STAMPS!

I have a lot of the Stampin' Up! fabric - won an entire pack of the Sew Sweet fabrics, as well as several pieces of the Vintage selection at Leadership.

So, I decided it was time to try the FABRIC ADHESIVE (Item # 122194 $14.95 for 72" long x 11-1/2" wide) on some of it.

As I mentioned before, I used to do a lot of sewing (yes, REAL sewing), but it's been MANY years ago. There was fabric adhesive available then, but I didn't play with it much.

I cut pieces that were about 8" x 6" from all the fabrics. Then I ironed on the fabric adhesive, and ran this thru my Big Shot using the Serif Essentials letter dies.

Here's a photo of some fabric and the adhesive BEFORE I ironed them together.

Please note how shiny the adhesive is - and that I'm going to iron it to the WRONG side of the fabric!

This was easy peasy!


Then I used the Serif Essentials alphabet to cut out the letters for the word STAMP.

After I cut out the letters, I removed the backing from the adhesive and ironed them on to pieces of card stock.

The CS pieces are 2-1/2 square.

I also stamped on the back ground pieces with various sets (Charming and Nature Walk, to name two) before I ironed the letters on to it.


I mounted those on to some Rose Red CS that I put thru the Scallop Square Duo die (Item 120903 frm the Holiday mini, but still available for purchase today!) I used the 3" die - the other one is about 2-1/2" square.

These layer really well with the 4" Scallop Square (Item 115950 in the big catalog).


After I mounted them on the squares, I punched holes in both sides and threaded some of our Victorian Lace through the holes - and, voila! I now have a banner that says "STAMPS".








I also took the negative portions of the letters I cut (I'm so frugal!), and mounted THEM on to some Ivory and Crumb Cake CS. Then, again used the 3" scallop square in Rose Red and mounted these.










Then I used my Rose Red marker and outlined the inside of each letter, so that it would stand out a little more.

I've added some of the Vintage Flower Adornments (Item 121879 in the Occasions mini), which come in Rose Red, Baja Breeze, and Ivory - all colors which were used in the fabric!

And I added some of the teeny vanilla Rosettes (Item 118774, also from the Occasions mini).

I haven't glued anything down yet, but I'm liking what I seeing - What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know!

What else should I add to these? They need some more adornments (but not many more of those from the mini) - so what should it be? Crowns? Keys? Something else entirely?

I decided to let it sit out in the Stampin' Garage, and I'll look at again tomorrow evening. Maybe something will hit me and I'll be off on a tear again, adding those things!

I hope some stamping idea hits you today, too - and that you stop what you're doing long enough to put ink to paper (or other media!) and CREATE!

Thanks for stopping by...

Leadership Cards - 2001 Part Deux

I was very laid back with swaps this time around. Only did one organized swap with 40 cards. I've picked out the best of them to show you in the next couple of days.

I did not notate which cards were made by whom. So, if you see one of your cards on my blog, please let me know so I can give credit where it's due!

I really like this one - I like both the color combo and the design.

The "gray" is actually silver card stock.

The white piece pulls out and becomes a note card!











See - isn't that clever?

This card was made using the Valentine Defined set, and the Love Impressions DSP, along with some ribbon snips (perfect way to use up those "tails" you always have from making square knots or bows!) and both the round scallop punch and the scalloped edge punch.

Simple, but effective!








This one was made using the new cupcake punch from the Occasions mini, along with the large circle punch and Elegant Lines embossing folder.

The designer also used the Glimmer Paper ( The BOMB!) with our very dinky heart punch, and some 5/8" white organza ribbon.

The cupcake has been popped up.






Well, that's all I have to share with you tonight.

I was finally able to get the lawns mowed today, and I guess that Zumba class I've been taking is using muscles I'd forgotten I have, cause I'm hurtin' tonight - time to go rest this weary body!

Thanks for stopping by - come back tomorrow - you just never know when I'll change my mind about what I SAID I was going to post!

Leadership Cards - 2011

I got the photos taken of some of my swaps from Leadership, so for the next few days they'll be the focal point.

There were some beauties, as I would expect.













I just LOVE the color combination of this one. VERY vintage looking. Lots of detail (ribbon, embossed CS, cut out valentine) which creates visual interest to me.

















Love that the greeting on this one is in French. I never buy those sets that aren't in English (cuz I don't speak that language!), but it's nice to see them. Thanks to one of my fellow demonstrators from Canada, I'm sure!


















And this one just knocks my sox off! Everything works so well together and gives off such a Vintage look. I love the look but have yet to achieve it to this degree!

Now I can copy, and maybe I'll figure out what the key is to obtaining the look.

Hope you saw something you enjoyed! Come back!

Some stamped stuff

Well, sorry - busy day - I didn't get the Leadership swaps photographed so I could share them with you.

BUT...

I do have some stamped stuff to share. So, without further ado...


This is the ATC (Artistic Trading Card) that I made for my stamp club ladies' Goody Bags this month.

Made with the Valentine Defined set (Item 121941 - wood), so Whisper White, Pretty in Pink and Read Red cardstock.

An ATC is a specific size: largest piece is 3-1/2 x 2-1/2. The next layer is 3-1/4 x 2-1/4. And the third layer (where the stamping is on this sample) is 3 x 2".


Artistic Trading Cards have been around forever! They were initially samples that an artist could leave as a calling card, if you will. A sample of their work that was inexpensive to give away.

ATCs have been around the stamping world as long as I have. I like them. They ARE a smaller sample of what you, as a stamper, have to offer.

Many times, at various stamping conventions (including Stampin' Up!s), I've traded ATCs - matter of fact, several years ago we sold a book that holds them perfectly.

Before that, I used baseball trading card sleeves to store them so I could look through them more easily.

But the BEST part about an ATC is how easily it layers on to a regular card size!

So, I took a couple of left over ATCs from those I made last night and made these two cards:















For both of them, I embossed the Pretty in Pink CS in the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder and the Big Shot.

Creates a nice texture to the card, doesn't it?

And both cards have small hearts punched from the Glimmer Paper (Item 121790) from the Occasions mini-catalog. The card on the right also has a piece of Glimmer paper cut on the rickrack area of the Tasteful Trim Big XL die we carry. This piece of rickrack was cut from scraps I had left over after punching all those little hearts!

This Glimmer paper is THE BOMB!

I'm NOT a glitter fan - simply because it gets all over everything, including the cats' fur! And I worry about them ingesting it and making themselves sick, or worse yet, getting it in their eyes.

So the Glimmer paper is the answer for me. You get 2 12x12 sheets for $3.95. And I've already gotten about 30 of those small hearts ( and several strips of rick rack) from several 12" x 1-1/2" pieces, which leaves me PLENTY to share with my stampin' friends!

Here's a photo of the Pretty in Pink piece after I embossed it:

Isn't it beautiful? I love ALL the embossing folders - they're fast and easy and they add so much to a card!

And, I also stamped on this piece before I ran it through the Big Shot - I used Versamark, so it's very subtle, but that adds something to the cards as well.


As I've said before, it's the details that make a card stand out in the crowd.


So, do you NEED anything I've shown tonight? If so, give me a holler!

And in the meantime - thanks for stopping by - and keep on stampin'!

Leadership 2011 - Nashville, TN

Last week at this time I was in Nashville, TN for our annual Leadership Conference.

It was AWESOME!

They tend to spoil us at Leadership. Great food, lots of great classes, the opportunity to meet up with other leaders in the company and spend time talking STAMPS! For Stampin' Up! demonstrators, there's nuthin' better!

Here are a few pix - my camera doesn't take very good photos at night, so I'm sure, if you're a stamping blog hopper, you've seen better ones than these. But, they're what *I* have to share, so here goes...

The Manager's Reception was held at the Wildhorse Saloon in downtown Nashville. Manager's Reception is something I look forward to each year - it's special! You have to work hard to earn the opportunity to attend, and they treat us good!

We all got cowboy hats at the hotel while we were waiting for the buses to take us - WHERE? We didn't know!

But we all had to figure out it was going to be something to do with country music - and we were correct!

Here I am, greeting the horse outside the Saloon.




And here's my friend Joanna - doesn't she look natural in that cowboy hat? Maybe it's because she's from Oklahoma???
















I just loved all the horses they had around the place that people could pose with!

There were even horses hanging upside down from the ceiling, but I knew my camera would never capture them, so didn't even try. It was weird to look up and see them, though!

And here are a couple of Stampin' Up! employees, whose job for three days was to pamper us all - and they did an awesome job!

Brian Pilling and Selma.

Brian's a newer employee and is very nice - funny, too! He gave us a great class on a book entitled "Influencer".

And Selma has been around for a long time. What a sweetheart! She used to be in charge of the Make & Takes, and when I had the privilege of helping with those one year, I got to meet her...

You're probably wondering where the STAMPED stuff is from this get-together, aren't you?

Well, I DO have some cards I got in a swap, but I haven't had the time to take photos of them yet! I'll try to get to that tomorrow and post some of them. As always, they're beautiful!

Hey - did you know that SALE-A-BRATION (SAB)starts on Monday, January 25th?

YES! For each $50 in product you purchase, you'll be able to choose a free item from the SAB catalog! And this year there are buttons and ribbons and designer papers and even a DVD with My Digital Studio items!

I'm so stoked about the DVD - I won it at Leadership and can't wait to play around with the images that are on it.

So - I have some openings on my calendar during SAB - call me and book that workshop you've been thinking about doing! I promise - you and your guests will have a lot of fun!

Until then, thanks for stopping by - and keep on stampin'!

Tools - Clear Block Carrier

Hi again!

I was using my clear blocks to stamp thank you cards for my stamp club members tonight and remembered that I'd taken photos of the holder to show you, so I thought I'd share those with you tonight.

It's very difficult to tell how the block holder works from the picture in the catalog. It's a GREAT tool! Look!

Here's the inside as you receive the carrier. You need to punch out the foam in order to insert the actual blocks. The outlines are barely visible, but I think you can see them here.




Here the foam has been removed and the clear blocks inserted. And, look! They've even given us a foam piece to fit between the two sides of the carrier to keep the blocks from scratching each other! They've thought of everything!









And here's the outside. A very sturdy snap holds the carrier closed. It's very easy to carry!

This carrier will accommodate one each of every size block (A thru I) we carry. They're snug when inserted into the foam holders, too, so they won't fall out!

You can find the blocks and the carrier on page 192 in the big catalog. The blocks can be purchased individually, or as a set.

The carrier is small and compact, and easy to tote around, if you so desire.

It's great to have a place to accumulate and carry all the blocks, and not have to worry about losing any of them. Since they are clear, it's easy to lose them anywhere! Most especially on my work bench - ha ha...

Be sure to check it out! If you NEED one, give me a holler!

PEEP!

How are you???

Yes, I'm back - FINALLY!

Life takes us on journeys sometimes and occasionally we lose our way back.

If you've followed me for a while (and it's been QUITE a while since my last post) you may remember that I was having my kitchen remodeled.

I think my last post showed the "sorta" finished kitchen - well, Dr. Destructo's part of the remodel was finished, but mine wasn't. So, I got off on that tangent, finished putting up my cherry and rooster items and then decided it was time to get more active in the garage remodeling.

I was fortunate enough to have several friends (Hi Bern & Anne) volunteer to help me - and I needed it!

I can get on "overwhelm" very easily - too much to do - where DO you start?

So, Bernadette and Anne came down several times and helped just by clearing some of the clutter. I still have the POD in the driveway, so we started stashing the retired stamps and accessories out there so we could get a handle on the things I needed to re-arrange in order to find them and organize them better.

The garage is NOT finished yet, but it HAS been painted - a lovely shade of peach. That was due to the grandson of my friend Susan (thanks Jacob!). He was awesome - he painted the whole thing in three days - moved all the heavy stuff into the middle of the room and then re-taped plaster board and painted. It took two coats of primer and two coats of peach to cover the turquoise that I've been looking at for the past 20 years.

And in moving that stuff into the center and then moving it back to the walls not ONE THING got broken - and he didn't take the time to move much off the benches etc. before moving them!

Wanna see?

This is the color I've been looking at for over 20 years. I'm sure it was lovely when it was first painted. The husband of the couple who owned the house before me used to work on cars in this garage and Jake had his work cut out for him to paint ANYTHING over the greasy handprints that had been left on the walls over time (probably some of mine, as well!).

And here is the color it is today:

MUCH better, wouldn't you say? I really like it. The old paint was flat. This is semi-gloss. I don't think I'd ever paint with flat paint - I like the semi-gloss because it throws more light - and in a two-car garage with very little lighting, you NEED more light!




If you look closely, you can see Jake standing back in the doorway.

Great kid! Good worker, very conscientious - he did a great job for me.

That's my workbench over to the left. That thing weighs a TON and isn't all "glued" together, so it took some doing to move it out from the wall and then back again, without any mishaps.

Here's another view while everything was moved into the middle of the room.

I've gotten some of the Definitely Decorative wall decorations to put up out there, but I haven't finished moving things around enough yet to feel comfortable to put them up.

I got the "Create", "Inspire" and "Share" definitions from the Definitely Decorative catalog, along with the Manhattan flowers collection.

I had the "Create" and Manhattan flowers on the walls before. Since they're vinyl, I debated whether they could be painted over (and maybe resist the paint), but in the end, we decided we'd better remove them, and THEN paint.

They were very easily removed! The flowers came off in about a minute each. The "Create" is made up of quite a few words and had to be removed a letter at a time - that probably took us about 15 minutes.

So, if you've been holding back getting some of these awesome designs because you were afraid you might have trouble getting them off, have no fear - go ahead - put them on your walls, mirrors, doors - whatever! When you're ready to change them out, they can be very easily removed!

Don't have one of the Definitely Decorative catalogs? Leave me a comment or email me and I'll be happy to get one to you!

Well, I'm going to sign off for tonight - don't want to tell you EVERYTHING that's been going on in the past 6 months all at once, you know!

Come back! Next time I promise to show you something that I've stamped while I wasn't posting to my blog.

In the meantime - don't forget Sell-A-Bration (SAB) starts January 25th! For each $50 in product you purchase you can select something from the SAB catalog FOR FREE!

And this year, for the first time, you can select items other than stamps! There's a bundle that has ribbon and buttons in it, another that has die-cut adhesives and Designer paper in it. There's even a Definitely Decorative item that you can get this year!

Thanks for stopping by!