Projects from Regionals

These are 2 of the projects that we made at Regionals. Both use Live Your Dream from the Occasions Mini. I love that both of these projects used the line stamp too. The second one is a pocket card. It's made from an envelope with one end cut off. I just love it! I didn't even know SU had kraft envelopes. How dorky am I???
Tip of the day: To make it easier to remove the backing from a Stampin' Dimensional, poke your fingernail into it. You can see in this photo how that pops one edge loose. This tip came from Jaron Winder with Stampin' Up. Boy, does that little thing make a big difference!
Happy stamping!

New Catty Sneak Peek

These two photos are display boards for a new set from the upcoming Fall/Winter Collection. The set is called Party Hearty, and it's a super cute birthday set.
Here are a few updates from the world of Stampin' Up. First of all, Stampin' Up started accepting credit cards from customers on April 23. That made lots of demonstrators very happy. Also, the Occasions Mini ordering period was extended to June 30, so here is an updated timeline for you:
June 30: last day to order from Occasions Mini
July 1: Retiring list released
Aug 10: last day to order from Spring/Summer Collection
Aug 11: 1st day to order from Fall/Winter Collection
No word on a retiring accessories list so far.
May special (for National Scrapbooking Month): Order $35 in merchandise and then get 25% off all On Board chipboard. Also, order a cutting mat and get a hobby blade free.
Happy stamping!

Saturday Challenge # 12--Ribbon!

This week's challenge is to use ribbon! I have lots of ribbon, and I tend to hoard it, just like everything else. On this card I have used 3 different kinds of ribbon.
I was inspired by Kristina Werner who posted a video tutorial for ribbon weaving. See that video here. I'll try to make a photo tutorial this week for those who can't/won't watch video online.
Last night, we had our monthly craft night at church, and I actually got a lot done for once. I worked on some of the make and takes from Regionals that I hadn't finished. I made a Mother's Day gift for my mom (super cute AND in her favorite color), but of course, I can't show you that until after Mother's Day. I did this ribbon weaving piece. I made a little clipboard from a CD for my desk at work, and I made a double pocket card. That's probably the most I have EVER gotten done. I usually forget something that I need that stops me in my tracks. Last night, I didn't have anything in particular that HAD to get done, and I had several things to work on. Plus, I always love hanging out with Rhonda and Pauline. And Rhonda gave me the pink taffeta ribbon that I used on the card. Thanks, Rhonda!
The color combo for the card is from SCS this week: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink. I started with the celery ribbon, which is from Fairy Tales Ribbon Originals. I adhered (or adhesed, as Jaron would say!) it to a Chocolate Chip mat. The card base is Pretty in Pink. I stamped the Sanded background onto it multiple times in different directions and then sponged pink around the edges. I used Sticky Strip to adhere, adhese the Chocolate Chip twill ribbon to the pink taffeta. I used the horizontal slot punch to notch the edge of the card for the ribbon to go through. I cut a separate piece of pink taffeta to make the knot, and I added a ribbon slide to the knot. The rub-on is from the retired SAB set. (I tried rub-ons on the celery ribbon, but it was too textured for the rub-on to stick.) I took 3 small flowers from the Pretties Kit and removed them from their stems. (They just slide off.) I smooshed them onto my PIP spot, spread the color with an aquapainter, and heat set them to dry. I put them back on the stems and stuck the stems down into the ribbon seams. I used mini glue dots stacked on top of each other to adhere the flowers to the ribbon.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sanded; Paper: Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink; Ink: Pretty in Pink; Accessories: Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals, Chocolate Chip polytwill ribbon, Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, Love & Happiness rub-ons, Pretties kit, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, horizontal slot punch
Give my ribbon challenge a try and post a link to your card here. Use ISC12 as a keyword if you post to SCS.
Happy stamping!

P.S. I think I should explain the whole adhesed thing. Jaron Winder said at Regionals that he thinks we should say "adhese" instead of "adhere" because we are using adhesive. He said that he told Shelli Gardner that, and Shelli told him he should find another job... He is hilarious!

More from Milwaukee

One of my favorite things about Regional is all of the display boards that they have. I really like that I get to see TONS of projects to get ideas from. They always have a board just for the set that you receive. This is the board for So Much. I think this set is really versatile!
Here is a display board for Live Your Dream from the Occasions Mini. Three of the projects we made used this set. I love it! I'm having a huge debate with myself over whether or not to get this with one of my SAB free sets I earned. (Feel free to give me your opinion: Should I go ahead and get Live Your Dream or wait to see if I like something better from the Preview?)
Tip of the day: Heat set whenever you use craft ink! When I was working on my second swap card, I was covering quite a few stars with craft ink. I always heat set anything that I use craft ink on, and the photo above shows why. The top half of the star has been heat set; the bottom half has not. Heat setting dries the ink on the surface of your project instead of allowing the ink to settle down into it. This means that the color is truer when you heat set. This is especially true of the Soft Subtles for some reason, but as you can see above, it works for any color.

Happy stamping!

Had a blast in Milwaukee!

Milwaukee was awesome! It took Rhonda and me about 7 hours to drive there. We stopped a couple of times along the way, and it rained most of the time. Our hotel, the Hyatt Regency, was very swank, and there was a skywalk connecting it to the convention center. We drove down on Friday. After we arrived, we ordered pizza and garlic cheese bread from a local pizza place. No dieting on this trip! LOL Here we are working hard. (I'm on the left, and Rhonda's on the right, in case you don't know us!) We saw our up-up-upline Sandi and our sideline Lori too. We sat with some really nice ladies from Illinois. The woman who sat next to me knows who I am from SCS and my blog, so now I'm famous! LOL Her SCS name is triplef; I can't remember her real name! Triplef, if you send me your address, I'll RAK you.
We did some great projects. Three of them used Live Your Dream from the Occasions Mini, which I don't have yet. It's a SU conspiracy to get me to buy it! I really like the free set we got. It's called So Much. I wouldn't have bought it before, but I think I will use it a lot.
I swapped 25 of the faux silk card, which only took about 10 minutes! The other 2 cards were for SCS swaps. We did those at lunch. It was so fun to meet some of the other SCSers in person. I met newdemo, s1itcher46, michellewilliams, and GWTW Junkie. I know there were others, but it was all a blur after a while! Kim (s1itcher46) made our nametags, and she has hosted several swaps that I have been in. I gave GWTW Junkie a Scarlett O'Hara button that I had brought along. We GWTW fans have to stick together!

Shelli Gardner wasn't there, but I did get to have my picture taken with Jaron Winder and Lori Olaveson. If you've ever been to an SU event, you know that Jaron is hilarious! I met Lori Olaveson at her first SU regional in Atlanta back in March of 2005. She remembered meeting my mom and me; how cool is that?
I took tons of pictures of the display boards. And all of the projects that we saw demonstrated were awesome! Since there was only one regional instead of the usual two, we had 4 workshop wows from demonstrators. I'm already planning things to try, and hopefully I'll get them done this week!
Saturday night, we had an SCS dinner at John Hawk's pub. Traciac was kind enough to organize it, and JustmeinIN was there along with Mary Ann (I can't remember her SCS name). On Sunday, we drove back in beautiful weather. We stopped for lunch in Eau Claire, and it was 60 degrees! We ate at Fazoli's (YUM!), and again, no dieting on this trip! It was cold and cloudy when we got back to Duluth, though.
Keep checking back for more photos, and hopefully, I'll have some things of my own to show.
Happy stamping!

Milwaukee Swap # 3

Here is my last swap for Milwaukee. I meant to post it on Friday before I left, but I just ran out of time. I totally LOVE how this came out. It's based on a card I made a long time ago using the Pretties kit. I didn't have enough flowers from that for the swap, so I changed it to 3 flowers using the five petal flower punch. It was so simple to make yet looks like it's more. I used the bone folder to shape the leaves and the flower petals.
Regarding my swap # 2, I took Lorien's suggestion and changed the top to just red cardstock, and I just tied a knot in the ribbon and wrapped it around the back. It looked much better after that.
Look for photos from Milwaukee as well as comments from me regarding what a fabulous time Rhonda and I had. I'll be posting as the week goes on. Gotta go finish unpacking and get some laundry done!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Priceless, Fundamental Phrases; Paper: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Cutie Pie DSP; Ink: Bashful Blue, Rose Red; Accessories: Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals, Pretties kit, Ice Circles brads, Rich Regals brads, ticket corner punch, word window punch, five petal flower punch, bone folder
Happy stamping!

Milwaukee Swap # 2

Here is my second swap card for Milwaukee. I only have to make 10 of these (9 for the swap and one for Rhonda!). I wanted to use the bulk buys that SU has made available to us. The chipboard star and the rub-on are from that. I'm still not 100% in love with this one. Something isn't quite right, and I can't put my finger on it. One thing I'm going to change is to make just a knot in the ribbon instead of tying it. I think that will help. I'm open to suggestions, but I need them quickly!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: It's Your Birthday, Priceless, Rough Texture jumbo wheel; Paper: Prints Pack (hostess), Kraft, Night of Navy, Real Red; Ink: Night of Navy classic and craft, More Mustard craft; Accessories: Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon, 1 1/4" square punch, small star punch, On Board Simon Upper chipboard, Anchored rub-ons
Happy stamping!

Milwaukee Swap # 1

First of all, thanks to all of the people who wished me safety in the blizzard. I'm happy to report that the storm was not as severe as predicted. Today, the temperature was in the low 50s and much of the snow has melted! Whoohoo! This weekend, my downline, Rhonda, and I are going to Milwaukee for the Stampin' Up regional seminar. I'm so excited! A weekend away with a friend and free stamps too! We are getting the set So Much, and they give us make and takes too. This will be my 4th regional, and they are so much fun. One of the things I love is that the demonstrators swap cardfronts. I made 25 of the above cards for swapping. This card is just a little different than the card I posted here. I left off the ribbon slide and added the little glittery piece. Making 25 of anything is tedious! I also signed up for 2 small swaps on SCS. They are 9 each, definitely better! I'll be posting those later in the week.
Happy stamping!

I got an award!

I got this great award from Leah at Ink Time. How cool! I have seen this award on other blogs, so I'm very honored to receive it too. Be sure to check out Leah's blog, too. She's got some great stuff on there!Here are the rules for the award: You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language. List the names of the people you chose to receive the award on your blog and link to their blogs. Then go comment on one of their posts to notify them that you have given them this award and link to the post on your blog. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of the person who gave them the award and link to their blog. The Award-winner and the one who has given the award have to show the link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
I'm stopping at 4:
Crystal
Lorien
Dawn -- She has photos from the SU Cruise
Barb
Be sure to check out these great blogs! Thanks for all of the inspiration, ladies!

Saturday Challenge # 11--Spring Flowers

This week's challenge is to make a card with spring flowers. I'm looking at snow, but I'm ready for some flowers. This is my last VSN card. I got 5 different flowers onto this one. They are the fabric flower, flowers stamped onto that, felt flower, flower ribbon slide and flowers on the saffron ribbon.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Simply Said, Boho Backgrounds; Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Cutie Pie DSP; Ink: Bashful Blue; Accessories: Pretties kit, Flower Fusion, Styled Silver hodgepodge hardware, Fairy Tale ribbon originals, word window punch
I had a comment from someone asking if I minded if they CASE a card of mine. My response to everyone: CASE away! I'm very flattered. I CASE people all the time! If I CASE a card without changing much, I try to give credit to the originator.
I also had a comment from someone saying she is going to start a list of projects she has seen on blogs and wants to try. I'll share with you a tip that I gave her. What I have started doing is copying the picture, the web address of where I saw it, and any directions I think I might need later. I save that to a document on my computer. That way, I can see it later without having to try to remember all of the details, and I'm not using a lot of paper and printer ink either.
If you do the challenge, be sure to post a link here, so I can see your great work!
Happy stamping,

Snow Day

Here's the view out my front door today. Yuck! The snow is VERY wet and heavy. We lost power for about 3 1/2 hours during the night, and it went off and on several times this morning. It has really lightened up now. I'm not sure if we are due for another hit or not as 2 of the 3 local stations are off the air right now.
But my office is closed, so I'm planning to do some stamping this afternoon! Whoohoo! Come back tomorrow for the next Saturday Challenge!

What happened to spring???

My area is under a blizzard watch for Thursday night through Friday night. We are supposed to get at least 6-10 inches of snow with 30-40 MPH winds, gusting even higher. Isn't it April??? Good grief!
Well, onto something more spring-like. Here is VSN card # 3. This challenge was to make a tie-dye card using baby wipes. The photo below shows my "ink pad". I wanted to use ribbon, so that helped me choose my colors. Once again the color coach came to my aid, and I chose Bashful Blue, Pixie Pink and Gable Green. I randomly dropped the ink onto the baby wipe and then went back in and filled in all of the gaps with extra ink. I don't do random very well. My former upline gave me the tip to kind of form triangles with the "random" images or, in this case colors. I started with the pink then filled in with the blue and green.
I chose Baroque Motifs for this just because I thought it was so different for this type of project. I'm very pleased with how this turned out! The card base is 8" X 5 1/4" folded in half and mounted onto 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" Pixie Pink. Both the flower brad and the ribbon slide are from the new Hodgepodge Hardware in the Occasions Mini.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Baroque Motifs; Paper: Whisper White, Gable Green, Pixie Pink
Ink: Bashful Blue, Gable Green, Pixie Pink; Accessories: Bashful Blue narrow grosgrain ribbon, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, scallop circle punch, corner rounder punch
Happy stamping!

VSN Challenge Card # 2

I had so much fun with VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) this weekend! You saw the first challenge card for my Saturday challenge. Here's the second one. (Two more to follow!) This challenge was titled Favorite Blue Jeans. The challenge was to make a monochromatic blue card with a bonus if you add texture to your card.
I pulled out all of my blues and chose Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy and Soft Sky for my faded blue jean color combo. For texture, I stamped the Canvas background twice onto my Soft Sky card base, once in Blue Bayou and once in Not Quite Navy. I also used the Faux Linen technique on my focal image. You can see a full tutorial on it here. Basically, you start with glossy cardstock and sand it horizontally and vertically to mimic linen texture. Then you sponge color over it. I sponged with Blue Bayou and then sanded some of the color off. Then I stamped the block stamp in Blue Bayou and overstamped all of the line images in Not Quite Navy. I also used Soft Sky Prints paper. I chose the one with paisley on it because it reminded me of a bandana. The ribbon and buckle are like a belt.
I recommend the Faux Linen technique. It's pretty and can add an aged look to any image.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sweet Shapes, It's Your Birthday, Canvas; Paper: Glossy White, Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy, Soft Sky, Soft Sky Prints; Ink: Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy, Soft Sky; Accessories: sanding block, sponge, Soft Sky ds grosgrain ribbon, Aged Copper hodgepodge hardware

Saturday Challenge # 10

This week's challenge is to color! It can be watercolor, markers, ink or chalk with a blender pen. Just color somewhere on your card. I made this card last night for VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) on SCS. When VSN is going on, challenges are posted every hour, and you have 45 minutes to complete any that you do. There were 6 challenges last night, and it starts again today at noon EDT. The theme is Fashion, and this challenge was called Sketch Designer. The challenge was to use sketch-style stamps. Well, Doodle This jumped right into my head. I love this set, but it's been in the "I've moved on to newer stuff" pile.
I decided that I wanted to use a rhinestone brad for the center, so of course I chose the lavender one! Then I thought that Eggplant would go perfectly with it. I grabbed the Color Coach and chose Old Olive and Pretty in Pink for my other colors.
I cut a 3" square of Confetti White and stamped the big flower in Elegant Eggplant. I used my aquapainter to pull the ink from the stamped outline into the petal. The aqua painter was a little wet, and it kinda melted the center dots. So I went over those with ink and a blender pen. I filled in the dots between the petals with Pretty in Pink and a blender pen. I distressed the edges with the cutter kit and inked them with pink. I mounted that on a 3 1/4" square of Old Olive. I added the rhinestone brad and mounted it with Stampin' Dimensionals. I punched photo corners out of Elegant Eggplant and added paper piercing before attaching them to the main image.
For the card base, I used Pretty in Pink, a rare occurence for me. I stamped a swirl in Old Olive all over the card. I debated about what to add to the bottom and finally settled on Old Olive polytwill ribbon. I used the horizontal slot punch to make a little notch in the folded edge of the card for the ribbon to go through. Then I added "celebrate" from the SAB rub-ons.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Doodle This; Paper: Confetti White, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink; Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink: Accessories: Ice Circles rhinestone brad, photo corner punch, crafters tool kit, cutter kit, Old Olive polytwill ribbon, Love & Happiness rub-ons, horizontal slot punch, aquapainter, blender pen
If you play along, please post a link to your card here. If you post it in your SCS gallery, use keyword ISC10.
Happy stamping!

Saturday Challenge # 9 winner!

va.sunshine on SCS played last week's challenge and made 2 cards. I chose this one to show because I love the celery and black together; just gorgeous! You can see the other very different card that she made here.

Teresa, if you e-mail me your address, I'll send you a card. Thanks for playing!

Wanna See the New In Colors?

If you want to see what the new In Colors will be in the new catty (debuting 8/11/08), click here to see what someone posted on their blog. The lucky, hard-working bigwigs of the SU demo world are on the annual SU trip. This year is a cruise to Bermuda. I can't guarantee the color accuracy of this because another blog posted a picture that looked different. I'm hoping that Baja Breeze will be like Cool Caribbean and Soft Sky!

Sweet and Simple

I made this card for one of the demo challenges on SCS. On Mondays, the challenge is a demonstratable card. This week it was a Simple as 1-2-3 card. That is a card that uses 1 stamp set, 1 embellishment, 2 colors of cardstock (plus a neutral), 3 inks and 3 layers for the main image. ONE EMBELLISHMENT????? That was the hard part. How do you choose just one? Ribbon, brad, ticket corner punch? And what about a background stamp? I figured that designer paper would be an embellishment, so that was out.
I decided on Soft Sky and Basic Gray for my 2 main colors. Then I thought that if I used Heartfelt Thanks, I could throw in Wild Wasabi for ink. I decided to use a green rhinestone brad for my flower center to make the most of my ONE embellishment. I used the circle that would normally be the flower center to make a dotted background in Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi. I am totally anal about spacing; I was going to measure for my dots, but it was too hard so I pretty much eyeballed it. That is a big accomplishment for me!
My card base is 5 1/4" X 8" scored at 4" then mounted onto a 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" piece of Basic Gray. This is a great way to use a white card base but add some firmness to the base as well as a band of color around the outside.
For the main image, I measured the wood block. It is 2" X 3". I kept the cardstock a little longer so I could tear the bottom edge. I decided to mount the white piece onto 2 1/4" Basic Gray to make it pop, then 2 1/2" Soft Sky for the 3rd layer. I tore the edge of the white before adhering it to the Gray and then tore the edge of the Gray before adhering it to Soft Sky. I added the brad and then used Stampin' Dimensionals to give it some, well, you know, dimension!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks; Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Soft Sky; Ink: Basic Gray, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi; Accessories: Ice Circle rhinestone brads, Stampin' Dimensionals
Happy stamping!