NC Demos Blog Hop featuring Occasions Catty AND In Colors

Welcome to the second NC Demos Blog Hop.  You should have just come from Tracie Langley's blog.  I loved her two projects!!   Hope you are enjoying the projects this month from the Occasions Catalog and using Stampin' Up's In Colors and are getting a lot of ideas for your own projects.

Each year when the new annual catalog comes out (June 1), there will be 5 NEW In Colors introduced.  The sad news is that means 5 colors will RETIRE.  The retiring colors this year are shown below:

The ink pads, cardstock packs, ink refills and accessories will only be available while supplies last. They usually sell out quickly!!  So I would suggest if you love these colors, you order them now before they are gone AND also so that you can take advantage of the FREE gifts offered during Sale-a-Bration!

OK - on to my project.  This was a fun card to make!  It measures 5.5" x 5.5" so a special envelope was made for it using the Envelope Punch Board  The card folds flat for mailing but when the recipient receives it, he/or she can open each section like an easel card.  Wouldn't this look nice sitting on a desk for all to see?!

The In Colors I used are Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow.  I also used Cajun Craze and Mint Macaron which are the matching colors for the Botanical Gardens DSP.

This is the card flat - well sorta flat!  It kept popping up as I was trying to photograph it.  I needed a couple of extra hands to hold it shut but when you put it in an envelope, it will be flat.

This sentiment is from Flower Patch.  I used the Decorative Label Punch to punch it out and sponged the edges with Hello Honey ink.

Each top square (Hello Honey) measures 2.5" x 2.5".  They are attached to the bottom rectangles (measuring 2.5" x 5" and scored at 1.25" x 2.5".

The stamp set, Botanical Blooms, framelits AND DSP can be purchased as a bundle saving you 15%. It is a great set!!  If you would like to place an order online, please use my Hostess Code found at the top of my blog posts.  By purchasing this Bundle, you would qualify for a FREE item from Sale-a-Bration!  Who doesn't like free???!!

Hope you are enjoying the Blog Hop! Check out what my other NC pals have to show you!! Laura Meier is next on the Hop so make sure you click on her name.

Shavron Borders
Regina Campbell
Tamra Davis
Kitty Helton
Jo Anne Hewins
Amy Ingram
Michelle Irinyi
Melissa Kernan
Tracie Langley
Sharon Maranich (ME)
Laura Meier
Mary Robinette
Susan Root
Pam Staples
Lisa Tedder
Frances Wagner

3x3 Quarterly Swaps

Marianne and I traveled to Raleigh this weekend for the NC Demos Quarterly Get-together.  It is so much fun to see old friends there and meet new ones.  I can't wait till our next one in September in Wilmington!  We did several swaps and although I told myself in advance I would only do one swap, I ended up doing all three - 3D swap, 3x3 card swap and full card swap.

Here are the 3x3 cards I received in the swap:  (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my own swap!)

I think these make cute little gift enclosure cards.

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Marianne.  Today (Monday) is her birthday!  She is catching up with me!!

Marianne getting started with her stampin'!

This was the "voting" table.  We voted on the best "WOW" card and the card that was the most demonstratable.  Can you guess which ones won?

If you guessed the purple flower card for a WOW!, you are correct.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  It was made by Denise James.

My card was voted as the most demonstratable (is that a word?).  It was also my swap card.  Here it is close up:

I love the colors in this card.  I used the Flower Patch stamp set along with the Feels Good sentiment.  I masked the center of the card while I stamped the flowers and when I finished with that stamping, I removed the mask and stamped the sentiment.

10 Years with Stampin' Up!!

I have a Quarterly Meeting coming up in a week and half.  So, I worked on coming up with a swap card, shoebox card, 3x3 card and 3 D project last weekend.  As usual, I went through a few ideas before I settled on one.  (Although I am still working on coming up with a design for the 3x3, and shoebox cards.)  Here are two of the cards I made but ended up not choosing them.

This one uses a great photopolymer stamp called Flower Patch.  I love the flowers in this set AND it comes with matching framelit dies (although I didn't use them on this card.)  I punched the center out with the Deco Labels framelits.  

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I love this card mainly because I love the Four Feathers stamp set!  The only reason I didn't pick it was I would have to cut out a lot of feathers for the number of cards I have to make.  The sentiment comes from Feel Good, stamped in Blackberry Bliss.  I embossed one of the feathers and stamped the two smaller feathers in Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey.  The multi-colored feather is sponged with Blackberry and Honey and then stamped (in black Memento ink) with one of the stamps from Wetlands.  I love the effect it makes!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I hit a milestone in my career last month.  I celebrated my ten year anniversary as a Stampin' Up demonstrator!  I received this pin and letter.  It's hard for me to believe I have done this for ten years.  I have loved every minute and still say, Stampin' Up is one of the best companies to work for.

Flower Patch

I got the Flower Patch Bundle (pg 156) and have been having fun coming up with different patterns for this set.  It is a Photopolymer stamp set and, wow, does it cling great to your clear blocks!  Here is one card that I made.

We used it last week in Club and made the card I posted HERE.

I also decorated a little notebook for Marianne and myself using the set along with some DSP.

At Late Night Stampers, we made this card with the Flower Patch set doing a LOT of masking!!  But the extra work with the masking was well worth it because the card is really great!

I received several swap cards at convention that were really great also using this set.

There are so many possibilities with this stamp set!!

Stamp Club

I had to move Stamp Club to this week since I was at Convention last week when it was regularly scheduled.  Summer is so hard to schedule events - everyone is so busy so it is come if you can and let me know if you can't!!  I was on the ball and made all my cards - and wrote up the directions - before I left town.  Here are the cards we made this month.

This first card is a good use of the wonderful Fringe Scissors!  I think it is really a great card for a girly girl!!  And the sentiment fits it to a "T" don't you think?  It is from the new stamp, Remembering Your Birthday (pg 59).

This next card was so fun to make!  I used the Hardwood background stamp for the fence, cutting apart the individual slats and sponging the edges.  But the greatest part was cutting the pointed tops of the fence!  I used the Chevron Punch and it was so easy!!

The clouds were made using the Word Bubble framelits - sponging Soft Sky around the edges.  I made a flower pot with the Artisan Label and Word Window punches.  The flowers are punched out of DSP with the Petite Petals Punch and candy dots were used for the centers.  Again, those Fringe Scissors came in handy for the grass.  Of course, the bird is from the versatile bird punch and his eye is a pearl colored with a black Sharpie.

This card was fun to make and everyone's will turn out different.  I used the Flower Patch stamp and randomly stamped the flowers.  I embossed the bottom half of the card with the Woodgrain folder (after stamping).  A caution using the Woodgrain folder - I have found that it is easily torn so I try to remember to emboss it by opening up Tab 1 on the Big Shot or you could also try using a piece of waxed paper.

This card was based off a swap I received last year at convention!!  I really haven't used this stamp set (Six Sided Sampler) or the coordinating punch very much and really need to!!  I love how it turned out.  I stamped the images in White Craft Ink on the Melon Mambo card stock and the images in Versa Mark on Black card stock.  Then I embossed the black card stock using Melon Mambo embossing powder and the Melon Mambo card stock with White embossing powder.  The white card stock is embossed using the Honeycomb embossing folder.

I hope these cards give you inspiration!