Monday, November 22, 2010

Stampin' Up!'s 2010 Online Spectacular is here. Great deals on lots of items 30-50% off. This week only.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Style

I'm so thankful for all the inspiration for card making I get from my friends and customers. I can't even begin to quantify the skills I've learned and styles I've adopted in my paper crafting over the last five or six years.

What my dad says about pie-making also holds true for card-making: "You need more practice." He's always willing to taste-test, of course! In this busy time of year, I encourage you to find your inspiration from those around you, and let your style show.

The CAS ("clean and simple") style sounds easy, but can sometimes be a bit tricky to execute. I'm pretty happy with my result here.



Remember, Stampin' Up!'s Simply Amazing Starter Kit offer runs through the end of November. When you hold just one, $300 workshop in your first three months, you will earn back your entire investment! Read about Stampin' Up! Opportunities or contact me directly. I'd love to help you start your own Stampin' Up! business.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you find time to play with your style this holiday season!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Amy King's Sugar Cookies

Best. Cookies. Ever.

Amy King's sugar cookies know no equal. They are to other rolled cookies what recipe anglefood is to other cakes--lighter, more delicious and perfectly tender.

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together.
Chill for two hours.

Roll out dough to make thin cookies and cut into desired shapes.
Sprinkle sugar over tops of cookies.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350 - 375 degrees, 8-10 minutes.

Mix It Up for the Holidays

I used some of the VSN challenges from this past weekend to help give me that little push I needed to design a few Thanksgiving and Christmas cards. In the last few years, I've really enjoyed having a lot of different designs in the holiday season. This way, I can pick the card that fits each recipient.

Twill Bow Thanksgiving

This traditionally colored card incorporates some fun techniques as well as a nice soft bow made from Twill Tape and Linen Thread. I used sponging and distressing on the image panel, and also used the scoring blade on my Paper Cutter to give it a tiled look. Scoring is a super easy way to add some texture to your cards.

Speaking of texture, check out the Early Espresso panel behind the main image. Thanks to my awesome Stamp Club, I was able to earn the Big Shot for Stampin' Up! die cut machine FREE last year. And I love using it for die cuts and dry embossing. This card features the Square Lattice embossing folder.



I moved away from gourds, turkeys or a cornucopia and chose leaf, bird and blossom images instead.

I took a break from traditional holiday colors for these next two cards.

Navy Medallion



For the Blue and White color challenge, I made a super-quick, elegant card. With a Night of Navy card base and the ever-popular Medallion stamp in Navy ink, I only needed to add the Scallop Circle punched accent, and the card was complete.

Snowy Farm

Another challenge took an "opposite day" view of a color challenge: we were to make a Christmas card, but weren't allowed to use either red or green!



I decided to use this peaceful farm scene from the Farm Life stamp set, and make it snowy. I had a fun time using 2-Way Glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter to light up the landscape.

The Cajun Craze card stock mat lends some warmth to the design, and in keeping with the "opposite" color theme, I chose Crumb Cake card stock for the image panel, and matted it with Very Vanilla.

I hope you've got your holiday mojo going. I'd love to help you find the right colors, images and accessories for your upcoming projects. Thanks for checking out my blog!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Simply Amazing Starter Kit Offer

Holy moly! If you have ever considered joining Stampin' Up!, now is the best time I've ever seen in my almost 6 years as a Demonstrator. The Starter Kit, which includes all the products and supplies you need to get your business rolling, is on sale for only $87.50 until November 30.

If you have an Idea Book & Catalog, check out the customizable kit on page 8. Or, view the Simply Amazing recruiting promotion online.

This 50% off deal is good for the Standard Starter Kit OR the Digital + Kit, which includes products you can use to showcase both traditional papercrafting as well as Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio software.

I am excited about talking with you about this amazing offer, so please contact me at superglewsu@gmail.com. We can set up a short meeting to answer any questions you might have about how to make the most of this opportunity.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

VSN Again!

This is a great weekend for Virtual Stamp Night! Check out all of the "On Cloud Nine" challenges at www.splitcoaststampers.com.

I had a busy and super-productive morning. Each VSN Challenge has a 45 minute time limit, and I came in under the wire on all of them. (A few times I had to stop and reach a picture book or feed someone, but it's all good.)

I stuck with a color combination from an old SU! designer paper set I have some remnants of for three of my cards: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Bashful Blue with Whisper White and Basic Black for neutrals.

Here is Janet's Turkey:



Janet wanted a special card for the young men next door. I made this little guy (who really says "Happy Bird-day") into a turkey. Hee, hee. After stamping him with Basic Black on Whisper White, I cut him out (trimming his tail feathers and lopping off his party hat). For his fancy new turkey tail, I simply used Sticky Strip to attach a fan of dsp strips. His Pilgrim hat is a piece of Basic Black cs that I cut freehand with my awesome SU! Paper Snips.

On the inside of the Turkey card, I used a stamp from the Greatful Greetings sentiment set, and stamped it in three different colors of ink. (Not the best image, sorry.)



Challenge C was a really fun one: we were supposed to make a card with a theme of "hope," use silver in some way, and also line the inside of the card. Here is my Hope Daisy:



On the inside, I echoed the Upsy Daisy motif, and offset the sentiment slightly. I like it, and hope you do, too.



I made this card for another "silver lining" challenge. For NOV10VSNE, the challenge was to use silver and line art or silver and stitching. I decided to go with all three: silver ink, line art image and faux stitching.



I hope you like these cards, and I encourage you to check out the challenges. It is so fun to play along, and really gets the creative juices flowing.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Artist Guild Christmas Card

Our Church Artist Guild will make this card to send at Christmas to our elderly, out-of-town and shut-in members.

This is the fourth year we've used the Holy Triptych stamp set from Stampin' Up! to make our card. For 2010 we are pairing the rich new red, Cherry Cobbler, with an old standby, Certainly Celery. We've got a hint of Basic Black and are using Very Vanilla to keep the effect mellow, yet crisp.



Would you like to help us assemble these cards? Join us at St. Anthony Park United Methodist Church (Como Avenue and Hillside in St. Paul) on Friday November 19, 7:00 PM. We will have all necessary supplies and instructions.

Veteran's Day Stamping Playgroup

It was just like old times at my house this morning! Back before I worked full time, I hosted Stamping Playgroup about once a month. For State employees, November 11 is a Holiday, so I wanted to make the most of my day off.

In honor of Veteran's Day, I asked everyone to help create and send cards to Operation Write Home. Marilyn, Silva and I all designed cards, and others also helped assemble. I'll be sending the package of 28 cards and envelopes off tomorrow. Thanks so much for helping with this effort.

Here are some of our creations:

Blue You, by Silva


Stars for You, by Marilyn


Miss You, by Sarah


In addition to making these cards for active military personnel, we all worked on other projects, browsed the catalog, chatted, enjoyed coffee, tea, scones and pumpkin bars...All in all, a fantastic morning. Thank you, my friends!