Wednesday, December 28, 2016

As 2016 comes to an end!


It always gives us a chance to reflect, remember and look forward to a new year.

When I take the time to reflect and remember, I have to hope that I had done “better” this last year. Better with my own family and health, faith, finances, friends, work, and of course, with my stamping “business”.  

I know each year I say I am going to focus more on my blog, but this is an area that always seems to cause me anguish. I’m not going to spend a great deal of time pondering over it. In fact with this post, I will have posted one more post than I did in 2015…..so I did “better” and that makes me happy.

Now, back to my cards and this post….the cards below were from my November group. With just using two stamp sets from the Holiday Catalog; Mountain Adventure and Christmas Magic, we made three cards.



Snowman For this card, I used the trees and snowman from the Christmas Magic set and the sentiment is from Mountain Adventure. I thought it was appropriate because the snowman has mittens on his branch arms. The colors used were Marina Mist, white and black and yes the ribbon is retired but it was just the right touch.


Bells A simple card to make, but packs a punch. Both the bells and sentiment are from the Christmas Magic set. The bells were hand colored and “fussy cut” Then I used Wink of Stella to give them a bit of sparkle (hard to see in the photo). I used the Decorative Label punch for the sentiment and colored the rhinestones with cherry cobbler markers. The DSP is This Christmas Specialty found in the Annual Catalog and was carried over from the 2015 Holiday Catalog. The next layer is Cherry Cobbler card stock cut out by using an old favorite of mine Top Note. Again a retired die, but I still love it.



Mountain Scene This set is so fun and brings back memories of days when I too hit the slopes....many, many moons ago. I am thankful that I live in Northern California where I don’t have to live in the snow, but it is only an hour and half away. I used the technique noted in the catalog of placing the skis and snowboard on the same clear block to stamp the side image of the card. For the main area of the card, I used the various stamps to make a mountain scene. The mountains have more Wink of Stella added to them again hard to see in the picture. This set is fun because you can add more to your own outdoor scene with the stamps. 


Additional cards and projects
Below are some from my last swap and other cards I have recently done. I won’t go into great detail for them but thought I would share.  


Here are cards from my annual trip to Oregon, aka Girlfriend Weekend. I thought it was fun that many of us chose to do Christmas cards this year. I love this weekend.



 Over the Top 
This group is run by Janice Rosenthal-Rock of Bella Cosa Vintage. So I cannot take credit for the cards, but love the ladies in this group and the cards that we create or recreate.

https://www.facebook.com/vintagebellacosa/ or http://bellacosavintage.com/blog/


Note and Calendar pads I made these note/calendar pads for my office peers. You can’t see the calendars, but they are under the image flap. These were fun to make and were appreciated by all at the office.


So, let me wrap up this year with this last bit of information. The year 2016 is coming to an end. Take some time to reflect, remember and most of all look forward to 2017. I would like to think that we won’t have any pain or sorrow, but that probably won’t be. We can, however, overcome and grow from them and look forward to all the good times that are ahead for us. Please be safe and joyful in the next year and of course come back and check my posts.



Happy New Year! 

Sunday, September 11, 2016

The New Holiday Catalog!

So, the new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog has been live since the first of September and I have to admit I loved it from the very beginning.

Halloween
Some of you know how much I (and my family) love Halloween and when I saw the Jar of Haunt stamp set, I knew I had to have it.

Creating this card was such fun. I started with stamping and die cutting out a large and medium sized jar (you get both of these jars in the coordinating Jar of Love, stamp set and Framelit bundle, in the Annual Catalog).  I then stamped the candy corn in one jar and floating eyes, and slime in the other. To complete the look, I colored in both of these with SU markers which were very easy to do.

For the banner, I punched out a hole and sponged on the top white banner with Daffodil Delight and Crushed Curry to make a glowing moon. Then I stamped the fun sentiment over the moon.

My final accent was to stamp a trail of spiders with a few of them enjoying the candy corn.


The inside has another stamped spider hanging from the top and one last sentiment in the bottom corner.  Such a fun set. 

 



Here is another card I made for a swap that uses this set too. 



Thanksgiving
Okay, I didn’t use any of the current stamp sets for a Thanksgiving card. I choose to use 2 sets from the annual catalog; Thoughts and Prayers and Me = Grateful.

However, there is something new from the Holiday Catalog I did use for this card. It is the new Decorative Masks. You get 4 different masks in the set. I used the one that resembled the leaves on the tree. Additionally, I used the new Sponge Brayer (annual catalog) to color the mask. I have to admit the new sponge brayers are so much nicer than previous rubber ones.

For both sentiments, I used only a portion of the saying from Me = Grateful.  You may ask how you only use part of a stamp? By “inking” them with a SU marker, use the brush side of a marker and just ink up what you want to stamp. When you use this technique, don’t forget to “huff” on your stamp before stamping so the ink is moist. 



Christmas
Lastly, a Christmas Moose! When the demonstrators first saw this stamp set, some said it was a reindeer and others said Moose. I knew it was a moose. Again, some of you know my love and collection of Christmas Moose. This set, Jolly Friends, comes in a bundle with the stamps and matching punch for the hats.

Yes, I would have loved to have a punch or die for the moose, but I love him so much that I was okay with fussy cutting him out.

The bottom layer of white cardstock is embossed with the new Cable Knit Embossing. Look a little closer and you will see the image of a cozy sweater.  Layered on the white is the new Real Red Stitched Edge Ribbon, so sharp!

I then used the Lots of Labels Framelits to layer real red and white cardstock. On top of that is the Christmas Moose. Cut out and on top of him is one of the three styles of hats you get with the set.

The sentiment Christmas and the holly are from the Hostess set Time of the Year; which uses the Bunch of Banners Framelits. For the inside sentiment I used Suite Sayings from the holiday catalog. I chose this sentiment because I thought it went with the comfy sweater embossment. 


Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. My next class will be November 1st, let me know if you would like to attend. Or maybe you would like your own copy of the new Holiday Catalog, or just need to place an order. 

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Hope your day goes SWIMMINGLY!

I was drawn to this stamp set Seaside Shore and it’s matching DSP with the release of the new Annual Catalog. Okay let’s be honest, I was drawn to a bunch of new stamp sets in new catty, but I will be show casing two new sets this month and one all-time favorite.

I started by using Mint Macaron as my base card and then layered with Dapper Denim and white. For the white card stock, I used the Softly Falling embossing folder to give the impression of bubbles. Then, I enhanced it with Pool Party and Calypso Coral inks with the actual bubble and starfish stamps included in the set. I layered a bit of the DSP across the “bubbles” and wrapped it with, dare I say it, retired brown sugar thick bakers twine (gasp).  Using the Lots of Labels Framelits, I precut out stock for the saying and seaweed, and then backed it with more Dapper Denim card stock for a bit of a pop of color. Lastly, I stamped (and hand cut) the fish at the bottom. (FYI – I doubled up dimensionals on the bottom fin because of the other layers). 



For my next card, I was again drawn to another new stamp set Foxy Friends and it coordinating DSP, plus punch. I wanted to incorporate this folding technique. I am sure you have seen this fold making the rounds recently and I knew I wanted to jump on that band wagon.

This folding technique might look difficult, but in the end it folds up to a regular 4.25” x 5.5” size card. Here are the dimension for cutting and scoring:  Card: cut 4.25“ x 11”, Strip: 1.25” x 11”. Score both at 2.75” and 5.5”. When you assemble your strip to the card you will “flip” the folds and attach the 5.5” scored strip to the 2.75” scored panel and the 2.75” strip to the end of the 5.5” panel.


I layered the panels with DSP and stamped the foxes in Calypso Coral and Smokey Slate. I had to cut out by hand all of the grey foxes and used the punch for the coral foxes. Tip for saving paper for SU punches like this one: punch out all of the pieces first, and then use that piece as a template for stamping the images. This way you can just punch out all the pieces in one swoop….okay I found this tip way after I stamped and punched them out, wasting a ton of paper…..there is always next time. 

Here is the link to watch that explains it better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Mko55D7ZI Note to self – check out YouTube first for great tips and advice. 












Here are a couple more samples of cards using the Seashore and Foxy Friends stamp sets.

My last card uses the Lovely as a Tree stamp set. I, like many other demonstrators, hope that SU will uphold Shelli’s statement and never retire this set as it is a classic and so versatile.  I knew I wanted to use this set and this reflection technique and, if I don’t say so myself, I am pleased how it turned out.

The base stock and ink color for the reflection is Bermuda Bay. Then layer with white and Chocolate Chip. Okay, on to the stamping technique, I hope I can easily explain this.

  •         Stamp the first image of the trees (Chocolate Chip) on the top portion of the white card stock;
  •          Then stamp the image of the trees on an appropriate size piece of our Window Sheets. You will want to line it up with the tree trunks with allowing for some space in-between for the land;
  •          Tricky part, lift the stamped window sheet and flip it over and place it upside down of the previously stamped image.
  •          Using the window sheet as your stamp – stamp it and gently rub the image. Be careful not to move the window sheet  so the image doesn’t smear;
  •          Then with using a couple of masks for the land and reflection I used Wild Wasabi and Bermuda Bay for the land and water. I sponged the area until I was happy with the color. I used Soft Sky and a sponge for the sky area.  


I hope these steps make sense. Afterwards I stamped a sentiment on the white layer and there you have it. 

                              

Thank you again for stopping by and I hope your day goes swimmingly!


My next workshop techniques will be about Color! 
If you would like to come to my next workshop or wish to order any of the above stamping items, please email me: katstampfever@surewest.net




Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The NEW Catty is Here ~ The NEW Catty is Here!

Okay, I admit it has been forever and a day since I have posted to my blog....truth be told I am not a good blogger. There I said it. I always have good intentions and I have even taken pictures of the cards I have done this past year, but sitting down in front of the computer and actually posting them is that step that I haven't been able to complete. 

Yes, this past year has been different for me, on the 25th of this month it will be one year since my mom has passed. And even though my mom and I have seen things different for so MANY years, the death of a parent is still hard......okay this is not what I set out to post today (hence the title of this post had nothing to do with what I am going on about). 

On to NEW and exciting things - The NEW Catty is Here, The NEW Catty is Here! I do look forward to sharing the new Stampin' Up Catalog with my "peeps" each year and this year is no exception. 

I have planned a small get together tonight (I figure you are reading this in the morning) and I hope you all will get as much enjoyment from the new catalog as I have. There are many favorite stamps that carried over from the Occasional Catalog that I think you will be thrilled about and many new items too. 

Okay, enough said. If you would like your own 2016-2017 Catalog leave me a message and I will get one to you right away! 

If you want to place on order - click on the SU logo on the right hand side and it will direct you to my SU website. 

If you want the join in my excitement - click on the "Join My Team" on the right hand side and you too will know the joy of previewing the new catalog and sharing your love of stamping. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina