May is Here!

What a great month May is!  There should be NO MORE SNOW, at least I've never experienced snow in May!  How about you?

Mother's Day is coming up!  Ladies, if you want your family to get you exactly what you want for Mother's Day, get them to give me a call - and sent me your wish list before hand - so I can give them some wise suggestions! (Think BIG SHOT! lol)

One more month left to get all those retiring products you don't want to do without.  Here, once more are the two links to download both the retiring stamp sets and the retiring accessories.

Retiring Stamp Sets - Available until June 3

Retiring Accessories - Available while supplies last until June 3

And here's some great news from Stampin' Up for all you digital fans out there:

Dates: May 1-June 15, 2013

The Sale
Get 25 percent off select My Digital Studio content and print products.

Digital content includes: ALL ensemble, calendar, photobook, and swatchbook digital content. See it here. 
Print products include: ALL photobooks, swatchbooks, cards, tags, individual pages, and calendars. See it here.



That might even get me going on some more My Digital Studio products!

Can you say PHOTOPOLYMER?  A new set of photopolymer stamps is available starting today, Show and Tell, and a new on-line class, Seeing the Possibilities (134532) which will teach you how to get the most out of your photopolymer stamps.
Here are the new sets:

Show and Tell 1 (133450)

Show and Tell 2 (133481)

Bundle and save 15% with the 2 Show and Tell sets and the On-line class, Seeing the Possibilities

(134533)

Okay, gotta go and lay by the pool!  It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!

Mother's Day Thoughts

Just a quick post tonight to wish all you Moms out there a Happy Mother's Day!  It was a stunning day in our neck of the woods today.  Beautiful sunny skies and very warm temperatures.  Just right for Mother's Day.  My drama group performed this skit in church and got lots of laughs.  I got three beautiful cards from my three daughters and talked to them all via phone or skype at different points in the day.  My DH took me out for a Mother's Day brunch that exceeded all expectations and I got all my bedding plants into their respective hanging baskets or planters, while Ken planted all the annual beds!  I can hardly wait to see them bloom and grow.  Last year I planted gobs of petunias and faithfully dead-headed them all until I never wanted to see a petunia again.  I went to the local nursery and looked around for alternatives, but there didn't seem to be anything as colourful and reliable as petunias.  I was almost resigned to another year of slavery to my hanging baskets, when I found it - The Supertunia.  Says right on the tag - "Deadheading not needed!"  Yay!  And the pictures of the blooms are incredible.  We shall see what happens with those.  I'll keep you posted. 

Finally, I spent my evening doing what I love most - Stamping!  And can you believe that what I worked on today, Mother's Day, was a manly card for Father's Day and also for my next Technique Class, June 6, where the focus is on masculine designs and techniques.  Here's what it looks like:

This uses a technique called "Faux Mosaic", which I learned from my upline, Tamara.  The card design is very similar to one we did at one of her Technique classes.  For this technique you create your own mosaic stamp using left over rubber from Stampin' Up wood mount stamps after you have mounted your stamps on the bases.  This is what mine looks like:

I stamped the image, which comes from a great set called Countryside, which will still be available in the new catalogue, coming June 1.  I used StazOn Jet Black ink on special watercolour paper.  Then I used aqua painters to paint the image using two new In Colours for 2012 - 2014, Raspberry Ripple and Gumball Green, as well as good old Early Espresso.  I then spritzed the image using a Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker and the Colour Spritzer Tool.  When the image had dried, I inked up my special mosaic stamp with Versamark ink, and stamped it over the image.   I covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  Then I sponged Soft Suede ink over the embossed areas and the outer edges, to bring up the mosaic design.  Great fun!   Here's a close-up of the mosaic design:

And that's all there is to it.  Hope your Mother's Day was a satisfying as mine was.  What would your ideal day look like?

I'm loving your comments, so don't hesitate to leave one!

Being Grandma

I used to dream a bit about what it would be like to be a Grandma.  Beyond the obvious reminder that time is rapidly marching on, the reality of being a Grandma is so much better than I ever imagined it could be!  And that's even taking into account that I only get to see the little guy every few months, because my daughter and her family live about a 10 hour drive from us. 

My little grandson, Parker, is only  31/2 months old, but he is such a little character already!

I wanted to create a special Mother's Day Card for my daughter for her first Mother's Day!  I used the MOJO Monday sketch for this week, #239

and the criteria from The Paper Players challenge for this week's Tic Tac Toe:  I chose square card, ribbon and designer paper, but I also have some dry embossing happening and some blue colours!

Here is the square card I designed:

I used Perfect Plum and Pool Party cardstock, and the Twitterpated DSP I used is in Blushing Bride.  At first I thought it might be Pink Pirouette, but six alliterative "P" colour names is a little too much, don't you think?  The stamp set is Baby Prints from the Occasions Mini catalogue, which has now expired, but there is so much exciting stuff to come from the new Stampin' Up Idea Book and Catalogue 2012-2013!  I'm going to order some the of sneak peek products today, and I will be showing them to you in the near future, so keep checking back.  The new catalogue comes into effect June 1, so I will be hosting a Stamping Spectacular around that time, with great deals and prizes, based on the new catalogue items.  Keep an eye open for that announcement, too.

Sneak Peeks

I've been neglecting my blog a bit because stamping as a business is keeping me really busy.  I guess once I learn the ropes, life will settle down a little, but there is sooo much happening.  I've been coming up with projects for my upcoming workshops and Stamp Club Technique Night, so thought I'd share them quickly.  Here is a card I've designed for my workshops:

 

I love the two colours, Pool Party and Certainly Celery together, and Elements of Style is such a pretty stamp set.  I'm so glad it's not on the list of discontinued stamps!  The back panel of Certainly Celery is embossed with the Framed Tulips embossing folder, using the Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine.  The images were stamped with Pool Party and Lucky Limeade ink.  I added the oh-so-lovely Lucky Limeade Organdy ribbon from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue.  (I know it's not available now, but it is so pretty and I have to use it up, right?)  A few basic rhinestones added the requisite bling and voila!

The next card is for my Stamp Club Technique Night, which is spotlighting Vintage techniques this month. 

I wanted to keep it on the simple side, but still be able to use some basic aging and distressing techniques.  The stamp set is Nature Walk, another of my favourites that made the cut and will be around for another year.  The background DSP is from the Beau Chateau collection on a card base of Crumb Cake, which was also used for the Little Leaves Sizzlit.  The Marina Mist echoed the colour in the DSP and was punched with the Modern Label Punch, which also cut out the sentiment (from Teeny Tiny Wishes).  I used some more Certainly Celery as a matte for the DSP and all the panels, including the image and sentiment on Very Vanilla, were sponged with Crumb Cake ink and distressed.  Pearls always add to a vintage look.

Have a great Wednesday!