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We've all enjoyed our four talented Challenge Team Artists the last six months - many thanks to all of them for prividing such beautiful work and consistent effort.
November is their last month, so now's your chance to come on board for a six month feature!
Each month I will send each artist a packet of the same supplies, sometimes an easy product feature and sometimes a real challenge. They then each come up with a project of their choosing featuring all or some of the provided product.
Email me if you'd be interested in trying out products and featuring them on this website.
Who doesn't need a quick little gift this time of year?
This is a great little project my dearest friend, Melinda, showed me years ago. I remember the thrill of making a personalized gift out of an "ordinary" chocolate bar! I think everyone I knew got one or two or three at the time.
Back then, we used plain white and a dash of Silver Embossing Powder, but here I've added more colour for Christmas. This is just an Aero Bar (although they've recently changed the double wrapper, darn it) wrapped up in a smidge of the Ski Slope DSP.
I've stamped out the Season's Greetings from the Season's Surfin' Set and coloured in to match the papers. I added a bit of the white gel pen on the big letters; some of my customers added white gel pen to all the letters to look like a frosting of snow. It looked fantastic!
All up, this will take you about 3 minutes to make.
Season's Surfin is a set of three beachy Christmas stamps for $39.95 and is only available until the end of the month.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Season's Surfin set of three $39.95
Colours: Baja Breeze, Real Red, old Olive, Basic Black
Other: Real Red 5/8 ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Now here's a cute little gift-y item for little (and big!) ones!
The Pull-Up Treat has been around for a long time and it works up really cute with the Choo-Choo set.
And it's a fun way to wrap up a small gift, like this sleeve of oreos, a chocolate bar, a meusli bar in a lunch, or a little treat as a thank you. One of my customers last year made up a number of these and hung them on the tree. I'm sure her grandchildren loved to see what surprises were held inside!
Plus, then you'd have little gifts ready to go for holiday visits. I'm liking this idea!!
Choo-Choo and the coordiating track wheel available until the end of the month.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Choo Choo set of five $35.95, Right on Track wheel $13.95
Colours: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Grey
Other: horizontal slot, crimper, Pumpkin Pie ribbon
I think this was Elaine's favourite challenge yet!
Elaine made us up a beautiful box and tri-fold card in her elegant style.
That's quite a beautiful pointsetta on the box and card, Elaine!
The month's featured product is the Soft Holly Wheel, and Elaine has used it here around her box and as borders on her card. It makes for a quick and beautiful matching set!
I had a request for a Frangipani card; this was my best attempt here. Having not grown up anywhere near where these flowers might grow (in the cold mountains of Montana), I had to dip into the creative minds of my team of demonstrators to come up with this.
The big flower from Embrace Life is used here and then very gently watercolured in with Summer Sun and Real Red. I left the rest of the flower stark white for contrast.
The leaves are made with the Large Oval Punch and the crimper - I love that little technique, especially for those flower sets that don't have a suitable leaf included.
1. Punch out a Large oval out of Kiwi Kiss
2. Fold in half and run it through the crimper
3. Sharpen end with scissors if you want - done!
I like the contrast here of the very warm colours and the summery flowers.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Embrace Life set of five $53.95, En Francais background $39.95
Colours: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Summer Sun, Real Red
Other: Hodge Podge Hardware, Old Olive ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Crimper, Large Oval PUnch, 1/2 inch circle punch
And a side note: check out my three girls' team National win here! Very awesome performance.
Here's a really great design by Jayne Mercer - a project I've enjoyed making this Christmas season. This one goes together really quickly AND I've just used bits and pieces of leftovers, making this one quite budget-conscious as well.
The images are from the sooooo popular Tree Trimmings set (and at $28.95 for the set of stamps, it's no wonder!) and also the Ski Slope DSP.
I said quite a bit about this set in yesterday's post, so I think I'll just stop typing and head off to the gym.
Okay, one last note: only 21 more days to order this set and the Ski Slope Papers! :)
Have a great day and talk with you tomorrow!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Tree Trimmings set of four $28.95, Occasional Greetings set of twelve $71.95
Colours: Real Red, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip
Who doesn't need fast Christmas Cards this tme of year?!!
This card is clean and simple, but the colours and shapes keep it interesting.
How to:
1. Stamp the various ornaments from the Tree Trimmings Set in Old Olive, Real Red, and Baja Breeze. Best to start with the middle ornament and work out.
2. Stamp the ornament hanger (string) in Chocolate Chip on top of each ornament. You can eyeball this as I do or use the stamp-a-ma-jig for perfect placement.
3. Stamp the Merry Christmas in Old Olive. Tie and adhere the Real Red 5/8 ribbon. Attach to the front of your Real Red card. Glitter it up with Dazzling Diamonds.
Tree Trimmings is only available for 22 more days . . . order here
Thanks for stopping in and have a great rest of your weekend!
Oh, I know I put these Pop Cans up here every six months or so, but they are still on my top ten list of favourite projects to make.
This year I did one up with the beautiful Ski Slope papers and the Spotlight on Christmas set, both fun and vivid embellishments. The neat thing about the Spotlight on Christmas set is that the images all fit within a punch - which is a real bonus if you're doing a production line of projects.
My eldest daughter has learned how to make fudge at school, so she's on a mission to make fudge at every possible excuse. Which will be perfect to put inside these tins for little gifts for our neighbors. Shhhh . . .
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Spotlight on Christmas set of six $46.95
Colours: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive
Other: Scallop Oval punch, Large Oval Punch, various ribbons, Ski Slope DSP, Five Petal Flower Punch
For some reason, making a book always seemed quite daunting. But after a class I took at a Scrapbook Expo in Seattle where we made an album with two sheets of paper, a needle, and thread (remind me to show you that one - it's cool), books are not so scary.
This one is reminiscent of those board books my children used to chew, I mean, read. Made with beer coasters, of all things, and then bound together with hardware rings, it's quick and it's durable!
The pages are covered with the lovely Walk in the Park papers. The stamped images are from the Great Friend Stamp Set, which is a real goodie that's only with us for a few more weeks.
I added a bit off accent with the White Gel Pen and a Half-back pearl for dimension.
Now it's all ready for some photos or some recipes or even as a gift for someone. These make a very quick little scrapbooking album and a great gift idea!
Click here to order the Great Friend Stamp set or the Walk in the park papers.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Great Friend set of five stamps $37.95
Colours: Cameo Coral, Baja Breeze, Basic Grey, Kiwi Kiss
Other: Cropodile, various ribbon scraps, Pretties Kit, Signo White Gel Pen, Eyelet Border Punch
Welcome to November, our last month for this team of designers! (Apply for the next team here) This month's featured product was the Soft Holly wheel, Stampin' Up!'s lone Christmas wheel. If you need fast, the wheels are a great way to go.
This first items are a place card, matching napkin ring, and a wine glass charm. It's so easy to make your own, customized table decor, as shown here. No need to spend lots, and each year you can do up something different. Guests could even take their bits home as a gift.
Tilly then made up three beautiful, matching cards for a complete coordinating set. The first one is a neaty, stylized tree, the leaves of the tree made up by just a hint of the wheel. I wouldn't have thought to use a wheel in this way - it's great to have such talent around us!
The second project echoes the wine charm in a trio of stars this time, all edged in gold and wheeled with the Soft Holly wheel. Another background of the wheel across the bottom finishes it off nicely.
The last card is my personal favourite of the three - so elegant. Tilly has cut out a triangle, wheeled it in the Soft Holly, and then split the triangle into three neat sections. Edged in gold, each piece is mounted with dimensionals and stands alone. Just lovely.
Thank you, Tilly, for another great outpouring of talent!
Stampin' Up! has now given the demonstrators a Demonstrator Business Website option, so there will be an additional way to contact me and find out information on promotions, etc.
I plan to continue to use this website as I have been - the DBWS will be solely an addition to what I've already been doing here.
Many thanks to Sue Madex, who was a lovely Australian demonstrator who joined us on the Incentive Trip in August, for the inspiration for this card. In fact, more than inspiration! I changed just a few things, so "template" is probably a better description!
The Faux Silk technique is super easy and one that I used on a scrapbooking layout, Once Upon a Time, a few months back. The tutorial on this technique is posted there. The only tricky part is sourcing white tissue paper!
And a few of my ladies had little guilty feelings about crinkling up their stamped tissue, but it really does make the effect work to have wrinkles throughout the images. Be sure and use a good, non-globby glue stick - the Stampin Up ones are perfect for this. And at $8.95 for two, it's worth getting some that work well.
This is the last few weeks to order the scallop oval punch . . .
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Snow Swirled set of six $53.95
Colours: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Brilliant blue, Night of Navy
Other: Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon, tissue paper, Scallop oval, versamark, white embossing powder
As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I am particularly pleased to roll out the promotion for November!
Stampin' Up! has released a beautiful gift giving guide, which is a lovely tool for customers to use. You can also email me for a copy of this guide if the above file is too big.
But the bonus is that for every $105 you spend on the products on the guide, you will recieve a Scallop Square Punch FREE!! $35.95 + postage value! That's more than 33% value added!
These will make fantastic gifts in and of themselves, too.
Some of the products featured are:
Pigtails ribbon originals - see samples here and here
Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin Kit - see samples here
My personal challenge here was to use the Sticky Cuts on a layout, which turned out to be a lot of fun. And the popsicles were the perfect picture trio to put with it!
I stole the layout for this page from an old, old scrapbooking book, one of the millions that I have in my craft room. (hey, you just never know when you might "need" it).
I like the clean style here, the concentration of colour and the bang of the glitter, but set on the textured white,it's perfect.
The Sticky Cuts are basically a huge sheet of ultra-tacky double sided adhesive that has been die cut into shapes, letters, and numbers. Peel off the backing, adhere to the project, peel off the top "backing" and glam it up!
I chose to use the Latte buttons for additional embellishment so the title really popped out and the embellishments didn't overhwelm either the title nor the photos.
The rest of the layout is layered and torn DSP from the Sweet Always collection and a few stamps here and there from Always and Enjoy Every Moment. What do you think?
To schedule your scrapbooking layout class, email me or check my calendar.
I think this little penguin is a cutie. I think this is the first set I ordered out of the catalogue when it first came out.
I just did minimal colouring to keep with the black & white penguin-y feel - with Only Orange and Baja Breeze. I couldn't resist using the chunky glitter again and then used the fine Dazzling Diamonds on the snow. Have you ever seen black snow before? I mean, falling from the sky? (I've seen plenty along the side of the road growing up in Montana).
Now I know you'll ask where I got the 4x4 envelope to fit this. I made it in about 20 seconds. Let me show you how! Tune in for Movie Monday and I'll show you a demonstration of how to do this. (It might have to be next Monday because my camera man will be in Italy next week . . )
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Punch Pals set of twelve $66.95
Colours: Basic Black, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Only Orange
Other: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, Chunky glitter, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Mono Adhesive, white gel pen
One of my customers and a dear lady gave me this Christmas card after she enthusiastically described the technique. Isn't she sweet? I had never seen a recessed card before, so she generously made up a sample of it for me.
Ever notice how our styles and preferences evolve? This is the sort of style I'm going for these days - clean, striking, yet including thoughtful details and techniques. I like it.
And of course, the Season of Joy stamp set is just always a winner. Thanks, Narelle!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Season of Joy set of eight $60.95
Colours: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Basic Black,
Other: dsp from another source, craft knife, dimensionals
The second card is from my dearest friend who is really my sister from a different mothe r (and father), Melinda. We grew up together, most years joined at the hip. We went to University togehter and for the most part, got into trouble togehter, too. I miss her dearly; please sign my peittion to get her to come visit me!
She made me this birthday card and the simplicity is quite nice, don't you think? The idea of a one layer card and then layering on inks instead makes for an easy, quick, and elegant project. And a great one to showcase a couple of techniques - here making and sponging and the stamping with markers techniques. Thanks, Melinda! Love you!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Eastern Blooms set of five $46.95
Colours: Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Bashful Blue, Really Rust, Ruby Red
This is a lovely version, shown to me by my downline and friend, Pauline McArdle, in Napier. (if you are within any reasonable driving, flying, walking, or crawling distance, her classes are not to be missed!)
A step up from yesterday's version, this one has a window, but layers of the Whisper White cardstock fold around so the window is self contained and does not show through to the inside of the card.
I've done these up Christmas, but of course, they can be done for any theme.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Season of Joy $60.95 set of eight, Always set of eleven $66.95, Many Merry Messages (Noel), set of eight $75.95
I made this card up as a swap earlier in the month, and I was quite tickled with how cute they turned out. Actually, I did the cutting and punching and stamping. Madeleine did all the rest. I feel guilty not mentioning her when she's done a fair portion of the effort!
And what a little treasure this image is - such a cutie! It's found in the Window Dressing Hostess set. Yes, you have to have a fairly big workshop to get one of those for FREE or use a Purchase Punch Card - email me to send you one.
The chunky glitter is so cool! It really is clear with a few bits of glitter that refract the light, but I see that in the photo, the camera caught some of the "chunks" and they are showing up coloured. That's kind of neat, too.
Tomorrow I'll post another, slightly more complex, version of this card.
Watch the video below to see how to make the framed window in the card!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Window Dressing - FREE with qualifying purchases or workshop, Best Yet - FREE with qualifying purchases or workshop
Grab your DIY Kit for october before they're all gone!
Don't have the time to attend class? Prefer to work on your own? Live too far away? Make this Great Friend Altered Tin and Mini Accordian Album
in your own time!
Kit includes all cardstock and paper, the tin, ribbon, and brads..
Kit: $15 including postage and instructions
Great Friend Altered Tin Bundle: Project Kit, Great Friend Stamp set, Riding Hood Red ink pad, Kiwi Kiss ink pad, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker (colours may be changed) $89
This is actually an oldie swap I made for the annual Stampin' Up! training convention in 2008, but wanted to bring it out again while we were looking at Baroque Motifs this week. Actually, to be honest, I can't really claim that I made this. I designed it, but truth be known, Tui and her sister, Anne, made these for me while I screwed up a dress I was trying to make at the time.
I recently had a friend and customer ask what green went best with Elegant Eggplant. Now, it's always hard to say which one is "best" because it depends on the mood you want to evoke and also personal style.
However, my first choice would always be Old Olive. For those familiar with a colour wheel, yellow and purple are opposite colours, which means put them together for a real eye-popping combination (I learned all this in my fashion design degree . . . who knew it would come to play in my life in this way! :) Old Olive has a lot of yellow in it, so set it next to purple and they really look fantastic together!
So the fancy fold part is quite easy, but perhaps a way that would be new to some. This one folds open like a book. The eggplant card folds around to the front like a book spine and the Very Vanilla stamped portion is adhered to that part like a page in a book. It's a neat little look acheived with small effort.
And what can I say, I've truly never seen a bad project with this stamp set - it's nearly guaranteed to look great!
Another great little project using the Baroque Motifs stamp set - this is by far my most well used (and loved) stamp set I own. This flourish is just SO versatile. Here - it's a focal image. Tomorrow, see it used as both a focal image and a background.
Nine times out of ten (or more!), I stamp on white or vanilla. But here, I've gone out on a limb and stamped on a coloured cardstock. Crazy woman that I am.
I love the look! I've stamped here in Whisper White and then embossed in White. You'll need to use detail embossing powder here to catch the fine flourished contained in this image.
Cherish is stamped in the corner using Blush Blossom ink, creating a soft tone on tone effect for visual texture.
Just a smide of taffeta ribbon in the corner adds a nice frame and also conserves budget dollars by just using a few inches of ribbon.
Pam made me laugh with this one because she is a self-declared non-scrapbooker . . . but she told me "scrapbooking page" kept popping into her head with this month's supplies of pretties kits and an assortment of cardstock. Good for you Pam for pushing yourself out of the comfort zone!
And this fits perfectly with my wedding theme for this week!
And how special Pam made up a page of her own wedding memories. A very creative, yet neutral background makes a great backdrop for the soft colours and elegant embellishments. The hat pins make such a great 3D accent on projects for a truly decadent finish - perfect for special layouts.
Love the journaling, Pam - what a neat layout!! And glad to hear that you enjoyed this - we may be on our way to do scrapbooking classes?? Well done!
Supplies used:
Backing sheet from Design Series Paper pack
Dress Pattern
Pink Pirouette. So Saffron & Sage Shadow Stampin' Up Cardstock
Today's project is a step up from yesterday's - both beautiful and effective, but this version takes just a smidge more time to complete.
The silver version here uses the Baroque Motifs stamp set as opposed to the So Swirly wheel and also uses a pigment ink (silver) rather than a dye based ink (black). The silver takes quite a good long time to dry, so I've chosen to emboss it here in clear embossing powder, not only to speed up the process but to give the motif a raised, textured look.
The words are from the Together Forever stamp set and are also embossed. I also changed up the ribbon from a grosgrain to the lovely taffeta, which gives an elegant finish, like a bit of silk.
The card base is done up with the brushed metallic cardstock in silver, repeating the main motif colour nicely.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs set of six $46.95, Together Forever $46.95
Other: Encore Silver ink, Clear Embossing Powder, Brushed Metallic card, white taffeta ribbon
I enjoyed meeting so many of you at the Wedding show a few weeks ago here in Auckland. Thanks for taking the time to stop in and see what Stampin Up has to offer your wedding preparations! Whether you want to do it yourself or have it custom done for you, rubber stamping has much to offer. And once you have purchase your stamps and inks, you have the tools to create coordinating decor, table favours, thank you cards, and album pages.
This is a simple project that can be done inexpensively and quickly if you have a lot of invites and/or thank you cards to create. And, of course, if black and white are not your colours, we have 59 other colours from which to choose!
Check back in tomorrow for a stepped up verison of this project!
This is a fun little project my dear friend and downline, Anne Dil, taught to me. Isn't it cute!?
Anne made this up as a child's birthday party invite, but I've changed it up here to be more suitable for a wedding or any sophisticated occasion. Of course, all colours and images can be changed, but the template is a great little idea.
The main part of the card is folded to create a little stand in the back. Then the card is basically a big tag that slides inside.
This is a great way to do invites - for weddings or anything - because the card will stand up and serve as a reminder for the big event!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Together Forever, Forever Flowers Wheel
Colours: Blush Blossom, Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa
Other: Scallop Circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, 3/4 circle punch, Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon
Sorry this is a day late! I travelled all day yesterday and missed the boat on getting this out.
Elaine has taken the bits of pretties Kit and the Soft Subtles Card I sent her and made three beautiful cards for us this week!
The first card using Sage Shadow is stamped in brown and gold and its beauty is in its simplicity. The rose bloom is stamped onto gold paper, cut out and applied over the top of the original image.
The second card using Pink Pirouette- made like a giant tag and coloured with chalks. Again the rose bloom is stamped onto pink card and this time embossed before chalking, cutting out and applying over the original image. Prettied up with a gold brad, gold thread and crystals from the Pretties Kit.
The third card with So Saffron is stamped in brown and completely embossed. The image and the small flower from the Pretties Kit is painted with Twinkling H2O's. I threaded pearls and silver 'oat' beads onto the eylet pin piercing the card for a nice finishing touch.
Beautiful work, Elaine, and a super example of how varying one theme can yield a great set of cards!
Made for me to use as a display by my good friend and fellow demonstrator, Janine Pearce. Is't she great!
And what a neat idea! Perfect for a gift or for table decor, these are easy enough to make out of an A4 sheet of cardstock.
The bride's dress has been stamped and embossed using the So Swirly wheel, one of the most products in the catalogue. An elegant clasp and a long display of taffeta ribbon down the back finishes her off beautifully.
Our handsome man is finished off using a little off cut from the dress, a few brads, and a simple knot for a bow tie.
These would be lovely filled with mints or white and dark chocolates.
For a consult on making these yourself or to have them custom made for you, email me today!
