Unfrogettable Stamping!

Another Big Shot quilted purse for Fabulous Friday!!!

We are showcasing the Big Shot over on the Sisters In Stamping blog this week for Fabulous Friday.  I cannot stress how much I love my Big Shot!!  I don't think I've offered a class or workshop in the last year and a half that I didn't utilize my Big Shot on at least one of the projects.  And then once I attended Founder's Circle last fall and saw the fabulous quilted projects shared by Jill Olsen I was hooked all over again after I saw the amazing things that could be done with fabric and the Big Shot.

Speaking of fabric, I had purchased some recently to make more quilted bags and I'm proud to say that I picked these out all on my own - they were not part of a kit or fat quarter bundle. 

This is my submission for this week... with the Stampin' Up! Southern Caribbean cruise less than 2 weeks away, I am in a tropical mood so used these fun fabrics.  I used the Scallop Square bigz die to cut out all of my squares and then embellished the bag with a quilted butterfly from the Beautiful Butterflies bigz die.  I added a summer sun corduroy button and created the handles with chocolate chip double-stitched ribbon. 

Here are the products used on today's project:

Thank you for stopping by!  Please be sure and visit the Sisters In Stamping blog to see the other Fabulous Big Shot projects.  Have a wonderful weekend - hope you find some time to stamp!

Fabrics and the Big Shot... WOW!

If I had to pick one thing that I took away from Leadership that had the biggest impact on me I would have to say by far it was Jill Olson's Big Shot fabric display.  I was awestruck by the beauty and versatility of using the Big Shot with fabric - it is a match made in Heaven!!  I wanted to share some more photos with you so that you can see what a wonderful crafting tool the Big Shot truly is!!

Aren't these spectacular?  I have never quilted before but do know how to sew and did manage to put a purse together a couple of weeks ago.  I will be attempting to put together some projects this week in between classes and club meetings for a display at the Lynchburg Women's Show this coming Saturday - January 30th - at Liberty University's Schilling Center.  If you are local to the Lynchburg area I invite you to come out to the show!  It will be from 10 am - 2 pm and there is a $5 admission fee which will be fully donated to the Family Alliance.  There will be free gifts to the first 500 women who come so be sure and come early!!

Thanks for stopping by - I hope I have inspired you Big Shot owners to pull out your dies and some fabric and create a quilted project of our own.  It is a lot of fun!!  If you don't own a Big Shot, I hope I have convinced you that this is a must-have tool for all crafters!  If you purchase your Big Shot from me, I give you a Big Shot 101 class for free and you will be able to take my I'm a Big Shot class each month for half-off - just my way of saying thank you for buying it from me.  AND if you purchase the Big Shot and a few basic dies and accessories during Sale-a-Bration, you can easily reach the $150 benchmark for achieving $15 in FREE hostess dollars to spend in the catalog, a FREE hostess level 1 item AND 3 separate FREE Sale-a-Bration selections PLUS 3 spots on my $50-50 board!  Have I enticed you yet? 

Want to purchase the Big Shot at a savings of 30%?  How?  By purchasing the starter kit and joining my team of demonstrators!   When you join Stampin' Up! during Sale-a-Bration (Jan - Mar 31st) you can purchase the starter kit at a savings of $30 for just $169 AND choose one additional stamp set of ANY price from the current catalogs for FREE.  Plus, when you place your first qualifying $150+ order within 45 days of signing up you'll receive a savings of 30% - if you hold an Open  House to kick off your new business and get orders from your friends and family, you'll EARN 30%.  Now how great is that?!  And even better - YOU get the hostess benefits.  If this sounds like an exciting way to earn extra income or support your hobby (that's how I got started!), please contact me today!  I'd love to have you become a Little Debbie (my team's name).  We meet monthly and swap on a regular basis plus have a yahoo group to keep in touch on a daily basis, sharing business and stamping ideas and chatting.  You can join easily online - just go to my demonstrator website and click on "Start Your Own Business" in the upper right-hand corner.  My password is "debstamps" - fill out the starter kit options (you can pick and choose your stamp sets, how cool is that?!) and put in your personal information and within minutes you'll be up and running as a demonstrator with full access to the demonstrator only portion of Stampin' Up!'s website.  You'll receive a monthly magazine full of great ideas each month and have the ability to join the online community known as Stampin' Connection which will connect you to thousands of demonstrators around the world!  What are you watiting for?  Contact me today!!!  The sooner you join, the sooner you get all the benefits of being a demonstrator - I couldn't be happier because I LOVE WHAT I DO!!!  Don't you want to, too?????

Fabulous Friday quilted purse

One of the highlights of the Leadership Training Conference for me last week was reconnecting with my fellow Sisters In Stamping blogging friends!  We "chat" over email each week, but it was great to see them in person and hang out during the classes, sessions and Managers Reception.

 

Here we are at the Managers Reception, what a great night (with the exception of the poor rodeo rider who fell and broke his leg).  Jacque Craig, Rachel Yurkanin and Karla Anders are so much fun to hang out with... I'm so glad they are my friends and it would not have happened had it not been for my Stampin' Up! business.  I really do "Love What I Do!!!" - the theme from Leadership.

We had a chance to share ideas and decided that for our first Fabulous Friday project when we returned home we would create a project that was inspired by something we saw or learned about at Leadership.  I can't speak for the others, but I was awestruck by the beauty of the quilts made with the Big Shot.  I don't know who was the first demonstrator to come up with the scallop square rag purse, but I certainly saw many people carrying them around and knew I wanted to come home and figure it out for myself.

Also, during the General Session on the last day we were all given a quilt square - it was such an awesome gift!  Here is mine...

Isn't it beautiful?  I love the colors and now have to purchase this 5-point 3-D star bigz die so I can duplicate it.

This purse is my first attempt at a quilt project... what do you think?  It's certainly far from perfect, but I have a bit of a learning curve as I have not used my sewing machine for quite some time.

Here is a side-view - I used four squares on the front and back and just two for the sides.  The handles were made with our chocolate chip stitched grosgrain ribbon and I used a chocolate chip corduroy button for the center of my flower.  The flower layers were cut out using the Flower Folds bigz xl die (red fabric) and Flower Layers #3 originals die (green fabric) and hand-stitched together.

Here is a close-up of the flower embellishment.

It is so easy to cut out your fabric squares with the Big Shot... I purchased quilt batting that had an adhesive that was activated when ironed so I just sandwiched my fabric, the batting and then muslin for the back and then cut this into smaller squares that I could run through the Big Shot with the clear scallop square bigz die.  It was able to take 2 squares of this fabric sandwich at a time.  Once all the pieces were cut, I just sewed an "x" across the centers of each square to hold them together and then sewed them together two at a time with right sides facing out.  It really was pretty easy-going as long as I went slowly.

I hope you give this a try - it is really fun and there are so many fabrics out there... the possibilities are endless!  I think this little bag is a good one to take to classes and crops to hold all your essential papercrafting tools like a pair of snips, SNAIL, bone folder, and even a few stamp sets and ink pads.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you head over to the SIS blog to check out the other Fabulous Friday projects submitted by my friends!!

Highlights from Leadership - Check-in Day

I wanted to share some photos with you from our first full day in Phoenix, which was Check-In Day.  Once we got checked in and picked up our gorgeous bags we headed over to the Gathering Place - an area where Stampin' Up! set up display boards, had demonstration booths with great ideas using our products and samples set up, because this great company not only gives us the best quality products to sell and share with our customers but also provides excellent ideas and training on how to present them as well.  It is also where Memento Mall and the Make-n-Take areas were set up.

Here I am with the fabulous Patty Bennett.  She was a display booth demonstrator, showing us great ways to use items out of the Occasions mini catalog.  Patty never fails to amaze me with her talent and she is so sweet!  I'm so grateful that I got the chance to meet and get to know her better at Founder's Circle the last 2 years.

 

And this photo was taken with Stella Mackay - she is so cute, always stooping down when taking a photo with me since I am so much shorter than she is!!  I first met Stella online a few years ago and got to know her better at Founder's Circle also.

Can you tell I enjoy my friendships with other Demonstrators as much as everything else about this business?  I love attending these Stampin' Up! events because I get to see my friends from all over the country (and even a few from Canada!) and make new friendships each and every time!  I was thrilled to share these experiences with my downline, Sherri Gough, who was attending her first Leadership event.

Do you see the gorgeous quilts in the backgrounds of both of the photos above?  They were all created with Big Shot dies... yes, I said Big Shot dies.  Are you as excited as I am about that?!  I can't wait to get to the fabric store to choose some to try and make some of these myself.  Quilters spend so much time cutting their fabric pieces and our Big Shot will cut through up to 8 layers of fabric at one time and each and every piece will be cut the same way.  How cool is that?  Now I just need to master my sewing skills... I may have to ask my Mom to help me on this one.

Here are a few more pictures of the quilts close-up...

 

Once we got photos of the display areas out of the way, Sherri and I met up with my friend (and fellow Sisters In Stamping blogger) Karla Anders and her 2 downline, Jen Sannes and Karen Clark, for lunch at a great sushi restaurant.  Another treat for me when traveling to new cities is getting to eat great food that I can't always get in Lynchburg!  I enjoyed getting to meet Jen as I've been following her blog for quite a while and love her style of stamping.  Karen was very sweet, too, although we didn't get to spend as much time with her over the course of the event.

Here's a photo of my meal (this pic is for you, Dawn H - missed you!) which was so yummy.  I got the sushi combination lunch special - always a way to make your $ go farther!!

And here we are all together, seated from left to right... Sherri, Karen, Jen, Karla and me.

After lunch we headed back to the Gathering Place to complete our Make-n-Takes.  Okay, maybe completed is a bit of a stretch since I never seem to complete any of them at these events... I guess I end up talking too much and not stamping fast enough.  But that's okay - it's the fellowship that I enjoy the most!  I also had to cut my time short because Karla and I had a My Digital Studio session that we had to attend that afternoon from 3-4 pm. 

And we ended the day with an organized shoe box swap in our hotel from 7-11 pm.  I took 24 completed full cards and the components to make 24 more and in return made 24 cards that night and got an additional completed 24 card for a total of 47 new ideas (1 was my card).  It was great fun and Sherri and I worked as a team, completing 2 of each project as we moved around the tables.  We are pictured above with Adrian Mondy of Augusta, GA.  She sat in the row in front of us on the flight from Atlanta to Phoenix... what were the odds that a demonstrator would be seated so near us on a flight of 150+ people and that she would be attending the same event as us?  After all, there were 1,000 demonstrators in attendance in Phoenix!

So as you can see, a very full day for me... we got back to our room about 11:30 that night and were up at 6:30 the next morning to start our first day of classes.  I will post about Day 2 tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by - I hope you enjoyed sharing my activities from Day 1!!