February Stamp Club

Yesterday was my stamp club meeting.  I have decided to try something new this year.  Instead of the gals having to order $20 from Stampin' Up, they can either do that or just pay $20 for the class.  I have heard from several people who dropped out of Club that they just didn't need anymore stuff and found when they purchased stamps, etc. they just weren't using them at home.  But they were willing to pay for the class instead.  Works for me!

I also switched up how I did the class.  I couldn't decide which cards to offer for club, so I just put 8 cards out (in their basket with pieces precut) and told them they could make 4 cards - any ones they wanted.  It was funny - only 4 cards were picked.  One gal made 2 each of two birthday cards.  So I will be saving the other cards for next month.  I've got a couple move gals coming next week since they couldn't make it today.  We'll see if they pick anything different.

These are the four my friends picked to make today.

 

Amazing Life stamp set from Occasions Catalog (pg 28)  The happy, flowers and cake were colored with SU Blends.  I used the Rectangle Stitched Dies - my favorite thing in the catalog!!

So Hoppy Together - from Sale-a-Bration - is such a fun set.  Nancy had fun coloring Mr. Frog!

This humming bird is a big hit! This set is another one from Occasions Catalog - Humming Along.  I didn't purchase the framelits so the girls had some cutting to do but it wasn't difficult.  The bird was water colored with ink from the stamp pads.  The lesson I learned - don't color him with the Blends because they soak through the card stock and you can see it on the back. He was colored with Mint Macaron, So Saffron and Calypso Coral.

Another variation of the Amazing Life birthday cake.  A ink wash was put down first before stamping the cake.  Everything else was colored with the Blends.

This was the favorite!  I embossed the flower and humming bird in gold and it looks amazing!

Humming AwayI

Well, I just watched the Super Bowl.  Ugh - tired of hearing about how wonderful Tom Brady and the Patriots are! And I couldn't believe that Coach Belichick didn't have on his standard hoodie!   I was pulling for the Rams big time but it wasn't meant to be.  I thought they had a chance.  It was a surprisingly low scoring game.   Maybe my Steelers will make it next year to the big game.

I received the Humming Away stamp set at Convention in November (we get a lot of free stuff at convention!)  It is so much fun to color the bird.  I have used markers, Blends, ink with Aqua Pens and watercolor pencils .... and they all work great!  There are dies that match up for this set and you can get both the dies and the stamp set together and save 10%.  I don't have the dies but it's not too hard to fussy cut the humming bird.

The first card below also is a fun fold card.  I used the SU Blends for the humming bird.  The only drawback to using Blends - they bleed through to the back of what you are coloring.  So, I stamped another bird and adhered it to the back. 

For this card, I used watercolor pencils to color the humming bird along with my Aqua Brush to blend the watercolors.  The hibiscus flower is stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I CASE'd the card from Brian King.