Thank you so much for joining us on our very first Kaleidoscope Stampers Blog Hop! We are very excited to share what we have been working on for you.

       Hi All!  I had the unexpected opportunity to find out how much nearly all of my stamping supplies weighs this     
       weekend.  My Mom is housesitting at a huge house out near Okanagan Lake and invited several of "the girls" aka all 
       of our female family members out for a crafting weekend and sleep-over.  I didn't plan my projects out ahead of   
       time (Lesson #1) so I decided to take everything....for one night (Lesson 2)....in one gigantic Rubbermaid bin
      (Lesson 3).  Kudos to Rubbermaid for making such sturdy bins.  ANYWAYS....on with the stamping.  

       One of the things I worked on this weekend was trying to keep things simple. Sometimes I have a hard time with 
       that. (No! Me?) My favourite part of these cards is how well the Pool Party colour coordinates with any of the colours  
       of the Sale-a-Bration Sycamore Street Paper (127540).  I couldn't help giving these cards a little dimension with my 
       favourite Honeycomb Embossing Folder (129378) on the Pool Party Core'dinations (129321).  
       The "Thanks" sentiment  is so versatile! Don't be fooled by the name of this Sale-a-Bration set (Vintage Verses - 
       129633) It fits with styles from vintage to grunge to modern and blends easily with the look and tone of the card    
       around it. 
       I just couldn't leave off an embellishment and some bling, so I pulled out the coordinating Sycamore Street ribbon 
       and buttons and topped them off with one of the gigantic new large rhinestones (129324) from the new Occasions 
       catalog.  

      Thanks for hopping over to check out what I have been up to. 

Hop on over to the next blog by the following the next link:

1. Tamara Casorso www.sweetstampinspot.blogspot.com

2. Kristin Noble www.okanagan.stampinup.net/blog

3. Tara Angus www.dreambigstampoften.blogspot.com

4. Desirée Spenst www.kelowna.stampinup.net/blog

5. Danielle Calder www.stampenvy.ca

6. Heather Cooper www.playingwithpapercrafting.com

Even though I totally think that Valentine's Day is a Hallmark holiday I quite enjoyed it this year.  I have for many years completely discourage the celebration of this "holiday" though I did allow my children to participate.  
I must have got bitten by the love bug this year because I have made several Valentine cards, a festive banner, and my son and I made candy bags with a stamped Valentine's topper for his class.  But all of this does not come close to my Valentine piece-de-resistance! 3-D photo Valentines! 

I took a photo of each of the boys (with the Valentine's banner background) with their hand outstretched. I played around with my camera settings until I could get a large enough depth of field to have both their faces and their hands in focus.  Then I went to My Digital Studio 2 software (you can try if free for a month) and added the Valentine sentiment from the Delightful Dozen stamp set and their name. 

I sent these photos to Walmart as I was slim on time.  When I got home with them I used an exacto knife to slit the photo at the top and bottom of the boys' fists and then slipped the Valentine sucker through.  Doesn't it look great!  The boys were thrilled with how they turned out.  

And you know what I LOOOOVE (besides these two handsome lads)? It is the fact that it cost me less than $10 for 30 Valentines! VDay Score!

I hope you all get a little bit of extra stampy LOVE today. 

With the most "LOVE-ly" of occasions coming I thought I better make a sweet little decoration for my mantle.  Helps me get into the feeling of Valentine's Day I think.  I used a bit of a lot, as you can probably tell.  Paper, Ribbon, Stamps, Doilies, Punches, Embossing Folders, and even Fabric.  It came together quite quickly once I made a couple of patterns. Then I just strung up some of the Natural Cotton Ribbon and used retired clothespins to hold my banner pieces together. 

Here is a closer photo of the main elements of the banner. It sure did turn out sweet. 

Stampin Supplies
Paper: Designer Series Paper Stacks (Brights) 117155, Cherry Cobbler Cardstock (119685), First Edition Specialty Paper (121878), Pool Party Core'dinations (129321), Print Poetry Designer Series Paper Stack (129312), Silver Glimmer Paper(124005)
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners (W:126255, C:126257), Hearts a Flutter (W:129249, C: 129252)
Inks: Pool Party (126952), Cherry Cobbler (126966)
Tools: Bitty Butterfly Punch (129406)
Big Shot: Hearts a Flutter Framelits (130159) Large Scallop Edglits (127019), Chevron Embossing Folder (127749), Honeycomb Embossing Folder (129378), Typeset Alphabet (127553, Labels Framelits (125598)
Ribbons & Embelishments: Paper Doilies (129399) Pool Party Sale-a-bration ribbon (130812) Crochet Trim (118481), Real Red Ribbon Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon (126875)