Amateur Stamper

We have a winner!

2008-11-03T09:46:00.002-06:00

I just finished accessing random.org for a random number to find a winner for the stamp set and card I'm giving away. I was given the number 16, which belonged to Sheila's comment. I have e-mailed her asking her for her mailing address. If I don't hear from her by Wednesday, Nov. 5, 10:30 A.M., I will pick another winner. Congratulations Sheila!

Sheila's favorite holiday stamp set from Stampin' Up! is Deck the Halls, which is part of the Holiday Mini catalog. If you don't know what it looks like and want to see it, click on My Stampin' Up! Site (upper right hand corner of the blog), click on Shop Now and either search for it or browse through the Holiday section. It is very cute, and I actually hadn't paid much attention to it until just now. I just might have to order it! But since it's in the Holiday Mini catalog, I only have until January to order it. Then it will be gone forever (or until/unless Stampin' Up! decides to bring it back in the regular Idea Book and Catalog.)

You might be wondering what my favorite holiday stamp set is. I have only purchased two sets, plus the Country Living Holiday Collection Stampin' Kit. I bought Snow Swirled (in the Idea Book and Catalog) and Season of Simple Grace (in the Holiday Mini Catalog.) I really like both of these sets. I love snowflakes, so Snow Swirled was a given. And I wanted a set that reflected the birth of Jesus, which is the real reason for celebrating Christmas. You can scroll down a few posts to see the candles I stamped using Season of Simple Grace. I have a couple cards in the works with Snow Swirled, but they're not ready to post yet. I haven't had a chance to do anything with the Country Living kit yet, but I'm super excited because I love making ornaments, and this kit has so many possibilities for that (as well as cards, gift tags, and even garland.) It has everything I need, even down to ink, glitter, and ribbon! And it's an incredible bargain for everything that's provided in it! And now anyone can buy it. So go on over to My Stampin' Up! site, check it out, and fall in love with it like I have!

Giveaway Time!

2008-10-28T15:43:00.005-05:00

I've been thinking about doing a giveaway for a little while and was trying to decide when. Well, I found out that there are all sorts of giveaways happening now connected with the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Giveaway Carnival. Click on the link to see the plethora of freebies! I have chosen to get involved with that. So what am I giving away, you may ask? It's this fabulous stamp set by Stampin' Up!, Greetings Galore! It is brand new and has been mounted and ready to go for you to get creative. I am also including the kindness card I made for a challenge. And if I'm feeling super generous when I get ready to mail the prize, I may just get a flat rate box and put in all sorts of other card making/scrapbooking/collage/assemblage goodies.

Here are the details for entering:

1. For U.S. residents only.

2. Check out the fabulous Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book and Catalog from Stampin' Up! If you don't have a copy of your own, you can click over to the site if you click on My Stampin' Up! site in the upper right hand corner of this blog.

3. Leave a comment with which Holiday set is your favorite. You can find the Holiday section on p. 25-47 of the catalog.

4. You will receive an extra entry if you click on My Stampin' Up! site and request my newsletter.

5. You will receive 10 extra entries if you make an online purchase at my Stampin' Up! site.

6. Please make sure you have a valid e-mail address listed somewhere in your comment (or link to your blog) so that I can contact you.

7. I will use a random number generator to find a winner around 10:00 A.M. (EST) Monday November 3. I'll be working all weekend and won't have a chance until then.

8. I will e-mail the winner to request a mailing address and post it here. If I don't hear from the winner within 48 hours of sending the e-mail, I will draw another winner.

My first ever challenge-WSC63

2008-10-26T17:32:00.003-05:00

I just completed my first challenge! I've been seeing all sorts of wonderful creations, and I decided to join in. I really liked Beate's weekend sketch challenge #63. Here is what I came up with.

I've been working all weekend, but I was thinking of what I wanted to do all through yesterday and today. I had various ideas, but as always, the card didn't go in the direction I was first thinking. I used the Parisian Summer DSP along with Pink Pirouette and Bravo Burgundy. I used my marker to get just "kindness" from the Heard from the Heart stamp. I had the perfect size scraps to work with the Bird and Blooms Sizzlit. After I had everything done and was working on putting the layout together, I realized that I would have the burgundy flower on burgundy paper. To help it stand out, I added the dots with my white gel pen and mounted it with dimensionals. With this being my first challenge, I am quite pleased with how it came together. I really like this layout.

My first Christmas ornament of the year

2008-10-24T09:39:00.002-05:00

I LOVE Christmas! I love everything about it, from the reason we celebrate it (the birth of Jesus, my Savior) to the decorating, spending time with friends and family, eating, giving gifts...all of it! And I especially love a homemade Christmas. So this is the first Christmas ornament that I have made this year. I found some great glittery felt at my local fabric store and immediately saw snowflakes. I took it home to my Sizzix snowflake #2 die and ran it through the machine. I wanted it stable, so I then took a piece of thicker cardstock (what comes with the DSP) and ran it through also. I stamped the greeting from Snow Swirled with Ballet Blue onto Bashful Blue cardstock, covered it with two-way glue, and then poured Dazzling Diamonds over the glue. I brushed a lot of the glitter off so that the greeting could still show through easily. I added a couple beads from the Pretties kit to some jewelry wire and twisted that around the bottom of the snowflake. I wasn't quite satisfied with it until I added the bling. Now I love it!

Card to welcome Shelle to Youth Haven-with my new "technique"

2008-10-21T15:55:00.004-05:00

I created this card for the lady who is the new program manager here at Youth Haven. We are having a welcome dinner and pantry shower for her tonight. She gave us a list of pantry items that she uses, and us staff are giving here some of those items. This is the card that I made to include in that package. I stumbled upon the "technique" for it by accident when I was doing some stamped candles last week. I noticed that after I stamped on the tissue paper, some of the ink "leaked" through onto the scrap paper I had underneath. I thought it might look cool to "leak" onto a card. So that's what I did. I used flower images from Eastern Blooms with Pink Passion, Pumpkin Pie, and Ballet Blue. I placed my card underneath tissue paper and stamped onto the tissue paper. The look is similar to stamping off, but just a bit different. What do you all think? The sentiment is from Refuge and Strength. I attempted to die the white grosgrain with ballet blue, but I'm not quite satisfied with how it turned out. I guess I'll have to practice some more.

A special thank you gift

2008-10-14T17:10:00.003-05:00

I created a thank you card and gift set for each of two of my friends, Abby and Joy. On Sunday afternoon (when it was a beautiful Indian Summer day), they washed my car. I was with them when they decided they were going to wash their own cars. I told them I didn't have the energy to do anything with mine, but that I would come outside and enjoy the day with them. They told me they would wash it for me. So I sat and read and watched them go above and beyond normal car washing. My heart filled with gratitude as they washed it, vacuumed it, cleaned and conditioned the vinyl, and cleaned the windows. I was extremely blessed by them doing all that for me. So here's what I did for them. I combined scallop square punches to make larger mats for the thank you sentiment. The So Saffron DSP (from Parisian Summer) is edged in So Saffron ink. And I added paper piercing on the bottom. I love paper piercing! When I need a little something extra but don't want to do something that could overwhelm the card, I add paper piercing. I did candle stamping with the bird from the Always set (one of my favorite images!) and a couple York patties with the flower from Always and more Parisian Summer DSP.

Gonna try this tomorrow

2008-10-13T21:00:00.002-05:00

I found a cute idea tonight as I was blog hopping. But since I'm going to bed soon and done crafting for the night, I'll have to try it tomorrow. It's a little pouch (created by Buffy) made with two of the scallop envelope dies. Here's the link for you to see for yourself. The other projects in the post are great, but this is the one that stuck out to me. Enjoy!

Found a Great Freebie!

2008-10-12T23:02:00.002-05:00

When we post pics to our blogs, we want them to look the best, right? And a great tool for that is Photoshop, right? And lots of us don't have the money for that software, right? Well, here's your chance to win Photoshop Elements 7! No, I'm not giving it away. But the ladies at The Secret is in the Sauce are. Click on this link to find out more and enter yourself.

Just wondering?

2008-10-12T21:42:00.002-05:00

I just checked out my blog and found that someone from Francesville, IN was on here today. That's the small town that neighbors my even smaller home town (Medaryville.) So it could have been my mother (although I don't remember if I told her I started this blog) or someone just browsing. If the person from Francesville comes back and reads this, could you please leave a comment? I would love to know who you are.

Parisian Summer Thank You Cards

2008-10-09T11:17:00.007-05:00

One of the ladies I work with asked me to make her some thank you cards. She is paying me quite well for them. I asked her, "Do you want them simple, elaborate, or in between?" She went with in between, and these are what I came up with. I used the retired Much Appreciated set, as well as Say it with Scallops and the Curly Label bundle. I just got my Parisian Summer DSP and wanted to use that. I used Very Vanilla for the base and took Pink Pirouette and Bravo Burgundy from the pattern of the flowered paper. The So Saffron plaid print is the reverse of the flower print. I hope she likes them as much as I do! If you have any questions about the details of any of the cards, please ask! And if you've fallen in love with Parisian Summer or any of the other supplies used on these cards, click on the "My Stampin' Up! site" link at the top right of this page and you can shop till you drop without even leaving your house!

Workshop WOW!

2008-10-08T11:58:00.002-05:00

I had my first workshop last night. It was with the ladies I work with. We had a great time, and it was about more than just trying to get them to buy Stampin' Up! from me. The fellowship was wonderful, and we bonded with each other a bit more. One of my demonstrations was on how to do the stamped candle (see this post for more info.) They absolutely LOVED it! It's so amazing, yet so easy. Even the lady who says she gets stressed out when trying to make cards said she wanted to make the candles. If any of you are trying to come up with something to demo at your workshops, do the candles!

Cards for Youth Haven

2008-10-01T12:57:00.003-05:00

The receptionist at the camp I work at is so good about organizing everyone to sign cards for people. We send tons of cards out each year to various people for various reasons. I wanted to make some for Nancy to use. I ordered Always in my Thoughts specifically for these cards as many of the sentiments are appropriate for Youth Haven's needs. I stamped the flower image in Basic Black classic ink on Whisper White and then colored it. I used So Saffron and Yoyo Yellow markers for the flowers, then the blender pen and Kiwi Kiss ink for the leaves and blender pen and the other current In Colors for the pots. I used the paper piercing template around the image and matted it on pieces of In Color cardstock. I stamped the sentiments in the In Colors on Whisper White, cut them out, roughed the edges with my fingernail, and then ran the edges over the ink pads. The "birthday wishes" sentiment is from the Wow Flowers set. I hope these will be a blessing to the people who will receive them. Now I need to make some that are appropriate for men.

I love this technique!

2008-10-01T12:43:00.003-05:00

I've seen several stamped candles on Splitcoast Stampers. There's a wonderful tutorial, and the project is super easy. I made my first one yesterday. After the practice candle, I made this set using Stampin' Up!'s Season of Simple Grace that is in the Holiday Mini (which customers can begin ordering from today!) Here's what I did:

1. I stamped the images on white tissue paper using Riding Hood Red classic ink.

2. I cut the paper close to the images and placed them on the candles where I wanted them.

3. I wrapped wax paper around the candles and images, making sure it was long enough to hold the excess like a handle.

4. I used my heat embossing gun to "melt" the paper to the candles. I knew they were done when I could no longer see the tissue paper.

I also made a gift bag using a purse I found at the Dollar Tree this summer. The handles and lining match Riding Hood Red perfectly. It had a bow on it that I did not like, so I easily cut it off. Then I rubbed my ink pad over it.

So easy, so fun, such a great gift idea! Enjoy!

Want some FREEBIES straight from Stampin' Up!?

2008-09-30T17:11:00.002-05:00

I just found out about this:

Stampin’ Up! is looking for 400 stampers and crafters who are willing to participate in a market research panel discussing stamping and crafts. In exchange for their participation, Stampin’ Up! will send panelists a free goodie box of stamping and/or crafting products every three months .

If you would be interested in applying to be on this panel, you can apply at www.stampinup.com/survey or at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OpzLYJfyTXkrsSgkiA1Luw_3d_3d

More information for you:
• Stampin’ Up! uses feedback for research only and does not share answers or personal information with anyone else.
• Stampin’ Up! will not contact you and ask you to purchase anything, or attempt to recruit you to be a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.
• Panel members can expect to participate in the panel for at least six months. The panel is occasionally refreshed to gain new insights as well as allow others the same opportunity.
• There is no cost for to participate in the panel.
• Your only duty as a panel member is to answer surveys. Surveys typically take between five and ten minutes to complete.
• The frequency of surveys can vary depending on the research needs of Stampin Up! Panel members will receive no more than one survey a week, but typically should expect to receive one or two surveys a month.
• You can quit the panel at any time.
• You will be selected to join and notified via email if your background matches Stampin’ Up!’s research needs.
• You must live in the United States or Canada to be on the panel.
• You must complete at least 80% of the surveys sent to you to receive a goodie box.
• Stampin’ Up! demonstrators are not eligible to be on the panel.More detailed information about the panels can be found at www.stampinup.com/survey.

So if you're interested in FREE stuff directly from Stampin' Up! hurry on over.

Fun with Say it with Scallops

2008-09-23T09:41:00.004-05:00

I made a card for fun yesterday. I've seen various cards using four scallop squares in the Splitcoast Stampers gallery, and I wanted to try one as well. I wasn't planning on a square card, but that's what happened. It is 4 1/4 inch square. I used the Hi from Say it with Scallops and stamped it in Pink Pirouette on Whisper White. I then punched it out with the square scallop punch. I punched three other squares, two from Baja Breeze DSP, and one from kraft DSP. Those went onto chocolate chip, which was then layered with Baja Breeze, and finally placed on Pink Pirouette. I think I might demo it at my next workshop. I really want to expose people to the Ronald McDonald House set. It's a great organization, and I know people who have benefited from having a place to stay while their child was in the hospital. Enjoy!

Birthday Card for Heather

2008-09-23T09:23:00.004-05:00

On Sunday we celebrated my friend Heather's birthday. The funny thing is that her birthday isn't until January. But her husband's birthday is in September. They decided they wanted to switch birthdays this year to be able to celebrate in different seasons. Heather really wanted to have a bonfire (which isn't practical in Michigan in January) and Rick really wants to play pond hockey (which is impossible when the pond isn't frozen in September.) So they switched, and I made a card for Heather. I used the daffodil image from the Always in my Thoughts set and colored it in. For the flowers, I used a combo of So Saffron and Yoyo Yellow markers to get a color that I wanted. Then I used the blender pens and ink from the lids of Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze for the leaves and pot. The flower in the build-a-brad is from the Always set. I also framed the image with paper piercing (which is one of my favorite techniques!) On the inside of the card is a 1 1/4 inch punch of the Wow Flowers Happy Birthday on Baja Breeze. I am pleased with how it turned out, especially since I made it in the midst of working a weekend as the cook at the camp I work at. Enjoy!

Trying again!

2008-09-23T08:55:00.006-05:00

I was working on a post last week, but my pics weren't loading. I saved the post, or so I thought. When I went to edit it today, the only thing that was saved was the first sentence. I really don't remember what I wrote, so I'm basically starting over. The pics (as long as they load) are of two candy boxes that I made using Stampin' Up!'s Big Shot machine and exclusive scallop envelope die. I found the idea on Splitcoast Stampers, and I used Whoopsie Daisy's tutorial, linked here. The boxes and candy are going to be used as door prizes at my next workshop. The first one is using Whisper White and Baja Breeze with the Always stamp set. The second is using Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, and Riding Hood Red with the Priceless and Refuge and Strength sets. I used the small flourish from Priceless for the sides of the box. Enjoy! And if you've fallen in love with this project and need the Big Shot or the scallop envelope die, visit my Stampin' Up! site and order it online.

First Post!

2008-08-16T10:07:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my Stampin' Up! blog!

Today I would like to share with you a project that I made for the young woman who was my kitchen helper all summer. I am the food service manager for a camp in Michigan, and Amanda worked tirelessly for me. I found a free-standing photo album at the Dollar Tree and decided to alter it and insert some of my favorite quotes and Scripture instead of photos. I thought the closest Stampin' Up! color to the album was Real Red. I looked on Splitcoast Stampers color challenge to find a color combo I wanted to use with Real Red. I decided upon Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Green Galore with Whisper White as a base. I used the Always stamp set along with the punches plus embossing template, mat pack, circle scallop punch and scallop border punch (brand spankin' new!) Armed with those tools, a few build-a-brads, stamps, cardstock, ink pads, and Stampin' Write markers, I set out to create 24 pages for the album. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, yet fun. I am pleased with how it turned out.

I have yet to acquire a watermark. Please know that all images are copyright Stampin' Up!

This is the cover of the album. I love the build-a-brads! I did faux stitching on the top. You will notice some rick-rack on the bottom of the album. That is not a Stampin' Up! item. I wanted to use some of my stash.

The "flower" was created using the scallop border punch on a small square piece of paper-one of those happy accidents. I created the rick-rack look using the edge of the punches plus embossing template.

I love how I created the look of flower petals simply by drawing lines on the punched circle scallop.

I also made this card to go along with the gift. It's a purse card, and I used a card I found at the Dollar Tree as a template. The ball chain came with the card. I used the mat pack to do the circles on the band-simply coloring circles using the eyelet placement guide.