A gift for my secret Bunny

I participated in a secret bunny swap with my friend Crystal on Facebook. We sent in the answers to some questions she posted, and we were able to add some questions of our own. We answered the questions so that the person sending to us was able to get to know us better. My person had asked for hand made cards, which I was very happy about. She also said her favorite color combo was pink and brown, and blue and brown. I made to items for her, here is the first one. A card portfolio, with matching cards. The outside:
Opened up:

And the cards I included inside.

I used all Stampin Up! for these (except the ribbon used to hold the portfolio closed). I used Pretty in Pink and Soft Suede cardstock, whisper white 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, Full of Life stamp set (both are retiring May 30th!! Get them while you can!), All Holidays (retired), and the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder. I used the butterfly punch to punch out the butterflies, and added dimensionals to make them pop. There are also some Basic Pearls and Dazzling Diamonds to add some details. Oh and one thing I used on every card, was the Stamp-a-ma-jig. If you don't have one of these, trust me, you need it!!! These were a lot of fun to make, and they will be items I will be making for upcoming craft fairs!

PS it appears I lost 2 of the cards, so I will add them in another post. I don't know how to add it in here without it going in the begining of the post.

Baby Shower Invites

My good friend Diana is having a baby and she asked me to make the invites! Her theme was a prince and her dad created the little crowns on the computer, which I hand-cut. I went with pocket cards, and this is what I came up with. Originally I had done a star in the circle, but we changed it to fit the theme. There are three different stars stamped on the yellow, so saffron, craft ink Whisper white and a shimmery Versamark. She loved them, and I am very proud of how they came out! All supplies are from Stampin Up except the ribbon. Features Whisper White, So Saffron and Bashful Blue. I borrowed the sentiment from my friend, I'll have to try to see what set it is from. The stars are from the now retired "seeing stars" set.
Note to self though.....don't hand-cut 80 little crowns all in one night!!!! I lost the feeling in my fingers for about 4 days, ( I switch sometimes when cutting with scissors between my pointer finger and middle finger) and in my thumb for about a month! But it was worth it!

New Class - Stamping on Candles!

I am happy to announce that I will be offering more classes in addition to the regular monthly Card Club that I currently have! This is my first class:

Do you have an ordinary blah candle and want to make it a work of art? Why not attend this class and learn how to turn an ordinary white pillar candle into something similar to above? I will also have non-Christmas stamps available if you'd rather not make holiday candles. (The candles above are examples, the ones we create will be slightly larger) Check my website for more details:

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/gina_thornton/events?id=693696

August Promotion - Buy 3 Get 1 Free

From now until August 31st, Stampin Up is offering Buy 1 Get free on select packs of their Designer Paper. There is no limit on this special, the items just have to be listed on the flyer. Click HERE to see the list of items which are included!
Hurry, offer only good until August 31st!!!

June's Card Club cards

Each month I host a card club here in my home on the third Friday of each month. In June I wanted to showcase a now retired stamp set, "Pun Fun". I love this stamp set, and am sad to see it go, but it had to retire to make room for some new sets. :) I also wanted to incorporate some Designer Series Paper into some cards, and I came up with this idea. The Designer Paper (DSP) is from the 2010-2012 InColors Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack (117158), and I chose the Concord Crush paper. The cardstock is Pretty in Pink, as well as Whisper White. We then used the Stamp and Write (Marvelous Markers) markers to color in the images. Often times when I make the design for card club I feel like maybe something is missing, or maybe something should be changed. So this time when I demonstrated, I also made the cards without the designer paper, so that the ladies could see both versions, and they could choose which they liked better. I also chose a different image from the same "Pun Fun" set. The sentiments were included with the images, and we stamped them and punched them out with the word window punch, which we layered on a piece punched out with the Modern Label punch.

The new 2011 - 2012 Catalog, it's official!

Have you seen the new Stampin' Up Catalog? You have to check it out! It is chock full of great stamps, Designer Paper, and tools! And just wait until you see the new hostess benefits!!! You are going to love them!!!!!
And now for a limited time only, you could join Stampin' Up for only $99!!! Ask me how!!!

Spring Into Some Savings!

Begining today and UNTIL SUPPLIES LAST, Stampin' Up is offering Grab bags full of savings! What a great way to start off Spring! There are three options to choose from:
125873 - $5 Grab Bag (containing at least $20 worth of products!)

125874 - $10 Grab Bag (containing at least $40 worth of products!)

125875 - $15 Grab Bag (containing at least $60 worth of products!)

•Grab bag orders can only be placed in the Online Store. Click Here to get to my Online Store!

•There is no minimum purchase required to participate in the grab bag special offer.

•There is no limit to the number of grab bags you may purchase; however, grab bag items are only available while supplies last.

•All grab bag sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges.

•Not all grab bags will be unique.

Don't delay grab these savings TODAY!

Swaps for Spring Fling - In Wilderness

I seem to be on a masculine kick when making cards recently. Anyway I wanted this set "In Wilderness" by Stampin' Up as soon as I saw it in the catalog. I love the realistic looking wild animals that the images portray. As usual I tned to shy away from coloring those images so as to not take away from them. Instead I usually do a great deal of distressing on them. I started with a Soft Suede piece, layered with a Very Vanilla piece which I crumpled up and distressed with Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft) and Soft Suede classic Ink pads. I adhered the buffalo to a smaller piece of Soft Suede which I anchored down with three silver brads. In an additional effort to distress the piece, I rolled the one edge around a paint brush to give the look of a poster peeling off a wall. I really like how this one turned out. All masculine and natural looking. This is one more of the swaps I made for the PhillyInker's Spring Fling.

Swaps for Spring Fling - Choo Choo

I decided to use a color I haven't used in a while for my Spring Fling swaps. Actually, I can't officially recall ever using this color, but here it is. The base is Basic Black cardstock with Tempting Turquoise (102067)layered on top of that. I ran the Turquoise through my crimper (101618) to give it the texture. The small Basic Black piece is embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder (119976). The engine, from Choo Choo (113982) is stamped in Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink
(100814). And the sentiment is from On Your Birthday (111664) is stamped in Black StazOn . I topped it all off with silver brads (104336).

My Demo for Spring Fling

Sorry for the horrible picture, but sadly it is the only one I have. This is the project I made and demonstrated for Spring Fling. It features the Springtime Vintage Designer Paper (121782)as well as the "Baby Blossoms" (121927-wood) stamp set. The sentiment is from "You're a Gem" (122268-Wood) stamp set. All of these items are available until April 30th in the Occasions Mini Catalog. The background is Always Artichoke Cardstock. The label is stamped in Always Artichoke, and the sentiment is stamped in Rose Red.

Spring Fling PhillyInkers Style!

Yesterday I spent the good part of the day with a fabulous and creative group of ladies the PhillyInkers!! This is the Stampin' Up Downline group of Claire Lawrence. This is such a great group of ladies! I have been a part of this group for 2 and 1/2 years, since I joined in July 2011. When I joined it was a much smaller group! Now I am not even sure how many members of PhillyInkers that there actually are!!
Anyway we gathered together for the first PhillyInker's Spring Fling in Elmer New Jersey. We got together and swapped, talked, learned a little about our business, and crafted! In the first picture above, we are talking watching some Demonstrators demoing some different techniques, and swapping!
The second picture is of Karen Barber, and Michelle Zindorf. Karen is Claire's real life Aunt Karen as well as her, and Michelle Zindorf's Stampin' Up Upline. Both of these ladies are ULTRA Talented!!! I only can dream of one day creating cards like either of these two!!
This is our Fabulous Upline (who is only slightly pregnant, LOL. She's due in April) Claire Lawrence.
Below is the wonderful Max Conrad who came all the way from Utah to talk to us! She has the best neighbors....Stampin' Up! is right down the road from her home!

And here's one of my Downline members and friend, Michelle (standing with the "fairies" shirt) watching the talented Juliana Bibas demonstrating. Lynn Hunt and Megan Kearnty are in the background discussing fabrics.

And below our table is in the foreground. I have on the pink shirt, and my mom (and another Downline member) is in the blue next to me. (sorry small picture, I stole it from someone's album on Facebook!)

I did also create a project and demonstrate it for Spring Fling. However as far as I know, there are no pictures of me doing so. But I will post a picture of what I demonstrated in my next post.

Extra Large Ornament punch is now available!

Great News! The ornament punch is now available! The quality problems that Stampin' Up was experiencing has been resolved and the Ornament Punch is now available to order!

Beach Bachelorette Version 4

For some reason my brain isn't working as I tried describing these cards, so bare with me. :)
Okay here it is, the fourth sample for the Bachelorette Invitation. We took some elements from two of the cards below and put them together. The stamp set I used on these is the now retired "Tropical Party". The inks are Stampin' Up's Classic Inks in Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Tempting Turquoise. The cardstock I used is Whisper White and Old Olive. I embossed the Whisper White background with the Lattice Square embossing folder. The flowers are cut out and layered, and then attached using silver brads. I tied it down with Old Olive ribbon, and finished it all off with a little drink umbrella! (Sewn it to the card so it wouldn't fall off.)
These were fun to make and got y mind off the cold wind that has been blowing all day long! Man what I wouldn't do to be on a nice warm beach somewhere, getting sunburned! (PS If you don't know me...I don't tan. I burn. We're talking like a lobster!)

Metal on cards - Masculine card

I needed to create a Masculine card for one of the swaps I host on my Favorite MB. And my first thought was the great Motorcycle Stampin Up had available last year. Now I will say that I did see this card someplace else, and I can't remember the name of the gal that made it. I did however make some changes. Stampin' Up used to have great metallic papers, but sadly they aren't available. So I made my own! Here's how I did it.

First I took a piece of plain white cardstock and ran it through my adhesive machine. Then I laid that on top of some plain old tinfoil that I had in my kitchen and smoothed it out.

Once that was done, I trimmed it down to the size piece that I needed.

Then I ran it through my BigShot using the Square Lattice embossing folder by Stampin' Up.

Next I used my Mat Pack and pen to make marks where I wanted my large eyelets to go. (This thing is a lifesaver!!)

Then I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes, and set the eyelets.

I wanted my image to sort of look like you were looking at the cycle on an angle so I stamped it kind of crooked.

Next I colored the cycle, and then used a Silver Pen to go along the edge so it had the appearance of a silver mat.

Then I matted a red (also made some Ballet Blue, which is now retired) piece of cardstock on top of some Basic Black, and did the same with the white piece which I had the cycle images on.

And Voila! The finished cards!

Just goes to show that there are things all over your house which you could use to make your cards with!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Easel Card - Birthday Card

My friend's daughter Nicole celebrated her 10th birthday this month, and I wanted to send her a card as special as she is! I really am into these Easel cards, I just need to get them to stand up a little higher! I'm not giving up though!! This won't be the last attempt that you will see!
This card features the "Circle Circus" stamp set. The circles are stamped in Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, and Melon Mambo, also black StazOn. The trim and ribbon are both in Rich Razzleberry. And the outside sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, and inside is a sentiment from "On your Birthday" (not shown).

Cards from Card Club - December

The second set of cards we made featured, the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set by Stampin' Up. We used an Old Olive stamp pad, and then used our handy Blender pen to remove some of the ink from the tree trunk. Then we used a Soft Suede Stampin' Write Marker to color the trunk and branches. That gave us the two tone tree. The Old Olive cardstock we (gulp) crumpled up before tearing the edge. I always feel so "wrong" when I crumple up perfectly good SU Cardstock!!! The Very Vanilla is matted on Soft Suede, and the card base is Pretty In Pink. The sentiment is from the "On your Birthday" set. We finished off the look of the card by adding three little knots in Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla, and Old Olive ribbon. I took some of the inspiration from a card created by Peggy Brooks on Stampin' Connection. (Stampin' Connection is a website exclusive to Stampin' Up Demonstrators)

Cards from Card Club - Christmas

The first card was inspired by a fellow PhillyInker, Lynn. She had made a card similar to this one at a shoe box swap a while back (2008 I think??). Her card featured Lavender Lace and metallic silver cardstock (both previously available through Stampin' Up.) I updated it, by changing up the colors, adding some dazzling Diamonds, and adding satin ribbon. It features the Snow Swirled stamp set.
The second card was inspired by a card I saw on Stampin' Connection. I like the simplicity of this card! Now if you wanted to add color you could always switch it up and do the card in all blue, or red and green or whatever color combination you'd like! You could also add some sparkle to some of the snowflakes with Dazzling Diamonds. We kept it simple. But you could also change up the border punch for a little different look. This one features the Serene Snowflakes stamp set, and the sentiment is from Occasional Quotes.

Cards from Card Club Night - Inspired by Andy Warhol

I made the first card for a PhillyInkers Swap, and although it was a lot of stamping and punching, decided to recreate it using the Sock Monkey card. I was trying to prevent coloring the images.
The Christmas one used Merry Crittermas, and the monkey one used Sock Monkey.

Cards from Recent Card Club night

I have been meaning to update with some of my recent cards that we've made at card club, but I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures. I finally sat down to do it today.
There will be a few posts of these cards, and so I tried to split them up into Occasions. So bear with me!!
The first set of cards were all using Elements of Style. I really like this set!! It is so versatile, and works for just about any occasion! I also love that you don't have to color the image, to still get a great result!
The colors used in the blue and white one (Night of Navy and Whisper White) remind me of that old metal blue and white tablewear. :)

WOW this deal is AMAZING!!!!!

Have you ever wanted to go into business for yourself? Do you love to stamp and scrapbook? Or maybe you have lots of items on your wish list? What about those of you looking for a Demonstrator, and can't find one? Then joining Stampin' Up is the PERFECT choice for you!!! Become your own Demonstrator!! You will receive a discount on your own purchases, as well as make money on any sales that you make! "Share what you love, and love what you do" that's Stampin' Up's motto, and it is so true!!
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You CAN do this, and you can have fun, while making money! You don't need any special training, you don't need to know 100's of people, you just have to love to craft, and want to make money! That's all! Stampin' UP also offers resources for ideas and inspiration via it's own magazine, Stampin' Success, and a website, exclusive to Demonstrators!
If you'd like more information, please check the link http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/gina_thornton/startyourownbusiness. You can also contact me through that link.
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