Roomie Gifts I Received at OnStage

One of the absolute best perks I have received as being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the perk of meeting so many wonderful new friends, both among my customers and fellow demonstrators. Recently a group of fellow demonstrators and I attended OnStage Local in Red Deer, Alberta and we had a great time despite the freezing temperatures!

One of the sweetest traditions at Stampin' Up! Events is the tradition of Roomie Gifts, little presents that you give to your hotel roommates! It seems I forgot to take photos of the boxes I made for my roomie gifts, but I did photograph the wonderful containers my roomies made to hold the gifts they gave me! It was like Christmas! I wanted to share what these talented ladies created!

This lovely box was created by my sideline, Holly Finney, from the Sale-a-Bration Specialty Designer Series Paper, Springtime Foils! Gorgeous, isn't it? I love the way Holly added the cut out flower from one of the designs on the top and the two little tags on the side with the Copper Metallic Thread and bow from Gold ribbon. Those mixed metallics are so on trend these days.

This beautiful gift bag was the creation of my downline, Karen Bridden! I love the design with the overlapping flap at the top, but what really got my attention was the eye-catching tag with my initial on it! Look at the masterful layering of all the elements on it! Love it!

My downline, Doreen Austgarden, did something I've always wanted to do, but never got up the gumption to try. She stamped tile coasters for all of us! Won't these be fabulous on our craft room desks? Her image is from the Beautiful You stamp set, which will be in the new catalogue, and the sentiment is from the Work of Art stamp set, which is retiring this year. Then she created the perfectly sized box for them from the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper Stack with tags to match!

Terry Hamilton, a fellow demonstrator, created some really unique gifts in her mini shopping bags!

I love this Post It Note holder she made from scratch, using some old White Corrugated Paper as the hinge (what a perfect solution!!) and some DSP from the Delightful Daisy series, which is actually now sold out. And that cute tag, stamped with the Labeler Alphabet Stamp Set.

Then she got out her Crafting Forever stamp set and Shrinky Dinks sheets to make us these adorable scissor charms! She had quite the adventure trying to find the proper chain to make them for as well!

So what do you think! I was spoiled, no?  I didn't even show you have the stuff that was in the boxes! So amazing! Just one more reason for you to join my team to get to know all these creative, kind people! There's just no one like crafters!!

Don't forget to order your faves from the Occasions and Annual Catalogues while supplies last!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make these projects today.


Product List

Beautiful You Wood-Mount Stamp Set [143004] $48.00	Beautiful You Clear-Mount Stamp Set [143637] $34.00	Work Of Art Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134114] $29.00	Work Of Art Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134111] $40.00	Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set [141936] $21.00
Crafting Forever Wood-Mount Stamp Set [143955] $40.00	Crafting Forever Clear-Mount Stamp Set [143958] $27.00	Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper Stack [144131] $29.00	Springtime Foils Specialty Designer Series Paper [147193] $0.00	Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper [144137] $14.50
Gold 1/8" Ribbon [134583] $6.75	Copper Metallic Thread [141696] $4.00	Metal Rimmed Pearls [138394] $6.75	Powder Pink 3/8" Shimmer Ribbon [144151] $9.25	Delicate White Doilies [141701] $4.00
Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies [138281] $35.00	Tranquil Tide 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon [144136] $9.25	Whisper White Thick Baker's Twine [141688] $5.25

Back to Vintage for Paper Pumpkin March 2018

My March Paper Pumpkin Kit arrived late last week and I just got around to putting it together yesterday! It was a special kit, celebrating Paper Pumpkin's 5th Birthday, and it came with a special commemorative box and a free gift to say thank you! The gift was a couple of sheets of cool laser cut wooden embellishments!

It was a bit surprising to me, because it was totally a vintage style of papercrafting in this month's kit! It's been so long since I've done any vintage cards, but I still love the style! So much effort went into making every element look aged! And minimalist it was not! If you take a look at these lovely cards and envelopes you'll get the idea!

• Although I followed directions for the basic layouts, I did add a little of my own design to the cards, mostly in the form of different sentiments, since I need thank you cards for all the orders coming in the next few days. I also added some Very Vanilla 1/2" Lace Trim to both card design, since it hasn't been getting much love lately and it is so perfect for any vintage project.
• Since the thank you cards are for customers for orders, I used the Crafting Forever stamp set for one of the sentiments.

• This kit contains the most unique envelopes ever! One has a vintage rose image on the front with Flower Seeds imprinted as well. The other has an old fashioned frame and script:

• I wanted more coloured pearls to use so I tried to use my Stampin' Blends to colour a few more, but I was having trouble matching the colour from the kit (Fresh Fig). I did get close with my light shade of Rich Razzleberry over the light shade of Night of Navy.

It was a lot of fun to do and I sure hope you didn't cancel your subscription before you were able to take advantage of March's kit. It's all sold out now, so there likely won't be refills, at least not for quite awhile longer, but there is a new deal for New Subscribers. Sign up before May 10 and get your first two months at 50% off, using the code: SAVEFIFTY0418 .

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Crafting Forever Wood-Mount Stamp Set [143955] $40.00	Crafting Forever Clear-Mount Stamp Set [143958] $27.00	Eastern Beauty Photopolymer Stamp Set [143675] $26.00	Rose Wonder Photopolymer Stamp Set [140697] $33.00	Flourishing Phrases Wood-Mount Stamp Set [141531] $64.00
Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Stamp Set [141534] $48.00	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [126974] $8.50	Very Vanilla 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Lace Trim [141672] $9.25	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.00	Fast Fuse Adhesive Refill [129027] $10.00
Glue Dots [103683] $7.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.25

Crafting Forever Conundrum for Freshly Made Sketches

I'm having a moment here at Playing with Papercrafting! I've been playing with the sketch from the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and I've come up with two versions of the same card and I can't choose which one I like the best. It's a conundrum! One moment I like the first version, and the next, I think the second version is better! What to do? I'll let you be the judge.

First, here's the sketch:

And here's my first version. Because the background was so vibrant, I went for a plain stamped image with a sepia tone and matched it to the sentiment:

• I'm playing with tones of Peekaboo Peach and Soft Suede, with Whisper White. The designer paper you see is from the retiring Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack, which is still available and 40% off until May 31. I always had a hard time liking that DSP, mostly because of the overly vibrant, busy look of it and the dubious colour combinations, but when you use the single colour pieces and some of the smaller designs, it can be useful. I thought I'd try to use some of it up here and it was one of the few DSP series that featured Peekaboo Peach!
• I'm using one of my favourite sets from the pre-order, called Crafting Forever*, and this image is my favourite image from the set, I think. Here, I stamped it in Soft Suede to match the background panel behind the designer paper and it gives a bit of a sepia feel to the project.
• The sentiment is also my favourite from the Crafting Forever set* and I've die cut it with the Stitched Shapes Framelits and backed it with a Scallop Square from the Layering Squares Framelits.

*New products from the 2017-18 Annual Catalogue, available on June 1.

Now take a look at the second version. Here I used watercolour pencils and a blender pen to add some colour to the craft tools in the pot:

• I love the colouring on it, but I'm not sure that it makes the same impact as the uncoloured image on the bright background. Here I stamped the image in Basic Black Archival Ink and coloured it in with the Pumpkin Pie, Calypso Coral, Real Red, Early Espresso and Basic Gray Watercolour Pencils and blended them with a Blender Pen. Both times, I fussy cut the image with my trusty Paper Snips and mounted them with Stampin' Dimensionals. 
• The sentiment was done the same way for both cards.

So there you are. You be the adjudicator! Which version do you like the best?

We're now into our last ten days of the 2016-17 Annual Catalogue and the 2017 Occasions Catalogue! Starting today, Stampin' Up! will stop manufacturing the retiring stamp sets and they will be available only while supplies last! Best get your orders to me quickly so that you don't miss out.

 Every year I find that someone has left it too late to get that set they really wanted and they end up disappointed! Don't let that be you this year!!  Here are the links again that you can use to see what's left and to order on line, or to find the catalogue numbers and prices to let me know what you want.

    **

**Remember that even though a stamp set and its coordinating dies will not be retiring, you will not be able to buy them as a bundle again in the next catalogue, so if you want to save the 10%, you should purchase them before May 31st.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack [141657]	Peekaboo Peach 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141417]	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]
Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931]	Watercolor Pencils [141709]	Blender Pens [102845]	Paper Snips Scissors [103579]	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies [145372]
Layering Squares Framelits Dies [141708]	Big Shot [143263]	Big Shot Magnetic Platform [130658]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Crafting Forever Stamp Set *

*New products from the 2017-18 Annual Catalogue, available on June 1.