5/30 Stampin' Up Bloom With Hope, Countdown to the new Catalog

Good Morning Friends!

The countdown to the new catalog is on!  Can you believe we are ready to go on Monday morning?  Oh, I need to make my wish list still.  Although we can order starting Monday, my countdown is ON for my Catalog Rollout BASH and Quarterly Training Event for my team on June 8th.  This event is open to customers, and downline and this is the one not to miss!

Here's a sneak peek of one of the projects we are making (there are 12 in total)!  There will be an assortment of styles and occasions for this one, from birthday, to sympathy and everything in between!  If you decide to come, you'll leave with two full embellishments (that you use to assemble your cards, and keep the extra), valued over $16 and 12 completed cards.  The raffles will be outstanding!  You can win bundles, or maybe the new Hamburger Box die!  It's the big one!! :)

 

This event is awesome, because we have the 5 new In colors to play with and so many new accessories!!  Although the event is primarily for my down line to make a whole bunch of new samples, it is open to everyone.  I'm so excited!! For more info on the event, Click Here. 

This card uses the New Bloom with hope stamp set, and features the brand new In - Color Blackberry Bliss.  Paired with Smokey Slate grey, it's the perfect color combination for an easy sympathy card.  At the class, stampers will mask the bottom of the paper with a post-it note to protect the paper at the bottom and stamp the flowers at the top.  Then they will remove the post-it and stamp the sentiment.  I pre-tie all the bows to make it easy to assemble all cards within the 3 hours we have at the hall.  

Blackberry bliss is so hard to photograph, it almost looks black.  The satin-y striped ribbon is so beautiful and shiny in real life.  

There's only a few day's left to sign up! so click the link above and get yourself registered.  I'll be ordering a full roll of smokey slate ribbon, and a full package of self adhesive rhinestones for each person, so I need to have sign up's in advance.  

How about some fun?  Here's some photos of our last team quarterly event.  

 Double big shot stations!

 Swap by Regina Maginnis

 Swap By Amy Thompson

More fun swaps... Did you make this one?

 

 Amazing food by Chef Leigh-Ann

 

I hope to see you there!

Love,

3/5 New Color Challenge! Sahara, Suede, Primrose Love & Sympathy Clean and Simple Card

Good Morning Friends!

Today's card is VERY clean and simple.  I made it for a stamp a stack that is being held here in the studio this week.  I love this color combination so much I'm going to do another color challenge!  If you'd like to play along, just make a card and link it below! 

The colors are not perfect in the photo here.  This color combination is STUNNING in real life.  I mean, you SERIOUSLY need to try this one on for size!

The colors are Sahara Sand, Soft Suede and Primrose Petals (with a side of vanilla).  It's yummy scrumptious, I promise!

The base layer is 4 1/4" x 11", sahara sand and it is scored at 5 1/2" and embossed with the  Lacy Brocade embossing folder.   This color combination is simply AMAZING in real life.  It's most certainly my favorite card in the set (although I really do like them all).  

The primrose layer measures 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" and the vanilla top piece is 3 3/8" x 2 3/8" (or 1/8 inch smaller on both sides).  

I had every intention of using lovely as a tree, and when I started playing, this color combination just came to me.  I think this stamp set Love and Sympathy is not only stunning, it's inexpensive too at $11.95 for clear mount.

So, for the stamping, it was so EASY!  I inked the main flower image up with Sahara Sand and Primrose Petals markers, then added the sentiment on top with Soft Suede and Primrose markers.  I also stamped the sentiment inside to finish off the card, and used the leftover ink to add a "stamped off" floral image to the inside as well. 

I know I say this a lot, but layering your ink can be just as dramatic as adding a layer of paper, when it's done in the right place.  Swoon!  

It might be difficult to see, but I added some dazzling diamonds glitter on top of the flower using a 2-way glue pen.  The finishing touch is a scrap piece of the Primrose Petals 3/8" stitched satin ribbon.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today and letting me share my artwork with you!  Now it's your turn.  I'd love for you to play along and share your artwork here!   Just link up in the next week or so
Love,

Selene
My Stampin' Up! Store

Winter Blues ~ Saturday Sketch Challenge 240

Good Evening Friends!  It's time for another sketch challenge from the stamping 411 operators! 

This week, Gretchen Barron is at the sketch board again. 

I really struggled with this sketch, there are two separate focal points.. I suppose one of mine is now flying away!  :D  Too funny!

How about some measurements!
Base: (oh yea, shimmer white baby!)11 x 4 1/4", scored and folded in half at 5 1/2"
Layer 2: 4 x 5 4 1/4"
Layer 3: two pieces of The Gorgeous Sweet Shop designer paper (mini catalog) cut to 3 7/8" x 1 7/8" each
Layer 4: Island Indigo 3 1/8" x 2 1/8"
Layer 5: Shimmer white 3 x 2"
Layer 6: Island Indigo stamped on shimmer white and cut out.

I actually made this card with Gretchen Barron on the phone!  :D  This brand(y) new set Just Soaring just arrived in the mail yesterday and of course, I was LATE submitting my card!  Tisk tisk tisk.  I had an especially challenging week and I joked with Gretchen after I stamped the sentiment.  Is it weird to make a card for yourself?  But I suppose it's nice to give back once in a while! HA!

I just love the big soft bow, and once I actually sat down to do it, I was really happy with the result!  I love the big frumpy bow on the side.  It's so soft! I took an aqua painter and water colored the sky, with soft sky ink, I just left the sparkly clouds there to glisten. 

So tomorrow, my family and I have to leave our house for 6 hours while they turn the power off and do some work... Any thoughts on what we should do in a cold rainy New England with my hubby and 7 year old?  I've been writing directions and crafting like a mad woman.  So, it will be good to take a break. Who's got a fun family idea for me?

Until tomorrow,
Selene~

Cards And Things Challenge

My friend Krista over at Cards & Things asked me to be the guest designer for August. This week's challenge is a color challenge. Night of Navy, Baja Breeze and Basic Grey are the colors.

One of my BFF's lost her sister this week and I really wanted to make a card for her to show support. I think that this color scheme really lends itself to a sympathy card, and here's the one for miss Diane.

Please pop over to the cards and things blog and let them know I sent you!

Have a great day!
Rubbah hugs,
Selene

A Sympathy Card for Elisa's Cousin

I think that if my stamp set "lovely as a tree" were to ever make the retirement list, I would never part with my set.

I have had a very good customer for the last 8 months.. She's returning home to France in just a few weeks. She came over to pick up some gifts for coworkers this past week and told me she needed a sympathy card for her aunt. She has only met her aunt once, but there was a very bad car crash and her male cousin of 19 years, didn't make it.

So ~ what else could we do? We sat down and made this card.I used the thumping technique to ink up this Mighty Oak.. Meaning.. I used 3 colors.

The first color (more mustard) I just colored the entire top of the tree. Then I added two other colors, ruby red and pumpkin pie and "thumped" them onto the stamp in a drumming type motion. I inked the bottom of the tree in chocolate chip and added some details to the branches that you can see in the detail of the stamp.

I "huffed" my stamp to remoisten the ink (remoisten similar to cleaning your eyeglasses) and stamped it onto very vanilla cardstock. Next, I spritzed this layer with water, and spritzed the back also so my cardstock wouldn't curl up...

***note, whenever you do something to paper that makes it warp (heat or water), if you do the same thing to the other side, it will fix the problem. :) We set that aside to dry and worked on the rest of the card.

We toyed with adding other colors to the base, but the chocolate and ruby red really pops against the vanilla.

We added ribbon, but didnt want a bow, to keep the card more on the masculine side. We used the finial press to dry emboss the front of the card after we stamped the most appropriate sentiment. I'm so going to miss my friend Elisa when she returns to France.. There's something about sitting and creating a card together for something so personal that brings a couple of crafters together.

Making a card with a friend is much better than doing it alone!

Stamp Club Card

Good Morning Friends!

This week is card club week.. typically my busiest week of the month. This month I made 40 packets each of two projects. I'll have quite a few fun stampers here at the studio over the week. Here's one of them... The inspiration from this card came from the sketch over at stamping 411, a blog I have with 7 girlfriends from across the country.

This stamp set used in this card are Awash with flowers, which will be available next month on preorder from the 2010-2011 idea book and catalog from Stampin' Up! I also used a staple stamp set from my bookcase, Sincere Salutations.

Although this card is intended as a sympathy card, friends who came to the studio made it into birthday, thank you, best wishes and good luck! I love when a set really gives you versatility to make what you need at the time.

I hope you're having a wonderful week and that you have time to stamp something fun!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton ~

Clean and Simple

When my friend Joanne lost her dad this week, I wanted to pull a card off the shelf for her. Looking at the cards I had on hand, nothing seemed "right" for me.

In my head, I had these colors, and knew that the branch out stamp set was what I wanted to use, and I made her this quick but beautiful, clean and simple card.

A sympathy card is nice, but when it's a friend.. I don't know... thinking of you just seems better.

I stamped the bird on the tree using white craft ink and added some colored pencil over it. I ended up having to redraw him a bit, as a snowflake made him disfigured, I think I did okay. The snow was stamped with white craft ink and set aside to dry.

When I was younger I lost my dad right before Thanksgiving and it was a tough year. Wishing you joy as you spend time with your family this holiday Jo. Hugs,

Selene

Sad News

I got news tonight that a close friend of the family, and avid stampin' up! fan, lost a 2 month old grandbaby overnight last night. I can't imagine... Instantly, I felt the need to go and stamp a card for her.

I started with a card that I made this afternoon for my marker club, and changed it up slightly. I had just made the same card about an hour before hearing the news ~ it was a birthday card, and it seemed perfect with the barely banana base color.

We just got home from a long weekend of camping. Looking at the sunkissed trees, I was thinking that adding color to trees by dotting markers, would be a way to add interest to a focal point of a card. For this slightly different version ~ a sympathy card, I decided to take a waterbrush to it, as if the water would somehow blur the picture like teary eyes.

After looking at it for a while I realized that this card is VERY baby in colors and layout and I think fits what I'm looking to send. Simple and sweet. If you think to say some prayers for my good friend Val, her family, & the innocent little one, I'm sure she would appreciate it. It really makes me hug my daughter a little tighter today.