Inkspiration for Stamping and Scrapbooking

Guest Artist - Friendship Blooms

This whimsical beauty is created by Lisa Jewer. Lisa's a long-standing member of my team of SU! demonstrators, in fact, she was the first to sign up under me, just a couple of weeks after I signed on. And she is a wonderful friend!

Lisa made this card for a swap featuring Sale-A-Bration sets. Demonstrators will often organize swaps so that we have LOTS of ideas and samples to show our customers.

The card starts with a Soft Sky cardfront background stamped with the flourish from Friendship Blooms set in Blue Bayou. She stamped on the vellum with Groovy Guava ink before cutting it out - it adds a lovely lightness to the card, don't you think? The vellum flower floats over a similar flower stamped on Whisper White. The jumbo brad keeps the vellum flower there without the use of adhesives that usually show through vellum.

Lisa LOVES punches and used her small circle punches to punch out the guava flowers. Double stitched ribbon and patterned paper in Blue Bayou contrast the orange tones of the Groovy Guava.

Thanks, Lisa, for allowing me to share your cheery card.

Stay tuned later this week for another guest artist.

Remember that you can get the set featured in this card FREE through SU!'s Sale-A-Bration promotion, which starts on FRIDAY!

Customers: With every $70 you spend, you may choose a free set from the SAB brochure. Call or email me anytime to place your order.

Hostesses: For every $400 spent at your party, you may choose a free set from the SAB brochure. I still have a few openings left during SAB, so let's look at a calendar together.

Potential Recruits: If you've ever thought about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, NOW is the time to do it. I'd love to talk to you about the possibilities of owning your own SU! business. Starting your business during SAB means that you get to add a set of your choice from the main catalogue to your custom starter kit. Let me tell you more - just email me for info!

Ready to Sale-A-Brate!

Isn't this set pretty??? It's called Friendship Blooms.

It's fun and whimsical. There's also a co-ordinating rub-on set available.

The greeting reads:

Your friendship makes my heart happy.

How sweet is that?

What I really like about this greeting is that the mixture of fonts and the offsetting of the lines makes it easy to centre.

I am basically a lazy stamper. I'll use my Stamp-a-ma-jig when I have to, but if I can get away with eyeballing, I eyeball. This card is all eyeballed. The vertical line on the right is one stamp with 3 flowers in a row, so stamping just twice was a cinch. I love the new Berry Bliss patterned paper, so those are the colours that inspired this card. I used Regal Rose Craft ink to stamp on the Close to Cocoa cardstock. The focal piece is Regal Rose cs stamped with Close to Cocoa ink for the sentiment and the flourishes. For the larger flower, I stamped on Close to Cocoa cs with Regal Rose craft and heat embossed with Irridescent Ice embossing powder - because I love glitter, even when it isn't Christmas! I punched the small flowers and the corner pieces from Purely Pomegranate and doodled with the white gel pen for a little pop.

Now here's what you need to know:

YOU can get THIS SET for FREE!!! AND there are others to choose from too! And there are Rub-Ons too this year! That's the GREAT thing about Sale-A-Bration - something for everyone! To see the Sale-A-Bration brochure, click here. Just let me know if you'd like a paper copy.

Customers: YOU receive a free Sale-A-Bration set for every $70 you spend. You've got a long wish list with the new catalogue out so this is a FABULOUS time to start to peck at it!

Hostesses: YOU receive a free Sale-A-Bration set when you host a Stampin' Up! party that has sales of $400. For every $400 spent at your party (pre-tax & shipping), you'll get a set. That's in addition to all the other great stuff hostesses earn!

Recruits: You receive for FREE any set of your choice, up to $60.95, from the main catalogue to add to your kit when you sign up during Sale-A-Bration.

I'll be posting more Sale-A-Bration sets in the next little while - Sale-A-Bration runs from February 1st to March 17th. I'd love to help you get the sets you'd like, so contact me!

Happy Hearts Elephant

Isn't this elephant adorable?

This is from the Happy Heart Day set, a really cute little set ideal for the colourer in you! I VERY carefully cut the greetings off the elephant and the mouse and mounted them on the ends of the blocks to increase the versatility of this set. Last week, my mom used this elephant to make a very sweet baby card (sorry, I forgot to get a photo...)

The image is stamped on SU!'s watercolour paper in Staz-On. I coloured directly on the paper with the Wonderful Watercolour Crayons and then used the Aquapainter to blend the colours. I love how you can layer on the colour with these crayons. AFTER blending with the Aquapainters, I realized this elephant needed a little colour in the cheeks, so I added in the Pretty in Pink crayon over the gray - and look how nicely in shows up.

I traced the butterfly outline with the white crayon but found it doesn't blend much on the Basic Gray cardstock. Truly the watercolour paper allows you to play!

Other cardstock colours are Going Gray and Purely Pomegranate. The card is finished with a length of wide Rose grosgrain.

Remember you can take advantage of SU!'s Happy Heart bundle for just under a week. You can get this set, the ribbon I used here, a bolt of wide red grosgrain, and a package of small cello bags (great for treats) for just $39.94. That's 27% off the original catalogue price - it's almost like getting a roll of ribbon and the bags for free! Contact me to order your bundle - I can ship anywhere in Canada.

Til next time, Blessings & Happy Stampin'! - Ann

Check out these Pretties!

At a recent Stamp Club get together we were playing with the Pretties kit. I gave them each a large flower from the kit and challenged them to do something with it. If they brought it back to the next meeting, they'd be entered in a draw for a $10 gift certificate to use in the new catalogue. Two people remembered to bring it back.

Christa made this long and narrow card. She coloured the large flower by pulling it over her inkpad. Lots of punches, wide grosgrain, patterned paper and a rhinestone brad to add some bling make this card a keeper!

Shannon loves blue and silver and this card has a beautiful glimmer IRL. Shannon used markers and an Aquapainter to dye this flower. She also painted it with a light coating of lumiere to add a very pretty sheen. Ribbons, a halfback pearl (also from the Pretties kit) and silver stamping finish this very special card.

Thanks to the stampin' gals who took up my challenge and for letting me share your beautiful creations!

Want in the fun? Stamp clubs can be formed anytime - all we need is about 6 - 10 participants. Just email me for more information and to get your club started.

I have not meant to abandon you...

Honest!

It's been a very long time since I posted and I am VERY sorry. I have not been well - a NASTY bacteria in my lungs etc. you don't need the sticky details, but it really knocked me out and I'm just regaining my energy now. So, postings will start to appear more regularly again as well as newsletters. Thanks for your patience! Happy stampin'! - Ann

Scrapbooking Gifts

Happy New Year! I hope you are blessed with health, happiness, prosperity and love this year!

Yesterday you saw the scarves that our female family and friends received for Christmas. The challenge is making nice hand-made gifts for men, I find, and in our family, there are quite a few men to make gifts for! This year, it was a framed scrapbook page. Here they are:

 

Do you notice a common element? I used the same template for all 6. This simplified the process for me a bit. They all use different paper, photos and embellishments, but the placement of the paper is the same. Sometimes, I rotated the layout to suit the photos better.

If you have any questions or comments about the materials used, don't hesitate to ask! Leave me a comment and I'll be happy to get back to you.

Happy stampin', and blessings - Ann