An important day…a FUN day!

by Susan Itell | Mar 31, 2016 | Uncategorized | 15 comments

This is a BIG day…it is time for another Pals Paper Art Challenge 🙂 and then it is the last day for Sale~ A ~ Bration 😥  Wow – the time sure has BUZZED BY!  You still have all day to take advantage of the “BEST TIME OF THE YEAR” with Stampin’ Up!….we all love our freebies!!!!

Today’s challenge is a sketch challenge and I hope that you play along with it! Fellow PAL Member Dawn Tidd came up with this super clean and fun sketch! You know what I love about it? EASY  = the door is WIDE open as to what you can do and it is one of those sketches that you would want to keep for future projects!

Do you remember that I used this concept for the Easter Egg event that I did!?!? Click here to see that post and I must say….I adore the fun, clean an simple lines of this card but at the same time…I think that it is super fun to be able to use different colors….different textures to make it have a totally different feel!

Darn, I wish that we would have more FUN and CLASSIC DSP like this one from the Bohmenian DSP Collection. The “cross hatch” pattern is a fun one to work with. I used the washi tape from this same collection.

Trying to pull it all together; I used the honeycomb embossing folder to work with the honey comb washi tape. I love the simple yet effect effect it gives. How about you? I bet that you have washi tape hanging around….pull it out and put it to use! 🙂

My signature…the beloved envelope! I did a “double whammy” on this..using the washi tape and the DSP ~ a win-win! This card would make a card for all seasons….change up the sentiment, the colors etc…a great card!

Wow. It is the last day of March. REALLY????? I personally wish that I could slow down the clock but these are things that are out of our control. Sale~ A~ Bration has been a fabulous time and I deeply thank you for your support and sheer FUN we have had!

I think that you are going to smile with tomorrows card….I look forward to hopefully making you smile….have a great day and until the NEW MONTH!

Don’t miss this deal….

by Susan Itell | Mar 29, 2016 | Uncategorized | 3 comments

It is super hard to believe but it is Paper Pumpkin’s 3rd Birthday! Whew…they have come A LONG WAY BABY!!!! Here is another fun fact ~they have shipped the ONEMILLIONTH kit this month….WHAT A GREAT BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!!

I know that many of you already are subscribers and I want to do a REACH OUT to those who have not given this a try to say…..GO FOR IT for 3 reasons….please do not click me off…..and hear me out (I think that you know by now….I am upfront on sharing the fun)

1. Your kit will come to your mailbox every month with EVERYTHING ready for you to have fun….all cut with no guess work!
2. If you sign up BEFORE MARCH 31st, you will get a small discount but the BEST thing is that you will be able to pick a FREEBIE of a Sale~A~Bration goodie (boo….this fun time is coming to an end on Thursday)
3. In the April Kit…there will be a BONUS Photopolymer Stamp Set….(valued at $17.00 ~ it is called All about Everything) in the APRIL KIT along with  the regular kit goodies like you do every month…..I am SUPER~DE~DUBER excited 🙂

I ADORE these below….how about you!? To me it is a fun monthly game that I play to see what I can do with what is in the kit! The other perk that is super is….when you are a part of this program you can purchase the refill kits….I usually do as I love to stretch the stamp sets and CASE great samples like these!

You know what today is….TUESDAY DEALS….CLICK HERE to see the offerings! I must say…I still get excited to wake up on Tuesdays and see what the offerings are…who doesn’t like a surprise…and who doesn’t like a deal!

Stampin’ hugs my friends!

p.s. – remember …

• the 3 month subscription is on sale for $55.00 ~ the you can pick ONE SALE~A~BRATION ITEM
• the 6 month subscription will get you TWO SALE~A~BRATION ITEMS
• the year subscription will get you FOUR SALE~A~BRATION ITEMS

It’s Monday….whew ~ what a weekend!

by Susan Itell | Mar 28, 2016 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

Good Monday to all and I need to start by saying, I MISSED YOU! I hope that you all had a fabulous Easter weekend and that you were able to spend time with family and friends! My apologies for not posting the past 2 days but WOWZERS…..it was super busy and to be honest…I just couldn’t fit it in!

Today I wanted to share with you the cards that I did for the event on Saturday! I loved many of your comments on Friday and trust me, I was thinking of you all before I left for the event because I would have done just about anything to have extra hands….but ~ it went GREAT and my JOY TANK was FILLED TO THE BRIM as there were lots of smiling and happy faces for this special Easter Egg Hunt. 🙂

I have LOTS of pictures for you as I know that you LOVE pictures but at the end of the post I am going to share with you the INCREDIBLE MISSION of this Easter Egg Hunt and I hope that you will grab an extra cup of coffee and visit the website and see…that there is still GOOD in today’s world and it was my privilege and pleasure to help this amazing young lady out for this event.

Let’s DIVE in but truly it is sooooooooo darn tootin’ easy that the pictures will tell the story! I prepared for 210 cards and I came home with 17….so you can see that there were a BUNCH OF CARDS made in 2 hours! I had the (3) choices and then the FUN BEGAN!

I used the sentiments from the Greatest Greeting Stamp Set (Occasions Catalog) – I adore sentiment stamps and this worked out perfectly for all 3 cards! I am actually going to do a similar card on Thursday so please pop back and see what I came up with for the Pals Paper Art Cahllenge, super cute but super simple…just the way I like it!

Before the event…I admit, I did a bunch of “prep” work as confusion and I sometimes leads to a “Stressed Susan” ~ (just being honest). I pre-stamped all of the overlays in a variety of colors as I knew that the washi tape that they chose would dictate what color they would want.

Just look how fun and easy this is…there were LOTS of smiles! I know that we all have washi tape that we bought and then we see it sit there and then you say….“Why did I buy this?”.…well ~ hopefully this post will bring some light and inspiration to you!

Buttons are another thing that I bet many of you have around….yep….just sitting there taking up space and not getting used! This card was PERFECT for the large buttons….this is the size that I use the least but now…..my stash has a new purpose.

I prepared for 50 of these cards as I thought that this would be the least favorite for the kids to make…but to my surprise…all 50 buttons were SWOOPED UP and again, many smiles! I have not used these framilts, Floral Frames….not sure why but it worked perfectly for this!

Before the event I did tie all of the bakers twine and had them in a shallow container for them to pick out the color….a simple glue dot – again…more smiles! I know that many of you are thinking about the bulk of mailing this card….I encourage you to make one and then you can see the smile you have and see that it is worth the extra postage.

This Butterfly sure had been getting a bunch of blog time lately with me. YEP….it is from the Bold Butterfly Thinlits and how adorable it this! I was so surprised at how many of the kids covered their paper with the washi…they used different directional patterns…..some overlaid several tapes ~ it was super fun to see how they made them.

Hoenestly, these pictures do not give these cute cards the WOW that they were. I had all of the Stampin’ Up! Washi Tape that I have plus I was afraid that I would run out so I went and bought a bunch more so there were LOTS OF CHOICES...and we all know, we love our choices.

Now I ask you…..are you smiling? This was a fun project to do and I highly encourage you to make one of these cards just to see how fun it is to use up your washi tape and die cuts.

You might be thinking…why didn’t you just go ahead and cut out the dies and then put the tape around? Trust me…this was so easy as all I did was cut pieces of paper to the minimal size and then the kids just placed the tape to their liking and then I had a Big Shot Station that a simple crank through did the trick and then is was clean and super easy to add dimensionals and again, smile! 🙂

Do you know what the BEST PART of this was…all of these cards are going to Ghana and I invite you to go to this website and see the foundation and the BEAUTIFUL BASKETS that are made from some amazing hands! This is an adorable photo below of a little girl holding a card that we did last year.

The cards that were made on Saturday are going to brighten many children and adults…as on Saturday the people that made the cards either wrote a fun note…drew a picture…a simple smiley face etc….you have no idea how much these simple cards brighten their day!

Here is a collage that I put together showcasing the event on Saturday. It was wonderful. It was a family filled day of fun activities…good old fashion Easter fun….an egg hunt of over 3,500 eggs and the best thing…it was going to an amazing cause. I am super proud of Erin, the young lady that has created this foundation. Her parents are friends of ours and it is such a joy to see the love and passion she has for such a great program.

Doing an event like this is all I need to know that what we all do does make a difference. Please do not underestimate the power of sending a simple card. Priceless! Not only do we feel good about creating…the recipients love it as well. Gifts of Art made from your Heart does make a difference 🙂

This is the last week to take advantage of Sale~A~Bration….check your staples that you use often…stock up on them….and get a freebie – it is that simple. I think the offerings this year are wonderful.

If you want to be super smart….go ahead and get the ultimate bundle….pick $155.00 worth of ANYTHING and just pay $99.00 plus Free Shipping….. this IS the ultimate bundle and you will be happy as you will be able to order the new catalog items and get 20% off instantly. It is that easy – PERIOD!

Stretching your STAMPS – card #2!

by Susan Itell | Mar 25, 2016 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

After reading all of the great comments on Wednesdays Post and then doing the butterfly post yesterday….it just seemed to be natural to continue on! (Sounds like a great plan…right????) Well….let’s consider yesterdays and today’s post for your weekly 2 day post…..simple and stepped up because of this being a holiday weekend!

I do not think that you will be disappointed in this post as I think that you will clearly see the beauty of this stamp set ! I simply do not know why I have not played with this stamp set more….it is a keeper and I would definitely purchase it as a bundle to get the 15% off!

Yesterday I used the intricate framelit from the framelits and let the simple beauty of the framelit do its thing….and today I am focusing on the stamp set and how you can do layered stamping to make the magic happened!

Remember that at the end of the post you will see the supplies that I used. This is SUPER FUN and oh soooooooo easy but it looks hard….I just love that when that happens as not only is it a show stopped….but it is a rewarding process to do – and I smiled!

I encourage you to go to Pinterest and google this stamp set, Watercolor Wings….and you will be in awe of all of the ideas and color combinations that many have graciously shared….and then GO HAVE FUN!

I used the same (2) stamp sets that I did yesterday (Fabulous Four and Watercolor Wings) but I changed and did stamping instead of letting the framlits be the star! For this color combination – to get this look, you use (3) different stamps…and the order that I stamped it is: It really is as easy as this 1~2~3!

The (3) different stamps are clearly marked that you can see which one to use in each of the progression.

• Daffodil Delight
• Crushed Curry
• Calypso Coral

I kept the card simple (like yesterdays)  and let the butterfly be the fun focal point. To the top panel I cut out the butterfly before I adhered it to the card base and then using glue dots…..I secured the beautiful butterfly! You can easily bend the butterfly as much as you like….and the end result – WOW!

Below you will you see that I made a custom envelope in a FUN color… that is what I did today for both of these cards! That envelope punch board is simply the best! (I really feel guilty that it is just $20.00 and is does SOOOOOOO much). I encourage you to try this as it makes a fun and different twist that will set the tone when the recipient goes to the mailbox and sees a FUN COLOR!

Let’s move on to another color combination….I think that this is a beauty of a combination! Same drill as above and yesterday….tone on tone stamping with the fun dots and then I cut out the butterfly! It is so much fun to play around with different color combinations. You will quickly become addicted to making beautiful butterflies and the best things is….you can go ahead and make a bunch of them and then save them to use on a card for the future!

Here is this color combination….

• Pool Party
• Bermuda Bay
• Island Indigo

Time to go to the talk we had on Wednesday! The clear embossing. This post could have 15 more pictures than what I am showing you as I did do an experiment along the way with different techniques.

In a nut shell, the results were very interesting. I found that if I stamped – then went over with the clear embossing powder – heat set….and then repeated this for each layer (remember, you are stamping 3 times to get this effect) was not only time consuming…the color was not as vibrant in the end. I was sad. 😥

I tried the way that Roberta had commented on (see below)

The end result worked just fine on both cards ….it was just interesting to see the difference. What I did to the blue card was add some Wink of Stella clear shimmer pen across the entire butterfly and it was perfect.

I think that the moral to this story is…you can do different things to get a great result. I also tried and it worked great just stamping all 3 like you would normally do and then adding the embossing powder over top – you need to work quick but this worked! The colors were bright and luscious.

I will do another post like I did on Wednesday showing you the “experiment results” – (I feel like my daughter Hannah….in a Science Lab) – I found this to be interesting to see the different results you would get.

WHEW…..sorry that this is SOOOOOO long but I hope that you enjoyed this and I hope that this card has inspired you to take a look at this bundle!

Remember, we are on the final stretch of Sale~A~Bration….there is a FREEBIE stamp set (What I Love) that uses this same technique….of the layered stamping….below is a picture of the card I made last month. I am thrilled that Stampin’ Up! is being “on trend” as this method of layering is HOT!

Please think of me tomorrow morning….I am doing a card craft for 200+ children for this amazing Easter Egg Hunt. YIKES – I must be crazy to do this but it is fun and rewarding to see the kids have fun making a card…I will share with you the (3) simple cards we are making!!!! As always, many thanks for your time and patience with my L O N G blog posts!

p.s. – if you are traveling….be safe – this is a busy travel day! 😀