Hey, What's Going On?

My blog is looking a little wonky, isn't it? There's a reason for that... ... I have decided to move my blog to another blog provider because it will provide me with more pages and a gallery; in other words, it will be better for you! And it will be better for me, because I am currently to trying to keep a website up to date, my blog current, and a Stampin' Up! site up to the present as well - it's just too much. With the new blog, everything both you and I need will all be in one place. If you want to check it out, please click here It's a work in progress, but I hope to everything in place within the next few weeks. For those of you getting these blog updates by feed, I hope you'll subscribe to my new blog. Thank you to everyone whose been visiting this blog - see you at www.inkspiration.ca Happy stampin'! - Ann

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

It's my hubby's birthday tomorrow and I'll likely not get to post so I'm showing you this card I made for him. Even as an adult, he would probably still say his favourite animal is the monkey, so I used Monkey Business, a set I borrowed (again) from my friend Christa last week for our club meeting and haven't returned yet. Thanks Christa! The challenge was then to make a card that was somewhat masculine using Monkey Business. How to not get too cute... Earlier in the weekend, Jan Tink, a fabulous American stamper, posted her most recent stampin' invention, the Bib card. I thought, why not give it a go with Brian's card. The bib card is a variation of the tent card, but instead of having a piece adhered to the top fold, it's actually cut part-way and popped. I used Blue Bayou as the card base, again to try to set a masculine tone, and because Brian's favourite colour is blue. I paired it with Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate. I used the new SU! scallop punch for the Wasabi layer in the top part that sticks out. The heart is raised with a dimensional and is embossed with Irridescent Ice because I can rarely resist something glittery or blingy on a special occasion card, but I avoided ribbons for his card, opting to kept it simple. Is it cute, probably - how could it not be when it starts out with Monkey Business? But I do think he will like it. After all, it's from me. :)

Fall Frenzy Promotion

Fall is a beautiful time of year, but it gets a bit busy, doesn't it? Stampin' Up! has given you a great reason to carve out some time for yourself by presenting this Fall Frenzy special. It's stamps on sale, and who doesn't love a sale on stamps? With a $40 purchase from our Fall/Winter Collection and/or the gorgeous Holiday Mini, you may also purchase any set(s) from this list at 30%off: Item Page # Description Discounted Price 105355 26 Bitty Boos Too $17.47 109284 29 Haunting Halloween $18.17 110211 29 Halloween Hantee $18.17 107383 30 Thoroughly Thankful $22.37 109373 108 Autumn Fest $23.07 109421 91 Elementary Essentials $27.27 110366 17 Stem Silhouettes* $30.77 110388 17 A la Tige* $30.77 And have you seen the Holiday mini yet? It's rich and elegant and has you covered this upcoming fall and Christmas season - from tags to gift cards, wrapping and garlands to cards and scrapbook pages, there are ideas galore in sets that range from cute to fun to versatile to religious to elegant to practical. If you don't have your own copy yet, look at it online here, or email me for your own paper edition.

Baroque Inspirations

Oh, I have been a bad blogger this week! So sorry... But I've got lots to show you today. I think I've mentioned before that Baroque Motifs is one of my favourite new sets. Today I am featuring my Baroque cards. The first ideas for these cards came from online galleries and blogs, but for most of them, I have changed up colours, or played with the layout, substituted elements I didn't have for accessories I do have. Credits for the originating ideas would go to, among others, Amy Celona and Catherine Harwood. There are others too, whose names escape me. Some of these cards were for a Baroque Motifs class I held recently and some were used for other things like stamp club and team swaps. Enjoy! And if you have any questions about colours or techniques, feel free to leave a comment.

Unfroggettable Shaker

Last week's hostess wanted to learn how to do the shaker card. This card turned out to be a bit harder than our group was up for, but we dove in and made a go of it. I think the ladies were pleased with the card, but as a group, it did take a long time to make these! I love the Unfroggetable stamp set - so very versatile and fun - great for kids cards, and for our grown-up kid at heart people. This card features lots of punches: both of the tag punches and the Word Window punch. The filler for this shaker is our microbeads. Fun card, eh? Happy stamping! - Ann

Team Meeting Swap Cards

There are lots of talented stampers on our team. Even though the attendance was a bit lower, (summer holidays interfered for some gals, I think) there are a lot of great ideas here. Check these out: Wild Rose was the first set I bought when it appeared in the 2007 IBC last summer. I still love this set, and I love this card. I don't think I've ever used the Earth Elements family to make a card with this set. But after receiving Diane's card, I'm going to! Lisa's card uses a level 2 hostess set, Perfect Presentation. Lisa loves to use punches and it shows on this card. Look how she's inserted the "peace" square using the slot punch, on an angle! This card also has a lot of sparkle in real life! My card was deliberately simple so they could duplicate it as a make and take in their classes if they wanted. I used it as a make & take for a stampin' party last night, actually, and the ladies loved it! The card uses a drop shadow technique where you stamp in a dark colour and then stamp the same image again in a lighter shade a bit lower. This card uses glitter for some extra shine but it's hard to see it in the photo. Jamilla's card is another easy make & take idea, using the very popular "doodle" look that this is feaatured in a number of sets in the Fall/Winter collection. One of Jamilla's favourite techniques is tearing, so that's what she used for the focal point. Jamilla just recently joined our team, and this set was in her starter kit. Katrina's card features another SU! popular theme: the office look, as well as a lot of dtp. The spiral punch down the right side fits right in with this theme and I love the staple on the tag - it's just the perfect touch for the office style. How cute is this! Kristi's card features some of the new textured cardstock in the vertical strip on the left. And I love the detail in the upper left corner where she punched two strips using the Word Window punch, attached them with brads and then tied a piece of grosgrain ribbon around it. Christy's monocromatic card features some new designer paper and lots of embossing. Christy used her white gel pen to add some dots to the greeting - it totally works with the dotty looking circles that she embossed and punched out. What a fun & funky Christmas card! I love swapping - it's a great way to see stamp sets in a way I hadn't before, and to get some creative juices flowing. Thanks to my team for sharing their talents with me! Happy stamping, - Ann

Inkspiration Meetings

I had a team meeting here earlier this week. Not everyone can make it because of distance, but we always have a great night. We swapped, shared projects we're working on/teaching, talked shop, ate yummy snacks (thanks Christy!), and made a great make & take (thanks Jamilla!). And I remembered to take pictures this time - yeah! Here are some of the projects that various team members are working on this month - from altered items, to cards, to scrapbook pages, we've been busy stamping! Hope you've enjoyed these - next time I'll share our swap cards - the theme was new sets. Happy stamping! - Ann

Cards for Me!

Obviously in this business it would not be cool to be giving store-bought cards, so all the cards I send are made by me (which is why they are often late, too, sorry!) LOL. Well last week was my birthday and I was VERY thrilled to receive some hand-made cards. These, from left to right, are from: friend Shannon, SCS Rak from Joanne, friend Christa, SCS RAK Kim, my mom, my mother-in-law, and my daughter, Sarah. Sarah is 7 and very creative. Lately, she's opening crafts-for-kids type books and finding ideas there to implement, so she got out her fancy scissors to cut out the 'M' on my card and she dipped into her little container of brads I had given her (retired item). She stamps too, but chose not to for this card. Anyway, they are all made from the heart and I love them! Happy stamping! - Ann

How Does Your Inkspiration Flow?

Last month, my terrific upline loaned me a few stamp sets for the New Sets & Colours class I was holding. She loaned me Pick a Petal, which is going on my shopping list now - I love that set! And she sent a few samples she had stamped to show my class and to inspire all of us. This card, which she got the idea for from Split Coast, I think, was one I chose to use for my class. Originally I was just going to copy Joanne's card for my class. It's a great card, why reinvent the wheel? As I stamped, though, the inspiration started flowing, and my card ended up looking like this. The first change was to change the card from portrait to landscape, with the card opening on the right side. I loved the scalloped edge accented with the white gel pen, so that stayed, but I omitted the Real Red brads (I don't have them, and I didn't think my card needed them). Of course the ladybug constructed from one of the petal stamps and some punches of course stayed. I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the polka dots for some extra punch. Joanne used the Basic Black marker to hand draw a flight trail behind the lady bug and the antennae, which I started to copy too. But I noticed that one of the petal stamps has the word "smile" formed into one of the edges. I used the marker to ink up the word "smile" and then hand-doodled the rest of the flight trail. I love Joanne's card, and you know what, I love mine too! Here's a photo of the two of them together: There are so many beautiful stamping artists out there (online, in the SU! mini's and full collections) generously sharing their ideas. It is OK to copy them (including the ideas I share with you here) provided you give credit where credit is do, and never submit a non-original idea for a contest or magazine call. Sometimes, what starts out as a copy, takes a different path to becoming something original. Happy stamping! - Ann

Stampin' Up!'s Just Announced Another FAB Promo!

Wouldn't you love to receive a full family of inkpads for free? Who wouldn't? From August 10th - September 30th, anyone who signs up with the Stampin' Up! family of demonstrators will receive a package of full-sized classic inkpads from the colour family of your choice. This is a $79.95 value! What a great deal! Our kits deliver a ton of value. Option one, containing over $500 worth of products, costs $275 + PST (no GST or S&H. Option two, expands on the first kit with an additional $120 more products geared specifically towards scrapbooking, for just $70 more + PST (no GST or S&H). Either option will include the terrific gift of the free family of inkpads. You may choose from Bold Brights, Rich Regals, Earth Elements, or Soft Subtles, or you may take the 6-pack of the In Colours family. And your starter kit comes with enough supplies, including the paperwork, to easily get you through your first six parties. Would you be interested in learning more about becoming a Stampin' Up Demonstrator? I would love to get a small information packet to you so you can make an informed decision. If you are in Canada, you would be a welcome addition to our growing team of stamping/scrapping consultants. Just email me at ann@inkspiration.ca to request your info pack.

Great Convenience Product & a Special to Go With It

I'm back after a fantastic 19 days in northern Ontario - well not really far north. Just bear country. And rattlesnake territory... Anyway, it was a beautiful time of rest, relaxation and sun. I'll post scrapbook pages as I get them completed.... Meantime, SU! has big news for August. The Three For You punch box has an added product with purchase - 30 Love Notes. How simple does this make your next session of cardmaking? The cards are cut, scored and ready to stamp on - the box has a set of 9 die-cut stamps (just punch them out of the rubber and mount them, no trimming needed!) with ink spots in colours that co-ordinate with the Love Notes. And a punch that works with the stamps. Could our paper crafting be any easier? Super when we've got the urge to create but not a lot of time to commit, as happens so often in the summer! Email me or call me to order yours - shipping anywhere in Canada is available.

Want a Closer Look at those Cards?

Most of these cards will have been influenced one way or another by the many talented stampers who share their creative gifts on line, either in their blogs or by posting to online galleries. Can you tell we had a fun night of stamping, playing with new sets and new colours! If you are sorry you missed the fun this week, there are more classes coming up in August and you are welcome to join us. See the calendar here. If you can't make those dates, I'd be happy to come to you - just gather 4 or 5 friends and I'll take the stamp class on the road. If you are really too far for that, I would be happy to put the materials in your mailbox for you.

Here they come!

I've got a class tonight and the cards are ready! I think they'll have fun playing with the new colours and new sets!

Ribbon Originals and Colour Matches

I have been ogling the new Ribbon Originals ever since the Fall/Winter collection came out, haven't you? If you haven't really checked these out, you can click here to see them. I love all the variety of textures, widths, patterns and colours available on each card. Perhaps you don't know which ones to start with, or maybe you're just going to get them all! Either way, you may find this list helpful in matching these ribbons to your projects: The coordinating colors for the Ribbon Originals are: Beachfront: White - rickrack Sahara Sand - zig zag River Rock - pleated Very Vanilla – gathered grosgrain Basic Gray – velvet District: Pumpkin Pie – stripe grosgrain White w/ Celery – diagonal stripe woven weave Basic Gray w/white – stripe grosgrain Blue Bayou/Sage Shadow – checkered weave Sage Shadow – grosgrain Fairy Tale: So Saffron – jacquard flower Rose Red – grosgrain w/ white stitch Certainly Celery – woven loop Regal Rose – gathered grosgrain Almost Amethyst – grosgrain Jersey:Basic Black w/ white –stripe grosgrain Real Red – twill w/ zigzag More Mustard/Wild Wasabi – grosgrain Brocade Blue – wide grosgrain w/stripe Wild Wasabi – twill Sherbet:So Saffron – wide grosgrain w/ stripe Groovy Guava – woven loop Purely Pomegranate – w/ white polka dot Mellow Moss – velvet Soft Sky/Very Vanilla – elastic w/ gather Theater:Always Artichoke – grosgrain w/ loop Close to Cocoa – velvet Old Olive/River Rock – reversible satin Old Olive/ Vanilla – elastic w/ gather Chocolate Chip – satin w/ border

It's True! - Christmas Cards in July

I know, I know. Who's thinking of Christmas during summer? It'll be here soon enough without us rushing things, right? Well, I'm thinking Christmas, already. A demonstrator in Alberta is hosting a Christmas card swap and I decided to participate. I am hoping to get LOTS of great ideas back to incorporate into my fall classes. Here are my entries for the swap: This first card features the City of David set on a Night of Navy and Whisper White colour combination. There is lots of sparkle to this card through the use of SU!'s Irridescent Ice embossing powder over the Craft White ink. This card is an adaptation of a card I saw on an online gallery. It's probably a combination of about 3 card ideas. It uses the Peaceful Wishes set with red, green and silver tones, and more embossing - this time with silver embossing powder on silver cardstock. Isn't that a great look? These cards will be featured in my fall Christmas card classes, and I can't wait to show you some more great Christmas card ideas then, so plan to join us!

Baroque Motifs CASE

I really admire the stamped artwork produced by Sharon Harnist. This card is a complete CASE of a gorgeous card she made right after she received her Preview brochure order. I loved her card so much that I only changed the way the card opens, mine starts with a 4 1/4 x 11 piece of cardstock, instead of the usual 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, and I used the chocolate grosgrain. This card is simple yet elegant, and is the make & take for my new catty open house this weekend. If you're around Elmira, drop by for a catalogue and this fabulous card which features a new set, Baroque Motifs, and new colour, River Rock. And stay tuned, I've got a Baroque Motifs set-included class coming up later this summer! Check out my class schedule to see what's coming, mark your calendars and plan to join us.

Welcome the Fall/Winter Collection 2007

It's what we've been waiting for! After browsing the new catalogue for a few days, here are a few of my observations: * I can't wait to start playing with the "Pretties" collection of dy-able fabric flowers, pearls, clear rhinestone brads, hatpins, etc. It will do for feminine cards what the Hodgepodge Hardware does for masculine cards. * I want to start playing with a new Scrappin' Kit - they include double sided paper and textured cardstock and they just look so funky; there isn't one I don't like. * We now carry huge eyelets - great for western and masculine looks. * The Crop-o-dile will be on my first order - be watching for coaster and chipboard projects! * My stamp club gals are going to love the hostess sets. We may need to start back sooner than September so that everyone gets a crack at them! What do you say ladies? * Stamp sets for every taste - some great new background sets, including one that can replace French Script. Don't you just want to see it too? Click here: Fall/Winter Collection 2007

Oh Canada!

Happy Canada Day and what a way to celebrate: the brand new catalogue officially starts today! I would be happy to get you a copy if you don't have one reserved yet.

Sympathy Card for a Neighbour

Our neighbour a few doors up had a loss in the family when Andy's mother passed away last week, so I made this card for Andy and Colleen. My card is the Wild Roses version of a card I saw on an online gallery done up with the Roses in Winter set(apologies to the original creator for not storing your name somewhere to give you credit). This single layer card, made with shimmery white paper, is the standard size, but is folded twice, so that the front lifts up and the bottom lifts open. I tore the edge of the top flap and then started stamping using Barely Banana, Summer Sun, Old Olive and Bashful Blue inks. It's finished with some white and gold organdy to create a soft, simple and delicate feel.

When You Love Something, Go With It!

I shared this layout with you back in March or April. It was one that I copied almost identically from my friend Janet. I showed it to another friend Christa, who was hosting a show for me and we brainstormed about how to turn it into a class. She really wanted to incorporate Stampin' Up!'s kits in the project. Here's the kit version of the earlier layout, using the hostess kit, Friends & Flowers kit. This layout made such an impact that 2 of the guests wanted to use the same kit. Another guest used the I'm Here - Girl kit to create a very soft, very pink, very sweet version of this layout. These bright colours definitely call for some summery pictures to drop in - or I could even go retro and hunt down some pictures of when my brother & I were kids... This is the layout I did at the class, to walk them through the steps. I had an All the Trimmings kit open from a Christmas card class last fall, so I thought I'd use some more of it up. I may do some embossing with my VersaMarker and Irridescent Ice just to add some Christmas sparkle to the layout, and then add my pictures. I've got some great photos of Sarah when she was a toddler, looking up at the decorated Christmas tree with that awestruck sense of wonder that young children experience when it's really the first year that they are "getting" what Christmas is about. The techniques, as well as the layouts, are identical on these, incorporating sponging, dtp, punches, frayed ribbon, stamping, etc. Well, there you go - three layouts all the same, but each with a VERY different feel to it. I won't put them one after the other in my scrapbook, and I don't think anyone will notice that they are almost identical, especially once the photos are on there. All of this to point out to you that you do not have to invent something new every single time. If you don't have much time, but want to get a layout done, copy a layout you have already used. It will work. And of course our kits make it fast! The kits you've seen on this blog this spring are all retiring - if any have appealed, now is the time to get in touch with me, or your local SU! rep. I am really looking forward to seeing the kits that will be introduced in the new catalogue. And I've heard of some demonstrators in Canada getting their catalogue. Not here, yet, in Ontario. Still waiting... By the way, I LOVE teaching scrapbooking classes, so if you're in this area, I'd love to get together with you and a few of your friends for a night of scrapbooking!

Guest Artist: Christa Uttley

Our family has experienced some difficulties recently, but things are looking up as my husband started a new job this week. When our very good friend, Christa, found out that Brian had been hired, she got stampin'! This is her congratulatory card she gave Brian, knowing that she was sort of giving it to me too. :-) When we were talking about the retiring stamp set list, she found out that Knobbly Gnomes is one of my least favourite sets, which is why my dear friend chose to use it for this card. This base is a "hotdog" cut, so it opens at the side. She stamped the cheery sunflower-carrying gnome in Staz-On black and coloured him in with her markers and blender pen. She used the dtp method to apply the ink to the paper edges before mounting it on the Old Olive layer. The hodgepodge hardware keeps the card looking manly, along with her colour choices. Tangerine grosgrain picks up the horizontal lines of the Old Olive layer and the Not Quite Navy cardbase. She finished the card with some paper piercing all around the Olive layer. Nice job! This will be a card that I will cherish in spite of those Knobbly Gnomes!

Something Old, Something New

I thought I'd go digging through my stash to show you an older card. I made up this card for a New Sets New Colours swap I had participated in a few years ago. The set, Artifacts, is a favourite of mine for masculine cards or a collage-y look, and it retires next week. The colours are Almost Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand and Night of Navy - 3 out 4 were new that year. I stamped on SU's Window sheets (no longer available)with Black Staz-On. I had a team meeting last night and it was great getting together with all of these talented women again. We did all kinds of sharing and visiting:Janet brought her gorgeous scrapbooks, Diane brought a fun accordion album she's making with some of her customers using the Scrappin' Kits, Christy brought her Itty Bitty Book and another "quick" album she just did up, Lisa brought her recent swap cards, etc. We talked about business and enjoyed brownie sundaes and had a great night! I wanted them to go home with something to show their customers that included new product. This card was inspired by one shared by inglishrea on an online gallery. I loved that she combined Really Rust with Groovy Guava. This card starts with a vanilla cardbase and a piece of Groovy Guava cardstock. We stamped the flourishes from Baroque Motifs in Groovy Guava on vanilla and added Really Rust flowers. The medallion was stamped in Groovy Guava and cut out. Some edges were distressed using the 4 in 1 cutter tool. We decided on that the copper brads really suited it, so we included one to finish the card off... only to find out this morning that they are retiring! Want to know what other Stampin' Up! accessories are retiring? Click here or on the link at the left.

Only a Day Late...

... for you, that is! I made this card for Brian last week and gave it to him yesterday. Then snatched it back today to show all of you! This card uses up some smaller pieces I had leftover from the At Home Simply Scrappin' Kit. Isn't it a handsome and simple masculine card? I used to give him all my "experiment" cards - like if I were trying a new technique, I'd use it on a card for him. Some were less than spectacular because the technique came before the design. And he is a simple kind of guy (I don't mean he's not smart, he's very smart - just that he's not into fancy. Dressed up for him is a pair of Dockers and a cotton shirt.) So this year, I went masculine but simple - no ribbon, no fancy techniques - a piece of hardware and some dtp to "man" it up and that's it. I think he liked its simplicity.

I got to scrapbook again!

My friend Joyce was over the other day. We try to get together to scrapbook about once every month or two. Well she got 6 page done to my 1 - wow is she fast! My phone rang a few times and I would stop to share an idea or two with her, but she just gets it done. My page took some time to complete. The right hand border is a collage I created using up all those rub-ons and stickers that have been laying around for a few years. I do mean years, and the one page of rub-ons were really really tough to rub-on - I was burnishing like crazy! Then I inked the edges with Mellow Moss craft ink and took my distressing tool to it. The photos are trimmed down to 2 x 2" squares. The title is another clear sticker. The journalling chronicles all the sites we saw and visited on the 2 day leg of our big trip. London was our last stop before flying home again. This title page for my London layouts will sit next to this page that I did of our visit to the caves at Gibraltar and because I used some of the same colours here that are on that page, along with some of the border strips from the At Home kit that I used for that page, this one flows beside it quite nicely, I think. See what I mean: I am actually REALLY pleased with this page, despite its apparent simplicity, because this is not a CASE of another page, and it didn't start with a sketch - it all came out of my own head. Who knew?

Gifties for my Club Members

Check out these! My friend Janet has been saving these tins that the coffee comes in at the cafe where she works. She's a demonstrator too and knows how we love finding things to alter! So she gave a few of these tins and I was waiting for the right time to do something with them. Well my Stamp Club has just finished up and I thought now I have the reason. I got to work on the tins, altering them with paper I left from open Simply Scrappin' Kits. They are wraped in the cardstock and embellished with the die cut adhesives that accompany the kits. I added grosgrain to the edges of the lids and then added glitter or beads to further enhance them. So look around the house and see what you can find to alter - it's so easy and fun. Those cannisters that Tetley round teabags come in would work. What else? And what do you put in the altered tins? Just about anything you can think of! My club members are tea drinkers, so I assembled a little packet of 5 different kinds of tea and tied them together with organdy and cord. And then I added some chocolate - they are women, afterall! These are a lovely layered truffle-type chocolate that my mom brought back from her recent trip to Austria for us. Aren't I nice to share? We are talking dark chocolate here, my favourite! I added some chipboard for them to play with. More chocolate, of course... These are an easy folded pouch. I downsized the one I showed you in my last post to hold these chocolate squares, which are a little smaller. And some eyelets. In a sampling of all 4 colour groups. Because in my cleanup (a work in progress LOL) I realized I have a LOT of eyelets. And because it's fun to share. And because I love these ladies in my stamp club - they have all become friends!

Check out my talented demo friends!

I was away in London for a stamping event hosted by Carole Moore a little while ago and got to see LOTS of inspiring work. Today I am showing you some of the work of my sideline, downline and upline. This photo doesn't show the details in this cute card, but my sideline Bonnie punched through the stamped white cardstock and the yellow layer for the chocolate dots of the giraffe to be revealed. How sweet is that? I have seen these before but never made one before, but now, thanks to Karen, I get to try now. This one was made with the sneak peak papers featured in May - no cutting, just folding to create this great little treat holder. Can you see the microbeads that form the bodies on these butterflies? This card was created by another sideline, Carolyn. She does a beautiful job with her colouring techniques. This is a fun popup card, created by my downline, Lisa. I've not played with this set before that day, but it is so adorable! These cards are easy to make once you've done one and got the folds down. This beautiful card was done by upline, Joanne. She had received a card like this for her anniversary from a friend. The inside has a little folded pouch to hold a monetary gift or gift card. I LOVE this Au Chocolat paper, and the card I swapped her in March sold her on it too.

Fall/Winter Preview

The FallWinter Preview brochure, a new Stampin' Up! publication, is now released. It's on its way to many of my customers. This little brochure is like the appetizer before a scrumptious meal (the Fall/Winter 2007 collection). You can dream on it, drool on it, and starting July 1st, you can order from it. But if you'd like to see a few things from it, come to my first annual STAMPede. STAMPede is going to be a blast - we'll be stamping 5 great projects using retiring sets, there will be snacks, grab bags, door prizes, displays (including new 2007 items!) and free shipping on all orders placed that day. Click here for more details about STAMPede.

Unfroggetable Stampede Card

Here's a photo of my shoebox swap card: The requirements for this shoebox swap were that it be a wow card for our customers, so I was thinking something that might not be a beginner's workshop card, but a stamp camp type card. This one does take some time, but I like how it came out. It's a "joy fold" card and it has a flap from the right side that comes over the cardfront. This card is featuring some more of the Petals and Paisley designer paper available in the spring mini. The frog and dragonfly are stamped in black Staz-on and coloured with Aquapainters and watercolour crayons. Some dazzling diamonds gives the dragonfly wings some glisten. The clouds are created by using a sponge dauber, bashful blue ink and a template I cut out of scrap cardstock. Feel free to comment if you have questions!

Off to London

I'm packing my supplies and swaps up for a stamping event in London. I can't wait to catch up with some demonstrator friends, make new ones, pick up some business tips, be inspired by some amazingly talented stampers, relax, and of course, stamp! I am sure I'll come home with a few great ideas for upcoming classes, too! I'll post a photo of my swap card and shoebox swap card next week - wouldn't be fair to post today, now, would it? Have a super weekend!

Masculine Card

This card was planned for this past Saturday's class. It's a fun, interactive card, and it is masculine, which challenges alot of stampers. It also features retiring sets, which was the theme for Saturday. The lighthouse stamp comes from the Always on My Mind set. The greeting is from Simple Sketches and I used the Crosshatch background stamp for the Sahara Sand card base. Some direct to paper inking and Vintage brads help to keep the card looking masculine, along with the Night of Navy colour scheme. If you missed this class, there is another class on June 23rd which will also feature retiring sets, along with a sneak peek of some brand new sets. I'll be sure to include a wow card like this in that class, so join us why don't you?

Family Photo Frame

We needed a Mother's Day gift for Brian's mom and so we headed off to the local craft store to find a starting point. Brian's mom has a large collection of framed photos of her family, so I hope she is able to make some space to add this shadow box to her collection. The central picture is a 5 x 7 of our family taken by my friend Christa - she's a great amateur photographer. The smaller photo is this year's school picture of Sarah. Both photos are mounted on various SU!'s Recollections designer papers (love how those co-ordinate with each other!) and pinned with pearl tip straight pins to the cloth background that came with the frame. I stamped right on the cloth using the Collage alphabet set and Bravo Burgundy ink. I covered the chipboard "f" with another piece from the Recollections and sanded it, then tied a piece of grosgrain around it and inserted another pearl tip pin through the knot. There's a piece of organdy spanning the frame to finish it off. What do you think?

Wedding Invitations

A few weeks ago I shared the invitations I created for a swap being hosted by another demonstrator. If you missed them, you can check that post out here. I recently received the swaps back and have finally got them uploaded. There's a lot of them in this slide show because one of my team members also entered this swap, so I've got her swaps included in this show. Lots of ideas represented by lots of demonstrators all across Canada from simple to cute to elegant. Have a great long weekend, enjoy the show and let me know what you think!

Ribbon Butterflies - How To...

Diane asked how to make the ribbon butterflies I showed in yesterday's post, so here, by request is a quick how-to for making them. These are great for a fun,quick card. Cut 3 pieces of co-ordinating ribbons to about 4 - 5 inch lengths. (This is sort of arbitrary - if you need smaller butterflies, where you want to do 2 or 3 on a card, you'll need shorter lengths.) If you're good at holding stuff and doing stuff at the same time, scrunch up two of the ribbons in the middle. I like using glue dots to hold the creases so that my hands are free to do the antennae. Fold the skinniest length that will be your antennae in half. Keep that loop at the top of the backside of your butterfly and bring the ends down and around the front of the butterfly, and slide them through the loop. Then tie a granny knot (like the first step of tying your shoes) to keep the loop from sliding. Trim the ribbon ends on an angle and to the length desired. Adhere to your cardfront or scrapbook page with a strong adhesive like glue dots or Terrifically Tacky Tape. I just adhere mine under the "body" of the butterfly. Here's one on a finished card.

More ribbon ideas

This is another ribbon idea I showed the stamp club ladies. The idea was presented at a Stampin' Up! regional event. This card features some of the paper from the Palette o' Prints pad. I explained this pad and its exclusivity here. You can also click on the links to the left and see Stampin' Up!'s flyers about this promotional sneak peek. The ladies loved seeing, touching, playing with something so totally new - I mean we don't have the new catalogue yet, but we're playing with a new catalogue item. How neat is that! I layered a piece from the palette onto a piece of Almost Amethyst and then onto a Certainly Celery cardbase stamped with the flower stamp from the retiring Fresh Fillers. I used a greeting from a hostess set, also not to be seen again after June 30th. It's great the way the colours in this pad co-ordinate perfectly with the colours in the Sweet Shop ribbon set. I think the ladies had fun creating their butterflies, especially when they saw how truly easy it is! Leave me a comment if you would like instructions.

Happy Mom's Day!

A stamper who goes by the screen name devh posted a Doodle This! card that I just loved. This is my CASE of that card. Her original is in pink, and she uses a few non-SU! products that I don't have. So my version is here, in two colours. I think these are going to be my Mother's Day cards for this year. Three round flowers are stamped on shimmery white with Staz-On and watercoloured by scribbling marker on a plastic lid and picking up the colour with an Aquapainter. Then they are cut out. The card base is folded "hotdog" style, longways. The base is stamped with the Doodle This! corner in black, along with three round flowers, and the greeting, which come from Warm Wishes. Lots of white gel pen to accent the doodles with dots, white craft ink applied dtp all around the edges, and some white gel pen and dazzling diamonds on the three small flowers complete the base. The small flower that is raised up at the apex of Doodle corner is from Pocket Friends (retiring). I am really enjoying the Doodle This! set and hope to see it in the new catalogue in two months. And I hope our mothers like their cards. I think Brian's mom is getting the green one, and my mom the pink.

Ribbon Dying

In addition to playing with microbeads at our last club get together, we looked at some things to do with ribbon, besides the obvious. We started out by dying grosgrain. I won't go into the details of how to do it here, because Amy Rysavy has a great tutorial with pictures on ribbon dying over at SplitCoast. But this was the first time I had actually tried it. Sarah, my 7 year old, helped me experiment with it before the ladies came over. I was amazed at the results! I wanted to try colours that SU! doesn't already carry. We tried the Barely Banana first - check out the picture - it's a perfect match to the cardstock. Thrilled with how our experiment was going, Sarah urged me to do another, so we tried a length of Cameo Coral, and again, we achieved superb results. When I did it with the ladies, our results demonstrated the ribbon dying works, but we didn't quite get the result we were after... Perhaps I didn't measure quite accurately, or maybe with deeper colours, I needed just a bit more reinker, but our Pink Passion looks more like Pixie Pink, wouldn't you say? I am happy with the results overall, and will try dying again in the future, when I'd like a colour I don't have...

Frayed Fishy

This card is a CASE of one by ipkstampshappy over at SplitCoast. I changed the colours to work with the In Colour line, since it is soon retiring, and I eliminated a few layers to keep us moving on Wednesday night. We coloured the (retiring) lobster with watercolour pencils and blender pen, and used the blender pen to pick up some colour from the Cool Caribbean ink pad to fill in the starfish. The lobster is popped on a dimensional over a background stamped in Cool Caribbean with the dotted stamp from the also retiring By Design set. We wheeled the Fishy wheel (incredibly, not retiring) in True Thyme and across the white (you can just get one rotation, so this technique only works for cards.) The True Thyme cardbase is stamped in True Thyme with the Crosshatch background stamp (yet another retiring set - are you picking up on the theme?) Now for the ribbon technique: I used glue dots to adhere the black grosgrain kittycorner across the lower right corner of the focal image. Then we tied the turquoise ribbon on and did the frqying technique on it, and stuck a brad through the centre of the knot to be sure it wasn't going anywhere. I promised to show you how to do the frayed ribbon technique. It is really easy, so here goes: Using a sharp pair of scissors, like SU!'s Paper Snips, and trimming as close to the edge as possible, cut the selvage off one side of your length of grosgrain. Start to pull the hidden fibres loose and keep working them, until you are right up to the other selvage. Trim off both selvages, leaving par to fthe grosgrain in one complete piece. Now you are ready to tuck the still-intact end of your grosgrain under a tag, or fray both ends and leave the middle intact like we did on this card. I like to fray two or three different colour and layer them like I did here: There could be some uses for this piece, depending on the colour... How about grass? Bangs? Moustache? toothbrush? caterpillar? What do you think? Any ideas?

Scrapbook page to show you...

About two weeks ago, I got some scrapbooking time with my friend Christa. That's when I started the Itty Bitty book for my mom. But before I moved onto that project, I got a page done for my travel scrapbook. Christa had shown me the may/june issue of scrapbooks etc. magazine because it has a fairly big section on stamping this month. As I paged through the magazine, I spotted a kit that I immediately recognized as one of Stampin' Up!'s. It was a feature article in the "Goods" section, titled "Supply Smarts". The magazine was showed a layout and a page, both 8.5 x 11 and a card all using the kit(pages 28-30, if you have the issue). I imagine there was still TONS left over yet. I don't have the kit they featured, Party Pieces, nor do I scrapbook in 8.5 x 11. But I really liked the one page, so I thought I'd adapt it to 12 x 12. The original page features a photo that is probably a 5 x 7 portrait. I have more space to fill, and 0 photos that big, so I worked with what I have, trimming the photos to similar sizes. I had already broken into an "At Home" kit, so I took this opportunity to use more of it up. I loved layering on the border stips to create some fun and easy bordering/framing for my pix. For the title, I used a scrap of patterned paper to cover a chipboard "c", sanded the edges, and tied on some hemp for a rugged feel. The rest of the word is stamped in Chocolate Chip with letters from the Collage Alphabet set (yes I am sad to see this one go!)These caves are inside the rock of Gibraltar, and this page is the last of the ones from Spain. Onto London next... but first, I have to sort through my photos - there are just to many to scrapbook - they'd make a book of their own! hehehe. Anyway, once I figured out what to do photo-wise with this page (I omitted one other picture that I had originally wanted to include), it came together very easily. The joy of kits - all the co-ordinating is done for us!

Micro Doodle

Our stamp club met this past Wednesday and Lea-Anne was the hostess this month. For about three months now, Lea-Anne has been asking about microbeads, so I started our get together showing the ladies what we can do with microbeads, and the best adhesives to use with them. We looked at 3-D items and I showed them a scrapbook page I had used them on. I'll have to remember to post it here too sometime, it's from the travel album - the one that has become a two-year epic hehehe. So after some show & tell, it was time to play. We made this card, and I wouldn't be surprised if something on SplitCoast inspired this card, but I can't find any note here to give credit. If this resembles your card, let me know and I'll gladly credit you. On to the card... The colours all draw from the patterned paper. This is the two sided Petals & Paisley paper from the Spring Mini (click on the Spring Mini link to the left to see the paper, the stamp set & lots more). We used black Staz-On to stamp the doodle flower and stems on the Whisper White cardstock and filled in colour with the Aquapainter and watercolour crayons. The Levi tab is a regal rose rectangle stamped in craft white with the greeting from Sweet Shapes. We used the Cutter Kit to rough up the edges before we made a pool of Crystal Effects and spooned the microbeads on the flower centre. Cute and quick.

Bad blogger!

I can't believe it's Friday already! This week has FLOWN by! So what's new? Well if you haven't heard yet that the retirement list came out this week, then you're week has been even busier than mine. You can click here to see the list by page number. Or to see the sets listed alphabetically, click here I've been trying to plan classes and events and getting customer newsletters out this week too... I did have the stamp club in this week, so I will post pictures of what we made later today. Really! Meantime, check out that list, compare it to your wishlist and email/call me to snatch up your favourite sets before they are gone for good.

Itty Bitty Love

I've been working on a special project to give to my mom on Mother's Day - it's less than two weeks away, boy that's coming up fast! Ever since these Itty Bitty Books showed up in the Holiday mini, I've been wanting to play with them, and I finally got to it. These ship flat, so you do have to make up the box that the book slides into for storage, but some Terrifically Tacky Tape makes quick work of that. This book came together fairly quickly. There are 10 page protectors, so 20 pages. I just started cutting the adorable two sided paper, Petals & Paisley, from the spring mini. I chose this paper because I thought the fun, bright colours and images would work for both recent pictures and older pictures that need a bit more of a retro look. AND I've used up almost all of my Au Chocolat paper! I started cutting 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 inch square of the Petals and Paisley paper. Because the pages are so small, the embellishing isn't heavy in this book. I matted some photos, but not all of them. I made use of the slot punch, brads, lots of dtp, and some ribbon on a few pages, glitter on one, and that's about all little pages like these can hold. Stamps included words from Everyday Expressive Phrases, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Warm Words, sayings from Polka Dots & Paisley, and Summer by the Sea, as well as a some of the corner flourishes from the Doodle This set. The front cover of the book is inspired by an idea presented in a recent copy of the monthly Stampin' Success magazine sent by the company to all demonstrators. It's a great place to get the creative juices flowing. When I started my version, I didn't have the same stamp set that SU! used but thought I'd use the flowers from Doodle This! I didn't like the pointy look of the flower once I had it cut out for this project, and the smaller flower seemed too small and so it just wasn't cutting it either. I started my work on this book at my friend, Christa's, and she gave me this textured chipboard flower. So the bright pink flower, which works well with the colours in the paper, is layered onto the book that is covered in the 2 sided paper. I stamped the greeting "home is where your mother is" from the spring mini set, Just So Sayings,in So Saffron, cut it out and glued it on. The "m" comes from the big deal alpha set - it's stamped in craft white on white cardstock and heat embossed in white. I wanted just a bit more gloss yet, so I also went over it with Crystal Effects. The photo is probably not showing all the stamping on the box - I used Doodle This!, Alphadots, Burst into Bloom, and the hostess set, Riveting. The bling on the For You piece are 4-pronged gems meant for use on clothing and they pre-date my joining Stampin' Up! They weren't easy to work with, so I will definitely be looking forward to playing with the new Fire and Ice rhinestone brads joining the accessories section of the upcoming 2007-08 catalogue. Check out the link to a previous blog entry if you missed this bit of news, or want to see those again. Hope you like the book, and even more importantly, I hope mom loves it - I'll let you know after I give it to her on the 13th of May.

Sneak Peek... or two or three

Well on Tuesday, Stampin' Up! will release the annual, and much-anticipated, retirement list - the list that tells us which stamp sets in the current catalogue are gone for good. I have a few guesses, but I am sure there will be some surprises too! Stampin' Up! is also giving us a sneak peek at something going into the next catalogue. This picture is the "Palette o' Prints". I special-ordered it so I could show you and start playing with it. This pad is 6 x 6 and contains 48 sheets of double sided patterned paper (12 patterns), in 4 colours: Almost Amethyst, Rose Red, Certainly Celery and So Saffron. In the catalogue, this won't come as a pad and it will be in 12 x 12 sheets. For May, customers can purchase the 6 x 6 pad for $13.50 with a $50 order. AND, hostesses who hold a $600 show, get it FREE! I think scrapbookers and cardmakers alike will love this little pad full of big ideas! I love 12 x 12 paper, but why cut into a big piece for a photo mat, when you can just trim a 6 x 6 piece. Or use these for covering chipboard. Or use these for shape elements (i.e. circles seem to be big right now) on a scrapbook page or cardfront. And of course, if you scrapbook in 6 x 6 brag book size, there's no cutting necessary at all! Some of the other paper companies sell their version of these in your local scrapbook store and I think it's really neat that SU! has gotten in on this. You'll have to see these in person to really get pick up on the patterns, and depending on my photo quality (or lack thereof) and your monitor, the colours may not be quite true. Want another sneak peek? The demonstrators who earned the cruise incentive trip last year have just returned and the company revealed a few sneak peeks to them. Now that they are back, they are sharing their photos with us. (Edited to add: Many of these are posted on SplitCoast, but I "borrowed" the following photos from Caroline in Toronto - someday, I may be on one of these trips too. For now, I dream, and drool over what these achievers generously share!) Check these out: You know the In Color line is to be an exclusive line of colours that Stampin' Up! runs for just one year and then they are gone. They are to reflect the trends in fashion, art and home decor. So Cool Caribean, Vintage Violet, and friends are gone at the end of June. If you own these ink pads, may I suggest you order the re-inker for these before they retire so that you can enjoy your colours for years to come. And in their place, SU! introduces: Sky Blue, Bayou Blue, Wild Wasabi, River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Purely Pomegranate. The Basic Grey sample you see is a new permanent (should I say semi-permanent) classic ink to join Basic Black and Basic Brown. Have I whet your appetite? Would you like another sneak peek? How about a funky punch with matching stamps in a great tin to keep it all organized? These tins make a great gift for your stampin' friends! One more sneak peek: Cards and scrapbook pages always need a little embellishment or two to finish them off. And how about an embellishment that delivers a little bling! Fire and Ice round and square rhinestone brads come with 3 sizes in each collection. I can't wait to start playing with these! Couple of months to go, yet. Hope that gets you as excited about the next catalogue as I am!

Sayin' Thanks

We have been on the receiving end of a lot of random acts of kindness in the last half year, and I took an afternoon last week to make some thank you cards to acknowledge our gratitude and appreciation. This card features the springy colours found in the Bold Brights family. I stamped the Pixie Pink card with the Thank You stamp from the Simple Sketches set. I suspect that this set will be on the soon-to-be-released retired stamp set list. The Almost Apricot layer is sponged with Pixie Pink. The Gable Green is stamped in Gable Green ink with the Fine Lace background stamp. The 1 1/4 Square punch was used to make the Almost Apricot square, which is sponged in Pixie Pink and paper pierced. I used all 3 stamps for the butterfly. Yes, this is 3-step stamping! The smallest stamp was inked with VersaMark and classic and then heat embossed with Irridescent Ice to add some sparkle. Celery and Rose grosgrain ribbons were used to create the fringed detail peeking out from the butterfly. I promise a tutorial on the frayed ribbon next week.

Here Comes the Bride...

I entered a swap hosted by a demonstrator in Melbourne ON that features wedding invitations. I had been in a swap like this before, but it had been about 2 years and I think my invitation portfolio needs updating. I entered two groups, meaning I needed to make two different sets of 12 invitations. So here are my two invitations: The first card is 5 x 5 when it's folded. I used Chocolate Chip and the Au Chocolat paper from the spring mini. I LOVE that paper. There's a strip of it on the front and a square of it inside, on which the wording is mounted. I used the ampersand from the Big Deal alphabet to stamp over the couples' monograms. Kind of classy and modern at the same time, I think. The second card is made to fit Stampin' Up!'s long open ended envelope. It's a Cranberry Crisp and Very Vanilla invitation. I stamped off and used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the small leaves and blossoms from the Wild Rose stamp set, sticking to all Cranberry tones to border the wording. The larger leaves are stamped on the Cranberry layer. Finally I used the Zig Painty and the Mat pack to dot a straight line of evenly spaced gold. I don't expect to get the swap back until mid to late next week, but I'll create a slide show with them before I add them to my book. I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with!

Stamp-a-ma-jig

I often 'eyeball' it when I am stamping with a two-step set. And many of our sets are forgiving so that it works if something is not perfectly lined up. I do have a problem with a couple of sets, like "Heartfelt Thanks", for instance. It's a great floral set, but I have a very hard time getting the outline stamp and the fill-in stamp to come remotely close to each other. That is when you need the... the Stamp-a-ma-jig. No it's not some crazy dance to do in the throes of your temper tantrum inspired by misaligned images. It's a very handy dandy tool. It's great for getting those 2 step stamps nestled where they should be. It's also wonderful for using with Alphabet stamps. Did you ever want to take the hat from one set and put it on the cat of another - the Stamp-a-ma-jig can help you there too! I would be happy to show you to use it in person if, my dear reader, you are within an hour's drive of Elmira Ontario. If not, check out this tutorial - it's short and sweet and easy to understand.

Happy Long Notes

This card is inspired by something I saw in an online gallery by "Stinkerbell". I made some changes to it though, to use it for a recent class. We did a night on dry embossing, where we made the pink birthday card you've seen already, a debossed card, and this card featuring the faux embossing technique. Now I've recently come across two faux embossing techniques. One incorporates punching out shapes and adhering them to cardstock of the same colour. Simple enough. This one is the one I learned as faux embossing about a year ago. This one requires some patience and practice to really achieve the desired effect, especially when you are doing it with wheels, like we did here. This is the Long Notes card, found in the spring mini. Neat shape to work with, isn't it? We wheeled the Petals jumbo wheel in Cool Caribean ink onto the Cool Caribean cardfront, lining up the seam of the wheel to the edge of the cardstock. After cleaning the wheel, we rolled again with Whisper White craft ink, again lining up the seam to the cardstock. Did I say this takes practice and patience? After a few attempts, it gets easier, so it's worth doing a few trial runs on scraps first. Designer paper, a scalloped edge created with the corner rounder and the 1/8" hand punch, some gingham, and a popped up stamped flower from the Polka Dots and Paisley set finish the card. What do you think? I think I'll use for a baby gift for someone in my small group.

With Sympathy

I try to make sympathy cards on a regular basis for my church to use. They appreciate the home-made touch at times like this. It's a rather large church membership so staying on top is not always easy... There were a number of passings in the past few week, and because I knew one of the families affected, I wanted to make a separate card from our family. A woman who sings on the same praise team as I do lost her father just before Easter, so this card was for her. I used the Leaf Prints wheel with VersaMark ink and chalk to create the background. The focal image is also VersaMark and chalk. This simple technique, called Poppin' Pastels, creates a very soft look, perfect for this card. Just ink the stamp in Versamark and stamp. Then use a cotton swab or cotton ball to dust the desired chalk colours over the VersMark and watch that image emerge or pop! This set is Close as a Memory, from the main catalogue. Remember this technique when you need a soft look - it's so pretty.

April Specials

April has brought not just 1 but 2 great specials from Stampin' Up! (R) First, a discount on 6 really great "word" sets! Click here for details! Second, if you sign up to be a demonstrator between April 1 and May 31st you will get 2 hostess sets FREE from the new 2007-2008 Idea Book & Catalog that comes out in July! Click here for full details!

Guest Artist: Deanna Underwood

We received this wonderful surprise in our church mailbox this past weekend. Deanna is a friend and customer and I am thrilled to feature her artwork here. What struck me about this card is its beautiful simplicity. I love the polished stone technique and this sample is a gorgeous example of it. If you don't know the polished stone technique, simply, here is how to do it: Choose 2 or 3 reinker colours, including a metallic reinker. Drip a few drops of the reinkers on a rubbing-alcohol soaked cotton ball. Pounce or dab a the cottonball on glossy paper. You will get different effects depending on whether you pounce, dab, or streak the cottonball across the paper. Allow to dry and use as a background or focal point. You can stamp on top with Staz-On ink. Deanna layered an Almost Artichoke strip across the polished stone piece with gold brads. The Easter sentiment is an old stamp she's had around for years, she says, so we don't know who manufactured it or if it is readily available. I welcome the opportunity to showcase artwork from my team, customers and friends here, so I hope to feature more guest artists here in the near future. Thank you so much, Deanna, for allowing me to share your artwork here!

Make and Take Fun

One of the best things about attending Stampin' Up! events, in addition to the friendship, inspiration, and business tips has to be the make and takes. I actually lead one of the make and takes for my upline, Joanne's full team meeting. I chose a masculine looking design because I suspected that demonstrators were coming up with lots of flowery, girly ideas for the set and I wanted to show its versatility. I had done up this card for the 6 cards/1 set class I offered in March. It had gone over well there, so it was an easy choice for this event, too. The card is Buckaroo Blue and Chocolate Chip and uses the paisley stamp, the polka dot stamp and the sentiment from the Polka Dots & Paisley set which appears in the spring mini. Check out the link to the left, if you haven't seen the mini yet. We also used the Canvas background stamp, a white gel pen, caramel gingham and LOTS of sponging. This card was presented by my sideline, Carolyn. She's a beautiful stamper and her class ideas always inspire me. This card also features the Polka Dots & Paisley set and she's incorporated the new punches on this one. The Round Tab punch is used for the "friend" tab sticking out at the right. The Spiral punch is used down the left side, and by using my fingers to curl the little pieces, it does look as though it were torn from a notebook. We used the co-ordinating wheel, Petals, to create the background, and sponged a lot on this card as well.

Swaps are so much fun!

I showed you the swap card I was making before heading off to my upline's meeting - here are the cards I got back. So many of them feature sets from the spring mini, and there are a few from the main catalogue too! Lots of great techniques too! Enjoy checking these out and if you have any questions about what you see, feel free to leave a comment, or drop me an email.

Birthday Impressions

I showed a couple of groups this technique recently. It's dry embossing, and thanks to an expensive machine out there that a lot of people received for Christmas, it's made a huge resurgence. I don't own the expensive machine, but do like the look you can achieve. The one group I was showing this technique to was going to be numbering around 15 or so, so I needed to keep the card fairly simple. We used the Shapes Classy Brass template to emboss the dots in a random pattern at the top, and the scalloped edge at the bottom. Some of the guests there chose flowers or other shapes to emboss. That's the great thing about these templates - there are a ton of options. And their heavy-duty quality makes them a crafting heirloom to pass on. If the template had been turned the other way up, the edge would have like a postage stamp pattern. Two patterns for one - gotta like it. The gift bags come from the Girlfriends Accessories stamp set. The bags are coloured with markers, and then a little dazzling diamonds glitter to really 'gift' them up. The bags are cut out and raised up on a stampin' dimensional. The greeting comes from the Pretty Princess set, and we used a marker and the omitting technique for it. Now I just need to find a little girl, or someone young at heart, to give it to!

Very Cool Tool

Those of you who have the Word Search background stamp are going to love this! check out this link to see where all the words in the stamp are located.

Pearled Doodles

This was a card we made at last Wednesday's workshop. This is a little beyond a beginner group, so this card reflects that. It features cut out flowers from the Doodle This set in the spring mini. The flowers were inked with Black Staz-on and stamped on Certainly Celery, Rose Red and So Saffron and then edged in ink of the same colour. They were painted with Pearl Ex and future floor wax (love those Aquapainters!). Once dry we cut them out. We stamped the doodles in black on Certainly Celery and add bling with the 2 way glue and dazzling diamonds. We distressed the edges of the rose layer with the edge of my paper snips - which I'm now regretting - they seem to be much more dull - not surprisingly. So I may break down and buy the tool in the catalogue and spare my craft scissors. Cute card, though, eh? (And I know that out there on someone's gallery, I 've seen a card that inspired this one, but I have no clue where I got it - if it's yours, let me know and I'll gladly you the credit).

Dramatic Petals

This is another Petals & Paisley card, cause the set has really grown on me - and I taught that class in March featuring this set and 6 different designs. This card is definitely inspired by this card by Cambria Turnbow. The colours were very striking, I thought. As part of the 1 set, 6 options class, I wanted to show a few techniques in there too, so my card features the same colours as Cambria's card, but a different technique: poppin' pastels. We simply inked the flower stamp in Versamark ink and then dusted over it with chalks. The white front is layered on a black top-folded layer. Don't you love the slot punch detail the red band slides through? Very clever! This card is 5 x 5. I don't venture away from the standard size often, but this was fun and I'll have to consider it more often - some stamps challenge me on the regular size, and maybe it's just that I need a square instead... And, of course, SU! sells envelopes to accomodate this size.

Wanted to post sooner...

... but it's been an incredibly busy week. I do technical writing for my father-in-law's business as well and I was trying to make a deadline with that, contracted a weird flu over the weekend, planned a workshop for this past Wednesday and did a lot of prepping for the full team meeting my upline, Joanne, is hosting tomorrow. So, I will have lots of great ideas to share with you in the next while - coming out of the meeting (such a great place to see creative ideas other demonstrators are cooking up) and just get my own creative juices flowing! I'll take pictures and share! I'll also share some of the things we did at the workshop this past week. But for today, let me show you my swap card for tomorrow: We only need to do cardfronts, but this card wouldn't have worked as a swap if I didn't do full-sized. This card features that gorgeous Au Chocolat 2-sided paper found in the Spring mini. The front of the card folds back about 1 1/2 inches from the right side and I stamped it with the flower outline from the Polka Dots & Paisley set in Chocolate Chip ink. I ran a length of Chocolate grosgrain near the edge and used a chocolate chip marker to make an edge of dotted faux stitching - just palying on the dots on the paper. The far right of the image is actually the right side of the inside of the card. I just wheeled the new Petals jumbo wheel up there using chocolate chip ink. The greeting is the Smile stamp from the Be Happy set stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on vanilla paper, punched out and layered on a punched Chocolate Chip circle. I did this card at a class recently and the ladies liked it so much that I thought the demonstrators I'm swapping with tomorrow will like it too - it's simple but elegant, I think. Well, since it's been so long since I posted, perhaps I'll share one more stamping idea. This one uses the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set on a scrapbook layout. This is a total CASE (copy and share everything)of a layout my good friend and fellow demonstrator in my downline, Janet created. I loved what she did so much, that I made up the same layout. I still need to drop photos into it so I'll have to go hunting through my stash. I usually scrapbook the other way around, choosing the photos first and building around it, but this layout was one I knew I wanted in my book. So the Certainly Celery is background stamped with the flower and outline stamps in Certainly Celery. The Happy tag is made with the tag punches and features the frayed ribbon in rose and celery grosgrain, as well as some repeat stamping with the paisley stamp. The squares in the lower corner are paisley stamped and sponged on the edges. The borders on both pages are made with the Petals and Paisley 2 sided papers, along with a strip of So Saffron stamped in More Mustard with the polka dot stamp. The circle details come from the Little Pieces stamp set. The right page is background stamped in celery with the paisley stamp. The flowered paper is assymetrically cut. Here's a tip on doing that: Put your paper in the trimmer at about twice the length you would like for one page and trim. Now put the trimmer piece back in your trimmer, placing the upper right corner on the cutting line, and the lower left corner on the cutting line. Then trim. You'll have 2 assymmetric pieces, one for each page. The Round Tab punch was used to create the faux clipboard in the upper left corner, along with the spiral punch. I borrowed the spiral punch to do this, but now that I've seen how eas it is to use, I may get one for myself... the parentheses are made with the round tab punch too. Sponging, dtp, punched flowers and buttons finish the details. Thanks Janet for sharing your creativity with me - I can't wait to put my photos on here and add these to my scrapbook!

Blog Candy

I don't do this kind of referring often, but there's a US demonstrator who does absolutely fabulous work. She's just posted her 200th posting to her blog and in celebration she's giving away a Making Memories book. Go check out her giveaway, and if you have time, look through some of her archived postings - she's got some great work. Here's the link: http://stampinmama.typepad.com/stampin_mama_a_mama_that_/2007/03/a_groovy_giveaw.html#comment-63960182

Travel Album

I had wanted to post these before the weekend, but it was March break and the time was just FLYING by on me. So for those of you who were looking, so sorry to keep you waiting... A few summers ago, Brian, Sarah & I family made a trip with my father to Europe to visit some friends in England. We toured parts of England with them, and holidayed in Spain with them (people in England head to Spain for holidays the way people in Ontario head to Florida), and before we caught up to them, we did a car tour through Belgium into Holland. It was an unbelievable three weeks, and while it's taking me awhile to get the scrapbook done, I am enjoying every bit of it - especially reliving the memories! I am up to Spain,now, so there's not much left. So last Wednesday, Mom came into town for a craft day - she made cards the mass production way and got I think over 20 cards in about 4 designs done. She's set for awhile! I used the day to scrapbook and got two double layouts done. They both are set in a Gibraltar. The first layout shows the sights of Gibraltar a little bit. I used some leftover designer paper I had from the Summer mini called Petal Patch for this one, and the layout itself comes from one of those Becky Higgins sketches books. I stamped the Fine Lace background stamp in craft White on Bashful Blue for the left page and layered on a scrap of the striped paper. The tag came from the Just Delightful SAB kit. I punched flowers from in Bashful Blue and Close to Cocoa, inked the edges with craft White and started layering them using brads from the Soft Subtles. The non-SU fabric tag at the bottom of the page has been kicking around here a long time and the colours worked. The right hand page is also a simple layout, and both the flowery paper and the stripes come from the same collection. The barbary apes that inhabit the rocks of Gibraltar aren't native, but were introduced during the war (soldiers brought them back from Africa, which is just across the sea and can be seen on a clear day without a telecope). They are semi-tame, at least with the mini-bus guides. I knew my very good friend and customer got this Monkey Business set for Christmas, so I scooted down the road to borrow it.Thanks Christa! The left page features a photo of an ape being fed by a tour bus guide and I love the expression on Connor's face (right behind the ape)- he's just so caught up in the moment! I layered the photo onto a Certainly Celery piece stamped with the vine in Almost Artichoke and layered that onto a vanilla mat, sponged in celery. That then is layered onto a vine-printed scrap from the same collection as the previous page. I used the Big Deal set to stamp the title along with some hand-writing. For the right hand page, I used the emboss resist technique: I stamped the vine with Versamark ink onto Vanilla cardstock, sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat it. Once melted and cooled, I sponged on four shades of green: Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss and Almost Artichoke. The monkeys are stamped and clear embossed,trimmed out and raised up on Stampin' Dimensionals. So that was my play time last Wednesday - what do you think?

Inky Antics, part 3

Take a look at this sample: The stamp on the left is Real Red Classic ink; the stamp on the right is Real Red Craft ink. What a difference stamping with craft ink makes when stamping on non-neutral colours, like the Creamy Caramel. This card, another one I made up for our club get together, is entirely stamped in craft ink: Perfect Plum on Sahara Sand. This card uses the Polka dots and Paisley stamp set, a set featured in a Stampin' Up! promotion during the month of March. More on the promotion in a minute... Two stamps are randomly used for the background. The focal point features the paisley stamp cut out and coloured with Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie markers and raised up with a dimensional over the greeting which uses the key tag punch for the Sahara layer and the corner rounder on the Perfect Plum layer. All of it is mounted on an Old Olive card base. Again, a not bad card, but when I got home, I just wanted to add something else. I had just found out about ribbon fraying and decide to try it to finish off this card. I had to pry under the sentiment (wow theose glue sticks really hold well) to adhere the frayed ribbon detail, but I like it. And if any of you club members are checking out the blog, don't worry, you'll be learning all about ribbon fraying very soon! Oh, about that promotion... If you're falling for LOTS of sets in the spring mini, you're going to want to check this out: Stampin' Up! is offering a bundle this month. When you purchase the Polka Dots & Paisley set, the Petals jumbo wheel and the Petals & Paisley two sided paper for a bundled price of $48.40, you can take anything else in the Spring mini at 50% off - the more expensive sets like Doodle This or Big Blooms, or the Simply Sent kits,any one of them, for 50% off! How great is that! I got some scrapbooking done on WEdnesday (yeah!) so I'll try to post some pix of those later today or tomorrow.

Inky Antics, part 2

As soon as I saw Doodle This, I loved it for the overlay potential. I look forward to trying it in my scrapbooking... This is another card the stamp club did in the Inky Antics class. It features Staz-On ink, both black and white. We stamped the large flower with black Staz-On on whisper white cardstock (someday I may break down and buy the watercolour paper...)and then coloured in with the watercolour crayons and an Aquapainter. We stamped the small flower and the swirly flourishes with white Staz-on on a transparency cut to the same size as the white. We used the black Staz-On to stamp "happiness" from the Warm Words set in the lower left. We attached the overlay with brads. Although I loved this card when I first made it up - at least, I think I made it up. (I have browsed so many online galleries and blogs in the last two weeks, that I may have come under the influence of any number of stampers. I do know that the last time I looked, only one other stamper had seen the overlay potential of this set in the Splitcoast gallery. If I copied her card, it is unintentional, but rather subliminal. I really want to be careful to acknowledge the inspiration of other stampers - I think it's important. All these on-line resources are fantastic, and it's great that so many people share their ideas. It's not nice when ideas are used without giving credit where it's due.) But I digress.... OK, so when I got home, although I loved this card - it's bright and cheery and we'd been lambasted with snow, wind and cold here in Elmira for much of the week - it just needed a little bling, I think. So I dabbed the dots on the large flowers with 2 way glue and sprinkled on the Dazzling Diamonds. That did it for me!

Spring mini inkspiration, part 2

As promised, more cardfronts from the recent Spring mini swap I participated in. There's lots to see, so I won't say much, except that there are a LOT of fabulous ideas here.

Inky Antics part 1

I got together with my stamp club last week - we always have a lot of fun and Wednesday night was no exception. Although they are experienced stampers, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit a few things we can do with ink, besides the obvious... I showed them 3 techniques & cards. One of the things we covered was the kissing technique. Boy it would have been fun to do that last month with the Sell-a-bration stamp "Big Blosssom". But we were doing something else last month - oh well. So I got to work kissing with Polka Dots & Paisley, the free set we received at Christmas from Shelley Gardiner, the CEO & co-founder of Stampin' Up! As I played around with kissing the background and focal piece, I realized that for this card monochromatic was working better for me. At first I was kissing greens and yellows, purples and reds, playing with different background stamps. Finally Crosshatch and Canvas found each other, and it started to come together. I like the combination of Pumpkin Pie and Almost Apricot. I kissed both the flower and the word "happy" with the polka dot stamp. If you don't know the kissing technique, it's inking up a stamp that will create a background effect in a dark colour, inking up the image stamp (this works great with Headline Alphabet and the monograms)in a lighter colour, and stamping the darker inked stamp NOT onto paper, but onto the other stamp. Then stamping that stamp onto paper. I like the effect of kissing the polka dots and will have to remember to do that one again sometime. And of course, we had to play with the new tab punch. You've seen me go on and on about it - this time we kept it simple... I'll post another stamp club card soon!

Spring Mini inkspiration

Remember the swap I mentioned I was furiously working on last month? The swaps back and I wanted to share them with you. This swap features cards made with sets featured in the new Spring Mini, and each of these cards was created by demonstrators from across Canada. I love swaps because I can share (and be inspired by) samples of sets I don't own. I enjoy the work of other artists & their styles. I am reminded of techniques I haven't tried (or have tried but not in a long time!) And sometimes, swaps reveal colour combinations that I wouldn't have thought of. These aren't all of the cardfronts, just the horizontal ones. I'll post the vertical ones soon. Hope you enjoy.

And the winner is...

It's a snow day here today, so I asked my daughter if she'd mind doing the draw for the stamp set giveaway. Here she is picking the name out of my toolbox. The winner is: Linda Yamakodo. Congratulations! Linda, I'm going to need your snail mail address to get this to you, so email me when you get the chance. Wow! This is fun - I'll have to do it again sometime. Meantime, thank you for your kind comments and referrals. I hope you'll check back often. And if any of you have photo tricks for me, I'd love to hear them. My pix look great in my photo editing, but they lose something in the uploading to the blog and appear much fuzzier. Anyone with suggestions?

Round Tab Punch tips

The new Round tab punch in the new Spring mini absolutely intrigues me. I saw it and knew there would be a ton of potential with it. Recently, an American demonstrator posted a few really fun things she's discovered with this punch. Her blog explains it so well that I just have to send you there to see all the amazing ways to use this new punch. Do come back here after taking a peek because I have a few more tips for using this fun new punch! http://cambriaturnbow.blogspot.com/2007/02/round-tab-punch-tutorial.html The paper you see in her tutorial and cards is the bright and wonderful new two sided designer paper, Petals & Paisleys, which is featured in a March special - check out my website for more information about that... A few more tips with this new punch: When using the punch to make a tab, try scoring the paper before inserting it in the punch to make it even easier to create cute tabs that can be used with either the curved edge or the straight edge out. You can create your own bracket-style embellishments with this punch. Slide your cardstock scrap in under just one side of the tab and punch, and then move the paper over a centimetre and punch again to create a trendy and inexpensive bracket for your card or scrapbook page. Let me know if you're not getting it and I'll try to take some pictures to show you what I mean. Have fun with your punches - there's so much more to do with them than just the obvious!

Doodle This - part 2

Today is the first day of the new Spring mini from Stampin' Up! Check out the link if you don't have an actual copy yet. I am in a spring mini swap and joined two groups, so I had to come up with a second design with this incredible set, Doodle This - in a very limited time - to complete the swap. This card features the other flower in the Doodle This stamp set. It's stamped in black, coloured in with inks and blender pen, cut out and glittered up in the flower centre. The flower is popped up on a dimensional over a Taken With Teal piece that's been stamped in Taken With Teal ink using the flower stamp and one of the curly-cues. I overstamped the curly-cue with Craft white and then dotted the 2 way glue and Dazzling Diamonds along the stem and flowers. The corners are just free-hand scrawling with the white gel pen. The teal piece is mounted on a Chocolate Chip card that's been stamped with the flower in both Chocolate chip and Craft white inks. Two groups of swap cards last Thursday night! Whew!

Scrapbooking with Kits

I wish I could take credit for this, but it is pretty much a straight-up copy of a page by Lauren483 that she posted on an on-line gallery. I really wanted to show my scrapbooking guests how quickly a page can come together when using the Stampin' Up! kits. This kit is the Just Delightful kit, available free during Sell-a-bration with a $75 order. For those of you who haven't really checked out SU! Simply Scrappin' Kits, there are 6 6" x 12" die-cut sticker pages, along with 8 sheets of 12 x 12 cardstock and 4 sheets of co-ordinating patterned paper. This paper has a white core, offering chalking and inking options when torn, or leaving it plain white, like I did on this page. All I added to what came with the kit was a length of celery grosgrain, and some hodgepodge hardware. I was thinking as I did up the page that I might use pictures from our trip to England (way back in 2004) on it, but somehow I started focussing on the idea of "dream" and ended up digging up these baby photos of Sarah when she was sleeping. These pix are even older than the trip phots, so I suspect I'll never be "caught up" in my scrapbooking - which is kind of a good thing! So there are a few things I love about our kits.

• One is the speed - sometimes I just don't have a lot of time to put into a layout, but I have the desire (NEED) to get some scrappin' done. These make it easy because I don't spend time on paper selection and matching.
• Another thing I love is that stamping is still possible if I want to - most of our kits have at least one stamp set that will co-ordinate or work with them, so additional embellishment options are available to me.
• And I love the value of our kits. They only cost about $18 and they include a ton of stuff. When I attend a class or buy a kit from the local scrapbooking stores, I get a nice layout, but just one layout for my $15 to $20. With these kits, I can do up several layouts.
• I did not mean to turn this post into a "speaker's corner" moment - I'm just a little enthusiastic about our kits, can you tell? And I'm SO loving this page!

By the way - TODAY is the very last day for Sell-a-bration. Call me right away if you would like to get a SAB set free with a $75 order. And I have to say, a LOT of these sets have grown on me over the last 2 months and I'm going to miss them.

Scrapbook make & take

This was our make & take the other night. It's a 6 x 6 page and I showed them other layouts that incorporate 6 x 6 's so they'd see that they can use this at home, no matter what size they scrapbook in.

This page was inspired by a card I saw on the SplitCoast gallery. The creator of the card used the background set and designer paper up one side and that was all I needed to get the page started. This paper is the Dots & Dashes designer paper. The Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise and Only Orange come out of the paper colours. We stamped the Word Play background on the Green Galore. We used the slit punch to create the scalloped edge. (These are deeper scallops than the ones I made on the Doodle This card.) The accents on this page are stamped in Tempting Turquoise on Whisper White using the Be Happy set. I love the way that set works for both scrapbooking and cardmaking. A knot of Tempting Turquoise finishes the accents. I made the page up and then went hunting for a picture, which is opposite the way I usually scrapbook, but was fortunate to find this photo. Sarah is wearing a shirt that matches the layout perfectly and she's goofing around with her Papa's sunglasses which fits with the share, laugh, play, be happy theme of the accents.

Blog giveaway, take two

Well, big oops, here! Here I am wanting to give away a stamp set, and I set up the game rules, but failed to put the comments option on, here at my end. They are now on, I think... So comment away this week, send the blog on to your friends too, so they can comment, too, and have a chance to win, and let's give this stamp set a new home on Friday!

Doodle This - sneak peak #1

I entered a swap featuring sets in the upcoming Spring mini, hosted by a demonstrator in Quebec. I pre-ordered my set, and zut!, when it arrived, I had accidentally entered the wrong order number. I briefly considered keeping the set I had received, but decided to send it back and get the set I really wanted. So that gave me much less time to get this swap out to Nancy. I entered 2 groups which means that I had to make 2 different designs, in the quantity of 10 + 1 for each group. The +1 is for the hostess, and the 10 are one for each participant. So Nancy needs our swaps by Monday the 26th and, because of my ordering error, and my busy week, I was still designing last night. This is one of the cards I came up with. The card is made with Sage Shadow, which is one of my challenging colours. I have favourite colours that I reach for all the time, and others that I tend not use as often. Some of them I just don't like. Sage Shadow is not one I don't like, just one I ignore for some reason. But last night, Sage Shadow was the one I reached for - probably because I did the focal piece first... The focal piece is the large flower from the Doodle This stamp set, stamped in black and painted in with Pearl Ex and Future Floor Wax. Most of the cleaning supplies in my home are stamping supplies, not cleaning supplies - ha ha ha! So the focal point has a lovely metallic sheen in person - the photo does not capture it, unfortunately. So the Duo green/blue pearl ex on the little bits around the flower looked sage-ish to me and that's why Sage Shadow came out last night. I stamped the doodly curly-cues with Craft White on the Sage Shadow and used black and the "Happiness" stamp from the Warm Words set for the lower right corner. The flower focal point is mounted on Pixie Pink, one of my favourite pinks in the SU! palette. Before I glued it down, I used the corner rounder punch to create the scallops. Yes, the corner rounder punch. I slipped the punch out of the bracket piece that usually guides a corner in. Then I repeat punched across the paper edge, and used the 1/16" hole punch to add a little more umph to the scalloped edge. Some ribbon attached with a brad finish this card off.

Scrapbook Page

I had the honour and pleasure of doing a workshop Wednesday night and at the hostess's request, the focus for the entire evening was scrapbooking. Sounds easy, right? I mean, scrapbooking is what got me into this business to begin with. But when I scrapbook for me, I don't compose my pages or layouts thinking about whether it's teachable - I just do it. So, I am so grateful to Janet, a friend, downline and beautiful scrapbooker, who showed me some of her recent layouts. She inspired this page that I demonstrated to the scrapbooking crowd. The 12 x 12 page starts with French Script inked in VersaMark and stamped in the upper left and lower right corners. Then I used a cottonball to brush Bravo Burgundy chalk over top to pop up the script. Chalks are safe for scrapbooking and I love using it this way. I used the Artifacts set in the upper right corner to do the same technique. The journalling is tucked into a pocket made with the mini envelope template and stamped in Bravo Burgundy with French Script. I used the Close to Cocoa ink pad directly on the edges of the paper to give it that shabby look. Because I love the overlay look and because I was eager to play with my new White Staz-on ink, I finished the page by stamping the curlicues, and the Artifacts clock on pieces of acetate, and attached the pieces over the photos with brads.

Time for a give away!

I'm always challenged to keep my studio area uncluttered and recently came across a few sets left over from past Sell-a-brations - brand new, unmounted. So today is the first give away - there will be more, so stay tuned! This is a great set for making tags for cards and scrapbook pages. The stamped images can be cut out, or punched using the tag punches. I'll do a draw on Monday morning. There are two ways for you to get your name in the draw, plus you can get your friends entered too. To give this set a loving home here's what you need to do: 1) Leave a comment on this post! and/or 2) Refer a friend to visit my blog by having her post here and say who referred her! (she'll get to enter) 3) For every friend you refer, you'll get one additional entry! Edited: I may have accidentally been in non-compliance by posting the photo of the set, so I've removed it just to be safe!

Another name frame

This is the frame that the hostess completed on Friday. (Sorry about the glare on the glass!)

She stamped the Headline Alphabet over background-stamped vanilla rectangles and layered those on Really Rust mats which she mounted on the Spring Flowers two sided paper. She added organdy ribbon, a bookplate with the word "Blessed" stamped on the paper insert, and som ewire clips for fun and texture.

I think she did a great job and everyone had fun.

Name Frames

Have you made one yet?

It's pretty simple, and can be quite a quick but impressive project.

Last week I had the pleasure of doing a mother/daughter activity for the PD day and we made name frames. I picked up the frames at a dollar-type store and pried open the back.

We stamped personalized art to replace the image in the frame and closed them back up.

The kids stamped their names using the Big Deal alphabet stamp. They stamped images from the Girlfriends and Girlfriends Accessories sets and coloured them in with pencil crayons. They layered them on designer paper. I brought every paper I have so that they could find the right colours and patterns to suit their rooms! I think they were pleased with their work don't you?

It's Been Too Long!

I can't believe it's been a week and a half since I last posted. Bad blogger! I can tell you that it's been an incredibly busy week, with 4 different Stmapin' Up! events in the last week, but I don't want to start sounding like I'm making excuses. So for those of you patiently who check in every now again hoping for something new - I will make it worth your while with several projects today... ... and maybe I'll give something away today too - stay tuned... Oh, and Sarah wanted you all to know that she loved the Valentine's card I made her! Whew!

So Very Valentine's

I'm just working on a Valentine's Day card for Sarah. I feel like I've exhausted my cute-sy sets on her now - you know, Fishy Friends, Pocket Friends - great kids sets, but used for every special occasion for a few years' now.

So this Valentine's it's not quite so cute-sy and more pretty.

I used the 2 sided Loves Me papers from the Winter mini to get this card started.

I stamped with the So Very set from the Sell-a-bration mini. I love how the more I work with this set, the more versatile it's becoming!

Some embossing, some punches and some ribbons finish this card off. I hope she likes it!

Popping by...

Isn't this card adorable?

To the right is the envelope and the front of the card. I started out with the Pocket Notes from the Winter mini and just did some simple stamping with the Be Happy set, one of my favourite sets from this years' collection. The patterned paper is the Loves Me paper and the scallop at the top is one of the self-adhesive die-cuts from the Sweet Nothings set, both from the Winter mini, too.

The inside (far right) is the fun part! I stamped the cute little pig from the Just Punny set (get it free during Sell-a-bration) and shaded it with a blender pen and Pretty in Pink ink. Then glitzed it up with dazzling diamonds and used a dimensional so it pops out of those punched and layered squares. I also used the Word Window Punch along the card centrefold to create the mechanics that really give this pig pop. This is one of the cards we'll be making at the Word Window Wows class. See the class calendar, and stay tuned for more samples...

Hoppy for you

I saw a card similar to this one on another gallery (apologies to the original stamper for not catching your name to give credit) and did my tweaks to it. It features the cute little frog from the Sell-a-bration set, Very Punny. I used basic black, certainly celery and mellow moss for a monochromatic look. Because this was a make and take for a workshop where the guests were all very creative painters, it uses the watercolour crayons and Aquapainters for the colouring.

This card also shows a simple way to use the Word Window Punch. If you'd like more ideas on how to use this very versatile punch, you should consider joining us at my Word Window Wow's class in February. Click on calendar for more details.

Diving in...

Hi and welcome to my blog!

Well, I'm hoping blogging is the solution for me - I've been trying to find a way to communicate with customers, friends & team mates who want to hear from me more frequently, without being an intrusion to others.

My vision for this blog is to post whatever I happen to be working on - it may show you stamp sets you haven't seen yet, or a technique you've not tried. Ultimately I hope it inspires you to get out your ink!

The card I'm posting here is one I made for a team swap that featured sets from the new Sell-a-bration brochure. I used Elegant Eggplant cardstock and Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant inks for the stamping on the white. The cut-out flowers were stamped in Elegant Eggplant and then painted in with Pearl Ex and Future Floor Wax. They have a pretty sheen in person!