Oh I'm so inspired!!!

I went from stamper's block to stamping overload in 60 seconds flat!! Thursday I spent the day with my swap sisters stamping, talking, eating and playing with the BIG SHOT!! What some of you don't know what this incredible toy is??? It's a super cool die cutting machine and stampin' up is now selling it with exclusive dies. Check out the Big Shot catalog on the side of my blog. I'm in love!!

Thursday evening we had a more formal training event put on by my up up up line, Tami. She lives in California and has been a stampin' up demonstrator for 18 years (mind you this is Stampin' UP!'s 20th anniversary). She had great business ideas, class ideas and projects to share with us. I got to play with a lot of the new stuff that I hadn't seen yet, like buttons and ribbon and designer paper and brads and clippy thingys and stamps and oh yeah the BIG SHOT! I love being a demonstrator!!!

I can't wait to share some the projects with you.
this one uses the faux watercolor technique. Super easy. Stamp your image with classic ink onto watercolor paper then go over it with the aqua painter. We used the Happiness Always stamp set. The designers series paper is called Holiday Traditions and it's in the big catalog, it's really beautiful, but a few of the patterns (like this one) aren't super Christmasy.

I used a build a brad for the first time. That is the center of the flower. It's so easy to do, you simply punch a 3/4 in circle of the paper you want on the brad, then use a little glue or snail to adhere it too the brad and then stick the clear dot on top. I really liked that. (Build a Brads aren't new by the way just not something I'd played with before.)

I'll post more pic of the stuff we made later, right now I'm going to stamp!!

Color Blocking

I love the look of color blocking. It's a simple yet striking background. The hardest part is doing the math to get all of the white showing through evenly spaced. This is a great color combo, you will are probably getting sick of it. I was inspired by a comforter at target!!

The image is "Happiness Always" but the sentiment is from "occassions"

First try at swap card

This was my first attempt, I love the flowers but not sure about the summer sun scallop on the corner. This is my new favorite set, Happiness Always!!

I should have lots to show you in the next few days--I hope to be inspired when I come home.

Free hand with the coluzzle blade

I'm loving this Happiness Always set. It seems to be the one that I grab when I can't seem to get inspired. On this card I used my coluzzle blade to cut a curve free hand. I tried to do it with scissors first but it just didn't give the look I wanted so I did it with the coluzzle blade and I think I like it. The card base is Kiwi Kiss, then I put a strip up more mustard on the edge of the inside of the card so you can see it from the front. The leaves in the background were stamped with Kiwi Kiss. The butterflies were stamped with more mustard first then the detail layer was stamped with Tangerine Tango. The sentiment is from the occasions hostess set (I don't love the images in that set, but the words are great) and is stamped in Kiwi Kiss.

New Catalog Party Samples

Here are three of the four cards we made at Friday's New Catalog Party. We had a great time stamping and ohhing and ahhing over the new stuff. If you weren't able to make it to the party but want a copy of the catalog make sure to contact me, you might be eligible for a FREE catalog.

I love this card, it is so bright and cheery and easy!! I've never been one for a lot of layers but I think all the different color cardstock looks great!
Stamps: Happiness Always
Ink: chocolate chip, tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, pacific point
paper: tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, pacific point, whisper white
accessories: silver brads

The circles are really big in this catalog. It must be the "new thing". So we used the coluzzle to make this circle then paper pierced around it.

Stamps: Heard from the Heart

Ink: baja breeze

Paper: pink pirouette, baja breeze, whisper white, apricot appeal dsp

Accessories: scalloped edge punch, coluzzle, paper piercer

This card was simple, and beautiful. I wanted to make a card with some of our traditional colors just to remember that all of our colors are beautiful!!

Stamps: Wow flowers

Ink: bashful blue, always artichoke, close to cocoa

Paper: always artichoke, close to cocoa, confetti cream, bashful blue dsp

accessories: mellow moss ribbon

Something old and Something New

here is a card that I made using a new stamp set and retired ribbon and paper. Sometimes it's fun just to rummage through the scrap bin and see what you can find.

The stamp set is Happiness Always, which is only available if you host a workshop

Ink: Groovy Guava (I will really miss this color) Chocolate chip, old olive

Paper: Groovy Guava cardstock, DSP retired, sahara sand

Accessories: groovy guava ribbon

I will be selling my retired stamp sets and incolor stamp pads, cardstock and ribbon at my party Friday night. We will also be doing a few projects and of course there will be the star of the event the new catalog. It's Friday at 6:30p, call or email to RSVP.