Swap Cards from My Team

 To get everyone interacting and excited about stamping again, especially as we are getting closer to being able to hold in person classes again (maybe), I decided to organize a card swap for my downline. Not everyone took part but some did and I wanted to show you the beautiful cards that I received as part of the swap. You can see the card that I sent them HERE.

But first I want to explain why my photos have a kind of yellowish light to them, as hard as I tried to edit that out. Here in British Columbia, Canada, we are experiencing terrible forest fires and drought conditions and heat waves and the smoke is just clogging the atmosphere and giving the light a horrible, yellowy cast to it that is just so oppressive. We normally have a wonderful view from our house of Okanagan Lake and the cities of West Kelowna and Kelowna, but this is what it looked like today:

This light filtered in through the windows in broad daylight and made photo taking
a nightmare, so apologies to my downline and my readers ahead of time!

Here are the individual cards:

Susan Martin sent me this one. The thing I love about Susan is that she is always trying something new and this was a new technique involving Stampin' Blends on photo paper spritzed with alcohol. Very avant garde!

This beautiful sample was sent to me from Dianne Gough. It's a design that she CASEd from Susan Campfield in the US. It's a circle panel pull-out card that uses the Encircled in Friendship Bundle from the Annual Catalogue. It's such an elegant design, and I love that the artistry continues from the outside to the inside with a little hidden message! 

This next sample is from one of my newest downline, but you can see that she is not new to stamping and has mad design skills! Kim Findlater used the Seaside Seashells dies, and the Seashells 3D embossing folder along with some of the beautiful In Colour Shimmer Vellum to create this beauty. She also made a written tutorial to go along with it, so if you want a copy of that, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Kim!

From one of my newest downline, to one of my most faithful downline, who joined Stampin' Up! almost at the same time as I did, Doreen has made use of the beautiful Hand-Penned DSP, the Colour and Contour Bundle and the Layering Diorama Dies for her unique and beautiful card. Doreen is a meticulous stamper and often is called on to create hand stamped cards for her hubby's corporation, which means you have to be really good at it! I really love the font on the Colour and Contour sentiments, don't you?

The only demo from my Level 2 to take part, Carol Hamm sent me a card that the photo just doesn't do justice to! She created her own background using alcohol ink blending on vellum, using Stampin' Blends markers and paired it with the gorgeous shimmer vellum, which she embossed, and the Queen Anne's Lace stamp set to create this beauty.

So there are all the swap cards. I hope you enjoyed seeing them. Leave the stampers some love in the comments below. They don't often have their work published!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 3 the 2021 July/Dec Mini Catalogue goes live and you can start to order from it! Anytime after 2 am PDT, you can log onto my Online Store and place an order! I will have the link to the catalogue posted at that time as well as a link to my new Suite Shares for this catalogue.

One More Sleep!!

This is also the last day for the DSP Promo that has been going on all during July! Go to my Online Store to take advantage of this opportunity to stock up at a reduction of 15% off!

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Encircled In Friendship Bundle (English) [155541] $64.75	Seaside Seashells Dies [156095] $46.00	Seashells 3 D Embossing Folder [154309] $12.25	2021–2023 In Color Shimmer Vellum [155616] $16.25	Hand Penned 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [155499] $15.75
Color & Contour Bundle (English) [158356] $69.25	Layering Diorama Dies [155565] $39.00	Queen Anne's Lace Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [158309] $23.00	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $163.00

Simple Cardmaking Using Sand & Sea Suite

As I was coming up with designs for my January Online Class, I had time to really enjoy the Sand & Sea Suite from the new 2021 Jan/Jun Mini Catalogue and it provided a lot of solutions for a class where stamping had to be at a minimum. There are many images in the Sand & Sea Designer Series Paper (DSP) that can be either die cut or hand cut to add to the projects rather than needing to stamp them. The Seashells 3D Embossing Folder gives great texture and coordinates with the Seaside Seashells dies and the Friends are Like Seashells stamp set, so you have so much versatility and utility with this suite. There are also stickers and embellishments that come with it! 

One of the projects I made, a birthday card, is a fairly simple design, so good for any level of stamper, but could be upgraded easily to add more complexity for more advanced stampers.

• Just look at that texture from the Seashells 3D Embossing Folder. There are two ways you could upgrade that. One would be to rub ink onto it directly from the ink pad. I would use either Whisper White Craft ink or Sahara Sand. As you drag the ink across the embossed surface, the embossed edges catch on the ink pad's surface and take the majority of the ink, which emphasizes the raised portions of the design.
• The other way you could increase the level of difficulty is by placing the die on the cardstock surface on the Stamparatus and placing the stamps that correspond to the different shells within their areas of the dies, stamping surface down on the cardstock, uninked, then pick them up with the Stamparatus flap and remove the die. Ink up each stamp in the colours that you want and stamp using the Stamparatus, repeating the stamping as needed to get a good clear image. Then insert the cardstock into the Embossing Folder, matching the images with their outlines on the embossing folder and carefully run through the Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine.

• I've added here a panel of the Sand & Sea DSP and a sentiment stamped using one of the sentiments from the Friends are Like Seashells stamp set, in Sahara Sand ink. It's die cut using one of the Tasteful Label dies.
• A couple of seashells are fussy cut from the Sand & Sea DSP and added as well as a Braided Linen Trim bow.

Here are the details of the January Online Class: Click HERE

I can remember back when I was a Stampin' Up! customer, before I became a demonstrator, how excited I would get when Sale-A-Bration time would roll around every year, because of the FREE STUFF I would earn! It was always so easy to earn the Sale-A-Bration rewards because of the beautiful new products in the Mini catalogue that came out at the same time, so I made the most of it! Here's the way it works: For every $60 you purchase, (before tax & shipping) on one order, you earn one First Level Sale-A-Bration reward. If you reach $120 you can earn either two Level 1 rewards or one Level 2 reward. You choose the rewards from the Sale-A-Bration Brochure. 

Then I learned that I could really make a haul by maximizing my earnings through hosting a party, but it didn't mean I had to go the traditional route of cleaning, baking and cajoling reluctant guests to come and spend money so I could hit the jackpot! I had some different options. I could hand out some catalogues and collect orders. I could have an online party where people can tune in when they have time. But the best one for me was to join my demo's Stamp Club, because I could make a small investment each month and then one month I would get the stampin' rewards from everyone else's orders in the Club! This year hosts could earn a free stamp set called Punch Party.

After a couple of years of this though, I got smart and learned that the very best deal of all was to join Stampin' Up! And I did, and I joined during Sale-A-Bration, because there's always an extra incentive to sign up then! Look at the facts: You spend only $135 and you get $165 worth of any Stampin' Up! products of your choice, with free shipping!! And then, on top of that, this year Stampin' Up! is giving you five*  6" x 6" stacks of the newest Designer Series Paper from the upcoming 2021/22 Annual Catalogue! You really can't lose!

So if you want to just shop and earn SAB rewards, click HERE.

If you would like to arrange to host a party or join a Stamp Club contact me at hcooper52@gmail.com 

And if you would like to get the best deal, and join, click HERE.

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Friends Are Like Seashells Photopolymer Stamp Set [154368] $35.00	Friends Are Like Seashells Bundle [156205] $72.75	Sand & Sea Designer Series Paper [154288] $15.75	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121043] $12.00	Coastal Cabana 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131297] $12.00
Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [159276] $13.25	3/16" (1 Cm) Braided Linen Trim [147808] $9.50	Seashells 3 D Embossing Folder [154309] $12.25	Tasteful Labels Dies [152886] $42.00	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $163.00
Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $82.00	Stampin' Seal [152813] $11.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $5.50

Seaside Seashells Paper Piecing

 If you know me from reading my blog, you'll know that I have a soft spot for anything coastal or sea related, so you can imagine that I jumped at the chance to purchase the whole *Sand & Sea Suite from the new 2021 Jan/Jun Mini Catalogue, which will be going live soon on Jan. 5. But this is the first time I've had a chance to get it out and play with it as I designed the first card for my Online Technique Class in January, which will be based on this suite, with a focus on the *Seashells 3D Embossing Folder and the *Seaside Seashells Dies.

I had two designs for this card originally, one with paper piecing using Silver Foil Sheets and one without, and I couldn't decide which one to do for the class, so I did a poll on Instagram and Facebook between the two:

The results of the poll were conclusive: This design which included the paper piecing with the Silver Foil won hands down - 100%!

I took a piece of the *Pearlescent Specialty Paper that is part of this suite and embossed it using the *Seashells 3D Embossing Folder. I then used the *Seaside Seashells dies to die cut the whole embossed design at once as you can see in the upper left photo, which is so cool to be able to do. For the first design, I just glued that on a Basic Black card base and added some Pearl Basic Jewels.

But to add that really cool look, I first die cut the same design out of a Silver Foil Sheet and glued it to the Basic Black card base. Then I took the *Pearlescent Specialty Paper version that is embossed with the *Seashells 3D Embossing Folder and die cut the design. I carefully fussy cut out all the sea shells and glued them to the foil design exactly where they fit to achieve the above look.

The sentiment is from the *Friends Are Like Seashells stamp set that bundles with the *Seaside Seashells dies, and it is die cut with the Tasteful Labels dies. I'll have all the cards from the class ready to show you shortly, and I'll post the class.

*These products are from the upcoming 2021 Jan/June Mini Catalogue and will be available to order until Jan. 5, 2021.

Only 1 week left to get the retiring products you love! Don't leave it too late!

This is the latest update on what's left!

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List 

Silver Foil Sheets [132178] $6.75	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121045] $12.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100730] $13.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25	Pearl Basic Jewels [144219] $6.75
Tasteful Labels Dies [152886] $42.00	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $163.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $5.50	Stampin' Seal+ [149699] $16.25	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $7.25

*Friends are Like Seashells Stamp Set, *Seashells 3D Embossing Folder, *Seaside Seashells Dies, *Pearlescent Paper

*These products are from the upcoming 2021 Jan/June Mini Catalogue and will be available to order until Jan. 5, 2021.