Summer Watercolors

Hi Stampers,

The sets in Stampin' Up's great Summer Mini Catalog will only be available for one more month so I thought I'd share another sample using the set On the Grow.

This set it so easy to watercolor - stamp the image with Black StazOn on watercolor paper and then I used the Aquapainter and stamp pads to watercolor in Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery and Marina Mist (for the jar). After I was finished watercoloring, I added Crystal Effects to make the jar look like a Mason Jar - a cool effect but in this heat and humidity you do have to let the Crystal Effects dry for a while (about 12 hours). Then I added the Marina Mist piece punched with the Scallop Border punch, as well as a piece of Melon Mambo DSP from the Brights stack and a Marina Mist Button tied with white Baker's Twine. The greeting is from a new stamp set called Friendly Phrases and is stamped in Melon Mambo - love these colors together.

Don't forget this is the last few days of the $99 Starter Kit sale - join my fun group of stampers today. Contact me today for the details or with any questions you have!

Wedding Bells

Hi Stampers,

Today I'm sharing a card that I made for a very happy occasion - a wedding. The groom is one of my son Jordan's good friends and the bride is the daughter of one of my downline (sometimes it is a small world) and they are getting married this weekend. Congrats to Adam & Kristin!

Anyway, this is the card I made for Jordan to take to the wedding. I saw this idea on Stampin' Connection (the great Demo only resource for thousands of card samples). I changed it up a little bit and came up with this card. The colors for the wedding are all brights so I decided to use Melon Mambo for this version, but of course you could use any of our great colors depending on the occasion. I used my favorite new item from the new Stampin' Up Catalog - the Lace Border punch. I punched out two strips in Shimmery White and then used the 1" circle punch for the Melon Mambo behind the lace - it fits perfectly. Then I matched up the lace where the two strips intersect and glued it together over the Shimmery White card and trimmed off the ends of the lace. I used another of my favorite items the Rhinestones to highlight each of the Melon Mambo circles for some bling. The greeting is from the retired set Together Forever and it's stamped in Basic Gray and Melon Mambo.

I have lots of weddings coming up the rest of the summer and fall and think this will be the card I'll be making in many different colors. Congrats to the happy couple!

Keep Stamping,

Join Stampin' Up for only $99 during July!

Hi Stampers,

Today I'm taking a break from the my usual card shares to make sure that you are aware of a great Stampin' Up special that runs through the end of July. You can become a Stampin' Up demonstrator for only $99 and in addition to the great products you receive, you will also get a special Christmas project designed by Stampin' Up's president Shelli Gardner. Here is an idea of what you get for $99 - you can click on the top left hand icon on the sidebar for more information or go to this link on my Stampin' Up Website for more info or contact me today!


Stampin' Up welcomes all types of demonstrators - whether you want to build your own collection of our great products, build a business that you work around your schedule and most of all if you want to build relationships with those you meet by holding stamp workshops or classes and by meeting others in our group of really fun demonstrators, I would love to have you become a part of my group! Contact me and I'll let you know how you can join Around the Clock Stampers! You will receive a free gift from Shelli and a free gift from me as well!

Contact me today to take advantage of this great offer!

Baby on Board

Hi Stampers,

Hope that everyone is ready for all the really hot weather we are having and will have for the next week or so.

Today I went to a very fun baby shower for my nephew and his wife (niece-in-law?) and so I'm sharing the card I made for that happy occasion. They used Stampin' Up Decor Elements for the Baby's room - the alphabet that recently retired so I thought I'd made the card to match their theme.

I used the Fox & Friends stamp set because the animals from that set go with the Baby's Room decor. I stamped each animal on Whisper White and then cut them out. The colors here are Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Garden Green & Not Quite Navy. I decided to use the new Pennant Punch to make balloons that the animals are holding. I used Baker's Twine for the balloon strings. The Pennants are punched from coordinating cardstock and I used the Polka Dot pattern from the Regals DSP Stack for the smaller pennants. The letters are from the Big Shot Naturally Serif Decorative Strip Sizzlit - the letters fit perfectly on the pennants.

Congrats to Kyle & Jackie! Can't wait to meet our new great-nephew this fall!

Wedding Season

Hi Stampers,

Haven't posted this week as I have been busy working and once again another storm, another power outage. Our power was out for about 9 hours this time and 850,000 others in the Chicago area lost power too but it's about the 4th time in the last month so it does get aggravating!

Anyway, no storms for a few days so I thought I'd share another card with you from June's Copy the Catalog stamp camp. This one is a wedding card and it features the Word Play stamp set and the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder. This is a quick and easy card for any wedding - just the kind to have on hand. The colors in this card are Baja Breeze and Whisper White. The greeting is stamped in Early Espresso on Whisper White and I used some of the new Baker's Twine to hang the tag from the ribbon as well as accenting it with some bling - a Rhinestone for the ring. The Certainly Celery Satin ribbon finishes this card.

Hope you can find some time to stamp this weekend!

More flowers from the new catalog!

Hi Stampers,

Hope you enjoyed some time with family and friends this past holiday weekend - I know that we did and had a front row seat for Fireworks at one of the towns near us. I have spent the rest of the week getting ready for a Stampin' Garage Sale that I'm participating in with a few friends where we'll be selling retired SU products. Oh and enjoying yet another power outage here today - not a cloud in the sky, but something happened and we lost power for 4 hours.

Anyway, back to stamping. I have not purchased a lot from the new catalog yet, but one set I purchased during our Demo Pre-order is Posy Punch and it's one of my favorites. This set can be purchased with hostess dollars using our new Hostess Program and I like it because it coordinates with our Flower punch.

This card also uses some of the new In Colors - Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral and Pool Party. I stamped the flowers in the 3 colors and punched them out. I added the centers on the side flowers in Calypso Coral and popped them up with Dimensionals. The Lace Border punch in Whisper White finishes the card. The Happy Birthday is stamped in Pool Party and is from another new Hostess stamp set called Happiest Birthday Wishes.

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Birthday America!

Hi Stampers,

I hope that you are enjoying your holiday weekend! We've had a weekend of hot but at least not rainy weather here in Chicago and the Cubs even managed to beat the White Sox today so it's been a good day!

I was going to create a card celebrating America's birthday, but instead I decided to create another collage instead - which is really like 9 cards but it was way easier than the 16 square collage I did a few months ago.

This 10X10" collage uses lots of products, some of which are retired but since I keep all the patriotic sets I have purchased over the years, it was easy to create. The colors are of course Real Red, Night of Navy and Whisper White. I used the stamp sets Happy Fourth, Star Spangled, God Bless America (the single stamp that we sold as a fundraiser after 9/11), Seeing Stars and the Wheels Classic Stars and last year's Summer Mini July 4 wheel (sorry the name escapes me). I used 3 inch squares for this collage in Night of Navy as my base and then accented the squares with Real Red and all the stamped images. For the top left square, I used the two retired star punches and the inlaid embossing technique (my current favorite technique) and for the top right square, I used White Craft ink with the Classic Stars wheel and then white embossing powder and heat embossed the Night of Navy. The stars on top are from the Stars #2 Big Shot die and the brad in the center was retired a few years ago. For the "USA" letters, I first used the Square Lattice Embossing folder and then cut the letters out of the Serif Essentials Big Shot Alphabet. A piece of Real Red from the Brights DSP stack accents the "S". I used the Night of Navy and Real Red Markers for the 3 "flag" stamps. The one on the lower left I stamped twice - once in Night of Navy and once in Real Red. Then I cut out the flag part and used a Stampin' Dimensional to pop it up. For the lower center square, I stamped the fireworks in Versamark and used Iridescent Ice to heat emboss. Once you get started, it's really easy to create these collages - hope I've inspired you to create one. Also, I should add that I took this picture without the frame so I wouldn't get so much glare off the glass - it really will be displayed in a white frame.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

The New Catalog is here...

Hi Stampers,

Well, it's July 1st and that means that it's the start of another Stampin' Up year - the new catalog is now available and it's another great one - full of new stamp sets, accessories, Big Shot items and everything else you expect from Stampin' Up.

Today's card share uses several products from the new catalog, including 2 of the 5 new In Colors. I got the colors for this card right off the Color Coach, which can now be updated with the newest In Colors - this is a great tool for getting color combos that coordinate well. In this case it's the new colors Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder (which I already keep calling Wisteria Lane, even though I don't watch that show) along with Elegant Eggplant. I used one of the new Hostess Stamp Sets called Posy Punch - love this set. Here I stamped the flower in Wisteria Wonder and punched it out with the Flower punch - love sets that coordinate with our punches and the center of the flower is stamped in Lucky Limeade on Lucky Limeade cardstock and popped off the card with a Stampin' Dimensional
. The background piece is the new Lace punch - absolutely one of my favorite items in the new catalog in Wisteria Wonder on a strip of Lucky Limeade. Purple is one of my favorite colors, so I love that we have this cool new purple color for the next two years - it matches the color I just painted my upstairs hallway with a few months back - I definitely think of colors in Stampin' Up terms!

Hope you enjoy this taste of the new catalog and that you have a terrific July 4th weekend!