I colored a section of one of the cage stamps to make balloon strings!

If you ever read "Sparkle and Spin" as a child, you might recognize this look.

This is a layout inspired by the Soapbox Creations blog. Another great way to use up soon to be retiring InColor card stock!

I finally mastered the trick of getting rounded corners with the circle punches instead of that silly corner punch.

Once again, I can't stress enough that MDS does not have to be hard to figure out!

Here are my two latest (retired) sets acquired in a trade. This is a one layer card that uses Rose Red, Peach Parfait, Lucky Limeade, Baja Breeze and Wisteria Wonder ink.

Just can't get over the fact that Short and Sweet is retiring soon! Here it is (again) with my favorite set to pair it with, Every Little Bit. Just using up some scraps here on a notecard.

At last, I completed my version of the Stampin' Up! My Way logo. Stampin' Up! My Way: I let the stamps be the stamps and the papers be the papers. Nothing too frilly, layered or involved. I also live for the art contests. The themes and deadlines keep me practicing. It's how I live the SU "Good Life." lol

There is another contest theme for July called "home sweet home" in which we can enter projects we would display in our home. I thought it would be cool to have an eye chart with the letters spelling out all the names of my pets. I'm hoping I have time to print and frame this to get it off to the home office in time! I REALLY want to win stamp sets, can you tell? This would be an easy project to teach in an MDS workshop.

Think of MDS as instant gratification. I wanted to enter in the September card contest for the "abc" theme to win some new stamp sets. I did not have any alphabet sets but with the magic of MDS, I had one in a few seconds! The best part is that I could size down the letters to fit the little tag punch! No, I did not thread the twine...waaayyyy too time consuming. I just faux threaded with the white gel pen (and then traced some of the letter edges with it, too)  I hope I win. I'm doing Stampin' Up My Way for the contest prizes, for sure...hee, hee.

This is going to be my mom's Mother's Day card this year. I saw this look on a non-SU blog which had very dainty bird die-cuts with hearts knocked out in them already. So I tried to do the same with our bird builder punch and small heart punch. I did not have a heart punch small enough for the wing "chick" so I layered a little heart made from the small clover punch.

Here is another card I made this weekend that I think I will enter in the Artisan Award. I always feel bad for stamp sets I do not see getting used very much. I LOVE these three and have a feeling that a few of them may be on the retirement list soon. It's nice to dream about potential shopping sprees with the award prizes Stampin' Up is offering!

Trying to use up my Everyday Enchantment DSP so I made this little girl. I don't have a Simply Scored but I suppose it would be a fun folding idea to practice with the SS. I thought I might enter this card in this year's Stampin' Up! Artisan Award. It would be a long shot to win for me but I'd really love to get ahold of those prizes!!! Then maybe I can earn a Simply Scored!

I whipped this up in a flash this weekend trying to use up some colored and patterned card stock. I tore the edge of that one side in the same manner as one would "flute" the edges of a pie crust.