Quick and Cute with You've Got This!

I just held a Quick and Cute Night class which doubles as a Beginner's Class. I love introducing new people to stamping and the idea that they can be creative without the need to be able to draw! I love the look on their faces when they stamp their first image and the pride in their voices when they look at the finished product! It's heady stuff! And it's fun designing Quick and Cute cards for these classes. I like to use a showy stamp and I steer clear of all but the simplest Big "Shotting" (yes, that's a verb!), opting more for punches to shape my paper.

The layout of this card was inspired by, but not strictly adhered to, a Mojo Monday Sketch:

This was the sketch for last week, so I am not entering the challenge, just using it as a design guide. In fact, Card Challenge sites are a great source of inspiration for your card making, even if you don't enter the challenges. Check out the ones I participate in regularly on the left side bar or just google card making or stamping challenges - there are dozens of them.

• The stamp set, You've Got This, is a good showy stamp set to use in a beginner's card. They don't have to colour it in for it to look good and the sentiments use a wonderful font. Here the flower is stamped in Blushing Bride and Crumb Cake, although you can't see much of the stem and leaves.
• The flag is made from paper in the Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack. This will be retiring at the end of May and will only be available until supplies last, so get it soon if you like it. The background DSP is from Timeless Elegance Designer Series Paper. It is a favourite of many and will likewise be retiring.
• Good old Decorative Label Punch! It was one of the first I bought and it's still going strong, making a return appearance in the new Annual Catalogue! I stamped the sentiment on Blushing Bride cardstock and punched it out, then punched out another Decorative Label shape in Basic Black cardstock and mounted it just below and to the right of the Blushing Bride label, like a shadow.

So I said I'd share with you some of a game we played at my Celebrate Sale-A-Bration Event, held last Saturday. In this quiz, you have to change 1 letter in each word to make the name of a Stampin' Up! product.  For example - You're Not Thin becomes You've Got This by changing the v to an r in the first word, the n to a g in the second word and the n to an s in the third. Now see if you can figure out the next 5:

Baler's Twins _____________________________

Pig Show Dig Brush ______________________________

Rote Ponder ______________________________

Lumber or Yearn ____________________________

Tip Lap Top ______________________________________

Leave me the answers in the comments! Have fun! I'll share some more another time.

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

You've Got This Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139575]	You've Got This Wood-Mount Stamp Set [139572]	Timeless Elegance Designer Series Paper [138444]	Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack [140548]	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]
Blushing Bride 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131198]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650]	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad [131172]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931]
Decorative Label Punch [120907]	Banner Triple Punch [138292]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Rose Wonder for the Pals

Have you ever CASE'd yourself? When I saw the colour swatch for the Pals Paper Arts Challenge this week, I immediately thought of a card I'd done a while back, using the Rose Garden Thinlits and Rose Wonder stamp set. With some colour and sentiment changes, it was perfect for this challenge.

These colours together are amazing! The Cucumber Crush and Bermuda Bay are peacock colours, very vibrant, while the calm Crumb Cake adds some subtlety to the mix. Here's a closer look:

• I just love that Designer Series Paper from the Love Blossoms DSP stack. It's just kind of a sophisticated, Art Deco-like design - a perfect background. The other DSP is from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack.
• The leaf sprig from the Rose Garden Thinlits Dies is one of my favourites. It looks great with the rose die cuts or on its own, as I used it here. There are actually 3 sprigs here, but I trimmed the top leaf off the third one, in order to fit on this panel.
• I really like two things here: the sentiment label which you can stamp with an image from Rose Wonder and which coordinates with a die from the Rose Garden Thinlits. The other is the font of the Happy Anniversary sentiment from the Timeless Love stamp set from the Annual Catalogue. I also like the way it stamps a little over the border on this label, refusing to be bound by convention!!

Well, this is the last Tuesday for Weekly Deals, which end Monday, April 18th. They will be replaced with less frequent Special Offers, which will contain better deals, but if you want to get in on the last Weekly Deals, let me know this week or go to my Online Store to shot Weekly Deals anytime.

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

Rose Wonder Photopolymer Stamp Set [140697]	Rose Wonder Photopolymer Bundle [140804]	Timeless Love Wood-Mount Stamp Set [138772]	Timeless Love Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139408]	Gorgeous Grunge Wood Stamp Set [130514]
Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517]	Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack [138435]	Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack [140548]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [120953]	Cucumber Crush 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138335]
Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131197]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [131171]	Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments [119246]
Rose Garden Thinlits Dies [140619]	Big Shot [113439]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Bloomin' Heart Thinlits and the Big Shot Die Brush

Valentine's Day is coming up in a month and a half, and aside from Christmas, it's the biggest seller for seasonal greeting cards! So we should get going on some Valentines in the next little while. Hopefully, you will see a design you like that you can CASE for your sweetie(s)! When my kids were little, my hubby and I always gave each of them a special valentine at breakfast that morning, and there was that special ritual of preparing valentines for everyone in their classes. I know that there are those who believe you should only give a valentine card to your love: husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, but I think anytime you can let someone know that you love them, you should spread the love around!

With the Occasions Catalogue gone live now, I thought I would showcase some of the products from it.

• Of course, the show stopper is the Bloomin' Heart Thinlit Die. It's so intricate and gorgeous. You can add flowers of a different colour or paper to it with the flower dies that come with it.
• But with the intricacy of the die comes the difficulty getting the paper out of the die and removing all the little bits. Stampin' Up! has introduced a new tool with this Occasions Catalogue for just that scenario: the Big Shot Die Brush.

With this tool, you lay the die with the paper in it (after you have put it through the Big Shot) paper side down on the foam pad and roll over it like you would a brayer with the rolling brush. It easily removes the paper from the die, and the little bits stick to the foam as the brush rolls over them, removing most of them from the die cut image. This is a must have, especially as the dies get more intricate! You can find it on page 19 in the Occasions Catalogue.

• The background paper is from the new Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack, which consists of 48 double sided sheets of 6" x 6" Design Paper with valentine themes but also floral and more generic patterns you can use after Valentines is over. It's a good value.
• The Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper is a winner as well. Two 12" x 12" sheets should give you enough for most of your Valentine cards. It's great for other projects as well.
• I went looking for a small Happy Anniversary sentiment in my stash and all I could find was this old familiar one from Teeny Tiny Wishes, which still comes in mighty handy quite often. I punched it out with the Word Window Punch and mounted it on a backing of Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper, punched out with the Washi Label Punch.

If you were to order the Bloomin' Love Bundle which consists of the Bloomin' Love Stamp Set and the Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Dies, plus the Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack and some Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper, your order would come to $60.25 before tax and shipping which is just the perfect amount to earn you a Sale-A-Bration reward!

Hope you haven't had any trouble ordering from the new catalogue. I am putting in an order tomorrow night, so I can add yours to it if you want to let me know what you would like to order. If you don't yet have a catalogue, just ask and I will get one to you.

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

Teeny Tiny Wishes Wood Stamp Set [128748]	Teeny Tiny Wishes Clear Stamp Set [127802]	Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack [140548]	Big Shot Die Brush [140603]	Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Dies [140621]
Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper [140550]	Blushing Bride 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131198]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad [126954]	Sahara Sand 7/8" (2.2 Cm) Lace Trim [137866]
Love Blossoms Embellishment Kit [140551]	Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments [119247]	Window Word Punch [119857]	Washi Label Punch [138296]	Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Dies [140621]
Bloomin' Love Photopolymer Bundle [140818]	Big Shot [113439]	Big Shot Die Brush [140603]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]
Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]