Occasions and Sale-a-Bration Preview

I should really be making more Christmas cards but I received my preorder from the upcoming Occasions Catalog.  An added bonus was that I earned Sale-a-Bration items with my order.  Yahoo!
The Mojo Monday blog had a sketch that I wanted to try.  The DSP is part of the Sale-a-Bration freebies.  There are such pretty patterns and colors in this pack.  My card base is Coastal Cabana although it looks more turquoise in my photo.  All I can say is that you need to save your money because the Occasions Catalog is going break your budget!  

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Seasonally Scattered

Surprise!  I'm sure my two or three friends who follow this blog will either miss it or be shocked that I'm posting after nothing for two months.  What can I say?  Life moves quickly along...

It's not as if I haven't been stamping or crafting.  Most of what I have done lately is total CASEing and I prefer not to post a copy of someone else's work.  Today I decided to try a challenge and found a great sketch on the MOJO Monday Blog.

The Seasonally Scattered stamp set was one that I received in my box of goodies to make Convention Displays.  I found it difficult to work with at first but over the past few months I've seen some great ideas to give me inspiration to try it again.  My card is very clean--lots of straight lines which suits me to a "T".  The All is Calm Specialty DSP coordinates perfectly with the Merry stamp and a little Lost Lagoon cardstock.  If you haven't ordered the All is Calm Snowflake Embellishments I highly recommend these.  They are top notch in quality and detail.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what else has been occupying my time over the past two months.  Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Treats

Making Halloween treats can be so much fun!  Now that school has started and summer vacations are past we head full bore into the holiday season.  Don't you wish it wasn't so?  The only upside of this is that soon our weather will start to cool down.  We are looking at 90 degree temperatures at the end of this week!  Yahoo!

I rent a small booth at a local craft mall and it is time to change things up so I decided to get busy on some Halloween items.  The treat box is made with the Motley Monsters DSP and Envelope Punch Board.  There isn't much stamping involved with this.  I used the Tag Talk stamp set for the tag background punched with the label bracket.  The Halloween greeting is from the Good Greetings hostess set which is only available for a limited time with a $300 workshop.  Last but not least, I cut the little bird out of the DSP.  

To make the box, cut a 6"x 6" square of DSP.  Using the Punch Board, punch and score at 1-1/2" and 3".  Rotate paper 90 degrees counter clockwise, align score mark with score guide.  Punch and score again.  Repeat process until all four sides are punched and scored.  There is a great video by Pootles Papercraft on YouTube--6 x 6 Envelope Punch Board Box Tutorial.

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Amazing Birthday Display Cards

Have you seen some of the great cards made with the Amazing Birthday set on the Convention Display Pinterest Board?  I wish I could think outside the box like some of the very talented stampers out there.  My samples are more of a clean and simple style.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Tomorrow I am going to take a break from my display samples and post a few other creations I have stamped in the past few days.  See you soon.

 

Convention Display 3-D Extravaganza

Okay...I'm kind of getting tired of blogging about my convention displays.  Today I'm going to post a number of my three dimensional projects. Here it goes;

 

 

This little container started out with a toilet paper cardboard roll.  First, I cut open one of the chevron gift bags and wrapped it around the cardboard and tied the ends with Cantaloupe Crisp and Baked Brown Sugar thick baker's twine.  Then I cut a strip of Cantaloupe Crisp DSP, trimmed it with strips of Whisper White punched with the Dotted Scallop Border Trim and wrapped that around the tube again.  The tag was die cut with the Chalk Talk Framelits.

 

 

My next project looks like a tag but it is a treat holder made with the tag punch.  I started with a strip of paper 2" x 11"  and scored it at 5", 5-1/2" and 6" then folded it accordion style.  The green floral paper from the Flowerpot DSP was my favorite pattern from the pack.  I love the color green, and if I had my choice I would probably incorporate it in all aspects of my life.  My greatest wish is to own a green muscle car.  My husband says that I could make that wish come true if I would go back to work!  Nice guy, right?  Then I would have to give up stamping...

 

 

 

 

No more droning.  This last project is a banner made with the Amazing Birthday set.  It says, "It's a Party".  Don't you love the color combination of Bermuda Bay, Blackberry Bliss and Crushed Curry?

 

Well, thanks for dropping by and for sticking with the long post! See you tomorrow.

 

Kinda Eclectic Scrapbook Page-Convention Display

Long ago I was an avid scrapbooker.  In fact, I scrapbooked long before I ever started stamping.  The crazy thing is that I've never overlapped these two hobbies until now.  It was a real challenge to scrapbook with Stampin' Up products.  The plan was to do all 12" x 12" pages but in the end I made two of the three pages 8" x 8" in size.  It's not so easy to find photos to match stamp sets, let me tell you.  My travel photos seemed like the best fit for the Kinda Eclectic stamp set.

Back in 2009, my husband and I went on a great European trip to Switzerland and Italy.  Every two or three years we take these wonderful trips when he is asked to speak at conferences.  Who would have ever thought research on locomotive engines would take us half-way across the world?  The scrapbook page photo was taken on the island of Bellagio in the Lake Como area.  I kept looking for George Clooney while we were there, but no luck! Sigh!! (He owns property somewhere on Lake Como.)

Anyway, I used a combination of Soft Sky, Smokey Slate, Basic Gray and So Saffron.  The title was stamped with the Metro Alphabet photopolymer stamp set.

 

So, how about you--are you a scrapbooker?  If you are not into traditional scrapbooking, Stampin' Up has the solution with the new Project Life products.  Now you can preserve the memories of your favorite vacation with very little effort.  Ain't life grand! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Amazing Birthday Mini Fries Box

Several months ago I was at McDonald's and saw the mini fries that were included in a Kid's Meal.  The box was so cute that I asked for an empty/flat one to use as a template.  Now that box had been sitting around gathering dust.  So, when I needed a 3-D display sample I dug through my piles of supplies to use it with the Amazing Birthday stamp set.  Although you can't see the treats inside the box, I purchased Sixlets candies in purple, orange and yellow.  We stampers sure do love to coordinate everything!  The box was made with Flowerpot DSP and the image was stamped with Blackberry Bliss ink (yum).  The silver glimmer adds just the right amount of party fun to the little container.

 

 

Have you ever saved a container from something so you could use it as a template for stamping?  You should check out the great new Hamburger and Fry Box Dies from Stampin' Up.  No need to scavenge a used box for your stamping projects!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

Kinda Eclectic Gold Standard

This card was so much prettier in real life than this photo shows.  My photography skills leave a lot to be desired.  I was scrambling at the last minute to get all my samples in the mail that I was in too much of a hurry to get out my photo box to take better pictures.  The leaves were embossed in gold on watercolor paper.  I had considered incorporating some watercoloring but ended up bagging that idea.  The butterflies were embossed with Pool Party embossing powder to match the base cardstock and seam binding.

 

 

Gold is the new fashion standard these days.  Have you had a chance to use new Stampin' Up gold foil sheets?  If you haven't, you ought to give it a try. And don't forget the gold washi tape collection to go with it!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Kinda Eclectic-In the Pink

This was the very first card I made for the display boards.  Don't you just love the Kinda Eclectic stamp set.  It was on the top of my wish list when I looked through the new catalog.  I can't tell you how happy I was to get this in my box of supplies. I was going for a shabby, distressed look but I didn't quite achieve it.  My engineering background just doesn't let me be free--everything ends up looking orderly. 

 

Quite a few years ago I took an oil painting class at the San Antonio School of Art and my instructor told me I painted too politely!  Now I'm pretty sure that wasn't a compliment.  I was trying so hard to get out of the box.  I ended up doing best at sketching since that fit with my need to be precise. 

 

 

 

What is your style?  Or what style would you love to emulate?  I'd love to hear from you.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Project Life-Part 3

Nothing too exciting about this card.  No stamping involved, just Project Life Cards.  I used a little bit of the Flowerpot DSP, some washi tape and black cardstock to make the little flags.  The ribbon is the new Hello Honey stitched satin. 

 

 

That's it for Project Life cards.  Come back tomorrow for a look a sample made with the Kinda Eclectic stamp set.  You won't be disappointed (at least I hope not)!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Project Life-Part 2

Using these Project Life cards guarantees a one of a kind project.  Wish I could have kept this one for myself. There are so many great patterns and quotes in the Everyday Adventure Collection.  This time I chose to pair it with the Kinda Eclectic stamp set.  The card base is Crushed Curry with Pear Pizazz layered behind the first Project Life card.  Then I used two more for the greeting and matte layer.  Melon Mambo ribbon and bright candy dots finished out the card.

 

 

Have you tried out any of the Project Life products yet?  I would like to start scrapbooking again with the products but I don't know when I would have the time to fit it in!  Plus I would have to print up photos which is even more time consuming.  Someday....

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Project Life-Convention Display

As part of the supplies for convention displays, I was given the Project Life Everyday Adventure Card Collection and matching accessory pack.  The bright colors suited my style and I had no trouble with this first card.  It looks like a shaker card but it isn't.  I used a pencil eraser to stamp the round confetti and saved the little black squares from the film strip diecut.  Tricky, huh?  The arrow clip was from the accessory pack and the striped DSP is actually a Project Life card. 

 

 

Did you notice that I have finally figured out how to watermark my photos?  I feel like I am moving out of the dinosaur category when it comes to technology! Ha, ha!  Stay tuned--I will be posting all my convention displays over the next several days.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Sea Street Swap

Way back in May I pre-ordered a few things from the new catalog and the Sea Street stamp set made the cut.  I don't know what's so appealing about the little octopus but I just couldn't pass him up!  This is a swap I made for the Cyberstampers' monthly business meeting back in May.  Sorry about the photo quality.  One of these days I'll get out my photo box again and take better pictures. 

 

 

The card base is Real Red with an embossed layer of Night of Navy.  The DSP is from a new pack called Maritime.  Right now is the time to get your very own paper pack with the Buy 3, get 1 Free special.  Contact me and I'll help you get your very own Maritime DSP.

 

Thanks for stopping by!