Unfrogettable Stamping!

Wooo hooo - my team is growing!

Can I tell you again how much I *L-O-V-E* Sale-a-Bration (SAB)?!  I personally have added two new demonstrators to my team in the last week - Kris Sennett and Gerin Martin - and my downline are signing up new recruits as well.  Wooo hoooo!! Welcome to all my new team members - I know you're going to be as happy as I am that you've taken this opportunIty to purchase your favorite products at a discount and build a business if that is your desire.  I'm here to mentor you and be your biggest cheerleader... I have to warn you, though, that I am quite the enabler so beware!

Did you know that during SAB our starter kit is on sale 15% off for just $148.75 with FREE shipping?  You'll receive a kit valued at $310 (that YOU get to customize) PLUS you'll receive a special bundle that is your gift from Stampin' Up! now through March 31st that is worth an additional $50 (also customizable!).  If you do the math, you'll see that it is quite a deal to join now!  My 6 year anniversary is coming up in a few weeks... yes, I joined during SAB, too!

So what have you got to lose?  If you are ready to join, you can click here to be taken to my demonstrator business website (DBWS) - choose "Join Now" and you can get started right away. 

Click here to download the regular starter kit form

Click here to download the My Digital Studio starter kit form

If you are interested in finding out more about the opportunity to join my Stampin' Up! familiy, I'd love to chat with you about it.  Please give me a call or send me an email!!

Punch Club projects for January

My punch club started this month and we met for the first time last week.  Everyone had fun creating 3 different cards with matching 6x6 instruction sheets - learning how to use our punches in different ways.  If you're interested in joining a club, please give me a call!

 

Here's the first one - isn't it cute?  I first saw this cute kitty and chair (reminds me of the one on Blue's Clues) on LeeAnn Greff's blog.  I thought the Elegant Soiree DSP was perfect because it looked like wallpaper!

The second punch art project was this snowman that I've seen all over - it is too cute for words and super simple!

And the last project of the night was this great doggie - I received it as a swap at Leadership from Cathy Roy unattached to a card (see below) - the ears were fixed in place so it was kind of big.  She put on the back of her swap that she CASE'd it from someone on Stampin' Connections - if you are the originator of this cute punch art please tell me so I can give you proper credit! 

I was going to just duplicate it and make a larger card to accomodate it when my Mom suggested using a brad so that the ears could close up and the image could be put on a card.  Thanks, Mom, for the GREAT idea!!!

As you can see, our punches are great not only for making your life easier for general card making, but when used to create punch art they have even more added value!

Love Impressions and Valentine Defined - a Fabulous pair!

Our assignment for this week for Fabulous Friday on the Sisters In Stamping blog was to use our favorite stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog... how do I pick?  I love so many of them!!  I finally decided on the Valentine Defined set because I was immediately drawn to the flamingo pair image the first time I viewed the catalog.  I'm kind of in a Valentine mood anyway, with it coming in just a few weeks!  I also had to use the Love Impressions specialty DSP - it is so fun!  And for some reason I am totally into pocket cards right now, so that is what I came up with this week.   They are so easy to create - cut your card stock in half - 11" x 4-1/4" - and then score at 5-1/2" and also at 9-1/2".  The pull out card measures 5-1/4" x 3-3/8". 

In addition to the stamp set and DSP from the Occasions mini I just had to include the red glimmer paper (notice the heart on the pull tab?).  For a full list of products used with today's project, please see below.

Here is a photo of the inside card pulled out... for my color scheme I used basic gray, whisper white and real red (taken straight from the DSP) and accented with basic black and pretty in pink.  This card is one that I'll be featuring in my February workshops - want to book a party?  Give me a call!

Don't forget to stop by the Sisters in Stamping blog later today to check out what my "sisters" used as their favorite sets!!

Products used with today's project include:

    - Valentine Defined, clear mount #123057 $18.95

    - Love Impressions specialty DSP #121780 $11.95

    - Red glimmer paper #121790 $3.95

    - Round Tab XL punch #119864 $16.95

    - 1-3/4" x 7/8" oval large punch #119855 $15.95

    - Scallop oval XL punch #119856 $16.95

    - Heart small punch #1171983 $5.95

    - Basic rhinestones #119246 $4.95

    - Stampin' dimensionals #104430 $3.95

    - 5/8" whisper white grosgrain ribbon #119958 $6.95

    - Card stock:  basic gray, basic black, whisper white, real red

    - Classic ink:  real red, pretty in pink

January 2011 Demonstrator of the Month, part 2

I wanted to share a few more of the projects from my Demonstrator of the Month Cindy Blekas with you today... these were created using the One Sheet Wonder technique (one of my favorites!).  She started with a sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" whisper white card stock and stamped all over it using the Cottage Garden stamp set and our five In Colors (blushing bride, concord crush, pear pizzazz, peach parfait and poppy parade).  Once you create your customized "designer paper," cut it up and create several projects (in this case all cards) that will coordinate together beautifully.  What a great card set this would be to give as a gift!

 

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you've been inspired by Cindy's projects... please be sure and visit her blog and leave her a comment or two!  Tomorrow I'll be posting my Fabulous Friday project for the Sisters in Stamping blog... can't wait!

January 2011 Demonstrator of the Month, part 1

It's a new year and I am excited about a new program that I am implementing with my downline here on my blog... I will be featuring a Demonstrator of the Month, introducing you to a talented member of my team along with some samples of her creative projects.  Please help me show them some love by leaving comments if you love their projects - many do not have blogs of their own so aren't getting the positive feedback that I know they deserve!  Thanks!!

My very first Demonstrator of the Month for January is my sister Cindy Blekas.  She is so creative!  To give you a little background, she has been married to her husband Dimitrios for almost 16 years and together they have three fur babies - 2 cats and a bunny rabbit.  Cindy works full-time at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and has been a hobbyist demonstrator with Stampin' Up! for five years.  Her passion is working with our gorgeous Designer Papers, using them to alter anything that doesn't move!  Some of her favorite accessories include the new pearls, ribbon and brads.

She didn't submit this project, but I pulled it off her blog... it is a shadow box that she created for ME featuring the Greenhouse Gala DSP!  My Dad is supposed to be delivering it to me soon... I can't wait to display it in my stamping studio.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is an example of her "if it doesn't move, I'll cover it with DSP" philosophy... it's an altered tissue box made with Sunny Garden DSP.  Cindy has been doing these for YEARS (maybe you've seen the one she gave me that I have displayed in my stamping studio?).

And how about this fun card?  Easily duplicated and featuring our beautiful Lap of Luxury DSP.

So wouldn't you agree that her work is great?  Please be sure and check back tomorrow... I'll be sharing some cards she created with a One Sheet Wonder technique.

 

It's the most wonderful time of the year... Sale-a-Bration begins TODAY!!!

Are you as excited as I am about Sale-a-Bration beginning today?  It is my FAVORITE time of the Stampin' Up! year!!!  And we have such an awesome selection to choose from this year.... wooo hoooooo!!  Click here to view the SAB catalog... you've got limited-edition stamp sets, awesome accessories, a My Digital Studio download and a list of stamp sets in the Idea Book & Catalog to choose from this year!!!

There are SO many ways to benefit from this promotion:

1) Place a qualifying $50 merchandise order (online orders, single orders and workshop orders all count as long as you meet the minimum qualifying $50 amount!) and you will get to choose a FREE exclusive Sale-a-Bration item (no limits - the more you spend, the more you get FREE!)

2) Host a workshop (in-home workshops AND catalog workshops count!) with orders totalling $300 and choose a FREE exclusive Sale-a-Bration item *in addition* to the regular hostess benefits (it's a great time to host - your friends are going to want to spend at least $50 to earn an SAB item for FREE, won't they?!)

3) Purchase the demonstrator starter kit at a 15% savings ($148.75 for a kit valued at $320) and free shipping and receive a $50 customizeable product bundle for FREE (including a punch, Color Coach and Simply Sent kit and stamp set)!!!  I'd love to have you join my team!!!

So what are you waiting for?!?!  Let's Sale-a-Brate!!  Contact me today to place your order, book your workshop/private class or join my team!!!

2011 Occasion Mini Catalog Open House projects and displays

I held an Open House this past weekend to kick off the Occasions mini catalog and the start of Sale-a-Bration.  Everyone who came got to create two fun make-n-takes featuring a variety of new stamps and accessories.  I had a lot of the new product on display along with the many beautiful swap cards I received at Leadership last week in Nashville... a big THANK YOU to everyone who came, it was great seeing you all!

For those of you who couldn't come, I wanted to share some photos of the projects and displays.  Above you'll see the first of two make-n-takes - it features the Sweet Stitches fabric, designer paper and button from the Oh Sew Suite style line. 

I learned how to make fabric yoyos at Leadership last week and lo and behold our 3-1/2" Big Shot bigz die in the Occasions mini catalog can cut out 8, yes I said 8, of these circles at a time!  They are really quite easy - it's harder for me to thread the needle than sew one!  You just hand-stitch around the outside of the fabric circle and then cinch it closed.  I then stitched through the middle of the circle a couple of times and secured it with one of the buttons from the Big Designer buttons assortment.  I actually took the cut circles to swim practice one day last week and sewed a bunch of them while waiting for my kids so my stampers could just choose one and attach it to the card with a stampin' dimensional at the Open House.  The "leaves" of the flower were cut out using the wing from the 2-step bird punch and the "happy birthday" sentiment is from the Something to Celebrate hostess level 2 stamp set we were given at Leadership last week (thank you, Stampin' Up!).  I just love the bright and fun colors in the Sweet Stitches DSP, fabric and buttons: melon mambo, tempting turquoise, tangering tango, chocolate chip, regal rose, wild wasabi and daffodil delight.

Here's project #2, it features several of the new Big Shot accessories found in the Occasions Mini (Fun Flowers bigz L die and Framed Tulips impression folder).  It is a CASE of the red card pictured below that I received from Linda Barnes as a swap in Nashville. 

I changed the color scheme of my make-n-take to one of chocolate chip, pretty in pink, whisper white and real red rather than going for the monochromatic look of Linda's card.  I also decided to use the debossed side of the Framed Tulips impression folder for my card and whisper white satin ribbon instead of a strip of card stock to anchor the flower embellishment.  In addition, my flower is embellished with a rhinestone brad in the center of the flower and the sentiment "celebrate" from the Something to Celebrate hostess level 2 stamp set (I love this set, can you tell?!) is punched out and matted with the large and scallop oval punches.  I'm so glad I focused on these Big Shot items as many people commented that they had overlooked them in the Occasions Mini catalog!

Here's a great sample featuring the Fun Flowers die - it is a bookmark that was enclosed with this beautiful planner that I received as a gift from my Service Account Manager (thanks, Max!) - it matches the beautiful purse we received with our Leadership materials!

 

For my door prizes, I created a bunch of scalloped envelopes using my Big Shot and made belly bands with an embellishment using the flower image from the Punch Bunch stamp set - one you can earn for FREE with a qualifying $50 purchase during Sale-a-Bration.  Each envelope had a different product in it from the Occasions mini catalog and as winning numbers were drawn the winner got to choose her envelope to reveal her prize.

I took some photos of the displays I had around my stamping studio to share with you, too...

This display featured some printed samples made with our phenomenal digital design software, My Digital Studio.  I love having real life samples to share with my customers... yes, I do have MDS but have not had a chance to get anything printed yet so this was a great buy at Memento Mall last week!

This table featured many of the Occasions Mini catalog and Sale-a-Bration stamp sets that I've purchased.

This trifold display shows many of the wonderful swap cards I received last week as well as the fabric, big shot dies and accessories that I purchased.

This is my trifold display of cards and scrapbook pages featuring items in the Idea Book and Catalog.  I added quite a few new samples that I received as swaps.

I hope you get a sense of the fun we had at my Open House events this weekend and that you're excited for the start of Sale-a-Bration tomorrow!  If you're local to the Lynchburg area and would like to book a workshop or private class to earn lots of FREEBIES, give me a call and we'll set your date!  If you're interested in attending a class, please be sure and check out my calendar of events.

More Craft Project Central projects for December

I took some time off from my blog and business in the the latter part of December to focus on family and the holidays and neglected to post photos of the remainder of the projects (including my own!) that were put on the Craft Project Central site.  You are going to love these!  Don't worry - you can still subscribe to get the project instructions for December... just click here to visit the site.

This decorated glass block project was my submission as the guest designer for December.  It is shown plugged in with the lights shining.

Here is a cute gift box and candle created by Jacque.  She also contributed the fun New Year's punch recipe page and party favor.

The last project for the month of December is this Days to Remember calendar created by Shelby.

 

Thank You cards for January

I am always grateful for all of you who choose me as your Stampin' Up! demonstrator and place orders with me, attend my stamping events, join my clubs and book workshops and private classes with me!  One of my New Year's resolutions is to send out a lot more thank you cards this year to show my appreciation.  My January card is the one above - it is a 4" x 4" square card that can be mailed in a regular envelope.  Also, because of its size I can cut four (8" x 4") of them from a single 12" x 12" piece of whisper white card stock.  I wanted to feature items from the Occasions Mini catalog and go with a Valentine's theme since it's coming up soon... what do you think?  I can make a bunch of these rather quickly to be ready to go out after my Open House this weekend.

I loved Sherri's swap card so much that I CASE'd it.. changing the colors to concord crush and poppy parade to feature our fun In Colors.  I used both the Valentine Defined stamp set and the "thanks" from the Say it Simply stamp set and you gotta just love that red glimmer paper for a POP of glittery fun using the small heart punch. 

I hope you're having a good weekend!  I'll be sharing my Open House projects with you tomorrow so please come back or another visit. 

Sale-a-Bration is FABULOUS!

I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again... Sale-a-Bration (SAB) is my FAVORITE time of the Stampin' Up! year.  After all, who doesn't love FREE stuff?!?!?  As a customer I was always the first one to book a workshop during SAB because my parties always ended up with really high order totals since everyone would order at least $50 to get something free and I *always* tried to have a ton of guests attend (one ended up with 19 in attendance!) - that's a good formula for earning lots of hostess freebies!!  Now that I am a demonstrator I can still earn SAB freebies - gotta love that!  For that reason, I only preordered a couple of the SAB items (a great perk we have as demonstrators!!).  This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are featuring sneak peeks of Sale-a-Bration products and you will find my project above made with the Sweet Summer stamp set.

So, I can't give you a link to the catalog or show you the stamp set yet, but I can show you images from it.  Do you notice the background on my crumb cake base card?  It was created using all but the stem image from this set.  I ordered this set in clear mount (for this reason) and just mounted as many images as I could fit on the "D" sized clear block (see below).  The color combination for this card was pulled from the Springtime Vintage DSP in the Occasions mini catalog... these DSP packs are always a great source for color combinations and inspiration!  You'll also note the new Framed Tulip impressions folder for the Big Shot around the border of my white stamped panel and the bow is made with our new 1/2" Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon.  The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from the Something to Celebrate hostess level 2 stamp set that I was lucky enough to receive as a Leadership attendee last week.  Can you believe how much Stampin' Up! spoiled us?!

As you can see, this is a great set!  I don't normally like to color, but this was super quick with my blender pen and ink pads.  I even cut out my flowers!  I first stamped them on a scrap piece of whisper white card stock using jet black StazOn ink and then colored the flowers with baja breeze ink and then went back and did some shading with not quite navy ink.  I did have to go back and use my white Uni-ball Signo gel pen to dot the centers of the flowers as I smudged some of the ink while I was coloring.  After they were dry I added dazzling diamonds and then cut out and popped them up with stampin' dimensionals on the stems that I had stamped directly on my whisper white card stock panel with garden green ink. 

What do you think of the bow?  Pretty, isn't it?  I learned about the fork bow tying technique back in the fall at the Baltimore Regional but didn't have any large forks to use, so the ones I was able to create were quite small.  Well, lo and behold while I was doing some Christmas shopping in December I came across this awesome serving fork that had 4 tines.  That is a very important thing to keep in mind if you're looking for a fork to use - it needs to have an even number of tines.  If you're interested in learning how to tie a fork bow, be sure and check out this video created by Canadian demonstrator France Martin on You Tube.  I'm not quite ready to jump into the world of video tutorials... so enjoy!  It looks complicated, but once you make a few you'll be amazed at how easy they are, I promise!

This card was so fast to put together and it's one that I could duplicate.  It actually took me way longer to type this blog post than to design and make this card!  Thank you for visiting me today - I hope this project helps to get you excited about Sale-a-Bration starting next week.  I'm looking forward to my Open House events this weekend!  Please be sure and check out the Sisters in Stamping blog later today to see the other sneak peeks that my "Sisters" have created to whet your appetites!!  Have a great weekend!!