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Friday, October 29, 2010

Stamping for A Cure! Check this out!

I came across an amazing Stampin' Up! consultant whose name is Lynn Pratt who creates just amazing 3D items like purses, barns, pool tables, food.... you name it and I think she has either found or is trying to find a way to create a 3D item out of Stampin' Up! Cardstock. I wonder if she's found a way to make bacon yet? Hmmm, my husband would LOVE that one!!
I am a HUGE fan of the 3D items, they're so much fun and  I really admire her ability to create such cool designs.  In perusing Lynn's site I found that one of the really cool purses she has created was  created with a profound purpose.  She calls it "The Diabetes Purse" and her goal is to bring attention to Diabetes. Often Diabetes is dismissed as non-life threatening but any of us who have known people that have suffered the dibilitating affects Diabetes can have on a body know all too well that it is indeed "life-threatening."  Lynns daughter Ashley is only 5 years old and she has been diagnosed with Diabetes.  The purse was designed in her honor. Lynn is willing to trade you a copy of her purse tutorial for a donation to American Diabetes Association.
I hope you'll take a look, make a donation and then share the information you get from the American Diabetes Association with anyone who might read your blog or webpage by linking back to their site as I am doing. 
The Diabetes Purse by Lynn Pratt


American Diabetes Association


Thank you for reading and thank you for considering the cause!

Peg

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Loving Autumn's Splendor

We live literally around the corner from the Alum Creek Resevoir in Delaware Ohio.  Its a beautiful area of central Ohio. Living here allows us to live slightly in the city by being on the fringe of Columbus, the capital of Ohio and the home of the Ohio State Buckeyes (GO BUCKS!) and also in the country where you can see all the colors against the open sky. By being able to see all these wonderful colors you really have a new appreciation for God's color pallette. He really was the ultimate Artist. His vision for our world was incredible and continues to amaze me.

When I saw the leaves in the Stampin' Up! Autumn Splendor stamp set I fell in love with each of the leaves. The detail is awesome. Each stamp has gentle curves and great vein detail which tell me they'll stamp beautiful images.  I imagined them each in warm mixtures of all the beautiful autumn shades that I love so much. I wanted to make a thank you card for friends and thought this would be perfect.

In thinking of bringing all those colors to life. I wanted to do something "different" than my tradtional coloring with Copics and my water coloring skills are still so new I didnt know if I could swing it. A light bulb came on and I remembered that a few weeks ago at my first techniques class with my upline Connie Babbert, she taught us to stamp with bleach on dark card stock. The bleach will draw the color from the stock. After it dries you can colorize with chalks as we did.

I tried to think of how else I might accomplish something as interesting but maybe with a different technique. A light bulb came on and I remembered that when I started making cards last year, I bought a set of colored embossing pens from Marvy. Had to have them but then they got stowed away, never to be used until these stamps came along.  Luckily they hadn't dried out and were good to go.

Like most things I do, I was flying by the seat of my pants. Instead of stamping in the traditional manner, I colored the stamp with yellow, orange, red and green. When done, I "huffed" on the stamp to make sure that the embossing ink was still moist(a little trick I learned from reading Tiffany Bauer's blog).  After stampin, I doused it with clear embossing powder, heated it up  and Voila .... I couldn't have loved it any more.. Each of the colors came through just enough. When I looked it, it was kinda like I'd picked up a leaf from the ground and placed it on the page. Well with a few exceptions - unlike picking up leaves, I didnt have to worry about dew, slugs or bugs! Another bright spot! : )   I tried next on a piece of white card stock and then a piece of black card stock.  I didn't like the look as well on the black and the white was too austere. The color of the off-white water color paper was warm enough that it blended well with the colors in the leaves and the texture of the paper made it a bit more interesting.



I always have issues choosing background papers or stock for mounting. Do I use plain or printed? Flat or textured?  and the list continues...  I sometimes take hours trying to figure it out. I am ADD and very indecisive. In my desire to do "my" best, I sometimes end up not completing things because I can't decide. Personality flaw I know but I'm working on it.  I do find that all of the matching elements from Stampin' Up! make the process easier for me and I LOVE that! If you're also ADD you will love that Stampin' Up! makes it easier for you to complete a project by giving you a plentitude of matching papers, embellishments and inks.

I hope in looking at these close-ups you're able to see the colors and the textures in the embossing.


I finished the front with  a Stampin' Up! sentiment from "Warm Words" which unfortunately,  is now retired. 

I am big into ribbon, bows and flowers but I'm try to step outside my comfort zone and embellish with other things I have in my craft stashes. I had some raffia left over from a home decorating project and it was just enough to add to this card. Over all I'm happy with the end result.
Hope you all like it too.

Items used in this project: 
Stamps: Stampin' Up! Autumn Splendor
Cardstock : Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler and More Mustard 
Mat Stack: K & Co.
Embossing Pens: Marvy
Embossing Powder: Ranger
Punch: Stampin' Up! Scalloped Oval


 

 



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Awesome Bundles on Sale @ Stampin' Up!!

Stampin' Up! has put together some awesome bundles for you for the holidays and they're giving you a discounted price on them to boot. The bundles are great products so I'm even more thrilled about the bundling and saving money. Check them out!

From October 19-December 16, choose from several different holiday bundles containing gorgeous Stampin’ Up!® products—perfect for creating cards, gift packaging, and gifts—
and all at 20% off!



Create Amazing cards, Beautiful packaging, and Cherished gifts this holiday season AND all at 20% off!




If you can't view the photos, click here for the flyer!
 Or if you prefer you can always contact me:
http://www.houseofcards.stampinup.net/

Hope you're all having a beautiful day!
Live, Love & Laugh,
Peg

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Fall Stamping Festival With Stampin' Up!

I'm always kind of skiddish about signing up for classes and then going, especially by myself, where I wont know anyone.   I'm a real homebody and I hate leaving the house but by signing up to demo for Stampin' Up! I knew I'd have to come out of that and this was a good time to go for it.
The Stamping Festival was sponsored by my Stampin' Up! upline, Connie Babbert and her friend.
When Connie invited me to the festival she told me that we'd be making some really cool things with some techniques we hadn't used AND she said I'd be meeting some really great gals too.
The event was held in a township hall to accomodate the number of people expected and the space that would be needed for everyone to spread out and rotate around to each project.  We had a lot of space to spread out and really dig in. 
Connie was right, everyone was really nice and very helpful and the projects were a lot of fun to make and are things we can recreate and give as gifts.
There were a total of  six projects but I like to take my time and make sure I've got things right ( I still made mistakes and cut the wrong cardstock) so I didnt get but 4 projects completed. I didnt mind, it was still worth it and a lot of fun.
The first project I took on was a note pad and pen set that were self-contained in a vinyl pocket that had a flap with velcro so you could keep it all together. It was really cute.



This project is really cute and it was amazingly easy. Inside the vinyl pocket there was a piece of cardstock which was long enough that it was taller than the vinyl so it could flip over and form a pouch. The little piece of velcro on the inside secures it so all your goodies are kept in tact.   I love the flower we made and secured with the antique brad. The antique brads by Stampin' Up! are so awsome. They're just beautiful.   This project used my favorite papers and colors too. I am a big fan of the Baja Blue, it's such a soothing color that I just love it.
This is the little notepad and pen  that gussied up and added to the inside of  our notepad sets. So cute huh?

The next project I worked on was a snowflake mug.   We die cut snowflakes from the new Big Shot Decorative Strip which came out in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  The snowflakes were cut from Decor Element Sheets and then adhered onto the mug. We stuffed the mug with some shredded paper and  had a bag of hot cocoa for the inside. Also made some cute little snowman tags to go along with them. So cute and such a quick little gift idea.
When I got home I did coat the outside of my mug with all-purpose sealer so the snowflakes would be permanent. I dont have a picture of it because the daughter grabbed it up as her own and it's history.

The third project I worked on was such a cute Christmas/Holiday accordian style photo album. It was the most difficult of the projects but I do really love it and I think I will recreate these for gifts for family.

Isnt he the cutest? I just love this and I LOVE the striped ribbon from Stampin' Up! I have to admit that their colors are awesome but I am totally in LOVE with Cherry Cobbler.

I really loved it even more once we opened it up. Each of the little round tabs at the top pulls up a card about 6" long for you to put pictures on. Thus you have a small folded photo album which would be great for gift giving.

The last project I completed is made from one of the mini lunch sacks from the Holiday mini catalog. They're so adorable because they're just under 7 inches tall and have a pretty scalloped top that folds over and makes for such a cute border.   Our we decked out in fall leaves and gratitude sentiments. The colors were all so pretty and I Loved how the little bag which contained apple cider packet  came out.

We add a stamped note card to go along with it. The stamps and paper embellishing this project are so beautiful. They're called Day of Gratitude and in the Holiday Mini Catalog. The paper matches the stamps so beautifully!

Now that you've all seen all these great things you can make for the fall and winter season I know you're excited to host your own workshop.  If you'd like to have me over to show you some of these great new papers, stamps and projects, you can call me and I will definitely hook you up!

Peg Yruegas


Well I hope you all have a great day and always
Live, Love & Laugh!
Peg




Great Site to Check out

I came across a new site today which lists all the Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, techniques, ideas etc... I like her site and I'm sure you would too!
http://www.stampjourney.com/my_weblog/