box made by Angie. Go check out her awesome tutorial for it here.

I have my 30 Scrappin' card class tonight. Tomorrow it's more playing with Halloween stuff for my upcoming Halloween stamp camp. It's dirty work but someone has to do it. hehehe.

Fall Once Upon a Barn Sale

My sisters and I are having a sale! Check it out:

Take two sisters with a passion for everything old and add a dash of whimsy and charm. That’s called Once Upon a Barn, a collection of furniture, vintage linens, retired Stampin' Up! stamps, hand-stamped cards, journals, garden art, cool Yule and Halloween decorations.


Check out our friendly jackos and vintage Christmas decorations. Dig through our boxes to find an unusual curiosity or two. We’ve got fine china and rusty old tools. From jars of buttons and thread to benches and tables, we’ve got a bit of everything. We’ve gathered our friends and they’ve gathered their treasures. So come and see what we’ve put together.



Check it out for yourself at 310 Wayside Road W. in Hopkins, Minn. We’re just a half block off Hwy. 7 at the junction of Fifth Avenue.



Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18; 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 19; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20.

Questions? Need directions? Call Therese at (612) 867-5095 or e-mail Geri at geri.parlin@gmail.com or Kathleen at krhopperstad@juno.com.

The Silly Side

This is a page I did for the recipe design team on Tamara's sketch blog. We had to do a monochromatic color scheme, brads, and scallops. These are pictures from Father's day. I did the formal Father's day page spread earlier and these are the silly pictures from that day.

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Short Order Alphabet
Ink: Pacific Point
Paper: Bashful Blue, Pacific Point
Other: Silver brads, scallop edge punch

Halloween Frights

This card took about 10 minutes from concept to completion. I love simple cards! I used a new set from the upcoming holiday mini called Halloween Frights. So fun! You can order this set as of October 1. Check out the new Stampin' Up! online ordering. You can go here and click on the "shop now" button on the upper right hand corner.

Recipe:
Stamps: Halloween Frights
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Whisper White, Kraft, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Eggplant Envy
Other: 1" circle punch, square scallop punch, stampin'dimensionals, tangerine tango ribbon

mini scrapbooks

These are little mini scrapbooks I made as gifts for my stamp club ladies. Beate decorated little books like this a few years back and I copied her idea. The books came from Walmart a few years back. The bear is from the Under the Stars set which I just love! It's also on special for 15 percent off through this month so it's pretty hard to resist!

I just got back from Scrapfest at Mall of America. I'm dog tired but it feels good to be home in my jammies and relaxing. I had a great time and learned lots of fun stuff that I think I will be able to incorporate into my Stampin' Up! business using Stampin' Up! product. It was so much fun to hang out with the girls,do lots of creative projects, and shop! I'll share some of my ideas in the coming weeks.

Back 2 School page spread

This is the Back to School page spread for my scrapbook club this month. The apples are from the Tart and Tangy stamp set, the title block is the Stampin' Up! exclusive top note sizzix die, the clip board is made from corner rounded the creamy caramel cardstock, taking a piece of whisper white and punching the left edge with the spiral edge punch and drawing notebook lines with a marker and ruler. The top is the tag punch in basic gray and silver brads.

It's a rainy Saturday. We had soccer games for both boys in this lovely weather. Now maybe I can get down to some stamping!

Online Ordering Now Available!

Stampin' Up! has now officially rolled out online ordering! I couldn't be more excited!!! You can now order 24/7 from my Stampin' Up! demonstrator website. You can go here and it will take you to my demonstrator website homepage. Just click on the shop now button in the upper right hand corner and it will take you there! This link is also on the right hand side of my blog under Stampin' Up! links. Go ahead and bookmark it so you can come back anytime you want to.

Here's all you need to do to get started:
1) Go to my demonstrator website: website
2)Click on the "shop now" button on the upper right hand corner of the homepage
3)Click on the customer login to set up your personal shopping account.
4) You're ready to shop!

Now if you are scrapbooking with your pals and you need some supplies, hop online and shop!

Planning a birthday party? Hop online and order your supplies!

Making baby announcements and need some supplies? Hop online and order!

You get the idea. The online ordering is waiting for you when you are ready.

And if you spend $150 or more you are eligible for Stampin' Rewards(hostess benefits).

The first 5 customers who place an online order with me will receive a free goodie from me!

Happy shopping!

Sunny Mr. Twigster

This cute little guy is from a new stamp set called Mr. Twigster. He will be in the Holiday mini catalog coming out October 1. It's a good one! ;) I first spotted that yummy ribbon at the Stampin' Up! headquarters when going on a tour at convention. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! It's just as yummy as I had hoped! Mr. Twigster is punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch and backed with the sunburst otherwise known as the bottom of the basket in the Stampin' Up! Sizzix Baskets and Blooms exclusive die. It's the perfect size for the circle punch.

Recipe:
Stamps: Mr. Twigster, Short and Sweet
Ink: Jetblack Stazon, Craft White, Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, More Mustard dp from the Level 1 prints paper pack
Other: Sunburst from the Baskets and Blooms Sizzix die cut, 1 3/4" circle punch, ribbon from the Holiday mini, stampin' dimensionals

Cupcakes and polka dots

What an irresistable combination! This was one of the cards we did at stamp club on Monday. The cupcake is embossed with black embossing powder and colored in with reinkers. It gives more intense color so the black embossing helps balance that.

Recipe:
Stamps: Crazy for cupcakes
Ink: Versamark, Pirouette Pink reinker, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip reinker
Paper: Pirouette Pink, Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose Designer Paper, whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Other: Scallop edge punch, ticket corner punch, pretty in pink brads, stampin dimensionals, 1 3/8" circle punch, key tag punch

It's another crazy week! I had club on Monday, a party last night, I'm doing a garage sale over the next couple of days with my neighbor and Scrapfest at Mall of America on Friday and the weekend. My Holiday mini pre-order comes today. I hope to play with it tonight if I'm not too worn out!

Getting Sketchy

I had a little bit of time to play today so I finally got to make Beate's latest weekend sketch card. I'm so glad she's back to blogging and posting her challenges! For this card I wanted to use the new In colors because I really love them! The stamp is from the set A Flower For All Seasons. I got this one for free at convention. I punched the image out with the 1 3/8" square punch. I wanted to back it with the square scallop punch but it's too small. I saw some people making rectangles by placing 2 square scallops together. I decided to make a bigger square scallop using this same method. I punched 4 square scallops and moved each piece over until is was big enough to border my square punch. I really love the result! It takes on the thickness of chipboard so it has a little more presence.

Recipe:
Stamps: A Flower For All Seasons
Ink: Jet black stazon, kiwi kiss, tango tangerine, riding hood red, basic grey, baja blue, summer sun
Paper: Baja Blue, Haiku designer paper, whisper white, riding hood red, bella rose designer paper
Other: 1 3/8" square punch, square scallop punch, black gingham ribbon, aquapainter, stampin' dimensionals

Our bbq was very fun! It started to rain after 7:00 but it didn't seem to deter folks. We had lots of tables set up in our 3 car garage so that's where most people hung out. There were people inside and kids running around outside in the rain. We had well over 50 people here. It's exhausting but fun! I spent most of Sunday just recovering.

I have stamp club tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with one of the cards we made in club.

Bright Birthday

This cupcake card is a little bright. I really like the new Pacific Point In color but I'm still trying to find the color combos using it that I like the best. I used re-inkers to color in the cupcake so the color is especially intense. The sprinkles are silver and clear beads attached with crystal effects.

We are having our annual end of summer bbq today. We have been doing this for 18 years- since we got married. It's grown a bit over the years. Now the kids invite their friends too so we will have lots of neighbors, family, and friends here this afternoon. We still have a lot to do to get ready. We have 2 soccer games to fit in today too so it's going to be a busy one today. At least the weather is cooperating for us today. It's supposed to be sunny and 70. I'll take it!

Happy stamping!

Good Works

This is a stamp set called Inspired by Nature. I received it at convention and it's not one I would have purchased on my own. I really like it though. I wanted the flowers to be the Riding Hood Red because I love this color. Stampin' Up! doesn't sell markers in the In colors so I tried to mostly ink up the flower images. Then I went back with a wet wipe and removed the red ink from the rest of the image and colored the stems and the middle of the flowers with my Chocolate Chip and Old Olive Stampin' write markers. The sentiment comes in the set along with the tall grass and another sentiment, "Live with Passion".

I'm off to get my haircut this morning. I was waiting until the kids went back to school so I didn't have to work around their schedules. It feels weird having them back in school but I'm sure I'll adjust!

New backpacks for school!

Yesterday was the first day of school for my kids. They all headed off to new schools. I couldn't get Sam, my youngest, to loosen up for pictures. I had to start talking about farts before I could get him to loosen up and smile. If you have little boys you know what I'm talking about. Notice the difference in the second picture with his brother. Yah, there's the smile now! My daughter Rebecca started 9th grade at a new school. It's a junior high that has 7-9th so not off to high school yet. She leaves the house every morning with wet hair so I had to wait until evening to take a picture of her.

Aren't these little back packs the cutest? I made one for each of the boys' new teachers. Gotta start a new school out on the right foot! I stumbled upon these on splitcoast. It was posted by Becky of Inking Idaho. She has a tutorial on her blog - go check it out!

They all had great 1st days of school. I couldn't get a whole lot out of them. Don't you hate that? I wanted lots of details and they weren't willing to share it all.

I have lots more cooking on the stampin' burner to show you. Stay tuned!

30 Scrappin' Good cards!

It's time for another one of my 30 Scrappin' Good cards class! In this class you will make 30 cards from 1/2 Simplly Scrappin' kit! You will be amazed and how quick and easy these go together! If you are local to the Twin Cities area of Minnesota I hope you will come to my class! Cost is just $30 for 30 cards! Registration and payment must be received no later than September 9 so I have time to order the kits. Contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com for more information. I am also offering this class to go. If you can't make my class or don't live locally cost will be $30 plus shipping.

New challenge

Today is the first day of a new challenge for me. I am on the recipe design team for Tamara's sketch blog! I'm very excited for this opportunity! I like a good challenge when it comes to stamping. For this first challenge we needed to include three elements: chipboards, 3+ designer papers, and circles. My cupcake card fulfilled all three of these elements. I used the new Sweet Always designer papers from Stampin' Up!. I acutally used 4 of the patterned paper from this pack. The glittered heart is my chipboard element and the circles are the circles the heart is attached to. This was a lot of fun to complete. Check back every week for my latest recipe challenge for Tamara's design team.

I got all three kids off of school today. It felt very strange having each of them going to new schools. None of them seemed very nervous but I was! I can't wait to hear about their first day!

Trinkets

I did a little playing today. I love this new Stampin' Up! stamp set, holiday trinkets. It's pure and simple stamping. I live the stylized images. I stamped each image on a whisper white square and then stamped again on scrap whisper white. I then cut around each image and popped them up on stampin' dimensionals. The designer paper is from the Washington Apple paper pack.

Corie asked to see the scrapbook pages Nicholas did yesterday. I decided to start him out on 6 x 6 pages because they are quick and simple. One photo per page usually. He picked out the colors with a little guidance from mom. He picked out his own title and stamped it all himself. He sponged around the edges of the first page. This was my kids' first flight ever so they were pretty excited!

We all went out to dinner as a family last night at Axel's Bonfire. I love this restaurant. Such yummy food and decor! This was the first time we took the whole family there. We usually don't do anything more adventurous than Perkins with the boys but we decided to splurge and everyone had a great time! A little funny story-
My husband wore his really rust button down shirt. It turns out the staff at Bonfire have new uniforms and they are really rust button down shirts! A pretty random color if you ask me. My husband looked liked he worked there! LOL! I told him to go up to the bar and ask for drinks like he was a waiter. hehehe.

It's the last day of summer tomorrow for my kids. Then it's back to school and back to routines. I think we are all ready for it. Happy Labor Day!

Scrappin' and Stampin'

I started a new guy out in scrapbooking today. My son, Nicholas, has been wanting to learn how to scrapbook. When he wants to I'm busy, and when I have time he's not interested. We finally were in sync today. He decided he wanted to make a scrapbook of our California vacation that we took last fall. We kept it pretty simple. He mostly stamped the title on each page, photo matted, and just a few embellishments. After 3 pages he was done. I told him we could pick it up another time. Who knows when that will be next with school starting Tuesday.

I spent a chunk of today cleaning up my craft room. It's not nearly done but I did make a dent. I'm trying to get more organized. My old 12 x 12 paper storage is no longer working for me so I ordered some 12 x 12 paper trays online. I am waiting on them. In the meantime, my whole room could use an overhaul. Things are piling up everywhere. My goal is to get it all neat and tidy so I can finally take a picture of my craft room to post for everyone. My husband custom built countertops, cabinets, and shelving for me. He finished it just before Christmas and then I had to sort of shove everything back in because we were hosting Christmas for my large family. It's never been organized and clean since. It seems I'm always working on something and the mess begins again.

I was also working on some of my class on the go kits to mail out on Tuesday. I did manage to make a new card too. This one uses a technique I haven't used for awhile called spotlighting. I stamped the tableau of terror folks on whisper white cardstock and punched a portion of them out with my 1 3/4" circle punch. I then stamped them again on my Big shot Top Note die. I cut on the perforation on the white one and backed it with a black one. Then I punched holes on each side with my slot punch and threaded the 5/8" wide olive grosgrain ribbon through. The Really Rust cardstock is stamped with my Sanded background stamp and mounted on basic black cardstock.

We stayed in town for this Labor Day weekend so I'm planning on doing some more stamping tomorrow. Stop back to see what I have been up to!

blog awards

I received a couple of blog awards recently. The first is the Brillante blog award from Shawn of What's Happening in My Life. She's a fellow Minnesotan so you gotta love that! I'm supposed to tag 7 people but I received this award awhile back from Marilyn so I'm not going to tag anyone.

The second award is I Love your blog award from Julie of Special Craft Mom of 4 Julie is a super sweet blogging friend and as you may be able to tell a mom of four and a crafter like me. I appreciate this sward Julie! Right back at ya!

I'm supposed to nominate 7 other blogs. I can't pick just 7 so I'm not even going to try. I love getting these awards but I hate picking nominees. It's hard to keep track of who already received the award, who you want to give the awards to, to make sure you don't leave anyone out, maybe someone doesn't want to get tagged..... you get the picture!

Thanks ladies and have a great day!

Eastern Branch

I CASED(copy and share everthing) from Paula of Inking Addict. Here is her original card. I changed some of the colors and added a little library clip to the edge of the ovals. This is going to be one of the make-n-takes for the party tomorrow night. I hope they like it!

I'm still here!

I haven't had time to post anything new for a bit. I taught my stationary set class on Monday, I'm getting ready for a party tomorrow night and I took my daughter to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. I have also done some stamping but I can't show you yet. I will it with you soon though.

Speaking of the Minnesota State Fair, it was a great time! The weather was gorgeous-sunny, low humidity and not too hot. My neighbor Diane and I took our 14 year old daughters, Taylor and Rebecca to the State Fair and then to the concert, Paramour. They had 3 opening acts before they came on around 9:15. It was general admission standing. Ugh! We got into the concert about 5:45. Our feet and legs ached so bad after walking all day and then standing all night. It was worth it though, to see how excited our daughters were to see their favorite band.

I hope to be back later with something new to show you.

Party Daisies

I used a sketch from Julie of the Verve Visual design team. There is a challenge going on on SCS with their design team on Thursdays. I moved the circle around on the sketch because I needed it on the other side. I used a color combo from the the Color Combo document. You can find it on the right side of my blog under Stampin' Up! links. I once again used a piece from the Stampin' Up! exclusive baskets and blooms Sizzix die cut. This will be available to everyone on Sept.2. The sunburst looking piece is the bottom of the basket.

Recipe:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Not Quite Navy
Paper: Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Prints pack level 1 hostess
Other: Silver brads, 1 3/4" circle punch, baskets and blooms sizzix die cut, stampin' dimensionals

I'm going to try to get the kids in for haircuts today. That's one of my last tasks on the back to school list. Only week left of summer vacation! They are all off to new schools. I think we are all looking forward to the change.

Playing with new stamps!

I had a little bit of time to play with my new stamps today. I started with a couple of sketches from the Poetic Artistry blog. I did a little housekeeping on my blog today and created a list of a few blogs where you can find card and scrapbook sketches. There is a link to all of the past sketches from Poetic Artistry on it. Their sketches are fabulous!

Halloween card recipe:
Stamps: Tasty Sweet
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Old Olive and Basic Black stampin' write markers
Paper: Basic Grey, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie,Ghostly Greetings designer paper
Other: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, circle scallop punch, stampin' dimensionals, earth elements buttons

Christmas Card recipe:
Stamps: Holiday Trinkets, Sincere Saluations
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Taken with Teal
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Taken with Teal
Other: 1/2" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, Baskets and Blooms Big Shot die cut, stampin' dimensionals, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds glitter, Kiwi Kiss ribbon

I took my boys shopping for hoodies for school today. Just when I think I'm done school shopping there's something more. My 10 year old thinks he's too old(and too cool) for Children's Place. That makes me sad cuz their clothes are cute and affordable. He's a little dude too so he definitely still fits in their clothes. I think he just doesn't like their name - Children's Place. LOL.

We only have 1 1/2 weeks of summer left. I'm not sure where it went. We still need to get back to school haircuts and a few odds and ends but otherwise, we are pretty well ready for school.
Other:

Cupcake Birthday

Most of you know that I'm cuckoo for cupcakes. That's why when I saw this new stamp set in the Fall/Winter Stampin' Up! catalog it was first on my list! This is a card for my friend, Kristina. Her birthday is actually tomorrow. She shares it with her daughter, Mallory, so she often doesn't get a celebration of her own. We surprised her early yesterday with a little party at her house.

Recipe:
Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes(that's me!)
Ink: Jetblack Stazon,tempting turqoise, regal rose, certainly celery
Paper: Sweet Always designer paper, Pink Pirouette, Whisper white, chocolate chip
Other: ticket corner punch, stampin' dimensionals, bling from Michaels, dazzling diamonds glitter

Halloween Bunch

As soon as I saw this group of spooks in the new Stampin' Up! Fall/Winter catty I knew I had to have them. They were on my first order that came last week. I stamped them with Jetblack Stazon on watercolor paper and colored them in with my Stampin' Write markers. Do you see how there are no streaks when you color the markers on watercolor paper?

Recipe:
Stamps: Tableau of Terror, Arachnophobia wheel
Ink: Jetblack Stazon
Paper: Basic Grey, watercolor paper, old olive, eggplant envy
Other: Photo corner punch, paper piercer, silver brads, stampin' dimensionals, markers