Monday, February 29, 2016

Easter Treats

Hello everyone!  Did you notice the little cone shaped bags in the occasions catalog? Well I did and knew I needed them right away.  How perfect are they for Easter treats? 

Polka Dot Cone Cellophane bags
25 bags for $6.00



I also really liked the stamp set called Friends and Flowers.  I had the coordinating Festive Flower Builder punch already, so I was really happy when Stampin' Up! released another stamp set to work with it.  That cute little baby pea pod is adorable don't you think?  But it was the bunny that caught my eye first. I knew it would be cute on an Easter scrapbook page and for little treat holders such as this.










I stamped and punched out the bunny and colored her ears with a Blushing Bride marker.  I used a q-tip to add some blush to the cheeks.
That bow on the bunnies ear is Bow Paper Clips Embellishments, so cute!




I hope you enjoyed today's project! 
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about the projects or Stampin' Up! in general.  I am happy to help!


Don't forget! Sale-A-Bration is still going on!  Get a free product of your choice from the Sale-A-Bration catalog for every $50 you spend!  Check out the catalog here! 



Friday, February 26, 2016

Join for the Discount?!?!

YES! Do you love to craft?  Probably if you are here the answer is yes!   I love it, and 11 years ago I joined Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator because I loved to craft, particularly scrapbook. I went to a lot of Stampin' Up! workshops and always bought something, usually quite a bit.  I would plan it out, say to myself, this month I will buy things in the 'Rich Regals' family and then next time I will focus on the 'Soft Subtles'.  I really wanted to have all the inks because I loved to have options, and I loved the papers and markers and ribbon and on and on.  The demonstrator I went to would tell me I should sign up, she told me I would get a discount, but I wouldn't do it.  I didn't want to sell.  I had a small baby and I didn't think I could do workshops or hold classes.  I didn't want to deal with paper work or some unknown things.  I just wanted to craft.  But I did want the ribbon, hmmm....
I finally did it.  She said I could sign up and not do anything else.  I could buy one time, twice maybe, then drop off the demonstrator lists.  That is what I planned to do anyway.  And I was my only customer for several years, and that was fine with me.  I bought what I liked and I saved a bit on my favorite supplies and all was good.   And you could stay right there.  That could be you.  Get a discount on your supplies, join an online forum of demonstrators sharing ideas and craft. That is all it needs to be and that is good for a great many people.  A majority of Stampin' Up! demonstrators are their only customer and Stampin' Up! has a path for the Hobby Demonstrator and considers you in good standing and is happy to have you.  That was me for years.


Then one day someone asked me to do a stamp camp for them.  I didn't really know if I wanted to or not, I was on the fence.  But, it was all people I knew, all friendly faces who liked to make cards and scrapbook and so I thought why not?  I gave it a try and people spent a little bit of money, enough for it to have been worth my while, and so there it began.  I did another one, then another.   I do about one a month, that is it.  I could probably bump it up to two or three a month with a little bit more effort, and sometimes I do, but mostly I just do the one.  Sometimes I do a craft fair, sometimes I am paid to make big quantities of cards or favors for an event or party and I make some extra money that way.  Then I decided to add the blog, and that has been good too. I found some more online friends and customers. I figured I am making the projects anyway, might as well share them.  I am not the biggest seller by any means, but I am no longer my only customer, no longer my best customer either.  At the end of the day I get my supplies mostly free because of what I earn and I get to stamp with nice people and have fun.   Some months I am really surprised by how much I made and I actually thought I was going to owe at tax time last year because my sales were so good but then I luckily had more deductions and attended the convention (which is a tax deduction! a tax deduction to be were I wanted to be! How great is that?) and I was good to go.  Maybe this could be you?  A Business Demonstrator.  There is a path for this as well.  You get a bit more in the perks here, a little bit bigger discount for one thing.  More functions during the year too.  Step your business up a notch when you can, take a break when you need, its all up to you!

Want to learn more?  Contact me with any questions you have.  I am happy to help you.  If you are near me I am hosting an Opportunity night to meet any one who has any questions.  I will be at the Panera Bread at the corner of North Ave and York Rd on Monday night, March 7th at 7:00.  I am not going to have a big sign or anything, just a table and my laptop so I can show you the demonstrator site, answer questions, chat.  I'll have my Stampin' Up! catalogs of course so you will know who I am if you are unfamiliar.  Come and say hello and have a cup of coffee with me, ask any questions you may have.  If you sign up during Sale-A-Bration (ends March 31st) you can choose $155 worth of product for just $99!!  It's a great deal weather or not you do anything further, so you have nothing to loose!
Plan on coming?  Let me know so I don't leave too early and miss you.  email me at bethrush@issinternet.com



Thursday, February 25, 2016

Emboss Resist with the Birthday Blooms stamp set

Hello everyone.  Today I am sharing a card we made at Stamp Camp last week.  We used the Emboss resist technique to create the soft flower in the center of the card.  I love this technique because I always like embossing, its fun to see the powder melt before your eyes.  And I like to watch the image emerge when you add ink over a clear embossed image.   For this card we used Mint Macaroon and Watermelon Wonder.   The stamp set is Birthday Blooms.


Start adding your ink with a sponge very lightly so that you can better control the coverage.  You'll want some areas darker and some lighter.














The ruffle is made with the Mint Macaroon lace trim, so soft and pretty.
To add the ruffle I applied a strip of adhesive tear tape to the back of the strip of paper.






Press and fold and press and fold the lave trim onto the adhesive.  I then ran another strip of adhesive on top of the lace and adhere it to the card.




The little dotted paper is from the Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper and the Mint Macaroon stripe is from the It's My Party Paper Stack. 

I made a second version of the card with gold embossing powder and Gold Fancy Designer Velum paper.












Thanks so much for stopping by!  Please feel free to contact me about any of the projects you find on my blog, or about Stampin' Up!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Pleated Skirt Fold card

Hello everyone!  Today I am sharing another card made from a tutorial at SplitcoastStampers.com.
This is a fun site for paper crafters, particularly stampers like me.  I pretty much copied the card exactly, which I normally don't do but I really like this paper and I loved how the pleated skirt shows off both sides of the double sided paper.











See that beautiful paper?  It is called Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper. Lovely!








I did my scoring just a little differently than the tutorial because I wanted more pleats and I wanted them more even. 
I cut my paper at 3 by 7 3/8.  Then I scored at 3, 3 1/2, 4 1/2, 4, 5, 5 1/2, 6.  basically half inch,, inch, half inch, inch....  fold the first fold back then forward as in the photo.  
 








I adhered the flat 3 x 3 square all down, then just added adhesive to the top of the pleated area so that it can appear lose, like a skirt :)









I then added a strip of adhesive to the top of the designer paper so that I could attach the ribbon. 













I used 'Wink of Stella' to make my flower image shimmery like the ribbon. 













Here is a version in Watermelon Wonder and in Pool Party.





So pretty, those flowers are great for birthdays of course, but think of the pretty Mother's Day cards or Easter scrapbook pages featuring that pretty flower! 


Birthday Blooms stamp set
140658   $19.00 in cling mount style





Thanks for stopping by today!!  Please feel free to contact me with any questions! I am happy to help!
And, don't forget...
SALE-A-BRATION is still going on!!!  For each $50 you spend, choose a free item from the limited time Sale-A-Bration catalog!!















Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Monday, February 22, 2016

Cards and Coffee

There was a challenge a while back to use coffee in your projects.  I really liked the idea as I really like coffee!  I thought it would be fun to paint with coffee and I was reminded of a painting that hangs in the hallway of my children's school of a women painted with coffee.  I mentioned this art my art class and my instructor told me that it was probably painted by a women who used to live in Elmhurst named Eleanor King Hookham.  I looked her up and she used coffee quite often with her printmaking.  So, I decided that over the weekend we, the kids and I, would paint with coffee.  It was super cold (this was two weekends ago, this weekend was sunny! Yea! ) and so painting was a good thing to do over the weekend. 

I made this card to go with the challenge on splitcoaststampers.  
 This stamp is from Helping me grow, a favorite from the Occasions catalog.
A few things to know about painting with coffee.  I wanted different tones of coffee, and really found that it just doesn't happen if you just pour a little bit of you coffee onto a saucer and paint away.  My first attempt left all the tones exactly the same and I would have to wait for it to dry and then add another layer to darken it, and then let it dry and do it again.  I decided to let the coffee sit out all day in a shallow paint holder thingy I have and that way a lot of the water evaporated and I added a couple drops to one, a little more water to one, and so on.
Instant coffee would have been better because then you could mix up little batches in various strengths. I didn't have any instand coffee though, so I had to work with what I had.  I am going to pick some up next shopping trip though, for art not drinking :)
I started by using a stamp very lightly in crumb cake ink, just to get my image on the watercolor paper.








I then painted the image just as usual, only using my coffee!  The card actually smells like coffee too, which is fun.





When I mentioned the coffee idea at art class a couple others were keen to try it out and one of the ladies said she had an actual print of Eleanor Hookam at her home.  I said I would play around with coffee over the weekend to see what worked and bring in something to next class, and she said she would bring in her piece of art too. 
Here is what I brought, thinking I should actually draw something since it is a drawing class after all and not a stamping class :)

I wasn't sure what I wanted to draw and I was trying to get the kids involved and let them decide what we would work on.  They decided on super heroes or monsters!  I should not have been surprised.  Jillian wanted a comic book style and got out a book on how to draw comics, so  went with that, althought I would much prefer flowers or birds :)
Jillian would NOT use coffee though.  She said it was the color of mud and yucky so why would she want her drawing to be yucky?  Zachary loved the idea of painting with coffee but would not do a comic.  David didn't want to paint at all.  Why did I think this would be an easy fun thing for us to do on a cold February day?
Here is Jillian's work, love her super hero women.  She used my idea but wanted her woman to be powered by orange juice instead of coffee.






















Zachary made a Monsters' Inc. inspired drawing.
I used a waterproof micron pen for the drawing and then painted over it with the coffee.


















I hope you like my projects today!  and I hope that  you will give it a try.  Here is a link to the challenge on splitcoaststampers.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Kit Stamps ~ Perpetual Birthday Calendar

Hello everyone!  Yesterday I shared the Perpetual Birthday Calendar and mentioned that I was really glad to see the stamps that came with the stamp set because I thought they would be great as background stamps.  The stamps were sitting on my desk and I thought that before I put them away I would use the background stamps a bit just for fun.  I like to keep things simple and looked for a stamp set that had sentiments for many occasions. I landed on the Fabulous Four stamp set.



This is a great stamp set to have in your collection, but it sort of needs a background don't you think? or maybe some designer paper?  I decided that this was the perfect set to use to make up a bunch of fast cards to have on hand for a variety of occasions.


Fabulous Four stamp set $15.00 in cling mount.





I used the 'splat' for the get well cards.
















The dots and flowers were great for the 'celebrate' cards.











I added some punched flowers and rhinestones for some added bling to this version.




The new balloon punch was perfect here!














"It's your day" can really go in a variety of ways.  I decided on hearts for a bridal shower and a stars to use either for birthday or any celebration. 












The sequins and gold glimmer are left over from the calendar kit.  I added some star sequins to the stamped stars.







The "Thank you" cards could have gotten just about any of the backgrounds, but here I went with flowers and starbursts.  I was just thinking as I was typing this is that the starburst would be great embossed in gold on black paper for New Years Eve or a big celebration. 












Seriously fun stamp set!  I know I will be using this on my scrapbook pages, the months stamps too! 







Perpetual Birthday Calendar set








Thanks for stopping by!








Thursday, February 18, 2016

Bringing Birthday's Back!

Birthday Cards that is!!  Some of you may be aware of a new campaign to bring the sending of birthday cards back into the norm. One of my favorite employees at the Stampin' Up! home office started her own little campaign a little while ago and it has grown into a big thing and Stampin' Up! even took one of her hand carved stamps and is making it into a purchasable stamp for this campaign.  Shannon was even on Good Things Utah to talk about her campaign, you can see it here. 
As I watched her on the show, I realized that she was voicing something I complain about all the time, the "evite" and the Facebook happy birthday.  Both things I complain about, but also both things I am guilty of! And I MAKE CARDS for goodness sake!!  So, I have made up my Stampin' Up! perpetual calendar, purchased a while ago and never put together, and I am going to resolve to send out those birthday cards!!  Want one??  Send me an email with  your birthday and address and I will send you one!
Have you seen the perpetual birthday calendar?  It is really cute!  It comes with a hard clipboard and 12 blank sheets of dates, one for each month.  It also comes with lots of embellishments and alphabet stickers and glitter and a sponge, ribbon, etc.

















You can purchase the coordinating stamp set, or use your own to make the headers.  There are actually a couple fun sets that contain the months of the year, the Day to Day Project Life set and the Hello Baby Project Life set are great choices for calendars.  I have to say though that I really am glad I bought the matching set because of the 'sprinkle' stamps as I am calling them.
Check out those background stamps! The big paint swoosh is great for backgrounds as are all those little sprinkles!  Do any of you remember the background sets that were called sprinkles?  There was  a sprinkles one and a two, and then I think a seasonal sprinkles with leaves, snow and I don't remember what else.  Anyway I am dating myself :)

I bought this kit LAST YEAR and never used it and I am so glad I did because I forgot all about those fabulous sprinkles and the paint swoosh!  The stars would be great for July or for a kid birthday, maybe a sports themed scrapbook page.  The hearts, great for a wedding or a Valentine's day card, there are snowflakes for Christmas, leaves for fall, flowers and butterflies! splatter and dots! So great for cards and pages! 
There is a video on the project kit below if you want to see the individual pages close up. 

Purchase the Perpetual Birthday Calendar during Sale-A-Bration and I will send you a handmade birthday card using the fun sprinkles stamps!!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

New Sale-A-Bration items available NOW!

Many of you know that 3 Sale-A-Bration items retired this weekend, so sad, but that means that 3 brand new items have been released!  There are two new stamp sets and a set of three glitter Washi Tapes! Check out the flyer for the new items here.  You can choose one of these, or one of the other Sale-A-Bration items, FREE with each $50 your order.  check out the full brochure here
My Stamp Campers who would like to place an order before the next Stamp Camp can use the code Y679ZAKV for the hostess code.  Not a Stamp Camp attendee?  contact me for info on the next class, or you can use my Frequent buyer form to get benefits of being a valued customer! The Frequent buyer form can be found by clicking the tab under the blog header.





Here are some fun projects using the Party Pants stamp set.  Check out the video for more ideas!