Tomorrow,March 31st is the last day to get free Sale-A-Bration stamps, dies and paper this year.  I had a lot of fun creating with the Lovely Lily Pad stamp set that is included in the mini Sale-A-Bration catalog. And it was even more fun because they have a matching (free) die cut set.

First is one I embossed with white embossing powder on vellum. I love that look!  You do have to be careful not to get the vellum too hot but it turned out so pretty and delicate. I die cut the flowers out and put them on a layer of embossed cardstock.

Below I stamped 3 of the largest Lily's and colored them with the Pool Party Blends alcohol markers. I cut them all out with the die and put Stampin' Dimentionals on only one of them. I layered a triangle of Pool Party cardstock on a card front, stamped a series of the water ripples on it and then added the flowers, the center one being the raised one. The heartfelt sympathy sentiment is from the Well Said stamp and die set. 

The other card I stamped a white layer with the large lily in black as a background. The lily focal point is colored with the Bermuda Bay Blend set and I added a bow of our 3/8" Fluttered Organdy black ribbon. 

 Three more cards  (see, I told you I had fun with this set!)  On the left I used a more colorful stamped background than the black and white one from before. Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo are a great combination for a bright card. I stamped the flower in Melon Mango ink on Melon Mango cardstock and cit the layered die from Melon Mango cardstock as well. It was a fairly quick and easy card.

In the middle is a white on white card that turned out as pretty as I had imagined it. Sometimes a simple color choice is just what you need!

And the 3rd card above used die cut flowers of Perennial Essence Designer Series Paper and Pretty Peacock cardstock.

Have you ever had a card or scrapbook page come to you in a dream? This one did. At least I saw the stripes of the Nobel Peacock Foil Sheets in my dream. When I woke up I couldn't remember what else was on the card. So I made the background and laid it beside my table for a few days until the inspiration hit to cut these flower outlines without backgrounds and add to the center.   I really like the way it turned out!  

Don't miss out on free stamps, order today before they are gone until January 2021!

At our retreat we made 9 cards and a cute little box. Since the set Under My Umbrella came with the cost of the retreat we did 4 cards with that set.  Mary Deatherige has a blog called Stamps-n-Lingers.  We CASEd the first card from her.  It uses water color paper for the background. Some of the ladies hadn't used the water pens and ink to do watercolor backgrounds so this was a quick and simple introduction.  The card also uses the technique of stamping on our Designer Series Paper and cutting it out, or punching out for the umbrella.  This new punch has both an open and closed umbrella as well as the handle.

The second card is a quick one since we were doing 10 projects. Just a quick scribble with a marker for the fun background and a little practice shading with the amazing Blends alcohol markers for the umbrella and boots.  This card was designed by Arie Hi who I think is from Germany.

I think I need to work on my direct to paper skills that we used on the Hello Sunshine card below. We just swiped a few times with the Versa Mark ink pad and poured embossing powder over it and used the embossing gun to heat set it. The Daffodil Delight ink was sponged on until it looked right and then some Granny Apple Green grass was also sponged on. This fun idea was from Paula Dobson. 

 The Whisper White 1/4" Crinkled Seam Binding was left white on this card but was colored with a Blend on another one. You can get one roll of the ribbon and make it match our cardstock exactly with this method. Cool!

The last card was a bit more detailed but I love it. The umbrella is punched from the Pleased as Punch DSP so that part was easy. The background was another great technique of rubbing the ink pad in the embossing folder before placing the paper in it and running it through the Big Shot. It makes great embossed effects but one of my favorites is the look of a wooden wall like this card.  

I love the Under My Umbrella stamp set. I hope it will be carried over into the next catalog because I can think of lots more things to try with it!  

Wow, life has been zipping by, my last post was nearly 2 years ago!  I'm still a Stampin' Up Demonstrator and I still scrapbook and make cards.  I guess now that I am self-quarantining maybe I'll have time to blog some and get back in the habit.

We have just a bit over a week left for Sale-A-Bration this year.  You probably need free stamps, paper, embellishments or a cute punch.  I know I needed them!

One of my favorite Sale-A-Bration sets is called Little Ladybug.  I've always loved ladybugs and the ones in this set are so cute I loved them too.  And the big flower speaks to me as well so that makes the set even better. 

Here are some of my Little Ladybug cards.  The first card I embossed the different ladybugs with silver embossing powder and colored one of the bugs and a flower to pop on top with a simple (but sweet) sentiment. 

These are cards I used for a swap at a Stampin' Sisters Spring Retreat.  I couldn't decide which color combination to use so I did both!  Bermuda Bay for the blue and Granny Apple Green for the green one.  I colored the ladybug wings and the flowers with the wonderful Stampin' Up Blends, our alcohol markers that are so easy and fun to use.  I used a card I found on Pinterest by Carole Parsons for my inspiration.

And the last card is one of the cards we made at the retreat.  2 friends and I put the retreat together and came up with all of the projects, most were CASE'd from online.  This one was borrowed from a demonstrator in Sydney Australia named Libby Dyson.  The card gave us a chance to show the ladies how to mask to stamp all those flowers and how to add a little water-coloring with the water pen for the background.

I'll try to post  more cards with some of the free sets real soon.  Until then, if you want to check out the catalogs you can see them on my Stampin' Up website here:
www.elainestamps.stampinup.net

The Little Ladybug is a hostess set so you would have to hurry to get a few orders together to earn it.  But there is over a week so email, text, call, use the best way to get in contact with your friends who may be getting tired of being home with so much time on their hands. They will want to find something to do with that time so they might want to try some of our kits that have almost everything they need to get started or they may already craft and need more paper and - what I am running low on - adhesive to keep crafting through the next few weeks!