Unfrogettable Stamping!

February stamp-a-stack cards

My stamp-a-stack for February took place earlier this week and featured 4 different designs that everyone stamped 4 of, going home with a total of 16 cards.

This is card #1 - it features the Bloomin' Beautiful stamp set as well as the En Francais background stamp.  The colors are very unusual for me, but were part of a color challenge on Splitcoast Stampers a few weeks ago (CC256) using basic gray, crushed curry and bravo burgundy.  I created this card using those colors and loved it so much it became a stamp-a-stack card this month.  I teamed it with the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set so my stampers could make this any type of card that they wanted... sadly I am finding myself in need of more sympathy cards so I went that way with it.  It would also make a great birthday, get well, thank you and thinking of you card.  Bloomin' Beautiful is one of my favorite floral stamp sets in the catalog... you can color the single flower so quickly with a blender pen and your ink pads or watercolor crayons and the potted flower image is really easy to color as well!

Here is card #2 - it is a notecard-sized card and one I have been featuring in my workshops this month to highlight the note card set in the catalog on page 168 - great for beginning stampers.  I love the Vintage Vogue stamp set from the Occasions mini catalog and I paired it with a strip of DSP from the Shades of Spring pack.  The large flower paper is great because all 4 cards looked different depending on what piece of DSP you received in your pack.  The scallop trim border punch was used to create the edging on the orchid opulence cardstock - it is a FREE Sale-a-Bration item if you make a $50 qualifying purchase now through March 31st!!  The colors on the card are taken from the DSP - so saffron, orchid opulence, certainly celery and chocolate chip.  If this layout looks familiar, that is because it was featured on the Clean and Simple blog a few weeks ago - FTL77.

This is card #3 - I wanted to feature the ornament punch to let my stampers know that this item from the Holiday mini catalog is still available for purchase and can be used for more than just Christmas cards!  If you trim off the bottom point it makes a great vase for the flowers from the Happy Moments Sale-a-Bration stamp set.  This card is a CASE of one I received from Michelle Halleen in a swap... can't remember if it was during Convention or Leadership.  Can you see the textured crushed curry cardstock on the vase - isn't it great?  The other colors on this card are all In Colors - bermuda bay, melon mambo and rich razzleberry.  The sentiment is from the Well-Scripted stamp set in the Occasions mini as is the Perfect Polka Dots texture folder used on the bermuda bay mat piece.  I don't know if you can see it or not, but the flowers have dazzling diamonds on them.  Whenever I have a stamp-a-stack that my good friend Carolyn North comes to I HAVE to have glitter on at least one card - she is my Glitter Queen!

And here is the final card for the night - it is a CASE of a card I received from Denise Jorgensen last year.  Her card had kiwi kiss squares on it (one of last year's In Colors) so I switched it out to sage shadow... essentially everything else about the card is the same.  I love it!  The Wow Flowers stamp set used is one that you can choose for FREE as a Sale-a-bration item from the last page of the SAB brochure.  This layout could be easily used with any stamp set that has a smallish image - the blocks are 1" x 1"... too bad Stampin' Up! doesn't carry this punch, I had to cut out all the squares - 16 for each stamper!!  You could use the 1-1/4" square punch and adjust the very vanilla mat piece but then the card look would change since you wouldn't have as much of the chocolate chip showing (see my card from yesterday's post here to see that look).  I just love the simplicity of this card and think it makes a great masculine birthday card!  The knot of ribbon is held on by a  mini glue dot, not too feminine right?!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my stamp-a-stack cards this month.  I'll be sharing my Design Team swap tomorrow - get ready to be impressed.  I am so blessed to have these talented stampers on my team!  We went with a 3-d swap this month - great for class projects. 

We are busy all weekend at a 3-day Regional swim meet of over 650 swimmers from around the central and eastern part of Virginia with our daughters Amanda and Kelsey who both qualified in all of their events (woooo hoooo!).  Thank goodness for the scheduling option on Typepad!  Enjoy the rest of your day - I'll be exhausted from timing and yelling for my kids... don't expect me to have a voice left on Monday!!

ColourQ #21 color challenge

I tend to get in a color rut and have started looking around at the various blogs and sites that post color challenges.  This week on the Colour Q site I fell in love with the challenge colors for this week (see that post here). 

Aren't these colors beautiful and don't they just scream SPRING!  It reminded me of rainbow sherbet (my husband's favorite) and so I decided to make a card for a friend using this color palette and the Tart & Tangy stamp set.  Did you know that this stamp set from the large Idea Book & Catalog is a FREE Sale-a-Bration selection with a qualifying $50 order?!  Be sure to check out the last page of the Sale-a-Bration brochure for a long list of other stamp sets that you can choose from inside the IBC!

I CASE'd the layout for this card from a card that I received from Denise Jorgensen last year (also used in my stamp-a-stack earlier this week... check out my blog post tomorrow to see that one).  I used the 1-1/4" square punch to cut out the images once they had been stamped on a scrap strip of whisper white cardstock.  Using my green galore and melon mambo markers, I was able to get the 2-color effect on the strawberry and cherries.  The citrus slices were stamped in apricot appeal and green galore and these squares were adhered to a piece of apricot appeal cardstock.  The mat for the card is a piece of regal rose cardstock.  I thought it looked a bit plain so I dressed it up with some texture using my favorite Perfect Polka Dots folder with my Big Shot - it ties in the seeds/dots on the strawberry image and the ribbon, don't you think?  The piece of ribbon is melon mambo polka dotted grosgrain and I punched out my sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set using my small oval and modern label punches.  After adding two silver brads I popped the entire piece up using stampin' dimensionals.  The card was finished by rounding the corners using the corner rounder punch.  Can I tell you how much I LOVE our punches?!?!?

Products used today:

This card came together so quickly because I had a layout in mind and a color palette already chosen.  I think I'll make a bunch of these to have on hand to send out over the next few months.  Thanks for visiting today!  I hope you'll come back tomorrow to view the stamp-a-stack cards I had in my class earlier this week.

Have a great weekend!!

It's Fabulous Friday once again!!

It's Friday and you know what that means... I've got another Fabulous Friday project to share with you.  This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are focusing on the Eggcoutrements stamp set in the Occasions mini catalog.  This is a fantastic set for creating lots of fabulous projects for Easter - it works well with so many of our punches!!  Since Easter falls on April 4th, now is a great time to order this stamp set so you can get started working on your Easter cards and favors.

I decided to make a cute little Easter basket that will hold 3 Ghirardelli chocolates perfectly.  I had seen this idea for creating a tiny favor box originally posted by Carol Taggart on her blog here.  The base of the treat box is created with the Big Shot and the Scallop Circle Bigz die.  You score and snip and fold it up and voila - a tiny favor box is created.  Be sure to check out Carol's blog for instructions... these are very easy to create.  By adding a strip of cardstock, it easily becomes a little basket!  The colors - pretty in pink, so saffron and certainly celery - were pulled from the strip of DSP I used which is from the Shades of Spring pack that is available in the Occasions mini catalog.  I also used my designer label punch and some silver brads... this project would be very easy to mass produce! 

Here's a close-up view of the label... I cut some of the stamped image away so that it would be perfectly matted with the punch.

Products used today:

Thanks for stopping by - please be sure and visit the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST to see what everyone else created with this stamp set!!

Time flies by...

I was doing so well getting blog postings done on a regular basis, but hit a brick wall here over the last week.  I apologize for being away since Friday, but my life has been a bit crazy and something had to give - it was sleep or my blog.  Sleep won out!!

So, what have I been up to?  On Saturday my Design Team and I put on our first ever joint-effort stamp camp and it was a lot of fun!  We had originally scheduled it for January 30th but the snow forced us to reschedule it.  Everyone who attended our "Beat the Winter Blues" camp received the Very Thankful stamp set (the designated Ronald McDonald House Charities stamp set this year) and used their sets with several of the projects.  We also decided to focus on the In Colors, Cottage Wall DSP and accessories in the Occasions mini catalog.

This tea bag holder was designed by Darlene Crockett... I love how Darlene was able to find tea bags that were crushed curry in color!  These are so quick and easy to make when  you have the Top Note die and a Big Shot.  The pocket was formed using one whole and one half of a rich razzleberry Top Note diecut and held together with sticky strip... they gold eyelets from the Vintage assortment are mainly decorative.  The image was stamped with basic black craft ink and heat embossed on a piece of crushed curry before being punched out with a scallop oval punch.  The melon mambo polka-dotted ribbon was folded over and adhered behind the punch.  The perforation marks around the outer edge of the Top Note diecut were drawn on with a Uniball Signo white gel pen to give it the appearance of being sewn.  What a great little party favor for a baby shower or something to tuck into a gift basket.

This next project was created by Sherri Gough... everyone made 2 of each of the cards that day.  This is a pocket card with a bookmark made from the Two Tags die tucked inside.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  The colors used were basic black, bermuda bay and rich razzleberry.  The hearts were punched out of cardstock using the Heart-to-Heart punch and the card was embellished with a piece of rich razzleberry polka dot ribbon and black brads from the Vintage Brads assortment.  You may not be able to see it from the photo, but there is dazzling diamonds on the flowers also!!

This beautiful card, which everyone made 2 of also, was created by Lori Subosits and designed to get a lot of Occasions mini catalog products into the hands of our stampers.  The birds were punched out of Cottage Wall DSP using the XL 2-step bird punch and the texture on the whisper white piece was added with the Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dots texture folder.  The sentiment is from the Whimsical Words Sale-a-Bration stamp set and the mat for this was created using the scallop trim corner punch.  The colors used were rich razzleberry, orchid opulence, whisper white and old olive. 

This last project was my contribution - a quick and easy basket to hold chocolates wrapped in a cello bag and made from the Fancy Favor box bigz xl die cut from basic black cardstock cut to 12" x 5-1/4".  The handle is a piece of cardstock cut to 12" x 3/4" so it only takes half of a 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock.  I wrapped a piece of Cottage Wall striped DSP around the basket and tied it off with whisper white 1/4" grosgrain ribbon which was tied and knotted around a small strip of rich razzleberry polka dotted ribbon.  I believe it was Ann Clemmer who shared this idea at Founder's Circle last fall... I love it!  The white brads holding the handle of the basket to the box are from the 5/8" neutral brads collection.

We also had a bonus project which was a small jar candle with a tag made with the Flower for All Seasons stamp set (currently a Sale-a-Bration selection) but I neglected to get a photograph of it.  All pre-cut supplies, including the stamp set, were packaged in an altered white gift bag... they turned out so pretty but again I forgot to take a picture.

All in all this was a fun stamp camp and we look forward to holding more in the future!!

Thanks for stopping by... I will be back tomorrow with my Fabulous Friday project so please come back!!!

Sale-a-Brating Fabulous Friday!!

This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are Sale-a-Brating!!  We are featuring the Sale-a-Bration items you can currently earn for FREE with a qualifying $50 order - how fun!!  If you don't have a brochure you can use this link to check out the full brochure here.

My project this week is a card... I needed to send a card to some friends to let them know I was thinking of them and lifting them up in prayer as they go through some tough times.  Isn't that the best thing about this craft - we can send love and touch lives hundreds of miles away!!

This card is a CASE of one I designed for my Techniques Club back in October and that post can be seen here.  I CASE'd a card for that class which was posted on SCS by user Debra which can be seen here (lots of CASE'ing going on, but that is the beauty of stampers - they don't mind sharing as long as you give proper credit!).  I started with a base card made from Kraft cardstock cut to 11" x 4-1/4" and scored at 5-1/2".  I used the Scallop Trim border punch to give a decorative edge to the front of the card.  This is a newly-styled punch and super-easy to use!!  It is a FREE Sale-a-Bration item (#118402), too - gotta love that!  I used a masking technique along with the Big Shot Scallop #2 die to sponge the center of the whisper white panel with pale plum ink and a stampin' sponge wedge.  I then stamped the focal image rose from the "A Rose is a Rose" stamp set (#1115600) in pale plum and elegant eggplant, using my stamp-a-ma-jig to perfectly line up the two layers.  I finished the rose image with the 2-step leaves using always artichoke ink (couldn't find my old olive at the time) - to make the lighter main part of the leaf I stamped off once and the detail was stamped full-strength.  Again using my stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped the sentiment from the Whimsical Words stamp set (another SAB item!) in the upper right-hand corner with elegant eggplant ink and layered that piece on top of a larger elegant eggplant mat.  I finished off the card with a piece of old olive satin ribbon, found in the Occasions mini catalog. 

I really like how this card turned out and think I'll make a few more to have on hand when I need to lift someone's spirt.

Here are the products used today:

 
Thanks for stopping by!  Please be sure and visit the Sisters In Stamping blog after Noon EST today to see what my Sisters came up with this week!

February Scrapbook Club layouts

Thanks for visiting today.. I am sharing the two 12" x 12" scrapbook layouts that my club members will be making tonight at our meeting.  This is the last month for this club session and I am looking to fill spots for the next round.  Are you interested?  If so, please contact me for details!

This first one above is a page you may recognize, it was my Fabulous Friday project last week and the subject of my blog candy.  You will find more details about this layout, including colors and items used, from that post here.

This next layout is featuring one of the two stencils from the Folk Flowers (#118139) Decor stencils.  I used the other stencil on a card for my Card of the Month club two days ago... you can see that post here.  I *really* like these stencils - they are currently available in the Occasions mini catalog on page 18 and you get BOTH of these images for just $12.95... what a deal!  Once I figured out that I wanted to use a stencil I had to come up with a layout idea. 

I have been wanting to try a scrapbook page sketch and looked on Splitcoast Stampers website at past challenges and liked this one SBSC224 pictured above.  I did change where the photo mats and title went but tried to stick pretty close to the sketch.  I like that the top left corner was open so I could put the stencil there and decided to incorporate my Big Shot by putting the scallop circle diecuts along the page edge (they were cut in half).  I chose a color palette of rich razzleberry, chocolate chip and naturals ivory cardstock - these colors are just so warm and pretty in my opinion.

Here is a quick and easy way to apply ink to your project using our stencils... apply some Dotto repositionable adhesive (#103305, $12.95) to the back of your cardstock and put it down on a sheet of grid paper.  Tape your stencil to the grid paper and carefully apply ink using a sponge dauber in an up-and-down motion so you don't lift up the stencil, especially in intricately detailed areas.  It's a good idea to start with a fully inked and juicy ink pad, too.  Work slowly and you can check your progress by carefully lifting the stencil... the more ink you apply, the more defined your image will be.  Definitely put a stencil on your wish list if you haven't purchased one yet... there are more you can choose from in our Definitely Decorative brochure (see a link in my sidebar).

And here is a close-up of the title... it is created with a sentiment from the stamp set Things I Love and the matching flower image of the stencil from the Razzleberry stamp set.  Things I Love is a stamp set you can choose as your FREE Sale-a-Bration selection (#120208) with a qualifying $50 order and it is great for scrapbooking and card making!  In order to make the flower image less prominent, I fully inked it and then stamped off on my scrap paper twice before stamping it over the sentiment.

There is one more product used on the page, but I don't think my camera was able to capture it... I love that our shimmer paint from the Holiday mini catalog is still available (see this post here to see a full list of products from the Holiday mini that you can still purchase).  I used about 1/2 teaspoon of the Champagne Mist shimmer paint and mixed it with rubbing alcohol (approximately 1 ounce) and 15 drops of rich razzleberry reinker and put them into an old Stampin' Mist spray bottle to create my own shimmer mist.  I sprayed the entire piece of rich razzleberry cardstock with this mist after I applied the stencil.  In real life this page is very shimmery and looks so rich.

I hope my stampers like the pages tonight and that you've been inspired to try out a stencil or create your own shimmer mist!  Thank you for stopping by... please check back tomorrow when I post my Fabulous Friday project for this week.  We're featuring Sale-a-Bration items... see you tomorrow!

Exciting product carry-overs from the Holiday Mini!!

Woooo hoooo!  Stampin' Up! announced today that the following products from the Holiday mini catalog are still available for purchase and that they WILL be carried over into the next Idea Book & Catalog debuting on July 1st.  How great is that?!  So if you missed out on any of these fabulous products, you CAN still order them! 

Contact me to place your order or use my demonstrator website 24-7 (use the link here and click on "Shop Now").  Spend $50 and you'll earn a Sale-a-Bration item for FREE and get a spot on my $50-50 board!!!!

Item #	Description	Price
116794	Ornament punch	$15.95
116806	Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint	$5.95
116854	Frost White Shimmer Paint	$5.95
116807	Platinum Shimmer Paint	$5.95
116829	Décor Elements Blocks	$9.95
116824	Stampin' Up! Textured Impressions Folder Petals-A-Plenty	$7.95
116821	Stampin' Up! Holiday Windows Magnetic Movers & Shapers	$29.95
116819	Stampin' Up! Table Setting Bigz XL die	$42.95
116820	Stampin' Up! Embosslits Merry die	$11.95
116823	Stampin' Up! Sizzlits Merry Details die	$5.50
116822	Stampin' Up! O Christmas Tree Pop-Up Bigz XL die	$42.95
118140	Stampin' Up! Tree Decorations Sizzlits die	$5.50
118108	My Digital Studio	$79.95
116519	Charming stamp set	$19.95

Thanks for stopping by... I'll be back tomorrow afternoon with my Scrapbook Club layouts for this month.  We're meeting tomorrow evening and I don't want to spoil the surprise for them!!

February Card of the Month club projects

I am having my Card of the Month club meeting tonight and wanted to share the projects with you.  But first, I need to announce the latest winners of my $50-50 board... I used Random.org to choose the winners this time because my kids are at swim practice and I wanted to get this blog post done before my club meeting starts tonight.

Drum roll please...the $50 gift certificate goes to #48, which belongs to Erica Wolfe.  Congratulations, Erica - please let me know what you want ASAP!  I have orders going in this week and would like to go ahead and place this for you.  Because this $50 order qualifies for a Sale-a-Bration selection, I generated another number for that prize... the lucky winner of the SAB item is #32 which belongs to Donna Doss.  Congratulations, Donna - please let me know which item you would like out of the Sale-a-Bration brochure!!

Thank you to everyone who participated!  We are already well under way to filling up the next board... will you be my next winner?  All you need to do to get your name on the board is purchase $50 in product... doing so will also get you a FREE Sale-a-Bration item through the end of March.  Contact me for more details or to place an order!!

Okay, on to the projects for tonight - this first card is a CASE of my card from last night's "I'm a Big Shot" class (see that post here).  I ran out of whisper white taffeta ribbon so had to use a DSP that would go well with very vanilla. I decided that I could use the Tea Party pack and went with the green flower piece.

Everything about the card is the same as last night's card except for the colors used (so saffron, basic gray, very vanilla, pretty in pink) and how I added texture to the butterfly (Big Shot perfect polka dots texture folder).  I love this card - it makes me think of spring!

 

This next card is also a CASE of a card I had done earlier (see that post here), except this time I turned it into an easel card.  These are fun to make - they lie flat to mail but then stand up nicely when you open them.

And here is card #3... I wanted to feature the Sweet Pea stitched felt flower pieces and had just enough of the rose red/chocolate chip flowers for my 6 members to use plus my sample.  I love it when things work out, don't you?!  The flower coordinates beautifully with the Sweet Pea paper stack piece of DSP on the card.  I finished it off with a sentiment from the Whimsical Words sale-a-bration selection stamp set.

The last card uses one of the Folk Flowers stencils from the Occasions mini catalog... I chose In Colors to use to color it and was inspired by this card posted on Judy Garza's blog, which I believe was created by Jodi Reinert and can be seen here.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm off to meet my club members... have a wonderful night!

"I'm a Big Shot" class projects

Tonight is the first meeting of my "I'm a Big Shot" class.  I decided to offer a Big Shot class once a month so that everyone can see how truly awesome and versatile this machine is!!  I love mine and rarely craft without using it in some capacity.  As a reward to anyone who has purchased the Big Shot from me, they get to attend these classes at half-price.  Once a quarter I'll be holding a free Big Shot 101 class for anyone who has recently purchased the Big Shot from me to give them an overview of it so they are fully comfortable crafting with it at home.

Tonight's projects include a card and 3-d item.  You'll probably recognize my 3-d item as it was my Fabulous Friday project from 2 weeks ago.  You can view that post here.

The card for tonight features two of my favorite exclusive Stampin' Up! bigz dies - the Beautiful Butterflies (#113507) and Top Note (#113463).  I recently discovered this cool new way to use the Top Note die - after running it through once, rotate the diecut 90 degrees on the die and run it through again.  You end up with this fabulous shape (see it in chocolate chip under the butterfly).  I added texture to the butterfly after cutting it out using my Perfect Details texturz plate.  The antennae were created by wrapping whisper white taffeta ribbon around the body of the butterfly and adding a knot.  The gorgeous DSP (from which I pulled my colors) is a piece from the Sweet Pea paper stack (#117161) found in the Occasions mini catalog.  I love all the beautiful colors - taken with teal, so saffron, chocolate chip, pretty in pink and rose red.  The sentiment is from the Happy Moments stamp set that is a FREE Sale-a-Bration selection with a $50 qualifying order.  I stamped it with chocolate chip ink on whisper white cardstock and used the small oval, large oval and scallop oval punches and adhered it on a piece of the pretty in pink satin ribbon.  There are so many different layers and textures on this card and it just makes me happy!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I think the snow has finally stopped and it has warmed up just enough to melt anything that did fall so it looks like my class is going to take place after all.  Yipppeee!!

Blog Candy Winner

I used Random.org to choose a winner of the blog candy from my post on Friday where I asked you to leave me your favorite 80's memory.  I'm happy to announce that the winner is the first comment left by my sister Cindy:

Gosh - favorite 80s moments? Where to start? LOL Well, some of them would be the heavy metal concerts I attended with 4 inch high hair, spiked accessories, and tons of makeup! How can you not love the movies from the 80's: Pretty In Pink, Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Better of Dead, etc. And the music? I could go on and on. I think the whole decade was a favorite moment!

Love the scrapbook page - you totally captured the 80s :) Love it!

Posted by: Cindy | February 12, 2010 at 01:43 PM

Here is the blog candy that she won - the Goody-Goody Gumdrops hostess level 3 stamp set from last year's catalog. Congratulations!!

Thanks for playing along - I enjoyed reliving the 80's with you!!