Aug 6, 2010 | Baroque Motifs, Big Shot, Cards, Great Friend |
I wore a shirt the other day that had dragonflies on it – Ryan asked if it was a Stampin’ Up! shirt. I said “no”. Then Greg said “well it sure does look like it would be a Stampin’ up! shirt”. But it is not. Since they seemed to think it looked so much like a Stampin’ Up! shirt I decided to try to recreate the design in a card. I saw a card challenge on Lynn Pratt’s blog that I had wanted to try and with the shirt in my mind decided to combine the sketch idea with the color/theme of my shirt.
Here is the shirt that I had on. I pulled out my Color Coach to determine what colors I wanted to use for my card. The dragonflies seemed to be Tempting Turquoise and Sahara Sand, while the back ground was two tones of green. I decided to use Garden Green and Wild Wasabi.
I used the sketch from the challenge I found which was a card base with a folded Top Note die-cut as the flap on the card. When you lift this piece the message is underneath.
I decided to stamp the dragonflies on vellum paper using StazOn Black ink and then color them with my Stampin’ Write markers and cut them out. I slightly curled the wings and tails and used a mini glue dot to attach them to my card. The dragonfly image is from the Nature’s Nest stamp set.
The swirl is from Baroque Motifs, and the “for you” and the words on the inside (which I didn’t take a picture of) are from the Great Friend stamp set.
I added some random splattering using my Color Spritzer Tool and the Garden Green marker – I miss my Itty Bitty Backgrounds splatter which would have worked well on this card too. The shirt had little brad like things scattered throughout the design so I decided to add that too. I used a few brads from the vintage set.
What do you think? I’m not sure, but it does resemble the design and colors of the shirt and fits the sketch.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Aug 4, 2010 | Baby Wipe, Big Shot, Birthday, Cards, Rock 'n Roll, Summer Mini 2010 |
One of my favorite stamp sets in the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini Catalog is the Sweet Scoops stamp set. I didn’t think it would be that great but it is one of those sets that you can use for a lot of fun techniques! Last week I had the girls from the Towne Lake Card Club over for their monthly get together and I decided to use this fun stamp set for one of our projects. I redesigned a card that I had made earlier and used for my Ice Cream Party class. This card was based on Neapolitan Ice Cream my original was Mint Chocolate Chip.
This fun card uses two techniques – Baby Wipe and Rock ‘n Roll.
The colors for the ice cream are Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink. To create the ice cream fold up a baby wipe and use the Stampin’ Up! Reinkers for the colors to put small drops on the baby wipe. You are basically creating your own multi-colored ink pad. In a few spaces where the colors don’t meet you will have white (that’s the vanilla). Use this pad to ink up your ice cream stamp.
For the cone I used Crumb Cake ink – ink up the stamp with this lighter color first. And I used Chocolate Chip ink – take the already inked stamp and roll just the edge in the darker ink. For mine I did the left side and the top and a touch on the bottom edge. This gives the cones a little shadow making it look more 3-dimensional.
To dress up the card I added a scallop edge with white gel pen dots. And also a panel of Crumb Cake that was run through the Big Shot machine with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder. I love this folder and think it resembles the texture of an ice cream cone. Another strip of Chocolate Chip was added on the bottom with some white gel pen dots.
I stamped “Have a sweet celebration!” on the bottom in Chocolate Chip ink. A quick birthday card for someone special.
I ‘m going to try adding a full list of supplies at the bottom of my post – but I can’t promise I’ll do that every time.
I did want to add a note about the white gel pen. I store my gel pens on their sides (which is also how you should store your Stampin’ Write Markers). I originally stored them tip down and discovered that they would stop working before the ink ran out. Since I changed to storing them on their sides I have not had any problems and use the pen until there isn’t any more ink in it. My thought is that if you store them tip down the ink sits at the edge of the tip and if you aren’t using it daily the ink dries in the tip and clogs it, on it’s side the ink doesn’t fill the tip while it is being stored. This is just my thought – I have no proof that is makes a difference other than my experience.
So have a Sweet Day!
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:
- Card stock: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
- Ink: Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake Classic Ink pads, Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink Classic ink Refills
- Stamps: Sweet Scoops Stamp set
- Big Shot Die-Cut Machine, Square Lattice Embossing Folder
- Scallop Edge Border Punch
- White Gel Pen
To order Stampin’ Up! Supplies to make this card click here.
Jul 30, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Punch Art, Stampin' Up! Convention |
My Bobble-head Dog card was very popular at the two meetings I shared it at. He is really cute in person. First I made them for a full-card swap for the UDI dinner and then I also used it as my demo at the Udderly Awesome gathering. I told everyone at my demo that I would share some more details on how I made the punch-art dog and the card since they didn’t actually get one. Everyone also wanted to know where the inspiration came from so I wanted to show you that too. Here is the link to my original post during convention – CLICK HERE – there are more pictures and some of the creation process on that post.
The swap for the UDI dinner had some specific guidelines and based on those I was thinking of ideas in my head. Every day I walk into the house from my car and past a metal dog that hangs on the wall – that became my inspiration for this card. Looking at him gave me the idea for the Bobble-head – after I had my idea I just had to figure out how to get it to do what I wanted.
Here is a picture that Sandy took of me doing the demonstration at the Udderly Awesome gathering – I got there late so if you left early you missed it. I didn’t even remember Sandy taking the picture but I was looking directly at the camera so I guess I knew it was happening at the time.
The head on the dog bobbles or spins or whatever you want to call it.
I created a separate Cherry Cobbler panel that I punched a small circle in using the new little circle in the punch pack.
I used a jumbo brad and put it through the hole. Because it isn’t tight it wobbles around in the hole.
I attached this panel to the front of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals to keep it raised so the brad could move.
The dog head is glued to the top of the jumbo brad – I used the Tombow glue for this. The dogs body is then attached to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals so that it tucks behind the head.
Here are some details on the punches I used to create the dog. All the white pieces were sponged with Black StazOn ink.
Head = Wide Oval punch
Tongue = end of Wide Oval punch (then add chunky red glitter)
Snout = Jumbo Heart punch – with the point folded over
Nose = tip of Jumbo Heart punch (then add chunky black glitter)
Eyes = large circle punch from the Crop-A-Dile and white gel pen
Ears = Modern label punch – with one end rounded
Body = Wide Oval Punch
Legs = Modern Label punch – cut in half – mark toes with black marker
Tail = thin strip of black card stock cut on the paper trimmer and curled around a skewer
Big spot = piece from the butterfly punch
Small spots = random pieces of card stock or black marker
Bone = Modern Label punch – trim out the insides to make it skinny – words were printed using My Digital Studio on card stock and then punched
I hope that answered the rest of the questions that people had about this card. I was so excited that everyone loved it so much.
Thanks for checking in with me today!
Jul 27, 2010 | Big Shot, Christmas, Decor Elements, Demonstrator, Stampin' Up! Convention, Stampin' Up! Events |
One of the fun things about convention is to see all of the displays that they have set up. They have things set up inside Memento Mall – which is the special store that we get to shop in to get SU logo products. The first day they limit almost everything and then usually the second day the limits are lifted. This year I got to get in early with special VIP privileges for getting a recruit at the beginning of July! I didn’t have to wait in line – I walked right in, did my shopping and waited briefly to check out. I was so caught up with that I didn’t stop to take pictures that first day when the store was full of product.
Here is the new shirt – and I did buy one so you will see me in it. This one did not sell out. There was also a t-shirt and it did sell out quickly. The laptop bag – yep I got one of those – sold out. And there looked to be a few of the craft totes left – I did not get one because I have the one I bought at last years convention.
These are the flowers on the display table where they had bags of Taffy in Stampin’ Up! colors.
Other items that I bought included some cute new shopping bags, rulers, pens, collapsible trash bins. Many of those sold out too. The trash bins were very popular! And I brought back a surprise for all of my downline! Do you want a surprise too – then consider joining my team and I’ll have something for you too. The new starter kit in the mini catalog is only $175 and is full of exciting new products.
There are also displays throughout the Demonstrator Resource Center which is a fun place for us to get lots of ideas.
Sample “rooms” featuring Decor Elements and stamped elements.
This year Stampin’ Up! created a special place called the sweet shop. OMG you should have seen the stamped creations in there. Stuff looked good enough to eat. The displays are always coordinated on a color or theme. The sweet shop had Halloween, Christmas, Birthday, Office organization, Wedding themes and more. 
Lots of ideas on treats and sweets and fun project ideas. I had mostly closeup pictures of ideas I might want to use but here are a few of the displays in general.
Lots of fun new holiday ideas.
My favorite were the chocolates – they looked yummy enough to eat even though it was all made out of paper, ribbon and accessories. 
Fun stuff! Have a sweet day!
Jul 24, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, In Colors, Stampin' Up! Events, SU Ribbon |
Saturday is the last day of convention and while the official Stampin’ Up! events will end in the afternoon. My roommates and I are going to a Shoebox swap Saturday night. I think there are supposed to be 48 of us total. The shoebox swap works like this – everyone designs a card and brings all the supplies to make the card for everyone. For this particular swap we bring half of them completely made and half of them in pieces in a baggie. Everyone will get divided and make half of the 48 cards on Saturday night. We rotate from table to table until we are done with them all.
Here is my design:
I used the new Butterfly Prints stamp set. I love how this card turned out. I used Basic Grey, Pear Pizazz, and Whisper White as my colors. I did have to get a bit creative so that I could get enough cards out of the paper I had. It didn’t occur to me that I would run out of ribbon either. So some of the swap cards that I made up have different ribbon.
This is the new In-Color Poly-Twill ribbon and it is going to be so nice to use. It is really soft and look at what you can do – fray it! I love the look 
of the frayed ends on my knot.
First tie the ribbon around the card and tie the knot. Then I carefully trimmed off the white edges up to the knot. Then pull apart the green strands and remove the white ones that are left. Fun!
For those cards that I ran out of the poly-twill ribbon I used Satin ribbon in Basic Grey or Certainly Celery which matched well to the Designer Series Paper.
The patterns papers now come in paper stacks and this is one of the new In-Colors so you get a stack of Designer Paper that includes all 6 colors and the two double-sided patterns.
I added distressing on all the layers. And the tag is cut from the Matchbox die using the Big Shot.
I really like the softness of this card and I hope everyone at the shoebox swap does too!
Jul 14, 2010 | Big Shot, class, Stampin' Up! Events, Summer Mini 2010 |
Last week I had my monthly hands-on class. It was my Ice Cream Party class and we had a blast! I took some pictures of all the girls working on their projects and told them I was going to post on my blog. So here they are:
Here is Jamie and her niece, Olivia, working on their ice cream kits. Jamie brought Olivia to two classes while she was visiting during her summer break.
And here is Sue working hard on her kit. I think they were all mad at me because they had to cut out so many ice cream cones and ice cream scoops for the projects. I just keep telling them it is so much cuter when they are cut out!
And there is Travice working at the Big Shot Station. She has that at the top of her wish list and is saving her money to get it in the near future. It is a must have these days for me – I think I use it for every class that I do. Travice has invited me to do a class for her woman’s group and I’m so excited. We set our date for this fall.
Here is the other half of the group – Lisa, Lana and Jeannette were in the other room working on some ice cream cards. The whole class was based on the Sweet Scoops stamp set from the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalog. I love all the things you can do with this set. I showed them the kissing techniques – there is more than one way to kiss you know… And we did Rock ‘n Roll and the Baby Wipe technique. All that with one stamp set in one class!
I hope everyone had as much fun as I did – they were all smiles so I’m pretty sure they had a great time.
So here is my convention prep work update:
Shoebox swap – 49 cards – ummmm nothing done on this one yet, I have an idea floating in my head though
UDI card swap – 19 cards – designed, cut and needs to be assembled
UDI 3-D swap – I only have to make 1! And I know what it is just need to decide if I want to give away my sample or make a new one.
General swap 1 – 25 card fronts – designed, cut and half are assembled
General swap 2 – 25 card fronts – designed, cut, and all are assembled
General swap 3 – 25 card fronts – I have an idea in mind, I just need to work on it
General swap 4 – 25 card fronts – hoping to get to this one
Friend gifts – planning to make some amount of something to give to friends I see
Roommate gifts – 3 – designed
So that is where things stand and I better keep working to get it all done.
Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog and if you are going to be at the Stampin’ Up! Convention come find me and swap with me!
And let me say a quick “Happy Birthday” to my son Ryan who is 14 today on the 14th of July! He is the first one to reach the age of his birth date – see he does get to be first at something. My other boys were born on the 21st and 29th so it will still be a while before they get to accomplish that.
Here is the shirt that I had on. I pulled out my Color Coach to determine what colors I wanted to use for my card. The dragonflies seemed to be Tempting Turquoise and Sahara Sand, while the back ground was two tones of green. I decided to use Garden Green and Wild Wasabi.
I decided to stamp the dragonflies on vellum paper using StazOn Black ink and then color them with my Stampin’ Write markers and cut them out. I slightly curled the wings and tails and used a mini glue dot to attach them to my card. The dragonfly image is from the Nature’s Nest stamp set.
