Stellar Stamps

Sun Ripened assembly-line beginnings

Although there was no football tonight, the start of football season is the start of my season for the most assembly-line card making that I do all year plus needlepoint and some scarf knitting! Tonight I watched The Daily Show then the Colbert Report and what started as needing one baby card, took a left turn to some bulk coloring of Sun Ripened and Sun Ripened 2 images. These sets are retired. I stamped in black then used Watercolor Wonder Crayons to color then blender pens to, uh, blend. Either I'll cut these shortly or I'll set them aside and play with them another day. I just know that I now have the origins of 13 more cards. Actually, the baby card has to be made soon but the Sun Ripened can hang tight til I feel like playing again. Remember, card making does not have to be fancy all the time. Just let your creative juices flow and take advantage of couch-time to get ahead on your inventory of cards to have on hand.

What Stella just got

I see other posts where demos show photos of their newest toys. Here are mine. Just received today:

• Three for You Punch Box
• Free Love Notes
• Hodgepodge Hardware in all 3 finishes
• Pretties Kit
• Party Punch - free
• 3 packs of cello envelopes - free
• What fun!!

Dormant List

Do you remember that SU now has a "Dormant List" that shows sets available for purchase yet not in the catalog? Yes, it's odd. See the download below for the complete list of what you can get beyond our current catalog and mini catalog.

Download US_dormantlist.pdf

My tomato card

While we vacationed in San Diego, CA recently, we had the opportunity to visit a wonderful woman and her hubby who I met around 1989 when I started an alumnae chapter for my national sorority. Gwen (who is now 75) and I became dear friends. She moved south, I moved north and we've been about 500 miles apart for about 8 years. She now lives in San Diego so we just had to see her. Anyway, her hubby went nuts this year planting tomatoes of every variety. When we walked in their house, half their kitchen counter was covered in all sorts of tomatoes. My son Matt (19) dove in and proclaimed that they were the "best tomatoes he'd ever eaten". Gwen and her hubby Joe prepared a lovely dinner for us that night. As a thank you, I have ordered them a couple of tomato planting and cookbooks that I'm having shipped from Amazon. Last night I made the card below using a very old set named "Very Veggie". I simply had to incorporate a tomato into my card! I'll mail it today to thank them and tell them to be on the lookout for more tomato-y surprises ;-)

The sentiment frame is not by Stampin' Up! My friend Cathy gave me some embellishments last week and I had to use one. Darling! What I wanted to really show you was how the Scalloped Circle punch can be used in a different way than you might imagine. It's the white beneath the red strip going across the card. I am the queen of simple cards as I have little time. Remember that anything you create with your own hands is an extension of who you are. Don't try to be someone else and get frustrated that you can't make cards like some of the gals on SCS or in magazines. Sure expand yourself and challenge yourself but be OK making a simple card if simple is how you like things!

Ever cut up a photo to use in your paper crafting?

I have used photos as focal points for hand-made cards many times. One of the first times was years ago while waiting in like for the Matterhorn at Disneyland. There was the most gorgeous crop of mini pansies which are my mom's favorite flower. I took a photo then used that on the front of her next Mother's Day card. She loved it!

While on vacation  earlier this month, this vibrant bougainvillea caught my eye. I think I stumbled upon it at the San Diego Zoo. Using SU's new Scallop Circle punch, I punched out 4 sections of the photo that I liked. What will I do with them? Not 100% sure yet but an idea is formulating. If you see a gorgeous flower or bee or animal, remember that you can take its photo and use it for all sorts of embellishments in your paper crafting and scrapbooking projects!

My tired old topic: assembly-line cards

Over the past 6 weeks or so, I began my assembly-line card making again. My premise was SO basic and was rooted in a workshop I attended by another demonstrator. The bare bones is this: a few months ago, I unearthed a few hundred cards that I'd saved that are handmade. I loved having them as inspiration BUT why keep it all? What I did was took the box full and began cutting them in half. I kept the stamped part and removed the back of the card. Most of those backs had writing in them as they were for an occasion and written to me. Once I cut that part off and turned them over, I had a 1/4 size piece of blank cardstock. Why let it sit in a box in my garage forever? Instead, I ran all of them thru my Cuttlebug using an embossing folder. I then cut most of those in 1/2 thereby doubling the backgrounds I had to work with. I trimmed them to make them a hair narrower then adhered them to a regular 1/4 card and added some of the gobs of 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper I have on hand from a variety of sources (most from one of the Stacks that Joann's sells). THEN I made a focal point for some of them. See the photos and you'll see a bunch from Totally Cool, a bunch from Looks Like Spring, a couple from Garden Silhouettes and a few still blank waiting for a focal point. Voila, a ton of cards on hand! (note that the "real" life cards are much more vibrant in color than these photos depict).

Also note that I rarely (if ever) put a sentiment on until the need arises. All these cards will have a sentiment.... later.

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Now look at the darling hot pink box they're in. That was $3.49 on clearance at Joann's today. It snaps together. Isn't it hot?

Now, go forth and use your backs of saved cards and recycle them into something new!

Check out my downline's gorgeous daughter!

My downline, Estaire, is the mother of a gorgeous daughter who is a hostess on the Jewelry Television network. Check Avi out at:

http://www.jewelrytelevision.com/index.aspx?tid=18563

Our family has grown - meet Gracie

Gracie joined our family August 9. Very loving and cuddly and very tiny. Cleo, our other kitten who is about a year old, used to look small next to our old orange tabby Punkin. Next to Gracie, Cleo she looks like a giant. Gracie is the skinniest little thing and already very much loved :)

This photo makes her look like a bat!

Do you Anthony Bourdain?

My daughter, Kirsten, and I are obsessed with Anthony Bourdain and his show "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. We are groupies! He is a former chef who travels the world tasting food everywhere while also smoking and drinking a lot. It is so funny! He has looked into the camera (while dining in Iceland) and has said "this is the worst meal I've ever put in my mouth". I do not know if he's a well kept secret or if we're just the last to know but if you have Travel Channel, he is well worth TIVO'ing or watching live. Here's more on him:

http://travel.discovery.com/tv/bourdain/bio/bio.html

I just received some Stampin' Up! awards!

Had to share my news since you helped me to earn this! I found out that I am, once again, on the list of top 100 Demonstrators of the Year! I did slip from #21 to #55 (out of 55,000) but I find that thrilling nonetheless since my year at my "real" job was wicked. I earn $500 cash for that ranking. The fact that I could hold my SU business together amidst that blows me away. Now that that horror is over, I can concentrate on being a better demonstrator. I am now also again part of Stampin' Up!s Founder's Circle where I will be spending 4 days on a retreat with other similarly ranked demonstrators at a retreat outside Phoenix in September.

I also won a Milestone Award for reaching $100,000 in sales and that earned me $1,000. I got some other smaller awards that earned me free stamp sets but I don't know the official word on those yet. I reached my 5-year anniversary with the company which is also recognized. Oh, and I received my packet officially congratulating me on  earning the cruise to Bermuda in March 2008. All this in the past few days while I was on vacation. I'm so excited!

Thank YOU for everything you might have done to help me earn this year's awards!!

Weave Cardstock

Here's something I stumbled across. Every woven cardstock? You just cut strips of paper (about 1/4" wide or a little wider) then weave a piece so the strips are horizontal and some vertical. Then you stamp on the woven cardstock and you use it as a focal point or an accent?

Ribbon - 100+ Ways to Use It

This list was too long and I could not get the font smaller. It consumed my blog page. If you're a customer of mine and you'd like the list, please email me!