Birthday Chalk Talk

I just love the stamp set, Chalk Talk!  Here is a card I made for a friend's birthday last month.

Aren't those colors great - Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush!  How about that polka dotted background?  A good way to use up your scrap rubber bits!  The big circle is from the circle that is punched out from one of the Chalk Talk stamps!  And the small polka dots are from a pencil eraser!  I made the flower using the clay and flower mold and decided to keep it white instead of coloring it.  Ummm - maybe I'll whip up a few of these for convention swaps.

Quick post tonight - I have to get to bed.  Early wake up tomorrow to go to the Soup Kitchen.  I have to be there at 8:30 am which is my normal time to wake up!!

Backyard Basics Swaps

As you probably know, Stampin' Up is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year.  Each month they are featuring a "best of" stamp set.  We' ve had flowers, hearts, and now Shelli's favorites.  Who better to pick a “Best of” stamp set than the person who helped start Stampin’ Up! out of her garage 25 years ago? Shelli Gardner, our CEO and co- founder picked her favorite stamp images from the past 25 years and helped combine them into a single set just for you. 

Best of Shelli Clear-mount Stamp Set #133488 $14.95

Even better, this set includes a never-before-seen flourish image, and the flower image coordinates perfectly with the 3/4” Circle Punch.

Shelli has some samples on her blog of projects she created with this Best Of Set.  Check them out HERE and HERE.

I got a few more swaps done today.  I think I have about 60 now not counting the 40 for the "January" organized swap and the 15 cards for the NC Demo dinner and swap.  So I'll be coming home with a bunch of new ideas! 

This one is my favorite though!  I think this is called the stained glass technique.  Whatever ... I love it!  I think we will be doing this at club this month too.  I stamped the butterfly from Backyard Basics in white on vellum paper and embossed it.  After cutting the butterflies out with the matching framelits, I used my markers to color the back of the embossed butterflies.  I did a few of these cards using one of the flowers from Secret Garden too but I like the butterflies the best.

My Convention Swap

I think we may be building an ark here soon if this rain doesn't let up!  It has rained the whole week.   But that has given me a good shot at staying inside and working on my swaps for convention (which is next week!!)  We went to the movies on Thursday, the 4th and saw The Heat.  I really liked it and got a few good laughs in but I'm a big Sandra Bullock fan.  I heard some people complain about the language (the "F" word was used a lot.)  But it didn't really bother me.  I don't use that word and don't like to hear others use it, but I'm not a prude about it either.  I think we may go see White House Down this afternoon in between the rain drops.

Here is the card I finally chose for my organized swap at convention.  I had to make 40 of them and they had to be something for the month of January.  My hopes of doing a snowman card was dashed when Stampin' Up did not include any of them in the big catalog.  So I borrowed Zoo Review from my downline and made this card.  It turned out pretty cute.

 

The sentiment is from Chalk Talk (pg 12) - probably my favorite set in the catalog!  It's hard to see but I put a bit of Dazzling Diamonds right under the bear's paws.

Well, back to the drawing board - I have more swaps to make that I will be sharing with you soon.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope your day is a good one - stay safe!  I also hope that your fireworks viewing is better than ours was.  The YMCA in Mooresville puts on a fireworks display every year.  This year they chose to do it on July 3.  Not sure why but .... they didn't ask me.  The weather has been pretty bad here all week - raining every day and Wednesday was no different.  It rained off and on all day.  We were going to enjoy watching the fireworks from my mom's church.  They were also planning on having an ice cream social.  But with the rain, they canceled the social.  The rain let up a little bit about 8 so we drove to Mooresville at 9 to watch the fireworks with Mom and Angela.  They were supposed to start at 9:30 but .... they started them early!  So we got to see about 10 minutes of the fireworks!  Oh well, better luck next year!

A template from MDS - easy peasy!!

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ,

AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE NATION UNDER  GOD,
INDIVISIBLE, WITH  LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!


For all of our other military personnel, where ever they may be.
Please  support all of the troops defending our Country.

And God Bless our Military who are protecting our Country for our Freedom.
Thanks to them, and their sacrifices, we can celebrate the 4th of July.

We must never forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we have, and to them we should be eternally grateful.

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform;
so young, so tall, so proud.
With hair cut square and eyes alert,
he'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil;
how many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
NO, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE !

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
when everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant 'Amen.'
When a flag had draped a coffin
of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
of the mothers and the wives,
of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

Paper Craft Crew Sketch

My card for Paper Craft Crew this week uses Neon Notes with My Digital Studio. 

Embellishments
    Crochet Trim Ribbon\Chantilly (re-colored)
    _Designer Kits\Neon Notes - embellishments\Neon Notes - flourish tag 4 (re-colored)
    _Designer Kits\Neon Notes - embellishments\Neon Notes - flourish tag 1
    _Designer Kits\Neon Notes - embellishments\Neon Notes - flower 1
    _Designer Kits\Neon Notes - embellishments\Neon Notes - flower 2
    _Designer Kits\Neon Notes - embellishments\Neon Notes - flower 2
    _Designer Kits\Neon Notes - embellishments\Neon Notes - flower 3
    _Designer Kits\Afternoon Tea - embellishments\Afternoon Tea - lovely
    Crochet Trim Ribbon\Chantilly - bow (re-colored)
    Antique Brads\Antique Brads - brad 4
    Basic Pearls and Rhinestones\Basic Pearls and Rhinestones - pearl large

Stamps
    _Designer Kits\Be Brave\Be Brave - love

Punches
    Basics\1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Neon Notes - designer series paper\Neon Notes - 9
    Labels & Tags\Lots of Tags - shape 2

Make sure you check out what the other members of the crew have done for this challenge HERE.

More Swap Cards

I have more swap cards from Saturday to share.  They were all so good it would be hard to pick a favorite.  But while we were eating lunch, Allison had her neighbor come over and pick her favorite card.  It was fun even if mine didn't win.



The sentiment above comes from Hello Lovely (pg 22).  It is one that I will be gettingfree  at convention!  I love the color combo of this card.



This is a great new single stamp - Five Way Flower (pg 85) that coordinates with3 of the Scallop Circle Punches and the small flower punch in the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.  But my favorite is the little strip on the side.  We made that by stamping the flower stamp onto a tiny strip of card stock - creating our own DSP!!  Cool, huh?



A bright and fun card.  This card used Create a Cupcake and the new set, Label Love (pg 33) along with the cupcake punch.  Another great color combo.



Update your Marker Collection

In the 2013-2014 annual catalog, Stampin' Up! offer the Stampin' Write Marker New Color Kit (item 130034, page 163) to help you update your Many Marvelous Marker pack.

Now, they've sweetened the deal.  For a limited time, from June 26 until October 31, you can buy
any of the new colors in the pack or on their own!

Go ahead, fill in the missing pieces in your collection or buy the whole lot.

ITEM PRICE DESCRIPTION

130034 $28.95 Stampin' Write Marker New Color Kit
Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder

131899 $3.50 Bermuda Bay Stampin' Write Marker

131265 $3.50 Blushing Bride Stampin' Write Marker

131902 $3.50 Calypso Coral Stampin' Write Marker

131901 $3.50 Crushed Curry Stampin' Write Marker

131905 $3.50 Island Indigo Stampin' Write Marker

131266 $3.50 Pear Pizzazz Stampin' Write Marker

131904 $3.50 Pool Party Stampin' Write Marker

131898 $3.50 Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Marker

131900 $3.50 Soft Sky Stampin' Write Marker

131903 $3.50 Wisteria Wonder Stampin' Write Marker

Swap Cards

Another busy weekend for me.  We went to a 70th birthday party for our friends on Friday night.  It was a lot of fun and I had my dancing shoes on!!  I was kinda the official photographer - at least that's what everyone thought!  I took pictures the whole night of the party and I am going to make a scrapbook for them with MDS.  I decided that would the best gift I could come up with - what do you give people when they get to a certain age and don't want to collect anymore "stuff"!!??

On Saturday, I went to a shoebox swap over in the Kannapolis/Concord area - about an hour from my house.  We were to take three shoebox cards for everyone to make.  Well, I got my cards ready a couple of weeks ago and put sticky notes on the outside of the boxes to make sure I didn't forget to put all the supplies in since I was still using the ink, stamps, etc.  Well, guess my sticky note system was not the best!  I felt like an idiot and left 2 of the stamp sets out!  Luckily, Allison (whose home we were in) had Mosaic Madness so I borrowed hers.  Midway through doing the cards, I discovered that Karen and I had done almost the same card as the other one I'd forgotten so they were able to use her set to make my card also.  Guess we CASE'd the same person!!

This is my card in Basic Gray and Pool Party using Oh Hello with a clay button.  I used the Pool Party Core'dination card stock and sanded the embossing

This is Karen's card in Blushing Bride and Soft Sky.  I guess great minds think alike (or in this case, CASE alike!)

This is another one of my cards - I remembered all the parts for this one!  I made the Strawberry Slush circles by using a piece of the rubber that popped out of one of the stamps in Chalk Talk - a great recycling tip!  I used the Chalk Talk Framelits and stamp set for this card. 

Stay tuned - I'll be sharing some of the other great cards later in the week!

Washi Tape

 If you are like me, you're not too sure what all the hub-bub is about Washi Tape.  I have used it a few times (see my journal below) and I really like it but would like to know more.  Well, Stampin' Up to the rescue!

The gray striped tape & the coral tape (beside the gray one at the top) are all This & That Washi tape.  It goes on great and just adds a little something to your project.!

 

What to Washi!    

Stampin' Up!'s brand new online class - What to Washi - is now available. Offering seven different sections of Washi wisdom, this class includes everything you need to know to make the most of one of the hottest crafting trends out there, including written instructions, step-out photos, instructional videos, and supply lists for more than 30 projects.

All for just $14.95!The following topics are covered in the class:

. The Washi Basics
. Washi-The Next Step
. Above and Beyond
. Sharing Washi with Others
. Memory Keeping
. Storage
. Only the Beginning. . .
 
 

But wait, there's more! This class is also being offered as part of the What to Washi Bundle.

Bundle Includes:
* 7 PDF Documents
* 2 Instructional Videos
* 4 pkgs of Washi Tape (3 rolls per pkg)
* 20 Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes

All this for only $36.95

The class features seven different sections, and takes a customer from the basics to incredibly creative and customized Washi Tape ideas. Customers receive more than 30 projects ideas, along with Stampin' Supplies and detailed instructions; in addition, there are step outs and two videos included with the class. When you order the What to Washi Bundle, you'll be the first to receive our Season of Style and Witches Brew Washi Tape packages; they aren't available to individual purchase until August 1!

If you want to order this class OR bundle, please use my July hostess code when ordering - Y4BBPUMB

You can order HERE.

And don't forget about the new CLEARANCE items.  Stampin' Up strongly recommends that customers order clearance items on online orders via a hostess code to guarantee availability. Customers may add clearance items to a workshop order, but because clearance items are only available while supplies last, it's possible that the item will not be available when the order is submitted.

Chalk Talk

 In the 2013-2014 annual catalog,  the Stampin' Write Marker New Color Kit (item 130034, page 163)  helps you update your Many Marvelous Marker pack. Now, SU has sweetened the deal. For a limited time, from June 26 until October 31, you can buy any of the new colors in the pack or on their own! Go ahead, fill in the missing pieces in your collection or buy the whole lot. 

ITEM	PRICE	DESCRIPTION
130034	$28.95	Stampin' Write Marker New Color Kit Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder
131899	$3.50	Bermuda Bay Stampin' Write Marker
131265	$3.50	Blushing Bride Stampin' Write Marker
131902	$3.50	Calypso Coral Stampin' Write Marker
131901	$3.50	Crushed Curry Stampin' Write Marker
131905	$3.50	Island Indigo Stampin' Write Marker
131266	$3.50	Pear Pizzazz Stampin' Write Marker
131904	$3.50	Pool Party Stampin' Write Marker
131898	$3.50	Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Marker
131900	$3.50	Soft Sky Stampin' Write Marker
131903	$3.50	Wisteria Wonder Stampin' Write Marker

I have been trying to work on a few swaps for convention.  I can't believe it is in three weeks!  Usually by now, I have a lot of them ready to swap out.  But I am not taking as many this year as I have in the past.  I love the swapping at convention but seriously, do I really need 100 more samples to find a home for in my craft room???!!   

One of favorite stamps is Chalk Talk with the matching framelits.  I'll have to admit the framelits had me stumped though.  They come with several frames and 3 odd looking pieces.  I couldn't figure out what they were until just yesterday.  You put those little pieces in the frames to cut a little opening in the tag!

This is the first card I made.  Don't you love red and black?  The DSP is from Modern Medley and I used Vanilla for the card and tag.  I love it but I am in a swap that is trying to use everything new in our swaps.

  

So, I went back to the drawing board and made this card using the new In Colors that I love!!  The DSP I used in this one is from Quatrefancy Specialty.  I particularly like the DSP piece that is on top of the Coastal Cabana flag piece.  It is a window sheet with the quatrefoil design on it in white.  So you can see the Coastal Cabana piece through it.  See the faux ribbon I used on the tag?  I cut a sliver of paper - some of them are DSP and some are from card stock.  I used my scissors to break down the fiber of the paper a little bit so it would be more flexible.  Then I carefully tied it into a little knot through the tag opening. I used the Fancy Fan embossing folder for both of the Crisp Cantaloupe flag pieces.

 

I had a helper today while I was making my cards!  Sammie tried hard to keep her eyes on me .... as well as the squirrel who was sitting on the roof outside the window but just couldn't do it for long!

 

 

See?  eyes are pretty much closed.  She didn't even wake up when I ran something through the printer!!