Unfrogettable Stamping!

In the spotlight: Fox & Friends

   What a cute set Fox & Friends is... so perfect for baby cards, kids projects and so much more as you will see in the samples I am sharing with you today.  Don't miss out on this fantastic solid image set before it's gone... you have until May 31st to order it.  It is available in both clear mount (#118565, $14.95) and wood mount (#117020, $18.95).  The set above was one I designed for a Mom & Me birthday class a while back.

Here is a cute Valentine card featuring the monkey from this set.

I love this owl - it fits well in the xl oval punch!

How cute is this chocolate bar cover?

This was a card created for one of our monthly swaps and features the whale - notice that it fits in the tag punch!

Darlene Crockett made this card for a catalog CASE swap - what a cute baby card.

Krid Sennett created this card for our shoe box swap last July featuring the Fox from this set.

 
A candy favor with the monkey hanging from the "vine" created with the image from the retiring Baroque Motifs.

This card was also for a swap and features many of the different images from the set.

   If you love this set, be sure to get it before it's gone for good!  Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful rest of your weekend!!

December 2011 Demonstrator of the Month, part 1

I'd like to introduce you to my Demonstrator of the Month for December - Jaime Penney.  Jaime lived in Lynchburg when she first signed up as a demonstrator on my team but has since moved a couple of hours away (love that view of the Virginia countryside in the Shenandoah Valley in Jaime's photo!).  I'm thrilled that she still participates with us in our monthly swaps and shoe box swaps via the mail because I think she is so talented and I love her projects (as I'm sure you will when I share them with you over the next couple of days!).  She was able to attend our summer meeting a year and a half ago and I'm hoping when her little girls get older she'll be joining us for more!

Here's a little bit about Jaime in her own words...

I got started with Stampin' Up! 4 years ago when a friend and I decided to go to a Christmas card stamp-a-stack class held by a local demo. (Hi Debbie!) I purchased a stamp set, two ink pads and enough card stock to make my own Christmas cards that year. I then decided to go to another Christmas gifts stamping class, and by the end of that night I was hopelessly hooked. I inquired about the starter kit because it seemed like a good deal - lots of product and no commitment. During SAB 2008, I took the plunge (who doesn't love extra free stuff on top of an already awesome deal?!) I am a hobby demo and that's okay because Stampin' Up! allows me the creative outlet I need as well as access to cool new things before they're released to the public. I live about two hours away from my upline, but that doesn't affect any of the support I receive when I have questions, need assistance, or want to participate in group activities. I've just become real familiar with the ladies in my local post office!

Thanks, Jaime!  I'm so glad you've continued to participate in our swaps!! 

When Stampin' Up! first introduced My Digital Studio I was lucky enough to get hands-on training at Founder's Circle.  I came back and told everyone in my group how much I loved it... Jaime purchased the design software and has far surpassed me in her abilities as you will see below.  She has been scrapbooking her daugters faithfully and sending out beautiful Christmas photo cards of her family each year.  I hope you find inspriration from her work as I have!

Here is a two-page spread she created for her daughter as a "year in review" - isn't it fantastic? 

This is a "baby's first Christmas" spread... I love it!  Being able to match colors to photos or to the embellishments means everything is going to look awesome and coordinated.

If you are interested in purchasing My Digital Studio or have any questions, please let me know!  Tomorrow I'll be sharing some traditional hand-stamped cards that Jaime created so be sure and stop back by.

2011 Summer Shoe Box Swap team meeting, part 3

Well, I meant to get the rest of the photos posted yesterday, but we had to go out of town for a swim meet and I just ran out of time... do you ever have those days?  Here we go with the rest of the cards with their designers.  Since there are so many pictures, I'm going to wait and post the pictures of the hand-crafted gifts from our gift exchange tomorrow...

Gwen Goulder, Morning Cup stamp set... there are two close-up photos of the card because the inside had a pocket made from a big shot scallop envelope to hold a tea bag - so clever!

Angie Kinzie, Printed Petals stamp set

Jennifer Rawlings, Simply Soft hostess stamp set

Darlene Crockett, Upsy Daisy stamp set

Cindy Blekas, Precious Butterflies hostess stamp set

The next two cards were submitted by team members who were unable to attend the meeting but still wanted to participate:

Kris Sennett, Fox and Friends stamp set.  Kris was unable to make the meeting because her husband surprised her with a weekend at the beach to celebrate their anniversary... how fun!

 

Jaime Penney, Just Believe stamp set. 

Jaime was unable to attend because she lives a couple of hours away and had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl a month ago... check out the fabulous birth announcements that she created with My Digital Studio (MDS) plus matching note cards.  She even designed mailing labels with the same theme... it just goes to show that you can do so much more than just digital scrapbooking with MDS!!  And what gorgeous girls she has, too!!

As I said before, I am so blessed to have such talented stampers in my group - thanks, Ladies, for the great cards! 

Please be sure and check back tomorrow to see what fun gifts some of them came up with for our gift exchange...

 

April 2011 Demonstrator of the Month, part 1

I'd like to introduce you to my featured Demonstrator of the Month for April from my Little Debbies Stampin' Up! team, Michelle Arthur.  She has a wonderful blog called Designs Done Simple that you will want to visit often!  Michelle has been a demonstrator since February of 2007, joining during my first full Sale-a-Bration recruiting period.

Here is what she tells us about herself...

I have been married to the same man - Jimmy - absolutely forever (going on 23 years - we got married in elementary school). We have two pretty awesome (most of the time) kids - Lindsey and Logan. Our family also has a miniature Australian shepherd, Zoey.  I have always been involved in some craft or another. I have done cross-stitch/embroidery, ceramics and sewing, to name a few. I came into Stampin’ Up from scrapbooking. Once I started on cards, though, not much has been accomplished in the way of my scrapbooks. One day…… 

I am a hobby demo with Stampin’ Up. I love the quality of their products and how easy they make it to be creative. Of course, having an upline like Debbie and a group of ladies like the Little Debbies doesn’t hurt either. I love being involved in our monthly swaps. The real treat is our group shoe box swaps we have twice a year. The only downside is that I do not have enough time (in my opinion, anyway) to do all of the projects I want to do. Again, one day……

And now here are some of the projects she came up with for us!!

This easel card features the Inspired by Nature stamp set along with butterflies that were die-cut using the Beautiful Wings embosslit with the Big Shot.  She used this tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers when assembling her card.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  I love all the extra touches that she added to her card including the beautiful marina mist taffeta ribbon and pearls!!

How cute is this baby card featuring the Build-a-Bear Workshop stamp set Bear Hugs?!  She colored in the image with a blender pen and pulled her color from the Celebrations DSP.  I love it - it's  great card to give to an expecting mother who doesn't want to know the sex of her baby in advance for her baby shower.

And this card is so stunning in real life and uses one of my favorite color combinations - rich razzleberry, early espresso, pretty in pink and very vanilla.  Remember that I shared the inlaid embossing technique with you yesterday with my Punch Club projects?  Well this is a great example of that technique!  The little porcupine from Fun & Fast Notes is just too cute for words.

If you loved these cards like I did, you're not going to want to miss tomorrow's post... I'll be sharing Michelle's 3-d project (awesome!) and fabulous scrapbook page.  I know Michelle would love to get some positive feedback about her projects so please leave her some love by posting a comment here.  Thanks!

April Punch Club projects

My Punch Club met last week and I wanted to share the projects with you... here is card #1.  I have seen so many cute monkey cards and the palm tree is super-simple and fun to make.  My monkey is peeking out from the inside of the card since he ended up being too large for the outside of the card.  Both the monkey and the palm tree are made up of multiple circle and oval punches.

Here is the second project - a cute lamb for Easter that was inspired by a card I saw posted by Patricia Hargrove.  This could very easily become a baby shower card, too, by switching out the sentiment.

The last project was more of a technique that uses punches rather than a punch art project but I saw it and fell in love with it... it was originally designed by Connie Stewart.  It is hard to tell, but the color combination is melon mambo, basic black and whisper white and it is stunning in real life.  This is a great example of inlaid embossing - you take different punches and glue them to a card stock piece then run it through the Big Shot using the Square Lattice impressions folder to achieve this effect.  One important tip - if you use Tombow multi-purpose adhesive (which is my glue of choice for punch art projects) be sure that it is completely dry before running it through the Big Shot or it will ooze out onto your impressions folder. 

Thanks for looking - I hope you're having an awesome week!

Christmas Shoe Box meeting with my downline - part 3

As promised, here are the last of the cards from my team get-together last weekend!

Wanda Wilson, our newest demonstrator to attend our meeting, came up with this great card featuring many Big Shot items:  scalloped heart of hearts embosslit and the polka dot impressions folder.  What I loved most about Wanda's card was her explanation about the trio of hearts - she said that "love can build a bridge from your heart to mine" and that is why she had the hearts that way on her card.  I loved it!!

This is Heather Palm with her adorable baby card.  She CASE'd it from user "prchvs" on SCS.  I love the spotlighting technique - sure does cut down on the amount of coloring you have to do (because you know how I feel about a lot of coloring!!!). 

And last but not least is this fun birthday card featuring the recently retired Voila stamp set that was created by Darlene Crockett.  I like the layout of her card, featuring a large portion of the big shot scallop circle die-cut for the stamped panel.  The chef image was embossed, so it was much easier to color!

I really look forward to these shoe box swap meetings with my team every July and December - it is fun to come together for a session of stamping, eating (the food is always amazing) and fellowship!  Would you like to be invited to the next one?  All you have to do is join my team!  Contact me to find out how easy it is to get started as a demonstrator... the perks are incredible and we have a lot of fun at our monthly meetings!

August downline swap - Catalog CASE, part 4

And now for the last two swaps - both feature my current favorite neutral, crumb cake, and were CASE'd from samples found on page 96 of the Idea Book & Catalog.

This fun card was created by Michelle Arthur.  She CASE'd the Bugs and Kisses sample.  I like how she added in a third color - cajun craze - it really makes the card in my opinion.  Great job, Michelle!

And our last card was created by Darlene Crockett.  I love this Fox & Friends stamp set and am so happy it made it into the big catalog!!  Darlene followed the sample almost exactly with the exception of the alphabet set used.  What a great card for a new baby!

As you can see, I have a wonderfully talented team of demonstrators and I love swapping with them each month.  If you'd like to join my team so you can swap with us, contact me directly or sign up online here and click on "join now" - my password is debstamps.  My group spans from California to Washington to Virginia and we have a great time together.  Why not join us?

New Catalog swap, part 5: Baby Bundle

The swap cards featured today both use the Baby Bundle stamp set.  This is such a cute baby set and can be used for both cards and scrapbooking!  It comes in wood mount (#118525, $27.95) and clear mount (#120576, $19.95).

This card was created by Lori Schuch and I really like the color combination she used - it is great for when you have an expectant Mom who won't divulge the gender of the new baby or who wants to be surprised at the birth.  Lori used marina mist, daffodil delight and chocolate chip and she paper-pieced the carriage.  I'm not sure if you can see it or not from the photo, but there is dazzling diamonds glitter in the heard on the baby carriage.  Cute!!

Nikki Rueth designed this card and it, too, features marina mist.  It is paired with certainly celery, very vanilla and crumb cake and is also a great card to give to at a baby shower when you don't know the gender of the baby.  Of course, it would be a great card for a new baby boy, too.  I like the use of the curly label punch tucked under the stamped image with the sentiment.

Thanks for viewing my swap cards this week - I hope you have enjoyed seeing them and found some inspiration!  Tomorrow I'll be sharing my Fabulous Friday project for the Sisters in Stamping blog.  This week we're featuring new colors - yippee!!

Design Team swaps

My Design Team is made up of some very creative business builder demonstrators from my downline and each month we get together to design class and workshop projects.  This month our focus was on simple workshop cards featuring a variety of different accessories.   Here are the different project ideas:

This first card was created by Sherri Gough.  I LOVE the Pink Flamingo DSP, as you have probably figured out if you've been following my blog for any length of time.  I also especially love the color real red and Sherri used both so well together - who knew the large flower from Eastern Blooms would match so well with this DSP?  I like how she incorporated quite a few punches into this card, too - from the ticket corner punch to the modern label and word window punches.  The sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set - a GREAT one to own since it includes so many different sentiments.  And what a great card for anyone kicking off their new Stampin' Up! business since Eastern Blooms and Teeny Tiny Wishes are stamp sets that are included in the Starter Kit.  Remember, you have until the end of March to take advantage of the $30 savings on the Starter Kit AND get an extra FREE stamp set of any price!  Want to join my team?  Use this link and click on "Join Now" - my password is debstamps.

This next card was designed by Lori Subosits.  I believe she saw this idea somewhere online, but I don't know to whom I should give credit - I'll update this post when I get that information from Lori.  Anyway, it is super-cute and uses a strip of DSP from the Tall Tales package.  She even used the Uniball Signo white gel pen for faux stitching around the edges of the romper.  The colors - so saffron and old olive - were pulled right from the DSP.  What a great masculine baby shower card idea!!

This card was created by Darlene Crockett and features the Trendy Trees stamp set as well as the crimper - a tool that I don't use often enough.  It adds great texture to cardstock!  Darlene, like Sherri, used the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set along with the word window and modern label punches.  Colors used are bashful blue, certainly celery, close to cocoa and whisper white.  This is a great "Get Well" card for anyone feeling under the weather!

I designed this last card, which features the C is for Cat stamp set - one that is a FREE Sale-a-Bration selection with a qualifying $50 order through March 31st.  I decided to feature the Big Shot with my card - it was used to create the texture on the chocolate chip piece (Finial Press texture folder) and to cut out the ovals for the focal image (Ovals originals die).  The colors include very vanilla, more mustard, chocolate chip, close to cocoa and creamy caramel.  I inked up the cat image with creamy caramel and then added the color with various markers.  You can't tell from the photo, but I added a sticky-back rhinestone to the cat's collar.  Sadly, the Eggcellent Eggs kit that I got that from is no longer available - Stampin' Up! has completely sold out of these fabulous kits in the Occasions mini catalog.  I'm really hoping that we'll get these sticky-back rhinestones in the new catalog in July!!  I made this a sympathy card because losing a beloved pet deserves a beautiful hand-stamped card, too.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, happy stamping!

Team gathering this month

My team got together for our monthly meeting on Thursday night.  As always, we had so much fun!  Michelle Arthur presented a project at the beginning of the meeting - it shows a  great way to recycle and make a gift at the same time using your stamping supplies.

Her kids have been into Slim Jims lately so she has been saving the canisters that they come in... she covered one in Tall Tales DSP and made a matching card.  How cute!  She said this would be great to hold a stamped baby onesie and some booties.  Thanks for the great idea and presentation, Michelle!

Here are some close-ups of the projects....

Going green with stamping is a great idea!!

Thanks for stopping by - I'll be sharing some of our monthly swap samples with you over the next couple of days.  The theme this month was Chocolate - be sure and come back to see what fabulous talent I have on my team!