All Occasion

Christmas in July…or May?!

I don’t think I’ve ever made a Christmas card in May, but the fun new Swirly Bird set makes an awesome Christmas card and I couldn’t resist.

StampinUp Christmas card made with the Swirly Bird stamp set designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

christmas card challenge

I entered this card in the Christmas Card Challenge.

The colors are Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay.  OK, I know they aren’t traditional Christmas colors, but last year I had my Christmas tree decorated in bright colors like these and it made me so happy that I left the tree up until almost February.  At our Iowa Caucus on February 1, my neighbor who’s lived behind me for twenty years, ran up to tell me she was so worried that something was wrong at our house when I didn’t take the tree down New Years weekend like I always do.  I had to explain that the bright colorful happy tree was the reason for the delay and not a family emergency. 🙂

McCullough Family Christmas Tree 2015

Remember the Swirly Bird card I made a few days ago…

StampinUp Swirly Bird and Swirly Scribbles Thinlits Dies CAS card designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom PPA301-PickOfTheWeek

well, I was so excited to find out that my card was selected as a Pick of the Week at Pals Paper Arts!!  Yeah! I’ve entered several weeks and never been selected before.  My family laughs at me when I get so excited about these things.  Ryan said, “Great, what did you win?”  “Well,” I told him, “you don’t actually win anything…but they picked my card! Yeah!”  I guess you have to be a stamper to understand.  I made cards for about twelve years without ever entering a challenge and now I’ve been doing challenges for about a year.  I went back and counted, I have entered Pals Paper Arts challenges 13 times in the last year and this was the first time my card was selected!  See why it’s a Yeah!  If you’ve never entered a challenge, I encourage you to start.  Message me and I can point you to some I really enjoy.

Have you seen enough of Swirly Bird to put it on your wish list?

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Yesterday Superman and I took Sean and Ryan to the Cubs Club for lunch and then watched the afternoon Triple A Cubs game in Des Moines.  It was a beautiful day and fun even though the Cubs lost.

Today Sean and Ryan went to lunch with my parents, played Euchre and visited.  My parents love it when the grandkids visit and my kids had a great time too.  I should have warned my parents the boys have been practicing.  They beat Superman and I at Euchre last night too.

Keegan volunteered at church for two hours tonight, greeting people who came to our Outreach Night.  He said he had a great time and met some interesting people.  He has one hour left to serve before June 1.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

StampinUp Christmas card made with the Swirly Bird stamp set designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Make sure you add a fun envelope!

 

 

Swirly Bird

Guess what?  This card was chosen as a Pals Paper Arts pick of the week!  Thanks so much to the PPA design team for choosing my card!

StampinUp Swirly Bird and Swirly Scribbles Thinlits Dies CAS card designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom PalsPaperArts Pick Of The Week

My favorite stamp set in the new catalog is called Swirly Bird.  I also used the coordinating framelits, Swirly Scribbles Thinlits.  The Bermuda Bay water splatters are made with a stamp from Swirly Bird.  I used the Pool Party wavy water paper from Cherry on Top DSP stack.

PPA301

PalsPaperArts.com had an awesome color challenge this week.  If you know me, I think any color challenge including Bermuda Bay is awesome!  *Update- This card was chosen as a PalsPaperArts Pick of the Week!  I am so excited!!  #PPA301

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Sean made it safely home from his work trip to Amsterdam and London.  The EgyptAir crash happened while he was there, so we were happy to receive the text when he landed in Seattle.   It was his first trip to Europe and he loved it!  Tonight he is taking the red eye from Seattle to visit us in Iowa for a week.  Sean will be very excited when he finds out he’s coming home just in time for the strawberries to ripen.  I picked the first strawberry of the season last night.  Come to think of it, Sean LOVES strawberries!  Do you think he timed his visit knowing it was strawberry time?

We’ve enjoyed having Ryan home from college.  Last week he went to Davenport to visit Steve’s parents for two days (three hours from here) and planted flowers for his Grandma, played cards with them and went to a baseball game with his Grandpa.  He’s home the rest of the week and then heads to Okoboji to be a counselor at our church camp.  This is Ryan’s second summer as a counselor.  Last night was just like old times.  His high school friends were over jumping on the trampoline, playing Carpetball, ping pong and eating from the bowls of nuts, fruit and veggies that I leave on the counter each day.  I’m so glad he has stayed close to his besties from high school.

Abby had a great time with her friends at Prom Saturday night.  Her AP exams and most of her finals are over.  Abby has four regular days of school left and then a couple projects to do. She feels like most of the stress is over for her this school year.  Abby will be joining Ryan has a camp counselor this summer.

Keegan got the results of his singing auditions.  He made the select junior/senior choir and jazz choir.  He was very excited about making these two choirs.  The other select choir he tried for, he did not make.  He was a little disappointed, but Keegan shakes things off pretty well.  He’s already said he will try again next year.  He’s been finishing off his volunteer service hours this week.  Yesterday he was planting peppers at a community garden.  He’s going back to the garden and helping me with therapy dogs later this week.  All of Keegan’s finals happen next week.

Some of you have asked about the status of the garage.  Superman spent some quality time cleaning and organizing the garage this weekend.  He’s not done yet, but certainly making progress.  He kept telling me about a lot of things he wants to put in the attic.  Yep, the attic I organized last month is about to take a hit.  Oh well, I guess it needs to go somewhere.

It’s been beautiful in Iowa the last three weeks.  Sunny and 60-70 degrees.  The rain is supposed to start again this week.

Hope things are going well where you’re at.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

 

Paper Pumpkin Alternatives April 2016

If you live in the Des Moines area, I hope you’ll consider signing up for Stampin’ Up’s monthly fun craft box called Paper Pumpkin.  It’s $20 a month and less if you sign up for multiple months.  It’s very exciting to see what arrives each month.  The best part is you then get to come to my house for a free class and put together your kit.  I will always have additional or alternative ways to do your project.  Here’s the wreath that came in April.  Typically the kit contains eight or nine cards, but this month was a Spring Wreath.  When I took the Bunny down after Easter, the nail by my front door sat empty, so I was happy to have a wreath to put there.

Paper Pumpkin April 2016

The wreath I made is below.  I love it!  It makes me smile every time I walk by my front door to go upstairs.

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Alternatives April 2016 designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Below are the wreaths Pat and Marcelyn made during the class.  They did a great job!

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Alternatives April 2016 designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

When we got done with the wreaths, we had time to make a card with the extra free stamp set that came with the April Paper Pumpkin.  This stamp set is called, All About Everything, and was only available to Paper Pumpkin subscribers.

 

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Alternatives April 2016 made with All About Everything stamp set designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

I made it one more time and heat embossed the flower to make it pop!

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Alternatives April 2016 made with All About Everything stamp set designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

This is also the set I used to make my Kate Spade knock off card.

Stampin Up Paper Pumpkin Alternatives April 2016 made with All About Everything stamp set designed by demo Beth McCullough. See more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

I made several of these cards and put them together into a gift set.

Kate Spade inspired gift card set designed by StampinUp demo Beth McCullough. Please see my blog for directions to make the box stampingmom.com/... #StampingMom This box is not sized for standard A2 cards. These are note cards 5" x 3 1/2" with envelopes 5 1/8" x 3 5/8" #StampingMom

Here’s the link to the directions to make the box for the Kate Spade knock off cards.

If you don’t live in the Des Moines area, you can still sign up for Paper Pumpkin with me and I’ll send you a pdf with fun ways to use your kit and make extra cards.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂