The countdown is on. . .

The new Summer Mini Catalog starts next Saturday, May 1st, and so as is usually the case before the launch of something new, I was under the gun to get swaps designed and in the mail. I always seem to think I have plenty of time. . . and then find myself wishing my SUV had wings so I'll make it to the post office before it closes! Fortunately, I do plenty of reading on Splitcoast and know that I'm not the only person who does this!

I needed two designs for the swaps I signed up for. I decided that I was going to challenge myself to use new stamps that no one else had selected for their swaps, and also that I would use only colors that were not going to be retiring. That turned out to be a little more challenging than I thought--since I had already sketched designs for some of the new floral sets (which won't go to waste, of course), AND I found that I still have a little "work" to do in coming to terms with losing some of my favorite "go-to" colors. But with the deadline looming, I got to work.

I used the new "Builder Wheels" (p. 8-9 of the Summer Mini) for both of my swap designs and in the process discovered that I love them even more than I thought I would. The "wheel spindle and spacers" that the new thinner-style wheels go on is very well designed so you can use one, two or three of the wheels at a time, but because the wheels are quite narrow, rolling just a single takes a very steady hand (that I evidently don't have based on my pile of boo-boo's!), so I'll be using at least 2 of these new wheels together. The triple-cell cartridge has plastic spacers between each of the 3 foam pieces so the 3 colors you load don't bleed together. LOVE that and will be adding a ton of these new cartridges to my collection!

This first swap uses the Square Lattice embossing folder for the background layer, just like my "Mystery Image" post from yesterday. With Not Quite Navy, Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive loaded in the ink cartridge, I wheeled the "Birthday," "So Many Stars" and "Candle Crazy" wheels over full sheets of cardstock and then cut the sheets to size. After wrapping a piece of 5/8" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon around the wheeled layer, I added a sentiment from the "On Your Birthday" set that is punched out with the wide oval punch, and then backed with another wide oval punch of Elegant Eggplant. It's probably hard to see, but after punching out the eggplant ovals, I ran them through the embossing folder, and then when I layered them, I shifted the oval so that it is really only showing on the right side. On the left side of the sentiment, I inserted a silver Star Designer Brad, but then promptly covered it up with a punch-out made with the new "Itty Bitty Bits" stamp set and coordinating punch. I didn't really want to cover up the silver star that is in the brad, but somehow I needed to add a little more color to the center to balance everything. (How's that for an "un-official-no-I-don't-have-a-design-degree/don't-have-the-foggiest-idea-why-it-should-be-this-way" reason!)

Since I really seem to like lots of flowers and cheery, girl-y colors, I was relatively pleased with how this more-masculine-themed card turned out.

In my post of the "You make me happy" pup, I used the side of the Square Lattice embossed sheet that showed the "plus" signs. For this swap I used the side that the name of the folder implies:

This side looks more like intertwined squares or a trellis. Kinda cool that one folder provides two looks!

The second of my swap designs also uses 2 of the new wheels, but in a brighter color scheme. The focal point of this card uses one of the new "ala carte" stamps called "Birthday Block" that is on p. 41 of the Summer Mini. I embossed that image by first stamping the block on my Versamark pad and then immediately going to my Tempting Turquoise Classic pad and finally to the paper. (Adding the Versamark to the stamp helps make the image a little more sticky and allows the clear embossing powder to stick.) After heat embossing, I used Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and So Saffron markers to color in "you," "happy," and the candle. Having the image embossed makes staying in the lines super-easy!

The base of this card is black, not that you can really tell that, and what I did was trim off a 1/2" strip of the front. The Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon is adhered to the very edge of the front of the card, while the Tempting Turquoise and Real Red pieces are adhered to the back/inside edge.

The star embellishments are just cardstock punches with "black" brads holding the stacks together. I say "black," because I am always-and-forever out of black brads (while I have TONS of the 3 other colors that come in the Vintage brads set!) so I had to get creative. I have colored brads with my black Sharpie marker before, but for this swap I needed far too many to have the patience to do that, so I tried something new. I took some of my Rich Regals colored brads and pressed them into my black Staz-on pad to see how that would work. (I used a tweezers to prevent overly-messy fingers!) They looked good, but needed a while to dry--so if you're going to try this, allow extra time--overnight would be good.

Now--on to the next project: cleaning up from all this creating! Hope you have a good day!

"Mystery Image" Challenge

I participate in a couple of online swap groups several times a year, and one of the groups issues a variety of different swap "assignments" and also, weekly challenges. My week itself is usually enough of a challenge (!!!) so it isn't often that I put myself on that roster, but a couple weeks ago, the challenge topic piqued my interest because the focal image was to be a "mystery image" that came to us in the mail. That sounded interesting, especially on a dreary day during "spring break" when it seemed that half the world was somewhere else using up all MY sun! So I signed myself up and waited for the mailman to show up.

When the envelope arrived, this cute little puppy spilled out and it was time for me to get creative. All I had to do was create one full card to send to my swap partner--I could do that!

I dove into my stash of preordered upcoming-Summer-Mini-Catalog items and decided to use the Square Lattice Embossing Folder as a background. Just looking at this pup can't do anything but make you happy, so I used a portion of one of the Boho Backgrounds stamps for the sentiment and had that peek through the lattice. After watercoloring the image, I glossed up the dog's tag and the daisy with Crystal Effects and added a sprinkle of Dazzling Diamonds glitter over the daisy for a little extra sparkle.

One thing that I learned about my first run with the lattice embossing folder (besides the fact that this thing is going to get used A LOT!) is that if you're going to both emboss and punch a piece of cardstock, you want to punch first. Because the process of embossing softens up the paper fibers, when you go to use your punch you will not get as crisp of a punch. If you look closely, my Word Window shape is a little fuzzy.

It was fun to "have" to do a little playing, and it was also fun to get the card from my partner later that week (below). There were several of us who signed up for this challenge, and although the colors used for the pup were similar in most of the designs, everything else about the cards was totally fun and unique.

New Color Excitement!

As most of you have heard by now, on July 1st we will all have some yummy, new colors to work with as Stampin' Up! introduces their new Color Collections. Color is such a huge part of Stampin' Up!, scrapbooking and card making, and SU! is updating their color palate to stay current with the latest trends in color and design. I'm rather excited about all of this and can't wait to get my hands on all the new stuff--but before I get too far ahead of myself, I wanted to put together a good explanation of all the details, because I've heard A LOT of variations on how all this is being interpreted.

In preparation for these new collections (which include 5 brand new colors and some of our favorite In Colors from the past), Stampin' Up! will be saying a fond farewell to some of the current colors on July 1st: Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal, Ballet Blue, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Bordering Blue, Brilliant Blue, Brocade Blue, Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Gable Green, Glorious Green, Going Gray, Green Galore, Handsome Hunter, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Mellow Moss, Only Orange, Orchid Opulence, Pale Plum, Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Really Rust, Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Summer Sun, Taken with Teal, YoYo Yellow.

As with all change, the loss of all these colors seems harsh at first, but I know we'll all love the new offerings once we start playing with them. All I have to do is recall how we were sometimes less-than-excited about some of the In Color offerings at first--and then were shrieking when their rein was over because they had become absolute favorites. But, that's not to say that there are definitely some reasons that you may want to make sure you have a supply of certain colors before they are gone. If you have a favorite, favorite, favorite color that will be leaving, you may want to make sure that you have a pack or two of cardstock, a full reinker, and maybe even a fresh marker, so you're all set before it's too late. Or, if you're like me, and "your" (the kids') school colors are ones that will be going away, check your supply so you'll have what you need to make announcements, invitations or thank you cards. Contact me to let me know what you need, or visit my online store to stock up.

OK - so enough already--on to the specifics of all the new stuff! Our current 4 color families will be updated and called "collections." There will be ten main "core" colors in each of the four Color Collections.

There will be 5 new colors: Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler and Marina Mist-- and 10 Returning In Colors: Baja Breeze, Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, River Rock, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango and Wild Wasabi.

The Brights Collection will include Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, and Real Red.

The Neutrals Collection will include River Rock, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft), Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Basic Gray, and Basic Black.

The Regals Collection will include Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Always Artichoke, Garden Green, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Riding Hood Red, Cherry Cobbler, and Bravo Burgundy.

The Subtles Collection will include Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, and So Saffron.

The In-Color concept will continue, but with some change for the better! Stampin Up! will introduce 5 new In-Colors with the 2010/2011 Idea Book & Catalog on July 1st. (Watch for a sneak peak in June.) These new In-Colors will be available for 2 years! But wait, there's more! Then for 2011/12, another 5 new In-Colors will be introduced for a total of 10 In-Colors! The following year, the 2010/11 bunch will retire and a new set will be introduced! AWESOME.... RIGHT? Once a set of 5 is introduced, we get to play with those for 2 years instead of just one.

To help all of us update our supplies with these new colors, there will be NEW Color Kits for Stampin' Write Markers, Stampin' Pastels and Watercolor Wonder Crayons. This way you can add to your already existing collection by only adding the new colors! Plus - there will be an awesome NEW Color Coach tool that you'll find even more useful than the current one!

Gotta run now, but I'll be back soon. Contrary to my (lack of) activity here in "blogland," I've been anything but asleep! I finally pushed a bunch of swaps for the upcoming Summer Mini Catalog out the door, may be recovered from the marathon stamp camp last weekend, and I have yet another craft room IKEA-update to show you--but today's the last sunny day for a few, so I'm out to take care of the "colors" in the yard instead of the craft room! See ya later!

We SO Enable One Another!!

It is so awesome how, when we have a question or are looking for a solution to a problem, all we usually have to do these days is search online to find what we need!

My craft room was slowly-but-surely feeling like it was closing in on me, and one of the reasons it was getting that way was because I had my 12 X 12 cardstock and Designer Series Paper packs tucked in drawers and totes and file boxes in almost every corner. When I realized that I had avoided going into what should be my FAVORITE room in the entire house for nearly a week, (!!!!) it was definitely time to re-work the system!! Off to find out what I could do with all that 12 X 12 that would straighten it up and also make it easier to access all of it.

So off to research what was available, and where better to start than on Splitcoast! Come to find out that a simple 2-hour trip to the IKEA nearest to me would clear up a multitude of problems!! Thank you, Enabling Stamping Friends!!!!

I "started out" getting two of the cabinets you see here:
Those big, lower drawers will accommodate 12 X 12 paper if one of the small inside drawers is removed. The paper just stands up in the drawer--no need to spend extra cash on file folders. I just used the white cardboard pieces that come with the DSP to create "dividers," using stick-on file tabs to label each color. (Yes, I had that many pieces of that white cardboard--that stuff is great! I'd NEVER throw it out!) One afternoon on the floor sorting my stacks and it already felt better!

But of course, I wasn't satisfied with JUST those. For the next week, I spent more time researching what other pieces might take me to my goal. It wasn't easy, but I managed to carve out a late afternoon/evening to make another trip to--what else--pick up another two file cabinets and look at table tops and drawer units!! I tucked the two newest cabinets in the corner. . .



. . . and replaced my rickety folding table with one that I like a whole lot more.

(Wow--I can see I've got a little bulletin board tidying to do!) I also picked up a nice stack of small drawers--that were "personalized" by our "joint-custody" dog, Sydney, before I even got around to assembling them! (She's not our dog, but we take care of her quite often.) Syd likes to chew on sticks when she's outside, and she must've thought I'd brought the "sticks" indoors for her. I left the room where all my new furniture "parts 'n' pieces" were stacked up for just a couple minutes, only to return to see Syd "snacking" on one of the drawer sides!!

Fortunately I was still able to assemble the drawer and it's as sturdy as if all the wood were still there--BUT WHO WOULD'VE EVER THUNK???? Especially since she had never touched a single thing in the house, even when she was only 3 months old. I couldn't even really get angry, because in her defense, there WAS an awful lot of wood laying around.

I'll have to make sure that my next trip to IKEA (although it probably won't be until summer) is planned for a puppy-free weekend!

Oh, and a big thanks to all you enablers out there--I LOVE my re-worked space!

New Stamper Excitement!

After about 5 days of playing either the "hurry up to wait" or nursemaid game, this morning was a treat! (I haven't spent much time stamping the last several days because my daughter had knee surgery last week. She has really been pretty much of an ideal patient, but still, there are a lot of extra tasks associated with all this, and they're ALL stealing stamping time!) I held a "mini class" today for some new-to-stamping crafters and their "kids in a candy store" enthusiasm for the things they learned and the things they saw in the catalog re-energized me!

It's easy to forget about those early days of stamping, back when you had no idea what half the goodies in the Stampin' Up! catalog were for, back when there was little appreciation for coordinated colors and one-stop shopping. Wow! How spoiled we become!

The ladies in the class expressed an interest in the stamping wheels, so both projects we did used wheels for background texture and decorating the envelopes. I then threw in only a couple other tools and embellishments, in hopes that I wouldn't totally overwhelm anyone.

The Stampin' Pastels (chalks) are a good overall coloring option, so I used them with the Poppin' Pastels technique. After stamping the floral spray from the "Thoughts & Prayers" set with Versamark ink, we used q-tips to apply Lavendar Lace and Sage Shadow chalk to the image. That piece was layered onto Basic Black and Lovely Lilac cardstock and adhered over the crimped Sage Shadow cardstock strip with Dimensionals. The "Sweet Swirls" wheel and Almost Amethyst ink were used on the Almost Amethyst card base, and everyone was able to choose which sentiment they wanted to add to their card from the "Sincere Salutations" set.



The other project we did was a gorgeous card I had in my file that unfortunately needed retired cardstock, so I updated it using Pumpkin Pie and Apricot Appeal. The ladies were intriqued by the "Flight of the Butterfly" 2-step stamping set and I assured them that the different stamps DID NOT need to be matched up perfectly. They did a great job with it and loved the 3D vellum cardstock butterfly.


They all took catalogs home with them, talking of putting post-its on the pages they like. I just smiled, soaking in all that new stamper excitement!

Oh the Creativity!!!

My "Wall Art" stamp camp was this past weekend and I'm happy to report that it was great fun! The creative process is incredible when 4 or 5 people are working together! I think everyone had some idea of what they wanted to do when they walked in the door, but the finished products were better than anyone could have imagined! Someone would have a dilemma of one sort or another and in an instant, she'd have at least a couple people chiming in with ideas on what could be done.

Now, before I show you the projects, I have to tell you that my lacking photography skills don't do any of them justice. They were all very impressive and I'm sure many people are going to have to spend a bit of time convincing others that they made their piece.

Most of the frames that were used were actually repurposed from already-made pieces of art, purchased on sale because, well, let's just say they were less than attractive. I really should have taken some "before" pictures. I think I had a few people a little scared when I took a single-edge razor blade and started cutting through the backing of the frames so everything could be taken apart. Some pieces come completely apart and are easy to cover with new paper, others, not so much. It really just depends on the glue and the construction, but for an average of about $12, it's a really, really economical way to have a frame, glass and matting ready to alter.

Tracy started out wanting to use "To the Nines" DSP to replicate the piece I posted earlier this month, but then she added a couple more layers and embellishments and had this wonderful piece to take home:



Gwen had a long, narrow frame that she filled with this:


Gayle didn't have her frame with her, but put together this cheery project:

Sue used a frame with a center plaque that was not going to budge, so she covered it with scrapbook paper and cut out some flowers from coordinating paper that ended up looking almost like they were painted on the glass:

Dale designed this to hang in her guest bath. The glass is not in place in this picture so the vellum that the verse is printed on looks a little "lumpy" in this picture, but the finished project looks so classy! The cream and black paper was gorgeous!

Cathy designed this "timely" piece with the Stampin' Up! "Cottage Wall" Designer Paper. She started out thinking she'd use a pretty Rich Razzleberry floral print, and as the afternoon progressed, so did her art! She tried several different embellishment ideas before settling on the gold-embossed medallion from the "Baroque Motifs" set. The 5/16" Jumbo brad in the center was also embossed--it was white in its "previous life." A little swim in Versamark and a couple dips in gold embossing powder and it made the perfect centerpiece.


When Lynne walked in the door, she was planning on making a name frame for her son and his fiance using "To the Nines" DSP. But after a little "consultation" with the group and puttering with different lettering sizes and embellishments, this is the wonderful gift she went home with:

I had "a little" hand in helping Lynne complete her project, although that wasn't always a good thing! Because we had spent so much time helping each other with "consultations," it was getting very close to supper time and Lynne still had a few more steps before she'd be finished. She needed holes punched in the ovals for the ribbon so I grabbed my Crop-A-Dile and started punching. Unfortunately, I was chatting while doing this and I ended up punching a hole in the BOTTOM instead of the top of the "Home" oval! I was panicked for a minute, but then I remembered "There are no mistakes, just opportunities for creativity!"

I have to admit I was at a loss for a minute, and then images from the Sale-a-Bration set, "Good Neighbors" popped into my head. A little stamping, a little paper piecing--and my favorite part--a teensy Real Red cardstock heart punch-out from the new Pinking Hearts border punch! Crisis averted!!

It just so happens that the house is tan with a green roof--how cool is that!

Hope you have a great day!

Stamping on Walls

When I posted last week, talking about my Wall Art Stamp Camp, I had a couple emails from people who know the example I showed in that post is one I made to hang in my bathroom. The wall art piece is not the only stamping I have in that bathroom, and those emails encouraged me to share the other "project" that I've done in that space, so here goes!

(If you'd like the abridged version, scroll down to where you see the ********)

Up until about a year ago, I had been working to find replacement wallpaper for this bathroom. I absolutely loved the wallpaper I had in there, but little hands had gotten toothpaste on it and when I went to clean it off, well, the color of the wallpaper came with the toothpaste. Darn abrasive stuff! I lived with the damage for awhile, but knew that eventually I'd have to redo the walls. I'd occasionally thumb through wallpaper books when I was in a home improvement center, but never put a lot of effort into looking--until last February when I finally set a goal to find new paper by March 1st or come up with a Plan B and carry it out. I think I looked through every last book in each and every store that carried wallpaper, but it was the last day of February and I had no replacement, so devising a Plan B was in order.

The paper I was trying to replace was a faux-finish look, and there was a matching geometric border that I had used in a couple places in the room. I had (stubbornly, or maybe stupidly) hoped that I'd find a paper pattern that would allow me to go for the same look. Now, this is going to sound like I'm making it up but I swear it's the truth, but as I was returning the last wallpaper book to the shelf at the paint store, feeling totally defeated, there was a paint chip sample on the floor. Not wanting to have anyone slip on it, I picked it up--and had an epiphany!! The colors on the paint chip were the same tones as those in my old wallpaper!! Duh!!! Why didn't I think of this before??? The old wallpaper looked like faux finishing--I could do that myself!!

The paint chip I picked up was for exterior paint so I had to find suitable replacements of the latex variety, but I didn't leave the store until I had paint and supplies in hand--this project was going to get done! I knew I still had one little issue, that being the border that I had hoped to replace, but I figured I'd think of something. I took my paint home, feeling pretty happy about finally having a solution. I proceeded to work on getting supper started when I had my second epiphany of the day!! "Hey, dummy! What about STAMPING a border???" Really! I sometimes wonder about myself! I literally ran to my craft room, grabbed a few old catalogs and started looking for inspiration. I'll spare you the play-by-play of this step, but in the end I found a retired set in my "permanent collection" closet called "Beautiful Batik" that I thought would be perfect for the geometric look I wanted! I played with some different options by stamping cardstock with acrylic paint until I got a border combo that I liked.

Getting the old paper off wasn't too bad, but oh, removing the layers of old paste. . . what a project! The bath was in disarray for a couple weeks, but I really like what I ended up with. In fact, I guess I had replicated what I had pretty well, because some people didn't even notice that I had taken the paper down!

********Here's my other bathroom stamping project:

The "Beautiful Batik" stamps are a little rough around the edges by design, and I really like that because it helps hide the fact that all my lines aren't perfect and straight. I actually like that they're that way, because after all the work, I want people to know that I created this! (And fortunately, when you're actually in the room, the flaws aren't quite as noticeable as they are when you're only looking at a little bit of it.)

Now, okay, making a border using rubber stamps really isn't a revolutionary idea, but in the process of doing the stamping I had to create something else that just might be in the "revolutionary" category.

When I stamp on walls, I've discovered that using a piece of foam cushion purchased at the craft or fabric store is an absolute necessity! I cut the cushion into 3" squares, add acrylic or regular latex paint, and use that as a "stamp pad" when loading my stamp. It's SO much easier than applying the paint with a foam brush or other method. But when I was working on the border up around the ceiling, sometimes hanging onto two stamps and my "stamp pad," all while perched on a step stool, I needed to devise something else to help me out. The wrist pin cushion my mom used to use came to mind and I thought of this:

I used a great big needle to feed some 1/8" elastic through the foam so I would be able to keep my "stamp pad" on my wrist while I worked. I can't tell you how much faster I was able to move along once I had this! I ended up finishing my border, both around the ceiling and at chair rail height, in about two hours.

This is a closer look at the needle, elastic and foam that I used to make my "stamp pad":

In some areas, I had to do a little more "inventing" because I have little in's and out's where my stamp just wouldn't fit:

Once I finished the main portion of the stamping, I needed to alter my stamps so they would fit in the tight corners. I used that old 10-seconds-in-the-microwave trick, peeled the stamps off the blocks and trimmed them as necessary:

I was able to put the stamps back together (with the use of the microwave again) after finishing my little detail work.

I also have stamped walls in my craft room (naturally!) This is the project where I discovered that the foam cushion worked so nicely as a pad:

Even with all the different colors of (acrylic) paint, this border (using another retired set "Mixed Bouquet") was done in a jiffy! Since this border is just above eye level, I was able to hold the foam piece in one hand and tap-tap-tap-stamp with the other. A much better system than when I've stamped walls before.