$99 Demonstrator Kit ends Sunday!

Have you been thinking about becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator?  Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for only $99!  Just click on the image above and it will take you to my demonstrator website where you can sign up quickly and easily.  Then you will be on my team and we can get together and stamp and work on our business.  It is great fun, I promise!

I've been so busy lately, camping last week, chaperone the Youth Conference to Nauvoo this week and going to GA for my grandson's 6th birthday party next week.  I'll be glad when Summer is over and I can stay home for a while!  It's been fun though.  I'll be back in a few days with more projects to share.  I made a cute card portfolio filled with cards that I need to take pictures of.  It is simple to make but looks great!

Punch Art Swap

I joined a punch art swap and got the pages in the mail a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to share some of them with you.  I feel a class series coming on!  First are 2 great Winnie the Pooh punch art creations from Dawn Hoffman.  Aren't they adorable!  I love how she used the punches to create such cute and accurate portrayals of some of our favorite children's book characters.

Who would have thought about the owl punch being so versatile or the bird's wing making so many appendages and flowers?  If you live in the Clarksville, TN area and you love punch art, keep checking for a series of punch art classes.  We will create 5 6X6 pages each month  so you will have lots of ideas for cards and scrapbook pages.  Punch art is just so much fun!

July Club Cards

Wow, where did the week go!  I was going to post these on Monday and here it is Friday.  Guess what I did during the hottest week of the year - I went camping!  Remind me not to camp out in July again.  I'm especially thankful for Air Conditioning today . . .

I used the same paper and stamp set as I did for the scrapbook pages, Nautical Expedition DSP and The Open Sea stamp set.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the nautical theme, these are only available until Aug 31 so let me know if you need some nautical in your life too!

Can you guess how I did the background of the card on the right?   

July Scrapbook Club Layout

Did you miss my scrapbook club?  We had fun making this nautical layout this week.  If you want to make a 12X12 layout each month for free, join us!  You just need to place a $25 order each month to be in the club.  Not into scrapbooking?  You can make 6 cards instead of the layout if you would rather.  I'll show the cards from this month on Monday.

The layout uses the stamp set The Open Sea and the Nautical Expedition DSP.  I love these stamps and paper!  I also made the title using the new Pennant Punch hanging on Baker's Twine.  I love that idea, I plan to put that punch to lots of use.  I got the idea for the ship's wheel from LeAnn Skinner but also saw a similar one shared by Lori Heiling.  I thought it would make a great accent for a nautical page.

My Friend Stamp Set

Before I show you some cards, check out me!  I was the featured blogger on the VC Rocks blog yesterday.  I just found out because I was too busy yesterday to be online much.  Check it out here and see if you learn anything about me you didn't already know.

Here are some cards from another new set of stamps.  This set is called My Friend and comes in a set of 5 stamps.  These little raindrop-like things are so versatile, you can use them in lots of different ways.  On the first card, they are stamped 4 times, every other one upside down.  They are colored in with markers and some of them are covered in with Crystal Effects.  It adds a great touch to the card.

Did you notice the colors?  This card features Calypso Coral and Wisteria Wonder, two of the new In Colors for 2011-2013.   

Second is a beautiful card with 3 of the stamps from My Friend.  The large "hello" sentiment is stamped across the floral image.  Looking for the 3rd stamp?  It is the little circle that is clipped to the side!  There is also a wheel that matches that pattern, I love it when things coordinate! 

This card has a nice neutral background, it makes a great card to send a happy hello to anyone.

Last is another "hello" card.  This one is a fun scalloped oval card in another new In Color, Island Indigo.  I love this shade of blue!  The cardstock was folded and placed so the top isn't cut so it opens up to write your greetings in.  These are the last of the projects from Julie's Stamp Camp.  I'm doing my scrapbook class tomorrow so I'll have pictures of the layout soon.  Have a great day everyone and stay cool if you are in the areas where the heat is so bad.  It has cooled down here a bit today but when I went to pick corn Monday afternoon the heat index was 114.  I only picked about 30 ears though so I wasn't out there long enough to fry my poor brain.  That corn was soooooo good too!  Yum!

VC Bloghop - Black and White with a Pop of Melon Mambo

Welcome to another blog hop for Virtual Convention Rocks!  The blog hop doesn't offically start until 9 CST Saturday morning so if you are here before that the other blogs might not have their posts up.  I'm early for once!  This blog hop is Anything But a Card so if you a re looking for card ideas, check back next week.  If you want lots of other great ideas, hang around and see what everyone came up to inspire you with your crafting and scrapbooking!

   I've been sick with some kind of virus or maybe food poisoning, whatever it was it totally wiped me out for a few days!  I actually considered dropping out of the blog hop but decided to go with Stampin' Up's digital program so I could still participate without having to dig through my supplies looking for everything I need.  The remaining headache just couldn't deal with that today!  Why do I feel like I'm cheating when I do a digital layout?

My favorite aunt died Friday, July 1.  She was the last sibling left of my mom's 9 brothers and sisters.  She was my favorite aunt and I think everyone who ever met her had to love her instantly.  She was such a wonderful person, sweet in every way, always serving and helping others.  She and mom were so close that I wanted to do a scrapbook page of them.  The VC Rocks yahoo group posted a challenge for black and white projects with a small pop of color about that time so I decided that would be the perfect color scheme for my page.  I tried a couple of things in the MDS program that I hadn't tried before and I'm pleased with the results.  

I hadn't tried to put the Scalloped Border punch all around a layout in MDS before.  It took a few minutes to get the corners matched up but the results were worth every second!  I didn't want so much white on the page so I printed the journaling in white on a black journal box.  It seemed too stark so I lowered the opacity of the black to 85% and that softened it up just enough. 

I really like that pop of bright pink.  Aunt Chet and Mom were the classic Southern Belles, they were known to be feisty upon occasion but were proper and genteel the rest of the time.  Aunt Chet had more of a flare for fashion so the bright pink accent on classic black and white is totally her.  Mom was more careful with money but Aunt Chet loved to get a little something for mom now and then to spark up her wardrobe too.  They were the perfect example of how sisters should act and how they should expect their husbands to treat them.  The world is short two wonderful women now but I"m sure the reunion has been amazing!

Now on to Brenda's Stamping Corner!

Delicate Doilies

I really love the new stamp set called Delicate Doilies.  As soon as I saw it I had to order it right away.  It is so pretty with 4 different doilies in 4 sizes.  And, since I love this set so much, it is a no-brainer that I also ordered the large Hello Doily background stamp to go with them!  It should be here next week.  These are, again, projects made at Julie's stamp camp.  The first one is a Fancy Favor box

 with a stamped band around the middle and punches layered on front with a cut-out from the Flirtatious DSP.  This paper has 2 laser-cut double sided designs, one is Pumpkin Pie and the other is Melon Mambo.  The backs of both are white so you can change them around or even color the white side a different color to go with your projects.  They are so pretty and a quick way to spark up a project!

This card uses doilies in blues and greens to create a special thank you.  It is a clean and simple card that looks great.

Last is a birthday card in Baja Breeze and Pretty in Pink.  The ribbon is the new Scallop Dots ribbon, it comes in 10 colors, I'm so excited to get some ordered and start creating with it!  Did you notice the Lace Ribbon Border under the ribbon?  It makes a great little border peeking out.  I know I'm going to  be using that punch a lot! 

Let me know if you need doily paper, stamps or that new punch!  Click on the catalog on the left to place a quick and easy order.

Sweets for the Sweet

I'm featuring projects from the stamp camp again.  Today the set is called Sweets for the Sweet.  This set has 12 stamps in it, 2 candy as well as a "bag" to put them in, an umbrella, 3 different pinwheels and stems for all.  There is also a bow and 2 sentiment stamps in the set.  Have you noticed that pinwheels are everywhere this year?  It's so funny how things come around every 20 years or so.  I do like this stamp set though. 

First is a fun hello card.  It uses a diecut letter, a stamped letter and the umbrellas for the L's and a candy swirl for the o.  With the bright colors and the embossed dots for a background this card is sure to bring a smile on the face of anyone who receives it.

Next is another bright card with a pinwheel in the middle, pop dotted out for dimension and a  brad to hold it on.  The candy makes a nice background for the pinwheel. 

The last card using the set is a soft, pink and blue one.  The peppermint is wrapped in plastic wrap, tied and placed on it's stick.  This would be a great card to attach to some goodies you had baked for a friend.  Hey, I reckon we all should go bake some cookies and take to someone we know who is having a rough time.  It would cheer up their day and make us happy too!  How about it?