And the Winner Is...

The winner of the 2007 $50 Stampin' Up! Gift Certificate is:

Carla Burke

Congratulations!

I will be holding the same contest again this year:

For every event of mine that you attend (class, workshop, stamp camp, etc.), you can enter your name 1 time for a $50 gift certificate at the end of the year (or in January, if I forget again!).

Monthly Stamp Club Kick-Off

Here's a couple cards using the stamp sets that we will be using at the Monthly Stamp Club Kick-Off:

3-D Projects

Creating 3-D projects isn't as hard as it sounds. You've just got to the find right inspiration, then treat it as if it was a typical card/scrapbook page. You want to have a main focal point, and surrounding accent elements.

Here's a couple items that I've made recently:

A picture frame I made as a baby shower gift - I just might make another for our baby!

Another frame; this one was a present to my mom for Christmas.

Coloring Flowers

If you haven't seen the Pretties Kit yet, you're missing out! With pearls, rhinestone brads, hat pins, clear beads, and silk flowers, this kit has everything you need to add that extra touch to your projects.

The kit can be seen on page 188 of the new Spring/Summer Collection 2008. You can view the catalog here, if you do not already have one.

One of the many things you can do with flowers, is color them. You can color them with Stampin' Write Markers or the Stampin' Pastels (chalk). The Pastels will give a much softer color to the flowers, while the markers will be quite bold:

The markers will bleed thru the flower, so you want to make sure you have scrap paper under it. I used outward strokes, from the center to the edges until the entire flower is colored.

Color the flowers using Pastels, in the same manner, using the applicators that come with the chalks when you first purchase them. Here, I colored over my Pumpkin Pie flower, with Ruby Red chalk, adding a very realistic touch the silk flower!

After coloring your flowers, allow a couple minutes to dry, while finishing the rest of your card. I apologize for the poor quality picture; our printer finally broke down, and our old camera was starting to die too, when I took all these pictures!

This is the best close up of the scallop punch/flowers that I could get. Unfortunately, it doesn't show the flower with the chalk ontop of the marker very well. You'll just have to take my word that the technique works really good!