Free Shipping now until April 30

Since I haven't done any classes or workshops this month, I'm offering FREE STANDARD SHIPPING from now until April 30. This would be a great time to take advantage of the Free Wheelin' special, which is a free coordinating Stampin' Around when you order any of 6 pre-selected stamp sets. All of the Free Wheelin' wheels feature the jumbo wheels, which I find much more forgiving to use. Contact me today at alison@shilohstamps.com to place your order and take advantage of free shipping.

Also, here's a picture of the swap I made for our PhillyInkers meeting a few weeks back. I made a whole bunch of these, and I've been using them for all sorts of cards - thank you cards, sympathy cards, birthday cards, Thinking of You. I like that it's a pretty neutral floral motif that can be used for many different purposes. Here are the supplies for the card:

• From the Garden hostess set


• Basic Grey, Pretty in Pink, and Regal Rose Cardstock


• Basic Grey Taffeta Ribbon (new in the Spring Summer catty)


• Rhinestone Brads in Fire (the rhinestone is pink, but it's hard to tell from the scan)

I got the Fire and Ice rhinestone brads free as part of Great Rewards, an incentive program for Stampin' Up demonstrators. They are $10.95 a box, and I got both boxes FREE! Let me know if you would like to know more about the benefits of being a Stampin' Up demonstrator.

Anatomy of a Swap

In my years of making cards I have tried to find the most efficient way to make lots of cards at once. Here's a sample of my process. This particular swap was for the January or February PhillyInkers meeting, and it was supposed to have a Valentine's theme. I was trying to make mine not tooo pink and red and heartsy, so I chose Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, and So Saffron for my color scheme.

First, I stamped a bunch of large flowers on some Whisper White cardstock. Then I experimented with different coloring patterns using the blender pen and ink pads. Do you know that trick? If you squeeze the lid of a Stampin' Up inkpad, it leaves a little ink on the inside of the lid, and you can use that ink as a palette for watercoloring.

Blender pens pick up some ink for temporary coloring. If I'm doing lots of watercoloring, I usually do one color at a time, so I don't have to keep cleaning my blender pen or brush. I wound up using So Saffron, Groovy Guava, and Purely Pomegranate here.

After finishing my coloring, I cut out the images using my super-sharp Paper Snips. These are smaller scissors that are great for very detailed cutting, like the petals of these flowers. They're also good for cutting ribbons that can fray with duller scissors, like the 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.

Then I put a brad in the center of each flower, using my paper piercing tool. I also cut my paper to size, and cut the gingham ribbon to size. I stamped my sentiment, "Time with Friends is time well spent" using black Staz-On ink, so that the ink wouldn't run when I colored in "Friends" using my Versamarker. Have you heard of those? It's versamark ink in a marker form.

Now here are my finished swaps, ready for the PhillyInkers meeting! Have you ever thought about joining the PhillyInkers? You're more than welcome to join our next meeting. We stamp, snack, and talk about how to build our stamping businesses. It's great fun. We always bring swaps, too. Check my google calendar on the right for the dates of our meetings.

Stamp-a-Stack Sneak Peak

There are still 2 spots left for Friday evening's Stamp-a-Stack and several spots available for Saturday afternoon. Here's a sneak peak at some of the cards we'll be making. Tiffany and I have planned 3 card-making stations, where stampers will make 4 of each card.

Here are 2 versions of a Stamp-a-Stack card using the same supplies. Both cards feature the Friendship Blooms Sale-a-Bration stamp set and the coordinating Love and Happiness Sale-a-Bration rub-ons. During Sale-a-Bration, customers receive a free stamp set for every $50 of merchandise ordered. Sale-a-Bration ends Monday, March 17, so contact me today to place your Sale-a-Bration order. To download the Sale-a-Bration brochure, click http://www.stampinup.com/us/documents/US_SAB_08.pdf

For more details about this weekend's Stamp-a-Stack and registration information, go to http://gtownstampastack.eventbrite.com/

My first "big" swap

One of the joys of being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is participating in card swaps. A bunch of people (in this case 10) make 10 of the same card, mail them to the "host" and then someone mails everyone 1 of each card. Swapping is a great way to get samples of stamp sets you may not have or to have samples of a different style than yours.

This particular swap calls for a stamp set that's new in the Fall-Winter Collection 2007 that was not in the Preview catalog. I chose to use my favorite new set, In the Spotlight. It's a hostess set. This is the same layout as a card we made at my Open House in June, but it uses a different color background. The other one used Vintage Violet, which is now retired.

Sometimes when you make a swap, you include a "recipe" on the back of the card listing all the ingredients needed to make that card.

This swap was hosted by a member of the INKredible Impressions group of demonstrators. We all share common uplines, so we're 'related' in the Stampin' Up family through Super-Demonstrator Tina. I'm also a part of the PhillyInkers, Claire's downline. Being connected to these groups of creative ladies is half the fun of being a demonstrator!