NEW ANNUAL CATALOG IS HERE!

NEW ANNUAL CATALOG IS HERE!
Your new products are available!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I'm holding an open house!

I've been invited to present Stampin' Up! Products at the Trendy Tulip Boutique this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  I'm very excited to share many of Stampin' Up!s new products and to demonstrate our My Digital Studio software.  I can hardly wait!  Hope you can join me!  More information is available here:

Trendy Tulip Boutique!

Below is just one example of the Notecard Sets I will have on display:
Each set has 3 Birthday Cards and 3 Thank You cards contained in this cute little box!  I have several of these made using all different design paper.  This one uses the new Garden Gala DSP, Pumpkin Pie cardstock and ink, daffodil delight cardstock and the new pear pizzaz poly ribbon.  I heat embossed the sentiment with versamark and clear embossing powder, punched it with our large oval punch and popped it upon dimensionals.  Super easy, demonstrable and very cheery, don't you think?   I will also be displaying the wonderful card swaps I received at Convention.  It's wonderful to receive card swaps that use stamps that I don't have so I can display a wider variety of products.  I love that!  I'm off to prepare for this event.  Hope to see you there, and let me know if you saw this post and I will give away a free card!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Do you know how much I love the Heat Embossing Technique?

It's probably my FAVORITE stamping technique!  I also love the effects of brayering.  I wanted to combine these two techniques in a set of card fronts for swapping at the Stampin' Up! convention.  I went back to some cards I've made in the past, and updated them with new stamps and new colors from the very exciting 2010 - 2011 Stampin' Up Catalog.  Here's what I came up with:

As soon as I saw the Silhouette Sentiments hostess set, I knew I wanted it!  You can get this set FREE when you host a Stampin' Up stamp camp or party.  Leave me a comment if you would like to host a card making class.  I would LOVE to teach you and your friends how to make cards just like this - it's easier than it looks!  The flowers were first stamped with black ink and versamark and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I then punched a 1 1/4" circle out of a post it note to mask the paper so a sun is created.  I first used daffodil delight and peach parfait with a brayer for the sky.  I sponged cajun craze across the top and down the sides.  The hills were created by tearing the sticky edge of a long post it note in the shape of the hills.  I covered the sky with it, then brayered cajun craze across the bottom.  I finished the bottom by sponging early espresso at the bottom edge.  A white gel pen was used to bright up the centers of some of the flowers.  Yes, white gel pen drys on the top of embossing - go figure.  Markers do not do this, only gel pens.  Cool!  I used my stampamajig (love that thing) to align my sentiment into the sun after removing the post it note mask.  Brads were added and then it was mounted on to Cajun Craze cardstock.  I made six of these in about an hour and a half.  I know, right?  It really goes pretty quick!  Hope you'll try that brayer and heat gun you have stashed in a back drawer and share what you create!  Have a beautiful day!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Always Elegant - Multi-Stamp!

Sometimes I forget how versatile stamps can be and just stamp the image as it is.  So, I really enjoyed using this main image stamp from Always Elegant and stamping it three times to give it a whole new look.  This was also my first shot at paper flowers and using the new cotton lace from Stampin' Up.  This a card front that will traded at Convention:

I had lots of fun making this!  Colors used are Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla, all from the Elegant Soiree DP.  Soft Suede is the only ink used here, on the main image, flower and edges.  The pearls and ribbon are also new fom Stampin' Up!  There is no sentiment, as I don't usually put sentiments on card exchanges so that people can use them for what fits their needs.  I'm off to ride my bike - have a creative day!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Card Fronts for Convention

I've been busy getting ready for card swaps at the Stampin' Up Convention.  This is my first year to attend and I'm excited to be able to go this year!  My upline, Chelsea, has advised me to make card fronts just to exchange casually.  So here's what I've come up with so far:
Elegant Soiree DP was used here, with Crumb Cake, Marina Mist and Soft Suede.  Curly Label Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch Corner Rounder and Small Oval Punch were also used.  I love the new Elegant Lines Embossing Folder too!  It was used on the main image mats.  Awash with Flowers Stamp set was used for the main image, and Elements of Style was used for the sentiment.
I really like this card!  Pear Pizzaz "paired" with Cherry Cobbler is a yummy treat!  I love love love the tree image from the Snow Swirls set!  It is embossed, with little touches of dazzling diamonds and a dash of bling to top the tree and the sentiment from Delightful Decoration.  Early Espresso and Very Vanilla cardstock were also used, along with the scallop border punch, 1" punch, 3/4" punch and Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.This one uses 3 stamp sets:  Elements of Style, Vintage Vogue and Greenhouse Garden.  Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi and Soft Suede were all used as Ink for this project.  The Very Vanilla is craft ink, which I used around the edge of project to soften the edges.  I really like the little pearl flower center alot!

I think this one might be my favorite!  I used Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist (crazy about this color) and Very Vanilla as cardstock and Inc.  I again, like to use the Craft Very Vanilla to sort of 'antique' the edges of these vintage style images.  The flourish and flowers are both from Elements of Style.  The flower image was stamped in black stazon, and then colored with blender pens.  I finished off the panel edges with a light coating of blank ink and the ticket punch!  I thought this could be used for almost any occasion!

I have more cards and projects to post later this week, so post your thoughts here, share your casings and come back later in the week for more convention projects, cards for fundraisers and more new items from the Stampin' Up catalog!  Make it a creative day!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Sweet Pea Baby!

Marie Shaughnessy originally posted this card on stampinconnection.com.  I loved it just the way she made it, so it really is a direct Case!  There's ALOT of detail here, but oh so much fun and such a cute result:
and the inside:

I embossed, punched, sponged and stamped to my heart's content!  I put in to play the Orchid Opulence and Lovely Lilac with Old Olive and Always Artichoke for anything green.  Blush Blossom was used for the baby face.  Stamps used are the flourish from Baroque Motifs, outside sentiments are from Tiny Tags and the flowers were stamped with Itty Bitty Bits.  The punch is from the Itty Bitty Bits punch set, along with the word window and medium oval punches.  3/4" and 1/2" punches were used for the peas and face, and the leaves were trimmed down from the two-step bird punch.  The flourish was clear embossed and the butterflies are all from the butterfly embosslit.  A white gel pen (Stampin' Up! really does sell the best one I've ever found) was used for all the highlights.  So cute!  Thanks for looking!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Brayered Father's Day

Oops!  I forgot to post this one before Father's Day!  Ah well, thought you might like to check it out, and then case this card to a masculine birthday, get well or sympathy card:
I know, forgive me - it's not 100% Stampin' Up products... however there are many sentiments that fit the curly label punch perfectly!  So here's he details:  I used an Early Espresso base card, with a Marina Mist mat.  I used very vanilla, and brayered Crumb Cake and then a little Early Espresso, being careful to not cover all of the Crumb Cake.  I turned the card around, and brayered Bashful Blue with Marina Mist on top.  I used my grass stamp from Inspired By Nature and used Old Olive to stamp it at a slight angle.  I used my ever handy slot punch (love that thing) to make the cattails.  The little birds are optional and could be substituted with the solid small butterfly in the Charming set (which I currently do not have.)  Here's the inside of the card:


The left side is stamped directly on to Marina Mist, using the same techniques as the front of the card, except for brayering the blue inks.  I used Crumb Cake for a computer generated sentiment, compliments of a quote from Bill Cosby.  Hope you can take this Father's Day card and turn it into something you can use for Birthdays, Sympathy, Get Well, or well, anything!

Friday, July 2, 2010

From the new catalog.... so fun!

Aren't new toys FUN!?  New colors, stamps, punches and always lots of fresh ideas await you in the new Stampin' Up! catalog!  Remember that many of the new stamps and colors are available for My Digital Studio as well!  Want more information on digital crafts?  Email me!

Below is a rather quick card I made for one of my clients.  Hydrangeas grew in my backyard when I was a child and they bring back many fond memories of good times in that backyard!  My mother showed me how to add colored water to the base of the bush to change the color of the hydrangea, so in her honor, I went with a red hydrangea, just like we used to 'make at home!'  Details are below.  Enjoy, create, and have a fabulous 4th of July weekend!
and for the inside:

Almost all NEW products were used for this card:  My base card is Early Espresso cardstock, layered with Pear Pizzaz that has been dry embossed with the new Vintage Wallpaper folder.  The Cherry Cobbler strip was border punched with the scallop punch.  Early Espresso was used for the main image mat.  Watercolor paper makes the main image mat because it works so well with the blender pens.  I used Cherry Cobbler to stamp the flower and was careful to load ink on only the flower portion of the stamp.  The stem was colored with my Pear Pizzaz marker.  I used a blender pen and just a little extra ink to color the image for more depth.  Cajun Craze marker was used to color the centers of the flowers.  I used my Cherry Cobbler marker to color only two images of the line design and stamp them in opposite corners.  The sentiment and hydrangea are from the new "Because I Care" set.  The sentiment was heat embossed with versamark and clear powder.  The inside used Very Vanilla mats, and the same components as the outside of the card.  I just might make a few more of these!