Well, today is the first full day of the Stampin’ Up! Bermuda cruise–the first one I’ve missed in the 9 years I’ve been a demo. It is hard not to think about all my stampin’ buddies partying without me but it just makes me even more determined to make this next trip to Hawaii–so I’m keeping my eye on the prize. Click here and escape with me so I don’t dwell on what my friends are doing right now: www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com/index_flash.asp
Doesn’t it just look heavenly! I’m really working hard for this trip but am in dire need of some workshops and new customers! Every single order, workshop, class registration and new lead helps! So, anything you can do to help me achieve my dream vacation would mean so much! I have until June 30 to achieve it so I’ll keep all of you posted.
The layout above was created for a swap I participated in when the Spring-Summer Collection came out in January. I’ve used this set several times on candy bars (click here to see this recent entry), cards but I think it suits scrapbooking the best! It’s also part of the Free Wheelin’ special that ends April 30! The accompanying FREE Daisy Dash wheel is so cute! So take advantage of this special ASAP and help me earn my Hawaiian dream trip at the same time!
Layout Ingredients:
2 6×6 Basic Black card stock
1 6×6 Blush Blossom card stock
1 6×6 Pink Passion card stock
Pink Passion, Blush Blossom and Basic Black Classic ink pads
Time Well Spent Hostess set (earn this free with a workshop. April hostesses get EXTRA EXTRA — see sidebar)
Wild and Narrow Rose grosgrain ribbon (narrow is now retired)
This final card from my punch class was my favorite! I just thought this was darling when it was all done! The only part I didn’t like was the way the greeting on the bottom ended up. So, I made sure the class ripped the Bashful Blue paper a little higher to give the greeting more clearance.
This greeting, from the Full of Life in the Occasions mini, is really a three line stamp but I just couldn’t squeeze it on there and had to marker each line and stamp it. What a pain! The girls loved how their 3-line greeting looked on the expanded white space so that’s what matters the most!
Card Ingredients:
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Basic Black card stock (I used that a lot in this class..mmm, don’t know why!)
5 1/4 x 4 Whisper White card stock
5 x 3 3/4 Bashful Blue card stock (Torn from one end at about 1 1/4 inches up)
Glue pen
Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Full of Life stamp set
Whisper White, Basic Black and Apricot Appeal scraps to punch out penguin parts )
Large and Small Oval punch
1/4 " Circle Punch (penguin eyes)
3/4" Circle Punch (penguin heads)
3/4" Square punch (to cut down and make the top hat)
Boho Blossoms punch (to snip up flowers to make feet and noses)
Wide White organdy ribbon and Silver cording (both retired) to make the bride’s veil
This is the third card we did in our first Get Punchy class (8 more classes to come!). This one was all about texture! I always tell those who attend my classes and workshops that the components of a good card is like A BLT sandwich:
B – for background–here we stippled it in with Itty Bitty Backgrounds (or what we demonstrators call the socks and underwear of our stamp collection. This has been in the catalog the entire nine years I’ve been a demo so it must be selling well as it has yet to retire! If it does–the collective gasp of shock will be so loud it will cause earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes and destory the world. SU! be warned! ha ha ha!)
L – for layer — here we layered the stippled vanilla paper onto Old Olive card stock. I’m the layer queen so it is a rare time I do not layer my cards and scrapbook photos with some sort of matting. IMHO, it frames everything nicely.
T- for texture — and this card has it in several places. You can’t really tell, but the flower center is raised up and the multiple oval punches overlapping to create the flower creates great texture. The new olive Poly-Twill ribbon in our current Occasions mini for the flower stem adds a nice texturized touch, too. But my favorite on this card are the small oval punched leaves that were folded in half and then run through the crimper! NICE! And finally … don’t forget the "A" in the example of "A BLT" sandwich:
A is for accessorize – here the ribbon and the wonderful button in the center accesorized this card nicely.
So how’s that for a nice little stampin’ lesson this fine morning? ) Here’s the rest of the info on this card:
Card Ingredients:
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Old Olive card stock
5 1/4 x 4 Very Vanilla card stock
5 1/2 x 4 1/4 Summer Sun card stock – (stamped with More Mustard with Florals background stamp to make the large oval punched flower petals)
Old Olive and Close to Cocoa scraps for leaves and Flower center
Isn’t he cute? It’s hard to believe that the frog and lily pads are all made from oval punches! The yellow flowers were our five-petal flower punch folded in half and everything else is just accessories! We all got such a kick out of putting this lil’ guy together! Some opted for girl froggies with long eyelashes, too. Oh what fun!
Card Ingredients:
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Basic Black card stock
5 1/4 x 4 Whisper White card stock
2 x 4 Turquoise Prints Designer Paper
2 1/2 x 3 3/4 Basic Black card stock
2 1/4 x 3 1/2 Tempting Turquoise card stock
Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Real Red, Whisper White, Always Artichoke paper scraps for punched frog, lily pads and flowers.
Googly Eyes
Large and Small Oval Punches
Spring Bouquet Flower (retired) for the eyelashes, feet and hands
Enjoyed my very first "Get Punchy" class this weekend and Monday, with 10 brave souls signing up for the first part of my 9-part series of making projects with punches. For the next few days I’ll be posting cards we made using the large and small oval punches. This first one was fairly simple. I’d received this card in a trade from my jolly friend Diane Tritz, who lives in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin. Right now we’re both sulking as we should be preparing for the Stampin’ Up! cruise to Bermuda right now —BUT WE DIDN’T EARN IT THIS YEAR! Sigh…but we’re not bitter…right Diane!? ) Since we will be hula’ing in Hawaii next year (somehow some way, we’ll get there!) with all the help from our wonderful customers!
Oh…sorry for the sidetrack…here’s the card:
Card ingredients:
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Basic Black card stock
2 x 5 1/4 Real Red card stock
3 x 4 Basic Gray card stock
2 x 3 Whisper White card stock
Red & Black scraps for punching flower petals and center
Large and small oval punches
White Craft ink and embossing powder
Tag stamp from Be Happy (to punch out the polka dot flower center)
Sincere Salutations for Birthday greeting
Black marker and White gel pen for stitching effects
Fine Lace background stamp (retired–woooops! Better go put that in my retired box now before i forget)
Created this simple 12×12, 2-page spread layout for my Aston Gardens Independent Living senior friends. They were getting ready to take a group trip to our local Strawberry Festival so I thought they’d like a nice layout to record their special times and photos of the day. And of course, the events staff loved the fact that got to keep my sample for their ongoing scrapbook, too! A win-win! I had to keep this fairly simple for them but they still loved it! You can hardly tell, but I did start off with two 6×6 layouts in the upper left and opposite lower right corners. So, if you like the 6×6 brag book size, it’s an easy way to copy a cute layout. I gave them another alternative greeting (printed on the computer) if they weren’t going to the festival that said "Berry Sweet". Worked out great for everyone!
Layout Materials:
12×12 Garden Green card stock and scraps for punching
Happy St. Patty’s day, stampers! Sorry it’s been a week since I’ve last blogged. I’ve been booked solid with last minute classes and activities for the end of Sale-A-Bration activities. I’m finally coming up for air! I have one class left tomorrow morning and then I’ll officially be mourning the passing of another exciting promotion!
But never fear–another incredible offer is already on the table! WAHOO!! Stampin’ Up! has decided to hand out more free treats in March and April:
Book a workshop and accumulate $350 or more in sales and you’ll get an additional $25 to spend in FREE merchandise in addition to the $40 you’re normally entitled to. HOLY CANNOLLI—That’s $60 buckaroos! Get some girlfriends together and let’s do a class or workshop and get you some more SU! goodies during the Extra, Extra promotion!! Click here to read all about it!
And with this next offer, it won’t be too hard to convince your friends to order more to help your workshop total skyrocket with the Free Wheelin’ offer. Buy a preselected stamp set and receive the coordinating wheel for FREE! Options, prices, and bundled item numbers are listed here.
And speaking of free treats, I drummed up a few treats for my hubby to pass out and shamelessly market me to his clients in his office building. Saw this idea on Splitcoast Stampers website and adapted it for my own supplies. Hey, you never know where your next customer’s gonna come from, right? The green polka-dot background is one of the wheels you get for FREE when you buy the coordinating stamp set. Love how versatile it is! So, call and order yours Tuesday, when the promotion begins. Grab them now before the special ends on April 30! Have a great week!
Project Supplies:
Medium White envelopes
See You Around Jumbo Wheel
Pinch Proof stamp set
Glorious Green Ink cartridge
Glorious Green Classic Ink
Glorioius Green card stock
Whisper White card stock
Wild Wasabi Double stitched ribbon
Scallop Circle punch
1 3/8 Circle punch
Large Tag punch (to punch out on envelope and make handles)
Gable Green marker and card stock
York Peppermint Patties
Pin backs
Project Instructions:
Seal envelope and punch out left and right side of envelope with large tag punch. Snip off extra paper.
Wheel envelope with See You Around Wheel then adhere Gable Green cardstock near the handle. Stamp with Happy St. Patrick’s greeting with Glorious Green Classic ink.
Stamp five Pinch Proof circle stamps onto Whisper White cardstock and punch out with 1 3/8 circle punch.
Punch out five Glorious Green flowers with Scallop circle punch and adhere punched-out Pinch Proof image to the center of the punched out Scallop Circle punch.
Shape green ribbon and glue to the back of your layered Scallop circle. Add pin back and pin to the left top corner of the handled envelope.
Layer 4 leftover Scallop Circle images onto circle mints and insert into envelope bag! Wa-la–you’re done!
Doesn’t my cute little chickie-do look like he’s standing roadside ready to greet Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail? Well, in my imagination he does! So there! After all, he’s on his way to a very important meeting with Peter…that’s why he had to parachute in!
Anyway, back to reality–we’ll be doing this project on the 6th along with four others and we’d love to have you join me. We’ll make this basket and work in some rub-ons for the plastic eggs for fun! You know you want to come!
Or, if you’d rather have the class as part of my Stamps by Mail, you can do that, too. So go ahead, treat yourself to "A Good Egg"!
Confessions first! This parachuting egg idea is not my original. My friend Jill George had posted a cute card with this concept and I just knew I’d have to use it for my A Good Egg class next weekend. So, I mixed it up a bit with different papers, coloring and such.
This lil’ guy leads an adventurous life, doesn’t he?Don’t miss out on your chance to get this cute stamp set and all the projects! Here’s a close up of his feat:
This started out as the simple task of creating a quick and easy 6×6 2-p spread for a demonstration. But then, I decided I wanted to show how you could step this size up to 8.5 x 11 just by layering the 6×6 layouts on each of the 8 1/2 x 11 pages and putting some fancy photo mats on there:
And finally, to step it up to the 12×12, just layer the 8 1/2 x 11 pages onto the 12×12 and surround it with photo mats. and a title block. Isn’t it fun!? I love these colors, Really Rust, with Wild Wasabi and Sky blue. Who’d have thought it would be so striking?
Scrapbooking 2-Page Spread Ingredients:
Stamps: So Many Scallops, Make It Count Level 1 Hostess Set, Polka Dots and Petals
Inks: Really Rust Classic Pad, Wild Wasabi Classic Pad
Card Stock: Wild Wasabi, Really Rust, Sky Blue and Whisper White
Accessories: Scallop Circle punch, 1 1/4 Circle punch, Really rust buttons, Wild Wasabi double Stitched ribbon, Fall Flowers Designer paper, Glue Dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals
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Sigh…but we’re not bitter…right Diane!? 
Amanda Coughlin, Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
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