Brusho and Big on Birthdays for As You See It Challenge #173

Hey, everyone! As you read this, I am heading off to the thriving metropolis of Red Deer, Alberta, for Stampin' Up!'s OnStage Local presentation on Saturday! I'm looking forward to the experience, as Stampin' Up! always makes it fun for everyone! And the big draw is that we'll get to be the first ones to see the new 2018-19 Annual Catalogue and order some products from it this very weekend! Whoop!

But this morning, it is time for another As You See It Challenge! This one is #173 and it's a sketch challenge entitled Rorschach Inkblots and when you see it, you'll understand why:

Quick! What's the first thing that come's to mind?  Hahaha! Well for me, it was Brusho Crystal Colour and Emboss Resist!  And Big on Birthdays stamp set! Here's what my subconscious cooked up for me:

• The Brusho Crystal Colour is perfect for the inkblot portion of the challenge since you sprinkle the different colours you want to use on your watercolour paper and spritz the heck out of it with water to create the war zone you see above! Maybe my choice of colours was unfortunate, but these are three that blend well - Brilliant Red, Gamboge (orange) and Yellow. The other two Brusho colours, Prussian Blue and Moss Green are a little harder to blend and the Moss Green is really not my favourite shade of green anyway!
• I used the large script of the Big on Birthdays sentiment and added the flower garland above it to create the design by stamping on my Strathmore Cold Press Watercolour paper with Versamark ink and covering with White Stampin' Emboss Powder then heat setting it with the Heat Tool.
• I then sprinkled the different Brusho colours on in the areas where I wanted that particular colour and spritzed with water. I used enough water for some blending in the middle but not too much so there would still be that speckled or mottled effect on the outer areas. I did two samples and chose the one I was happiest with.
• The watercolour paper was backed with Basic Black cardstock and then mounted on the card base made with Whisper White Thick Cardstock covered in a piece of the striped Foil Frenzy Specialty Designer Series Paper.
• I finished it off with some simple Pearls to the flower centers.

And that's a wrap for this week! Stay tuned for more news about OnStage next week and the new catalogue, at least as much as I can tell you! Have a great weekend!

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

Big On Birthdays Photopolymer Stamp Set [142877] $33.00	Watercolor Paper [122959] $6.75	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $10.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [140272] $9.25	Foil Frenzy Specialty Designer Series Paper [144125] $17.00
Versamark Pad [102283] $11.25	White Stampin' Emboss Powder [109132] $6.75	Brusho Crystal Colour [144101] $40.00	Pearl Basic Jewels [144219] $6.75	Heat Tool [129053] $40.00
Embossing Buddy [103083] $8.00	Fast Fuse Adhesive Refill [129027] $10.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25

Floral Boutique for As You See It Challenges

It seems like the last two weeks have flown by, but then it's been really busy! I've been preparing to head to Calgary for Stampin' Up!'s OnStage Local presentation and will be on my way later this morning! It's so exciting, and I will tell you more about that later, but right now the business at hand is As You See It Challenge's latest Challenge #147, which is a sketch challenge from Amanda. It is a sketch that intrigues me because... well, I'll let you take a look and you can let me know if you think it's intriguing as well:

I don't think I've ever run across a sketch quite like this one! I'm really curious to see what everyone will do with the background design. Lack of time made me a little less imaginative, so I resorted to Designer Series Paper - Floral Boutique Series to be exact, and I went with a crisp palette of Night of Navy and Whisper White, with a little silver thrown in.

• The matte for the Floral Boutique DSP is actually the silver side of one of the designs of the Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate. That's where the silver element comes in. I wish you could see more. Next time, I might have cut the Floral Boutique strip a little narrower to let it show more.
• The sentiment, stamped in Night of Navy is from the Rose Wonder Stamp Set.
• I die cut the rose outline using the Rose Garden Thinlits from Night of Navy cardstock. I mounted it on a Lace Doily (on the Whisper White side) which was, in turn, adhered to a scallop circle die cut using a framelit from the Layering Circles Framelits. I experimented embedding the little pieces left over after the die cut ( I believe they are called the chits), both the Night of Navy pieces and also some Whisper White pieces left over when I used the thinlit to do the same die cut in Whisper White. I also tried a combination of the two. But in the end, it just looked better with the simple rose outline in navy with the doily underneath.
• The little white bow is tied using the 1/8" white grosgrain ribbon from the Sending Love Ribbon Combo Pack.

I want to let you know that while I am in Calgary this weekend, I will be viewing the 2017/18 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue for the first time! How awesome is that? I will also be able to order from a selected assortment of products and start to produce samples to show you, so within a week or so you will be able to see some of the wonders from the new catty, as well as the new In Colours. In another 2 - 3 weeks, the Retiring List should be out for the current catalogues, so you  will know what will be going for good to make room for the new! You'll definitely be wanting to keep your eyes on this space for the next month or so!! By next Wednesday, I'll have some pictures for 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

Rose Wonder Photopolymer Stamp Set [140697]	Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper [141663]	Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate [141653]	Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100867]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]
Lace Doilies [142793]	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad [126970]	Sending Love Ribbon Combo Pack [142737]	Rose Garden Thinlits Dies [140619]	Layering Circle Framelits Dies [141705]
Big Shot [143263]	Big Shot Die Brush [140603]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fine-Tip Glue Pen [138309]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]	Glue Dots [103683]

Glimpses and Glories

Stampin' Up! OnStage Events are all about recognition for demonstrators, but also about motivation and education. The other main reason we get together is to have a look at the next catalogue to come out and in the case of our OnStage event last weekend, we were getting a peek at the new 2017 Occasions Catalogue that comes out January 4th. Now that is a long way off, and we still have the Christmas season to get through, so I won't be inundating you with material right away, but I was able, as an attendee, to order a limited number of product suites early, so I will be showing them to you when I get them, because, frankly, they are too beautiful to keep a secret!!

While we were at OnStage Local, we were able to do four Make & Take projects and I wanted to share them with you. These are not my design, we all did the same thing, but I wanted you to see a little of what you have in store for you:

• If you look carefully at the cover of the catalogue and at these Make & Takes, you'll be able to see many sneak peeks of new products. There are some I'm especially excited about!
• What do you think I coloured that flower with?? It's my favourite new thing in the catalogue! Leave me your guesses in the comments below! Only non-demos can answer!
• Some great new dies coming up as you can see! And beautiful Designer Series paper! And the cutest embellishments! Leave me some comments with your reflections on the new products you are seeing here.

Then there was the recognition part! I knew that I would be recognized on stage for having reached my 100,000 CSV Career Sales Milestone. Here is me getting my three minutes of glory:

Thanks to my team member Terry for snapping this photo for me.

What I didn't know was that I also reached Level 1 awards in Sales, Recruiting and Leadership - stand and wave recognition - AND I went on stage a second time for earning 100,000 plus Flex Points in one year!!  Here I am with my up-up line, Desiree Spenst doing the stage walk for that:

Again, thanks to Terry for that one!

And here's a pic of our whole Kelowna team, including a couple of my downline! 

These photos were taken by Dale Hampshire from Calgary's Home Office! It's such a fun group to belong to:

Think you'd like to belong to a group a people who love to craft, and love to share their love of crafting with others and get to travel together to fun events like this? Why not think about joining my team? It's easy to do, it's a great deal, there's no hidden catch and even if you don't end up wanting to sell you still get a bunch of free products out of it, plus 20% discounts on your favourite Stampin' Up! products for a minimum of 4 months!! What's not to love? Want to know more? Message me or text me at 250-768-7379.

Ready to just jump in and buy the starter kit? (It costs just $135 and you get $165 worth of products.) Go to the top menu and click on "Join My Team" or click HERE and follow the prompts. If you need help message me or text me at 250-768-7379 and I can walk you through it.

And...BONUS!!  You'd also get to see the Occasions Catalogue 2 months ahead of the public and order a month ahead of everyone!

Home from OnStage Local in Vancouver, WA

I got home yesterday around 6:30 from my trip to Stampin' Up!'s event, OnStage Local in Vancouver, Washington. I'm glad I went even though the trip down was just awful! It rained the whole way, sometimes in buckets. and the traffic in Seattle was horrible. Our over-imaginative GPS. Michelle, kept trying to reroute us around the slowdowns, but ended up getting us in worse jams! It took us a wearying 11 hours to get there. But once that was over, we had a great time! I showed up bright and early at 7:30 am and checked in and got my awesome tote bag, which I will show you a photo of tomorrow! Almost right off the bat, we got to see the new Occasions 2015 catalogue reveal! I can't tell you much until tomorrow, but it is EPIC! I can barely contain myself, but there is a publication ban until the other demos who didn't attend OnStage get to see it tonight!

Of course, the swaps were happening all over the room and I thought I would share with you today some of my favourite swaps that I got when I was there. I will share the creator of each card unless they didn't give any info with their card:

This one is from Deborah Dodson. I love the variegated blue and green on her ornament!

This one, from Debbie Hendrix, is one of my very favourites. Great layout and look how she accented the beautiful DSP!

Carol Sanderson made this pretty card. Am I looking at dyed ribbon here??

I didn't get the Flurry of Wishes stamp set and matching punch but these next two cards make me wish that I did! No info with this one.

Same stamp set for a card by Sharon Skelton! I love the Blackberry Bliss and Silver accents!

Thanks for this one, Darla Lorbeski! A great use of the Sleighride Edgelits and Delicate Ornaments Thinlits.

Here's a non-Christmas one by Angela McCormack! Simple, but pretty choice of colours and paper! Very effective!

More Embellished Ornaments and Delicate Ornament Thinlits in this striking card by Jill Gates!

Isn't this cute? I love the combination of the Woodland Embossing Folder and the Snow Place stamp set with the Snow Friends framelits! Thanks again, Jill Gates!

I do believe this is my very favourite of the bunch, but there was no information with the swap, sadly! But so effective for a monochromatic card. The Work of Art brush strokes, the image from Happy Scenes stamp set, heat embossed with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder and the sentiment from  Versatile Christmas on a panel dry embossed with the Softly Falling Embossing Folder! Genius!

I hope you enjoyed this share and pop back tomorrow to see some photos from the event!