Doin’ the Happy Dance!!

Jun 29, 2012 | Awards, Stampin' Up! Events | 3 comments

Oh my!  I’m doin’ the Happy Dance!  You can all dance with me.  Did you see the thermometer?

Look it went over the top!!  With all of your help I have earned my first incentive trip!  I’m so excited.  Thank You! Thank You!  Thank You!

I will be getting emails out to everyone that took part in my 55 orders campaign really soon.  And I’ll be planning a celebration party and give you the details on that, and free class passes, and more.  I placed my final orders today – and that should put me over the top.  I called Stampin’ Up! just to ask if they saw it the same way I did.  And tomorrow the reports should show that I earned enough points to go on the Get-a-way trip.  Thank you to Colleen, Jamie, Wanda, and Claire for your orders.  I hope I haven’t missed anyone I’ve been trying to add the thank you’s to my posts each day.  It’s been an exciting ride these past few weeks with both ups and downs.  I honestly wasn’t sure that I could do this.  But with all of your help I did and that is just amazing and I thank you so much!

Have a great weekend!  I have more Artisan projects to share next week, some new cards, a couple of fun scrapbook layouts we made today and a surprise is coming too.  So keep coming back and visit me here on my little blog.

Almost Artisan – Bobble Head Card

Jun 28, 2012 | Almost Artisan, Cards, Punch Art, Thank You | 2 comments

The thermometer is nearly at the top!  Yeah!  Thank you to Dana, Merri, Stacey, Lana and Bethany.

Today’s card is a fun one.  It was my second card for the Artisan Design Team contest.  It is a Bobble-Head card.  I came up with the bobble-head card a few years ago – my first one was a dog card.  So this time I decided to try a frog and fly.

The frog’s head and the fly both bobble around when you move the card.  Here is another view.

This is punch art with the head attached to a brad that is put through a hole and left loose so it will wobble.  The card is layered with dimensionals so the brad can wiggle around underneath the top layer.  Here is a view from the side –

The top layer is stacked on double high dimensionals to give it space.  There is lots of sponging, punching and piercing to put this card together but it sure is fun.  To create the woodgrain look of the fence background – drag the ink pad across the card stock – starting and stopping in different places.  Then add little “nails” with the Stampin’ Write marker.

I figure no one else had made anything like this and that it was a unique idea.  Moveable cards are fun aren’t they?

Have a great day!

Almost Artisan – Just Believe Card

Jun 27, 2012 | Almost Artisan, Cards | 0 comments

First I want to say a BIG Thank You to everyone that has been placing orders and helping me earn the Stampin’ Up! Get-a-way Incentive Trip!  I am really close now – just a few more orders needed – I’m about $400 away and only have a few more days – June 30th is the deadline! Thank You to Linda, Vicki, Gina, Nancy, Judy, Molly, Tamara, Cindy, Bethany, Suzie, Sally, Becky, Linda, Travice – every order is helping me reach this goal no matter what the size.  Read more here about my goal to reach 55 orders.  The thermometer is almost at the top!

Now on to today’s project.  As I told you yesterday I am now sharing my Artisan Design Team entries.  And this is one of my card entries.  It was actually the very first project that I completed for the entry – there were 10 total.

I love my Linen Thread and the Beautiful Wings Embosslit.  I thought this card was right on trend with the colors – neutrals with a burst of Daffodil Delight.  I started with the Crumb Cake Base for the card.  The squares are postage stamp punched from Basic Black, and 1″ squares punched from the First Edition designer paper.  The paper was stamped with the Just Believe stamp set before I cut them apart.  I added the little butterflies and Linen Thread.

On the inside I added little butterflies in the corner.

I love this card and can’t think of anything I would do differently.   I hope you like it too.

Almost Artisan – My Digital Studio Hybrid Scrapbook Page

Jun 26, 2012 | Almost Artisan, My Digital Studio, Scrapbook Pages | 1 comment

Well sadly I was not chosen as one of the Stampin’ Up! Design Team Artisan Finalists this year.  I really thought I had a chance but I guess I’m not what they are looking for.  The list of finalists is posted on the Stampin’ Up! FB page – congratulations to all of those that qualified as finalists!  The good news is that I can now share my projects on my blog – no need to wait until after convention in July!

And another bit of good news is my push to earn my first Incentive Trip – it’s going to happen – I can feel it!  One final push this week – I’m only about $700 away!! How exciting is that?  Just a hand full of people need to place a $55 order and I’ll be there.  Read more here about the 55 orders and watch the thermometer rise on the side of my blog.  I’m almost there!!!

So now on to the project – that’s probably what you want to see anyway.  This first project is one of my three scrapbook pages that I entered.  I created a 12×12 scrapbook page using My Digital Studio – I sent it to Stampin’ Up! to print through the professional print service on heavy-weight card stock.  I printed more than one copy and then cut the extra one in order to make a hybrid version – I added a few real elements to it so it had some dimension.  So that gave me two versions – the original digital version, the hybrid version and then I created a second digital version.  I didn’t have time to get the second one reprinted otherwise I probably would have submitted that one to the contest.  Unfortunately we live so far away from Utah that the print service can take a while to get back to me.  So here you go – let’s see what they look like –

Digital Version 1

This first one is my original Digital Version – this is Magnolia one of my two Jack Russell Terriers.  I used overlays, sititching, digital tape, punches, the downtown grunge frames, buttons and seam binding.

Hybrid Version contest entry

This is not the best picture but this is the Hybrid version that I entered into the contest.  Its even hard to see the hybrid elements in this photo.  So I’ll tell you what they are.  First I printed a second copy of the entire page and cut out the framed photo of Magnolia – I popped it up on Dimensionals and layered right on top of the same frame on the first copy.   On one of the scallop circles I added a real paper flower, and a crumb cake button tied with Early Espresso Baker’s Twine.  To the left of the photo I added two Baja Breeze buttons.  And on the lower corner of the photo I added a real piece of Very Vanilla Seam Binding.

Digital Version 2

Here is the second Digital Version of the page – there are a few changes.  The journling is a poem that my niece wrote about Magnolia.  I changed the Very Vanilla Seam Binding to Crumb Cake.  The Baja Breeze buttons were replaced with the Antique Brads.  And the button inside the paper flower was changed to Baja Breeze.   I like this second version better and wish I had the time to print and submit it for the contest.  That’s probably why I wasn’t selected – they would have liked the 2nd version better too!

There are some brand new digital downloads from Stampin’ Up! today.  You can see all the available Digital Downloads on my website.

Have a great day and if you need to order any Stampin’ Up! products please let me know – every order counts towards my goal even the digital downloads you order through my website!