Butterfly Punch Cottage Wall Cards

Pretty soon my blog will be filled with Fall and Halloween samples and ideas...but I can't let go of summer quite yet!

One of the Stampin' Up! colors I find difficult to use in my stamping is Orchid Opulence. It just isn't one of my favorites. However, a customer of mine needed help using the color right before the new catalog came out...thank goodness for Stampin' Up! coming to my rescue! The new Cottage Wall DSP uses Orchid Opulence with Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry (secondary colors might include Pale Plum and Mellow Moss).

When I was prepping for my New Catalog Stamp Camp, I also wanted to find a way to use the adorable new Butterfly Punch. This example also uses the Hi Embosslit (used with the Big Shot).

Here is another version using the new Modern Label Punch:

I punched out different pieces of the Cottage Wall DSP and colored pieces of card stock. The punched butterfly pieces are just attached the the lower punched piece with the small silver brads. You can fold the dsp punch piece to give the butterfly more dimension.

Summer...we'll miss you!

Wild Wednesday Deal #2

Make a $35 purchase from the Growing Up section of the 2009-2010 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog (pages 74-90) and receive your choice of 30 Gold Brads or 30 Silver Brads from me! Don't forget - you'll also receive a free package of your choice of the Designer Buttons - Playground, Sherbert, or Button Latte.

One of the cards my stampers made last night at my New Catalog Stamp Camp featured the new Loads of Fun stamp set, the Under the stars stamp set (from the Growing Up section), and the new wood sheets. The wood sheets are so easy to work with! Very thin and pliable, you can easily stamp on them, use punches with them, or run them through your die cut machine. This example used the ovals die cut. Many of my customers are campers so they adored this card!

This offer will be available from August 12th through August 18th. Contact me via email or phone to place your Wild Wednesday #2 order!

Christmas in July Stencil Card

This is another example from my Christmas in July Stamp Camp this week. Stampin' Up! introduced stencils in their Decor Elements line last year. This is a new addition! These stencils are perfect for home decor, but they can also be used in cards and scrapbook pages! This card also used the Big Shot texture plate - Perfect Details.

Christmas in July Stamp Camp

Last night I held my Christmas in July stamp camp. It was a full house filled with fabulous stampers! Here is one of the projects they did:



This card used a lot of punches! Here is a list of what I used:

1-3/4" Circle Punch (1-Blush Blossom and 1-Real Red)

Scallop Square Punch (1-Whisper White)*

Small Oval Punch (1-Whisper White)*

Large Oval Punch (1-Real Red)

Wide Oval Punch (1-Real Red)

Word Window Punch (3-Basic Black** and 4-Real Red)

3/4" Circle Punch (Whisper White)

1/4" Circle Punch (Basic Black and Real Red)

Warm Words Stamp Set and Real Red and Chocolate Chip Ink (sponged edges of Santa piece)

*Punch out a Whisper White small oval punch-then punch out Scallop Square Punch for beard
**Cut off ends of two black Word Window Punches for mittens and boots

I also made a dessert everyone loved. Here is my Double Berry Trifle recipe:

2 Angel Food Cakes (Store Bought)

2 pkgs small vanilla pudding

3 cups milk

2 cartons of Cool Whip

Frozen Blueberries and Frozen Strawberries

Make pudding with 3 cups of milk. Let set until not quite firm. Fold in 1 and 1/4 of the cartons of Cool Whip to the pudding.

Tear Angel Food cake into pieces and line a layer in the trifle bowl (mine is a Pampered Chef Trifle Bowl).

Add a layer of pudding mixture. Layer one of the fruits on top. Then add another layer of Angel Food cake and pudding mixure. Layer the second fruit. Add one more layer of Angel Food cake and pudding mixture. Then top with the remaining Cool Whip.

Add a few fresh berries on top if desired.

Big Shot Stamp Camp Project

This is one of the items my stamp campers made at last week's Big Shot Stamp Camp! They loved how easy it was to make the basket using the Big Shot. The color combination was perfect for a summer event!

Under the Stars One Sheet Wonder

A while back, I showed my stampers one of my favorite techniques for quick stamping results - the One Sheet Wonder. Basically, you stamp a collage on a full sheet of card stock. Then you cut it in smaller pieces to serve as a focal point or a background for cards or other projects.

This is the sheet I started out with:

You can view the slide show above to see the results! There are a few tacked on the end of the slide show which didn't use the OSW sheet...but they were so cute I had to include them!

Enjoy!

Sock Monkey Birthday Blowout Card

I held my Birthday Blowout Stamp-A-Stack last week, and one of the cards I showcased was this Sock Monkey card. Perfect for a kid card, my stampers had fun creating this one especially. One of the reasons is that they didn't have to color in the whole monkey! I offered several coloring methods, and most of my stampers preferred the markering method. This card also used some Sale-A-Bration items - the ribbon and the Designer Series Paper.

14 Days of Love Projects - #13 Loads of Love Card

This was one of the projects at my All About Men Stamp Camp last week. Loads of Love is such a fun stamp set to use! The road can be made by tearing the cardstock. The new neutral brads are great for so many projects!

14 Days of Love Projects - #3 Ghirardelli Chocolate Box

Ohh, I think you're going to like this one! I held my All About Men Stamp Camp this week, and this was one of the projects we did.

This adorable little box held a Ghirardelli chocolate! Very small in size, but big on the cute factor! Don't you love those new corduroy buttons! I used Riding Hood Red and Chocolate Chip cardstock and DSP as well as our new SALE-A-BRATION stamp set - Yummy. The new Full Heart and Heart to Heart punches are the bomb!

Here are the dimensions:

CS – 4.25” X 7.5”
SCORE AT 1”, 3.25”, 4.25” 6.5” on long side
SCORE AT 1” from each end on short side

Fold all score lines, cut 8 scores (4 per side) The next photo will help you when you cut and attach the sticky strip.

Hope you like this one!

Holiday Gifts Stamp Camp Cardinal Pin

Last night I held my annual Holiday Gifts Stamp Camp. We had lots of fun and made 5 projects. One of the projects we made was this one:

This project came together late one night...thanks to my husband who painted various wood pieces in the garage in his pajamas before heading to bed!

My customers could make them into magnets or into pins. Some of the wood pieces were thin enough to even use the CropADile and loop a ribbon through to make an ornament! This cardinal from A Cardinal Christmas in the Holiday Mini Catalog is so pretty and detailed. All we had to do is stamp using black StazOn, let dry, and attach the magnet or the pinback with Crystal effects used as glue - and my customers joked about renting out my husband for their painting projects (in his pajamas no less).

Thanks to my husband for coming to my rescue!

Just Punchy Card

I love Stampin' Up!'s punches. They are so fun to use when making cards, scrapbook pages, and gift projects. I have hosted two Just Punchy stamp camps - where I always feature some "out of the box" ideas for our punches. My customers love these! When I plan a card or item for my Just Punchy stamp camps, they have to meet the 4-punch criteria or they are not used.

I uploaded my Just Punchy stamp camp on my card gallery website last weekend. One of the cards that I showed my guests for inspiration was this card:

This one certainly uses more than 4 punches! I loved the Just Celebrate stamp set from the Spring Mini Catalog - The "whoo! hoo!" actually was on the owl image, but it reminded me of when my boys played trains when they were younger.

If you want to check out my other stamp camp projects including my Just Punchy stamp camps, here is the link -http://www.stampwithjane.com/

Stamping (and Laughing) With My Customers

This week, I held my third Technique Tuesday event. I had the techniques picked out for quite a while. I was actually surprised at how much I had prepared ahead of time. Thank goodness because it was one of those days when the to-do list was much too long (volunteering, cleaning, homework help, baking...).

I have three great boys and a husband who do help when it comes time to preparing the house for company. With my stamping business, that translates to about four or five evenings a month. There are jobs they love to do, and of course, some they don't like to do (you can include me in that one!).

Well, I was cutting out some of the pieces for a project and having to run a little interference in the household chores and the homework battle. I must have been pretty distracted because when my stampers got to the project later that evening, the pieces were not evenly cut. I wanted to just cry...I really love to pamper my stampers and try very hard to have projects all ready.

Leave it to my customers - they just laughed, took it in stride, and kept reminding ME that these were just samples for them. They totally understood and made me feel so much better.

Well, November is I Am So Thankful Month...and to all my customers...I am so thankful for you!

2007 Holiday Cards Stamp Camp

I held my 2007 Holiday Cards Stamp Camp this week. For my stamp camps, I am trying to focus more on card format and technique refreshers because I want to save the new techniques for my Technique classes. Here is one of the cards we did:

The Big on Christmas Criss-Cross Card was perfect for this stamp camp as it showed a different card format. I found the hardest part of the Criss-Cross Card (which is being featured all over the web) is visualizing what parts to cut off. I created a visual template for my customers. This really helped them cut the correct pieces. This will not be true to size, and the scan didn't pick up folded middle where cuts are made from.

I've uploaded the 2007 Holiday Cards Stamp Camp to my stamped art gallery - you can view it here: http://www.stampwithjane.com/stampcampgallerychristmas2007.html

Holiday Confusion

It is October 8th...Happy Columbus Day! Halloween is just around the corner...but it will be 85 degrees in Wisconsin today. To top that off, tonight is the first night of my Holiday Cards Stamp Camp. Baking Christmas cookies in 85 degree heat with my decorative jack-o-lanterns and witches gathered around my house is a bit more than strange.

What helps me get in the mood to stamp for the Christmas holiday season is music. My family has an extremely large collection of Christmas music. We used to keep it in storage after Christmas until November 1st (when I start my Christmas decorating), but now we keep it out with the rest of our music collection. I host Christmas in July events too, so this is helpful to create a mood in July as well.

Our Christmas music collection is an eclectic mix. Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack is never far from reach. It is my favorite, albeit somewhat cliche, music choice. They could play it at my funeral - now wouldn't that be a hoot! Maybe even have a sad little tree on top of my casket. I am also a closet Andy Williams fan (shh, don't tell anyone). I'll never forget singing with my younger sister to my parents' records when he was a "hot" item. Other holiday music favorites include The Roches, George Winston, Bing Crosby, Bare Naked Ladies, Johnny Mathis, Il Divo, Lorie Line, Manheim Steamroller, Larry Carlton, Chet Atkins, Twisted Sister, Amy Grant, Johnny Cash....ok, you get the picture. If only Van Morrison would come out with a holiday collection!

I'll post the Holiday Cards Stamp Camp pictures this week!

Just Punchy Stamp Camp Sample Slide Show

My First Technique Tuesday Class

Because my customers keep asking for more ideas and stamping events, I started a new event with the 2007-2008 Fall/Winter Collection. On one Tuesday each month, I will be hosting a Technique Tuesday stamping class in my home. For only $5.00, my customers will get to make 3 different cards using techniques I will teach them!

As a bonus for my customers, when they attend their first Technique Tuesday class, I will be handing out one pack of my card sample protectors so they can keep the instructions with the cards they make! Here is a scan of my card protectors -

It was a FULL HOUSE this month - and my stampers were thrilled with the techniques, color combos, finished cards, and their ability to quickly complete the projects!

I posted the 3 cards from the Technique Tuesday class to my stamped art gallery - you can check them out here:

http://www.stampwithjane.com/techniquetuesday82007.html

My Christmas in July Stamp Camp

I have finally uploaded my Christmas in July Stamp Camp samples on my stamped art gallery site.

You can check them out here -

www.stampwithjane.com/stampcampgalleryjulychristmas2007.html

I hosted three evenings filled with happy stampers!

Christmas in July

I was busy the last couple of weeks designing projects and hosting my Christmas in July stamp camp. This year, I had to hold it on three evenings for my eager stampers. We had lots of fun stamping for Christmas in 90 degree weather! Because the new catalog just came out, I used all new Christmas sets for the stamp camp. There are so many fabulous stamp sets in the new catalog!!! Well, after the stamp camp, I still had some remaining pieces left, so I began playing with my older sets and created new samples using the designs from the stamp camp.

Here is a sample using one of my all-time favorites stamp sets - Loads of Love!

I'll be posting my Christmas in July samples on my gallery website today! I'll post the link here when I am finished!

Still Working Out Some Blogging Extras

Hi everyone~

I have been trying to add a slide show to the blog...but haven't had any luck. I wanted to post my other examples from my Just Punchy stamp camp here. I will post one of the favorite cards though until I can get it resolved.
Isn't that frog adorable? I found using the 2-way glue pen was easiest when applying those tiny punches.

If you want to see more of the samples from this stamp camp, check out my stamped art gallery - www.stampwithjane.com/stampcampgalleryjustpunchy2007.html

Have a great Memorial Day!

Happy Mother's Day

If you are one of my customers who attends my stamp camps, you probably have met my mom. She usually joins my Monday night group whenever she can, and she always is happy to bring a treat to share to help me out.

Doesn't matter that she is 45 miles away or if it has snowed or if she has other things to do - she comes and assists in any way she can.

When I started my demonstratorship in 2000, I really just wanted the discount and didn't plan on doing many events. Well, that certainly has changed...I do an average of 2 events each month at my home (each with 2 consecutive nights). My mother's support has always been something I can count on. She cheers me on in her quiet way and truly understands what effort I put into my business. After seven years, she still rallies behind and next to me...and her stamping ability is something we are both proud of!

At one of my first stamp camps 2003~

Mom is facing the camera on the right side.

Thanks Mom for all you do! I love you!