…….You don't have to have electricity!! Some storms finally came through our area today, and after they were gone THEN the power went off for over an hour. Fortunately, I was still able to work on my swaps for Convention! Unfortunately, the power came on just in time to cook dinner!
I'm working on swaps for Convention and trying to find the fastest way to get the look I want for a certain card. It's one thing to make one card or several cards with one technique, but if you are making a stack of 25 or 50 card fronts certain techniques can be slow going. Today I happened to think of the Baby Wipe Technique…..you use a baby wipe as an ink pad and place drops of ink on the pad. Then you ink up your stamp on the colored baby wipe pad. It produces kind of a tie-dye multi-color look. Very easy and rather fun to see what look you will get!
You'll love this last Stampin' Up! Deal of the Week…..lots of hearts! For this week only, July 27-31 buy the Heart to Heart Punch, regular price $15.95, for only $10.99! You can use these hearts anytime but with Valentine's Day right around the corner……okay, Valentine's Day isn't right around the corner but you know it will get here!! It's really a cute punch and I'm sure you will enjoy it! Just be sure to order it by Friday, July 31 to get the sale price. I love all our punches!
**When is a good time to start your own business? Anytime, if you want to be a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator! But if you want some extra-special deals, then from now until August 31 is a really good time! Want some extra cash to pay a few bills or want to take your own stamping and scrapbooking business to the top levels? Start off with either of these kits and start enjoying the world of Stampin' Up!
Already have a lot of stamping supplies or just want to get started at a minimum price? Then the Mini Starter Kit is for you……only $85!
This is what you can do with a little notebook in the Dollar Bin! I covered it with the new Stampin' Up! In Colors…..Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo, then some Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper. Of course the Lovely Letters Alphabet is perfect for a monogram. For the butterfly, I finally tried out my Big Shot Die "Beautiful Butterflies" with a layered butterfly on top punched out of Sticky Pages with the new Butterfly Punch and covered with Chunky Sprinkles Glitter plus two little half pearls from the Pretties Kit. I love the new In Colors Polka Dot ribbon and the Organza Ribbon.
Since I loved doing the picture frame in THIS post, I had to run back to Hobby Lobby and get more frames. This time I got the light-colored frame. It gives a whole different look, which of course you can control depending on how much glaze you apply or wipe off. Here are some photos of the process and the end result. The first stencil is "Kind Thoughts Brocade" and the second stencil is portions of the "Brocade Flourish" stencil. You can find these in the Definitely Decorative Catalog.
Let me know which design and look you like the best!
This is something I have been doing for awhile but just realized it might be a tip worth sharing. When I go to work with my Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers (DSP), I like to know what colors coordinate with each pack. Stampin' Up! now provides that information under each DSP item in the catalog (did you notice that?). Usually I also have a list that another demo somewhere has compiled of all the papers and colors that I try to keep handy. But sometimes you want it even handier! So I write the coordinating colors on the back cardboard of the DSP pack, right above the name of the paper. That way the information is right at hand!
This photo shows the selections for the new "Tall Tales" Designer Series Paper that coordinates with the stamp set "Animal Stories".
And when the paper retires, I still have that information handy, as long as I have that cardboard in the back of the package and still have some paper left……and we all know we wouldn't want to use up ALL of our paper! :) Better to hoard extras just in case we need it!!
If you need some of the NEW Designer Series papers, please contact me at KSFontinelle@gmail.com or order online at my store at www.karenfontinelle.stampinup.net. Click the "Shop Now" button! You KNOW you need it all!
Here is an easy card using the Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware and the "Friends 24-7" stamp set. You could add lots of different embellishments to cards and scrapbook pages with the pieces in this kit. Get it while it is on sale!
Our Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware adds class to any project. Get them for just $18.99 (over 30% off the regular price of $29.95)—only July 20-26!
Here's a fancy bookmark I made for a gift. Although it is made with the Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, all you have to do is substitute with a Vanilla piece if you like. With this special offer you will have lots of hardware pieces to play with on your cards and scrapbook pages!
When you are a child, you never really think you are going to be old enough to say "Forty years ago…"….. but here I am! Forty years ago today my whole family watched the first man, Neil Armstrong, walk on the moon, at my grandmother's apartment, probably celebrating my dad's birthday. I remember having a fit that I had to leave the TV at my house, afraid I would miss something significant, while we drove the fifteen minutes or so over to my grandmother's…..and again when it was time to go back home. I remember my parents being just amazed, repeating over and over again how this accomplishment was only considered science fiction to them in their lifetime, and now it was really happening right before their eyes….men landing on the moon…and this was something my brother and I would be reading about in the history books! Even now I think it is pretty amazing that we would have pictures of the moon landing and the men walking on the moon live that many years ago. My parents wondered what accomplishments like this my brother and I would see in our lifetime.
Since Stampin' Up! doesn't have a stamp of a lunar module or an astronaut I had to be a little creative with this card! But just a circle punch and some sponging made do for the moon (plus a little touch of "Itty Bitty Backgrounds" for those craters!) and the earth and a retired wheel created the stars in outer space! (I really think you cannot do without some stars in your stamping collection. They are so versatile!) Of course the rocket is from the great set "Pun Fun", not exactly Apollo 11 but it will do!
Little did I know then that forty years later I would be living in Houston, TX where we have visited the Johnson Space Center many times over the years and always find it fascinating. There we can see the actual moon rocks and how they are stored very carefully and precisely that we watched on TV as the astronauts picked up on their missions to bring back to earth.
It's been interesting to hear the local media coverage of this anniversary here in Houston. The great Astrodome, opened in 1965, had groundskeepers called "Earthmen" dressed in faux-spacesuits and the ushers were called "Spacettes". The baseball team was renamed "Astros". And of course the first word spoken from the moon was, "Houston, Tranquility Base here."
Here's an easy baby card to make with the new stamp set "Animal Stories". You can change the color combinations easily and make it for either a boy or a girl, a shower card or a card for the birth. I used Bashful Blue and Gable Green. Not sure what color combination to pick? Use Stampin' Up!'s Color Coach wheel!
To jazz the background up a bit, I used the Stampin' Up! Backgrounds Texturz plate with the dots. For the sentiment I used the new set "Teeny Tiny Wishes", the Word Window punch and the new Modern Label Punch plus a couple of Bashful Blue brads.
If you need any or all of these supplies to make this card, just go to my online ordering store and place your order this weekend!
Thirty two years ago today (I have to do the math, I can't believe it has been that long!) I awoke to an 8 am call from an out-of-town well-wisher on my wedding day and the phone never stopped ringing all day! Friends called from as far away as Hawaii who couldn't come for the wedding, my bridesmaids and other girlfriends called to see how things were going, it's a given I talked to both of my grandmothers, and even the groom called (although things were a bit quieter at his house). It was about 100 degrees outside and the air conditioner wasn't working very well, so my dad would have to go down in the basement and pound on something every little while to make it cool better. The best man (who was moving) brought his dog over to stay in the yard next door, but while we were all trying to get dressed, the dog got loose and my dad had to go out and find him, making my mother frantic that he was going to have a heart attack in the heat, but fortunately the dog really was still in the side yard. The limo came and we really did all make it to the church on time! My dad asked me teasingly before he walked me down the aisle if I was sure and I happily said I was indeed SURE! I think you have to be "sure" if you want to stay married this long!
So after all that reminiscing, here is the anniversary card I made for my husband….who will look at it, put it down, and then I will confiscate it for my samples!
Another Movers and Shapers card with the new Soft Suede.
Using the Stamp a Ma Jig to get the birds centered inside the cut out heart (or you can eyeball it through the heart).
A little "Happy Anniversary" from the new "Teeny Tiny Wishes".
And another anniversary today is the launch of Apollo 11 forty years ago, the first manned mission to land on the moon. I was quite interested in the space program, having grown up with it, and remember getting up very early in order to watch this launch from the very beginning because I knew it was historic. I even used a reel-to-reel tape recorder to record the audio from the TV to save "for posterity"! Who knew forty years later the tape recorder wouldn't work anymore and that style wouldn't even exist! And I sure didn't know that in another eight years I would be getting married!
It's so nice to get an assortment of cards made at one time! I got the idea for making the Melon Mambo card in the lower right of the photo from Linda Heller on Stamping School. I also "needed" to play with my Movers and Shapers dies that go with my Big Shot so decided to try them all out using the new In Colors and various stamp sets. The Movers and Shapers dies cut out the shape wherever you want it on your card and score your card as well. Very fun! The design on each card is stamped in Versamark and them embossed with Clear Embossing Powder for the monochromatic look. I don't have all the new polka dot In Color ribbons yet, so I used what I had plus the beautiful Whisper White Organza Ribbon. It was so much fun playing with all these colors and stamps and dies!
If you want to see how to make a card like this at your workshop, let's schedule a date!
