Swap Cards

I needed 12 swap cards for a mini MI Mingle tomorrow, and of course I left them right to the last minute ... so it's now 2am and I'm leaving for Royal Oak at at 8.30am!!! I think I ought to get to bed then! This is a sneak peak at a new SU set which will be available in the Summer Mini on May 1st, "Bouquet Bunch".

New Builder Wheels

I thought you might like to see a VERY simple card made with the new builder wheels which are coming soon in the new Summer Mini. I was rather 'on the fence' about them, but having had a play, I love them!

Recipe
Stamps : Thoughtful Friend, Posy Party
Ink : Rose Red, Old Olive
Cardstock : WW, Rose Red
Accessories : Lattice Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Builder Wheel, Scallop Edge Punch, Reinker and Blender Pen

Ice Cream for a Little Boy

My friend, Gail, has a grandson who just underwent surgery on his legs. Poor little chap, he's only about 6 or 7 and is finding it difficult to deal with. Anyway, Gail thought a card may just cheer Carter up. I used the new 'Sweet Scoops' set which will be available in the Summer Mini Catalogue in just a few weeks now, May1st.

Here's a close up of some Crystal Effects and Chunky Glitter.

I hope this card cheers you up, Carter!

Recipe
Stamps : Sweet Scoops, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink : Bermuda Bay, Creamy Caramel, Choc Chip
Cardstock : WW, Bermuda Bay
Accessories : Bermuda Bay Polka Dot Ribbon, Dimensionals, Scallop Edge and Scallop Corner Punches, Crystal Effects & Chunky Glitter.

Magnetic Message Board & Becky's Card

At Club on Friday night, we made Magnetic Message Boards. Here's my sample:

I was inspired to make these after stumbling across them on Madeline's blog. So easy to put together and they make a fabulous gift, I think! I was so impressed by the message boards my Club girls made, here are a few of them:

This one is by Tiffany (who still managed to make it pretty even after Heide stole her 'perfectly cut' scallop edge!!!!).

And here's Cathy's. I love the paper on this one:

And Sharon's. What a fantastic idea to use the stitched felt flowers with the brads at the top. Soooo clever! And, yes, that's the magnet at the bottom right!

And the other card I wanted to share with you was made by Becky, my daughter's friend. Becky is a Senior at Walled Lake Western HS and she asked me on Saturday if she could make a card for a male friend of hers who was having a birthday celebration that evening. Well, I'm never one to turn away a new stamper! Becky, you came to the right place!!!

And what about this for a first attempt at rubber stamping AND Copic marker colouring. The girl did good!!! I hope he liked it Becky!

RECIPES

Magnetic Message Boards
5x7 Galvanized Steel Step Flashing Roof Tiles, Corner Chomper (Crop o Dile), Magnet, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper, SU ribbons and embellishments.

Happy Birthday Card
Stamps : Fast & Fun Notes
Ink : Not Quite Navy, Memento Black
Cardstock : Basic Gray, NQN, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Accessories : Copic Markers, Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon, Birthday Builder Wheel

ETA : FSM, the holes were made with a Crop-O-Dile and set with the SU Jumbo Eyelets

Smooch Spritz

OK, it's not often I dislike a new product Stampin' Up come out with, but I've done some work today with their 4 new 'Smooch Spritz' sprays and I just don't like them. I thought I'd show you some samples so you can see why and make your own mind up!

First off, the bottle is glass, so if you have a tile floor you'll have to be extra careful! Secondly, I can't quite figure out why Stampin' Up would introduce something (manufactured and labelled by a different company) which competes directly with another SU product. In the Holiday mini, we all fell in love with the Shimmer Paints. They are truly a GREAT addition to your supplies. In fact, they were so popular, that when the mini retired, SU announced they would continue to sell the paints! One of the things I, and many other SU customers, did was to make a shimmer spritz using rubbing alcohol and the shimmer paint. This works like a charm, I love it! So I'm asking myself, why introduce Smooch Spritz which is, essentially, the same thing.

Here's a quick photo of my scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock. I liberally sprayed all 4 spritzes onto the cardstock. I just wanted to see how it sprayed, and what sort of coverage you can expect. The biggest problem for me is the big splotches. Now, if you love splotches, then go and buy it NOW, it loves to splotch!


Smooch Spritz is $4.95/bottle and today I have used the yellow one to experiment with. So the first thing I did was spray a scrap piece of paper (pic above) where I probably pumped it 4 or 5 times, and the 2nd thing I did was spray it over a stencil to see how that turned out. On the stencil, I did probably pum about 8/9 times. So 2 small experiments and almost half the bottle is gone. So that's warning #1 ~ for $4.95, this is NOT going to last very long.

Moving onto the stencil. In order to get good coverage, you have to spray liberally. When you do this, you wet the cardstock which then curls. When the cardstock curls, some of the wet paint seeps under the edges. Not a great look. I did use a pale colour, but I don't really like how this turned out. It's not awful, but when you look at the comparison with the exact same stencil using a sponge and Old Olive ink, I think you'll see the deficiencies of the spray.



Something positive? I think I would follow the lead of some of the samples on the Stampin' Up website and in the catalogue and maybe just use one quick shot of this on the corner of a page, or card. It could just add a nice touch of vintage whimsy, but then again, wouldn't I just use my shimmer paint spray for that? You decide!

Hummingbird Sketch

I decided to have a go at this week's sketch from SCS ... using some of my new 'haul' from Stampin' Up. This set is called Elements of Style. I love it!

The Designer Paper is a little bit different in this mini. It's called Presto Patterns and it's completely glossy white. You can sponge on it to bring the pattern out ... which is what I did, with old olive ink and a sponge. I love the antique feel it gives. Then the hummingbird is just cut out and popped up on dimensionals. Here's a closer look.

The flowers were just coloured with a blender pen and reinker. Easy peasy!

Recipe
Stamps : Elements of Style
Cardstock : Whisper White, Old Olive, Hey Presto DSP
Ink : Old Olive, StazOn Black
Accessories : Sponge, Blender Pen, Reinker, Dimensionals

Summer Mini Preview

Just spent some time playing around with 2 new stamp sets which will be available in the Summer Mini Catalogue 1st May. I love them!

Firstly, this is 'Sweet Scoops' which is a really cute set featuring ice cream! I decided to use Pink Pirouette alongside Pretty in Pink as very soon, these 2 pinks will be Core Colours within the Stampin' Up Collections. Yay!

Here's a close-up of the ice-cream cone. I think you could make a cute 'Neopolitan' ice cream card with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla cones. I may try that next :)

Recipe
Stamps : Sweet Scoops
Cardstock : Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette
Ink : Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel
Accessories : Swiss Dots Embossing Folder & Big Shot

And here's a Clean & Simple card using the new set 'Bouquet Bunch'.

Recipe
Stamps : Bouquet Bunch
Cardstock : WW, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink
Ink : Basic Black
Accessories : SU Markers, Fleurettes II, Pink Corduroy Buttons

YIKES! It's NOT Stampin' Up

Tee Hee. Sometimes I play with other stamps ... hard to believe, but true! Michele (Plaid Pony on SCS) gave me this image to practice my Copic Colouring on ... I love it!

Stampin' Up ~ Colour Renovation

There are a few blog posts out there detailing Stampin' Up's new 'Colour Renovation' so I thought I'd post a quick recap of some of the information which was shared today. The main thing to remember is that the retiring colours will be available for purchase as long as this 2009/2010 Catalogue remains current, ie. until the end of June. So there's plenty of time to decide what you 'need' from the retiring colours.

Here's a quick summary of the changes:

4 Colour Collections of 10 colours each. Brights, Subtles, Regals and Neutrals

In summary, although many colours are retiring, there are only 5 completely new colours to make up your complete collection. That's because Stampin' Up are bringing back some of our favourite 'In Colours' from the past. The current In Colours which will be incorporated into these Core Collections are Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede, and the retired In-Colours being resurrected are Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, River Rock, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette (yay!), Baha Breeze and Wild Wasabi. So if you kept hold of these retired In Colours, you only have to purchase 5 new colours for a complete collection.

I am very excited about this new set of Colour Collections and we all have the next 3 months to decide how to incorporate these colours into our hoard, or which retiring colours to stock up on so there's no need to panic or get too concerned. Let me know if you have any questions you'd like answered.

Debra's WICKED

I didn't think I'd ever say those words ... for those of you who know my friend, Debra, she's the least wicked person I know, except for this month ... but she's only WICKED on SCS! She explains at this post on her blog.

Her first challenge was to make a card using stencils. I have the 'elegant trio' of stencils which are the perfect size to use on cards ... I made a fleur-de-lis with the Champagne Mist Shimmer paint, so fun and easy to do. The background is made with Basic Gray ink and a stamp from the set 'Friends 24-7'. I love how it coordinates with the fleur-de-lis. A dash of red to brighten everything up and hey presto! I hope Debra likes it :)

Recipe
Stamps : Friends 24-7
Cardstock : Kraft, Real Red, Basic Gray, Kraft
Ink : Basic Gray
Accessories : Elegant Trio stencils, sponge, champagne mist shimmer paint, Basic Gray taffeta ribbon, white gel pen

Lorien's Card

It was Lorien's birthday yesterday and this is the card I made for her. It's using the SAB set, Happy Moments, and it's paper pieced with the Welcome Neighbour Paper Pack. It's a very simple card, but I love how it turned out!

Recipe
Stamps : Happy Moments
Cardstock : Welcome Neighbour Paper Pack, Pretty in Pink
Ink : Basic Black
Accessories : Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon

A New Type of Class

I wanted to share something I've been thinking about and working on for a while. It's a series of techniques classes. Here's how it works. You sign up for the 5 classes, in each class you make a technique sheet for 3 different techniques. At the end of the 5 classes, you take all your technique sheets and turn them into a book which you can use for inspiration when you're making a card, or scrapbooking!

I'm excited to try this out so if you live in the Farmington Hills area of Michigan and fancy joining me, leave me a comment and I'll send you the details.