Friday, June 30, 2017

Land of the Free

I recently accepted a challenge for a red, white, and blue card.  I used stamps that, as of tomorrow, you will not be able to purchase as today is the final day they will be can be purchased.  I'll provide links but they won't work tomorrow.


I used some new product that will be available in the new catalog effective tomorrow.  It's called Liquid Color. I'm not sure how to describe it but it's not ink.  Kind of like a very liquid paint.  It is dye based and acid free. I used a folded baby wipe to apply the color to my card front. I love the effect!  Just put a few drops of the color on an acrylic block, pick it up with the folded baby wipe and swipe!  I used Candy Apple and Catalina Splash Liquid Colors.  I love how they flowed on my paper!



I stamped some stars from the retiring Star Bright set using Whip Cream ink and got kind of a bokeh effect.  I then watered down some white gesso, and using my Blending Brush, I flicked the gesso on my card front for the white dots.  I also flicked some Sparkle Silk for some bling.  I embossed the large star with our Clear Pigment Ink and White Embossing Powder then die cut with one of the dies from our Star-Dom die set.  I stamped the 2 banners from our retiring Beautiful America (I love this set so will be hanging on to it!) using Candy Apple and Catalina Splash inks then detail cut.  I then stamped the phrases with Black Licorice ink.  I put down some Candy Apple Twine and Whip Cream Thread before adhering the star and banners with our foam squares.  Other than 4th of July I'm not sure how one would use this card.  Maybe for a veteran's birthday. I may just send it to a fellow coach who sends cards to the troops to use, much like Operation Write Home used to do.

And the July Bloom Box is so cute!  The stamp set is called Mermaid Kisses, wonderful for little girls or a beach theme party.


Effective tomorrow you can purchase the Box on a month to month basis for $29.95 (providing you don't have a subscription that hasn't reached the 6 month commitment) or subscribe for 6 months at $24.95.  I am no longer getting the Bloom Box as I decided to keep my premium website and must pay for it.  But I will be sharing info on the Box as I get it.

StampinCarol

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

It's STILL a Hot Wednesday Desk

Yeah, we've hit a record 10 days of over 105*F and no rain in site for the next 10 days or more.  We did get a sprinkle last week and even seen some clouds but they weren't rain clouds. 

But I'm staying in as much as possible after the temperature hits 100*F and working at my desk or at various things.  And since this is Wednesday I get to travel to locations all over the U.S. and Europe and visit desks!!  Thanks to Julia at the Stamping Ground (who has been on vacation in Arizona and Utah) for bringing so many together! And she's been doing this for 422 weeks!!!


I am preparing to hold an Open House to celebrate our new catalog from the company I'm an independent demonstrator (we're known as coaches) with.  It's taking place on July 14 so I'm working on the Make 'N Take here.  Far left is my paper trimmer in front of my Cricut, then sets of PanPastels in a media bag. Center is a "step out board" with pictures of the Make 'N Take step by step to make it easier for those making the cards. Then far right is my ATG adhesive gun (usually it's standing but it was in use), and finally my Amaze die cut machine.  As to the back of the picture, stuff, Copic markers, ink pads, and more.

And here's the card:


I used a new die and text stamp that will be available starting July 1.  The Dahlia and leaves are hold overs from our soon retiring catalog but I really like this set.


Here you can see the Sparkle Silk (kinda like a liquid glitter) that I just LOVE!  I have 2 more bottles as the one I am using is now only half full.  I've used the dickens out of it!

Ok, I'm done.  Please head over to the Stamping Ground for the links to many other desks and lots of great projects! I'll be around later as I have an exterminator coming by this morning to spray for those itty bitty ants as they're on my kitchen counters! And all over around the house.  After 3 weeks of looking for them I finally called for help.

StampinCarol

Monday, June 26, 2017

The Other Two Bloom Box Cards

Hard to believe July is Saturday!!!  Where is this month and year going???  Seems like it was just a short time ago we started this year.  Oh well, I think the older I get the faster time goes.

I shared 2 of our June Bloom Box cards last Friday so here are the other two. The Bloom Box showcased the cool new stamp set Fun Cards.  This fun set should be available for purchase in October.


I have a very good girlfriend (we are sisters by choice) back in Wyoming and this is one of her expressions!  (Her other is "cheese and rice"!) The close up pic I was trying to show the Glaze I put on the beans but it barely can be seen. Oh well.
Supplies used...
Card stocks: Whip Cream, Hazelnut Blend, and Mother Nature Prints
Ink: Dark Roast
Silks: Dark Roast and Sparkle Silk
Embossing Folder: Love Stripes
Embellishments: Natural Twine

This next card is so bright! It would be great for an anniversary card or even birthday!



Card stocks: Whip Cream and Sour Lemon
Ink: Black Licorice
Silks: Silver, Sour Lemon, and Sparkle
Dies: Stardom and Star Piercing
Embellishments: Black Licorice Twine, Black Licorice Sparkle Tape, and Whip Cream Sparkle Tape

And do you want to see our July Bloom Box cards?


Starting in July you have 2 choices for our Bloom Boxes.  You can do a 6 month subscription at $24.95 (plus s/t) per month or purchase month to month as you see a box you want for $29.95 (plus s/t) but it will be as supplies last for the excess boxes after the subscriptions are filled. I will be posting the Boxes as I get the info.

Ok, now I have to get busy working on an upcoming Open House on July 14 at Cayley Cakes in Green Valley, AZ. If you are in the area please stop by.  I'll have make 'n takes for the first 20 people and a couple door prizes. And the store has wonderful scones!!  I know where I'll be having lunch!

StampinCarol

Friday, June 23, 2017

June Bloom Box Cards

June is almost over and I'm just finishing my June Bloom Box cards! These are a hoot and the stamp set that came with the Box is so funny! It is called Fun Cards and has 6 stamps in the set.  I'll share 2 of the 4 cards today.




This fun set is not in our new catalog but it may be in the upcoming Holiday Mini that comes out Aug. 1, we'll see, I guess.
Supplies used...
Card stocks: Whip Cream, Turbo Teal, Outrageous Pink, Orange Rave, and Black Licorice
Inks: Black Licorice, Orange Rave, Turbo Teal, and Outrageous Pink
Silks: Outrageous Pink, Turbo Teal, and Orange Rave
Dies & Punches: Journey Rectangle Long, This Way Punch, and Punch Handle
Embellishmenst, Etc.: Black Licorice Thread and Dauber Dowel Small



Wouldn't this be great for a Valentine's Day card?  Or how about an anniversary!
Supplies used...
Card stocks: Whip Cream and Mother Nature Prints
Inks: Black Licorice and Cranberry Bliss
Silks: Silver and Cranberry Bliss
Embellishments: Heart Sparkle Drops and Gingham Sweet Berry Ribbon

I love sending cards like these (funny and punny) to our kids but will also put them on my card rack to sell. 

Check back Monday for the other 2 cards!  And if you're in the Green Valley, AZ area I will be having an Open House on Friday, July 14 at Cayley Cakes from 10 am to 2 pm.  I will have make 'n takes for the first 20 people and showing our new catalog along with our tools and some card samples.

StampinCarol

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

It's a HOT Wednesday

We have been suffering quite the heat wave with temperatures up to 114*F Monday and Tuesday.  Yesterday coming home from town (about 10 miles) my air conditioner decided to blow HOT, oh so HOT, air instead of cool and I ended up taking it to my mechanic.  Weird, but the air worked after driving about 3 or 4 miles so hopefully the garage can figure it out.  But today, I'm in where it's relatively cool and getting lots done at my desk.  And you get the opportunity to see my desk and many others through the gracious Julia at the Stamping Ground.  Or maybe someone who is filling in as she is on vacation (I seen she was in Arizona Sunday!).  But here's my desk in the middle of a project.


I was playing with a technique we were taught at our company's 3rd annual convention June 7 - 10 using water, a media tray, and our Silks (a liquid metallic or shimmery liquid ink-like product). You can see my "marbled pieces of paper in the middle of my work place.  Also there are the stamps & dies I'll be using. Do you want to see what I made?


Except for the green base all pieces of paper have been marbled.  This was a hoot! I also flicked some of our Sparkle Silk on the flowers for fun and added some pearls.





I made this card for a challenge using this technique through a fellow coach on FB.  Love it but it is messy. And the stamps are in our soon-to-be live on July 1 catalog so they're not available yet.

Now please head over to the Stamping Ground and check out the links to many more desks.  I'll be home today since I'm vehicle-less until this evening.

StampinCarol

Monday, June 19, 2017

Balloons and Dandelions

These are the other 2 cards we made at Convention using new stamp sets from "soon to be live" 2017-2018 Inspiration Book.  (Have you preordered yours yet?).  These cards use the sets "Coils and Curls" and, my favorite, "Dandelion Wishes".


There are 3 stamps in the Coils and Curls set, a balloon (used here), a heart, and a camera plus there is a coordinating die set.  Very cool!


I colored the balloon with my Color Burst Pencils but did not do any blending.  Supplies used are:
Stamps: Coils and Curls Bundle (BD-0277) and Must Have Sentiments (SS-0501)
Dies: Journey Rectangles
Card Stocks: Whip Cream and Rich Coral
Inks, Liquid Colors, and Silks: Black Licorice ink, Silver Silk, Sparkle Silk, and Catalina Splash L.C.(IP-0130)
Embellishments: Black Licorice Twine
Coloring: Color Burst Pencils and Media Mister

We actually put a few drops of the Catalina Splash Liquid Color on a piece of acetate or Clear View Sheet, sprayed with water in the Media Mister, added a few flicks of Sparkle Silk then laid down our piece of Whip Cream card stock in the "puddle".  Kinda looks like the sky!


I really like this card!  I've seen cool dandelion stamps from other companies and was thrilled to see this set, AND GET IT, in our catalog.


This picture came out more green than blue but I wanted you to see the detail of the embossed dandelion.  Just too cool!
Supplies used:
Stamps: Dandelion Wishes (SS-0497)
Card Stocks: Whip Cream
Inks and Silks: Black Licorice, Catalina Splash, Pool Play, and Clear Pigment inks, Silver Silk,
Sparkle Silk, and White Embossing Powder
Tools: Heat Gun and Dauber Dowel Large

We picked up the Pool Play ink with our Dauber and rubbed it into the Whip Cream Panel until we were happy with the amount of color.  We then stamped the dandelion images and heat set before we stamped the large dandelion and white embossed.  I screwed it the first time and forgot to heat set before getting ready to emboss and had white embossing powder all over!  Nope, couldn't get it all off  and it just didn't look that good. Did it over. Lesson learned, again.

I had a good month at the store and sold about 10 cards.  Need to do a bit of restocking this week. And I need to get my 4 Christmas cards made for my Christmas in July card class July 28th. We got some fabulous new stamps and I'll be using a couple "old" sets.

StampinCarol


Friday, June 16, 2017

2 Cards Using Flower Swirls

I know these stamps won't be available until July 1 (that's just a couple weeks) but I wanted to share the cards we made at Convention last week.  I won't have links to the stamps and some of the products we used but I'll share what I can.  New products will have the SKU # listed in parentheses behind them.


The simplicity of this card still has great elegance.  I seen this fun stamp set, Flower Swirls, in a sneak peak a couple weeks ago when RG (Richard Garay) was doing a video.  He did tell us it was 1 of the sets we would get at Convention.


Supplies used:
Stamp Sets - Flower Swirls (SS-0454) and Must Have Sentiments (SS-0501 - there are 8 great sentiments in this set!)
Card Stock - Whip Cream and Sweet Pear
Inks - Black Licorice, Rich Coral, Lemon Grass, and Sweet Pear
Silks - Silver and Sparkle
Tools - Dauber Dowel Large


I love the background on this card.  We used a folded Baby Wipe and one of our new Liquid Colors.  It was SOOO fun!


Kinda looks like wood!  But a brown is just not one of the 12 colors in the collection.

Stamps - Flower Swirls and Must Have Sentiments
Card stocks - Whip Cream and Journey Vellum (PP-0044 - all clear, no patterns!)
Inks - Black Licorice
Silks - Silver and Sparkle
Liquid Color - Catalina Splash (IP-0130)
Accessories & Embellishments - Paper Clip Elements and Black Licorice Thread

Next week I'll share the other 2 cards. 

StampinCarol

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Back to My Desk

Well, you didn't get to see my desk last week as I was up early and gone by 7 am my time.  I was heading to Chandler, AZ (southern suburb of Phoenix) for our 3rd annual company convention.  My desk was a tad empty but you should have seen it yesterday morning!  All my purchases!  Oh my!  It took me about 4 hours to get all the new products inventoried, indexed, and more!  Hope to be able to play later today.

But back to today.  Yeah, it's the day you get the opportunity to see what's going on with my desk.  And this fun blog hop is brought together by Julia at the Stamping Ground. This is week 419 and I'll share 2 of the ATCs I got 2 weeks ago in celebration of WOYWW's 8th anniversary.


Right now I have my Father's Day cards at the top right of my work paper and to the right of those are the swaps and trades I collected at convention.  I have yet to look through those.  Other than that, my desk is empty. Whew!

And now the 2 ATCs...



I put the names of who I got these from.  Kim sent hers in a fabulous card (shown on the left)!

Ok, now please head over to the Stamping Ground and check out the links to oodles of desks!  Since I'm home today I'll be running around between house work and such.


StampinCarol

Monday, June 12, 2017

New Collection!

I got home from our 3rd annual Convention in the Phoenix, AZ area yesterday with SO MUCH stuff!  I purchased lots of new products from our soon to be released 2017-2018 Inspiration Book!
I do have my copy of our catalog (and it's all marked with what I have and what I want)  and you can pre-order yours for $12.95 (plus S/T) now!


This fabulous catalog is 334 pages of stamps, dies, mixed media, samples, embellishments, and more!!  You can get yours by clicking HERE and it will be shipped in about a week.  One of the new collections in it is the Mystic Romance collection. The stamps in this collection look embroidered!  Here's some cards from our display boards using stamps from this GORGEOUS collection!
















Aren't these just fabulous!  And you can start ordering from the romantic collection July 1!!  That's just right around the corner!  And don't forget that we still have the sale of Retiring items and the Clearance Rack going on until the end of the month.  Items are available as supplies last.  And I still have my personal special of getting a free ATS stamp from my stash FREE for placing an $50 or more order from my shopping cart.  I have 1 order so far for the RG Presents coming up July 15. If you are interested this bundle is still priced at the Early Bird pricing but that will end soon.  With the purchase of this bundle you get the link to the YouTube live streaming "party" with lots of demos and card making fun, 4 card kits, and products to make your cards from the Holiday Mini Catalog that goes live August 1.

Well,  I've given you lots to look at and think about.  And since I put the post together yesterday I'm needing to finish unpacking all my goodies and take more pictures!

StampinCarol

Friday, June 9, 2017

My Convention Swaps and Trades

Now that I'm in the middle of Convention I can share the swap and trade I made.


One swap is called the Itty Bitty swap.  We had to made 4 - 6 small items that can be used to decorate cards.  I checked out Card Candy on Pinterest for ideas and my "theme" is the 4 Seasons (no Frankie Valli, sorry).  I used a big assortment of products, even some current Bloom Benefits from the Spring into Summer mini catalog.











It wasn't easy making these small enough to fit on an A2 sized piece of Clear View Sheet.  I had to place these into a clear envelope then add a piece of card stock in back.  I guess I should have taken a picture of the back as all the products used was listed!  Oh well.


I love my coffee and have had this stamp set for a LONG time.  It was virgin, this was the first time it was inked.


Stamps: Hey Sugar
Card stocks: Dark Roast, Oatmeal Cookie, Butter Cream, and Mother Nature Prints
Inks: Dark Roast and Oatmeal Cookie
Dies: Rectangles
Other: Sparkle Silk, sponges (I cut them into quarters and sponge the ink)

I only made 20 card fronts.  I remember years ago I made 200 card fronts (all the same) for a convention.  No more!  I feel good I got these done!  But then I do work part time and do other things.  I also took part in a Bio swap - an A2 sized card front with our vital info and picture. 

Have you been checking my FaceBook page, Stampin Hot with Carol?  Hopefully I'll have a bunch
of pictures of convention posted (this post was created last weekend and prescheduled).  Oh, and I have the new 2017 Inspiration Book in my hands!!! (And 16 ordered.)

StampinCarol