Class Techies

 Last week I had the privilege of doing a class for some advanced stampers.  This was a benefit from an auction basket for our school.  I threw in a gift certificate with the wonderful things that Stampin' Up! had donated.  (And they were VERY generous!  Thank you SU!)  This first card concentrated on learning the ribbon rose and using a circle for a piercing template.  It was also fun to throw on a bunch of the freebies from SAB.  The layout for this card is from last month's Stampin' Success Magazine.  I like the whimsical feel of it.

This card had a few other techniques that I was teaching.  The first was sponging on the backside of vellum cardstock after texturing it in the Big Shot.  Isn't that color behind the roses lovely?  The rhinestone on the sentiment was colored in with a sharpie, which really isn't a technique as much as a wonderful use of your supplies.  The other technique on this card was the reinker spread.  See that lovely rose from Fifth Avenue Floral on the bottom corner?  It was so fun to see the ladies try the technique.  I think half of them thought that they had completely messed theirs up, but once dried and cut out, they were all beautiful.  And since I'm particularly fond of Shimmer White cardstock, this is one of my favorite techniques.

I think this one was my favorite.  We watercolored inside the champagne glasses with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and then covered the liquid area with Crystal Effects.  Isn't it lovely?  Oh, and then I had to show them the hot, new ruffled ribbon look.  They all thought that it was going to be hard, but were amazed that it didn't have to be perfect to look good.  We finished it off with a bit of Victoria Lace and a Bronze Safety Pin from Vintage Trinkets.  This DP is so easy to use and makes simple cards look wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station again.  I'd love to hear from you.

Blessings,
Julie

Regionals Swap CASE

 Sorry about the bad lighting and the flipped photo.  Blogger is still giving me trouble with portrait style photos.  :(  Anyway, this is a swap that my upline Sharon received.  We were sitting at the Rib Eye Restaurant, (somewhere south of Chehalis and they have really delicious food!) and I just had to click a picture of it.  The design is so simple and the Very Vanilla really is beautiful with the Blushing Bride In Color.  So, snapped a photo and of COURSE I had to CASE it!  So, without referring to the original card/photo, I went downstairs and made my own.  BTW, the swapper didn't put their name on the back, so I am unable to let you know who came up with this beauty.

And this is my version.  :-)  I flipped the textured Vanilla over and stamped the French Script on the flat side.  You'll need to click on it to see how the texture doesn't have the french script on it.  I thought the Oval All sentiment would go nicely with the texture folder and I think I really like it.  Besides, I don't have the new punch yet to completely CASE the original, so this will have to do.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.  Happy November to you!  (Can it really be November already???!!!!)

Blessings,
Julie

convention cards

Hello! I'm taking advantage of our quiet Sunday afternoon to show you some more cards. FINALLY! This first Medallion card is similar to the Curry swap that I made. I was going to make some of these for swapping, but I ran out of Basic Black. Yes! I really did! I'm waiting on my next shipment so that I have more. I'm down to a 1/2 sheet. The Medallion is stamped in Rich Razzleberry. The Oval All stamps are stamped in Basic Black. The butterfly is colored in with my Razzleberry marker and the white gel pen helps the dots on the frame stand out. The finial folder, one Rhinestone and a bit of Black Gingham ribbon finish off this simple card.
This card is a CASE of a swap that my friend Cheryl received. Nope, I didn't get one of these beauties, so I had to take a pic and then make one myself. Isn't it gorgeous???!!! And so simple! I stamped the Wedding Sweet stamps in Soft Suede. Since I didn't have the coordinating wheel for this stamp set, I used my Illuminated wheel, which I think goes quite well with these stamps. I punched out the greeting with the Curly Label punch. The mat behind it was punched with my Movers & Shapers Die. The ribbon is the polka dot suede flipped over. (can't have white dots with vanilla cardstock!) CS is Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, and Soft Suede.
This card is a CASE of one that I saw on the display boards at convention. Isn't that cute? Since I didn't have the stamp that the stamper used for the cake stand, I decided to make a scalloped stand out of the Scallop Edge Punch and the Crop-A-Dile. The base of the cake stand is from the Scribbles Swirls sizzlit. The background is the new texturz plate. The cupcakes were stamped with Party Hearty in Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay and the Fine Cosmo Glitter was adhered with a 2-Way Glue Pen.

So, what do you think? Can you tell that I had fun at convention? Stay tuned for convention swaps. They're really incredible!!!

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

Bananarama

Ooooooo, sorry, couldn't resist the reference to a 80's band. I'll try not to let it happen again.
This is a swap for my upline and sidelines while at convention. I stamped the beautiful Medallion stamp on the corner of the white in Barely Banana. Oval All was used for the sentiment in Crushed Curry and colored in with Barely Banana. The background white was run through the Big Shot with the Finial Press folder. Isn't that gorgeous????!!!! I just love that folder! A rhinestone brad and white gel pen finish off this easy card. So....I hope everyone likes my swap. Don't know if this is their style, but I guess that doesn't matter. :-D

Thanks for stopping by the stamping station once again!

Blessings,
Julie

Best Wishes

I had the best of intentions to stamp with my new goodies last night, but a fibro crash got the better of me. So sorry about that. In place of that, here is a project that we made at the last two workshops. It's a total CASE of this card. Sometimes you just don't need to recreate the wheel, so you copy it instead. I loved this one so much, that virtually nothing needed to be changed except the length of the panels. You can't see it, but we used the Damask SU! Texturz Plate on the background white. I'm truly going to miss this Raspberry Tart DSP, but I'm sure that I'll fall in love with another DSP from SU! How could I not??? There are so many beautiful papers!
So now that the new Idea Book & Catalogs are out, please let me know if you'd like a copy. I'm having a sale on them during July...buy it for $5. If I need to mail it to you because of distance, It will be an additional $5 for Priority Mail. Email me your request and we'll get that wonderful new catalog out to you! :-D

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

Fifth Avenue Florals

I just love water- coloring these flowers from Fifth Avenue Floral. They're such gorgeous images and look so great with watercoloring. Of course, you don't HAVE to color them. They look great as an outline image also. This little notebook is something that I've wanted to do for awhile. I had some extra lilies from watercoloring a few days ago. I used my round tab punch to make two sections: color combinations and sketches. The spiral punch allowed me to completely cover the front of the notebook. Isn't that cool??!! This way I can have the notebook along with me, write down ideas and not lose them because they're on a scrap piece of paper. I don't know about you, but looking through magazines while waiting for an appointment is prime time for finding inspiration.
This is a special thank you to a special lady who gives of her time so freely to our school. We love her dearly and want her to know that. This card had to be special to convey that thought, so I used more watercolored flowers and my Damask texture plate. The thank you is from Beautiful Borders, a lovely set.
So, do I have you convinced yet about his technique? Want to hold a workshop so that you can learn this one? Give me a shout out. I still have a spot left in June, which would be taking advantage of the "Last Call" list before a huge number of stamp sets retire. Or July, when the new catalog is out and everyone wants to see it.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.

Blessings,
Julie

New Stampin Site I'm Trying Out...

Hey there. A friend let me know that there's a fairly new stamping website that caters only to Stampin' Up! Well, you know me, I'm sooooo there! The name of the site is Stampin Addicts. Go check it out! It's pretty fun. I'm looking forward to watching it grow. This is a sketch from Stampin Addicts for last Thursday. I liked it, so thought I'd use it for inspiration. After inking my texture plate with Pretty In Pink, I put the Pink Pirouette cardstock on the plate and ran it through the Big Shot. I just love the look of it...much easier to see the texture. The ovals are from the Occasions Mini Catalog...Oval All and the Scallop Oval Punch. Bella Rose Designer Paper, Earth Elements Brads, Wide Oval Punch, and Riding Hood Red Taffeta complete the card.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station once again.

Blessings,
Julie

Shimmery White Shimmers

Hello! Here's a card that I made for last week Saturday's hostess, Rebecca. I stamped the Oval All sentiment and the Bella Toile background in Perfect Plum on Shimmery White cardstock. Can you see the shimmer? You might have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see the shimmer. I colored the oval with blender pens and the large white piece with chalks. The background Kiwi is stamped in Kiwi with the background stamp. A pink rhinestone brad, eggplant grosgrain, and white organza ribbon for the finishing touches.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station! I hope you all have a blessed Easter. We'll be celebrating by attending church, singing the Hallelujah Chorus, and then heading to my family to celebrate together.

Blessings,
Julie

Pop-Up Cake FINALLY! and Another Mini Catalog Stamp Set

And here it is...the long awaited pic of the pop-up cake. I'm getting much quicker at putting them together. Yes, mine isn't as creative as some demos out there who blow me away with their creativity, but I still think it's pretty cool. I made one of these for our neighbor girl and she saved it...her mom said it disappeared from the kitchen and that she must have squirreled it away somewhere. :-) I love it when you make someone feel special with a card! It's such a great reward!
This is a thank you for Tuesday night's hostess, Jessica. We had a lot of fun at her workshop and made 3 cards. There was delicious food there, too! Anyway, I had fun making this for her. It's stamped in StazOn Black and watercolored with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainer. The white on the pussy willows and the butterfly is from my white gel pen. Isn't this Scene in a Garden Stamp set beautiful??? We're using it on one of the cards at Rebecca's on Saturday. I can't wait for them to see it! It's one of my favorites out of the new Occasions Mini Catalog. Have you checked it out yet? Click on the link in the column to the right. The greeting is from Oval All and used the Scallop Oval Punch, mounted with layers of Dimensionals. Yes, I do love this set, too! A bow in in the corner, some texture on the main cardstock and we're done!

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station and being patient, (yes Cheryl, I'm talking to you!) while I deal with more computer woes.

Blessings,
Julie

Occasions Mini Catalog Starts Today!

I LOVE the new Occasions Mini Catalog! Some of the sets are so different from what's in the main catalog - I love the diversity. So here's my first official Occasions Mini card. See that cute oval? Well, the stamp set is called Oval All and the adorable Scallop Oval Punch coordinates with all 4 stamps in that set. This is a "must have" if you love scallops. I colored the stamp with my blender pens and my Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red ink pads. The background is Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamped in Pink Pirouette on Pink Pirouette cardstock. See that adorable cupcake? It's a sizzlit set called Bold Cupcakes. I ran the cupcake lower layer through the crimper so that it would look like a cupcake liner. And then I just glued it all together. Super easy and fun!

Now on the inside of this card...is a pop-up cake! I'll try to get a good photo today and post it. You're going to love it! It's another new release from SU! today. You can order a 3-tier cake and a pop-up ball. How clever is that???!!! Here's the link - if you order online, don't forget to select me as your demo.

Well, off to do my errands and then I hope to be back to post more photos for you. Thanks for a good Sale-A-Bration season!

Blessings,
Julie

Clean and Simple Challenge

There's a Monday challenge on splitcoaststampers for Clean and Simple cards. (CAS) Today's challenge was to use punches. The trick is to only have a couple of layers at the most and not to over-embellish or a lot of work in the coloring of the image. I used my Blender Pens to pick up ink from the lids of my In Colors so that I could color on the stamp before stamping it down. The white is the background and stamped with the Oval All stamp set from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalog, the next layer was stamped with the same stamp set and then the center was punched out of it. The Kiwi layer just has a scalloped oval punch (also from the Occasions Mini Catalog) and the edges are punched with the corner rounder. The balloons in the background are stamped in Pacific Point. The balloon is from Crazy for Cupcakes. So, there's my simple card. Want to play along? Just post your punched CAS card on SCS with CAS07 in the keyword.
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station! And don't forget to play along with our TAWC Inspiration Challenge this week.
Blessings,
Julie