On Stage!

My goodness!  I haven't done a post here in quite some time, (again) and I do apologize to the 5 people that may actually still read my blog.  But, I do have some things to share with you in the next few days, I just have been slow getting them posted.  But, here I am now!

In April, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend the OnStage event for Stampin' Up I thought I would share a little bit about that in my post today.  Or rather, a lot, because there will be lots of photos.  :)

I flew into Salt Lake City, Utah, and settled in at the Hilton Hotel, downtown.  I shared my room with fellow stamper, Stacie Webb.  We stayed on the 17th floor and had some very urban views from our window,

Mostly, however, our views were more like this, because it was a very wet visit to the city.

After I arrived, some of us met up to go as a group over to Stampin' Up headquarters in Riverton.  It was an amazing visit and I didn't take many photos, but it's a gorgeous building. 

Stampin' Up! Headquarters

The shipping room, where all my lovely products are boxed up and sent to me.

This is myself and Shelley Lee.  This was a nice wall of pretty flowers.

The first night there, our group met up with our leader, Robyn, and we all walked to an Italian restaurant and enjoyed everyone's company,  We were all very excited for the next day when the fun would begin,

Before Onstage began, many met to swap cards with each other.  I brought 50 to swap out, and they were gone fairly quickly.  Later that day we were able to finally enter to the Main Stage area.  Oh my goodness, what a presentation they put on too.  They had a live perform for us and the lights were down and set to rock star level,  It was hard not to get swept up into the excitement all around us.   The events lasted for 2 more days, and I had so much fun. There were presentations (as well as we all received the new catalog), demonstrations and giveaways.  Then outside of Mainstage there were make and takes, product display boards and new products demonstrations.  So much fun.  I was pretty tired at the end of each day!

Group Selfies with ladies we met waiting in long lines

Highlights from the event:

Party like a rock star!

Shelli Gardner and Sara Douglas

A group of us waiting to walk over to the convention center

The  Mormon Tabernacle Choir was doing a practice recital

Stacie and I walked to temple square right before dusk

This is me with my roomie, Stacie

Me and my upline, Robyn...check out our photo-bomber!

It was a lot of fun, but soon it was time to go back home.  Now I have lots and lots of cards and ideas to share with you.  I will post some things I have made in the coming days and I hope you are as excited as I am about the new catalog.  Stay tuned, sneak peeks coming up and a giveaway as well.

One last photo.  Look at the creepy little guy that was hanging out in the SLC airport while I was waiting to board my flight.  Oh my goodness!!

Serene Watercolors

Since February 29th doesn't come around every year, I thought I would also share a card that is unique as well.  This idea wasn't exactly my own, however, I did see something very similar at this blog post when I was looking through Pinterest the other day.  I thought it was so lovely, but had to figure out how she did it.  I think I did pretty good.

Using watercolor paper, I heat embossed the wild flower image from the "In The Meadow" stamp set, multiple times across the bottom of my paper in clear.  I then inked up my clear stamp block with Pool Party (for the sky) and Pear Pizzazz for the ground, spritzed it a bit with water and then stamped it down on the paper.  This was a little tricky because I didn't get the look I wanted right away, so I did it a couple more times.  Then I spritzed the paper itself and the colors began to bleed a bit into each other.  I then took a stamp from "Timeless Textures" to add a smudgy border around the edges in Crumb Cake ink.  I then continued using Crumb Cake to sponge the edges, and went over it again with Early Espresso ink.  I used my blender pen to add some Old Olive to flower stems, and Rose Red and Delightful Dijon on the Flowers.  Once again, I spritzed water over the entire image and let the inks all blend together.

As you can imagine, this curls the paper a bit and gets it fairly soggy, despite it being watercolor paper, but to speed up the process, I applied heat on the low setting, with my embossing tool.  After that, it flattened out pretty well.  I then stamped the sentiment from the Picture Perfect stamp set.

Just for some extra texture, I decided to frame it with some paper piercing using the piercing tool and the Updated Essentials Piercing Template.  I think used a generous amount of Fast Fuse adhesive to mount it securely onto a Basic Black, and then mounted that on a Very Vanilla card base.

I am excited to try some more cards using this technique.  I think it turned out very artistic.

Card Swap

I was recently in a card swap with the group of ladies on the Stampin' Up! team I am on.  Robyn from Pink Stamper is our upline.  I thought it might be fun to share the cards I received.

I just wanted to stop by and say hello.  Tomorrow, I will be sharing with you a card I made that I really love, because it is so different than anything I have tried before.  See you then!

It's a Girl!

Hello everyone.  I followed a whim to make a sweet little card that is oh, so simple, and yet rather sweet, if I don't say so myself.  I have a new little baby granddaughter that is due in the next few weeks and so babies are on my mind.

Today I used the cute set, Teeny Tiny Wishes from Stampin' Up, layered some Soft Subtles Designer Papers, and Pink Pirouette card stock that I ran through the polka dots embossing folder.  I topped everything off with some Bermuda Bay stitched ribbon.  Cute, don't you think?

I just wanted this to be a short and sweet post, mostly to say Hello to everyone and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Using Blender Pens and Inks

Today I decided to create a video demonstrating how I color using blender pens and ink pads from Stampin' Up.  I am not sure if the way I do this is the way they were intended, but I find that it creates a nice effect, not unlike my past experience with Copic Markers in my former videos.  (which I will be have at a link on this blog)  Since the ink pads are water based, as opposed to alcohol based, they have to be dealt with almost like water colors, but the effect is still somewhat different.

I would love to hear your opinions of the final outcome of this video.  In advance, I would like to apologize about the lighting of the video, I need to work on establishing a better vantage point for the camera, but overall, I think it is good enough to get the idea.

To use the ink, I dab a clear stamp block onto my ink pad, and that creates my palette, where I can swipe the blender pen across to pick up the ink.  I make sure that I color only 1 petal or area at a time before moving onto the next area.  This allows the image to come to life.  I also try to color in the direction of the growth of the petal.  I continue by adding layers to make more depth and shading, and gradually move out to the lighter shade of the same color by using less ink on my pen.

Made of Wonderful

Today I decided to share a video with you using 2 of the new stamp sets from the 2016 Occasions Catalog from Stampin' Up!.  Timeless Textures and Picture Perfect.  I hope you find this video interesting and come back again to visit me soon.  I am trying to post much more frequently now, and I think there will be something for everyone to enjoy.

If you are interested in ordering from me, I would be very happy to have you as my customer.  Please follow the links at the top of my blog page to browse through the products available.  Additionally, feel free to email me or leave a comment below.  Thank you for coming to visit today.

Music is "Walk In The Park"  audionautix.com

What I Love...

Hello Monday!  This is the day after my birthday and I am home, avoiding work (a day off) and enjoying some special time to play with my paper and inks.  Today, I even think I am going to attempt to make a video!  It's been a really long time since I have tried this, but I was thinking it might be fun to share a technique with ink and blender pens.

For now, however, I want to share you with you a very special stamp set that you can earn for FREE, now through March 31st, 2016.  All you would need to do is purchase $50 in any product from Stampin' Up, and you could select this, or many other super awesome products that are, well...FREE!  Keep in mind, that if you were to purchase $100, you could select 2 Free items.  Let's not forget that at $150, you would not only be able to choose 3 free items, but you would also qualify for hostess rewards.  And, let's assume, you would instead like to give yourself 20% off all the time, it has never been a better time than to sign up with Stampin Up.  For only $99, you can select $155 of any items you want.  Then, after that, you can decide if you want to take it further and sell to your friends and family...or make new friends and sell to them.  The rewards and benefits are pretty awesome.  And it's very low pressure.  You can do what you'd like to do from there.  All the information is above in my links, or feel free to email me and I can share more information with you.

Now for this gorgeous stamp set.  What I Love...

If you have enjoyed 2-step stamping, you are going to love this set.  It even takes it a step further with 3 step stamping to add additional layers and depth to the image.  Pretty, isn't it?  Additionally, the designer series paper, Wildflower Fields, is also a FREE item with any $50 purchase.

Remember, these deals are only now through March 31st...so now is the time to get these very exclusive and limited deals.

Happy Birthday

Hello Friends.  So, today is my birthday.  I thought I would share a birthday card I created along with take a moment to announce who the winner of my giveaway is.  First of all the card.  I dearly love the Mint Macaron paper and ink.  Used along with the crumb cake ink its such a nice subtle look.  I used the new Timeless Textures stamp set and the flowers were created with the Grateful Bunch Stamp set.  The verse was taken from Birthday Blossoms.  All these supplies are available to purchase and can be obtained by visiting my 24/7 Stampin' Up store link at the top of my page.  Remember, now through March 31st, you can also select one of the free items from the Saleabration catalog for every $50 purchase.  Later this week, I will share with you a few of the new items that just came available on February 16th.

 

 

As Promised, I will now announce the winner of the Sky is the Limit Stamp and card kit giveaway.  And the winner is:

Mamawcindy

Please email me your address so I can get those out in the mail to you this week.

I hope everyone will continue to come back and visit.  I promise to showcase more items, tutorials and giveaways in upcoming posts. 

Garden In Bloom

Today is the last day you can enter in my birthday giveaway.  Please check out the details here.

Lately, it hasn't felt much like winter here in Idaho.  For February, we would usually have much colder, possibly snowy, wintery weather.  But, milder temperatures have made me yearn for spring time, so these cards are for this very reason.

A few weeks ago, I demonstrated these 2 cards at a workshop a friend of mine held.  I really liked the easy way we layered colors to create 2 very different cards, and yet the base stamps are from the same stamp set.  Garden in Bloom is one of my favorite sets, because it is very versatile. It works well with other stamp sets or just on it's own, because the set has everything you need.  Plus, I love the option to do 2 step stamping.

It also worked very well when creating this emboss resist technique.  I CASE'd this card from one I found on Pinterest.  I do like the way the ink pops behind the white embossed image.  Super pretty, and also super easy.  And once again, using the same stamp set.

 

Let's all think Spring!

Hello Life!

Hello Again!  Did everyone have an opportunity to look at Monday's post where I shared my great birthday giveaway?  I hope you have taken a moment and entered.  I am so excited to share it with you, but time is running out.  I might mention that in the past year or so, my viewers have dwindled, so there is no better time than right now to have the most excellent odds of winning!

Anyway, time to talk about today's topic.  There are many fun kits available in the Stampin' Up catalog, and one that really struck my interest was the Hello Life Project Kit.  This kit is so awesome because not only do you receive all the pre-cut pieces, embellishment and mini silver clothespins, you also receive this awesome bakers rack to display your project on.  Here is the one that I created and it is displayed currently at my office.

What I have displayed here is only a portion of what you receive in the kit, so you can go on from there and also use the supplies in cards or maybe your Project Life scrapbook.

Now was never a better time to order from Stampin' Up!  The hostess benefits are deeper, the customer orders have more free product opportunity as well as becoming a demonstrator yourself has never been a better deal.  Please read more about it here, or contact me and I will be happy to discuss it with you!

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