Samples From a Craft Show

In Color Comparisons...kind of...

This is a chart I made a couple weeks back, that I'm finally posting. It didn't scan as well as I had hoped - our scanner is really sensitive (even with the setting turned down) to lots of color...too much and it scans them really bright.

Hopefully this will give you "some kind" of idea of what the new colors look like compared to others, if you haven't seen them in person yet! And like I said last time, the more I use them, the more I like them!

New In Colors!

I have to admit; it's been really hard for me to post as often as I would like to. It seems that I never have the time. I have good intentions, and will think about it daily for a couple weeks, but I can never seem to find a good time without one of the kids needing me for something. Even as I type this now, Gage is struggling to fall asleep!

To be honest, I didn't know if anything could top last year's In Colors. However, the more I see these new colors, and now that I've used them, I really like them!

The new catalog is available to order from starting today!! There are some great new stamp sets and accessories. Every year the catalogs seem to get better and better. You can check it out here. Once I receive my new catalogs, they will be available for sale for $10 OR you can get one for free by hosting a workshop (where you can also get free stamp sets!).

Stamp Set: Embrace Life, Close As a Memory

Colors: Baja Breeze (NEW), Old Olive and Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Blender Pens, 5/8" Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Piercer (Crafter's Tool Kit)

Stamp Set: Hugs and Wishes

Colors: Pink Pirouette (NEW), Ridinghood Red (NEW), Always Artichoke

Accessories: Pretties Kit, White Embossing Powder, Chocolate Ribbon, Designer Series Paper

Stamp Set: Doodle This, Celebrate Everything

Colors: Pink Pirouette (NEW), Pacific Point (NEW), and Close to Cocoa

Accessories: Textured Cardstock, 1/2" Circle Punch, Neutral Buttons, Pretties Kit

SU!'s Artisan Award Entries

Stampin' Up! has an Artisan Award contest that I entered for the first time this year. Unfortunately, I had some bad luck, and one of my scrapbook pages didn't make it into the box with everything else. I didn't realize it until it was too late.

The winners were just announced, and no surprise, I didn't win. But here's a couple of the cards that I sent in, for inspiration.

Stamp Set: Wanted

Colors: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Really Rust, Sage Shadow, Creamy Caramel

Accessories: Jumbo Pewter Eyelets, Vintage Brads, Chocolate Poly-twill Ribbon (no longer available), linen thread, Crop-a-dile, Star Punch

**The card is holding a bookmark.

Stamp Set: Embrace Life, Celebrate

Colors: River Rock, Always Artichoke, Groovy Guava, Elegant Eggplant, Summer Sun

Accessories: Scallop Punch, Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads, White Taffeta Ribbon

**This card uses the crayon resist technique on the scallop circle.

Pretty Amazing

Here are three cards I made from one piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock (I also did this with the Wildlife Reserve cards below). I made these from a challenge on Splitcoast Stampers: Divide cardstock into three equal pieces. Use only one embellishment on each card, and only one tool per card. Tools were defined as items such as punches, crayons, pencils, paper piercer, blender pens, etc. (Stampin' Dimensionals, scissors, eyelet setter and the like are not considered tools since they are used on almost every card.)

I challenge everyone to try this out, and email me a picture of your creations - I may post them in the near future!


Here are the three cards that I made:

Colors - Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue and Not Quite Navy (Chocolate Chip was used as a neutral on one)
Stamp Set - Pretty Amazing

Tool: Markers

Embellishment: Ribbon (with paper clip - I gave myself a little freedom here!)

Tool: Colored Pencils

Embellishment: Rhinestone Brad

Tool: Crop-a-dile

Embellishment: Ribbon (I forgot that the jumbo eyelet is also an

embellishment until after I had the card put together)

Wildlife Reserve

These two cards use the stamp set Wildlife Reserve; normally I like the really girly stamp sets with flowers and hearts and whatnot - but once I started using the set, I got hooked on it! It's the perfect set to make masculine cards with.

Masculine cards can be tough to make for those like myself that love embellishments. For those like me, I have these suggestions:


1. Keep things simple - only one or two stamped images/phrases.
2. Use minimal embellishments. Metals will always work well.
3. Browns and dark colors are the best to use when first starting out. Once you get comfortable, you can start branching out and try using color schemes that incorporate other colors that aren't typically associated with men.

Dahlia Fold

These two projects use the Dahlia Fold technique. It's not at all complicated - you just need patience and tiny fingers!