The VERY FIRST Creative Crew Gallery ~ January 2011

The day has arrived ~ our Creative Crew gallery for Januaray 2011 goes live at 1pm Eastern Time!

There are 4 main themes for this months' gallery:

*Mini Occasions Catalog Focus* For these projects, I used the new 'Baby Blossoms' set which is just SO versatile and easy to use. I love the vintage 'shabby chic' feel of this set. It was a lot of fun putting this card and box together.

*Designer Paper/Colour Combo Focus* Love Letter DSP/Vanilla, Black, Riding Hood Red. I used the new 'Valentine Defined' stamp set for this project. The definition 'Valentine' was embellished by stamping it twice, the main image was in Basic Black, but the 2nd time I stamped in Riding Hood Red and cut out key words and popped them up on dimensionals to give the card some visual interest.

This card is made in the CAS style. The black ribbon was awful to photograph, for which I apologise, but it does look good IRL! A lot of people have a hard time with CAS cards, but the main idea is to stop, stop, stop and don't over embellish. I would say that my most comfortable stamping style is this one. The main image on this card was actually stamped THREE times and layered. I'll add an extra pic to show you how great it looks popped up.

*Holiday Focus (Valentine's Day)* I am so happy with this card. I was inspired by a Christmas Card I received from a friend in England which had a really unique 'bendy fold'. I couldn't wait to translate it into a Stampin' Up card and LOVE how this turned out. I do have a tutorial if you'd like to contact me for a copy :)

*SB (Scrapbooking) Focus* I'm not much of a scrapbooker, but I did love these pics of my daughter Sarah taken a few days before Christmas. An inexpensive frame and some embellishing using the new Springtime Vintage fabrics and seam binding ribbons and hey presto, a scrapbook inspired photo frame which is going over to my parents in England for their kitchen wall. Like all proud grandparents, there is a section of wall COVERED in photos of their 2 grand- daughters!

I hope you've enjoyed a little peak into my projects for the Creative Crew gallery. If you'd like to play along, then please use the keywords as follows:

Mini Catalog Projects : CCREW01111CF
DSP/Colour Focus : CCREW0111DF
Valentine Focus : CCREW0111HF
Scrapbooking Focus : CCREW0111SF

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Introducing your January 2011 CREATIVE CREW

Some of you may have heard the buzz over on SplitCoastStampers about the new SU gallery created just for your inspiration by Stampin' Up demonstrators. The eve of the gallery going live, I wanted to introduce you to the Creative Crew! I want to take this opportunity to thank Patty, Susie and Jana for putting together a FABULOUS Creative Crew and I hope you will come and see me tomorrow, January 1st to see our very first "January 2011" Creative Crew Gallery. Hopefully we'll inspire you enough to play along with our 4 themes.

Jackie (aka Jactop on SCS)
Lisa (aka ponygirl40 on SCS)
Charlsanne (aka cla616 on SCS)
Brenda (aka pinkpapercupcakes on SCS)
Melissa (aka melbarkwith on SCS)
Renee (aka prchvs on SCS)

... and me!

Leadership Swaps

Well, in less than 2 weeks I'm taking a trip of a lifetime. You may be expecting me to say "I'm going to Egypt to see the pyramids, or "I'm going to Australia with Oprah" .... but actually, I think it's more exciting than both of those things! I'm going to Stampin' Up Leadership in Nashville Tennessee with my 2 FABULOUS SU demo buddies, Dawn Marie and Debra. We are like little kids on Christmas Eve ... of course, I'll be blogging from The Gaylord Opryland Resort with all the exciting things SU will be doing with us. Did I say I cannot wait? Hee hee.

I thought you might like to see 2 swaps I've prepared using new product from the Occasions Mini Catalogue. I love how they turned out. The first one "Nature Walk" is very CAS, but there's actually a lot of work in it. I used the new tulip border embossing folder but cut out the centre rectangle and popped it up on the main card using dimensionals. Then the centre is just very plain with the bird image stamped straight onto a mounted piece of River Rock. It's also popped up so the dimensions adds quite a lot of visual interest.

My 2nd swap is using the new 'Sew Suite' set ... I wanted to get fabric into this card and thought some fancy quilting stitches would be appropriate too :) I love how this turned out.


Recipe 1
Stamps : Nature Walk
Cardstock : River Rock, Crumb Cake
Ink : Early Espresso
Accessories : Framed tulips Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Early Espresso 1/8" Tafetta Ribbon, Buttons, Linen Thread

Recipe 2
Stamps : Sew Suite, In Stitches (Wheel)
Cardstock : Regal Rose, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Baja Breeze
Ink : Baja Breeze
Accessories : Vintage Springtime Fabric, Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon, Sewing Machine, Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter

More Creative Crew Sneak Peaks

I'm really hoping you'll be inspired to play along with the Creative Crew in January, here's another sneaky peaky ....

DT Announcement and A Sneak Peak

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day yesterday! Not long now until we move forward into 2011.

On January 1st, 2o11, there's a brand new 'Creative Crew' appearing on www.splitcoaststampers.com and I have been selected to be one of the 7 Stampin' Up Demonstrators to showcase their work in a specially designated gallery. I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to work on some SUO (Stampin' Up Only) challenges and to help inspire many of the SU fans out there to pull out their supplies and play along!

I'll post a link to the Creative Crew's gallery when it goes live on New Year's Day ... but just to whet your appetite, here are a couple of 'sneak peaks' to entice you to come back to see more!

I've adopted Sarah's BFF, Becky ... she really does belong to me because she LOVES stamping, unlike Sarah, so she must be mine, right? Hee hee. We drove over to Western Michigan University on Friday to pick her up and bring her home over the w/end. Of course, that meant we had some time to stamp today :)

Look at Becky's Christmas Card which she mass produced this afternoon while Sarah was stuck at the High School in between performances of the Winter Collage Concert!

Christmas with Vellum

I needed my few final Christmas Cards to post to England, I hope I'm not too late. I used the Scallop Square Die for the Big Shot and layered up Cherry Cobbler and Shimmery White with a layer of vellum attached over the top. I like the simplicity of this, although my Daughter Sarah and her BFF Becky don't like the white space ~ imagine?!!!!

Here's a close up of the sentiment part. I love the look of vellum over the background stamp, I should use it more often!

Recipe
Stamps : Music Notes, Christmas Collage, Bells & Boughs
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Always Artichoke, Shimmery White
Ink : Always Artichoke
Accessories : 1/2 Pearls, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding Ribbon, Big Shot, Scallop Square Die

A Colour Challenge Box

Morning! It's Colour Challenge Day on SCS and today's colours are scrummy ~ Old Olive, Real Red and River Rock. Perfect for another little box!

Mum leaves today to go home to England (I'm trying not to think about it) ... and I just had time to make another one of my Slider Boxes for her Christmas Gift. She chose the earrings so I won't be spoiling the surprise when she sees this post!

Here's the box:


And here it is open. It's the perfect size for jewellery :)


Recipe
Stamps : Tags Till Christmas, Confetti
Ink : Old Olive, Real Red, River Rock
Cardstock : Old Olive, Real Red, River Rock
Accessories : Slider Box Template, Large & Small Tag Punches, Tiny Oval Punch, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, 1/2 Crystals, Ornament Punch, Ticket Punch, Dimensionals

Box Inspiration

I ordered some jewellery recently and it arrived in a lovely presentation box. I kept the box thinking that when I had time I'd use it as an inspiration piece to make a Stampin' Up version. I needed something for my mum's Christmas Present to be packaged in and went to work on this.

As you can see, the box has 2 flaps which fold down over the contents and then the entire thing slides into the sleeve. I really like how this turned out. I have a tutorial which I can send you by e:mail, just leave a comment and I'll contact you if you'd like it.

Recipe
Stamps : Tags Till Christmas
Cardstock : Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Naturals Ivory, Deck the Halls DSP
Ink : Cherry Cobbler
Accessories : Decorative Label Punch, Choc Chip Satin Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds

A Little Bit of This, and a Little Bit of That!

Just playing around with some watercolour paper and this cute Level 1 set "Birthday Bakery". I used reinkers and aquapainters and then switched to SU markers and aquapainters. I was just playing around really. Ages since I've been able to do that!

I made this square card using the Splitcoast sketch for this week. It's a 4 1/4" square using Bells & Boughs and the Deck the Halls Designer Paper. A bit of sponging antiqued it a little.

Stampin' Up Club is Tonight!

Here are my 3 projects for Club tonight! A Ferrero Rocher gift box/pull out card inspired by something similar on Becky Roberts' blog, inking idaho. The bird and tree card was inspired by a card Mary Fish has on her blog and the final acetate card was something I wanted to try for my own personal Christmas Cards.

Christmas House

I've been itching to have a go at making the cute little Design-a-House on page 37 of the Holiday Mini. How cute is that?!!! I kept mine fairly plain because that's how I like it, but you can really go to town with window treatments and accessories! I took a few shots so you can see it from all angles.

Recipe
Cardstock : Deck the Halls Designer Paper
Accessories : Glass Glitter & Crystal Effects, mini trio punch, Victorian Lace ribbon, 1/2 Pearls

A Victorian Christmas Box

I found a round box at Target in their gift-wrapping section and I thought it would be really great covered in some SU Designer Paper! I made this one using the Victorian designer paper in the Holiday Mini "Deck the Halls". I love the colours here, it makes me think of England, not sure why, probably just evoking images of Dickensian London.

Here's a close up of the lid.

Recipe
Stamps : Christmas Postcard
Cardstock : Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Watercolour Paper, Deck the Halls
Ink : StazOn
Accessories : Circle Scissor Plus, Large Scallop Circle Die, Big Shot, Waffle Paper, 1/2 Pearls, Aquapainters, Reinkers, Victorian Lace Ribbon, Big Designer Buttons, Antique Brads

Crafting Heaven

What do you call it when your mum and your sister travel from England to spend a week crafting in your basement? HEAVEN!!!! Hee hee.

Here's a snap shot of some of our projects ... quilting, knitting, stamping!

Yes, that's a knitted luggage label and luggage tag (the hat)! How sweet are they?

My sister, Sarah, is staying with an old friend of the family when she leaves for Dublin later today. Libby will love her little gifts ... now if I can just squeeze in some time to make a card to go with them ...

Baby Congrutulations

My cousin, Kate, had a baby girl yesterday. Minna Julia Rose Jackson was born on November 10th at 1am UK time. I can't wait to see a photo :)

First job of the day was to make a card to post off today. Card details are below.

Recipe
Stamps : Baby Bundle
Cardstock : WW, Watercolour Paper, Night of Navy, Pink Pirouette
Ink : StazOn
Accessories : Reinkers & Aquapainters, Hearts Pinking Border Punch, 1/2 Pearls