Author Archives: Karen Fontinelle

Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration Card Ideas

Only three more days until Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration begins! Here are some more of my Leadership Conference swap cards I wanted to show you. They have products from both the Occasions Catalog and new ones coming that you can earn for free in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure! For every $50 in Stampin’ Up! product that you purchase, Jan. 28 – March 31, you will earn one FREE product in the Sale-A-Bration brochure. If you are a regular customer of mine, you probably should have received your brochure already in the mail or will soon. If you haven’t, please let me know. If you don’t have a Demonstrator that you order from and would like the Sale-A-Bration catalog, please email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com.

The card above uses a greeting in the Sale-A-Bration brochure called See Ya Later. It’s a cute one! The Pool Party Twine on the card comes from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack, free to you during Sale-a-Bration with a $50 purchase. I love the Retro Fresh This and That Designer Washi Tape, available in the Occasions Catalog.

Here’s the See Ya Later greeting stamp set again along with Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper, plus three punched circles. Could card-making get any easier?!

This card uses the See Ya Later stamp set, the new Banner Punch (which will be carried over to the new Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog), and the Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder in the Occasions Catalog.

Another cute card with some of the same products you’ve seen but a different look to the card!

One of the products I LOVE in the Sale-A-Bration Catalog is this Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. I wasn’t that excited seeing it on the page, but once I started seeing it in person at Leadership I really loved the look! A nice simple card with the Sweet Sorbet paper and coordinating Petal Parade Stamp Set, plus some Twine from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack.

Don’t forget! Sale-A-Bration begins Tuesday, January 28!

Houston, We’ve Got Ice!

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The weather forecasters were right! This is the Houston Winter Storm of 2014! We had rain all day yesterday and last night. When the temperatures dropped from 60 down to freezing, that rain turned to ice. That’s ICE on the little plant in the garden! Further north of Houston, they really have snow on the ground! Nothing like that at my house! But if you squint, you can see some icicles and the car is covered in ice. It’s a “snow day” for all the school kids (and husbands who decided not to take a chance especially on a short day anyway). As cars are getting out on the roads more, the accidents are piling up. Maybe here in Houston we have more high overpasses and ramps that certainly freeze over in weather like this that make driving worse than you might expect. So it’s a good day to stay in and share some of my Stampin’ Up! Leadership swap cards with you! I picked out the ones appropriate for today!

Here’s the perfect card to show you from my Leadership swaps! The snowflakes and sentiment are from the Stampin’ Up! 25th Anniversary Best of Snow stamp set! This card is made by Nancy and here is the inside:

On a cold icy day like this, how about a cup of coffee with the Perfect Blend Stamp Set? This is a swap from Jo.

Here’s a Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration swap from Valerie. And certainly skies are gray here in Houston! But this cute card will cheer us up! Sale-A-Bration begins Tuesday, January 28! With a $50 purchase in any current Stampin’ Up! products, you will earn a FREE product from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. You might choose the cute Decorative Dots Embossing Folder you see on this card, the cute Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper, or the stamp set See Ya Later used in the greeting!

And here are a few more photos from my house!

Icicles from the garage roof and the leaf guard on the gutter.

Icicles on the bushes!

Ice covering the car!

This is a good weekend to curl up with your Stampin’ Up! Catalogs and also look online at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store (check the categories in the left sidebar at my store – lots of products to see not listed anywhere else!). Start planning your list so you’ll be ready for Sale-A-Bration on Tuesday!

Get Your Free Markers with a Stampin’ Up! Paper Pumpkin Subscription!

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Click image above to sign up for Paper Pumpkin!

Paper Pumpkin, a monthly papercrafting subscription from Stampin’ Up! that comes in your mailbox, is stepping it up, and I’ve seen it with my own eyes! At the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference we were allowed to peek behind the curtain (honestly!) and see the January, February, and March Paper Pumpkin Kits. Everyone was very pleased to see more in the kits and even better projects.

And Stampin’ Up! sweetened the pot to entice you to try out Paper Pumpkin! Just subscribe before February 10th and receive a set of 2012-2014 Stampin’ Write In Color Markers FREE.

The first kit you will receive will be the Welcome Kit, a kit to make four cards with a free clear block to use with subsequent kits to mount the stamps that come in the kit. Everything is included in the kit except adhesive! After that first month, you will receive whatever the current kit is. You can “pause” your subscription when you want or even cancel it. The “magic date” to remember is to make any changes by the 10th of any month.

The next month you will receive whatever kit is going out to everyone! It isn’t always cards. It could be a mini album or other project. It’s a surprise!

Here is my January Kit, which even included a surprise gift of the In Color Boutique Details.

And here’s what I made! Two of the cards I made following the Stampin’ Up! directions and pictures. Two I reversed, putting the colored inside on the outside and adding the extra adhesive pieces!

And these are all the extra pieces I have left to use on any other project!

What do you think? Would you like a surprise papercrafting project in your mailbox once a month? Who doesn’t like to get a present in the mail?! It’s for you to take a few minutes for yourself to sit and relax and make a cute project from Stampin’ Up! without having to design it yourself or gather materials. Just open the box and see what’s inside!

Let me know if you have any questions about Paper Pumpkin or subscribing! I’d be happy to help!

To subscribe to Paper Pumpkin, just click HERE.

So Very Grateful Sale-A-Bration Card

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Only six more days until Sale-A-Bration! This is an easy card you can make with one of the free products you can potentially earn during Sale-A-Bration! Just order $50 in Stampin’ Up! products and choose a free product from the Sale-A-Bration brochure beginning January 28th through March 31. No limits! Order $100, get two free products! Order $300 and get a bonus in Hostess Dollars! It’s all great!

This card uses the So Very Grateful stamp set in the current Occasions Catalog, called “Celebrate the Everyday”. The designer paper is the Sale-A-Bration product, Sweet Sorbet. This is a very pretty pack of paper!

I decided to make it a monochromatic card by stamping the flowers in the same color as the Sweet Sorbet paper, in Crisp Cantaloupe. The stamp set So Very Grateful comes with several “thank you” sentiments but I needed another type of card this time so I used a “thinking of you” from another stamp set, Sweet Essentials. I added a little piece of Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon around the designer paper. Sweet, simple, easy card!

Get ready for Sale-A-Bration! It is the biggest promotion of the year from Stampin’ Up! While you can’t see the Sale-A-Bration brochure online until January 28, you can be looking at all the current Stampin’ Up! products and making your shopping list! Just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store now and take a look! Be sure to check all the categories in the left sidebar of the store so you don’t miss anything!

One Week to Sale-A-Bration! Sweet Sorbet Happy Day Card

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Sale-A-Bration is coming to Stampin’ Up! in just one week! This is Stampin’ Up!’s biggest promotion so you’ll want to be a part of it! With just a $50 purchase, you can earn a FREE item from the special Sale-A-Bration brochure. This card has a sneak peek of the beautiful paper, Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper, used on this Pool Party card base. It has a little scalloped strip of Crisp Cantaloupe, punched with the Scallop Edge Border Punch. And a little bit of Pool Party Seam Binding Ribbon adds some softness. Another sneak peek on the card is the flower stamped on the top of the card. It is stamped in Pool Party ink to give that monochromatic, watermarked look. You could also use Versamark Ink for the same effect. The stamp set is also a Sale-A-Bration item, Petal Parade. The sentiment is from the Happy Day Stamp Set in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog.

Today, though, I wanted just a note card so I took the basic idea of the above card and used only the 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ piece of Pool Party and added the strip of Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper. Before I adhered the designer paper, I tore a strip of Crisp Cantaloupe card stock to adhere to the back. Before we had all our fancy punches, tearing a strip of card stock toward you was how we added a little contrast or interest to our cards with that rough edge! I also added a little flower with a few scalloped punches and a Candy Dot in the center.

Sale-A-Bration begins Tuesday, January 28 so be ready! Make out your shopping list! Visit my Stampin’ Up! Online Store to see all your choices in current products!

Stampin’ Up! Monster Hugs Valentine Ideas–But Hurry!

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Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and who doesn’t like handmade Valentines?! I think Valentine’s Day is one of the best holidays, especially for children, because everyone is included. Remember the boxes we used to decorate for Valentine’s Day and how we often made our own valentines to hand out with red construction paper and doilies and maybe some glitter?

Here are some easy and cute Valentines you and/or your children can make! Just order from me through my Stampin’ Up! Online Store by January 27th, if not sooner! Monsters are so popular right now and these are adorable ones. It’s a kit! Get 18 monsters, 18 googly eyes and 18 adhesive hearts. Make them as you see with a small piece of candy tucked under the monster’s hands or a lollipop or even stick the monster on a card front.

Here is another idea I saw someone from Stampin’ Up! make on stage with the Monster Hugs Valentines. She made a box and attached it to the front of the monster, wrapped his arms around the sides and filled with candy.

If you would like to purchase cute Monster Hugs Valentines, you can find them in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store along with some other Valentine products! They do have to be ordered by January 27 so don’t hesitate! As we get closer to Valentine’s Day and the deadline for ordering, these Monster Hugs could go quickly. You will also find other Valentine ideas and stamp sets in the new Occasions Catalog.

Go to my Online Store now and order your Monster Hugs Valentines! Or if you prefer, just contact me at Karen@KarenStamps.com and I can help you with your order.

You’re Lovely Stamp Set Sale-A-Bration Card

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When Sale-A-Bration begins January 28th, you could chose this stamp set, You’re Lovely, for your FREE Sale-A-Bration product with a $50 purchase! I thought this was a beautiful card on display at Stampin’ Up! Leadership. The delicate little white design I think is embossed. It’s my favorite part of the card.

This will be the best time to shop at Stampin’ Up! because with every $50 you spend, you get to choose a free product from the special Sale-A-Bration brochure.

Check out our Stampin’ Up! products at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE.

Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration Heartfelt Banner

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You’ll be hearing the word “Sale-A-Bration” a lot from now on! Sale-A-Bration is the famous promotion from Stampin’ Up! that everyone looks forward to. Just purchase $50 in Stampin’ Up! products, then choose a FREE product from the Sale-A-Bration brochure, no limits! On display at the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference last week was this Heartfelt Banner Kit, one of the choices of free items for Sale-A-Bration. Get all the pieces and put your banner together exactly like the instructions or make up your own design. Or even frame the pieces like Stampin’ Up! does! Cute and easy home decor!

Sale-A-Bration begins January 28th and lasts through March 31st. Circle that date on your calendar! If you don’t have a Demonstrator, contact me if you need a Sale-A-Bration catalog.

Start shopping at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!

Stampin’ Up! Leadership Occasions Catalog Samples

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One of my favorite parts of ANY Stampin’ Up! event is looking at the display boards and taking pictures of the samples! Here are some from the Occasions Catalog. Enjoy, and then go stamp something! Be inspired!

Sara’s samples of the new Photopolymer stamp set coming soon!

If you need some of these new stamps, papers, and accessories from the Occasions Catalog, just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store and place your order!

Spiral Flower Originals Die…Lovely to Own!

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At Stampin’ Up! Leadership 2014 last week, I was able to see the Spiral Flower Originals Die in person and see the flowers made with it. Now I want to order it! They were showing the die and a ton of flowers made with it for demonstrators to see up close and personal. The Stampin’ Up! employee I was talking with said each flower will turn out different according to who made it and how tightly or loosely you roll it up. It is suggested you use your Bone Folder after cutting out the flower to loosen up the paper fibers to make it roll easier. The die, like other dies of this kind, are not just for paper either! You can use other materials, such as fabric, so think of the possibilities! Just roll it with your fingers or around a pencil or skewer, however you want to do it. You can leave the center as it comes out or push it down and put a button inside or rhinestone or something.

After Leadership there was a public event and some Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators were ‘demonstrating’ at booths. One was doing these paper flowers so here are some photos and ideas:

To add the Spiral Flower Die #129379 to your next order, just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store! You could have a table full of flowers in no time for spring!

Occasions Catalog Displays at Stampin’ Up! Leadership

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It’s nice viewing all the new products in the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Catalog, but it’s even nicer seeing them all in person under the bright lights in the displays at Leadership! They really know how to make anything look artistic, even the way they display buttons or Baker’s Twine!

Retro Fresh Stickers to use in the coordinating journal or on any project.

The Polaroid and film look of Peachy Keen is in now!

Retro Fresh Journaling Tags – Use them for journaling or making cards or other projects!

Retro Fresh This and That Journal, much like the popular smash books where you add mementos and memorabilia in a casual style. I love the look of the debossed camera on the front!

Look how cute the Basic Metal Buttons are displayed!

Hip Notes

Hip Notes coordinates with the Essentials Wooden Elements and Retro Fresh Suite.

Cute striped grosgrain ribbon display!

Seeing the new designer paper in person is always great!

Love this chalk art with the very trendy garland from the Springtime Hello Simply Created Garland Kit on the frame!

Beautiful Watercolor Wonder Designer Note Cards and Envelopes.

Cute, cute card with the new stamp set Life in the Forest.

Go natural with the Essentials Wooden Elements which can be stamped on.

Beautiful Blessed Easter Stamp card watercolored and accented with gold.

Arrows must be in! Use the new Arrows Embossing Folder.

Stampin’ Up! Paper Pumpkin Just Gets Better!

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One of the many fun things at Stampin’ Up! Leadership 2014 was visiting the Paper Pumpkin booth. Paper Pumpkin is the monthly subscription program from Stampin’ Up! Sign up and every month (unless you “pause” or cancel) you will receive the cutest red box with a papercrafting project inside. And it’s not always a card either! Everything you need except adhesive will be included. The idea is for you to take thirty minutes or less to sit down and enjoy an easy to make craft project! And who shouldn’t take at least that long to do something good for themselves!

In the booth they had samples posted of the past Paper Pumpkin kits and facts and information about the subscription program. But the best part of the booth was the Sneak Peek! Literally, we could go “behind the curtain” and check out the upcoming Paper Pumpkin Kits! Let’s just say you probably want to get your name on that subscription list! The first kit a new subscriber will receive is the Welcome Kit that comes with a clear block you will need for your stamps in the following kits! After that you will receive the same kits as everyone else.

AND – the best part for YOU is that if you subscribe to Paper Pumpkin by February 10, you will get a Free set of 2012-14 In Color Markers. You can see them HERE. Do it right away so you won’t forget! If you need help, please let me know.

You are not charged for Paper Pumpkin until it ships. Once it ships, you get a cute little email saying it is on it’s way! See the Welcome Kit HERE.

Click on this link to sign up: Paper Pumpkin

Everyone who signs up with me as their Demonstrator gets a special Paper Pumpkin thank you card from me! Do it now! It will be your fun treat every month!

The other fun thing about the Paper Pumpkin booth was the Craft War! We could use any of the stamps from the past Paper Pumpkin kits plus new paper and accessories from the Occasions Catalog to make a card for a contest! They chose 20 winners. Here is my card!

I wasn’t one of the 20 winners! (Obviously my card came in 21st probably! ) No, I’m sure with all the talent at the Leadership Conference there were better cards created than mine! I hope they will publish all the cards at some point so I can see what everyone made. It was so fun!

If you were a previous subscriber and want to sign up again, you will need a new email to set up a new account in order to get the markers. It is for completely new subscribers only. However, you will receive the Welcome Kit again as well. If you have subscribed before and use the same email, you will receive the new kits, but no markers. Questions?

Go ahead, take the plunge. Sign up for Paper Pumpkin right now! You deserve it! (And you get FREE markers! Who wouldn’t want FREE Stampin’ Up! Markers?!)

Start Your Stampin’ Up! Business and Go To Convention 2014 Free!

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Want to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, get in on all this fun, and make some extra money all at the same time?! Here is an enticement Stampin’ Up! offered yesterday at Leadership 2014 here in Houston, Texas. Start your own business selling Stampin’ Up! products for making cards, scrapbooks, photo albums, gifts, digital products, all kind of things. Whether you would like a little extra cash or want to make this your full-time business, there is a place for everyone in Stampin’ Up! Sometimes you don’t even know where it will take you, as evidenced by a demonstrator recognized at Leadership for having a million dollars in sales! She signed up with Stampin’ Up! with no intention whatsoever of selling and look what happened!!

I don’t have all the details yet, but if you sign up and join my team between now and the time Convention registration closes, you can attend Convention as a new recruit without paying the registration fee. (Of course there is travel, hotel and meals on your own!) I think everyone should attend a Stampin’ Up! event AT LEAST once, if not all of them!, because you have to feel the energy and the genuineness of the company in person, all led by Shelli Gardner, Co-Founder and CEO of Stampin’ Up!, everyone’s best friend! That’s how she makes you feel anyway when you are any part of Stampin’ Up!

The new name they are giving the Stampin’ Up! Convention is “Inspire.Create.Share” because they said Convention is so much more than “convening”! There is lots of inspiration and creating that goes on and we all love to share what we do and what we love about Stampin’ Up!

Salt Lake City is so excited about having our convention there that they asked Stampin’ Up! to share some of their famous saltwater taffy with all of us at Leadership!

Would you just like some information on becoming a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator? You can think about it and decide if this is the right thing for you at the right time. You just purchase the Starter Kit, which is fully customizable these days, and is a great value in itself. You don’t even have to know anything about stamping or business. I can help you get started myself plus refer you to Stampin’ Up! and other resources. Stampin’ Up! will even be opening an online “Stamping University” in a few days as part of their training section with lots of information and videos.

Becoming a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator can be a fun experience and even a profitable one! Think about it and contact me at Karen@KarenStamps.com if you would like to discuss any questions!

Giant Stamping Party at Stampin’ Up! Leadership!

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It was a giant stamping party last night at the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference! This was after a full day of a speaker and various classes plus a most delicious dessert at lunch!

The Stampin’ Up! employees greeted us as we walked in the room! After we picked up one of our stamp sets we found a place to sit at the lovely tables decorated with little Stampin’ Up! bags with our Make & Takes and another stamp set. Some of our favorite Stampin’ Up! people did stamping demonstrations on stage. Love that part!! And there’s a new product coming if you don’t have the Big Shot but want to do some embossing! Not to mention the new Blendabilities alcohol markers. And there’s a new Paper Pumpkin special for signing up!

And if you are in the Houston area today, come to the George R. Brown Convention Center this afternoon to preview Stampin’ Up! and you probably get to stamp something too! It’s from 2:00 – 7:00 and open to everybody. Dad and the kids can go see the Train Show there and Mom can go stamp!

Blurry but cute being greeted as we walked in! We love the Stampin’ Up! staff!

Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference 2014 in Houston

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It was a fun day at the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference yesterday in downtown Houston! After some drizzle in the morning I saw two sides of a rainbow on the way to downtown so I knew it was going to be a good day! And I’m sure I found the pot of gold just being at the Leadership Conference!

Shelli Gardner came on stage and I don’t think even said a word when she got emotional after we gave her a standing ovation Everyone was thrilled to see her because, well, it’s Shelli, and because she was in a terrible horse-back riding accident a few months ago and yet she recovered so quickly and looks great!

Shelli’s daughter, Sara Douglass, is full of personality like her mother and always does a fun presentation on stage! That’s Tom the cameraman who films everything for the big screens.

Sara used the Blessed Easter stamp from the Occasions Catalog to show us masking off the greeting and demonstrated some new alcohol markers! that will be coming out.

Sara also showed us a new photopolymer stamp set on a card. Stampin’ Up! will start manufacturing their own photopolymer stamps and packaging them in a case like the clear-mount stamps.

Got to try the new Fringe Scissors in the Occasions Catalog. They are regular size scissors, larger than I expected. They are not little toy scissors, very nice! You can make flowers and all kinds of designs with them!

It’s fun to see the props and projects from the catalogs in person! You may remember seeing this table in the Occasions Catalog. Everything was really cute!

Here’s a Peachy Keen sample up on the display boards.

And now I’m off to a second day of Leadership! Can’t wait to hear if they have more exciting announcements for us!

Stamping With Karen

Having Fun With Paper, Ink, and Stamps

Author Archives: Karen Fontinelle

Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration Card Ideas

Houston, We’ve Got Ice!

Get Your Free Markers with a Stampin’ Up! Paper Pumpkin Subscription!

To subscribe to Paper Pumpkin, just click HERE.

So Very Grateful Sale-A-Bration Card

One Week to Sale-A-Bration! Sweet Sorbet Happy Day Card

Stampin’ Up! Monster Hugs Valentine Ideas–But Hurry!

You’re Lovely Stamp Set Sale-A-Bration Card

Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration Heartfelt Banner

Stampin’ Up! Leadership Occasions Catalog Samples

Spiral Flower Originals Die…Lovely to Own!

Occasions Catalog Displays at Stampin’ Up! Leadership

Stampin’ Up! Paper Pumpkin Just Gets Better!

Start Your Stampin’ Up! Business and Go To Convention 2014 Free!

Giant Stamping Party at Stampin’ Up! Leadership!

Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference 2014 in Houston