Color variation on Regarding Dahlia

One of the swaps I saw during convention used Regarding Dahlia in a monochromatic way with daffodil and basic gray that I thought was very modern so I CASED it and did a variation on it with melon mambo and basic gray. This is also very nice with a light blue and gray, real red and gray- you get the idea.  The base card is whisper white with a layer of melon mambo.  Then stamp the dahlias with melon mambo onto whisper white CS then layer with basic gray as shown.  Stamp Hello, you onto scrap piece of white CS- you could use either of the colors. then punch out with 1 1/4 inch circle punch. then layer with coordinating colored CS then onto the the basic gray piece diecut with Apothecary Accents using dimensionals- do you not use this die for Everything?- I just love this set!  decorate with the flower from the punch pack- set of 3-  then the bling on top.  Wrap the gray stitched grosgrain ribbon around the white panel before mounting onto the melon mambo base card.  

I love the possible combinations of colors for this card.  You can use any flower set - secret garden, fifth avenue floral (retired) would work well with this layout as well.   Gotta love the saying though......

Circle Card thinlit Die Trick or Treat

I have been making these type of spin cards for a long time using dies and figuring out where to put the crease, blah blah blah, but when you make multiples of it - as I did for our monthly stamp-n-chat, it was so great to have a die that did it all for you in just one fell swoop, I love it!

The base card is a half sheet of Summer Starfruit 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 diecut with the circle card thinlit die.
pull the right side of the card over the die so that it does not get diecut to create an extension to the card.  There are lots of how-to's on the internet on this. DO stamping shows it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwedAASXzok    Emboss using the Houndstooth textured impressions folder just over the front flap. 

Punch 2 3/8 scallop (similar to die in the set) in pumpkin pie and black and overlap as shown and glue onto the front part of the circle.  Attach the Tags-4-you trick or treat after stamping in basic black and punching with coordinating punch using dimensionals.  tape 2 inch strip of Witch's brew DSP on the right side. 

Stamp toil and trouble in pumpkin onto a 2 1/2 circle in vanilla and stamp the raven in black.
Stamp the bat oval and cut away a little setionon the left to make it flush. 

Stamp the sentiment on the right side bottom and your card is all done!   I love the extended space for message writing,,,,,,,

a Maple leaf thank u

I needed a few thank you cards and were playing with the maple stamp but wanted to use the Expression Thinlit dies.  I need them to make "happy" "you" "&" "congrats"- if Stampin' Up is reading this-
I am thankful for all my friends but I wanted it to say thank you.  Then I thought there is a U in thankFUL - so I just cut the f and the l out to make the little thank u.  U get the idea.

Base card is Cajun Craze with a layer of Artichoke to Accent.  The maple is stamped using versamark onto glossy CS - retired SU- then sponged cajun and artichoke using a dauber.  Once the colors are all saturated, wipe with a tissue and the white just pops.  The expression is diecut using a whisper white CS.  Took a little doing to get the little nits out but not too hard.   Enjoy!

Flowershop in Primrose Petals

A pretty simple card that has a lot of drama.  Yah, yah yah, I heard all those arguments about why you can't  need another stampset and another flower punch.  I just bought Secret Garden- do I really want another punch? Heck, Yeah!
Is this not the cutest easiest card?  Stamped the flowers using Raspberry Ripple onto Primrose Petal CS.  There is directionality to the stamp so I put a little mark using a Sharpie on the bottom of the stamp that coordinates with the punch so I could easily punch it out. Something about punching is so satisfying to me. It goes so quick that for something you think you will use a LOT like this flower, it makes more sense to use the punch than a diecut.  I used the Pretty Print textured impressions folder for the square panel but you could just as well use a  3x3 piece of DSP.   Hello from Four You stampset.  Used the stayput technique for the ribbon and easy peasy done.

Setting Sail Photopolymer variation

I told someone that I thought this stampset was very Naval- to be corrected that it should have  been Nautical-  naval is talking about belly buttons...Silly of me.  Anyway this is a vertical variation on the card we made at my stamping party. 
Base of soft suede and stripe embossed night of navy.  stamped the flags in same, Navy, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, and crumbcake. 

I have been playing with the watermark for my pictures and I think I finally figured out how to do it.  Font is still too small but it's still readable.
Now that we are living in a smaller footprint of our house during the renovation, there appears to be less house to clean and more time to stamp and read.   Didn't expect that.......

My favorite new product- Undefined - with Dylan's Doggy

 Dylan has had a little doggie blanket (stuffed head with body that is flat like a rug) that he got as a baby that he LOVES.  I mean he will wait outside the washer until he gets it back sort of love.  He draws these cute little picture of his Doggy and I had to use it to make a stamp using the new Undefined stamp making kit. 

It reminded me of how I used to carve erasers to make stamps years before all the new beautiful professional images came to being.  There are 2 tools included a narrow v shape cutting tool for details and a U shape for larger areas.  They are

 really well designed with comfort grips to minimize stress on my hands which I love.  It comes with one large rubber piece with wood mounting adhesive foam pad and 4 pieces of wood to mount after finish.

This is a picture of Doggy I had Dylan draw on a piece of paper with pencil.  I then took that image, put it on the rubber penciled side down and rubbed it to transfer the image.  It will be a mirror image but that is ok because when you stamp it will be a mirror image again.

After I carved it out, I stamped the image I carved using Staz-On onto the little wooden block that fit it.  and then mounted it on the wood. I did stamp it a couple of times on paper to make sure I got the image I liked.  I did have to shave a little here and there to get a better image.

Now I am thinking angrybirds, R2D2, my mind is going wonky over all the possibilities......

Stamping by Camp Lanterns with Setting Sail Photopolymer stamps.

My family room, living room and master has been totally gutted so my husband, me and the three boys have been relegated to living in the bedrooms and the kitchen dining room for the last 2 weeks.  People thought I was nuts for wanting to keep having my monthly stamping parties during the renovation but I would not hear of it. 

Well, I got home last night to set up the party to see the big electrician van sitting in my driveway. They were in the midst of relocating my electrical panels and they were not done -

They thought they would be done by sundown but alas no.  Thankfully, Margery again to the rescue, she brought over bunch of battery powered camp lanterns and little task lights from Sheryl and Bonnie saved the day- sort of.  It was  still awfully dim - the poor ladies had a heck of a time scoring and figuring out where they had to fold.  Thank God that I had no heat embossing  on any of the cards that required electricity....

 This was one of the cards we made- a variation on a card I swapped with Julie Beltramo using the Settin' Sail photopolymer stampset.  I used Soft suede base card with Night of Navy, embossed with the Stylish Stripes embossing folder. Stamped the line and the flags using Night of navy, Cherry cobbler, and soft suede as shown.  because you can see through the stamps it was really easy to line up the flags to the line.  A strip of Burlap ribbon adds such great masculine texture. This uses all my circle punches.

 The steering wheel stamped with soft suede onto crumbcake (1" circle punch).  Then the next in 1 1/4" circle punch.  The boat was punched with 1 3/8" circle punch. Navy in 1 3/4" circle punch. and the last crumbcake with the large 2 1/2" circle punch.  I used the markers for the boat.   Only 12 more weeks to go!

 

Settin' Sail Photopolymer set  #133453   $13.95

   

Margery's convention bag tag

Margery made one in different colors for each of us. I think she made ones in Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush and mine in  Daffodil delight.  The base of the tag is made using the Oval Accent Bigz Clear die and sandwiching a diecut chipboard between 2 sheets of Daffodil Delight CS here.  Then Quatrefancy DSP cut with Apothecary Accents framelit.  Sentiments from Loving Thoughts stampset and that and layer underneath diecut using the same Apothecary Accents.  Flower stamped with Flower shop stampset and punched with Pansy Punch. She had ribbons, pearls added for decoration.  A real standout!  Thanks Margery!

Convention 2013 Highlights

 I have been to convention but this really was the best ever.  I got to hang with my dearest stampin' friends, Mercedes, Margery and Sandy and I laughed so much at every turn, I am glad I brought extra panties, if you know what I mean.  And with Shelly and Sara presenting,  you knew with all the beautiful stories, you were gonna just cry your eyes out.   I just never suspected I would choke up with Ronald McDonald but I did. 

 After having attended convention all this time, you'd think I visited the main office, but No.  So I took the opportunity to do so at this one.  The lines were long to get there and it was a dreadfully hot day but I got to see where it all happens.

 This is us melting in front of the campus after the long bus ride but it was really fun to see it all. I found that waiting in line with other stampers was so much fun, and we mets hoards of people from all over who were just as nice as the friends I came with.  The tag hanging from Mercede's bag was made by Margery.  She made one for each of us and everywhere we went people were like-"can we take a picture?"  - I am so blessed to have such talented and generous people in my life!

 We got to tour the place and I thought this was kind of fun.  I never thought to stick flowers on the wall but lookit here!  How fun for a little girl's room.  Never mind the next people who owned the house who'll be hollering and cursing to get those dimensionals off the wall....

 At each turn there was a little surprise for your eyes.  I love this little chabby chic display of sewing do dads....

 There was this big room lined with a writing wall where you could just write down your ideas and I loved seeing this vision for Stampin' Up laid out like this. It makes now some more sense as to why they are doing some of the things there are doing.  I now understand better that for the company to survive that they have to innovate and that requires you to reach out to new people and try out new ideas.

 We toured through the workroom of the staff and they all had these little displays of cards and things which were just all too cute.  I started to run out of battery, I was taking too many pictures.

 This was another display at one of the staff desks.  I just loved it.

 Shelly demo'd some new ideas and products. This is using the Karen Burniston Deco Label pop n cuts that I had been debating getting but look how cute it is. She turned it sideways to make a popout card and I thought it so cute and so many ideas using the die- now I have to get it!  (Did you notice how the main theme of the convention- at the top-  used the same die shape?)

 They also had Karen run a demo booth and she had gazillion samples using the dress up die - so-so cute. 

 And then the envelope liner die- what the heck am I going to use it for?  Yah, yah, liner is cute but what else?   Well this cinched it for me.  They used the envelope die to make a cute little pocket, easy peasy.  I just loved that too.  I am always looking for new ways to give that birthday or some other special event gift cards so this is right up my alley.

 And talking about dies, would you check this out?   die for making flip cards.  They are releasing 2 different dies, one with this shape, another with the circle with cute little diecuts that go with it - the one that says thnx is one I want. Some people won the die- I was so Green!

Speaking of winning, they have prize patrol, and those of you who know me, know that I NEVER and I mean NEVER win anything that is chance related.  But what do you know? I actually won the very first prize patrol.

I could not believe it and when I did, I commented that if I won that usually means everyone will win something - and you know what That's what really happened.  Everyone in the end got something-  I have to laugh- but I have to say, my streak still holds!

This opened my eyes to possibilities I never considered.  Using the personalized stamps for a saying ( I thought of you Chrissy when I saw this- in case you are reading this).

 And my WOW of the whole meeting was this- Undefined stamps- it is basically carve your own stamps set- You gotta love it.  One of the staff demonstrated this and we just cracked up..  She made the bacon strips right on stage - it took her 3 minutes start to finish.  She said that it was her breakfast set.  It is not so unhealthy since the coke had some lime and the donuts had strawberry sprinkles.....

 Convention has what seems like miles and miles of card samples, old and new and I found my card that I submitted last year for the scoring challenge on display.  Oh, joy at seeing my little card on display....

 But the biggest joy of the meeting was being privileged to room with -yes- drum roll------- Stampin Up Artisan  Mercedes Weber.  My heart was pounding, I was SO excited for you- we screamed like those crazy contestants on Let's make a deal- for those of you old enough to remember- She got this beautiful box with her personalized Artisan stamp-  I don't know anyone more deserving.   When I first got to my room, I saw this beautiful Stampin Up wall hanging.  I had seen hotel gifts from Stampin up and I thought "Wow this is fantastic- Stampin' Up is doing this for managers now?"  then realized it was from Mercedes- I am such an idiot!  then next night another little box with deliciously scented body wash and stuff with the most adorable tag on it. I swear I got a gift every night.  I hand carried those precious gifts and now they adorn my kitchen front and center.  I SO LOVE IT!  

 On the last night, my upline Tami hosted a dinner and swap at the Roof which was fabulous.  This is the view of the church from the window of the restaurant which was fantastic.

( Gosh, I keep using these words- love fantastic cute- but it really was!)

 The party that Stampin' Up hosted was a ball!  People were dancing and the musicians played lots of dance music from the 80's and 90's and it really was a blast!  They had tables and tables of cupcakes decorated with our - what else?- In-Colors and they had aerial acrobats and hip hop dancers mixing with the crowd- just an absolute ball.

One of the things they showed was this banner kit decorated with the snow flakes.  I had been debating about the snowflake stamp and die bundle but I loved nestling them together to get the piece she is holding.  And for those of you thinking about signing up to be a demonstrator, if you do it before end of August, you can get a banner kit ( up to 29.90 value) for FREE!

They also announced that for New signups the Paper pumpkin will be only $10 for the first two months.  Just use promocode Pumpkindeal and designate me your demonstrator when you sign up.

Offer Dates: July 18, 2013 -August 31, 2013
Offer Details: Use the promotion code PUMPKINDEAL to join Paper Pumpkin before August 31, 2013, and pay only $10 a month* for the first two months.  You must join by Saturday, August 31, 2013; 11:50 PM (MT)
*plus tax, where applicable. Shipping included!

visit mypaperpumpkin.com to join.

You must click "Add Promo Code" and then enter the promo code PUMPKINDEAL in the "Promo Code" field when you sign up on the mypaperpumpkin.com website to take advantage of this promotion.

My head is spinning from all the whirlwind of products and ideas coming down from Stampin' Up but OH SO EXCITED!  Now I can't wait to go to Leadership!

My Conventions Swap

 I have a swap with my upline's downline group and the requested was it be a full card that could be demo'ed at a workshop so this is my card.  Embossed the Coastal Cabana Cardstock using the new very "in" Alphabet Press EF part way as shown.  I am also in love with the Tape It set that mimics washi tape.  The tag from the Notable Notions set matches the Chalk Talk dies perfectly and would you not know it? My favorite sentiment from the Yippee-skipee set fits inside perfectly.  Stamp the tapes using Smoky Slate, Calypso coral and the sentiment using the same color markers adn cut it out.
The tag is stamped using Coastal Cabana too- better to stamp the sentiment and then center the tag image around sentiment then diecut.

Now I made a bunch of these ribbons copying the idea from page 152 of the catalog but the center was too much of a pain to make and I did not have the matching DSP in Coastal Cabana so I made my own.

You need a three inch strip and 2 inch strip of 1/2 CS strips with the Tape It image stamped in center- the side parts get tucked under so you can't see it anyway so don't worry.  Fold then in half and free cut them as shown.  Use multimono on each of the 2 block dots and fold over to make the ribbon body.  Use Glue dot to adhere the back part of the ribbon to the paper clip - the glue dot peeks through the paper clip, sticking to the ribbon body.  Use glue dot to stick on the button from Notable Notions set stamped in Calypso coral and punched out using 1/2 circle punch.  Just attach to the tag using the clip and mount the tag with dimensionals .  This card just feels so "summer" with its beach colors.  Love It!