9/23/2007

Stamping Weekend

Hello all! I just got home from the 5th Annual Nebraska Mini Convention hosted by Kevin Theesen & Susan Nickerson. They do an awesome job! A weekend packed with stamping fun and ideas! I'll share more of that in the coming days (probably weeks!), but wanted to share my shoebox creation.

We were able to participate in a Shoe Box Swap in groups of 15. The only requirement was that it be a 5 minute card. In groups like that if you do very complicated cards it takes ALL day (or night!). This year was a great group of cards and none in my group were overly complex. I think as demonstrators we sometimes tend to get carried away and forget that simple and sweet is always good!


If you read my last post, this probably looks familiar. I went with very similar colors and layout. The ribbon is the Wide Satin in Chocolate Chip from the mini catalog. This was my starting point. I received a swap in the mail Thursday where the ribbon had been done this way. Love it! For those of you who have trouble tying the bow (like on my last card), try this! It's just a knot in the center of a piece of ribbon. The ends of the ribbon are secured between the layers of cardstock. For the leaf on this one, I stamped in Chocolate Chip on Naturals Ivory CS. I then used my blender pen to pick up ink from the More Mustard & Always Artichoke pads. The Chocolate Chip ink blended with the More Mustard & Always Artichoke to give it a great fall look. Pick up as much color and blend as much as you want! Just don't get the paper too wet or it will warp and possibly tear!

This card was created by my roommate & stamping buddy for the weekend, Sue Johnson. She layered vellum over designer paper (Blue Bayou Prints) for a very elegant look. The card Base is Blue Bayou, the accent layer is River Rock. The "joy" is from the Love & Joy set in the Holiday Mini. She used the snowflake punch also on the Blue Bayou Prints designer paper. Very pretty!

I won some of the Prints DP in Pumpkin Pie. Guess what I'll be using to make fall cards very soon?!?!? Hope you've all had a good weekend. I'm off to rest & do laundry!

9/16/2007

Workshop Samples

I have a workshop this afternoon and these are the cards I came up with for everyone to do. I generally ask my hostess what she'd like to see, and this one had very specific requests! That actually made my job lots easier! I had a starting point!

This first one used the Spotted Background technique. Click this link to see the tutorial on SCS done by Beate. It's quite simple and fun to see what different combos come out looking like. To achieve a fall look, I chose spots in More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive & Close to Cocoa. I stamped over the background with the Timber Brown Stazon pad using the large leaf from the With Gratitude set. I stamped Old Olive leaves on the Old Olive layer, and added With Gratitude in Timber Brown at the bottom. The ribbon is the fantastic wide grosgrain in Chocolate Chip.

The request that generated this sample was glitter. Of course you can't see it very well, but there is lots on there! All the white areas on Santa-beard, cuff, hem, & hat are covered with Dazzling Diamonds using the 2-way glue pen. I stamped Santa on Shimmery White using my Jet Black StazOn pad. He is colored using the Real Red, Blush Blossom, More Mustard & Pretty in Pink Markers, and Going Grey & Basic Grey using the Blender pen. I chose to back it the Shimmery layer with the Basic Grey cardstock instead of black-it's a little softer! Lastly, I added Red Gingham ribbon using the slot punch.

Well, I'm off to finish getting ready so I can hit the road shortly. Have a great day!

9/12/2007

Groovy Flower!

This is a card I came up with for a demo that my downline (& wonderful friend!!) Diane & I are doing Friday night with the local stamp group. If you're from Stamp Heaven and want to be surprised-don't go any further! LOL!

It really isn't anything complex. We hit on an idea to show them how to color the Prima type flowers. I personally love that I can color them to match my SU! supplies. After all, we have the BESTEST colors around!!! We'd also talked about showing faux-stitching. We stumbled upong a sample (that I don't have handy to give the creator credit) that used faux-stitching for a stem. So we decided to put the two together! How cool is that? 2 for 1!

I started by coloring my flower with my Aquapainter & Groovy Guava ink. While that was drying, I punched the stem free hand with the large needle (my piercing tool is bent or that would work too!) and guide from my Crafters' Tool Kit. I didn't have a pattern, just eye-balled it! You could draw it with a pencil and follow that. I connected the dots with my White gel pen. I added the "wonderful" off to the side with White Craft Ink and sponged the edge of the Wild Wasabi layer. I stamped the square of dots on the flower with craft ink and sponged the edges of the flower just a tad. I attached the flower with a Rhinestone brad and layered the Wild Wasabi onto a River Rock card base.

P.S. If you're in the SE Nebraska or NE Kansas areas and haven't heard of Stamp Heaven (in Beatrice, NE) contact me and I'll hook you up!

9/11/2007

A Day Late

and a dollar short is the old saying isn't it??? Well, that's me!!! I'm a last minute stamper and can't seem to do it any other way! I promised this yesterday, but tonight will have to do! Good news is that all 21 are ready for the mail tomorrow leaving plenty of time to arrive by their Monday deadline!


Bad news is that sparkles don't scan well! Guess I need to try a camera, but it's dark now and I don't think that would work either. But, trust me when I say-it sparkles! All the snowflakes & the "Cheers" are embossed with Hologram Highlights EP. I'm a little tired of embossing, but do like the way this came out! Color is Soft Sky.

I have several other projects on my agenda, so stay tuned for more creations in the next few days!

9/09/2007

Sparkly Snowman!

Got a little play time today, actually I guess it was work time as I was trying to come up with a swap! This was my first attempt, and I do like it. But, I don't have enough Chocolate Chip CS to do it!

The swap hostess asked that we do "Something that Sparkles". Sparkles don't scan very well, but trust me they're there!

I used the Bold Snowflake jumbo wheel first in Bashful Blue across the Bashful Blue CS. Then I went over it again with White Craft ink and embossed it with Hologram Highlights EP. For the snowman (from Jolliest Time of Year), I stamped in Black Stazon on Shimmery White. Gave a few colored accents with the blender pen in Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip & Only Orange. Then I pulled out the Stamp-a-ma-jig and stamped over the exact image with the Versamark Pad, followed by HH EP again. Sparkle! Layering it together, I added a strip of the Chocolate Chip satin ribbon (from the Holiday Mini) and a strip of the Bashful Blue Taffeta. I probably should have cut the corners of the snowman to match the Bashful Blue, but I didn't think about that 'til now! Oh well!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back either later or tomorrow with the swap card! I do have it figured out, just need to go mass produce!

9/03/2007

Play time!

What's a holiday weekend without a little stamping time? I had a little trouble finding my mojo, but finally got rolling tonight. I ordered some ginormous flowers a while back and have been itching to try this! I was looking for flowers comparable to the large ones in the Pretties Kit from SU!. I found Heidi Swapp ones from Joann's in almost the same size. But, along with those, I found these huge ones! I got white, of course, so I could color them to match my SU! paper!

The idea that came to me with these was to try a background stamp. Wha-lah! It works! I used the Paisley here with the Purely Pomegranate ink & cardstock. I did the huge flower first, then added a smaller one colored with PP ink. It still seemed a little bare so I dug out a small white flower from the Pretties Kit and layered it all together with a brad in the center. I did sponge the edge of the huge flower with some PP ink. Not too bad!

I tried again with the Fine Lace background and Elegant Eggplant ink. This looks a little dark in the scan but isn't so IRL. I did the background on the EE cardstock, as well as the huge flower. I added a smaller flower with brad for the center. I like this too, but a brighter color may have been a better choice! I'll keep playing-I have 98 more flowers!!!

I've had one more thing I've been meaning to try-and I finally made time tonight! Chipboard! I've had some hanging around here for quite a while, but never accomplished anything with it! For this card, I started with the new textured CS from SU! You can't really see that in the scan, but it's there. I like the look it gives! I took the chipboard flower and covered it with Lavender Lace CRAFT ink, then dumped on the Hologram Highlights embossing powder and heat set. Love it-VERY sparkly! I added a brad to the flower, a simple stem saying and a small bit of ribbon. Simple and Sweet!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to be back soon! I'm trying hard to get back in my routine of making something each evening.