amazing to zany card

Today, a young friend came over and made a birthday card for her cousin. Look at how she used lots of words from the Amazing to Zany set!

Here are the card ingredients:

• A Little Birdie Told Me stamp set


• Amazing to Zany stamp set


• Old Olive, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White cardstock


• Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper (from the Occasions mini)


• Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon


• Scallop punch


• 1 3/8" circle punch

Congrats, fabulous friend!

My colleague and friend Debbie is getting married in a few weeks, so we had an office wedding shower for her yesterday. I don't have a stamp sentiment that says something specific about a wedding shower, so I used the Amazing to Zany set and stamped, "congrats fabulous friend". I think it did the trick. Since every bride and groom need thank-you notes, I made Debbie a folder full or thank-you notes in her wedding colors - pink and orange. I used Purely Pomegranate and Groovy Guava.





I also stamped the envelopes with an image from the Carte Postale set. I think it looks great on the envelope flap.








I made a folder for the cards using some Groovy Guava designer series paper. That's a trick I learned at Stampin' Down the Shore last year.












The card ingredients are:

• Baroque Motifs stamp set


• Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, and Whisper White cardstock


• Groovy Guava and Purely Pomegranate classic ink


• mat pack (for paper piercing)


• rhinestone brads in fire color assortment (Did I tell you I got the rhinestone brads for free?)

The folder uses:

• Ginger Blossom Designer Series paper (thanks, Ashley Hill, for the pic! http://rubbertherapy.blogspot.com/)


• Vintage brads


• 1/4" whisper white grosgrain ribbon


• Purely Pomegranate and whisper white cardstock


• scallop punch


• rhinestone brads in fire

Carousel for Mom

Yesterday, my Little Sister (through Big Brothers Big Sisters) asked if we could make Mother's Day cards together. I wanted to make a really special card for my mom, since she's always doing thoughtful things for me.

I had just gotten the Carousel Notes from the Occasions Mini (page 7) in the mail, so we decided to make our cards with Carousel Notes. Using the 3/16" hole punch, I punch a hole in each of the scallops, for a doily (sp?) effect. Then I cut a circle of dogwood paper from the Tie The Knot Simply Scrappin' kit. I stamped the definition for gratitude from the Define Your Life stamp set, and tied it all together with some Wild Wasabi double-stiched ribbon.

The cards come with lovely 6" square Chocolate Chip envelopes, so we enjoyed using white rub-ons on the envelopes. I tried to coordinate the dogwood motif from the card with a rub-on for back flap of the envelope.

The Carousel Notes are a set of 12 6" round scallop circle cards, in 4 each of Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, and Groovy Guava. The set includes 12 6" square chocolate chip envelopes. If you would like to place an order for the Carousel Notes, please click the Add to Cart link below. If you would like to add additional items to your order, please e-mail me at alison@shilohstamps.com.

A little bit of happiness

Part of my daily routine is checking the Stampin' Up demonstrator website, since they post new samples of cards and scrapbook pages daily. It's a great place for ideas and inspiration. Here's one of today's samples, by Michelle VanWiggeren. I like how it shows a trail of dots tracing the path of the butterfly. The card also uses Stampin' Pastels for some soft coloring. It features the A Little Bit of Happiness hostess set that Amy P. just earned as part of the Stampers 6 Club.

Here are the other supplies it uses:

Paper:
CARD STOCK APRICOT APPEAL 8 1/2X11
CARD STOCK ALMOST AMETHYST 8 1/2X11
CARD STOCK CERTAINLY CELERY 8 1/2X11
CARD STOCK WHISPER WHITE 8 1/2X11

Inks:
CLASSIC STAMPIN PAD APRICOT APPEAL, BASIC BLACK
STAMPIN WRITE MARKERS SOFT SUBTLES

Accessories:
STAMPIN PASTELS
SNAIL ADHESIVE PERMANENT
CRYSTAL EFFECTS

If you would like access to the Stampin' Up Demonstrator website, which includes thousands of professional samples, patterns, and business resources, consider signing up to be an SU demonstator. During the month of May, SU is offering 20% off the regular price of the new demonstrator Starter Kit and a free Hodgepodge Hardware set for everyone who enrolls in May. Click here for more details, or e-mail me at alison@shilohstamps.com.

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.

Happy Easter!

I went to our quarterly PhillyInkers brunch today, and I brought these eggs to share with everyone. We also did a Shoebox Swap, so I'll be posting pictures of that soon. I had a bunch of rub-ons leftover from the Sale-a-Bration special, so I thought I would try them out on plastic Easter eggs. After some experimentation, I would say that the smaller images work better on curved surfaces. Have you had a chance to play with the new rub-ons yet? We made some cards with Rub-ons at our Stamp-a-Stack last weekend.

Does anyone know the history of Easter Eggs? I have been helping lead the kids group at my church recently, and we died eggs together on Sunday. We had a great time discussing the great symbolism of Easter eggs. Eggs are potential, new life, anticipation, and new beginnings. We had fun celebrating together. For more on the history of Easter eggs, check out the Easter Egg entry on wikipdedia.

I have really gotten into preparing for Easter this year. I have found the season of Lent to be a time of introspection and anticipation. For the first time ever, I actually gave up something for Lent. I've always been a bit skeptical about giving things up for Lent, since I know my tendency for drama and I feared that I would make a big to-do about my sacrifice. In past years, I've felt like it has been more beneficial for me to add things in to my life during the season of Lent - disciplines like praying, reading Scripture, listening to God. While I certainly am still working on those inward practices, this year, I chose to give up chocolate. I have to say, I had no idea how much chocolate I eat. It has been really challenging! I have tried to not make a big deal about giving it up, but I have had to acknowledge my choice several times as I was offered various chocoaltey treats. Sometime tomorrow, I plan to visit Philadelphia's Naked Chocolate to celebrate the end of my fast! They have this fabulous Drinking Chocolate, pictured above.


At dawn, I'll be attending a sunrise service marking Jesus' resurrection, and then I'm heading over to a friend's house for Easter brunch. How are you marking Easter this year? Post a comment letting us know the way you'll mark the day, and you will be entered into a drawing some Sale-a-Bration rubons, pictured at the left. To see a larger picture, just click on the image.