Jul 16, 2010 | Bleaching, Cards, Embossing, Thank You |
Just a quick post today. Thursday was the first day or orientation at Ga Tech – I learned lots of information – I hope Kyle did too. We were together for parts of the day and apart for others. Today is the important stuff – like registering for classes and getting a student id.
This card was Wendy’s swap card at the STARZ meeting. It features the new Stampin’ Up! set called Artistic Etchings. Wendy used several techniques on this card including Bleaching, Embossing and tearing. You can read more about her card on her blog – Click here.
Wendy and her family have moved to Saudi Arabia – they left on Thursday. I wish them the best in their new adventure and safe travels where ever they may go. We will be in touch regularly as I help her with keeping the STARZ group connected. I’ll be including the STARZ group in my downline meetings so if you live near me I hope you will join us.
I didn’t get anything done on my convention swaps since we were gone all day Thursday and I’ll be gone most of Friday too.
I’m officially a Ga Tech Mom!
Jul 10, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Stamper's Club, Thank You |
I have another card using the Because I Care Level 1 Hostess set from the new Stampin’ Up! 2010-1022 Idea Book & Catalog. I found this idea on Stampin’ Connection just like my first sample and it is from the same designer – Jo-Ann Pullen. She has some really pretty designs out there using this stamp set with Baja Breeze and Early Espresso colors. I made a few changes to mine but the basic design follows her original.
My second card is actually the new Marina Mist color with the Early Espresso. I was out of the Baja Breeze and had a new package of this new color so I thought it would work equally well.
We made this card during my Stamper’s Club meeting this month. For me I found it best to first cut the little squares and then stamp a portion of the hydrangea image on each square so I could get the parts that I wanted. When I tried to stamp just the flower on a large piece and then cut it I found I had more white space than I wanted.
I also decorated the inside of the card like this – 
I stamped the hydrangea off the left side and added the thank you from the stamp set. You could have also stamped that on the front instead of the little border image.
The new Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Folder was used on the panel on the front – I know I’m going to be using it a lot. I hope they come out with more of these folders because they add so much texture to cards and scrapbook pages.
Thanks for checking in today!
Jun 24, 2010 | Cards, Thank You |
Here is a sneak peek from the new Stampin’ Up! 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog. This card is one that I saw on Stampin’ Connection – a great resource for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators. I made a few changes from the original card but not many. The designer of the original was Jo-Ann Pullen.
My card base is Baja Breeze – this is an In-Color from a couple of years ago that is coming back to the catalog as a core color in the Subtles Collection. The other color is the new Early Expresso which is part of the Neutrals Collection.
The stamp set is called “Because I Care” and it is a new Level 1 hostess set. The border image was stamped once on the Whisper White card stock. The “thank you” is stamped on a piece of scrap Whisper White and punched out with the Modern label punch. Then the edge has Early Expresso ink on it – either drag through the ink pad or use the marker. The little flowers are stamped on a scrap of Whisper White and punched out with the ¾” circle punch. I used the AquaPainter with the Baja Breeze ink to color the centers of the flowers.
The embossed panel is using the new Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder for the Big Shot. It is very pretty and sure to be a hot item from the new catalog.
I hope you liked this sneak peek. Next week I hope to get some more time to play with my new stuff.
Jun 16, 2010 | 2-Step Stampin', Almost Artisan, Big Shot, Cards, Thank You |
I’m going to finish posting my Artisan Award projects. If you missed my earlier posts – this is an annual contest that Stampin’ Up! holds for its demonstrators. It is the biggy! Anyway this was the first year that I entered the contest – and while I had high hopes of winning – I was not chosen as one of the winners – they picked 10. To enter we had to create 5 cards, 3 scrapbook pages and 2 3D projects. I have been showing my projects over the past couple of weeks. If you want to go back and see what I already posted CLICK HERE.
Today I’m sharing my 5th card. This one is fun and really much easier to make than it looks. I have seen lots of versions of this card – called a Tri-Shutter card – all over the internet. I created this one earlier this year and shared it with my Stamper’s Club. I really loved it so I decided to use it as one of my entries since I hadn’t shared it online with anyone else yet. I made one minor change to my original before mailing it in.
The card is cut and scored so it has multiple panels that fold together to create a really cool card with lots of places to embellish and add little things here and there.
I used the Simply Said stamp set for this one. This is a two-step stampin’ set that has been around for several years and I think many people have forgotten it. The Designer Paper is the Tall Tales paper. My colors are Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron and Whisper White. 
I used the Beautiful Wings Embosslit to die cut a variety of butterflies with my Big Shot. I also used the Big Shot to cut the large Scallop circle and for adding texture using Embossing folders on some of the panels.
The large butterfly on the front was cut twice – once in So Saffron and once in Chocolate Chip. The Chocolate Chip butterfly was cut in half and layered on the back of the So Saffron butterfly. The body and antenna are made from Linen Thread. The circle scissors was used to cut the inner circle. I used the distressing tool, sponging and the white gel pen as accents on the card.
The one thing I changed from my original card to the one I sent in to Stampin’ Up! was the addition of the center of the flower on the inner panel. I added some Tombow glue and added a swirl of linen thread to make the center of the flower. I really like how it turned out.
This is probably my favorite card out of the ones that I entered and of course the colors are some of my very favorite. I’m so glad they aren’t retiring!
I have two more projects to post – my last scrapbook and 3D projects – so I hope you will come back.
Thanks for stopping by!
May 31, 2010 | Almost Artisan, Baroque Motifs, Cards, Embossing, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010, Thank You |
It was really hard not sharing these projects earlier. Since we made them during the Sale-A-Bration and Occasions Mini Catalog sales period some of my projects use items from these. They were current at the time so they were eligible for the contest. Even though the judging occurred after they ended. I wonder if that had anything to do with the chosen winners. Between that and using what are now going to be retiring colors – that was announced after I sent my entry in and when you see one of my scrapbook pages it ended up with a bunch of retiring colors on it. Oh well…
So here is card #1 – I considered this to be my vintage card. I had actually created a scrapbook page with this idea and posted it on my blog earlier – click here to see it – and when I was creating for the Artisan contest I kept coming back to that page but knew I couldn’t enter it since it was already on my blog. My solution was to make a card using the same idea.
It is a very pretty card in person – I’m not sure the picture does it any justice. The card base is Basic Black and the stamping is done with Versamark and embossed with Clear Embossing powder. I love this look.
I used the Vintage Labels stamp set from Sale-A-Bration – too bad that one isn’t still available. The others are all still current – Charming, Tiny Tags, and Baroque Motifs.
The colors are Crushed Curry, Basic Black and Whisper White.
I had also decided to decorate the inside of each of my cards. I go in phases of doing this. And I usually always do it when the card base is dark like the Basic Black. The inside was pretty simple but matched with the front of the card.
So that is my first entry for the Artisan Award.
I hope you like it. And that you’ll come back to see the rest!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
CLICK HERE – to go to the post for other Almost Artisan blog links.
May 20, 2010 | Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Summer Mini 2010, Thank You |
I have some new 3×3 tags that I made this week and then I saw a sketch challenge that I wanted to play along with so I decided to turn my 3×3 into a card for the sketch. If you have ever heard of progressive scrapbooking it is where you create a 6×6 scrapbook page then turn it into an 8-1/2 x 11 scrapbook page by adding elements and then turn it into a 12×12 scrapbook page – so you progress from one size to the next. I used the same concept for this card – starting with a 3×3 tag and progressing it to a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 sized card. I used the Bouquet Bunch stamp set from the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini Catalog as my main image it is perfect for the 3×3 size.
I used the Technostamper Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge 122 as the design for my card.
Here is what it looks like. And this is my card – 
instead of a rectangle and an oval mine uses the squares from my 3×3 tag. So it is a bit of a different interpretation of the sketch. But I think it still works.
I used the bitty buttons on the bottom with little punched pieces of the Old Olive Designer Series paper underneath and Linen thread tied through the buttons in little bows for the four circles on the bottom.
The Bouquet Bunch is one of the stamp sets we are featuring on Create with Connie & Mary this week. If you haven’t joined us yet it is not too late – new ideas every day and you can catch up on all the ones that we already posted. I hope you will join us we are having a ton of fun creating!
Just a bit of a family update if you are interested – we are nearing the end of school. Kyle is done except for Graduation practice and Graduation which will be next week. Tyler has finals left and this weekend he is taking his on the road driving test – so we may have another official driver in the family this weekend. Ryan also has finals left and he is in the middle of percussion tryouts for the marching band for next year. Soon he will know what part he will have for next years show.
This card was Wendy’s swap card at the STARZ meeting. It features the new Stampin’ Up! set called Artistic Etchings. Wendy used several techniques on this card including Bleaching, Embossing and tearing. You can read more about her card on her blog – Click here.
