I was MIA!

I hope you've missed me since I was away so long.  I don't even have an excuse except that it was the holidays and we were so busy living life.  January was a blur, too, because it was our anniversary and my birthday month, we went away a week to celebrate.  I had lots of church meetings as we began the new year, on and on.  Suffice to say I have missed you all but truly just could not work in posting to my blog.

BUT, I do have some new samples to show.  While we were on our trip to Hilton Head with my SIL Mary Ann and her hubby, she and I stamped and played and I have samples to show over the next few weeks and samples ready for my February and March stamping classes.  My friend Judy also stamped with me one day in January and I have some of our samples to show, too.  So let's get to it!!!

Here is one card Judy and I made.  We used Stampin' Up! (SU) butterfly die and punch and added the new smaller butterfly punch from the spring mini catalog.  The background was punched with a non-SU punch that I have but I just love the effect.

Here is a close-up of the butterflies.  They were run through the Square Lattice embossing folder to give them dimension.  I also added three "jewels" as the body.

Here's a close-up of the sentiment.  That Just For You is from the spring mini catalog, too.  It's part of the Pop-Up Posies Designer Kit.  I bought the kit just for that stamp.  Love it!!

 Here is Judy's card.  She used different colors.  Love her colors!!

 For this little card, I used some non-SU designer paper.  It had those cute little kids Valentines printed on it and I could not resist.

Here are both of our cards together.

 For this one, I used the SU circle and Scallop Circle die to cut the shape for the heart.  I used two of the heart dies--one from the Hearts Collections and one from the new Hearts a Flutter Collection in the spring mini.

We both made this card, just positioned our hearts a little differently.

The layout for this card was given online by Glenda Calkins and I decided to make this card by that layout.  I love that it can be used for any occasion.  I used the Framed Tulip embossing folder on the Pool Party card stock to frame the center.  The sentiment is from the Loving Thoughts set.

Here is Judy's card.  Don't you LOVE those colors!!

 OK, I guess that's enough for today.  I'll share more samples later in the week!!  Hope it's a good one for you.  Come back soon!  (I will, too!!)
Smiles, Laura