Stamp Club Projects

This past Tuesday evening I held my first Stamp Club night. We did 3 projects all focusing on embossing. I enjoyed myself and had fun teaching my club ladies the projects we did.

On this first card, we embossed the flower image from the stamp set Simply Said. We then coloured in the flower petals using bleach. Yes, you heard me right, bleach. We used an aquapainter dipped in the bleach and painted in the petals. The paper on the bottom comes from the yummy designer series paper called Raspberry Tart.

For this second card we used white emossing powder. We stamped the flower image from the Sale-a-Bration set called Polka Dot Punches and then punched them out using the 5 petal flower punch. The paper behind the flowers is from the Delicate Dots designer series paper which is also one of the FREE items you can chose during SAB. The kindness greeting at the top is taken from the set Heard from the Heart.
The last project we made was a little box. We stamped the image from the Wow Flowers stamp set using clear embossing powder. Next we sponged different colours of pink ink all over the cardstock and then rubbed off the excess ink on the flowers. This technique is called resist embossing.

If you are interested in having a night out once a month to create fun projects like this, then email or call for more details about my Stamp Club.

Enjoy your weekend.

Congrats Card

Last night I had the pleasure of doing a workshop for Carol Ann and 10 of her friends. We enjoyed ourselves and the guests got to make 2 cards. This is one of them.

This card uses 3 of the FREE items you can choose during Sale-a-Bration. The greeting is from the Congrats stamp set and the other images are from the Polka Dot Punches set. The ribbon is Certainly Celery and you get 10 yards of it as well as 10 yards of So Saffron ribbon. This card was very quick and easy to make but looks great.
When you place a $60 order during February and March, you can choose one of 6 items for free from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue.
Carol Ann had $480 in sales at her workshop so she got to pick a level 1 or level 2 hostess stamp set. She also got $50 in FREE product of her choice. Without spending a dime, Carol Ann also got to choose one of the Sale-a-Bration sets because her workshop sales were over $350.
If you want to earn free stamps by hosting a workshop, then email or call me today!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is a cute little Valentine's Day project. It uses the Love You Much stamp set.
The image is coloured in using ink pads and blender pens. If you don't know how to use the ink pads with blender pens, be sure to ask me.

Enjoy your day.

The History of Greeting Cards

(Taken from http://www.emotionscards.com/)

Sending greeting cards to friends and family is a tradition that goes back about 200 years. They were mostly sent by the elite and wealthy in the early to mid 1800's. Most of the early greeting cards were hand delivered and many were quite expensive, but they soon gained mass popularity with the introduction of the world's first postage stamp issued in 1840 and a few ambitious printer's and manufacturer's perfecting printing methods, hiring artists and designed both elaborate expensive cards as well as simple affordable ones by the 1850's.

As you visit our galleries you will see that cards of the past were fine pieces of art. Manufacturer's used quality artists and many of the large manufacturer's held "art" competitions to generate interest and to get new ideas for cards. Some of these competitions awarded as much as $1,000.00 to the winner!

The oldest known greeting card in existence is a Valentine made in the 1400's and is in the British Museum. New Year's cards can be dated back to this period as well, but the New Year greeting didn't gain popularity until the late 1700's. The Valentine and Christmas Card were the most popular cards, with Valentine's offering us the most "mechanical", "pop-up" and filigree cards, followed by Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Cards gained their highest popularity in the late 1800's and early 1900's offering us cards with some of the most unusual art. The Victorian age give us the most prolific cards.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, when lovers said or sang their Valentines. Written Valentines began to appear after 1400. Paper Valentines were exchanged in Europe where they were given in place of Valentine gifts. Handmade paper Valentines were especially popular in England. In the mid to early 1800's, Valentines began to be assembled in factories. Early manufactured Valentines were black and white pictures painted by workers in a factory. Esther Howland (see below) known as the Mother of the Valentine made fancy Valentines with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap". She introduced the Paper Lace Valentine in the mid 1800's. By the end of the 1800's, Valentines were being made entirely by machine.

Christmas cards were introduced and popularized by John Calcott Horsley (see below), the artist of what is known as the world's first Christmas Card and Louis Prang (see below), known as the Father of the American Christmas Card.

The rest is History. With the exchange of New Year's, Valentine's, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Birthday Cards, just to name a few, there is probably no occasion that doesn't have its own greeting card!

Valentine's Card

Here is a very quick Valentine's Card that I made yesterday. This is the one I will be giving to my husband.
The cardstock colours I used are Ruby Red, Whisper White, and Brilliant Blue.
I used my Big Shot to cut out the Brilliant Blue piece from the Top Note Bigz die. I then used Whisper White craft ink to stamp the 'i' and the 'u'. These letters come from a retired set. I stamped the heart from the Polka Dot Punches set which is one of the Sale-A-Bration stamp sets you can receive for FREE if you place a $60 order. I then cut out the heart but there is a Stampin' Up! punch that this heart would fit in exactly however I don't have it yet!
Just a reminder that my events calendar has been updated so check it out to see if there are any classes you are interested in. Enjoy your day.

Friend Notecard

I know it's been a while since I last posted and I am going to try really hard to post at least twice more this week.
Here is a really cute friend notecard that would be great to give to a special friend for valentine's day or just because.
The supplies used for this card are:
Stamp Set: Simply Said (pg 52)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and Very Vanilla
Ink: Not Quite Navy
Other: Bashful Blue 1/4" Grosgrain ribbon, Earth Element Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals, Crafter's Tool Kit
This card would be very quick and easy to create and this stamp set is one of my favourite sets.

Sale-a-Brate Good Times, Come On!!!

Today marks the beginning of Sale-a-Bration. If you don't know what SAB is, then keep reading.

For every $60 order (before shipping and taxes) you get to choose one of the SAB items for FREE. If you spend $120, you can choose 2 items etc.

If you host a workshop and the sales are $350 +, you can choose a SAB item. Invite all your friends and family and they won't be able to resist the FREE product.

If you decide to sign up and be a demonstrator, you get to choose any stamp set from the catalogue for FREE. When you are a demonstrator, you get your own orders at a discount and you get to be part of an amazing company.

This is a great time to get out your wish list and start ordering!