Stamp with Me!

Stamp-a-Stack

My Christmas "Stamp-a-stack" will be Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.  Here are two of the cards we'll be making.

Here's the supply list for both:

Stamp sets:  Delightful Decorations, Christmas Punch, Winter Post
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Dusty Durango, More Mustard Classic; Markers:  Old Olive, Dusty Durango, Rich Razzleberry, More Mustard; VersaMark      
Paper:  Dusty Durango, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive card stock
Accessories:  Gold and silver elastic cord, metallic eyelets, shimmer paint (platinum), Crop-a-dile, 1/16" handheld circle punch, stampin' sponges, sponge dauber, Big Shot, Texturz plate, impressions pad, silicone rubber

I love the way the sentiment fits on the ornament in the second card.  You need to be sure you do not ink the oval outline.  I had cleaned my stamp, and the outline was still a little wet, so it showed up faintly on the stamped image.  But the snowflake "overstamping" and sponging on the edge of the ornament covered it up. 

Tips:  When you do the background, start with larger images, then "fill in" with the smaller ones.  On the ornament, stamp off one time before you stamp on the punched sentiment, or the snowflakes will make it difficult to read the sentiment.

Don't forget to contact me if you're interested in the "stamp-a-stack."  More of the cards we'll be making will follow in the next days.

"Two-fer" Project

I got this idea from (you guessed it,) Jan Tink.  She calls this "1 for 2," which really makes more sense than "Two-fer."  You stamp one piece of card stock (in this case, a piece of 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" Whisper White), then tear it in half.  You end up with two cards from one background piece.

Here's the second card using the background paper I made.

Here is the supply list for both projects:

Stamps sets:  Fifth Avenue Floral, Just Jawin; Upsy Daisy
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Mellow Moss, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Basic Brown Classic
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Mellow Moss, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Dusty Durango
Accessories:  Stampin’ Sponges, Horizontal Slot punch, Crop-a-dile, jumbo brads, ribbon, Big Shot,       
        Finial Press embossing folder

I made some Christmas cards using the same technique, which I'll post tomorrow.  We'll be making those at the Christmas Stamp-a-stack in November.  Mark your calendars for the first weekend in November (probably Sunday at 3 p.m.).  If you're interested, please contact me by Friday, Oct. 16.  We'll be making 16 cards for $20.  Everything will be cut and bagged for you; all you have to do is stamp and layer!  I'll need payment in advance to reserve your space, and the minimum number of participants is ten, maximum - twenty.

Have a wonderful day!  It's gorgeous here in Virginia.  Hope your weather is as nice as ours.

Deals, Deals and More Deals!

If you've thought about becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, now is a great time to join up!  From now until March 31, you can purchase the exclusive My Digital Studio Starter Kit.  Here are "the deets:"

Promotion Details:
With the launch of our much anticipated My Digital Studio software, new recruits can purchase an exclusive Starter Kit that includes My Digital Studio, in addition to stamps, inks, and accessories.

Starter Kit Price: $185 (over $295 value!)

Digital+ Starter Kit Contents:

• My Digital Studio software
• Party Hearty and Petal Pizzazz stamp sets
• Whisper White card stock (8-1/2" x 11")
• Earth Elements assorted card stock (8-1/2" x 11")
• Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, and Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin' Pads
• Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, and Real Red Stampin' Write markers
• Chocolate Chip 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
• Real Red 1" double-stitched grosgrain ribbon
• Button Latte Designer buttons
• Stampin' Dimensionals
• Mini Glue Dots
• SNAIL Adhesive
• Business supplies (product catalogs, order forms, training DVD, and other supplies)

Deal of the Week

Stampin' Up! is also offering "Deals of the Week" through October 31.  Here's the deal for Oct. 1-12:

Week 1 Deals of the Week

Item	Description	Special Price
109183	Trio Flower punch	$10.99
109041	5-Petal Flower punch	$10.99
110709	My Way punch	$11.99

Check here or my Web site for each weekly deal. Remember, minimum shipping is $6.95. After you spend $69.50, it's 10% so grab some friends and place an order together to save on shipping costs! If it reaches $150, you'll get hostess benefits, and if it hits $250, you can order any item from the Holiday Mini catalog for only $10. And when it gets to $400, you can order My Digital Studio at a 50% discount. This, of course, is in addition to all the other great hostess benefits you'll receive.

You can always order online, or call or e-mail me with an order. Happy stamping!

"My Digital Studio" Available Today!

Remember, in October and November, if you hostess a $400 workshop, you can get the digital studio at a 50% discount, and select any item in the holiday mini catalog (excluding MDS and hostess sets) for $10.

Contact me today to schedule your workshop!

Shimmer Paint!

I love the new shimmer paint that's in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  What fun!!  Here's what I did tonight.  It's really a copy of an idea from the mini and several other bloggers (Jan Tink being one, of course).

Unfortunately, you can't get a great idea of the "shimmer" from a flat scan.  And, of course, it was too dark to get a good picture by the time I finished.  (Ok, by the time I started, it was already dark!)  But here's what I did.

The ornaments ("Delightful Decorations" from the Holiday Mini) were stamped on Whisper White card stock in Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry and Bermuda Bay.  Before I stamped the Bermuda Bay "joy" ornament, I added the paint.  Here's how.

Shake the bottle.  Then uncap it and use a sponge dauber to pick up the paint from the cap.  I didn't have to reink my dauber at all; a little goes a very long way.  It covered the entire stamp with one "inking."  The Ornament punch makes it super easy to cut out the ornaments.  (Yes, you can see where I missed a tiny spot of the Razzleberry one, but I was too tired to stamp it again.  Ok, truth - NCIS was coming on, so I didn't want to take extra time.  I'll fix it another day.)

The paint I used on the organment was Frost White.  I also used the Frost White on the snowflakes.  Again I used a dauber, but didn't use any ink first; it's full strength paint.  The platinum paint is a little more opaque, so I dabbed that on the sentiment stamp.  Here's the complete list:

Stamp sets:  Delightful Decorations, Sincere Salutations, Christmas Punch (level 2 hostess set)
Side note:  I just realized I only spent $10 for all three stamp sets.  Sincere Salutations was a gift to demonstrators from Stampin' Up! several years ago, Christmas Punch was free because it's a hostess set, and Delightful Decorations was only $10 because it was a hostess perk after a $250 workshop.  Cool, huh??  Moving on...
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Taken with Teal, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White card stock
Accessories:  Shimmer paint (Frost White, Platinum); Punches - Ornament, 1/16" circle, Scallop edge; sponge daubers; Stampin' Dimensionals, Sizzix Big Shot, Texturz Plate (Perfect Details), Impressions Pad, Silicone Rubber, fishing wire (I was running low on workshop ribbon and couldn't find my embossing thread.  And did I mention NCIS was coming on? ...so I didn't take time to look that hard.  Sorry, stampers...Leroy Jethro Gibbs takes top spot at 8 p.m. Tuesdays!)

That's it for today.  Check out the very cool Clearance Rack on my web site.  Lots of discontinued and retired items are being offered at deep, deep discounts!*  Just go to the site, click "Shop Now," then click the "Clearance Rack" button on the left side.

*online orders only; while supplies last

Glitter and Bling!

Here's a card that was inspired by Carole Jordan.

Diana Gibbs' color challenge this week was to use Gable Green, Whisper White, Ballet Blue and Apricot Appeal.  Humor in High Heels really seemed to go with those colors.  I used the new texture plate from the 2009-10 catalog and my Big Shot and Sizzix Top Note die.  I sponged Green galore and Pumpkin Pie on the embossed areas.  Since the texture plates are double sided, I used the basket weave side for the bottom layer and the flourishey pattern for the Top Note layer.

Here's the complete supply list:

Stamps:  Humor in High Heels
Ink:  Basic Black, Gable Green, Green Galore, Pumpkin Pie classic ink; Watercolor Wonder crayons; VersaMark
Paper:  Ballet Blue, Apricot Appeal, Gable Green, Whisper White card stock
Accessories:  Big Shot, Texturz Plate - Perfect Details, stampin' Sponges, Silicone Rubber, Impressions Pad, Paper Piercing Tool, mat pack, Pretties kit, heat & stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, heat tool, Aqua painter, Top Note die, Brayer

Looking at it now, my Gable Green and Apricot Appeal purses almost match, so the Ballet Blue one should be between them.  And after I had adhered all the layers, I realized my Top Note was missing it's top!  It's one I cut a long time ago but didn't use, so I stuck it back in the Gable Green pack of card stock.  Now I see why I didn't use it!

My next project is to do scrapbook pages of all Mike's pictures of the boys from the time they were little until now.  With My Digital Studio, it should be a snap.  (!!)  If you don't see me for awhile, you'll know why!

Nothing's Better than Inky Fingers!

I'm loving "My Digital Studio," but today I had time to really get into ink, and it was wonderful.  I visited all the blogs of my "Bloggers' 7" group, and got some great ideas.  Here's one.

Isn't this fun? I used the fall Designer Series Paper from the Holiday Mini - Autumn Meadows - and Gifts of the Earth (also in the mini).  This idea came from Stephanie Atterbury.  I love the lace around the fall centerpiece.  It's really easy.  All you do is punch a strip of designer series paper or card stock (dsp works better). Then crimp it and wrap it around another piece of card stock.  I love the grommet in the center of Stephanie's!  Jan Tink has a wonderful step-by-step tutorial for this lacy ruffle on her blog.

For the More Mustard layer, I rubbed a More Mustard classic stampin' pad over the card stock, then spritzed with water.  After it dried, I sponged a tiny bit of Perfect Plum over the card stock.  It kind of picked up the distressed look in the designer paper.

Here's the complete supply list:

Stamps: Gifts of the Earth (Holiday Mini Catalog)
Ink:  Basic Brown, More Mustard, Perfect Plum classic pads; Watercolor Wonder crayons
Paper:  Taken with Teal, More Mustard, Very Vanilla card stock; Autumn Meadows DSP
Accessories:  Crimper, Eyelet Border punch, stampin' sponges, stampin' dimensionals, aqua painter

Check later for a card inspired by Carole Jordan

Hoss's Christmas Card

Here's Hoss's Christmas card for 2009.  Whaddya think?  We made it with My Digital Studio - and this one I did (mostly) on my own.  I'm still figuring the program out, and the Instruction Guide is very long - and on the computer.  I have to have "hard copies," and this is just too long to print.  So, I'm reverting to my genetic roots and figuring it out on my own.  (Scary)  The main design was a template; I added the pictures, eyelets, scallop layer and designer paper.  Pretty cool, eh?  And I even put the eyelets on crooked so it would look really hand made.  (Seriously, I lined them up on the grid and they're still wonky!) I'm not going to forsake my rubber stamps, though.  As fun as this is, it's not wood, rubber and ink!

One of the cool things about the program, though, is you can design your page or card - or even a calendar! - on the computer, then duplicate it with stamps, ink and paper.  (For us visual types, that's a major selling point!)  You can also print a bunch of cards (like Hoss's Christmas card), then add a special touch to each card to make it unique. 

So that's it for today.  Tomorrow I'm using real stamps and ink! 

Looky Look!

Life has been TOTALLY crazy around here!  I've been working extra hours the past couple weeks to make up some of the time I missed because of the holiday and family time.  But I'm caught up and have the whole weekend to play (at least right now).

My dear, sweet husband bought me My Digital Studio for my birthday.  You can do all kinds of cool things with it.  Even if you don't want to scrapbook digitally (and who doesn't love inky fingers??), you can design a card or page with the program and then recreate it. 

So anyway, it came today, but I had to run to a meeting right after work and couldn't do more than just look at the box.  *sad*  I finally got a chance to install it, and look what I created in about 5 minutes.

 

Ok - so it's a canned template, but I did add the designer paper.  I didn't have a lot of time to play with it, so hopefully you'll see some more elaborate projects later this week!  It took longer to figure out how to save the project to my thumb drive than it did to create it.  But here's the cool thing.  If you're making a lot of a card (like thank you, Christmas or other "multiple" card giving occasions), you can create it on My Digital Studio (meaning "Your" Digital Studio), print as many as you want, then add a special touch to each card - an embellishment, another stamp, some ribbon...It's pretty cool!

I'm off for now.  Can't wait to check out some blogs and galleries to see what everyone else is doing.  Have a great day!

Holy Family

Here's my first Christmas card for the season.  It uses one of the new Holiday Mini sets, "Holy Family."  It's so much fun to watercolor!

This card is very simple.  I stamped the image in VersaMark, then embossed with black powder.  I used an Aqua Painter and Watercolor Wonder crayons to color the images.  The star is stamped in Whisper White craft ink; then I used Heat and Stick powder and glitter.

Here's the complete list:
Stamps:  Holy Family
Ink: VersaMark; Whisper White craft; Watercolor Wonder crayons; Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker
Paper:  Brocade Blue, Always Artichoke, Whisper White card stock
Accessories:  Aqua Painter, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Heat & Stick powder, heat tool, black embossing powder, embossing buddy

I love the way the embossed image makes the colors pop.  I did a few fall and Thanksgiving cards like this, too.  They'll show up later this week.

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!