Christmas in August Stamp Camp

I hosted a Christmas in August Stamp Camp last weekend, and we had lots of fun listening to Charlie Brown Christmas music and making Christmas cards. Here's a sampling of some of the projects we made. I am considering offering the class again this weekend, since some people have been out of town and such. Let me know if you would be interested by e-mailing me at events@shilohstamps.com.

Christmas in August Stamp Camp would also be a great opportunity to take advantage of the Christmas in August special and get a head start on those Christmas cards this year. Here are some more examples of Christmas cards.

This is a pop-up tent card. The tree pops up when it's standing up. We used watercolor paper, staz-on ink, and the aquapainter to paint the tree from Year After Year. The polka-dots on the bottom are from the Dashing designer series paper.

This sparkly Merry Christmas card was inspired by a card I made at a stamp camp a few years back. On this card, we used an image from In The Spotlight as the snowflake, stamped with Encore silver metallic ink. Then we laid a stripe of Sticky Strip across the top and sprinked the whole card with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The glitter sticks to the sticky strip and the Encore ink. We topped it off with a Merry Christmas tag from the Holidays and Wishes set and tied it with a white grosgrain ribbon. Warning - this card is messy (but fun) to make. Be sure you have a Powder Pal so you don't get glitter everywhere!

This Merry & Bright card uses a set from the new Holiday Mini catalog. It's a Love Note (3"x3") so it's super-quick to make. Stampin' Up is giving away free Love Notes this month when you order the Three for You Punch set. See this post for another Love Note example that uses the punches.

Christmas card ideas from my stack of samples

Here are a bunch of Christmas card samples, to get you thinking about how you can take advantage of the Shiloh Stamps Early Christmas Special. I want to help you make homemade Christmas cards early this year, so I've thought about what could be most helpful. If you order a stamp set, cardstock, adhesive, envelopes, and embellishments (everything you need to make your Christmas cards), then I will mount your stamps, cut your cardstock into cards, and make you a page of custom return address labels. The last day to place an order is August 29th. E-mail me at alison@shilohstamps.com for more information.

If you would like to try out some new stamp sets (including some from the new Holiday Mini) and work together to design your Christmas cards, sign up to attend my Christmas in August Stamp Camp. I have one spot open for Friday evening and a few spots open for Saturday afternoon. Let me know ASAP if you would like to participate.

This was our Christmas card last year. It opens in the middle and uses the tree from the Loads of Love stamp set. It also uses the stipple brush for some shading. I made this card at an in-home workshop the previous year, and loved it. My generous stamping friends loaned some of the supplies I needed for this card. I liked Loads of Love so much, I wound up ordering it for myself!

This was Claire's Christmas card last year. It uses the City of David stamp set. I love how she put the Luke 2:11 scripture on the back of the card. She used markers to color in the star and palm trees on the front.

I made this card at an in-home workshop I attended last year. I love this color combination - mellow moss, always artichoke, and whisper white. It uses The Snowflake Spot stamp set. Hemp twine is one of lowest-priced embellishments, so this is a more cost-effective card.

I made this card at a Stamp Camp I attended at Claire's house years ago. This may have been one of the first stamping events I tried. This card uses a cool technique with glossy cardstock and reinkers. I would be glad to show you this technique.

My husband loves the blue and chrome color combination, so this may be his favorite card I've ever made. These silver snowflakes are raised up using a technique called embossing. It's lots of fun, and it looks fabulous!

This card uses a beautiful stamp set that is now retired. It also uses the crimper, my new favorite tool. I love how artistic this card looks with the splotchy paint look in the background. It's a stamp set called Itty Bitty Backgrounds.

This card was made by another stamper - Yolanda Croucher. When I signed up to be a demonstrator, Claire let me pick some cards out of her stash of samples. This is one of the cards I chose. I'm guessing she got this card through a swap.

This may be the first Stampin' Up card I ever made. I attended a Stamp Camp at Claire's house, and she had a drawing to give away her hostess benefits that night. I won! I got to order all sorts of goodies for free, and I was hooked!

Thank you - 2 versions

So I've been very thankful lately and I've been making lots of thank-you cards. I can't decide which design I like best here. What do you think?

I'm thankful for my dear friends and family who are so good to me. I am so thankful to my husband, who gives me a comfortable stretch when needed. I am thankful for Claire, who introduced me to Stampin' Up, and offered me the opportunity to start a new business. I am thankful to my hostesses and customers, who are enjoying learning new stamping techniques and supporting me as I start my business. So if you fit one of those categories, you might be getting a thank you note in the mail soon! Who are you thankful for?

This is a really simple card to make. The two cards shown here use the same color background cardstock, regal rose. (Sorry they look so different in the pictures). I stamped the flowers in basic black with the stems coming off the edges, so it looks like you're looking down into a bouquet. I stamped the sentiment, and punched a perfect square using the 1 3/8" square punch, and then mounted it on black cardstock and wrapped some gingham ribbon around. Then on one of the cards, I colored in the flowers using stampin' write markers. I don't normally like doing so much coloring on my cards, since it takes so much time. However, since this set is kind of sketch-like, you don't need to be so careful about staying in the lines. This makes the coloring go much faster!

Some of the supplies used:

• year after year stamp set
• figures of speech stamp set
• black gingham ribbon
• stampin' write markers - regal rose, so saffron, mellow moss

You may have noticed the Google calendar in the toolbar on the right. My software developer hubby has convinced me of the virtues of Google calendar. I think it will be a good way to inform my blog readers about upcoming stamping events. You'll notice that I have a Birthday Calendar class coming up next week. I have one space left in the class, so click the date you'd like to attend for more information. I'm also having a Christmas in August stamp camp. We'll be making a variety of Christmas cards to help people get started on making their Christmas cards before the holiday season. Let me know what you think of the new addition!

What brown can do for you...

Over the past few days, I've gotten two UPS packages and a FedEx package. I love getting mail! The two UPS packages were from Stampin' Up, and you can see their contents in the picture here - sorry for the glare. I got 4 stamp sets, 6 packets of papers, a set of brads, 8 catalogs, a cool white gel pen, 3 markers, a roll of a black and white gingham ribbon, a coordinated scrapbook set, a paper piercing template, and the Aqua Painters. This order included my new catalog "preview" items. As a Stampin Up demonstrator, I get to order new products about a month before everyone else and I get a discount- woohoo! I'm having fun getting my new stamping business off the ground. The discount is great, and this was all a 'business expense'!

The FedEx package was tickets to a Phillies/Pirates game. We're going to a game in July with our friends Andy and Tracy. Our seats aren't bad. Should be a grand time!

Open House invitations - 3 versions

So I'm having an Open House at our new house on June 30. We'll be celebrating the launch of my new stamping business by making cards, winning door prizes, and checking out the new catalog. If you'd more details, e-mail me using the Contact Me button at the right.

Which card do you like best? I always make a few versions to have my options open. It's interesting how a card design evolves after you work with it a while.

Supplies:

• Right at Home stamp set - (retiring June 30!)
• Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp set
• buckaroo blue cardstock
• so saffron cardstock
• barely banana cardstock
• chocolate chip cardstock
• whisper white cardstock
• basic black classic stamp pad
• real red classic stamp pad
• buckaroo blue classic stamp pad
• chocolate chip classic stamp pad
• so saffron classic stamp pad
• blender pens
• AquaPainter
• mellow moss marker
• hemp twine