Dreams du Jour

August 12, 2008 By Connie | 7 Comments

This is another of the Fab 4 swap cards I made for friends, Mary, Julie and Liz. I love the soft look on this one! I used the Pink Pirouette base, with the Pink Pirouette floral print from Bella Rose, then softened it with a layer of cardstock vellum over top, secured with pink mini brads. The bottom of the vellum and designer paper were both scalloped with the new Scallop punch.

The focal point, I used a 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 square and punched the Scallop punch (centered) on each side. That gave me a little scallop frame for the postage Love stamp. I tied some taffeta ribbon around one corner and added a cut-out butterfly to the other. I watercolored the Love stamp with my Blender Pen and the ink pads Kiwi Kiss and Pink Pirouette. Again, I LOVED how this card turned out!

Hey demos…check out the September Stampin’ Success! My winning Schoolhouse Rocks submission is photographed in there! Woohoo!!!

I have a class tonight, some assignments due AND a Stamp Camp this weekend! Crazy busy this week! However, I did get my bank breaking order placed yesterday with EXPEDITED shipping! Hope to get it by Thursday so I can play! Woohoo!!!

Votive Cards – Bella Rose & Dreams du Jour

August 6, 2008 By Connie | 3 Comments

Some time ago, I received an awesome Votive Card swap from Katrina Merryman with my PSCubed group. She and I have never met, but have known each other online for probably 5 years. THIS convention I FINALLY got to meet Katrina in person! Oh what fun! We had sent each other photos of ourselves in case we would run into each other. I was leaving a restaurant and saw a gal that looked like the photo. I asked her if she was Kat and introduced myself. She SQUEALED and we started hugging! So much fun to meet up with her! Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of time to talk, but I did run into her many times during the Convention. It is great to put a face with a name.

Pat over at Technique Junkies featured Katrina’s Votive Card in this month’s August/September 2008 Newsletter. If you don’t subscribe, this card ALONE is worth the subscription price! Pat over at Technique Junkies also has a preorder of her 6th year CD going on! Make sure you check it out…it has over 85 techniques on it!

I made up a couple samples for the Newsletter, but this one I made up for a couple swap friends. I think I already mentioned my Fab 4 Swap group, Mary, Liz and Julie. This was the 3D item I made for them! I included a little battery operated tealight that flickers thru the vellum when it is turned on.

The base of this Votive Card is Riding Hood Red cardstock and I used layers of different Bella Rose designer papers to decorate the outside of each panel. I stamped the butterflies with Basic Brown ink on the vellum.

I did use a couple punches, the 5 Petal Punch, Scallop Circle Punch and a new designer button to decorate the front. I was happy that the gingham ribbons didn’t retire, their narrow width makes it easy to feed thru the button holes. Inside I stamped the Dreams Image from Dreams du Jour with Basic Brown, colored it with my blender pen and the ink pads and layered it on two Round Tab punches to make a circle out of the Chocolate Chip cardstock. I finished with a few Ruby Red mini brads and cut out a small Butterfly for the back. I love how these turned out!

Dreams du Jour Calendar

August 5, 2008 By Connie | 1 Comment

This was the 3D item I did for an organized swap at Convention…I needed to make 18 of them. It is an clear acrylic picture frame with a magnet on the back. I purchased them at Michael’s for 99 cents each. I used my Crop A Dile to punch two holes at the top (actually the bottom of the frame) so I could run ribbon thru it to hang it if they wanted.

The insert is a base of Pink Pirouette cardstock and Bella Rose check paper. I did the scallop punch on a strip of Riding Hood Red for under the checked paper. Dreams stamp from Dreams Du Jour was stamped with Chocolate Chip on Whisper White, then I used my blender pen to pick up the colors of Kiwi Kiss and Pink Pirouette for coloring. A mini Ruby Red brad is in the center of the largest flower. I just placed a strip of Kiwi Kiss paper behind the Dreams stamp for some added color. I dyed the White Grosgrain Ribbon with Kiwi Kiss ink, slid it thru the holes and tied them in the back. I added a medium calendar I purchased from www.skybluepink.com. Makes a nice gift! I like to do these for small gifts at the holidays!

I think I caught up on my sleep a little bit…evidentally we had a bad storm last night…I didn’t even hear it. lol!

Dreams du Jour

August 4, 2008 By Connie | 2 Comments

Oh my…my head is STILL fuzzy from Convention! It is just filled with all kinds of ideas, memories and jet lag! The energy is just amazing. I know I’m exhausted…I’m sure everyone else is also.

I had such an awesome time meeting up with online friends, my downline and sidelines and people from Stampin’ Up! corporate! They are so friendly and generous with their time and ideas! I did introduce myself to THE Kristina Werner! How exciting to meet such an awesome designer in person and even get a big HUG!

I also received a ton of awesome gifts and swaps…so many I can keep you coming back for MONTHS with the clever ideas!

This was one of my swaps for an awesome group called Fab 4…Mary Brown, Julie Dinn, Liz Shultz and myself. We were all display makers for the last Leadership and have become friends! We organized a personal swap between the four of us and we did 3 cards and one 3D item. This was one of the cards I designed for that swap.

The butterfly and greeting stamps are from a new set called Dreams du Jour. And I used a great color combination of the new In Colors, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss and Chocolate Chip. I used some Bella Rose designer paper…note the two little Pretty in Pink mini brads in the upper left corner. I punched 1/4" circles from Chocolate Chip to go under them for accents! The White Taffeta ribbon I dyed Kiwi Kiss, although the color looks wonky in this picture, it is entirely covered in person…the greeting also looks faded in the picture, but not in real life. Weird.

OK…now I’m really off to take my nap. I can hardly keep my eyes open! lol!

Blogger’s Challenge 55 – Bugs and Insects

July 11, 2008 By Connie | 17 Comments

When I first thought about this challenge, I really didn’t think I had any current Stampin’ Up! Bugs or Insects stamps. I started looking and discovered I did have several sets with butterflies, snails, dragonflies. I didn’t want a cartoon type bug…I wanted something a little more sophisticated. So…I excitedly used my new Dreams du Jour stamp set! I’m giving you a sneak peak at a set that will be in the NEW catalog next month! I love the verse in this set and the butterfly was perfect.

Another personal challenge for me is to use up my "starts" basket. What are starts? You know…those backgrounds you "start" to do, the stamped images you "start" to make…those things that are only partially finished. A have a whole tub of them. This designer paper was from the Holiday Harmony pack last Christmas. I had already stamped the Baroque Motifs swirl in Purely Pomegranate on the background…then set it aside. So, today I stamped the verse in Purely Pomegranate on River Rock, and layered it on Purely Pomegranate cardstock. I left some room on the left side and added three small crystal Rhinestone brads. I stamped two butterflies on Naturals cardstock using Basic Brown and colored them with Summer Sun, cut them out and mounted them with dimensionals under their body only…I also stamped the butterfies directly on the designer paper. Then I was able to fold their wings so they look 3D on the card. Really such a simple card, but I think it looks elegant with the colors and papers. So, even a BUG card can be elegant! lol!

I’m anxious to see what the other Blogger’s have done with this challenge! Enjoy your day!