Sweet Baby Boy

Hi there stampin peeps!
Hope everyone is having a good week so far!  If it hasn't been the best, then you can take comfort in the fact that today is "hump" day... after Wednesday is over, you're over the hump and you can coast downhill to the weekend.
While you are reading this, I'm winging my way to the big Stampin'Up! convention in Salt Lake City!  It's the highlight of the year for crazy demonstrators like me.  The general sessions, when all the new products are revealed, the prize give-aways, the stamping demonstrations, the fabulous displays, and just being with thousands of other demonstrators who are crazy too... it's quite the best time!  There are classes to attend, make-and-takes to do, and oh, I almost forgot about all the card swapping that goes on.  It starts the minute you get to the Portland airport (where there are lots of demos flying out at the same time) and goes on at the Salt Lake City airport, the hotels, the convention center, and even restaurants.  When I return with all of the great cards I swapped, I'll be adding them to my display boards for your viewing pleasure and stamping inspiration.
Today I want to show you a cute baby card I made for a young friend who's about to deliver a sweet baby boy.  It's a clean and simple card, but I love how it turned out!

The colors are simply Pool Party and Whisper White.  I used the fun little elephant from Zoo Babies for my focal point.  It isn't often that I need a card for a new baby, but when I do, Zoo Babies is always there to help me create a quick and cute card that the new mommy will love (and hopefully save in a baby book).

Thanks for stopping by today and please come back on Friday when I'll have another classic card for you.
I may or may not be showing you photos from convention... it depends on how my camera uploads to my new laptop.  But I'll still have posts for you while I'm away!
Hugs and Happiness!
Susan

Faux Cloisonne from Technique Geeks

Hi there stampers!

I wasn't going to give my "secret" away, but since it really is no secret, today I'm going to share with you a technique that we used at Technique Geeks last Thursday.  It is called Faux Cloisonne, which means that it's a technique that mimics the look of cloisonne.  Google "cloisonne" and you'll see some examples.  Basically  it is metal with an overlay of decorative enamel.  I'm sure you've seen cloisonne jewelry.  I used to have a little cloisonne pill box... don't know whatever happened to it.

Anyway... let's get to the card we made on Thursday...

And here's the not-so-secret to the technique.  You simply heat emboss with gold powder on glossy magazine pages and then punch out the images.  So, so simple!  The trick is in finding magazine pages that will give the look you want.  I found that pictures that have some color variation in them work best.  In the example above, the butterfly on the left was stamped with Versamark on top of a bouquet of pink and yellow flowers.  The middle butterfly was stamped onto a picture of trees.  The one on the right was stamped over a bouquet of yellow flowers.  Half the fun of the technique is finding the photos.  What a great excuse to sit down with a stack of magazines and browse through them... one of my favorite things to do.
That reminds me of a great quote I want to share with you.  I ran across this one on some merchandise by Mary Engelbreit when I was at a local craft store the other day.  It says "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."  So there, you now have permission to waste time, as long as you're enjoying it!  So get a stack of old magazines spend some time finding pretty images that you can stamp over.

I hope you'll give the Faux Cloisonne technique a try very soon!  I think you'll love it.  I will caution you though, you really need a fairly detailed stamp such as this butterfly from Papillon Potpourri.  Please send me a quick email if you have questions.  Have a great Monday and a wonderful (and warm!) week!
Hugs and Happiness!
Susan

Simple and Sunny

Yippee!  It's Friday and it's sunny!  Are you getting into the summer groove yet?  I've been to the splash park with the grandchildren, I've eaten corn on the cob and watermelon, I've been to the Farmer's Market, and we've been eating dinner on the patio.  Things I haven't done yet:  berry-picking and outdoor concerts, but those things will happen soon, I hope.  Summer in Oregon is the best!

To go along with a sunny day, I've got a simple and sunny card for you.  This is one of the designs that I made in quantity to swap at convention, which is coming up in just a few days.

I used the new All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack on page 185 of the new catalog.  I just love the fun and flowery papers in this collection.  I used the Flower Shop stamp set (a carryover from last year's catalog) and the Pansy Punch to make the sweet two-layered flower.  Some Mossy Meadow card stock accents the center of the flower and provides a nice horizontal element to the card.  I colored a pearl with my new Blendabilities alcohol marker in Daffodil Delight to match the Daffodil Delight card stock. The sentiment is from the very versatile And Many More stamp set, shown on page 20 of the annual catalog.  With 23 sayings, this stamp set belongs in every stamper's collection.

What are your plans for the upcoming sunny summer weekend?  I'm excited that I have a full house for my annual Birthday Bash on Saturday at 1 o'clock.  After that, I'll be packing my suitcase in preparation for take-off on Wednesday the 16th, when I'm Salt Lake City-bound for the Stampin'Up! convention.  It is always so much fun and definitely one of the highlights of my summer.

Hope your Friday is a happy one and leads right into a wonderfully relaxing weekend.  Enjoy all that summer has to offer... it won't be here long!
See you on Monday for more stamping inspiration!
Susan

Technique Geeks Rule!

Hello again and welcome back to the Classic Card!

I've got another "geeky" card for you today--- one that we'll be making at the first meeting of the Technique Geeks on Thursday night.  While not a new and revolutionary technique, I hope making this card will serve to remind everyone how awesome clear embossing on darker card stock can look.  In fact, the darker the card stock, the more impressive the card!

I've fallen in love with some of the new In-Colors and I've featured them on this card... Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow.  In my humble opinion, they are quite striking together.  Take a look and tell me that you agree...

Of course, the photo doesn't do justice to the shiny gleam of the clear embossing on the Hello Honey card stock.  Nor can you see the glossy goodness of the Early Espresso embossing on the birds and nest.  When you see this card "in real life," you'll love it!  The wood texture on the half-oval, the sponging around the edges, and the new cotton ribbon in Early Espresso all combine to give the card a nice natural look.  This neutral card could be used for almost any occasion-- birthday, anniversary, sympathy, get well, etc. and would be equally appropriate for a man or a woman.  The bird/nest silhouette is from the new stamp set
World of Dreams on page 127 of the new catalog.  There are four different silhouettes and two great sentiments in this set.  When I first  laid eyes on this set, I knew it was a must-have for me, as I love the look of a dark silhouette over a stamped or sponged background.
There are still two open spots left for Thursday night, July 10th at my house, so if you'd like to attend, please send me a quick email and I'll add your name to the list!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Hugs and Happiness,
Susan

Technique Geeks

Hello Stampers and Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a safe and fairly sane 4th of July celebration!  Now that we have the holiday weekend behind us, we can get back into our regular routine and for me that means blogging, working on cards for upcoming classes and events, and going to Curves.  I've got waaay too many curves, most of them in the wrong places, so back to the workouts I go!

I'd love for you to join in my new Thursday night summer stamping classes called Technique Geeks.  The dates are July 10th and 24th and August 7th and 21st.  Each class will focus on a different technique. The classes start at 7pm and are $10, or free with a $30 purchase.  This Thursday the 10th is all about heat embossing.  Here's one of the cards we'll be making on Thursday...

For this card, I heat-embossed white vellum card stock with white embossing powder.  This gives a nice frosty look to the flowers.  With as hot as it is outside, I welcome anything frosty!  I used the new stamp set Beautiful Bunch for the large flower, then punched it out with the new Fun Flower punch.  The smaller flowers are from the set Flower Shop and were punched out with the Pansy Punch. The flower centers are punched from Brushed Gold card stock and there's a thin mat of the Brushed Gold around the focal panel which was embossed with the Fancy Fan embossing folder. I stepped things up a bit with the white organza ribbon and the pearls.  Wouldn't this be a great wedding or anniversary card?  And of course this layout would be great to use with flowers of any color.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to drive down to Curves and get that workout over with.  Have a good Monday, everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs and Happiness,
Susan

Age is Just a Number

Hey there stampers!  Happy Friday and Happy 4th of July!

The fireworks started here last night and will be ongoing for several days.  One day of pyrotechnics is just not enough for the crazy people in "Sureweird" aka Sherwood.  It's like this every year, so I should be accustomed to the craziness by now.   Hope your 4th will be relaxing and fun and that you won't be missing any fingers, toes, or other body parts when it's all over.

My card for today is one that I made to swap during the Stampin'Up! convention that is coming up on July 17th.  I  love the sentiment on this card and if you're over 50, you might like it as well.

I can remember how ancient I felt when I turned 40, then I felt panic when I turned 50, then sheer fear at 60!  Now that I'm over halfway to 70, my panic at growing old has been turned down a notch and my current thought is, what difference does a number make?  Age has nothing to do with anything of lasting importance in this life.  It says nothing about your ability to love unconditionally, to accept people who are different than you, to respect people who hold a different point of view than yours.  It doesn't indicate what kind of parent you were, or whether you are kind and considerate of others, or whether or not you conduct your life with integrity.  It doesn't say anything about the kind of friend you are.  It doesn't say how tolerant you are of people with a different faith than yours.  So..... no more worries about age.  It is just a number and doesn't say anything important about you, other than you are one of the lucky ones because you're up here, above ground, living your life the best way you know how.  So for all those friends of yours who are getting up there in years, here's a fun saying you can stamp on their card to let them know that you're not counting their years.  "Umpteenth" covers a lot of ground!

I used colors drawn directly from the Flower Pot DSP (page 186).  Speaking of Designer Series Paper... during the entire month of July, when you buy 3 packages of paper, you'll get the 4th one free.  How nice is that??   And many of you have not stocked up on the new papers yet, so this is perfect timing!  This offer applies only to the DSP packages that are 10.95. The sentiment is from a new stamp set called Oh My Goodies, which you can see on page 9 of the new catalog. This set coordinates with the Deco Labels Framelits on page 231, so it was super simple to cut out the sentiment and the mat behind it.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Please be careful out there, stampers!  It's going to sound like a war zone later! Have a great Fourth of July everyone!
Susan

Another visit to Sea Street

Hello Stampers!
Whoa!  Was yesterday HOT or what?  We have the Seattle troops visiting and we spent part of the day at Cannery Square in Sherwood, enjoying the splash park.  Or should I say the kids enjoyed the splash park?  Amy and I just watched from the sidelines, as there was a mob of kids there, some armed with water cannons and we had no desire to be squirted in the face with super-chlorinated water.  After that, we came home and filled two wading pools for more watery fun.

Speaking of watery fun reminds me of the card I have for you today.  Take a look see if you agree that phrase "watery fun" describes this card perfectly...

This is a diorama card, made with just a couple of score lines on either side of the front panel and either side of the back panel as well.  The best part is that when you slide it into an envelope, it flattens out perfectly, so there's no problem in mailing a card like this.
Of course you can see that I used the Sea Street stamp set once again... just love that cute smiling octopus!  He's so much more attractive than the real thing!   The colors are Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana (for the sponged background), Real Red for the school of fish and Crumb Cake for the starfish.  The sentiment is from the new set called Tag Talk on page 66 of the new catalog. I stamped it in Night of Navy, punched it out with the Label  Bracket punch and backed it with a 1 3/4 inch circle of Real Red.
If you come to my Birthday Bash on July 12th, you'll get to make this fun diorama card. You'll go home with the directions so you can make more of these.  The diorama format is perfect for outdoor scenes.
Let's hope today will be just a tad cooler than yesterday.  Even if it's not, I say hurray for summer... it's finally here!  Break out the iced tea, lemonade, and watermelon!
Hugs and Happiness!
Susan