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!

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!

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."

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!

I was looking through the new Stampin' Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog  the other day (well, almost everyday!) and just saw lots of things I wanted to make.  This card was inspired by the scrapbook page on page 16 of the catalog.  That particular day I just liked the colors shown on that page and decided to make a card with the hostess set, "Kind and Caring Thoughts".

The colors are Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, So Saffron and Ruby Red.  I seldom use Ruby Red unless maybe in the fall, but I love it with these colors!

This hostess set is great…..the flowers and leaves are nice and lots of great sentiments.  If you'd like to possibly earn this set for free having a private stamping class with your friends, just contact me!

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Here's the first card I finally made with my new In Colors and new stamp set, Circle Circus for our demo preorder.

I made several cards using various combinations of the new In Colors.  The technique I used is called Emboss Resist….I stamped the circles with Versamark and embossed with Clear Embossing Powder.  Then I sponged on various In Color inks over the embossing and then wiped off with a tissue.  Very simple and fun!  The polka dot ribbon is also new!  Isn't it pretty?!

You can still sign up to be a demo and take advantage of this great preorder opportunity of new products!