Popcorn Shaker

I have one last shaker card to show you, are you sick of shaker cards yet?  No! Me either!!!  This one is super cute!  Going along with the money theme and what are some unexpected things you can put in shaker cards I came across this idea, popcorn kernels!  Ahhh!! So cute!!!  I used some circle punches to create a cluster of circles to somewhat resemble popcorn (after it pops).  This I filled each window with some popcorn kernels.  So cute!!!!  

I made a custom greeting with our Brushstroke Alphabet.  This is of course the perfect card for the mom to be in your life but you could use this card and change up the greeting to another fun 'Pop' pun. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Money Shaker

While creating examples of lots of different shaker cards for my class this idea popped into my head and I loved it.....well mostly...we'll get there.  I thought how cute would a shaker card that had some cash in there be for a new graduate or maybe some newly weds??  I had to create it.  The card is really cute!  I did end up taking it apart and re-doing because originally I had the money just folded in there shaking around, which worked but you couldn't read the celebrate so I took the card apart and rolled the bill and secured it with some metallic thread.  
Since this was just an example I used a $5, I think if I were using this for a gift I used 2 or 3 bills, maybe different demoninations.  You could even put a gift card in there.  Now I do LOVE this card and love the idea....until.....I realized the card would need to be ripped apart to get the money out.  Now for me....I don't so much mind that, however during the creation of it I had some alternative ideas of some 'trap doors' that I might try and work out.  IF I get one working I'll make sure to share it and the directions here :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Valentine's Shaker

You guys did you know we're only a couple weeks away from Valentine's Day!?!?!  I know scary huh?  Luckily for me I have this cute shaker card ready to go. This one is fun because the window goes through the entire card front  Really cute!  I used some of the window sheets that came in the December Paper Pumpkin.  The window sheets come printed so they're really fun to use for shaker cards.  

I love the pink card with the red sequins.  They're very traditional Valentine's Day colors.  I love the small pop of glimmer paper under the greeting and all the sparkle on this card!!!  Who wouldn't want to get this card on Valentine's Day!?!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Shaker Cards

Last night was my Advanced Stampers Technique Class, this time we learned all about shaker cards.  I LOVE shaker cards!  They're so much fun to receive, they're fun to give and of course they're fun to make!  Once you get that first shaker card out of the way, you'll be making shaker cards all the time!!   These were the two make and takes that we made.  They're pretty simple, as the class was more to learn the basics and tips and tricks of a shaker card.  The birthday balloon one is super cute though!!! 

And who doesn't love this monster!!!?!?!  He's so stinking adorable.  I love that the sequins shake around in his tummy!!!  So fun!!!  I colored him with some ink and blender pens, which leaves a fun fur like look.  I also think he'd be really cute to stamp on some DSP and then cut him out. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Meeting Make and Takes

At my meeting last week I provided a couple of make and takes.  Here they are.  This first one is made with the Designer Tee Sale-a-Bration set and the T-Shirt framelits in the Occasions catalog.  I really love how simple and cute this card is.  You could easily customize this card for any stamper friend and use their favorite colors!  

The next one is a fun and quick one that would be easy to mass produce if you need a bunch of birthday cards.  Again this one could be customized to any color too, black goes with anything!  I have a class tonight on Shaker Cards!  I'm super excited!  I'll have lots of shaker card samples to share this week!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Just Keep Swimming and Ombre Pads

Another product and or technique that I wanted to share at my meeting last week was our Ombre Pads and the Just Keep Swimming stamp set.  I think that our Ombre pads can easily get looked over.  When I saw this stamp set, then found out that they were sized perfectly for our Ombre pads I knew I had to share it!  

Our ombre pads are pretty great to get multiple shades of one image on a larger stamp, but these smaller stamps are the perfect match for them.  When you look at the top of an ombre pad there are essentially 5 small ink pads that make one ombre pad.  Flip it over and you'll see 5 tabs on the bottom of the pad.  Did you know you can take out each individual color?  For these mini notecards that's exactly what I did.  I used the Bermuda Bay pad for this one.  For the base of my monster I used the lightest shade.  I popped out the color inked up my monster and stamped him.  For his fur I used the second color in the pad, for his eyes I used the 4th.  Two step stamping has never been easier.  No more stamping on scratch paper to get lighter shades.  No more searching for 3 different ink pads that work together.  It's all in one pad! 

Popping your ink pads in and out can get slightly messy, so if you don't want to do that, these images are sized to fit in each divided color on the pad.  Just simply line up the stamp with the shade you want.  These fish were done in the Peekaboo Peach pad.  

These yummy looking macarons were done with the Rich Razzleberry pad and they were so quick and easy with only one pad!  I also colored each macaron top and bottom with the Clear Wink of Stella to give it some shimmer!  To get these mini note cards I simple cut one of our white note cards in half so instead of a 5x3.5" note card I have a 2.5x3.5" note card.  They're such a fun cute size, a whole stack of them would be a really cute gift for a friend!  

This stamp set is also really cute on a note card that hasn't been cut in half.  For the gummy bears I used my Rich Razzleberry, Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay pads.  If by chance you've looked over the Ombre pads that we carry, give them some more thought.  They're really versatile and fun to use!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Watercolored Popsicles

If you didn't check out yesterdays post make sure you check it out for the details on getting a really awesome watercolor wash look using our new Watercolor Pencils.  I decided instead of using the wash pieces for a background I would cut them up and use them for pieces of my card.  I made a wash with 3 colors, Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo.  Since I was cutting them out I just used one piece of paper.  It's ok if the colors blend a little I think that works with the whole watercolor look.  

Before I cut them out I let the paper dry completely.  Then I covered the paper in Versa Mark and Clear Embossing Powder.  I wanted a shiny, glossy look to my popsicles.  Then I used some framelits from the Frozen Treats collection and cut them out.  I also cut out the sticks for them.  They're so cute and because they're watercolored it gives them a fun texture.  These are just a few of many ideas that you can do with out watercolor pencils!  

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Watercolor Pencil Wash

Watercolor washes are very trendy right now, I'm here to break the news to you that you don't need a bunch of paints or paint brushes to get a watercolor wash look.  I did this really pretty Melon Mambo background with nothing but a piece of watercolor cardstock, a Melon Mambo Watercolor Pencil and an aqua painter.  That's it, 3 tools.  I started on the bottom of my cardstock and colored a really heavy layer of the pencil. Then I took a really wet aqua painter, and started where it was darkest and brushed back and forth. Pulling color down the whole sheet of cardstock as I went.  Where you've colored will be darker, the more water you add and the more you pull it down the lighter it will get. 

I let it dry completely then came back in with the pencil again and colored in a few spots that I wanted more color.  And I blended it all in with the aqua painter.  Getting the right amount of pencil to water might take a little practice but this is so much fun and I love the finished result! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

You're Hot

I had a meeting with my downline and fellow demonstrators last night.  Prior to the meeting I asked what they would like to know more about.  They all wanted to see samples with the new Watercolor Pencils.  Well I'm a big fan of them so of course I brought those to make some cards.  I have 3 cards to share with the watercolor pencils, I'll share them the rest of the week so keep checking back.  Today I have this super cute card!!  I was completely inspired by Mindy's card here.  She's super talented and this card was too cute not to create myself!!!!

The watercolor pencils are so fun and they blend so easily!  To color the mitt I used a pencil and added color to the bottom and a little on the sides.  I used an aqua painter to pull and blend the color.  It really is just that simple!  I love to use our Shimmery White paper to watercolor on, our Watercolor paper is also a good choice.  I love the results.  But you can do so much more than just color an image with them....check back tomorrow! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Sale-a-Bration Stamp Camp #2

Yesterday I shared the first 3 cards from the Sale-a-Bration stamp camp.  Today I share the last 3.  I cannot stop embossing this Thank You.  I just love it and love it even more embossed!!

This chicken is so cute!!  and think outside the box when it comes to adding color to your chickens.  Instead of coloring we stamped the chicken on some DSP and cut it out.  It's a fun and simple way to add color! 

Finally, I love this hot air balloon card!  So pretty but easy to mass produce a bunch if needed! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Sale-a-Bration Stamp Camp #1

I had my Sale-a-Bration Stamp Camp over the weekend and I had a great time.  My guests this month got to make 6 cards using all new Sale-a-Bration and Occasions Catalog items, here's the first three cards that they got to make.  This little truck is just the cutest!!!!!  I love it colored in softer colors like this one! 

This little monster sure is cute!  This is the cutest card to give to just about anyone!  Not only does it use the new Just Keep Swimming stamp set but the DSP and Ribbon are free choices during Sale-a-Bration!

This is the sweetest ice cream card!!!!  I love how fun and yummy this cone is!!!  I'll share the other 3 cards tomorrow, check back!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Cereal-sly Delighted

Tomorrow is my Sale-a-Bration stamp camp!  I'm super excited!  It's one of my favorite events of the year!  You guys know that I love to make little treats for my guests at my classes, here's the super cute gift they'll get tomorrow.  I got a bunch of those little cereal boxes and wrapped them in our new Carried Away DSP.   

I added a cute wooden spoon just to make it completely adorable.  I also printed out a bunch of tags that read "I'm cereal-sly delighted that you you're here!" So cute!!!  These would make adorable class Valentine's or even just have a few on hand to give out to friends or co-workers!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!! 

Wobbly Balloon

This card was so much fun to make, plus it's a movement card and I think you guys know how much I enjoy cards that move, plus it's a rainbow, PLUS it's full of glitter, I had to!  I squeeled with delight when I made this card!  I love it soooo much!!!!  The balloon was a little more time consuming than I thought it would be but that was my own fault I kept adding to it so it made the drying time multiply.  The balloon was originally white with the rainbow colors.  The white didn't look right so I cut another one out of black, but I'm getting ahead of myself......after I adhered all the colors to the back of my white balloon I thought it needed something extra so I covered every open spot (not the white cardstock, just where the color was showing through) with some of our Fine Tip Glue, this makes it shiny, then I sprinkled just a few pinches of Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the wet glue, this makes it shiny AND sparkly!  Obviously this all had to dry, I ended up leaving it overnight, it didn't take that long but you know I have tiny humans that live in my house and they demand attention too ;)  When I came back to it the next day I really hated the white, I wasn't going to start over because I loved everything else.  I cut another balloon from black cardstock and that looked better....all but the basket.  So I cut ANOTHER balloon from Crumb Cake for the basket.  After everything was attached together with more of our Fine Tip Glue Pen I was super happy with my balloon!!!!
With the addition of the black it almost looks like stained glass which is pretty darn cool!!!!  After 27 hours (not really) of work into the balloon I couldn't just stick it on a card.  I remember that I had some wobbly springs that I got from a big box craft store a long time ago.  I dug them out and added to the card on a spring.  The spring makes the balloon wiggle around.  SO. FLIPPIN'. CUTE.  With the wobbly balloon I didn't think I needed to do much else with the card so I stamped a greeting and added some sequins (obviously it's now impossible for me to make a card without sequins, I'm kind of addicted!).  This is such a fun card!  I just love it!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Panara Bread Class

Today is my Panara Bread class.  I really love these classes.  I love meeting new potential stampers, seeing friends that stop by to chat and stamp plus it gets me out of the house.  If you stop by Panara today these are the two cards you'll be making. 

They're pretty simple, but really cute for a beginner and perfect to sick in the mail for a friend.  So how do you make them.  Well here's the details on my Panara Class.  It's Today! Wednesday January 11, 2017 9am-10:30am at Panara Bread in Albuquerque, NM at I25 and Jefferson.  You can make two simple cards for only $5.  If you miss this month, don't worry I do it every month.  Plan to stop by next month!

Thank for looking, see you soon!!!

Let Love

This card was an evolution.  It has so many elements to it that I wasn't sure about and all together took me about 4 days to make.  I love the final card but it's not at all how I envisioned it to be.  Let's start with the heart border on the right.  By the way, for this card I used framelits from the Love Notes framelits.  I didn't get the coordinating stamp set with it because I don't do a lot of Valentines stamping so I didn't think I'd use the stamp set, I'm kinda regretting that now.  Mostly because if I had bundled it I could have saved, now I'll have to get the stamp set separately.  Lesson learned, when there's a bundle, just get it! Back to the heart border.  This was one of the framelits that sold me.  I just love that perfect row of hearts.  I actually cut it twice.  Once on the card base and once in Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper.  I used an xacto knife to cut the center of the glimmer hearts so that the Blushing bride ones show through.  The framelit cuts most of the heart I really just had to do the points on the top and bottom.  That part of the card was complete and I was happy with it.  At this point I had also cut a tiny envelope from the framelits along with a couple of hearts.  It wasn't working as I envisioned so I set the card base aside and decided I would come back to it.      

A couple days went by and nothing was really speaking to me about the cardbase but I decided to give it another try anyway.  I decided to start over and forget about the other pieces that I had cut and cut another heart.  This one is really cool and graphic looking.  I knew I would use a sponge dauber to add a little color to it and I was afraid it would be too delicate on it's own so I cut 4 of them and adhered them all together.  Once it was all dry I used a sponge dauber and some Blushing Bride ink to give it a subtle ombre look.  Things were starting to come together I was really happy with it.  Then I put the heart on the white cardstock.  It just looked too plain. I added some color with a sponge dauber, but that was too much.  To tone it down a little I used a piece of vellum and that provided the right translucent-ness to still let the heart pop but not look so bold.  I added some pops of black with the sequins, paper and thread and I was finally happy with the result of the card.  This card was a huge process, and I know I say it all the time but when things aren't going as planned, let it sit and come back to it.  You never know what might spur creativity! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!

Watercolored Pencil Background

I've had a hard time putting down my watercolor pencils. You guys they're pretty amazing!  Even if you don't think you're a watercolorer I promise these pencils will change your mind.  I pulled out some watercolor paper for this technique because I knew I'd be using lots of water. I started with a pencil and a ruler. I blocked off 1 inch sections horizontally and then I marked 1 inch sections vertically.  Then I created triangles in those blocks.  I erased the lines I wouldn't need an left the triangles.  Then I picked what colors I wanted in what order, counted the triangles and divided the colors evenly among the triangles.  Now I did this, because well, that's how I do it.  You could skip this 40 minutes of your life and just watercolor. 

Once I knew what colors were going where, I took my pencils and colored the longer horizontal part of the triangle (for some that was the bottom for some that was the top).  I knew I wanted that part to be the darkest on each triangle so that's where I colored.  I used an aqua painter and working with one triangle at a time.  I pulled the color from the bottom up to the point of each triangle.  Now initially I wasn't happy with it, especially since at this point I had invested a good hour+ into this card, so I decided to press on.  I'm glad I did!  The final look is really starting to grow on me, I love it more and more every time I look at it.  Especially with watercoloring, press on with your project.  Watercoloring especially tends to look not so great when wet.  If you're not liking the look, let it dry and come back to it.  You could end up pleasantly surprised!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

World Of Thanks Stamp Set Of The Month

Our background stamps are so versatile that I wanted to feature on in my stamp set of the month.  This month when you purchase the World Of Thanks set you'll get a kit to make these 3 cards free!!! 

This is a fun set because you can use it as a fun background....

...or just color pieces of it to create the card you want.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Cool Treat-YUM!

If you're a fan of ice cream you're going to need this set on your wish list!  These images are good enough to eat!!! This card started out as something entirely different but ended up as a shaker birthday card.  Which is just adorable!!!!!  Some of the elements for this card came from the December Paper Pumpkin.  I used the gray DSP on the side and the printed window sheet from the Paper Pumpkin kit.  The sequins inside the shaker frame are also from a past Paper Pumpkin kit.    

The greeting is embossed in Gold Embossing Powder and the ice cream cone is cut out using some of the Frozen Treats Framelits.  I covered the cone in some Wink of Stella Glitter Pen then I covered it in our Fine Tip Glue pen for a glossy finish.  So cute!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!! 

New Occassions and Sale-a-Bration Catalogs!

Today is the day!!!!  I'm so excited these products are finally going live!  There are amazing new products in these catalogs!!!  You can check them all out and start shopping today at my website here.  Shop using hostess code SJVQNM3C and get a free gift from me!

If you want to see and use some of these products in person, there's still time to sign up for my Sale-a-Bration stamp camp, but hurry time is running out to reserve your spot!
January 14, 2017, 9:30am
Sale-A-Bration and Occassions Catalog Stamp Camp
St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Albuquerque, NM
It’s that time of year again! Let’s Sale-a-Brate!!! Sale-A-Bration is Stampin’ Up!’s biggest promotion of the year, with every $50 you spend (before tax and shipping) you get to choose a FREE Sale-A-Bration product!!!! This year will be better than ever!!! Join me at my stamp camp to make 6 amazing cards using ALL NEW Sale-a-Bration and Occassions Catalog Products! This will be your first chance to use and buy new products!!! You won’t want to miss this class!!!! This class is $20 or FREE with a $35 order, bump your order up to $50 and get a FREE Sale-a-Bration product!!!!! Call, email or text to RSVP. Last day to RSVP is January 7.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

So Very Much

This could be my favorite new Sale-a-Bration stamp set. It's called So Very Much and I just love it so very much!!!  I decided to go for a really bold look and emboss with white on black. So pretty!!!!  The best part of it on black is that you could pair it with any color for a beautiful card!!!  I made this Melon Mambo one, as well as some in Emerald Envy and Real Red. 

I finished the card with another embossed greeting on Melon Mambo cardstock. I felt that it needed something else so I added some Metallic Thread and some silver Rhinestones to tie it all together!  So pretty!!!  We are just 1 day away from the kick of of the Sale a Bration and Occasions catalogs!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Cool Treats

 If you fan of ice cream you will love the Cool Treats suite of products in the Occasions Catalog. We are only 2 days from the release of the Occasions catalog, whoohoo!!!!!  This suite of products includes stamps, framelits, washi tape, DSP and more!!!  I'm not ashamed to admit I needed it all!!!  I love this ice cream cone, I love the chocolate dripping I love the cherry!!  I love it all!!!!

The framelits are pretty awesome and cut just inside the stamped line so you don't get a white edge around your ice cream or any of the images.  I think that's pretty awesome!!!  Two days and counting until Sale-a-Bration begins and the Occasions Catalog is live :)  I can't wait!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!