Sparkly!

I couldn't capture it in a photo, but in real life this card is so incredibly sparkly! It was another card we made in the glitter class. This card illustrate the use of two way glue and tombow mono multi to adhere glitter to a card. We used the pick a petal stamp to stamp a large polka dot flower in orchid opulence, with the petal outlines stamped in tempting turquoise. We then used the two ways glue to color in the polka dots and sprinkled turquoise cosmo fine glitter on the card. We stamped the five petal flower around the edges in tempting turquoise and sponged gable green over the whisper white card stock. Last, but not least, we used two way glue to fill in the flower centers and the fine tip on the tombow mono multi to outline the petals, and sprinkled the card with orchid fine cosmo glitter. Then the image was just matted onto a piece of gable green card stock and attached to the orchid opulence card base.

I admit, this card is a little loud (what a contrast to that shades of gray pick a petal card I did not too long ago, huh?) but it's also so much fun! I mean, who doesn't love glitter?

It's party time!

We had such a good time at Kathy's party tonight! It was a smaller party, but that was great because no one had to rush through their projects and everyone had plenty of time to chit chat and shop! And Marsha had such a good time she booked a party of her own, so we'll be doing it again later this month at her place. Woo Hoo! I have to get crackin' and design those make and take projects.

Speaking of make and takes, this is the other card we stamped tonight. Yes, I'm using both Block Party and the stampin' Pastels again. What can I say - I love them both!

On this card the color strips are attached directly to the back of the stamped image and the whole thing is popped up on dimensionals. I sued the photo corners to frame out the image. I stamped aida background stamp on the card base in versamark for a little more texture. I love the fact that this card uses only 1 ink -- versamark, 1 coloring medium -- stampin' pastels, and 2 stamp sets - Aids and block party. Nice, fast and easy -- great party card!

Punched from the heart

Remember how much I love finding uses for punches that are a little out of the norm? And remember how once upon a time I bemoaned the retirement of the snowflake punch not just because it made such cute snowflakes but also because I found a second use for it -- cute little corner hearts? Well, I'm happy to report that I've been getting punchy again, and today, though a happy coincidence, I found that while I may have lost my little corner hearts, Stampin' Up! has provided me with a jumbo replacement. What do I mean? Just wait and see!


Today I was designing 2 Make and Take cards for Kathy's party this Tuesday. The first card came together in a jiffy, but the second just didn't seem right. My friend Karen, who came over to drop off some stuff and check out my convention swaps agreed -- the design just wasn't right. So while we were chatting and she looked over my swaps, I was playing around with some scraps and the new scalloped circle punch. And that's how I found the jumbo hearts! Soon enough the whole card came together and I knew I just had to share this little find with all of you!


To start you need the new Stampin' Up! scalloped circle punch as well as two pieces of contracting card stock that are the same size (I used 2.25x2.5" pieces of whisper white and groovy guava card stock). Although not necessary, I also like to have another piece of a third coordinating color card stock that is .25" larger in each dimension for a mat.


Place a corner of the piece of card stock intended to go on top in the scalloped circle punch so that what you see inside the punch is a heart shape. Punch and repeat on all four corners.

This is what your card stock should look like when all 4 corners are punched.

Adhere the punched piece on top of the other piece of card stock that is the same size. You should now be able to see hearts in all 4 corners.

Mat the punched piece with the larger piece of card stock to make the heart shapes even more prominent, as in this photo. the larger layer is close to cocoa.

And this is what I did with my punched piece. I used the heart image from the simply said set and stamped it in groovy guava. I then used the sentiment outline and stamped that in close to cocoa. I used Sahara sand card stock as a card base, placed a strip of the prints double sided designer paper in groovy guava across the card and added a strip of close to cocoa card stock with a double stitched groovy guava ribbon knotted and wrapped around. I added my punched piece with dimensionals and stamped the "simply said" sentiment in the lower right hand corner. And what do you think? Is that a stinking cute party make and take or what? I sure hope the party guests think so. Can't wait to find out on Tuesday.

Sharing and learning

It's funny, but when I first signed up to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I thought it would just be for the discount for myself -- I really didn't think I was good enough to be a demonstrator for others. But then I did my first workshop demo and liked it and I found that the more workshops I did the more comfortable I felt and the more I enjoyed them. I just love sharing this craft with others, and workshops are he best way to introduce new people to stamping.

Of course, the sharing doesn't just go one-way, and yesterday's workshop was the perfect example. The hostess was my friend Carol, and the guests were her mom and MIL, her daughters, sisters and niece. There were eight guests in all and none of them had ever stamped or been invited to a Stampin' Up! workshop before. Considering the number of demonstrators in the Chicago land area this is difficult to believe, but then again it wasn't so long ago when I was in the same position. In any case, these first time stampers not only enjoyed themselves, a couple of them actually created their own card designs which turned out so cute I just had to CASE them and post them here.

You might recall from my weekend post that I was going to give the guests a choice of two cards, which I did. both cards used the Silly Sealife and Loads of Love accessories sets. I store the loads of love accessories and loads of love set together, so I brought both of these with me to the workshop along with silly sealife. Once the ladies saw the stamps, some of them decided to get creative and modify my design. So grandma M decided to use the octopus instead of the whale, and gave him two bundles of birthday presents to deliver. I stamped the card shown here, but it's totally a copy of her design. Super cute, right?

Carol's daughter Mallory decided to avoid sealife altogether and instead she stamped a pure loads of love card for her honey. They will be celebrating their first anniversary soon, and she thought this would be a cute card for him. She did a great job watercoloring and used the brocade blue Watercolor wonder crayon on the windows of the truck to make it look like real glass. Now remember, both she and her grandma were first time stampers, and already they're designing cards like pros, with limited supplies to boot! How awesome is that?

And so what I love most about demonstrating at workshops is that I sometimes learn as much as the guests. Ladies, if you're reading this I love both of your designs and will use them in the future!

After Remembering You

People often say that all good things must come to an end, and for the most part this is true. But often the end is not really the end, it's just a springboard to a new beginning. That's exactly the case with Stampin' Up!'s Simply Sent kits.

What am I talking about and why? Get ready -- you're about to get a tour of the muddled brain of this stamper! This morning I was sitting in my stamp room, having only had about 5 hours of sleep after last night's Bedlam, trying to figure out what cards I wanted to prepare for a workshop I'm doing tomorrow. I knew one of the cards would be the In Full Bloom card I made for the SCS swap, but I had no idea what to do for the second card. Suddenly my eye fell on the Remembering You Simply Sent kit. You know, the kit that comes with absolutely everything you need to create 10 cards (5 each of 2 different designs). I really love how easy this kit is to use for beginner stampers, and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the stampers I was going to meet at the workshop to this awesome product. But the stamps in the kit are flowers, and I was already doing a flowery card. Hmm. What to do?

Suddenly, Eureka! I figured it out! I would design a card that would use the products that would be left over from the kit after the consumables from the kit are gone, to show people that just because a good thing came to an end, doesn't mean that the fun is over -- there are still cool products left that are just waiting for another creative avenue of expression.

On my first card I used the whale and turtle from my new Silly Sealife stamp set. I based my design on a card I saw by another stamper, Kelly Sampson. She used these two stamps and the greeting from Loads of Love on a shadowbox, and I was struck by how well the greeting and the stamps went together. So I stamped the turtle and whale on confetti white card stock in basic black ink that comes in the kit, colored them in lightly with the brocade blue, perfect plum and always artichoke watercolor wonder crayons that are also part of the kit, and blended the colors with the aquapainter that, yes, you guessed it, is also part of the kit. I matted the image on a piece of always artichoke card stock and tied black gingham ribbon around the bottom of the always artichoke piece as an accent. I attached the always artichoke piece to the brocade blue card base and stamped the greeting on the base in basic black ink. And I thought I had a pretty cute card that would show new stampers a great water coloring technique while demonstrating that even after they make their 10 cards from the Simply Sent kit, they will have products they can use over and over again on new designs.

I could have stopped there, but I wondered if maybe some people wouldn't prefer something more useful, like a birthday card. And, of course, my mind kept going back to the cute card designed by Meg Shumaker where the whale is bringing Christmas presents. So I decided to make a birthday card using Meg's idea and the same materials as the other card. As you can see, on this card I flipped all the card stock, so that the card would be vertical. This time the whale is the bearer of birthday gifts. Again, the images are stamped in basic black ink on confetti white card stock and colored in with watercolor wonder crayons and aquapainter. The greeting is from the Eat Cake set, and I got a kick out of the fact that it's in the same font as the greeting on the other card.

Since both cards use the exact same materials, tomorrow the workshop guests will have a choice of which card to make. I really like this idea and may try to incorporate it into future workshops.

So here are both cards, side by side. I'm rather partial to them. What do you think?