Love Those Demonstrators!!

It has become a much-anticipated tradition that the group of demonstrators I hang with stages a "mini-conference" each August. We all create a project for the others to do, and go home with a dozen or more great ideas/samples for the price of one! Not to mention, there is a super pot luck lunch, lots of laughter, and chocolate. Now, don't you wish YOU were a demonstrator, too?! (You could be, you know - just talk to me about that secret longing...)

This is the card I prepared to share with the group. I wanted to highlight the fact that Stampin' Up! is an international company, and many of our stamps are available in Spanish and French as well as English! Sooo, here is the marvelously elegant My Friend stamp set in French, stamped in black craft ink on River Rock CS. We used En Francais with Versamark Ink for some background visual texture. The sentiment is also stamped in craft on River Rock - give it plenty of time to dry before you "fussycut" that thing, or for some deep shine try embossing the foliage and the sentiment with black embossing powder. For a little zing, I introduced some Cajun Craze "lace" made with the new Lace Ribbon Border Punch - takes just half a strip per side. The card base is Basic Black, and the technique for the faux brads can be found in the Noember 18, 2009 post. Inside, we masked off part of a stamp from the On Your Birthday set for a more general sentiment. The foliage is stamped again in Versamark, and the corners are nipped with the Ticket Corner Punch.

It's pretty simple, but striking, don't you think? Stay tuned for more samples using this set - I can just feel that it's going to be a favorite! Kathy

Olathe Stamp Club - August 2011

I promised the girls in Olathe that I'd tell them the secret to instant weight loss. They got really excited - especially when they each mastered it for themselves in the space of an hour! We worked with sponges and layering and drop shadows using markers and multiple colors on solid stamps and masks. The really great thing is that these techniques can be applied equally to card-making and scrap booking, and use only basic tools & supplies that almost everyone has in their arsenal.

Just think how much less cards and scrap book pages would weigh if they could be completed with a single layer of paper - without giving up visual interest! -Kathy

Summer at the Shore

Couldn't resist posting a handful of pix from our time in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in late July. The first shot is from the dock at our quirky little cabin, about eight feet from the lake shore! Isn't it breathtaking?! Of course we saw lighthouses (picture #2 is a lens for a light), and we discovered the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the southern tip of Lake Superior. The colors you see are from minerals that leach into the groundwater and leak out the edges of the cliffs. On the way home, we paused in Hayward, Wisconsin, for the International Lumberjack Competition. These guys are in the air about 90 feet, preparing to "freefall" to mats at the bottom of the poles as fast as they can to shave seconds off their time. Hooooo-eee. Just one of a number of things I will likely never feel compelled to do. It was fascinating to watch.

Here's wishing each of you time to watch a sunset or plan an experience just outside the familiar. -Kathy

Katelyn's Bouquet

Katelyn is the niece of one of my stamp club members. She paid a visit to the studio while she was here, and I showed her the peeled paper flowers. Before long, she had completed almost 40 of them, using just about every color under the rainbow. Isn't this a sight for sore eyes at a time of year when the heat is leaching the color out of just about everything else in the landscape?!

Good job, Katelyn! You certainly met the challenge for the month of using these flowers in a new context. -Kathy

Lawrence Stamp Club - August 2011

I was excited when the hostess for club this month requested we use a letterpress plate, since I just hadn't got round to trying them out yet (although I have used some of the texture plates in a similar manner). The project I designed uses the new Fancy Fan design, which I inked in white craft before printing onto Calypso Coral. These plates emboss slightly while transferring the ink to the paper. It's just like helping my dad on the little printing press he used to use for engraved invitations!

Atop some Little Leaves sizzlet shapes in Certainly Celery is a collection of soft punched and "peeled" flower clusters on the right, accented with Basic Pearls. The sentiment is from Word Play, with a card base in Poppy Parade.

Enjoy what blooms remain in you garden this month. -Kathy

August Promotion -Buy 3, Get 1 FREE

 Buy 3 Packs of the New Designer Series Paper and GET 1 FREE!

 

Sale is only through these dates August 1-31, 2011