Techique Class Friday Night

I used to have a "technique junkies" stamp club, back when I was a new demonstrator. Every month we learned new techniques. After making this card.. Boy I miss that club!

This Friday night at my home we will be doing embossing techniques.

First I will show standard embossing and show a few different ways to emboss.

Then we'll bump it up and make this GORGEOUS reinker float card, and an emboss resist card. The class is $15 and will come with a document that will be emailed after the class, so folks will remember how to do all we learned.

The class starts at 6:30 and we should be all done by 9PM. I hope you can make it!
Selene Kempton

Mojo Emboss Resist (oversized)

This week's mojo is a little oversized for me. I just love sketch challenges and I always try to get the mojo Monday one on my calendar.

I made the two elements on the card first... When I realized I'd be covering my pretty little bird up, I searched through my envelopes and found a 6 1/4" x 4 1/2" envelope.

Steppin outside the box... I made my card that size. I used black and shimmer white, razzleberry and bordering blue. I love this color combination.

I was going to add the other element, and found it was pulling away from the embossed elements a bit. I really like it on the stark white.

I'm working out my classes for this week, and Friday night we're doing Emboss resist, the reinker float and straight embossing. If you're local to me and free, I hope to see you Friday night.

Saturday Sketch Challenge 141

Another fun sketch from the stamping 411 blog! This past week was an exciting one. We had our first featured artist Kerin Sylvester.

Kerin wrote an amazing tutorial on masking that I think everyone can follow and will return to time and again.

Last night I was stamping with some friends and was showing off some of the designer paper from the mini catalog. My friend Lisa pointed out that the pink pattern looked a lot like a stamp set that she purchased from me, trendy trees.

Lisa was the inspiration for me to play with this stamp set and paper.

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and yesterday I caught up on my soap operas in the middle of the night. I tape days of our lives, and if I have trouble sleeping, I'll watch my tivo'd copy.. Anyway Bo and Carly were wearing these colors... Bordering blue, chocolate chip and rich razzleberry.. So I paired these up with the rose red in the paper, and that's how I chose my colors.. LOL Her shirt was rich razzleberry, and her chocolate colored coat was picking up the red tones from her shirt.. kind of like the chocolate ribbon against the rose red patterned paper here. Bo had a classic mens bordering blue shirt and tie on, and it had a sheen to it... So I chose shimmer white for the focal point and for the base...

Really strange where inspiration can come from, but there's no doubt... Stampin' Up is on the cutting edge and lines up with the colors of fashion. I went shopping at the coach store the other day.. (just to look) and was so excited that one of the patterns from this cardstock is actually the SAME as one of their purses right now! (not that I can afford one!) LOL .

Here's a close up of my sponged night sky on shimmer paper, which I think I picked up pretty well with my camera. I love how the chocolate picks up the rose color a bit. I removed a brad from the casing to make the bling for the heart punch.

Base Layer 11 x 4 1/4", scored and folded in half at 5 1/2"
Layer 2 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" (so 1/8" smaller on two sides.
Layer 4: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Layer 3: is 1/8" larger on two sides.

I rounded the corners keeping with the sketch. Please check out what my girlfriends have done over on the 411 blog.. I can tell you all the cards are unique this week. It's excellent to know how different one sketch can look made by 7 different artists.

Green Dreams

Before I get going this morning I just wanted to tell you that I'm so excited for my friend Robin! (another bloggers challenge member) She was interviewed by woman's day magazine to represent Stampin' Up! I can certainly see why they picked you girl! Isn't that off the hook?? Congratulations!! Here's the article.

I went out in my craft room with not much inspiration this morning. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. I ran across this green paper that used Grey and Sage shadow and thought... "I really love sage shadow".

I played with all sorts of stuff I haven't touched in a long time this morning! This stamp set, has been sitting on my shelf since the days of kiwi kiss. I also pulled out some of my shimmer paint and mixed sage shadow reinker with it, to add accents to my focal point. That's also embossed with black craft ink, and I used iridescent ice embossing powder. The picture doesn't do this one justice. It's really sparkly.

Well I'm off to go look at the other bloggers challenge group members blogs, to see what they have to astonish us with green. TGIF!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

Mojo Monday ~ Mothers Day Card

I love simple sketches and the one over at mojo monday this week, rocked my Monday!

I know it's a contest week on mojo, but I dont want to enter this card for the contest, just for fun and playing along. Besides, the idea for the roses is not mine. Those GORGEOUS roses, were inspired by my friend Gretchen Barron, who got the idea from Julie William's blog. These are so fun to make.

For a bit of change from the original flowers, I tried using textured paper. I love working with textured cardstock. I ripped my layers apart (for the paper) and used about half when distressing my layers. Instead of a silky look, I wanted them a little more vintage.

I saw a dress at the mall with this color scheme for a little girl, and remembered when my daughter lived in those summery, cute, girly girl dresses. I need to get her back to that... Maybe I'll have to start sewing them myself. The dress had white polka dots on cameo Coral paper, and the ribbon was most certainly crushed curry. That being said, when I saw the sketch this morning, I knew I wanted to try it out!

Happy Monday! and Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

SSC140 ~ Getting Back to Stamping

It's been quite the week! I haven't stamped in over a week because I've been taking care of my hubby (who's home from the hospital and doing quite well on the IV antibiotics). When I went out to my stamp room tonight to complete this card, I was secretly psyched that it looked simple. I love the clean and simple style cards, and this one certainly fits the bill.

The center panel is from some beautiful designer paper. I was sitting with a customer and she said "I could never use that to make a card" I couldn't help but think, it's already a card. cut down to this size, you don't need much else!

I flipped the elements over to the right side, so I wouldn't cover the big pretty butterfly on the left.

I looked through so many sentiments.. thank you and birthday, and I was looking for a specific one that I misplaced.. I never found it. When I saw this stamp set, I thought "yeah". The word cherish sums up in one lump how I'm feeling.

Measurements:

1. That gorgeous center panel with the butterflies, is cut to 3x4. From a 12 x 12, you could get enough for 12 cards from one sheet.
2. Just below that layer is Rose Red cardstock cut at 4 1/4" (so cut an 8 1/2" x 11" piece in half), then cut that long piece at 3 1/4" You can get 6 for every sheet of cardstock, so two pieces, would cover the entire piece of dsp.
3. The base is 11 x 4 1/4", and it was scored and folded in half at 5 1/2"

Before I leave you tonight, I suggest that you give your loved ones an extra hug. Appreciate the beauty of having all the special people you have in your life. Try and discard negativity. Be kind to one another ~ that goes a long way. Also ~ if you take the time to play along this week with the operators at stamping411, I'm sure you wont be sorry. This is a sketch that I'll return to, over and over again.

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

Bloggers Challenge ~ A bag or a box

Well ~ It's all my friend Tiffany's fault (love ya girl!). She got me started making the adorable big shot flowers with fabric and then I started eyeballing my Vera Bradley purses and I decided to try it out. Having never sewed before, I think I'm picking it up kind of quick. I guess inspiration and motivation can come from anywhere.

Some have asked me how to do it, and honestly, I'm just using the force, so I don't know what to tell you yet! :) I'm just playing and I'm liking that! I do seem to have an eye for cutting the fabric and making some adorable bags.

First my black and white beauty. This is the second official bag I made (the first one is in my last post). I love this black and white fabric. The more I play with different materials, the more I wish that stampin up would come out with Designer Series Fabric materials.. Prequilted and doublesided. yummy.. I'm drawn to these certain colors anyway, and it's funny how certain bags I want to send to certain people based on their taste. Maybe you'll get one??

It's so hard to see the detail on the front of this with the patterns. There are 3 pockets on the front and 3 inside. The ones on the front would be good for a cell phone. I also put my wristlet into the larger pocket and hook it through the large handle.

Bag #2 I made for a dear friend. I may dress it up a little before I send it to her. It's sort of cute plain... It fits SU's mini catalogs perfectly, and has 3 pockets inside.. Again, i'm thinking cell, snips and snail adhesive. This smaller bag is great with a long handle, and would be good for a day at the amusement park. You could wear it close to your body and not worry about getting pick pocketed. :) All 3 of these bags have magnetic closures sewn into the finish.
Finally, I made this bag yesterday. We've been house bound pretty much with the hubby on IV antibiotics at home for this crazy thing that came on all of a sudden last week. I'm not sure if you can tell by the photo... This bag is a scrappers dream. It has 6 pockets inside, and 3 outside. the pockets are sewn off, so they are a tiny bit shorter. this way, you wont end up with having items lost in the bottom of your bag. There are 3 more pockets on the front. It's sporting an extra long handle and is about 15" wide by 18" tall. It is the perfect bag for transporting 12x12 scrapbook pages. The colors of this bag SO remind me of another friend... Needless to say, I'm learning how to sew and I'm not too bad at it considering i've never had any training.. Guess it's all the same.. A haircut, a cutting paper and sticking it together and now, the same thing with fabric. I'm having fun with it.
I have to say, if you look at the bottom of this bag, I sewed a ledge all the way around, and it stands so nicely on it's own and doesnt flop over... This is my 5th bag, and I think i'm getting pretty good at it. I know this is sort of non stamping related, but i'm feeling a creative wave with sewing lately, so i'm just going to roll with it. When I saw the bloggers challenge asking for bags, I couldnt resist sharing this fun thing i've been doing for the past 2 months with you. I cant wait to see what the other bloggers challenge girls come up with for this project. i'm sure you wont be disappointed.