Saturday, April 30, 2016

Post-it note Mural R2D2

Hi everyone!  I know, this is not a Stampin' Up! project! But it's crafty and you are crafty, so I thought I would share.  It is teacher appreciation week at our school and Friday after all the teachers left, we put up decorations.  The theme this year is Star Wars.  I was tasked with a wall outside the library. I was trying to think of ideas and I remembered seeing an office that had decorated their walls with Post-it note murals.  I did a search and found it again, so this is where this idea came from.  I had to change it up a bit because the one in the office photo is actually even bigger than this one!
I did some of the work at home, but then finished up the sides and edges at the school.  Jillian was happy to help finish him up. 











Some kids walked by as we were putting it up and they seemed to think it was pretty cool.  Hopefully they wont start pulling the Post-it notes off until the end of the week!! I put some extras in my son's locker and if he notices some missing squares he can fill them in.






Thanks for stopping by!  and if you would like to see the super hero post-it note murals that inspired this one, you can click the link here...
http://gizmodo.com/this-guys-office-post-it-murals-put-the-rest-of-us-to-s-1695833810



Thursday, April 28, 2016

May Paper Pumpkin Sneak Peek

Hello everyone!!  I wanted to give you a sneak peek of next months My Paper Pumpkin kit!  This comes with a great stamp set that will compliment your collection.  The stamps all work with the word "happy" so that you can use the birthday as shown, but then there are a lot of other words to substitute as well, such as retirement, mother's day, father's day and more.  There are a couple different card designs with this fun laser cut top and a layer of tangerine tango underneath.  We were able to make one at the Stampin' Up! On Stage Live event earlier this month and they are really fun.
And did you see last months?!!?
We got this fun wreath kit and some extra pieces to make some fun chalkboard style tags.  The wreath was fun, no glue gun required this time, the greenery wraps around the base. 
Refills are available in the online store while supplies last.  The refills don't come with the stamps, so if you didn't get this kit, you can use another stamp on your sign piece.  You may have a Happy Spring or Happy Day or Welcome stamp in your stash.  Or maybe put a photo in the frame?  If you would like one of these adorable little wreaths just let me know!
But wait, there's more!
There are going to be some left over leaf strips.  Plenty actually.  Stampin' Up! has given us some ideas on what to make with those leaves. Check it out...
Look at these super cute cactuses, cacti? which is correct, I don't remember (haven't had my coffee yet!)

Really fun stuff!!  And I am sure that there is going to be a lot of other fun projects on the Pinterest page as people start using their kits!!  https://www.pinterest.com/paperpumpkin/
Go to the Stampin' Up! Pinterest page to see what else you can create with each months kits.  Not a subscriber?  WHAT!?!?  just kidding!  but really, you should think about it.  The kits have been getting better and better. Go to the Pinterest page and check out the kits for the past months!  You may want to buy some refills and make some of those really great projects!  https://www.pinterest.com/paperpumpkin/


Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Grateful Bunch

Isn't this a pretty card.  So simple but soft and lovely.  I used Calypso Coral and Very Vanilla. with a touch of Old Olive.  The colors came straight from the designer series paper, Pretty Petals.  If you are ever looking for some great color combinations, just take a look at the colors in the paper packs for some fun combos.  You can use the colors weather you use the patterned papers or not.  You can't go wrong with the wonderfully coordinated products.  I used some Calypso Coral bakers twine as an accent.










I love the lace edge stamp that comes with the Grateful Bunch stamp set. 
I used the scallop oval punch and the lg oval punch for the sentiment piece.  These are both on the retirement list, so if you have been thinking of getting them, you better get them while you can!
Check out the retirement list here.














The sentiments that come with this set are really fun too.  You can use the stamp "You are totally awesome" all by itself, but it is also fun to stamp the inside with "and I am totally grateful".   I added the pretty floral paper and the lace stamp to the inside of the card as well. 















The Grateful Bunch stamp set has a matching punch!  Click here to check it out!















  Product List

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Spotlight technique ~ a closer look

Hello everyone.  I had a few emails about about these cards from the On Stage event in Utah, so I thought I would share some more details.
I used the new set called Painter's Pallet.  The set has some paint swooshes and well as an easel, a thumbtack, and some sentiments.
For this card I cut the frame from the easel, and used the thumbtack to "hang" the frame.





I stared by stamping my main image onto Shimmery White cardstock.  Shimmery White can hold up really nicely to watercolor and looks so pretty close up.  I also stamped a Frame onto shimmer white and cut it out.  I used an Exacto Knife to cut out the center, because none of the square framelits fit this set, which was a bit of a bummer.  But, the new squares in the new catalog do!!  So even though you are seeing the circle, square and oval framelits on the retiring list, have no fear, newly configured sets are on the way.  They are really cool because there are now 16 sizes in the circles (8 round, 8 scalloped), 19 in the square set, 15 ovals and 15 hearts!







I placed the piece that was cut away from the frame over the stamped flower to decide what areas to color. I then lightly traced the frame with my pencil.













I used dimentionals to attached the frame on top of the finished image. 














To make the sentiment banner I used a small strip of Shimmery White and clipped a flag with my paper snips.  I them used my Aqua Painter to add color starting at the top and letting the color fade a bit at the bottom. 

















There are so many different stamp sets you can use to get the spotlight effect.  anything that extends outside of the framed image will work.  Hope you think about trying this out when the new catalog goes live and you can order the new Painter's Pallet stamp set.  It was fun to work with.  If you would like to receive a new catalog when they become available, contact me.  To my Stamp Camper goes, don't worry, yours are already on order!



Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Retiring list

Hi Everyone! 
I wanted to let you know a few things about the retiring list!  Have you checked it out yet?! There is a lot that is going away!  I will miss the cotton ribbon and the buttons most I think.  I also grabbed up some of the black embossing powder, I was surprised to see that there, and the 2 way glue pen, I like that one.  I also grabbed some corrugated kraft and white cardstock.  I just started using that and now it is going away, boo! :)    Our current host code is XZECTVGP if you have an order to place and want your punch card rewards (stamp campers) and my further away customers, please check out my frequent buyer program tab under the blog header. 

Some of you  noticed a lot of the Bundles from the Occasions catalog are on the list, and you were wondering if that meant that all those products were being discontinued.  The Answer is no.  They are not all being discontinued.  Some are, such as the cupcake punch bundle and the hamburger box die, but others are just not going to be offered as a bundle anymore, they will instead be offered as stamp and die, or stamp and punch.  What this means for you is that if there was a bundle you had your eye on, such as the Number of Years bundle for example, you should think about getting it now, at the 15% off bundle price.  Once the new annual catalog goes live, all current bundles not retiring will then be sold separately.  Going forward only new products will be bundled (at 10% off now) during the catalog they debut in, then they will go to being sold separate if they don't retire.  All that being said let me just say that I have the new catalog in my hands and you are going to be amazed at the new bundles!!   I have been with Stampin' Up! for 13 years and I thought I had seen it all, but they really outdid themselves this time!  And I thought the last two mini catalogs were great, this is amazing! If you ever thought about joining for the discount, now would be the time!!  Wowzers!  click the join tab (under blog header)  for more details.  
click here for the retirement list!!

Monday, April 18, 2016

I'm Back!

Hi Everyone!! I am back from Stampin' Up! On Stage Live and I have so many fun photos to share this week!  As I mentioned a month back, I tried out to be a display stamper for the event.  In case you are not aware, a display stamper helps in creating the samples of new products for the event.  Stampin' Up! wants to have many different examples for everyone to see, and they select about 30 or so people to make the samples, so that there is a variety of projects.


I showcased a stamp set called Painter's Palette, which is good for me as I like to paint and draw! I loved the easel, and saw some possibilities with that right away.  The other focus I was to have was the 2015-2017 In-Colors.
I was suppose to make 20 samples, focusing on the stamp set and the colors, 4 samples in each of the 5 colors.  We were to make a variety of projects, cards, 3D and scrapbook pages.  Here is what I made...

  This first set of cards was keeping things simple. I used all of the swooshes in the set in the background, tone on tone.    

To create the background behind the sentiment I stamped the brushstroke image first in full strength ink, then stamped again three more times with out reinking the stamp. This gives the dark to light ombre look.













For this grouping I cut the frame off the easel and used the tack to 'hang' the frame.
This set uses the easel, as well as other stamp sets, to make a framed piece of art.











I also needed to make some 3D projects and for these I focused on the colors rather than the stamp set.  I used the gift bag punch board to create three different sized boxes.
The new ribbon was so pretty to use!







With this set I decided to use the frame, and added a "spotlight" technique where you only color in the image that appears inside the frame, leaving the parts outside of the frame black and white.  I think these turned out fun, as well as pretty!































In the days ahead I will show how to's on a few of these, as well as some close ups.  I wanted to post these for those who have been asking to see what I made for the event.
 At the event I wandered over to the display to see if the projects were being well received.  It was really fun to see people taking photos and a few times as I stood behind, I noticed a couple people zooming in on one of my projects! How fun!!

Thanks for stopping by!!








The Retiring list is out!!

The retiring list has been published today!  Find out what products are going away and get them while you can.  I know that in past years things sell out very quickly, such as In-Color ink refills or paper, embellishments and tools, as well as popular papers and stamp sets!!  Don't miss out on a favorite!  Some items are discounted as much as 50% off!!!
Contact me with any questions you may have.
Click here for the list!

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

last Weekly Deal!!

Wow!!! There are a lot of great items on the weekly deals list today!!
Check out the deals and don't forget to go to the Clearance Rack too!!