July Stamp Camp!

Yesterday was the July Stamp Camp. We made a variety of different cards and introduced a couple of brand new stamp sets and new In Colors!

I love, love, love, love, love this first card. The original design is Kristin Moore's and is posted on her blog, Sunshine, Smiles & Stamps = Lovin' Life.
I had supplies left over to make a couple more like this, and I decided to use the Thanks stamp from the Thank You Kindly stamp set. The corduroy brad on this one is larger, but it still looks great. The colors are Cameo Coral, Very Vanilla, and Kraft. The greeting is stamped with one of the new In Colors, Soft Suede. The ribbon (no card is complete without it) is Kraft Taffeta. The photo makes it look larger than it is. This one will fit in a regular medium sized envelope.

The original inspiration for this second card comes from Patty Bennett, though I can't find the hard link to her samples. The colors are Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla. The Old Olive DSP is from the long retired Georgia Peach pack, but you could substitute any of the Old Olive Patterns DSP. The Pocket Silhouettes flowers/weeds are stamped in Old Olive and the lighter ones were "stamped off" once before stamping again. The greeting is framed with Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware Designer Label frame. The ribbon stripe is 5/8" grosgrain in Old Olive. The Thanks stamp is from the Thank You Kindly stamp set. This card is a 4 1/4" square card and also fits in the regular medium envelope.

This card showcases two brand new stamp sets, Circle Circus and Teeny Tiny Wishes. The card base is Certainly Celery, and the DSP is from the Tea Party Pack. The different circles are stamped with So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, and Almost Amethyst (the colors in the Tea Party DSP pack) and punched with the corresponding circle or scallop circle punch. The ribbon is the 5/8" white satin ribbon. We used a new toy of mine, the Lots of Tags sizzlits die, to cut out the tag, and then the happy birthday greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes was stamped with Certainly Celery ink. We added Soft Subtles brads. We were all discussing how this card could be used for many different occasions by just changing the greeting. The card is CASEd from a design by Brenda Keenan found on Splitcoast Stampers.

This masculine birthday card was inspired by Karen Graff-Povis' card found on Splitcoast Stampers. The card base is Kraft and the coordinating colors are Night of Navy, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla. The ribbon stripe is Kraft Taffeta, and the brads are silver brads and the Star Designer Brads. The stamp set is Think Happy Thoughts.

The card below was also originally found on Splitcoast Stampers (I just love that place!), but you can find it on Tessa Wise's blog, Crafty Girl Designs. We used the new In Color, Bermuda Bay, IN MARKER FORM to color in the birds stamped on watercolor paper. A trick I learned from

Heather Summers is that markers color very well and so easily on watercolor paper. You don't see the color marks, and you just barely have to touch your markers to the paper for the ink to flow so it's easier on your markers! The hearts are colored using a Cameo Coral marker, and the beaks are colored with Pumpkin Pie marker. Both the bird image and the greeting are from the The More The Merrier level 3 hostess set. The little heart is punched with the Heart to Heart punch using Cameo Coral cardstock and is popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional. This card is so cute, yet I still feel it looks a bit naked without ribbon!

The 6th card is another attempt at a masculine card. The idea is by Jan Sannes and you can find her design on her blog, Simple & Sincere. This one is changed up a bit to use Old Olive cardstock and Old Olive brads. We used the 1/4" circle punch, and it was through this exercise that I learned that SU! has retired that punch! Some ask which cave I live in! Both stamps are from the Cheers to You stamp set.

Hope you enjoyed the review of July's stamp camp.

Happy Stamping!

Anita

Clear Envelope Brag Book

It has been a couple weeks since my last post. I've been busy looking through the brand new Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog and working on projects for July's camp. Now that I have been revealed as a Secret Stamper, I can post this project. This is called a Clear Envelope Brag Book and the tutorial can be found on Splitcoast Stampers under the Resources section. These are surprisingly easy to make, and if you have clear envelopes, I'd bet you have all of the other necessary supplies in your stash.

When trying to figure out what I was going to make for Mary, I started by embossing some On Board Chipboard letters (that I had left over from last year's convention make n' takes) with white craft ink and white embossing powder. Then I just had to figure out what kind of project I wanted to put them on! The base of the brag book is Regal Rose cardstock (one of my favorites!) with Pink Pirouette. The stamped swirl from the Yummy SAB stamp set and the fleurettes round out the embellishments. If you haven't seen the new catalog yet, SU! is offering plain white fleurettes. They'll match EVERYTHING!

Go grab the tutorial and make one! I'll be making more as gifts!

June Camp Cards

This card is a combination of old and new. The pink piroutte paper, ink, and ribbon are retiring on June 30th, but the brand new stamp set "Circle Circus"will be available starting July 1!

The card below was cased directly from Splitcoast. It uses the butterfly stamp from the Darling Dots hostess set that will be retiring at the end of the month, along with the Tangerine Tango cardstock and ink! These colors work great with the leaf stamp from this same set to make a cute Thanksgiving card. We used the Chit Chat rubons in Chocolate Chip. If you haven't used rubons before, the Chit Chat pack is a great value with 150+ greetings for $10.95! The images are punched with the 1-1/4" square and mounted on the Chocolate Chip square scallops.

This So Saffron card is a quilt card. Punch 12 squares using the 1-3/8" square punch (one of each design in a pack of designer series paper) and mount them on scrap cardstock. Run it through the Big Shot with the Top Note die and you've got a cute quilt layer. The ribbon is tied through a white Basic Jumbo Grommet. The greeting is from the new Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (115370, $36.95) available in the new catalog on July 1. There are 24 greetings in this set and they coordinate perfectly with the word window punch and the new modern label punch and the punch window movers and shapers. I'm going to get a lot of use from this stamp set!

June Camp Cards - Butterfly Theme

At Saturday's camp, it was brought to my attention that I had a butterfly theme going...even down to the butterfly-shaped entertaining crackers that were served. Completely unintentional, but fun.

This first card is a stair-step card. The idea comes from Kristin's blog, Sunshine, Smiles & Stamps=Lovin' Life. The ribbon holds it together so it will fit into an envelope, but if you take the ribbon off, it will sit on your desk with a stair-step effect and look so pretty! It uses my newest Big Shot die, Bigz Beautiful Butterflies with the Tea Party DSP.

This card was inspired by a card on Splitcoast. I changed the main image to use the God's Beauty hostess set. It was the first time I had inked up this set, and I think it's gorgeous. We also got out the new Crushed Curry ink pad to color in parts of the butterfly with our blender pens. I love this card!

The third butterfly card was also inspired by a card on Splitcoast. This butterfly is also cut using the Bigz Beautiful Butterflies die. The DSP is the retiring Sweet Always pack.

So there are three of the six cards we made at the June camp. I'll share the remaining cards later. They do not include butterflies.

Animal Stories

I was making my regular blog rounds a couple nights ago, and I came across this card on Heather Summers' blog. She was showcasing the Wild About You stamp set before it retires at the end of the month. That set was on my Wish List, but since it is retiring, I decided to preorder the Animal Stories stamp set. This card is Heather's design with only minor changes. The giraffe is from Animal Stories, and the hello baby greeting is from the new Teeny Tiny Wishes set. The words were inked up individually with a Close to Cocoa marker and placed using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. The polka dot paper is Apricot Appeal from a retired hostess prints pack, but this card would look great using the So Saffron or new Crushed Curry Patterns Designer Series Paper!

Card Organizer

Last week, I received the final gift from my secret stamper for this quarter. It reminded me that I still needed to come up with a June gift for my person. While looking around for ideas, I was reminded that I had bookmarked this tutorial by Dannie on her blog.

And how did I spend my Friday night?! By making my very own card organizer! This one is made from Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink cardstock and the Tea Party designer paper. I used the flower stamp from Darling Dots, a level 1 hostess set in the current catalog (going buh-bye June 30th). The large clear rhinestone brad fit perfectly in the flower center! I added some dividers to mine and used the tab punch. It's sooooooo cute. I love mine! Go see Dannie's tutorial and make one of your very own!

Decor Elements

I found this Post-It brand organizer next to the Post-It Notes at Target and thought it would look cute with some Decor Elements added. One of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is a program they have called Bulk Buy. It allows demonstrators to purchase certain items in a larger quantity than what is available in the catalog so we are able to share more products with our customers in stamp camps and workshops. These chocolate chip flowers were made available to us so that we can show you how the Decor Elements are applied and how they can be used to decorate all sorts of things! I added some taffeta ribbon and a chocolate chip button to the bottom to cover up the logo and a big space along the bottom. I sent this to my secret stamper today, along with another gift item. Hope she'll like it!