Four Colour Challenge with The Paper Players

I normally don't use four colours in my card making.  I find it gets just too busy for my liking, but there is a way to do it successfully if you use lots of a light coloured neutral.  The Paper Players Challenge #178 this week uses four colours and it's a pretty good combo:

I really dug into my new stamp sets and accessories from the Occasions catalogue to do this challenge and had a lot of fun making it all work together:

• I used the new Scallops Textured Impressions Embossing Folder for the Pear Pizzazz background panel.  Very cute, don't you think?
• The new Banners framelits make cutting the different sized banners a cinch.  You don't have to think about what dimensions to make your cuts and worry about making the flag ends centered and even.
• The new stamp set Petal Parade, from the Sale-A-Bration Brochure, is one that you're going to want to earn with a $60 order.  I used 3 of the challenge colours on the images from that stamp set.

• The sentiment is from Happy Congratulations, a new Occasions catalogue stamp set, stamped here with StazOn Jet Black ink.
• I'll bet you can hardly wait to get your hands on that coloured twine from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. It comes with Sweet Sorbet Accessories which include two other colours of the twine and some cork flower stickers.

Speaking of Sale-A-Bration, this would be a good time to host your own workshop with me.  Your guests will be more motivated than ever to purchase in order to win the Sale-A-Bration giveaways and you will get a chance to earn $40 MORE free product from Stampin' Up! if your party sales (before tax and shipping) are $400 or more.  During Sale-A-Bration, that's not hard to do.  It can be your place or mine (I do all the cleaning and baking at my place), all you need to do is invite your friends for a Creative Night Out!  I am booking in February and March now, so call or email me if you want to maximize your Sale-A-Bration benefits.

• Happy Congratulations [english, wood]
• Happy Congratulations [english, clear]
• Banners Framelits Dies
• Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Coastal Cabana 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Primrose Petals 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock
• Scallops Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
• Pear Pizzazz 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Crushed Curry 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Jet Black StazOn Pad
• Primrose Petals Classic Stampin' Pad
• Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad
• Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad
• Petal Parade Stamp Set*
• Sweet Sorbet Accessories Kit*

*Available to earn with every $60 you order from the Sale-A-Bration Brochure starting Jan. 28 until Mar. 31

Happenings Simply Created Card Kit - So Convenient

Today, I want to showcase a very convenient product from Stampin' Up!  It is the Happenings Simply Created Card Kit.  It is one of the freebies we were blessed with at Leadership 2014.  It's everything you need, minus stamps, ink and adhesive to create 15 cute and awesome cards.  To assemble one card takes only 10 minutes and you have a card worth pinning!  Here's three designs that I came up with:

Aren't these cute?  I love the patterns and colours that come with it.  It comes also with instructions on how to make the cards, but feel free to let your own imagination rule the day!  This set coordinates with the Says It All stamp set, which I didn't have, so I used the Geometrical set we were also given at Leadership, and the Thanks and Hello set they had on hand at the Make and Takes at Leadership.

All the shapes your see here are already die cut, including the silver glimmer paper, so all you have to do is punch them out and adhere them where you want them.  Another GOOD VALUE product from Stampin' Up!.

I spent the day yesterday getting a mani/pedi with my daughter as a birthday present for me.  We then went for a lovely walk in Stanley Park in Vancouver with my daughter and grandson, Wyatt, and took some photos.

Vancouver can be beautiful at any time of year, and we saw some cherry blossoms out already, which is really early, even for Vancouver!  Crazy!

Heading home today and I will be very happy to sleep in my own bed!

Happenings Simply Created Card Kit

Thanks Hello

Geometrical [wood]

Geometrical [clear]

Says It All [wood]

Says It All [clear]

Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad

Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers

Movie Time with Stampin' Up!

I'm still visiting my daughter and son-in-law in Vancouver and my youngest grandson, Wyatt!  What a smiley baby he is.  Photos tomorrow!  In the meantime, I wanted to give you some inside info from Stampin' Up!  These movies will tell you more about some of the newest products.  So sit back, grab a blankie and some snacks and enjoy Movie Time with Stampin' Up!


         

If you enjoyed this you might think about registering for this Wreath class on Wednesday, February 17.  You would need to preregister and prepay by Monday Feb. 10 in order for me to get the kit delivered in time for your class.

You could also order the

• Burlap And Blooms Simply Created Wreath Kit  on-line and follow the video tutorial.

At Leadership we received this next kit for free and I can hardly wait to put some more samples together for you.

        

You'll want to pick up one of these

• Happenings Simply Created Card Kit for yourself and some for your friends who love to be creative but may not have the time, space and/or money to have all the craft supplies.  These kits make great gifts.

This next video shows you how to use one of the new tools in the Occasions Catalogue:

         

There are two of these great tag punches:

• Angled Tag Topper Punch
• Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, and you can purchase them simply by clicking on the link and adding them to your shopping cart.

As you know, Stampin' Up has great weekly deals, and here's this week's specials:

WEEKLY DEALS

We hope you enjoy this week's Weekly Deals!

	Neutrals Core'dinations Item # 129956 Regular Price: $29.95 Discounted Price: $22.46   25% off
	Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon Item # 130010 Regular Price: $12.50 Discounted Price: $9.38    25% off
	Framed Tulips Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Item #121809 Regular Price: $9.95 Discounted Price: $7.46    25% off
	Chalk Talk Framelit Dies Item # 129983 Regular Price: $30.95 Discounted Price: $23.21    25% off
	Calypso Coral Classic Pad Item # 126983 Regular Price: $7.25 Discounted Price: $5.44   25% off
	Alphabet Press Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Item #130916 Regular Price: $9.95 Discounted Price: $7.46   25% off
	Note Card Envelopes Item # 131528 Regular Price: $6.95 Discounted Price: $5.21    25% off
	Storytime Ensemble Item # 127195 Regular Price: $21.95 Discounted Price: $13.17   40% off

A Vintage Swap Card from Leadership 2014

So I've been up for 22 hours now, travelling back from Leadership 2014 and visiting with my daughter in Vancouver, so this is going to be a kind of a short blog post.  I wanted to share the swap card that I made for Barbara Welch's Wow Vintage Swap!  (I just about wrote Very Vintrage, which I think would compliment Stampin' Up!'s Brian Pilling's Festive Furies very well - if you were at Leadership you will know what I mean!!)

Without further ado, here is my swap:

It combines the old with the new, by using the Peaceful Petals flower from the new Occasions Catalogue with images from Postage Due and Background Builders from the Annual Catalogue. There's lots of sponging with Soft Suede ink going on here and plentiful pearling (that's a verb!)  And just a tad of Gorgeous Grunge thrown in for good measure!

• The Peaceful Petals flower was stamped twice on vellum cardstock with Versamark in and embossed in gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.  It was then coloured in in some areas with a Soft Suede Stampin' Write Marker.  Layers were hand trimmed with Paper Snips and it was assembled with Dimensionals to give it a 3D look.  The smallest pearls adorned the flower center.
• The banner tag with the double furled end was created by stamping the sentiment from Blessings From Heaven in Soft Suede ink on the strip of Very Vanilla cardstock, cutting the flag end on the right and then working the other end with the bone folder until the paper plies separate.  You then sponge everything in Soft Suede and curl the plies separately to make the double furl.

Must go to bed now before I drop!  See you tomorrow with new weekly specials!

• Peaceful Petals [wood]
• Peaceful Petals [clear]
• Postage Due
• Postage Due Clear-Mount Stamp Set
• Background Builders Wood-Mount
• Background Builders Clear-Mount
• Blessings From Heaven - Clear-Mount Stamp
• Blessings From Heaven Wood-mount Stamp Set
• Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• White Vellum 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad
• Versamark Pad
• Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
• Heat Tool
• Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers
• Paper Snips
• Basic Pearls Jewel Accents
• Brushed Gold 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

• Gorgeous Grunge Wood-mount Stamp Set
• Gorgeous Grunge Clear-mount Stamp Set

Leadership is Over

Well, yesterday was the last day of Leadership 2014 and it turned out to be a great four days if you subtract the trip.  We had a great time and it was full of good information and fun with friends from all over North America.  Even in our two hotel rooms, we had four of us from British Columbia, one from Missouri, one from Kansas, one from Alberta and one from Wisconsin.  One other demo that hung out with us is from Washington state.  It was fun getting to know one another.  Today we head back to reality, and I don't mind saying, I'm a little freaked by the thought of another flight like the first one.  This time I'll be sure to take my laptop as a carry on!!

Here's a few last photos from the event:





The Welcome sign at our hotel.

Rising Stars 2013 reunion:  Julie Skotzke, me, Brian King and Janet Holmes!  So good to see them all again. And I was thrilled to have Brian introduce me to Mary Fish and Ann Schach, my stamping heroes!












Here's all the loot minus a couple of small items.  Stampin' Up! takes good care of us!














Another exciting announcement was that Inspire*Create*Share, our 2014 Convention would take place July 17 - 19 in Salt Lake City.  But listen to this:  All demonstrators who join Stampin' Up!'s family between July 1, 2013 and the day registration closes for Convention 2014, will have their registration to Convention paid for by the company!!  How exciting is that??

 I would LOVE to have you join me in Salt Lake City in July!  Let me know if you want to join the Papercraft Cats!

See you tomorrow with a better travel story, hopefully and another one of my swap cards!

Day Two of Stampin' Up! Leadership 2014

Well, Day 2 of Stampin' Up!'s Leadership 2014 is under my belt now and it was a learning day.  We heard a great key note speech from Pat Pearson on the cycles of emotion that we go through in our lives and businesses and how to deal with them.  Very useful information.  We enjoyed a sit down lunch of lasagna and the best peach tart ever!  In the evening we had a Stampin' Night Out after we all enjoyed dinner at Mia Bella, a great Italian restaurant. Then we had some stamping presentations and did some make and takes and won some free product!  Yeah!!!!


  Some of my peeps!

Some of the loot we won:

Okay, here is the big reveal:
Coming sometime in the first quarter this year, Stampin' Up! is introducing a line of alcohol markers called Blendabilities!  These will be available in 12 Stampin' Up colours, a light, medium and dark tone of each.  There will also be some Memento Ink to use to stamp images to colour in, a colour lifter pen for corrections and a skin tone collection!!  SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!

They also announced last night that they will be bringing back the Texture Boutique - the small mini version of the Big Shot that just embosses, no die cutting.  Also a new line of personalized stamps that are really cute.  You'll have to take my word for it, cause I can't show you the products, just projects using them!

Seriously, things look great ahead!  Let me know what you're interested in!

Leadership Excitement and As You See It Challenge #19

First of all, I have to apologize for no post yesterday, but when you hear my woeful tale, you'll understand why.  We were supposed to fly from Seattle to Houston for Leadership on Wednesday and arrive by 3:30 pm or so, giving us lots of time to visit, eat supper with room left over to write my blog post. We arrived at Seatac Airport at 6:30 am and got to our gate on time and boarding had even commenced on time, when they announced that the plane was broken and we needed a new one.  But it took until 11:30 am to arrive and so that meant we missed our connection to Houston in Las Vegas.  Southwest rerouted us from Seattle to Vegas to Denver and then to Houston and we didn't arrive until 10:30 pm.  Of course, then we found out that they lost our luggage and by the time we filed the report it was after midnight and we still had to make a midnight run to Walmart to get some things that we needed that were in our suitcases.  And my laptop was in my suitcase.  And we had to order in a pizza since we had not had time to eat more than the pretzels and peanuts they gave us on our flights, plus a quick sandwich in Denver.  So we didn't get much sleep that night.

Thankfully, our suitcases had arrived by morning, and we headed out with clean clothes to the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.  Here we heard about some amazing news from Stampin' Up that I will share with you as soon as I'm allowed.  Or better yet, join my team, become a demonstrator, and learn about all the news first hand!!

But today is As You See It Challenges #019 and here's the colour challenge this week:

Beautiful!  And here's my sample for the Design Team:

• This card would be of the Quick and Cute variety, so it's not too hard to replicate.
• The Champagne Glimmer Paper is actually raised up on Dimensionals, which is hard to see from this angle.
• I've used two stamp sets here, Simply Celebrate, from the Occasions catalogue and Banner Blast from the Sale-A-Bration brochure, which you will be able to earn starting Jan. 28 for a $60 or more order. 

• Here you can see the 3D version a little more clearly.
• The coloured twine that the banner is on is also from the Sale-A-Bration brochure as part of the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack with colours in Pool Party (seen above), Crisp Cantaloupe and Summer Starfruit.
• The banners were made with the new banner punch, another product you can earn during Sale-A-Bration!  Aren't you getting excited?  The longer ones were cut just slightly narrower than the punch and inserted in the top of the punch and out through the side, so only one end of the paper strip is punched, leaving the longer end to be cut the length needed.  The triangular banners were made with the Petite Pennants Builder Punch.

This is a card that you could easily duplicate on your own, once you own a few of the new products.

Just one more shout out for Leadership 2014.  We received an amazing bag.  Here's a quick photo:

Yes, it's Smoky Slate and it's hard to see, but there are debossed chevrons along the bottom right.  See, you've got to get in on these freebies.  Just click on "Join My Team" in the top menu!

• Petite Pennants Builder Punch
• Simply Celebrate [english, wood]
• Simply Celebrate [english, clear]
• Pool Party 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock
• Pacific Point 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Champagne Glimmer Paper
• Squares Collection Framelits Dies
• Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad
• Banner Blast Stamp Set*
• Banner Punch*
• Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack*

*Found in the Sale-A-Bration 2014 Brochure, available to be earned on January 28.