Today’s card is from the stamp set, Window Dressing, page 22 of the new Fall/Winter 2008 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  Actually, it is a level 3 hostess benefit set that you could obtain absolutely free with a qualifying hostess party.  I made this card today as part of my ongoing challenge for my 2008 New year goals to make everything that appears in the new catalog.  You may have seen my first post, Live with Passion, showcasing the Inspired by Nature stamp set. 

As my friend Shelley would say, "Anywhoo," I made this card last night and I loved this set immediately.  I have something similiar from another company that makes gates, windows, barn doors, and has children’s front and back sides.  This set is not as interactive as the one I just mentioned, but reminds me so much of it, and I’ve thought about chopping the cat’s head off and stamping it without it’s face on, and coloring it solid so it would look like the back of its head, and that it’s looking OUT the window instead.  That’ll be another post, on a day I’m feeling like beheading someone!  Nobody comes to mind at the moment, but all I can say is THANK GOODNESS the kids go back to school next week!    But, I digress…

I used the Polka Dot background stampset with white craft ink on Baja Breeze (new in color) cardstock.  I cut a mat from chocolate chip cardstock, and wet the top and right side, and rolled it with my fingers like making snakes with Play Doh.  I stamped the main window dressing image with brown staz-on, but you could use black, onto confetti white cardstock.  Just so you know, that’s why you see little blobs of colors or flecks on my card (it’s not ink), because the cardstock comes that way and it’s in the Naturals collection.  I use confetti cardstock and this method specifically when I’m going to watercolor an image.  I could also use our SU watercolor paper, however, it comes precut into a smaller size, and therefore, isn’t big enough for an image this size.  The confetti cardstock is a little more fibrous and thicker and holds up well.  So, the stazon keeps the image/ink from smearing when you apply the waterbrush and ink when you water color.  I used creamy caramel for the cat, baja breeze for the cat, and a much more watered version for the window panes, and used chocolate chip for the frame.  I finished with kiwi kiss (new in color), sahara sand in the window panes.  I glued pink pirouette cardstock onto the chipboard heart from Onboard Essentials chipboard collection.  Lastly, a slight variation on the ribbon since I haven’t received my latest order yet which has all the in-color striped ribbons in it, I used chocolate chip tafetta.

I really love watercoloring because it’s easier than it looks, you can add color dimension and shadows, and most of all it gives you permission to color outside the lines.  It doesn’t have to be perfect and in fact, it looks better when it’s not!

The window dressing set comes with 10 stamp sets, which you can see below.

You can catch other watercolored projects via my posts like this, or attend one of my stamp camp classes, or you can host a party at your home or mine if you feel you don’t have the room!  No worries, just add friends and waterbrushes and you have a party!  And maybe, if you set your goals up front, you can also get your hands on this awesome 10 piece window dressing set and some other free products of your choice!

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: confetti white, level 3 Hostess stamp set, On Board Essentials, Polka Dot Background Stamp, Stampin' Up! In Colors 2008, Stazon, watercoloring, white craft ink, Window Dressing

Yah, this line from the Billy Joel song has been my mantra-like chant, ever since Shelli Gardner’s announcement at Stampin’ Up! convention that we were broadening our horizons, and adding a sizzix suite of products to the SU family!  All I can say is that ever since that moment, after the applaus and yelling finally died down, we remained in shock for the remainder of the convention.  So of course, I JUST HAD to have a Big Shot to add to my collection of die cutting machines!    The best part is that I don’t need all those others any more! 

This is a long post, but please stay with me, because I promise, it’ll be worth your time to get to the bottom of this post.  NO PEAKING!

My first die cutting was a Quick Kutz Squeeze which only handled 2" dies, which were quickly replaced with 4" dies, so I had to replace my squeeze with the newer QK Revolution machine to handle the larger dies.  Although they were still slightly smaller than a standard A2 card, I lived with that for awhile until I got my eyes on the Spellbinder’s nestability dies and the Wizard machine.  More importantly, some the "nesties" were larger than the 4" QK ones.  PLUS, the machine could handle any manufacturer’s dies, and it could emboss at the same time, as well as use Fisker’s texture plates.  Basically, there was a "sandwich" which would make everything work! 

I was blissful, UNTIL …….I walked into my local scrapbook store and saw that Quick Kutz had created a 12" long extender piece for my Revolution machine, and they had created a variety of 12" border dies, with beautiful flourishes.  Now, the alphabets’ dies, almost all of them from Quick Kutz, have always been my favorite.  Yes, more expensive than those for Cuttlebug, but more sophisticated (IMHO) and more choices and sizes.  So, what’s a poor girl to do? (poor being the key word here).  I loved the idea of being able to do the 12" inch borders for my scrapbooks, so I purchased the extender plate and kept both the Revolution AND the Wizard.  sigh! 

But the worst thing was that I couldn’t use any of my coolest equipment to demonstrate, or use to help me do my make-n-takes, or stamp camps!  UNTIL …… that beautiful moment at convention, when the roof of the building above the main theatre parted, and beams of sunlight shined down on us from heaven, and we heard a chorus of angels singing "aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh".  And Goddess Shelli said, "Don’t you love my apron?  Don’t you want to know how I made this?  Don’t you want to know how I made all of these beautiful gifts you see in this room?  Well, DUH!  The anticipation mounted, and she finally announced, "We’re getting a sizzix machine to do die cutting and many exclusive dies which will match our stamp’s artwork and designs."  And she showed us our exclusive dies designed and available only at Stampin’ Up! and the other sizzix dies available to purchase.  And we got to see all the adorable papercrafting gifts and packages we could make, especially if it was a BIGZ die.  And we got to see the Decorative Strip dies which produces beautiful 12" borders.  And we got to see the BIGZ XL (14") dies that could cut through more materials than all the other machines put together. And we got to see how the Big Shot could handle all other Sizzix dies, CB dies and folders, Spellbinder’s dies, Fiskers texture plates, and various other manufacturer’s dies that you have probably collected as I have.

Look at what I made today with the BIGZ and the BIGZ XL dies that we now carry!  Aren’t they the cutest little party favors?  Or cute little goodie bags to send your child to school with for his classmates on Halloween, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day?  Did I mention that it can cut 5-6 pieces of designer series paper at a time?  whew!  Did I also mention that the BIGZ and BIGZ XL can cut through 50 different materials like BUTTAH??????

Ok, so you can tell that I’m super excited about this new Big Shot, because now I’m one of the first new Big Shots in town with the sleek and sexy black Stampin’ Up! model, which my cute little doctor purse to put it and my accesssories in!

You’ll be seeing a lot more samples of cool gifts, packages, bags, boxes, cards, and more coming your way.  If you want to be the proud (as I am) owner of our new Big Shot, and any of it’s accessories, you would qualify to receive free hostess stamp sets and free Stampin’ Up! merchandise with your purchase over $150.  Of course the more dies your order, the more Stampin’ Up! merchandise you can receive FREE!  Customers can begin ordering their own beginning Sept. 2, 2008.  All you have to do is call or email me! Soon, you will see more infromation in our upcoming mini-occasion catalog.   For now, you can click here to view a sales brochure.  

So, here’s my deal.  I’m offering a die worth up to $21.95 absolutely FREE (yes, I said free) with any purchase of Special Edition Starter Kit and a pack of card stock, (or the equivalent of minimum purchase of $200).  In ADDITION to your free die, you would also receive your choice of $20 in free Stampin’ Up! merchandise, AND wait!  There’s more!  And you would receive any level 1 hostess stamp set.  Wow!  Remember, you don’t get all that at Joanne’s and Michaels, and they don’t show you how to operate your machine either, and they don’t come to your house to help you or deliver your stuff to you!  Not to mention, my favorite subject, ME!  Yes, you also get my tips, ideas, and my experience!  You know, those things you PAY for in a magazine or instruction book?    So, please don’t compare apples to oranges, because my store is totally different all the other stores because I am built into the whole package!

Technorati Tags: Big Shot, bigz dies, bigz xl dies, decorative strip, gift accessories, gift packaging, Special Edition Starter Kit

Never Before Seen Promotion

From August 11 through September 30, Stampin’ Up! is providing never-before-seen savings on brand-new stamp sets: 15% off select new, die-cut stamp sets from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog–no additional purchase necessary. Select items are listed in the table below:

*From Celebrando Creatividad

You can download the pdf file here.

Technorati Tags: Announcement, never before seen, promotions

This is framed artwork that I made today with one of the many new stamp sets that I received last week at the Stampin’ Up! Convention in Utah.  July began our new year for SU, and therefore, as with the regular New Year, I created a list of goals for my business.  One of the goals on my list was to create every sample that was displayed in our new catalog.  I mentioned this goal to some friends and fellow team members of the Julie Bean Stampers, and we now have about 14 of us taking the challenge.  I totally expected to see this frame already by my very motivated and inspiring friend Janet!

So here is my first addition; one of many to come your way!  It was made with the Inspired by Nature stamp set.  I decided to use this first, because of the sentiment:  LIVE WITH PASSION!  I started by stamping the En Francais large background stamp onto Baja Breeze cardstock with Baja Breeze Class ink (one of the six new in-colors you’ll be seeing tomorrow).  I then stamped the flowers from the Inspired by Nature set onto a pad of papertowels wet with bleach.  I then stamped the wet stamp on top of the background that I had previously stamped. After rinsing the stamp well, I then stamped the same image onto Whisper White cardstock with another new in-color, Kiwi Kiss. I used sponge daubers to dab the tops of the flowers with So Saffron prior to stamping them.  I cut out these flower images, and popped them up with dimensionals slighly off-side of the bleached images.  I stamped the sentiment in Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss, and matted it with Baja Breeze cardstock.  I cut out a 2nd image of the largest flower, and layed it flat on the frame’s mat. 

You can find this on page 100 of the new Idea Book and Catalog!  Just wait until you see the artwork and displays in this beautiful book!  I am really delighted that I’ve come into the company at a time when they are growing leaps and bounds and at rapid pace, especially with technology!  You can receive your own copy of this gorgeous book, by hosting a party with me, or by placing an order of $25 or more.  As you can see from my  frame above,  it’s loaded with ideas and examples of how to use your stamp sets. So get inspired, get crafting, and of course, live with passion!

Technorati Tags: Baja Breeze, Bleach technique, frame, Home Decor, Inspired By Nature, Kiwi Kiss