A Peek Into My Stamping Room

Feb. 1 Stamp Camp Sneak Peek!!

If the weather holds out, I am planning to have the Sale-A-Bration stamp camp friday night.  The weatherman says we are going to get 4-6" of snow by Friday morning.  Now, around here (St. Louis MO) the weather guys aren't right very much.  So I am going to take a wait and see attitude.  I am from Missouri, so you better show me!!  LOL 

Here is a bonus project I am offering to those coming to the Stamp Camp.

This is the cutest paper lantern, isn't it?  You just need a paper cutter with scoring blade and some Designer Series Paper.  This is a sheet from the Bali Breeze Designer paper out of the NEW Spring/Summer Collection catalog.

After the stamp camp, I will be sharing the tutorial with you.  I made a few more using just regular cardstock and embellishments.  They turned out just as cute.

I have updated my Events & Class Schedule page.  Check it out to see what is coming up!  If I need to reschedule the stamp camp I will post the new dates as quick as possible!

I am going to keep the link to St. Baldrick's Foundation at the bottom of each of my posts.  Amanda is working hard to earn $1000 for cancer research, I know you can help her!!  Her team is called Charlie's Angels after her brother, Charlie.   Thanks for checking it out.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.html?ParticipantKey=2008|21694

Will you help?

Our friends, Carrie & Anthony, lost their dear son, Charlie to cancer.  Even while Charlie was fighting to stay alive he was doing all he could to raise money to help find a cure for others.  Now that he is gone his sister, Amanda, is taking up the fight.  Amanda is trying to raise $1000 for St. Baldrick's Foundation by shaving her head!!  Amanda is just 7 years old.  Can you help?  Check it out!!

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.html?ParticipantKey=2008|21694

Amanda is in my Cassie's PSR class.  We all know what a horrible disease cancer is for adults but its especially tough to watch a young child, who has everything to live for, fight and lose their battle.  Thanks for checking it out.

Did you know.......?

You can become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator with just a click of a button.  Go to my fancy new website - HERE - and check it out.  I will say that signing up during Sale-a-bration (which starts Feb. 1) is a great idea.  All new recruits will receive a FREE stamp set (up to $47.95) out of the new catalog.  WOW!!  Come on and join my team!  Email me if you have any questions.

Wednesday is a Busy Day!

So Wednesday, January 23, is a busy day at my house.  I post the Card of the Week on Wednesday plus I am having a Mystery Hostess Phone/Email-a-thon.  Click HERE for information about participating in this great way to earn free hostess stuff!

Now on to the Card of the Week!  Remember my teaser?  Have you ever made a One-Layer card?  Well, here is my example of an easy one-layer card that looks hard!

I used a reverse masking technique for this card.  I took a sturdy piece of paper that is the same size as my card and cut out the oval making a frame.  I then took my frame and put it on my folded Whisper White cardstock and sponged inside the oval using River Rock Classic Ink.  Leaving the frame in place I stamped the leaves from Embrace life.  Using some scraps of the Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper, I stamped the flower image twice.  I cut out both images but the top image has parts of the flower cut off so that the coordinating cardstock shows thru.  I stamped Embrace Life in Basic Brown Classic Ink on the cardfront.  I tied the River Rock Double-Stitched ribbon around the inside of the card and tied a bow.  You don't really need the ribbon but it does set the whole thing off.

Here is another variation:

I used Groovy Guava for the oval and just cut out some flowers from the Ginger Blossom Designer paper.  Both of these cards just took minutes to make.  Once I cut my frame, I keep it handy until it gets pretty nasty looking.  You can use it again and again. 

I will be showing a tutorial on this technique tommorrow so be sure to check back.

Don't forget my February 1 Sale-a-bration Stamp Class.  Make 3 projects using the Free Sale-a-bration sets you can earn in February and March.  Price of this event is $15.  You must RSVP by January 25 to hold your spot.  Be sure to check out my Calendar of Events HERE for more information.

Saturday's Projects!

My Retired Stamp set sale and New catalog open house was alot of fun.  We stamped 3 projects; 2 cards and a Valentine's Day favor.

Here are my cards!

I didn't use any Designer Paper on any of these projects!  I am in a rut using the patterned paper and decided to make a change.  I used my White Craft Pad and Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp set for the background on this card.  Then I stamped the Elephant using Black Staz-on and colored him using my Neutrals Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a blender pen.  The hearts and stems I used my Real Red & Glorious Green markers.  I just love that wide grosgrain ribbon.  Its not too stiff and it ties really nice.  Don't forget if you want to get some of this ribbon for free, you have until the end of this month to order the Valentine's Day bundle.  I am having a Mystery Hostess Phone-a-thon on Wednesday of this week, if you want to order the bundle, just contact me!

See, no designer series paper on this project either!  I used Shimmery White cardstock for this.  It is really good to watercolor on if you don't have any watercolor paper (which I didn't).  I used Mellow Moss and Groovy Guava cardstock for this card.  I stamped the main flower image using Basic Brown Classic Ink (remember it is waterproof) and then I masked the flower and stamped the smaller flowers on each side.  I watercolored the whole thing using my Aquapainter and ink pads.  After it dried I took my white gel pen and highlighted those little circles in the middle of the flower.  I stamped the embrace life in basic brown, too.  I am almost out of the Groovy Guava Double-stitched ribbon.  I bought the roll in July so that lasted a pretty long time, didn't it?  I am noticing I use ribbon on almost every card, hmmmm.

The kids and I are making these cute little candy bags for their valentine's at school.  I think they are really cute.  I just love this stamp set.  It is the stamp set called Happy Heart Day and is available in the Valentine's Bundle.  This cute little mouse goes with the Elephant from my first card.  How cute are they?

I stamped my mouse image using Black Staz-on on Whisper White cardstock and colored it using Regal Rose, Rose Red & Going Gray markers.  I then punched it out using the small tag punch.  I used the larger tag punch to punch out a Rose Red tag to mat my mouse on.  I stamped the Happy Valentine's Day from Holidays and Wishes stamp set on the Regal Rose cardstock I used as a topper for my small cellophane bag.  I cut the topper at 3" x 4".  That way, when it is folded, there is a 2" topper.  I just stapled the whole thing together and its done.  Don't you just love the conversation hearts?  I only like them at Valentine's Day but I still love chocolate candy the most!!  I will have a tutorial for you to go along with the Card of the Week on Wednesday!  In the meantime, ENJOY!!

Finally tried Beate's Sketch Challenge

I normally check out Beate John's blog daily and have been wanting to particpate in her weekend sketch challenge for awhile now.  I saw the sketch for this weekend and the creative juices started flowing!!  Here is a link to her blog.  Here is my card using her sketch.

I used the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique for my main image.  I wanted to get the Groovy Guava and Ruby Red colors onto my butterfly so I inked the stamp with Groovy Guava and then using my Ruby Red marker, I went over parts of the image and then stamped it onto my Very Vanilla Cardstock.  The Dazzling Diamonds Technique is done by smashing your VersaMark pad over the whole piece of cardstock, apply Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder and heat set the whole thing.  Pretty, isn't it.  This is a square card that I cut at 5 1/2" x 11".

Supplies Used:  Garden Whimsy & Petals Jumbo Wheel; River Rock, Very Vanilla, Ruby Red Cardstock & Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper; Groovy Guava Classic Ink Pad, Ruby Red Stampin' Write Marker, Versamark, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Gold Brads.

I have lots more projects to share the rest of the week.  Plus a tutorial for the Card of the Week on Wednesday.  Here is a teaser!  Have you ever made a one-layer card?  I will let you ponder that question!!  LOL  Talk to you later.

Retired Stamp Set Sale & New Catalog Open House Today!

So today will be my retired stamp set sale and new catalog open house starting at 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.  I am excited to sell some of this stuff to make more room in my stamping space!  I have 3 projects for my ladies to do and will share those with you on Monday.  Plus all the retired stuff left-over, I will take new pictures of and list for sale here in a photo album.  Hope you have a great weekend.  If you live nearby, come on over!

Card of the Week - Heart Pocket Card

The Monday challenge on Splitcoast Stampers is called Try a New Technique.  This week's technique is the Pocket Heart.  Here is a link to the challenge and template.  I thought this was really fun to make.

I cut out my heart using Purely Pomegranite and assembled it using just the gold brad. No adhesive or anything so I could go back and change this if I wanted too.  Then I punched out a bunch of Elegant Eggplant circles, ran a line of Snail around the outside edge on the back of the heart and then placed my circles to look like scallops.  I then stamped the heart and added the square and word window stuff.  On the Very Vanilla panel, I sponged Elegant Eggplant around the edges and then stamped the leaves using the Stamping Off technique.  I just inked up my stamp with Elegant Eggplant, stamped on scratch paper then stamped on my Very Vanilla.  I used the Ticket Corner Punch on the Purely Pomegranite and Very Vanilla panels and put the whole thing together.  Now to come up with something to put in the pocket! 

I will not be sending out anymore newsletters using Constant Contact.  I have decided to post thing here and send out the newsletters that Stampin' Up! has on our new website.  So check both places out frequently.  Thanks for looking today and try a challenge.  It's fun.

Sale-A-bration Rub-Ons

Sale-a-bration starts Feb. 1.  To help me get ready, I pre-ordered some of the FREE stuff you can earn during the sale.  So today I was playing around with the Rub-ons you can get during Sale-a-bration when you spend $50.  You get 4 sheets of rub-ons - white, black, brown & green- all the same designs.  I haven't really used rub-ons very much.  I have to say my experience with them hasn't been too good.  But I was pleasantly surprised with how easy these rub-ons are to use and they look great!

This is a triangular glass votive cup I bought at Wal-mart sometime ago.  I used some Pomegranite Ribbon inside to highlight the rub-ons.  I will probably end up putting candy in this for my desk.

Here is another side of this votive cup.

I really like these.  It took me all of 5 minutes to put these on.  What a cheap and easy gift that really looks great. 

I need to get busy setting up the rest of my basement for my Retired Stamp Set Sale & New Catalog Open House I am having on Saturday.  I have been cleaning out my stamp room but the Christmas Decoration boxes are still sitting out.  Keith is off tommorrow so he is going to be real busy with those Honey-do jobs, if you know what I mean. 

Here is a picture of us from Sunday at Chuck E. Cheeses.  We had a great time but I can't stand the crowds.  I just sat in the booth and made sure nobody took our sodas!! LOL

So I will show you some more cool stuff tommorrow!!  Check back to see what it will be.

Here is a fun card......

Here is a fun card that was in one of my newsletters from this past week.  I just started sending out two different newsletters - Card of the Week &  a Monthly Newsletter. 

Supplies Used:  Time Well Spent Level 3 Hostess Stamp set, Weathered Background; Shimmery White, River Rock, Groovy Guava cardstock & Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper; Jet Black Staz-on, Regal Rose, Ruby Red Markers & Groovy Guava Classic Ink Pad with blender pens; Corner Punch, Gold Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

So first I stamped the butterfly image on the Guava and then on the Ginger Blossom paper.  I cut out the butterflies that I stamped on the Designer paper without the antenna.  Then I mounted the butterflies using stampin' dimensionals over the images on the Groovy Guava letting the antenna show thru.  Clear as mud?  I just love everything about the Designer paper and this stamp set.  Very fun!

I am off to Chuck E. Cheeses with the whole family so, hopefully, I will survive!!  I will post some more tommorrow!