Artisan Award Entry #10

Okay, this is the final Artisan Award Entry I'll be boring you with...I'm not really comfortable doing the "showing off" thing, anyway. I'd rather provide you with quick and easy templates, tutorials and patterns you can use, instead of shoving my own artwork in your face! But, I promised I'd post all of these, so I wanted to follow through.

This card was fun for me because I LOVE COOKIES, and homemade chocolate chip cookies are my absolute favorite!! I used the One Smart Cookie stamp set, in Basic Brown ink, for the cookies in the background, and for the saying. I colored in the background cookies with Creamy Caramel ink on a Blender Pen. I used layers of Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, and Chocolate Chip card stock for the mat of the focal image, and Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware for the metal embellishments. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip Poly Twill from the Occasions Collection mini catalog. I sponged some different browns onto my one-of-a-kind hand cutout of the cookie, finishing with Very Vanilla craft ink, using a sponge dauber, to get the final "golden" highlights on the cookie.

Probably the biggest deal on this card was the chocolate chips on the cookie. I punched out the 6 pointed "star" flower image a bunch of times, using the Boho Blossoms punch. Each chocolate chip was then punched from the petal of one of the already punched flowers, with the 1/4" circle punch, and adhered to the cookie with half of a Mini Glue Dot®. The cookie was popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals®. It was unlike any other card I'd ever seen or made, and I'd hoped it would earn me some winning points for creativity. (I'll show how to punch the chocolate chips in an upcoming quickie punch tutorial)

UPDATE: Interestingly enough, Stampin' Up!® just posted this card on June 5th (a couple mornings after I posted it on my blog) on their Stamper's Showcase, which is a gallery exclusively available to Stampin' Up!® Demonstrators, on the Demonstrator Login side of the Stampin' Up!® web site. I'd like to send a thank you out to my fellow demonstrators who noticed and dropped me a note about it :-)

Artisan Award Entry #9

I wanted to send in a card that was different from a standard sized card, so I chose to use the Carousel Notes from the Occasions Collection mini catalog. They are 6" circle scallop pieces of card stock. The Carousel Notes come in Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, and Soft Sky, and coordinate with the Afternoon Tea Designer Series Papers, which are also available in the Occasions Collection mini catalog (only through June 30th!).

This card looks fairly simple but there is a bit of detail on it. Two Carousel Notes were adhered together, to give the impression of a guava colored flower with green foliage around the edges. I used the Coluzzle to cut out a circle of DSP for the background. Flower accents were stamped in Soft Sky ink and punched from Soft Sky card stock with the Boho Blossoms punch, and placed in every other scallop. At the center of each of the punched and stamped flowers is a little silver dot from the Zig metallic paint pen. On each of the other scallops, a silver bead was glued in the center.

The stamping of the flower/stem combos was complicated by the fact that the Groovy Guava and Wild Wasabi colors are only available in ink pads. It took some careful manuevering to get the images inked up neatly and evenly with those pads. The flowers and stems were trimmed out very closely as one piece, and placed on the card. The butterfly and the saying were stamped and cut out, and popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals. The saying was layered onto Chocolate Chip card stock, to draw in the color from the DSP. Two colors of Double Stitched Grosgrain (Soft Sky & Wild Wasabi) ribbon were tied through two holes made with the rectangle punch.

The finishing touch was a matching envelope with white rub-ons applied. Another reason I used the Carousel Notes was to use a color combination that was out of the ordinary for me, and to submit a card in a slightly different style. I felt this card had much more of a "vintage" look than the rest of my entries.

Artisan Award Entry #8

This card looks fairly simple, but it did require a bit of work. The zest and vitality of the card doesn't come through very well on pictures taken from a head-on view, so these are my best shots, taken at angles.

I had to cut the same size strips of card stock from three different colors, and piece them together for the background. Then I stamped across the background with a little fruit stamp from the One Smart Cookie set, in VersaMark ink. I added a Saffon colored ribbon (from the Just 4 You Hostess Simply Scrappin' Kit) across the top as a backdrop for the fruits. This was mounted on a piece of Whisper White card stock with glitter around the edges. The glitter was applied with the 2-Way Glue Pen.

I stamped the citrus slice image from the Tart & Tangy stamp set in Green Galore, Only Orange, and Yoyo Yellow to coordinate with the background card stock. I then used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to stamp over each image again, and cover them with Glassy Glaze embossing enamel. I punched out the fruit and put a brad in the center of each, and mounted them on the ribbon.

I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® again to stamp the greeting on the corner in Whisper White Craft ink, then embossed with white powder. To give the greeting a little more "juicy" look, I colored around the edges of it with a VersaMarker. In real life, the card really makes a splash...and gives you an instant craving for something light, sweet, and fruity!

Fresh Cut New Catalog Sneak Peek Offer

The 5 stamps pictured above belong to a BRAND NEW STAMP SET called Fresh Cut--a stamp set which will be featured in the upcoming Fall/Winter 2008 Catalog & Idea Book! (the new catalog debuts August 11th, 2008)

During the month of June, CUSTOMERS may order this new DIE-CUT stamp set for only $21.95...and get a set of new LASER CUT Fresh-Cut Notes for only $5. HOSTESSES holding a Workshop with at least $400 in customer sales during June will receive both the Fresh Cut stamp set, AND a package of Fresh-Cut Notes for FREE, in addition to the regular hostess benefits!!

The die-cut stamp set means you are ready to stamp after only a few peel and stick steps. The coordinating laser cut notecards are 4"x8", prescored to fold over and become 4"x4" cards. There are 15 Whisper White notecards in each package, with 15 Whisper White 4-1/4"x4-1/4" envelopes.

Additional sets of Fresh-Cut Notes are available during June at the retail price of $8.95 each. This stamp set and notecard combo is ideal for the Stampin' Up! eScape event, which will be formally observed on June 25th. Although the Fresh Cut Notes are not mailable in their current size, they will easily fit into a standard card-sized envelope, with room to spare.

Contact me today to order your Fresh Cut Combo, or to book your Workshop to earn your Combo for FREE! As an added personal bonus, you may attend one session of my eScape Stamp A Stack of Stationery event, on June 21st or 22nd, for FREE when you purchase or earn the Fresh Cut Combo and RSVP before June 12th. That's an additional $15 value, so hurry to qualify and reserve your session TODAY! (see my Events calendar for class details)

eScape with Stampin' Up!® on June 25th

The first annual Stampin' Up!® eScape event will be held on June 25th. This event is designed to bring back the warmth and heartfelt sentiment of physical correspondence. While email, instant, and text messages are great for keeping in constant contact, nothing matches the feeling of receiving a handmade greeting card. So, escape the 'e' for just one day--on June 25th, plan to snail mail or hand out some personalized hand-stamped thank you, birthday, or thinking of you notes to the special people in your life.

To help you create some quick and wonderful notecards at a 25% discount, Stampin' Up!® is offering the eScape Bundle for $30, which includes the following products with a total retail value of $40.10 when purchased individually:

Love Notes Assortment (30 cards, 10 each in Soft Sky, Rose Red, and Very Vanilla, with 30 3-1/8"x3-1/8" Very Vanilla envelopes)
Circle of Friendship stamp set
Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad®
Very Vanilla 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon (15 yards)

Contact me today to order your eScape Bundle, and receive FREE design consultation to help you create your own custom notecards, PLUS I will personally include a FREE package of coordinating embellishments for your notecards!

Visit THIS POST to see some samples of eScape Bundle cards.

Artisan Award Entry #7

This card was actually created a couple of months before the rest of the entries. I had made it in anticipation of entering it into one of the Stampin' Up! monthly card contest categories--for glitter. But, I had put it in my display basket and then forgot to take it out and mail it!! Since I hadn't published it anywhere, it qualified for submittal to the Artisan Award contest. [this sample looks a bit more stunning if you click on the picture to enlarge it]

I used the new Fine Cosmo glitter for this project, with a variety of adhesives. The center swirl of glitter, and the dots around the center flower, were made using the Tombow Multipurpose adhesive, adding the glitter while the glue was still wet, to create dimension. The outline around the square/diamond layer was covered with the 2-Way Glue Pen, allowing the glue to first dry to a "temporary" bond, then pressing the glitter into it. When you let the adhesive dry first, the glitter goes on very even and flat.

Another method used here is a Pop-up Glue Dot, which fits perfectly onto a Build-A-Brad. Simply adhere the glue dot to the brad, then hold the brad by the "legs" and smush (technical jargon) the top of the glue dot into the jar of glitter until it's completely covered.

The glitter was complimented by rhinestone jewels. These were removed from Rhinestone Circle Brads, and adhered to the card with Tombow Multipurpose adhesive. The 2-Way Glue Pen was also used to dot the centers and highlight some of the flowers with glitter, in the background and on the embellishments.

This is a fairly unusual sample for me, because I don't normally use a lot of glitter or glitz on my projects.

Artisan Award Entry #6

The remaining of the (10) Artisan Award Entries are the 5 cards we had to submit.

The first one I made above was with the Happy Heart Day stamp set, and I also used the heart from the Time Well Spent Hostess set. The heart was attached to the pullout card with a Stampin' Dimensional®, both to lift it so it would be easy to grasp, and also so the foam popup would act as a "stop" to keep the card perched at the right place in the pocket. I made the pocket using the Mini Envelopes template, and the celery dotted pattern from the Spring Fling Designer Series Papers. I watercolored images with the Blender Pens and Stampin' Pastels on Confetti White card stock, and colored in the flower petals on the Bashful Blue background piece with the Versamarker. I wanted more depth in the background, and didn't want all the hearts at the center of each of the flowers to show, so I covered those with punched circles of card stock, using Mini Glue Dots®.

I used a flower slide from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Kit, adding color to the flower by mixing a drop of ink with a few drops of Crystal Effects (CE), stirring with a toothpick, then using the toothpick to dab the color mix into the flower slide. It dries amazingly fast, and the color is fantastic. You can mix the ink and CE on a scratch piece of plastic, or a cello bag, for easy cleanup.

I just love the mouse in the Happy Heart Day stamp set, and I wanted to use the set in a way other than the obvious Valentine presentation.