Greenhouse Gala Gifts

Here's a convention gift I made for several good friends using that fabulous Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper.  Actually I had this and a couple of other things all together in the box concealed in kraft tissue paper, placed into a cellophane bag and tied with a Chocolate Satin Ribbon bow.

The box is Chocolate Chip cardstock die cut with the Big Shot and the Fancy Favor Box Die and wrapped with a swath of the Greenhouse Gala DSP.  Peeking out underneath are scallops of Marina Mist made with the Scallop Trim Border Punch.  The greeting has the same Marina Mist scallops under the sentiment from Favorite Thoughts set (Summer Mini only) and stamped with a light Marina Mist crown from the new Artistic Etchings set.

Other items include a mini purse-size hand sanitizer and several chocolate bars wrapped with the DSP and new In Color ribbons added.  I also included a tube of hand cream (not shown) and a bag or key tag made with Stampin' Up! Longboard Chipboard, Greenhouse DSP, Friends Never Fade stamp set and a Mini Vintage Tag.  The flower is covered with Crystal Effects for a shiny, dimensional surface and centered with one of our new Jewel Basics Rhinestone for bling!

Thanks for visiting today!

Margaret

On a Pedestal Bookmark Card

Here's another card that I made at a pre-convention activity; I had so much fun doing lots of stamping activities before the Convention even began!

This card uses the On the Pedestal set which I don't have but would sure like to! :) I saw so many great cards using this set that I now think I "need" it! lol! This is a birthday card that holds a bookmark that the recipient can keep and use. What a great idea!

The card base is Chocolate Chip card stock; the front side edge of the card has been scalloped with the Scallop Edge Punch, making a little more narrow than the back flap. A one inch wide strip of Bermuda Bay was added to the back to accentuate the chocolate scallops. A Bermuda Bay panel of card stock which was punched twice with the Word Window punch was attached to the front of the card with Dimensionals to allow the bookmark to be slipped in and out. A narrow Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon was attached to the panel and a tie of Bermuda Bay Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon was added to it.

The bookmark was stamped with the cake both right-side-up and up-side down to make it quite tall and the sentiment stamped over that in Chocolate Chip. The bookmark is then slipped through the slots made by the Word Window Punch. Viola! A clever and cute card!!

Hope you enjoy! Have a great day!

Margaret

Medallion Square Card

Have I mentioned how much I like the Medallion Stamp that is new in the 2009-10 Stampn' Up! Catalog? lol! Yes, I do! At the beginning of August, it was the best selling stamp in the catalog! Here is another card with this gorgeous stamp that I made at a shoebox swap at Convention. The originator of this card is Elaine Wright from Tennessee. What a lovely card! Thanks, Elaine!

The card itself is on a 6" x 6" Whisper White card. Next on that is a 5 3/4" square layer of Orchid Opulence. A wide strip of beautiful Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper is applied to the left side. A 1/2" wide strip of Old Olive card stock covers the edge of the DSP.

The Medallion stamp was inked by sponging with Orchid Opulence ink around the outside circle area then Old Olive was sponged in the center and around the edges to give the stamp a two-tone look; this was then stamped on Whisper White card stock. An Orchid Opulence Scallop Circle punchout was cut every two scallops then shaped using the Empressor Stylus to give it some dimension like a flower then centered with a button. This layer was then adhered to the card.

"Thinking of you" from the Trendy Trees set was punched out with the Word Window punch then layered on Old Olive punched with the Modern Label Punch. A length of Rich Razzleberry ribbon was tied around the Old Olive strip (which is barely visible) as the finishing touch.

Stamps: Medallion, Trendy Trees (sentiment)
Inks: Old Olive, Orchid Opulence
Papers: Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper; Whisper White, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive card stocks
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Paper Snips, Empressor Stylus, button, Stampin' Sponge.

Thanks for coming by today! I appreciate your visit and your comments! I love to hear from fellow stampers all around the world!

Margaret

BoHo Backgrounds Swap Card

This card was for an online stampers group shoebox swap on Friday night of Convention in SLC. Since we didn't have any current Designer Paper to use (it had all been announced as retiring) I made my own by stamping the flower background in Pacific Point blue on Vanilla cardstock. The lighter blue is the beautiful new Baja Breeze In Color and it is stamped with the paisley stamp from the Wanted set. Love these new In Colors!

The Spiral punch on the edges of the red layer gives it interest and visual texture. The floral stamped layer is then added and a Medallion of Real Red on Vanilla layered on a Scallop Circle punched from Pacific Point and anchored with a silver brad grounds the middle of the design. The sentiment is embossed in clear ep over Real Red Craft Ink.

The smaller picture is an alternate design and this sentiment is from the One of A Kind set.

Stamps: BoHo Backgrounds, Wanted, Heard from the Heart (sentiment), new set in catalog

Inks: Pacific Point, Real Red Classic and Craft, Baja Breeze.

Cardstock: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point

Accessories: Spiral Punch, silver brad, Spiral Punch.

Hope you've had a good weekend!

Margaret

2008 Stampin' Up! Convention!

From the time we landed at the airport and saw this welcome sign

until the last afternoon Main Stage gathering after the UPS "man in brown" made his appearance with....

FREE STAMPS FOR EVERYBODY!! (insert WooHoo!, jumping up and down and confetti canons here), the Twentieth Anniversary Celebrate '08 Stampin' Up! Convention was wonderful fun and a great success! Not only did we get to greet friends from all over the USA and Canada, but we got to swap, attend interesting classes, see great samples and do fun Make and Takes. But the biggest surprises were the Phase 2 Decor Elements (wonderful) and the greatest of all, Stampin' Up! is now carrying it's own exclusive Big Shot die cutting and embossing machine and exclusive Stampin' Up! dies and embosslits!! WOOHOO! You should see (and you will!) the wonderful samples that were shown...amazing! Everyone was so pumped when this was announced...imagine about 6,000 screaming demos! Yep, it was something! : )

And, oh, yes, THE CATALOG!!! We each received a copy of the new Fall/Winter Idea Book and Catalog on check-in morning! YOU WILL LOVE IT! Great new stamps, gorgeous new Designer Papers, yummy In Colors and multitudinous beautiful samples! : )

And a lovely scalloped edge on the front cover! So pretty! For my friends/customers that ordered them, they should arrive here in a few days! If you haven't ordered yours yet, contact me now to get yours while I still have some available in this shipment, or you'll have to wait for another order : (

The picture above is the spectacular stage design which changed colors with different lights.

The free stamp set that we all received is Say It With Scallops which coordinates with our new SQUARE SCALLOP PUNCH! WooHoo!! Fantastic! This is also our Ronald McDonald set for the year; $2.00 from the sale of each set is donated to the Ronald McDonald House Foundation, such a worthy cause. In fact, Ronald McDonald himself (he-he) was at convention and Shelli Gardner, the Co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up!, presented him with a check for over $126,000 for the previous year. Stampin' Up! itself donates $100,000 annually then adds the funds from the sale of the stamp sets for the grand total.

There was so much more and perhaps I can share some of that with you in the following days. It was an energizing, refreshing and rewarding experience! If you sign up, you can go next year yourself!!

Happy Wednesday,
Margaret

Back from Stampin' Up! Convention!

I'm back from convention and had a great time! I'll post more pictures and information later, but I do have one of my swaps that I wanted to share with you today while I have a few minutes. We are looking to buy a car; great thing to do in 100 degree heat, right?

I was in a small group Wow card swap at convention and this is the card I made. It uses a cool diamond fold. I received the instructions for it from Laura Lipe and then found a video here on You Tube demonstrating it. I'm very "visual" so that helped a bunch! Now, after having folded about 30 of these babies I think I have it down pat! lol!

These other pictures show the card opened somewhat and then a top shot to view the fold better. I did stamp the two sentiments from the set, one on each side but you have to open it a little further to see those.

The flower from One of a Kind was stamped with craft ink then clear embossed on Pink Pirouette cardstock, then more color was added with the same ink and a Blender Pen. Riding Hood Red was added to the inner ring of the flower; the center was stamped with Kiwi Kiss then punched out and added to the flower with a Dimensional. It's cool the way this card will stand up!

Stamps: One of a Kind

Inks: Chocolate Chip Craft and Classic, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss (new In

Colors!)

Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip cardstock; new Bella Rose Designer Paper

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, 1/2" circle punch, Paper Snips©

All products ©Stampin' Up!

Hope you enjoy! It was fun to go but it's always good to be back home. : )

More later,

Margaret