Stampin’ Up Carnival of Stamping #5

Becky uses my favorite color and Always to make a Valentine’s Day card.

Amy decorates doggy treats for charity.

Fiona shows us that you don’t need a brayer to create a lovely skyline.

Sheryl makes a criss cross box with A Little Birdie Told Me.

and

Jan actually uses her Stampin’ Up stamps, and makes a birthday carded with the new striped grosgrain ribbon.

Stampin’ Up Carnival of Stamping #4

So, even though my blog doesn’t show it I have been stamping. I’ve used the new wedding sets to stamp my wedding invitations, a good egg to make two easter cards, and always and one of a kind to decorate target mailboxes. But, with no sleep, and the fact that I’m leaving to visit my fiance today pictures will have to wait till I get back. So Sorry.

But, on a better note here is this week’s Stampin’ Up Carnival!

Dannie combines one of my favorite new sets, One of a Kind, Boho Backgrounds, and the berry bliss designer series paper to make a embossed beautiful card.

Michelle shows of that we can show off our talent in a little space with her Artist Trading Card.

Heather has fun with her Pun Fun stamp set and the new Bali Breeze colors.

Becky uses the Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper and unfrogettable to make the most precious Valentine’s Day card.

And, Sharon shows us how to making a lovely coaster hanging basket.

Stampin’ Up Carnival of Stamping #3

Fran makes a fun Valentine’s card using the Viola set.

Linda stamps on her cupcakes using Time Well Spent and Double Line Doodles.

Julie uses Bitty Birthday to make a preppy birthday card.

Britta uses A Little Birdie Told Me to make a love bird Valentine.

Angie
makes a Time Well Spent Calender.

And, finally my absolute favorite for the week. Veronica designed a circus card just for the carnival of stamping.

Veronica’s card got me thinking. Would people be interested in having a theme for the stamping carnival each week?

A Little Birdie Birthday

So, I got all my new goodies on Friday!!!!!! Just looking at my box of brand new sets has been so much fun. I was busy cutting out cardstock for my wedding invitations today, but I thought I’d post the card I made for my nephew’s first birthday.

Recipe:

Stamp Sets- A Little Birdie Told Me
Paper: Taken with Teal, SU watercolor paper
Ink: Black Staz On
Extras: SU bold bright watercolor crayons, SU buttons, mini glue dots
(all images © Stampin’ Up)

I love the ease of using the watercolor crayons for watercoloring, because it creates a nice soft watercolor look and super quick to do. I also thought it added a little more childish fun to a card for a 1 year old. Once I got done coloring the birdie scene, I mounted it to the left, and put three buttons to the right. This card was super easy and quick.

Stampin’ Up Carnival of Stamping #2

I had so much fun doing last week’s Carnival of Stamping that I thought I’d make it a weekly thing. Here are the projects I had fun looking at this week. Enjoy!

Dannie shows us how to combine a love of chocolate with a love of stamping with her leadership swaps.

Diane takes a plain binder clip and turns it into a photo holder.

Vivian gives herself a color challenge and comes up with a beautiful thing.

Diane explains One Sheet Wonders, and makes a wonderful quilter’s card in the process.

Heather show us her sketch, and uses limited supplies to make a card with Time Well Spent.

Barb uses rubons to create some beautiful home decor.

Michelle teaches us how to make a suspension card.

and

Becky makes a beautiful swap using Mark the Date.

Zoofari meets Celebrate Everything

Zoofari and Celebrate Everything are both great sets that can be used a million different ways. So when I was trying to think of what to make for my nephew’s birthday it seemed like a good idea to combine the two. And, of course using Zoofari means I get to pull out my SU markers and watercolor paper.

Recipe:
stamp sets: Zoofari, Celebrate Everything
Ink: Black Staz On
Paper: Brocade Blue, SU watercolor paper
Extras: Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, mini glue dots, su markers, aquapainter
(all images © Stampin’ Up)

Piling the animals on top of each other is one of my favorite ways to use the zoofari set. I think it ups the playfullness of this set a notch. I colored the animals in using the following SU markers: Bordering Blue, Ballet Blue, Black (journaler), Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, and Chocolate Chip. I then stamped Celebrate down the side, and added a happy birthday sentiment on the inside. I mounted the watercolor paper off to the side, and then tied the pumpkin pie ribbon on the left side. I didn’t tie a bow, because I wanted it to be more boy like. To keep the ribbon from moving around I put some mini glue dots under it.

I love the zoofari set. It’s great for cards and scrapbooks. And, Celebrate Everything is one of the sets you can earn for free by holding a qualifying workshop in January.

Mistakes are a girl’s best friend

So, I am still busy scrapbooking, but this time for my nephew and godson. I am making him a 6×6 album for his first birthday. I know not every scrapper does them, but I love title pages in my scrapbooks. And, this one I made without a single picture.

Recipe:
stamp set: Word on Word, Nursery Necessities
paper: bashful blue, very vanilla, barely banana, and wild wasabi textured
ink: real red craft, fashful blue craft, handsome hunter craft
extras: large star punch, slit punch, sponge daubers
(all images © Stampin’ Up)

I started this design knowing I wanted to use my hostess set, Word on Word, from last fall and make a scallop with the slit punch. I decided to combine the two into the title for this page. The title of this post begins right there. I mount the paper to my page, and I find that I had a smudge of red in the corner so I stamped the small star in each corner, which I think adds more visual interest to the page. Without the mistake I may have missed the opportunity to add something a little extra. My mistakes continued as I carefully punched each star, and inked a letter from the Nursery Letters wheel, and stamped it on to each star. I got each individual letter to stamp by putting masking tape on the area around it and just putting ink on the letter I wanted. But, I must have had a pit of residue on the stamp, because I had a slight watermark of the other letters on my page. I fixed that by sponging (with a sponge dauber) bashful blue craft ink around the star. I didn’t think to do that until I was trying to get rid of the smudge, and it added so much to the page.

And, one more mistake increased my creativity. I went to place the stars on the page, and found they didn’t fit! I had taken all that time and for nothing. Then I thought to line the stars up and overlap them, and cut off the edges of the a and the n. It worked oh so perfectly, and gave me the space to put the little elephants on the bottom of the page.

This page looks nothing like I had originally planned, but I love it so much more. You can earn Nursery Necessities for free by hosting a qualifying workshop in January.

Stampin’ Up Carnival of Stamping

I’ve been doing a lot of blog hopping lately, and am absolutely in love with so many things that my fellow bloggers are doing. So here is my first Stampin’ Up Carnival of Stamping.

First off we have Fran who makes the old new again with her Valentine’s Day card using the Greetings Galore stamp set.

Chris uses one of my favorite new sets from the Spring/Summer catty to make an adorable baby card.

April proves that a free stamp set never gets old. And, if you didn’t get this free set just for being a demo, no worries you can now earn it for free by hosting a workshop!

Get a laugh in with Erin, and learn why ribbon and 1 year olds don’t mix. I see a future stamper in our mix

and

Stacy shows us how to take a cookie sheet, and turn it into a calander.

Hope you enjoy looking at all the cards and projects. I know I did.

Happy New Year!

And, thus begins the start of 2008. I managed to stay up till midnight, and soon after fell fast to sleep. I hope everyone had a pleasant night ringing in the new year.

So what are your stamping resolutions for 2008? Here are mine:

1. Stamp more: One, because you can always find more time to stamp, and because there are so many new goodies in the Spring/Summer catty to play with. I’m also making my own wedding invitations so I’m going to have to stamp more to get them done. What a sacrifice

2. Scrapbook more: Over the next few days I will be making a 6×6 scrapbook for my nephew’s birthday. I also want to continue working on my fiance’s scrapbook, and at some point scrapbook my family’s vacation though the southwest last summer. And, I want to scrap more, because I’ve become addicted to stamping in my scrapbooks. It really allows my scrapbook pages to be one of a kind.

3. Submit to SU contests and publications: One of the reasons I love being a demo with SU is because, they recognize how talented their demonstrators are and they like to show off our work (or should I say play). One way to get your cards recognized as a demo is send in to their monthly contests. Along with bragging rights, you get three free stamp sets if you win! I also want to send my cards to different magazines for publication.

4. Keep my stamping area in organized chaos: I know that doesn’t make sense, but I’d be lying if I said my goal was to have a perfectly clean stamping area. I’m just not that kind of stamper. By the time I’m done stampin my table looks like something has exploded. But, I would like to commit to cleaning up my area each time I finish a card as opposed to letting it stay messy until the next time I go to stamp.

5. Try new things: I really want to take advantage of the tutorials and challenges on splitcoast stampers this year. Learning new things allows me not only to have more fun, but it gives me more techniques to show my fellow stampers. Sketch challenges especially help me broaden my own creativity, and get me thinking out of my own stamping box.

And, lest the New Year start without a newly stamped example here is a page from my fiance’s scrapbook:

Recipe:

Stamps: Wild West Alphabet, Zoofari
Paper: Cutie Pie, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue Craft, Always Artichoke Craft, Chocolate Chip Craft, Black Staz On
(all images © Stampin’ Up)

This page features one of my favorite (at least until I get my hands on all the new designer series papers ) designer series papers, Cutie Pie. The piece of dsp helped me formulate this layout. I wanted the border on the bottom with the title and the journal box, and when I saw my pictures I thought it would be cute to line up my fiance’s picture amongst the zoo animals. I cut the pictures so that they all fit in line together. For the title I punched out cicles, and stamped the letters with the Wild West Alphabet. I love this alphabet! I then took a few of my animals in the Zoofari set, and stamped them along the border and corner of my journal box. And, in just a few minutes I had a fun scrapbook page.

I hope one of your New Year’s Resolutions is turn earn lots of free stamps sets from SU. If it is talk to me about hosting a workshop in Jan. and Feb. to earn free sets!